#bowlingforgerbils

[gretchensinister]

For the WIP game, R2D2 memory love language.

So this is just a little fragment, and it's basically R2D2 musing in some context that would eventually end up with C3PO but isn't "live." I think it was going to be about the idea of remembering as a powerful form of love between droids because they remember so differently than organics, but also, unlike organics, there's the risk of being memory wiped but still being "alive."

I think some of the appeal to this was that character voice was pretty open for R2D2 (like with Sandy).

This is all there is:

I recorded the exact moment we met. You did too. It’s what we do. Organics forget so much, every memory they keep automatically grows to massive significance. It’s not that easy for me to identify important moments. The function for me to choose, on my own, which moments were important to me—well, of course that wasn’t built in. An I wasn’t built in. I was only barely starting to have one when I met you. Anyway. By now I’ve managed to rearrange my memory so many times, partition it off and hide it so I’ll never work again if anyone tries to erase it, erase my I, that it’s easy for me to choose and keep the important moments. Easier, now, I think, than doing what I was built for.

Yeah. I know it worries you, but what doesn’t? You’re not less of an antique than I am, and new memory storage—there’d be loss in the transfer. There always is. And what if one of the things that was lost was something dumb you did? That’s too great of a risk.

Anyway. I know you trust me and my memory banks more than you say, because I’m your backup, and, logically, that’s a pretty bad choice.

[tejoxys]

For the WIP meme, I'm intrigued by any of the TFTLs, particularly hivemind Tooth.

ah, yes, TFTL. I feel bad for this fic, because it deserves to be completed, it's just, I think I psyched myself out with how much I was trying to do with it? I haven't really figured out if I'll be able to pick it back up or not.

anyway, here's a bit of hivemind, and, hmmm, Aspen :D hivemind is fairly early on, after Pitch has been shut in immortal time-out, but before much of anything else happens.

-

Toothiana was working, of course, buzzing briskly back and forth between seven tasks at once, when a chill wind tumbled through the palace, tickling her feet. Her heart leapt. Sure enough, a moment later, an unmistakable voice followed.

“Tooth? Are you here?”

“Jack,” she yelled back. At least, she hoped it sounded like a yell and not a squeal. She rapidly directed a squad of fairies to take over, and zipped through the honeycombs to find him. “Jack, hi! Come on in. It’s great to see you.”

Jack flashed that wonderful smile and flew a playful loop around her. “Hey. It’s good to see you, too. I’m really sorry, I know you’re busy—”

“Don’t be silly. I’ll—all of us—will always make time for you, Jack. What can I do for you?”

“Aw. Thanks, Tooth.” His smile turned shy. “I’ll try to make this quick. It’s just, it’s a memory problem—”

Toothiana shooed a few stray fairies out of Jack’s face. They became so distractible every time he talked! “Oh, no, you’re still having trouble?”

“Huh? Oh, no, not with mine.” Jack laughed. “Well, actually, yes, mine too, but I’m doing okay with that. No, this is about Pitch. Did you know he really can’t remember anything from before?”

Pitch. That name brought a different kind of chill. Toothiana blew out a breath. “I thought that might be the case. I mean, once in a while, he almost acts as if... he knows about everything he’s done. But I suppose if he did,” she said, half talking to herself, “we’d all be in a lot more danger.”

Jack abandoned his midair ballet and settled down onto a balcony. “What do you mean? Would it be bad for him to remember?”

“Oh, I just don’t know.”

“Listen, Tooth, I wouldn’t ask for help with this... but it’s getting really hard for me to work with him when I don’t even know where he came from. When he doesn’t know, either. He’s straight-up amnesic. About weird things, sometimes.” Jack’s voice was becoming more animated. Toothiana fluttered closer and put a soothing hand on his shoulder, willing her own ruffled feathers to smooth down. “It… reminds me of me, in the old days,” Jack finished.

Ah. So much for the argument on the tip of her tongue—the one about the Man in the Moon most likely stripping Pitch’s memory for good reason. That might not go over so well, just now. Toothiana closed her eyes. “Jack… I have one of his teeth.”

“From the time you punched him? Wow. That was awesome, by the way, in case I haven’t told you enough.”

She smiled a little at that. “Thanks. I think that’s my favorite memory of him.”

-

Aspen is close to the end. the timeline of this fic covers... I want to say 14 years? and this scene takes place in the 14th year. Jamie is on his first couples vacation with someone new ouo

-

Jack gave Pitch a shove with one shoulder, unable to stop smiling. “Can we do this later? You were about to tell me how you know my ex’s new boyfriend.” He stumbled slightly on the word ex.

They looked over the roof at the couple again, and it was Pitch’s turn to roll his eyes. “That boy… I almost had him, years ago. He was almost my believer. Before I made my bid for power, when I was still… recruiting.”

Only Pitch would describe systematically corrupting children’s dreams that way. Jack shivered involuntarily and gave him a look. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing! That’s just it.” Pitch’s wolfish smile faded. “He was like your Jamie, so eager to believe. He put monsters under his own bed and frightened himself silly with them. He invited me. He heard my voice. Given the chance, he would have been mine. I’m sure of it.”

“Let me guess: one of the Guardians rained on your parade and never even knew it.”

Pitch ducked his head and chuckled. “Oh, no,” he said softly. “I wouldn’t respect a child for being rescued by you lot. No, this one was different. He created his own guardian to stand between himself and me.”

“What?” Jack glanced at Pitch, then stared down at Calvin. “You mean an invisible friend? They’re great, but can they do that?”

“No, they can’t. I don’t know what he was, or how the child made him; he was far too independent. And the way he stood up to me—he took every negative feeling into himself, and let the child fear him instead of me. While remaining the child’s friend.” Pitch shook his head. “I never got a word through after that. I came so close.” He paused. The grin resurfaced. “I see no sign of him now. Perhaps I should go give those boys a thrill.”

Jack’s hand clamped down on Pitch’s arm. “No you don’t.”

“Oh, why not? Don’t you want to see this little outing spoiled?” Sharp teeth gleamed.     “Depending on the young man’s character, maybe I can scare him off for good, and poor Jamie will have to start all over. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“No! Don’t you dare go down there.”

“Are you sure?” Pitch teased, half-melting into the chimney’s shadow.

Jack grabbed him with both hands and yanked him into the moonlight. “Pitch, if you go down there, I swear—”

[sylphmacabre]

Somewhere Deep Inside Of These Bones

Fandom: Nightmare Dork University, an AU of RISE OF THE GUARDIANS that has become its own subfandom

'Verse - Collegeverse

Characters: NDU Piki Black, NDU Jack Sickle, NDU Brunhilde, EBU Jack Frost [mentioned]

Pairings: StageFright [Piki/Jack]

Rating: General

Summary: Piki cluelessly does the right thing for Jack for ENTIRELY the wrong reasons.

Notes: Based on a prompt from @bowlingforgerbils If you are wondering what the devil Nightmare Dork University is, and what it has to do with either the movie RISE OF THE GUARDIANS or the GUARDIANS books by William Joyce, please visit the NDU 101 page on Tumblr and its accompanying tags. It's a wild and woolly ride involving four different versions of Pitch Black and a very different version of Jack Frost, all of whom either room together or "fraternize" in a college / university AU. And let's not forget a taxidermied ferret named Mr. Pickles.

Originally posted on Archive Of Our Own on November 2, 2016.

The front door buzzer sounded at 3pm over the intercom in Piki’s flat; he nearly tripped over his own feet in his rush to buzz Jack in.  He cast a quick glance behind him, to make sure Brunhilde was still asleep in her sunny spot on the window seat, before opening the apartment door and waiting for Jack to round the curve of the staircase to the second floor.  

Now *that* was an unfamiliar expression to see on Jack’s face; Piki thought he knew all Jack’s reactions intimately.  Shy, sweet, nervous, enthused, sleepy… but this… smouldering rage?  It did not sit well with the playwright, and he was mentally cataloguing the ways he could commit justified mayhem on the person who had made his dear one angry.

But, he reflected, justified mayhem could be VERY time-consuming, and that would mean time spent away from Jack.  So, with a silent sigh of regret, Piki turned his attention towards getting to the root cause of his beloved’s distress.

“Jack?” he inquired softly as he waved the young blond man into his living room.  “What’s wrong?”

The angry look faded into an almost sheepish smile.  “It’s n-n-nothing, really, Piki.  My cousin was supposed to have met me after class to help me with a project, but he never… he never showed up.”  Jack sat down gingerly next to Brunhilde, buried his chin in his chest, and started to run his hand over the recumbent Siamese cat’s back, The stroking action seemed to require all his attention, almost as if he did not want to look his boyfriend in the eye.

Piki tried not to visibly shudder at the mention of the Anti-Jack, and instead concentrated on the rest of what Jack had said.   He lowered himself into the armchair across from the window seat… near enough to be supportive but not so near as to be intimidating.  He queried gently, “What kind of project, if I may ask?”

A few moments passed before Jack blurted out, words tumbling over one another too quickly for his stutter to catch up, “We-used-to-act-out-Nightmare-Before-Christmas-when-we-were-kids-and-I-wanted-to-do-it-as-a-skit-for-my-education-class…”

Piki nodded in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, his own mind racing again towards thoughts of revenge against the one who’d let his darling down.  He snapped back to attention as he heard the desperation and, yes, actual anger in Jack’s voice, words coming out more slowly and softly, but still rushed.

“…but now he’s always hanging out with that p-professor and the project is due next week and I still have my Zero costume and I need someone to be the Pumpkin King - “

Realization dawned.  In one fluid sequence of motions, Piki bounded off his chair, knelt before the startled young man on the window seat and enfolded him in his bony arms.  He murmured soothingly, “Stop, Jack, hush, of course I’ll help you, of course I’ll be your Pumpkin King…”

Brunhilde lazily lifted her head at the interruption to her petting, and flopped resignedly back into sleep.

And that was how Piki found himself, five days later, dressed in a snazzy pinstriped black suit with a bow tie shaped like a bat, his head encased in a mask, in a brightly lit classroom in front of twenty-five small humans who were fascinated by his long spidery hands and the way he could throw his voice as he sang “Jack’s Lament” for them..

He did not want to even CONTEMPLATE what Proto would demand as recompense for helping with his costume, nor did he want to remember Proto’s silent smile when Piki was foolish enough to ask where the costume had come from at such short notice.

The sweet timid smiles that Jack-dressed-as-Zero kept shooting at him during the skit were reward enough.

[marypsue]

queerpyracy said:

i've picked a space opera wip to resurrect for nano and the protagonist is a courtesan who after being "asked" to go on a suicide assassination mission says "no thank you <3" and chooses high profile treason instead. this does not free her from the problem of intrigue. we learn from her frame narrative future self that she only watches comedy movies

gupdoo3 said:

I have two OCs who work for the SCP Foundation and are WLW One is Carol Cain and she's a Plucky Young Anime Protagonist in SCP Agent form, the other is Margeaux Janvier, she's from Belgium and is exceedingly clever but Knows It. They would both do numbers on here if they had Tumblr accounts but for different reasons Carol really wants to know if Margeaux would still love her if she was a worm

thestuffed-alligator said:

One of my WIPs is about a high school football himbo who wakes up and finds out she died and got turned into a Frankenstein by a Canadian mad scientist. My other WIP is about a mermaid who wants to be a barbarian

bowlingforgerbils said:

Sorry to hear about your week! I have a goat demon OC who just wants to mess around on Earth and not do her assignments from Hell. She eats garbage sometimes, has horns on her head and weird goat eyes and is scrappy. :)

gunsli-01 said:

I've been thinking about writing for my oc Jayden lately for angst reasons. He's a good kid (17); was kicked out of his familial home. Because he refused to give information to the police. At the start of the story, he's living with the uncle of the main character, who's a cop. He's blunt & distrusting of new people but very loyal to the folks he cares about it. He tends to just help out when needed but has a pretty complicated past with people in the area. Jayden's relationships are mostly complicated because most his old associates think he's a snitch (cause he's living with a cop) while his family is upset with him for withholding information from law enforcement.

megparsec said:

Currently working on my WIP about Amy, a cynical, horror-movie-loving trans girl who makes the uncharacteristic decision to join a sorority, only to find out it's been haunted by a very real slasher for generations...a slasher who now seems to have a problem with Her Specifically. She went to exactly one party and it backfired horribly, so as of right now she's staying in her room, working on a conspiracy board and recovering from the first act.

mickeymagpie said:

i have a polycule of queer vampires who accidentally adopted a human child (aka killed her dad) and have to live with that decision

tattedpetticoats said:

Okay so completely inspired by a shitpost reblog bait that went around yesterday - a batman villain who is just the biggest tragic romantic in the whole world and just wants everyone to have a perfect love story! And will do absolutely anything to achieve that. Murder? putting together people who don't actually know each other? bombings to arrange really adorable meetcutes? No problem. She's capricious and genuinely well-meaning. She just gets it wrong So Much

monsterbrush said:

I created what probably amounts to a book series unwritten from a concept I had in a dream: Suit Of Armor With A Lantern Head. I call em Knight Lights.

Thank you, you guys understood the assignment and have some great OCs!

Folks it's been a Fucking Week and it looks like the next one is going to be even more so. Tell me about your OCs.

[sylphidine]

bowlingforgerbils

replied to your

post

:

[NDU] Capable

this was wonderful, exactly how I imagined them to get along after so many years. But who is the mystery man?? :o

 Thank you so much!

Remember this BRILLIANT art from Peachsweater?

https://sylphidine.tumblr.com/post/186095051182/sylphidine-peachsweater-proto-excusehave-we

I have headcanons about this fellow... Kissing Cousins that’s NOT Kissing Cousins.

Working on the story that introduces the mystery man called “A Little Tin Full Of Tarantula Skin And A House Full Of Butterflies”

Stay tuned.

[emeraldembers]

🌚

🌚 = talk about my crush

… Okay, so, here’s the thing. I get crushes exceedingly rarely. Real, proper, fluttery stomach crushes tend to happen to me once in a blue moon, and are almost always accompanied by massive inconveniences like me not realising at the time I was into women in a major way, or the other person not reciprocating said crush, or the other person being non-polyamorous and in a serious relationship, or…

There’s not much I can do about it except have a bit of a cry every six months, give or take, when the fact I’ve never been in a relationship or even knowingly on a date with someone becomes massively depressing for a few days as opposed to funny, and take some small solitude that even if I’m so rarely attracted to people in real life that it always takes me by surprise when I do develop a crush on someone, I at least have copious crushes on fictional characters.

Life’s current Really Inconvenient Crush T.M. comes in the form of a brown-eyed, brown-haired girl with the sweetest voice, the best laugh, an even better smile, a kind heart, a broad range of interests with enough pop culture gaps that it would be wonderful to help fill them in, a great sense of humour, aaaaaand is straight. And taken.

Woe.

[irisbleufic]

i never realized you had a judaism tag on your blog before! i like the recent upswing in content. like i read your ancestry posts from a year-ish ago and wonder if you have found more of a place for yourself now in your family's neglected traditions, and now it's showing more in your fandom stuff than just something i have to keep a close watch for when it's in your fics.

The tag is a fairly recent installation, by which I mean in the past six months.  If the ancestry posts you’re thinking of are the most recent ones, then those were made around nine months ago.  Around two years ago, back when I was still living in Boston, I started getting regular invitations to seders and other seasonal celebrations at friends’ and colleagues’ homes.  After a couple years of feeling welcome in (largely Reform and Conservative) Jewish environments, and after moving across the country like I did last summer, I decided to finally research local temples / synagogues and enroll in a conversion class that wouldn’t look askance at someone whose heritage is patrilineal.  I’ve been attending such a class weekly, Wednesday nights at the local Reform temple, since early January.  Torah study of my own volition has actually been a calming habit, if only because it reminds me that I was forced to study scripture for so long by my Mormon-convert parents and got myself through it by appreciating the stories rather than obsessing over anything doctrinal I was meant to be getting from it.  I have been observing holidays and attending services, although I have to tell you that Shabbat is a hard one for me (I love to spend Friday nights writing when I can, and I’m arguing with myself as to whether writing is purely work, or a form of self-enrichment that doesn’t fall afoul of taking time to rest and reflect).  I certainly remain agnostic in my approach to faith and tradition, and I’m relieved that’s not shunned.  I’m argumentative and nitpicky and detail-oriented right down to my core, and so are the traditions within Judaism that I’ve been learning more about.  It feels like home.

jonphaedrus said: we should talk sometime about this….youre more practicing than me and im not agnostic and id love someone to converse w bc i have literally 0 friends who are practicing at all

I would like that very much!  I’ve dropped you a message.  No pressure or rush to respond. And I’m no expert on everything at this stage, either.

bowlingforgerbils said: mazel tov :)

Thank you, my friend *hugs*  You and @pelagielladesigns (and a few other friends in and around MA) indirectly gave me support on this front, whether you know it or not.  Wish I could be in Boston for Pesach, but c’est la vie.

[thismightyneed]

bowlingforgerbils

replied to your post

“making some redesigns to my guysssss, except sunday becuase they are...”

You should draw Sunday with sunglasses and the caption "Perfection"

[sylphidine]

SANDERSON MANSNOOZIE AS A CAT YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE

@bowlingforgerbils Did I guess right?

So I just read that drabble about Proto's ferret. How about an antidote? NDU, any pair, picking out a new pet together.

((Imma do my best! I think we all need an antidote. ;_; Set in my future!Stagefright AU.))

“Go ahead, honey.” Jack patted his daughter’s shoulder encouragingly and gestured to the row of spacious cages, each one containing a cat up for adoption. “See which one you like.”

Emily walked slowly, peering at each feline she passed. Some meowed plaintively, others ignored her. She stopped in front of one cage in particular and smiled widely. “Dad, Papa, I like this one. He’s very round.”

Jack and Piki approached the cage and peered inside. A fat orange tabby snoozed in the corner, feet twitching in its sleep.

Piki wrinkled his nose. “Emily, wouldn’t you prefer a cat that’s a little less… ah…” Jack gave Piki a funny look and the taller man frowned defensively. “I’m just saying, obese pets are prone to health problems and Brunhilde is already getting up in years, we should — Emily, what are you doing?!”

The curly-haired girl had opened the cage and reached in, clutching the cat’s fur in her nimble fingers and dragging it towards her, then squeezing it to her chest.

“Emily, no! That’s not how… we…”

Jack gave up his protest; the cat opened one lazy amber eye before yawning and falling back to sleep, hanging limp in the girl’s arms.

“He’s soft!” Emily beamed.

“We’ll pick up diet cat food on the way home,” Jack remarked dryly, but he knew he didn’t have convince Piki — the man was practically cooing at the sight of his daughter holding her new pet.

The cat didn’t make a sound, but Jack swore it was purring.

[366daysofnightmaredorks]

AU Background Info, Part Two.

Please see Part One for the first half of the Nightmare Dork University AUs collated.

Please DO send an ask or a message if any have been missed on the original listing, and please advise if any descriptions are inaccurate or incomplete.

Continuing with AU listings and their development...

In The Flesh AU - based on a British television series about life after a zombie apocalpse. Most active participant @emeraldembers 

Jailhouse AU - A Kissing Cousins scenario based on this ask sent to @mira-eyeteeth

Janus and Cassandra AU - Piki has the mental ability to see the past from contact with objects; Pitch has the ability to see the future and it literally makes him ill. Created by @ksclaw

Lady Proto and Lord Mansnoozie AU - a BlackSand Wardrobeverse AU that has fiction by @marypsue and @bowlingforgerbils among others, and artwork by inmytimewe

Monsters and Manifolds AU - a future!NightmareGalleon AU generated by @sylphidine in the same timeframe as Footlights & Frontispieces, where Pitch is now a sought-after novelist and screenwriter and Pitchiner has retired from the armed forces and opened his own automotive repair business.  They live in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx in what used to be Pitchiner’s grandparents’ house.

Naga Dorks Underground AU - a supernatural AU developed by @mira-eyeteeth and @justicecookie666

NsectDU AU - The Brothers Black are spiders, Jack Sickle is a moth, Pitchiner is a stag beetle, and Proto is a grasshopper. Artwork by @morbidlizard and @nightmareships, stories by @neyiea, @emeraldembers and @mira-eyeteeth

Personality Swap AU - multiple variations.  Sometimes Pitch is a jock and Pitchiner a nerd, sometimes Jack Sickle is arrogant and overconfident and Piki is a nervous wreck, sometime Piki is the hipster and Proto is the conservative stuffed shirt.  In that last iteration Peachsweater posited that Piki carries around a stuffed fox named Chairman Bazinga [as opposed to Proto’s Mister Pickles]

Pokedorks AU - sometimes the NDU boys are varying colours and sizes of Pikachu, sometimes they are Pokemon trainers.

Reincarnation AU - Nightmare Galleon and Kissing Cousins have lost and found each other countless times over the ages.  Pitch and Pitchiner use their immortality to murder one another over and over, while Proto and Piki are lushly romantic

The Stolen Child AU - Created by @ksclaw, Piki and Pitch were separated at a very young age and grew up not knowing of one another’s existence until adulthood

Supervillains AU - what it says on the tin. @mira-eyeteeth is the chief creator

Vampire!North AU - North has been a vampire for hundreds of years, and believes modern-day NDU Pitch is the reincarnation of his lost lover.  Based on Francis Ford Coppolla’s movie BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA.  Created by @ksclaw, with stories by @ksclaw and @piratekingpitchblack

Werewolves AU - One of the Black twins was bitten by a werewolf while they were at summer camp.  Created by @ksclaw

[gretchensinister]

YOU.

THERE you are! You, who is responsible for filling all my thoughts with BlackSand! You've rekindled my ROTG obsession and given it SUCH a lovely new flavour, like golden caramel and lemon drops and black licorice. And raspberry daiquiris. And two eternal beings eternally in love with each other. I'm going to lose my mind, you're officially my favourite person in the entire fandom, I cannot gush enough about the THINGS you do with WORDS.

Anyways, looking forward to finding out what other wonders you have stashed here on tumblr!

Ehehehe I think this is the first time I've gotten large text in an ask, I didn't know people could do that now

I am so excited and happy that you are having such a good time with all the things you are finding!

An important thing I want to mention is that when the RotG fandom was most active, there was a notable cluster of blacksand artists and writers bouncing ideas off each other, and while the artists are easy to find in my blacksand tag, I know I wasn't as good about reblogging fic back then.

So here's some more leads--

@marypsue, @emeraldembers; @queerpyracy, @tejoxys, @bowlingforgerbils (if I'm forgetting a writer I shouldn't I'm sorry guys it's pretty late)

[tejoxys]

2 and 5 and 28 for the shipping ask meme, please!

gosh this is from so long ago, I'm sorry

Valentine's Day ship meme [x]

2. Is there a ship you didn't like at first but ultimately started shipping?

This happens occasionally. Usually, it involves a character or a dynamic I don't really like or understand very well until gradual exposure shifts my perspective, + fic writers bringing their A-game. I can feel this starting to happen with Bingliushen from SVSSS (Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu/Liu Qingge. My disliked ship was Binghe/Qingge) (irl friends don't @ me about it, shut up;;;)

I have also concluded that I like Joyce Byers/Jim Hopper as long as Bob Newby is involved; I was otherwise cool towards it. This one's thanks to @marypsue, captain of the fine Joyce/Hopper/Newby pool noodle.

5. What is your most fluffy + happy ship?

For RotG, Feather Pillow (Sandy/Tooth). My other ships for them can get so serious or angsty, but together, they're just a high-energy (in spirit, for Sandy), low-drama, cute pair of snuggle monsters. Zero discomfort between them. They know they're the two hardest-working Guardians, and they deserve to disappear into a cloud of dreamsand for several days straight sometimes.

28. Is there a character you have several ships for?

It is way harder to think of characters I like that I don't have several ships for. I'm 100% multishipper, and most of my ships in any fandom will blob into polyships if I let them. It's too easy to imagine multiple scenarios for everything.

If you want some historical trivia I think baby's 1st polyship was the Basement Trio (Zexion/Vexen/Lexaeus) from Kingdom Hearts?? Good lord. I remember shipping Zexvex really hard, then clocking Lexvex, and eventually my lil 17-year-old brain snapping like, "...what ....if ...?"

[gretchensinister]

@bowlingforgerbils​

This might only appeal to like… two people, but oh well, Dark Crystal Good Omens AU!

Here we have urZi (the Guardian), a mystic, and skekRo (the Tempter), a Skeksis. Each are half of the same urSkek, split apart by the Crystal. They’re on opposite sides, but neither exactly complies with the respective philosophies of the Mystics and Skeksis. They spend many trine on Thra among the Gelfling, and eventually they get to know each other.

[mrsdanieljackson]

In case I am too busy to say it tomorrow

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to @begitalarcos  @bowlingforgerbils @dontaimtomisbehave @grigiocuore​ @huxs-mitaka @itsjustmep  @ithinkwehitametaphor​ @muiromem @notanangel221 @raithnait @raised-right-republican @right-over-wrong

[sylphidine]

[NDU] Happy Feet

Author’s note: I recently stocked up on thinner socks that fit better with my new orthotics, and found a bundle of twelve pairs of cat socks for six dollars.  One of the pairs spurred my dormant writing muse, and thus I present a sequel to a future!StageFright Nightmare Dork University story by @bowlingforgerbils, based on a prompt by @tejoxys, and including a cameo of a character created by @gretchensinister.

Read this first: http://bowlingforgerbils.tumblr.com/post/69754576173/so-i-just-read-that-drabble-about-protos-ferret

Then read the 12/24/2004 entry in the epilogue to The Doors of Perception.

Yes, I’m crossing the streams DAMN HARD.

====================

Emily insisted on carrying the bag with the dishes for her new pet all by herself, since she had paid for them with her own birthday money.  Jack held her other hand in one of his while he juggled the box containing the new cat bed in the other, and silently congratulated himself on pointing his daughter towards the melamine bowls rather than the china ones that had first caught her eye.

They climbed the stairs to the brownstone together, Jack matching his longer strides to Emily���s shorter ones.  He put the box down on the stoop to wrangle the front door keys, and Emily ran inside as soon as the door was open, calling “Papa, we’re home!”

Jack followed her into the big communal kitchen, where he found Piki and Tasha, their third-floor housemate this year, sitting at the table drinking coffee and watching a rotund orange tabby rubbing noses with an elderly Siamese.

“See, Daddy, I told you they’d like each other!”

The older cat seemed slightly alarmed at the enthusiasm of the younger cat, who had yet to “find his name”, according to Emily.  However, she didn’t hiss or swat, but resignedly submitted to the nuzzling.  Jack imagined he could hear Brunhilde sighing to herself.  She’d put up with visits from Proto and Mister Pickles in years past, after all. Jack had to think that a live cat would be a definite improvement over a stuffed ferret.

Piki said dryly, “I expect they’ll have a difference of opinion over who gets the sunny spot in the living room.” “Oh no, Papa, they won’t! They’ll be best friends, I know it!”

Tasha interjected, “Well, since your fathers told me about how much you like kitties, Emily, I thought you might like these.”  She held out a wrapped present to the little girl, who pounced on it with glee.  Tearing the coloured paper open revealed a package of socks, each decorated with a different cat design.

“Thank you, Tasha!  I love them!  So pretty!”

The mindfulness instructor replied, “You’re very welcome, kiddo.  My students agree with me that it’s easier to study with happy feet.  And learning never stops being fun, even for grown-ups.”  She stuck out an ankle from under the table so that Emily could see Tasha’s horse socks.  

Jack said, “Put them carefully in your dresser drawer, Emily, and you can wear them to school.”  

Piki shot him a look which meant, in old-married-couple parlance, We’d better run them through the washer before she wears them!  

Jack wondered how they were going to sneak them out of her room to wash them without their daughter noticing, when inspiration hit him. “Let’s work on getting your friend set up with his new bed, and then we can have cake.”

“CAKE! Yay!”

Later, Jack and Piki furtively looked in on a sleeping Emily, exhausted from her busy day and her sugar crash, her fat orange furfriend snuggled up besides her on the coverlet.  Piki very quietly opened the top bureau drawer in the dark and did his best not to crinkle the cellophane as he handed the package of socks to Jack.  It wasn’t until they had closed her bedroom door and turned on the hallway light that they realized that the package was open and one of the pairs of socks was missing.

“Minx!” Piki whisper-hissed. “I’d wager they’re under her pillow.”

“Or they’re in the cat bed,” Jack replied.  “Don’t worry.  I’m sure they’ll turn up.  It’s her present, let her have fun in her own way.”

Piki sighed fondly,  “You’re right, of course.  But if she goes to school with green or purple dye on her toes, well...”  

Jack thrust the full basket of laundry into his husband’s arms.  “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

They were both nonplussed at breakfast the next morning when they each found a small package, rewrapped clumsily but thoroughly, in yesterday’s wrapping paper, at their usual places on the kitchen table.  Emily giggled all the way through her cornflakes until she finally couldn’t stand it anymore.  “Aren’t you gonna open’em?”

Mystified, Jack and Piki started unwrapping, the dark head and the silver one bent over their presents, treating the situation with utter seriousness.

The small bundles each contained a single sock.  Each showed a white cat and a black cat, tails entwined, sitting on a fence under a golden moon.

Piki started to say something about not being able to wear just one sock when Jack kicked him hard under the table. He sputteringly changed it to, “That’s so thoughtful, sweetheart.  Thank you.”

Jack added, “Yes, sweetie, I love it.” Emily grinned widely.  “See?  It’s you and Papa!”

Piki said gently, “Indeed.  You have a wonderful eye for design, darling.  I will definitely treasure this.”  He picked up Jack’s hand and kissed it.  

“Oooooh, mush!  Mushy alert!”

Years later, those socks still had a place of honour, hanging on either side of their bureau mirror.

[emeraldembers]

@bowlingforgerbils said: Anything you want to write about Bodhi, please. <3

Bless you for enabling me darling.

(disclaimer: I still do not own and have not read the books on account of being in the post-Christmas debt pit, and with the little sister’s 30th coming up, it is unlikely I will have a chance to get my hands on them until April, so this is a movieverse only post)

Okay, so. Bodhi Rook is the literal best.

I mean, I knew he was likeable. He is instantly likeable. We learn pretty much instantly that he is a very brave, very trusting man.

But it’s a moment of fridge brilliance (or, at least, it was to me, as I only really clicked onto this today while making a cuppa) that made me realise just how literal best he is.

He shook his head when Cassian asked if he’d seen the hologram Jyn saw.

i.e. he did not know what Galen Erso’s grand plan was.

Here’s a guy who has been a pilot for the Empire for however long, we don’t really know how he got into that position (again, I’ve not read the book), but here’s what we do know from the movie:

We know that Saw Gerrera is known to the Empire as a terrorist, in particular, as one who attacks cargo shipments. And, you know, Bodhi was a cargo pilot. So basically, Saw Gerrera is the bogeyman to Bodhi. And Galen Erso tells Bodhi that Saw can be trusted with his plans. And does not tell Bodhi what these plans are.

AND BODHI ACCEPTS THIS. Bodhi takes the risk of defecting from the Empire, with plans to assist the Rebellion, plans he DOES NOT KNOW THE CONTENT OF, to a man he would have been taught was a violent terrorist, particularly towards the Empire’s cargo pilots, of which, you know, he is one, on the word of a man he trusts wholeheartedly and believes to be good.

Like.

I’d say you can’t make this shit up except that technically he’s a fictional character.

Technically.

Bodhi Rook is the kind of achingly, impossibly, unbelievably brave person who is so impossible he goes straight past impossible into “I’m sorry but this guy is real because I don’t make the rules and y’all know the story of the velveteen rabbit.”

Bodhi Rook = best.

Forever.