#it feels natural even if the number of wings he has in this form is a lot less than usual

[sunnysunsins]

They escaped into modern au. But since Quiet still looks the same (as in, a gigantic shadow creature), Princess has to be the one to look for a job. He still accompanies her though, after shapeshifting into a normal-ish crow.

(Also yes, she says her name is Princess Princess, and then just nods as everyone points out it's weird)

[clockwards]

Have some Gempearl minific bits because I don't think I'll ever write a proper one (although I am writing a longer, weirder, Gem-centric fic)

Gem likes being a deer. She used to say it was because people underestimated her, but those days have long since passed. Her antlers hold her a little taller than Joel's curled horns, something she gleefully thinks about but does not say aloud when he forms hills to be higher - she'd rather blame his mountain goat instincts than listen to his blustering excuses.

They are out of their element with the current base of operations, anyway. Deer need trees to run between, goats need cliffs to scale, but this is a wide, open space. It screams danger on all sides, even with the little walls they'd constructed. None of which was helped by the swathes of people (friends, friends, something caustic and fearful) that gathered around her barn. A piece of her loves it: there is safety in numbers, safety in the herd when they hear the ticking clock. This time more than ever there is a tug of confusion on her heartstrings when they circle her, yellow and aching, mangy wolves around a faun.

The wolves kind of suck at killing her though, so she mostly ignores them.

And in her periphery, Pearl flits. It’s in her nature, as a moth. To circle around a light source and tempt fire, to see a beautiful spot of colour and want to suck it dry. She teases at the edge of her vision, goading death and friendship, pressing at the soft centre of Gem’s back and whispering.

“I want that life, doe. I bet it’d taste delicious.”

She rolls her eyes. “Come take it yourself, my dear.”

Privately, she thinks of the whole ordeal as a particularly bad Disney movie plot. Like Bambi, if his first interaction with the butterflies was to be mildly threatened. She’s generally easy to ward away, a soft shoo-ing off from herself or Scott. Out of earshot, she jokes about needing bug spray, and Joel cackles. Together they are a bright, glowing green and the whole world tastes like pepper and lemongrass under their tongues.

They’ve gotten rather collaborative in the past few hours, the flying trivia game causing people to run screeching for answers. She watches, a genial smile on her face, as Pearl’s alights in her yard.

“Who, oh, who opened the End portal in secret life?”

Gem blinks.

“I don’t know, I don’t know who put the last Eye in, I wasn’t-”

She stops listening. That secret had burnt the nerves from her hand to forehead, that secret made her who she was. It felt like water trickling the wrong way up her arm as she set it in the frame, cracking open a hole in the world and in turn, her body. She’d spent the rest of that life with a numb, twitching shield hand, the spots on her shoulder bright with some odd, false light. She hadn’t even won. She hadn’t won, because-

“I think it was me.”

Her head snaps back to the present. And truly, she could have corrected her. She could have shouted ‘me, me!’ the second the question was asked and saved them both a world of pain. Spite and hope hold her tongue like a hostage, and she finds spite has much better reason. Pearl is laughing nervously as the robot puts the microphone down, and Gem is reassuring her, Watcher knows why. She finds her vision is blurred a little, everything coming in and out of focus, until Joel laughs so hard and loud he bleats a little, calling,

“Gem! Gem, she sounds like a robot! Pearl, talk, say something, come on!”

She’s slapping her hand over her mouth repeatedly as if it will system reset her, words coming out as garbled beeps. She catches Gem’s gaze and speaks louder, as if she could solve this for her.

“You know.” She walks backwards and Pearl follows, beeping askance, gesturing wildly. She grins. “You know, I think we can finally have a conversation like this, Pearly.”

It’s a ridiculous punishment. She cannot help but feel it was hand-picked for her pleasure, though, watching those wings flare out in annoyance with every word.

“You’d do anything for me, I know.”

The frown on her face and bucket of lava in her hand say otherwise, but it’s just too easy to put words in her mouth this way. To hear what she wants to hear. It’s laughable, and pitiful, but her left shoulder aches with phantom pain and she remembered nothing of it.

“Oh, my…my poor red Pearl.” Schooling her expression, she turns to blink consideringly up at her. “When I’m red, and you’re still here…I’m sure we can have some fun. Again”

When she nods eagerly, glitching sounds of joy spilling from her, Gem smiles for real. It’s a promise. It is, maybe, a threat.

*

In the middle of the next (typically chaotic) day, Pearl drifts behind her calling plaintive compliments.

“You’re gorgeous, you’re amazing, Gem, come on,”

“Uh huh.”

“You- you’re like a flower!”

“And you’re a bug,” she snorts, grinding her heel over the freshly shoveled dirt. Pearl sputters, antennae flexing dramatically.

“That, that-” she mutters to herself, before jumping triumphantly, “that means, that we are meant to go together!”

Gem cocks her head to the side, smiling at the ground. From Pearl’s vantage, she's certain the moth cannot see it. It’s silly to be pleased at something like that, and anyway, she’s much too far into her game to give it up now.

“Uh huh, Pearl, if you say so,” she hums, tune ever sweeter with her companion competition’s indignation.

[psink]

Saiki Kuusuke and Teruhashi Kokomi guidebook full pages translation:

(left side) Disaster element: Unsuccessful attempted triggering of the World War.

Kusuo's older brother and a genius inventor with an IQ of 218. The eldest son of the Saiki family, currently studying abroad at Cambridge University. A genius who spoke his first words at 1 month old, but due to an inferiority complex because of his psychic younger brother, he ran away to London. ↑He takes pride in his top-class academic abilities even within the prestigious Cambridge University. ? To avoid encountering･･････ Don't get caught on the surveillance cameras!! Kuusuke can hack into all of London's surveillance cameras in an instant. Isn't Japanese security a piece of cake in his hands? Let's find a place without cameras.

! If you happen to encounter･･････ The topic of his younger brother is not allowed!! Because of his "complex relating to his younger brother", talking about his younger brother is strictly forbidden. If you do, he'll psychologically corner you. (right side) Ecological information: 【Name】 Saiki Kuusuke 【Height】 179cm 【Weight】 64kg 【Birthday】 June 16th 【Blood type】 B

Disaster Status: Intelligence S, Physical Strength B, Obsession S Genius ◎ Cambridge University Kuu-kun Extreme masochist 0 wins 4254 loses Dr. KU-SUKE

Overall disaster difficulty: 80% (C) You're safe in Japan, but be careful when travelling to London!

[Kusuo:] It seems that is such thing as a younger brother who surpass his older brother.

Main appearance spots Having left Japan at the age of 14, his current base of operation is mainly London. Almost never returns home.

(top left) Relaxing tea time Elegantly enjoying tea time while looking at his personal computer in a luxurious hotel room. He has amassed a massive wealth thanks to his patents! (bottom left) This is the best place to concentrate He goes to the library at the same time every week to read. Everyone knows that reading in this place is part of his daily routine. (top right) There is no such thing as a younger brother who surpasses his older brother･･････ Due to studying abroad at Cambridge University, he is currently living alone away from his family. (bottom right) Reunion through the monitor You shouldn't feel safe just because he's not in Japan. Various machines can immediately turn into his cameras. There's no room for carelessness or weakness.......

Asou-sensei's idea memo: I indented from the beginning that Kusuo would have an older brother, and I also decided that he'd be a scientist who competes against Kusuo. However, it was difficult to find the right timing to introduce him. The only foreshadowing is on 2nd panel of page 12 of volume 2, where 3 fingers are held up.

(left side) Disaster element: The world revolves around Teruhashi-san.

The most beautiful girl in the world, loved by God. She is the idol of PK Academy and prides herself in such beauty that even God is captivated by her. Teruhashi-san is aware of this, which, frankly speaking, makes her invincible. →Even naturally formed clouds take shape of Teruhashi-san's wings.

? To avoid encountering･･････ Avoid the crowds!! A crowd of onlookers gather around Teruhashi-san. So if there's a crowd, it's a warning sign.

! If you happen to encounter･･････ Offu-ing! In case of encountering her, that'll bring you happiness, so there's no such thing as an avoidance technique. If you want to leave quickly, just say "offu".

(right side) Ecological information: 【Name】 Teruhashi Kokomi 【Height】 171cm 【Weight】 ?kg 【Birthday】 August 6th 【Blood type】 A

Disaster Status: Intelligence A, Physical Strength C, Appearance S 7 billion people's love A kind and perfect girl Children × Captive [of love] Offu Life on easy mode

Overall disaster difficulty: 75% (B) Since Teruhashi-san has an impressive number of followers, she is quite dangerous.

[Kusuo:] Even God obeys her.

Main appearance spots The reason Teruhashi-san goes out, is to show people her appearance!! Truly noble!! (top left) Bringing happiness to Hidariwakibara-chō by letting people see her On days off, even though she doesn't have much to buy, she strolls around the main street of Hidariwakibara-chō as an eye-candy for the purpose of enjoyment of people around her.

(bottom left) I only accompanied my brother Her brother is a super famous celebrity. They often go to the cinema together to watch the movies he's in.

(top right) If I wear it, it'll fly off the shelves, you know? Being a perfect beautiful girl, anything she wears will suit her. Therefore it's fine for her to shop in an ordinary clothing store in the town.

(bottom right) After-school girl talk. Lately, her way of enjoying herself has been talking about love with Yumehara and other classmates at cafes and dessert shops. Asou-sensei's idea memo: When you think about what person would be able to oppose Saiki, it has to be a "perfect beautiful girl", right? And if she's a perfect, beautiful girl, I think she'd definitely be aware of her charm, right? The reason she doesn't have any ribbons, a unique hairstyle or other prominent feature is because, being perfect, she doesn't need them.

[richea]

Tales of Hearts Worldbuilding

There's a lot of worldbuilding in Hearts that's either very obscure within its game, blatantly wasn't explained in it at all, and in a number of cases, was in DS and removed from R.

I skimmed the glossary from its guidebook and jotted down some interesting details from it that people might not know about the game. This isn't a full study on Hearts' worldbuilding, as this is only information borrowed from that specific book, and I only included things that I think people would be interested in knowing about. This excludes really obvious information that everyone probably knows or is easily found in a casual Hearts playthrough (though I did include some of it), and random pointless things like the fact that there's sheep in Layve who produce tea milk. (That stuff is fun too, but this post took me long enough to put together!)

Also, this post uses my own preferred romanizations for everything, as we can all agree that the localization was a huge mess.

If you enjoy this post and want more random Hearts trivia, check out Aera's old post too!

Characters

Side character ages: Creed (20), Fluora (21), Incarose (19), Seraph Bros (25), Corundum (10), Grossular (50), Kornerupine (44), Striegov (37), Zirconia (61), Byrox (22), Paraiba (20), Labrador (39). (Peridot is also 19.)

Shing is the youngest in the playable party at only 16. (In R he’s the youngest tied with Chalcedony)

Kohaku has such a strong, natural affinity for hugging people that this feeling was embedded in her even when she lost her emotions and ability to talk. She also gained her fear of heights from falling out a window once.

Lithia told Kohaku and Hisui to leave Norqueen “to find the Forest of Thorns”.

Kohaku and Hisui’s dad is dead. He died when Hisui was “very young” like Iola did.

Hisui can’t swim due to his upbringing in a snowy region.

Kunzite was injured in a fight with Incarose 170 years prior to the story, and then was held by the imperial army. This is the state the party meets him in. In order to reboot him, Lithia passed along this chant to Kohaku to recite: “Shape of man cast from iron’s true flame. With a solid bronze soul, and pure mercury veins. Swear on Quartz’s white moonlight, that you shall be our shield, and our sword, and our might. Platinum heart etched with a Quartz name, run so as to give life to your metal frame.”

Incarose was named by Creed after her eyes. She has 7 bodies in total but by the time Creed gets his body back she’s down to 4.

The person who made Corundum and the Seraph Bros was a famous Quartz named Eusite. Despite his genius, a lot of his mechanoids had varying defects (like Chlorseraph does) and they were scrapped a lot.

When the Seraph Bros were installed with their synthetic Spirias, they had a defect that made them assault everything around them. They were going to be disposed of but Fluora took them under her wing and made them her knights. This is why Clinoseraph feels such strong loyalty to her.

Fluora named the Seraph Bros after a famous bird known as the seraph.

Iola used to be of the Velleia faith. The details of her death are that after being injured by Creed, she fled to the land that would later be known as Norqueen, made the barrier around the area, gave birth to Kohaku, and then died shortly after. Her sister Sheila is actually the one who named (and subsequently raised) Kohaku, after the Kohakuzakura tree.

Sheila was a follower of the old Velleian teachings, but Arkham labeled her and others who follow it a heretic and denounced them when forming his “new” Velleia teachings. Due to this Sheila blames him and the church for Iola’s death and distrusts the Crystal Knights. Despite her harsh attitude in the story and as chief, she’s actually quite a nice woman who cherishes Kohaku and Hisui, and every year she treats the villagers to handmade sakura mochi.

Dona lost her emotions from the strain of transferring Creed to Shing, was brought to Seable by Zektz, and then died at some point during Shing’s early childhood. The villagers remembered her for being a quaint, kind woman but before she lost her emotions, she was very rowdy and crude, to the point that Iola once scoffed about her attitude in front of Zektz. Nobody knew who Shing’s father was, but Zektz suspected that he was a man who was likeminded to Dona and dedicated to a life of battle.

Silver was only 29 years old despite his grey hair and his high military rank. A lot of his actions (and role as Garnet) can be explained by his hatred of the military, after they forced him to have his wife and daughter present for a military Will Cannon experiment that took Pearl's life.

Despite Silver’s military ranking, Pearl was a very ordinary woman who was family-oriented.

Lapis was in a coma for 3 years.

Arago looks out for Helio “as if his own family” whenever Beryl leaves her alone in Blanche.

Helio was a famous nurse in her youth. (She doesn’t have an entry in the guides; this info is taken from an unnamed NPC text in game and felt like a shame not to include.)

The reason Chen had his eye on Beryl is that he actually used to paint himself, but he gave up on his dream and tried to support hers instead.

Sango’s unmarried and Chen has tried 99 times to get her a man to marry, but she’s just uninterested. She also can’t sleep without hugging a plushie despite her strong personality.

Ecaille was brought in to Chen by his daughter Sango. Despite choosing to stay as Chen’s secretary after getting her memories back, she does accept Ameth’s proposal.

The first emperor of the Max Empire was named Chrosite de Rais. He also sponsored the coliseum and reigned as champion for a decade, from the 1st to the 10th. The name Lion Grand Prix later came from the lion crest that was affixed to him.

Diamante is the name of the philosopher who defined what a Spiria is.

Tetsu Hagane tells the tale of his three sins: the Sin of Love (making women in his family cry by being mean to them), the Sin of Grief (making his "blood brother" sad by accidentally leaving the window open and a cat eating his pet goldfish), and the Sin of Power (flaunting his strength by telling the tale of him taking down a xerom despite not being a Somatic).

Species

Powerhogs (the pigs you can find in Shing's hometown) are a medium-sized variety of rappig (popularly known from Abyss). They're kept as pets but the adult males are known to be as ferocious as monsters.

The eloi are a species that lives on an island north of Marquise. They have strong vitality and powerful Spiria. Thanks to the proto xerom Lisia, who wanted to exploit those Spiria, they're almost extinct.

Windum is an eloi who considers himself an "intellectually, culturally advanced species" of eloi. His favorite food is mabo curry. He develops the Sorcerer's Ring for the party and tasks the party with taking down Lisia and saving his brethren.

Quartzia had “mocking things” as pets. They were loyal to their masters and could breathe fire. This is a reference to Mieu from Abyss. This is one of three Abyss mascot references in the game (along with Barrelow as “Bellow” in this game, and Tokunaga.)

The DS version has a variety of monster known literally as “shadows monsters”. These are clumps of black mass that personify as monsters (birds, wolves, blobs, etc.). They’re an “embodiment of fear”. They’re similar to xerom but differ in that they vanish once their feeling of fear disappears. (As a gameplay mechanic, these are what the overworld enemies in the game are.)

Lore

Asteria (Shing’s Soma) has the same name as a flower that Lithia, Creed and Fluora planted on Quartzia, which was said to represent the bonds between people. The name means “shining star”.

Kunzite’s Soma, Vex, has the meaning of “knight of antiquity” in the ancient language. There’s a fairy tale written about it called the “Four-Armed Beast”.

The "Forest of Thorns" project was proposed by Fluora, but was mocked by other Quartz for the fact that Soma Links were never formed despite how many experiments she ran. (This is why Lithia is so in awe of the party's ability to Soma Link throughout the story.)

The Quartz knew about Volgajoz, the dragon that lives in Bamel Volcano.

Gardenia spans over 5,000km. The reason it went out of control is because its synthetic Spiria, which was based on Creed's, craved loved and absorbed everything around it instead of just the feelings of strife and war that it was intended to.

Mechanoids were made by the Quartz as their servants. They helped them in their daily lives, doing menial tasks, to researching, to protecting them; anything the Quartz could think of. Some of them were affixed with synthetic Spiria (like Kunzite) though only the special ones (likes ones intended to be personal bodyguards for special people), as most of them are just regular androids. Jacks help with daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning, Queens excel in Will Artes, Kings are non-humanoid, Jokers excel in research skills and Aces excel in combat. Kunzite is a Jack and in fact was not really intended for combat but was instead made to cook and clean, like many of his skits touch upon. (There's a sub event where he says he's actually tired of having to fight and the only reason he continues is because he wants to protect Lithia.)

Synthetic Spirias are not easy to manufacture and are only able to be installed on high-specs mechas. They're intended to give robots human-like capabilities. Mechas with synthetic Spiria are not actually intended to be able to use Soma and it's considered an abnormality that a lowly Jack type mecha like Kunzite is able to use one.

It's not just the people who were calcified on Quartzia but all remnants of life, period.

Spirmazes reflect the state of the person. If someone's life or emotional strength is running out, it'll get smaller. If it disappears entirely, this means they're dead. (In DS, there were different maps for Spirmazes which reflected the mood of the owner, instead of R's one uniform design. They also had a BGM associated with them, Sadness, Anger and Happiness respectively.)

Somas are useable by anyone, but Spirlinking itself is a grueling task, and if someone not fit to do one attempts one, they'll get ejected immediately.

The Quartz used to rule over the people of Celland, in part because their Spirias had a lot more "vitality" to them, so the Quartz wanted to exploit this.

Xerom are actually Will Arte weapons developed by the Quartz. Their intent was to absorb the Spiria of the people of Celland, which in turn would develop the xerom further. Lithia sealed them away once but as her power weakened over time, they were resurrected.

Soma were originally intended to link people's hearts together, but Fluora didn't have time to finish developing them before the Gardenia incident, so when Celland got its hands on them, they ended up finding use as weapons more than medical instruments during the Unification War.

There's a very limited edition doll called the DX Mega Tokunaga. There's only 30 in existence and Kohaku has one. Sango missed her chance to get one so she begs Kohaku to let her hold it at least once.

The incident with Zirconia (possessed by Creed) being fought off by Dona, Zektz, Tekta, Iola and Labrador is called "The Tragedy of Pransule Strait".

Norqueen was formed only 17 years prior to the story (which lines up with Kohaku's birth) as a safe haven for followers of Lithia's faith, after Arkham labeled them all heretics.

Followers of the Velleia faith are called "dolphins," as their sacred beast is the Winged Whale.

The Max Empire was restored to glory by Chrosite, first as a small country on Oldmine, and then during the Unification War, ruling over all of Celland.

[infini-tree]

walks in. ponifies the characters. walks out

(+ some notes)

the kids' ponified names are just based on Vibes/keeping the same first letters as the original. i kept playing with the idea that the "Heart" part of pony!harold's name should be a compound word, to keep the same number of syllables as Hutchins, but i already broke the "same syllable count" rule with george, so Heart it will stay

the kids' cutie mark is just as straightforward. melvin's is science-y, while george and harold are meant to parallel each other-- at least with the 'pencil drawing part of the cutie mark' motif. the spiral in george's is me being a bit cheeky.

why is it every time i do an au that's more of a design challenge than anything with a concrete plot, george just is the hypno-ring that made krupp cu /j

krupp and captain was the most difficult out of all of them to design since if i had to design one of them, it had to be fitting for the other too. the more natural colors (in comparison to the others) was meant to be more of a reflection of krupp's character, but the neutral color palette also worked for captain too so his accessories popped.

the coat pattern was also there to make sure he doesn't seem too monotonous, but then i learned about horse coat patterns-- specifically blanket patterns... that basically meant captain's underpants is just built into both their coats. its less obvious on krupp since he has a shirt (blue now, since white on white wouldn't look good).

as for krupp's ponified name, it was also a similar struggle since there were no K words that fit his vibe. it was initially "Key" for the longest time (read as: i had to sleep on it), but i decided on "Keeper" since it still evoked that trapping feeling, but it could have more positive connotations in a... protector/caretaker/teacher sort of way.

as for the "Bantam" part, i had wanted to keep a similar enough word to "ben". and having it be shortened to "Ban Keeper" was too good to pass up. bantam is a kind of chicken (which fits krupp's farm past as established in tetocu), but bantam also meant "small and feisty person", which krupp is. but is also what the children he's "keeping" are.

so basically you can read krupp's name as "keeper/caretaker of unruly kids [in detention]", "controlling one's unruly nature", or "farmer keeper", which i personally think is fun

don't worry about krupp hiding his cutie mark! its fine. he's fine.

captain is captain! you know him. you love him. he has changeling motifs due to the nature of the "radiation". apparently, characters gaining radiation/magic based wings and horns are a thing that happened in G5, which i didn't know until recently, so funny coincidences.

captain's cutie mark is underpantyworld. his cutie mark is different from krupp (stares at the changeling motifs)

edith, thankfully was straightforward. her ponified name is just a food name, specifically a type of cheese. her cutie mark is a ladle with some sparkles around it. i changed her dress to just a shirt, and her gloves to be some galosh sort of deal.

and as a bonus since you can pry alien!edith from my cold dead hands, there's a bonus reformed changeling form since that's the closest thing to aliens in this world! "Stemmata" is a type of insect eye, to fit in with the changeling naming convention of naming them after bug body parts, but also eyes because of the whole Two Blue Eyes thing. she was originally supposed to be called "Ocellus", but there's already a character that exists with that name...

i imagine edith defecting from a small hive and accidentally unlocking her reformed form, and she thinks she can't go back even if she wanted to so she just kinda... stays,

[alaskan-wallflower]

maybe i’ll draw this later but i thought i’d share some mythical being au with yall (keep in mind this is a mythical au so i don’t really bother with realism lmfao)

I think Mrs Curtis would be a nymph-I head anon she was a nature lover who was soft but had a bit of a bite to her. Maybe a forest nymph-I have an idea in mind where she kinda has a “true form” that was really big (think greek god?) since she was kind of a forest protector in a way? It’ll make more sense when I draw it tbh

Mr Curtis was a gargoyle. In my headcanon I think Mr Curtis was this huge, scary looking guy but he was absolutely just a goofy sweetheart under all of that-he was pretty big too but not in the same way-he was bat like in a way? He had huge bat wings and claws and such but underneath all that he’s just a silly guy

Darry is kind of like a centaur but instead of a horse it’s a gryphon-I think gryphons were fairly big so I think he’d be quite big too (weren’t there stories of gryphons being destroyers of cities? He’s that kind of big but he doesn’t destroy shit lmao-he uses his size to his advantage and it also helps him clear ways for new construction. Mr Curtis taught him how to fly too, also lions and eagles remind me of Darry so-he also has sharp teeths. Also instead of smacking Pony, simply because of his size I feel like he just…recklessly picked up Pony and squeezed him a bit too hard and only realized when he saw Pony struggling to breathe and that was when Pony ran away

Sodapop is a centaur. Pong said it himself that Soda reminds him of a palomino colt so of course Soda is a palomino-sometimes when he laughs he falls onto his back and just kicks his hooves lmao-also horses know how to walk as soon as they’re born so Soda was pretty much running around from the moment he was born. He takes great pride in his tail and hair and lets people brush it-girls flock to the DX just to brush his tail-sometimes he lets little kids braid it if they want too!

Pony is a cervitaur-basically a deee centaur. He’s an axis deer-they’re known for their speed and agility (they can run up to 45 mph and jump up to 6 feet high so this obviously helps him in track)-he likes to style his hair so his little antler nubs are showing but when his antlers actually grow he’s so prideful about it it’s not even funny. He’s kinda like bambi in a way, when he was a baby he had such a hard time walking and when he goes through growth spurts he does too-it’s also just funny because his name is Ponyboy and he ended up being half deer

I really like kraken Johnny-just Johnny being some gigantic creature but being the most quiet and nervous is just funny to me. His scales are valuable too so maybe that’s why he gets jumped a lot. I know Oklahoma isn’t known for its water sources but just pretend with me that there’s a huge lake somewhere that he just chills in-when him and Pony run away he swims in the river. He’s always dreamed of going to the ocean but he’s kinda just stuck in Tulsa. He’s fairly huge though so it can be tough, but he swims through rivers to get to where he’s going. Darry being the size he is even made a sort of moat leading to a lake by the Curtis place. (I know it’s not realistic but bear with me)

Dally’s a dragon for sure. He’s a shifter in a way? Like Mrs Curtis he has a true form and a semi human form, he’s a huge dragon though when he is in his true form and he’s definitely caused…a number of things (jails) to be burnt down. It got to the point that the west side had to haul in fireproof things because Dally would just try to escape. Johnnyme the only one who can stop him from burning things down and just spits water at him to make him stop (another reason Johnny is a kraken because opposites attract I guess-) but Darry also has to wrestle him sometimes because he’s sick of having to rebuild things Dally burnt down even if he does get paid. Darry’s basically Tulsa’s version of Fix It Felix lmao

Two Bit is an imp. I don’t know how to describe my thought process but he’s just an imp. He’s silly. He’s goofy. He does reckless shit-he’s just this little, nimble imp with dragon wings and horns-Imps aren’t evil, they’re just mischevious and like to play pranks. Just like Two Bit. He can be smooth when. he wants to be though. He likes to jab people with his horns. He’s just goofy like that. I feel like when he’s mad his voice kinda gets deeper since they technically are devils in a way-his teeth also get sharper and he has claws. His eyes kinda glow too and his pupils slit. It’s scary. Think do when he snapped at Johnny’s mom when he was in the hospital.

Steve is a werewolf. He’s got that dog in him 😔 I think he’s always have sort of wolfish features, like sharp teeth, kinda slit pupils, maybe he even keeps the ears and/or tail (this is a stretch but idk lol) but whenever it’s a full moon you’ll know it evacsue he’s gorging on all kinds of meats and his shifts can be rough. Especially the first few. I feel like if he’s really really REALLY emotional he’ll shift a little bit too? Like it’s not confined to just full moons but he can’t will himself to do it either if that makes sense. I just think this is cool

I dunno; what do you guys think?

[eloaholiveira]

Vaaaaampires!!!

I wanna try organizing my thoughts around em

So like, the way vampires grow in numbers is by making 'Underlings' tbrough getting Mundanes to fall for them and drinking their blood.

They're also naturally "attractive/charming" per say, so you don't necessarily have to be crazy for them to turn, just a crush is enough.

Their fangs act like a viper's fangs, except instead of releasing venom they suck up blood like built in straws LMAO. Their saliva got numbing agents so their 'Blood Banks' (people they take blood from) don't feel pain.

A vampire who does live drinking (drink directly from alive Mundanes) has a higher chance of getting burned by Sun light, those who drink from animals tend to just be photosensitive, and those who drink from trees are fine, just relatively weaker from the lack of "proper nutrition".

Their eyes get pitch black when (out of control) hungry or exposed to live blood or garlic. Their fangs are way more prominent and their ears look more bat-like. They also hiss.

Vamps are incredibly light in comparision to your average person, to the point it's "not normal". So they're VERY agile and pretty much fall like a bird's feather in case of jumping from higher ground.

Some of them can grow wings (ex: Silver with his quills).

They can get killed in multiple ways (ex: stake to heart, fire, acid, holy water, crucifix, exorcism) except "tradicional" ones (ex: gun shot, stabbed, fall, suffocated, drowned, shocked). Garlic is kinda like catnip and shows their true nature but does not hurt them.

Vampires' hearing are excellent, but their main attribute is to hear heart beats, they can even tell them apart so they can know *your* heart beat and know when you're around.

...You also cannot starve them to death. They just start loosing their minds and become feral blood thirsty creatures. ...Until they eat again, of course.

Vampires don't usually form "packs" like werewolfs do, the ones who stay together are the Sire and their Underling(s), but even them, they're not that close, prefering to do their own thing.

Also, there's progenitors, and the lower the number the closer they are to the "first vampire", so they're very powerful. Espio got unknowingly turned by the 13th, so he's quite powerful compared to other 'lesser' vampires out there.

[goldflinches]

no. 40 (snippet)

Summary: Even unfinished things have a beauty to them, as hard as it is to believe about your own creations. It takes a bit of heart-to-heart and some poetry from an old friend to impress this truth upon Dream of the Endless.

---

Square/Prompt: A2 - Comforting Insecurity | @dreamlingbingo

Rating: General

Ship(s): Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling

Additional Notes & Warnings: Canon Compliant, Comfort Without Hurt

---

Some days, Dream of the Endless is an unstoppable force of nature. He carves a path through the Dreaming with a restless energy that leaves the air cackling and electric. Feverishly creating dreams, endlessly modifying and reshaping daydreams, twisting new nightmares into reality. Simply, as much as an Endless can be simple, he fills the days and landscape with the act of creation.

Some days, he is very very still.

Today is one of those days. He stands at the foot of the Rookery, which has long been in need of refurbishing. Since his absence, despite of his absence, there have been many new dreams that have roosted there. He tips his head back, taking it all in. The way the wings of small Dreams of Childhood Flying catches the light. Its impossible proportions and iridescent possibilities. The shifting plates of the shiny chrome Dreams of Flying Machines. The impatient shuffle of the Dreams of Personal Flight. All eagerness and impatience in flying form.

He spends hours simply observing. Watches them take to the skies with ease. Some by their lonesome, most with their flock. One of the last ones to go is the Dreams of First Fledge. It nervously stumbles out of nest then immediately tips off the edge. Seeing it fall a great height, Dream quickly opens his palm as a safe landing space and—the Dreams of First Fledge takes wing just before touching him at all. It rises beyond his reach, leaving Dream alone in the rookery. Palm outstretched and empty. He lets his hand drop to his side, suddenly feeling exhausted.

The quiet of the Rookery is now oppressive, pressing close and crowding out the previous calm. Dream tried very hard not to think about the last time the Rookery was this quiet. The number of empty nests of dreams of a bygone era. The fossilized dreams left behind, never to take flight. The shells of dreams which did but ones never bore witness to. The idea of it all makes his hands ache and itch, wanting to craft something, anything to fill the space—

Now, the stillness is unsettling. Aggravating. So he closes his eyes and turns his senses outwards to the squalls and rustling wings, the gales over the Infinite Waters. He lets it wash over him. Let that medley bury the familiar ache of seeing the ease his creations took to the horizon, lightness writ in their very being.

A low hum breaks his reverie. It comes across the Dreaming distinctively, even with its slight waver. Bright and warm. Dream tips his head back, savoring it. A pleasant reminder that in London, it is almost five o’clock and Hob Gadling is making his way to their usual table in the New Inn. He takes one last look to the horizon and has to bite back the urge to make one last dream, make one small tweak—but no, today he has an appointment to keep.

[outlawtornn]

Divinity lams AU?

Alex is some divine, etheral being and John is just a pathetic and lost fallen angel who swears his devotion to this 'otherworldly being' for the privilege of following him around and being with him for eternity because it gives him a purpose. And at first, Alex just sees him as this sad soul whos's lost and doesnt know what to do and genuinely takes pity on him; but eventually it goes from a 'worshiped and worshiper' relationship to a relationship in which Alex see's him as an equal despite being nothing but.

And even before this, John had been searching for guidance through other people because he never fully trusted his instincts and yet this had only led him to be distrusting because the very reason he had 'fallen' was because he had followed anothers lead. In turn, he turned to etheral 'gods' who he knows cant do him wrong because they'll always view themselves as above him, and with pledging his devotion, they cant turn on him because he will forever be their faithful subject.

Unfortunately for John his devotion borders more on obsession. He loves looking up to see someone so majestic staring back down at him with such a soft smile in contrast to piercing eyes and to know Alex would be looking at him makes his heart flutter and insides melt and skin on In fire(figuratively..) and makes him just want to cut off his wings and give them to Alex as a sign of his true adoration he holds for him. And obviously this concerns Alex. I mean, his poor devotee is willing to do anything for him but theres a line, right? Alex still cares for him of course, what kind of being would he be if he allowed someone to sacrifice their own peace for him?

Cue emotional outburst number one! John would be rambling softly about how if he had the strength he would just rip out his wings and alex has to lean down and gently rest his palm on John's cheek to tell him not to ruin his beautiful wings and that being with him is devotion enough for him and that physical pain in his name would only cause harm. And then tears, of course, in natural angst fashion.

Oh, and John has an immense fear of corrupting Alex the entire time due to the fact hes a 'sinner' (by his own standards) and being in the presence of such divinity as a 'corrupted being' puts Alex at risk to fall from his stance of power. But even despite his fear he can't leave not only due to this eternal soul-binding agreement, but because being in his presence makes him feel alive and as though he can feel love again even after he had failed in doing so for so many years. But in the end Alex doesnt see himself as higher or with more power but as an equal.

John would have 'given up' his ability to feel love for another in order to be fully devoted to Alex, and yet he was convinced he didnt have it in the first place so he decided he wouldnt be giving it up if he never had it. But in turn he discovered that he did have the ability to love, but it had to be discovered through giving up the ability to love anyone other than Alex, and in a way hes happier with that.

But even so, John doesnt think hes worthy enough to be so close to someone so much better than he is, and he does view it as a privilege to be there until Alex tells him to stand up in which he physically has to look down at alex(he would stand at other points, of course, but he would never physically look down. If alex would speak to him he would physically attempt to lower his height to keep Alex above him by his own personal will.) But that is the point where he would cup johns face and then tell him that he's wonderful and the most faithful devotee hes had the 'honor' of being with and then tears. so many tears. so many pent up tears form years john has been telling himself that he cant feel love and to even be in the vicinity of Alex is a privilege that he doesnt deserve just to be told to his face that this divine being loves him and appreciates everything hes done and he doesnt want John to be hurt for him.

[that-dreaming-dragon]

Shifts

I want to talk about something I seen again and again, and I myself also have a hard time getting away from, language.

In specific, I’m talking about shifting terms and definitions.

A lot of the times, it’s basically kinshift.

“What’s wrong with kinshift?”

No no, nothing’s wrong. Just that it being strictly otherkin/fictionkin/therian shift is the issue—it’s too limiting and exclusive. Nothing wrong tacking on it being a kin/therio shift. But we are the alterhuman community. There are more than just identify-as shift.

There is the term cameo shift for anything not kinshift, but there is the implication of its impermanence. Perhaps it’s not that important a distinction, and people would be fine using it, but I find that shifting language should be automatically vague. “Getting closer or the fluctuation of one’s alterhuman state”. It’s a workshop item, I’m not good with exact wording of things.

Well, that’s a community discussion topic.

Let me talk a bit about my own experience, that’s easier to talk about.

I have a good number of shifts that I experiences. Not all of them I know the respective terminologies off the top of my head.

== Phantom Shift ==

I’m most constantly experiencing phantom shift, and can probably call it being perma shifted. Just fluctuate in intensity. It’s why I attempt to word a definition that covers this sort of situation where it isn’t “getting close to the state of being one’s ‘type from typical human” (that ending part regarding what to put as the “starting” state gave me a lot of pauses, because how can I cover human fictionfolk or orthohuman but otherhuman?) My type of shifting is not uncommon, with a baseline which one is already their alterhuman ‘type, and just the intensity that changes.

Anyways, phantom shift. I mostly feel my own wings, tail, body parts and what have you. The change comes from the shapeshifter shenanigan, which, amongst the shapeshifter of otherconnect discord, we talked about a possible couple of terms for basically a “shapeshifter’s changing form shift”. Shapeshifter shift is a mouthful.

Gosh I kept getting side tracked.

Beyond my kintype shift, I’d once felt a near full body phantom shift of my three-tailed enfield hearttype. And it’s a linktype born out of paratype feelings!! You know how excited I was? To feel something, to have a confirmation of its success (of the linking process), and to just get to feel something that is unusual in a way.

I don’t think I feel other sort of phantom shift. If I do, it’s so far too hard to tell with the amount of draconic type I have, as for the humanoids…

== Mental Shift ==

I don’t really get this as much anymore. Which, I think it is a good thing, because the times I feel closer to my Naruto hearttype is usually when I’m feeling close to the negative part of his situation—when he was a isolated boy, seen as a freak, maybe bullied by other kids, it’s fuzzy now, what is the exact scenario that would trigger this sort of empathetic mental shift. I think I prefer it that way. I don’t think I could ever embody the positive or even neutral part of Naruto himself, considering my hearttype is of a AU version. But hey, my alterhumanity likes to surprise me, I’ll be sure to yell about it if it happens.

Mental shift with my other ‘type are all rather vague. When am I not a creature? I flip on the dime depending on who I am with, so “mischivious chirpy creeture dragon thing” is a constant state of mind. I did have the beastly Berserk shift, though that needs me to be in a certain state, like a set of requirement has to be met first in order to let the Beast out (ha, the pun, Beast is my inner beast in a lot of ways, so the double entendre is very intentional). So far, rage is one, but not always since anger is a constant emotion I deal with. The other is lust, with good dose of dominant personality. I’m not sure if the Berserk shift caused the dominant nature or if it is the other way around.

I’m trying to recall if I get any mental shift from my kardiatype or our Aurelion Sol vaguetype, but with Sol, star is a unbound version instead of the hauty, self-sured, egoistical version within the game. I’m guessing my kardiatype would be a sort of wise, eldery guardian, caring and proper, sophisticate? I’d felt a little like that when I’m in my eastern tatsu form.

And yes, my personality can have shifts here and there depending on the form I’m in. A lot of the times, I can’t control how the form will influence me, sometimes I almost think it’s my personality shift that trigger the shapeshift shift (see what I meant about it being a mouthful?).

Feels like if I keep saying shift, it will start to lose meaning. Why are words so limiting? Maybe it’s a English thing too.

== Astral Shift ==

This is a weird one. I can never tell the line where it’s considered phantom and where it’s astral.

I think the one time I would more firmly categorize this is when I was doing a meditative session, and as I visualize, my “body” (possibly astral body) grew, and grew, and grew until I’m a two or three stories tall eastern dragon. From that point, I guessed that my eastern dragon form can grow indefinite in length. But now I think that can apply to any that’s not strict in form “condition”.

== Dream Shift ==

Save the best for last. Well, kinda. Since I plan to talk a little bit about my miscellaneous shifts that I don’t remember the term or don’t know how to categorize later.

Lucid dreaming, one of my favorite activity. Word contradiction aside, I have a lot of dream shifts. Frustratingly enough, I’ve only get to feel my orange fur and fluffy white wings like, twice, as far as I can recall. One was your typical european western form, another time is vague, but I know it happened. I will need to check back on my notes.

I’d jotted all of them down, the ones I can recall.

Here is where I will actually use cameo shift, and sort of ties into my whole grumpiness about shifts being always tied to one’s kin/theriotype. Because here, my cameo shifts are shift into things that are none of my alterhuman identitype.

I have become a sort of water spirit, humanoid and blue liquid body, circling around a low hanging new moon as if I’m enacting the Dream Work iconic opening.

I have shifted into a number of draconic creatures, once with cheek fins (that actually hurts when I touch them, inside a dream!!), once with pitch black scaled tail and batty wings (isn’t it bats?), once with ranbow scale down my body into a tail that has a tufted tail. I was a tiny dragon once, probably rivaling my fae dragon form, just a whisp of a whelpling. I also was a strange blue dragon, no scale, no fur, the skin texture almost leathery, and wings you’d seen more on Pixiv. Kind of sci-fi fantasy mixture but it’s fully organic. Alien.

I also had once took on a form of somewhat anthro, red scaled, webbed winged, and it felt like a fire-breathing dragoness, with breasts and all. I rarely call my dreams nightmare but that one, that was truly a nightmare scneario, I had echo of combo dysphoria both in species AND gender, that I hope to never feel like that again. Y’all that are that sort of dragon, you’re fine, but me? I can’t. That is everything I am not.

*Shivers*

I also have dream shifted into this hulking black mess of anti-matter, man-made dragon—dark, chaos, the sense of wrongness pervasive to my whole being. I think I looked a little like if ender dragon meet digimon. That was a level of bad only rivaled by the red scaled, webbed winged, and fire-breathing, anthro dragoness.

I think one of my favorite dream shifts though, is shifting into my kardiatype.

There is a sort of preciousness tied to that life, whenever I get to have a glimpse of it. Treasured and held dear. The plot of the dream wasn’t a happy one, edged with despair and desperation, but important nonetheless.

It was a small Japanese village, almost like a scene from a anime.

I was with my family and my partner, it was all joy and happiness. But then suddenly, there was panic.

The whole town had to escape and run towards the really high mountain where was this sacred temple of some sort at the top.

Running was too slow. Whatever was making everyone panic was too fast. Dark and all-encompassing, approaching fast, black fog at the edge of my vision. So I turn into a white serpetine dragon, white jade colored mane and tail fading out of existence, grabed my people and putting them on my back along the way, theb just start flying towards the mountain while having everyone else grabbing each other and climb on.

When we reach the mountain base and started flying up almost vertically, I saw the mountain wall depicting various scenaries and of strange rune of history and legend and myth. The answer was at the very top of the mountain when we reached it. But I can’t remember what was it.

Let’s not end this section with too big of a cliff-hanger that even I don’t know the ending to. Here is a list I keep on the sort of dragons I turn into within my dreams. I’m a little awed by the amount and variety myself.

List of Dragons I turned/dream shifted into

white colored jade maned eastern dragon (my past life/kardiatype)

small teal-blue colored chubby dragon

tiny wyrm dragon

tiny hatchling dragon

my core form (kintype)

my large formme (kintype)

human made pitch black mess of bio dragon

human form with water dragon scale tail and ear fins (touching the fins hurt for some reason)

human form with black scale bat wings and tail

human form with rainbow scale and black marking, furred tail with mane, two pairs of feathered wings

just ram horn on human form

(a photo of) me with red scales as anthro, webbed wings, feminine shaped (dysphoria)

Colossal size webbed wing dark colored body with beak like snout

bipedal spiky, webbed wing big scales large horn

chimeric sludge/goo hydra

Salamence shaped wings

White red pink hues scaled european. Spikey tail and spine, several spikey behind head

== Unknown and Vague Shift ==

I really like grey area terms or the idgaf terms, like vaguetype or quoiluntary, I also learn a term called quoiian. Not sure if I will use that one yet since I’m pretty happy with the ones I have.

There are the possibility of shifts I don’t know how to categorize because of their vagueness. But I definitely felt some that I can’t easily put them into one of the other ones I can give name to.

Things that are maybe sensory shift, how do people even capture them in the first place? And do you categorize them as the ‘tism? Hypersensory. Aura shift seems confusing, and potentially the same blurriness that maybe-astral shift provides. I can’t be sure if I’d ever gotten envisage or shadow shift, but in the back of my mind, I know to put a pin on them.

So with all that, we could perhaps talk about shift not just as a kin/therian sort of thing. I have seen many ask of “can I have [non-kin/theriotype] shift?” enough that I just want to scream “YES”. Because you absolutely can, and the term definition can use a slight update to reflect that inclusion. If not a community wide acknowledgement at the very least.

[beauteousevil]

Recap, thoughts, summary of the show. Spoilers and opinions abound!

to literally set the stage

Billboard (can change depending on song)

Orchestra ____Train lines/scaffolding____Orchestra

● <Vocals on balconies, wearing insect wings> ●●

|small town nowhere\Chicago\NYC\Seears Tower|

^all written on a wall that moves to reveal the field

(I think) show opens with two figures on stage in a sleepy embrace, Henry and Douglas, who share a resemblance to Sufjan Stevens and Evans Richardson. Henry disengages and gets his shoes, jacket, and bag and prepares to leave the freshly awoken Douglas.

From there he journeys alone from NYC to Illinois, we see structures relating to the train lines give way to a field that he makes his way through. Here we see him write in his journal (one of many in the show with different colors and winged insects on them) and he is surrounded by three stars. As he writes the stars intermittently take the forms of:

Carl, Henry's childhood best friend and first love.

Shelby, Henry's childhood best friend and Carl's first love.

Douglas, Henry's first adult love whom he doesn't feel deserving of.

This is where my memory may be failing me because I'm not 100% sure it doesn't start with the stars>sleeping>journey and not sleeping>stars>journey but I forgot to write this down that night so here we are two weeks later and my brain is scrambled

From here we see Henry joined in the field by a community of friends as they make a campfire and share the night together. They try to get him to tell his story but he isn't ready. Instead they take their turns.

First up is Jacksonville. Absolute powerful number that got an applause break before the piece was even finished. Has the primary storyteller, Morgan, sharing the stage in a stunning give and take with a tap dancer. Such a high note for the show I felt bad that the other stories kind of had to pale in comparison. From this point on Morgan drew my attention during any other group piece, they were absolutely magnetic.

Next is Zombies! The best bits of this were the physicality of the dancers to portray the zombies or the running/fighting them off. The zombies are masked and costumed as politicians and business man, telling a really cool story. At one point they literally hold up signs with their names which felt a bit on the nose but can for sure be refined in future versions. The grief/horror/exhaustion of the story teller, Jo Daviess, was really amazing.

Next is John Wayne Gacy, Jr. told by Wayne, a murder balladeer, and as said in the program guide, is about "the damning cycle of exclusion borne of outcasts forced to sympathize with monsters". That I feel is the heart of the performance... and if I hadn't read it before hand I'm not sure it would have come through the dance alone. By the nature of the story there is a grotesque energy with the dancers wearing sailor collars to let us know they're his child victims, and JWG is wearing a clown mask and completely see through tulle (like you can see the seams in the underwear beneath it) vaguely in the shape of a clown costume. There is no sexual element to the movements, they start vaguely playful and become increasingly violent as he picks off his victims. At the end the storyteller is shaken clearly by the "and in my best behavior/ I am really just like him" and needs to be calmed by his friends at the fire.

On the lightest note is the story of The Man of Metropolis by the story teller Clark (of course haha). A fun number with some amazing physicality by Clark who, at least on the opening night, was played by a dancer that was very tall but exuded a lightness and joyous energy in his performance. A bit gimmicky but cute. First he reveals a Superman shirt, then the rest of the dancers do, and they use a picnic blanket to make a cape for him. It felt like the dancing lagged a bit with the singing taking center stage as it went on, which I'm not mad about, the music and vocals were fucking amazing. I'm hoping against hope for a cast recording 🥲

This begins Act II, Henry's story! We see the field drop away to Small Town Middle of Nowhere where the young Henry, Carl, and Shelby play around and dance together. There's a fun bit where they're like balancing on things and jumping around. Henry is drawn to Carl but Carl can't look away from Shelby when she appears. The guys plan a road trip to NYC (Carl spray paints it on to the stage settings board in real time) but Shelby stays behind.

Henry has a run in with Douglas, and kudos to the dancers for portraying that immediate connection, as Carl is on the phone back home. He needs to go back for Shelby but Henry stays to see through his potential with Douglas. It's clear this is the last time Henry ever saw Carl.

Carl goes back and him and Shelby dance to Casimir Pulaski Day. As the song goes on her illness weakens her so Carl supports her more, but in doing so she pushes him away, until eventually she is being pulled into the afterlife. Very moving, the dancer for Shelby was phenomenal in portraying the grief and anger of being betrayed by your own body.

As Carl struggles with the loss we see Henry struggling with his decision to stay. This leads into Palisades where we see his relationship with Douglas flourishing. The beauty of it and the inspiration being pulled from Sufjans love for his own partner brought a lot of the audience to tears, sniffles heard all through the quiet moments. We see Henry getting ghostly glimpses of Carl (memory? spiritual?) as he falls into a depression and self harm. Douglas joins him and they sway and breathe together in a way that has me choking up just thinking of it. Their love was potent as was Henry's doubt that he deserved to be loved.

The spectre of Carl makes himself clear to Henry and passes right by through him at several points. The play by play of this bit is slightly lost to me as to when Henry knows what happens, if he knows before the audience, etc. This brings us to The Seer's Tower. Carl is distraught and is led by a whim, portrayed as a dancer in all black, up to the scaffolding above the stage. One by one, with decreasing time between them, we see dancers in all black go up to Carl, float their hand above his as if connected by an invisible tether, and then fall off the edge of the tower to the back of the stage. There is something so curious and questioning about the way Carl plays the suicidal ideation that felt very real to me and makes the bodies falling chilling. Carl takes his own leap, the stars reappear, and we're back to the beginning of the play

Henry wakes up cradled with Douglas and slips away to his journey. We see his travel again, the campfire, and his friends reacting to the vulnerability of the story he has lived. This time though we also see Douglas has made the trip as well and makes his way through the field to the campfire. The community rejoices in their connection and we get fantastic final dance numbers as a group as well as with Henry and Douglas, with Henry made lighter by having told his story. The final shot is Henry handing a book to the audience.

Opinions! Notes! Things I might forget if I don't make this list!

● Went to the opening night of the Park Ave Armory show, March 7th 2024. Pretty good mix of Sufjan fans and Very Fancy NYC theater people that had come to support the show.

● To match the journals in the show the show program covers are bold covers with a moth or butterfly split by the seam of the book (half on each cover). Different colors/insect versions were laid out on the seats. I got a red one with (I think) a tiger moth.

● The program contains journal entries by Henry written by Jackie Sibblies Drury with some Sufjan lyrics mixed in. The end of the program is blank lined pages.

● The vocalists were above and beyond. Absolutely killed it. Made the songs their own in a way I didn't think possible. I really hope there is an album recording for the show now that it's going to Broadway.

● I can not overstate how amazing the energy of the show is, completely contagious in the room. I know a filmed version is unlikely beyond a bootleg but PLEASE it is so inspiring and I'm not at a place where I can draw a dance from memory. I was itching to sketch the entire time.

● The only bits that took me out of the show even a little were the cheesy kind of heavy handed bits that dragged on. The "now YOU write your story" ending is a bit much but the show earns it so 🤷 I won't say it works for me but I don't mind it.

● I would love to see some different costume choices in the story bits. Either more ramshackle costumes pulled together with the camping equipment or fully realized costumes. Having the founding father zombies both have the full face masks but also just be wearing suit jackets they pulled over their head like Beavis and Butthead is a choice that I don't agree with. I was hoping the move to Broadway might net more attention to costuming, but the turnaround is so quick that I'm doubtful. Not enough to ruin the stories but definitely the weakest aspect in a way that lessened the less powerful stories.

● I really can't overstate how electric and magical the Jacksonville performance was. Much smarter people have captured the vibe and explanation of the original song in regards to the exploration of history and ancestry. I can not put it into words but the feeling was communicated so cleanly.

[cyndraws]

Reblogtober day 18

IM ALIVE. JUST SEM 2 AMBUSHING ME TO BEAT ME UP IN A BACK ALLEY HSGH

Exams and assignments coming up soon so wish me luck!

Here, I present my Kirby OC, Leif!

He belongs in my Kirby anime (krbay) au. He's part of the GSA. And Meta knight is his cute younger brother

Now here is my gushing about Leif below. I think way too much about him lol

Basic Info:

Name: Leif, Blade Knight / Leaf Knight

(Blade Knight was his first choice but is a common name, so everyone just agreed to call him Leaf Knight. He argues it's a good choice bc Blade is a pun on blade and leaf blades but... well still everyone disagreed)

Age: Young adult (an estimate, Hoshians have long lifespans in my au)

Gender: Demiboy Pronouns: he/they (equally)

Elements: Leaf (main), Cutter (main), Wing (minor)

Notable talents/powers: Summoning a near endless amount of blades, runes, self-healing

~many more thoughts about him below the cut~

Description:

Physical description: Primary colour is green. Orange-yellow eyes. Their mouth tends to make triangular shapes.

He has a wing cape that has golden buttons on the collar ends. Their wing form look like they are made out of leaves.

The most accurate armour colour is his flying art, which is silver with a hint of rose-gold. He usually wears his special blade-proof gloves and sabatons (feet armour), and mask on top of his head with his family. In more formal settings (includes around the public), he wears his pauldrons (shoulder armour), and mask on. He wears his wing armour too, but optional to draw because it's hard, even for me (lol).

He keeps his mask on because he feels like it makes him less vulnerable with expression covered up. He can take it off but it makes him a little embarrassed.

Personality:

Myers Briggs: ISFP (Introvert, Observant, Feeling, Prospective/perceiving)

Introvert: Well he's an introvert. Tends to be quiet and a good listener.

Observant: Is focused on present, practical and hands-on

Feeling: Makes lots of gut decisions, especially during battle. Makes him reckless, but he's very in-tune with his instincts. They haven't led him astray yet. His number 1 priority is his family above all, and he won't hesitate to put himself in harm's way for their safety. He also can get short tempered for their sake. They're very sensitive to others' feelings and is a natural listener. In general, they're a warm and caring person, and a natural leader.

Prospecting/perceiving: Spur of the moment, seizes opportunities, flexible

~

He's generally a little quiet, but combined with his caring personality makes him a trusted and charming person. He's a great leader, and gives off calm powerful and reliable brother/senior vibes. He's modest and underestimates himself despite his great capabilities. He's the definition of unreliable narrator haha.

They're a very curious person and is always trying new things. They've become somewhat of a jack of all trades because of this.

However, they can get very heated and short tempered, especially in regards to thier family. They get very embarrassed afterwards.

And during battle, it's like they become a different person. They get blood thirsty and wipe through the battlefield with their dual blades, heedless of injuries (they have an ability to self-heal). They don't talk much, but when they do, it give off power. He's very sharp and has top-notch instincts on the battlefield. His recklessness goes up to max though and he's not afraid to get dirty and on the frontlines, which worries his family to no end.

~

Other

Family: Kibble Blade, Sir Kibble (two are coparenting), Meta Knight (younger brother)

Story: Maybe another day, but for now this is set when Meta Knight is still in training in the GSA and Leif has made his name as a highly respected soldier

[mywifeleftme]

273: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band // Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Will the Circle Be Unbroken The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 1972, United Artists

Who can endure a sentimentalist music critic? Still, this morning anyway, my heart’s fit to weep over a one-hundred-and-ten minutes of exultant roots music and a beautiful idea executed to perfection. The notion behind Will the Circle Be Unbroken was to use the Dirt Band, a crew of talented longhairs from California, as a bridge between the trendy country rock of the day and the genre’s pantheon of avuncularly voiced pioneers. (And I guess in Maybelle Carter’s case ‘aunticularly voiced.’) Many of these sorts of intergenerational tribute projects give me queasy tasting notes of hapless arts council funding or the rap number from Walk Hard, but somehow this triple LP from the heart of rock’s imperial phase manages to be both reverent of traditional country and bluegrass history and present these genres as living organisms.

The Dirt Band are joined by a Field of Dreams cast of legends, plus an adjunct wing of ace players like fiddle genius Vassar Clements, and while the Dirties sneak in one original the focus is squarely on the standards. None of these takes supplant the originals, but the recording fidelity, superlative playing, and warm communal energy make for lovely alternatives. Merle Travis’s “Dark as a Dungeon,” one of the greatest folk and country songs of the century, has never sounded more lovely or doomed; Doc Watson gives Jimmie Driftwood’s “Tennessee Stud” a broad-shouldered boisterousness; Earl Scruggs and the Dirt Band’s John McEuen present the classic fiddle reel “Soldier’s Joy” as an infectious banjo duel. 

Many of the songs include snatches of studio chatter between the band and their guests: Mother Maybelle sounds like the sweetest old thing imaginable; Roy Acuff comes off like as much of a pompous Haven Hamilton-type as I’d always heard he was; Jimmy Martin gives elderly prospector cricket. The tapes are even rolling for the first meeting of guitar legends Travis and Watson, who have an adorably awkward little chat before declaring themselves “buddies.” These peeks into the process are part of Circle’s artifice, but it feels like an honest attempt to capture the historic nature of the summit. The album rounds off with nods to the deep past in the form of a number of Carter family cuts, an homage to bluegrass father “Uncle” Dave Macon, and a group singalong of the spiritual “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” But then, right there at the end, we get 17-year-old Randy Scruggs performing a solo instrumental take on Joni Mitchell’s 1968 “Both Sides, Now.” The symbolism of the teenaged son of Earl Scruggs playing such a recent (and aptly-named) tune is clear, quietly closing the circle between past and present, a pact sealed.

273/365

[akittyboy]

Another Life (part 3): the monster

Sweet Home FF | Hyunsu x Eunhyuk

And the truth is, Hyunsu feels annoyed for having been strung along by Eunhyuk's little spiel just now, so he gives in, just a tiny bit.

.

.

.

He rolls his broad shoulders menacingly and with one practiced motion shakes out his wing. The monster hisses in relief as a cluster of bristling, heavy bones falls with a loud thud against concrete, curved and trailing several feet beyond his back, sending a blast of chunky dust through the air. The force smacks against Eunhyuk's front, ruffling through his inky hair and causes him to blink harshly against the fine debris, before he manages to restore his blank expression.

Seems like Hyunsu finally got fed up with him. Eunhyuk's lips twitch faintly.

"Careful. Don't be too fast to jump to conclusions," the not-quite-Hyunsu warms with a crooked grin as he turns around and starts dragging the heavy thing behind him while he stalks forward, closing in on Eunhyuk, gaze bright and unyielding, a little feverish.

There are loud cracks and snaps among the vibrating bones — blades — feathers. A low hum that never ceases.

"I still want to kill you. Don't think I'll spare you just because you've been following Cha Hyunsu around like a goody-two-shoes. You're still a manipulative rat, even if you can't die as easily anymore."

The monster cocks his head to the side, the motion too sharp to be human, squinting at Eunhyuk. His dark eyes glimmer with a sheen of electric blue, brighter than the sky.

"Now, why don't you ask the question that you really want the answer to?"

Eunhyuk's expression doesn't betray any of his thoughts. With his hands still stuffed in the front pockets of his jacket, he merely tilts his head thoughtfully and hums low in his throat, keen eyes staring appraisingly at the macabre imitation of a wing attached to Hyunsu's human body.

It wouldn't be the first time. Eunhyuk always looks. Dissecting. Fascinated by the fact how a scrawny teenager has managed to overcome his fears and grow into such a fierce protector. He accomplished something that even a once human Eunhyuk, with his many years of meticulous studying and number of prized awards and scholarships, could never achieve. And perhaps, Hyunsu was already more compassionate than many other people could ever be when the gruesome infection first broke out. The monsterization might be a way to bring forth people's true nature, but the real monsters have always been there, hiding amongst them.

So each time Eunhyuk sees Hyunsu like this — teetering on the edge of his humanity, bearing the weight of everyone's agony like some martyr, trying to help all of these foolish, selfish people — it sends an apprehensive chill down his back. Because he's the last one left of them; the Green Home survivors. It's special. It has Eunhyuk's lungs in a harsh pinch whenever he's unable to confirm with his own eyes that Hyunsu hasn't completely lost himself to the disease of human desire. That he can still be a little awkward, soft spoken and sometimes a bit too shameless, but most of all stupidly stubborn and unexpectedly kind, to the point of sacrificing himself for the sake of others.

Sadly, the only one Hyunsu doesn't care about is himself. 

He's always ready to die, to slink away like a sick animal when no one watches.

Sometimes Eunhyuk wishes that he could just give Hyunsu a good shake, and then take his pain away, scrub the blood off his scarred hands to give him a clean slate. A new home. A different life.

But then Eunhyuk lets the numbness take over, feeling its cool fingers tickle over his rigid mind, erasing the taste of charcoal on his tongue and nothing of this truly matters.

Eunhyuk adjusts his stance to better face Hyunsu's looming form, legs apart and shoulders at ease under his puffy windbreaker jacket. He's not looking to pick a fight, but Hyunsu's monster always makes a fairly good attempt at worming his way in under his skin.

"Thanks, and you're just as annoying as ever, but don't worry, I'll take all of that as a compliment. Doesn't it hurt to bring it out, though?" Eunhyuk asks with a glance at the wing, disregarding the rest of the monster's provoking spiel. "Just because you can, doesn't really mean you should. You'll be completely useless if you tire yourself out before we even get started. Didn't you want to check if there's any monsters worth bringing back to their human state in this area?"

Eunhyuk nudges his head pointedly in the direction of the overgrown forest, looming beyond the road dotted with overturned cars and the abandoned ruins of the suburbs they've chosen as their temporary holdout.

Hyunsu's deadly feathers bristle for being told off, immediately standing on end. The whispers grow louder, dripping with saccharine venom, coating his mind with oozing blackness. Let me take full control... Let me teach him a lesson... Together we're much stronger than him. He can't keep us trapped anymore. Imagine the wonderful screams splitting from his lips as we rip his chest apart and crush his breastbone into pieces. The bones in his wing rattle menacingly against each other like planks of wood, like loose teeth. The closer Hyunsu draws, the more he manages to tower over Eunhyuk, casting a shadow over his face. He smells of raging fire, like an inferno, full of sulfur and ash, and Eunhyuk tries not to choke on it.

Hyunsu's eyes have been reduced to two pinpricks of icy blue at this rate and that's how Eunhyuk definitely knows he's lost Hyunsu to the monster — for now. It never lasts long. Hyunsu is strong.

"What's this? I didn't know you cared that much about your little hunting dog. Have you been practicing how to get into touch with your emotions? Uprooting some useless memories again?" The monster drawls with an arrogant tilt to his chin, upper lip curling disdainfully. "You know, it's rude to give false hope. You're not exactly in any state to run a charity here."

He drags his wing closer to his body with a loud scrape against concrete as he speaks, unsettling a few birds that immediately take flight across the sky. The well-defined muscles in his shoulder strain under the scraps of his shredded sweater, working overtime as he raises the cumbersome thing and hurls it into the air. Eunhyuk doesn't move out of the way and if the monster is surprised by that, he doesn't show it. The cluster of singed spikes and bones sprout with loud squelches, reaching even further as they curve and fold around Eunhyuk's frame with reverberating creaks and snaps, cutting him off from the rest of the world. 

Eunhyuk looks on with disinterest at the way the giant wing trembles with restraint around him. The monster is visibly impatient to crush him to a pulp, to push the vibrating blades into his flesh and destroy the source of Hyunsu's strength. Yet, he doesn't, just forces Eunhyuk to hold still and be at his mercy within the deadly cradle of his wing.

Eunhyuk doesn't mind. He knows that Hyunsu is in there somewhere. 

And even if something does happen, then he wouldn't have it any other way. At this rate, they've seen and done too much. Dying now or later wouldn't matter.

An especially ugly spike singes way too close to Eunhyuk's left eye and a giddy leer splits Hyunsu's face apart like an ugly mask when the monster within notices with keen interest how Eunhyuk doesn't even flinch, holding his ground resolutely. Perhaps merely ripping his chest apart and breaking all of his ribs wouldn't be satisfying enough. There has to be something that would make him sob and writhe disgracefully in the dirt at their feet.

"Hyunsu is not a dog," Eunhyuk states calmly, closely watching the beast before him.

"Right," the monster replies wryly, ripping his gaze away from the tiny laceration that now mars the highest point of Eunhyuk's cheek, right below one of his sharp eyes. "I'm not sure whether I should feel insulted or grateful for your sentiment after all this time. But I bet Hyunsu will appreciate it more. He's such a simple guy," the monster shakes his head ruefully with a dramatic sigh, dark locks of hair fluttering around his face. "Give him a hand and he'll happily take the whole arm. He's quite laughable, really. Clinging to you two like some lovesick puppy..." He chuckles, glancing down. "Even I can't stand him sometimes, and we share the same space. How pathetic."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to stay alive," Eunhyuk says patiently, not allowing the monster get a rise out of him, nor letting him unnecessarily insult Hyunsu. "If we somehow helped him to live through this whole collective nightmare, then I'm glad. I'm sure Eunyu feels the same. Hyunsu saved our lives on many occasions, and not only us, but many other people as well. It's only right that we pay him back now. Please don't belittle him like that."

"Tch..." Hyunsu's face contorts into a grimace, lips twisting with distaste. But then the monster perks up, blue eyes shining with glee. His gaze sweeps along Eunhyuk's tall body from head to toe thoughtfully. "If paying back is what you want... then should I tell you about his desire? What he's most afraid of gaining and losing? Cha Hyunsu is a part of me, after all."

"I'd rather have Hyunsu tell me himself." 

Eunhyuk holds his ground. They have already crossed so many blurred lines, at least with this one they should perhaps go about it the right way — if there even is a right way for anything like that.

The monster pouts. "Now look who's the one not being any fun. You know, it makes me upset, the way you two always talk through me, playing your little avoidance game. And then bitch and moan about all the deaths you've caused, using that as an another excuse. Well, how sad for you two—" He giggles shrilly. "Your human lives are so tragic. Why do you always complicate things so much?"

Eunhyuk huffs dryly but lets the monster rant, waiting for him to get it out of his system. Nowadays, he mostly acts out when Hyunsu is upset, so in a twisted way, it's Hyunsu trying to tell Eunhyuk something that he otherwise couldn't or were too hesitant to initiate.

Other times it was just the monster playing shrewd tricks on them.

"Are you done?" Eunhyuk asks cooly when there's a lapse in the monologue, subconsciously pleased to see the monster clench his jaw and look away, for once having no snide comeback. "I take that as a yes. So, what is that you want me to do? Never mind Hyunsu."

"I want you gone and out of Hyunsu's life," the monster spits at him. The bonelike feathers tremble threateningly around Eunhyuk with repressed force, the smell of ash and sulfur spiking in the air. "Stop stringing him along. He's better off without you."

The months spent in wilderness with little Yisu have been so far the best time of their lives. There had been no sketchy schemes to use Hyunsu as a specimen for unsolicited research, no entitled humans greedily demanding his help, who then in the blink of an eye turn their backs on him and try to kill Hyunsu in a stroke of white fear when they get a glimpse of his other self. In the blaze of summer heat, it had been just the orange sun shining on their backs and an endless horizon, void of any humans, stretching before them as they hand-in-hand waddled unhurriedly through the tall, wispy grass by the river bank. 

He wants that moment back.

"Are you sure? It sounds more like you're just jealous because you don't get any attention from either of us. Why don't you stop acting like a petulant child and fully accept Hyunsu, the way he's let you in?" Eunhyuk challenges as he takes a forceful step forward right into the monster's personal space, past the long feathers that claw at his clothes and into the curve of his bristling wing where the spikes are smaller, sharper, more lethal. Where the scorching air is hard to breathe, coating the depths of his barren soul.

<< previous part | next part >>

[shieldkeeper]

Writing Prompt: Clear Word Count: 959 Frostbite AU

This fine Seer has had plenty a vision since the beginnings of his tale. What strong beginnings too! For his lot was of the liege’s son. The reigning leader of his tribe, this clan whom claimed the southern shores as their homeland. Compared to the icy and snowy norths, the shoreline had managed something of a ‘warm’ temperature if one could call it such. Warmer than any other land that has slowly but surely escaped the frostbite of the ice calamity.

From birth was he marked with the celestial ink of their tribe’s cerulean blue hues. From then onwards did that tattoo spiral and form into the signs of a natural born oracle in the making. As a child, oft did he foretell random happenings—menial things. Such as something that would occur the very next day or in a few weeks’ time. When they would know themselves to go lacking in food sources or gaining in harvests. Or which maiden in the village would be next to give birth. Which days would give rain or sunlight.

Those foretellings dwindled over time. If only because certain visions need not warrant an announcement. That and… word would undoubtedly spread the more accurate his prophecies came to be. Seers and Oracles weren’t always exact in their days’ time. Most were seen as false prophets. Scammers out of what little other tribes have in hopes for better fortune. Very few were seen as credible sources—even more so that the few who could be trusted, their visions were not so easy to decipher.

Yet young Garen’s was always so crystal clear. His visions playing in his head as though he were there to live the tale. How awful it was an experience when most recent dream to date played out in the coming of another calamity! A burden that only he alone foretold.

As though the very skies had caught fire, what one might think a sunset burned a far brighter red than he had ever seen before in his lifetime. Comets raining down upon the lands as scaley winged creatures tearing the grounds asunder. A nightmare in and of itself.

When next he woke… he knew immediately what must be done. A prophecy was to be made—he would deny the fate of which he had witnessed.

“Harken onto me. For I come bearing a tale that must be told.  Sung far and wide for a call to arms. Legends of renown join side by side. Skies will burn crimson. Raining fire and steel. Flesh against scales. A revelation of calamitous grandeur. If left unmatched, the lands shall be razed. Our lives at great stake. The future uncertain thereon.”

Thus was his song and dance as he traveled the continent over. Visiting each and every tribe and clan that he could find in search of strong warriors who would aid the cause in defying his vision. Not alone either! The first of his travels was to be accompanied by his younger brother Holou, duty-bound and determined to ensure his elder brother found his footing in his venture.

Oft were they met with hostility. Suspicions. Why would they dare to offer their strongest able-bodied warriors to some unknown threat? How would this Seer pay the price should he fail and his comrades fail? Was this all a scheme to kill off their strongest and raid their villages?

Be that as it may, Garen did manage to convince a number of the warriors regardless of their clan’s feelings. Many of them were looking for a challenge in fact! How could they ever call themselves the legends of their tribes if they were to cower down when a battle presented itself? They wished to witness this so called prophecy for themselves.

When that day came to pass at long last—it was but a singular day later from when they had all arrived at the place of destination. A night’s worth of rest and celebration both before and after that calamitous day. Just as Garen had foretold, the skies bled red as fire reigned down from an alien-like machine. Filled to the brim with draconic looking creatures hellbent on destroying their lives as they cast down upon them in raging fire.

They managed to hold out and best their lot. Victory at hand and songs of praises for each and every one of them. The warriors would return home with heads held high and many a tale to bring back with them!

Save for two.

Vision having come to pass as it always did, Garen had some… uncertainties. Worries enough that pressed him further northward. As though answering a call that his role was not yet complete despite having done just as he felt necessary.

There he would find a hidden… City? Village? Made out of pipes and unbendable metals. That which they so easily entered but would not so easily escape its grasps once caught. Partners in crime captured for their antics as they so forcefully entered this brave new frontier.

…From then on did a new vision take claim upon the Seer in his dreams. A vision that was not so easy to decipher into words, nor did it give any particular comforts. Garen did his utmost best to scribe it out upon song.

“Hark! Slumber no more as the elements stir. Aroused by fire and calamity the earth breaks free of her icy prisons. Dawn of a new age betwixt known and unknowns. Write anew your future and gorge in the realm's joyous splendor! For unbound do the eikons walk. Unshaken pacts upon wayward contracts. Dance to their tune and ye shall know your fate. Travel... Roam... Learn... Ware Beyond new horizons marks the shadows of the yester suns. Pay tribute else flesh stolen asunder.”

[skaylanphear]

Final Fantasy VIII: Reclamation

Summary: Squall Leonhart has known only one thing all his life—that he was born and raised to be a SeeD. But being an elite mercenary is no easy task. Having grown up sheltered beneath Balamb Garden’s ring, he soon finds himself scrambling to stay alive after his first real mission thrusts him and his teammates onto the political stage in a bad way. Forced to head out into the dangerous, unforgiving wilds or face execution, they find themselves unraveling the ancient mysteries of their world, all while another sorceress war looms on the horizon. Haunted by strange, unexplainable dreams about a man he doesn’t know, and bound to the might of the crystals by abilities he can’t explain, Squall finds himself walking blindly into an uncertain future, even as he’s assured that “fate” guides his every step.

Yet, as circumstances grow murkier, Squall can’t help feeling that everyone else knows more about everything—including himself—than he does, and that he’s nothing more than a pawn in a game he doesn’t know how to play.

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Fire Cavern was, indeed, host to a great number of monsters. Though Squall had been wary upon squeezing his way through the crack in the cliff wall, he still hadn't anticipated being assaulted by a swarm of half a dozen red bats—fiends with round, purple bodies, scarlet wings, and tiny fangs. They were often labeled the "cutest" of all monsters by those who bothered entertaining such things, though they were just as aggressive as any other.

He ducked as they dove for him, having more luck grabbing them out of the air and swinging them down on the ground by their wings—killing or knocking them out—than he did attempting to get them with his sword. Only once he cleared himself of their biting attacks did he find the time to pause and actually have a critical look at the creatures. The ones he'd killed, they were already dissipating—turning to dust and disappearing as all monsters did—but the two he'd knocked out remained lying at his feet.

They certainly were a variety of red bat, but unlike any he'd fought in the simulator. Their purple bodies were almost transparent, revealing what looked like coiling flames in their bellies, and the ends of their wings and fuzzy facial feelers were tipped with actively burning flames. As if they'd formed from the magic encapsulating the cavern, or perhaps been cursed by it.

As Squall reached up to touch the tender bite one of them had inflicted on the side of his neck, he noted that it felt as if the punctures had come in tandem with a slight burn. Typically, red bat bites weren't venomous, but the differences between these and what he'd been taught was troubling.

He was all the more on his guard for what else might live within the cavern as he finally turned to get a look around. Though it was a cave—and should therefore be expectedly dark—the massive chamber was practically glowing. Whatever lava evacuated the volcano came streaming into the cavern, forming rivulets of slow moving molten heat across the stone-ridden, uneven floor. Jutting cliffs and rocks formed natural obstacles, both for him and the lava flow, as did steam and bubbling pockets of molten spray. Add in all the monsters he probably couldn't see and it was a very treacherous place to find himself. Especially given that he had no idea what he was even looking for.

How would his CF manifest? Would he have to hunt down all the monsters he could until he found it? Was it waiting for him somewhere? How was he meant to see anything with so many massive, rocky outcroppings in the way? Or go anywhere when lava threatened to burn through the soles of his boots at every turn?

Plus, the heat. It was suffocating.

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