#i I guess since I mentioned cc

[nomsfaultau]

(Potentially) Daily ask №

PS. Potentially cause I probably won't stick to it

So, I was sitting on a lesson and then I realised that you allowed me to send you asks so I wrote out whatever questions came to my mind about Fault.

Wilbur edition!

His legs rearrange to be the highest individual in the room, yes? Is the hair or hats included in that? What if I wear an absurdly tall hat? Will he be taller than it or than my actual height?

He controls darkness or is darkness what I got out from your shitposts. What if I shine a really bright light on him. Okay but what if I go brighter. Or even brighter.

Do only his legs rearrange themselves to be taller? Does his torso stay the same? Does he occasionally look like a beginner artist who hasn't gotten the hand of proportions yet drew him?

If there's an illusion but he doesn't know it is one, will he be taller than it?

You said that he controls the darkness and all things that crawl in it. Moles technically crawl in the darkness. Can he control them? Mole pet when?

Would he and Nico di Angelo from Percy Jackson and the Olympus get along?

I've noticed that he doesn't get as much content as the other blorbos? Is there a reason?

The "Foreign no matter where he goes" post made me sad. The guy deserves a home even if his literal being won't allow it apparently. Can I hug him and how likely am I to die if I do that? Spontaneously hugging and asking first both possibilities included pls ^^

Okay that's all beeyeee

I am enthused to answer any questions and absolutely no pressure at all to ask them!

It goes to biological height not clothing, so a hat or stilts wouldn’t change his assorted height. Although doesn’t tend to count hair. It typically works mostly on humanoids who have matter but he can will it work on say The Blade, who at some point jokes that Wilbur’s height does not take into account his crown of bone-antler things. At which point yes it does screw you and it always has, mildly rewriting everyone’s memory of how tall Wilbur is. It’s a very mild and mostly useless form of magically controlled information.

He has a void on the left side of his face where shadowy eldritch monstrosities come out of. Wilbur can’t entirely control them especially when scared, but can give orders that may be followed or bargains that have to be followed but cost him something. They deffo get worse at night, and you’re on the money! The voidlings despise concentrated light. They do fine in normal light conditions, but flashlights and spotlights they don’t appreciate and will avoid, usually by fleeing into Wilbur’s face or risk dissolving. Wilbur himself is not harmed since he’s made out of flesh and bone (and arguably accurate organ arrangements). Hence the Foundation trapping it in very bright light 24/7. Godflame, which is what Philza is made of, is so anathema to the void that if it intersects with void shadow they both annihilate one another bc it’s a universal paradox to be in one place. Wilbur despises flashbangs in particular, but also doesn’t like complete darkness bc it can’t trust the void completely.

His proportions do not change at all! Which can look very silly. This is roughly its proportions when taller than The Blade.

(From casefiles again)

4. The height thing is not very controlled by him and would not work on an illusion. At which point Wilbur would like deduce the creature before him isn’t made out of matter.

5. It has some degree of control over shall we say capital Darkness that specifically comes from the void in his head and that are still connected by shadowy tethers to the void. Wilbur could potentially try to?? Manipulate the mole??? It would difficult as they don’t have a very robust language system but they are eusocial so I assume they have some level of communication. Since Wilbur can speak all languages it could potentially have rudimentary communication with the mole..? Honestly he’s more likely to eat it than keep it as a pet alas. He’s rather pragmatic, and feeding something that serves no purpose doesn’t make sense to a guy who’s spent most of his life on the verge of starving. Uh. Tommy excluded of course. 6. Well they’re both certainly edgy shadow guys for sure. Wilbur at least wouldn’t be racist to him once he realizes Nico is only half human. Potentially bonding over wrestling with powers, and not feeling like they fit in anywhere. Wilbur would probably think him stupid and gullible for falling for Minos’ manipulations tho, and wouldn’t cut him any slack for being young. 7. My focus on each of them sorta shifts around. I’m a bit on the Tubbo area atm though it’s about to transition to be more The Blade heavy. The first arc of section 2 was rather more Wilbur centric, with him on his own trying to defend the ‘kids’ and making some bad decisions in the process via deals with the devil. There’s lots of fun to be had with it in the future, particularly in section ~4 but also five main characters is a bit of a juggle sometimes. And also while SCP Wilbur feels distinct to me from the actual guy, it’s still sometimes hard to work with him because of his progenitor since I want the character to be fully unbiased when I’m writing it. 8. Part of Wilbur’s arc is to stop pretending it prefers life on the run and really does want a home. Not that living in a society is really possible, but it’s not called found family for nothing! It’ll have to be something made. And Wilbur is of a personal philosophy where he doesn’t kill anyone unless he thinks they’re about to kill him. Very golden rule, if often very vicious bc it doesn’t control the void completely. So, you’re very unlikely to die from a hug! If given a spontaneous embrace it’d probably be a little startled, but try to keep it brief since it doesn’t pass for human under close inspection and would prefer to avoid anything that could mean the Foundation finding it. If asked, he’ll probably calculate the risk of discovery versus social friction leading to greater attention, and accept the hug for appeasement. Since Wilbur really mostly hugs Phil, he’d likely find it surprisingly cold, and be perhaps too affectionate since he doesn’t know the typical level of affection for an embrace between strangers. It would probably be trying to gauge what gambit is being used by you, since it isn’t familiar/trustful of kindness from strangers. Suave and flippant on the surface, but mentally running around in circles trying to figure out what your angle is. Wilbur likes to pretend he’s always on top of things, but a combination of poor memory and lack of socialization mean he’s usually scrambling to figure out what’s happening lmao.

[averlym]

ghost story premiere day! check @melliotwrites for more info

[rotomartsblog]

Half the reason FNAF lore is so complicated is because every time we’re given a simple answer theorist will be like “but what if it wasn’t like that” and come up with the most convoluted shit ever to explain how

[celestialspritz]

Why Sims 2 has been so broken the last ten years

This is down to my own research, and I'm not saying it is the one and only reason why the game is so broken these days, but I have some points worth mentioning.

So, you're bored one day. You remember this game you had so much fun playing a few years ago, or maybe as a child. It's The Sims 2!

The game has a few issues than from when you last remembered playing, so you search on google for some fixes for the tiny resolution, and among the countless posts you may find, you may find this:

Or this:

(to the creators and players mentioned here this isn't me making a dig at you, i'm just pointing out some cc that could affect the game from working properly. your stuff is all beautiful :D)

Lesya's game is gorgeous!!! Oh, how can I get it to look like that?

So you, with a clean, vanilla (ugly) game you decide to download a few mods she listed, such as:

Skylines by GCKP (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Skies by Lowedeus (you can get optimised ones by me here)

Trees by Criquette (you can get optimised ones here)

No More Blurriness by Voeille (you can get optimised snow only here)

Cool! And then you notice some cheats than can give the game that open-world, interactive feel. Even better!

And you shove them into your folder and you boot up the game. Everything's going great!

Until...

You search hundreds of posts looking for the fix. Some recommend 3rd-party tools, but they seem to make the problem worse. You reinstall, finding you only wasted your time. Something has to be causing this, but you'd never guess it'd be the mods everybody swore by.

Well, in fact, it is. Partly.

I've struggled with pink flashing since 2019, when I reinstalled Sims 2 after I got a decent computer for once. I did everything above, searched for fixes, found Lesya's blog which was my primary inspiration. It was through Lesya's guide that I was able to make my game look pretty!

These mods, which are a staple in the modding community, are beautiful indeed... but what if I told you that the reason they're so beautiful, is because they're high-quality. With textures soaring up to 4k, when, hang on--

In 2004, 4k resolution was... probably unheard of. With the leading monitor size being 1024x768, what would be the point of using such huge textures on an engine that was designed for monitors of at least this size? Would you be able to see the detail of 4k on a monitor of that size? Definitely not.

The max visiting sims, okay, a little hit or miss. If your sims are all wearing high poly alpha CC, then it's a problem. If not, good luck.

Then comes the cheats I mentioned. The lot skirt cheat expands the view distance a significant amount. With the mergenhoodflora cheat, that displays more trees. Combining the two, what do you get?

A massive view distance, blinded by trees.

With skies and skylines with large textures up to 4k, and trees with textures up to 2k, The Sims 2 will collapse. It's like forcing an old man with health conditions to do 20 situps, again and again.

It'll overexert him, by the very least. And you're overexerting the game by cramming custom content that is not optimised for the engine TS2 was built on.

So please, next time you encounter the pink soup, please check your CC folders, and research changes and cheats before you put them into your game. You will enjoy the game much more if you do this, and won't encounter this problem so often.

Don't use Graphics Rules Maker

Instead, opt for a maxis original Graphics Rules uploaded here by Veronavillequiltingbee. It's essentially a rewrite of an old tutorial I made a long time ago.

Once you download the file from VVQB, open DXDIAG by pressing WinKey+R and typing 'dxdiag'.

This value I've underlined is what you need to put after seti textureMemory. Open the sgr file and do CTRL-F and input seti textureMemory.

Add the value from DXDIAG and then save it.

You can use GRM for adding your GPU to the game, but I do not recommend it for anything but that.

Optimising the game... inside the game

*shoves GRM off the table*

We're going to go into TS2 in-game settings for this one.

These settings are optimal if you play CC-heavy households. It will ease the load on your game to make space for the heavy CC you have in your current household. You can tweak these when you want to take photos outside, but for playing I recommend them all to be off - especially at community lots as there are lots of sims there.

I never see anybody talking about Object Hiding.

Object Hiding hides objects from floors that aren't in view. If you're playing downstairs, objects upstairs won't be rendered, thus minimising the load on your game.

I have reflections and smooth edges off because I use ReShade.

Snow on Ground is optional. Sometimes snow can cause pink flashing, I believe it's due to texture replacements that are huge in size too, Voeille's is 2k. I've linked a resized one above.

This post will be updated with later findings. I hope you all found it informative :]

[are-we-really-doing-this]

Nothing quite like feeling nauseous and existential at midnight on a Wednesday.

[sweetbans29]

Challenge Me (Spoken For Part 2) - CC

Pairing: Caitlin Calrk x Reader

Summary: Spoken For Part 2 (based off of THIS and THIS and THIS request)

Warnings: fluff, slightly suggestive

Word Count: 3.1k

Spoken For

Sweetbans Masterlist

AN: Here is part 2 for Spoken For! Enjoy!

It has been about a month since Caitlin told her team she was married. You followed suit very shortly after. Your team was equally as ecstatic as Cait's when they found out that you and Caitlin were together.

That led to both of your teams checking your schedules to see when the two of you would be facing off which leads you to this week. The Hawkeyes are scheduled to come up to play your team in Connecticut. You had been looking forward to it all season and it's finally about to happen.

Every time you have talked to Caitlin since she told her team she mentions how her teammates talk nonstop about meeting you and getting to see how Caitlin is on the court when she has to play her wife.

The more you think about it - the more it makes you nervous. It is not like you didn't want your teams to know but with the teams knowing, it is only a matter of time before the world knows. The nerves came from all the criticism that you felt like you would get. Even though it was Cait's plan to keep the two of you on the down low and that plan was changed, you loved how it has only been the two of you. There was never anyone poking or prodding into your relationship.

It would be t-minus 4 hours until your girl would be at UConn and your teams would meet. You were excited, to say the least. Her team gets in today (Wednesday), the game is on a Friday, and Cait is spending the weekend with you before heading back.

You keep yourself busy cleaning your apartment and getting all of her favorite snacks to help the time pass. You want to make sure everything is perfect for when she gets here - even though she isn’t staying with you until after the game. Your apartment isn’t big but you invited some of your closest teammates and she invited some of hers to your apartment for a little dinner. Caitlin thought it would be a good way to get to know each other's team - her team was also asking her when they would get to meet you and she was sick of it even though Caitlin loved it when the team talked about you.

The most you had done up to this point was Facetime them once and that was a trip...

"Babe!" You say excitedly as you answer her Facetime call. You are a little surprised when you are met with someone who is not Caitlin.

"Ahhh! I've got her!" The girl yells to someone as she waves at you through the phone. Two other girls come running over and set themselves in the frame. They all have giant smiles on their faces when you hear your girl yelling in the background.

"GABBY! Give me my phone!" You hear Cait yell as she tries to take the phone - at least that is what it looks like.

"Cait-babe?" You say as there is now fear in the girl's eyes who is holding the phone. By the looks of what is happening, it seems like these are Caitlin's teammates and they have stolen her phone to call you.

The screen freezes and then goes black. At first, you think that the Facetime call has ended but you give it a second and then see Caitlin's face pop up on the screen. Her hair is a little rustled and her cheeks are a little rosie.

"Hey babe, sorry about that," she says as she catches her breath. "They took my phone and ran while I was in the shower and I guess they found your contact and called you." She then proceeds to talk to herself more than you, 'Not that it is hard to find you in my phone considering your contact is wifey'. You smile as she continues," The girls have been bugging me nonstop to Facetime you so they can officially introduce themselves."

"Oh that is honestly really sweet of them," you say as you see Caitlin roll her eyes.

"Ya if you think theft is sweet then by all means," she says.

"Put them back on, I would love to meet them." You say as Cait mumbles 'Fine'.

You see Caitlin get up from where she is sitting and walk over to another room. It takes .2 seconds before there are three girls behind her. They all look like little kids waiting for their turn to meet Mickey Mouse and all you can do is smile.

"Hi all - it is nice to finally meet you all," you say introducing yourself.

They all wave at you and go around introducing themselves.

"These are the culprits of the first call," Caitlin says with a laugh and you laugh as well.

"Well, can you blame them? They have known about us for how long and they haven't met me yet," you say as you flip your hair over your shoulder. Caitlin rolls her eyes as a smile sits beautifully on her lips. "And plus, you have met some of my teammates." You say wanting to stir the pot.

The girls behind Cait gasped and started pushing her, grilling her on how she had met your teammates but they had not met you until now and that it was something they had to initiate.

Caitlin groans and gives you a sarcastic 'thank you' as the girls are still going crazy.

"Hey, I have an idea." You say as the gears in your brain begin to turn. "The first time we play each other will be here in Connecticut, when you girls come up, I'll have you over for dinner and we can all get to know each other. I'll also invite some of my closer teammates, it could be fun!"

The girls scream yes and start jumping up and down with excitement - this is all they have wanted since they found out about you. Caitlin gives a little smile and her 'I love you' eyes.

The rest of the call is pretty short due to you having to head out to practice. You tell Caitlin you love her and you can't wait to see her. She says the same as the two of you hang up and continue about your day.

Now here you are - cooking dinner for 8, all while listening to your music a little too loudly. A few of your teammates are hanging out and enjoying the charcuterie board you put out. You have to go over a few times to tell them not to eat everything on the board, hitting Azzi's hand a few times in the process.

You are standing in front of the stove as your hips sway to the music. You jump when you feel a pair of arms come wrapping around your torso, instantly knowing who it is. Your excitement overtakes you as you throw the spoon you were using on the counter and spin around to embrace your wife.

"My love!" You yell in her ear. She buries her face in your neck and you feel her inhale, sending goosebumps to appear on the back of your neck. You are so caught up in your wife that it takes you a minute to see there are three more girls sort of standing there with giant smiles on their faces.

"I am so sorry, how rude of me," you say and you release Cait, earning you a groan from her. You go over and hug all the girls that Caitlin brought. "It is so good to meet you all in person!"

"We can say the same - ever since we found out about you, we have been dying to meet you!" Kate says. "It also doesn't help when Caitlin won't shut up about you," she says, outing Caitlin.

You turn to look at Caitlin and she just shrugs.

"What? Can you blame me? I have the best wife." Caitlin says popping a grape in her mouth and making her way to give you a kiss.

The two of you introduce your teammates. The sight in front of you is one that warms your heart. You completely forget the fact that you are about to face off against them in two days.

All of the girls clicked immediately, all talking about finding out how their teammates were married and then hearing it was to another player in the league. They ask Caitlin and you questions about how you met and when you got married, all of which the two of you were happy about sharing. The night ends with you all sharing ball stories in your living room.

It starts to get late and your teams begin to head out. Your team is the first to go and you walk them out while Caitlin and her team help clean up.

As you are walking out, Paige turns to you with a little smile on her face as she nudges you.

"What?" You say, not being able to hide the smile on your face and give her a little nudge back.

"I've known CC for a long time and I can't imagine anyone more perfect for you than her. The two of you suit each other and I am glad you no longer have to hide that." Paige says. Paige has been one of your rocks going into college and hearing her say these things squeezes your heart.

"Hey don't go soft on me now P," you say joking with her but giving her a look of gratitude.

You say bye to your teammates, telling them you'll see them tomorrow morning, and head back into your apartment.

Caitlin's girls all thank you for dinner and say they will see you on Friday, stepping out to leave Caitlin to say goodbye to you alone.

You wrap her in your arms and just hold her for a minute.

"That was a really good night," you say giving her a little squeeze.

"All thanks to you babe," she says as she separates herself a little from you, not daring to remove her arms from your body. "I am glad our worlds finally got to collide."

"Me too. It's nice that it was here before we destroy you on Friday," you say with a mischievous smile.

"Okay now, don't get ahead of yourself self babe," she says with a laugh. The hands she has on your hips pull you into her body as she continues by whispering in your ear. "We all know who is going to come out on top on Friday." She kisses your neck and you let out a hum.

"Oh we do," you say, eyes closed - enjoying Caitlin's lips on your neck. You bring your girl's face to yours and right before you put your lips on hers, "And babe, it won't be you." You say as you kiss her bottom lip and pulling away from her.

"Your team is waiting," you say as Caitlin looks at you with disbelief.

"Oh you are going to pay for that," Caitlin says with a look in her eye.

"I look forward to it," you say and pinch her hip as she walks out the door. "Love you, babe," you call out to her as she catches up with her team.

You don't get to see Caitlin much before your game on Friday but that was expected.

Friday rolls around and you are locked in before the game. Your team arrives at the arena and everyone is getting ready for the game. Once you are suited up, you are the first one to head out to the floor. When you walk out to look over and see your girl has beat you out and is already throwing some shots. Your head comes down as a smile dawns on your lips and you shake your head - she is incredible.

You begin to warm up as the rest of your team comes out. Everyone is looking and feeling pretty good as the game begins. At tipoff, you walk up to Caitlin on the floor.

"Good luck, babe." You say and she smiles at you. "You'll need it," you say finishing your thought, and Cait's face changes to a serious one. She is locked in and you slightly bite your lip as a locked-in Cait is one of your favorite sights. She notices your little action and knows it is going to be a long game.

The first half is a pretty physical game - both teams working hard to make sure the other doesn't get ahead. You can tell Caitlin is pissed which is reciprocated in some of your teammates. Paige has been guarding Cait most of the first half which was your coach's choice. It was a pretty good match considering they have played together before. You head into the lockers as the score is 47-45 with Iowa in the lead.

Your team takes time to reset and as you head out to the court again - Geno tasks you with guarding Caitlin now as Paige shifts to Kate Martin.

Everyone is back on the floor and you make your way to Cait. She gives you a little wink and you shake your head. The next quarter you guard her well, only allowing her to get 5 points in the quarter. You on the other hand were able to put up double what she has to help keep you tied or just below Iowa.

It all comes down to the fourth quarter. Your hand rarely leaves Caitlin, always having her within arm's reach. Time runs down as you have the ball, putting up a 3. You hold up three fingers and turn to the crowd, hearing the crowd go wild. Not 20 seconds later, Caitlin does the same thing and copies your celebration. You run back over to her giving her a little nudge.

"Game's not over yet," you say running back to offense. Moving the ball around and hitting Paige - who drains another 3. Cait nods in response.

It is down to the final 30 seconds as Iowa is up by 4. Your team can take the win if it is executed correctly.

You know Caitlin is going to be guarding you hard but you know how she plays. This may be the first time you are on the opposite team but it is not the first time you have seen Caitlin in this position. You know she doesn't want to draw the foul but you are going to make her.

Azzi passes you the ball behind the back as you drive in the middle putting it up with your left. You get hit hard from the right and go down, hitting the ground even harder. You hear the buzzard go off signaling your basket is good.

As you are on the ground, it takes you a second to get up. Paige and Azzi try grabbing your hands to pull you up but you aren't ready. There is still a pain shooting through your left arm as you open and close your hand. Your elbow took most of the blow as you hit the ground and you know you just need a second for the feeling to come back.

You wave off Geno and your trainer as you reach up to Paige. She pulls you up and checks if you are okay. You nod as Caitlin makes her way to you. She is face to face with you as she goes to say something into your ear.

"You good babe?" She asks, bringing her hand up to your elbow. You flinch as her skin makes contact with yours. "I didn't mean to knock you that hard."

"It's good," you say lying through your teeth and Caitlin knows. She tries to get you to sit but you refuse as there are only seconds left in the game and your team is still down by 2.

You walk to the foul line and shake out your arm.

You miss the first one, cursing to yourself knowing every point is needed. You make the second and remain to play full-court defense.

The ball is thrown in and Paige knocks it midair before it can get to the Iowa player. You pick it up - seeing the seconds run down, you know you have 4 seconds to put up the shot. When you pick up the ball you are on the 3-point line and know you can do it.

Stepping left, you draw Cait to go left. She knows that's your go-to move and your stronger shot. At least it was back in high school. You fake it and go right, giving you just enough space to put for the 3.

The ball is released from your hand and the final buzzard follows by a few milliseconds. Everything moves in slow motion. Everyone is looking at the ball - waiting to see if you have done it or not.

Caitlin is facing the basket, her hand on your hip as if to box you out even though the game is over. Both of you waiting to see who will end up on top.

The ball hits the back side of the rim, bouncing up before going through the net - putting your team ahead by two and winning the game.

A smile comes to your face as your team rushes over to you. Caitlin looks down as she claps her hands. She walks over to her team, giving them high fives.

Your teams line up to say good game to the other team. When you get to Caitlin, she pulls you in.

"Looks like you get to be on top tonight," she says as she secretly loops her finger in your shorts and pulls the elastic. A blush creeps into your cheeks as you just shake your head at your wife.

You have an f-it moment since your teams already know and now it won't be long before the world knows too. You want it to be on your timing and not anyone else's.

Without warning, you grab Caitlin's face and lay your lips on hers, taking her breath away. You pull away and give her a little wink as she is too stunned to speak. What is left of the crowd is going absolutely crazy as you just went public with your relationship. You know many will think you are just dating or something but you don't care. All you care about is now the world knows.

It is Caitlin's turn to blush as she pulls you in and buries her face in your neck.

"I love you, babe," you say giving her back a pat.

"I love you more," she responds.

AN: TADA! I hope you all enjoy part 2 just as much as much as the first. Please let me know what you think. And as always, thank you for the love and support 🤍

[poraphia]

"A Dancing Rockstar."

➵ PAIRING! cc!lvjy!wilbur x cc!reader

➵ CREATING! 12.8.23 | 1978 words

➵ CONTAINING! party with the qsmp members, brief mention of FitMC and JaidenAnimations, Tubbo being a drunk wingman, reader and wilbur are drunkk, dancing :o

➵ SAYING! hihi guess who tryna get back into writing! I started on this fic like.. a while ago but since this prompt one the poll here it is :))! hope yall enjoy and sorry i been leaving yall hanging i love yall mwa mwa

My masterlist :)

══✿══╡°˖✧✿✧˖°���══✿══

I wasn’t much for parties, but if you passed me a couple shots of vodka and some damn good music then maybe I could get down to a song or two.

The party was getting loud and heavy. Bodies were sloshing around the dance floor, music rumbled the whole room, and silhouettes could only be defined in blue and pink. I sat on the couch, clutching my glass as I watched my friends dance while laughing and holding each other close. It was interesting watching from afar— seeing these people I had only met months prior in a Minecraft server now here and present before me having the time of their lives.

It was safe to say I knew most of the people here— it is a QSMP party plus some guests after all. I’d like to think I’ve talked to every single member there is to the server, whether they would be frequently active or log in every once in a while, but there was someone in this party I was dying to get to know. Though he only logged in for at max a month, he had a daughter, posed as a son under Phil, and even had some sort of gay romance with Quackity.

You know who I’m talking about.

The myth.

The legend.

“—Wilbur! Pass me another glass, would you?”

Yup. William fucking Gold.

He was here by convenience. Lovejoy was in the city for his worldwide tour and it just so happen that the stars aligned for him (and maybe a bit in my favor too) to be here.

I constantly glanced at him— He stood there next to the bar area and never really left that specific spot. His shoulder was pressed against the pillar wall while his other arm held his red solo cup. Every so often one of his friends would come up to him and spark up a conversation before retreating with other friends. Not Wilbur though. He remained firm in his position at all times, and his eyes would sometimes lurk amongst the dancing bodies. Maybe he was looking for an excuse to join in, but never really found his little reason.

I felt the weight of the sofa shift as someone took their seat next to me. It was Tubbo, who looked wasted, but had some sort of consciousness in him still. His arms sprawled out as he sunk into the cushions, letting out a loud sigh.

“Whewww! I am so… Dizzy…” He exhaled. I rolled my eyes before turning my direction toward him.

“That’s sorta your fault for drinking so much.” I commented. He puffed out his cheeks while squinting at me.

“Psh, I’m a big man now. I know what I’m doing.” He scoffed. “How about you? Doesn’t look like you’re doing much. You’re usually my party buddy here!” He exclaimed, sitting up.

I sighed. “I mean yeah. I guess I’m just a little buzzed.” I shrugged, my gaze leading itself back to Wilbur. His long limb wrapped around the pillar and his cup was now placed on a surface. His mind was occupied with the phone he was clutching in his hand. My head tilted a little at the sight and without realizing, a little smile was forming on my face. This sparked Tubbo’s curiosity.

“Don’t tell me you’re looking at..—” Before Tubbo could say anything else, I whipped my head around, causing him to nearly choke laughing. “NO WAY—! ARE YOU CRUSHING ON—?”

“BE QUIET! “I squealed. I jumped toward him and put him in a headlock while using my other hand to cover his mouth as I muffled his obnoxious laughter.

“Dude, shut up! It’s not that big of a deal—” Tubbo broke out of my grasp, sitting up and staring at me.

“Alright, so if it’s not that big of a deaaaal—” without a second to spare, he raced off of the couch and darted towards Wilbur, becoming a near foggy vision under the LED lights. My heart skipped a beat as I desperately stumbled after him. I burst through the dancing crowd, nearly slipping because of the sleek tile floor.

“TUBBO YOU BITCH!” I screamed. But it was too late. By the time I yanked the boy by the shoulder, he was already grinning sinisterly at the sight of Wilbur’s flustered expression. I pushed Tubbo aside, now putting me in the position where I was right in front of the man.

“Uh…” I croaked out. A part of me wanted to just crawl into a hole and die at this point.

Wilbur chuckled, leaning his head against the pillar while smiling down at me.

“Hey there. So uh.. What was Tubbo talking about..?” he asked, slightly side eyeing Tubbo, who was losing his shit laughing while clutching Fit.

“D-don't mind him! He was just kidding haha!” I tried to nervously laugh it off, but under the dancing lights I was a heated red mess. I glanced behind him, realizing there were spare cups and glasses of alcohol. Without thinking, I moved past him and swiftly poured my own shot before frantically gulping it down.

The alcohol burned my throat, but luckily it was quick to loosen me up. I whipped my head back to Wilbur, who had a mixed expression of shocked amusement.

“Wanna dance?” I quickly offered, holding out my hand. I knew I wasn’t thinking this true, but what else could I say to break the ice?

“I.. Uh.. sure..—?! Ah—!” without letting him get another word out, I grabbed his hand and led him to the dance floor while occasionally bumping into the large groups of people. Some even took a double take at the sight of me dragging Wil.

Holy shit, this is so embarrassing. I thought. But I was far too gone to pull away. I turned around to face him now, bobbing a little bit to the music. He looked down at me, and with the red to his cheeks and the blue light shining down on him, his face was a sweet purple. The sight tugged at my heartstrings, and I felt my knees going weak.

If anything, I needed another shot. I turned to Tubbo, who was watching us with Jaiden and Fit. With my hand, I held up my thumb and pinky and held it close to my lips, indicating that I needed a drink. I watched as Tubbo ran off, leaving Fit and Jaiden confused. Chuckling a little bit, I turned back around to look at Wilbur.

He was sort of bobbing around, moving to the beat of the music. It was obvious that both of us weren’t completely feeling it, but all I needed was one shot and maybe I could help him start feeling the vibe. I watched as his lanky arms swayed from side to side.

I smiled a little. “Not much of a dancer?” I asked. Bashfully, he shook his head no. As if on queue, Tubbo ran up behind me, shoving a plastic cup into my grasp. Turning away from Wilbur, I brought the brim to my lips and chugged down the rugged taste. The alcohol rushed through my throat and into my nerves like poison, but I was back into the game. I shoved the cup back into Tubbo’s grasp and whispered him a quick thank you.

As if on instinct, my hands were on Wilbur’s hips, making him yelp in surprise. I picked up our pace, swaying to the beat of the music. Wil fumbled a little, not sure what to do besides move his torso with my consistent guidance. I decided to help him out, and as our hips grooved, I moved his hands onto my hips and rested my hands on his shoulders.

“Come on, you got this.” I smirked. A spark of boldness flamed in my chest, and the look on Wilbur’s face was my gasoline. He took one of my arms and backed away a bit to twirl me in place before holding my waist with his forearm, dipping me down so that my hair touched the glowing floor.

“I-I don���t even know your name!” He chuckled.

“Well..—” He pulled me back up, but I still remained close to his face. “Call me (y/n).”

We continued to dance to the music with our bodies intertwined. His leg was in between my legs. My arm was wrapped around his neck. His hand was on my hip. Our other hands were intertwined. It felt dangerous to be so close to stranger like this, but shit, did it feel right. For all hell, he could’ve been a mass murderer and I’m his next prey.. Although.. Looking into those eyes, I’m no better than a mouse falling for cheese on a trap.

“So how’d you meet Quackity?” He asked.

“Oh, we go way back to when we went to college together. He was a busy ass kid, but we bonded through those late night cramming sessions.” I chuckled. “How about you?”

“Ah, we used to do similar content like years ago on Youtube, then we got put into the same minecraft server, bonded outside of the server, and the rest is history.” He smiled. “It’s crazy seeing how far he’s come though— Y’know, creating a whole server full of people from all over the world and all.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy.” I laughed. “How about you? Heard you were a whole rockstar.”

“Pfff— rockstar?” He scoffed. “Don’t boost my ego now.”

“Oh, come on! You’re hardly on the server. It’s really the only explanation you have.”

“Well, yeah, I guess so—”

“Hey lovebirds!” Tubbo butted his head between me and Wilbur. “Are you guys having fun getting to know each other?” He chirped. He clasped his hands together and brought them near his cheek, giggling at the sight of us together.

I pulled away from Wilbur before playfully shoving Tubbo away. “Shut up!” I exclaimed. He only cackled in response before disappearing into the crowd yet again. Before I could chase after him, I felt a pair of hands grip the sides of my waist, pulling me close to his chest.

“Come on, it’s not his fault.” Wilbur whispered in my ear, the alcohol near apparent in his voice. It took Tubbo’s outburst to make me realize we were wasted and dancing the night away with Wil equally as drunk as me. I tilted my head up and sighed, taking comfort in his wobblily smile.

“Let’s get out of here, yeah? I saw there’s a gas station near by. We can get a couple snacks and walk around the city.” I reached up, cupping his face with one of my hands.

“Hm, sounds like a plan to me.” Wilbur smiled back.

Though we spent the rest of the night with him drunkenly talking about any random historical fact his mind came up with, or the outrageous stories he had while on tour, tonight it really did found like I found someone like no other. Someone who knows how to dance with me without even knowing my name. Someone I would confide in telling my life story to. Someone I could maybe, just maybe, fall in love with.

So, did I thank a hangover 19 year boy the next morning afterward? Yes, yes I did.

══✿══╡°˖✧✿✧˖°╞══✿══

a / n ~ hope yall enjoyeddd :D reblogs, replies, notes of all kind super duper appreciated YIPPIEE

[misc-obeyme]

Hey cc

So in the vampire pop quiz I think it was Dia who said something very interesting "looks like they are fixated on mc because mc is the manifestation of their desires" now that did align well with my effort to understand why would all 7 of them be this obsessed lol

Anyway in my head mc goes like guys that's just my idea of how a proper human should be lol pretty sure if any other human ended up here who kinda like hot demons you all would be obsessed about that human too

Anyway, can I request a drabble about this kind of mc not insecure, just not understanding why mc deserving all this attention

Barb would be interesting to drabble about this since it took him sooooo looooong to open up to mc a bit

happy to see you are still having fun with Barbs thirst trap 😎

-🐆

Hi there, 🐆 anon! I apologize for the delay on this - it's been taking me a little longer than I anticipated to get through the drabble requests...

Augh the Barbatos shower picture is going to be the death of me, I swear. I'm still thinking about a nsfw drabble based on one of his lines lkasdfkjfj it's a problem, I swear.

Anyway, here's a Barb drabble with MC not getting why the demons are obsessed with them! I thought it was a cute little scenario. And Barb is just being super romantic as always lol. I can't help it, I am but a humble fluff writer.

Barbatos could see it on your face - a subtle expression that the others might not pick up on. It told him the story of how you were trying your best to hide your own confusion. It was something that happened every time one of the brothers complimented you, when they fought over you, when they expressed this need to always be near you. A slight furrow of your brow, the tiniest downturn of your lips, the fleeting uncertainty that flashed through your eyes.

Ever since your first day in the Devildom, Barbatos had seen this look. He was always watching you. The more he did, the more it became clear to him that you didn't understand why everyone seemed to think there was something special about you.

Perhaps he waited too long. Perhaps he should have mentioned it to you sooner. But you didn't seem distressed. All he ever saw was bafflement. So he let it be for quite some time. Until he finally found himself alone with you when it displayed itself.

Barbatos had been pouring you a cup of tea as he heard about the brothers' latest antics. You were telling him that they had been arguing over who got to work with you on an upcoming school project.

"And then Levi got involved and I had to calm everybody down before Lotan was summoned," you said.

You were looking down at the table, your mind clearly elsewhere, when that expression flashed across your face.

Barbatos put down the teapot. "Does it make you uncomfortable, MC? When they argue over you this way?"

You met his eyes, seemingly startled by his question. "No," you said. "It's a little silly, but it doesn't make me uncomfortable. Why do you ask?"

"It's only that I've noticed the look of confusion you sometimes have in moments like these," Barbatos said. "As if there's something that troubles you about it."

You frowned in thought for a moment. "I guess I just don't understand why they care so much? Why do they think I deserve this much attention? I just act like a regular human would. Why are they so… obsessed?"

Barbatos chuckled. "Do you truly not see? This is exactly what makes you so fascinating."

"I don't know what you mean," you said.

"Despite being a totally unique individual, you still believe you are ordinary," Barbatos said gently. "I have been alive for a long time, MC. I have met many humans. No two are alike. You are not 'regular' because there is no such thing. You are yourself and that is why we love you."

Barbatos was pleased to see that confused look replaced by a soft blush. "You…?" you couldn't finish your question.

Barbatos took your hand and kissed the back of it. "Indeed," he said. "Even I have fallen under your spell. I will remind you of how special you are for the rest of your life if I must."

You laughed, a little taken aback. "I don't think that's going to be necessary."

Barbatos only smiled, your hand still clasped in his. He was content to see such a soft and sweet expression on your face, a glint of happiness in your eyes. Despite what you said, if he ever did see that confusion there again, he would do everything he could to bring your smile back instead.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[shubblelive]

— BOTTLED UP

summary : wilbur's budding music career has undergone a multitude of changes since he first started. fortunately for him, you are not one of them.

genre : fluff

warnings : i guess there's one part that's slightly suggestive?? mentions of a makeout i guess, wilbur has a few Anxiuos moments, mentions of alcohol/drinking

pairing : cc!musician! wilbur soot x reader, musicianbur x reader

pronouns : none (you/yours)

featuring : cc!musician! wilbur soot

requested : Helloo! Could you write something where Wilbur's favorite thing to soothe his pre-show anxiety is to plant loving, relaxed kisses down the reader's neck in just a really silly way?

word count : 1.1k

note : maybe a tad too much worldbuilding, but what else do you expect from me let me LIVE

Whoever wrote “the lights are so bright but they never blind me,” clearly had not been to Sam’s. It was a dingy little joint with insane prices, but it was the closest pub to Wilbur’s flat and they gave Wilbur $50 a night to play guitar and sing a few covers. The lights directed at the “stage” in that place were enough to convince Wilbur he didn’t need glasses anymore because his vision was shot. 

He’d get up there, perform to a crowd of about twenty people (some of them were sober too!) and then crash before 9 ready to get up for his early morning retail shift.

It was a pretty good life, especially when you considered he’d just moved out of home and was also taking online classes for uni. Plus, there was his number one fan sitting at the bar every Thursday, sending him flirty looks and paying for his water.

He’d come along way since Sam’s. Performing at real venues, songs he’d written, not sweating buckets under lights so strong he could barely make out the shape of you at the bar (not usually).

That part never changed. You moved positioning with each venue. Oftentimes you were in the pit of people, off to the side with the less jumpy patrons. As they graduated to venues with seats and a real stage, you’d be off backstage with a bottle of water and a hug available (no matter how sweaty he was). 

It had been hard, his first few shows at Sam’s. Just a kid with a beat up acoustic guitar that was barely legally able to buy the alcohol he needed to even get up on stage. Said stage, a stool in the corner with a microphone that did more harm than good. There were panic attacks right at the beginning, quite a number of them. He would show intermittently. Slots at Sam’s were on a weekly basis, so some weeks he simply wouldn’t show up and ask for a slot. His anxiety would get the better of him, and then after a month, he’d suddenly regain his ego and he’d be back at it. In addition to the money from the owner (not named Sam), a lot of the patrons would leave tips for him with the bar manager (coincidentally named Sam), some weeks he would leave with over $250 for three days of playing. That would keep him going, he’d play for a few weeks and then someone would roll their eyes while Wilbur was talking and he would feel physically ill any time he even thought about picking up his guitar. 

But then, you showed up. It was during one of his ego boosts, he’d finally saved up for that electric guitar he’d lusted after for months. You had been dragged out by a friend who promptly ditched you upon seeing a cute girl from one of her classes. He’d seen you before, at student services. All his classes were online, but registration hadn’t been, and you worked the desk at student services for some extra cash. He’d tried to find you on social media but with just your first name on your nametag, it had been fruitless. He didn’t want a relationship anyway, he was fine with his friends, and his coworkers and his electric guitar, he didn’t have the energy for a relationship.

At least, that was what he said before he was dragging you out the service entrance to kiss you that first night, you laughing airily. He wanted to bottle that sound, needed it more than any liquid courage Sam could possibly overcharge him for. 

And thus, a new pre-show routine was born. A quick kiss before going back to his stool turned into a backstage hug as his crowds evolved from bargoers into fans - people who paid tickets just to hear his music.

Just a kid with his acoustic guitar was suddenly four guys with a two hundred million streams on spotify. Wilbur didn’t feel any different. He was still… just a guy. He’d swapped out his guitar, traded covers for originals, Sam’s service corridor for an actual dressing room.

The venue supported nearly a thousand people, and their manager had said they managed to seel over 80% of the tickets. That was an unfathomable amount of people to Wilbur. He’d quit his job and changed his act, but right before he went out there he was wracked with the same anxiety.

You were right beside him, your elbow tucked into his. His fingers fiddled with yours, nervous energy radiating off of him. He pulled you close, closing his eyes against the chattering from the audience, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“You’re alright,” you hummed, voice light. That same airyness he’d started to crave over the last six years skipping right past his nerves and planting itself right beside his heart, right along with the rest of you. 

He planted another kiss on your temple, then beside your left eye. You were half-sitting on a vanity, the weight of your boyfriend comforting as you traced letters up and down his arm. “I know, darling,” he whispered, breath tickling your cheek as he planted another three kisses as he moved his way down to your jawline. His mouth ghosted up and down your neck as the band manager called out five minutes until opening from the hallway. You squeezed his hand as his lips came to a stop where your neck met your shoulder. He sat there for a moment, peppering that one spot with chaste kisses. 

“You have to get out there, go meet the guys,” If he didn’t know you, he’d think you were trying to be stern. Your voice was firm, but still oh so light. Just like the kisses, over and over on the same spot of your shoulder. He hummed in recognition, and the two of you stood there for a second. His mouth connected with your shoulder again and, before you could stop him, Wilbur let out a large exhale, the vibrations on your skin letting out a loud sound that startled you. You pushed him off, laughing through faux-disgust. 

“Wilbur!” He was laughing too, giddy smile beaming at you. He heard final call and knew his time with you was limited. He gravitated back towards you, mouth hovering over yours for one last kiss before he had to get out there. You gladly met him halfway, and he could feel the curve of your smile against his. “You got this.”

He smiled breathlessly at you as frantic knocking began on the dressing room door. He probably did, he’d be fine. Even if you were wrong and he didn’t “got this,” he had you, which was just as important. 

[bambinambi]

Run, Mrigashira, Run!

I've just finished watching Baby Reindeer, and it made me reflect on my own experience as a Mrigashira native, the obsessive behaviour we are subjected to, but also the obsessive behaviour we exhibit as a Mrigashira native (with Jyeshta sun and Lilith in the 11th house), I've dealt a great deal with obsessive bullying.

Now, you might be wondering what that is. Basically, ever since I was young, I became incredibly good at hiding my true emotional reactions to situations going on around me. So, when I began to be bullied, I started reacting in that manner. Often, I look back at the absolutely absurd experiences I've had with my bullies in the past example; staring at me the entire time during class/lectures/in our dining hall, and any other public spaces we happened to inhabit at the same time, talking loudly about me and friends (me specifically) in classes and lectures to, I guess, goad a reaction from me. I even remember how these girls would go to my residence neighbour's room (in university) and talk about me and my friends for HOURS. I thought I could have been imagining it until I had an unrelated friend come over so we could do some work together, and she commented on it, making me realise that it was in fact happening, but also being incredibly disturbed by the fact that these girls were evidently obsessed.

I often wondered in what manner I should have reacted to these situations; Should I have given them the attention they so desperately wanted, or was any ounce of attention ever going to be enough? Should I have cussed them out, reported them to an authority figure, or would it have goaded them on? What had made people who had originally been my friends all of a sudden switch to being my bullies seemingly overnight, with no warning (I should also mention that I have Lilith in the 11th house)? I remember making the mistake of befriending a loner in our dining hall. He ended up wanting to date me, I told him I was not interested, and he proceeded to inundate me with messages, begging me to give him a chance. He even cornered me one day while I was going to the dining hall, alone, in the dark. He wouldn't let me go until I agreed to give him a chance. This was during the COVID-19 pandemic when I decided to travel back to my university town to have a change in scenery and had none of my friends be there with me.

And when I finally decided enough was enough, with people acting this way towards me relatively unpunished (unless you count social ruin) and relatively unscathed, and I would finally take a stand, I realised how flawed the system was; how slow it was, how the victim was the one forced to gather enough "relevant" evidence, both which could inadvertently cause more harm as they would have to continue to endure the potential harassment and abuse from their assailant, and sometimes how in the end, these efforts may cause more harm than good. I remember that after the members of the harassment centre had spoken to the guy, and I had received a no-contact order, I had not been told that I was the one who had to communicate that this student was not to interact with me, in any manner, to me to hall warden, warden and sub warden. I think it's ridiculous, as all the harassment centre had to do, was CC these individuals into the email they had sent me, stating that I had been granted the no-contact order. Instead, I was subjected to torment by the man harassing me for an additional couple of days until I finally got told that I had to put the no-contact order into action.

Basically, why I'm mentioning all of this, is because a lot of the time, people believe that Mrigashira natives woefully bring on this behaviour from other people. The truth is, regardless of what we do, we often attract the most obsessive people unintentionally. Even when I was my most shy and introverted self, I attracted a best friend, who would obsessively send me letters, professing her love multiple times a day although I never really reciprocated. She would tell people off for trying to speak to me. I remember that it took a year for many people in our grade to actually have a conversation, and they sighted this girl's aggression towards them as a reason. Mind you, I had just arrived at the school, but she had practically forced me into a relationship with her and scared away any other potential friends except the people in our friend group, and even they knew to keep their distance from me.

I realise that many of my friendships, in fact, had serious red flags, behaviours I didn't recognise as alarming at the time, such as friends "teasing" me (when really they were attacking every little thing about myself), friends who would constantly compliment me (admiration and envy are two sides of the same coin) and friends who evidently had attachment issues like the example I gave before. I'm sure there are many other examples I could give, but these are the most important ones. After each and every experience, I found myself obsessively dissecting every interaction, their behaviour, and my reaction to it. Trying to understand their psychology, trying to understand my own. One thing I recognise now is how my obsessiveness towards the situation may have been as a result of my deep insecurities in my "inadequacies" and "flaws". I was such an insecure individual, that I couldn't fathom why anyone would be so obsessively preoccupied by my every move, but most especially every flaw, and how their constant criticism of me, made me more aware and ashamed of who I was, that they thought their behaviour justified in the face of my flawed existence.

I became obsessed with trying to figure out what I needed to do and who I needed to be to prevent this behaviour from happening again. I would also obsess over these individuals' actions from a place of anger, cursing them for treating me in the manner that they had. I would think about them from the moment I woke up, to the moment I went to be, both when I was still having to deal with them, but also afterwards, sometimes years afterwards, going over the situations in my head, over and over. I was angry with myself for how I reacted to their actions.

Obsession can easily be experienced by both the assailant and the victim. For me, this obsessiveness also comes from a place of wishing my past was spotless, unmarred by traumatic experiences, but also my own faults and mistakes. I expressed that same obsessiveness about my future; how can I ensure I never get hurt again, that I can identify these individuals early, and distance myself while I still can.

The truth of the matter is these people will always exist in the world, and much of what I know now about how to deal with people, such as the ones I dealt with in my past, is a result of everything I went through in my past (I often used to wonder why I wouldn't heed my parent's warnings, and go onto do as I pleased, but really, I think I am the type of person who has to discover and make sense of things myself).

I no longer want to scrub my past away. I see how vital it was for me to have gone through what I went through to better understand not only myself but also other people. To learn where I too, need work, so that when these kinds of people come around, they will not completely consume me as the others that came before them.

I realised that by ignoring those people, I may have inadvertently been causing harm to them and bringing out the obsessive behaviour, agitating wounds that already existed inside them. I always thought they had been unjust towards me, but I may have, in turn, been unjust towards them.

By trying to feign indifference, I may have triggered them to act out in a manner, they may not have even been conscious of at the time, or may have thought appropriate to the insult they had thought I had been inflicting on them, because how dare I ignore them? Move on with my life as if they never existed. In hindsight, it was hurtful and may have evoked anger, even drudged up prior feelings of anger unrelated to myself. Being ignored and treated in a manner of indifference is hurtful.

While I don't take complete blame for their behaviour whatsoever, I now recognise how cruel and upsetting my behaviour had been. We had been friends, we had exchanged secrets and peered into each other, maybe deeper than other people had the pleasure of doing. And while their behaviour had been deplorable, I had unintentionally kicked someone who was evidently already on their knees.

One cannot control how another acts towards them, but one can control how they react. I also don't believe it was my responsibility to reach out or endure the bullying by virtue of understanding where it may have been coming from. Ultimately, I learnt a great deal about people and how certain behaviours can bring out different sides of them, especially evidently wounded by bullies and highly narcissistic people.

But at the time, like the doe, I decided that running away was the best call. But sometimes, in life, you are called to deal head-on with unfortunate situations. I was being forced to learn, not to bend to my nature and run away, but to run headfirst into any situation placed before me. I also was being called on to be vulnerable, if not with others, at least with myself. How my anger towards the situation was in fact deep hurt, had my ego allowed me to understand that, how my anger had showed me what I need to know about myself, and my own feelings towards myself. Bullies are good at reading people and knowing exactly which buttons to push in order to get a reaction from someone. I learnt that radical self-acceptance would make me an unsatisfactory punching bag.

Maybe the lesson to take away from Mrigashira is to not run away, but rather face life as it comes, to not obsess over the past, but rather to learn from it, and move on, to make peace with the fact that there may be no way of avoiding these unfortunate situations, and that your initial reactions to them may be equally as unsatisfactory or unsuccessful in dealing with it, but that you ought to move forward regardless, not in a sprint, but a leisurely pace. You can't accurately survey your surroundings while moving. To slow down and take a breather. Maybe then you'll that the thing you perceive as "danger" is often no more than a shadow, or a being equally as fearful as you.

But how do you know when you run away from everything indiscriminately. You will not always get caught if you slow down, Mrigashira. I think many of us Mrigashira natives suffer from anxiety, a fear that if we do not equip ourselves with an arsenal of mental fortitude and an escape plan, what comes next may be our undoing. But we've come this far, in the face of everything we've been through. I think we can give ourselves a little more credit for the strength and resilience we evidently have to make it through anything.

I know a lot of people may not like this post, or feel like I may be victim-blaming myself by identifying my own mistakes in past situations, but I think it is incredibly relevant in the Mrigashira experience to learn from life experiences, as to how best to navigate future ones, and that includes recognising how you may be unintentionally contributing, more than one thinks, to certain experiences in your life, because they are new, uncharted territory, or lessons we hadn't completely mastered the first time.

- 20 May 2024

[cordsycords]

been thinking more about the info about the backgrounds that we've seen, regarding Rook's past, and I really hope we get some reactivity with our companions, especially ones that are in the same faction as us:

shadow dragons - okay, from the single line we get in the prologue from Neve, it doesn't seem like she's specifically heard of/worked with Rook before. This kind of makes me wonder if the Shadow Dragons are a much more decentralized faction than something like the Wardens or the Crows, with multiple cells that are all working together towards the same goal, but keep minimal communication with one another due to secrecy. Might be cool if we have a mission that's like "find the leader of the Shadow Dragons" because no one knows who it is*. The background info from the CC kind of supports this idea, Rook is specifically said to have been "brought to the attentions of the Venatori" and put in time out because of that.

As for reactivity, I guess it would be nice if you could mention that specific mission, and Neve could "oh right I heard of that. You did the right/wrong thing." and just give her opinion on it. I can actually imagine Neve not being really keen on it, as a private investigator she needs a certain amount of discretion to be able to do her job properly, and might not appreciate Rook's brashness if it endangers the wider goal of the shadow dragons.

mournwatch - the mournwatch background is still driving me a little Insane, because what do you mean Rook was found as a baby in the Grand Necropolis. Anyways I kind of assume the Mournwatch is a much smaller faction, because they have a very specific focus, and they only operate in a specific part of Thedas. Since the info specifically says Rook was "raised by necromancers" it would be super cool to see if Rook and Emmrich had a Mentor/Student relationship at one point. Would also be interesting if Emmrich specifically was the one to tell Rook to travel after the incident with the War of the Banners. It would be great to see his response to Rook coming back and suddenly being in charge of this little rebellion, they just can't stop themselves from getting into trouble.

Also Mournwatch!Rook taught Manfred to play rock-paper-scissors. That's my headcanon and you can't take it away from me.

antivan crows - So it seems like Rook is a relatively new antivan crow, and from the little I've gleaned about Lucanis' recruitment mission, it looks like he might have been thought to be dead for the last year or so? Would be cool if Rook has heard a bunch of stories about Lucanis and has some hero worship going on. Would also be funny if we told him all that we had heard, only for him to shoot all the more fantastical elements of those tales down.

grey wardens - This one is also a little up in the air regarding whether Davrin and Rook knew each other before the events of Veilguard. Rook's faction backstory mentions them being in a group along with other Grey Wardens, so it would be nice if Davrin was also on the mission. I would also be really interested to see how Davrin got Assan, and maybe Rook played a hand in that somehow as well. Did Davrin literally find Assan in the middle of nowhere, and maybe Rook was there? Or were the eggs all found and then distributed among the Grey Wardens that were in high favour? Was Rook passed over for a griffon? I do remember one of Davrin's missions from an IGN previwe being specifically about saving the griffons, so it's probably the case that Assan is the only one actively around right now.

Either way, it would be cute to see an encounter where Rook remarks on how much Assan has grown/changed since they've seen them last, if they even know about Assan at all pre-Veilguard

lords of fortune - I think the relationship between taash and a LoF!Rook would be a good case for a slightly more antagonistic relationship. As an organisation of treasure hunters, probably focused more on profit and glory than anything else, it would be cool if Rook got in the way of taash's scores or jobs. Maybe Taash has moved up in the faction since Rook was forced to peace out, and wants to lord her achievements over Rook in an attempt to make them jealous. It could be pretty fun.

veil jumpers - I imagine Bellara and a jumper!Rook would probably be pretty aligned with one another. Reading the background info on Rook in the Veil Jumpers, i can imagine Bellara would probably approve of what Rook had done, while also being just a tiny bit disappointed that the map was lost. It would be cool to see a scene where they traded notes with one another, recounting all the weird things that they've seen in Arlathan, and then maybe trying to figure out why certain anomalies occur, or how they work. Just a bunch of co-nerding out with one another

anyways, I am definitely thinking way too much about this, but there's still 6 weeks to go, so it's not like there's much else for me to do :shrugs:

* it would be equally cool if that leader is a previous char from inquisition. I'm kind of banking on Dorian, or the inquisitor themselves considering the clothing we see them wear in that single shot of them in the CC is shadow dragons casual wear (i believe)

[bleue-flora]

I’m losing my mind… sooo a little bit ago I was combing through the Revival Book video for my fic and I noticed something interesting — The map

What about the map? Look closely…

You’ll notice that marked by turquoise is none on than the - vine covered Doomsday’s grid over the water filled L’manhole! Confirming that this conversation and therefore the experiments on Vik and Lazar took place after prison.

Which means quite a few earth shattering things. Firstly, the revival book likely was not the main factor that drove him mad to the point of putting himself in the prison like we might have suspected. This also means that just in general, Dream is not as prepared, planned, well thought out and as mastermind as we thought, and a lot of things were actually more genuine after all.

Because if he didn’t know that the revival book worked (which is implied by the dialogue in this video over the map) then he really must have trusted the server and Tommy to not kill him permanently and the revival book mention was more likely a really desperate afterthought last card that he hadn’t even used yet (honestly he hardly had the time to be fair - but thankfully he memorized it I guess), which oh just really makes the server almost letting him die permanently sting so much more. Plus, this also suggests that maybe Punz did not have the revive book before prison (the dialogue in this scene certainly suggests as much), and it means Dream really was adamantly afraid of dying in prison, making his stubbornness to not give up the book and endure the torture make a lot more sense. Further highlighting that he also was likely not as prepared or thick skinned going into the prison as we might have thought. It also implies that he is likely being truthful about Tommy being his first revival. Oh and there’s also the fact that in this conversation he suggests killing Philza after Philza helped rescue him, which just… rude (but that doesn’t really makes sense anyways since I doubt he would want to piss off Techno but still)… and since we now know the experiments with Vik and Lazar happened after prison I’d say that if staged duo did experiments on eachother it’d would also be after prison because why would you test on yourself before knowing that it can bring you back from any death, that’s pretty risky, (which also aligns with Dream having his original 3 lives in the staged finale).

Oh and if that wasn’t crazy enough, I also noticed there are end rods in the laboratory!

Heeeeehhhhh?!!!….. Which means they went to The End (and I already kinda suspected that since they talked about it in the finale, but I certainly didn’t think they went before/(during?) the basic experiments on Vikk and Lazar.) And not only did they go to the End they went to an End City, which does that mean they have like elytras?…

Have I blow your mind yet? Because I’m losing my shit…

{This is all of course unless we are to take these as accidental inconsistencies and flaws in the video from a lack of due diligence (since I’m pretty sure the ccs hired someone to make it) and ignore it or retcon it, (which wouldn’t be the most unreasonable thing since the dialogue in that scene suggests that they don’t know it works at all - “but what if it does work?” which doesn’t make sense for them to say after he already brought back Wilbur and Tommy). Or alternatively, we could also go the route of disregarding things due to my other theory about the video [post] and say that since it’s from DreamXD’s pov it’s messed up because he misremembered the lore as he’s a god and wasn’t paying that much attention to detail…

[lxrd-ren]

Things I Wanna See In Rats SMP 2:

- Ofc the majority of the main cast returning, and I hope that those who were mainly asleep during the 1st season get a chance to be more active this time around, like Lizzie who was too busy at the time. Jimmy has already said that he will not be returning for Season 2, but we've yet to have confirmation on anyone else except for Oli, Owen and Apo

- Return of the SQUIIIIIIID

- More Martyn lore; especially because the last we saw of him he jumped into a portal

- Continuation of unfinished storylines, like Rusty and the weeping angels

- A mix of new characters and characters from the first season. Owen and Apo have both said how they're going to be playing new characters, and Oli said Trash Rat will probably be making a return, but we are still not sure on everyone else. This will likely be influenced by if the cc wants to continue their characters story or wants to play as a different character this time around

- For the returning characters, I'd love to see outfit changes / alterations, presumably either to hint at what happened to them in the time between the two seasons and / or influenced by French fashion considering where the 2nd season is taking place

- It's been hinted at that there will be new additions to the cast, and while I'd be happy with basicly anyone, I think it'll be more likely to be those who have participated in the previous season. Whether its people like Geminitay and Joel who voice acted NPC's or people like Tommy and Watermunch who played guest characters but might take on a different character, likely a rat, this time around. There is also a possibility of playtesters and those who controlled the npcs, like the cats, being added; such as MPR

- The 1st season lasted for around 12 weeks, starting in October and ending in January. It has been confirmed that Season 2 will be longer than this but we were not told exactly how long it'll go on for this time. Hopefully it's long enough to last until February; mainly because Valentine's day is in February and I wanna see what the cast do to celebrate, especially in regards to the couples

- Character arcs; continued ones from the 1st season, new ones from the time between the seasons and ones that we'll see in real time in the 2nd season

- Since people are speculating the new season will be in a hotel, it would be interesting to see npcs rotating with new ones checking in and the old ones checking out after a couple days

- Only Owen had a planned canon death in regards to the infested boiler room, so I think it would be cool if others did something similar if they wanted

- I'm guessing the life system will be replenished with the returning characters starting back on 3 but it would be interesting if they will be an explanation in-canon as to why they now have 3 lives again. Or, they could switch it up and give them more or less lives. Perhaps they'll give the returning ones 2 lives so those who were on their last one will be back up to 3, and those who died less will be rewarded in a way with having more than 3 lives to spare with this system

- Cameos; I've already mentioned how I think it would be fun to have the return of the squiiid, but it would also be cool to have other characters have a cameo or even just a painting that references them

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

"pearl arguing that gem technically betrayed her because scar teamed up with her while gem tried to kill the mounders… hang on why is she kind of cooking" she's nawt cooking she's burning the kitchen but she doesn’t know it yet. i think here is where it gets more obvious that the two of them have severe communication barriers going on between them like what. but also i lowkey want to see pearl say that to gem just to watch gem absolutely lose her mind i think that would be a very enriching experience for me (not for them tho)

i think one of the reasons i never even considered gem feeling betrayed is because i almost exclusively watch pearl’s pov, and pearl took what seemed to me the best course of action. and as she pointed out, no matter what she did she would’ve been betraying someone anyway.

let’s consider her two options in the SL finale:

scar: has had no friends for the whole season, agreed to become a mounder just before the finale fight, has constantly been checking up on pearl throughout the whole battle

gem: teamed with scott (the only guy pearl hates), has been trying to kill the mounders the whole time

i think the emphasis here is that pearl felt she had no “real” attachment or commitment to gem. they weren’t day one allies, no debts were owed, they only paired up because they’re them. so that’s pearl’s argument, that she technically didn’t owe gem any loyalty.

but, of course, we know that’s nonsense. gem and pearl refused to fight each other in the finale until the very end, and had already been hanging out and formed an unofficial alliance before the finale. gem considers that enough to count as a bond, that, if broken, can be regarded as a betrayal.

now anon, the point you’re making is that pearl is clearly not getting gem. and i agree. but that’s just part of their characters. not to say pearl thought any less of their relationship in SL than gem did, but ohh my god she functions almost exactly like smajor in terms of allies. day one allies above everything, and since they all died, the second best option is not the one that you’ve spent two episodes running around the server with, but the one that you impromptu announced a mounder (i’d go on about dl!pearl/sl!scar parallels here but that’s another post) just to make it somehow fit into neat little boxes because you don’t want to make it seem that, god forbid, your feelings could ever precede your loyalty. god forbid anyone (most of all you) think that what you want is more important than what’s right. she’s so logical about it too which i’m guessing would infuriate gem

gem’s perspective is as biased as pearl’s is. she’s angry and bitter and the memory is still raw. and since it was her first season, she has no idea what pearl is like. she wasn’t there for last life or double life. she doesn’t know if pearl just follows her whims or sticks by the unwritten rules. so it’s like woah miscommunication mentioned! also why she doesn’t get just how much pearl and scott love/hate each other

honestly what i was referring to in the original post is that when hearing pearl’s train of thought out loud, it kind of makes sense? cc!pearl thinks through c!pearl’s emotions and principles very well and i love it because it keeps c!pearl generally consistent. i love it. i love how she’s so devoted to gem she can’t even make herself hate her. i kind of live for that

i’ve got to say dynamic of (accidentally) insensitive traumatised loser x angry traumatised lover is so interesting and it could very easily unfold in any way

[leliwardens]

reddit source: 1 / 2

Really wanted to throw my own thoughts in on this whole thing before release since it's good talking point. Under the cut because it's long.

I think the OP of the thread is correct, there are a lot of factors that I'm sure lead to this. I really doubt the devs if they had actual choices they would of cut caring over worldstates. Solas's story not being finished is also correct, romance or no he clearly was the hook for the next game.

This all being said, sorry, once they involved The Inquisitor as a returning character that removes the closure for them and their romance. There needs to be attention and car given to that, now that that door is open. And relevant to this specific topic is this post:

...pardon my French but motherfucker what do you MEAN? So, the answer is...not even making it a choice? Epler your own words were "not to invalidate worldstates"! You literally have ONLY an option for a Bull who betrayed The Qun in Veilguard??? Killing him in a romance IS a valid ending, it has a slide and unique dialogue! It's not like a breakup with other LIs, this was built in and is not invalidated now? They could pull some switcheroo ala Leliana I guess for whatever reason and bring him back, but even then the CC says betrayed The Qun, which isn't what he does if you have to kill him, so it's still making it invalid.

And not only that, why would Bull's death matter after this game? It only matters in it because you're literally dealing with his potential partner/friend/coworker that killed him, and he is not notable outside that person, from both a character and player standpoint. Bull is just a Qunari, a good one, but it's not like he's a world leader or established person outside his role in the Inquisition, so his death matters little outside this context.

Not even to mention you literally get this exact set up with Hawke if they romanced Anders and killed him, it's one line but still means something!

Which all of this to me is just saying it doesn't matter.

And to circle back to the other topic in the thread is the returning characters and writing. I think it is bad faith to take those as anything but a joke, but I also think it is in rather poor taste and was kind of shitty to say after the news about limited choices LEAKED, not revealed, LEAKED.

Even in the best case where no one went over the line with anger or yelling or death threats (not sure if these actually happened, just a hypothetical), why would they think this would be taken with anything but disappointment? Ik the wider customerbase of any game are ones that don't really engage with fandom just play the game and that's it, but the ones that do engage with the fandom and the game on a deeper level would be the same ones impacted by this decision and see these posts...? I dunno, it rubs me the wrong way. :/

I'm also unsure what joke is to be understood with bringing up Alistair specifically? He's untouchable post-Origins in all but Warden!Alistair in Inquisition. This also really isn't...the norm either? The worst you can do to Leliana is not do her personal quest, you can't even kill her or Zevran in DA2. You can ruin Cullen's life in Inquisition but it's a choice and honestly a "bad/evil" one all things considered.

I welcome returning characters and furthering their arc/story, whether it be happy, tragic, etc. That was a highlight of this franchise. But then I had a thought and checked Here Lies the Abyss and...

Ah well, explains a lot. I think the wrong lessons were taken from the concrit people had about this, presumably Hawke, personally I had no issues but that's me. So I guess the answer to that was still bring back a previous MC and companions just have no influence over them with worldstate choices...?

(And a quick sidebar, anyone can headcanon completely against canon no matter what happens just the same as you can if nothing happens. That's the power of ~imagination~.)

I'm still not sure what the takeaway from any of this was intended to be. I'm for sure keeping the best faith but this was still pretty souring to me overall.

I've gone into detail about many other aspects of this general situation so I'll cut it off here to avoid repeating myself.

[erikahenningsen]

22. A french kiss/kiss with tongue

cc: @emilyjunk

Part 1 / Part 2

Last week, in Honors Ancient Greek Literature, Mr. Rapp had introduced them to the Myth of Sisyphus, and Regina had laughed.

You're laughing, Janis had texted Regina under her desk. Sisyphus is condemned to endlessly roll a boulder up a mountain and you're laughing.

Regina had gotten a stern admonishment from her teacher, but she couldn't find it in herself to care—not when she's in an eerily similar hell of her own making.

Here Regina is, at the base of the mountain, when Cady drops her backpack onto Regina's floor and says, "So Aaron did this weird thing this past weekend."

Regina, who has developed some warped Pavlovian response to the mention of Aaron—a mix of both anticipation and dread—raises her eyebrows in expectation.

"So we were kissing," Cady says, and Regina's heart rate picks up at the same time her stomach twists, "and he..." She pauses, making a face. "Licked me? Like on the lips. Is that normal?"

"Well, yeah," Regina says. "Have you never kissed someone with tongue before?"

Cady huffs. "You know I haven't."

"Right," Regina mutters, mostly to herself. "Well, I guess if you've never done it before, it would seem really weird."

"Yeah, I think he could tell I didn't know what was happening," Cady admits, running a hand through her hair. For some reason, she seems genuinely upset by this.

"I mean, if you don't like it, you don't have to do it," Regina says, although she can't imagine Aaron, the least confrontational person Regina has met in her entire life, forcing anyone to do anything.

"But I want to," Cady says earnestly and—okay, that kind of hurts.

Cady looks at her. Regina looks back.

"So..." Cady says, with a meaningful look. "Can we... practice?"

Regina should say no. She should really, really say no. She can't imagine a way that this ends that isn't very, very bad.

"Okay," Regina says.

She starts pushing the boulder up the mountain.

Cady comes to sit next to Regina on Regina's bed, then scoots a little closer, bracing one hand on the bed.

"Okay, um..." Regina murmurs, moving so they're close enough to be breathing the same air.

Cady places a hand on Regina's cheek with a confidence that makes Regina inhale sharply. She tries not to think about the experience that Cady has gained between when they first kissed and now.

Regina places her hands on Cady's waist and leans in, halting just before their lips touch to instruct, "So when you feel my tongue, just open your mouth a little bit."

Cady nods, barely perceptible, and Regina closes the distance between them.

Cady's lips are just as soft as Regina remembers, and she's almost embarrassed by the way she immediately feels hot, all over her body. For a moment, she forgets what she's supposed to be doing, lost in the feeling of Cady's lips slotted perfectly against hers.

Regina is suddenly aware of how nervous she is, even though she's been kissing boys with tongue since she was twelve. Carefully, as though Cady might suddenly change her mind and back away, she traces her tongue across the seam of Cady's lips.

Cady tenses, and for a second Regina thinks she might pull back, but then she parts her lips—a little too wide, so Regina gently guides her mouth closed a bit with a a hand on her jaw.

Regina tilts her head and brushes her tongue against Cady's. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Cady doesn't move, just keeps her lips parted exactly as instructed, so Regina strokes her tongue more purposefully, coaxing it to life.

Seeming to get the hint, Cady starts to respond, pressing a bit closer with a soft sound that Regina knows will be playing on a loop in her brain later. Regina traces the roof of Cady's mouth, sweeping in broad strokes, and is rewarded with the hand on her cheek sliding around to the back of her neck to pull her impossibly closer.

Experimentally, Regina retreats, but leaves her lips parted invitingly. For a moment, they sit their awkwardly breathing into each other's mouths, before Cady gets with the program and tentatively begins to explore Regina's mouth with her tongue.

It's like every fantasy Regina has desperately wished she never had has come to life, and all Regina can do is cling to Cady's waist as Cady's tongue dips lower to sweep over her bottom lip, then her top—and Regina lets her, frankly impressed that she hasn't passed out or started hyperventilating with how fast her heart is slamming into her ribs.

And then, totally without her permission, Regina moans, a deep sound originating in her chest expelled directly into Cady's mouth.

Regina pulls back abruptly, feeling her face start to burn. She looks anywhere but at Cady.

For a moment, the only sound in the room is heavy breathing.

"Wow," Cady says. Regina refuses to look at her, but she knows she looks beautiful. "Um, thanks."

"Yeah," Regina says, voice hoarse. "Anytime."

The boulder rolls back down the mountain.