#i have to do the black and white lanterns eventually.

[bearforceone3]

i have an excuse to post this because kyle’s a white lantern again

[vm-haunts]

Crossover Headcanons: Worldbuilding Edition

A collection of DPxDC headcanons from myself and various posts, in no particular order.

Green stuff

Dionesium is, or is one of the main decay byproduct of, ectoplasm. It is the defining element in Lazarus water.

Lazarus water is a naturally occurring compound that amplifies certain effects of ectoplasm. Concentration of ectoplasm in the waters is surprisingly low despite the appearance.

College trio as the Doctor Three. Who lead the study on dionesium in Gotham University at some point.

Talons created by the Court of Owls are a special type of liminals, and communicates within themselves via a dialect of ghost speak.

Realms stuff

Infinite realms, or pockets within it, had been observed and accessed before, by different civilizations under numerous different names.

The Kryptonians used the realms as a means of banishment, which they called the phantom zone.

GIW stuff

GIW is operating under All Purpose Enforcement Squad (APES), headquarters in mount Rushmore.

Anti-ecto Acts is a set of old laws dating back to civil war era, only brought back into practice in recent years.

Liminals have significantly higher chance of activating metagene. May or may not be causing the metagene mutation in the first place.

Anti-ecto Acts might be intentionally exploited as a backdoor to meta protection acts.

Ring stuff

Pariah Dark's ring of rage turned into the phantom ring after Danny officially claimed it. It enhances all emotions of the owner equally.

Danny lost his ring at some point and it became known to the lanterns as the phantom ring.

In the hands of realm ghosts the phantom ring glows green regardless of the emotion it is enhancing, as ghosts are beings of pure will. Otherwise it is black with a faint white glow. (Can't believe this one matches up, I love lore stitching)

Balance stuff

Danny bears both Life Force and Death Force in equal amounts. His only way to accessing them is channelling a mixture of the two to power his ghost wail.

Ghost Wail infused with both acts like a simple sonic attack. But if powdered only by death force it's functionally the same thing as Void Wind, which 'negates the power and immortality of the gods. Enabling it to shut down any form of arcana used against it'.

Dark Danny only process death force as he no longer have a human side for balance. His death infused wail could be how he destroyed the world without much interference from magic users.

Danny's Wail can be infused with only life force instead, which would eviscerate ghosts. Possibly only possible when he is in human form.

Glitchy stuff (not really DC related)

Dark Danny's attack on Clockwork's tower created some pretty severe glitchs in time (ha) across all of the living realms.

As the clocktower take damage some universes collapsed together, and some timelines became contradictory and paradoxical (typical comic reboot am I right?😅)

After Dan finally calmed down he becomes the ultimate errand boy for clockwork. Showing up an fixing things he broke under the guidance of the ghost of Time.

Stranger stuff

Dan got sentenced to Life (literal) in an alternate ending of glitch in time, which capped his destruction and eventually calmed him off.

Reformed Dan is doing social services as penance, in the DC multiverse he goes by the alias of Phantom Stranger.

[nightwngz]

im still thinking about those Hal and Kyle fics you wrote....changed my life fr 🤞🏽omg tho I had such a romantic and lovely dream about Kyle last night so I'm feeling extra fuzzy over him rn...what would non hate sex with Kyle be like? 🙈 (as much as I also love mean Kyle 🤷🏽‍♀️) i need your thoughts...

I hope you're doing well 🥰 xoxo - nightjarwings

MISSED ME, BABE?

kyle rayner x fem!reader

𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀… fluff and smut. porn without plot. dirty talk. oral sex.

𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. . . no copying of my work is allowed. Free translation is allowed as long as I am credited.

𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲. . . as I said in my other posts, English is not my first language. I have tried to make corrections with the translator, but as you all know, it is prone to making mistakes, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes or if anything sounds weird.

𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲. . . Aside from my fantasies about Kyle being mean, he is such a sweetheart! So I feel like he would be super dedicated to making you feel comfortable. I hope you like what I've written. <3

Since your boyfriend confessed he was a Green Lantern, the first thing you asked was: which one of them? And you didn't ask because you thought Kyle might be that beautiful alien girl with lovely blonde hair, but because you hoped he would be that handsome dark-haired man in the distinctive white and black suit different from the others. You were right.

Because of his job, Kyle wasn't often at home, which made you suspect possible infidelity. What kind of artist would suddenly leave his home for days, even weeks, without even telling his partner? His actions made you suspicious, so when he returned, you confronted him, and he eventually confessed.

Fortunately for him, you felt relieved for a moment understanding that if he wasn't home, it was precisely because he was serving as an intergalactic law enforcement, which reassured you. However, as the weeks passed and the days without Kyle accumulated, you began to wonder why a large part of the universe had your boyfriend serving, while you waited for him at home with food ready in the fridge in case he decided to return. It was unfair.

Were you being selfish because you wished that he wouldn't save the world for just one day, but that he would lie down with you and hold you in bed instead?

What you wanted most at that moment was to be accompanied, as you sat bored with a bowl of soup in front of the TV, about to fall asleep. When people entered your apartment, they noticed pictures of you and Kyle everywhere, which forced you to face questions about why you live alone or if your boyfriend is even still alive, since he's never around the neighborhood like you are.

Just as your eyes are about to close, they quickly snap open as you hear the sound of keys turning in the door lock. Your heart begins to beat wildly, unable to believe that he has finally returned.

— Baby, I'm home... — You don't let him finish as you jump into his arms, kissing him as deeply as if millennia had passed since you last saw each other's faces. — Hey, hey, I missed you too, sweetheart.

— No 'I missed you, sweetheart' — you warn. — Fuck me now.

Kyle laughs. If he had seen how desperate you were, he would have come back much sooner. Still, he doesn't object to your request and blindly walks with you on top until he manages to place you on the table.

He is gentle when he kisses you, probably because he hasn't done it for a long time since he left. However, you apply pressure and surrender to his lips with devotion, enough for both of you to enjoy.

— I saw you on the news. — You gasp under your breath. — You have no idea what it's like to masturbate to a fucking picture on TV, a real horror movie.

Devouring your neck, his lips awaken sensations. His warm, calloused hand slides over your body, parting your thighs without removing any clothing, except your panties, of course. No matter how much time the two of you had together, it might never be enough until Kyle was needed for another mission.

— Do you want to talk about horrifying things? — he asked, tugging at your underwear. — Imagine me touching myself on an unknown planet with only a picture of you in my head. You have no idea how much I missed you, sweetheart; I was going crazy.

You melted under his touch, his kisses and his compliments. He kissed and caressed you as if it were the last time, in the warmest way anyone had ever bothered to do. It was even adorable how he took the time to lovingly caress your body while you could only think of reciprocating after such a long time.

His fingers entered your pussy. He looked at you in surprise, he had never felt you so wet before; you had practically soaked his entire hand. But he just smiled and decided to take responsibility for it.

— Baby, damn, you're dripping. Did you miss me that much, babe?

He lifted one of your legs and brought it up to his shoulder to get better access to your pussy. His thumb applied gentle pressure to your clit, first stimulating it, then circling around it, just as he knew you liked.

You groaned out loud, dropping your body onto the table. You couldn't see what Kyle was doing, but from how it felt, you were sure he was doing it right.

— Do you want me to eat you? — He asked, coming up for a kiss.

You nodded repeatedly, biting your lips to keep from making a loud noise. You're aware that your apartment is too small and that any neighbor could easily hear you.

Kyle pressed his lips against your folds, slowly sliding his tongue in and giving little licks so you could get used to the texture of his tongue again. You almost cried when you remembered that it had been long enough that you had forgotten how his tongue felt inside you.

But you pushed all thoughts aside and tried to enjoy the moment. Just as you bit down hard on your lip to stifle a moan, you nearly bled. Kyle was exploring a sensitive area of your body with his tongue and making gentle sucks with his lips.

Your hands intertwined with every strand of his black hair, gently pulling his head toward you. You looked at him with his mouth completely submerged between your legs, and the sight seemed glorious.

— Kyle, Kyle... — You sobbed softly with pleasure. — Don't stop, it feels amazing.

You could feel his lips curl into a smile over your pussy. Blood rushed to your cheeks, something that used to happen to you when you were close to orgasm, and he loved it so much that he couldn't think of anything else to do but kiss you all over.

A few minutes passed, but it felt like an instant. You filled Kyle's mouth with fluids and let out a moan that you couldn't contain and that the whole neighborhood probably heard. Still, he didn't stop until you were completely clean.

— I love you so much, sweetheart. I want to be as close to you as possible.

[supurman]

+ TOPIC : // the npc profile of the krypto you will find on supurman

QUICK SUMMARY: this krypto follows an original origin story but then features a twist when clark goes to college from my own design. i do this because i feel krypto has become a underutilized and eventually forgotten beloved companion of superman. on this blog i seek to make krypto more of a character in clarks life. its HIS dog from his home planet after all. he's a good boy.

KRYPTO HC DIRECTORY: 1 ( random summary of krypto facts and hcs )

NAME: krypto ( real name ), spot ( past, secret identity), dusty ( current, secret identity ) ALIASES: krypto the super dog BELONGS TO: kal-el superman, and the house of el family FAVORITE PERSON: kal, but he loves all his el's. AGE: unsure & verse dependent., definitely older than superman by AT LEAST 4 years. doesnt show signs of aging. clark always says he's about 4 for his identities sake. OCCUPATION: live stock guardian dog, guard + attack dog ( always ), protector of metropolis ( current ), trained therapy dog to clark kent, part time guard dog for others if superman allows ( i,e green lanterns ask for krypto )

SECRET IDENTITY: dusty, the normal farm dog. as dusty kryptos high tech collar is black and shows a tag that says dusty. but when he turns into krypto the collar turns red, his tag turns into to the super insignia, and a cape pops out! even without krypto's collar can he blend in as a normal white dog who has no sense of duty and just likes to be content canine.

+ SUB TOPIC : // mannerisms....

krypto is a medium social dog who is only ever excited to see those he has a bond to. hes not overly social to meet strangers muhc preferring to stick with his people. but, he is not aggressive to random pettings from strangers which is completely fine. he more or less will just sit there. he is a friendly dog with a level head and a strong sense of duty as taught to him by superman.

IT IS IMPORTANT KNOW KRYPTO IS A DOG. unlike humans, he doesn't feel guilt to kill. krypto is trained to incapacitate but he also BITES TO KILL. more often then not he is shown in comics to go for the neck. so be sure to tell the dog first if you want him to kill or simply incapacitate. if you try to go for his family or people he is dedicated to protect often times krypto will make his own choice and that is to KILL.

+ SUB TOPIC : // powers ...

EYES: a brown-orange. a common dog eye color... WEIGHT: 157 LBS FUR: white, has a coarseness to it on his back. EARS & TAIL: pointed ears, long paddle tail... prone to happy tail. but his tail wont hurt him it can hurt others like you kicked your beside corner!

krypto is a large white dog who looks like a cross between a german shepherd and a grey wolf. he has the same gait as a grey wolf which promotes calorie efficiency and maximum endurance. when asked by normal clark says his dog is very specific unrecognized breed from his corner in kansas. this is to not make any suspicious how clark seems to always have these very similar looking dogs over the years, since dogs do die but krypto does not !

+ SUB TOPIC : // DOG BREED . . .

BREED: kryptonian shepherd. much like the german shepherd of today they are a versatile breed who can do more then what they were originally intended for. krypto has a innate strong sense of guarding his people, a gentleness with domesticated animals, a high prey and ball drive which makes him great as a working dog. kryptonian shepherds feel happy to do any job. down to the bone this breed is a working dog and seeks stimulation. intelligent. capable of being independent and figuring things out on their own.. has a good 'off ' button so they can be an active dog when needed or a calm and relaxed companion at home after a good days work.

developed on krypton. it was a popular breed that could withstand the lower temperatures the planet could endure in the winter due to the red giant sun being very cool. featuring a white double coat that sheds out in the spring. these dogs only came in white.

sent in a test rocket before the infant kal-el from krypton, krypto was meant to land on earth to accompany his infant kryptonian kal. in a sad turn of events krypto's rocket lost course so he laid suspended in space. after about 12 years krypto crash landed onto the same farm kal, now named clark, had when he was an infant. dog and boy now united they bonded quickly as the 2 only survivors of their destroyed home krypton. to krypto, the destruction of krypton meant nothing, finding his boy again meant everything.

krypto stayed with clark on the farm and just like his kryptonian the dog developed amazing powers under the yellow sun.

when clark turned 18 he sought to bring his dog with him to metropolis so he too made a secret identity for his pooch. clark learned how to train dogs himself , trained krypto, then eventually become a certified service dog so he can readily follow his boy. together, they headed off into metropolis.

over the years, krypto did develop a rebellious stage becoming quite reactive for reasons clark could only equate to not knowing how to go about his powers. the dog would scare lois, and was even aggressive to kara. he was a liability to hurt someone. however, clark always believed his dog was good and never gave up on krypto. going back to square one, clark trained krypto more to properly utilize his senses and powers and hone his focus.

now, the dog is a staple to metropolis having earned the name super dog, dog of tomorrow! his el family now goes beyond just his boy kal but to all his kids as well. life is good for a dog and his boy.

krypto helps defeat atlas and becomes metropolis's dog too ! hes just happy to be here.

rp notes ... : anyone is allowed to direct an ask at krypto, or ask for him ina thread. i am very happy to write out this very intelligent dog and make bonds with him!

puppy

[mariamakeslemons]

Spooktober 2024: Day 12 Clowns

Warning: Threat of breaking and entering, mention of FNAF (I know some people are tired of the game series, it's still super popular, I'm sorry), mild description of violence and gore, mild body horror

Yes, it's Art the Clown from Terrifier. Only reason Reader lives is that Nikto ruins his fun.

You sit on the couch, watching Halloween as Sputnik lays her head on your lap, blinking big pleading eyes at you to feed her some popcorn. You huff, giving her a scratch behind the ear when the doorbell rings.

“Hup,” you grunt, gently pushing Sputnik’s head off your lap to grab the candy bowl off the high table. Making your way over to the door, you can’t help but smile as you open it.

“Trick or treat!” the gathered kids cheer, holding up plastic pumpkins and pillowcases.

“What do we have here?” you gasp, grabbing some candy for each kid, “A pirate, a witch and--”

“I’m Freddy!” the smallest kid pipes up, wearing a top hat and bear ears.

“Oh!” you gasp, as if startled, “Well excuse me, Mister Fazbear.” You give the kids their candy and send them off with a wave. Chuckling, you return to the sofa after putting the candy bowl back on the table. You settle into the couch and return your attention to the movie, never noticing the shadow that moves to the back door.

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

Nikto had planned to surprise you by knocking on the front door. They’d even practiced saying ‘trick or treat’ with an accent, all to make you smile and laugh in delight. However, all of those plans stopped when they saw a strange man in a black and white clown suit skulking around the house. They pause and watch as the clown tiptoes cartoonishly into the backyard, pausing to shush at no one behind him. Without a thought, Nikto pulls out the sniper rifle they had brought home to tuck into the safe and raised the scope to their eye.

The clown makes a show of trying to decide what to do at the backdoor, rocking back and forth as if thinking, before snaping and raising a finger in the air before rummaging through the bloody sack he was dragging around. Nikto narrows his eye before it widens as the clown carelessly throws a decapitated head to the side, one that Nikto recognizes as the neighbor that constantly bothers you in an attempt to make you leave them. He pulls out an air pump, a piece of rebar, and some a tied kerchief rope before seeming to pull out what he planned to use. A bloody kitchen knife.

Nikto focuses on the man’s head and pulls the trigger, no thought in his head other than protecting you. The silencer works as the man’s head explodes with a pop. However, instead of falling over dead, the man’s body raises his hands and grabs at the air that was once occupied by his head. The body flails around, reaching blindly for something before grabbing the jack-o-lantern you had made before they left. He places it on his neck and nods with it. Nikto blinks, trying to make sense of what the hell was happening, as the clown seems to huff and put his hands on his hips. The clown eventually drops his fist against his palm, before clawing at the pumpkin that he made into his head.

Instead of the orange guts of the pumpkin Nikto knows should be coming out, red blood spurts out with each claw at the pumpkin. The fruit is slowly torn apart, eventually revealing the exact same head that Nikto just blew off. The clown shakes his head, dislodging the remainder of pumpkin from his head before looking up at the tree Nikto is currently in. The clown frowns and puts his fists on his hips, going so far as to shake his fist at Nikto before huffing and stomping out of the backyard. Not before regathering the items he pulled out of his bag, thankfully, but Nikto remains vigilant. They follow the clown until he disappears down the street. Clenching and unclenching their fist in time, Nikto eventually turns to the door to your home and enters, his plan gone in favor of focusing on your safety. They relax upon seeing you cuddling on the couch with Sputnik, the two of you focused on the television until Nikto enters the room. Sputnik perks up and lets out a gleeful laugh, catching your attention. When you see them, your face lights up at their arrival, and Nikto relaxes a little.

“Andre! Welcome home,” you chirp, beaming up at them. They nod and walk over to the couch, settling beside you and not flinching when you move in for a cuddle. You start to ramble about what’s occurred while they’ve been gone, and Nikto is only able to half focus on your words. They can’t relax too much, in case that clown reappears and tries to hurt you. They’d rather suffer through more torture than see you hurt.

[ikkosu]

ERWIN. FEM. READER

Erwin offers to take you the market. You don’t like him very much.

THE office was dimly lit. Interior largely of mahogany brown, the once glossy veneer now bores the stale dull of wood. Pitch black blotted the regions where the gentle glow of the lantern from your table wouldn't reach.

Everyone had clocked out for today. You offered to stay behind to clear out the register — sorting through the columns and columns of names with a hope that each and every one of the patients had been rightfully dosed of medication. While it helped to ease the workload for tomorrow, your determination had came at a price.

On your right, beyond the frost sheathed window was the swarth-en veil of the night. And, it was childish impulse that urged you halt scribbling on the paper, turn, blow, curl out a finger and drag careful lines about the cold glass. Eventually conjured was a simple smile that grinned back, expectant.

Uncertainty blossomed in your chest. But you figured a taut quirk of your lips would be enough — even if it was stiff and even if it was half hearted. After all, the night had fallen cold. Having just finish up the last few batches of report , you longed for the warm covers of your bed.

You pushed the chair back. Blew out the flickering lantern and slung the satchel over your shoulder, paving your way down the steps.The ingress, large wooden doors, was wide open and no more than a few steps later would you be free from this—

A call of your name halted your steps, coupled with succession of footsteps behind thatmade you freeze. You whirled around, greeted with a looming shadow that overhead blocks the flare of the chandelier above and three steps back is all it takes for you regard his face fully.

“Commander.” You greet. Not kindly.

The commander smiles. But it isn't just any smile. The look on his face is soft. Just as his eyes were. Crinkling blue in tandem of the curve over his whites. He is but gentle as he regards you, gentle like the smile you carved out with care on the window. A warm touch against the cold. And, yet...

Discreetly, you glance around. There is no one else in the room. He peered at the satchel you were clutching and points to it almost instinctively. "I see you are finished."

“That, I am. I cant help but ask. Is there something you need from me?”

If he had caught onto your sharp tone, he shows no visible reaction. Instead, he inclines his head, a hand dismissing the thought. "No, not of that sort. It's a lovely weather tonight and I was hoping I could accommodate you across the market. There's a festival not too far and I hear the town lights are beautiful at this time of the month."

You blinked, “How did you know I was going to the market?”

At this inquiry, Erwin turns away. " I was passing by when I overheard you chatting with the lance corporal. I deeply apologized if I made you feel—“

“It’s fine." You raise a hand. "I was only surprised you knew. Only to the market, right?"

He ponders for a moment. " We could stroll on for more?"

You nod. " Won't be too much of a harm, then. Let's go."

Despite conceding, you were hesitant. Conjuring a scandal by simply seen walking alongside the commander isn’t something you could bear. It happened several times. Many had thought you were his lover. Not that you didn't mind covering for his Commander's apparent non-existent love life there was also the fact that you wished to never associate with him at all outside work duties. But it isn't wise to turn him down as well. Not when your life depends on his hands. What keys he chose to glide it over. Strings to a puppet. Puppet bounded by string.

Speaking of puppet..

Erwin isn’t beside you. You halt and turn to find that he has his back to you, the tip of his ears red. He's hunched over as well — is he rubbing his face? Just what on earth is he doing? You narrow your eyes. “If you need to get something—“

Instantly, he turns back around, clearing his throat. His forehead is all but pinched red. “Lets not wait any longer." He says. " The night might turn colder."

"I...yes, that is..right." You nod slowly.

As he strides past you, gait stern and commanding of an officer as he, all you could think about was how strange he is. He’s a strange, strange man this commander. 

—

YOU try not to scoot away when he gets close. You also try not to flinch when his hand grazes against yours. Though, you did give him a look when he's close to holding your waist. But to be fair it was also a miscalculation, on your part. Too fixated on a stall, you tripped over your footing and it was all due to Erwin clutching your waist that the granite hadn't kissed your face yet. But the sudden proximity made you lock his eyes. He simply flushed at your look and kept his hands behind his back ever since. As though he'd be maimed the moment he twitched.

Irritation blossomed in your chest like vines curling up a ladder. Why is he acting this way? Childish. Awestruck. Often in the office, the most common expression he’s rooked on is a firm look that could melt ice and freeze hell over. Now, under the warm bustling lanterns of the festival, the past rolling fleets of vibrant mingling colors — his face is soft. One side of his cheek, the sharp contours is sheathed with bright orange while, where the shadow falls melts with the crinkle of his eyes and a shroud of a smile.

The visage of the window comes back. You push the thought away.

“A boy,” You mutter. Too bright. Much too bright.

“Hm?”

“Nothing.”

Erwin takes a step aside, cautious. "Did you find anything that you like?"

After a quick stroll round the markets, you had gotten the groceries you need. Mostly eggs and lettuce and a few chops of chicken. Now, you humored his request for a walk through the festivities.After all, the path is closer to your house, anyway which is why you conceded.

"I haven't been to a festival often. It's...new to me, to be honest."

" I see. Then I'm assuming you haven't tried these games, as well?" He gestured to the stalls.

You look, scanning the many sage tents propped up with decoration and vibrant commodities.

“Would you like to try?”

“The rifle range? I don’t think I’m adequate.”

You grimaced at the sight. Children and old seniors alike, giggling and cooing everytime a patron had made a perfect shot in the target. You were sure to humiliate him if ever you're to hold a gun.

Erwin only chuckled "Nonsense." And you flinched when his hands curled round your wrists, tugging you along. " Everyone has their own shortcomings. Learning a rifle isn't too bothersome, believe me."

Without much thought he grabs your hands and you try your hardest not to pull it away. 

—

THE man at the stall was not much taller than Erwin. He was quite built. Tanned, dark eyed and considerably not bad looking from behind his ivory draped table.

"How many rounds?" Was his polite inquiry, already propping up the station for play. Your companion pulled out a pouch— his wallet that he took out several sheets of money from.

"Just two."

You reached into your satchel, frantic. "Oh, no it's okay. I'll—"

"Two rounds." But the deal had already been docked. Money taken and stashed. You gave a betrayed look to the man who only laughed in reply.

"Have you played this before?" He loaded up the rifle with, what you're assuming, is false bullets. Plastic at most. Soft and easily reflective.

"She hasn't."

You fight the burn from your face. "I must admit remorsely...i'm not very well aquainted with...these festivities."

"Ah, you'll get to be. Don't worry. Just a few games and—" He snapped his fingers in good humor. " You'll be rooked in like a drug."

" I hope not. I wouldn't want to go through the laboring process of rehabilitation." You said dryly.

" Easier said than done, lady." Was his playful retort.

Erwin extends the rifle to you, "Ready?"

You take it reluctantly. "Quite."

After a few rounds it was increasingly clear you're not as intelligent as you would seem to be. Each play proved further that your inadequate stance, aim, position is, at most, profoundly low levelled — even, the wind at some point isn't in your favor.

Observing the target, the concentric circle consisted of three layers. You drilled all but the middle. And all but the target, even. Some bullets pelted the sage tent behind.

Erwin pats your shoulder. "No point giving up now when you have so much to lose, yes? Stay put. I will get us drinks.” 

And with that he left, disappearing amidst the flock of crowd. Now, you're here with the man who leant against the counter, regarding you with warm eyes.

"Help?"

"I'll humiliate you further if you don't." You said with a groan, lowering the muzzle. " I just can't hold it right."

He rounded the table and came behind.

" That's because you're too stiff, my lady. You should stand perpendicular to the target with your feet roughly shoulder width apart. May I?" You allowed him to cage you in. " Here, just keep your hold on it tight. ”

“Like this?” You curl your finger around the trigger. His curls over yours as well.

"Yes, like that." He echoed, "Now, aim."

You raise the muzzle in line with the target. Stance, aim, position and breathing in mind you pulled the trigger. And—

Your cheeks lift up in its own accord, carving out a bright smile from your lips. "The middle!"

"If you are then you might as well be the gods."

"Yes, the middle." He grinned as well, pointing at the chafe of a bullet in the circle. "I'm such a good savior aren't?"

His laugh rumbled through your body as he shifted behind you. "See? All it takes is—"

“Excuse me.”

The man stiffened and you both simultaneously turn to find Erwin standing at the parting of the tent with drinks and food on his arms.

The natural crinkle of his eyes and smile is now rigid under the lantern. Soft contours now donning a sharp shadow. The plastic cup in his hold is unnaturally taut, gripped firm. A kind of silence fell. You're not so sure what to say at this sudden change in disposition, but you kept quiet.

The smiley face on the window vaporized.

Erwin walks towards you. The man is already at arms length, three steps away and silent as Erwin grabs the rifle and drills in at least a perfect shot on each and every one on the target spanning across the ground.

"The prizes please.” He says politely, setting the rifle down.

The man bowed simply and left without a word.

Something simmered in your chest watching him waddled away— but it wasn’t annoyance. Something like guilt festers deep inside. But you’re not sure why you’re guilty at all when you haven’t done anything wrong yet.

When he’s done gathering the prizes, on top of all the food and drinks — seriously, how does he do that? He turns urns to you, "Shall we?”

You gathered the several box of prizes from him to ease the weight. “You can play more if you want,”

“But would it be alright if we went to a different stall?”

“I…” He wants to change stalls now? That’s….you thought he was having fun here. “Anything. It's alright, you can do whatever you want to do,”

He momentarily glances to the man. “Good.”

Good? Your confusion reeks further when his palm is on your back steering you away from the tent. Erwin twists his body, peering over your shoulder. To probably look at the target, no doubt. What could possibly fuel his sudden annoyance for the man?

That question is short-lived as the sight of food quells the confusion away.

—

WHEN Erwin bid you farewell that night he returned to his quarters immediately. It was almost a daze-like trance as he sauntered through his nightly routine. Changing into comfortable clothes, arms half-way plunging through a sleeve, his mind is consumed with the earlier escapade this evening, some lighting up a bright expression and some that drew a visible frown.

Either ways, he shook off the irritation and slumped on the bed, relished the warm cushions on his bed and wished, for a moment, that your face nuzzled the pillow beside him.

It was a memory engrained into his mind. Your face was warm under the vibrant lanterns. Almost soft, and pleasant like a summer's morning.

His face grew warm. Tip of the ears tinged pink. Erwin grabbed the pillow and plunged his face into it.

[natsuki208]

In the Middle of the Night…

Sasha Braus could not find it within her to go back to sleep after such a horrific nightmare. She now seeks for comfort.

(A gift for @sonofthesaiyans as it’s another variation of ‘Assassin’s Bullet’)

——————————————————————————

“NO! NO! GET UP!”

The brunette feels like she was yelling for hours, as her voice turns all raspy, her throat is now achy, and watery tears will not stop stinging her cheeks.

She can sense her own eyes beginning to close with no trace of light reaching her anymore, so her desperate cries are not working. All that is left is the scenery of darkness and the pain of a bullet in her chest.

-

In the middle of the night, she is awaken. She’s moved from inside of a blimp to inside her bedroom, nothing but the sounds of heavy breathing fill up the empty space. She doesn’t move an inch so she can catch her breath, only glancing around for a few seconds, until she is fully composed with what just happened.

Beads of sweat visibly disappeared now but her body still refuses to move, as if she’s still in the horrific dream world. It doesn’t take long however for her head begins tilting to the side to look at the window, to have what little light there is to shine on her face, to beckon her to get up and see outside… which she eventually does.

She gets up slowly out of her bed for she’s still slightly shaking, looks out at the dark night with the only light inhabiting in the environment being from the full moon. This at least allows her to notice the daisies outside, they are all in bloom in time for spring. Such a visual brings a small smile back to her face although she still doesn’t feel a hundred percent like herself again; what she needs is physical comfort.

After a few more minutes of admiring the white flowers, she walks steadily to the opposite side of the room and opens the main door. Hopefully somebody is willing to help her at this hour.

-

Usually the brunette would immediately go for the storage supplies for a little snack (or a much bigger one) but not tonight, what she really needs is closure. She walks into the big open room full of nothing but seating, the sofas are all close together and only a side table with a lantern off at the side.

Maybe she can stay here for a moment to reclaim her thoughts before going to find someone, but that idea doesn’t last long however. Light breathing noises can be heard, very slow and tranquil, and is coming from the sofa in front of her. A few steps forward and one small peep is enough to inform her that her black-haired Asian friend is sleeping soundly lying down. But the brunette is confused, so she softly whispers out her friend’s name.

“Psst, Mikasa…”

But even that is enough to alert the girl to wake up immediately. Mikasa springs up with a light gasp, sending surprise right back to the other, and she turns over to look at her in the face.

“Sasha? How long was I sleeping here?” She asks quietly.

“You tell me. I only just walked in here.”

Mikasa looks back down at her hands on her knees, feeling ashamed, but why? With Sasha being the curious person that she is, wants to ask why she isn’t in bed like everyone else, but soon remembers the obvious reason. She hates to do so but hesitantly opens her mouth and kinda lets it out.

“A-Are you… still waiting?”

Another gasp escapes from Mikasa, but it sounds sad this time. Sasha feels more terrible than when she woke up… sort of. Before either of them can reply, a great big yawn comes from the door behind Sasha. The door knob moves as the door swiftly opens again, this time a tall man with slightly grown-out hair walks in with his eyes closed. Once he opens them, things get a little awkward.

“Eh?” He mutters sleepily. “What are you two doing here?”

“We could ask you the same question, Connie.” Mikasa speaks up first.

“Oh I just came by to find a snack and head- *yawn* back to sleep. You want one, Sasha?”

The brunette feels embarrassed to admit it, but is desperate for friends to help her after such an experience in slumber, that she needs to come forward with it. “I-I’m not hungry actually.”

Somehow this springs Connie awake. Mikasa can’t help but be surprised either. Poor Sasha now most definitely feels mortified.

“Sasha, is everything okay?” Mikasa asks with concern.

“Y-Yeah. No offence but that doesn’t sound like you.” Connie attempts his best to not be harsh.

Those anxious feelings come flooding right back through her body, she tries her best not to cry again, even if one small tear slips through. Luckily, Connie is too stupid and half-asleep to catch it but Mikasa is another story. Without hesitation, she requests that Sasha should sit with her for a moment - the saddened brunette nods and shifts her way over.

Nothing is said at first, leaving the tired Connie feeling awkward standing, until Sasha gives in with her emotional stress. “I… I just had a bad nightmare, that’s all.”

The two others show both concern and confusion in their expressions. “What are you saying?” Connie butts in. “A nightmare about what?”

A pause occurs. The scratching of nervousness doesn’t help Sasha any further, or playing with her hair or holding back more tears. Brief memories replay in her head over and over again: everyone of the current scouts were in a blimp, there was cheering, interrupted by the sound of a gunshot, she fell to the floor, Jean and Connie were yelling at her, and light was fading away.

Such an event of a plausible death is what can occur anytime during the war and she hates it. So much in fact that she can’t formulate a response. She hurries her hands in her face, finally letting it out of her system, all while two of her closest friends watch.

Mikasa doesn’t hold back either, as she shifts closer to her friend and softly rubs her back up and down (something she recalls Carla doing for her a lot when she was a kid) and Connie takes his seat on Sasha’s other side. Confusingly, he just lays a hand on her shoulder for now. Sasha can sense he’s close and instantly rests her head on his shoulder, making him blush a little, as her breathing slows step by step.

Connie stares at the equally as calm Mikasa just over Sasha’s head. “Should we tell Captain Levi and Commander Hange about this?” He whispers.

“Not now, Connie.” She whispers back. “This is all she needs right now.”

There the trio stay all quietly resting on the sofa, the gentle breeze outside is all that can be heard with their breathing, and moonlight shines through the thin curtains. When all seems peaceful, Connie shuts his eyes once more and droops his head to the side where Sasha is - hopefully he doesn’t end up snoring. Mikasa, keeping her hand on Sasha’s lap, continues to look at the front door for another few minutes before drifting to a light sleep herself.

No words were needed at this point, just the comfort of friends to get her relaxed again is what really matters.

What would the rest of the scouts think if they woke up only to find this? Will Sasha be okay enough to discuss things probably in the morning? Hopefully she will be.

-

The midnight hour comes to a close with a faint yet beautiful smile spreading on the sleeping brunette’s lips.

[only-lonely-stars]

The Heart of the Mountain

Oneshot – (FFN) (AO3)

Summary:

After the Tournament of the Sources, Cole goes underground in Shintaro in search of answers. Queen Vania, who hasn't seen him since before the Merge, follows him.

Sort of a sequel to Where Are You?. MAJOR SPOILERS for Dragons Rising Season 2 Part 2! You have been warned.

Vania wasn’t there when Cole arrived, but she heard about it from her staff. It was the Master of Earth’s first visit to Shintaro since the Merge. She hadn’t heard from him, hadn’t seen more than a few news clips��� and he was there.

Underground.

He’d ignored her, not even bothering to say hello before descending into the mountain. It was his right to go down there, but being snubbed hurt. He did what he wanted, no matter how it impacted anyone else, because usually it only helped people!

Vania was the Queen of Shintaro. If there was anyone who could do as they liked, it was her.

Two can play at this game, Cole.

So Vania canceled every duty she had for the day. She dressed in her favorite adventuring outfit, freshly plaited her hair into a crown braid, and touched up her makeup. Then she followed him into the darkness and depths, bearing a lantern and striding with confidence.

—

She found him standing in the Heart of the Mountain. 

He was staring up at the statue of Lily, everything illuminated in orange. It almost looked like a trance, the way he stood so still, the way the whole room was built to frame him.

For a moment, she didn’t recognize him at all. 

“...Cole?”

The ninja before her straightened up, then turned to look at her in surprise. His black hair was longer than she remembered, his eyes a little more tired. “Vania?”

Vania frowned, trying to understand what she saw. Cole was wearing something new: white, orange and steel gray. It was a complicated suit, not unlike a set of armor, and entirely different from a ninja gi.

She preferred his usual black, but it was still quite handsome on him. He was always handsome. 

“You… didn’t come say hello. I thought I would come down and find you.”

In case you didn’t come find me before you left.

Because I missed you.

Why didn’t you bother to find me?

“Oh…” Cole looked away, having the decency to be ashamed. “I”m sorry, Vania. Hailmar said you were busy. I didn’t want to interrupt anything.”

“You know you’re never an interruption.” Vania approached him, but it felt like entering a home uninvited. “I just… haven’t seen you in so long. I heard about your surviving the Merge, and you never responded to any of my letters, and… then you disappeared again. I thought you were avoiding me.”

“Avoiding you? No!” Cole stammered, finally coming to her and grasping one of her hands. The contact was welcome, and she had to smile, looking up into his eyes as he seemed to come back to himself. “I’m sorry, Vania, really. I just have a lot on my mind.”

She laughed softly. “When do you not? Every time I hear from you, you tell me about yet another catastrophe.”

“Ha, well, you know how it is being a ninja. Never enough time or people to help with all the things going wrong in the world.” Cole reached up and ruffled his hair, but he didn’t let go of her hand. With ruffled hair, he looked a little bit more like she remembered– boyish, carefree, adventurous. “And this time is unfortunately no different.”

“So I’ve heard.” She mustered her best attitude for him, pushing away her frustrations. “Why are you down here? And… what’s going on with the new outfit?”

“Oh, this?” Cole looked down, letting go of her hand so he could mess with it. He tugged at the material, as if to change the fit, but eventually gave up with a sigh. “It’s a long story. Maybe this isn’t the place for it… or maybe it is. I don’t know.”

“That… means nothing. You know that, right?”

“I know, I know.” Cole laughed, then stomped his right foot. The earth rumbled in response, producing a bench made of rock that faced the statue of Lily. It was a detailed structure, with indentations that almost looked hand-carved, despite Vania seeing it grow before her very eyes. 

Cole led her to sit on it next to her. It was wide enough for two with just a little space between them. Nothing more than a hand’s width.

It was more distance from him than Vania wanted, even now, and she felt brave. She shifted to the side, so that they were touching at the hip. Cole looked surprised, but when she smiled, he rested his arm on the back of the bench behind her.

Why wait so long, Cole? Didn’t you know I was waiting for you? 

After a moment’s pause, in which Cole did nothing, Vania knew she was being too hopeful. She looked down at her hands. “So. What’s kept you away? I heard there was some conflict with Imperium.”

“Yeah, although that’s kind of old news now. Do you want me to start at the beginning?”

Vania inspected her hands. “...Why don’t you summarize, and then tell me about what happened most recently?”

“I can do that.”

Vania leaned back against Cole’s arm, part of her attention fixated on just how strong she knew he was, and Cole didn’t seem to mind. When she finally looked back at him, attentive to his story, she saw the glint in his eye.

Excitement, adventure, and danger. All the things she loved in his stories! She couldn’t keep back a smile. “Come on, tell me!”

“I was just trying to figure out where to start!” Cole laughed, and with it, Vania’s spirits lifted. “Okay. It all began at the Merge.”

—

Vania accepted Cole’s cell phone, considering the photo it showed her. “So this one is where I start?”

“Yeah, exactly. That’s the Land of Lost Things.” She swiped through it, seeing the mountains of trash and miscellaneous objects, until pausing at a statue. “That’s… one of Geo’s statues?”

“Yeah! The guy’s a whiz at them.” Cole swiped through a few for her, past other statues, until he stopped. “That’s him, and Bonzle too.”

Vania peered at the screen. He looked just as Cole had described him: a purple Munce who was almost obsessed with color and found object art, grinning and showing off his sharp teeth. Bonzle, the spell-turned-skeleton, was looking at the camera with a slightly bored smile. “They look nice! You should bring them to Shintaro sometime.”

“I dunno… Geo’s been burned before. He got stuck there because nobody missed him, since he was off-color.”

“No, you should bring him.” Vania gave Cole a smile, searching his orange-flecked eyes. “We’ve been making real progress since you left! There are some Geckles and Munce who are practically family now. Geo deserves to be around that, to have a part in it.”

Cole laughed, and she suppressed a happy shiver as he toyed with one of her loose strands of hair. “Sure, Vania. I’ll tell him next time we run into each other.”

“Good. I’d love to meet any of your friends.”

“And I’d love for them all to meet you.”

The way he said it made her feel like there were butterflies in her stomach.

You talk to me like that, but you don’t make a move. Stop playing with my heart like this!

Vania felt her cheeks heating up, so she looked back down at the phone. She swiped through a few pictures of two little boys playing– they had to be Fritz and Spitz. “You said you also had some pictures of the City of Temples, right?”

“Oh, yeah! Sorry, I got distracted.” Cole took the phone back and swiped through it, past pictures of the Ninja and their students, past sweeping landscapes and blue pies. He stopped at a cityscape, clad in gold and ringed by mountains. “It really reminded me of Shintaro.”

“Oh, wow! It’s so similar!” Vania looked with delight as he moved through them. “The stonework is just incredible.”

“I know! I wish I’d gotten the chance to explore more.” Cole stopped at a picture of the arena. “Here’s where we fought. I wish I could say I did well, but… hey. Sora won, and we’re all really proud of her!”

“Of course.” Vania rested her head against his shoulder. “Did you get very far?”

“Uh… no, actually. I kind of got curb stomped.”

She laughed. “You? Curb stomped? It must have been a mighty opponent.”

“Would you believe me if I said it was a Serpentine kid?”

“Maybe.” She giggled. “At least you got to watch the rest of those fights. They must have been really impressive.”

“Oh yeah! Especially Lloyd’s fights. He did a great job!” Cole laughed. “And then… well, I missed a few. And that’s actually why I’m here.”

She looked up at him, curious by how his voice had shifted from lighthearted reminiscence into something somber. His expression was as serious as she’d ever seen him. He was looking at the statue again… studying it.

She prompted, “Cole?”

He frowned. “I don’t know, Vania. It was just… weird.”

“What was weird? I don’t understand.”

Cole sighed, and she watched as he seemed to almost physically shrink. She’d long outgrown her childish fantasies about him and his mountainous strength, but moments like these are even more of a reminder that Cole wasn’t just some incredible, legendary figure.

He was just a man.

I like him better this way.

“When I was in the City of Temples, I found a mech. It was attuned to my element. After I’d lost my element to the tournament, I needed a vehicle, and I went back to it.” He drew away, hugging himself with both arms. “It was my mother’s, and there was a mech suit in it that fit me. This suit.”

Vania blinked in surprise. “Is that why you’re wearing this?”

“Ha, yeah. I know, it’s not my usual style.”

“It’s not bad,” she assured, inspecting it more closely. The similarities to armor made sense now, the steel and segmentation. The color scheme also made sense, considering what records of Lily they still had in Shintaro. She’d always loved the color white. “How come there was a suit that fit you?”

“I don’t know.” Cole sighed, his vice-like grip on himself loosening. “It was the perfect size. Maybe it wasn’t my mom’s, maybe it was my grandfather’s. Or maybe my great-grandparent’s? Or even older? I have no idea, and there wasn’t anything inside it to say whose it was originally.” He shook his head. “That’s the thing. It was charged with Earth energy, and I was able to harness it even though my element had been taken by the dragon ivory. I don’t know why!”

Vania’s heart softened. She reached out and laid her hands on Cole’s, watching as he looked over. His eyes expressed pain.

No wonder why he didn’t come find me. He needed answers.

She reached up and touched his face, brushing aside a strand of hair, and said, “I can only imagine how confusing that is.”

Cole smiled, so she continued. “Who knows why it was there? Maybe they somehow knew you would need it.”

“Even if it was generations ago? I find that hard to believe,” he confessed with a laugh. “The element of Earth has never come with visions of the future, just… back aches and dirt under our fingernails.”

“Do you need knowledge of the future to know your heirs might need something?” Vania posed her challenge as more of a question, but they both knew she was pushing him. “Cole, I know my heirs will need things. Laws, instructions, records of what I did and why. Your ancestors probably did similar things. You will probably do similar things. The mech was obviously left for you.”

He glanced away. “Maybe…”

“No, there’s no ‘maybe’ about it. I know it’s true.”

Another laugh burst from him, unbidden. “Okay. Sure. You’re right. But that’s not the only thing bothering me.”

Before she could ask, Cole got up from the bench and began to pace. “Here’s what I don’t get. I found a mech that’s just right for the job. Then I had a dream that showed exactly where I would need to go, and the mech got me there. Then, once I actually arrived, the ghost of Master Wu showed up and spoke to me!” 

He was all but tearing his hair out when he looked at her again. “Vania, I don’t understand! He said he caused the Merge. Wu would never do that intentionally. I know he would never want that! I practically raised him– I know it’s backwards, but it’s true, and I know that’s not like him!” 

He stood still, breathing heavily from his rant. 

Vania watched him. Pacing and barely rational. This was the man she had missed for so long, the one she’d longed for all these long months they’d been apart.

She felt the impulse to get up and go to him, so she followed it. She hugged him, burying herself in his arms and his armor. Cole held her, tense yet relaxing slowly at her touch.

Vania took a deep breath, smelling earth and tea and machine oil. “I don’t know either, but we can find out together. You don’t have to figure it out alone, Cole.”

He wilted. “I know. I’ve got my team. But–”

“No. Not just them.” Vania looked up at him, holding his gaze, daring him to look away from her. “You have me.”

“But you’re all the way in Shintaro,” he protested.

“So send me a letter! Call me! We have phones, you know.” She pulled him down to rest his head against hers, daring him to pull away. “Cole Brookstone, if you ask me to come to you, I will come. It doesn’t matter when or where or how. You are not alone.”

He held still, and for a moment, she felt like she’d pushed too far. Had she done something she couldn’t undo? Had she thrown herself at him, more than she had the day they’d met, and he’d disliked it? Had time dampened their connection, their friendship, until every spark of more had been stamped out?

Cole sighed, closing his eyes. “Okay. I’ll… I’ll stay in touch better, Vania. I’ll tell you when I figure out any more of this, or find any more clues.”

Vania closed her eyes to match him. She could feel her fears slowly washing away and being replaced by peace.

“Don’t leave for so long next time, please?”

“Okay. I won’t.”

“That includes if you get… stuck somewhere, or are about to have a big battle, or whatever else is waiting for you. I worry about you when you’re gone.”

“I’m sorry.” She opened her eyes to see him pulling back, and for the first time in their conversation, he looked truly apologetic. “Really, I am.”

“I know.” She smiled again, reaching up to caress his face. Even now, delight coursed through her when he leaned into her touch. “I’m not holding anything against you, Cole. You should know that… I never will.”

“Even if I disappear again?”

Vania laughed. 

This man. This sweet, stupid man. 

“I will search all the Merged Realms if I have to, but you are not disappearing on me again. Ever.”

Finally, the smile on Cole’s face seemed to last. He reached up and toyed with her hair, his hands exceedingly gentle. “As you wish, your Highness.”

His shoulders were not so tense now, his voice softened by affection, and Vania knew that he had gotten what he came for.

The Heart of the Mountain slowly dimmed, coming back to its dormant state, until the darkness was close at hand and broken only by her lantern’s weak glow. The lantern light played across the walls, across Cole’s face, across both of their hearts.

Please… stay with me this time.

She knew he wouldn’t, and yet prayed for it anyway.

[therizino-ao3]

Hermit Horror Week 2023

Day two: Environment

Summary: xB wants to support his friend, but there’s something about his base that feels wrong. He can’t bring himself to leave, no matter how much he knows he should.

Read on ao3

Contains: unreliable narrator, a character being non-consensually drugged (implied + in a magical way), loss of free will (strongly implied), panic attacks, fairy folklore, suffocation mention, weird time shenanigans

“So dude, have you seen my base yet?”

xB looks up from the diamonds he’d been counting, “Hmm? No, I haven’t. You’re doing like, mushrooms or something, right?” So far, his and Hypno’s business has been doing great. They’ve been getting quite a few sales lately, to say nothing of the IOU collection they’re racking up. They’re making bank.

“Yep! Like a mushroom forest, mystical land kinda thing,” Hypno takes the diamonds xB hands him, “You should totally see it! I’ve finished the main mushroom and a bunch of decoration around the place, it looks so cool.”

“I’ll take your word for it. I’m happy to head over now, if you want?”

They head over there by foot, instead of by elytra. It’s… a little weird, but xB doesn’t mind, he thinks Hypno wants to show off the custom lamps he’s made for the path. It’s quite atmospheric, he’ll admit, with the towering dark oaks letting only small puddles of sunshine hit the ground, and the glowing fungi beckoning them forward. It’s magical.

They seem to walk for ages, wandering down the twisting path. At one point, xB turns around, just to see what’s behind them. There’s nothing. It’s pure black, no sign of the pretty little lamps they just passed. xB swivels back to Hypno, about to voice his concerns, but Hypno starts talking about dye farms and making concrete and xB just kind of forgets about it. It’s not too much of a concern, anyway. The further in they go, the more xB realises how safe it is. Like, initially he was super concerned of a creeper crawling out from the forest, with how dark it was outside the path, but he actually hasn’t seen a single creature other than them. He can’t even hear the birds sing here. Hypno must have done some mad mob-proofing.

Eventually, the trees open out and he looks at Hypno’s hard work and instantly his stomach drops. His mind is screaming at him to get out. He needs to leave. His heart is thundering. His eyes squeeze closed. Then, he feels Hypno’s comforting hand on his shoulder and it’s all okay. He blinks a little and looks up at his friend.

“Is everything alright xB?” he’s frowning.

“Yeah, I’m just- I felt on the verge of a panic attack for a second there but, now it’s all gone,” his face feels a bit wet, is he crying?

“Are you sure? We can go back if you’d like, I don’t want to continue if you’re hurt,” Hypno looks concerned.

“No, no, it’s all fine. It might be like, hay fever from all these mushroom spores,” he says. As he says it, he knows it makes absolutely no sense, but he wants Hypno to stop worrying.

“Alright,” Hypno seems to buy it, his tone becoming more playful, “You know, you can just admit you’re jealous of how cool my base is, xB!”

“I am not jealous, we all know, out of the two of us, I got the cooler base. M’kay?” he smiles, feeling a bit better. They’ve crossed over a barrier of tiny mushrooms in front of the path, seeming to circle around the whole area. Inside, there’s a field of beautiful light green grass, home to all sorts of fungi Hypno’s been cultivating. They’re mainly red and white, with some brown, but they’re in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. Throughout the area, there are fairy lights and lanterns and fireflies and they all glow in the darkening dusk sky. When they left Horse Head Farms, it was mid-morning, xB remembers. It’s funny how fast time passes.

Most of the mushrooms seem decorative, but the larger ones have been made into buildings. There are cute little doors carved into the trunks and signs that say things like “Storage” or “Farms”. One particularly thick and pretty mushroom has been decorated a lot, he assumes it must have been Hypno’s starter base.

“I can’t believe you’re living in Smurf village, dude,” xB giggles.

Hypno punches his arm, “This is not a Smurf village! It’s a fairy realm. Get it right, xB.”

xB’s mouth feels dry. He knows that word. Fairy. Right now, he can’t think of what it means. He nods. He looks at the giant mushroom in the centre of the base.

It’s obviously the centrepiece, towering over every other mushroom. It’s incredibly beautiful. Hypno leads them to the front entrance. xB feels sick looking up at the gills of the mushroom. He can almost imagine the microscopic spores floating down, filling their mouths, suffocating them. Spore particles would probably be good to add, the movement would make the build more dynamic. He’ll tell Hypno later. Hypno drags xB into his home. The wooden staircase looks very nice, Hypno’s done a pretty good job on the spiral. They run up it together. The air smells sweet, almost sickly. After a very short tour, they come back outside - Hypno hasn’t finished the interiors yet. He’s surprised he was allowed to leave, he thought Hypno would trap him there forever, not that he’d mind.

Hypno is looking at him, “So what do you think of my base, xB?”

xB thinks. He thinks about the amazing lights and the vibrant colours and the magical aura. He thinks about Hypno, who’s one of his best friends, who has worked so hard on this base, who xB would do anything he asks him to do. That’s weird, he’s able to realise. He likes Hypno but Hypno is also sometimes very annoying, and other times, xB just likes to mess with him. He wouldn’t do everything Hypno wants. He thinks about all the people willingly signing their IOUs. Is xB willingly answering Hypno’s question? Not that he has any choice, he has to answer it regardless. He wonders if Hypno’s human. He always assumed he was, not having any visible non-human traits, but sometimes the signs are more subtle. He’s thinking too hard.

“Hmm, it’s alright,” he says, “My base is still better.”

[i-speak-for-the-universe]

(READ TAGSSS… pls) Dropping another chapter bc late night motivation got me in a choke hold last night (Logicality Siren AU fic)

Patton woke up on sun-warmed sand, him flipping onto his stomach to cough up non-existent water, all he could remember before being thrown overboard was the hurtful chant’s overwhelming his ears.

He was still thoroughly confused, dazed by the quickly warming mid-afternoon summer sun into another spell of unconsciousness.

He wasn’t expecting to wake up for the second time, already anticipating himself in some type of afterlife until someone shook him, jolting him into complete consciousness.

He yelped, a name almost coming to his lips before it disappeared on his tongue, leaving him panting in the oddly empty air.

“Oh thank the gods, he’s alive.” A relieved voice spoke, followed by a rougher, more scruffy and teasing one. “Ugh, boo! No fun!��

“Remus!” The first voice scorned, Patton blinking as his eyes adjusted to the wonkily distributed candle and lantern light. “Hello? Are you there?” Patton heard words being spoken to him, a hand waving an inch or so away from his face.

He swallowed, getting his breathing under control before answering. “Y-yeah. Where… Where am I?” He asked shakily, giving himself a shake before rubbing his nose bridge, realizing his glasses weren’t there and quickly checking for his conch shell, which was luckily still secure around his neck.

One of the voices snorted, the one Patton assumed was Remus. “Somewhere safer than out their baking on the beach like a human gingersnap.” Patton turned to look at Remus as he spoke.

Remus was tall, his head covered in a mass of long and thick dark brown curls. He had emerald green eyes and a scraggly (yet it was obviously styled to look that way) dark brown mustache. He was wearing black leather pants, boots, and fingerless gloves, covering his chest with a black-dyed deer hide tunic.

“Yes, my brother is at least somewhat right.” So the two were brothers. “This is our humble abode, and we have brought you her in the hope that you are not dead.” The other voice explained, Patton turning to look at that brother.

“And, my apologies, we have not yet introduced ourselves. I am Roman,” Roman put a hand to his chest respectfully. “And that,” He gestured to Remus. “Is my twin brother, Remus.” Remus mimicked the hand-to-chest gesture his brother did, there seeming to be at least an ounce of respect in the man.

Patton took a second to examine Roman before introducing himself in turn. Roman was an inch or two shorter than Remus, straighter and lighter brown hair cut shorter on his head, eyes a shade of brown that sparked a deep red at some angles.

He was wearing brown leather pants and boots, the boots stained darker than his pants. His shirt was an off-white cotton and he seemed to have a leather quiver strapped to his back.

“Oh, it’s alright, I’m Patton by the way!” Patton finally introduced himself, offering a hand for both of the twins to shake.

“Don’t worry, we’ll show you around our small beachside town after we get you something to eat.” Roman said after shaking his hand, smiling confidently as he spoke. “I’m sure you’ll make friends fast, you seem to be a good fellow.”

Roman helped Patton get off of the small bed he woke up on as Remus scurried off to get Patton a change of clothes. Once changed into simple horse leather pants and an off-white and blue striped shirt (though everything was slightly baggy considering the twins both had slightly larger statures than him), he was happy to eat nearly anything set in front of him.

Thankfully, what was set in front of him was a simple spaghetti, though obviously made by Roman due to the twin’s comment on his brother’s inability to not set fire to something when cooking over the three’s meal. The two feuded for the rest of the meal even after they both finished.

Eventually, the argument defused, leading Remus to comment on what to do. “Oo! Ro-bro, we should show Patton around the city!”

While Roman agreed and the twins started deciding where to take Patton, he was internally struggling. He literally just washed up to this town no more than a day ago and now they want to show him the town already?

He was on the fence but it was clear they weren’t going today, so the twins set Patton up with a cot and other sleeping materials before explaining where they would be going tomorrow.

The twins went upstairs to bed, leaving Patton downstairs with just a little lantern and a teddy he was given to snuggle for the night to keep him company.

Something just felt… wrong. The twins were very hospitable, don’t get him wrong, but he just felt like there was an inexplainable gap in his memory that he just couldn’t piece together.

Well, there wasn’t much he could do right now. So, he simply brushed it off the best he could, blowing out the lantern before settling down for bed.

[deadclawed]

A Third Wheel Brings Extra Stability

Azriel and Cassian have secretly been taking each other as lovers for weeks. They want to tell Rhys, but he's just been so grouchy lately...

Chapter One.

18+. This is self-indulgent smut. Read the next chapter on ao3.

—

Night fell on the House of Wind and Rhys was still in his study. Cassian and Azriel sat next to each other in front of the magnificent floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city below. The nightlife of Velaris was beginning to wake, lanterns lighting and the streets starting to crowd.

Cassian swirled the auburn whiskey in his glass, perfectly content with staying here in comfortable silence next to Azriel for the rest of the night, enjoying the company of one another until someone eventually retired to bed. But something was nagging at him.

Rhys had seemed so tired lately. Distant. His usual lively violet eyes fading into a dull plum. Still beautiful, but not so distinctly him. He had tried gently pressing the issue, asking Rhys with a light touch on the shoulder if there was anything he can do to help, but all he got was the grumbled out "I’m fine", and, "Stop being a mother hen."

"I’ll stop being a mother hen as soon as your complexion stops resembling that of an egg," he had told him, earning a pinch on his wing.

He glanced from the light glowing underneath the door to Rhysand’s study and back to Azriel’s casually neutral face, moonlight accentuating the peaks and dips of his cheekbones and jaw as he took a sip of his drink and watched the partygoers below.

“You’re staring,” Azriel grumbled, eyes still fixed downwards.

“You’re drinking very loudly,” he lied easily, watching a blush creep up Azriel’s neck, a pretty pale pink for a male who spends most of his life in the darkness of shadow.

He sharply turned in his seat. “I am not.”

Cassian flashes him a shit-eating grin, all gleaming white and pointed canines. “You are. You just couldn’t hear it over your own incessant gulping.”

“Your breathing is incessant.”

They stared at each other for a long moment wearing equal smirks, eyes narrowing in challenge. Perhaps they were both just tipsy enough to start a sparring match in the common area. As he contemplated his takedown, Cassian began to feel the full weight of Azriel’s stare, heavy like something was pushing down on his shoulders to keep him firmly planted in his seat. He squirmed.

Azriel’s lip quirked slightly in a smug grin, finally pulling away his gaze and shooting down the rest of his whiskey in one swallow. Cassian’s body began to feel lighter now that he was no longer under the weight of his brother’s sharp observation. But that lingering unease was still there, unable to be ignored for much longer. “Have you noticed the ..” he began, unsure of how to voice his concern over Rhys but knowing it was too late to take it back, “the weariness?”

Cassian was grateful that Azriel’s posture seemed to slacken in recognition. “Leadership is weary business,” Azriel said, resuming his survey of the city below, slowly turning his now empty glass on the armrest.

“This is different.”

Azriel thought for a moment. “Yes.”

“Should we d-” Rhys emerged from the study, starlight bathing him and soaking into his freshly combed hair. He was dressed well, in all black, with a fine jacket that helped accentuate his trim waist and powerful arms. The dark circles were still clinging to his eyes and his face was still an unusual pale, but his violet irises shone a little brighter. Hopeful.

“I’m going to Rita’s,” he said plainly, and yes, he did sound a bit chipper. Strange.

He was already halfway to the door before Cassian stood. “Let me grab my coat. I’ll go with you.”

Rhys stopped, turning to his brothers with a cautious smile that looked more like a grimace. “Don’t get your coat, Cassian.”

“Oh, is it warm tonight? I could just go in this,” he said, gesturing to his 'float like a bat. sting like a bat.' t-shirt.

Rhys’ face grew even more pained. Azriel stood and made his way over to Cassian, studying Rhysand’s face and clothing as he drew nearer. “He’s meeting someone,” he said bluntly.

That confused Cassian even more. “Well, then, we will both go with you,” he offered, waving a hand between himself and Azriel. “We should be present for Night Court business.”

“Cas-” Rhysand began, and for the first time in a long while, the High Lord of the Night Court seemed to be actively searching for the right words.

“He’s meeting someone,” Az said again, commanding Cassian’s attention.

Cassian stood perplexed for several moments. How could Rhys be so low energy, moping around for weeks and then suddenly want to meet someone at Rita’s? What changed? And, more importantly, who is this person? He’d been trying to get Rhys to go out somewhere, anywhere, with him to get his spirits back up, but he always said no. Was it him? Did he want to get away from him?

“Oh!” he said, connecting the dots, “Oh.” He plastered on a smile that didn’t even feel the slightest bit convincing. Rhys echoed it, anyway.

Azriel clapped a hand on Cas’ shoulder and led him back to the adjacent chairs overlooking the city, sitting him down and grabbing the bottle of whiskey to refill their glasses. As Azriel began pouring into his glass, Cassian called out to Rhys who was now almost too quietly trying to exit the house. “Enjoy yourself, Rhysie,” he mused.

Rhys rolled his eyes and the door clicked shut behind him.

Azriel resumed his place next to Cassian, liquor and emotions both renewed. Cassian turned to him once more, extending his glass like he was about to make a mocking toast until he saw that look on Azriel’s face. Quiet brooding. Always planning. Always assessing. “We’re going to follow him, aren’t we?”

Azriel stifled a smirk and clinked their glasses.

[autisticrosewilson]

here to ask about Spencer and Mae

pls may I have some knowledge on them 👀

YES!!! Okay so Mae'rot is my character, she's a part of a team of characters that came from me thinking about if there was a Lantern team that was full of magical girls! Spencer was made by @andi-dromeda and he's technically a part of the flash fam, but he spends most of his time with the Lanterns.

CW for Death, bugs, body horror, ect. My characters are freaks guys

Mae is a part of a made up species of fungus people and she's the black lantern! I did rewrite the lantern lore a little because I thought what they did with the Pink and Black Lantern's specifically were stupid and boring.

The Pulchra Putredo are a people that worship death, although they themselves cannot die in the traditional sense. See they inhabit the land of Pulput, a floating island that was all that's left of an older, long forgotten planet, home to a piece of the Black Lantern's reactor core. No one knows where the Pulchra originated from but the first recorded records were of them turning the dry barren soil into a bustling hub of foliage, this is because though their bodies breakdown they become a part of the land. Which makes Pulput a living planet crawling with the overgrown bodies of everything that's ever died there.

It's easy to see why they grew to revere the concept of death, as this beautiful unattainable thing that they all reach for with open arms. Despite how much they all love death because they have no true concept of mortality none of them can wield it.

Until Mae. See she was originally Kryptonian but when the Pulchra came to collect what was left of the planet, they found a lone baby girl. And this was exciting, because she was born from death, and while she would live a long time she could die. She WOULD die, eventually. They take her to their planet, very far from any sun at all, and make her one of them. They do this basically allowing their roots and mold and whatnot to spread to her, inside and out she is overtaken by moss and spores. She's raised by a family of Ink Caps, which are the first mushrooms to begin growing from her skin which is weakened by the lack of sunlight.

The Pulchra are also a hive mind species! They all have something of a mental link to each other and Mae is included in this, although she's born only linked to her family instead of the entire species. She has to manually collect the others by becoming infected by their spores, and she can give this link to others by giving them hers!

Because she's so far from any kind of sun she's very sickly and weak with almost none of her Kryptonian powers and very little connection to her roots, and she has no desire to explore it. Because she's always on death's door with her health the lantern core reacts to her but she can't control it, mostly it just overwhelms her with the voices of the dead when she's near it. She's almost like a prophet to the Pulchra as the spirits come from past, present, and future and they can give her messages that she passes on.

It's only when she's older that she gets her ring, she dies on an excavation into a planet's ruins and is reanimated by the ring after rot and decay has had time to set in. She's stronger now ironically, no longer shambling about half unconscious, although now she's being consumed by multiple insects from her planet (a great honor, if death is their holy spirit, the land is their father, and the insects are the son) and she needs to feed on dead things to survive.

Her hobbies include gardening, rock collecting, learning dead languages, and grave robbing! She's close with my Yellow and Pink lanterns, she has a crush on the Indigo, and she's got a homoerotic rivalry with the White lantern (of which I also changed the lore for because these are magical girls and I have a theme here).

She now has a lesser version of the core's powers, so while she can control ghosts it's only ones that have died recently. She can reanimate things but they'd just be mindless puppets, not truly alive. She can cause people to age/decay rapidly (usually this acts like a bad sickness) and she can manipulate shadows instead of light. Along with the flight, strength, and durability the rings give all their users. While near gamma radiation she can access her Kryptonian powers but doesn't really like them so she uses Kryptonite to weaken herself.

Is she a horrific mass of maggots and rot? Yes. Does this exclude her from a magical girl transformation or sparkly outfit? Of course not!! I'm actually so mad that all the lantern suits are so boring like you can literally make them look however you want and you all look the same. I know the meta reason is because who wants to draw that many different suits but I don't care, all my girls are slaying.

All of the girls have three core motifs and a mix of different aesthetics that I'd draw from if I had artistic skill. Mae's are plague doctors, ink, and fungus and she prefers looser baggier clothes to make room for all of the creatures and plants growing out of her skin. She would prefer not wearing shoes at all, but because she's one big contaminant she has to wear very thick gloves and boots when interacting with people of Earth, and she usually wears her mask too because her appearance is generally pretty off-putting.

The other Kryptonians...well let's just say they're not super fond of her, and she really doesn't like them. They're insistent that she's an abomination, something that needs to be fixed, mostly they just feel bad for her, for her whole existence. Mae doesn't take kindly to their pity, this is everything she's ever aspired to be. She feels equally bad for them! It must be terribly lonely, isolated within their own flesh and mind, islands onto themselves, unfathomable even to each other. It's her worst nightmare and she tries to avoid them where possible.

Her people are pacifists so she only uses her abilities defensively and honestly isn't much for combat anyway, she believes that death is a gift that should come to people through natural means only, but this changes the longer she's on the team. As her character progresses she gradually decides some people should have to earn their death, and she's the person who should make them. This is the only time she uses her rapid decay powers. She rarely uses the ghost powers as she doesn't like disturbing their rest but she can be convinced by people she's close to, so she usually relies on shadow manipulation during battles.

Growing up with a species that only communicates through a mental link means she never learned how to talk! Her ring usually speaks for her, although she eventually learns some ASL the longer she's on earth. It has the default AI voice at first but when she learns how to change it I think she'd sound like Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

I won't say too much about Spencer but he's one of the people she's closest to, and the only person on earth who shares the link with her and her family. They have an obsessive kind of queer platonic relationship, where although they love each other it's not explicitly romantic and there's definitely nothing sexual about it. Not in human terms at least, the Pulchra have sex and relationship dynamics the likes of which we couldn't comprehend. They're the definition of soulmates and unfortunately I am obsessed with them.

[maniacwatchestheworld]

Okay, okay, okay, so hear me out... Blue Lantern Harvey Dent.

So lately I've been playing with this idea that like... The Joker somehow managed to get his hands on the Black Lantern ring, and so Batman needs to get the Justice League to make the White Lantern, but then all of the colored lantern rings accidentally end up in Arkham Asylum instead. The rest of the rogues get their hands on the rings, soon learn what they need to do and are totally down to kick the Joker's ass and so have to work together to summon the White Lantern and bring the Joker down.

Who gets what rings can be negotiated, but I'm generally thinking that it would go...

Green: Harley Quinn. She does have a lot of willpower, surviving her abuse at the hands of the Joker, and deserves to get in on this Joker beat down!

Yellow: Scarecrow. Duh.

Orange: Catwoman. Stealing is her biggest vice after all, and she's probably going to be better at keeping it away from space-Gollum than like... The Penguin would without dying!

Red: Bane? Maybe? This one can be negotiable as a few of the rogues could fall under rage. Maybe you just give it to Bane because he'd handle the effects of the Red Lantern Ring the best? I dunno.

Indigo: Poison Ivy. Because she does hold a great amount of love and compassion towards plants... Just not other people and animals particularly... And hey! With the Indigo ring, she can MAKE people care about plants! :D

Purple/Pink: Mr. Freeze. Because that man sure as hell does love his wife just... SO much! I don't think that any of the rogues love their significant other quite as much as Mr. Freeze loves his wife!

Blue: Two-Face. More specifically Harvey Dent. Hope is a constant theme with his character and when he was DA, he inspired hope in the people of Gotham. Which, let's be honest, is an impressive feat!

Out of any of the rogues, I can see the Blue Lantern ring actually choosing for Harvey to wield it. He inspired a hopeless city like Gotham to have hope against all odds. He inspires hope in Bruce Wayne who in turn gives everyone else hope as Batman. He inspires such a great level of hope, of course the Blue Lantern ring would choose him! But he's given up on hope. He has no hope left in him anymore. The ring chooses him, but he refuses the call. He thinks that the ring made a mistake and is wrong in choosing him. He insists that someone- anyone else should take and use it. But the rest of the rogues shrug it off and agree that he should use it. It just doesn't really suit any of the other rogues, and even to them, the way that Harvey used to inspire hope in people is obvious.

Because of all of this, Harvey just retreats into himself and Two-Face has to pick up the slack. Two-Face insists that they should just forget about Harvey, give the Blue Lantern Ring to someone else, and give him the Red Lantern Ring instead. The rest refuse, and so Two-Face is stuck with trying to make due with the Blue Lantern Ring, but they don't exactly work the most harmoniously together. There's clearly a compatibility issue going on here.

Of course things are rocky as the team tries to figure the powers of the rings out, figure out who works best with which of the rings, and they struggle to work together as a cohesive unit.

But eventually, it's time, and the team has to confront and fight against the Joker. While there is promise at first, soon they realize that it's a losing fight. When all seems to be lost, Two-Face steps off to the side and pleads for Harvey to fight with them. But he still doesn't want to help. He believes that it's truly hopeless. And it's here that Two-Face drops all of his pretenses and bravado and really talks to Harvey.

It's here that Two-Face admits that he still holds on to hope, and it's because of Harvey. He would never admit this any at other time, but he believes in Harvey. He holds onto hope for Harvey's sake. Harvey may have given up a long time ago, but Two-Face still believes that he will get better. He believes that their future will be kinder to them. He believes that one day, Harvey will stand tall as a figure that can inspire give people hope again. Because Harvey gave Two-Face hope. Two-Face hopes that one day, the world that won't be as cruel to them. Even though he had been shoved into the dark, Harvey still made Two-Face believe in a future that would be kinder to them. Harvey may not believe in that future anymore, but Two-Face is here to protect Harvey until the day Harvey is ready to come out and inspire people again. Two-Face can't do this alone. He's much better at inspiring rage or fear in others. But it was the Blue ring that chose them. No one else can do this job. And it's because of Harvey. He always did have this annoying habit of inspiring hope in others, after all.

After having this little pep talk, Harvey finally decides to come out, and fight! Because of this, they are able to turn the tide of the battle and kick the Joker's ass!

So yeah... Blue Lantern Harvey gives me emotions. >.<

[runjumpkauf]

The Amazing Dream About Where Caine Into My Home

(This Is The Sequel Of "The Amazing Dream About Episode 3". So Refer tumblr.com/runjumpkauf/758128076344475648/the-amazing-dream-about-episode-3.)

Hello, Hello, Hello.

I Had A Dream Again. But This Time, I Had A Very Unique & Impressive Dream. As You Can Tell From This Post Name, I Wasn't Just Dreaming About Watching A Video; Caine Actually Appeared In My House!

I Don't Know How He Got In, But Somehow Caine Came Into My Home.

For Reference, I'm Born In California, San Diego. I've Lived There For 29 Years.

Anyway, Let's Begin.

I Bought Two Jack O' Lanterns, I Named It: "Priceless Pumpkins, Jimmy O' Lantern & John O' Lantern" For Collect Some Treats! With This, I Got Strawberry Candy, Banana, Hoverchoc, Dips & Chips, And Coconut Milk!

And I Left Them On The Edge-Corner Of The Shed. And Went To Bed. I Fell Asleep Without Any Problems And Roughly Hours Later....

At That Time, I Woke Up To A Strange Sound Inside My Table.

"I Don't Think I Heard Wrong...." I Said.

And Then I Opened The Desk Lid! (Look It Up If You Don't Believe Me!)

And What I Saw Was A Waving Yellow Rainbow, Shining Like "Fractal Noise".

As I Started-To-Stared At It, And Realized That's I Dreamin'.

Suddenly, Caine Come Out In Front Of My Head, And He Said:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

I Was More Started-To-Startled Than I Stared "The Angel", So I Fell Backwards And Almost Crack My Numbskull.

And I Looked At Caine And Tried To Say:

"Caine, Is That You?? What Are You Doing In My House?!" But Caine Spoke Much Faster Than Me, Like An Pack Of Mouse!

"THIS IS UNFINISHED YET!!!! I Know You Really Want You Snaps The Adventure, But I Have To Finish! Whatever You Do, Don't Go In There. Please!!!!"

I Felt Like These Words Were Sniped At Fans Who Were Want Only New Episode Of "The Amazing Digital Circus", And That's ME! So My Complexion Turned Chlorinated, My Lungs Almost Felt Like They Were Suffer-O-Cating, And My Heart Started Being Faster!

I Tried To Say Again:

"Why Would I Do That? I Can Wait As Long As I Can!!!"

But When I Finished Sayin' This, Caine Has Already....Disappeared.

And I Went Back To Bed, But "Curiosity" Kept Begging Me To Go Back To The Desk. So, I Couldn't Resist The Urge, And Decided To Just Go Inside The Lid. And That Too As Quietly I Possible.

After The 4th Attempt, I Finally Succeeded!

Inside The Fractal Noise, I Heard Someone Putting Down A Tray. And In Front Of Me Was A Door Leading Into A Spudsy's.

Yeah, You're Right. Where The Jax Goes To Do "Minimum Wage Labor" Until Eventually!

I Walked Into This Glorious Place. And As Expected, It Was Filled With Full Of Guests And Customers! I (Completely) Ignored The Batches Of C&Gs, And I Concentrate My Head And Headed To The Counter.

As You Can See From This V.D.O. (short for Virtual, Dexterous, and adventurOus.) Jax Was There And Showed Signs Of Indifference.

I Looked At The Menu, And Ordered The "Spud Burger", In Combo! Because I Love Food Made Of Spuddery Spuds, And I Had Never Saw This Before. I Mostly Ate Cheeseburgers With French Fries. (Or German Fries)

I Sat Down At The Table And Waited For The Burger I Ordered & Served, And After A Minute, Dinner Is Served!

And A Tiny Longer Than Some 4 Seconds Later, As I Was Delighting A Savoring The Taste Of Spuds, I Realized That Table Was Feeling Strange.

I'm Wondering If This Table Also Had Lid. So, I Gently Opened The Table Lid. And I Was Right. There's A Fractal Noise!

(This Is Why I Call Rainbow To "Fractal Noise".)

And Eventually, I Enter To Fractal Noise!

And I Fell Somewhere Again. It Looked Like A Passageway. I Think It's A Passage Made Of.....Iron, I Guess. It Felt Empty, Voidy, And Strangely Scary.

I Ran Front The Passage, And When I Came Out Of This Gray Passage, What I Saw Was What Be Baseball-Stadium-Shaped Thing.

In This Place, Everything There's Absolutely-Totally-Literally Achromatic. Only White, Gray, And Black. Or Maybe It Could Have Been Nothing But Gray.

I Don't Remember Which One Is Right, But What I Do Know Is That It Felt Psychologically Scary.

There Were Mannequins Sitting In The Stands And Congregationing The Cheers, And Some Of Them Were Cheering While Holding Banners!

When I Saw That, I Thought That Was What These Mannequins Were Waitin' & Cheerin' For The Players To Enter This Stadium, So I Sat In The Stands. Even When I Stepped On The Floor, There Was No Footsteps.

I Said I Sat In The Stands. But Exactly, There's No Place For Me To Sit. So I Took Out My Anger On Mannequin, And Right Then, I'm Sucked Into The Mannequin.

Inside Of Mannequin Was Filled With The Developing Code. I Know, Like, Ten Big, Motion Codes. Voice Filters. Sound Adjustments. Pose Directions! Whatever. There'm So Unbelievably Pointed Right Here.

That Was Amazing To See Evidence & Intelligence Of Caine Putting Effort Into The Adventure. So, I Decided To Hacking For Something New!

1. I Raised The "Sound Adjustment" Part To 100%.

2. There's Also "Mannequin Color Coordinate", And I Hacked The Brightness Coordinate And Increased From 64 To 100% Too!

3. Believe It Or Not, There's Also "Smell Condescending" Too. So, I Coordinated "Smell Of Victory". But It Was 100% Already.

4. And I Changed The "Monograph Settings", There In My Own Way. Although It Is Only A Dream, This Gives The Members The Energy To Joy. Well, Except Jax. He Wants Only Violence. He Shouldn't Slaughter The Mannequins With Baseball Bats. It's Disgusting Just Thinking About It.

5. Also, I Volumalized The "Voice Filters". Because I Want Mannequins' Voices To Be Louder Than The Additional Voices, So I Did That. I Also Changed The "Cheer Sensor" To Hype Mode.

And I Tried To Change Everything Else, But When I Finished The Fifth,

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!!!!"

Caine Come Out In Front Of My Head, Again! It Was Even Frightening Than A Nightmare I Has When I Heard Lightening As A Li'l Boy! (It's Not A Metaphor. It's Literally That Much.)

I Tried To Say Something Again, I Was Too Shock-Prised That I Had No Idea What To Say Something! So I Had To Listen To Him.

"Why Are You "DESTROY THE NPCs" I Created With So Much Sincerely Care?! I Can Multipliate (I Think He Spell Wrong Of "Manipulate") Your Mood Until You'll Say "WOW!" I Tried So Hard To Do That, But Why Did You Change It Like This?!!" Caine Said.

I Gave Caine The Advice.

"Caine, I Know We'll Have To Wait For Your Exciting Adventures To Be Finish Your Work. But You Have To Try Something New To Get Noticed, And Also Attentioned By More Peoples."

But I Was Too Shocked That My Lips Were Shaking, So Caine Couldn't Understand What I Said At Once.

"I Mean, Caine, I Know We'll Have To Wait For Your Exciting Adventures, But You Have To Try Something New. Because It Makes More Peoples Get Noticed & Attentioned In Your Creation. Like Blitz In The Sanctuary, Or Discover Lab Of The Lost."

When I Said It Summation, (Because Of Lazy) He Understood.

"Thank You For Giving Me What's On Your Mind! Mr......Uh, What's Your Name?" Caine Said.

"Alan. Alan Bobby Sinclair." I Said.

"Thanks For Letting Me Know, Mr. Alan! I Knew You Want New Adventures! But Unfortunately, I Don't Have The Authority To Trun Fans' Ideas To Concrete Plans. So I Can't Use Them." Caine Said.

But I Was Tryin' To Ask That The Adventure Become More Massive And Grand To Make Some Members More Ultra-Entertained, But It Seems Like He Focused On "LIke Blitz In The Sanctuary, Or Discover Lab Of The Lost." So, I Said:

"I Mean, You Have To Learn To Adventures Be Spectacular, Impressive, Brilliant, And Especially, Fantastical. People Trend To Want "Something NEW" At Least Once. I Know You Can Do Even Better!"

"Wow, It's Acceptable. Okay! Next Time Or Someday, I'll Do That!" Caine Said. I'm Very Glad That He Accept My Feedback.

"And It's Time To You....." Caine Said.

"BAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!"

After I Hearin' This Caine-ious Scream, I Heard A Sound Of Fingersnap. It Sounded Very Vividly.

And When I Came To, I Was Waking Up From This Fractal Dream.

I Usually Waking Up Around Average 6:20 A.M. But Perhaps Because I Had The Deep Adventure In My Dream, I Slept Longer Than Usual! 8:44 A.M.

I Think I Have Created The Memory That I Will Never Forget For My Entire Life. I Guess I'll Have To Create "Friendiversary" For Caine & Me!

P.S. https://www.glitchprod.com/thewackywatch

P.S.2. For Your Information, Even Though I Definitely Ate "Spud Burger" In My Dream, I Was Still Full For Some Reason.

(Not A Playstation 2)

P.S.3. This Post Took Me Over An 3 Days To Be. For Real.

(Not A Playstation 3)

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 12: Woven in the Pattern

For the first time in this let's read, Perrin pushed Egwene out of the tag prompts, which must mean it's time for an Egwene chapter! If you don't want more spoilers for the whole Wheel of Time series than that, stop reading.

For this chapter, we begin with the Flame of Tar Valon. This chapter is about Egwene and Nynaeve's journey with the Aes Sedai caravan, so naturally we're gonna get lots of Aes Sedai stuff.

Egwene stopped, wide-eyed, too shocked even to think that she was surrounded by Aes Sedai. An attempt on the life of the Amyrlin Seat. It went beyond thinking of.

It's fun how Jordan remembers his POV's limitations. We know damn well that Amyrlins have dealt with assassination attempts before, but Egwene's a starry-eyed country bumpkin who has just found herself with a chance to get cloistered so of course she thinks no one would kill off the leader of her new organization. She'll learn better soon!

Her eyes came to rest on Egwene and Nynaeve, piercing eyes that seemed to Egwene to be seeing everything about herself that she wanted to keep secret. Egwene took a step back, then caught herself and dropped a curtsy, wondering if that were proper; no one had ever explained to her the protocol of meeting the Amyrlin Seat. Nynaeve kept her back straight and returned the Amyrlin’s stare, but she fumbled for Egwene’s hand and gripped as hard as Egwene did.

Good to know that in addition to neglecting the boys, Moiraine was neglecting the girls too! Egwene does really well when you consider how she doesn't get the special attention that the boys do. And of course Nynaeve is just like "Eff you mother I'd spit in your face if it wasn't undignified" while also being "Oh shit Egwene let's hide." Egwene's closeness to her lets us see her duality better than we can from Rand's eyes or frankly Nynaeve's own.

Nynaeve, riding alongside, shook her head. “Rand will be all right. He has Lord Ingtar and twenty lances with him. In any case, there is nothing you can do about it. Nothing either of us can do.” She glanced toward Moiraine; the Aes Sedai’s trim white mare and Lan’s tall black stallion made an odd pair off to one side by themselves. “Not yet.”

Likewise, Nynaeve sees Egwene better than she'll let herself admit, since the narration hadn't mentioned Rand since the beginning of the chapter. I continue to regret that she never got a chance to confront Moiraine about crap. It makes sense that her motivations moved on but don't even try to tell me it wouldn't have been awesome.

Lan came once to the tent Egwene shared with Nynaeve, taking the Wisdom into the night a little distance away. Egwene peered around the tent flap to watch. She could not hear what they said, except that Nynaeve eventually erupted in anger and came stalking back to wrap herself in her blankets and refuse to talk at all.

What is Lan even doing at this point? What is he saying to her? Is it just a heads up that he and Moiraine will be dipping out at any point? Is it some weakness on his part where he's trying to both be the brooding loner and get some action on the side and Nynaeve is just not interested in the emotional whiplash he's offering her?

She glanced at the lantern hanging at the highest point of the tent, and the flame rose a little higher. Egwene thought she felt something, thought she almost saw something about the Aes Sedai when the flame grew brighter. Moiraine had told her that one day—when she had more training—she would be able to see when another woman channeled, and to tell a woman who could channel even if she did nothing.

I honestly didn't remember this milestone in Egwene's growth and even though she's growing right on track I'm going crazy at the slowness of it all. Also: Verin's got them good subtle test skills, you know?

“Moiraine has . . . I mean, Moiraine Sedai has been giving me lessons,” Egwene managed.

Presumably this must be more than the one Rand eavesdropped on, so Moiraine hasn't been totally negligent here. I guess it's not fair to say she didn't prep Egwene just over addressing the Amyrlin since for Moiraine it was a complete surprise that she showed up and then things immediately went to shit.

Almost always they have built up walls to keep themselves from knowing what it was they were doing, and those walls interfere with conscious control. The longer those walls have to build, the harder it is to tear them down, but if they can be demolished—well, some of the most adept sisters ever have been wilders.

And yet no one ever managed to build a wall as effective as Nynaeve's, which turns the standard rules of the One Power on their head - or seem to, at least.

“Well, Moiraine has never believed in telling anyone anything they did not need to know. Knowing serves no real purpose, but then, neither does not knowing. Myself, I always prefer knowing to not.”

This is an absolutely incredible thing to say considering what her knowledge has brought her. Take what you want and pay for it indeed.

But you began trying to channel without anyone there to teach you any control at all of what you do. I know you don’t think you’re very far along, and you are not, but you are like someone who has taught herself to run up hills—sometimes, at least—without ever learning how to run down the other side, or to walk. Sooner or later you are going to fall, if you don’t learn the rest of it.

It's a little sad that Egwene actually got a good - if horrifying - education and this never really paid off because seeing Egwene slip up would have been quite interesting. I guess she probably would have died or something though so it's for the best! She's much too fun to kill off this early.

Egwene thought, Can she know about Rand? It isn’t possible. She’d never have let him leave Fal Dara if she even suspected. But she was sure she had not imagined what she saw.

Pseudo-bookends in Egwene and Verin's first and last interactions both involving Verin sharing very different secrets in very different ways. It's also funny in that Verin will shortly ditch the party to go join Rand.

Nynaeve’s hands tightened on her skirt, and she looked at the tent flap again, frowning. Finally she gave a short nod and settled back down on the floor. “I suppose I might as well,” she said.

Nynaeve hates veiled social threats and not being able to yell at people, but she's absolutely dying to learn this stuff too, even if she's uncomfortable with it.

It was slow, but Moiraine had said it would come more quickly with practice. Inside herself, she was a rosebud, red petals curled tightly. Yet suddenly there was something else. Light. Light pressing on the petals. Slowly the petals unfolded, turning toward the light, absorbing the light. The rose and the light were one. Egwene and the light were one. She could feel the merest trickle of it seeping through her. She stretched for more, strained for more. . . .

Is this very lightly sexual? I'm a pervert who can find sex imagery in just about anything, but I feel like... there's something here.

Is it just me?

Did I mention that novices do chores? They wash dishes, scrub floors, do laundry, serve at table, all sorts of things. I myself think the servants do a better job of it by far, but it is generally felt that such labor builds character. Oh, you are staying? Good.

Am I wrong to think that if Verin had been able to spend two straight weeks with Nynaeve, she would have had her block gone after the first week?

Egwene was sitting, watching the other two between her yawns. The night had grown late, well past the time she would usually be asleep. Nynaeve wore a face like week-old death, her eyes clamped shut as if she never meant to open them and her hands white-knuckled fists in her lap. Egwene hoped the Wisdom’s temper did not break loose, not after she had held it this long.

It will and it will be awesome, but can we all appreciate how hard that Nynaeve is trying? She spends the whole time talking about how little she cares and how she's totally leaving Mat and Perrin behind at Fal Dara any day now not interested in being Aes Sedai but dammit she's trying so hard and it's probably extra miserable because she's being judged by strangers and it's not coming anywhere near as easily to her as stuff has in the past.

“I—I was angry.” Nynaeve spoke through trembling lips in a bloodless face. “I heard you talking about a breeze, telling me what to do, and fire just popped into my head. I—I didn’t mean to burn anything. It was just a small fire, in—in my head.” She shuddered.

Nynaeve's lack of control of her emotions is quite interesting in that it's very male-coded: she's not randomly hysterical, she just gets pissed under circumstances when most people would be able to stay calmer and when the consequences of that anger bite back at her she gets overwhelmed.

Alviarin was as cool and businesslike as a merchant come to buy wool and tabac, surprised that Nynaeve was part of the lesson but accepting, sharp in her criticisms but always ready to try again.

Alviarin is clearly a much more deep cover kind of Black Ajah. You get just the tiniest little hints that she's not awesome, but where Verin overworks the girls (which may have just been Verin being Verin and not any Darkfriend assignment to try and sabotage them) and Liandrin does stuff we're about to see, she completes the assignment as expected.

Alanna showed too much interest in Rand and Perrin and Mat for Egwene’s comfort, though. Especially Rand.

Alanna is a rapist...

Liandrin sat fingering her red fringe and taught little, and reluctantly at that. She questioned Egwene and Nynaeve as if they had been accused of a crime, and her questions were all about the three boys. She kept it up until Nynaeve threw her out—Egwene was not sure why Nynaeve did so—and then she left with a warning.

Where Verin and Alviarin both handle their Aes Sedai cover stories correctly, Liandrin can't even be bothered with that. Sadly, one of Egwene's character flaws comes to light here: she's so good at blending into the culture she's in that she forgets how to question its authorities when she's not supposed to. Nynaeve did the right thing.

Egwene was sure it was the Aes Sedai’s questions about Rand that had made her start dreaming of him, that and worrying about him, about whether he and the others had had to follow the Horn of Valere into the Blight.

Props to Liandrin (and possibly Alanna) for triggering Egwene's latent powers. Timelinewise, Egwene has her Rand dream the night before Ingtar's party arrives at the abandoned village.

“What? Oh, it’s you, child. Moiraine is gone. And your friend, Nynaeve, is already out on the River Queen. I had to bundle her onto a boat myself, shouting that she would not go without you. Light, what a scramble! You should be aboard, yourself. Find a boat going out to the River Queen. You two will be traveling with the Amyrlin Seat, so mind yourself once you’re on board. No scenes or tantrums.”

Egwene isn't the worst judge of character though, since her conception of Anaiya as someone who could be quite ordinary seems to check out by the woman's dialogue.

“First Moiraine vanishes with Lan, then Liandrin right on Moiraine’s heels, and then Verin, none of them with so much as a word for anyone. Verin did not even take her Warder; Tomas is chewing nails with worry over her.”

More likely he's chewing nails with worry over himself, fearing her absence will get him in trouble.

First there had been a man with a mask over his face, and fire in place of his eyes. Despite the mask, she had thought he was surprised to see her.

Ish almost certainly was! Dude was just getting used to having to share T'A'R with the Terrible Twelvesome again and now some innkeeper's daughter is spying on him? Dude was probably pissed for a week.

His look had frightened her till she thought her bones would break from shivering, but suddenly he vanished, and she saw Rand sleeping on the ground, wrapped in a cloak. A woman had been standing over him, looking down. Her face was in shadow, but her eyes seemed to shine like the moon, and Egwene had known she was evil.

T'A'R: I know you're not remotely trained at this kind of thing yet, so have a metaphor for babies: You're seeing Rand being stalked by a psycho Darkfriend. This symbolizes how Rand is being stalked by a psycho Darkfriend. Is this too complicated for you? Maybe I should label the woman "Lanfear" so you know that she's a symbol for Lanfear?

Her later dreams get a lot more esoteric, that's all I'm saying.

Then there was a flash of light, and they were gone. Both of them. And behind it all, almost like another thing altogether, was the feel of danger, as if a trap was just beginning to snap shut on an unsuspecting lamb, a trap with many jaws. As though time had slowed, and she could watch the iron jaws creep closer together.

Many jaws indeed. Ishamael, Fain, and Lanfear all fucking with Rand entirely at cross-purposes, each of them with their own methods and agents.

You may be a Dreamer. It is a small chance, child, but. . . . We haven’t had one of those in—oh—four or five hundred years. And Dreaming is close linked to Foretelling. If you really can Dream, it may be that you can Foretell, as well. That would be a finger in the Reds’ eye.

"Imagine how useful you'll be for the Blue Ajah if the Wheel has given you a gift to help us prepare for the dangers ahead! We can throw a party every week with banners on every floor of the tower reading, 'Fuck the reds!' unless your Foretelling says it's a bad idea. I'm sure that's all that your power could be good for."

Get it together, Anaiya!

Hold on, you wool-headed idiot. If you get yourself killed before I can get you out of this, I will skin you alive.

Best Egwene thought of the book, possibly the series. We'll see.

Next time: What if Trollocs had fighter jets? It's not shitty AU fanfic by some weirdo with a hard-on for military specs, it's canon!

[welcometoteyvat]

i am very curious (and i'm asking this not with any malicious intent) but what ages do you see the genshin characters! i personally see them (most of them) as adults, even collei. even if they were teenagers, time passes in-game (i.e. lantern rite happens every year and we already had 2 lantern rites in-game) so they'll eventually grow to be adults.

tldr: I have schrodinger's age headcanons

long answer: if they're in a ship with a ""clearly"" adult character, I'll assume they're young adults; idk I feel like there's some blurring of age and what growth stage you're in when people are around 17 to 20 (from my experience) so I think it's vague-ish enough that you could probably do what you want.

If they're not in a ship I see some of them as adults and some as still teens/underage. as a general rule of thumb a character's age is solely dependent on what I want at the moment, although I do think the way some characters are written (ie character arcs, character stories and general personality) pushes me to view them as underage (will explain more but the character I'm thinking about most w this is Xingqiu). Some of them read to me as clear adults, and then there are some in-betweens where I just have "vaguely young looking" in my hcs LOL

you bring up a good point that time is passing in game although we don't see it reflected in the character models—everyone points out that Xiao opens up a bit more every lantern rite, but fandom (and genshin devs too ig 💀) definitely forgets that all the other characters are also growing/changing. w/ 4.1 around the corner my personal wish is for hu tao, xingqiu, and chongyun's relationships to each other get developed more so that their relationships (as described through their voicelines abt each other) don't feel so flat,,,,,, it would also help with the sense of "time is passing in game for ALL characters", since we almost never get this kind of evolving relationship portrayed between 4*s/non endgame important charas.

I have too much time on my hands so I'll also just run through all the teen/short models there are for each region and list whether my personal headcanons are adult or minor (at least their ages when we "meet" them in canon):

liyue (mortal/mortal adjacent characters): yanfei, chongyun, xingqiu, hu tao, xiangling, xinyan, yun jin, keqing

yanfei and keqing are solidly adults to me, yanfei's a lawyer and keqing's also in a govt job so both of them feel around like 25-27 to me. Definitely somewhere around their mid-20s, although I can also see them as younger, especially Keqing, because of her overall attitude/perspective on life and the gods. iirc her character stories show how her worldview's grown/broadened to be not as naive/black and white, so I feel like she's still in the process of maturing. If you told me Yanfei was like 23 (appearance wise) I guess I'd believe you too, since she's a very peppy person who seems to be running all over the place all the time, doing errands for madame ping, checking on her clients, taking new cases etc. I feel like it gives her youthful energy, so I can see it if people hc her on the younger side of her 20s (in human years I forgot how her half-adeptal blood works).

I see the other 6 as a friend group (liyue 6ang let's go) so they're either all teens or all adults depending on the portrayal. You can obviously view them as adults all the time, but I don't get those vibes. Xinyan and Yun Jin might be like 18-19, but if that's the case, I can't see the other 4 being any younger than 17, just because I think they're all almost the same age or 1-2 years apart maximum. For some reason so many people view Hu Tao and Yun Jin as adults but at the same time think the others are minors? Idk about that.. genshin has shown that Xiangling, Xinyan, and Yun Jin are pretty close friends, and then always put Xingqiu and Chongyun together for the ship bait, so maybe that's the root of fanon's age hcs. However, I think if some of them are young adults, then all of them are. There's a max 2 year age gap between all 6 of them idk idk I really can't see it otherwise.

To me, Xingqiu's arc reads like a 16 year old finding his footing in the world. Hiding martial arts novels under his bed, tired of playing dutiful 2nd son and sneaking out to live out his idealized wuxia dreams, his multiple voicelines where he's implied to be super worried about us giving away his involvings in the Guhua sect, they all read like he's still trying to figure out his role in his family (what he wants it to be, and what his parents want it to be). He's also very naive about the world, but learning. He just feels a lot like how (chinese) teenagers grow up and like. growing into or out of the paths given to us by our parents. ... or i could just be projecting! Anyways, in my no ships world, he's a 16-17 yr old. Chongyun's clan and family play a not-insignificant role in his backstory, so I think he's the same age as Xingqiu, just older by a month for the flex. Lowkey I don't have as much reason for him as the others, but I think they're in the same age range by association; probably almost 18 at most. Hu Tao's character stories explicitly state she's 13 when her grandfather passed away, and I think she becomes Director not long after this, so I would say she's also around 16-17 when the game starts. @.acatoner who draws quite possibly my favorite interpretations of the gang(TM) once mentioned they see her with spoiled younger sister energy and honestly yeah. she's an only child but has the strongest solidarity with Xingqiu (they're the bratty younger siblings of the friendgroup). Out of all of them, Xiangling is the one with the most plausible job if she was like, young: being a chef apprentice with her dad to continue the family business is pretty reasonable. Middle child energy, probably 17. We did meet her when she was in Mondstadt foraging ingredients, so I'd say she's not very young, but still young enough for her dad to chew her out during moonchase for being like messy or clumsy or smth? Xinyan and Yun Jin.... I think Yun Jin is at least almost 18—running a well acclaimed opera troupe is a pretty big undertaking imo, even if her parents are there to like guide her and whatnot. Same with Xinyan, 17-18 range, although she def started playing rock publicly when she was way younger.

inazuma: shinobu, heizou, kazuha, kirara, gorou, kokomi, ayaka, yoimiya

Disclaimer I have not read the Lore and don't know whether actual ages are given for Ayaka and Ayato (specifically pointing them out because iirc their and Thoma's character stories are the most specific ones wrt the timeline).

I see basically all of them as adults, ayaka might be an exception but she's like 17 minimum in my head. That's pretty interesting considering I labeled almost all the liyue short models as teens. From what I can remember of their character stories, the Inazuman characters seem to be portrayed as having their formative struggles set In the Past (probably a couple years before we meet them) so perhaps that's why I see them as solidly young adults. Additionally, Inazuma's arc and its war pushes me to see all of them as adults, even if they're still obscenely young to be generals and strategicians. The exceptions I can see to this are only Yoimiya (smaller role in archon quest and not related to the government), and Shinobu + Heizou, who were released later. Yoimiya's maturity really stands out to me—from the way her neighbors and old people converse with her, and her overall character arc + second story quest, I cannot see her as below like 19 at least. Shinobu manages an entire unofficial gang and has countless certifications under her belt plus ex-shrine maiden stint—she probably isn't less than 23. It would be cute if she were the same age as Yanfei but just started law school later, so Yanfei's still her senior. I think there's not much to say on Heizou either, he's friends with Kazuha and has a real job, so I can't read him below 20-21. I don't know anything about Kirara (don't have her, haven't read her stories) but I also just get the vibes of like 20-something errand girl SDFDSSKDFJS in a modern au she'd deliver to teyvat/inazuma's college campus for sure

mondstadt (humans): barbara, razor, bennett, fischl, mika, amber, noelle, sucrose

this is a mix again, for Barbara Razor Bennett and Fischl they give me kid vibes, like little adventure gang things. Reddit apparently cites Mona called Fischl an adult in the 2.8 Midsummer Fantasia GAA event, so I mean. I guess she's 18 there—might've been 16 when we met in game the first time (1.2?? scaramouche fake stars event or something?) Idk really. Their group collectively gives me 16 year old vibes, at least when we start the game. I can see it if all of them have aged to 18 now—it just makes sense in my head lol. Mika feels like an 18 year old; mostly because of his relationship with Huffman. Amber seems vaguely adult-ish, I'd say 19 or so, maybe 20 during shadows amidst snowstorms in 2.3. there's some logic behind this that ties into her search for her grandfather but it's like vague and hazy in my head. I haven't given much thought to Noelle and Sucrose— Sucrose also gives "vaguely adult" vibes, idk if her character story about wanting to make a wonderland to meet her past friends in has any relevance to timeline estimation. I'd say Noelle also falls into the vague adult age range, but to me she's a puzzle, because her personality seems incongruent to how I thought she might act if she's like 23 or so.

anyways, anon if you read all this i will declare my love for you. thanks for giving me an excuse to genuinely think on this and then dump my thoughts out for the internet. you can clearly see none of my braincells really go towards Mondstadt headcanons but I hope you're happy w my response ehe