#i studied design. this is the kind of weird stuff we did.

[bluberimufim]

If you get this ask, say 3 random facts about yourself (or not no pressure) and send to the last 7 people who interacted with your blog

Hi! Thank you for the ask!

Here's some Fun Facts About Muffin ✨Highschool Edition✨:

I have used more potato peelers in the span of 3 hours than most people will probably ever own in their lives

I can stop one of those rotating sanding machines with my bare hands

One of my jewellery pieces got submitted for an international contest and it has travelled more than me

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

Hello 👋 can I get a little body switcheru with twist dorm liders and Yuu? Even better if we'd have F!Yuu in this one ❤️!

I don't think I'll be doing all the dorm leaders right now but just a few 🖤🖤🖤

Body Switch | Yandere Twisted Wonderland

What a gift! To see precisely what your obsession sees, to touch with their perfect hand, to hear their lovely voice whenever they opened their mouth. Oh, the possibilities are endless! No matter the circumstance this is the stuff of dreams nightmares:

Vil Schoenheit

“OH SEVENS!”

Is at first horrified at the feeling of not being in his perfectly preened body

In his clean and not dingy home

But it diminishes when he realizes the one screaming in the dirty mirror is you

His precious love

“Ergh these black heads are insane. My potato has been neglecting their routine. That’ll be good to make a note of.”

He immediately gets to work

He has to make the next 24 hours in his dearest’s body count 

and he’s got so much to do and such little time

Immediately he inspects your home and makes a note of everything that’s lacking in Ramshackle

Perfect ammunition for his proposal to move to Pomefiore

Next he reads your diary or journal if you have one

And he dives into your photos and makes a mental note to send more headshots to you

Next he goes to Rook

“We have less than 12 hours before I return, get your camera.”

Already planned and prepared the photos are perfection

Next he takes your measurements 

Both for clothes and for ropes and fluffy cuffs

He debates deleting your friends from your contacts

But he’s not petty he is he’ll just send a text or two with passive aggressive undertones

And when he’s got close to an hour 

He takes the time to…examine your every inch …careful to not leave a mess behind

“So…soft and round…they will look glorious in couture.”

Idia Shroud

“Eeek! It worked!”

Spends nearly an hour squealing and jumping around

But then he goes to the mirror and starts his fantasy 

Using your lips to confess an undying love to Idia Shroud 

He records it and everything 

Next he goes to his room, already set up to allow a very specific code

He goes to his dorm

Everything is going perfectly to plan

Next he plans to dress you in the cosplay he already has your measurements for

“Yes! Now I just have to take this o-o-off! Ack! T-their s-skin! No! I can’t e-e-even if I’ve s-seen it through the camra it is so different!”

He genuinely can’t make it past your shirt

Too embarrassed and caught up in simply seeing all your skin

So instead he’ll move onto the next objective

Going to the pick up spot he’d already designated

Riding calmly as your taken to some unknown artificial island 

“Hehehe well at least one objective was completed…let’s just say that other one isn’t one of my skill levels just yet. Hehehe I’ll have more than enough time to level up though!”

Malleus Draconia

Someone or you must have said that little expression

“Try walking in my shoes! Its really inconvenient when you scare everyone away from me!”

“In your shoes?”

So he tries it 

Having your body become his own, allowing a day without his, in your words: overpowered bod

Oh is he warm

So warm he feels like your constantly hugging him 

Its immaculate

Than he spends a good while just admiring you in the mirror 

More than happy to study every pore of your skin in great detail

“Oh I did not realize their birth mark was this adorable.”

But he’ll soon find your legs ache so easily

Why can’t he stand straight for seven hours without your knees getting wobbly

Or how defenseless you are 

With nothing but his tiny wisps if his own magic to sense 

Its kind of horrifying 

But as agreed he tries to go throughout the day as you 

Enjoying the attention of all your friends

Granted they send weird looks when he says something odd

But you’ve already employed Grim as ‘his wingman’

Who frantically tries to get him through the day

He learns so much ‘by being in your shoes’ 

“I do not appreciate everyone having such careless interactions with you, especially when the amount of muscle let alone magic is…concerning.”

[kinderchaos]

THE REST** OF THE KINDERGARTEN PONIES

(Still excluding the new/trapped kids sorry Madison fans lol…)

I would link part one but tumblr won’t let me link anything and I’m too tired to deal with it

DR DANNER: haiii Dr Danner I lov u. He’s an artificial alicorn bcs of course he is bro has a jet pack in canon anyways. He’s got strong magic and his cutie mark is a Venus flytrap with a test tube cause 1. Diana and 2. I think studying one is how he got it as a kid. The test tube is just him being a mad scientist lol. Quantum Prism is just a science name I thought fit

MS. APPLEGATE: am so sorry I didn’t wanna give her pony boobs so I just made her really fluffy in the front. Anyways her cutie mark is a gold star sticker peeling off cause she likes teaching but she’s got a bit of a short fuse. Idk man it’s 6am I didn’t sleep at all just pretend like it works same with her name

THE JANITOR: I actually loved making him it was really fun umm I name his name would fit him and he got his cutie mark for being a janitor that kills ppl. He got it when he was a teen and hid his first body. His magic is also pretty strong good for him

BOB: he’s just a regular fella! He loved fixing things up with his dad as a kid (like refurbishing stuff) which is how he got his cutie mark. He loves his job actually he’s just a good guy . Lets say his family r woodworkers which is how he got his name

MARGARET: I read a fanfic where Margaret was also into science alongside her sister and I was like ok I like that which is why her cutie mark is like a cauldron with stuff in it… tell me u see the vision. Weird science instead of academic science. Anyways she’s a pegasus but she doesn’t care for flying much.

2ND PRINCIPAL: so obv she’s a scientist which is how she got her cutie mark as a kid. She was/is really smart in STEM and explored that down the path of child experimentation lol…. She’s a unicorn with moderately strong magic. Alkaline Cure seemed to fit her cause she’s all sciencey and sweet on the outside

1ST PRINCIPAL: he’s actually prob my fav design I did cause he’s soooo cool looking anyways he’s a unicorn with moderately strong magic as well. He mostly uses it to aim guns tho. He got his cutie mark as a kid/teen when he got his affinity for guns. Hornblende is a kind of rock and I named Jerome after rocks so I thought it fit

HALL MONITOR: SMOKEY CAMEO!! So he was actually a blank flank until he got Smokey which is when he realized he loves animals :3 not much to say for him I’m so sorry I’m so tired

STEVIE: Pegasus who’s actually pretty good at flying!! He got his name cause he had a patch of cream colored fur on his chest when he was born that no one in his family had and they were like we gotta name him after this. He got his cutie mark when he got accepted to the internship that led him to be a hall monitor at a kindergarten it shows his commitment to rule following

Magic strongest to weakest:

Dr. Danner

The Janitor

2nd Principal

1st Principal

Flight strongest to weakest:

Stevie

Margaret

That’s it YAAAY I’m so excited to sleep heart ❤️ hope u like it

[grisen06]

finally finished season 4 and apart from the obvious Ew im gonna make a list of All Major Things I Thought Was Wrong Because People Keep On Only Mentioning Two (that being five and the ending)

1. 'The Jeennifer incident' No because it was so important to them as a family to have this incident that showed how never properly learning to be a team and growing up in an abusive situation made them dysfunctional but now that's all overglossed with "actually our dad just wiped our minds

2. Their dad's (im not gonna try to remember how his name is spelled) last moments??? Why did it feel like the story (not the characters) tried to forgive him? "Oh hey you waited 2 more minutes to assasinate your child father of the year award you do actually care" like that whole seen felt so icky

3. The amount of shit that could've been solved with telling Ben (and the rest) "Hey btw never touch Jennifer just so yk" BEFORE everything

4. "We have to erase all marigold" Doesn't elaborate on the rest of the children that got borned outside of them

5. They come to this timeline 2019 and iirc s4e1 says 6 years has passed so that's 2025 but the ending acts as if it's 2024 and in the scene where Claire sees Ben on the news they mention him going to jail in 2019 which that + 4 years is 2023???

6. Season 1-3 all act as if there's one main timeline that keeps on being altered, not that there are multiple timelines existing at once

7. If Five started the commision how cane *No one*, not even the higher ups, reacognised him / mentioned it to him? Can't they contact which ever Five started them to stop s2 Five from ending them?

8. This could be explained by the small village being created by their father but their population is smaller than where i live yet the way the city is built w so many shops and stuff it seems like they are way bigger than where i live as if the creators didnt think at all but j slapped a number on the population sign (which as someone who has studied props and set design irritates me deeply)

9. their powers going weird. at first i liked what they did with five because his new powers seemed like a new/stronger version of his old but for the rest it just felt like they all just became powerfull for the sake of being good in a fight. esp since we saw what their powers upped to the max could be in s2 but instead of allison being able to i heard a rumor guys brains out she j has...telekenisis? kind off?

10. j what r the logistics of anything the keepers does/were capable of doing

thats all for now might add more later im just arghhh annoyed (+ obvi the horrible ending and everything abt five esp lila)

[thewaltcrew]

Imagineer Rolly Crump (February 27, 1930 – March 12, 2023) in "Disneyland's 10th Anniversary" from the anthology series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, aired January 3, 1965

Roland "Rolly" Crump started his career at Disney as an animator in his 20s. The man who ran the animation department at the time of Crump's hiring reportedly told him years later that "what you showed us was the worst portfolio of anyone ever hired in animation."

His first three years as at WED Enterprises provided little interaction with Walt.

Crump: All I did was absorb. I watched how everyone reacted to Walt, and the strengths and the weaknesses of the different guys. I studied Walt Disney and what it was like to work with him, but I wasn't participating until after three years. That's when I started talking. I learned that if you show something to Walt, it has to be something he hasn't seen before.

He called the period working with Walt "the happiest time of my life."

Crump: It was a great job. You were thrilled to do what you were doing. I was, anyway.

Rolly Crump's strange, bold, chaotic, and graphic style stands out strongly among his Imagineering peers. With his distinct touch, Crump was able to create some of the most visually memorable iconography for Disneyland, including the façade of It's a Small World (based on Mary Blair's styling) and the tiki god and goddess statues in the Enchanted Tiki Room.

Always a man who was protective of artist identity and integrity, he would often refer to rides by their primary visionary. The Haunted Mansion was Yale Gracey's ride, It's a Small World was Mary Blair's.

Crump: I was given the job of kind of supervising It's a Small World. I knew it was only going to work if everything looked like Mary Blair. As far as I was concerned, this is a Mary Blair ride.

And had the Museum of the Weird been built, it would've been Rolly Crump's.

It started out with Crump creating drawings and concepts for the Haunted Mansion. All the strange objects he describes in the "10th Anniversary" episode are all ideas and visuals he came up with. His peers told him his ideas would be "too weird" for Walt but after a presentation to the boss, Crump found Walt sitting in his office chair the next morning.

Crump: The first thing he said to me was, "You son of a bitch. All that stuff you showed me yesterday? I couldn't sleep."

Crump: The next day, what happened was Walt came in and said, "OK, we're going to do a Museum of the Weird, that's where we're going to use all that funny stuff you showed me yesterday." All he had to do was go home and spend some time with himself and he'd come up with everything. He was a delight to work with... You never felt like you worked for Walt. You felt like you worked with Walt because that's the way he made you feel. He encouraged your creativity. He was part of the magic. He was part of everything we did.

Unfortunately, the project died with Walt. After his unexpected passing, the project was dropped.

Crump: Management didn't like it. Walt passed, and he took the museum with him. No one else wanted to fool with it.

But the Museum of the Weird lives on. Marvel created a comic book based on the attraction called Seekers of the Weird. The fortune teller character Crump designed, Madame Zarkov, is referenced in Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and was written into the the elaborate Easter egg SEA (the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, a fictional secret society incorporated in many Disney attractions to tie their lore). And the window on Main Street USA that honors Crump for his work features three of his most famous pieces: the Tower of the Four Winds from It's a Small World (built for the 1964 World's Fair and unfortunately torn down because it was too big to move to Disneyland), Maui from the Enchanted Tiki Room, and the coffin clock.

video source [x] photo sources [x][x] research source [x][x][x]

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 18 of Nona the Ninth

After 18 chapters, something genuinely exciting is finally happening. You know, it's funny, I got pulled in by Gideon the Ninth because starting with Act 2 there were interesting and exciting things and weird mysteries happening like every chapter. Harrow the Ninth wasn't exactly action-packed, but there were like, interesting reveals and general world information coming out in most chapters, and it was also building towards something because there was the upcoming fight with Number Seven looming in the background at all times. This isn't a bad book or anything like that, but so far it's been: Nona goes to school and there are kid antics, everything sucks, it's hot, Nona refuses to eat food, it's dangerous to go anywhere because of the high concentration of people with guns, necromancy witch hunts, dead body burning, here's John monologuing about climate change and streaming necromancy on twitch. We get a little bit of Corona and brief glimpse of Judith, maybe we'll get to see Gideon/Gideon's body and Ianthe at some point, but so far it's just been the broadcast, and the most interesting stuff was all stuff that Nona didn't understand. I was ready for something to happen

I was promised I would find out what animal Nona drew, but I still don't know what animal Nona drew. Her saying that it started out living in a river and then got "cold" so it had to get large must mean it's a reptile of some kind, but I can't think of any reptile that has visible ears and a mouth that you might not draw at all. What does she mean by "large" here? Did she draw a dinosaur? The Angel mentions archaeology talks, but archaeology is the wrong field for studying dinosaurs, or any animals at all, really, it's the study of physical evidence of humans. (I mean, unless the "animal" that Nona drew was a human and it's now being revealed that everyone is actually a strange-looking alien...) It's also really hard to study Earth via archaeology when you are not actually on Earth, if you can't actually go dig up and date real artifacts it's just regular anthropology at that point. Or are BOE secretly sending teams of archaeologists to Earth now? That doesn't seem like it would be a high priority for them, but who knows, they did immortalize Eminem lyrics in their commanders' names, and we know they've been to Earth on unauthorized missions before, namely to abduct all of the non-Lyctor survivors of the first book

Presumably "cradle creature" means that it lived on Earth before John's apocalypse

Ok, so, I thought "Aim" must be like a nickname for Amy or some spelling thereof, but I see now that it's actually the first word of a BOE name. So, this bit requires that there is a word which means "Angel" in some language which sounds like "Aim" in (presumably) English, which also means something to the kids. But I guess we're meant to assume that "Angel" here is also in modern English, which again, doesn't make sense, since modern English should be long gone at this point. But maybe it's a translation convention thing

I'm curious what the implant is, why Palamedes is in a big hurry to find out what it is, and why the Angel doesn't want Nona to hear about it? Of course, she doesn't know who Nona is yet at this point. I'm guessing it's some kind of anti-necromancy device, given that "my dead body is designed to deny you answers"

It's true, he can't really swear on his own life, since that ended two books ago now

So I gather once the Angel accepted that Palamedes was not a Lyctor, she somehow gave whatever order to Merv Wing to kill Camilla and Nona, since she knows that regular necromancers can be killed like normal people? BOE's MO for necromancers is a sniper headshot per the last book. But I don't know how Palamedes survived this, I feel like we're about to find out that he and Camilla are a Lyctor now, or possibly some new and "improved" version of a Lyctor

Was this something that happened on screen that I should remember?

Is that what Nona's building is? I'm not sure exactly what that means, or if that tells me anything more about the building that I didn't already know. It didn't seem like it was specifically a BOE building, since there were cops and militia living there, too

Well, there's something important about that implant

This seems like a counter-productive rule to have if they want Pash to be her bodyguard, though. At some later point there is a mention of "electrics" and implication that Merv Wing is not going to fire any guns as long as Aim/the Angel is in the room, so possibly some other types of weapons are involved here. Nona misses the entire battle, but there were gunfire sounds, so I guess someone disregarded whatever rules there are about not shooting guns around the Angel

I guess Pash subscribes to the theory that Hot Sauce mentioned that necromancers have to be killed in a very particular way to stay dead?

For the first part of this I was like, that sounds a lot like Pash, but hasn't Nona heard her voice before? But then I remembered that Nona has only heard her speak through the voice modulator

It's also hilarious how Nona thinks Pash is just so cool throughout this chapter

Are we then to understand that Pash was driving the car the previous day when the Angel rescued Nona and Hot Sauce?

They again. Still unknown if this is a gender thing or a plural thing, because who knows what is going on with the implant

This is honestly straining my suspension of disbelief here, that someone actually read Nona's lips from the top of a building a block away. If they thought it was a radio call, there are easy ways of intercepting those if you can guess what frequencies might be being used, you don't have to guess what someone is saying by reading their lips

Pash gets all the best lines

Oh, this is a fun one!

There's a weird thing here where we first get this:

But then in the next paragraph it says:

So it's not actually clear exactly how munted Nona thinks the classroom is?

Yeah, this was obviously going to happen at some point from the point where Hot Sauce was introduced in the first place. Honestly, I feel so bad for Hot Sauce, she's 14 and she's already been traumatized several times over before this book even began, I think, and then she saw Nona die in front of her and actually got successfully gaslighted into thinking she didn't for about five minutes and from her perspective Nona is definitely some kind of evil eldritch creature. But how many time does Nona have to get shot today? This would also be a lot more of a cliffhanger if Nona wasn't immortal

[gerbiloftriumph]

Lost and Found (ao3):

Grandpa’s story of the goblin caves started out familiarly enough, but as he spoke, the story started to twist and change. New friends, new conversations, and new ways to use old items transformed the tale, and the young king discovered new ways to be brave in the dark tunnels beneath Daventry.

(5/?)

~*~

It took a long time for the goblins to come back to his cell to let him out the next day. For a couple hours, Graham paced nervously, worrying that the contraband shovel or the sword-frying-pan in Amaya’s cell had been the last straw. Worrying that someone had found Whisper. Worrying that someone had noticed him wandering around and thought it wasn’t right for a captive crown to get free reign of a prison. Worrying that every choice he’d ever made had been a mistake. But goblins eventually came, and this time they shoved a mop in his face and pointed to a slimy section of muddy floor.

(“Wonderful. Mopping up goop was now added to my set of prison chores.” Grandpa said.

“I’m not sure what a ‘mop’ is, but you can probably find something else for it to do.”

“You might be right about that. Let’s see.”)

Whisper was waiting for him at the top of the spiral staircase. “Goooood morning, King Graham!” he said cheerfully. He also had a huge bouquet of roses, tied with an orange ribbon he must have torn from his cloak. “Is today the day we find the beautiful Amaya?”

“Whisper, it’s dangerous for you to be wandering around out here.”

“Eh,” Whisper flapped his hand. “They adore me, you know. It’ll be fine. Come on, let’s get that big bull!” He hurried to the beanstalk, now fully grown thanks to the Hobblepots’ remarkable plant fertilizer potion.

Acorn peered over the ledge. “Hey, string bean! Man, I missed you last night. I don’t like the quiet; it’s awful up here alone. Would you help me down?”

“But the beanstalk is grown. Can’t you climb down?”  

“Maybe unlike you I’ve read Jack and the Beanstalk. I know the giant falls off cos it breaks underneath him. I need someone to test it first. I ain’t doing it myself ‘til I know it’s safe.”

Graham scaled the beanstalk, little flowers crushing under his hands. They smelled like green and earth and life and made him think of the surface. He nearly slipped a few times, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the time he’d climbed up to the clouds seeking one of Daventry’s missing treasures. At the top, Acorn sat trembling and holding onto a rock for dear life.

“King Graham! Buddy! I am so glad to see you!” Acorn let go of the rock and grabbed onto Graham, squeezing tight.

“Hey, it’s great to see you, Acorn. You okay? Ready to get out of here?”

“It will be an honor to have another adventure with you, Sire.”

Graham bit his lip, hiding a smile, and managed to nod at Acorn in a probably noble sort of way. “I concur,” he said, as seriously as he could, then the grin slipped free. It had been so long since they’d gone questing together.

Graham studied the narrow platform behind the knight. There was the duck, still glittering gold, and a bent wooden harp, also painted gold. And, delightfully, actual gold! A whole two coins, mixed with the giant’s treasures. Graham grabbed the coins, noting with vague relief they were both an older design with Edward printed on them, so he didn’t have to feel quite so guilty.

There was also a little box with a very flimsy looking padlock on it, and inside was: “Hey, my shovel! How did that get up here?”

“Turns out goblins can do this weird thing where they climb little narrow cracks,” Acorn said. “I watched them do it, they put their backs against the wall and crawl their way up. Really weird.”

And kind of familiar sounding…no. Graham shoved the thought away. Amaya had been right. Focus on the now, worry about the bigger stuff when there was time. “I guess they could have come up at any time to get their duck, but it wouldn’t have been story accurate without the beanstalk.” Stories, stories. It always came to stories, with the goblins. Hmm.

He bent to examine the padlock. Very cheap looking, the first one of its type he’d seen down here. “Locked shut. I bet it could be picked open, but too bad I don’t have a lock pick.” Although, those chopsticks the merchant was selling…it would put him one coin back from his black market goal, but. One step at a time.  

Acorn inched a little closer to the beanstalk, then flinched back. “Actually, Graham, I think I changed my mind. I think you should leave me here. For, like, ever. I think that’d be best. We can stay pen pals.”

“Huh? Oh, the heights thing.”

“Yes, the heights thing,” Acorn growled.

“What’s taking you two so long?” Whisper yelled from the ground level. “Whisper wants to find Amaya! Hurry up!”

“Whisper, shush! You’ll get the goblins’ attention!”

“Whisper is using his whisper voice!”

“Fine. Oh! Wait!” Graham swirled his cloak. “Here, get in my cloak!”

“Can’t we go on a date before you start propositioning me?”

“No, gross. We figured this out yesterday. Come here.” He popped Acorn into his pocket, and the knight immediately started yelling in surprised protest. “Seriously? It’s very roomy in there. You’re fine.” Acorn felt no heavier than Whisper had, which was confusing, but nice.

Graham also gathered up the harp. He twanged the strings. It was not in tune, but he coaxed a very pathetic sounding “Greensleeves” out of it nevertheless, just to see if he could. He thought he could try to tune it, but the gold paint had probably ruined it completely, and it was still missing a string. Still. If it wasn’t nailed down…you never knew when you’d need a harp. He slipped it into another pocket.

He contemplated the duck. The duck contemplated him. He reached out to touch its glossy feathers. It pecked his hand. “Ow! Fine, never mind, sorry,” he muttered, shaking his hand.

At the bottom, Whisper was impatiently tapping his toe. “Let Whisper into your pockets too, we must find Amaya before Whisper’s flowers wilt!”

But immediately, the cloak pockets started to strain with two knights. He could sense the weight of it. He could walk, and nothing looked different per say, but there was a pull on the threads and on his shoulders that he wasn’t used to, and he sensed that the new weight would wear him down even faster than the normal cave experience was doing. This suddenly didn’t seem like a long term solution.

“I think it tops out at two,” he said, spinning in a circle. The cloak still fluttered normally, visually speaking, but the tug was odd, and he teetered on his heels, staggering a step.

Which was actually a bit of a relief. He’d been nervous about accidentally getting the entire Daventry River sucked into the fabric or something, but two humans maximum was okay. Still weird. But better. He wondered if his mom knew what she’d made. He'd have to ask her when he wrote his weekly dozen-page-long letter (ostensibly to practice his calligraphy for Royal Guard Number One’s approval, but mostly because he just liked to tell his family everything).

“Tops out at two, or does Acorn take up all the space?” Whisper said. His voice was very muffled and quiet, like he was speaking through layers of fabric.

“Are you callin’ me fat, speedy? You get over here, I’mma slim you down with my hands, give me even more room!”

Graham’s cloak fluttered as the two knights somehow tackled each other through the pockets. “Hey! Hey, stop!” Graham yelped. “That tickles! Stop! Quiet down, you two. Stop bickering! Don’t tear it!”

The fighting stopped, but he could still just barely make out irritated grumbling. “This stitchwork’s pretty impressive,” Acorn said, trying to soothe the bull with a distraction.

“Whisper thinks it could be comfier.”

“Hey, I used fabric softener,” Graham said. “And you fell asleep in there yesterday.” 

~*~

“You’re lucky I’m old and stubborn. ‘Cause I’m gonna be gripping onto this life until you bring me some food. I ain’t dying on an empty stomach, King Boy.”

“I’m looking, I promise, Muriel.”

“Starving brings out the flavor in everything,” Chester added.

(Grandpa, you told me this part already. A couple nights ago.”

“I can skip it if you like.”)

The story proceeded as it had before, for a time. Graham worked to clear goblins from villager rooms. Slowly, he created distractions, or removed goblins entirely through force, with help from the villagers when possible. He rescued more coins, climbing a rickety chair to examine a trash heap, and finding another in a bucket near a pile of straw. He reluctantly exchanged one coin for the Merchant’s chopsticks, to fetch his shovel from the contraband box, and anything else he mistakenly lost in the nightly shakedowns, which still proceeded even if the goblins didn’t return to their posts once Graham or the villagers had scared their respective guards away.

“After Wente’s outburst, I think the goblins are afraid to guard this room,” Bramble said. “But at least those goblins won’t be keeping us up at night any more with their constant giggling.”

As the guards started to clear, he was able to let Whisper and Acorn out of his pockets during the day, which was a relief. The strain on his cloak had been making him nervous; he thought the pockets were beginning to tear with the weight of it all, and he didn’t have a way to repair it here. Carrying people long distances in it was likely out of the question, even knowing it topped out at two. Imagine if the pockets split and dumped out their occupants in front of a goblin horde.

Also, he wasn’t entirely sure how to get people into the pockets through prison bars, if it would even work that way. He thought he’d try it only as a last resort. Squeezing them, even in his cloak, to get them through those narrow cell bars sounded…unpleasant, somehow. If he accidentally hurt someone in the process, he’d never forgive himself. Surely there had to be another way…but trying to pick the prisoner padlocks with the chopsticks did absolutely nothing.

Whisper presented his bouquet of wilted roses to Amaya with glee. He slicked back his mane and posed dramatically. “What is a lovely lady like you, doing in a place like this?”

Amaya took the roses begrudgingly through the bars. “Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

“Ohh, but of course! I could escape on my own, you know, but now that you’re here I wouldn’t want to take that away from you.”

“What a gentleman, my hero,” Amaya said flatly.

“Ahh, yes, your hero. Yes, your hero is here! And what were your other two wishes?”

“That he’d be charming and handsome. I guess not all wishes come true. Also, you’ll notice I’m still in my cell, so as far as hero worship goes….”

“Right. Right.” He leaned back and said, in his loud whisper voice, “Graham? Fix this? Your pocket thingy?”

“I’m sorry, it’s too risky. I don’t have a way to get us out out, and I’m not sure about the cloak thing, either. If someone’s gone from a locked cell, the goblins’ll definitely notice. But. I’ll figure this out. I promise.”

“Figure it out faster.” Whisper glared.

“I’m trying!”

“Not trying hard enough!”

“I’m doing my best!”

“Make your best better!”

“I have my limits!”

“Boys, knock it off. You’re making my headache worse.”

~*~

The problem was the door. The individual cell doors holding each villager were problems, sure, but…. The big door, the door leading out into the goblins’ city, and Daventry beyond. That door. It needed at least two people pushing levers at the same time to loosen the latch, possibly more based on how much resistance it gave his and Whisper’s testing fingers. But, more importantly, it needed a key.

The lock on the door out was worse than the padlock that held his own cell door at night. Sturdier. And all the wishing in the world hadn’t loosened his own padlock. Nothing short of a miracle would budge this one.

A miracle, or a key.

“Where am I going to get a key?” Graham kicked a mushroom, which exploded around his metal-capped boot. It left a glowing trace behind him as he walked, his footsteps marked. He wandered down the spiral ramp as he gestured angrily. “I’m not. Simple as that. There’s nothing we can do.” He could possibly get people out of their cells with his pocket trick, maybe, assuming it didn’t hurt them to squeeze through bars in it, but they’d never get further than that even if it worked. Never get past that door, never actually manage to leave this goblin prison.

And getting caught with people in his pockets would just lead to Graham losing his cloak—and probably losing a lot more than that, too. He wasn’t likely to ever forget the tight ropes that had bound him on his way down here, and his prison break idea would lead to a lot worse for him if he didn’t have a step two. And he definitely did not have a step two. `

He wanted to scream.

He kicked another mushroom. The cap rolled off and bounced away into the shadows, like a deflated ball. It glowed weakly.

He slumped against the wall, glaring. He wouldn’t lose his temper, wouldn’t lose his composure, couldn’t. Couldn’t. Was a king. The king. Had to hold it together. Bramble would probably hear him from here if he snapped, and that would be the worst.

His head thumped back against the stones as he leaned back. Like if he could look through all this heavy stone to the Daventry sky it would be okay. His crown clanged dully, the spikes preventing him from looking up. Flustered, he grabbed the stupid thing off his head, out of his way, and he nearly threw it across the floor with impatience and frustration, but he caught a glimpse of himself in its reflection. He was grimy and sticky with cave dirt, but the crown remained glittery, even after this, gems winking in the dim light. He froze, staring at it. At himself. He’d been avoiding the little cracked mirror in his cell, hadn’t wanted to see himself, what this place was doing to him, but even in the crown he could see too much.

He sighed. “Long live the king,” he muttered, rubbing a thumb across it. Dirt smeared. “...who was kidnapped.” Gently, gently, he replaced the crown, the weight of it pressing his hair down.

He was exhausted, he was hurting, he was hungry. He was the king. He was supposed to have all the answers. Supposed to be able to take care of everyone. All his citizens. Himself.

It’s a puzzle, Graham, it’s always a puzzle. But this puzzle was missing pieces, and he knew it. Find a way out.

But how?

He realized his gaze had drifted to the mushroom he’d kicked, the little glow in the darkness. It cast strange shadows there, the glittery glow limning the rocks. Illuminating the space beyond.

Graham stiffened, crawled to the space. A loose rock. He jimmied it, rocked it gently, used the shovel to scrape a little dirt around it away, and felt it giving under his hands in a way the big escape door never did. He pushed it aside, and it scraped so loudly he felt sure every goblin in the entire underground was going to appear behind him, spears bristling. But he was alone. With his newfound dark tunnel.

His newfound very dark tunnel.

He stared at it, then: “Newton!” He scrambled up and ran for his cell, skidding across the damp floor and scooping up the little jar with the chirping salamander in it. “You’re a terrible book club partner,” he told the lizard sternly, then his face lit up with a grin. “But you’re about to make a really good lantern. Come on!”

He checked once more that the coast was clear, and then hurried back to his discovery. But then…then he paused, the big smile starting to fade. He held Newton out, the cool blue glow doing more than the mushroom ever could. Behind that loose rock was a deep crevice. Newton’s light only illuminated how deep it went. Graham had sort of assumed it would be shallow, a little divot in the wall hiding some prize. But this was bigger than he’d expected. Darker. A path, hardly more than a crack, really, that vanished into the gloom beyond the salamander’s glimmering light.

(“I’m not sure you should go down there,” Gwendolyn said.

“I wasn’t sure either, but if I stayed here, none of us would make it.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Grandpa and Gwendolyn watched the little mirror king. The light from the lantern shivered in the mirror king’s hands, gently shifting against his surroundings as he looked into the shadows, and the shadows watched back silently.)

“I wanted this,” Graham muttered. “I needed to find another road to explore. This is it. This is what I wanted.” But why did it have to feel so bleak? “I have to do this.”

And the king passed through the little crack in the wall, a salamander in his hands and his heart in his throat.

It wasn’t like the goblin prison was inviting. But this was instantly far worse, and Graham nearly spun around. The pressure of the rocks weighing him down never felt more obvious, the dead silence immediate and crushing. In the prison, it was never quiet. The soundscape was just different. You could always hear water dripping, or salamanders chirping, or goblins clattering around talking and laughing, or villagers speaking to each other in hushed, desperate voices.

But here, there was nothing but Graham’s hitched breathing and the sound his cloak made as it dragged across boulders. The wedge narrowed around his shoulders, pressing, and Graham struggled forward, free hand blindly scraping while he cradled Newton’s jar close with the other.

(“Grandpa? Maybe we should tell this part in the morning?”

“I’m afraid it wouldn’t get any lighter then, dearest.”)

Graham popped out of the crack with intense relief, glad the space didn’t remain so tight for very long, but the darkness around him here was somehow even worse for its unknown, unseen openness. He just had one little light, one little pool of cold blue, and though Newton was doing his best, the light barely penetrated the gloom. Maybe he wasn’t the best lantern on top of being not the best book club member.

“Hello?” Graham called, softly. Not sure he wanted a response, but he had to know if he was alone. The darkness seemed to breathe, but nothing replied.

He glanced over his shoulder—the crack hadn’t been that long. It had just felt worse when he was in it. But he could see the almost cheerful mushroom glow of the main prisons just a little way behind him. Easy. He could bear to go a little bit further, to see if there was something, anything, he could use. He had to try. He wouldn’t go far.

He stepped forward.

(“I don’t know about this,” Gwendolyn said, shrinking deeper into her blankets. Her hands were shaking, looking for something to grip onto. “Are you sure you want to go that way? It seems dark, and scary, and…and you don’t know what’s down there.”

“That may be so,” Grandpa said, and he reached out, gently taking Gwendolyn’s hand in his. “But in the end, everything will be okay.”

“But how can you know that? How can you just know everything will be okay?” Grandpa realized she wasn’t just talking about the caves, not now. The whole world was in that question, every shadow, every cry in the night.

“I don’t. None of us do. But I trusted that once I knew what I was up against, I could handle it. Are you ready to continue? I’m afraid it’s going to get a bit scarier before it gets better, so I’ll let you decide.”

She frowned at the mirror, at the little mirror king blindly feeling his way along the wall, glancing back periodically. “I should try to be brave like you. We have to keep going.”

“And so we shall.”)

Graham’s mouth was dry. He tried humming quietly to himself, tried to make the sucking darkness less awful, but it didn’t help. He inched forward, squinting, but nothing revealed itself beyond his tiny light. His hand pressed hard against the wall.

His next step was in empty air, and he fell.

[mystycalypso]

Can i just say how much i freaking love the work you two are doing, Holly hell this is some wild stuff as veteran of hello neighbor you two are making me proud of this small community that is running on tumblr!

Also i hope you two don't mind me asking two questions.

Firstly, If one of you two had the control over welcome to ravenBrooks show what will be some things you two will change.

Secondly, What are you're thoughts on the artstyle of the show considering that Man of Action is working on the show?

Okay to start, I know I say it every time we get asks like this but y'all are genuinely so sweet and nice and it's just really really cool to see people enjoy our stuff. Like- especially fellow old fans of the franchise. I know Kaydin also really appreciates how sweet you guys are but just idk it feels like my fandom dreams come true when people like things like our au and art for this series

As for your questions...

Personally, to start, and this is Jack being slightly particularly- idk nitpicky? But there are three things I'd want to just- fix immediately and all three of them are Nicky related.

Number one, his shirt. I'm sorry guys but I've been here since the alphas and I didn't even realize this was his Sharkotron T-shirt. It's- It's just an egg

Number two, I realized after intense studying of Nicky's- face that it looks really weird when he's front facing, but his nose is facing right. So scenes like this suddenly seem- off model for no reason? I've poorly edited the image below to fix both of these

Yes I am too lazy to edit them properly, sadly. Did make his shirt logo still one colour for ease of animation. Idk why but left facing nose Nicky just looks less weird. Just me and kaydin? Maybe.

Number three- uh... that hairline is atrocious /lh

I know he wears his goggles in the show like constantly but also- this is a 13 year old boy guys. I was 13 once and I have a very flat (minus a widows peak) hairline, but it did not stop my hair from falling all over my face, and I think it's fair to assume the same for the kid who's hair refuses to behave anyway

Just fluff him up a lil (again I'm sorry these aren't better edits lol)

You don't even have to have it show when his goggles are up because like a headband or headphones it pushes hair back, or otherwise

Although ironically while I'm explaining what I would change in the designs, I don't mind the art style at all, actually I kind of love it. Sure some things you kinda of have to get used to, like their ears being pretty low to the head, but in general I think it really fits the franchise. I know it didn't look too drastically different from the pilot, but there's so many little nuances in the designs that just make it better (especially when you look at characters like Trinity)

I've told Kaydin a dozen and a half times how I think show Nicky is the franchise's second best design for him. The first being this singular piece of art from Nicky's Diaries, like I have gone on for hours about why this rendering of him is just perfect.

Third being fan renders, followed by the book artstyle, the pilot and finally games

And while other designs I wasn't sure about when watching through the show the first time, really just lore hunting instead of caring about anyone who wasn't Trinity or Nicky ngl, when I started doing my expression analysis I realized just how nice the designs and individuality of the characters are. If you put Nicky's expressions oh Enzo or Ivan's on Trinity it wouldn't fit and that's something I don't think people would expect from a Hello Neighbor cartoon.

They also have things I can just appreciate as someone who's special interest is animation (but doesn't have the patience to animate TvT gotta love audhd) for example, just having shading even in shots where they could completely go without it. It makes it less drastic and a smoother transition when lighting gets intense. They're also now afraid to switch up camera angles and push the rigs for a more intense shot.

Also something I really appreciate

Smear frames!

God I love smear frames!!! It's another one of those things that It's like- knowing how much this cost Tinybuild, they could've easily cut it down to save money. But it just wouldn't have been as nice without it.

Sure there are probably people who look at the fact that Man of Action is working on the show and are disappointed by the art style. But I say this entirely genuinely when I say I couldn't picture this show looking any other way and working as it does.

Yeah, they could've used more realistic proportions for these kids, but it works so much better when it's pushed like this when Mr. Peterson is nearly double their height. He's visibly a hulking intimidating man who could lift a middle schooler and lock them away. You fear his build which contrasts his outfit best (really feels like they took the book description of him and just pushed it, as we know he doesn't have this same stature in the games)

Plus it feels like in general, they stopped focusing on that dumb "Oh we need to hide things in every frame" which- thank God. Sure they are still hiding little details, hell I have changed a whole chunk of theory about Theodore's relationship with his son because of something I found on accident

This photo of (seemingly) 12 year old Aaron Peterson.

I'm not gonna go into it here lol because this is already long and it's supposed to be about the animation.

Are they still building mysteries and people are still crafting theories? Absolutely! Not a day goes by that I haven't been thinking about whether or not Aaron will ever be seen in the series in the present day and if he is, what he will be like mentally.

But the point is, they're focusing on crafting something GOOD over just theory fodder. Both animation and story-wise, and I can appreciate that so much.

Like- this is gonna be a really hot Jack take here so be aware.

I enjoy this franchise and it's spinoffs much more than the FNAF franchise.

Sure, Hello Neighbor one is and will always be awful. But I am 100x more likely to play Hello Neighbor 2 or Secret Neighbor than I am to play any fnaf game myself.

When I make fnaf content it is almost entirely AU based. Because the idea of getting lore super wrong since I just can't be bothered to try and figure that convoluted mess out is annoying. Why even try to solve lore if I need to read more than 10 books for a minor detail that becomes a major antagonist? We can't even get a full confirmed backstory for the main antagonist!

But with Hello Neighbor they realized that people don't want to be jumping through 50 hoops for lore. Yes we want mystery, but one we can solve without dumb contrivances and plot holes.

Do I still love FNAF? Of course. My senior quote is from William Afton ffs ("You may not recognize me at first, but I can assure you, it's still me") but one of these franchises is growing to better itself and gain more love, while the other is slowly becoming more of something I enjoy without trying to understand, and I think the Hello Neighbor animated series is- the pinnacle of this difference.

I love Welcome to Ravenbrooks. I love Hello Neighbor. I can’t wait to see what comes next from TinyBuild, and how season two will be even better than season one. (As proven by the fact that Nicky gets to yell louder in that one teaser clip alone than anyone got to in season one lol)

[ursaribbon]

PnF Revival Episode Title Predictions PART 1

The new episode titles just came out, so I'm gonna start making predictions about the new batch (some more outlandish than others just to get more of a laugh if they turn out to be true). I'll come back later after watching the episodes to see how I did.

Summer Block Buster - Something about making a movie, probably. I got nothin.

Cloudy with a Chance of Mom - This one sounds interesting. Possibly a Meatballs reference? Some sort of mom storm? Moms falling from the sky? Might be figurative for a mom getting angry? Perhaps a mom who is also a meteorologist? Badass mom thing. Let's go with that.

Appetite for Adventure - This brings back Remains of the Platypus memories (the cheese thing with Monogram). This has to be a joke about figurative versus literal appetites. Eating contest again, perhaps?

License to Bust - Candace gets her driver's license? Candace gets some sort of license. Or someone gets a license. Candace gets a license to kill, I dunno.

Dry Another Day - Drying. Dry ANOTHER DAY? Rainy day?? So it'll be dry? Another day???? Somebody goes to the dry cleaners? Phineas and Ferb start a dry cleaning business? Clothesline ziplines???

Deconstructing Doof - Either exploring his character more in depth, or literally deconstructing him somehow. At the molecular level, perhaps.

Tropey McTropeface - Everybody turns into an anime trope except for one person who's just watching it all go down, confused as hell. Either that or it's just a really corny plot.

Biblio-Blast! - Baljeet gets book-themed superpowers. Or somebody studies a lot.

A Chip to the Vet - Squirrels go to the vet. Perhaps Perry goes to the vet and has to hide his beeping watch and stuff the whole time. Maybe an animal has a chipped tooth.

More Than an Intern - Carl's epic story. Like Delivery of Destiny, but with Carl. Carl gets a weird musical number to go along with it, perhaps?

The Aurora Perry-Alis - Perry has a mission to help Santa in the North Pole and basically becomes an elf for a day. And/or Phineas and Ferb recreate the Aurora Borealis and make it go into all kinds of different shapes in the sky somehow, like you could draw an image of Perry with the northern lights.

Lord of the Firesides - Like in Lord of the Flies, the Fireside girls get stranded on a deserted island. Perhaps a Fireside-focused episode like Bee Story and Temple of Sap?

Agent T (For Teen) - Stacy helps out with OWCA somehow AND/OR day-in-the-life of Vanessa at her internship.

The Haberdasher - A Haberdasher is a "dealer in men's clothing" according to Google. We already had a fashion episode in season 1, though... Maybe we get more of the fashion designer from that episode? Or, for a crazier idea: The Haberdasher turns out to be some kind of Drusselstinian urban legend, like the Kinderlumper. The Kinderlumper episode was called "Der Kinderlumper", with "der" replacing "the", so maybe The Haberdasher is like the Kinderlumper's anglicized alter ego. Maybe the Haberdasher doesn't have anything to do with fashion at all!

Out of Character - Either everyone's personalities flip, everyone's personalities flip except for Candace's, someone's personality is explored on a deeper level and it has nothing to do with personality flips, or it has something to do with the second dimension.

Favorite episode prediction: Out of Character

Phinabella counter prediction: 13

Song/jingle counter prediction (not counting D.E.I.): 10

Laugh-out-loud counter prediction: 8

Let's see how this goes!! I'm excited!!!

[a-s-levynn]

JOOO you used to sell swords?? That's so cool!!! If you feel like reminiscing and using this as an opportunity to tell everyone about that very awsome sounding job, I would love to hear about it :D if not just take this as me being a tumblr mutual who wants to be your friend now even more 😂 swords are so cooool

I sure did! Oooh my god. You have no ide what sort of pandora's box you've opened. I love talking weaponry. I also spent an unreasonably long time trying to dig up old pics.

So i snatched this unreal job by a total accident. During uni, a friend of a friend of mine were preparing to go to study abroad for a few months and needed a temporary replacement. And when we met for the first time, half jokingly asked if i liked swords. Yes, yes i do find all kinds of blades incredibly sexy thank you very much. And not a lot of time later i was sitting behind the counter. And stayed there for roughly three years.

It was a sword and decorational weaponry shop. I mean it still is. But i may talk about it past tense because i'm not there anymore. 😭 We had like functional swords and daggers for HEMA and other traditional stuff. Lots and lots of katanas and a few wakizashis and tantos for martial arts or just for decour. We even had like the long ones.. what are they called.. odachi and nodachi! And that sort of spear like a guandao, naginata. There were khukri knives as well. Modern knives.. A lot of stuff. And then decorational stuff from movies, anime or video games for just to put on a wall or elevate a cosplay.

Even decorational fire arms up until modern stuff. Altho fire arms where strictly decorational items, manufactures in ways that they were safe and unchangable into usable stuff. And a fewfigures, jewellery and some tarot cards and some other nick-nacks that fit the theme.

I don't have access to my drives at the moment but i found some old pictures.

Okay so this was the second showroom, i can't find picture of the old one, i liked that one better but there was a location change and this one is smaller, less packed. But still the important parts are there. These pictures are about 3 years old as well at this point.

Please note the little knight with the megaphone in the corner on the monitor. I designed that one. Precious friend shaped little dude.

This picture is Ezio's dagger from Assassin's Creed. It's not dirty just freshly out of the shipping box, swimming in grease to protect it from rusting. This one was a functional piece. The handle seems wide but it's not disproportionate, only my hands are small.

But we had like.. i dunno sabers of many kinds..and chinese swords with rigid blades to those weird but really fun floppy ones as well.

That green wall belonged to the old showroom my beloved 😭

Also there were pieces of armour and all. Not just full but chainmails and roman style, shields. Bows and Crossbows. Basically everything.

And like besides the selling and online customer service stuff, i did a lot of polishing, i probably enjoyed that the most. Of course the heavier damage or problems were handled by proper craftsmen but a simple polishing job? Gimme! -insert grubby hands- I'm gonna spend half a day on it but you gonna see yourself in it. Like this below. The left side is still unpolished, all foggy, but see the right? You can see the red shirt guy pretty good already. This helmet was so pretty after i was finished with it. I was so proud. 😭

And then there were some modern stuff. With these i also did the smaller mechanical epairs like a jammed spring or a loose trigger and the like.

This beretta was the first i took apart but i conquered it like a champ 😂 I was asking my boss if i could give it a try and he said as long as i don't break any additional parts go a head. Needless to say the second little guy landed in my lap without any question.

And there were so many other little highlights. I loved so many of the customers. I loved talking about their stuff or just listening to their stories. Uhh i miss it so much i can't even begin.

[pbandjesse]

I could feel better right now. My stomach hurts. I feel so dehydrated even though I keep sipping water. I just had kind of a rough day.

I didnt sleep amazing. I woke up a lot and had weird dreams. So when my alarm went off I told James I needed to sleep more and gave myself an extra hour. It helped a little but pretty quickly it would fade and I would feel bad again.

I tried really hard to be positive though. James left me breakfast so after I got dressed I warmed that up. And packed a little lunch. I had some juice but it didn't make me feel much better.

I drove to camp. And very quickly started to not feel well again. But it also makes me feel stupid. I don't want to have to keep asking to go home. I want to be able to work. But when there is nothing for me to do I just feel miserable.

There were positive things today though. It was my dad's birthday! He's 70! Incredible. And it's my parents' wedding anniversary! They got married on his birthday so that he wouldn't forget. And it's Friday the 13th. And the start of my 13th week of pregnancy! Which means baby is now a peach! Or a kiwi. Depends on the app you check.

I tried to let those things make myself feel better. But it was hard. I would had some things to do though which was something. I spent a few hours going through all the private schools in an hour radius and finding emails for history, science, and social studies teachers. This turned out to be a ton of work because not every school has a very good website design. It was hard to actually get emails. But I got a really good amount and I was happy about that.

I would also work on my alphabet drawing. I made files with every letter. So that's started at least. And I would send some emails and poke around online.

I had lunch around 11. I told everyone about our appointment yesterday and seeing baby flip around and stretch. It was nice to talk about it.

I wasn't feeling great though. And went up to arts and crafts to take some materials to put away. And spent a good amount of time laying in the hammock. I just wasn't feeling good. But I wanted to stay until at least 2. I laid in the hammock for a half hour. Just trying to feel better.

Eventually I went back to the office. And Heather had two tasks for me. Finally. And I would spend time researching private schools in York that we can email. And updating the email blast with the more accurate Native American Field trip stuff. But then I had stabbing pains in my boobies and was just like. Okay I'm done. And said goodbye.

I stopped at 711 and got a snack. And only got stuck in some traffic for a little bit. And was home right after 330.

When I got back here I was excited that my package had come. I purchased a baby carry wrap. Which not shocking is way to large on my torso but is perfect for James. I didn't realize that its flame pattern in one side and crane patterned on the other. Really cool.

I laid in bed for a long time. I didn't really leave bed for the whole evening. I would lay down and wait for James to come home. And when they did they had a gift for me too!

They got me the special Japanese Calico Critter seals!! I was so excited. They are so soft and I'm excited to add them to the doll house.

James would try on the carrier. And we found a tutorial video on how to wrap it but our guess ended up being correct. James would practice with a weighted plushie. I thought it was so sweet.

James made us dinner. I had a quesadilla and a hashbrown and a scrambled egg. Which was probably to much food because I feel all swollen now. But thankfully I didn't feel nauseous. Just swollen and not great. I'm glad that eating is easier. Everything doesn't go to a pinpoint and I think I'm going to black out. I am thankful for that.

I took a shower and washed my hair and gave mostly just been laying down. James has been hanging out with me. Sweetp too. He wants to lay on my stomach so much and we have to keep blocking him from doing so and he doesn't understand. My poor baby.

I am really hoping I can sleep easy and feel better tomorrow. We have the market all morning and then we are having dinner with Jules, that girl I met a few months back. I am hoping to just sleep all afternoon and be in a good mood for that.

I hope you all had a good day. Wish my dad a happy and healthy birthday. I love you all. Goodnight!!

[felassan]

Some more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from an older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago -

Chat asked "Do you think they'll ever explore why Dwarven Darkspawn can use magic?" and Mark replied "Maybe, I doubt they will explore that too much. I mean it's sort've, the question is is like, are genlocks all dwarves, or are they some dwarves and some 'something coming from a broodmother that aren't really dwarves anymore'. I guess that would be one out."

[source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

"I do wish one of the factions in DA:O had their shit together so they could help you immediately, like just an extra throwaway one that's like 'yeah, we got our stuff all packed'"

Chat asked "Do you remember any other game studios in particular that BioWare studied and took inspiration from to make new games? I heard dragons in DA:I were inspired by Skyrim". Mark replied, "Every game is influenced by the space around it. DA:I is influenced by Skyrim in that open-world games were kind've the expectation of RPGs at the time, and if you're making an open-world game in the early 2010s Skyrim is certainly the one to be paying attention to. We definitely looked at it, so the answer to that question is everything. There are certain games that I would argue had very little influence, the ones that you would think might, things like Wind Waker and GTA. These are games that are either so expensive (GTA) or just took so long (Wind Waker) that they're way less influential than you would expect them to be, largely because game devs look at them as being un-replicable."

Did the Ash Warriors survive Ostagar? "Pretty sure that's an unanswerable question"

Chat asked "Did the DA team remove many toggleable abilities in later games? Noticed DA:O has an ABUNDANCE of them". Mark replied "Yeah I think we got rid of them because, stamina and mana are kind of a weird thing because I personally find it very awkward that you're limiting power usage based upon two things. So you've got a cooldown on individual powers and then you have a pool of mana/stamina. But so, it's been kind've a thing that's kind've fallen in and out of favor with the combat team there."

Chat commented "Was it intentional game design that on PC DA:I has only 8 abilities? I was real sad that even the focus abilities took a slot. Lots of cool combos I couldn't do Q_Q''. Mark said "I don't think it's intentional, I don't know why there's only 8 on PC. I mean it was balanced to that for consoles, but I don't think it would be, it's likely just a UI, like 'how much time we spent on the UI' thing. The shower answer is because 8 is the number on the consoles, but I don't know that there was any particular reason why it couldn't be more on PC other than just not having to worry about rebalancing. I'm pretty sure it's 8 on consoles so it defaulted to 8 on PC, it could have been more but then you have to also do balancing to see if it affects the combat balance and it just introduces another vector, so. Its's just less variables"

On the end cards/epilogue slides in DA:O - "DA:O was originally envisioned as being a one off, so there was a lot of timebombs set up in there, for example Orzammar is supposed to be in a civil war about now, now-ish, so like there's a lot of mess left by DA:O's cards"

"I was thinking yesterday about all of the intelligent races that've been sort've introduced in the background of DA:O, you know like the tree ents, and the ghasts and the giants, that've just kinda been introduced as kinda one-offs and then never brought back in Dragon Age." Here chat mentioned the lizard people. "That's right, we do have the lizard people in the paintings"

Chat asked "Would you agree that elven history is basically them Tevintering before Tevinter could Tevinter? They had magisters, and slaves, and wars". Mark replied, "I mean the elves as-presented are basically yeah, pretty much, the Tevinter are pretty much echoing many of the things the elves have done, and picking up their bits of discarded garbage and doing bad stuff with them, so yes I don't think the elves, I don't think ancient elven lore is anything to be super excited about in terms of not being terrible"

Chat asked "Can you speak as to why the healing spells weren't brought back for DA:I?" Mark replied, "Healing spells and regenerating mana mean that every single combat needs to be a threat on its own, which means in an open world, you can't basically do an open world with regenerating mana and healing spells because the combat in the open world is pointless, it's just a series of increasingly tedious road blocks because you can't make every single encounter with some bandits be a threat to your life. If you had non-regenerating mana or you had some sort of damage mitigation, then you could do damage mitigation, same kind've problem but at least it's sort've preemptive so you can kinda whittle away, or you could do no regenerating mana and then make that be your limiting factor"

Chat asked why DA:O wasn't turn-based. Mark said "Because Baldur's Gate isn't turn-based either, DA:O was definitely trying to evoke BG from a combat perspective, which is pause and play". He continued "one thing that I've always found frustrating with turn-based combat is it can, without some sort of auto-resolution it can make the minor combat really tedious, like 'I am definitely going to beat you, but I still have to go through five turns of combat because that's just how it's balanced'. Whereas way back in BG1, the thinking with pause and play was if you can massively overpower the combat you just don't pause, if you need to think more you can pause, so that's really where pause and play came from"

Chat commented that DA:O "does have a lot of rough edges that don't exactly puzzle together well in later games because they hadn't realized it was necessary". Mark said "Oh for sure there are rough edges around, both DAII and DA:I are actively trying to clean up the mess left by this game. There are too many.. DA:O has the problem of magic comes from a bunch of different sources, but yet it's not very well-defined, so since DA:O there's been an effort to kinda bring them together into something that forms a cohesive understandable metaphysics. You can have infinite sources of magic which you see in some fantasy where magic just comes from magic, which is fine, but that's not what we have in DA:O. We have blood magic and we have lyrium magic and we have the Ashes and spirits and darkspawn and the Taint and it's sort've, it doesn't know what, how these join together and that's been a thing that sort've loomed over the franchise. Better honestly to have had just, magic comes from magic, and not have to worry about it, but instead kind've had to slowly collapse the space into something understandable as time went on"

On teleporting in DAII: "I think it tries to explain itself through lore as being just moving really fast, I don't know if we bothered to do that in DA:I or if we just let it go. But yeah in DAII it's definitely presented as just moving really fast. The no teleporting rule is for two reasons. It's basically David Gaider putting a restriction into the IP because teleportation is, D&D has a, if you think about it, has a couple of really big problems. If you can teleport, what does defense look like? And if you have low level mind control how would society react to that? So blood magic is the response to the mind control, and the no teleportation rule is a response to how we deal with that, but I think, honestly you need to keep the door open. And in a computer game as opposed to just a tabletop game, you don't have to deal with some of the stuff, you can just make it incredibly rare as a solution. There are problems with the way things have been presented in DA, even in DA:O, that would introduce problems that are very similar to teleportation - you move through the Fade, that's like moving through the ethereal plane or the plane of shadows of what have you, which introduces exactly the same problems as teleportation. I do think that the presentation of how society views magic in DA, at least the background presentation (people are pretty much fine with you doing it), is probably pretty accurate to how society would view it. It's a tool, you're not gonna necessarily just go murder everyone but you're definitely gonna try to control it in some manner, especially in a society like this"

"Everything in Dragon Age is presented from the perspective of shining a light on things, but you can never draw a one-to-one connection with anything in real life. That's always going to be a restriction or maybe even an intentional thing to allow the conversation to exist. Doesn't mean there's not room for commentary but yeah it's not, the Dalish draw inspiration from a bunch of different places"

"I think one of the main reasons that sylvans never showed up again is that the models wouldn't have worked in future versions. That doesn't mean they couldn't have recreated them, but that's part of it. I think that part of the problem was getting the artists excited into making them. They are a custom skeleton, I mean you might be able to make them off of, say, the giant skeleton, they would obviously be different than the ones in DA:O, but yeah, there certainly would be a use for them but they would have to be rebuilt because the ones from DA:O are too old. You might be able to make something work on the Behemoth"

"The Behemoth is definitely an example of 'thing that was created because an artist was excited about it'. It's got a lot of weird shapes, so it's got a lot of trouble reaching things, so it's actually problematic from a gameplay perspective, but sometimes Art makes something and you work with it, sometimes Design makes something and you work wit it. I like that kind of back and forth, where the leadership on a specific feature can move around a little bit"

DA:I has a lot "going on so the mages and templars are kind've being pushed into the background [there] for sure, somewhat intentionally"

Chat commented "It just occurred to me that the monstrous spider model must've been made after this for DAII since there aren't any in DA:O". Marl replied "That's probably correct. Most of the models, despite the short development time, way more was rebuilt for DAII than makes rational sense"

[source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

[asbestos-11]

Hi I'm back again!!!!

I'm haply to know that I'm not alone in the "ship has to be sometimes realistic or I die" boat. Though it's not like I can't consume unrealistic stuff. I just have to be in the mood for it.

I assume the daughter that looks like Aventurine would be the oldest, right? And then later come the other two. I would love to hear about what you came up with!!! (I would also like to draw them, but I don't think I'll do your vision justice...)

In comparison, the fan kids I made aren't all that fleshed out, haha. It's not that I've never thought of them having kids, but my brain feels like it has to build the relationship first before jumping into it, if that makes sense. Like I first have to think about how a ship got together, how the relationship progresses, what struggles they face, whether they would get married, whether they want kids, etc. Whatever I create has to stem from those conclusions. That might be weird, idk. But having someone to bounce ideas off of certainly helps!!!!

Back to the kids, for me I would envision them to have two daughters. They both would have blonde hair, but then the youngest later on dyes it similar to Ratio's, just a bit lighter. The oldest would have Ratio's eyes, and the youngest would have Aventurine's. When they're raising them it's sometimes a jumpscare when Aventurine sees long blonde hair.

I like to think that the eldest daughter eventually gets the fashion sense of her papa (flashy, reference to an animal, excessive amounts of jewelry, etc). Though I'm mostly thinking of those sunglasses Aventurine sometimes wears. They take shopping trips together. Though she'd be the type that just likes what looks good on her, even if it's not designer or whatever.

In contrast, the youngest unfortunately gets one good look at Stelle and it shapes her little brain forever. She looks at Ratio and tells him "I wanna be like them when I grow up!!!!" and it's just a picture of them after they finished dumpster diving. There is no hope to be had. He tries to sit her down and tells her that looting for trash is frowned upon in society and can get her sick. She starts crying.

(Somewhere in the distant universe, Stelle feels a profound sadness in the air. March and Dan Heng tell them they're crazy.)

As for jobs, I like to think one of them becomes a pastry chef, and the other a teacher. But I haven't decided who gets what. Or, like what level of complexity the job would be.

Also thank you for the kind words!!!! We are giggling and kicking our feet together!!!!! I was thinking of making it worse, but then decided against it. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a bit too much if i did.

I love this little universe we're making too!! YAAYYYY !!!

ok ok so here's their designs (always subject to change). fitia is the oldest amongst the three and is a phd holder in archeology and anthropology. she's currently busy with research into her family legacy, more specifically she's interested in the avgin (both for her sake and bcs she grew up with aven talking abt his clan). fitia is a mild mannered person with a sunny disposition and a meticulous approach to her work, which means that she's not very good at taking care of herself. one can either find her nose deep in work or passed out on the floor with several mugs of coffee near her. fun fact, her nickname fi is a play on phi often being used in maths.

selene is the middle child. she's a pro racer and is just about the most reckless person you could meet. an adrenaline junkie at heart, she often makes her family worry. selene is a rebellious one, being very independent even as a kid. she's an avid lover of all things vehicle related and when she's not busy crashing them, she's seen tinkering with bits and bobbles. selene is a yapper, something she inherited from both her parents, and often annoys her two quieter sisters with her talking (they don't mind tho).

cassea is the youngest and quietest of the bunch. she's currently studying geology and is running a blog where she talks about gems. she's more of a listener than a talker, but her tongue is sharp whenever it needs to be. she is quite sweet, but she has taken after ratio's blunt nature. if she's not studying or indulging in her work, she's often seen walking along beaches combing for rocks and pretty shells. cassea has a habit of picking up trinkets and gifting them to her family (selene has a whole lot on her keychain). cassea's name is (might be inaccurate) the romani version of the name keziah.

nooo i love ur two girls they sound so lovely. i like the 2nd one dyeing her hair like her dad's, she's so real for that!!! who wouldn't want to look as good as he does?

oooh do you think that whenever they go on their shopping sprees, that they both legit take hours because they take so long choosing good pieces? i can just imagine her sitting in front of the changing room and waiting for him to come out so they can nitpick every single thing wrong with the article. i can already tell that their closets are full of stuff.

the youngest is a lost cause fashion wise, but god do i love her already. has stelle influenced her in other aspects of her life or just the dumpster diving fashion? huhu please tell me more about both of them, i desperately need to know more!!!!

sorry anon it took me so long to answer, but i've been in ddne land + i have been feeling really shitty lately, but whatever. haha it seems you have transferred the angst onto me :,D

[multiplicity-positivity]

Hey. Not being hateful or anything just curious but, recently weve been questioning our views on non traumagenic systems. We used to be very anti endo but lately weve switched to neutral. I was just wondering if you could explain some misconceptions and stuff about non traumagenic systems? Thanks

-Marj

Hi, Marj, sure thing!

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we are NOT a nontraumagenic system, although we fully support them! Our system is diagnosed with DID, but we have a few parts who do engage in syscourse and the like. We will be using “endogenic” (meaning formed without trauma) and nontraumagenic interchangeably here.

Common Misconceptions:

1. Endogenic (nontraumagenic) systems are “roleplaying a serious disorder.”

Most systems understand that dissociative disorders are trauma based (although family dynamics may play a role), and for the most part, endogenic systems do not claim to have DID or any other sort of complex dissociative disorder (CDD). The way endogenic systems experience plurality may sometimes look like a dissociative disorder, but the two are actually incredibly different. Endogenic systems are not glorifying or romanticizing dissociative disorders, and are not trying to roleplay having a disorder when they claim to be plural without trauma.

2. Endogenic systems steal or take up resources meant for those with CDDs.

Many endogenic systems don’t claim to have a dissociative disorder, and don’t seek mental health treatment from trauma and dissociation specialists. They (like anyone else!) may seek out and benefit from therapy, but in general, they are not eating up the time and energy of CDD specialists out there.

Additionally, resources like SimplyPlural and PluralKit were designed with systems of all origins in mind, and were never meant to be used specifically by CDD or endogenic systems.

3. All endo systems are traumatized and can’t recall their trauma.

While it may be true that the nature of dissociative disorders is to hide trauma from the individual, that alone should not be a clear indicator that all endogenic systems have childhood trauma they can’t recall. For some, yes, this may be true, but in general, individuals understand themselves and their histories better than anyone else. It’s okay to question, and it’s okay to be wrong! What isn’t okay is trying to police or dictate someone else’s lived experience.

4. Every endogenic system is faking their plurality.

This one is really weird for us. Why would anyone want to fake being plural? And even if they did, why does it matter? We don’t think most nontraumagenic systems are faking their plurality - just because their experience with multiplicity doesn’t align with the common experiences of those with CDDs doesn’t mean they’re faking in the slightest!

5. Endogenic systems cannot exist until there is research proving they exist.

Plurality is an incredibly vast and diverse concept that covers a wide range of experiences. For many, plurality is something that comes naturally, was practiced, or manifested later in life. It is an incredibly personal, sometimes spiritual experience that is not easily studied or made quantifiable. As such, research on multiplicity without trauma is hard to plan and execute and even more difficult to come by.

However, a lack of research doesn’t mean endogenic systems are faking or mistaking their plurality by any means! There may never be a huge amount of credible research on endogenic plurality, but that is not going to stop people from identifying the way they do. As long as nontraumagenic plurals are out there, it’s up to us as individuals to show them kindness, care, and support, despite our differences!

6. Endogenic systems aim to demedicalize CDDs

This one couldn’t be further from the truth. While many endo systems wish plurality was less pathologized, that doesn’t mean they wish to demedicalize dissociative disorders as a whole! Many systems with dissociative disorders require professional support and access to clinical care, and we don’t think it’s the norm for nontraumagenic systems to want to take this away. We have never interacted with an endogenic system who either didn’t believe in DID or thought it should be removed from the DSM.

Finally, if you’d like to learn more about endogenic plurality, feel free to check out the links below!

(^ in general we do not support The Plural Association and by extension Power to the Plurals, but this article was written by the individual who coined the term “endogenic” in plural spaces as it’s used today, so we thought it would be useful to include)

We are more than happy to discuss or debunk any further claims or misconceptions that paint endo systems in a negative light or misconstrue multiplicity without trauma and what that entails! Also any endogenic systems are more than welcome to speak up with their own thoughts on nontraumagenic plurality, what it is, and how it affects them.

For further discussion revolving syscourse, please feel free to reach out to the syscourse specific blog that is maintained by a few alters in our system - @kipandkandicore ! As a rule we don’t like to get into syscourse here for the health and safety of our followers. We hope you understand!

🌸 Margo, 🖋 Cecil, and 🐢 Kip

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Protector

Chapter One

Chapter Twenty-Five:

Time passed that way for a little bit.  Remus kept up his promise of not asking Virgil what had happened, though Virgil could tell he wanted to.  But it seemed he’d meant it when he said he wouldn’t pry, because he didn’t even watch the videos.  He also kept up his insistence of helping Virgil, however, because he started checking on Virgil more often, and, when Virgil asked or he thought he needed it, getting an ice cube for him to hold or press against his forehead in order to have something to focus on.  (Logan noticed that.  Virgil wasn’t sure what his look meant, or how Virgil felt about it.)

Remus could not be there all the time, naturally, but Virgil was trying to get better about asking him if he needed help.  A lot of times it was easy on Remus’ part anyway, because all Virgil needed was a reminder that his baby brother was safe, and all that required was being in the same space as him.  That did mean the two of them had started spending a lot of time in Remus’ half of The Imagination.

It was growing steadily as Remus worked his creative muscles for the first time in years.  The ideas started getting more Remus-y as time went on, and Virgil often entered to find a new weird thing about the world that had been built.  Sometimes it was a new building, like the museum Remus was designing based around all the times Thomas had done something embarrassing (it was Virgil's fault he still remembered, to be fair, but also Virgil was never going inside).  Sometimes it was a new creature, like the time he walked in and found electric eels swimming through the sky as if it was water.  (Remus had already reassured him that he’d intentionally made it so nothing could hurt them, meaning Virgil had been able to admire the eels and how beautiful they looked instead of worrying about whether or not they’d shock him.)  Sometimes it was a new idea Remus was working on, and he'd found some way to put himself directly inside the idea, like that time he wanted to focus on Thomas stabbing his ex-boyfriend so he turned himself into the knife to better get a feel for how it would work.

Thankfully, Remus had not turned himself into a knife today.

Instead, he was in what Virgil knew as his brainstorming room, which he changed the look and feel of regularly as what he needed shifted.  Sometimes it was a room of wall-to-wall whiteboards.  Sometimes it was filled to the brim with various objects that were seemingly unrelated or unhelpful.  Sometimes it was a Victorian study.  Sometimes it was a Victorian study that had caught on fire.

Today Remus was sitting in a bedroom.  Sitting around him was a combination of both basic things one would expect to be in a bedroom, such as hairbrushes and deodorant (which Remus was eating?), and also things that didn’t seem to have much of a place, such as an enormous toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, and some things that just made no sense at all, like a model of a mountain with a house behind a waterfall and a giant pile of money.

Remus was sitting on a chair he’d made, specifically designed for being able to cross your legs while still being comfortable, and pouring over countless papers and notes he seemed to have tossed onto the bed.

“Hey Re,” Virgil said, walking up to him.  “You doing okay there?”

“Thomas is making another motivation video,” Remus said.  “He’s calling it ‘Why Do We Get Out Of Bed In The Morning,’ so now I’m here.”  He took another bite out of deodorant, and held it out to Virgil.  “Want some?”

“Uh… I’m good.  You know I can make you food if you’re hungry?”

“I’m not hungry.  Just wanted to eat deodorant.”

“…Okay then.  Fair enough I guess?  Do you need some help?”

“Roman’s argument needs work,” Remus grumbled, scribbling something else down on a paper.  “It’s going to be some kind of argument between Roman and Logan, and Logan’s argument is done already.  Roman’s talking about achieving dreams and goals and all that stuff, but he doesn’t make a single mention of anything we leave behind.  Neither of them are talking about Thomas’ legacy.”

“You think that’s important?” Virgil asked, stepping up beside Remus to look down at his notes.

“Well, yeah,” Remus said.  “Thomas isn’t going to be here forever Virgin, if we follow Logan’s argument and spend our days only thinking about making that life last long, we’ll never do anything with it!  Roman needs a stronger comeback than what he’s got.”

Virgil bit his lip as he thought.  Personally he kind of saw Logan’s point.  The legacy Remus wanted to build wouldn’t happen if Thomas died before he could do so.  There was a reason he pushed so hard for Thomas’ safety, and it wasn’t only because he worried about him getting hurt.  Thomas needed enough time to be able to build something substantial, like Remus and Roman, and therefore Virgil too, wanted.

But if this was supposed to be an argument between Roman and Logan, it probably wouldn’t make much sense for Roman to compromise.  At least, not right away.  The video would likely end there, as most of Thomas’ videos did.

Remus did not seem to be coming at it from this mindset though, and Virgil got it.  He and Roman had very similar perspectives on this issue, even if they weren’t exactly the same.

“Do you want some help?” he asked Remus, leaning down next to him against the desk.

“Nope, I’m good.  In the zone,” Remus said, taking another bite of deodorant.

“Fair enough,” Virgil said.  “I’ll leave you to it then.  I’ll get you when it’s time for dinner, okay?”

“Okay,” Remus said, waving his hand to show acknowledgement before focusing back on his notes.

Virgil, satisfied that he was okay, sank out and reappeared back in the commons.  Dinner wasn’t for a couple hours, but it was usually a good idea to start early rather than late, as Remus got hungry early on and Patton wouldn’t make dinner for the others if they were in there at the same time.

So, Virgil made some mac and cheese and put it in the back of the fridge to heat up later, and then headed back to his own room to relax.  Remus was safe for now, at least trying to relax probably wasn’t a terrible idea.

That didn’t mean he was… good at it.  Logan had said things that might help were grounding exercises and reminders that he was safe, but Virgil’s brain was really bad at accepting that idea.

Probably due to the fact that he was quite literally meant to be Thomas’ instinct for when he wasn’t safe.  Throw into the mix that for so many years he hadn’t been safe at all, and well, Virgil was kind of a mess.  What else was new?

He liked music.  Particularly any kind of loud screaming in his ear could give the nerves something to scream back at, and when the music stopped sometimes he could calm down.  He was beginning to take a liking to horror for the same reason.

He didn’t really want to do either of those right now, though, meaning he was kind of stuck with the ball of nerves in his chest for no good reason.

Unless there was a good reason.  Unless there was something to be worried about.  Maybe the others had somehow found a way over here, and everyone was in danger and Virgil was sitting in his room.  Maybe they were getting to Remus right now, or Roman.  Or maybe they’d decided to go for one of the sides that had no idea how to defend themselves, like Patton or Logan or Janus.  Maybe they were going for Thomas.

Virgil whined and reached up towards his hair before catching himself.  That wasn’t a good idea.  But he didn’t want to bother Remus for an ice cube right now, he was busy being in the zone and all that.

He should just check on the others.  Hopefully that would calm his nerves and he could go back to his room and find something that sounded appealing to do.

Virgil shook his hands out to hopefully get rid of some of the nerves, and sank out to the commons.

Logan’s door was closed, meaning he was working.  And since these idiots didn’t keep their doors soundproofed, Virgil could walk up to it and press his ear to the door.  No screaming.  No cries for help.  Just a very light scratching of pencil on paper, that Virgil was barely able to hear through the wood.

But Logan was safe.  Moving on then.

He heard Roman and Patton’s voices both coming downstairs from the kitchen, and a quick peak around the edge of the steps revealed them to be baking cookies.  Huh, Virgil couldn’t remember the last time someone other than just Patton did that.  Regardless, no screaming, no blood, no signs of danger.  They were alright then.

Virgil walked quietly back over towards Janus’ door and pressed his ear up against it.

He didn’t hear anything.  That didn’t help with his nerves.

Virgil clenched his hands, took a deep breath, and looked out at Thomas, the next likely location.

And he found Thomas blocked off.

No, no, no, what was going on?

Virgil took a deep breath, and sank out.  He appeared silently on the stairs, above his usual spot so he could hide in the shadows, and peered through them.

Janus and Thomas were talking, but neither of them looked hurt.  Neither of them looked scared.  Thomas looked unsure about something, but not in a nervous way.

“…but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop,” Janus said, clasping his hands together behind his back.  Likely so Thomas wouldn’t see the way they were shaking.  “I’m not done, Thomas.”

Thomas crossed his arms, but rather than looking angry, he seemed concerned.  “Janus,” he said.  “I feel like you’re taking too much blame for yourself, buddy.”

“It has nothing to do with how much blame I’m taking Thomas,” Janus said, blatantly lying through his teeth if Virgil had anything to say about it.  “It is my responsibility to make sure you’re ready to handle the others.  If you’re not ready to handle them they shouldn’t be in a position to speak to you.”

Virgil’s blood ran cold.  Janus better not be saying what it sounded like he was saying.

“Honestly Janus,” Thomas said hesitantly.  “I feel like we’re doing okay handling Remus.  I appreciate your efforts, but hasn’t he kind of calmed down a bit?”

“I don’t trust it,” Janus said, crossing his arms.  “He could be planning something worse.  I have to find a way to lock him up again.”

Virgil clenched his hands tightly into fists.  He was not going to make a noise he was not going to make a noise he was not going to make a noise—

“I’m just saying don’t push yourself,” Thomas said, reaching out and laying a hand on Janus’ arm, who predictably jerked away immediately.

“I…” Thomas looked bothered, but he put his hand down.  “I’m okay, Janus.”

Janus didn’t say anything, but either way, Virgil had heard enough.  He sank back out to the commons, heading straight for the kitchen.

Roman and Patton were still making cookies, and looked understandably surprised when Virgil showed up seething in rage.

“If you send Remus back,” he growled at both of them.  “I am going with him.”

Both of them stared at him.

“What?” Roman asked.

“If you all send Remus back to that place,” Virgil said, walking forward and jabbing a finger against Roman’s chest.  “I am going too.  And you can’t stop me and you can’t make me stay and I will not be kept from him a second time.”

Roman held up his hands and nudged Virgil gently back.  “Now who exactly said anything about sending Remus back?” he said angrily.  “That was a pretty big part of the deal you forced on all of us, Jason Toddler.”

“Yeah well the two-faced snake you all let into your family is shit at keeping deals,” Virgil hissed.  “If you care about Remus even a fraction of the amount that I do, you better talk Janus down.  Or I’ll force him again.  This is your only warning.”

“You do not get to make demands of me, Anxiety,” Roman said firmly, narrowing his eyes.

“Watch me,” Virgil snapped, before storming from the room.

“I’m sorry, padre,” he heard Roman say as he did.  “I don't know what in the world got into him.”

“I wasn’t scared, Roman,” Patton said.  “And that wasn’t your fault, you don’t need to apologize.”

Virgil didn’t hear any more of their conversation, because he’d made it to the top of the steps and marched over to slam the door to his room shut.

He was not sending Remus back to the others alone again.  Ideally, neither of them would go to the others again at all, but if it came to that, Remus most definitely wasn’t doing it alone.

Virgil clenched his hands around his jeans.  Well, at least rage was a proper distraction from fear.  Though he wouldn’t deny there was some terror in there too.

He hadn’t thought Janus would stoop this low.  He didn’t know why he’d been so stupid.  Janus was Janus, and Virgil should stop having standards for him.  But he didn’t get to break their deal just because he felt like a failure.

…Except it was Virgil’s fault he felt like a failure.  He was the one who forced him into that deal.  Not that he wouldn’t do it again.  But still.

Virgil buried his head in his hands, his mind drifting to the look on Janus’ face when he realized Virgil had been lying to him.  Or at least, he thought Virgil had.  (Hadn’t he been?)

That had to be a low blow, to get manipulated as Deceit.  But Virgil had only been doing what he had to.  Janus would have appreciated that once upon a time.

A loud knock on his door drew Virgil from his thoughts.  Virgil growled, trying to redirect his anger towards whoever would be waiting on the other side of the door.  It wouldn’t be Remus.  He wouldn’t have knocked.

“What do you want?” Virgil snapped, yanking it open.

“I don’t understand,” Roman said.

“Shocker, Roman doesn’t understand something,” Virgil said, starting to slam the door again, but Roman caught it.

“I don’t understand,” Roman said firmly.  “Why you came to scream that at me.”

Virgil scowled.  “I need a reason?”

“You could have just as easily screamed at Janus,” Roman said.

Well, that wasn’t true.  Scream at Janus one too many times and they both really would get locked up.  But Roman didn’t know that, so instead, Virgil settled for a much weaker excuse.

“Janus was too busy being awful.”

Roman narrowed his eyes, seeming both angry at the comment and still confused.  “Patton and I were baking cookies.”

“Patton and you are insignificant,” Virgil said, slipping into an asshole tone, because if he made Roman angry he’d probably just storm off.

And Roman did narrow his eyes further and clench his hands, but surprisingly, he didn’t walk away.  “You could have gone to Logan,” Roman said, crossing his arms.

Virgil clenched his own hands into fists at his side.  “You’re the one who gets nightmares like a little wimpy baby,” he said.  “Maybe I like playing to your weaknesses.  Now go away.”

Roman took what looked like a calming breath, and Virgil didn’t understand why he wouldn’t leave.

“So you’re looking for an ally,” Roman said, and Virgil blinked.

“Did I say that?” he snapped, trying to get the conversation back in his favor.

“You’re not going to find one in me,” Roman said.  “Just because I— you think I care about Remus does not mean I’m going to forget what you two did.”

“Great.  Thanks,” Virgil said, leaning against the doorway to try and seem as casual as possible.  “Are you done talking about things we both already knew?”

“But,” Roman continued as if Virgil hadn’t spoken.  “We’re not going to send you back, Anxiety.”

Virgil stiffened against the door and narrowed his eyes up at Roman.  “Yes, because that’s up to you.”

“Janus isn’t going to send you back either, Surly Temple,” Roman said, rolling his eyes.  “He’s just worried about Thomas.”

Virgil clenched his hands.  “I think you’re underestimating him.”

“I’ll talk to him then,” Roman said, and Virgil startled, jerking upright.  “But neither of you are going to be sent back, Anxiety.”

Virgil stared.  “You’ll talk to him?”

Roman scowled.  “Don’t read into that.  I want you to stop bothering me about it.  And I don’t particularly enjoy having my time with Patton interrupted by someone screaming at me.  So if it will get you off my back, yes, I’ll talk to him.”

And with that, he finally turned around and stormed off, leaving Virgil to stare after him and be bewildered.

...

Chapter Twenty-Six

[lavender-silk-sheets]

Oh oh OH! I have been obsessed over my silly little guys and I need to get them OUT of my freaking System!!!!! Waaaaaaa!!!!

Okay okay so I'm making a little story and it's all about loss and war and change and the want to go back to some sort of "Normality". Like, how you can make your own normal, even through the chaos. Make a new better normal as long as you try and put the work into it..!

Oh it's so personal to me and it's been such a good outlet for my brain and AHH!! All of those good things and now I just want to show off the too many works of art I've made

Okay okay okay so first I need to go RAHHH about my main gay- I mean guy. (I should probably say now that none of the characters have names yet!! I want to wait a bit so I can give them names with meanings even though there's a chance I miiight not haha!) ANYWAY my deer boy oh how I love him so and his silly little egg shaped head I mean just!! Look at him!!! Ahh!!!

As you'll see soon all the other characters have alt outfits!!! He will soon too but I'm still working on them!!!!! I just finished his drawing for me to add outfits too not that long ago :]

He's got tons of baggage and trauma up his sleeve it's almost funny. Dead dad, dead mom, and he's searching for his lost sister who ends up dead anyway? Poor boy. But it's okay because all of that was caused by a war his soon to be boyfriends dad started wahaha!!

And here's a quick glance at his sister for a moment.. her design is very much subject to change! I think I might change her outfit a bit and tweak a few facial features :]

And now onto her little found family replacement basically! This goober of a computer head is new to emotions and the world. She's just trying to get by while making her own clashing outfits :D

She's still in a bunch of development (as is much of the rest of this world and story!) And at first I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep her! I'm still not sure.. a little worried she'll be in the way. But I imagine her as a sort of comedic relief character.. one that's silly but helps in the story in her own weird way!

Enough about her though.. We MUST talk about the Prince! Another gay who also has trauma! A dead mom, and unfortunately an alive dad who is NOT very supportive or kind in any sense of the word.

His mother was part of the royal DragonKin line (better name still in progress). A family history that arose from two ancient God like creatures, a Dragon and a Demoness, who gave birth to a child adorned with the twos features. As a gift to their kid, they made a whole new race based on his image. EXCEPT none shared his purple hue, for he was the only one allowed to adorn the color. As did his kin and their after. The more purple you are, the higher class you are basically.

MY that was alot and not even on the Prince theirself! He's very talented and well trained in many ways due to his father being a prick. He fights, plays piano, reads all sorts of books for his studies. A very jack of all trades character. Knows alot about what's going on, about war strategies, about why there's a war in the first place. He's a great foil for our main deer boy protagonist who knows NONE of that stuff.

And for a good little end point here's concept sketches for the Princes dad.. Though not true royalty, he's higher class since he was born into a noble knight family. One with high enough statis that once he became head of the gaurd, he was given the opportunity to marry the princess at the time :]