#i'll draw at least some of them soon but i literally just made them up

[jewishcissiekj]

THR Pathfinder OCs names Raki'ah (pilot) and her wife Kar'kah (medic). Astromech is DE-3E aka Deshe. They work with Jedi Master Ronter Tygo and Padawan Merana Coryl. I don't know much about them yet but they're important to me

[sorensolsikke]

here's some punk diy tips and ideas

[other than crusty pants and battle jacket, although we still love those greatly.]

why should you diy, when you can just find decorated items everywhere, you can ask. what if you are clumsy at painting or anything?

firstly, good questions. we diy so we don't give credit to the big companies who rule the world. we diy to get more independent from the system we dislike. we diy so to save money. to express uniqueness, recognize eachother and be recognized. and especially to have fun and feel cool. diy is not only about clothing, but anything you can set your mind on. of course, one cannot make EVERYTHING for themselves, there isn't enough time and energy. but making at least small steps are already a statement and more than nothing. also, helping small artists by buying their products is also pretty punk.

that being said, i provide you with some tips of mine, all gained from experience:

anything you drew/painted on, you will WANT TO protect. acrylic paint/markers + acrylic paint varnish/transparent nail polish/textile medium are your best friends. read after anything that's new to you.

i highly recommend working with old clothing or thrift shop finds when it comes to textiles, as it is environmentally friendly and you will stay in budget. Anyways, always make sure that the material you use isn't gonna be problematic. for example, if you want to do some patchwork, the material shouldn't decay easily (if it does, it will come off so quickly.). if you want to paint on it, it shouldn't be rugged.

you can not only draw/paint on your canvas shoes, but can also sew, embroidery (just make sure to use a thimble, plus floss instead of thread could make your work more durable), and add beads and trinkets to your shoelaces. in the case of shoes, never use glue (neither hot nor instant glue) – it will come off quickly. for some inspiration, i'll show you my shoes!

(the fake moss is literally unstoppable from falling off or getting dirty. risky idea.)

it's good to carry around water and food!! you don't even have to pay for decorative water bottles and food boxes, as you can draw on glass and plastic just fine with acrylic markers. just don't forget to paint transparent nail polish all over your drawing. in at least two layers. don't be lazy or laid-back. even posca comes off while washing the dishes. and you WANT TO save your reference pictures/final designs, as the case of emergency is likely. but after all, my water bottle is exactly fine after six months, with no accuring problem.

if your current best option to get stickers from is aliexpress or overpriced decor stores, search for local artists and shops on instagram and tiktok, as it may be their most efficent way of getting you to know them. if it seems like you have no chance, you may can still find a print shop with the option of printing on self-adhesive sheets (at least in hungary, those are pretty cheap). and if you want drawings to print out as stickers, you may use your own or –ONLY IF YOU GET PERMISSION– other artist's work. not only good for decorations for like, headphones, but for vandalism too. WAIT WAIT who said that. who said it. not me. no never

(in case that's also impossible, you can create stickers by printing out/drawing a picture, cover it up in transparent adhesive tape, and then put some two-sided adhesive tape on the white side of the pic. it won't be that durable, but it functions.)

if you want to bleach-paint clothing, get some plastic brushes!! any other brush dissolves. draw your design first with chalk!! never forget to put cardboard inside the clothing, and to wash the finished work in a washing machine before you'd put it on. prepare to be patient with the process. and it's not dangerous to touch 5%-9% household bleach, just wash your hands soon after.

if you want your crusty pants to last veryyy long, wax them. look up on youtube jeans waxing.

some more things i made for myself so to give you some inspiration: totebag with pockets, a small crystal holder cabinet, badges, and i decorated some t-shirts, button-ups, an id card case, phonecase, laptop.

theoretically speaking, there is nothing that an individual would be unable to learn how to make, when it comes to diy. you can't imagine how easy it is to bake bread at home. consuming-focused media makes people believe that it's hard to make anything. of course, everyone has to decide about their own priorities, i don't want to convince or change anyone in here. and if you have any questions, send an ask!! i hope i had been helpful.

[fallingdownhell]

haii may i request the sumeru men with a people pleaser so?

Love this! As a people pleaser myself, I know how hard this can be. Still, hope I did a decent job with this.

Characters Included: Tighnari; Cyno; Kaveh; Alhaitham; Wanderer

Content: gender neutral reader; established relationship; some comfort and fluff

Word count: 2k words

Have fun with this<3

Tighnari

he understands you want to help people

he really does... but when it comes at the cost of your own health and well being, that's where he draws a line

Tighnari watches you as you go around doing anything people ask of you, always a smile on your lips

but he sees behind that smile, sees the tired expression you so desperately try to hide

He knows you want to make people happy.. but there's got to be a line. Sometimes, one has to prioritize themselves

But when you remain unwilling to stand up for yourself, he steps in to take over for you. Enough is enough!

When he sees you taking on the work of someone else yet again, he decides to step in

He takes you away from the situation, making up some excuse about needing your help with something before he drags you to his hut by your hand

You protest against him at first, but when he didn't budge at all, you knew to just accept your fate. After all, Tighnari can be quite stubborn if he wants to be..

As you arrive, he instructs you to sit down on the bed, which you oblige to while he goes and makes you a quick snack, since he noticed you haven't really eaten anything all day. You had even skipped his top tier breakfast..

He literally watches you like a hawk, making sure that you eat at least half of the food he made before he tells you to lie down and relax

You try and protest again, but he's firm in his resolve

With a sigh, you comply. And as soon as your head hits the pillow, you notice just how exhausted and drained you truly feel..

Tighnari looks at you with an expression akin to "I knew it". He lied down next to you, wrapping his arms around your waist as he just held you like this..

"You don't always have to make everyone around you happy. You need to think about yourself and your own well being from time to time as well. You need breaks, just like everyone else needs them. Rest for now, my flower. I'll watch over you.."

Cyno

Cyno's an interesting case...

He wouldn't notice that behaviour in you at all at first. And once he does, he admires it first and foremost..

People were always afraid of him... they were when he was younger still.. and they are now, thanks to his status as General Mahamatra..

He finds it fascinating that people come to you to ask for your help constantly.. he can't even imagine what that would be like for him.. there would definitely be some underlying jealousy from him at the start

But.. overtime.. as the people ask more and more of you and you growing more and more stressed and tired trying to do all of them justice, did he finally see the downside to that kind of life..

Especially when it's affecting such a kindhearted soul like you, who can never turn anyone down for anything

after reaching that point, he starts to keep an eye out for you, making sure that you're not overworking yourself too much. But he wouldn't step in just yet, believing that you'd know your limits yourself

So, he just watches, as people come running to you again and again, asking you to fulfill simple tasks for them that they could have easily done themselves

it's not until much later does he realize that these people are only exploiting you and your kindness. To be fair, he only knows the extreme examples of such behaviour, so he didn't immediately recognise it with such "small" acts

but as time goes on, as he sees just how tired and exhausted you get, he starts to get worried himself

he's constantly asking himself why you wouldn't just turn those people down. He really doesn't understand it

But what he does understand is that you need a break. Urgently.

so without waiting any further, he goes into action. Cyno knows your usual schedule like the back of his hand so he knows that he has some time on hand

he goes to the market and buys all the ingredients for your favourite meal, which he promptly cooks you for dinner. After you've come home and eaten the food, he insists you take a nice, relaxing bath

after that, he gives you a nice and long massage, relaxing all your muscles perfectly. And once that is over, he cuddles you for the rest of the night until you both fall asleep

He's seen how hard you were working these last few days, so he wants you to know that he appreciates you and that he wants to help you unwind from time to time

"I've seen how these people treat you... you and the kindness you show them. Remember that it's okay to say No to them every now and then. You don't and can't always be responsible for everyone. You need to look out for yourself more. But for now, relax, my Lotus. Relax and let me take care of you for tonight."

Alhaitham

At some point, you became the unofficial librarian of the house of Daena

Not because you wanted to or applied for the job.. you just spent a lot of time in the library so you know where most of the books are. And people come to you when they need help with literally anything, because you never refuse to help anyone

At first you were happy to be able to help out a few struggling students, glad you were able to guide them in the right direction

But soon, word spread around and people came flooding you every tile they spotted you within the house of Daena

What was once a nice interaction and an exchange of information soon became an overwhelming amount of people bombarding you with questions

And even though it became too much for you very quickly, you didn't have the heart, not the opportunity, to turn them down

Much to the displeasure of someone else, as well

Though your boyfriend loved the House of Daena and to spend time with you here, he didn't appreciate people flooding you like that, taking time away he would usually spend with you and just being generally very loud

And since he knew you would never turn anyone down, he had to do it for you. He did not care what people thought or said about him, his reputation already being not the best. But what's it to him?

And today especially.. people were just so damn pushy and demanding towards you. It didn't sit right with him..

He watched you for a bit as two students were heavily debating something with you, raising their voices slightly. He noticed you growing uncomfortable in the situation yet still not saying anything

Deciding that he had to step in at this point, he walked over to you and simply took your hand, pulling you along with him without uttering a word

The two students were yelling after you, but he didn't pay them any mind. You weren't protesting at all, simply following him along, because you already knew why he did that

After he turned a quiet corner within the Academiya, he turned around and pulled you into his arms, engulfing you in a comforting hug

"I told you so many times.. you need to learn how to turn people down. They'll walk all over you otherwise. Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm just concerned about you. ...How are you? Feeling better?"

Kaveh

Oh boy...

this is quite the difficult situation, because Kaveh is such a big people pleaser himself

You two are constantly looking out for the other, reminding them to take breaks and to take things easy

you are both great at giving actual good, helpful advise. But when it comes to following them yourselves.. both you and Kaveh need to hone that skill much more

you constantly keep an eye out for him, as he does for you. Kaveh knows the telltale signs when you get exhausted and he always tries to gently remove you from the situation to get you to lie down when he sees them... which works for the most part

but he's often away on trips for his work, so he's not constantly around you to keep you safe from your own self destructive behaviour

when that happens and he returns from a trip a few days later, he finds you utterly exhausted and tired, about to collapse while standing up

he quite literally forces you to sit down or lie down while he makes you some simple food, mostly soups and such

and every time, you promise each other to look out better and to take better care of yourselves... only for that promise to be broken a few days later, letting the cycle begin anew.

Kaveh knows that things can't keep on going like this, something has to change. Something has to change, right now!

So he sits you down for an honest talk where he plays with open cards, sharing all his doubts and worries with you

It's an emotional talk, many tears from both you and him flow, but in the end, you both agree that you can't keep going like this, unless you want to destroy yourself completely

it will take a lot of time and effort, but you're sure that you can do this. You can do anything with Kaveh and his support by your side to help you back on your feet when the world tries to push you down again

"I know how hard it is.. you want to he helpful, you feel like that's the only way you can accomplish something in this world. But overworking yourself is not the right way to do this. Listen to me and listen to yourself. You are also important. So please, start treating yourself that way."

Wanderer

Hates it. Absolutely hates it

But not for the reason you might think

well... At first, at least

you see.... his issue in the beginning is how much time it takes away from your shared time together

every time you're out with him, even just for a walk, people come up to you, either engaging in conversation or asking favours of you

at the start, he only scoffs and shoots nasty looks at those people, but he does not interrupt, since he doesn't want to come of as rude to possible friends of yours

but he's still annoyed beyond anything that your attention is taken away from him

after he gets over the inital feelings of annoyance and anger, he begins to notice a pattern every time people approach you with a request in mind

he begins to notice your little hesitance before accepting the request, notices how your shoulders slump just slightly after they walk away without even giving you proper thanks

so, he decides to observe further... and boy, does he not like what he sees

because the longer he watches this unfold, the more rage he feels building up inside him

why were those pesky humans always coming to you for such trivial things? And why aren't you turning them down? In fact, he hasn't seen you turn down a single person so far..

of course, as he keeps on observing you, he notices you growing more and more tired the longer this keeps going

until one day, he just has enough

it happened when you two were out for a nice stroll in the evening and someone was approaching you yet again

something in him just snapped when he saw that familiar expression in their face

he quite rudely and loudly just stated a firm "NO!", taking your hand in his and just pulling you along with him

you did not protest against this, partly because you were surprised and a bit shocked by his strong reaction

he took you out of the city, to an open field where he sat down with you, watching the stars up in the sky

he kept quiet for a long while, and you also kept quiet, not knowing how to best tackle this situation

but as it turns out, you didn't have to do that at all

"Idiot... going around and letting yourself get expoited like that. What would you do if I weren't here to look out for you, huh? Just... be more careful. You don't always have to agree to anything, you can just say No to them. It's not that hard... But if you can't do that.. let me know. I'll do it for you."

[purpdrawsthings]

HIS REFERENCE SHEET IS REAL CHAT ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️🔥🔥🔥🔥

Yippee less goooooo, you can now know how the hell this man's outfit finally works now.

You guys can actually make him, with ✨COLORS✨

Honestly, making colors that would match him was really hard. It took me about a week to actually figure it all out just because of how hard it is and how I wanted it to be close to a star aesthetic.

Buttttt I got it all sorted out and to be honest, the result isn't too bad if I do say so myself.

After finishing the colors, it went all easy thankfully, I didn't really have to think that much about his Mario recolor form.

FUN FACT : He came right after the Revelations arc ended =3333333

Relationship chart because yes

Some of the characters uhhh text things are kinda meh cuz my brain ain't braining rn.

Sadge =[

But heyyyyy, at least y'all can now know his relationships yippee =DDDDDDDD

ALSO DO NOT MISTAKE HIS PINK ARROWS AS AFFECTION HE JUST ADMIRES THEM

But I don't really mind if you actually-

Uhhhhhhh deez nutz he can be shipped with anyone, as long as it's not someone he hates, like a certain tv someone =3

So now that that's done.... LET'S HAVE AT IT SOME FUN FACTS!!!!!

He was actually meant to be a silly villain, something like Storms oc, SMG8 =3 buttttt I saved that for later and changed him into a different character.

That human form you're looking at right now ain't even his true form, his true form is that weird star thing!!! Crazyyyy

Speaking about his star form, while in that form, he only speaks in speech bubbles, and is inaudible.

He was meant to be a ✨blondie✨ but after a test I found out it wasn't really the best color so why not use that uh.... Random ass hair color =D

He's got powers to fend off viruses ofc, but I'll do that for a later post, maybe I'll link it from here if I post it =]

Anddddd that's about all =DDDD

I'll probably think of more and probably update this post behind yalls backs lmao

But it'll probably not happen soon.

Anyways, you can now draw him, AND ask question for this man through my ask box, yippeeeeeee =DDDDDDDD

And uhh.... Yeah. Yeetus!!! =3

HAH! YOU REALLY THOUGHT THAT WAS THE END?

Naive people /silly

I actually just wanted to add some special thanks for some people that deserve to be here for a sec =3

@strange0-0storm

The first insp for this man!!! He helped me form GSP the most. I remember that one post he made and I think it was a question thing. I think the question was how did he make 8 or something. Idk I don't remember it much.

But in that post, he stated that he made 8 by making an opposite or something, and that sparked an idea for some reason lmao.

You can see some opposite accessories from him that are opposites of both 4 n' 3. Like the weird ahhhh shaped hat, him having glasses, him actually wearing a suit or something, and him having long, beautiful hair ✨

I uh.... Explained that terribly did I? AHSOSHSOSHISHEISHS THIS IS WHY I DON'T EXPLAIN STUFF RAHHHHHHH

Oopsies I'll get back to the thing =3

Anyways, yeah, as you can see, 8 was a big inspiration for this man, even sparking the idea of making him the same silly lil villain like 8 =3

I thank Storm so much for the huge insp, really helped make him!!!!!

@tiredsmashbros

This man was literally inspired by TSB... GUHH... This man is everywhere I swear....

BUT SERIOUSLY THO TSB WAS ANOTHER HUGE INSPIRATION BESIDES 8!!!!

TSB helped me arrange some of the colors, especially taking some inspiration from the orange and yellow =3

Funny thing but I sometimes accidentally draw GSP with a propeller like TSB on his head because I sometimes mistake him with TSB kshsisuwosossh

The name 'GSP' was also inspired by TSB! Seeing as the name meant TiredSmashBros, I thought if using PurpDrawsThings but when I realized that didn't fit, I just made up random shit lmaooooo

Sooooo yeah! Thank you Tomm for TSB helping me on how to arrange colors and also making his name =3

@its-a-me-mango

Not really seen here but when I said he was supposed to be a blondie and it didn't fit, I suddenly thought of Mango's hair 😭

I was like "Am I really sure I wanna use that"

Then I tested out different hues... Saturations... Andddddd nothing worked 💀 so I was like- "y'know what? Fuck it. I'mma just do it."

Sooooo uh... Yeah! Thank you Mango for helping me make his hair and relationship chart idea lmao 😭😭

Anddddd that's how his hair was born ❤

Also another huge thanks for Mango is insp for the relationship chart! I remember Mango's relationship chart having some text so I decided to do that =]

And that's about all!!!

Like actually fr this time.

These three were just huge inspirations on making him, and I can't thank them enough 😭

THANK YOU 3!!!! LOVE Y'ALL!!!!!

anyways, I'mma go and rest my fingers because I feel like they're actually breaking /silly

YEETUS MY BEANS!!!

[eggwishing]

LORD alfuckingmighty i don't think there is a single string of words i could piece 2gether to properly describe the absolute magnificence of ur art . you have such a vast understanding of art & so many of its intricacies. ur character designs are ALWAYS incredible, so so endearing & memorable. every time i see one i get incredibly excited & am strangled by the urge to make fanart because just. oh my god. you have some of the BEST color work i have ever fucking seen like it is genuinely fucking spectacular what you are able to create & look good with combinations of colors i would NOT think to place in the way you do if i were given the same palette. i feel like calling your doodles just "doodles" is like, WRONG, because every single one is something u could spend ages looking at on its own. i'd pick favorites to describe but we would be here for hours . you have the insane ability to keep your style consistent but are able to stretch it & change it for whatevers appropriate/the receive your desired result for the particular drawing and its just SO. SO. COOL. take literally all of this and add it to the fact that you can fucking ANIMATE !!! while still keeping all of these features of ur style intact and that fact is just OTHERWORLDLY to me in the best way possible . not only that but ur stories r always so very intriguing and it makes me SOO ANGRY that oc artwork & original stories dont receive the same attention as fandom work or otherwise because i swear 2 fucking god you go absolutely ABOVE and beyond in terms of creativity for ur stories & DESERVE THE RECOGNITION AAAAAAAAUUUUUUGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRORWGGGGGGGGGGGGRWGGGGGGGGGGRGGGGGGGGGRGGGGGGGGGGGGGRGGGGGGGGGGGGGG okay im done. i hav been up for almost 24 hours and saw one of ur drawings and got real emotional ihope uhave an awesome day eebrt i hope to be at least 10th place in ur list of biggest fans .

oh my god . I'm responding to this on a computer which doesn't have any of my usual images OR emojis that I would usually throw at you like. I don't know Someone who's really really REALLY good at throwing stuff. so I'll just use my words. THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!! this means the absolute world to me.. I did not expect to be blasted in the face by one million kisses when I checked my inbox, I had to sit back in my chair like WOW.... I love you .... I love youuuu...... thank you so much for the encouragement, I've been feeling not so confident And kind of afraid (leaving to study animation in college very soon) for the last few days n your words are lifting me out of the void like bingbong's rocket from inside out. not gonna lie your comments are one of the highlights of posting on Tumblr, I love reading them so much when you reblog my stuff. they're beautiful and always make me feel better when I'm feeling down... you were there from the days of homestuck dragons... you were always there for my ocs... You are a "real one." If I had a heart locket I'd print out your icon and put it in there along with all the other people I treasure ^_^ so yeah, definitely in the ranks... when I'm up on stage wearing a solid gold tuxedo (they had to wheel me in because I could not walk in the Solid Gold Tuxedo) and giving my speech to the world before I take it over my i will start by saying First of all I'd like to thank Mel Tumblr user Melissa-titanium On Tumblr for always hyping me up... could not have made it this far without him. And then I'd press the doomsday button and blow up every world leader.

I wish I could respond with something that appropriately returns the energy of what you sent me, but this is all I've got. Just know I am vibrating in my chair right now... hope you got some sleep!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[fandom-entertainer]

"Rising Sunshine"

Sun and Moon/Gender Neutral Reader Fluff and Song-fic Word Count: 1,940 Songs included: “Sunshine” by OneRepublic and “Rises the Moon” by Liana Flores

-

The sounds of children's laughter bounced off the walls of the daycare. Some were sitting in the corner, drawing pictures and making crafts, while others were playing a variety of different games with the other children from jump rope to house. Though, there was also another group of children, these kids were playing tag with the daycare attendant, Sundrop, Sun for short. As the name implies, he was bright and warm like the sun itself.

Literally.

The sun animatronic chased after the giggling kids, who all sprawled into different directions in an attempt to avoid his grasp. The daycare was as hectic as ever though, behind the office counter that was located near the daycare's entrance to the play area, sat a lone person. A gentle smile on their face whilst they watched over the kids, who invested themselves into their activities. Though, this was nothing out of the ordinary for our dear, daycare assistant, (Y/N).

It seemed like the day had passed by in a flash, soon enough, it was time for the children to say goodbye and get ready for their parents to pick them up. (Y/N) was always more than eager to stand next to the tall animatronic as they helped the kids return to their parents. Nothing new, a few hugs from the children while other's screamed at the top of their lungs and waved to the two daycare workers, who waved back. It wasn't long before the last child was picked up, leaving Sundrop and (Y/N) to be the only two people left in the daycare.

A sigh left (Y/N)'s lips as they sulked their shoulders at the thought of having to clean up after the children. Sure, playing games with the kids was a great time, the aftermath of it wasn't such a pretty sight to behold. "Well, it's back to work," they groaned, dragging their feet along the floor as they slid down the slide to the play area, not willing to go down the stairs and through the doors, before exiting the ball big and reaching for an empty glitter glue bottle off the floor. They then began to pick up items off the floor, the sound of bouncy, mechanical steps could be heard behind them and it wasn't long before the familiar sun animatronic stood in front of them.

"I know what'll cheer you up!" he said, his smile seeming to grow bigger, if that was even possible. "I'll let you play any song you like while we clean up! Just, no naughty words,"

(Y/N)'s ears perked up at the offer, quick to take out their phone before shoving it into the tall animatronic's face. Well, more like his chest as Sundrop was significantly taller than them. It was pretty frightening to think what might happen if a child slipped through his fingers as falling from a height that tall would lead to at least a few broken ankles.

As they thought more about the possible injuries that the children could get from being picked up by Sun, they were brought back to reality from the feeling of a tap on their shoulder. (Y/N) wasted no time in grabbing ahold of their phone from Sundrop's hands before making their way behind the security desk and plopping down on the seat.

Soon, the daycare's usual theme faded out, replaced by an upbeat tune of a pop punk song that began to blast through the speakers. (Y/N) lightly tapped their foot to the beat, small head-bops at the sound of the soft guitar strums. Sun was pleasantly surprised by their music of choice, expecting something different, though he wasn't complaining.

Whilst Sun gave the daycare floor a sweeping, (Y/N) stood up from their seat and made their way to the toppled cushion towers, building them back up before moving onto the next one while they hummed the lyrics to the song. Their smile only grew as the song progressed. It wasn't long before they started to sing along, the occasional dance step flowing into their work.

"Hit me with them good vibes, pictures on my phone like," (Y/N) sang out loud, their mood having done a whole 180 from their previous tired disposition. Their steps were bouncier and lighter, similar to Sundrop's, who had paused his sweeping to watch his fellow coworker dance their heart out. Though what he didn't expect was for them to skip their way over to him and grab a hold of his hand.

"I'm dancin' more, just a little bit. Breathin' more just a little bit," Sun continued to listen to (Y/N) sing, joining into their dance. While there was no set dance style, the two were enjoying their small dance session. It didn't matter if all they were doing was skipping or spinning each other around, all that mattered was the fun they were having at the moment. "Woo! Woo! A little bit of sunshine!"

This moment, while small, reminded him of the way (Y/N) would sometimes play similar songs and dance with the kids as they twirled, skipped and jumped around with glee. It was definitely one of Sun's favorite moments, looking over the kids and seeing them having so much fun with the daycare assistant, some even grabbing a hold of (Y/N)'s hands and spinning around with them. He was always on the outside looking in but, oh, what a sight it was to be in their same shoes, not a care in the world other than this single moment of absolute bliss.

"A little bit of sunshine!" Sun sang the last line, having finally given into the song as he watched (Y/N) attempt to catch their breath from the impromptu dancing. Even if their body was desperate for air, the undeniable grin on their face and breathless laughs were more than enough of a clue to tell that they were happy.

That happy moment was soon soured as the lights noticeably began to dim. (Y/N) was quick to take out their phone as they checked the time. "4:50, figures," they muttered under their breath, putting their phone back in their pocket and turning their attention to Sun. "I'll see you in an hour, alright? We'll do some crafts once you're back, I promise," Sundrop gave a nod and a wide grin in response. He also gave (Y/N) one last wave as he watched them make their way behind the security desk once more. While (Y/N) waited for Sundrop to do his thing, they scrolled through their playlist, looking for a song that they were sure would be great for the dark, nighttime aesthetic they were forced into at the moment. Their full focus was fixated on finding a song, but that didn't last long once they heard a familiar voice.

"Missed me?" the voice asked (Y/N) as they lifted their head up to meet eyes with the owner of the familiar voice. White pupils staring deep into their soul as they smiled, not at all fazed by the moon animatronic's staring. Sundrop's other half, Moondrop. It seemed that Moondrop was set on this staring contest he had begun. Though the game didn't last long as (Y/N) was on the move again, lifting up and out of their chair with ease, now in front of the counter. The sound of soft guitar strums began to fill the daycare along with the soft hums from its daycare assistant.

"Days, seem sometimes as if they'll never end," Moon's pupils turn to pinpricks at the sound of (Y/N)'s voice. He hadn't been expecting them to sing along with the song. Yet, he found that he didn't mind. His eyes softened at the sight of the daycare assistant's calm and relaxed expression as they sang. It was comforting in a way, even if he wouldn't admit it to their face. Moon had caught a few sightings of (Y/N) singing to the children, this song was definitely their go to lullaby. For what reason? He didn't know, but this song had found a special place in his heart because of that. The way that they were so gentle and caring towards the children. He'd be lying if he said it didn't make his heart flutter.

"But after sunlit days, one thing stays the same, rises the moon," He kept his eyes on them as they sang, their fingers swiping on the tablet screen to look over their daily nighttime routine. The time passed, the gentle strumming filling the room with (Y/N) and Moon enjoying the other's quiet company.

Moon now understood why the children fell asleep with ease whenever (Y/N) sang to them. Their voice was perfect in every way. The way they talked, how their face softened and the tone in their voice whenever a child would ask to be comforted after a nightmare. "Oh-oh, close your weary eyes. I promise you that soon the autumn comes to darken fading summer skies. Breathe, breathe, breathe,"

Just like that, oh how he admired their gentle approach to just about anything. It was… was he really that fond of the daycare assistant?

His eyes glanced over at (Y/N) who was having the time of their life singing while checking off tasks, unaware of the moon themed animatronic that was watching their every move with a confused look in his eyes that increased when (Y/N) began making their way towards him.

"Days pull you up just like a daffodil, uprooted from its garden," Moon watched them take his hands in theirs before pulling him off the counter to join them on the cushioned floor. (Y/N)'s smile was warm and gentle, fingers running over his knuckles before looking up at him. "They'll tell you what you owe, but know even so, rises the moon,"

A few minutes passed before the last chord was strung, a more mellow and solemn aura blanketing the daycare, almost like a cool shadow on a hot summer day. Though, it didn't last long as the lights began to slowly flicker to life. "See you tomorrow, alright, Moon? Also, take care,"

Moon was a bit stunned by their last sentence, unable to resist returning the kind words, even if his tone wasn't as sweet as theirs. "…take care." Those are his last words as (Y/N) could have sworn they saw a small smile grace his face before a familiar, bright grin replaced it.

"Hey, (Y/N)! Ready to do some arts and crafts?" Sun asked, more than ecstatic to do something fun with the daycare assistant that promised to have fun with him and returned the same high, upbeat energy, if tamer than his.

"Of course, I'm more than happy to hang out with my favorite animatronics," Sun's eyes widen a bit, surprised at the plural before he returns back to his happy disposition. He was glad that (Y/N) not only liked having him around, but also accepted and adored Moon as well.

"And we're happy to hang out with you, (Y/N)! Even if Moon won't admit it," Sun leans in to whisper that last part, making them laugh a bit, smile brighter than before at the mutual feelings. "Now, why don't we go and draw? I have a great idea for my newest drawing!"

A single nod from (Y/N) and the rest of their shift was spent hanging out with Sun. They even wrote a small note for Moon, making plans for tomorrow, where and when the sun shine and the moon rises.

-

If you liked this one-shot, feel free to check my Carrd! I'm open for commissions and fluff like these are my specialty! Hope you liked reading this and have a wonderful day!

[huffle-dork]

Swap Beyond the Crystalverse Chapter 15: Outer Space AU

Co-written with @crystalninjaphoenix Read Swapboys | Read Crystal’s AUs

Other Multiverse Stories: SITCV | SATCV | GITHV

SBTCV Masterpost

Glitching feels electric and tingling under the skin, making the others feel a bit jittery afterwards. But it was probably a big boost to Anti. They reappear in an awkward sort of place, a small alcove with a door behind them. In front of them is Layer Four of the Zypso Station. It looks a lot like the previous layer Bro was on, with the tall buildings and the walkways and railways. But there are fewer bright signs here, and fewer booths set up on the side for small street vendors. The buildings are in a slightly different style of architecture, more utilitarian, though they do at least have fun colored lights along the edges. Through these towering structures, the tallest building can be seen. The IRIS building.

Alt shakes himself off as they appear- and then his jaw drops as he sees Layer Four, “holy shit…!” 

Bro grins, “pretty cool isn’t it?” He then squints at the IRIS building and looks towards Anti, “Why’d you make us appear so far away, dude?”

"This layer is covered in camera systems," Anti explains. "Even more so than Layer Three, where commerce takes place. This is one of the few spots where they are blind." 

"Don't worry, we should be able to take a railcar there really fast," Chase says. He looks around. "There." He points. There's a sign hanging on a nearby wall, with a drawing of a rectangular trolley-car-like object, and then an arrow. There were a lot of those on the last layer too, though they were often overshadowed by the other signs. "That direction." 

"Let's hurry, then," Marvin says. 

Bro blinks then shrugs, grinning. “Okay sweet! Get to take some future transportation!” 

Alt blinks and takes out his phone to nod at Anti with a smile. “Thanks, dude.”

Alt's phone lets out a squawk of white noise. "I'll help with the cameras as much as I can," Anti says from the phone.

"Not a problem." Anti gives a thumbs up on the screen. 

The rest of the group leads the way, doing their best to look casual about it. Anti lingered in the back, head turning around. His expression is still that neutral one, but the rest of his body language says that he's nervous, on guard. 

They reach a railway and find a platform that looks a lot like a train platform back home. The design is smoother, with rounded edges and a lot of silver and white, but it's still clear what it is. Chase walks up to a kiosk and taps around on its touchscreen, purchasing tickets. He almost swipes his card, but then hesitates and pays in cash instead, sliding some of those square metal pieces into a gap that looks perfectly fit for them. 

"Looks like we're just in time," Jackie says, reading the train arrival times on a hanging sign. "One's coming in literally one minute." 

"Okay, everyone, get your hands stamped," Chase says. There's a cylindrical device coming out the side of the kiosk, a small red light coming from the bottom. As Chase puts the back of his hand into the light--it's perfectly positioned to be at hand level--the red light scans his hand and a small stamp appears in black, that same trolley logo from the signs directing them here. 

“Oooh neat! Very streamlined!” Bro says excitedly as he goes to put his hand under the stamp. Alt looks hesitant but he goes to let himself be stamped too.

The mark just appears, without any sort of feeling that it did. The others get stamped as well. The ink sticks to Jackie and Anti's metal hands just fine, as well as Marvin's furry one. 

Almost as soon as they're all done, the railcar approaches, heading down the rail without much sound at all, only a slight hsss as it approaches. "Now approaching: Blue Line Railcars," says a robotic voice. The railcar is sleek and rounded. Its cabin is made of metal, but the rest of it is all glass--or at the very least some see-through material--showing benches and handrails inside. A door slides open on the side.

“Oohh it’s so quiet!!” Bro whispers as he hurries after the others. Alt also looks impressed- and tries to keep his glitches down as he eyes the people around.

The railcar is mildly crowded. This is Alt's first time seeing other aliens besides Schneep and Marvin. He spots a couple who seem to be the same reptilian species as Schneep--kritzeins--and a handful that are hovering in midair, insectile wings buzzing. There's one that looks like a pile of green slime with two lighter-green eyes. And a few scattered about who are really tall and have big eyes and pinkish hair.

Alt stares wide eyed at the aliens but tries to keep his composure. Thank god for his mask… even though he doesn’t like crowds he sticks close to Bro’s side. Bro chuckles and pats Alt’s shoulder.

Luckily, they don't have to stay in the railcar for long. The thing is really fast, even as it stops at three locations on the way. The IRIS building gets closer and closer... Until it looms overhead. The railcar stops at the end of its line, at the base of the IRIS building. 

There's a big empty square around this area, decorated with curving, alien plants in planters. Crowds mill about. Anti did say that this area was a tourist attraction. Pretty much all the remaining passengers get out of the railcar here. Others wait on the platform to get on.

Alt shrinks in more, “god there’s so many people…” 

“Tourist attraction-“ Bro mumbles and starts to shuffle out with the crowd, holding onto Alt’s hand.

"Not a fan of crowds either," Marvin whispers. 

JJ tilts his head. "Is that a felorr thing?" 

"No. Just a me thing." 

“Maybe I’m a felorr in another life,�� Alt mumbles. 

They make their way towards the building. There's a low fence surrounding it, waist-high and made of metal. There are a couple locations where the fence is broken up by an archway. People are filing through those arches to get into the building. 

"Scanners," Anti says, nodding towards them. "If something strange appears as they scan, they start beeping." 

"What's an example of something strange?" Jackie asks. "Weaponry or strange devices. Or, in a more extreme example, a robotic being."

Alt looks at the scanners, humming in thought, “… I might be able to disable the scanners from here… but I don’t think I can do it discreetly…. I might need to be able to touch them.”

Anti nods slowly. "Discreet would be better." 

"What if... you go through first, and you touch the scanner as you do?" Jackie suggests. "That should keep it disabled for the rest of us."

“Oh! Good idea- I’m not hiding anything…” Alt mumbles. He takes a deep breath then starts to walk through the scanners. He briefly touches the arch wall and sends a discreet jolt of electricity as he passes through.

The interior of the gateway is lined with blue lights. As Alt sends electricity through it, the lights suddenly go out. The others quickly hurry through--Anti and JJ first, then the four others. A few other tourists manage to slip through as well. There's a short path leading up to a set of sliding glass double doors. 

As they walk along it, Schneep asks, "Any new, ah... information?"

Alt looks back at Schneep then checks the tracker by holding it in his pocket, out of sight. “Lemme see…” Bro tries to scan around for any sign of trouble.The tracker tells him that it's on the twentieth floor. 

Alt looks to Schneep, “It’s somewhere on the 20th floor.”

They head into the IRIS building. Everything in here is sleek whites and silvers, and there are holograms hovering in midair with information plaques about the history of IRIS, of the building, of Zypso Station. In the center is a big, rotating hologram of the IRIS logo. There seem to be a couple doors into this room, but most of them have signs that say "Staff" on them in varying languages. The one that doesn't reads "Stairs." There is also a set of elevator doors, which there seems to be a line for.

Bro looks at the elevator line and groans, “does that mean we gotta go up 20 flights of stairs??”

"Uh... I think the stairs only go up to floor ten or so?" Chase says. "So... no." 

"Sam is reminding me of the diagram earlier," Anti reports. "There are thirty floors in the building. Thirty-one, if the roof counts. Sixteen through thirty are closed to the public. The visitor stairs go up to floor fifteen." 

"Either way, we'll have to find some other way," Jackie mutters. "We could try to get through one of these Staff doors. Or we could... go up the stairs? See if there's a way from there? Or uh... wait in line for the elevator to see if there's a way from the roof? I mean, we could also take the elevator to floor fifteen, I think... still means we'd have to wait a lot."

“If we can find another blind spot- I can try to glitch us up there,” Alt says quietly, “they cause a flash of green light so… I can’t just do it now on my own and not be discovered.”

Alt's phone glitches. "I think there are blind spots on the staircase landings," Anti reports from the screen. "You just need to get to one that's absent of people." 

Schneep sighs. "Climbing the stairs it is, then."

Bro sighs too, “Alright gents- stairs it is.” He heads towards them, grumbling, “you’d think the future would have abolished stairs by now…!” 

Alt rolls his eyes with a chuckle and follows after him.

"Stairs are good for your health!" Schneep says defensively. 

"Doesn't mean they don't suck," Marvin says. "I'm surprised they don't have more elevators." 

Turns out, there are regular stairs and also an escalator running parallel to them as they spiral up. At each landing, the escalator becomes a moving walkway, seamlessly merging into the ground so that the escalator rider doesn't even have to step to transition to the walkway.

Bro blinks in surprise at the escalator, “oohh woah! Neat!” Bro climbs onto it. 

Alt laughs, following him, “you’re complaining a lot for a superhero who can probably climb these stairs faster than all of us.” 

“I can fly dude- you think I actually take the stairs? Fuck those things man!”

"I'm surprised that more are not flying, actually," Schneep says, looking around. There are a couple aliens with wings on the escalator, mostly smaller insectoid ones and those draconic-looking fellows. 

"I suppose it would not be worth the energy?" 

Bro hums, “Yeah- it can be kinda tiring sometimes. I like doing it as much as I can though.” He shrugs. 

Jackie leans closer to Alt and mutters, "Where are the blind spots?" 

"Always in the left corners, looks like," Anti reports from the phone. "You just need to wait for a landing empty of people." 

More and more people get off as the stairs go higher. Apparently the more fun exhibits are lower in the building.

“Left corners… okay-“ Alt mumbles, eyeing the crowds of people as they get thinner and thinner.

Looks like the landing for floor fourteen is empty of people. There are more on floor fifteen though--maybe people curious about what's on the highest possible story. 

"I don't think it will get better than this," Chase mutters, and steps off the escalator. 

"Just need to wait for a moment when no one is in sight," Anti adds, also stepping off. 

Alt nods and steps off, anxiously playing with his necklace. 

Bro hops off and hums, “Wonder what’s in all these floors that everyone goes to see-“

"There was a directory on the ground floor," Marvin recalls. "They're a lot of exhibits. Mostly old inventions and belongings to historical figures. The place is basically a museum." 

"Oh, I remember there was this one floor that was a recreation of old office buildings, that was so interesting," Chase says. 

“Ohhh damn that's kinda cool-“ Bro hums. 

“I never thought office buildings would be a museum exhibit someday,” Alt chuckles. 

"You'll want to huddle up really close," Anti says from the phone. "The blind spot is small." 

"We're about to look really suspicious," Jackie comments.

Alt goes to squeeze the best he can into the corner.

It's more than a little awkward as everyone presses into the corner. Fortunately, it's not long before a moment comes when the stairs are free of people. "Now!" Anti says, and everyone quickly links up. 

Alt quickly closes his eyes and tries to focus on getting to the 20th floor.

They disappear in a flash of light and reappear in the middle of a white hallway, the light reflecting off its walls so bright that it's almost blinding. Everything in this hallway is that same color--though there isn't much in this hallway at all. Just white sliding doors, white plaques with the names of rooms, and... the one thing that isn't the white color. Some sort of... metal mannequin with a blank, featureless head. It stands next to one of the doors, completely still.

Bro blinks at the mannequin and points, “…don’t like that thing-“ he whispers. 

“Chase, focus-“ Alt hisses as he checks the tracker again.The tracker tells them that the piece is in the Large Testing Room. 

Alt pales a bit, “…it’s in a testing room,” he mumbles. 

As Alt looks up from the tracker, his gaze lands on the mannequin again. And... that's strange, isn't it? For a moment, he thought he was looking at Anti. But that doesn't make sense.... does it? Now that he's looking closer, Anti's metal body is... a lot like the mannequin's. Except for the head, of course, but everything else... it's eerily similar to Anti's design.He blinks and then slowly looks between Anti and the mannequin. “…Anti… that- that mannequin…”

"It's a robot," Anti says quickly. "Don't worry about it. It cannot do anything without orders." Anti has trouble with expressions. He'd only been programmed with so many. So it's hard to tell how he's feeling. But it seems like he's deliberately not looking towards the robot. 

"A... testing room, I see," Schneep says haltingly, noticing the same thing Alt did. "Ah... maybe there are... directions that way?" 

"Let's just start looking," Jackie says. "Uhhh... I don't see directions, so let's just go this way." He turns in the opposite direction of the robot and heads down the hallway, forcing the others to follow.

Alt spares one last look at the mannequin before following. “It says it’s in the large one- maybe there’s only one of those.” Alt suggests. 

“…it seems strangely empty up here,” Bro comments under his breath.

Just as Bro says that, someone turns a corner up ahead, appearing suddenly. It's a human woman with dark skin and frizzy hair pulled back by a headband. She's wearing a white coat. "Oh!" She sees the group and stops walking. "Um... sorry, I think you've got lost. This area is closed to the public."

Bro freezes and Alt elbows him with a murderous expression. Bro grins nervously, “Oh uh yeah! Must have gotten really lost! What… floor is this??”

"This is the twentieth floor." The woman laughs a bit nervously. "Um... here, let's get you all back to where you were heading. This way." She walks past the group, indicating they should follow her. 

"Uh... we can find our way back where we came from," Jackie says quickly. "You're probably really busy. We'd hate to interrupt you."

“Yeah don’t worry!” Bro waves his hand, “hate to give you more work for a bunch of tourists!” 

As Bro talks, Alt looks around at the rooms and tries to inch farther ahead.

The woman frowns. "I really shouldn't leave you all alone in here..." 

"It will be fine," Schneep says. "It is not like we can get in any of these doors. They probably need keys, yes?" 

"Well, yeah, I suppose so." The woman still looks reluctant. "But you might get lost." 

"We're capable of retracing our steps, you know," Jackie laughs. 

 “Such a shame no one can come up here though! I bet you could tell us a lot of really interesting things!!” Bro laughs.

"Well, uh, not really," the woman says, laughing awkwardly. "It's all boring really..." 

As the others distract her, Alt sneaks around the woman and peers around the corner she'd come from. There's a large set of sliding double-doors down the corridor. Those seem important.

Alt doesn’t hesitate- he glitches down the hall and then tries to go through the doors.

Alt's glitching is accompanied by a flash of light, and she frowns and turns towards it. "What was--hey!" 

Unlike the doors in the bunker, these doors don't open as Alt gets close. But the plaque next to this set of double doors reads "Large Testing Room." This is the right place.

Bro’s stomach drops and he tries to grab the lady, “Hey no maybe we need directions after all!” 

Alt immediately goes to glitch through the doors, going as fast as possible.

"Whoa, hey, no grabbing!" She shakes her arm free, turning back to Bro with wide eyes. "I-I can call security!" 

Bro let’s go, holding up his hands, “sorry! …that’s usually okay on my … planet?” He says nervously. 

Her eyes dart to the translator in Bro's ear. "Well... you get one warning. Now please, let me show you the way out." 

“Alright sure-“ Bro says, eyes darting back to the door. 

Alt glitches through the door easily, ending up in a large room, made of the same white material as the hallway. There are a handful of people in white coats--all human except for one kritzein. They're all gathered around some sort of instrument in the center of the room, dangling from the ceiling and reaching down towards a circular platform in the center. It's hard to know what the instrument is, but it looks kind of like GLaDoS from portal but without the face. 

"Hey! How did you get in here?!" One of the scientists demands.

Alt ignores the scientists and checks the tracker, eyes darting around the room.The tracker tells him it's on the circular platform in the center. 

“Fucking- of course it is,” Alt grumbles. 

"We're going to call security!" Another one of the scientists shouts.

Then, Alt glitches towards the platform and tries to grab whatever is on it.The scientists all cry out in surprise as he suddenly glitches over. The item on the platform is a long, L-shaped bit of metal with a tiny microchip on the corner. As Alt scoops it up, one of the scientists reaches into their pocket-- And yellow alarm lights start flashing in both the Testing Room and the hallway. 

"Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert." 

Alt quickly puts it in his pocket then curses and glitches back out into the hallway.

"Shit!" Anti curses outside. "The plan was to be subtle!" 

The woman blinks at his voice. "...wait a second. Are you--Septic?" She glances around. "Y-you're all with him, aren't you?!" Then she turns and runs down the hallway away from them. 

“I’m not sure Alt had a choice!” Bro says to Anti. Then, he blinks at the woman’s reaction. “Woah-“ 

"I'm sure there were other ways!" Chase shouts. 

“Link up!!” Alt shouts as he sprints down the hall towards the others.

As Alt appears, the others rush towards him, reaching out-- But then, behind them, the robot from the hallway appears, raising an arm. Part of its arm slides out and out shoot several blue bolts of light.

One of the bolts hits Chase and he immediately stiffens up, then goes limp, falling to the floor. Another hits Anti, and while he doesn't stop moving like Chase did, the blue light turns into electricity that crackles along his body, causing spasms.

Bro’s eyes widen as the robot starts to shoot and quickly ducks out of the way, rolling across the ground. 

Alt gets hit and stiffens up, a reaction halfway between Chase’s and Anti’s as his muscles lock up but also crackle with electricity that has him crying out in pain and spasming. He soon enough falls limp too. 

“Alt!” Bro cries out.

Schneep helps Chase up--or tries to, at least. He's gone completely boneless, eyes wide above the mask hiding his face. Jackie hurries over and the two of them support Chase between them. 

The robot continues to shoot. JJ starts pushing the others around the corner, blocking its aim. A bolt skims him as he does so, causing him to stiffen, but he doesn't go limp like Chase and Alt did. But there are more robots showing up, identical to the first one, raising their arms in a similar way. 

Bro rushes to Alt and scoops him up and Alt is just as boneless as Chase is- eyes wide and hands twitching with electricity. “Shit shit shit shit!!” Bro curses quietly as he backs up, holding Alt to his chest. He’s desperately looks around for some kind of idea- if there was a window maybe they could all- break out?? But it’s the 20th floor- the others might not survive!

"Attention intruders," a voice says over an intercom. Feminine-sounding with a slight British accents. "Our security bots are quite persistent. If you do not wish to be stunned, surrender the IRIS property you have and give yourselves up. We will escort you from the building."

Bro looks up at the voice and then growls, “The thing we took was ours anyways! So f-fuck off!”

"Our scans are reporting a bot that is IRIS property with you," the woman's voice says calmly. "Regardless of modifications you have made, it was built from IRIS technology and therefore must be returned for reprog--" Anti's head suddenly snaps up. 

"I am not a robot!" he shouts. "I am not a robot!" He punches the wall, causing a crack, and the woman's voice cuts off. 

JJ looks around wildly. He rushes to the nearest door. It doesn't open, of course. "Bro, your belt!" he says, typing quickly. "Hurry!" 

His belt? Right! The devices!

Bro jumps at Anti’s anger, backing up and looking stunned. His attention is quickly turned back to JJ though as he scrambles to grab the deactivator and hands it to JJ.

JJ takes the hacker. It's a bit like a gun, if instead of a barrel it had a large bit of rectangular metal. He presses the flat part against the door and pulls the trigger mechanism. After a second, during which the robots get closer, the door slides open. He rushes in the room and gestures for the others to follow. The room beyond is filled with shelves full of boxes, some clear, some metal. As soon as everyone is inside Marvin hits a button on the inside, closing it. 

"That won't delay them for long," Jackie says. "Wh-what do we do? Do we need to check Alt and Chase over?" 

"Th-the stun will we-wear off in a few--few minutes," Anti says, his voice glitching slightly.

Bro hurries in and tries to shake Alt but Alt still doesn’t respond. Bro looks to Anti with wide scared eyes, “W-We don’t have a few minutes! Is there any way to speed it up?? Or c-cure this?! Something!!”

"I d-d-do not know of one," Anti says. "My--my call with Sam was dropped when the st-stun hit me. I can--cannot ask them." 

"Great, now we've closed ourselves into some supply room and they're going to get us at any moment!" Jackie's head darts around. "Um--is there an air vent or something?" 

Marvin points at a spot above a set of shelves. There's a square grate up there. "I don't know if you all could fit in there though."

“Damnit!” Bro curses, blinking back frustrated tears. “I-If Alt wasn’t hit we’d probably be back in the b-base by now! I-I can’t fly all of us out of here-“ He’s trying not to panic.

"Okay, okay." Jackie is trying to take deep breaths. "We--we have to try the vent, it's the only way out of here." 

Anti backs into the corner of the room, crouching down and putting his hands over his head. His expression is stuck on fear as his irises flicker. "I can--I c-cannot get stuck here," he says in a quiet voice. "I cannot--there is s-so much more to do--I cannot leave S-Sam--they cannot c-continue his work on th-their own--"

Bro seems to shake out of his panic by hearing Anti’s. He takes a shaky breath then tries to sit Alt up against the wall. Then, he looks for heavy things he can start to push against the doors. “We’re not gonna let them get you Anti-“ he says, determination bright in his eyes. “…w-we just need to stall until Alt recovers. You guys try to get into the vent-“ 

"I do not think I can climb up there," Schneep says, looking at the vent. 

"We can use the shelves as a ladder, we just need to get the stuff off," Marvin says, starting to move the boxes off the shelves. 

Anti watches him do this. Then he takes a deep breath--or, well, imitates taking a deep breath--and stands up, walking over to help move the items. The heaviest things in the room are the shelves and the boxes. And wouldn't you know? Some of the shelves have ball-like things on their feet, like wheels. There are also small switches near each sphere, with the words "locked" and "unlocked" written on them. They're currently in the "locked" position.

Bro hums as he sees this and unlocks them, going to move the heaviest feeling ones in front of the door and locking them back in place. “…I-if they try to break through- I can probably hold them back… super strength, you know?” He laughs nervously.

"IIIII don't think you mentioned the super strength earlier, actually," Jackie says.

“Oh- well… yeah!! I got that and super Speed- flying… can sometimes shoot some electricity but Alt is wayyy better at that.” Bro says, pushing more stuff in the way. 

Chase, lying on Schneep's shoulder, mumbles something indecipherable. 

"Uh--that's cool, though!" Jackie continues. Once the shelves are clear, 

Marvin quickly scrambles up to the vent and pulls at the vent. "JJ, will that unlocking thing work on this?" 

JJ frowns. "It disrupts electronic locks. Do you think that has one?" 

"...not suuuuure."

Bro looks back at Marvin and then hovers a bit to look, “…want me to try?” He asks. “Maybe I can pry it open.”

Marvin nods. "Might as well." He climbs back down so Bro can have access. Bro curls his fingers around the vent and tries to pry it open, bracing his feet against the wall for better leverage. 

"Attention intruders," the intercom turns on again, the same feminine voice speaking. "This will be your final appeal to surrender. If you do not surrender now, we will have to use force to reclaim our property and have you vacate the premises."

Brolooks up at the announcement then looks back at Anti, “H-How much longer do you think they’ll be stunned??”

"Average amount of time to recover from a stun bolt is five minutes," Anti says. "It has been about two." 

Chase groans. His fingers twitch a little. "'m... f'nn..." 

"If you are saying you're fine, you most certainly are not," Schneep says. 

Alt’s arm twitches a bit and he tries to move, “mm- ngh…” but nothing is responding. Even though he feels himself panicking and his heart pounding so hard against his chest. 

The vent really seems to be stuck on there, but little by little, it gives way, until it suddenly pops off. “I got it!” Bro exclaims as he gets the vent open. “Marvin you wanna give it a try?”

Marvin nods and quickly climbs up the shelves again. He slips into the air vent easily, tail waving and feet kicking until he disappears out of sight. "No room to turn around," he reports. "And I don't think the bulkier ones of you will be comfortable. But it will probably work for an emergency. I think it slopes instead of drops." 

“Okay… hopefully we won’t have to use it…” Bro mumbles as he nervously looks towards the door. 

The intercom turns on again. "Attention intruders. You have not surrendered, and thus, we will begin using force. We waive all responsibility for any injuries you gain while resisting."

Alt grunts as he tries to get himself to move again- but all that moves is his fingers. He makes a frustrated noise. 

Bro glares up at the ceiling and flips it off, “Fuck off ya IRIS pricks!!”

Marvin scrambles back out of the vent backwards. But he slips on the edge of the shelf and tumbles down with flailing limbs and a loud "MRRAAH!" He lands on the floor and quickly gets to his feet, brushing himself off and looking around embarrassed. 

Jackie bursts into laughter. "What the fuck? I thought felorrs always landed on their feet, comp!" 

"I'm not literally a cat," Marvin mutters. "Cats don't even land on their feet."

Bro jumps in surprise then blinks in confusion, “What?!! Cats landing on their feet isn’t true?!” Alt makes an exasperated noise.

"Yeah, what?" Jackie says. 

Marvin sighs. "Do you really think any animal can defy gravity like that so expertly?" 

"Where does the rumor come from, then?" Jackie says in rebuttal. 

"I believe it's because Terran cats are quite flexible and were often--but not always--seen correcting themselves in midair," Anti says.

“I swear Glitches always lands on her feet…” Bro mumbles, crossing his arms. 

“Nnnnr-“ Alt grunts. 

“…are you okay though, Marv?” Bro asks.

"Yes, are you okay?" JJ asks as well. 

"I'm fine, more surprising than anything," Marvin says. "Even if I don't always land on my feet, I can recover fast." 

The relatively light-hearted moment is interrupted by a banging on the door to the room. It then slides open--but thankfully whatever's on the other side is blocked by the shelves. 

"Surrender," says a robotic voice. 

Bro startles then curses, “Damn future doors! I forgot it could just slide open!” He holds out his arm protectively and steps in front of the others. “Take cover guys!” He quickly looks around for something he can use as a shield.

"Cover?! Where?!" Schneep asks, eyes darting around. 

"Here, we'll move some of the shelves!" Jackie hurries over and pushes a shelf away from the wall, sliding into the space behind it. 

Schneep hesitates, then gently puts Chase down and moves over, helping to move the shelf. JJ joins them as well, and together the three of them manage to get a couple shelves away from the wall. Marvin scrambles back up the shelves and into the vent again. There's not much that can be a shield. But some of these boxes are big, maybe their lids could work? 

Anti stares at the door intently. Waiting. "They will push the shelves over," he says in a quiet voice. "Then they will fire directly ahead of them. Get out of the line of fire." He moves to the left of the door, pressing against the wall and picking up a smaller box, gripping it so tightly in his hands that the metal warps slightly. 

Bro grabs a lid off a large metal box and holds it. He then blinks at Anti in confusion. “H-How do you-?” He doesn’t question this for long though. He ducks out of the way to the right. 

Though… Alt is still stuck up against the wall in front of the door, staring at the robots with wide scared eyes.

"Shit!" Jackie curses from behind the shelf. "Alt and Chase--!" 

"They were already stunned, we can protect them," Anti says. "Now get--" 

The shelves tip forward and the robots fire their stun bolts into the room. They were aiming at chest-height for the average person, so luckily the bolts don't hit Chase or Alt sitting on the floor. Chase flinches and manages to slowly move an arm, grasping vaguely at the floor to try and pull himself out of the way. Alt vaguely glitches around his shoulder and hands but it’s not enough to do anything. He tries to move his feet or legs- something! 

The robots start walking into the room-- And Anti yells out, smashing one in the head with the box. Bro quickly follows Anti’s lead and sends a super charged punch right into another robot’s head. 

Bro's punch goes straight into the robot's jaw area, sending its head snapping to the side with the sound of something snapping. Anti's blow manages to dent the head of the bot he attacked. Both of them fall backwards into the two bots behind them, knocking them over. 

But then the second pair of bots get up again and aim their stun bolts again. Anti swings for a second time. Bro yells and sends another punch. This time, he smacks the robot in the shoulder and manages to push its aim off course, but it doesn't break like the last one. "Aim for joints or the head!" Anti shouts, bringing the box down on the other bot's arm and disrupting its aim in the same way. 

Chase's head slowly turns to Alt and he tries to pull himself towards him.

Alt jerkily looks at Chase, his hands starting to grip better and sparking with some of his magic. …he’s been able to dismantle stuff by just barely moving before- maybe he can do that now. He looks towards one of the robots and twitches his head to the side as his eyes flash bright blue-green, trying to take apart its stun gun.

The one Bro hit raises its stun arm again, aiming directly at him—but instead there's a flicker of blue-green lightning as it doesn't fire. Not exactly collapsing like Alt wanted, but momentarily jamming it.

Bro nods and his eyes widen as he recognizes the sight of the magic. He grins then grabs the robot by the arm- on its joint- and then tries to flip it to crush it against the ground. The robot flies through the air, landing hard on the ground. Something snaps again and it goes limp. Bro whoops and gives the downed robot the finger, “Yeah take that, bitch!” He quickly moves to try to take out another one.

Alt’s eyes widen too and he slowly squeezes his hand in determination. He flares open his eyes to try to jam or take apart more of the guns.

Anti can't help but wince—he can't help but see himself in these bots—and almost misses another bot running forward to take the fallen one's place, aiming its stun arm. But then... its arm falls apart, pieces falling to the ground. Anti looks back, expression shifting to surprise, and then a smile. Alt also seems surprised. But he smiles a bit at Anti- but slowly. Anti grips his box weapon tightly and smacks it to the side. 

"Alt..." Chase manages to say. "Wh'n... c'n y... gl'sh?" He's asking 'when can you glitch?'

Alt turns to Chase and grunts, squeezing and releasing his hand with a lot of effort, “ne’d t’b… a-ab’l t’m’ve..!” ‘Need to be able to move’. His hand glitches a bit- but not to the degree he was able to earlier.

"...sucks," Chase says. Alt lets out a choked chuckle. 

If there's one good thing about this situation, it's that the doorway forms a bit of a bottleneck, only allowing two robots at a time to get through. Anti grabs one as it passes through, wrestling it to the ground.

Bro misses as the robot moves- making him strike its torso. He growls a bit then tries to kick the robot back into the others.The robot staggers backwards from the unexpected super strength of Bro's kick, falling into the others outside and knocking them down in turn. 

“Yeah! Strike!!” Bro laughs as he jumps up and punches the air.

"Nice!" Jackie shouts, leaning around the shelf to watch. JJ grabs him and pulls him back. 

Meanwhile, Anti manages to take out the bot he'd been fighting on the ground. These things were ordered to swarm in and subdue the group. They're not good at thinking beyond that goal. Not with their actions being limited by the priority of the orders. 

Even so— "They will keep coming," Anti says. "IRIS has many of these models. Even the ones not designed for combat will be thrown at us."

“We can handle them,” Bro says cockily, adjusting his hat. “Just until Alt can glitch. You doin’ okay, baby bro?” 

“M’ f’nn!” Alt tries to call. Feeling is slowly, slowly coming back. Still… there’s gotta be more he can do. His eyes wander to the door button. …if he destroyed it- could it keep the door shut? He narrows his eyes then jerks his head to the side- trying to short circuit it before the next wave of robots recover.

Two more robots surge into the room. Anti smacks one in the head. Bro throws another powered punch to the other’s head. 

That green lightning flickers around the door button... but nothing happens. "...you?" Chase whispers. "K-keep... try'n...!"

Alt grits his teeth and tries to push more power out, magic sparking around him a bit more. He tries to short circuit the door again. Green lightning sparks around the door button, and for a second, he feels connected to it. He somehow knows that if he short circuits the door it will stay in the state it's in, so he manages to trigger the close state before the short circuit fully goes through. 

Shortly after, Anti and Bro knock down the two bots they were fighting, denting their featureless heads in the process.

Bro pants as he backs away from the last robot he downed and looks at the door shutting. He grins back at Alt, “Hey!! Good idea dude!! Hopefully that’ll keep the rest of them out!” 

Alt attempts to smile.

Jackie leans out from behind the shelf again. “That. Was. So. COOL!” He says, grinning. “I mean—it was scary and life-threatening but it was cool! Man, I bet I could have helped. With these metal fists of mine.” 

Bro grins wide, “Maybe bro! But fighting is hard if you’re not used to it!” 

Jackie, Schneep, and JJ all come out from behind the shelf. Marvin also appears, carefully backing out of the vent and making sure that he has secure footing this time. 

“How are you both feeling, Chase, Alt?” JJ asks. 

Chase tries to sit up. He fails, but he manages to get about halfway before he falls back, groaning. “Sucks.” 

“Right, I should’ve expected that,” JJ says, embarrassed.

Bro knocks a friendly fist against Anti’s shoulder, “you did great dude!” 

Alt also tries to pull himself up, glitching a bit but soon slips back down with a groan. “Hate… this…” he grumbles.

“Stunning is very inconvenient,” Anti agrees. “But it is painless and leaves no side effects after it wears off, so it is the preferred way of subduing someone in most places in the galaxy.” 

“How do you know all that?” Marvin asks. “You’re a ro—an android!” 

“That doesn’t mean I cannot read and learn,” Anti says. “And it doesn’t mean I don’t know something similar.” His eyes dart down to the disabled robots for a moment. 

“…because you… ah..” Schneep hesitates. “You are…?” He trails off.

Bro furrows his eyebrows and looks down, and it dawns on him. “…because you’re like these guys…!” He looks back at Anti with wide eyes, “…did you like- go rogue? Like a deviant in that… one robot game-? Detroit… something- …wait that’s like ancient now-“ 

“Chase…!” Alt groans in exasperation.

"Detroit: Become Human, developed by Quantic Dream, released in 2018." Anti shakes his head, puhing away the robotic response. "It is not exactly like that. I was..." He hesitates. For a moment, that same fear expression crosses his face. Then he makes a sighing sound. "IRIS likely already knows all this. And I suppose I owe an explanation--to Alt and JJ, at least." He folds his arms, leaning against the wall, not looking directly at anyone. "I was... repurposed." 

"By the human who lived with you and Sam?" JJ asks. 

Anti looks at him in surprise. "How do you know that?" 

"You have a room in your bunker with a bed and facilities for a human," JJ says. "But neither you or Sam need that. They were there before you found me. It's not hard to put together." 

Anti laughs, then looks down again. "There was... a man named Jack," he continues in a soft voice. "He broke into an IRIS facility and took one of their robots. One that had been fully built and programmed, but not activated. He would feel bad about deleting any memories. He took it home, and switched out some parts--notably the head--and reworked the programming using the IRIS protocols as a base. Keeping simple code that allows for movement and language formation and such, but taking out other code, such as the orders protocol, and... adding a lot, lot more to it. That was... how I was made." He pauses. "In the early days, I was... there was conflict. I thought I was an experiment, or a servant. I didn't want to be either of those things. But that's not what Jack intended. He asked me what I wanted. He... always asked me what I wanted."

Bro’s safe softens, “… Jack helped make you into a person. Not just a machine…” he smiles. “I think he did a great job too.” 

Alt tries to sit up more, looking at Anti. “…where’s… Jack…?”

Anti pauses, and his expression becomes sad. "He's disappeared. It's likely that he's either been arrested or... died. But Sam doesn't want to think about that possibility. In either case... he asked us that if anything ever happened to him, that the two of us continue his plan." 

Alt looks sad too, eyebrows knitting together in worry.

Suddenly, Schneep gasps. "You--was Jack--was he Se--" Then he stops himself. "R-right, there are probably cameras watching us." 

"I can only assume what you assumed," Anti says. "But... yes."

Bro looks between the two of them in confusion. “…you’ll have to catch us up when we get out of here I guess…”

"Right, I actually forgot you guys weren't from here for a second," Jackie says. "Uh--I think we brought him up at the table in the restaurant? Before your screen assistant friend appeared." 

Bro scrambles his brain, “Ohhh! …I’m not sure I get it but I think I remember-“

"Alt wouldn't know, though," Marvin points out. Seems like all the guys have come to the same realization as Schneep. 

Chase tries getting up again. He manages to hold himself up for a bit this time before collapsing. 

Alt tries to pull himself up too, glitches collecting around him- and he manages to glitch to his feet. Then he braces himself against the wall for a second before his arm gives out and he falls too. 

“J-Jesus!” Bro exclaims and comes over to help the two of them. “Don’t push yourselves too hard guys- I think we’re safe for now!”

"'s fine," Chase grunts.

 Schneep hurries over as well, giving them both a cursory examination. "Can either of you move your legs? That will be the important part." 

Chase tries, jerking one leg into the air. 

"Even if they can move it, doesn't mean they can support their weight." Anti walks over to the door, tilting his head to listen through it. "I hear no movement outside. I suppose they know their doors are quite sturdy and are not going to bother to brute force it down."

Alt also tries to move his leg, but it’s shaky and jerky in its movement. 

Bro sighs in relief, “Okay… so we have time again- how much longer till the stunning wears off do you think?”

"Perhaps about two more minutes," Anti says. "It varies depending on species and body weight." 

"I don't think they'd be able to get in here in two minutes," Marvin says slowly. 

"Yeah, big organization like this?" Jackie nods. "They're probably debating what to do."

“Hate… waiting…” Alt mutters. Bro pats his shoulder. The hero looks back towards the door and hums, “…I wonder if… they’re more worried about the TRVLR piece or… getting Anti back. …maybe both. Technically… the TRVLR was made by IRIS- just… from another universe.” He shudders, “…I hope they didn’t get too much info from it..”

JJ raises his eyebrows. "The IRIS from another universe was able to make a multiverse travel device? But ours hasn't?" 

"I wouldn't be surprised if they tried," Anti says. "But such a device would likely take a great deal of power."

“To be fair- we found ours in an abandoned lot. It was defective but we found out Alt’s magic is enough to work it. We thought it was just cuz of his electricity…but it’s cuz he’s also a Glitch.” Bro says, “which… I kinda get but also don’t. Somehow… Alt broke through some barrier of our world and… that’s how he can glitch and do this kinda stuff, apparently.” 

Alt’s body glitches a bit in place as he nods.

Anti tilts his head. "Interesting. Very interesting." 

"Do you think something like that could happen in our world?" Jackie wonders. 

"Maybe!" Marvin says, eyes dilating wide. "Well--we don't have magic here--or not magic like you all do. But I do think there's something more to the world. Maybe that could be called magic."

“Magic… is… a-anywhere-“ Alt says quietly. 

“But we’ve met glitches in several other places! Ones that didn’t have magic too I think- so it’s totally possible!” Bro says, “But I’m one of those people that believes anything is possible sooo”

"Hell yeah, anything is possible!" Jackie says excitedly. 

"Well." Schneep's brows lower as he looks thoughtful. "I would not say anything is possible. If your planet has a blue sky, it will not suddenly become, for example, green." 

"Killjoy," Chase comments.

Bro bursts into giggles. “I dunno man- I’ve seen some pretty impossible things. …this place is definitely one of them.” He smiles.

Schneep blinks. "Well if it happened then it is clearly possible--" 

"Schneep. Think about it." Jackie says, grinning a bit. "Look at yourself and remember they've never seen other planets." 

He looks down at his hands with their scales and claws. "...ah."

Chase laughs a little. Alt and Bro laugh too. Chasetries to sit up again. His head lolls but he's able to keep his balance.

Alt sees Chase able to get up and shakily tries himself. Bro helps to support him. Alt grits his teeth then shakily reaches out his hand. “I-I… think I can- glitch!”

"You can?!" Marvin's eyes widen. "W-well then we should probably get out of here then!" 

Anti puts his head near the door again. "I can hear movement outside there. It is probably for the best." 

Jackie grabs onto Chase and Alt. "Okay, let's link up to try!"

Alt nods and closes his eyes once everyone is linked up. It takes a second- like a program loading. Magic and glitches zing and zip around Alt as he struggles to get his glitches to work. Then finally, they manage to glitch out of the closet and zip back down to Anti’s base.

It's a big jump, but they make it, landing in the middle of the intersection beneath the exit. 

Chase yelps in surprise and starts to topple over, but Schneep quickly catches him. 

Alt’s eyes roll up a bit from the jump and starts to topple but Bro is quick to catch him. Alt mumbles incoherently, pressing up against him. 

Sam flies out of a room at the end, some sort of long metal pole wrapped in their tail, the end crackling with electricity--then they drop it and the electricity goes out. "It's you!" they type. "You're back!" Then they fly over to Anti, bumping against him and wrapping their tail around his arm in a big hug. He looks surprised, then smiles.

Bro blinks at Sam’s reaction then smiles at Anti too, “Aww! They missed you!”

Sam pulls away again. "I was so worried when our call got cut off! Are you okay? Is everyone okay?" 

"We are all fine," Anti says. "Relatively. Chase and Alt were stunned but they should be recovering."

"Are you okay, Alt?" Schneep asks worriedly. "Do you need something?" He glances at Bro. "That did not happen the last times we teleported." 

"It's probably the stun bolt," Marvin suggests. 

“I think it was just a big jump when he’s still recovering- so… can’t reach all his magic and it drained what he got back.” Bro says, lightly tapping Alt’s face to keep him awake. 

Alt blinks blearily out, “‘m fine- mmmm good…” he mumbles. He half collapses against Bro, the adrenaline from being trapped wearing off now that he knows eveyone is safe.

JJ looks at him worriedly. "Let's get him to lay down," he says, and walks back towards his room. 

"What about Chase?" Marvin asks. 

"I'm fine," Chase says, raising a hand. "I'm... getting there. Alt just... used magic. More important."

Bro nods and goes to scoop Alt up. The younger Brody tries to protest but doesn’t get far- Bro follows after JJ.

Back in the room, JJ presses a hand against a metal section of the wall and part of the wooden paneling slides up, revealing a bed in an alcove. The blankets and pillows are a pale, cheery yellow. "Sorry it's not made," JJ says, despite the bed looking pretty 'made' already. 

Bro chuckles, “Don’t sweat it, bro.” 

JJ blinks. "Don't sweat it? What a strange expression." 

“Huh? …I guess it is kinda weird-“ Bro laughs, setting down Alt on the bed and Alt sighs, showing his exhaustion. Hopefully once all the stunning effects go away he’ll get his energy back. He hadn’t even use much magic…Bro sits down to him on the bed. 

The others file in. Schneep puts Chase in one of the chairs at the table and he slumps forward. 

"Do you all need anything?" Sam asks. "We have an old medkit." 

"I think everyone is fine, besides the stunning," Schneep says. 

"So..." Jackie looks at Sam and Anti. "You guys knew Septic, huh?" 

Sam's eye widens. They spin on Anti. "You told them?!" 

"There were a lot of those IRIS bots, they noticed the similarities," Anti says. "I told them about Jack, but they figured out who he was on their own."

Bro blinks out at the others, “Oh yeah what’s the deal with that? Jack was… Septic? I thought that was Anti!”

"I suppose technically, Septic is all three of us," Sam says thoughtfully. "But Jack is the face." 

Anti picks up the holo projector. His eyes become loading circles for a moment. "Uploading." And then they stop. Anti presses a couple buttons and the holo projector flips on, projecting a video into midair. It's of that same man Jackie had shown Bro a video of. The man with one mechanical green eye and metal plates on his face. 

"Are we rolling?" he says, messing with his hair. 

"Rolling," Anti's voice comes from out of sight. 

"Great. Why do we say that, anyway? You ever wondered?" 

"Perhaps it is linked to film rolls." 

"Ah, right." The man shakes his head. "Okay, from the top." 

Anti pauses the video. His sad expression is back. 

Alt and Bro watch the hologram with wide eyes. Bro looks back at Anti and his expression turns sympathetic. “…you really miss him, huh?”

Anti nods. 

"We both do," Sam says. "It's... strange how he disappeared. He went out, and never came back, and we haven't heard anything about him since. You would think the Station Security would announce if they arrested him."

“Hmm.. yeah… you guys- mentioned a plan of his, right?” Bro asks, “What was that? I know you said Septic was like… an anarchist?”

"Yeah, he disrupts a lot of stuff on the station," Jackie agrees. 

"He disrutps things that are run by IRIS," Anti states. "Which is quite a lot, given how the Zypso Station was built by them. But he always said that the Station could run on its own, without depending on them." He pauses. "The goal was always to cause enough chaos to force them out." 

"Um..." Marvin raises his hand. "I understand why you'd have a personal flyer to shoot with IRIS, but... they seem alright otherwise?" 

"They run the station well enough, I suppose," Anti acknowledges. "But that is not all they do. Jack was convinced for years that there was something behind their mask. And he was right. Even if they are not actively malicious, they are, at the very least, very negligent and willing to bend rules."

Bro’s expression darkens, “Just from what we saw today- IRIS is bad news. They were willing to forcibly reprogram Anti- something they saw themselves has sentience and emotions. That’s… that’s evil. But… we have our own bias with them.” 

Alt shakily sits up and nods, “…in other worlds… IRIS has kidnapped our friends… t-treated people like experiments… if we had g-gotten caught… they might have d-done the same to us.”

"...well. That doesn't speak well to their character," Schneep says slowly. 

"They would not even do a good job at reprogramming," Anti says quietly. Sam pats his shoulder with their tail. 

"We... all live on... the station, though," Chase says slowly. "That's... is that... bad?" 

"It is not the station that is the problem," Anti says. "There are plenty of businesses here that could sustain the place." He nods at Bro and Alt. "From the information Jack has discovered, there's a chance that might have happened." 

Jackie shivers. "You guys should probably get out of here soon, then."

“Probably…” Bro sighs, but he looks out at the others, knitting his eyebrows in worry. “…will you all be okay? I hate to leave if we just got you all into… deep shit. Just for helping us…”

"They didn't see our faces," Marvin says. "We'll... probably be fine. There are a lot of humans, kritzeins, and felorrs on the station." 

"If worst comes to worst, you can stay with us," Sam says. "We can expand the bunker. I've been thinking about doing that for a while, actually." 

"Heh. Thanks." Jackie grins. 

"The masks should have scrubbed your appearance details from most camera systems, including what species and gender you are," Anti says. "You will simply appear as spot of white noise."

Bro sighs in relief, “That’s good then…” He looks down at Alt. “Well, lil bro? …you ready to head to the next one?” 

Alt tries to shake himself out, flexing his hands and shaking off the numbness. “I… I think so…?”

Alt's phone turns on. "Actually, there isn't a next one," Anti says. "Not really. We have all the parts together. Now we just have to head back to the world where you first got the TRVLR, since they're likely the most well-equipped to repair it--" 

"Is̢ t̡h̕at ̀s͟o?" The familiar voice echoes from every corner of the room.

Alt and Bro both freeze- their faces going pale. 

“No-“ Alt whispers in fear. 

XD Bro springs to his feet, “Anti! Sam! Get the others out of here! Now!” He shouts with authority.

Anti and Sam immediately spring into action. Anti grabs Chase, still slightly stunned, and pulls him out, while Sam flies around and starts pushing the others out. 

"Are you going to be okay?!" Jackie shouts, resisting being pushed. 

"I-if we don't see you again--goodbye!" Marvin says. 

"It was nice to meet you!" JJ gives one last smile before grabbing Jackie and pulling him out. 

“We’ll… we’ll be okay-“ Bro tries to smile at them reassuringly but there’s that tension in his body- he’s scared. Alt tries to look back at them and smile but his falls short as his eyes snap to the locked door and the red Anti.

As soon as they're all gone, the door shuts, and a light by its doorway turns red--locking it. An image forms in front of it as several of the light squares go out. It's that same red Anti who had been stalking them the whole time, his smile wide beneath static-filled eyes. "My business isn't with them, anyway," his voice says, though his mouth doesn't move.

Bro gets into a fighting stance and bares his teeth at Anti. “If you think we’re just gonna hand you over the pieces, bitch, you’re wrong! You might as well just give up!” 

Alt backs up, holding the bag and the newest piece still inside his hoodie pocket. He tries not to show how much his heart is pounding- how much his hands are shaking.

His laugh echoes throughout the room. "You're not going to? Well, alright." Suddenly his image is right in front of them--two, one for each. "Let me ask you two a question. Or, maybe let me ask you three a question. Why... why haven't I been able to delete anything?"

Alt staggers back but Bro stands firm, glaring down the image of him. Alt’s eyes glow as he growls, “You don’t have enough power- no body does. You’ve been chasing a false goal this whole time!”

"Nobody does? No... no, that can't be right. These worlds are infinite." His voice lowers. "Do you know what it means? To see infinity? To see infinite pain? Do you know what it means to be a copy of a copy of a copy?...no, you don't. None of you understand." 

Alt glares more at the red Anti and bares his teeth. “Even if that’s your pain… it’s not enough to destroy infinite lives…!”

There's a bit of static, and suddenly, Alt is not alone. Someone is next to him--it's Anti, the same Anti who's been with them the whole time. Out of the phone and glaring at this red other version of him. "It's you who doesn't understand anything. You're the one who thinks you can destroy infinity." 

Alt blinks and looks back at Anti before nodding at him and looking back. 

“Listen, Anti-“ Bro tries to say, “If you’re… feeling jealous or angry… this isn’t the way to go about it! Revenge hurts everyone- but especially yourself! You don’t have to do this…” he says sympathetically. This guy… he’s evil but.., deep down he’s still Anti right? Somewhere… there has to be a part in there that’s like his brother. 

Anti stares at Bro with wide static eyes. He blinks. And then he laughs. "Like I said. None of you understand. 

“C’mon man-!” Bro tries to say, reaching out. 

“Chase what are you-?!” Alt shouts. 

“Hey... lơo͞k d̀o̢w̛n͡." 

The ground beneath them is tearing open, a crack forming in the fabric of the world, a black rift. Suddenly, there is no support beneath their feet.

The brothers gasp as they look down and before Alt can even think of glitching- they both scream and fall straight into the rift.

Anti looks at them and dives down, slipping back into Alt's phone before they disappear into the space between worlds. 

The other Anti, the red Anti, grins. "There must be someone who can do it," he says to himself. "We have to go back far. Where it all started." And then his image disappears as he also goes through.

[mijikai12]

BIENVENIDOS!!!!

hola chicos!! this is my main blog and this pinned post is also a more updated and simpler than the og!!

warning: LONG POST ⚠️⚠️⚠️

BLOGS ->

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Reblogging: @mijikai12-reblogs

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MusicBased: @cheryap

where you can also find me ->

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details ->

i am a minor (13) and my birthday is March 2nd! 🎂

i am a aromantic lesbian

i have adhd and some autism

im an extrovert mainly around people i know. but i am literally forcing myself to interact with people (i swear it actually works omfg)

i go by Kayla

i love talking to people here.

i joined i think in september or october.

i play flute, piano, and a bit of recorder

my favorite colors are 💚🖤🤍❤️

i like weirdcore

im a big adventure time fan

im open for asks

im in seventh grade

i like to draw, animate, make music, and write!

she/them/green

im a Pieces

i'm hispanic

i speak english + spanish

MAIN OC'S!!!!!!:

Mijikai Tsocka(mascot): she is a bunny hybrid bc of course. i gues she was tested on or something, i havent quite figured her lore yet. she's a she/them 16 lesbian female.

Sarahnah Dandila(princess): She's fucking annoying anyways; she is a she/her 23 straight female. She's princess of whatever idk i dont have a name for the kingdom yet. (most parent standard hehe)

Mattie Sercel: He's a he/it 21 bisexual trans (least parent standard haha) he's in college and majors in 3D art and animation.

okay! i really hope you enjoy my blog!! i cant wait to meet yall and to get into situations id rather die than be in!! 😊

edits below:

edit1: guys i made a Neobook account!! i dont know what shit to do there so it might be empty for a while.

edit2: im trying to make an ao3 account. i should be on by 1/30

edit3: i know ive already said this but my reblogs are slowly being deleted. so my art posts will go to Yoki while normal text/memes/etc posts will go here (≧∇≦)

edit4: i lied in that last edit. anyways, i am gonna make an insta soon (maybe tonight) and i might make a Pinterest account! 😆

edit5: I MADE AN INSTAAAA

edit6: i have a twitter if you didnt notice

edit7: AO3 DOESNT LIKE MEEE

edit8: i have a gf omggg i'll be posting a lot about it at @kayventa

edit9: yeah ao3 does NOT like me wow. anyways, so springbreaks coming up soon. i'll post about this on thursday or friday ✌🏽

edit10: ive had an c.ai account for months ive posted about it idk if yallve seen it yet 😒

edit11: i found out a few days ago that when ao3 said i'd be on by 1/30, they didnt mean 1/30/24, they meant 1/30/25. wtf

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Day 8: Inflorescence 💐

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Inflorescence (n.)

the flowering part of a plant or arrangement of flowers on a stalk; the time and process of budding and unfolding flowers.

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So begins Week 2 of Inktober! 🖋️

I am pretty pleased with today’s art, but my posting time probably says it all: Not everything was coming up roses in the making-of process. 😅

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk about it! ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

---------- Whew boy Sparklers; If I seem a little "off" or this description comes out a bit short, that's because (to the surprise of absolutely no one) I got a bit of a later start on this mandala than I'd hoped and it also ended up taking longer than I wanted. 😅 Thus I am now very acutely aware that I have much less time to get this description type and everything cross-posted than I'm really comfortable with.

Granted, this isn't the Cinderella-esque race against Midnight that I've very "used to" from Inktobers' past, but in some small ways that almost makes it worse because I know I've technically been doing much better than usual this year and the further I push that "better" envelope, the more anxious I become. 🫠

So let me stop wasting time rambling about that and get to talking about the art!

I think the main reason this one ended up taking so long is because I hyped it up too much—The idea of getting to draw a mandala made of flowers àla Adult Coloring Book-Style was so enticing that I did that thing us artists tend to do sometimes; I got in my head about it being "good enough" and "right" and all that, as if this is somehow the only opportunity I'll ever have to make a flower mandala so it "needed" to be perfect. 🙄

And, in a strange kind of other sense I think I had a little too much confidence going in because I recently spent quite a bit of time drawing intricate flowers in a similar style for a project you Sparklers haven't seen yet but my Ko-fi Members have. [And hopefully you Sparklers will get to see it soon, too, I've just been too busy to squeeze it in yet!] Mostly, I underestimated my own standards for what translating those flower drawing skills into this mandala format would be like. 😅

I also kind of hurt myself in that I decided I really wanted to get roses in here somewhere on top of trying to make sure I got at least one flower that had more obvious stages of blooming (per today's deifnition), rather than all of them being full-bloom. Naturally, I picked the most difficult option of having the roses be said multi-stage flower. 🙃 I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you Sparklers that have attempted to draw them before that roses are among some of the trickier flowers to draw, particularly in a more doodle-y style like this. I have semi-successfully handled roses before, but I think it's been literal years since the last time I drew any. 🫣 [Maybe not, but I don't feel like I have the time to dig through my posts and check to be sure right now!]

You can see that I did manage some results I'm decently happy with in the end, of course, but I probably spent about half of the total time I worked on this mandala on the roses specifically. 😵‍💫

And then of what was left, probably about half of that was spent on the "final" swirling vines that have different little pink flowers on them. Which is to say I think that was the second most challenge part to draw, even though it's one of the more simple elements present.

I could have stopped before adding those final swirls and it probably would've been fine, but the outer corners just felt so empty compared to all the flower and leaf stuff going on elsewhere, particularly the center-most ring. (That's what I get for adding lines to look more like a vague suggestion of roots below the big leaves!) I wanted to fill just a little more space badly.

If I hadn't felt timing ticking down so strongly, I would've definitely bothered to figure out something a little more involved for those swirls, but it just wasn't meant to be today. I couldn't stop thinking about the time and it seemed like every other false start I has either wasn't right or tested my patience too much.

I very nearly put some more sunflower-esque flowers in the corners instead, but I didn't like the idea of looking myself into a more specific color palette in that way and I didn't like the idea of not being able to either "attach" them to the rest of the mandala or the fact that I couldn't think of a way to make them more vine-like on their own. Therefore, the sunflowers sat this one out. [And besides, they already had a small cameo last week!]

The leaves, fortunately, didn't give me much trouble. Those largest leaves that I put down first where probably the most difficult, but only because they were made using a criss-cross line method I observed in some mandala techniques on Pinterest, rather than other more typical ways I go about drawing leaves. They really weren't too bad, though. And I think they were the right choice because they kind of set up a shape foundation that directed a lot of the rest of the mandala.

Likewise, this may have been the easiest color scheme to decide apart from Day 1 because of the leaves. I set up with that green foundation, pushed it to be a little more teal/aqua, and then went with most pink flowers since that's complimentary, but then a soft blue for the...They're sort of lilies-of-the-valley but maybe not exactly. I think the blue I picked is a touch too dark for that, but since I was very sold on this off-white/cream background, I went with the deeper blue so the color would be more obvious.

I will admit I originally wanted to avoid pink or red roses, but I made the outermost flowers pink first, dared to touch the roses with a bit of a darker pink, and promptly threw that plan out the window. I did try to mix a little purple int here so they weren't a super-traditional rose pink, but I think I overblended it so that effect was mostly lost. 😅 But I did stand firmly behind no-red roses, though. Against many fibers in my Alice-in-Wonderland-loving being, but it felt too stereotypical and like a bad fit for the more aqua-green leaves, which I really didn't want to change at that point.

Yesterday and Day 2 are still gunning for my favorite, but this one isn't super far behind despite the choices I maybe would've handled a bit differently if I'd felt like I could afford more time to puzzle over them. If anything, I think this will be my favorite as a coloring page, if I do end up making coloring pages out of these. [Which yes, is an idea I've been toying with—I think I mentioned it on Day 1? Maybe?]

You Sparklers will have to tell me if that sounds like something worth bothering with. 😉

Let's see...I think that's everything I wanted to mention for today, so I should probably be getting on with that cross-posting now; I'll see you Sparklers tomorrow, hopefully at least a little earlier in the evening... 😅 🤞

----------

See the Prompt List

Artwork  © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[hydn-jpg]

hello!! i am alive !!!!

how have y'all been? i've definitely been better lol

so... i can explain. or maybe not. i've never been good at talking about things but i'll do my best

under the cut bc a bunch of things happened and this'll probably be very long:

honestly where do i even start?

it has been a very rough almost month and a half for me, it was as if whatever god or entity out there went "lol wouldn't it be funny if we made this person go through several bad things all within the span of a few weeks" and then did just that

in early august i got a call from my mom that my grandmother had passed away. i had just gotten home from class at the time, but i immediately went out again and took the soonest available flight back to korea for her funeral. losing her hit me pretty hard honestly, she was the one i turned to when things were hard, and was also the only one who was generally supportive of my identity and sexuality. she didn't really get it, but she never made homophobic or transphobic comments, and was always kind and unconditionally loving. chuseok this year will be difficult without her around but at least she is in a better place i hope.

i took two weeks off from school to stay with my family after that. when i got back i was mostly catching up on all the classes i missed so i had very little time to do anything else. the stress coupled with all the physical exertion and everything else lead me to have the worst asthma attack i've experienced as of yet, it could've gotten a lot worse if it weren't for my kind neighbours who rushed to help me when they saw me struggling in the hallway

then in late august i got into a car accident. i was driving home from campus (which is an hour away), it was raining very heavily and i guess i lost control of my car. i am not sure what exactly happened honestly, one moment i was driving peacefully (and at appropriate speed for driving in the rain) and the next moment my car was spinning around and hitting the guardrails before crashing. it sounds cliché but everything was in slow motion and i literally saw my life flash before my eyes. i'm really thankful that the highway was basically empty, so no one else was affected. i somehow came out of the accident with only a concussion, a badly sprained arm and neck and some cuts and bruises. those will surely heal with time but the trauma of it will probably stay for quite a while.

so that's what happened. my mental health has not been great but i've been feeling a bit better lately! so that's good. i've been too physically, mentally and emotionally drained to do anything haha.

i probably won't be able to draw for a while thanks to my injury so you won't be seeing any art from me for at least another month or so,, to people i still owe commissions to, i will have to give you an IOU because again, i can't draw rn but also because i lost basically all the art that i haven't backed up during the crash, which unfortunately includes the commission sketches :( i'm so sorry, i'll redraw them as soon as i'm able to. i really wish procreate had an automatic cloud backup system so at least the sketches i did were saved but we can't always get what we want i guess,,

thank you to everyone who reached out and asked about my wellbeing and i'm really sorry for ignoring your messages and tags. i'll get to them as soon as i can!

tldr; my grandma passed, i had a bad asthma attack and i got into a car accident but i am okay. not really but i'll be okay maybe. lmao.

[amynchan]

You know, I'm really glad that I wrote fanfiction when I was younger.

I have a lot of thoughts that strike me, and at the time, they seem really profound and important. This one feels like it too, though I may look back later and just cringe at my sense of arrogance, as one does. Honestly, the future me who's cringing just makes me chuckle a little bit. Some things don't change.

And yet, some of them do. I started publicly posting my fanfiction when I was 14 years old. There's another one, one that I wrote with my brother and boyfriend of the time, that came before that. Actually, did you know that my older brother got me into fanfiction in the first place? It's funny, thinking about it. And, just like he doesn't write anymore, I got my sibling into art. Theirs is amazing, and I just don't draw as often as I used to, and I'm okay with that. I get so proud when I see what they draw, and I suppose my brother might be proud of what I write. At least, if he reads it and doesn't cringe himself. Haha!

Back to fanfiction, I guess. I wrote it when I was 14 and ever since. I've penned some things that I'm embarrassed of, I've proudly displayed the most cliched of story lines, I've written down what made me the saddest and the happiest only to look back and feel guilty that I might have accidentally caused offense due to the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. But also, I've learned from it.

In the 2010s, "gay" was a word that was ambiguous to me. I used it, and it wasn't flattering. I'll always feel a bit of shame over it, but I keep it up to keep myself humble. I'm not perfect. It's a misstep, but it's mine, and I keep it because it teaches me not to do that again.

But also, during my Ghost Hunt phase, I wrote a few stories that resonate with me. A lot of them are because I feel seen while reading them. The constant care I gave Naru, the daughter I gave him that was him but louder and more stubborn. I love going back and hearing my younger self say "someone like you is worth loving." Then, there's one scene that hits me because I've since done a complete 180 on the attitude that supports it.

In this case, the main character is constantly in danger and needs to protect herself. The more experienced medium attempts to gently but firmly teacher her how to ignore more calls for help than you can heed. It's a lesson on how to protect yourself so you can protect others. The bursting "triumph" of this scene is when the main character pushes past her boundaries and extends an empathetic hand to the ghost, determined to save her to the last. Her empathy is rewarded, and her life is saved. When I was younger, that was my attitude. Help others, even and perhaps especially at the cost of yourself. It's a snapshot into who I was and what I valued most dearly.

Now, when I reread that story, I side with the more experienced medium. I can't imagine her being more gentle or more firm with what I see as the truth. The moment of triumph now leads me to despair, because I see someone who is capable of helping more people if only she learned how to take care of herself first.

And I think it's fun. And I think that my fanfiction over the years has taught me not only why people write stories but why we preserve them as well.

No human is the same throughout the entirety of their lives. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, for time is soon a-flying. These same flowers that live today, tomorrow will be dying." It's not just a literal life. It's phases of life, too. We change, we morph, we transform, and literally going back isn't an option. However, stories remain. Of our follies, of our triumphs, of our attitudes, of literally anything. And, to me, they're a reminder of who I was, and it makes it a little easier to at least understand those who are coming after me.

Maybe they'll be in a different phase than me. Maybe they'll stay there longer, or even forever. There are so many stories, and they relate to so many people, because humanity, while it always changes, stays the same. And, if nothing else, timeless stories passed through generations and new stories that take the world by storm can continually teach us that.

But the real thought at the heart of this? Stories are timeless, and everyone has a different interpretation at different points of their lives. I just thought that I'm sick of people who say "you'll understand it when you're older." That's starting to feel like a cheap shot. "You'll understand my interpretation when you're older," sure, but there's understanding to be had in the here and now. Regardless of your age, your placement in life, or your experiences, you can make meaning out of any story.

So, go off, I guess. Find a story, read it, relate to it or don't, make meaning out of the strange jumble of words you find. Write what's important to you now, and a string of understanding may extend from you to someone different in the future, whether that be someone new or someone you turn into. Let fiction, nonfiction, drama, stories, poetry link us together. Not because we all have the same understanding of it, but the opposite. Let's all find our own meaning in what we see, and if we share it with others, then maybe we can find understanding with each other.

And that, my friends, is what I'll most likely cringe very hard at later. I can already feel it coming, haha, so I'll just post this now. XD I'll tag as 'long post' just in case some people have that blocked, because wow, did I not expect it to get this long. XD

See ya!

[notknickers]

aww thank you. I'm still learning to draw scars. I defo need to make time for more studies. (we both gotta buckle down)

oh man. fanart, if done well and a lot can get me to do almost anything. seeing fanart of Ghost back in November 2022 is what got me into this fandom in the first place.

I'm a bit picky with headcanons but yh. im fully aware a lot of them are just watered down to be vessals for our kinks and affection. At the end of the day. they'er our silly made up blurbos U///U but yh theirs defo gaps in these guys's personalities that we can fill in (which is what we're doing now lol from the short bios we're given)

fanart (nsfw) and audio of these blurbos together. I'm waiting on my lounge chair right now to be presented to me.

hey man. Rivals to lovers makes sense. I'm stumped with who would make the first move though. becasue like you said, both of them aren't the most affectionate of people and don't trust too quickly; at least on the battlefield. like they could respect each other on the battlefield and stuff. but to get them vunerable to love hmmmmm. might need to bend like a pretzal for either of them to act on their feelings even in the most subtle ways… unless we have one of them a lil more unhinged in this department. claps hands* What if Konig is the more unhinged one and Ghost just doesn't know how to handle his feelings or Konig, like, does anyone really wanna make the over 6 foot tall batterying ram upset. Anything can happen in delulu land

my fanart is literally made up shit if you were dating Ghost ooc XD

love that the whole fandom are in on the joke of eldritch/ocotpuss/cathulu Konig since the chibi drawings of him look like a cute octopuss and the bio updating and saying His hood hides something more hideous. I'll check out your fic….(hehe heat cycles)

btw. sorry for the late reply. fell asleep after work (¯﹃¯) also I'm bad with writing hehe

hey, don't worry. life outside the machine takes precedence! plus, sleep is gooood, rest to your brain while increasing your chances of dreaming of your blorbos! it's a win-win, but thanks for replying.

now i must absolutely write that eldritch!könig/civilian!ghost fic! i have so many ideas that i left xeno!könig and his tentacles aside for a while, but after i've dealt with the five different colonel!könig/recruit!dommy mummy!reader and colonel!könig/tmale!base medic, perhaps i'll have some time to figure it out!

oh! don't even say it! today i was all excited about a fanart idea i had while at work, then i was confronted with the reality of actually drawing it... what an ice cold shower!!!

i'll get back to it as soon as i get over the trauma! but good luck with your studies, you're already ahead!

pretty pixel vessels!!! i am also very nitpicky. in fact, i've noticed, the more concrete an idea i develop of könig, the less open i am to changing interpretation (even though i still like reading others'!)

the only thing i am glad about entering the fandom when i did is that i initially conceinved this blog as a magnus archives fanblog. if it started as a könig simp blog, i would probably have called myself something like... königsheftyballs or something and i'm so grateful that didn't happen. im' much happier as a jaredhopworthsknickers!

and yes, smutty ghost fanart was my gateway drug.

(i don't know if i remembered linking you the fic in question that sold me over the ghostsoap ship, but it was this one.)

for the audio, it's easy. here's the link and happy listening! (very nsfw, very explicit). it's one hundred percent out of my headcanons: no, könig the forty-plus-year-old colonel is not simon 'ghost' riley who got his mask at a hot topic or halloween costume shop's little bitch.

time to pull ranks on that one!

(still, enjoyable listening and great voice acting, though!)

true, but them being affiliated with opposing factions opens up interesting scenarios: could either be captured by the other? could that mean the the captured is assigned to the capturer for intel extraction or other expedient? could it be that each finds out that the other is way less sadistic and more compassionate and simply human and matter-of-fact than they initially thought, which changes the mutual way they see each other, while still being wary, because of their curcumstantial enmity?

commonalities? they are both masked, they both have something to hide, something that hurts to this day, the need to create someone who can endure interfacing themselves with the world and its demands while their tender cores still reel and recover, but that they can put aside, when they're alone, to catch breath and regain their whole selves or, the opposite, feel incapable to abandon even when no one is around, as they have become too fragmented.

just throwing ideas around, but there is so much to dig up.

their similarities might draw them to one another: could they have finally found someone who gets it? could they afford to be a little vulnerable, to show a little bit of their soft bellies and hope not to be stabbed from side to side?

but, being enemies who work for different factions with different goals surely would stand in the way: if trusting and opening up is harrowing and dreadful, doing so with an enemy operator can be outright fatal... so much at stake, but what if this were the only chance they have at genuine human connection? a friendship? comfort in wach other's bodies? darethey hope for more? are they delusional? is the imprisonment getting to them?

re: your ooc fanart: and that's brilliant all the same! my latest fanart was nothing but an excuse to put könig in a skimpy little outfit and parade him around! if you like ooc ghost dating your insert, do more of it!!!!!!

i always laugh when someone comes along, thinking themselves smart by pointing out that "well, akshually ghost and könig would never date in canon", because you're in the wrong place, luv. go play the game, write/draw your canon-compliant stuff or only interact with fic and fanartists who are as attached to canon as you, but stop yucking in everyone's yum. it's called fandom, not candom.

i will go on a perilous mission to find all the ghost/könig artists i can and report back, sir! yes, sir!

(by which i mean, i will write you in the inbox or leave the links in the dms, so you'll find them when you have time. no hurry!)

n_n

[fadebolt]

Soooo uhhhh, I'm about to go on vacation in two days. Don't worry, I'll still be doing the room analysis posts, and I will still probably post an AF attack or two, I'm mostly just bringing it up cus.... nostalgia. (Yes, I'm about to reminisce on my times in the RW community - I've been trying to keep these kinds of rambly posts to a minimum, but this felt like a pretty good time to go off about this)

Because the first time I discovered Rain World was two years ago, when I was also about to go on vacation very soon, and Htwo's video about the AI of the game caught my eye.

I was like "Wait, really? This looks like one of those old retro games, how the hell can it have a more complex AI, than some of the newer big games that are doing real fancy things with them?", so I just had to investigate, and something about the visuals, and the creatures, and the things described in the video.... it really mesmerized me, and I just had to learn more.

Which I did during vacation, checking out some spoiler free reviews and recommendation videos (as well as official stuff, including the DP scug previews, which sounded real interesting, even from a newcomer's perspective), as well as tons of fanart.

Of course, I did spoil myself a bunch in the process, but it all completely lacked context, so it didn't really mean much. I especially liked a guy called something along the lines of 'FlameFlower' (I'm sort of blanking on it, sry), as they had a real neat art style, and a lot of their comic pages were made traditionally, which impressed me a lot. It was nice and sweet and cute, and I liked the humanoid robot villain who I assumed to be the artist's personal interpretation of what the higher intelligence in this world might be like (yeah, I assumed the concept of an iterator was exclusive to that comic which is real silly, but still xd).

Anyways, I was eager to try out this difficult game filled with weird creatures, where you'll need to be patient and clever, but also skilled and quick witted, which I immediately did, after I traveled home.

I also quickly joined the Discord server, mostly just to view more art, but to my delight, there were a bunch of channels specifically for newbies on their first playthroughs, where I hung out a bunch.

Afterwards, I've mostly just been playing for the next couple months, having a blast while also struggling a little here and there, especially when I got to try Hunter.

I wasn't really doing anything with the community, outside of maybe chiming into a discussion or two. I had ideas, but I sorta lacked motivation. Sharing stuff in Discord gallery chats is not overly fun, as there's rarely any interaction (outside of a few random reacts - a lot of which comes from people that press reacts on literally everything), and the way Discord works makes it very difficult not to start comparing yourself to the other stuff you see, and it really demotivated me, especially cus my skills were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse back then (which is fair, I barely did art before my RW days, but still, good lord do I hate my older stuff xd).

I also just didn't particularly enjoy the vibes of the server too much. Lurking around the chats and looking at the things other people were doing was fun, but I never felt like it would be worth it to try and be a part of that.

Then you know, the new year rolled around, Downpour came out, the game got traction, and everything was getting crazy.

I was still mostly inactive, until my very first art month came up, and I had some fun with it (my skills still being absolutely horrendous, but at least I still had fun :3).

But then something caught my eye - a certain artist doing 'bombs', drawings where the Slugcat designs of many different artists were present. Yeap - I'm talkin' about Pansear!

I was digging around, and I found out that you can get featured by sending a DM, so I gathered the courage to send over a Saint, which was honestly extremely nerve-wracking. Yet the conversation was really pleasant. She actually complimented my design, which felt incredible, and was extremely appreciative of me congratulating her for getting featured in Akupara's Virtual Art Month Museum.

I know that this might sound like a basic everyday thing for most, but for a person with my levels of social anxiety? This was an enormous leap, one that I'm very grateful to have made.

Afterwards, things have finally started happening. I noticed that Pan and her buddies made a new server where they started hosting voice acting sessions for all the comics in their Shipping Container server. So I leaped on the chance to join in, the moment the invites were reopened again, since I always enjoyed imitating the voices of characters, and the idea of me doing the characters myself sounded incredible, especially when they're from a game I love so much.

And from that point onward, I stopped chatting in, or even looking at the overpopulated 'Main World' server entirely, and all my interactions with the community came from that small new server.

Then last year's vacation arrived, where.... nothing really happened, tbh. I was forced to miss out on the Helm fandub, but I had some fun doing colorless Artificer and Rivulet (aka, the first art pieces I ever posted onto Tumblr) on the beach.

But a few days after I returned, I noticed that North was actually starting a new video series, where she would animate Inv's dating sim, and she was looking for VAs on Tumblr, so I grabbed the opportunity, and made an account, so I could upload my auditions.

Yup, the Thanks Andrew dating sim is the reason why this account exists.

Neat, ain't it?

And initially, I didn't really know what to do with this thing, so I was just reblogging, and uploading art, as well as voiceovers, until...

The shipping polls arrived. And thus, my series of daily poll ramblings have begun. Ramblings that have been happening for almost a year now.

And then... I just sort of, kept doing the things I was doing, y'know. I finally got my wish, to be a part of a community I adore, even if just a minor one.

The vacations weirdly represent huge moments for me, as I found out and fell in love with the game during one, while my Tumblr was created immediately after the one that followed.

It's weird to look back on these last two years, and just how much has changed. Despite the downers that the community has had as of late, this was still a really pleasant journey, getting to have fun with others, and make them happy, while they also make me happy in return.

And I suppose this year's vacation can sort of represent my Artfight being created? That was also a pretty enjoyable experience, though it doesn't quite carry the same weight.

I dunno, not every year needs to be a special one. Though the last two have undoubtedly been that way! :D

[hurrakka]

I've made some of my own stands for some re characters :] I'll just condense and summarize them so this ask isn't so overly long.

Into the Woods (Meet Me in the Woods by Lord Huron)

Power: Can turn into mythical creatures

User: Ethan Winters

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Moon Will Sing (The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives)

Power: Greatest fears pop up from your shadow and closing your eyes makes it worse

User: Mia Winters

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Hazy Shade of Winter (Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon and Garfunkel)

Power: Act type stand, so....

1: Ice portals and transport! Warning, can melt.

2: Fire so cold it turns anything into ice, oh and the stand can shoot water now.

3: Acid Snowflakes!!! Dangerous to anyone!

4: Ice and Water Lenses, can make ice beams

User: Rosemary Winters

(Yes I did the Winters first shhhhh)

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I plan to do other characters and of course come up with designs and then draw them p soon tho! :D

OH FUCK YEAH THESE ARE AWESOME!!! ESPECIALLY ROSE! I love when y'all get creative with fanmade Stand abilities. Jojo's offer a wide range of abiliti that literally anything is possible which is simultaneously fun and hard (for me at least) to come up with ideas.

I am highly encouraging you to keep going. Get COOKIN! Be the chef you want to eat meals from. Am curious to see what ya got in store for the other charas (Manifesting Leon's to be a Queen reference definitely not because him and Kira share the same jap va and I jokingly hc him unironically saying Killer Queen whenever he blows up explosives)

[pbandjesse]

I requested to work from home today. I had a pretty terrible night. After coughing my brains out I woke up at 3am with a horrible sore throat again. I got up to get a drink and ended up kicking the end of the bed and cutting the top of my baby toe so bad it was like a flap. I was literally crying which is not something I do often for pain. I startled James awake but they took care of me. Got Neosporin and a bandaid and put a sock on my foot to keep it safe and j cried until I fell asleep.

I was beside myself though when I woke up. I tried not to over share why I was so upset but I was not emotionally able to go to work. I would work from home and Alexi was really kind about it.

I would sleep until 9. And felt slightly less like I was going to break into a million pieces. I did not feel good but at least I could be in bed when things were to much.

I had my breakfast while I worked on my laptop. I did a lot of research on turtles today. We may or may not have the turtle workshop on the 2nd but I wanted to have the worksheet packet ready.

I learned that there are 21 species of turtles in Maryland. With 3 of them being non-native and 5 being sea turtles. Amazing. I found some fun facts. Like you can tell the gender of some turtles by their eye color. And that terrapins were almost made extinct because people ate them so much.

When I wasn't doing research I was working on some craft practice. I attempted to use my new soldering iron but absolutely was not having a good time with that. I sometimes can use a soldering iron but I learned to solder with a torch and I really really struggle to get even heat with the iron. So I was very frustrated. But I'll try again another time. Today just wasn't my day.

I would finally have the space on my desk to work on my dad's pants!! And I finished that pretty quickly, despite some issues. I have never been very good at putting in zippers. But really it's that I don't have a foot for that. But I did my best. And I think he will be really happy with them. Also just being able to wear pants with his fake leg. I'll have to go visit them soon so I can give him these.

I would continue to work on my turtle research. And thinking about programing for the summer. I collected the last of my materials for my workshop tonight. I would draw for a little. I was feeling really down. Just emotionally just so low.

I took a very late lunch break at 2. And ended up falling asleep until 3. I felt slightly less morose when I woke up. I finished some stuff in the computer and went and ate a sandwich. And then my day was over.

I was freezing. I got in bed and tried to warm up. At 415 I went and made Mac and cheese and James let me know they were on their way home. I hoped we would cross paths before I left. And we did!

I was really happy to see them. Hugs and kisses and they helped me carry my stuff to the car. And then I was off.

I got to creative alliance and met with Parker about an upcoming project. Doing dioramas with kids. I hope to write up that proposal tomorrow.

After our chat I worked on setting up my program. And would run through my example so I could have a better idea of how I was going to teach this. And slowly people started coming in.

I have 10 people in the end and it went so well. Everyone was so kind. Some people had backgrounds in embroidery and cross stitch but not in regular sewing. And we would spend the first hour learning a running stitch, a whip stitch, a satin stitch, a woven satin stitch, and a ladder stitch. I would also show them a blanket stitch. And after we left the hoops I had set up everyone made a felt pin.

There were hearts and leaves and moons. The one guy in the class made Mr Yuck, which is a poison control thing? James recognized it right away. And while everyone was working I was walking around problem solving and then the people who brought things that needed mending we workshopped how that might work. And even had a few people interested in private lessons. I'm thrilled. I had such a good time.

Besides the sewing it was also just a lovely space to have conversations and I just felt great. I was able to use ally energy to not be falling apart. But as soon as I got in the car at the end, after everyone helped clean up and I said goodbye to the nice girl at the front desk, I started coughing again! And really really wanted to go home.

Thankfully I'm only 6 minutes away now. It was raining a little but I was feeling so happy it didn't bother me. I felt icky and tired but emotionally I was great.

When I got home I realized we need a wreath because in the dark I found it hard to see which one was ours. But quickly I was inside and with my husband and was very happy.

James was making Mac and cheese. And made me a little quesadilla. I got changed and looked at my toe for the first time and it was not as scary as I feared. James had bandages it well and I think it stuck the flap back on. Hopefully it heals quickly.

I got a shower and washed my hair. The water was a little cool still but I struggled through. I cared more about being clean then comfortable. Because now I am in bed and I'm really comfortable so it was worth it.

James is here. Sweetp is already asleep. I think I am going to try to sleep now too.

I am going to go to work tomorrow. And I'm determined to have a good day. And then Celia is coming over after work to make art together. I'm excited to show she the house.

I hope I feel better tomorrow. I love you all. Sleep well. Be safe. Goodnight!

[pics-pizza-peace]

Can't let myself draw for the next couple days at least, gotta let myself heal(carpal tunnel & arthritis acting up). Jerk keeps freaking out over something he can actively help himself with he just chooses not to. Mom barely said anything, a completely friendly question, and he's at her throat acting like she doesn't want to help him at all.

If he gets to a point where he's violent or completely without sense/hearing, we'll have to walk away very soon. She made cookies, I thanked her for them. Jerk(& prolly my brother too) made sure to eat at least two of them(unless bro ate a whole row by himself lol), didn't say anything cause he was too busy cussing at his video game. Idk what else is going on but I can't decide between keeping my earbuds in & making redesigns of the Mane Six in MLP(Ponytown), or being ready to record if anyone gets into some serious nonsense.

I think I actually heard Jerk dare to claim he was "helping" by assuming a simple question from mom meant that she wouldn't mess w/the kitchen any more tonight, when he literally said it himself; "we talked about it" & she had a plan for meatloaf. Yeah, if you talked about it, don't worry about it. I'll remember not to suggest to anyone other options because of Jerk's serious Mean Old Lady tendencies(now he might be cleaning/cooking but that's just slamming so idk but it's also an excuse to keep complaining and being an ass of course. it's what he does best. "No I don't do this for you, I do this so I have Divine Right to Complain & Suffer unlike You Shits" Leave!! <3 Goodbye Challenge Sir Please Win <3 <3)Why don't you Suffer Proudly & Refuse Help Maliciously Somewhere Else. Why Can't You Rot Somewhere Else. Take The Damn Aspirin & Shut Up You Stupid Prick.

If I can't figure out what else to do with this anger I might draw anyway. Pain be damned I guess we ball.