#and i hope that its clear that i Do like baxter and what could have been

[peachiseas]

i do wanna hear all you have to say about baxter and derek’s dlcs!! bc idk not to be a bitter bitch, but never fully understood baxter’s hold on everyone lmao, even prior to his dlc. but even after the dlc i was still kinda just like eh that felt both forced and kinda boring. derek on the other hand…. you’re right. easily the best dlc

AND JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH ANSWERING ASKS LMFAO (dw i love these please ask me more questions i love being asked questions on things esp this) Sorry anon but this is a Long one cause this ended up being a thinkpiece

But yeah... Baxter is a weird character you are admittedly not Supposed to like from his introduction. His introduction was essentially a stranger flirting with you so it gives him the impression of a victorian fuckboy. And then you play cove's hang and boating and he's polite and friendly but definitely guarded. Which doesn't admittedly make me a ton excited for him initially because he doesn't allow us to get comfortable in his presence.

However when I got into OL as a whole, it was end of January 2022 and the wedding dlc came out not even a week or so later and I was so pleasantly surprised by how... Humble Baxter became in step 4. You might ask "what does that mean?" but essentially beyond his professional enthusiasm, Baxter actively seemed miserable with his life that didn't involve work from what we could tell in his dance lesson with the mc and you know what! That's actually a compelling plotline! That sold me far more on Baxter than anything step 3 beforehand did Unfortunately, wedding DLC baxter before any revisions with the release of Baxter's dlc was the best Baxter's writing was going to get. What we got was a TON of Baxter monologuing at the mc and not an actual conversation between Baxter and the mc. There should have been way more points in the DLC where the mc should have interrupted him or done Something but the mc is so actively quiet that their silence is Palpable and that wouldn't be so damn bad if the mc wasn't the character we're playing as. We're just supposed to sit there and take a lot of the asshole behaviors Baxter exhibits in step 4 and then feel bad when he's in his pity party despite the fact he has done nothing but consistently step over his own boundaries with the mc. The whole dlc gets actively weirder if the mc is in a relationship with Cove btw, the platonic route with baxter is Awful and weird. There's also the fact that step 4 Baxter seemingly is now super well adjusted to being working/ middle class when I know for a fact that the change from being super wealthy to dropping down a few classes when that wouldn't be the case. Baxter should have stayed a mess in the mornings in Step 4 but he cleans up quick. Certain quirks like that actively humanize him in a endearing way. It seemed like the devs ironed out any of his nuances in favor for a more general easy to digest story that was also quicker to push out but the issue was that when they ironed out any nuances, they also ironed out what originally made Baxter soooo compelling in the first place. There's no theme or narrative writing that you're supposed to take away from Baxter's story. Cove and Derek's story was about growing up; Cove's more particular theme was growing into himself as a person and being comfortable in his own body and Derek's story was about the consequences of grind culture and overworking yourself at such an early age and where do you go after you realize you pursued a fruitless goal since you were a Child. Baxter's story should have been about self preservation after cutting off family that are actively awful and the errors of self isolating to the point where you hurt everyone else under the guise of "protecting yourself" but what we got was forced fluff.

TLDR; due to the devs wanting to push out his dlc fast enough, they glossed over so many aspects of Baxter that made Baxter interesting and what we got was just a watered down version of what Could have been.

[philippmichelreichold]

Digitization of the human personality

Digitization of the human personality what Frederick Pohl called vastening in the Heechee Saga, is a plot device in three stories in Godlike Machines. It provides a plot twist in Baxter’s Return to Titan and Doctorow’s Life/Tomorrow and is common practice in the Amalgam universe of Egan’s Hot Rock.

I’m not sure what the big attraction is—self- preservation? If I take a picture of you and spread it around for all to marvel over as a close likeness, it still isn’t you. It’s just a picture. If I record your voice and upload to Youtube, it may sound just like you, but it isn’t. Do we say that Edith Pilaf lives on on Youtube singing Je ne regrette rien? Non. We may say it, but it is not literally true. The same is true if I digitize your personality and memory and upload them or download them into a clone or a robot. Or if you do the same to me. No matter how strong the resemblance, if my body is dead, it’s dead. You can clone my body and re-instill my essence. But it will not be me.

To return to the Heechee Saga, the main character, Robinette Broadhead, dies and his personality uploaded to Gigabyte Space. To keep him company, his lovely wife Essie is copied there too. So the reader has Meat Essie going on with her life and Virtual Essie keeping Robin company. There’s even a virtual Albert Einstein. Robin makes it all sound quite wonderful. He can think faster than ever and more deeply than ever and subjectively is living much longer because his micro processors process faster than human synapses. And he can virtually experience anything. Robin sends a copy of himself to try to talk things over with the Foe. Its all good though, because as a result of the encounter, the Foe is persuaded to not destroy all life in the galaxy because they see Robin as evidence that humanity and the Heechee are moving toward digitization and pose no threat to their plans to reboot the universe.

Doctorow has used personality digitization in previous works. In Tomorrow/Now he has it lurking in the background till the end. Jimmy’s prospects in the virtuality are murkier than Robin’s in Heechee, but at least he gets the girl. Sort of. As Jimmy puts it, “I tried to argue, but I couldn’t. Whether that was because there was a bug in me or because he was right, I couldn’t say. “ 265

Baxter puts the concept to fuller use in Titan. Poole and associates interview a “virtual backup” of Emry when they recruit him for their caper. Easier to deal with than the flesh and blood version. Emry likes the idea of “backups” not at all. He muses to himself, “And besides, the backup copy could never be you, the one who died; only a copy could live on.” “backup” Emry threatens violence when he realizes he is doomed after the conclusion of the interview. The best he can hope for is merger with the real Emry. Virtual General Cassata in Annals of the Heechee has a similar thought. He stays aboard Robin’s ship, the True Love, to postpone his liquidation. If he returned to JAWS, well, they couldn’t have a bunch of virtual generals hanging around. What would it do to the chain of command? Backup Emry in Return to Titan only gives in when Poole makes it clear that they’ll kill the real Emry if he does not. So he goes with them to Titan, with it understood that backup copies have been made for all just in case. The interesting plot twist of the story is the idea of the backup copy dying to save the real living, breathing person.

Spoiler alert--

In Egan’s Hot Rock, personal digitization is commonplace among members of the Amalgam, the galactic arm civilization that forms the political backdrop for the story. The two explorers, Azar from Hanuz, and Shelma from Bahar travel to Tallulah as digital packets in high energy gamma ray bursts. The benefit of traveling virtually lies in the lower cost of sending information instead of bodies that require supplies. The machine Azar resided in was, “ smaller than a grain of sand.”

Their home planets had sent ships three years earlier that combined to form the Mologhat Station to receive and support them. The station had on arrival sent insect sized robot probes with nano tech to the surface to perform the advance work, and the two explorers load their consciousnesses into one of these with room left over for part of their station library. They experience separate subjective milieus, but share information feeds, which can be fine tuned and provide information beyond the range of their natural senses. They gather large amounts of information about the rich and varied life on the planet, but learn nothing that explains why the planet is warm enough for liquid water and plant life. As Shelma puts it, “A billion years in deep space, and not an iceberg in sight.”

On an emotional level, they take backups for granted., without any qualms over merging consciousness. Perhaps because they leave their backups dormant until needed. There is no mention of whether they , like Vasli in Michael Swanwick’s Stations of the Tide, experience grief in learning of the death of their original selves. Vasli had been copied and the copy transmitted to Prospero System. Prospero Sysem Vasli is bereft when he learns of the death of his original self back in Deneb System. Azar does regret the disconnection from her life due to the time lag. 1500 years out. 1500 years back. Similarly, Vasli grieves also for the loss of his home world. He could send back a copy, but it would not be him. Prospero System Vasli would still be there. In the Amalgam, as with Neal Asher’s Polity universe, backups are commonplace and just make sense. They've left backups at home and make more after it becomes more urgent to locate any sentient inhabitants lurking under the water.

After making contact, they learn from natives how to harness the power that warms the planet to return home. They also learn that the energy source leaves a residual that supports digitized life, and that there is room for billions of civilizations. Shelma opts to continue exploring this possibility while Azar prepares to return home with a digitized delegation to the Amalgam. Personal digitization seems like a wonderful idea. Certainly it makes a story more interesting. It ensures personal survival (or the illusion thereof) should the original make an untimely demise, or the copy can go out and die for you. The only question is, as Thomas Wolfe puts it, is whether or not you can ever go home again.

[j4gm]

TOGETHER AGAIN SPOILERS

A thread of lore, Easter eggs, episode connections, and background details from Adventure Time: Distant Lands: Together Again! Let me know if I missed anything! This is adapted from my original Twitter thread.

Keep reading ⬇️⬇️⬇️

1. I was expecting them to perhaps do a classic style title sequence for this episode, but I wasn't expecting them to straight up use the original title sequence. The only difference is this final screen saying "Distant Lands".

2. The background of the title cards is also the hill from the title sequence.

3. The ice cream having "50 flavours" and having an image of an enlightened soul is an obvious reference to the 50th Dead World as we see it later in the episode.

4. Continuing with the metaphor, the dirt in the ice cream could be a parallel to the fact that Jake's Nirvana actually wasn't perfect, because his inaction was allowing for injustice to perpetuate.

5. This whole scene feels immediately slightly off. Finn has his Scarlet sword and is out on a classic Ice King adventure, but he speaks in his grown voice and all the slang feels much more forced than it did in the real season one. Turns out this was deliberate.

6. The snow golem speaks with a baby voice like it did in the pilot episode, even though in canon it has a deeper voice. This further hints that something is not quite right.

7. The first major break in continuity is these snow golems resembling Uncle Gumbald and Peace Master, who Finn didn't meet until later in his life.

8. LSP sitting on Finn's head like this is reminiscent of Pen Ward's piece for the 2018 Ble crew zine.

9. Finn being given the choice of helping somebody but ending up helping everybody reminds me of "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain". It's the kind of resolution that wouldn't happen so much in the late seasons of the show, which helps make this scene feel even further out of place.

10. Jake is half frozen by Ice King in pretty much the exact same way as he was in "Prisoners of Love", and even has a very similar line.

11. The Snail is seen here. The crew have said that the Snail has been deliberately left out of previous Distant Lands specials, so its placement here is another very deliberate hint that this whole sequence is "trying too hard" to be like the early seasons.

12. The book "Mind Games" appears a couple of times, as seen in several previous episodes of Adventure Time. The first is as Finn is approaching the library in his dream. It also appears as one of the items in Finn's backpack later.

13. Jake is hurt when Finn fist bumps him with his metal arm, revealing that this scene is not real. This is also a callback to the title sequences of "Islands" and "Elements".

14. A whole bunch of familiar skeletons are seen in the bird's nest: Dirt Beer Guy, Abracadaniel, Me-Mow, Lemongrab, Mr. Pig, and the Snail again. This doesn't necessarily mean that all these characters are dead, since this scene is just a hallucination.

15. Old Man Finn! He's still got the chest tattoo of Jake, and this time we know that Jake is dead, so the theory that Jake died before "Obsidian" seems pretty likely. He looks similar to his old man design from "Puhoy", with the same facial hair.

16. There are several cameos of familiar characters who apparently died at the same time as Finn. The first is this duck, who previously appeared in "Ocarina".

17. The second is Donny, from the episode... uh, "Donny".

18. This goblin guy is an unnamed background character from “The Silent King”.

19. This old lady first appeared in "The Enchiridion", way back in season one. Old ladies are a species in the Land of Ooo, so I guess she wasn't actually very old back then, given she just about outlived Finn.

20. This is the cobbler who first appears in "His Hero". Amazing that he lived so long given all the trouble he got into in that episode.

21. Land of the Dead! This place was first seen in season two's "Death in Bloom", and now we are finally learning its actual purpose. It's a sort of gateway and hub to all of the other dead worlds.

22. There are some more minor cameos at the gates: a house person from "Donny", a soft person from "Gut Grinder", and a wood person from "When Wedding Bells Thaw". And, of course, the gate guardian himself from “Death in Bloom”.

23. Finn completely ignores the gate guardian in the same way he did in Death in Bloom. This also has the convenient effect of not having to reveal how Finn died, leaving it up to the audience's imagination.

24. Mr. Fox! We already knew he would die at some point because BMO had his skull in the finale.

25. Finn has his design from the first Distant Lands poster in this scene. Turns out it's young Finn in old Finn's clothes. But they gave him a shirt in the poster so you wouldn't be able to see the tattoo.

26. The clapping that Finn does while he's looking for Jake is a callback to "James Baxter the Horse", when Jake tells Finn to listen for that same rhythm if they are killed and need to find each other in the afterlife.

27. Mr. Fox talks about a "past life quotient", suggesting that there might be some kind of limit to how many times somebody can reincarnate. Finn's reincarnations are also seen in this scene; a callback to "The Vault", and confirmation that reincarnations share the same soul.

28. Boobafina, the goose who Mr. Fox was in love with in his debut episode “Storytelling”, apparently reincarnated into a tugboat. We've already seen that objects can have souls in the episode "Ghost Fly".

29. Finn is initially assigned to the 37th Dead World, which is the same one that Jake went to when he died in "Sons of Mars". We can only guess at what the other numbers on the ticket mean ;)

30. Tiffany! Despite several lucky escapes throughout his life, Tiffany has finally died. I like the use of this imagery to express Finn's conflicted feelings about him.

31. The 50th Dead World has long been established as the "highest" dead world, and the one synonymous with Heaven within Adventure Time's universe. It was first mentioned in "Ghost Princess" back in season three.

32. It's unclear what happens to souls which are destroyed within the dead worlds. It is a similar question to asking what happened to the ghosts that were killed in "Ghost Fly".

33. Death doesn't speak at all in Together Again because his voice actor, Miguel Ferrer, passed away in 2017 long before production began.

34. Finn phases through New Death when he tries to attack him, just like what happened way back in "Death in Bloom".

35. The 30th Dead World contains Tree Trunks as well as many of her love interests; Mr. Pig, her alien husband from "High Strangeness", Danny and Randy who first appeared in "Apple Wedding", and several more who we don't recognise, including at least one who presents as a woman.

36. Literally yelled when these two showed up. Joshua calls Finn a crybaby, which is a callback to "Dad's Dungeon".

37. The wall of weapons in Joshua and Margaret's house includes the iconic Demon Blood Sword, which was broken in "Play Date", as well as Margaret's auto-loading crossbow from "Joshua & Margaret Investigations".

38. Jermaine is sidelined a few times through the episode, in reference to his attitude in "Jermaine" where he feels that Finn and Jake were always their parents' favourites. I would have hoped things would be a bit better by now.

39. Fern gets name dropped while Finn and Jake are reuniting. A shame he doesn't actually show up in the episode.

40. In this scene, Finn says "What time is it?" This is a very subtle reference to the 2010 cartoon "Adventure Time".

41. In a couple of shots during this fight scene it looks like Jake might have a tattoo. It seems like it only becomes visible when he stretches out his arm.

42. New Death's amulet in this scene resembles parts of the Lich's cape, foreshadowing his influence on New Death.

43. There are several more cameos in the 50th Dead World: Booshy from "High Strangeness", one of the Marshmallow Kids from "Scamps", and Ghost Princess and Clarence, who were seen ascending to the 50th Dead World in "Ghost Princess".

44. Finn didn't interact with Booshy in "High Strangeness", but it seems they must have met at some point before they both died because Finn knows his name.

45. It seems like people in the 1st Dead World are slowly melted away until they become part of the landscape. Nasty.

46. Lots more cameos in this scene: a gnome from "Power Animal", a gnome from "The Enchiridion", a Bath Boy from "The Vault", Blagertha from "Love Games", Maja the Sky Witch, a troll from "Dungeon", Chocoberry, Choose Goose, Wyatt, a spiky person from "Gut Grinder", and possibly more.

47. Tiffany's insults are consistently nonsensical and amazing, as they were in the original series.

48. The Candy Kingdom looks extremely different. Peppermint Butler is wearing the crown so he might be in charge now, which is supported by the kingdom's very magical-looking augmentations. It’s not clear whether Finn and Jake were expecting to find Princess Bubblegum or Peppermint Butler, since both have the initials “PB” and both could be going by the title of “Princess”. Perhaps Peps and Bubblegum share the princess duties now that PB is living with Marceline more of the time.

49. Peppermint Butler has a "Boss" mug, although it's not the same colour as the one from "Obsidian".

50. Jake's ghost has the same design as he did when BMO killed him in "Ghost Fly". I also absolutely love Finn's ghost. This scene establishes that ghosts are just visitors to the mortal plane from the dead worlds.

51. Life has only appeared in animated shorts before now. Namely, "The Gift That Reaps Giving" which establishes her relationship with Death, and "Frog Seasons: Winter". This episode gives her a concrete place within Adventure Time's pantheon: she is in charge of reincarnation.

52. A translation of Life’s angry French dialogue by Shado: “After all I did for that boy. After all I did for him. No, it's not possible. It's not possible no, that... that makes me so mad but it's not possible.”

53. We finally have in-universe confirmation that Shoko's tiger is a previous life of Jake. This was previously confirmed by one of the writers, but wasn't canon until now.

54. I feel like Finn pulled off Shoko's look even better than Shoko did. I wonder whether Finn has gained the memories of his past lives now that he’s dead.

55. No Easter egg here, just want to appreciate this image.

56. There is an elemental symbol on the wall here, as seen in "Jelly Beans Have Power".

57. Tiffany's dramatic internal monologue is a recurring gag, as is his habit of nearly dying from falling into holes.

58. The Jake suit makes a cameo in the fight against New Death. It was last seen in the episode "Reboot”.

59. Finn's backpack contains a few familiar items: the t-shirt with the pocket from "It Came from the Nightosphere", Finn's underwear from "Little Dude" and other episodes, and a copy of Mind Games as I've already mentioned.

60. The Lich's Hand is present in the background of Death's... death scene. This is probably the unseen "friend" who New Death keeps talking about.

61. The Lich's menacing monologues often begin with a single command. Previously they have included "Fall" and "Stop". This time, the command is "Burn".

62. Jake uses the word "boingloings", which is a callback all the way to "Hitman" in the third season.

63. Jake's blue shape-shifter form from "Abstract" appears very briefly during his fight with Finn.

64. Finn's lumpy space person form also makes an appearance. This design was last seen all the way back in the second episode of the entire show, "Trouble in Lumpy Space".

65. Jake steps on the Lich's hand in a very similar way to how he stepped on Ash in "Memory of a Memory", which is itself a Monty Python reference.

66. The credits include a dedication to a few AT cast and crew who have passed away. Polly Lou Livingston was the voice of Tree Trunks. Miguel Ferrer was the voice of Death. Michel Lyman and Maureen Mlynarczyk were both sheet timers on the original series. Rest in peace.

67. The message that Finn and Jake write out on the ouija board is "BUTT", which Peppermint Butler takes as a distress signal. This message is also used as a distress signal by the Hot Dog Knights in "The Limit".

68. Peppermint Butler's reversed dialogue from the scene where he makes contact with Finn and Jake is "Kee-Oth Rama Pancake", the spell from “Dad's Dungeon” for banishing demons.

69. That appears to be President Porpoise with all of Tree Trunks’ other lovers.

70. In this scene, Life is humming part of "Lonely Bones", the song which Death tried to record for her in her debut short "The Gift That Reaps Giving". It's hard to notice because it's so brief.

71. Finn and Jake's cover is blown while in the Land of the Dead because Jake loudly farts, which also happened in "Death in Bloom".

72. The place where Mr. Fox explains the perception mechanics of the afterlife is the exact same location as the River of Forgetfulness from "Death in Bloom", which, as it turns out, was imaginary.

These are sort of out of order at the end because I was adding stuff to the Twitter thread as it got discovered. That’s all for now!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: July 10th

I really let asks get away from me lately. I was super focused on working on that Patreon Moment. With that done I can finally think about doing other things, so here’s a new collection of answers!

Thank you for sending in questions everyone ^^.

For the new Patreon moment, will you be able to reference it in step 4? Or just like a tiny nod to it if you pick certain choices?

There won’t be. I’m sorry if you were hoping for that! The Patreon moment is meant to be entirely optional, it’s not something that gets you extra content in the main game.

Is the new CG artist the main one now? :0 I’ve noticed theres been a difference in the art style recently. Is the old CG artist still going to make art for the game? :0

The original artist still makes CGs for the game sometimes, but he mainly focuses on character sprites.

Are you going to put the NSFW our life moment on a website other than patreon? I would love to get it but I can't use patreon atm.

I don’t know. I'm afraid we can't release the Patreon Moment on a normal game storefront because we can't mix 18+ content with our family friendly game. If there's some other place similar to Patreon where it's not the normal type of full-scale public content releases we'd consider using that, but I’m not sure if there is another site that’s better than Patreon in that regard. I'm sorry.

Out of curiosity, in all of your games so far, which characters in each were the most fun to write? They obviously don't have to be your favorite characters!

Buffalo Seer in AFA, really everyone in XOD/XOBD is pretty equally entertaining to write, The Guide in LoV, and Cove in OL!

idk if you accept "personal" questions, but is there anything you've been watching/ listening to lately

Mostly, I’ve been watching/listening to Authortube videos as of late! It’s people who talk generally about the process of how books become traditionally published and/or share their own experience as they attempt to be published. I don’t have an interest in writing normal text based books, but it’s really interesting to hear about that world. I’m listening to a video about royalties right now as I answer these asks.

Will one of the desserts we get to pick be fudge? That'd be such a cute reference! 

Haha, yeah, it should. Unless I completely blank on it and forget when trying to include the various referential food options.

I don't know if this has been asked previously but what would be the approximate heights for the presets MC can choose from Step 2 ~ 4? Are there any measurement you had in mind? Sorry if I didn't make myself clear kk I've been struggling with my English lately 💀 

I don’t know, ahah. I didn’t have any numbers in mind for that. So it’s whatever you imagine it is!

I noticed a bug with the Patreon moment when it comes to what your character wears. When Jamie and Cove are kissing while my character only had dresses selected, I had both the option to remove the dress or to remove the shirt... Picking one of the options to interact with Cove, after he removed his shirt, it had Jamie remove their shirt followed by ther pants despite only having dresses picked. 

Thank you for reporting ^^

I keep refreshing steam to see when the new doc for xobd will be released. I noticed you haven't posted anything about it in quite some time. Would it be possible to ask about a timeline/potential date? (If it's even this year—) I know you and your team are probably working super hard, I'm just super curious! ~Thank you!~ 

There are more stories done, I just haven’t gotten around to publicly releasing them. Hopefully I will have a chance to spend the time on that sooner rather than later!

hello!! i’m not sure if it’s an update but i’ve just replayed our life and at the end i can’t propose to cove anymore? :(( i’ve actually tried playing twice but the options are not there anymore, did you guys remove the options? i’m sorry if you’ve answered this before!! thank you and have a good one :) 

I’m afraid things haven’t been changed or removed, so I think you might’ve accidentally picked the wrong things somewhere along the way and locked yourself out of being able to propose by mistake. Sometimes you meant to say you want to get married but instead you mis-click and have it so the MC isn’t thinking about marriage or something. All I can suggest is starting from the beginning of Step 3 and making sure to follow the steps listed in the FAQ. I’m sorry for that.

Did yall remove some of the options for when youre making out with Cove in the charity moment? I could've sworn you could grab his bonkadonk and its not there anymore 

This is the same situation as the above. We didn’t remove things and you’re not wrong that there are sometimes those options. But there are various choices you have to make to get those options and it sounds like you accidentally missed something. If your relationship isn’t long-term, you can’t do it for example.

HI IM SO EXCITED I CAN FINALLY GET THE STEP 3 DLC 

Thank you for getting it!

Is Shiloh super totally straight bc I’m very gay and a huge Shiloh fan, would my man make an exception?😩

Sadly, he is one of our super straight characters. I’m sorry.

Hi, I have a very dumb question. In Step 2 does Cove not wanna share his drink with us at the mall (or rather why he stops drinking it) because it's an indirect kiss? Or is it like ...weird to him to share? Because if I remember right he eats off our spoon in the birthday scene right? 

Yeah, he’s awkward about it because he likes the MC and it feels very personal to share a straw with his crush.

Hi! If you don't mind me asking, who is the artist for OL2? Their style is so pretty! 

Thank you for saying so! This is her Twitter- https://twitter.com/redridingheart

Do Beginnings & Always and Now & Forever exist in the same universe? 

Yep! XOXO Droplets also exists in the same universe. It’s one big GB Patch world, haha.

Do Pran's parents regret the way they raised him? Do they feel ashamed of it?

No. They’re the type of people best cut out because they’re not gonna change. Which is why Pran does go very limited contact when he’s an adult.

Hi! I just wrapped up my second playthrough of Our Life, and I absolutely adore it, but I had a question. I went to the gallery and found I was missing 2 CGS (specifically Step 1-3 and 2-3) and I had no clue where they would've shown up. Which moments are those found in? 

You get it by telling Cove about his dad offering you money to be his friend in Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t get both in one playthrough, since you can only tell Cove the truth once. I’m really glad you liked it!

Hi hi! Please, how tall is Baxter and Derek? Love the game so much and I can't wait to see more! 

I don’t know, aha. I think Baxter was around 5′10 and Derek was like 5′8/5′9, maybe. I really am not one who has specific heights for things in mind.

is adult cove a bottom, top, or switch? 

A switch, though would choose the top if he had to pick.

I was wondering if there is a way to transfer save data? Even if through the game files. I wanted to be able to transfer my save data from my desktop over to my laptop so that I could continue playing right where I left off from but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. 

If you save the save folder/persistent data of the game from your desktop and put it into the game folder on your other device, that could work.

Hi! Is it possible for us to know the date when our life: now and forever comes out on steam? Sorry if you've mentioned it before but I haven't seen it and I'm looking foward to that happening and just wanted to know :) 

It’s gonna be a long time, I’m afraid. There’s no estimate right now.

I started playing Our Life with my sister a while ago, and I think you guys should know that we discovered your secret. >:)

L from death note and Cove are clearly the same person, and this whole game is just an origin story!!

I’ve never seen that show so I’m sorry to say I don’t understand the connection/reference you’re trying to make. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to media. I don’t watch movies or TV.

Will OL2 have options for disabled MCs?

I understand if it's too complicated, just curious

Unfortunately, it’s not really something we have a plan for. We couldn’t finish the game if we tried to include every disability and have it be meaningful. It’d just be too much content to create. But if we decide to only include a few, how would we choose which disabilities get to be represented and which are left out? I don’t know. It’ll probably have to be something we don’t include as an option again, sadly. I’m sorry.

playing our life > anything else 

Haha, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Honestly, I would like to thank Our Life for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. Before, I never would've actually thought that it was possible to like boys romantically and still be asexual. Almost all of the BL visual novels I've read had unskippable sexual content in them and it honestly just didn't click with what I feel. I'm glad I found Our Life. I love the game, the developers, and this fandom so much. Now, I can safely come out as homoromantic AND asexual (at least anonymously here anyway; my parents are still huge homophobes 😂). 

Aw, it’s great to hear you felt comfortable being yourself in the game! That’s wonderful. I’m really sorry about your parents, though.

Will the demo for OL2 be on android? Really not sure if I could wait any longer than I have to aha 

Yeah, it’ll be available for Android once we eventually release a demo!

Do all these reveals perhaps mean development is progressing ahead of schedule? Please let that be the case I'm already obsessed with Qiu 

No, sorry, aha. Art comes along much faster than script/programming-work for us. It’s gonna be a long time before the game is a finished thing you can actually play. But at least we can look at the beautiful images.

Hey! First of all I wanna say I reallllllyyyyy loooovvveeee Our Life and XOXO Droplets! I have over 300 hours of playtime on Our Life… Anyways, I was just wondering, are the Derek and Baxter DLCs going to come out at the same time? If not, which one do you plan to release first? :3 

They will come out separately and Derek will be first! Glad you like the game.

I keep replaying Our Life to get every possible iteration and I am loving it <3 I was wondering if Cove gets locked out of his confession because MC was talking to Lee, would it be possible to confess to him in step 4? 

Yeah, you can avoid the confession in Step 3 and then get it in Step 4.

Hi, my Cove wears bracelets through step 2 and 3 but I still don't get an option to give him a bracelet? I didn't even know that was possible until I seen someone else ask about it lol 

Hm, did you use the Cove creator? Maybe there���s a bug where using the creator to add bracelets doesn’t fulfill the requirement to give Cove a bracelet in Step 3.

Wait, I'm dense, when does Baxter appear in step 2? Is it from big park firework? I feel so bad since i really love Baxter and waiting to buy his dlc. 

It’s in the Soiree Moment. You have to be just friends with Cove, indifferent, or crushing but not ask Cove to the dance at all. Then while there you can find someone new to dance with. But if you bring Cove to the dance while crushing, the MC won’t wanna dance with anyone else so you can’t get the scene.

In step 2 when we go to the soiree I made my mc go alone and baxter chooses the mc to dance, i'm curious, why did he pick the mc? sorry if this has been asked before! 

Because the MC looked to be around his age, seemed to also be searching for a partner, and had nice legs. A perfect option for him.

I read some of the FAQs, and I saw that we could tell Baxter about the condo that he rented there was previously the mean old grandparents. how do we get the mc to tell him that? 

It happens in the DLC Moment “Late Shift”. If you don’t have a job you instead get a longer scene with Baxter.

I don’t know if you’ve addressed this or not, but are you planning on paying voice actors for our life: now and forever? 

Yeah, we pay our VAs in all our projects.

hey can i ask how you did the moments thing in ol? im trying to get into making visual novels and while im VERY sure its out of my comfort zone and all that atm i kinda wanna know just for the future, bc im p sure it would work well for something i wanna do :O but its also fine if you cant say for other reasons :> 

I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking how we programmed the screen or something script related? Adding Moments like that is pretty straightforward, though. You just have buttons that open to different labels and then the scripts are essentially individual short stories/vignettes. Good luck with your VN!

Since Autumn becomes gender fluid later in the game, will there be a character who remains as he/him to romance in game? 

OL1 has the he/him LIs, OL2 is all about other genders.

I don't want to impose on your creative plans, but a parrot could possibly make a good pet in an OL-type game? They're pretty long-lived and likely to still be thriving by the end even if the MC got them back in step 1. 

I do appreciate the suggestion, but I’m afraid it’s not likely going to happen. I understand there are technically some animals that could theoretically live long enough to last the whole game that or we could have the MC only get a pet after some years have already passed. But the many things that would have to be considered/accommodated for makes it just something we probably can’t manage adding. I’m sorry.

As time passes will we be able to see Qiu and Tamarack's other stage arts as well?

They are both so cute i can't wait to be friends with them!

Yeah, we’ll show content from other Steps in the future. It’ll be a little while from now, though.

Can you date Cove and still have your family comfort you in the car?

You can’t get Cove’s Step 3 confession scene if you have the family comfort you in the car. But that’s not the only way to date him. You can get together with him earlier in the game or later on in Step 4.

Is Mc always going to be the one walking down the aisle or could Cove do it? Also could you choose to have one of your moms walk you? 

No. Cove wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle like that and the MC automatically respects that. And the MC also gets to have their preferences respected, so it’s up to you whether they want to do an aisle walk or not. You also can pick who, if anyone, walks with you.

Once step 4 is out, will you be able to go the whole game on crush/love without either of you confessing? 

Yes, as long as you tell the game you don’t want to progress the relationship. Even in Step 4 it won’t force you to officially get together.

Howdy, so in Step 4, there will be any Romance with Derek that is not part of any dlc? 

He’s only a friend unless you get his romance story.

Will the step 4 in OL2 be one big step or are you considering moments? 

Step 4 is just an epilogue in both games.

hi kind of a weird question but!! we know tht cliff doesn't start dating again but. wht abt flings? like does he ever do 1 night stands or anything? thank u!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Nope. Cliff has a very small interest in sex. If he’s not in a real relationship with a partner he’s crazy about it simply isn’t something he feels a need for, so one night stands wouldn’t even cross his mind.

sorry if you've already answered this, but i was wondering if there were plans for there to be bonus love interests in OL2 like how we have derek and baxter in OL1.

Maybe! There are side characters who could be given romance stories, but whether or not it will happen depends on funding and how long everything else takes to finish.

I don't know if i'm allowed to ask about ol2 here yet, if not u can ignore this or answer it later. My question is can you date one of them and be good friends with the other? I don't want to be strangers with the other bcs i love them both a lot :<

Yes you can!

what patreon level do i have to be to unlock the nsfw moment? im on the $5 one right now, will that give me access to the moment, or just access to the moment progress? 

That’ll give you access! Tier 2 and anything higher allows the player to download it.

[the-witch-of-one-piece]

Hello boss! This idea just came up bcs it happened but can I request a hc with Marco during his young days of still adjusting to his full Zoan form?

I imagine him learning how to fly yet don't know how to land and just dove straight into someone (rip to the pigeon that didn't know how to pigeon and landed straight into my pool, don't worry the lil birdie is safe). And that someone is s/o who is always ready to save him unknowing that this unfortunate day she will be the receiving end of the burning turkey pineapple. You can make it as funny or fluff as you want, thank you!

Hey Boss Anon!!!! OMG THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA!!!!!!! Omg Im excited to write this! So let's base this right around the time before he joins whiteboards crew. The quote referred on her was by Anne Baxter I hope you enjoy!

Marco x Fem reader: Still new to this

"Okay okay here we go again." he said. Taking a collective breath he began to form into the phoenix. No problem forming the bird but it was flying he was trying to nail it. Taking one leap in the air he began to sore into the sky. His arms were a bit wobbly, as he flapped his wings soaring higher and higher peaking down to to see the green hills and the homes below, the walk path as people looked up seeing the blue bird in the sky. Some people looked in amazed seeing the creature pass pointing as he flew by.. He was feeling very confident about his flying as he continued to soar through the sky.

Sure he got the flying down now but how to get down would be a challenge. He was looking for a place to settle down on the ground paying too much attention he didn't see the birds coming towards him. Last mins paying attention they startled him jerk down so he wouldn't clash into them.He couldn't control his flight anymore he was falling fast.

You were sitting down under a tree trying to finished a book. But something caught your eyes as you looked up. Seeing this blue creature falling from the sky almost like it was injured. You closed you book. It was too big to be a hawk or any kind of bird you seen before. Seeing it crashing into you pool. You immediately ran to the pool seen the creature struggling up you dove in.

Marco was stressing unable to breath feeling his body becoming heavy. Who the hell has a 8ft deep pool in their back yard. Is this how he was really going to die? Crap there was so much more he wanted to do with his life. Underneath the water his vision a bit blurry the chlorine from the water slightly burning his eyes . Feeling a pair of arms lifting him up. The first gasp of air was all he could think of. Feeling a bit light headed as he was looking up at the sky feeling himself being pulling out of the pool and laid on the floor. "Hey you are you okay?" your hands were on his cheeks peeking down at him the worried expression on your face. His vision was a bit blurry till his eyes settled the vision becoming clear his eyes looking back at yours. The slight bit a pink tinting covering his cheeks seeing the dewy wide eye girl looking back at him. Did she just jump in the pool and recuse me?

He sat up quickly turning his head to the side, blushing as he was scratch the back of his head. "thank you yoi"

"I could have sworn I seen a creature like bird falling from the sky." you looked at him.

"Well it was me too. Sorry still trying to figure out how to control it."

"Control it? Wait are you part bird?" cocking your brow at him. He let out a little laugh. As he explain he ate a devil fruit zoan type mythical creatures. You were rather intrigued how he was trying to control it but he was having the issues of landing.

"Why not slowing down the speed enough to start off." you suggested to him. He should have thought of that too.

"You might be onto something. I didn't get you name yoi." He looked at you pinning your hair up.

"Its _______. how about you bird man?" slightly teasing him.

"Bird man you have jokes I like that.... Marco."

"Before you fell into my pool I actually was reading mythical story. Maybe it was fate you may need to hear it the quote stated It's best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes"

~~~~~~~~~~

Once Marco finally mastered his flying and landing abilities it took weeks for him to do. You cheered him on throughout the whole way. He was pretty cute too maybe a crush developing. Hearing his dreams how he wanted to see the world. You knew he could do he had a lot of determination when his mind was set on something he was going to do it. When a prominent pirate by the name of Whitebeard came to the island he join his crew as an apprentice. Now you hear seeing him set off. You were going to miss the afternoons you both spent together. "I promise to write to you yoi." You rubbed your upper arm looking down. You didn't want to say goodbye yet. "what's with the long face?"

"Well you know I'm not going to see you anymore. You will see other people and forget about me." you avoided the eye contact with him.

"I won't forget about about you I promise that." he cradle you in his hands he kiss the tip of your nose then a small kiss on the lip. "Keep an eye for for my letters I will be back for you promise yoi."

[bitletsanddrabbles]

WIP Wednesday: Things I Absolutely Did Not Want To Write, But My Brain Had Other Ideas

Me: Okay, brain! Ready to work on the thing we’ve been researching?

Brain: Naw.

Me: How about that new thing you’ve been talking about? Ready for that?

Brain: Mmmm, maybe another week.

Me: Right, then, another research day!

Brain: Nnnnnnnnnnnnnrgh, tired of reading!

Me: .....the Thomas/Mary wedding thing, since you dragged that up last week?

Brain: Pffff, last week’s news!

Me: So what do you want to do?

Brain: Oooooooooooo! BODY SWAP FIC!

Me: *groan* No, brain. Just no.

Brain: YES! YES YES YES YES YES! WE’VE NOT WORKED ON IT IN SO LONG! COME OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Me: I hate that thing! That is hands down my least favorite trope ever!

Brain: But it’ll be fun! And new! And different! And we never do things like that!

Me: Yeah, BECAUSE I HATE IT!

Brain: I have new ideas for it! Shiny ideas! Character torture ideas!

Me: ...................you’re not going to shut up about this, are you?

Brain: N.O.P.E.!

Me: .............right then. But after this, we’re at least getting a paragraph of notes on something else, you hear?

“This is the last of it, Mr. Barrow,” Andrew announced, walking in and setting a medium sized box down on the boot room table. There were three there already, one opened with its contents spread over the table, and the other two tucked in a corner.

Thomas looked up from the rather large vase he was examining. “Thank you, Andrew. We’ll go through that one when we’ve finished these.”

“Do you really think anyone will want to buy these?” Albert asked, picking up a very old, very thread bare toy horse that had come out of the open box. God alone knew how long the box had been in the storage attic, tucked away in the back corners.

“Who can say?” Thomas shrugged, reaching for a soft cloth. “Toffs get funny about what they’ll blow money on, don’t they?” Glancing at the horse again, he admitted, “I can’t see that one fetching much, though. Its value seems entirely sentimental.”

Anna, who had come in to fetch some cleaning salts, closed the cupboard she was reaching into and came to examine the horse. She ran her fingers over one of the bare patches. “I might buy it, for Johnny, if no one with real money goes for it. It’s a bit ragged, admittedly, but the stitching’s all there.”

Thomas concentrated on the vase in front of him, not even glancing sideways at the woman and the toy. “Tell Lady Mary you want it, and she might well just give it to you,” he suggested, forcing his tone to be bright and cheerful. He started brushing the dust and cobwebs off the vase. Urn. Whatever you’d call it. The big clay pot with Greek pictures on it. It had to have been in the attic as long as the horse, and it hadn’t been in a box. It was covered in dust and he was fairly certain that when he tipped it over there would undoubtedly be dead spiders inside. At least, he hoped they were dead. They would be soon, if they weren’t already. After all, no matter how ancient your Greek pottery was, it wouldn’t fetch much at auction if it was full of spiders.

“She might,” Anna agreed, setting the toy aside. “But that’s hardly going to help fix (FIND A PROBLEM), now is it?”

“I suppose not,” Thomas allowed. It had been Mr. Branson’s idea, naturally, to auction off some of the family’s old knickknacks, abandoned in the attic for most of His Lordship’s lifetime, to raise money. The only surprise was how readily the family had agreed to it. Thomas had expected more of a fight, but he supposed with Lady Violet gone, there was less sentiment for the fifth Earl’s belongings. “Seems backwards, though, that we should pay our hard earned wages to keep our employer afloat.”

His grumbling earned him a sharp frown. “No one’s asking you to buy anything.”

Before Thomas could reply, Mrs. Hughes came around the corner, her eyes immediately taking in the well-organized chaos. “Goodness. Well, I should hope this should fetch a tidy sum. Enough to get the job done at any rate.” She looked between Andy and Thomas. “Is there anything more to come down?”

Despite the fact Andy and the hall boys had been doing all of the shifting, Thomas answered dutifully. “No, Mrs. Hughes. We’re most of the way through the first box.” Realizing that the piece he was working on had, very obviously, not been in a box, he added, “And I’ve been handling the big pieces.” There was a lamp standing behind him, not to mention an old clock that probably hadn’t walked since the fourth Earl was a boy. He’d probably have to order in parts for that.

Mrs. Hughes nodded. “At least they’ve agreed to a buffet for luncheon. Albert can keep the cold cuts ready well enough.” She turned to Anna. “And Nanny was planning a picnic for the upstairs children for the afternoon. She wanted to know if you could take Johnny for a couple of hours.”

Thomas scowled at the writing emerging under the layer of grime on the pottery. At least he assumed it was writing. He couldn’t read it, naturally, but it looked like the Greek writing he’d seen here and there in books and such. “Don’t know why the woman still bothers. She knows the answer is going to be ‘no’.” She also knew that Lady Mary would insist the picnic go on anyway, and that she take Johnny with her, servant’s son or not. Because somehow Nanny was the only one in the world, or at least the estate, who had a problem with the Bateses’ son being treated like a member of the family. Carson would probably have complained if he were still here, and probably did complain to Mrs. Hughes when she was at home, now that Thomas thought of it, but he had no say anymore. Lady Mary loved Anna and would do as much for her as her own sister, maybe more, and that was that.

Both women turned stern expressions on him and he wished he’d bitten his tongue. “What’s gotten into you today?” Anna asked.

He opened his mouth, but quickly shut it again. More writing and a bit of key patterning emerged under his administrations as he tried to come up with a believable answer. “Nothing, sorry,” he finally said, the words accompanied with a poor attempt at a smile. “Just a bit of a headache from all of this dust.”

Mrs. Hughes eyed him, equal parts stern and concerned. “Mm. Why don’t you take a break and step out for some air when you’re done with that?”

“Yes, Mrs. Hughes,” he agreed, eager to say anything that would keep her from asking any further questions. He turned his full attention to the task at hand, trying to shut out the women's’ conversation. Unfortunately, having the best hearing in the house had its drawbacks. It was impossible to ignore Anna’s assurance that Lady Mary wouldn’t mind Johnny tagging along with the rest, or that she thought some time outdoors would do the children good. He wished he could go and work on the books, something that would at least take attention and, perhaps, distract him from thinking about the fact that Richard was coming to York to visit his parents. He’d be there for two days and, as luck would have it, those days coincided perfectly with the damn auction. He didn’t even need to ask; the notion of the butler being absent for even part of the proceedings was lunacy.

If he’d been a lady’s maid, he’d have had a chance.

If he’d have been Anna, if Richard had been Bates, Lady Mary would have moved mountains to give him time off. His Lordship would have helped. If necessary, Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson would probably have taken Johnny, or Daisy and Andy.

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, pretending to ward off the headache he claimed to have. He was doing better. He was being kinder and people liked him, or at least they liked being able to have a wireless in the servant’s hall. Mrs. Hughes and Baxter cared, to a certain extent at least. Things were better. There was no reason to be jealous anymore, except…

“Um, Mr. Barrow?” Andy’s voice cut through his spiraling thoughts. “What’s that light?”

“Hm?” Thomas opened his eyes. He had just enough time to realize that the letters he’d been clearing off were glowing, like something out of Arabian Nights, before the entire room filled with light. He thought he yelled, both in surprise and pain at the brightness, but it could have been someone else. Or all of them. Or his imagination.

The last thing he was aware of was the sense of falling, then everything went black.

In case anyone is looking at the description of that pottery and going “Erm, that sounds a bit culturally inaccurate....”, you are not wrong. That’s intentional and will be a plot point.................if I ever get to it.

(Heck, I’d suspect the writing was Arabic rather than Greek, but I can’t think of a single reason Thomas would have run across Arabic writing while Greek might show up in a philosophical something or other... That pottery really is off.)

[poptod]

The Game (Baxter x Reader)

Description: You’re either a weirdo or a psychopath. Or both.

Notes: so this is um. kind of weird. but i guess thats kind of my thing at this point WC: 1.7k

+

"Didn't think this was how it'd go, did'ja?"

"I would really like it if you took these handcuffs off."

"Why? Cause they're yours?"

You stepped closer to his chair, dragging your gaze over every knot you tied around his body. The rope around his ankles and chest, the metal handcuffs behind the back, the gag unceremoniously hung round his neck ever since he wrestled it off.

"Does that bother you?" You asked as you bent in front of him, a wide, toothy grin spreading across your lips. "Being tied up by your own tools?"

"Shut. The fuck. Up," he hissed out beneath his breath, staring straight forward with a glare that could kill. As usual he completely avoided your own eyes.

"Aww, tiny cop is a little testy today, isn't he?"

Shooting up from your position on the floor, you wandered into a darker corner of the room, where the fluorescent light shining over Baxter couldn't quite reach. There you kept your bookcase stocked full of a variety of your tools. Mostly books, but several of the shelves held cases for knives and bug specimens, two of the most beautiful things you imagined one could have. The white light reflected off the glass case and into the detective's eyes.

"I think you need to calm down," you said as you dug into one of the bookcase drawers, feeling around for a lighter and cigarette. "You smoke, right?"

He remained quiet, that glare still piercing the wall in front of him.

"Doesn't matter. I've seen you smoke. I watch you a lot, you know," you spoke through the cig, clicking on the lighter in your hands before a flame burst.

The steps you took towards him were small, calculated, and gentle with your tapping shoes on the cement floor. This room didn't have the best sound quality, and every little noise was magnified by the stone walls. The minimum amount of furniture had made way for the same echo.

"You're very interesting to watch. You're the only cop that's actually interesting. Did you know that?"

With how low his seat was on the ground his face was right in front of your hips, and you spared him no mercy. Instead you stepped even closer, till he was forced to lean back with uneven breath, ire lacing his stare that had nowhere else to rest but you now.

"I've met a lot of cops in a lot of different countries," you admitted thoughtlessly, taking a long drag from your cigarette. "But you're fun. And so fuckin' pretty."

You knelt once more, this time nearly sat between his legs, and blew smoke into his face. His nose scrunched up as his eyes shut, annoyance clear on his pursed lips.

"What the hell do you want from me?" He said in a low, quiet voice that you had already come to know quite well. The moment you recognized it another smile spread across your face, big and unsettlingly happy.

"A good time, hopefully," you said, raising your hand to his face. At first he flinched, twitching away from you, but your need was relentless. Your palm landed on his cheek, allowing you to stroke the small cut along his cheekbone.

When at last he raised his eye to meet yours, the first thing you noted was fear. Fear permeates every emotion––it raises itself above all else, tells on itself before any other emotion can. There were other things beneath that, of course; anger, contempt, the usual when someone is forcefully tied to a chair in the middle of a nondescript room with no windows.

"Don't worry," you chirped. "I won't hurt you. Much. I just... I have these cravings."

Before turning back to your bookcase, you took another slow drag from your cig, watching the end burn till it nearly touched your lips. The smoke you blew out was half in his face and half not, though by his expression it might as well have been all of it.

You reached into your pocket, pulling out the key to one of your glass cases. It wasn't a terribly secure location for the contents, but that little bit of danger was always thrilling––never knowing if your prey will manage to reach those knives. 

Your largest was closer to a sword than a dagger, and though it did its' job of intimidation, the easier tool was the small silver knife engraved with cuneiform. The most painful was the jagged-toothed blade, who tore at skin instead of slicing it. That was for another time.

With the silver knife in hand you turned back around, a knowing smirk on your face as you once more approached the detective.

"Jim Baxter. James. Jimmy-boy. How ya feeling? Good?"

No reaction from him. Perfect.

"You want to know something? Little tid-bit of information. Little fun fact about me," you said with a sigh as you knelt. "I don't like your line of work. Not just because you guys are always tryin' to bust my ass and ruin the fun, but I don't like the government in general. The perfect society is an anarchal society. It's probably too much to ask what your leaning on this is, right? I think I know anyway."

You fiddled with the knife in your hands, toying with the handle and picking at the blade.

"White-picket fence boy," you added.

"The hell does that mean?"

"You know exactly what it means. It's just––I think it's a little funny. All around you're such a law-abiding person, so nice, so plain, and you've got all this flavor on your face."

By the way his eyes widened, you could tell what came to his mind. It was what came to most people's minds when you tried to explain the essence of flavor in human personality; cannibalism.

"I'm not going to eat you," you clarified, chuckling when his breathing returned to normal. "I could, though. I have no qualms against it. Peel off the skin of your face, fillet that shit... probably taste like chips."

"Why are you doing this? What – what even are you doing?" He finally asked, succumbing to the confusion and curiosity that had plagued him ever since he woke up here.

"Intimidation. Kidnapping. Those are still illegal, right?"

"Yes."

"Right. Well, anyway, those are just some crimes that I by no means on purpose committed. It was just the only way to get what I really want," you said as the tip of your knife pressed into his clothed knee, running down the fabric and leaving a small scratch mark in his pant leg. He jerked away, but you only pressed harder, keeping him in place with a tight hand around his ankle.

"Don't be shy now," you grinned.

"You think you're hot shit –"

"I am."

"– but I'll find you, and –"

"It seems to me you already have."

"Would you shut the fuck up?!"

"Sorry. Go on."

"I'm gonna put you in jail, where creeps like you belong," he said through gritted teeth, his jaw set as he met your awaiting eyes.

"You think I'm a creep? I'm the most sane out of all my friends. Though, I do suppose we live in two different worlds," you said with a shrug.

His type lived in the light. Sunny-day type people, warm homes to come to at the end of the day, dark green grass and clean highways. Yours is more in the style of broken down street lamps––burning rubber from car wheels and the warmth of a lighter. At least that's the way you liked to put it, romanticized into the sweetest fashion so it's easier to swallow.

Honestly, most of your friends are coke dealers. There's one that sells guns to minors, but he's not a friend of yours. Just someone you know. All of them are good people, you can't deny that, but it's not a gentle environment.

Not that you're any bit unlike them. You do, after all, kidnap people and taunt them for fun.

"Alright. Question for you. Ever had sex?"

Nothing. You giggled, crossing your arms on his knees.

"Ever kissed someone? You don't seem like the person who would like any of that stuff. I'll still be surprised if you haven't, though. The idea that no one tried to jump your bones? Yeesh. I don’t think that's possible," you rambled on, making a few vague hand gestures as his glare never faded.

The surly twist in his face reached a high point, ending with him spitting onto your face with a deep irritation in his expression. It took a second or two before you quite processed what had just happened, but when you did you had no hesitation in your response; licking the flat of your tongue up from his jaw to his temple.

"You like that? Into that kinda thing?" You asked in a booming laugh as he spluttered, desperately trying to worm away from you. "That was on you, buddy. Come on. Admit it."

"I'm not going to –"

"Come on, say it! You deserved that. Right?"

You grabbed his chin in a tight grip, forcing him to look at you.

"You get everything that's coming to you. You deserve everything you'll receive within the next... hmm, let's say, three months? Depends on when I get bored of you," you hummed, glancing to the side as you thought.

"The next three months? What are you gonna do in that time?" He asked almost softly, brow furrowed in the same consternation as his eyes.

"Have a little bit of fun, for once. I hope you prove to be more entertaining than the last girl," you said with a grunt, pushing yourself to your feet. "In the meantime... you can't be missing for too long, baby."

"Wh –"

With the butt of your dagger in hand, you whirled back around, hitting him right in his temple. The hit of the massive gem on his skull knocked him out, muscles untensing as he fell limp in his restraints.

You smiled and breathed a sigh of happy relief, as though you had finished swimming in the brisk water of a lake.

"Ah... he seems nice."

Thirty minutes and he's waking up, waves of pain throbbing from his cranium. He hissed as he tried to sit up, realizing with much comfort that he was back in the linen sheets of his bed, the comforter all tangled and mussed beneath him. By the look of the clock, it was the morning of his first shift of the week.

And the first thing he has to tell his boss is that there's another psycho on the loose.

[catbowserauthor]

A little TMNT and LOTR

So @lucky-ladybugs-lovelies and @brightlotusmoon know I love the idea of Mikey being a Tolkien nut. I write this piece picturing both my and LuckyLadybug’s reformed Stockmans and now I wanna write more!!

Stay with me."

Baxter took a shuddery breath. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know it's foolish but—"

"Foolish and a phobia is running from a small spider. Running from one that big is smart." Barney reassured him. Looking around, he asked, "Have you all come up with anything?"

It sounded lovely...a world where all imaginable things could become real and solid. How Donatello had come up with an entrance to such a place, he wasn't sure but as always, Shredder had followed.

That man never ceased to miss an opportunity to torture his brother.

The giant spider had sent them all running. While Leonardo and Raphael could do some damage with their blades, it wasn't enough. They needed something else.

Michelangelo had sat on the ground, rocking back and forth since they'd stumbled into what resembled an old 1800s sitting room for shelter.

They could still hear the creeping of Shredder outside. The scratches of the large spider legs.

"What is there?" Raphael asked to Barney. "Our blades aren't working."

"Course not," Baxter replied. "The creatures here have all the powers of their origin. That..,is Shelob."

Raphael scratched his head "okay..."

Michelangelo answered. "Means she's not just a spider dude. She's the child of Ungoliant, a creature made of darkness since before the First Age. You need no-regular blades..,you need..,"

He stood, started pacing and waved his arms about. The odd mist that appeared when they called on the power of this land began to shine.

Leonardo and Donatello exchanged glances. They'd found you couldn't just say 'magic sword' or 'strong bo' You had to be more specific than that!

But there was nothing but confidence in Michelangelo's eyes as he spoke and something like a smile took Baxter's face as they watched and listened.

"Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West."

Within Michelangelo's hands, there appeared a sword, at least a good three feet in length with a black hilt and an otherworldly gleam to it. Taking it on his hands, an almost childlike glee took the turtle's eyes. "A blade of the First Age, forged by dwarves and reforged by elves and made for the hands of Kings." He held it out to his brother Leonardo. "Try that on her hide."

Raphael spoke out. "Hey! Give me one too. Maybe not quite as long though. I work better with short blades."

Nodding, Michelangelo again went silent, thinking before speaking.

" Maegnas aen estar nin dagnir in yngyl im."

A short blade, with reddish hilt and a humming blue blade appeared in his hands which he handed over to Raphael.

Baxter smiled again, deeper. "My name is Sting, I am the Spider's Bane."

Donatello joined the group. "Think we're ready to take on Shred-Head's pet now?"

"Almost," Michelangelo said. He cupped his hands and spoke again. He did not struggle. It was clear this passage was clear as pizza recipes in his mind.

" For a moment it glimmered, faint as a rising star struggling in heavy earthwards mists, and then as its power waxed, and hope grew in Frodo's mind, it began to burn, and kindled to a silver flame, a minute heart of dazzling light, as though Eärendil had himself come down from the high sunset paths with the last Silmaril upon his brow. The darlness receded from it, until it seemed to shine in the centre of a globe of airy crystal and the hand that held it sparkled with white fire.'

A small glass globe shimmered light in his hands and he reached out, taking Baxter's shaking hand as he pressed it into his as the liquid within jostled.

"May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

Together, the turtle and human recited " aiya Eärendil elenion ancalima!"

The light that filled the room was warm and comforting, like a warm fire with friends.

"Let's go."

[captainseaweedbrains]

The Dance of the Color Guard, Op.64 Chapter 1

Katniss and Peeta used to be best friends when they were kids, but now in high school, they're barely on speaking terms. It isn't until they are forced together as the titular star-crossed lovers for their marching band's field show that they will have to face their past mistakes and try to get along if they ever hope of defeating the notorious Capitol Height's Imperial Marching Crusaders in competition.

It's all about winning and if that means pretending to be in love with Peeta Mellark, so be it.

But a lot can happen in six months.

Tumblr: x

Ao3: x x

April—Six Months Earlier

“Don’t be so obvious,” her music stand partner Leevy whispered in amusement, “but Peeta Mellark is staring at you again.”

“What?” Katniss looked straight up, not even pretending to be subtle, and locked eyes with the first chair trumpet player sitting directly across the room from her. His eyes widened for a moment, probably assuming she wouldn’t catch his stare with the clarinet section in front of him, but instead of looking away like a normal person would after being caught, Peeta Mellark smiled at her, his right eyebrow raising suggestively in question. Katniss gripped her flute and pointedly turned back to her music, knowing her section would be criticized next on their sloppy runs.

He liked to do that every so often during rehearsal, look at her like she was some kind of joke that amused him. Get her all flustered with those stupid eyebrows and smiles. Leevy enjoyed pointing it out all the time, drawing kissy faces with their initials in hearts on their shared music that Katniss would then furiously erase because what if someone saw that? People in band were gossipy enough with who was dating whom and who broke up with whom.

She didn’t want anyone thinking she had a crush on Peeta Mellark.

Mr. Abernathy, their band director, stepped between them on his podium, breaking any eye contact Peeta could make on her, and tapped his baton on his stand to grab everyone’s attention. “Okay, listen up, ya mangy teens! A few announcements before you all age me once more with your apparent lack of practicing. First being, next season’s field show—”

“Oh, can I say it?” Miss Trinket, their assistant director, asked, already pushing Mr. Abernathy off the podium. Miss Trinket was a small wispy woman, her height mainly due to the massive heels she sported no matter the season, but despite her title and small stature, it was clear to anyone with eyes who was in charge of any decision making for the band program.

Miss Trinket cleared her throat, smiling brightly as the room waited with anticipation. 

Marching season was one of the biggest things they did in the school year. Everyone looked forward to it and a strong field show could finally mean getting Athens Ridge High’s Marching Gladiators to finals and beating the crap out of their arch rivals: the rich snooty Capitol Heights Academy’s Imperial Marching Crusaders.

Every year they always came so close to beating them, but Capitol Heights had the money for large expensive props and Athens Ridge did not. They were lucky enough to have been able to afford new marching uniforms a few years back, replacing the threadbare grey ones with sleek black and gold. Mr. Abernathy always reminded everyone that he didn’t care about winning, nor did he give a rat’s ass about Capitol Heights and all their achievements. All he cared about was that they performed to the best of their ability and marched off the field with pride, but Katniss wanted their band to be the best. Everyone in the Athens Ridge band did.

“Can I get a drumroll, please?” Miss Trinket asked, looking pointedly to Gale in the back.

Gale rolled his eyes, but started the roll on his snare drum.

“This year’s marching show is…” Another dramatic pause.

“Will you just tell them, woman? This ain’t the Oscars,” Mr. Abernathy snapped, sick of all her flairs and dramatics. “We’re doing Romeo & Juliet. There. Now get off my podium.”

Miss Trinket held her ground, her pale features brightening under her anger, making her purple-streaked hair stand out more than usual. “Haymitch—!”

Everyone watched, entertained by yet another round of the two directors going at it once more. Katniss turned to look back at Gale, the head keeper of the betting pool, and he signed another two months before their directors would go at it like rabbits. She shook her head, laughing quietly to herself, and turned back to watch as the directors duked it out.  

“I’ve heard the music to this field show,” Leevy said after practice, cleaning out her flute. “It’s really pretty. I can see why Miss Trinket picked it.”

Katniss carefully tucked her flute back in its case, giving it one final shine before locking it shut. “You think Miss Trinket picked it?”

Leevy laughed and threw a pointed look over to where Mr. Abernathy sat slunk in his chair, stained coffee mug in hand as he scowled at some piece of paper. “I highly doubt Mr. Abernathy would choose a show like Romeo & Juliet without some heavy outside persuasion.”

She had a point there.

As they waited by the door, ready to book it the second the bell rang, Katniss and Leevy rolled their eyes at the chaos in front of them. Thresh Armstrong, a tuba player known for sneaking in toys from home, had brought out a foam football and had tossed it over to Johanna Mason, one of the smart ass percussionists, who almost crashed into the chimes trying to catch it. She held the ball up in victory and the guys around her hooted and hollered in applause. With a dramatic bow, she tossed it to Gale behind her, who caught it and called out for his girlfriend Madge to catch. Madge squealed in shock when the ball hit her in the back of the head, throwing the ball back at him in protest. 

“You’d think Abernathy would put a stop to that,” Leevy commented, laughing despite herself when the ball nailed Marvel Baxter in the face. “People can get hurt.” 

“Maybe he wants to see assholes like Marvel get hit in the face, too,” Katniss snorted, glad she got to witness it. “Do you think we’ll get to see Cato get hit in the face?” she asked, eyeing the bulky blond in the far corner with interest. 

“Doubt it.” Cato Martin was that stereotypical asshole who thought he walked on water and expected everyone to treat him as thus. And the sickening part was that people did. The school’s star quarterback was praised constantly in their school paper for his dedication to both the school’s athletic department and music department, despite being last chair in Symphonic Band and always being hounded for how bad he played by Mr. Abernathy. Despite his assholery, though, he always had a gaggle of followers around him, probably praising him for breathing. 

Katniss hated him so much, and it wasn’t just because they were locker neighbors and she was constantly having to shove him and whatever girl he was making out with off her own locker to squeeze in. Or that, since the 7th grade, he’s only referred to her as “Katnips Everslip” after a very unfortunate wardrobe malfunction at the community pool. Or even that time he taped rubber baby bottle nipples all over her locker sophomore year and only received a slap on the wrist by their dean, Mr. Flickerman, because he didn’t realize how offensive it was and he was so so sorry. Yeah, Cato sucked and she hated him for all those things and more, but she hated him most because Cato Martin was that entitled ass who just expected things to be given to him. He never faced any consequences and those were the worst kind of people.

Laughing at Marvel and his botched up nose, her eyes briefly caught Peeta’s and the amusement she felt seeing Marvel get nailed in the face vanished instantly. Every bully had that one lackey who wasn’t really an asshole, but was kind of one by association because he just went along with anything the bully did. Yeah, that lackey was Peeta Mellark. Which somehow made it even worse. She knew Peeta. Used to be friends with him in elementary school, back when your neighborhood friends were your whole world and nothing could come between you. Now he was just one of Cato’s goons who blindly followed whatever Golden Ass commanded. 

“Are you auditioning for color guard again?” Leevy asked, snapping Katniss’s attention back to her friend.

“Huh?”

Leevy’s eyes followed where hers had been and Katniss pretended not to notice the knowing smirk on her friend’s face, picking at a loose thread on her sleeve instead. “Are you trying out for color guard this year?” she asked again.  

“Of course.” Katniss flushed at her sure answer, but she always did color guard. It was kind of her thing, especially since Miss Trinket had singled her out freshman year, snatching 14-year-old Katniss off the practice field where she had been marching with her fellow flute players. “You’ve got the perfect arms,” Miss Trinket had told her and she’d been part of color guard ever since. 

“I’m hoping for captain, actually,” Katniss admitted, looking down at her beat-up sneakers. She hadn’t told anyone but Prim that, afraid she’d jinx it by putting it out in the universe too much, but going into senior year next season, she’d be the most experienced one auditioning. The odds were definitely in her favor, but the universe also had a tendency of fucking things up when she least expected it and she didn’t want to chance it.

Leevy sighed. “I wish you’d stay with the flutes. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to deal with that”—she pointed at the giggly flute players who were now fawning over Cato like lovesick puppies—"all by myself.”

Katniss gave her friend a sympathetic pat on the arm. “I’d rather shoot myself in the eye than have to deal with Golden Ass’ fan club. Why don’t you try out? You’re small, like me. I bet Miss Trinket would love that.” Their assistant director would be beside herself with joy at having another petite person in guard she could have tossed around. Miss Trinket was always complaining how there were too many tall girls nowadays and that it limited her “vision.” 

Leevy shook her head. “Oh, no. No, I don’t think I could ever do what you all do. Who would trust me to throw something in the air and expect me to catch it? And the way you did those handsprings for last year’s show?” She shook her head again in amazement. “I can’t even balance on one foot without falling. I’m nowhere near as talented as you.” 

Katniss’ cheeks darkened again at Leevy’s appraisal. Those handsprings were a bitch to grasp, she remembered, and the only reason she was the one doing them wasn’t because Trinket saw her as some talented goddess. No, it was just because everyone else was too afraid of doing them without any type of mat underneath them and Katniss wasn’t. She was about to tell her friend this—that yeah, she was pretty good with a flag and rifle, but all that can be taught and Leevy’s lack of gymnastic talent shouldn’t stop her from auditioning—when the foam football smacked her hard on the side of her head.

“What the hell?” She scanned the chaotic room for the culprit, rubbing at the spot where the ball hit. “Who threw that?” 

The culprit in question raised his hand apologetically and jogged over to pick the blue ball off the ground. Her hands balled into fists.

Peeta Mellark.

Of course.

“My bad!” he apologized, smiling down at her in that totally non-assery way that just pissed her off more. “I was trying to throw the ball to Glimmer and—” he started to explain, casually pointing behind him with his thumb.

“Your aim sucks that much?” she fumed, interrupting him. Glimmer was clear across the room by the other French horn players, far from where she and Leevy stood. “That could have hit my eye!”

There was a time, long ago, when she was once taller than him. She used to jokingly lean on Peeta while they waited in lines at school or the grocery store, calling him squirt and messing up his curly blond hair like his dad did, laughing when he’d scowl and pull away, hating that nickname. He always vowed he’d reach his growth spurt someday soon, just like his brothers, and she’d be sorry she ever called him squirt. Peeta stood almost a foot taller than her now, but she stood her ground. Glaring up at him, she considered using the old nickname, just to see if it rattled him

There was no way his aim was that bad. They’d had the same gym class for almost six years now and she knew he wasn’t terrible. Peeta was one of those guys things just came naturally to, especially sports. For years she has watched as he made the winning pass in basketball, smacked a volleyball down to score like nobody’s business, swiped the puck in during hockey. She smelled bullshit. 

This was probably some stupid dare Cato or Marvel put him up to. She eyed Marvel off to the side, still rubbing his nose. He was probably pissed at her for laughing at him and thought it’d be funny watching her get nailed in the face, too. Let’s see how hard the ball can bounce off Katnips Everslip’s tiny head! she could hear the idiots snickering. Marvel always did have a small ego. And of course, like always, Peeta just went along with it because that’s what Peeta did. Just go along with anything his friends suggested, even if meant injuring an innocent bystander.

“So why’d you throw it at me?” she point-blank asked, crossing her arms. “Did Marvel put you up to it? Cato?” 

His face quickly went from apologetic smiles to annoyance, rolling his eyes at her sneer. “You know, Katniss, believe it or not, accidents do happen.”

“Accident? Please,” she scoffed. “I know you, Peeta. You don’t do accidents. Everything you do is strategically planned and executed with exact precision. So who dared you? It was Marvel, wasn’t it?”

He looked back at his buddies and laughed, shaking his head incredulously. “I’m touched that you think I’m so robotic, Katniss, truly, but believe whatever the fuck you want. I said it was an accident because it was an accident.” 

“Just answer the question.”

“I already did.” He leaned toward her, his dark blue eyes mocking, and tapped the football on her nose with a smug smile, walking back over to his friends. Some of the guys made kissy faces at his return, laughing when Peeta shoved them to quit it, but he was laughing along with them. 

Katniss’ nails dug into her palms as she watched them, briefly wondering if someone could be glared to death. God, they were the worst.

“Wow,” Leevy breathed, watching the trumpet players, too. “The sexual tension is strong today. Felt like I was in a movie just now.” 

She turned to her friend, incredulous. “Sexual tension? With Peeta Mellark?” She gagged at the thought. “Did you not just see him be a complete ass to me? He hit me with a football!”

“Yeah and apologized for it.” Katniss rolled her eyes at the low standard bar Leevy had for apologies. Peeta’s apology was obviously fake and what about that annoying ball tap to the nose? Did she not see how condescending that was? “You two are so going to bone by the end of this year.”

The bell rang before Katniss could choke out a rebuttal.

[yentotajaan]

Repercussions III: the Talk

Yen’to briefly grimaced as he tightened the straps on his sabatons. The arrow wound still bothered him a little, but now he had little choice now but to grin and bear it. This was the day: engaging in ‘diplomatic’ talks with a Garlean envoy to allegedly cease hostilities between their groups. More like try and get us to beg for our lives as they tout the supremacy of ‘civilized’ Imperial rule. Once he left his chambers, he noticed that Lady Faye and Strega were already waiting in the lobby. Others trickled in soon after: Luka, Lalatua, Deccan, Silf, and even Val Covington. Is... is this it? Gods I hope it is enough in case something goes wrong. This all but screams ‘trap’. At least everyone seemed prepared, although Yen’to wondered exactly how useful Strega’s parasol would be against anything but rain or sunlight. As they wondered amongst themselves about what to expect, a Maelstrom officer knocked on the doors and then let himself in.

The hyur announced himself as Sergeant Baxter, and declared that he would be their escort to the neutral zone for negotiations. Everyone seemed a bit suspicious, especially after that mess with the false Wood Wailers that turned out to be Garleans in disguise. However, they had little choice and he seemed genuine enough. They were to be escorted to a location near Gyr Abania, with Grand Alliance cannons and troops on one side and Garleans on the other. It was set up specifically for negotiations related to hostages and prisoner exchange, since there was no other real way to communicate or otherwise deal with the Empire that didn’t involve getting shot at.

Thus briefed, they were escorted most of the way by airship and then completed the last part of the trek by foot. Sergeant Baxter must be genuine... there are indeed a number of Alliance cannons and troops oriented towards the Garlean side... and vice versa. Maybe we might get out of this alive, if we can keep our tempers in check. Lady Faye Covington made clear beforehand that she would be the one to do the talking, and Yen’to prayed that at the least hotheaded Luka and sarcastic Lulutua would be able to abide by the order.

They entered a small, rather plain looking building. Inside was a simple room, with a cermet metal door on the other side and several desks in the middle. The Eorzean side had plenty of chairs, but the Garlean side had only one. Hmph. Are the Garleans trying to imply something about negotiations? Silf, Lalatua, and Strega sat on the edges of the room, while Lady Faye sat in the middle; Yen’to and Val protectively stood at her sides and Luka and Deccan lurked by the walls, keeping their heads down.

They did not have to wait long until the tense silence was interrupted by a loud, pompous announcement that the illustrious Caelus Eir Marsallas had arrived. He was the one that sent the letter setting up this meeting. I wonder if he is as crazed as tribunus Lucian. If not crazed, he was at least as vain, arriving in polished armor with a golden mask bearing the visage of Solus zos Galvus. He practically oozed arrogance and superiority.

Marsallas began by stating that the all-powerful and civilized Garlean Empire thanked the Blue Viper’s bastard for agreeing to the meeting, and that their demands would be simple. His letter and Lucian’s dossiers also mentioned the Blue Viper’s bastard... how does Lady Faye fit into this, exactly? What does that even mean? In the interest of feigned politeness, Marsallas inquired as to everyone’s name. In response, he was met with silence, or in Yen’to’s case, a sarcastic comment to the effect that Marsallas should already know.

The discussion that followed was roughly what Yen’to had expected. Forced pleasantries intermixed with icy barbs from Lady Faye and grand boasting and not-so-veiled threats by Marasalls. She is not even giving him the respect of using his full title. Let us see how he likes being talked down to. In exchange for giving up the employees involved in destroying one of their castrums, everyone else would get to live. Naturally, this was dismissed as nonsense by the Eorzean side of the room.

Tempers began flaring for some of the participants as the talks dragged on without progress. Marsallas claimed that everyone who did not submit would be destroyed. Lady Faye coolly replied that she had killed one legatus already, and could do it again. Deccan lost his mind and burst into a maniacal fit of laughter, uttering some sarcastic nonsense about Garlemald’s vaunted greatness. Gods damn it -- is he going to lose it again like he did on the first mission? Why do we bring him on these, again? Decorum further broke down as others like Silf and Lalatua began speaking their mind. Strega kept mumbling repeatedly about the word ‘whomst’ the Garlean used in one of his grandiose speeches. ... Seriously?!

Finally, Luka stopped her simmering in the back of the room and exploded. She strode up to the table and began jabbering to Marasallas in what sounded like the Garlean language. Yen’to could make none of it out since he was unfamiliar with it, but he needed no translator for the response. Marasallas shot up in a rage, thrusting a finger towards Luka and declaring that no quarter would be given to traitors and those that harbor them.

The ruckus caused soldiers on both sides to pour into the room, brandishing their weapons at each other and demanding everyone stand down. Damn it... if I die here, I am killing Khan! Eventually, Marasallas collected himself and warned that the Shroudrose, its employees, and all their relatives and friends would be destroyed. With that, the meeting was effectively ended.

Damn that miqo’te brat - what stunt was she trying to pull off? She directly disobeyed Lady Faye’s directive to not negotiate! With the lines now drawn in the sand, it was time to prepare for further escalation. All of other employees, whether they wanted to be involved or not, were now in danger. This meeting has left me with more questions than answers. How involved was Lady Faye with Garlemald? What about Luka and Deccan? I doubt I will get any answers, though, even should I ask...

Yen’to had wanted more excitement in his work, but this was getting to be more than he bargained for. He wondered idly if it would be bad timing to finally ask for that pay raise.

https://yentotajaan.tumblr.com/post/636685329163829248/repercussions-ii-wasps-nest

@fair-fae​

@eorzeanharmony​

[industrious-sloth]

3.       THE JUNKYARD 2 by Penelope Scott

Penelope Scott launched three albums this year, the last two dramatically different apart from sharing a song in American Healthcare, which was “glitzied” for Public Void, the pop-ish, or at least poppier work. But the most outstanding one was definitely The Junkyard 2, the sequel to Bandcamp’s Junkyard.

Junkyard 2 is what a Sidney Gish record would sound like if she were a theatre kid on crack (not that Penelope Scott is on crack). In my book, that’s all you can ask for. Its lyrics are just as hilarious as Gish’s, though perhaps a rating above – there is only one song in this album, Lavender, that isn’t explicit. Still, she manages to make her music sound “Broadway unplugged”, if there is such a thing: were she to burst into song spontaneously, I would in no way question her – her lyrics are relatable enough. Scott might, in fact, have the best lyrics of the year – maybe it’s just quarantine brain talking, but the chorus to Baxter is Under Fucking Siege, And there’s no shame in sleeping later/ No shame at all in sleeping more/ There’s no shame in being such a filthy frigid Lysol-huffing whore, does hit you hard, even if you have never sniffed Lysol in your life.

Montreal is the type of cheery, seasonal depression in the summer hymn that somehow makes you feel better by downright declaring there are no stakes involved in anything you do. In a strange way, it is the less emo, grown up cousin of 21 guns. Maybe it is the mentally ill emo enthusiast in me, but there are few 2020 lyrics more resonant than “And I would rather die/ And let me make it clear/ It’s nobody’s fault/ But I think we all know/ That I won’t make it to Montreal”. Perhaps the ones in the beginning of Hammerhead: “All I really know is that I’m never coming home/ And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you so”.

Honestly, if this were purely a lyrics contest, this would be the clear winner: And I’m not your protagonist/ I’m not even my own/ I don’t know anything/ I don’t even know what I don’t know? What a mood. I can’t even give a fuck in my dreams? Girl, same.

It is sort of disappointing to see how much better Scott’s more heavily produced stuff is doing in streaming services, since I hope this won’t discourage her from putting out more content like that in Junkyard 2. Like I said, this album has the paradoxical effect of pushing you forward by admitting defeat. Like she says, And I could turn it all to ashes/ For the fleeting joy I’d get/ From adding more smoke to the sky.

Also, there are just some great political songs which do not feel forced as they are quite personal. The hilarious Mommy Fwiend proclaims, in Broadway showtune antics, that consent is not just about “your cock and the government”, and that she would be much less offended if told to go back in the kitchen. Then there’s American Healthcare, which should have been Bernie Sanders’ campaign song: I wanted to help people/ I thought I could save the sick… It was the government/ The companies, bureaucracy/ The lobbyists, the congressmen, and lies. And the one percent. Never forget the one percent. In addition, when Scott sings Well people die every day/ I wouldn’t have it any other way, it’s way too funny.

Best Song: Both Montreal and Hammerhead are so extremely relatable to me I cannot choose between them – and that in itself is interesting since they depict similar, yet polarly opposed destructive tendencies.

Skip: Though Phones is by far the best instrumental / epilogue attempt from a vocal album this year (there have been quite a few), you could do without it.

Best Lyrics: This might be the most difficult call I have ever had to make. I guess “You’ll never hear from me again / Safe for an envelope I’ll send / Containing fifty billion dollars and some photographs of dogs”. From Hammerhead. Now do you get it when I say she is Sidney Gish rated R? Here’s another one that could’ve come right out of Impostor Syndrome: “I couldn’t pass the Turing test if I had the answer sheet”. Surely, what comes next is a little darker, but I’m not opposed to it.

But that’s just where I am in life.

[jolie-goes-downton]

The Downton Abbey Oppositions Tag Game

Thank you for tagging me, @naevery !

1. Favourite plotline from your least favourite season?

My least favourite season (so far) is S5 (except its Christmas special, of which I love every single minute). S5 gave way too much screen time to characters that were neither interesting nor likeable to me, such as the Prince Kuragin saga and the Denker/Spratt feud, and intolerably drew out other plotlines that could have advanced a lot faster, such as Edith’s distress at the Marigold situation, Tom’s uncomfortable friendship with Sarah Bunting and Mary getting rid of Gillingham for good. But the two plotlines of S5 that I liked unequivocally were Rose growing up and finding Atticus, and Isobel and Lord Merton’s romance, which I find incredibly touching.

2. Least favourite plotline from your favourite season?

Favourite season is a draw between S2 and S3. In S2, I hated everything about Richard Carlisle, even when it served the plot and ultimately helped to advance Mary x Matthew. That guy made me shudder!

In S3, I hated the very idea of Mrs Patmore marrying the disgusting grocer. And I also disliked the whole continuation of the Ethel storyline, which would have been so much stronger IMHO if it had ended with the heartbreaking farewell when Charlie’s grandparents take him away.

3. What’s a quality that you actually like about (one of) your least favourite main/regular character(s)?

Like everyone else, I loved to hate Sarah O’Brien, but I was really touched by how protective she was towards Mr Lang the poor shell-shocked valet, and how she genuinely regretted having been a witness for the prosecution against Bates. That hidden, caring side of her was a real surprise.

4. What’s your least favourite quality of your favourite character?

My favourite character is Thomas, and while I totally understand where his bitterness and his mistrust of everyone and everything comes from, I’m not sure I can easily forgive his behaviour against Anna. To be scheming to get the same woman into prison who had put her arm around him when he cried about Sybil’s death, and who was the only one to offer him words of comfort when Jimmy had to leave, was just beastly. Ugly as Thomas’ systematic bullying of Miss Baxter was, at least there was a clear (if ignoble) purpose behind that. But Thomas’ cruelty to Anna, who has never done or even wished him anything bad, is just gratuitous. So, gratuitous nastiness to people who haven’t even remotely deserved it probably sums it up.

5. What’s your favourite thing that your least favourite main/regular character has done?

Not to repeat myself about Sarah O‘Brien (see no. 3), I‘ll say that I was also really touched by how grim Lord Sinderby acknowledged that he‘s human and not infallible at the end of the S5 Christmas Special. (I hope he qualifies as a main/regular character.)

6.   What’s your least favourite thing that your favourite character has done?

Probably Thomas‘ wine stealing in S1. Because that was neither understandable, nor clever, nor entertaining from the viewer‘s perspective, but just plain juvenile stupidity. I guess I‘m just miffed that it was nowhere near as clever as his later plots, nor accidentally beneficial, as they usually are.

7. What’s a positive aspect about (one of) your least favourite ship(s)?

I hated the whole Prince Kuragin storyline, that guy was such a creep. The only positive thing about it was how it took Violet down a peg or three!

8. What’s an aspect about your favourite ship that you don’t like?

My favourite ship (keeping in mind that I’m currently at ep. 6.02, so I can’t officially ship Thomas x Richard yet) has to be Mary x Charles Blake. The bit that I hate about it is that it didn’t happen! I was so disappointed that even the possibility just fizzled out and Blake, although he said he’d put up a fight, gave up just like that, even once Mary had rejected Gillingham. They would have been so well suited, and they’d have made such a power couple.

My other favourite ship is Isobel x Lord Merton, and if her (very understandable) “no” at the end of S5 will turn out to be final, I’ll cry. The fact that he turns up again in the hospital subplot at the start of S6 has given me new hope though.

9. What’s your favourite and least favourite styling/outfit of your favourite and/or least favourite character? (feel free to add pics if you want!)

Least favourite outfit is easily Thomas in a bowler hat. The shape just doesn’t suit him at all IMHO. Makes him look like a clown.

I also love his military uniform less than many other people do. It makes him look like such a hulk when he really is no hulk.

And while I love the cricket sequence in S3 for storytelling reasons, I’m not fond of the cricket whites either. (On anyone, TBH.)

Most favourite outfit - so hard! I won’t say no to any of those sharp suits and liveries, the Brancaster livery and the under-butler livery probably being my favourite. They’re his suits of armour, and boy does this poor man need armour. But deep down, my all time favourite outfit is probably when Thomas looks most relaxed and at ease, so I’ll go for the waistcoat & shirtsleeves look of the S3 tug-of-war scene or the S4 CS day by the sea. I also won’t say no to the t-shirt & pyjama pants of the famous “you know why” scene with Jimmy in S3. Maybe it‘s the hair, even more than the clothes.

OK, who to tag who hasn’t done this yet? @soft-in-my-old-age, @misunderstoodnotevil , @oleander4 , @thedanceronthestreets , @sgt-barrow, @bitletsanddrabbles , if you haven’t already, let us know your thoughts! And of course anyone else who feels like having a go.

[philippmichelreichold]

on Personal Digitization in Johnathan Strahan's Godlike Machines

Digitization of the human personality,what Frederick Pohl called vastening in the Heechee Saga, is a plot device in three stories in Godlike Machines. It provides a plot twist in Baxter’s Return to Titan and Doctorow’s Life/Tomorrow and is common practice in the Amalgam universe of Egan’s Hot Rock.

I’m not sure what the big attraction is—self- preservation? If I take a picture of you and spread it around for all to marvel over as a close likeness, it still isn’t you. It’s just a picture. If I record your voice and upload to Youtube, it may sound just like you, but it isn’t. Do we say that Edith Pilaf lives on on Youtube singing Je ne regrette rien? Non. We may say it, but it is not literally true. The same is true if I digitize your personality and memory and upload them or download them into a clone or a robot. Or if you do the same to me. No matter how strong the resemblance, if my body is dead, it’s dead. You can clone my body and re-instill my essence. But it will not be me.

To return to the Heechee Saga, the main character, Robinette Broadhead, dies and his personality uploaded to Gigabyte Space. To keep him company, his lovely wife Essie is copied there too. So the reader has Meat Essie going on with her life and Virtual Essie keeping Robin company. There’s even a virtual Albert Einstein. Robin makes it all sound quite wonderful. He can think faster than ever and more deeply than ever and subjectively is living much longer because his micro processors process faster than human synapses. And he can virtually experience anything. Robin sends a copy of himself to try to talk things over with the Foe. Its all good though, because as a result of the encounter, the Foe is persuaded to not destroy all life in the galaxy because they see Robin as evidence that humanity and the Heechee are moving toward digitization and pose no threat to their plans to reboot the universe.

Doctorow has used personality digitization in previous works. In Tomorrow/Now he has it lurking in the background till the end. Jimmy’s prospects in the virtuality are murkier than Robin’s in Heechee, but at least he gets the girl. Sort of. As Jimmy puts it, “I tried to argue, but I couldn’t. Whether that was because there was a bug in me or because he was right, I couldn’t say. “ 265

Baxter puts the concept to fuller use in Titan. Poole and associates interview a “virtual backup” of Emry when they recruit him for their caper. Easier to deal with than the flesh and blood version. Emry likes the idea of “backups” not at all. He muses to himself, “And besides, the backup copy could never be you, the one who died; only a copy could live on.” “backup” Emry threatens violence when he realizes he is doomed after the conclusion of the interview. The best he can hope for is merger with the real Emry. Virtual General Cassata in Annals of the Heechee has a similar thought. He stays aboard Robin’s ship, the True Love, to postpone his liquidation. If he returned to JAWS, well, they couldn’t have a bunch of virtual generals hanging around. What would it do to the chain of command? Backup Emry only gives in when Poole makes it clear that they’ll kill the real Emry if he does not. So he goes with them to Titan, with it understood that backup copies have been made for all just in case. The interesting plot twist of the story is the idea of the backup copy dying to save the real living, breathing person.

References

"Personal Digitization in Johnathan Strahan's Godlike Machine." Philipp Michel Reichold. Apr 23rd, 2019

Return to Titan. Stephen Baxter. in Godlike Machines. ed. Jonathan Strahan. Science Fiction Book Club. 2010.

There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow / Now Is the Best Time of Your Life. Cory Doctorow. in Godlike Machines. ed. Jonathan Strahan. Science Fiction Book Club. 2010.

Hot Rock. Greg Egan. in Godlike Machines. ed. Jonathan Strahan. Science Fiction Book Club. 2010.

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek Villains Who Actually Had a Point

https://ift.tt/3t8D3MQ

This article contains spoilers for various parts of the Star Trek franchise.

Last fall, airing just a few weeks apart, both Star Trek and Star Wars debuted season premieres of new streaming TV episodes in which the heroes of each show had to fight a giant, legless worm-monster. In Star Trek: Discovery’s “That Hope Is You Part 1,” it was the deadly Tranceworm, while The Mandalorian’s “Chapter 9: The Marshall” had the murderous Krayt Dragon. The differences between the Final Frontier and the Faraway Galaxy could not have been made clearer by these dueling beasts: in Mando, the plot involved killing the monster by blowing up its guts from the inside, while in Disco, Book taught Michael Burnham how to make friends with it.

The Trek universe deals with the concept of evil a little differently than many of its famous genre competitors. There is no Lex Luthor of the Federation. Palpatine doesn’t haunt the planet Vulcan. The Klingons have no concept of “the devil.” (At least in The Original Series.) This isn’t to say Trek doesn’t have some very memorable Big Bads, it’s just that most of the time those villains tend to have some kind of sympathetic backstory. Even in the J.J. Abrams films! 

So, with that in mind, here’s a look at seven Star Trek villains who maybe weren’t all bad, and kind of, even in a twisted way, had a point…

Harry Mudd

In Star Trek: The Original Series, Harry Mudd was presented as a straight-up con-man, a dude who seemed to be okay with profiting from prostitution (in “Mudd’s Women”) and was also down with marooning the entire crew of the Enterprise on a random planet (in “I, Mudd”). He’s not a good person. Not even close. But, he does make a pretty could case against Starfleet’s lack of planning. In the Discovery episode “Choose Your Pain,” Mudd accuses Starfleet of starting the war with the Klingons, and, as a result, putting the larger population of the galaxy at risk. “I sure as hell understand why the Klingons pushed back,” Mudd tells Ash Tyler. “Starfleet arrogance. Have you ever bothered to look out of your spaceships down at the little guys below? If you had, you’d realize that there’s a lot more of us down there than there are you up here, and we’re sick and tired of getting caught in your crossfire.”

Seska

At a glance, Seska seems pretty irredeemable. She joins the idealistic Maquis but is secretly a Cardassian spy. Once in the Delta Quadrant, she tries to screw Voyager as much as possible, mostly by hooking up with the Kazon. That said, Seska is also someone caught up in hopelessly sexist, male-dominated power structures and does what she has to do to gain freedom and power. The Cardassian military isn’t exactly enlightened nor kind, so the fact that Seska was recruited into the Obsidian Order in the first place certainly explains her deceptive conditioning. You could argue that Seska could have become a better person once she had Captain Janeway as an ally, but, the truth is, she was still a spy caught behind enemy lines, but suddenly without a government to report back to. So, Seska did what she had to do to survive, even lying to Chakotay about having his child. The thing is, again, outside of Starfleet, Seska is at the mercy of the sexist machinations of the Kazon, so again, she’s kind of using all the tools at her disposal to gain freedom. Had Voyager not gone to the Delta Quadrant, and Seska’s villainy may have been more clear-cut. But, once the reason for her espionage becomes moot, her situation gets more desperate, and, on some level, more understandable. 

Charlie Evans

In The Original Series, Kirk loves telling humans with god-like powers where to shove it. In “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” he phasers Gary Mitchell and buries him under a rock. But, in “Charlie X,” when teenager Charlie Evans also gets psionic powers, Kirk does a less-than-a-great job of being a good role model. For most of the episode, Kirk tries to avoid become Charlies’ surrogate parent, and when he does try, it results in an embarrassing overly macho wrestling match featuring those famous pink tights.

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Charlie was a deeply troubled human being, and there was no justification for him harassing the crew and Janice Rand in specific. But, angry, kids like Charlie have to be helped before it gets to this point. Kirk mostly tried to dodge the adult responsibility of teaching Charlie the ropes, and only when some friendly aliens arrived, did everyone breathe a sigh of relief. But, don’t get it twisted, those aliens are basically just social workers, doing the hard work Starfleet is incapable of.

The Borg Queen

Because the origin of the Borg Queen has dubious canonical origins, all we were told in Voyager is that she was assimilated as a child, just like Seven of Nine. As Hugh and Jean-Luc discuss in the Picard episode “The Impossible Box,” basically, everyone assimilated by the Borg, is, on some level, a victim. The Queen was never presented this way in either First Contact or Voyager, but, at one point, writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens had pitched a story for Enterprise which would have featured Alice Krige as a Starfleet medical technician who made contact with the Borg.

Because both Alice Krige and Susanna Thompson played the Borg Queen, it’s possible the backstories of each Queen is different and that maybe they aren’t the same character. Either way, assuming the Borg Queen retains some level of autonomy relative to other drones (likely?) then she’s pretty much making the best of a bad situation. In fact, at the point at which you concede the Borg are unstoppable, the Queen’s desire to let Picard retain some degree of his independence as Locutus could scan as a kind of mercy. The Borg Queen actually thinks she and the Borg are making things simpler for everyone. And with both Data and Picard, she tried to make that transition easier and, in her own perverse way, fun too.

Ossyra

Yes, we saw Ossyra feed her nephew to a Trance worm, and we also saw her try to kill literally everyone on the USS Discovery, including Michael Burnham. However, in the middle of all of that, Ossyra did try to actively make peace between the Emerald Chain and the Federation. And, most tellingly, it was her idea. Ossyra also pointed out one of the most hypocritical things about the United Federation of Planets: the fact that Starfleet and its government rely on capitalism without actively acknowledging it. Essentially, Ossyra was saying that the ideals of the Federation are great, but the Federation has all kinds of dirty little secrets it doesn’t want to talk about. In her meeting with Admiral Vance, pretty much everything she said about the Federation was true—and her treaty proposal was fair. 

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By Lacy Baugher

The only snag: she wouldn’t turn herself over as a war criminal. Considering the fact that the Federation made Mirror Georgiou into a Section 31 agent, despite her war crimes in another universe, this also seems hypocritical.  Why not just do the same thing with Ossyra? Tell everyone she’s going to prison for war crimes, but make her a Section 31 agent instead? Missed opportunity! 

Khan

Khan was genetically engineered by wacko-a-doodle scientists at the end of the 21st Century. At some point on Earth, he became a “prince” with “power over millions.” But, as Kirk notes in “Space Seed,” there were “no massacres” under Khan’s rule, and described him as the “best of the tyrants.” Kirk’s take on Khan in “Space Seed” is basically that Khan was an ethical megalomaniac. Most of what we see in “Space Seed” backs this up. Khan doesn’t actually want to kill the crew, and stops short of doing it when he thinks he can coerce them instead. His only focus is to gain freedom for himself and his exiled fellow-Augments. In the Kelvin Universe timeline, Khan’s motivations are similar. Into Darkness shows us a version of Khan who, again, is only cooperating with Section 31 because he wants freedom for his people. Sure, he’ll crush some skulls and crash some starships to get to that point, but in his dueling origin stories, Khan is, in both cases interested in freedom for his people, who, are by any definition, totally persecuted by the Federation.

Khan is still a criminal in any century. But, we only really think of him as a villain because he goes insane in between the “Space Seed” and The Wrath of Khan. The Khan of The Wrath is not the same person we met in “Space Seed.” As he tells Chekov, “Admiral Kirk never bothered to check on our progress.” Had Kirk sent a Starfleet ship to drop in on Khan and his “family” every once in awhile this whole thing could have been avoided. In the prime timeline, Khan goes nuts because Ceti Alpha VI explodes and nobody cares. In the Kelvin timeline, Admiral Marcus blackmails him. Considering that Khan is Star Trek’s most famous villain, it’s fascinating that there are a million different ways you can imagine him never getting as bad as he became. In “Space Seed,” he and Kirk basically part as friends. 

Q

In “Encounter at Farpoint,” Q accuses humanity of being “a savage child race.” And walks Jean-Luc Picard through the various atrocities committed by humanity, through the 21st Century. Picard kind of shrugs his shoulders and says, “we are what we are and we’re doing the best that we can.” When we talk about the philosophy of Star Trek, we tend to give more weight to Picard’s argument: the idea that by the 24th century, humanity has become much better, in general than it is now. But, the other side of the argument; that there’s a history of unspeakable violence and cruelty baked into the existence of humanity, is given less weight. We don’t really listen to Q when he’s putting humanity on trial, because we can’t see his point of view.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

But, because Q wasn’t a one-off character, and because he said “the trial never ends” in the TNG finale, he’s actually not really a villain at all. Q exists post-morality, as we can imagine it. His notions of ethics are far more complex (or less complex) than we can perceive. Q is one of those great Star Trek characters who is actually beyond reproach simply because we have no frame of reference for his experiences or point of view. In Voyager, we also learned that even among other members of the Q Continuum, Q was kinder, with a more humanitarian approach to what he might call “lesser” lifeforms. If Q is villainous, it’s because of our definitions of villainy. Of every Star Trek antagonist, Q is the best one, for the simple fact that he’s not a a villain at all. 

Which Star Trek villains do you think had a point? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Star Trek Villains Who Actually Had a Point appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3eIGmoq

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 1

It’s been longer than usual since our last answer session, so I’m answering a ton of questions today! It’s so big I split it into two parts. Thank you for the patience on getting a response to these.

Thanks for reaching out to us with your questions and kind words ^^!

Sorry if this has been asked before or isn't something you can say but is there anyway for Cove to confess in step 4? I wanted him to confess in step 3 and followed all the steps to make him do it but ended up texting my family instead of Cove at the end.

Yeah, Cove can confess in Step 4!

Hello! I heard that Cove is on the spectrum, albeit undiagnosed. As someone who is ND, this makes me UNBELIEVABLY happy. I literally was brought to tears! Thank you for that!

Out of curiosity, will Cove be diagnosed in Step 4? I have a strong feeling y’all won’t make it a HUGE deal/make it out to be negative, so I’m not worried about that whatsoever! I’m just curious just he’ll off handedly mention it? Or will it just not be touched upon at all (which is ok!)?

Either way is ok, I’m just curious!

I’m happy it made you happy! Admittedly, Cove simply being someone with autism that grew up not being diagnosed was something I included for myself. I didn’t really think anyone would notice or ask about it, aha. But players did start to have questions about his traits, so I started to talk about it outside of the game. It’s great to see it get such a positive response and now I do feel like having it be a non-topic may have been the wrong choice and bringing it up would’ve been good in terms of having positive representation for that. I don’t know if I’ll find a way to mention it in Step 4 now, with how far along the game is, but I am at least thinking about it when originally it wasn’t something I really even considered.

Hey!  Just wanted to say thank you for Our Life.  It's been a bright spot and a needed escape in what's otherwise been a crummy year.  I know you just did a Q&A post but I figured I'd ask anyway.  Was just curious about Step 4.  Will it be similar to the other Steps in that it consists of several different moments or will it just be one long sequence?

Step 4 is shorter than the prior Steps because it’s just an epilogue rather than a full arc of a story. It’ll consist of scenes that all happen in a set row one after the other. There won’t be a collection of Moments to choose from. But it’ll still be very sweet and fun.

¡hola!, you see, first I want to say that I love Our Life! (°◡°♡) and I have 2 important questions, would Cove cry watching titanic? and what is the saddest part according to him? (sorry for my english) 

Titanic would make him cry. He’d probably think the parts showing people who aren’t able to make it to the life boats/are choosing to stay and go down with the ship were the saddest.

Hello, I wanted to ask how much you earn with creating games? Like is it possible to make a living? Thank you >< <3 

How much I earn varies a lot month to month based on Steam sales, Patreon backers, and how many projects are in full production at the time. It’s also hard to say how much I make historically, since that also changes dramatically year by year. But I do earn enough to work on these games full time! I really appreciate all the support that allows me to do that.

Hey!! I was wondering for the 18+ Our Life moment, will there be an emphasis on safety/comfort for all involved? I feel like there  would be just going off of what the rest of the game is like, but I wanted to ask 

Yes! Cove is a nervous boy himself and also super cautious about doing anything the MC doesn’t like, so clear consent from both is absolutely needed for anything to happen. It’s a conversational sexy times Moment with stops/starts so the two can talk about how they’re feeling, rather than a heat of the moment just going for it kind of thing.

Hey!! I was wondering how long the wedding dlc would be? Will it be broken up into moments, or just one big event? 

It’s one long series of scenes all in a row rather than a collection of Moments to pick from. It’s the shortest and the least expensive of all the DLCs. It’s not super crucial to get and those who aren’t into big weddings can totally skip it without worry.

HELLO AMAZING DEVS 👋 i am hopelessly in love with the worst guy ever (jeremy king) and because of this i have a really stupid question: does he really hate people who are nice to him? TvT he’s too cute to be mean to istg it’s a miracle JB held the urge to be consistently nice to him bc just look at his FACE he is so cute! thank you for jeremy’s route it’s so lovely (and awful bc he’s scum 11/10) it gave me so much laughs LMAO i hope you guys have a good day!! 

Haha, thank you. He doesn’t hate them but he’s certainly not pleased with them. Jeremy is either uncomfortable with or annoyed by people being sweet on him, depending on how they approach it. He’s far more comfortable with jerkiness. It lets him relax and he can be himself without it being a problem, since he’s also a jerk. He feels a level of guilt being such a little punk to kind people, not enough to be a better person but still.

Has Cove dated or been interested in someone other than MC? 

Nope! He stays single over the course of the game if he’s not with the MC.

Is Step 4 more mature? Or it's gonna be set in similar atmosphere as Step 3? 

Step 4 is a similar atmosphere as Step 3. Though, it’s actually kind of less mature-topic heavy than Step 3 since it’s just a ‘hey, let’s check in on the gang to see what they’re up to’ style epilogue rather than a story arc with serious issues.

will there be new music for now and forever?? or will the old our life music be reused? 

It’s gonna be a brand new soundtrack. We’ll be opening up a job position for that soon.

Hi, is it okay if we use the assets in Our Life (like the sprites) for fanworks or fan content content, like edits? 

Sure! Just as long as you don’t use the assets made by those artists to make money.

Quick clarification on Step 3 choices: I hope I didn't come off rude (because I LOVE the game, really!!), I was just curious because the intro threw me off at times. For example, you could choose how you felt about Elizabeth in Step 2 (Dinner), but during the Step 3 intro, it says that you got closer to Liz and I didn't get a choice in it. 

For the example, it can’t be helped that you’re closer to Liz in Step 3 than you were in Step 2 because she’s inherently closer to the MC regardless of whether you liked her or not in Step 2. Her feelings are out of your control and the game isn’t so dramatic that you can push her affection away and not let her bond with you, haha. But ‘being closer’ can still be relative. For some people maybe that means you’re best buds now and for others it might just mean you’re not fighting all the time any more. If there’s other parts you want to mention, feel free to let us know.

Did the illustrator for Our Life change? 

We have many OL artists! The main artists who set the game’s style haven’t changed, but there’s multiple other artists who help finish assets.

So Miranda's type is confident and outgoing, huh? So...does that mean Terri's her type?? 👀 

Haha, sorry for the late reply on this. As you might’ve seen in our post yesterday- yeah that is her type.

Hey! First, I just want to say I've really enjoyed how detailed OL got with gender identity and sexuality and how respectful the topics were handled! It's been so wonderful to play since the experiences could be close to my own (I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at parts). Second, I was wondering, would future games explore the topic of polyamory? I'd love to see more visual novels allow room for that and I saw you've explored the topic before.

Keep up the amazing work! ♡

Thank you! We do want to include polyamory in at least some of our future projects. Floret Bond, which might be what you’re referring to when mentioning how we’ve explored the topic before, is on hold unfortunately. So right now I’m not sure when something might release or what will be the first game of ours to come out with poly relationships (we might do something else before FB is done). We’ll have see how things ends up coming together.

Hey um. I feel like im not allowed to ask this on the private discord cuz people will yell at me but why is there so much focus on OL2 and not finishing OL1 stuff? I like the new people but i kind of want to finish cove's story and get derek and baxter stuff first. didn't people pay for it? 

I’m sorry, I don’t understand entirely what’s making that situation a concern. There’s a channel in the discord for critique where no one is allowed to comment back. People can voice things they’re worried about without any way for others to push back on it. And the two teams working on the OL games are different. We try to post pretty often about how we’re hiring brand new people to start on Our Life: Now & Forever. The OL1 team is all still working on OL1 like normal. There’s only more updates on the Patreon for OL2 because the expansions to the first game are mostly script-based at this point while OL2 is just starting to get all its art, which means there’s a lot more to show off as previews.

Also, there was a Kickstarter for the first Our Life, if that’s what you mean by people paying for it. But one of the stretch goals was to start Our Life 2 early, before fully completing Our Life 1, so that the new game could be out sooner. It wouldn’t make sense to stop doing OL2 work because that would be going against what backers were promised. Maybe you didn’t get the full story before and hopefully this clears it up!

Hello! I know it's up to every player but.. What is your recommendation for playing order? Did you ever had any timeline  events planned? 

I didn’t make the events with a planned timeline. The events got made simply as I had ideas for them and then I just kind of organized them from left to right on the screen in an order to space out more dramatic ones between more lighthearted ones. Any order the player wants to go with is totally valid!

Hi! It's Step 4 a paid dlc or update? And how long it's planned to be? Ps. Love the game! 

The Step 4 epilogue is free! The Cove Wedding DLC does cost money, though. Those are planned to be shorter than the usual Steps/DLCs.

Will we have options for what sort of job the MC might have by the time step 4 takes place? 

Yeah, you can. It’s not super exact or detailed, but there are options about it.

Is there a pandemic in Our Life world, or is it just in a better timeline with no pestilence? 

Our Life is pandemic-free! That didn’t exist when we began working on the project and it’s not something we’d like to feature in this story now that it has unfortunately come along, aha.

Hi, you said that you can play tic-tac-toe or hangman with Cove in Boating if you're sick/scared but I keep getting tic-tac-toe. Am I doing something wrong?

After being sick/scared you have to continue to be upset/unwell. If you calm down and decide to just chill you’ll end up playing tic-tac-toe.

Hi, GB Patch! Since Lee was initially commissioned to only appear in two Steps does this mean she won't appear in the Wedding DLC? I really like her character so it'll be a little weird to not have our cousin at our wedding, aha.

She is gonna be in Step 4/the wedding DLC after all! We’re still working with her creator to make sure it fits with what they wanted.

Is Sunset Bird based on a real place? Asking for a friend, not trying to move there or anything. 👀

It’s based on small beach towns in So-Cal, but not one specific town you could go see in real life, I’m afraid. It’d be nice if it was real, though.

—– —– —– —–

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[frizz22]

Could you write 5 times where Madam Spellman get interrupted (trying to get it on presumably) + 1 time they don’t? :)

Note: This turned out to be a bit of Mary/Zelda too, though it’s still Lilith… if that makes sense. Anyway, hope you enjoy. Read on ao3

1

Zelda should be pissed at the woman. She’d burst in, claiming outrageous things about being a secret guardian for Sabrina on Edward’s behalf, ferried Sabrina and Hilda off to conduct an illegal exorcism, and then failed to complete it without Zelda’s help.  

So, yes, she should be furious. At how the woman lied about her past, how she endangered Zelda’s family and then was incompetent.  

But... but Zelda was still riding the high from conducting the first ever witching exorcism. Magic crackled through her, lighting her up and making it difficult to concentrate on anything. And, as she’d learned at an early age, her lust often spiked when her magic felt like this.  

She should have just hidden in the extra bedroom, pleasured herself and been done with it. But Mary Wardwell’s face floated in her mind as she dug through her box of toys and Zelda realized that, tonight at least, a toy wouldn’t give her the satisfaction she wanted.  

And it wasn’t as though she’d missed how the witch looked at her afterwards. The stunned disbelief, the awe, how her eyes roved over Zelda after they dumped the demon down the well. Wardwell was interested.  

Shrugging to herself, Zelda put aside her irritation for the witch and teleported to her cottage. Certain urges took precedent over grudges.  

Zelda straightened her dress and knocked on the door.  

Robe clutched shut at the throat, Mary cracked the door open. “Ms. Spellman?” She squeaked, eyes wide, but the innocent façade had already been broken earlier that evening and Zelda merely arched a brow. Clearing her throat, Mary opened the door a bit more. “I know what I helped Sabrina do earlier was dangerous. I thought Hilda and I would be able to keep it well in hand—"

Stepping closer, Zelda smirked. “I’m not here to scold you, Ms. Wardwell. Though I should be. No,” she inched even closer and Mary opened the door wider automatically, her hand dropping unconsciously to her side and letting her robe fall open slightly at the top. “I’m here for something else. And I think you know what it is, and I believe you want it too.”  

Wetting her lips, Mary nodded, her voice losing its breathy tones. “I believe we are on the same page, Ms. Spellman, do come in.” She stepped aside and Zelda moved inside, purposely brushing against the woman as she did.  

Not one to waste time, Zelda divested herself of her fur coat and settled on the couch without an invitation.  

A smirk touched Mary’s lips, shutting the door she came and sat on the couch next to Zelda. “Hmm, no foreplay?” She murmured leaning closer and her robe dropping open a bit more to reveal the creamy skin underneath.  

“We’re both busy witches, Ms. Wardwell, why pretend?” Zelda remarked, boldly placing her hand on the woman’s knee and sliding it a bit higher; the tips of her fingers slipping under the fold of fabric just a little.  

Eyes sparking, Mary cocked her head. “Why indeed, Ms. Spellman,” she replied, closing the distance between them at last and sealing her mouth over Zelda’s.  

It was gentler than Zelda expected. Mary’s lips, warm and soft, moved teasingly, as if saying Zelda would have to make the next move.  

Only more than happy to do just that, Zelda reached over and pulled Mary into her lap. She gasped against Zelda’s mouth, but quickly settled, straddling one of her legs, hands sliding up from Zelda’s shoulders where they’d landed for balance and up to cup Zelda’s face and into her hair.  

Humming her approval, Zelda tilted her head and deepened the kiss, sucking Mary’s lower lip into her mouth for a moment before swiping her tongue across it; requesting permission. Mary’s mouth opened to her and the witch pressed harder against Zelda, her hips starting to grind against Zelda’s leg almost of their own accord.  

Tongues tangling, Zelda wrapped an arm around Mary’s waist and pulled her in even tighter, pressing her leg up and against the witch’s core to provide her better friction.  

A small moan emanated from Mary’s throat and she broke the kiss, a bit breathless. “So forward, Ms. Spellman.” She intoned, grinding even harder on Zelda’s leg as one of her hands drifted down to Zelda’s chest.  

Zelda smirked and slid a hand up Mary’s thigh, letting it dip under the robe and the woman’s nightgown. “As if you aren’t.” She quipped, bending and biting at Mary’s clavicle which was now exposed; her robe having slipped off her shoulder.  

Chuckling darkly, Mary shifted so her leg spread Zelda’s a bit more, applying pressure right where she needed it. “I didn’t say I minded, Spellman.” She groaned as Zelda started to lap at the mark she’d left on Mary’s chest.  

A slightly rough tug on her hair had Zelda redirecting her attention from Mary’s clavicle to her eyes. “Yes, Wardwell?”  

Eye glittering with lust and amusement, Mary crashed her mouth back to Zelda’s. Happy to lose herself in the kiss once more, Zelda made to untie Mary’s robe and push it off when something tingled up her spine.  

She pulled back. “Did you—?” She began, when the tingle become stronger, and Zelda growled when she realized what it was. “My sister is summoning me home.” She muttered; Mary’s drawn brow didn’t smooth out at the explanation. “I have to go,” Zelda added, the tingle shooting up her spine this time, more insistent. “It’s possible Sabrina decided to do something foolish on her own... again.”  

Mary frowned but leveraged herself off Zelda, sweeping her hair over her shoulder. “You’d think an exorcism would be enough for one night.” She remarked flippantly.  

Throwing her a glare in warning, Zelda stood and adjusted her dress, turning to check her hair and lipstick in a mirror hanging on the wall. “Careful, Ms. Wardwell, just because I didn’t seek retribution for your role doesn’t mean you’re forgiven.” She arched a brow at the women in the mirror and finished righting her appearance. “But yes, normally even Sabrina has a bit more of a cooling off period.”  

Standing to join her, Mary tucked a strand of hair behind Zelda’s ear. “Well, in any case,” she pressed Zelda back against the wall, melding their bodies together and it certainly made it easier to ignore her sister’s summon. “I hope we can continue this at a later date.” She captured Zelda’s lips in a brief kiss and then backed away, settling onto the couch and picking up a book as though her evening had never been disturbed.  

A partially amused, partially irritated huff escaped Zelda, but she grabbed her coat and teleported away without another word.  

When she arrived home, Zelda shed her coat and made for the kitchen; Hilda was sitting there, picking at her hands anxiously. “What is it now, sister? I’ve already dealt with an exorcism almost gone wrong and handled the high priest and his threat for excommunication. What more could possibly be needed from me?”  

It wasn’t quite fair, taking her pent-up frustration out on her sister, but Zelda had only gotten worked up further during her time with Wardwell and now she’d have to resort to toys after all.  

“I was worried, Zelds. With so much going on, and then you disappeared, left your phone and witching board here, ignored my initial summons. I thought something happened.”  

And though she was unsatisfied and irritated, Zelda couldn’t help but smile at Hilda. “Thank you for your concern. I was fine, just walking off some residual energy from this evening.”  

Relief flooded Hilda’s face and she slumped a bit in her seat. “Oh, okay. Well, praise Satan. Sorry for interrupting then, I just had to be sure. I’m off to bed, you coming?”  

“Not yet, I’ll be quiet when I do though. Damned dreams, sister.”  

Nodding Hilda stood and headed upstairs. With a sigh, Zelda followed several minutes later and slipped into the spare room.  

~~~

2

The next time she saw Mary Wardwell, Zelda was practically seeing red.  

Bursting into the witch’s cottage, Zelda gripped Mary by her throat and slammed her against the nearest wall.  

“Sabrina and Hilda just informed me you took my niece out of the protection of Baxter High. That you took her into the woods where any one of the Greendale Thirteen or the Red Angel could have killed her. Care to explain why you put my girl in danger again.” She snarled, face inches from Mary’s.  

Mary sputtered, eyes wide. She grasped at Zelda’s hand and struggled for a moment before relenting. “It was the only way, she had to summon Hellfire to burn the Thirteen. Sabrina’s vision from when she ate the malum malas, I was helping her fulfill it.” She rasped, holding onto Zelda’s wrist.  

She shook her head. “Try again, not all visions come true. You know that as well as I. And if Hellfire was needed, why not do it yourself? Or ask any other witch, one who’d already signed, had experience and more power. Hilda was at the school, why not ask her? She’s a grown witch, name in the book, powerful, and not a first born.”  

Neck straining, Mary tried to swallow. “I’m not part of a coven, I hardly have access to many witches; besides, they were all at the academy protecting our own. And your sister was holding back the Thirteen and the Red Angel at the mortal school. Sabrina wouldn’t have been capable of that alone. Especially without having signed the book. It was either let all the mortals, my students, get slaughtered, or take Sabrina to sign her name and fulfill her vision.” When Zelda looked ready to argue again, Mary added. “I’d have preferred an adult. Someone I knew could handle the situation; someone I could trust. But you weren’t there by the time I found your family.”  

Stunned, Zelda released Mary and put a tiny bit of space between them. “Me?”  

“Yes, you, Zelda.” And it was the first time they’d used one another’s first name; it sent shivers up her spine. Mary’s voice recaptured her attention. “You tipped the scales at the exorcism, not Hilda, not Sabrina. You. I did what I could with what I had.”  

Slightly mollified, Zelda arched a brow. “Why not do it yourself?” Mary just hummed one what seemed to be confusion. “You answered part of my question, but not all. Why not summon the Hellfire yourself?”  

Ducking her head, Mary smiled in a self-deprecating manner. “Zelda, if I could, I would have.”  

Zelda frowned. “You’re more powerful than my niece, even with her newly enhanced powers. Mary,” the witch’s head snapped up at her name and she held Zelda’s gaze, “why doubt yourself?”  

Biting her lip, Mary shook her head. “Perhaps I was told long enough, by someone cruel enough, to believe I wasn’t.” She murmured, voice barely audible.  

Softening, Zelda took a tentative step closer and when Mary didn’t flinch or back away, she took another. “I’m so sorry to hear that. No witch should be told such things. I,” she looked down at her hands and shame swept through her. “I apologize for my treatment of you. I—"

Mary brought up a finger and placed it gently against Zelda’s lips, silencing her. “You were worried about your niece. You were protecting family. I understand. And you are nothing like the cruel person who made me doubt.” She uncurled her hand and cupped Zelda’s cheek. “Far, far from him.”  

Smiling softly, Zelda caught Mary’s hand as she pulled away and kissed her palm, then her wrist. “That’s good to hear.” And how was it that she went from furious at this woman to drawn in again? Brushing the thought aside, Zelda released Mary’s hand. “I should go. I’ve intruded—"

Hands were suddenly on her hips and Zelda looked at Mary in surprise. After their altercation and Mary’s admission, she’d have thought such things were far from the woman’s mind. “Stay. Please?”  

Mary pulled Zelda in slowly, giving her ample time to break away. When she didn’t, Mary moved backwards until her back hit the wall, bringing Zelda with her.  

Their bodies pressed together, Mary kissed Zelda tenderly, slowly, one of her hands sliding up her back, the other still resting on her hip.  

Breaking the kiss, Zelda touched her cheek. “Mary, are you sure?”  

A small smile tinged with something Zelda couldn’t name met her question and Mary nodded. “Yes, Zelda, I am. Now, please shut up and kiss me. That righteous anger from before was quite a turn on.”  

Eyebrows flying up, Zelda smirked and recaptured Mary’s lips, her hand sliding from the witch’s cheek into those thick dark locks she’d been dying to touch since their last encounter.  

Just as their kiss was intensifying, an alarm spell sounded.  

Confused, Mary arched a brow at Zelda. “Being summoned again? Or are you just a tease?”  

Shaking her head, Zelda ran a hand through her slightly mussed hair. “I am a tease,” she noted with a wink, “but I have to go. There is some aftermath to deal with when you enchant an entire population of mortals. I’m sorry.”  

She debated with herself for a moment and then kissed Mary one more time and then teleported home; once more leaving the delicious witch at her cottage.  

When she arrived, Zelda couldn’t help but smile. Leticia had woken up, which initiated her alarm spell, the girl gurgling in her wrap. Though she felt a tiny bit bad for lying to Mary about why she left, Leticia was too important a secret to divulge to some witch she hardly knew... even if she did want to get to know her better.  

Refocusing, Zelda scooped Leticia up, cradling her close. “Is someone awake and hungry again already?” Zelda cooed, pushing Mary from her mind and carrying Letty down to the kitchen. 

~~~

3

Lilith traced the rim of her half-finished glass of wine as she stared into the fire in front of her. She didn’t really need the fire at Solstice; not like other witches. No spirit, malevolent or otherwise, would dare to cross the Mother of Demons’ threshold, even in her current body.  

But the warmth was welcome.  

She’d never spent a Solstice away from Hell before. Lilith always had her demons around her, at least, sometimes the Dark Lord himself. Though Stolas squawked at her to not be moody, Lilith waved a hand, pushing her familiar out the window and latching it shut.  

Her eyes flicked over to the gingerbread house where it was partially hidden from her view in the kitchen. Lilith felt mildly guilty about the water she’d just poured down the chimney of the replica mortuary; Zelda didn’t need or deserve the stress that was likely coming her way.  

But Sabrina needed to be stopped, her mother’s spirit might just let things slip that Sabrina couldn’t know; or so the Dark Lord claimed.  

Taking another sip of wine, Lilith started when a knock sounded on the door. She set her glass aside and wrapped her robe around her. “One moment,” she called out, making sure she adopted Mary Wardwell’s voice in case it was some Greendale resident doing carols or other such false god nonsense.  

When she opened the door though, Zelda stood there, smiling widely, snow speckling her hair and the cold making her cheeks rosy; utterly beautiful.  

A moment passed, and Zelda lifted a brow. “Are you going to let me in?”

Blinking, Lilith opened the door wider and admitted the witch. She hid a smile as Zelda breezed past, setting down a platter of cookies and removing her coat. While Lilith wasn’t sure if Zelda kept coming back because she was drawn in by her succubus abilities or because she wanted too, she wasn’t going to probe too deeply to find out. She rather liked the witch’s company.  

“Not that I’m not happy to see you, Zelda,” Lilith stated, shutting the door against the cold, “but what brings you here?”  

Brow furrowing, Zelda shook her head and moved to stand in front of the fire to warm up. “No witch should be alone during Solstice.” She explained, rubbing her hands together. “And Hilda made far too many cookies for even the four of us to eat, so I brought you some.” Zelda kept her eyes on the fire when she said this, as if unwilling to acknowledge the gesture with eye contact.  

Heart thumping with an unknown feeling, Lilith ignored it and came up behind Zelda to smooth her hair over one shoulder. “Well, in that case,” she lazily kissed Zelda’s neck, “the least I can do is thank you by warming you up.”  

Zelda pivoted to face her, eyes dilating and smile turning wicked. “Oh, the very least,” she agreed, licking her lips.  

Never one to deny herself, especially when such a lovely witch had come to her, Lilith slipped a hand around Zelda’s neck and pulled her in for a kiss.  

An arm wrapped around Lilith’s waist, bringing her closer as if Zelda couldn’t get enough. The gesture had an embarrassing sigh escaping Lilith, but she hadn’t been held, hadn’t been wanted, truly wanted—not like that pig Hawthorne—in ages.  

So, she ignored the flash of need to break away and send Zelda packing for daring to come over here; for daring to kiss her, for daring to be gentle but demanding at the same time, for making Lilith want.  

Instead, Lilith guided them to the floor, allowing Zelda to hover over her, a hand slipping inside her robe and finding its way to her chest to stroke, tug, roll and pinch while the other hand gripped under Lilith’s thigh to hook it around her waist. She arched into the touch, and Zelda smiled against her lips before leaving a trail of kisses along Lilith’s jaw and down to her neck; nipping and sucking as she went.  

When Lilith was all but panting from these minor ministrations, Zelda brought her mouth to Lilith’s ear. “I intend to make good on our intentions from a month ago, Ms. Wardwell, is that alright with you?” She nibbled on Lilith’s ear as the hand on her leg moved towards her core.  

Desperate for the contact, the intimacy, Lilith nodded eagerly, her hands going to the back of Zelda’s dress in search of a zipper. She only wished Zelda would call her by her true name. But that was impossible, so Lilith would take what she could, and she’d focus on the glorious witch above her.  

Grinning, Zelda kissed her hotly once more before starting to inch her way down Lilith’s body as her hands bunched her nightgown up. She’d almost reached Lilith’s hips when she sat up suddenly, as if struck, horror marring her features.  

Alarmed, Lilith reached up to touch her cheek. “Zelda?”  

“The Yule log,” she gasped, blinking out of sight before Lilith could say anything else.  

Of course. Of course, a witch like Zelda would have taken extra precautions during this time of year. While she hadn’t noticed the log going out, clearly, she had spells to warn her if anything came through.  

And, just as Lilith planned, something had come through, something to distract and deter Sabrina. An unfortunate side effect of her plan just happened to be that it distracted Zelda as well.  

Scowling, Lilith pushed herself up off the floor and grabbed her wine once more. Downing the contents, Lilith refilled it and made for the bedroom. She wanted to finish what they’d started while the feel of Zelda was still on her skin.  

~~~

4

Lilith sighed and played with the pen on her desk. Being principal wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. While she didn’t have to deal with the students nearly as much, she’d still rather be in Hell.  

And, well, the tedium of the tasks let her mind wander. And, more often than not, her mind had been wandering to Zelda Spellman.  

She hadn’t seen the witch since Solstice. While she knew she’d caused a little bit of chaos by putting out their Yule log, Lilith suspected something even bigger happened that night; why else would Zelda stay away?  

A nasty voice in the back of her head, one that sounded like Lucifer, said it was because she’d grown bored with Lilith just as he had.  

Banishing the thought, Lilith decided she’d go to Zelda, this time. Two of their three almosts had resulted because the redhead took initiative; the third merely a fluke of proximity and Zelda’s protectiveness and anger.  

Yes, Lilith would go to Zelda. Smiling, she turned back to her job with a bit more enthusiasm.  

She wasn’t sure what to expect when she knocked on the Spellman door later that night, but Zelda answering it herself wasn’t it. Lilith had anticipated the sister, had an entire excuse worked out for why she was there, but Zelda remarked that she was at work, while Ambrose and Sabrina were at some academy party. Ramping up for Lupercalia.  

Lilith stumbled a little then, having completely forgotten the holiday; she hadn’t celebrated it in centuries. But when Zelda looked at her coyly over her shoulder as she led the way to the parlor, Lilith couldn’t help but be thankful for the tradition.  

“Drink?” Zelda asked, already pouring one for herself.  

But Lilith didn’t want a drink, didn’t want anything to come between them this time.  

Striding over purposely, she took the glass from Zelda’s hand and set it down. Zelda looked at her, eyebrows flying up, but her mouth curling into a smile.  

“Is that a no, Ms. Wardwell?” She drawled, looking over Lilith hungrily.  

Biting her lip, Lilith grabbed Zelda’s hips and maneuvered her over to the couch. “I have a thirst for something different tonight, Ms. Spellman.” She informed her, guiding Zelda to lay down on the cushions and rucking the witch’s dress up so she could settle between her legs.  

Zelda hummed and propped herself up to kiss Lilith hotly, a hand tangling in Lilith’s hair to gently drag her down so she was laying mostly on top of Zelda. “I think,” Zelda murmured between kisses, “that I can oblige you.”  

Grinning widely, Lilith pulled back slightly to push Zelda’s dress up even further. She couldn’t help but stare when her efforts revealed stockings, a garter and a little above that black lace underwear.  

Hands skating along Zelda’s thighs, snapping the garter playfully, Lilith came to a stop when she reached the apex of Zelda’s thighs cupping the mound of flesh; both of them moaning at the contact.  

She rubbed Zelda teasingly through the fabric, delighting in the wetness gathering there. Leaning back in for a kiss, Lilith gasped when Zelda nipped at her lip and grasped her wrist to guide her in a slightly faster pattern.  

“Impatient?” She breathed, pressing harder against Zelda, making the hips of the witch under her buck up to meet her.  

With a haughtiness that impressed Lilith, Zelda smirked. “You’re one to talk, bursting in here and practically throwing me on the couch.”  

Lilith had every intention of wiping that smirk off her face, hand moving to slip under the band of Zelda’s underwear, when an alarm clanged in her head.  

No. It couldn’t be. Someone, someone was at the cottage? Lilith ignored it, she’d gotten random visitors since she’d stolen Mary’s life, this was just another one of those.  

A breathy, “Mary?” Brought Lilith’s attention back to where it needed to be. And how she wanted to ask Zelda to call her Lilith, wanted her name to be the one Zelda shouted when she came... and she was tempted to tell her the truth. Sabrina had signed, no need for further pretense….

Before she could decide though, her alarm spells sounded again, louder than before. Someone was in her cottage.  

Eyes widening, Lilith scrambled off the couch. If it was a mortal burglar, they could find any number of damning things and if it were the Dark Lord, calling on her and she wasn’t there....  

Zelda sat up, touching Lilith’s arm, concerned. “Mary, is something wrong?”  

Feeling sick, Lilith shook her head. “I have to go. Now.” She flicked a wrist to fix her appearance and stepped out of Zelda’s reach when the witch moved to catch her arm.  

“Mary, I don’t—" but Lilith couldn’t risk listening to more, she teleported away, arriving behind a tree at the end of her driveway.  

Almost running up the drive, Lilith tried to forget the hurt look on Zelda’s face. Of course, they’d been interrupted a number of times now. But Zelda had always given a reason; summoned—twice—and then Yule log.

Frowning, Lilith pushed inside her cottage, half expecting the Dark Lord to be sitting in one of her armchairs and demanding obedience.  

Instead... the room was lit with countless candles, roses perched on various surfaces. Confused, Lilith prepared a spell. “Hello?”  

A tall, dark haired man emerged from the kitchen. “Mary!” He exclaimed, rushing around the couch and hugging her. “I promised I’d be back in time for Valentine’s.”  

Racking her Mary Wardwell memories, a foggy one from years before floated to the surface. “Adam?” The fiancé who’d gone off years before to work and hadn’t returned since.  

The man, Adam, smiled widely and pecked her in the cheek. “I know, I know, you’d have liked a call. But I wanted to surprise you. Dinner’s almost ready.” He kissed her cheek again before walking back to the kitchen, humming to himself.  

Stunned, Lilith went to the bedroom to change. She knew she’d only gone back far enough to get Wardwell’s memories of Sabrina and then just general knowledge of her life to ensure no mix ups occurred. But how the Heaven hadn’t this man, this fiancé showed up then!? If she hadn’t already done so, Lilith would’ve damned Mary to Hell.  

Collecting herself, Lilith exited the bedroom, fully intending to kill this mortal and be done with it, only to find him kneeling next to a suitcase in the living room.  

“I got you something,” he informed her excitedly, producing a disturbing looking figurine from the bag. “It’s a fetish doll.” Adam explained handing it to her.

Something welled up inside Lilith, overwhelming her for a moment. An offering? She knew that wasn’t what Adam intended, he thought he was giving a gift to his fiancée, not a token to an ancient being; but apparently it still counted.  

A rush of gratitude and affection washed through Lilith, she couldn’t remember the last time anyone had prayed to her, made her an offering. The gesture warmed her to this silly mortal man who only a moment ago seemed an irritating, unnecessary aspect of Mary’s life.  

Licking her lips, Lilith cleared her throat. “I must admit, I love it…”

Maybe, maybe down the road she’d blame Zelda Spellman for making her vulnerable to such advances, open to such kindness. But right now, Lilith forgot about her plans for violence and joined Adam in the kitchen for dinner. 

~~~

5

Two months passed quickly, and Lilith hadn’t heard from Zelda. Though she’d been rather caught up in Adam and she’d heard Sabrina complaining in passing about her aunt marrying Blackwood.  

A strange turn in events certainly, given how drawn to each other they’d been. Lilith hadn’t anticipated this path for either of them, but she didn’t mind losing the ‘what might have been’ fling with the witch. Adam was delightful, and though she wouldn’t admit it to anyone but herself, she’d fallen for the man.  

She should have known the happiness wouldn’t last, that the Dark Lord wouldn’t let it last. Adam gone and her chance of being Queen with it, Lilith swallowed part of her pride and approached the Spellmans for help; forced into joining sides with the teen who’d been a thorn in her side for months now.  

To her immense surprise, Zelda was there, standing strong and proud before her niece, a shielding spell blocking Lilith from coming closer.  

And though her heart ached for Adam, Lilith couldn’t help how it lifted a bit at the sight of Zelda.  

Her revelation of her true identity went about as well as expected... Zelda only looked moderately betrayed, though from the look of resignation in her eyes it was a feeling she was all too familiar of late.  

Pushing aside personal feelings and the desire to know what betrayals Zelda had recently experienced, Lilith sat down with the Spellman family and developed plans to defeat the Dark Lord.  

~~~

By some unholy miracle they won. Not the first time, no that’d almost killed the Spellmans, but the second.  

Lilith was still getting used to the weight of the crown, of having everyone jump to fulfill her orders with an eagerness they never displayed when she only the Dark Lord’s left hand, when a summoning spell tingled up her spine.  

Stunned by the witch’s audacity, Lilith set her crown aside and teleported to the upper realm; appearing in Zelda’s bedroom where the witch was waiting.  

“You rang?” Lilith drawled with only a hint of irritation in her voice, this woman had helped her ascend to the throne, after all.  

Pacing the room, Zelda looked fit to attack. “So, you’re Lilith. Would you ever have told me you were impersonating Mary? Granted I knew your story was full of holes, but all witches have secrets, I saw no need to probe yours at the time. But, honestly, Lilith, Mother of Demons?!” She stopped and glared at her; arms crossed.  

Oh, so, Lilith blinked, this wasn’t about what she’d thought it might be. Smoothing her dress, Lilith lifted one shoulder. “I couldn’t tell you who I was, Lucifer was adamant my role be unknown unless absolutely necessary.” And it surprised Lilith that the disappointment flashing across Zelda’s face upset her. Moving closer carefully, Lilith tried to catch Zelda’s eye. “I wanted to tell you. Wanted to hear my name from your lips, wanted to have you truly know me... I couldn’t, Zelda.”  

“I don’t know why I’m acting like this,” Zelda half muttered to herself, “seems I don’t truly know anyone these days. Their motivations, their goals, what they’ll do to achieve them.” Her eyes lifted to meet Lilith’s and there was something hard and unreadable there.  

Baffled, but wanting to prove to Zelda that it hadn’t meant nothing, Lilith inched forward. “I never intended to hurt you or your family. I—"

“You were doing you duty until you realized those duties interfered with what you wanted. Being Queen.” Zelda cut in harshly, though her eyes were slightly glazed.  

Anger welled inside Lilith and she shook her head. “Just because I wanted to be Queen doesn’t mean I didn’t do right by your family in the end.” And before Zelda could interrupt her again, Lilith continued. “In any case, I don’t think this is about what I did or didn’t do to Sabrina. You can see my logic there, why I did what I did. Why I had to do what I did. You’re upset because it became personal between us and you’re the one who started that.”  

Running her tongue over her teeth, Zelda glared at her but said nothing, unable to deny Lilith’s observation.  

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’re going to be working together quite often, now, High Priestess, while we could do this and despise one another, I’d prefer not to rule as Lucifer did. With his subjects fearing and hating him. What kind of compromise can we make to move forward civilly?” While she didn’t want to take such a professional path with Zelda, wanted more, she wasn’t going to force something that was no longer there; wasn’t going to push when she’d destroyed their chance.  

Chin tipping up in challenge, Zelda arched a brow. “Don’t lie to me ever again. About my family, their role in anything from prophecies to school plays in your honor. Don’t lie about who you are, your motives, your end goals. Don’t lie to me and don’t try to control me.”  

The last addition had Lilith blinking. While she couldn’t say what brought about the sudden annulment of the Spellman-Blackwood marriage, Lilith believed she’d just gotten a glimpse into one of the reasons. “I’ve never tried to control you, Zelda, and never will.” She stated honestly. “And I will do my best not to lie, that title was for Lucifer. While I cannot tell you everything, I will try to be honest about why I cannot tell you things.”  

Seemingly pacified, Zelda nodded curtly.  

Lifting her brows, Lilith spread out her hands. “Is that all?” She dearly hoped it wasn’t, that she hadn’t lost Zelda in her pursuit of the crown.  

Zelda watched her for a moment, and Lilith could practically hear her thinking. “Almost.” She murmured, striding across the floor and crashing her lips to Lilith’s.  

Stunned Lilith pulled back. “What? Not that I’m complaining, Zelda, but I don’t understand.”  

“Do you still want me? Me. As I am and not some weird shell of me?” Zelda asked, voice hoarse and eyes a little wild.  

Nodding, Lilith cupped Zelda’s jaw. “A shell?” She repeated softly, horrified as another layer peeled back a little to reveal just the tip of what Blackwood had done. She almost pressed for more details, but when Zelda looked at her earnestly, Lilith realized that wasn’t what the witch needed, not right now. So, she stroked her thumb along Zelda’s skin. “Of course, I want you. This you, the one who tipped the scales during an exorcism, the one who burst into my house and pushed me up against a wall, the one who showed up at my door with snow in her hair and cookies so I wouldn’t be alone during the holidays. The one standing in front of me. I want you, Zelda Spellman.” Lilith murmured, closing the distance between them until her lips brushed Zelda’s as she spoke her final words. “Do you want me? This me, Lilith, Bringer of Doom?” The question came out sounding much more vulnerable than Lilith intended, but it was suddenly vitally important that Zelda accepted her as well.  

In response, Zelda sealed her mouth over Lilith’s, her hands clutching at her desperately. Returning the gestures in kind, Lilith pressed Zelda back towards the bed. Before they reached it, Zelda spun them and Lilith flopped back onto the mattress, not having expected the backs of her knees to hit the thing.  

At her startled expression, Zelda hitched her dress up and straddled Lilith’s lap. “I’m on top,” she murmured, sweeping her hair over one shoulder before her mouth descended on Lilith’s once more. The ferocity of the kiss pressed Lilith back onto the bed and she groaned at the raw carnality of it all. She’d loved Adam, but he just hadn’t understood exactly what she needed… Zelda did.  

A whispered spell had Zelda naked except for her lingerie above her and the witch laughed and repeated the spell, so Lilith was in the same state.  

Dipping her head, Zelda kissed and nipped along Lilith’s chest, and when she reached her breasts, she sucked one of her nipples through the fabric of her bra. The friction was glorious, and Lilith arched into Zelda, her body silently begging for more.  

Just as Lilith reached around the witch, hooking her fingers on the clasps of her bra, more than ready to feast on the beauty that was Zelda with less clothing, a crash reverberated through the house from below.  

A scream followed, and then a loud, “Professor Spellman!”  

An animalistic snarl sounded against Lilith’s chest and Zelda swung off her. “Hell knows what they’ve done now,” she snapped, waving a hand and restoring her clothes. “Mar—, Lilith,” she corrected, glancing back to where Lilith was still sprawled on the bed in her underwear, having not yet processed this new interruption. “Perhaps another time.” She smiled apologetically then hurried out the door, swinging it shut behind her.  

Again?! Again! Lilith sat up and fumed for a moment before getting dressed herself. They’d gotten so close this time. Muttering to herself, Lilith teleported back to Hell just as sounds of many voices trying to be heard and explain their side echoed up the stairs.  

~~~

+1

Despite their quick reconciliation immediately after Lucifer fell, things were still rocky as they moved forward in reforming the Church and Hell.  

They fought, bickered and both refused to make the next move towards something physical; wanting the other to be the first to bend.  

This continued for months; and while their tempers leveled off and they began to smile, laugh and chat amicably with one another as they rebuilt everything Blackwood and Lucifer had torn down, Lilith couldn’t help but wish for more—especially now that she knew the witch better.  

It wasn’t until half a year later, when they were sequestered in Zelda’s office, working on even more reforms, that Lilith decided she’d had enough.  

The fact that Zelda had shed her coat and unbuttoned her shirt a bit because of the heat had no bearing on the matter. Absolutely none.  

Setting her notes aside, Lilith twiddled her fingers and locked the office door, adding a silencing spell in place as well so no one could hear them, and they could hear no one else.  

If something somehow interrupted them, Lilith would damn them to the burning pits of Hell.  

“Zelda,” she murmured, shifting to face the witch sitting next to her. Zelda hummed in reply, eyes still on the documents in her hands. “Zelda,” she tried again, this time leaning in and licking a stripe up Zelda’s neck, faintly tasting the salt of her sweat.  

That elicited the kind of response she was looking for.  

Dropping her things in surprise, Zelda turned to her. “Lilith...” she replied, eyes already darkening with lust.  

It was the only invitation Lilith needed. She swept the rest of the papers onto the floor and pressed Zelda back onto the cushions, kissing her thoroughly and hands roaming the curves they’d been denied for so long.  

A low moan emanated from Zelda’s throat and she pulled Lilith more firmly on top of her; her hands caressing as well.  

She broke away, eyes snapping open. “The door—" she moved to get up, but Lilith turned her attention to Zelda’s neck and the ministrations had Zelda dropping back to the couch and turning her head to provide better access.  

“I’ve already locked it, Zee,” Lilith purred into Zelda’s ear, nipping the lobe and then lowering her mouth back to a spot on the redhead’s neck that had her panting a moment before. “And cast some silencing spells. We won’t be interrupted this time.”  

Zelda gasped as Lilith continued her assault on her neck and held her closer. “Good. Otherwise we’d be putting someone in the Cain pit.” Her hands reached for Lilith’s zipper and dragged it down, her hands hungrily slipping under the fabric to seek skin.  

Pushing herself up, Lilith slid her arms out of the sleeves and shimmied to get the dress the rest of the way down, kicking it off when she finished.  

“All hail Lilith,” Zelda murmured, with only a half teasing tone, her hands landing on Lilith’s ribs and stroking reverently.  

Arching into the touch, Lilith bit her lip. “Someone is severely overdressed,” she observed teasingly, snipping her fingers and divesting Zelda of her dress as well, leaving her in lingerie, a garter and stockings. An appreciative groan escaped Lilith and she hurriedly closed the distance between them, recapturing Zelda’s lips once more.  

She wasn’t the only one in a rush, Zelda’s clever fingers deftly undid the clasp of Lilith’s bra and yanked the offending item away. Once free, Zelda broke the kiss and scooted a little lower on the couch to pull one of Lilith’s nipples between her lips and oh, this was so much better without the interfering fabric.  

Unable, and unwilling, to restrain herself, Lilith adjusted her stance, so she straddled one of Zelda’s legs and began to rut as Zelda lavished her chest. Hands found her hips and encouraged her on, pulling her down even as Zelda’s leg pressed up. It was a heady combination and Zelda switching her attention to Lilith’s other breast had a mewl escaping her mouth.  

It was then Lilith realized Zelda was doing all the work and getting none of the pleasure. Gently disengaging, Lilith delighted in Zelda’s sound of displeasure. “Oh, darling,” she admonished teasingly, moving lower until she was able to remove Zelda’s underwear. “You’ll be making much different noises when I’m done with you.”  

With one last sinful smile at the incredible witch underneath her, Lilith did what she’d wanted to do for almost a year now. She buried her head between Zelda’s thighs and grinned when Zelda gasped her name and gripped her hair to hold her close.  

While the anticipation, the waiting, certainly heightened the experience, Lilith thanked whatever power might be above her that they were finally not being interrupted.