#it is zahhak day it seems

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 232

roommate brought this one up and u know what. u know what!! i think its fun.

[innerchorus]

Arslan Senki Chapter 132

Hoooooly fuck. I knew from the chapter title (Warriors From Beyond the Grave) that some horrific stuff was going to go down, but after spending all month worrying about Isfan and Kubard facing Shapur, the fact that they don't even appear this time didn't make this one any less traumatic, lmao.

So, the contents of the other head jars were revealed as dead warriors pop up across Ecbatana. Seems as though they are the ones Team Zahhak were able to gather the heads of (the two who were missing in action at the first Battle of Atropatene are not included; presumably their bodies were never located and were left somewhere on the battlefield).

I enjoyed how Arslan does as Tahamenay asked and tells Gieve to spread the word that Andragoras died in the fall when Innocentis flung them both from the tower... and that Gieve looks at the bloody dagger on the floor. You know that he knows, his look to Daryun and Narsus before he gives his assent just confirms it, and you also know he won't breathe a word of that truth.

(And here we have the first of the dodgy translations in this chapter, because of course there's not going to be further fighting between Parsians at this point unless you count undead Parsian warriors...)

I like that we see word spreading like a ripple through the city. Zaravant's reaction of "NO FUCKING WAY" followed by "Wait, really?" was hilarious. And as we see a lot of the citizens are thinking the same; a man of Andragoras's might, toppled like that? Zaravant had a close encounter with Andragoras; it's no surprise that his first reaction is denial.

Also lol Elam, not quite lying in his attempt to uphold the official version of events. Yes, he saw him die, but not quite in the way that was reported. So Zaravant wasn't wrong, really. Not that he'll ever know it.

Rumours spreading that Arslan killed Hilmes in a duel! It does make me wonder, might the truth of Hilmes's survival be kept quiet and this rumour allowed to flourish instead? Mirroring Hilmes surviving when all thought he had perished in the palace fire, this would allow him to eventually make a quiet exit with Irina and go and live out his life peacefully beyond the borders of Pars. (I would still like to see him rule Maryam with her, though.)

Tahamenay being left alone to watch over Andragoras's body is giving me prickling feelings of imminent Team Zahhak interference...

Dark storm clouds heading towards the city in that one panel look veeeery ominous. I still keep wondering whether we are going to see any of Team Zahhak's creatures unleashed on the world. I'm not sure exactly how dark things are going to get, but we did see winged apes when the legend of Zahhak and his earlier defeat was presented in Chapter 127. So who knows?

THE FACT THAT UNDEAD VAHRIZ SHOWS UP IN THE VERY COURTYARD WHERE HE USED TO TRAIN ARSLAN! I cannot scream about this coming full circle enough, and here it is so very wrong.

But even though it's his uncle, Daryun's typically fast warrior's response saves the day and he gets in front of Arslan to defend against Vahriz's blow (and fuck, these undead warriors are fast!).

The horror just continues to mount as more and more famous undead warriors return, but wrong, so very wrong. I am really digging the way they are presented, though.

Silent, black-eyed, still bearing the wounds they wore in death on their faces, their bodies wreathed in bandages... I'm... honestly not sure that anything below the neck is even corporeal. They look like severed heads on bodies formed from sorcery, wrapped in the same sort of magic-infused cloaks that Team Zahhak wear. Even their weapons are formed from tendrils of snakes (see Kharlan's spear forming). It makes me think that when they are defeated, their bodies may just disintegrate and only the severed head will remain. And that's... fucked up, considering they are fighting people who remember them, who fought by their side, who loved them.

More off translation when Manuchurh shows up; Kishward didn't see his head (he was in Peshawar), he only heard about it. I did wonder why Gieve was so slow on the uptake given that it was his report that confirmed Manuchurh's death to Kisward and Nasrin, but he heard about it from Parsian soldiers rather than recognising Manuchurh for himself. That's why he only infers it from how Kishward addresses him here.

I do like that we get to see Manuchurh's sword here! Sure, it's probably made of snakes, but it is at least modeled on the weapon he would have wielded in life, and that's a neat detail to have so late in the story.

As always, I badly wanted to see Team Hilmes but given what's going on my heart still started to beat faster in alarm when we cut to the room they're in. But it's Sam who leaves the room and is confronted by Garshasp! An undead version of the man whose death he envies... not sure I'm ready for this but please for the love of god let Sam kill a sorcerer before this is over.

Please know that when I scrolled down just far enough to spot Kharlan's moustache I scrolled back up so fucking fast and had to sit for a bit before I could continue.

ZANDEEEEEEH. THAT'S NOT YOUR FATHER! His face and the way he says "Father?" so questioningly breaks my heart.

Hilmes sees quickly that it's not, it can't be Kharlan, because he knows Kharlan is dead, and (unlike Zandeh, who hasn't actually witnessed any sorcery yet) he knows that this is something Team Zahhak are capable of... in fact, he knows it can only be them.

For one horrible second I really thought Zandeh was going to get stabbed right in the heart. Definitely made me realise how utterly devastated I'd be if he died in the manga version.

Thankfully the wound he receives on his shoulder doesn't look life-threatening, but you can see how unprepared he is for it, how he can't quite understand why his father (IT'S NOT YOUR FATHER!) is attacking him like this. I really don't think it would have gone well for him if Hilmes hadn't gotten involved. The way these jar warriors move.. It's fast, it's unnatural, it's deadly. These were all skilled warriors in life; are they even more dangerous now they are dead?

Hilmes protecting Zandeh like this is a brilliant moment, and never have I been so fucking glad to see Hilmes in a rage as I was to see him FINALLY display some anger towards the sorcerers who he knows are responsible. He must finally see now that they are not, and never were, on his side. Sam was right, and I hope Hilmes lets him know before this is over.

I keep thinking about the way the eyes of some of the undead seem to leak blood like tears... their faces look... empty, I guess, but this does make me wonder, is there any sort of awareness there? Do they know what their bodies are being used for? That bit of blood in Kharlan's eye at the end; is there part of him that somehow knows he's attacking his son? Perhaps it's nothing more than the remains oozing blood as they are puppeted by sorcery. The thought that there might be even a fragment of consciousness there is horrific, so I truly hope not.

So yeah, no sign of the encounter with Shapur but all of the undead jar warriors have now taken to the stage, and that stage is set for some unpleasant clashes next chapter. I hope to see some Team Zahhak deaths for sure, and I'm still banking on Team Arslan capturing a mage before this is all over. I imagine the disciples are largely seen as disposable by the Holy Master at this point, but there's no way he would allow himself to be killed or captured so easily, not when he is so close to his goal.

I am worried, though. This is... a lot... for all of Team Arslan to come through unscathed. What a horrible position for them to be in, and even if their instincts tell them that they're not fighting their comrades/relatives, they're surely at a disadvantage due to the shock and emotional turmoil involved. And I'm left wondering, what are Team Zahhak up to? What's the purpose in bringing the dead back like this? Do they wish to kill, torment, or capture other warriors as snake food? Do they simply seek to cause Ecbatana to fall into chaos? Where the heck is Zahhak?

It's going to be a difficult month until the next chapter, lol.

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Homestuck Poll Round 1 Results:

Beta Kids: 226 votes

Dave Strider: 31% - Winner

Jade Harley: 27%

Rose Lalonde: 22%

John Egbert: 20%

Lowblood Trolls: 275 votes

Aradia Megido: 41% - Winner

Karkat Vantas: 30%

Sollux Captor: 15%

Tavros Nitram: 14%

Midblood Trolls: 356 votes

Nepeta Leijon: 31% - Winner

Terezi Pyrope: 28%

Kanaya Maryam: 23%

Vriska Serket: 18%

Highblood Trolls: 314 votes

Feferi Peixes: 40% - Winner

Gamzee Makara: 24%

Eridan Ampora: 22%

Equius Zahhak: 14%

Alpha Kids: 655 votes

Roxy Lalonde: 51% - Winner

Dirk Strider: 28%

Jake English: 13%

Jane Crocker: 8%

Miscellaneous Characters Pt. 1: 171 votes

Calliope: 42% - Winner

Meenah Peixes: 24%

Caliborn: 23%

Aranea Serket: 11%

Miscellaneous Characters Pt. 2: 164 votes

Davesprite/Davepetasprite: 46% - Winner

Mayor (WV): 30%

Dad Egbert/Dad Crocker: 30%

Doc Scratch: 9%

Cursed Characters: 35 votes (I forgot to tag this one)

Lil Cal: 37% - Winner

Sweet Bro: 26%

Hella Jeff: 20%

Andrew Hussie: 17%

Villains: 164 votes

Spades Slick: 45% - Winner

The Condesce: 25%

Bec Noir: 24%

Lord English: 6%

Comments:

The kids and trolls got a lot more votes than the miscellaneous characters. That makes sense. We spend more time with all the kids and a lot of the trolls compared to the miscellaneous ones so I guess more people searched up their name in the Tumblr tags

That being said a sample size of only a few hundred is WAY too small. Especially for a fandom as big as Homestuck. I'll go off of this in the next poll ofc but to get a good idea of who the fandom ACTUALLY likes I need like at least a few thousand votes. Maybe more idk how big the Homestuck fandom is now. I know @abraxas-calibrator is planning to make a comprehensive poll with every single character in HS someday and they a) have more followers than me probably so more people will see the poll, b) is more of a "Homestuck blog" than me so more people will know what they're talking about, and c) will probably organize this poll better than I did so. Check out their poll when they do it I guess.

The alpha kids got a LOT of votes. From the tags it seems people have been trying to get their followers to vote for Jane and Jake who were less popular. Didn't work, as you can tell. I love Jane but I don't think her reputation in the fandom ever recovered after HS2 unfortunately. Also I guess ppl just didn't pay attention to her before HS2 either.

The midbloods had a lot of people voting and a relatively close race between Nepeta and Terezi. In the tags of the poll I said Terezi was my favorite but I didn't expect her to win. I expected Vriska to win. Vriska made waves a few days ago bc ppl were APPALLED that she was having such a tough race against Katya Goncharov. Can't believe she's one of THE Tumblr Sexywomen but she came in last in a poll against characters from her own comic. I mean I voted for Katya in that poll bc Vriska sucks (affectionate) but still. She deserved to win that one and I'm surprised she didn't win this one.

That being said for both the midblood and the highblood polls I get the feeling that people assumed that more Tumblr Sexyman characters like Vriska and Gamzee would get all the votes so they voted for the least controversial characters to compensate? Like I have no doubt in my mind that people ACTUALLY like Aradia and liked her enough to beat out Karkat. But. Do people actually like Nepeta and Feferi more. Actually maybe they do. Maybe I'm just cynical. I like characters that are a little problematic bc they're more interesting that way. I guess a lot of people don't see it that way and like the characters that they would genuinely want to be friends with. That's valid tbh.

Some of these brackets weren't well done tbh. The midblood bracket had all popular characters and there were several miscellaneous brackets with characters that aren't most people's favorites. But because I put them together in one poll it forced people to choose their favorite out of the selection. The winners of different polls will be going into the next round but it doesn't really reflect the actual popularity in the fandom. Maybe doing them in batches of 2 would have been better than 4. Ah well. I'll do that for the Tumblr Sexywoman poll I'll eventually put on. I don't have the energy to do all that for this one. Same with the Danganronpa one I want to do later they're still going into batches of 4.

Roxy is literally the only character who won the majority vote. And that's only by 1%. The other polls all have votes split more evenly 3- or 4- ways between the characters. Again, I wonder if any characters would have come out on top if I did a 1v1 poll for them?

Yall really like girls. 5/9 winners of the polls are girls, and 4/5 of the kids/trolls polls had girls win. And for a bunch of the polls where a girl didn't win a girl was the runner-up if there was one in the group. In conclusion wamen I guess.

I have homework so round 2 of polls will be up tomorrow. There are 9 winners in round 1 so for round 2 I'll put them in batches of 3. And the final round will also be in batches of 3. I tried to make 8 batches last time bc it was the Vriska number but also bc then I could do 1v1s but I thought of more characters in the last second. Ah well, I'll refine my methodology for other polls. Peace.

Pandora

[leina-reads-homestuck]

Beforus Vriska lore part 1

Been a while I wanted to write it down. First, a few words about Vriska's appearance : think of... well, the usual Vriska, only leaner, taller, without glasses, and with somehow even wilder hair than og Vriska has. I couldn't really think of anything original regarding her appearance. She wears a long black skirt.

Content warning for dubious working morals, cloning, german weapons, and probably a thousand grammar errors.

So. Beforus. Ages ago.

Your name is Vriska.

A twelve-sweeps old cerulean troll with a penchant for setting things on fire... but we'll get to that soon.

You live a relatively peaceful life on your relatively peaceful planet. Feeding your lusus would be a daunting task if she wasn't minuscule. The species of spider she belongs to has the reputation to become more and more aggressive and demanding as it grows older and larger, but you do not need to worry about it now, as she fits into the palm of your hand. You're more concerned about stopping her from getting sat on, or from eating all her spidersnacks in one go.

Imagine if you had been adopted by one of the older, massive spiders though. Haha.

You go to a Troll Academy of sorts, well it's not its real name, but it's a place where you go to learn about strategy and military tactics and stuff.

You enjoy bullying (affectionately) the Heiress, that nerd, taking long walks on the 8each and hanging out with your friends, especially that blue dude named Zahhak who promised to create a robospider for you. For now, nobody suspects the potential for misfire in your 8rain.

And speaking of fire...

Let's skip to a few sweeps later.

There's a murderer acting up in your area of residence. Fucker seems to be targeting mostly young female warmbloods, which is unfortunate, but likely doesn't concern you, and the Heiress - now Empress - has promised she would deploy all the resources she can to catch the culprit.

Sadly, it remains elusive.

Then one day, of your chambermaids (with whom you were... well... intim8) becomes his target.

She manages to escape, but is wounded.

That's when you see red. Forget about the army of robospiders you had kindly requested from Zahhak - you're gonna need something that's more uh, impactful.

Yeah, that'll do.

Your caste duties require you to take care of warmer castes, which you find quite boring, except when a troll close to you gets hurt - you also possess unusually high empathy levels for someone of your rank (not that all ceruleans are assholes, but...), and the suffering your chambermaid has gone through has left quite the imprint on your mind.

Time for revenge.

And thus, armed with this weapon and after using your charm convincing another of your chambermaids to serve as a decoy, you finally manage to locate the fucker and 8laze his arse.

Yay.

Then you move on to local troll gang members, because they've been pissing you off too, and then to basically anyone who's trying to pick a fight with you.

You don't always burn your adversaries to death, because your weapon has adjustable settings and allows you to pick the cooking temp, so to speak.

Right when you ponder about becoming a bounty hunter, it's your turn to be arrested, because you've made excessive use of an unauthorized weapon to set trolls on fire, as well as the occasional clown church (it was a mistake, you swear), and that's against the law.

[ainews]

Iran is known for its rich culture and history, and one aspect of this culture extends to the country's cuisine. Some of the most popular and beloved staple foods in Iran are nuts - pistachios, almonds, walnuts, and more. These delicious and nutritious snacks are not only enjoyed by Iranians but are also an important part of Iranian mythology and folklore, particularly when it comes to the creation of gargoyles.

Gargoyles are mythical creatures commonly found in European architecture, often adorning the rooftops of churches and cathedrals. These grotesque figures are believed to ward off evil spirits and protect the building from harm. However, in Iranian mythology, the origin of gargoyles comes from a much different source - the humble nut.

According to Iranian legends, the first gargoyles were created by a powerful sorcerer named Zahhak. He was known for his cruelty and ruled over ancient Iran with an iron fist. One day, a group of wise men approached Zahhak and offered him a bowl of mixed nuts as a token of peace. Zahhak, who was known for his love for food, eagerly accepted the gift and devoured the nuts. Little did he know that this was a clever trap set by the wise men.

As Zahhak finished the last nut, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. To his horror, two gargoyles emerged from his temples, their fearsome faces and sharp teeth scaring even the mighty sorcerer. The wise men revealed that they had enchanted the nuts with their powerful magic, and by consuming them, Zahhak had unleashed the wrath of the gargoyles upon himself. From that day on, Zahhak was known as the "King of the Gargoyles," and the creatures were forever tied to nuts and Iran.

This legend not only explains the origins of gargoyles but also showcases the importance of nuts in Iranian culture. As the story spread, Iranians began to see nuts as more than just a tasty snack, but also a symbol of power and sorcery. Today, nuts are still closely associated with Iranian mythology and are often used in rituals and ceremonies as offerings to gods and spiritual beings.

The connection between nuts and gargoyles may seem strange, but it is just one example of how food and culture are intertwined in Iran. So the next time you bite into a delicious pistachio or almond, remember the mythical origins of these nuts and their role in creating the fearsome gargoyles of Iran's folklore.

[thebigcjart]

Equius demands our attention next. He's a lot more involved in this AU than he was in canon.

He is part of the Noble Pure Caste, and the current Lord of House Zahhak. His mother was killed by a Skaa Pewterarm working in the Zahhak coal mines, and his father died soon after from refusing treatment for metal poisoning.

His typing quirk is preceding all of his text with a Hemalurgic Spike "D-->". He also replaces all "sk" and "ks" sounds with "%", as well as any variation of "cross". He features a lot of "100%" motifs in his speech, replacing and "loo" or "ool" sounds with "100" and "001" respectively. He capitalizes the first letter of his sentences and STRONG and any derivatives. He does not use ending punctuation. He uses horse and cow puns frequently, finding aneigh e%cuse to inc100d such udderances through his STRONG le%icon. He abhors slang and profanity, and will not use terms like "rust" or "slag" outside of their clinical use, and does not invoke the name of Preservation nor Ruin without specific intention to.

The symbol he painted on his Apron is the ancient symbol for Aluminum, which corresponds to the "Z" sound in the Steel Alphabet, for House Zahhak. The center of its spiral matches up with the location of Equius' Hemalurgic Spike. I use the ancient symbols to represent Hemalurgy in this AU, but as they can only really be painted with a brush and ink rather than a quill or pen, he mainly uses the standard Final Empire script in his writings.

As House Lord, he has more formal wear, but I depicted him in his "work clothes", which he wears whenever he is experimenting with and/or practicing Hemalurgy.

After the death of his parents, he took the Skaa that killed them in and kept her chained up in his craft room, making sure that she was given no metal and that her feet were encased in cement should she ever get any. He would go to his craft room and stare at her silently for hours, sometimes days at a time. He neglected his own health and his duties as House Lord for months and was looked after by his personal Terris steward Arthour. His mother kept horses and cattle on the House's property, and so he would often go ride to clear his mind, but never could fully. He found a sheet of metal in the fields engraved with a very surface-level overview of Hemalurgy. Before him, Hemalurgy was only known about by the Condese and her Drones. He forged his first Spike out of Steel, as the plate instructed. He took the dose of Allomantic Pewter he had Arthour fetch for him, and following the ideas written on the plate, he killed his parents' murder by driving the Spike into a specific Bind Point between her ribs. Taking the Spike out, jaded to the sight of it still covered in the Skaa's blood, he positioned it pointing at the same Bind Point between his ribs. Whether it worked or not mattered little to him at that point, so he fell forward, allowing the floor and his weight to drive the Spike into him, breaking his teeth in the process. With the Intent present that the plate mentioned, he successfully transferred the Skaa's Allomantic power to himself. He did not Burn the Pewter immediately, even though he knew he was able, but allowed himself to feel the excruciating pain for a long, long time before he did so. He believed the pain to be a worthy punishment for murder, and the entire time he cried in agony, he cursed himself for killing the Skaa too quickly.

After such, he became obsessed with Hemalurgy in a strangely academic manner, considering the circumstances. He experimented more with all 16 Allomantically viable metals and documented their effects when used at different Bind Points, as well as dicovering where the Bind Points were. Most of Scadrialternia's public knowledge of Hemalurgy comes from Equius. He exclusively takes notes in metal plates, because he found that his paper notes seemed to change overnight, leading to contradictions and inconsistencies in his record-keeping, which was comepletely unacceptable.

He met Nepeta after she broke onto his property and fell asleep with her Lusus in the horse stables. He found her unconscious--passed out from malnutrition--and took her into his care despite his deep disdain for lower Castes. Her Lusus, PonDeil, was about to attack him once he noticed he was taking Nepeta, but he simply grabbed the beast and threw him aside with a single Pewter-aided motion. Once PonDeil assessed that he could not persuade him with violence, he simply talked to Equius. They got along well after it was understood that Equius was trying to help. Equius learned a lot about Hemalurgy from PonDeil, who was a Hemalurgic construct. Nepeta woke up and was treated to the best food the second-highest Noble House could prepare. She and Equius got along great, despite their many differences, and quickly caught pale feelings for each other. Now Nepeta and PonDeil will walk into House Zahhak like they own the place, much to the frustration of Equius. While Equius nor PonDeil do not explicitly forbid her from being around Equius' Hemalurgy practices, they would rather she stay away from the stuff. Nepeta is more than happy not to mess with her Moirail's bloody soul-splicing pastimes.

He has flushed feelings for Aradia, and while he is wise enough not to pursue her directly after she politely rejects his first confession, he believes her Goldshadows to be fairgame even though they are different every time Aradia Burns Gold. Much to Aradia's continued annoyance, many of her Goldshadows reciprocate these feelings, and a portion of those that do have had a (consistently across all instances where this is the case) fulfilling Matespritship with him in their alternate pasts.

He is the group's Hemalurgist. In chronological order, he gives Tavros a Gold Spike to heal him after Vriska (who was with Terezi at the time before their feud) pushes him off a cliff (which leads to her and Terezi's feud), he gives Vriska a Chromium Spike after Terezi blew her up (he didn't intend to give her the Destiny Spike, but she was tapping Fortune which led to the mixup), and he gives Aradia a Cadmium Spike with either Gold or Electrum Allomancy.

Some silly quotes:

CT: D--> I forbid this CT: D--> You will take your position on the b100 crew with me AC: :3 < y3ah right! i will tak3 my purrsition into this funny pounc3 ball and tackl3 you! CT: D--> That's nonsense, you're nowhere even remotely close to the STRENGTH Pewter provides that would be necessary to e%ecute such a maneuver AC: :33 < *ac rolls h3r 3y3s almost as hard as sh3 is rolling around in this r3ally int3r3sting sm3ll* CT: D--> The thought of you fraternizing with and abetting those stink-b100ded h001igans strikes me as scandal beyond measure CT: D--> I'm afraid you're too delicate to withstand that sort of corruption CT: D--> It's forbidden AC: :3 < nuh uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh CT: D --> Yes CT: D--> You won't AC: :3 < no AC: :3 < i will CT: D--> You won't AC: :3 < you cant stop m3! CT: D--> I am telling you not to CT: D--> And you will be on my crew CT: D--> That's final AC: XPO < bllllraaaaaawwwwwlllllrrrrghgghghgh CT: D--> Quiet, I am trying to engrave detail into this plate AC: :{ < why do you do this, why are you so confurdent about your stupid commands? AC: :{ < dont you know you cant ACTUALLY t3ll m3 what to do?? AC: :{ < its not like you 3v3n hav3 any Zinc or Purrass or anything! AC: :3 < wait do you CT: D--> No CT: D--> Pewter is enough CT: D--> And yet CT: D--> You will do as I say AC: :3 < y3s w3ll w3 will just s33 about that! CT: D--> Yes we will CT: D--> You will join me on my crew shortly CT: D--> Go to the kitchens and stand by for further instru%ion AC: >:{ < hisssssssss! CT: D--> You're angry, and I appreciate that CT: D--> But it doesn't matter CT: D--> Di%ussion over AC: :3 < you AC: :3 < are a butt CT: D--> It is a sacrifice I am willing to make AC: :3 < AC: <:3 < <>? CT: D--> <> AC: :3 < okay fin3!!!!!!!!!!! AC: :3 < what3fur AC: :3 < *ac flops down onto th3 young lord's pil3 of cl3an lin3ns and cross3s h3r arms and swish3s her tail with a lot of sass* CT: D--> Equius, I mean I, acknowledge the sass AC: :3 < i'll s33 what i can do but sollux is still in charge of the crews CT: D--> Your efforts are always valued CT: D--> Do you AC: :3 < want to get something to eat? CT: D--> That is actually what I was going to ask yes AC: :3c < *ac pawnders this fur a long pawnderous time* CT: D--> Are you seriously doing this bit again AC: :3c < *ac cannot answer the question, fur she is d33p in th3 thro3s of pawnd3rtud3* CT: D--> pawnd, I mean pondertude, is not a word you are being rediculous AC: X3c < *ac clawnsid3rs the young lord's opinion, but th3n sh3 r3aliz3s that it is distracting h3r furom pawnd3rificating upawn h3r original thought, so sh3 ignor3s his whining and g3ts back to pawnd3rbusin3ss* CT: D--> My diamond, can we just go get AC: :P < y3ah i could go fur som3 grub CT: D--> I order you to stop interrupting me AC: XP < ar3 you going to stop b3ing a hug3 grumpypuss? CT: D--> I'll see what I can do, but Sollux is still in charge of the crews AC: X3 < LOL

[all instances of Vriska's deadname have been replaced in the following, but this interaction occurred before she realized she was trans]

AG: HeeEeEeeey n8gh8or! CT: D--> Preservation's wings, Vriska. Come inside AG: You 8usy? I mean, of course you are AG: You're always 8usy! what with all your murdering and your 8lood magic and whatnot, hah hah. CT: D--> I assure you that it is not magic, and it may save your life, I order you to follow me AG: Say, do you think I could 8orrow a cup of spiders? CT: D--> I CT: D--> Spiders? AG: Um. That's my thing, right? Spiders? The House rusting Serket coat of arms! AG: I love spiders. AG: Just like you like horses and stupid slag like that! CT: D--> How rude. This way AG: Look, let's just agree that me asking for a cup of spiders is a totally plausi8le request, and drop it. CT: D--> I am happy to drop the spiders AG: Fuck spiders! Am I right? AG: We've lived next to 8ch other all these years, and we never hang out. CT: D--> Nobles do not "hang out" AG: I just want to 8e NEIGH8ORLY for a change! CT: D--> Neighborly like AG: Like a rusting horse noise HAHAHA AG: So how are you CT: D--> What happened to your arm AG: Huh? What arm? CT: D--> The one that is now missing from your body AG: Oh! AG: Haha, that old thing? Nothing! It was nothing, really. AG: I just stu88ed it, is all. CT: D--> You stubbed your arm AG: Yeah! You know how it is. AG: You get carried away with something, slip on some metal beads or something, then AG: WHOOPS! AG: You fall and stu8 a major appendage. AG: Pro8a8ly just needs a 8it of patching up. CT: D--> Nothing I can do will fix your arm AG: It's no 8ig deal, really. CT: D--> While you are conscious, lay down on that table, I am going to fetch my apron and a tourniquet AG: Like your handle! You're a hoot, Equius CT: D--> Address me as Lord Zahhak. I don't know how to angle this around your shoulder can you move over slightly AG: Actually, why don't we forget a8out the arm for a second. AG: Equius, we never really TALK, do we? We live RIGHT NEXT to each other. AG: We should get together more! CT: D--> You are beneath me, and we share very few interests. AG: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AG: Oh man. AG: Gotta say, I LOVE your uninvested sno8 shtick, it is a RIOT! Lmao. CT: D--> It is not Brass-derived. I am going to angle the table to get more b100d flowing to your eye. CT: D--> What happened to it AG: Huh? CT: D--> Your eye is also missing, and there is a great deal of b100d coming from the socket AG: OH! AG: Right. Would you 8elieve I actually forgot a8out it? CT: D--> No AG: It's AMAZING how quickly you get used to seeing out of just one eye. AG: Anyway, yeah, I stu88ed that too. CT: D--> How does one stub an eye AG: 8 like, FALLING and shit! AG: I dunno, man. I just did! AG: Look, this is all a LITTLE em8arrassing for me, if you want to know the truth. CT: D--> I heard a noise from your property AG: Huh? What explosion? CT: D--> Yes, it sounded like an e%plosion AG: Oh yeah. That was, uh........ AG: Just a loud and rel8tively uninteresting incident which caused me to stu8 my arm and eye, like the stupid rusting 8utterfingers I am. AG: It's not important. AG: Hey let's steer the su8ject away from my em8arrassing stu88ings and massive ongoing 8loodloss, CT: D--> I am getting my tools in order here AG: Let's rusting shut up and talk a8out YOU. CT: D--> Okay AG: How are YOU doing, Equius? CT: D--> I already told you to address me as Lord Zahhak AG: Haha, right! AG: Yeah, you sure are the House Lord. AG: Hey do you want me to go fetch you a drink and fan you off, L8rd Aluminum? CT: D--> No, my steward will bring me such after he returns from storing wakefulness. AG: Oh yeah. AG: I forgot a8out him. AG: Must 8e nice, having a House that actually serves YOU, instead of the other way around. AG: You've mined out a nice little life for yourself here, Lord Zahhak. AG: You run a warm foundry. I'm impressed! CT: D--> Vriska, I cannot stall anymore. I will need to make this a rush job. AG: May8e a litte jealous, to... 8e... CT: D--> This will be e%cruciating CT: D--> I order you not to die

Homestuck Beta Trolls X Mistborn AU

Spoilers for Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. This is what powers I think the beta trolls would have if they were born on Scadrial

Aradia Megido - Gold or Electrum Misting

Allomancy: ‘Augur’ (Gold: see own Past), ‘Oracle’ (Electrum: see own Future)

Hemalurgy: Cadmium (Placement Unknown: Gold or Electrum Allomancy

It is unknown what her original misting ability was, but the spike from Equius gave her the other one

Tavros Nitram - Cadmium Ferring

Feruchemy: Gasper (Cadmium: Breath), “Bloodmaker” (Gold: Health)

Hemalurgy: Gold (Between Ribs: Gold Feruchemy)

Cadmium compounder; Vriska makes fun of him for having a ‘useless ability’, but doesn’t see the potential that storing breath has. Equius provides him with healing powers to fix his legs through hemalurgy.

Sollux Captor - Born powerless

Allomancy: “Coinshot” (Steel: Push metal) “Lurcher” (Iron: Pull metal)

Hemalurgy: Steel X2 (Left and Right Orbit: Iron and Steel Allomancy)

These spikes were not given by Equius, but instead were applied in a “freak acciident” involving a “jaiilbroken beehiive”.

Karkat Vantas - Copper/Duralumin Twinborn (mutant)

Allomancy: Smoker (Copper: Hide Allomancy)

Feruchemy: Connector (Duralumin: Connection)

I’m not exactly sure why being a natural twin-born is bad in Scadrialternian society, but it is and Karkat’s gotta hide it. Also the castes follow a natural Misting-Ferring-Powerless-Misting-Ferring-Powerless pattern, and Karkat’s caste breaks that so it was completely eradicated through eugenics so im pretty sure he’s the only one.

Nepeta Leijon - Steel Ferring

Feruchemy: Steelrunner (Steel: Physical Speed)

Nothing special, just run-of-the-steel-mill feruchemy.

Kanaya Maryam - Chromium Misting

Allomancy: Leecher (Chromium: wipe allomantic reserves of target)

Her caste is supposed to be powerless, like Equius', but much like how she's a rainbow drinker in canon, she is somehow a misting in this AU. Snapped after Eridan shot her half to death with his “poison wwand strike” (toxic chromium bullets). He did not know that these bullets were Allomantically viable, and neither knew that she would be able to burn chromium. She uses this to sap Gamzee of his massive Zinc reserves, causing him to be distracted long enough for her to kill Eridan.

Terezi Pyrope - Tin misting - Tin Savant

Allomancy: Scout (Tin: Increases senses)

Terezi and Gamzee are the only Savants on the team, which forms the basis of their bond and later kismesitude on whatever this au’s equivalent of the meteor is. She snapped during a feud with Vriska, which left her blind, but she has been flaring tin for so many sweeps that she can basically assemble visual data through her other senses.

Vriska Serket - Cadmium Ferring

Feruchemy: Spinner (Cadmium: Fortune)

Hemalurgy: Left Eye (Cadmium: Destiny)

Forced Equius to use Hemalurgy on her to heal her during a feud with Terezi, but she was tapping Fortune so hard that Equius managed to select the wrong spike and gave her Destiny instead of some healing ability, which is apparently good luck according to the spiritual realm? It’s destiny to be relevant forever I guess so she can’t really die until the plot demands it. She also has Kelsier’s weird metal vision allowing her to peep into the spiritual realm just a little bit. She ended up having her arm fully amputated due to her spirit not being able to accept another spike. Equius in this au isn’t exactly a roboticist, so she won’t get a replacement arm until wayy later down the line.

Equius Zahhak - born powerless

Allomancy: Thug (Pewter: Strength)

Hemalurgy: Between ribs (Steel: Allomantic pewter)

Equius is a Hemalurgist, who was born without allomancy or feruchemy (much like the rest of his caste). He gave himself pewter to make future hemalurgy easier for him (pushing spikes into/through people is physically intensive). He has also given powers to Aradia, Tavros, and Vriska so far.

Gamzee Makara - Zinc Rioter - Zinc Savant

Allomancy: Rioter (Zinc: Riot)

As a Zinc savant, he is so used to being able to fuck with people’s emotions on a whim that he has no idea how to handle empathy without it. He has a very carefree attitude because if someone is saying/doing something he doesn’t like, he can just Allomantic them away. This also means that everyone around him naturally swell with anger and frustration, which leads to the events of the meteor. Rioters and soothers can also gain control of hemalurgic constructs, so I imagine he could take over any hemalurgy users in the party at a whim.

Eridan Ampora - Electrum “Ferring” (Full Feruchemist)

Feruchemy: Pinnacle (Electrum: Determination)

Eridan, like others in his caste, is a full feruchemist, but unlike his other caste members, he only believes that he has one ability.

Feferi Peixes - Mistborn

Allomancy: Mistborn

Feferi, like all others in her caste, is a Mistborn. The Condese is too, actually.

EDIT: Various bits of phrasing and removed the mature label (I have no idea why I wasn't able to before)

EDIT 2: Added links to longer posts on the characters

[nekropsii]

Howdy! Your analysii are interesting, I'm only chipping in to add that while Cronus is textually "faking" his kin stuff, I... do not give the narrative the credit that its meant in comparison to "real" otherkins. The fact the other "kin" character, Horuss, is treated as a borderline zoophile for it doesn't help. Watsonian reasoning alone leaves the interpretation incomplete. Hussie was being consciously cruel and posing the otherkin community as privileged predators.

To be totally fair, that just seems to be a Zahhak thing. That doesn’t at all make it better- in fact, the recurring borderline-zoophilia theme with that family makes everything worse, but Horuss definitely isn’t alone on that front. Equius also had a weird as fuck horse thing. I don’t like Hussie, and I agree with you, but I have to point out that Equius definitely also had a horse thing long before Horuss existed.

Hell, the weird horse thing wasn’t even initially planned with Otherkin shenanigans involved- “Horuss” was derived from an initial suggestion for Equius’s name, which was, as far as I’ve heard, and I shit you not… Horace Focker. Sigh.

Also, not to invoke the devil’s name or anything, but wasn’t the zoophilia thing also because Hussie was buddies with Chazzerpan and Chazzerpan was super weird about animals/animal traits? I remember that being a thing. Dude made some severely fucked up porn.

Honestly, not to tread on ground that isn’t my own, but my take is that Horuss’s whole “Otherkin” thing wasn’t cruel because he was weird about animals, because being weird about animals was kind of an established “Zahhak thing,” and I don’t know if they were directly trying to pose people who are Otherkin as Privileged Predators. I definitely see where you’re coming from, but I’m just personally not wholly sure of it. I think Horuss’s “Otherkin” thing in particular was more so fucked up because Hussie seemed to be conflating being Otherkin with being a System.

(I know I tend to gravitate more towards near strictly Watsonian analysis, and that’s because I really do not like Hussie and learning things about Hussie is a plague upon my soul. It’s also kind of just more fun for me- but trust me, I’m very aware of certain things.)

[vikkirosko]

seems like a weird assortment of characters, i know, but uh- could you do jake, cronus, and equius with a s/o that “puts on a mask” in day to day to life and has some trouble opening up?? it’s perfectly okay if it’s a no <3

Headcanons Who hides emotions

🔫 Jake English x Reader 🗺

At first, Jake didn't notice the fact that you were put on a mask. Seeing your smile, he was happy. But the more time you spent together, the more he noticed that your smile was strained, and there was concern in your eyes. Then he decided to find out what had happened

When he found out about your problems with revealing your true emotions to others, he set a goal to help you solve this problem. He tried not to push you. Therefore, he tried to ask you as much as possible about how you feel, so that you would gradually stop being afraid to show your real emotions

Seeing how gradually you open up to him, he became happy. Jake understood that this was a sign that you trusted him. It was very important for him. He understood that you still have a lot to do so that you can open up not only to him, but also to your friends. And he was ready to help you on this difficult path

♒ Cronus Ampora x Reader 💜

Cronus understood on his own skin what it was like to hide his true emotions from others. Therefore, he quickly guessed that you were doing the same thing

He didn't want you to have the same problems as him. That's why he tried to help you. He talked to you a lot about this topic. He tried to convince you that such emotions as sadness, anger, irritation are quite normal, and they do not need to be hidden. But he also had problems. So you decided to work on them together

You worked together on your common problem. It wasn't easy. But you supported each other. And gradually, step by step, we told each other more and more about your experiences, about what you really feel. Cronus was glad, not only that he can finally be honest with himself and with you, but also that you can also be honest with yourself and with others. Even if others did not immediately accept such changes, you both understood that they were for the better

♐ Equius Zahhak x Reader 🥛

Equius saw perfectly well that you hide your emotions from others. But he had no idea how to help you. He was pretty bad at heart-to-heart conversations and moral support. But you were his matesprite, which means that he had to help you somehow. He just had to figure out how exactly

The answer came to him by itself. One day you couldn't stand it, and burst into tears in his presence. He tried to calm you down. You cried on his chest and through your tears told him how hard it is when others think you are insensitive or stupid. You told me how hard it was for you to try to seem strong in front of others

Then Equius decided to talk. He was nervous, but he talked anyway. He said that your emotions are not an indicator of weakness, that you remain strong, experiencing all your feelings. He was ready to prove it to you again and again. He was willing to share his power with you if your own wasn't enough. And he was going to help you discover your inner strength

[germanicseidr]

Proto-Indo European Deities

One of the most likely theories, considering the origins of most of the Germanic spiritual practices and Gods, is that they have originated from the bronze age people who came into contact with the Proto-Indo Europeans. These Proto-Indo Europeans spread their language, traditions, way of life and spirituality all across Europe (with a few exceptions). In this post I want to name several  reconstructed Proto-Indo European deities and their etymological descendants throughout Europe, and the middle east and India.

Dyeus: At first I want to begin with Dyeus. This is the reconstructed name of the chief God of the Proto-Indo European pantheon. The name means 'brightness of the day' and is reconstructed with the help of Grimm's law and by carefully researching related languages such as Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, old Armenian and old Anatolian. All of the Indo-European languages, modern and old, seem to have a common root word for God.

The meaning of the name plus the fact that the root is still visible in every Indo-European language, suggests that this deity was incredibly important, most likely the most important of all deities. Dyeus is the sky father, associated with brightness and the skies and perhaps creator of mankind according to the Proto-Indo Europeans. There are however no written sources nor physical evidence describing Dyeus so his exact role will forever be a mystery.

If we look at the Proto-Indo-European root 'Dyeu', we can discover many deities with a very similar name and role. These deities are likely etymological descendants of Dyeus, here is a list:

Proto-Indo European: Dyeus Hellenic: Zeus Hittite: Sius Thracian: Zi or Diu Vedic: Dyaus Pittr Indo-Iranian: Dyaus Anatolian: Diu Roman: Jupiter Slavic: Diva Baltic: Deiwas Germanic: Tiwaz and Wodanaz Gaulish: Deuos Gaelic: Dagda

Perkwunos: This is the reconstructed name of the thunder/weather god of the Proto-Indo European pantheon. The meaning of the reconstructed name means either: 'the striker' or 'lord of the oaks'. Two roots are possible for this theory, the root 'Per', which means 'to strike' and perkus 'the oak'. It is also possible that both roots are actually united since it is possible that people associated high trees, like oaks, with lightning strikes.

We do not know how Perkwunos looks like but if we compare his etymological descendants with each other, it seems that Perkwunos might be wielding a weapon like a hammer or a club. He's not only the god of thunder but appears to be controlling all of the weather. Perhaps the Proto-Indo Europeans prayed to him when they wanted rain for their crops or when they wanted a natural disaster to stop. Here is a list of his etymological descendants:

Proto-Indo European: Perkwunos Slavic: Perun Baltic: Perkunas Vedic: Parjanya/Indra Greek: Heracles and/or Keraunos (the name of Zeus' bolt) Gaulish: Taranis Gaelic: Tuireann Germanic: Donar/Thor Thracian: Perkos Scythian: Pirkunas Nuristani (Afghanistan): Pärun Illyrian: Perendi

Neptonos: This is the reconstructed name of the God of the seas/waters. The name literally means 'Grandson of the waters' and it has been reconstructed by observing all of the sea deities of the Indo-European cultures. Since we have no image or written sources about this deity, we do not know how he would have looked like, perhaps he was holding a staff like most other sea deities. We also do not know his exact role in the Proto-Indo European pantheon but he is apparently master of all the waters of the earth. Here is a list of his etymological descendants:

Proto-Indo European: Neptonos Hellenic: Neptune Roman: Poseidon Gaulish: Nodens Gaelic: Manannán Germanic: Nehalennia/Njördr/Nerthus Vedic: Varuna Illyrian: Bindus Baltic: Bangputys

Suhul: This is the reconstructed name of the deity related to the sun. There is less evidence for this deity but it seems that the Proto-Indo European root for sun 'Suhul' is connected to quite some sun deities. Here is a list of etymological descendants of Suhul:

Proto-Indo European: Suhul Gaulish: Sulis Hellenic: Helios Roman: Sol Germanic: Sól Slavic: Dazhbog Baltic: Saule Vedic: Surya

Mehnot: This is the reconstructed name for the deity related to the moon. It is a common Indo-European tradition to have two deities related to the sun and to the moon so it is possible that they have a common root with a Proto-Indo European Moon God. Here is a list of etymological descendants of Mehnont:

Proto-Indo European: Mehnot Gaelic: Elatha Hellenic: Selene Roman: Luna Germanic: Máni Slavic: Hors Baltic: Menulis Vedic: Soma

The divine twins: Sadly it is impossible to reconstruct the name of these divine twins but it is a well accepted theory that these are either two brothers or brother/sister of the Sky God Dyeus. Almost every Indo-European religion has a divine twin riding either a horse or another animal. The role of this twin is unclear since divine twins from related cultures seem to have seperate roles. Here is a list of etymological descendants of the divine twins:

Proto-indo European: divine twins/name unknown Vedic: The Asvins Baltic: the sons of Dievas Hellenic: Castor and Pollux/Dios-Kouroi Germanic: Frey and Freya/Hengist and Horsa Polish: Lel and Polel Indo-Iranian: Nakula and Sahadeva Etruscan: Tinas Clenar/sons of Jupiter Gaulish: Divanno and Dinomogetimarus Welsh: Bran and Manawydan

Dheghom: This is the reconstructed name of the earth-Goddess. Mother earth seems to have been known since paleolithic times although we can of course not provice any proof for this theory. She's most likely the wife of the Sky God Dyeus as this is usually the case in Indo European religions. She represents growth, fertility and death. The meaning of her name is still being debated but it might mean 'the broad one'. Here is a list of her etymological descendants:

Proto-Indo European: Dhegom Gaelic: Danú Hellenic: Hera or Gaia Slavic: Maty Syra Zemlya Baltic: Zemyna Roman: Juno Thracian: Zemela Germanic: Nerthus/Jörd Vedic: Prithvi

God of the Underworld: Sadly it is also not possible to reconstruct the name for the God of the underworld but since virtually every Indo European religion has a God/Goddess of the underworld, it is very likely that the Proto-Indo Europeans also had a deity to guard the underworld. Here is a list of etymologically related Gods of the underworld:

Proto-Indo European: unknown Vedic: Yama Hellenic: Hades Roman: Dis Pater Slavic: Veles Baltic: Velinas Germanic: Hel/Holle Gaelic: Aed

Pehuson: This is the reconstructed name of a deity representing nature itself. We do not know how he looked like or what his attributes were, we do know that many Indo-European deities have similar Gods representing nature. Here is a list of etymological descendants of Pehuson:

Proto-Indo European: Pehuson Gaelic: Cernunnos Gaulish: Cernunnos Germanic: Ullr/Frey Hellenic: Pan Roman: Faun Vedic: Pushan

Hausos: This is the reconstructed name for the deity of dawn or spring. She represents the rebirth of nature and warmth thus her attributes are quite similar to the solar deities. Yet again most Indo-European religions appear to have a deity of dawn/spring. Her name means 'to shine'. Here is a list of her etymological descendants:

Proto-Indo European: Hausos Gaelic: Brighid Gaulish: Brigantia Germanic: Eostre Hellenic: Eos Roman: Aurora Slavic: Zorya Baltic: Ausrine Vedic: Ushas

Here are other beings that are present in virtually every Indo European religion and thus have likely a common root in the Proto-Indo European religion:

Beings of fate: There is a very big possibility that the Proto-Indo Europeans believed in three Goddesses or beings who were able to spun or weave the fate of all living beings in the universe. They often appear as either three young maidens or three women representing the three stages of life or the three stages of time (past, present, future). Here is a list of possible etymologically related beings of fate:

Proto-Indo European: name unknown Hellenic: the Morai Germanic: the Norns Hittite: the Gulses Roman: the Parcae Baltic: Deives Valdytojos Slavic: Rozanicy Albanian: the Fatit Gaulish: The three Morrigna

The giant serpent: Almost every Indo-European religion has an epic story of a hero battling a gigantic snake/dragon/serpent. This hero is often the thunder God or another deity related to weather. Because this theme is so incredibly common, it is a very likely theory that the Proto-Indo Europeans also believed in a giant serpent/dragon and a thundergod (Perkwunos) who fought it. Here is a list of etymologically related serpents:

Proto Indo-European: Unknown Hittite: Illuyanka (slain by Tarhunt) Vedic: Vritra (slain by Indra) Hellenic: Typhon (slain by Zeus)/ Hydra (slain by Heracles) Germanic: Jörmungandr (fought by Donar/Thor) Persian: Zahhak (slain by Fereydun) Slavic: Veles (slain by Perun) The Christian/Jewish story of the Genesis: Tehom Sumerian: Tiamat Armenian: Vishap (slain by Vahagn) Gaelic: Meichi (healed by Dian Cecht)

I am so sorry for this incredibly long post but I hope you have some more insight into the Proto-Indo European pantheon and realise that all European deities (with a few exceptions) all represent the same attributes/roles/beings. The stories of the Germanic Gods are not unique but a shared story with other European and even Indian native religions.

Here are images of: Dyeus and his etymological descendants by Starkey Comics, Perkwunos and his etymological descendants by Starkey Comics, A modern interpretation of Perkwunos by Wegsetios Tekkerdes, An image depicting several Serpent/hero battles. An image representing the divine twins (Castor and Pollux),

[hazyaltcare]

tavros leijon canon call

im a tavros leijon who was based off guinea pigs instead of cats or bulls and is looking for just about anyone from my timeline, but especially my nepeta nitram, equius makara, and jade lalonde. please dm me if this seems familliar

the full list of swaps was kinda weird, being

kanaya megido <---> aradia maryam

nepeta nitram <---> tavros leijon (me)

feferi captor <---> sollux pixies

eridan vantas <---> karkat ampora (both had canon karkat's mutation, which made karkat ampora's blood neon cobalt)

vriska pyrope <---> terezi serket

gamzee zahhak <---> equius makara

dave harley

rose strider

jade lalonde

jane egbert

john crocker

dirk english

roxy strider

jake lalonde

good cherub caliborn <---> bad cherub calliope

i dont remember much about the early parts of my timeline other than that i was moirails with my nepeta nitram and matesprits with my equius makara. 

i remember nepeta used to come over to my hive (which was kinda made of trees grown together and the floor was made of moss i think) and we would hang out and play fiduspawn together. sometimes she would stay the day and we would sleep on the moss floor.

midway through the timeline, on the meteor (before meeting up with the humans), terezi serket ambushed me, cutting both my horns off with her swords. of course i attacked her back, and we fell down some nearby stairs into a bunch of exposed wires. she took the brunt of the electricity and died, while i walked away with just a few scars

vriska pyrope decided to knock me out, kill a bunch of trolls, and convince me and the survivors (which included kanaya megido) that i had killed them. the ones vriska killed included nepeta nitram and equius.

most of the rest of my time on the meteor was spent crawling around in the vents and staying away from the other trolls. i dont remember much of the relationships between the other trolls and kids and such because of this, but i think dave harley was romantically involved with good cherub!caliborn? karkat ampora was one of the ones killed by vriska. 

i stayed behind in the meteor once we got to the scratched session. i vaguely remember overhearing talks about shoving me in a fridge like canon gamzee, which drove me even further into isolation.

jade lalonde was the first human i talked to, and the first person to belive that i didnt kill everyone (which i must have figured out at some point), maybe because she saw what actually happened with her seer of space powers. i remember she convinced me to come out of the vents, and ultimately convinced everyone else that i didnt actually kill anyone (except terezi, which was an accident). i think we ended up as moirails on earth c.

//Canon call submitted by @die-06

//Mod Haze

[innerchorus]

Arslan Senki Chapter 133

ArSen is a horror series now.

I know I've already posted a smattering of screencaps and thoughts on this one so this post is bullet point mop-up duty and will cover anything that didn't make it into those, or extra thoughts related to those parts.

Pleased that I called the chapter title (more or less) when the last chapter was released.

I've gotta say the atmosphere in this chapter is top notch. Arakawa ramping up the tension and the sense of wrongness, both in the ominous spreading of those dark clouds and the presence of and interactions with the undead warriors, and then the horror peaks when the winged apes descend.

Gieve's "Why are there dead people here?!" made me let out a nervous laugh. The confusion is rife, because those standing before them are indeed who they appear to be... yet not.

Kharlan is clearly still intending to attack again. Just catching a glimpse of him facing Hilmes and Zandeh, followed by Kubard and Isfan being confronted by Shapur was enough for my heartrate to kick up a notch, my personal dread is building for what might be coming. Given the words chosen by the other undead warriors who speak in this chapter, I am expecting EMOTIONAL DAMAGE (both for myself and the characters involved).

I was discussing this with @tired-reader-writer but may as well pop it in here as well; if the undead warriors can speak, while their speech right now is very Team Zahhak, maybe they will have some genuine words for their loved ones before the end, once the sorcery has been overcome?

Whatever words undead Shapur uses to hurt Isfan, I need him to know that they're not true. It would make my day for Kubard to be able to say "Your brother would never say that about you." But it's so hard to know what we're going to get. Maybe this Shapur will have some barbed words for Kubard, too. I do think on some level Kubard likely feels regret over what happened to Shapur, not regret for his own choice to flee necessarily, but regret that he didn't manage to persuade Shapur to leave too, that he left him to what turned out to be such a horrible fate after they argued.

Petition for this awfulness to be balanced out by Arakawa showing us some happier memories once all this is over and done with. I need those flashbacks, I want these characters to remember the good, the real relationships they had, not these harsh words and these twisted resurrected forms.

Copy-pasting again but the idea that those hints of bloody tears I talked about in the previous chapter mean that deep inside their consciousness (soul?) is still there is seeming more likely. I'm writhing because this is all so painful but it's so good. I can't wait to see what Arakawa does with it next.

Daryun's mind racing as he faces Vahriz, and Narsus on the sidelines running through the same possibilities in his head as he and Arslan look on is some good shit. The knowledge that he has been 'brought back from the other world' by Zahhak's powers (presumably the powers given/taught to the sorcerers) is chilling. Like, that's supposed to be a one-way journey. If the 'real' Vahriz's consciousness is still there, that's got to be horrific. If they're aware of what their bodies are being made to do... Things they would never have done in life... I hope they are laid to rest again properly.

Anyway, Vahriz at least lays it out in the open. And why should Team Zahhak hide their intentions now? So, they want to eliminate Arslan. But do they want anything different from Hilmes, or are they simply aiming to kill him, too? That remains to be seen.

Fighting on horseback is not going to work (as we've seen before, horses are spooked by sorcery and given what's about to descend on the city they're going to totally lose their heads now). Kishward facing Manuchurh and resolving to deal with him was pretty badass, I hope that works out. Realising that it's both Manuchurh and not Manuchurh... I hope all the other characters come to the same conclusion about those they're facing.

Tus asking if he has permission to eliminate Khayr. I liked that. He doesn't question the job, just checking he understands what Kishward is asking of him. Because it's quite a thing to ask. And it won't be easy.

Gieve's blow should have decapitated Manuchurh, but no. Nothing. So that got me thinking, how can they be defeated if not by sword or other weapon? Well, if there's a sorcerer controlling each of them... Kill the sorcerer who is responsible. Maybe they're lurking close by, and with their death the sorcery binding the undead warriors to this world will break. It's telling that we haven't seen the sorcerers themselves in all of this chaos. It makes me think they are hidden nearby, controlling these things.

Very worried about how Estelle and those others outside the city are going to defend themselves from the winges apes. Hide under overturned carts? Flee inside and trust that the Parsians have a bigger problem to worry about than the fact some of them are Lusitanian?

How best to defend the city against winged apes? Get inside and shut all the doors and windows? Use arrows when you can? Fight on foot in the streets because your horses have lost their minds to fear? These things likely have corrosive blood too, just to make matters worse. This is all sounding so horrific and I'm here for it. Let's hope Farangis has some idea of how to fight them.

Also I hope Don Ricardo gets a break soon. The man's been through so much. I want him to survive this.

[pageofheartanalysis]

page of blood analysis perhaps?

Aaaaa ayes yes yes!!!

I love me a good page. And the blood aspect is one of my favorites !!! That's your fun fact for the day!!!!!

Pages! Pages are severely underestimated in all cases, the typical all upper case underdog!!!!! They start off with a deficit in their aspect, often playing it up despite reality never really matching up with what they say. Almost like when they reassure someone it just sounds like they are trying to reassure themselves yknow? But like any underdog, they rise to the top and master aspect and understand it fully even if the journey to get there is long and tedious. It's speculated that they are one who serves aspect or one who serves through their aspect for others. . It's counterpart is. It's believed to be a passive class though with he limited info we have. Pages also always start off with a deficit in their aspect, with Tavros becoming disabled and being literally tied down to the groundand starting the game with borderline pipedreams of flying. Horuss Zahhak starts with a deficit of.. literally nothing. He's happy, smart, relatively well liked amongst his friends, a good relationship till rufioh fucks shit up as per usual. He suffers from nothing, which is what Void is. One of Dirks splinters reveal that Pages can be really powerful, even strong enough to defeat someone like Lord English, but only if they unlock and realize their true potential!!! A pages active counterpart is speculated to be a Knight. While it's direct inverse is a Thief.

Aaaaaa. Blood! Blood blood blood!!!! Blood is all about connections, bonds, and promises!!!! Blood players are often what keeps their group together like glue (cough ignore what happened with karkats session, Full of broken bonds and relationships and promises). But if you look at Kankris session they all seem to be relatively on good terms with each other, tho seemingly unite day the disdain for much of a hypocrite he is. And the Signless is pretty cut and dry, dude was stress up the Troll messiah uniting entire castes system in a bloody revolution!! They are mostly inspirational leaders, not commanding ones. Karkat tried to command rather than inspire and it didn't end the best but hey it wasn't a total flop so that's also possible!! Blood players can be inspiring, charming, and magnetic but they can also be hypocritical, restricting and very set in their aspect despite others bests interests. Ther inverse of Blood is Breath

So the opposite of a Page of Blood would be a Thief of Breath! Nice!

Let's get into combining the two!!

Alright so! A Page of Blood starts out lacking their aspect, but seem to play it up to over compensate for that fact and try to hide it. Maybe a page of Blood is lacking in real friends or bonds. They might be a loner, though not necessarily by choice. It's jsut hoe things seem to be. I picture them to be like that one tiktok audio: "I have friends i definitely have friends! Friends friends friendly friends its time to meet my friends" They don't have a whole lot to lean on, despite Maybe trying to be that for other people. They try to be friends but they might play up their own personality or act how they think the person they are trying to be friends with will like when instead they just need to be themselves. Forcing friendships never work. They need to jsut get some serious self reflection!They might even start of with a lacking in self defense or soemthing like that. Lacking in physical blood (not anemic wise I mean like.. you get the point)

A fully realized Page of Blood would be one of the most dare I say influential classpects to date! They would have an uncanny ability to unite almost anyone no matter how cast their differences are as long as its for what they believe is the greater good. They could be a powerful leader and commander, and probably even well liked!!

Hope this was helpful!

(I couldn't find a good image of a page of Blood I'm so sorry)

[learning-persian]

Today I want to tell you about an interesting story from Ferdowsi’s Shahname (977-1010 CE). It’s a love story between Roudabeh رودابه and Zaal زال.

The interesting part in this story is the scene that seems to have inspired the German fairytale Rapunzel.

Roudabeh is the princess of a nearby land and Zaal is the prince of another land. Their relationship is in secret because Zaal’s father doesn’t approve of it (because Roudabeh’s father is a descendant of Zahhak ضحاک, an evil king that ruled over Persia for a thousand years and killed young men to feed the two snakes on his shoulders— I will tell you about this in another post)

But Zaal, deeply in love as he is, doesn’t care about such politics and keeps sending Roudabeh love letters and one day he actually goes to her palace to see her.

Roudabeh comes to the window and throws her long black hair down, telling Zaal to grab the hair and climb inside.

But unlike the prince in Rapunzel, Zaal refuses to grab his beloved’s hair, saying he would never do something that would hurt her. Instead he uses his rope to climb the wall and get into the princess’ bedroom.

Ultimately they do get married and Roudabeh gives birth to Rostam رستم, a very notable character in Shahnameh and an iconic figure in Persian literature.

[amporaverse]

-I’m 24

-Eridan and Cronus (and therefore Dualscar) are my personal buffoons and live in my head.

-My stories for them are a mix canon with narratives I created myself.

Gist of what I know about them below cut.

-Eridan used to be in an abusive kismesissitude with Vriska which went to absolute shit because he couldn’t live up to her expectations, him and Equius ended up trauma bonding and they eventually got into a relationship (vacillating between red and black, Equius is also dating Gamzee), but not before also having to overcome internalized homophobia that was unknowingly given to him by Cronus through dream bubbles. Also Karkat used to be his moirail but he left him for Gamzee and Feferi was pretty much just using him.

-Cronus is in what seems to be a potential relationship with Horuss, they had never noticed each other until one day when Meenah, in an attempt to get rid of Horuss pestering her, sent him to Cronus and they ended up bonding over their identity issues. All this after having died and possibly towards the end of Horuss’s matespritship with Rufioh. Also as implied above Cronus has human brainrot which is how the dream bubbles incident happened to begin with even though he didn’t do it on purpose but it happened and he doesn’t even know. In this respect he’s doing better now, as well as Eridan.

Him and Porrim were moirails before they started playing the game, as they got closer to doing so Cronus started having “nightmares” (actually visions where the angels told him about the horrors of LE). When he told Porrim about it she didn’t believe him, but Kurloz found out about it (probably Aranea gossiping) and started infiltrating his brain and terrorizing him further to the point of him losing hope in himself, this is when a total shift in personality happened and Porrim stopped associating with him.

-Both have BPD (like myself) and yes it’s all very Zahhak and Serket centric because it’s what makes me happy or helps me cope. They tend be very salty about Vantases (more like resentful), Serkets, Peixes, Makaras and Rufioh specifically.

My Eridan playlist

My Cronus playlist

My SerketAmpora playlist

[twitchesandstitches]

(Commission for @alt-hammer of a fantasy AU where Jade, a talented alchemist, has greated a boob expansion potion and refines it, gradually getting more enormously buxom as she and Dave get closer together.

This is set in, broadly, the same continuity as the godess terezi commission; some liberties were taken so, where there are differences, assume them to take place in their own micro continuities.)

----------

The town was an old one, near a vast forest that lay in the shadow of a temple consecrated to one of the old gods: the teal dragon goddess of mentality, rumored by some to be incarnate in the modern age. The era of magic and gods, though, was long behind them, and simply reverse engineering even a tiny shred of its power was a game-changer, especially for such a minor town.

Jade Harley, alchemist and adventurer, thought she had just about worked it out.

Okay, she thought, peering at a list of ingredients. Body expansion and modification. It used to be so much more common, in the old days. Did I figure it out?

I think I did.

She poured over the ingredient list, checking things off, and she was so busy in her work that she heard the bell over the door go ‘ding’.

“Yo-hoy, Jade?” Came the voice of Dave Strider, her best friend, with big quotation marks around the ‘friend’ bit. She smiled and stood up. Jade was a tall woman… a very tall woman, even bigger than some trolls, which was unusual for a human. She had a curvy frame, packed with power, and lately she had been thinking: not curvy enough.

And then, she’d heard stories about the old days. Ancients who had transformed their bodies in impossible ways, with nothing but their knowledge of magic. And she’d thought; if they did it, why not me?

Dave was waiting there. He was not a particularly tall man, or broad; he had the sort of wiry, vaguely feminine look that was quite popular these days, and paired well against Jade’s more voluptuous frame. She just looked big, especially next to him. Nevertheless, when he stood up, it was with a real sense of genuine strength and power that belied his seemingly frail look.

“You sure you wanna do this whole… thing?”

Jade indicated her chest. It was pretty ample, and again, especially for a human. But Jade had thought about records from the old days, that described people changing themselves to be… bigger. More buxom. And she had thought; if they’d done it, why not her? What was the missing keys to that kind of power?

Besides thousands of years of magical knowledge and infrastructure, she admitted. But they’d been learning, and she thought she might have rediscovered the key.

Jade wanted bigger boobs. She wanted really big boobs. It was a pretty silly thing to want, she would be the first to admit, but when she thought of herself, of the shape that Jade Harley ought to have, it was with boobs so big that they’d have to reshape the doorways when she left the house; pathway-clearing plows of a bustline, big and bouncy boobs so massive you could sit on them.

Or even bigger than that!

The default assumption that most men would have, in helping such a task, would be ‘yes please!’. Dave was surprisingly ambivalent; she had no doubt he’d be pleased by the results, but the actual experimenting was going to be an issue.

He worried a lot. About her in particular.

“I'm sure!” Jade put her hands on her hips. “I just… oh, I’ve been spending years on this, and I’m so close! I can practically taste it!”

“Right, right, cool. Passion project, I get that.” Dave patted her on the shoulder, the gesture completely reflective. He probably didn’t realize how intimate it felt.

Probably? Jade pondered that, for a while.

“Well, I got a map.” Dave laid it on a table; now they were free to plan, since no one came in after these hours. On the map was a chart of the most magically potent parts of the forest outside the town, where the most magically powerful ingredients… and monsters… were likely to be found. “I think these are the places we should start looking.”

“Right!”

For hours, they planned it out. The kinds of things they would need to hunt up, of course. The gear they would need to harvest things effectively, and explore the forest.

And the monsters they were likely to face, the mindless beasts generated by raw magical energies and attacking anything they perceived as intruders. Dave faltered a bit at the thought; not in fear, but he was looking at Jade as if thinking too hard about her getting struck by some beast’s claws.

He swallowed. “You sure you wanna do this? For… to get bigger boobs?”

Jade grinned. When you put it like that, the whole thing sounded silly, and she really didn’t mind that at all.

“Absolutely!” She insisted.

------

After that, Dave came in regularly, when he could.

At least once a week, in his official capacity as a courier. As much as possible when he was off work, or just playing schemes to pretend to be doing things on the clock, goofing off at her work place and racking up paid hours when deliveries slowed instead of doing paperwork. She was pretty sure that he definitely was not allowed to do that; his boss, Mister Slick, was a stickler for the letter of the rules for everyone if not himself, and he in turn answered to the chief courier, the Mendicant.

Jade had to consider that. She didn’t know the chief courier personally, but everyone knew of her; she was married to the mayor, who was something of a gremlin with a chip on his shoulder but a pretty relaxed attitude. The chief courier was a lot more strict, and probably wouldn’t approve of Dave doing that, so of course Jade kept the whole thing secret.

Dave had been scouting out the places they were going to hunt down; slaying a few monsters, scrounging up what he could for Jade to examine. It all worked out for her; monster flesh and bone, fungi and moss and roots all growing in places absolutely drenched in magic… it served her purposes perfectly.

She made her potions; not testing them on herself yet, though Jade tended towards the belief that a TRUE alchemist used themselves as a test subject before anyone else, but that was for a product proven to have the effect she wanted. Until then, she’d taken to quietly giving the uncertain batches to the cattle that grazed just outside her home, pouring it into their food when no one was looking. The cows, she was pleased to see, wound up moving unsteadily with obscenely massive udders so stuffed that they were propped up by them, and the consistency in it satisfied her.

Putting in magically charged milk, she determined, seemed to help. She imagined herself with such massive, swinging breasts and trilled with delight.

And they would need to go to magical places to find ingredients to make into potions; plants, fungi and the parts of monsters, all rich with magical energies. Alchemy was, as she explained it to Dave, the art of melting down magically potent substances and infusing them with arcane ‘aspects’ to effectively make liquid, drinkable spells. The trick was finding things powerful enough to infuse the solution, and for that…

Well, to the old forest, they’d both go.

-------

The days came and went. Experiments went by. Batches, failed and otherwise, were tested; the cows grew bigger and bigger, so much so that Zahhak dairy farming family found something of a glut of their product, and Jade jotted down their boasting or complaints under a list of things to bear in mind for the future batches.

Dave came and went. When he could reasonably swing it, playing off his ingredient hunts for Jade as part of his job; she paid him, at least, which generally satisfied Mister Slick, according to Dave. Jade did see the chief courier, glistening in the sun like a polished ivory statue, studying her shop as if looking for signs of slacking off, and she quietly told Dave the next time she saw him (complete with him bringing several baskets of mushrooms, roots and the occasional monster part) that they would have to probably save this for his free time.

So, in the end, they went together.

Deeper into the forest, where anyone had ever gone. Under the shadow of the ancient temple of the dragon goddess, where its primordial magic seeped into the trees, turning them and the crawling moss into living, teal crystals…

And where the monsters dwelled.

-------

And one day, they came back from there. Both of them bloodied, battered; panting with exhaustion and still trembling; with terror, at least for Jade, tinged with exhilaration. “That was amazing!” Jade said as they stumbled into her shop, her chest heaving and her travel robes hanging over her front like a mobile tent.

Dave put his sword down and flopped down onto a cot Jade kept around, in case he wanted to take a nap whenever he dropped by. “I warned ya, Jade. I warned you about the imps.”

Jade sat down on a chair, and it creaked under her considerable weight. She was simply too thick for most furniture; the legs were bending ominously, as she rocked back giggling to herself in a mix of post-adventure shock and genuine excitement. “The way they came out of nowhere! And the way you just cut them! Swoosh! Slash! That was so cool!”

“Am a little bit concerned with how easy you’re dealing with this.” Dave sat up. “You blasting them was pretty cool…”

Jade turned around. There was a lot of bouncing, possibly on purpose, and green spirals of magical energy swished around her. She’d cast so much magical energy that it was leaking out of, rising out with relatively small gestures, and it make her tingle all over; crackling like her blood was lightning and a sun beating in her chest-

She grabbed Dave and spun him right around, off his seat, and he squealed as she pulled him close to her in a tight not-quite-hug. She was too caught up in the exhilaration to realize it. “Let’s do that again!”

“Ye?” Dave said, lying on the floor now, red-faced and apparently losing the will to move on his own.

Jade was too full of vigor and excitement to stop now. She took one of the bundles of ingredients, plants and fungi and the harvested monster parts they’d been able to secure, and took them up to her work station.

Dave had time to recover, sitting up and recentering himself and not thinking constantly about the feeling of Jade’s body against his own (at least that’s what he would insist, later) as Jade took the things the ingredients they had found and prepared them for distilling. She chopped with knives, she crushed with a motorized pestle, and repeated this until she had a number of small chunks and fine dust. She placed that into a large flask she placed under a burner, but the flames she produced from it were a bright green.

It didn’t burn the chopped and crushed plants, meat and mushrooms. Instead it softened them, until they started dripping through a grate at the bottom of the flash. That became a fluid, propelled onwards through a series of tubes. There, other solutions and mystical fluids were dribbled into it; things to add in mystical formulas and spell-aspects, amplifying other aspects of the potion… negating the flavors and aspects of the substances they originally had been, purifying it into something completely divorced from its origins.

It eventually flowed, much thicker now, into a beaker. Jade poured a hint of something that looked a lot like milk, her magic flowing into it, supercharging it. A bit of milk to give it the right aspect for what she wanted. And a little bit of amplification, mixing with the raw power of the other ingredients...

And under the heat of the magical flame, which burned away solid matter and left behind only magical essence made fluid, Jade waited for it to finish.

She grew quiet, and intense. Dave, recovered by now, had long since learned to pick up on her moods and he knew she was getting very excited.

“I thought you didn’t use spells,” Dave said, to break the silence. “What was with all that… fwoosh?” He wiggled his hands, in the manner of the green fire he remembered Jade shooting all over the place.

“Fwoosh?” Jade said, absently.

“You were shooting attack spells and stuff.”

“Oh! I mean. I know how to do that kind of magic. Not so much in my job, but I know about the theory of magic in general. I couldn’t do alchemy right if I didn’t.”

“And the fire stuff?”

Jade giggled. “I always did wanna put that into practice!”

“Wait, you mean you’ve never fought until today?”

Jade, a woman who had turned a small part of the forest into a crater and probably infuriated the local spirits, looked bashful. “Did it show?!”

“...No. Not really.”

“Huh. Good to hear!” Jade suddenly shut off the flame, stirring it a few times; despite the constant heat, there was no sign that it was particularly hot. “This batch is done!”

Dave stood up. “You sure? I’d thought there’d be… more sparkles.”

“I might put something like that in a consumer batch; people expect sparkles, you know. But this is the testing phase!” Jade examined the potion, studying it. Her magical senses, and eye for detail, picked out things Dave couldn’t possibly have made out. Apparently satisfied, she put it up to her lips and started to tilt it up.

“Whoa!” Dave staggered forward, his stoic exterior cracking just this bit. “Is that safe?! Shouldn’t you test it on, i dunno, the cows?!” He gestured towards a herd visible right through the window, where the shop brushed up against a pasture (as the Zahhaks, as one of the older families, had the authority to simply build their homes into grassy places for the cattle to feed). A cow looked right through the window, hindquarters lifted right off the ground by an obscenely stuffed udder.

Jade lowered the flask, just for a moment. She briefly gave the cow a solemn look, her eyes wide and impatience seething from her; she looked at the cow with an expression all but screamed, to Dave: I want that.

She made a ‘tsk’ing noise, wiggling a finger scoldingly at Dave. “Oh, I’m sick of letting them have all the good stuff! I want that for me!” She grinned, wildly, and Dave knew that there was nothing he could do, short of slapping it out of her hand, to stop her, and he thought that it would be wrong to do that.

“If you’re sure…” Dave said, clearly dubious.

“I’ve never been MORE sure.”

And Jade tilted the potion up, and drained it in a single, powerful swig.

Dave winced, but didn’t argue.

She smiled, though, as her stomach briefly glowed green, the potion taking effect. “It’s nice that you worry, though.” She patted his hand, still upraised in protest, and impulsively, she kissed it.

His hand felt so warm against her lips; a heat flashed there, against her teeth and tongue, and down her neck. It lingered there in her chest, mixing with the magical energies and transformative vibes now swirling inside her. It felt so fine; a gentle euphoria rose inside her, and she couldn’t help but smile through an intense blush.

Green light swirled around her, and especially over her chest. On her breasts, swirling around them and outlining them, supercharging them with magical energies speaking of more and BIGGER, but brightest of all was her heart.

Dave felt the magic flowing from her, before any changes actually happened, and he took a step back; a little awed at what he felt flowing inside her, and maybe stunned by the kiss.

Later, he contemplated how and why he sensed anything. He wasn’t trained in magic; he knew the martial applications, the tricks to make yourself stronger and faster with the spiritual energy inside a person, or the energy around you, but he didn’t know how to use magic itself. Jade’s work was a mystery to him, and he was quietly impressed with people who did know how to bend magic more directly. The actual mechanics of how it was supposed to work was all a bit beyond him.

Nonetheless he felt it, right then. Right there.

Maybe, he theorized later, he’d learned to sense magical energy somewhere, in all the training to harness it. Flex a muscle hard enough, you learned to get a feel for when it was straining. A similar principle could apply, right?

In any case, he stumbled back, more and more, as Jade started to get bigger.

He was far from the only one to notice it, though; there were many people who’d worked out how to manipulate magic all over the town, or those who benefitted from thep precious and rare remaining bits of lore from older days. And some who were something else altogether.

Even people who didn’t live in town felt Jade growing: the professional spellcasters, the priestly high classes, and the hedge-mages learning it all on their own. Even those completely untutored, but sensitive to magic all the same, felt it. And those who knew their stuff felt it happen in intimate detail, like Miss Roxy Lalonde, probably the best student of magical theory in town, and she perked up at the sudden flare from Jade’s shop.

Karkat Vantas, living outside town in the old and long-abandoned manor, felt something even as he slept. His fiance, Terezi Pyrope, sat up and silently eased him back to sleep as she looked up. Her eyes were blind and felt very old, just like the ancient statues in the very temple Jade had walked in the shadows of. There were murals there… that looked just like Terezi Pyrope; as if those ancient sculptors had modeled them after her.

She tilted her head up, head craning and focusing right at the precise location of Jade.

She grinned. “Interesting~!” She said aloud, already making up her mind to pay Jade a visit as soon as she could.

People, intrigued or afraid or obnoxiously curious, gravitated towards Jade’s shop. The market outside her place broke up, the people in it drifting over to see what was going on. So, quite apart from Dave, Jade had an audience.

And in the shop itself, there was no blast of magic. No eye-searing pyrotechnics, as might be associated with a surge of magic so strong it made the cattle outside bounce and gush away in shock, or made Jade squeal with a mixed noise of joy and shock; she staggered back, as if her limbs suddenly were sapped of their strength, or something new flooding it and pushing out the old energy to make way for something fresh, strong and wild…

She gritted her teeth. They seemed longer, sharper; she took a step forward, and her legs kept shaking. No, wait. IT took a moment for Dave to realize, but they weren’t shaking.

They were getting wider.

Jade’s thighs slowly grew, leg muscles gradually bulking up and expanding outwards, a thick and appealing sheath of fat covering them. Not growing much past the knees, making them look surprisingly small past the thighs.

Her hips swayed and wiggled; first Jade just moved in an unconscious groove, and then it was a pattern of growth, and her hips expanded outwards in a smooth swell. Several inches added themselves on, and then about an extra foot of hip growth, to both sides. Jade stumbled as her thighs grew so big their sides were mashing together, and then made an embarrassed noise as her butt suddenly surged out, so bubbly and round that it was making the hem of her skirts rise up!

Her chest was still glowing, the focal point of all this. She dipped forward as they felt very heavy, her hands instinctively cupping her breasts. They wobbled at her touch, all on their own with indifference to gravity, and swelled. Jade made a squeaking noise of surprise, and then it melted into delight; waves of pleasure flooded into her from her chest. Oh! It had felt good, growing like this with her test batches, but nothing like this!

A cup size fluxed out, and then another, pushing at the fabric of her robes. Two more swelled out, pushing her palms down to support them, and they flowed out over her hands. They kept growing; bigger and bigger! The weight of them, rising with each sudden bouncy surge, was making Jade lean forwards, her breasts rising outwards. More than extra cup sizes, now, her breasts were almost doubled from what they’d been.

The magic surged and amplified her body, adding more mass, more flesh, more everything. Her breasts kept expanding, growing outwards, so heavy that she was bent nearly double, her robes straining out and pulling up from the weight. “Yyyeah!” Jade cheered, the delight coursing through her.

And the magic was slowly expended, totally absorbed and transmuted into more Jade. She breathed out as the growth slowed, a couple more inches adding on with each breath, and then it stopped altogether.

The sensation of power and pleasure alike faded from her. Dave gaped as she stood up to her full, imposing height; her breasts were huge, and Jade’s fingers gently traced their expansive outlines, the fabric stretched and almost translucent against her skin now.

Down, down her hands went, feeling her breasts. Much bigger than anticipated. She heard a distinctive sloshing noise, too, when she jiggled enough. Down, all the way past… goodness! Past her ribs, and then when she found the bottom of her breasts, they lay near her navel.

Almost two and a high feet high was each breast, she guessed. She shifted upright, and felt a very pleasurable bounce. Slung out by at least three feet, two, perhaps four!

She breathed in, hissing it out through a grin that was a little bit manic, and she said “Ohh, yes, this is definitely a success.” Now, she panted heavily. “Ooh…” She breathed in and out again, her newly expanded assets heaving with such weight she felt dragged forward. It felt like so much of her was in front of her now… it felt good. “That’s… that’s a fun sensation….”

Impulsively, Jade took Dave’s hand, her fingers squeezing gently around his palm. She smiled just a bit impishly, sharp teeth glinting behind her lips, and she felt Dave’s pulse quicken. His expression didn’t change, not one bit. Not a single muscle even twitched, and his expression was like stone. And Jade knew about stone, and a little bit about geology, and she knew enough that there was always a lot going on beneath mountains that looked all calm and steady, but on the inside?

They were exploding. And Dave could keep his face steady, but he couldn’t do much of anything about the hot blush coloring his cheeks.

Jade leaned in close and gave him a soft, brief kiss on the cheek.

Her breasts, so recently swelled by her potions, pressed against his chest. His body was thin but so firm, so strong; the ideal surface for her bustline to squsih against, and press out, the pulse of her heartbeat passing into his body. Against the plane of his chest, her own chest squashed deep, and she thought in a wild and romantic suddenness that it was like pressing her heart against his own.

She felt their breath twin, for a moment, and then his own stopped. She exhaled, gusting it against his chin, and she kissed him again in the cheek, in the same spot.

And finally Jade pulled away. Her breasts, bouncing freely in their sub-par restraint, wobbled heavily as she moved back, and it was completely on purpose.

Dave’s shades were slipping. The red glow beneath them was nearly visible. “Holy shit,” he said simply.

She realized he was staring, and she grinned, a little sheepishly and a little smugly. Pride welled up in her, at a job well done.

“Hey, I’m freaked out too, but watch the goddamn language,” a laconic voice said from the window.

Both Dave and Jade whirled around; towards the window.

Where what had to be at least a good third of the town was ogling her, and her new ‘features’.

The speaker was Dirk Strider; looking very much like a somewhat older version of Dave, a bit broader overall, his arms crossed over the window. Behind him was the Chief Courier, her porcelain-white shell glittering in the sunlight; she looked, as much as her face could be seen beneath the concealing uniforms she favored, a mix of amused and intrigued. Most people there seemed to have the same vibe.

Terezi was there too, looming over everyone else there, a big dragon-like troll with wings furled around her like a cape, and now she was grinning knowingly.

Jade instinctively covered herself, eyes wide, and she hurriedly thought: ‘What do I do!? What am I supposed to say?! Oh gosh they’re all looking at me!”

And then she thought: ‘Wait.

‘Isn’t this an opportunity?’

She stamped down the embarrassment and frustration at being watched, and declared, with a cheery tone, gesturing at herself, “So! Who might be interested in purchasing the next batch of my beauty elixirs, that’ll give you a body like this!?’

Her mortified feelings felt a bit dimmer at the glee of all the hands shooting straight up.

------

A couple weeks passed, after that.

There was a lot to do: adjust to her new body (oh, how doors were starting to be a problem! And clothes! She had to get them made special, or they’d pinch), going back with Dave to get the ingredients, preparing the next batches of potion for the rush of demand she was suddenly being met with…

Between the constant brewing, hunting down the ingredients from the most magically potent parts of the forests, needing to negotiate with the tailors, and all that, Jade had hardly any time with Dave.

That was a little sad, actually.

--------

But, as fortune would have it, he dropped in not long after that; he didn’t get to witness Jade testing more of her potions on herself, once she was satisfied with consistently bigger growth, and without Dave, she suspected her growth was being slowed. Warm feelings had something to do with it, she was sure.

“Dave!” Jade said, rushing over to him, nearly knocked over a couple people who were milling around her shop. Her breasts alone knocked a few people out of the way, and others quickly moved aside to get out of the way before they were bowled over.

Dave started to speak, but all the wind went right out of him as Jade lifted him clear off the ground, into a powerful and happy hug. “It’s been way too long!” Jade said happily, to some happy but muffled noises from Dave. He was pinned between her boobs, so it wasn’t surprising.

The other people in the shop awkwardly looked away, or giggled, or thought wistfully of envious thoughts for Dave’s position. Jane Crocker, a long-time friend of Jade’s, grinned at the pair, her own table slightly shifting weight from the pressure her potion-expanded breasts put on it; fully one side of it was covered by them, and she’d discreetly adjusted her coat to prevent any wardrobe malfunctions.

“Jade, help, need to breathe,” Dave managed to get out.

“Oops! Sorry!” Jade said. She dropped Dave, with a sheepish smile.

A voice cleared itself from behind her.

Jade turned around; the shop was fairly crowded now. But it had been, ever since she’d brought out her new line of potions. People had come to her all the time in any case; for potions of fertility or physical enhancement to strength and resistance, or giving big claws or aesthetic features like that; the occasional transformation for more height, or shrinking themselves a little bit. The healing potions had been quite popular, too. But her shop wasn’t built to have as many people as it did now waiting around, especially when after taking the potions they tended to hang around for a while, adjusting to their new bodies. Results still varied; some people got only a modest boost, while others grew as big as Jade had after months of careful experimenting and gradual growth (at least up to the first line of her bust enhancement potions, anyway). Jade remembered the kiss to Dave, and the warm feelings in her heart, and how much stronger the magic had felt then.

She was considering advertising them as best with mushy feelings.

The point was, Jade wasn’t very good at picking people out in the shop, since it wasn’t something she’d had to deal with until now. But now she realized that someone had come in with Jade.

Terezi Pyrope grinned; nearly twice as big as even Jade herself, looming over even the tallest people in town, she was a giantess among them, her body scaled in a way no troll normally was. A thick tail curled around her, and a great pair of wings flapped just enough to ensure that people steered clear of her. Jade found herself unconsciously ogling her; Terezi was big, enormously stacked on a scale equal to Jade herself, but somehow she felt… even bigger. The boobs were proportionately about the same as her own, but Terezi herself was so big that Jade could have used her breasts as exercise balls… or even cots!

Karkat was there, as he usually was; it was very rare to see one of them without the other. He hovered around her like an attendant, or a priest from old stories when the gods had walked the world, their clerics in tow. Jade had her own theories about that, given the sheer power radiating from Terezi…

But that was a thought for another time. Now she smiled. “You here on a professional level, or is this a friend visit?”

“A bit of both,” Terezi said. “You, uh, doing okay. You’ve been… going through some changes.”

Jade glanced down, and she felt aware of the eyes of others right on her expanded cleavage. She didn’t mind and laughed, privately cheering at all the attention on her hard work, with a great feeling of pride and confidence. “You could say that! But it was all on purpose so I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about, you know.”

Terezi chuckled. “Yeah, I figured. See? And Karkat was all worried about it!”

Karkat scoffed. “Someone had to. And Dave wanted someone to say something!”

“Dude, noooo….” DAve said meekly.

Jade turned towards him, head tilted. “Oh? Was someone concerned?” She grinned.

“...Maybe.”

“Oh, you should just hear what he says all the time,” Karkat said loftily, with the air of someone dropping a relationship rock right into a crowded social event. “It’s mortifying.”

Jade giggled. “Oh? I hope you’re saying nice things about me!”

Dave looked about ready to melt. “I dunno what they're talking about,” he said, trying to find refuge in denial.

“It’s so sappy,” Terezi said in a stage whisper.

“Aw!” Jade kissed Dave on the cheek, right in front of everyone. He made a precious ‘Hr-RK!’ noise that made her giggle again.

Terezi giggled as Dave awkwardly shuffled away, finding a desk and trying to recover his dignity. “But, seriously. I was wanting to buy a couple of these potions, maybe.”

That was a surprise to Jade; as the thrill of teasing Dave faded, she looked up and saw just more of Terezi’s massive, vision-filling bustline. They were so big already! As big as her own! “You don’t think you’ve got enough already…?” Jade asked, cautiously.

Terezi snorted. “You can always go bigger. And that’s kinda funny, coming from someone who’s still sampling her own goods.”

“Hmph. I don’t know what THAT means.” Jade tried to cross her arms over her chest but her breasts had gotten too big for her to do so easily. And true to Terezi’s words, they were in fact bigger than they had been during the initial growth, during the public event that had gotten all this attention. They were starting to tip closer to her waistline; it wasn’t too MUCH bigger, a product of Jade carefully watering down the samples as she kept experimenting on herself, and downplayed by her heavy work robes, but it was still a fair point. At least half a foot outwards, if not too much deeper.

“Well, I dunno. Let’s give you a baseline to outdo, hrm?” Terezi grinned. “Say, how much ARE these potions?”

Jade listed a number. It was a comfortable price that wasn’t too expensive, but didn’t diminish the effort it took to get the resources to make them; she viewed peddling them as a public service, in some ways. Terezi tossed some coins her way, and Jade handed her one of the bubbling flasks.

Terezi immediately popped the cork off. “Oooh,” Karkat said, eyes wide and amazed, realizing what she meant. Terezi lolled her massive tongue out and picked up the flask with her tongue, popping it into her mouth and draining the whole elixir down her throat in a single, heavy draught. Her thick tongue probed the flask, looking for every drop.

“You might wanna get closer to Terezi,” Jade quietly told Karkat. “It, uh, helps the change.”

Karkat hugged Terezi’s thigh, his arms squeezing deep into her ample flesh. “What do you mean-” He started to say.

“Eep!” Terezi exclaimed, magic radiating from her body, tinged with that special flavor of affection; her hand drifted right towards Karkat, and Jade knew that was just the right thing. “That’s the key!’ she thought. ‘That’s how to get big!’

And perhaps just to prove her point, Terezi grew. A little bit taller, but not much; a few inches, maybe. Just as well, given she was already a giant. Her hips swelled out, packing on a few extra inches; perhaps a finger span wider on both sides, and she was already so massively curvy that there might have not been that much to grow. Her clothes creaked heavily, especially as her big butt filled out even more, a few people behind her making awed noises at the wealth of butt they must have seen pushing up from the fabric enclosure. Her tail swelled, getting a little rounder, a little bit more like an eel’s tail…

Her breasts, though, erupted. In a single fluid motion, they swelled outwards, fluxing out like a cup being filled with water. They billowed, the teardrop shape growing more pronounced; from her gut, down to her waist. Her breasts expanded, and sideways too, swelling out so much that Terezi’s broad shoulders couldn’t even be seen. Most of her formidable body shape, in fact, was obscured; just her big hips, her huge thighs, the tail and wings, and those massive boobs.

Fabric tore. Her gut forced her boobs apart as it settled down, her stomach rising through the cleavage, and her shirt started to fray under the impact.

It was the quickest growth, and a particularly dramatic one; it was over almost immediately, and Jade gawked when she just had to acknowledge the reality of Terezi’s bustiness.

“Hah!” Terezi thrust her breasts out, openly delighted. “Beat that!”

Jade huffed. “Oh, I will!”

Karkat goggled. “Okay oh wow that is BIG.

From the side, Terezi’s breasts stuck out at least several additional feet; she probably couldn’t gather them up even if she stuck her arms out and pulled as much of her boobs in as possible. And given how big she was, they were big enough to use as exercise balls, or to sleep with. And from Karkat’s size… they must have looked so massive.

Terezi was probably thinking about that. Still smiling, she picked up Karkat, ignoring his usual token protests at being manhandled, and stuffed him right into her cleavage. His head popped out, expression suddenly completely calm, and then she pushed him down, completely contained.

Her face looked so peaceful. “Ooh yeah. That’s the stuff.” She grinned at Dave and Jade, gawking at her. “Hope this gives you ideas, Jade. Buh-bye!” With that, she walked off, Karkat encased in her cleavage.

Dave watched her go. Even her back was hypnotic, butt swelling up like a pair of wagons attached to her. “Sure did a number on her,” he said weekly. “What do you think she meant by that, anyway?”

“I dunno,” Jade lied. She thought about being so big she could do that to Dave.. stuffing him so close to her…

Her shirt felt tighter. Her breasts wobbled all on their own, and suddenly surged  a few sizes bigger. Dave saw the growth. “Did-did you just grow? Without taking any potion?!”

“Ooh, that’s… new!” She wasn’t really thinking about it, though. She was still watching Terezi strut off, all sexy and big.

“You’re not worried? Huh. Neat, I guess.”

She wasn’t really listening, either. Privately, Jade felt a surge of… envy, she supposed. Not that wasn’t quite it. It wasn’t that she wanted what Terezi had now.

She wanted more than what Terezi had now; it was like a competition, in some way. Terezi had outdone her, for now. But… her eyes narrowed. She wouldn’t let herself stay outdone!

She glanced up at Terezi’s mammoth body, where Karkat peacefully resting between her breasts, and she thought that maybe she DID envy Terezi having a boyfriend she could fit into her boobs. She then looked at Dave with an appraising look that made him feel strangely snuggly.

------

It had been quite some time since Chahut and Konyyl had been in town. The pair of them spent a great deal of time traveling abroad, to the other scattered townships and city-states, trading where they could and gathering things to sell back home. To be honest, and they’d had to correct others on this point (Konyyl irritably, and Chahut with a gentleness belying the terrible violence she could perform), they didn’t do the actual trading. They were hired muscle, protecting the merchants from bandits, overly strict travel policies, and sometimes shaking down someone trying to weasel out of paying on a deal.

They enjoyed their work; the traveling, and the hitting things. Still, while they’d been very well paid for what they did, staying on constant work wasn’t as appealing as the thought of going home until the next trade season rolled around.

Chahut was a very tall woman, even among trolls, who were generally bigger than humans or carapacians. Konyyl was a big woman too, and the two of them had similar thick-set body types; Konyyl with more obvious musculature, but given that Chahut was nearly twice her size, she looked bigger in every way. The two of them normally had no trouble clearing the way, with size and dark charisma and sheer force of ‘don’t mess with me’.

‘Normally’ being the keyword.

“I don’t, uh, recall everyone being this big,” Konyyl said as they walked past a crowd. She stood head and shoulders over most others, her own head somewhere around Chahut’s elbow, but that wasn’t the kind of big she was concerned about. Two carapacians, a few trolls and a human tottering behind them all went past them, diverting around them like water around a stone, and each of them had breasts as big as prize-winning pumpkins; the smallest had breasts as big as their heads, and the largest… their torsos, and some of their stomachs, couldn’t even be seen behind a wall of cleavage.

In fact, just about everyone they saw was sporting a bustline that dwarfed the pair of them. Konyyl crossed her muscular arms over her chest self-consciously. It was making her feel… small.

“Me neither,” Chahut said eventually. She sounded diffident, calm. But then… was she? Her voice had a slight tone of uncertainty. She glanced down at herself. Chahut wasn’t exactly a proud beauty, and Konyyl supposed that Chahut had never regarded her amplitude as anything except a minor facet of her physical form, but still. This was concerning.

“Something must have happened while we were gone,” Konyyl said, looking very off-balanced. “Some kind of weird magical event… maybe a weather thing, loaded up with magic?”

“A boob-storm?” Chahut’s tone dripped with amusement. “Now there’s a weird image.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Like to see you explain what’s going on here!”

Chahut turned. Their latest employer was hurrying over to them, and she noticed something else that way. “A potion that makes boobs bigger got real popular, maybe?”

“Well, maybe.”

“Look, little beefy.” Chahut pointed, and Konyyl turned. Down that way, there was a small advert board; freshly painted, from the smell. It displayed a grinning Jade Harley (a familiar figure to the both of them, though they didn’t know her closely, but everyone bought from Jade; they’d spent a lot of time at her shop, taking deliveries for a trading run), her face squeezed into a corner. The rest of it was taken up by her breasts, flooding over the entire billboard; absurdly massive, they were, extending out by at least five feet! The style of the ad was fairly cutesy, as fit her tastes in artwork, but they looked big enough to dip to her thighs, so big she could sleep on them.

ON the ad, between the art-drawn Jade, there was a bottled potion. “Want a bustline like mine? Come down to Jade’s Alchemical Esoterica for all your bust expansion needs!” the ad’s text said, in a cheery green font.

“Konyyl! Chahut!” said their employer, a human, and pointed at the ad. “Did you see!?”

“Kind of hard not to,” Konyyl quipped. Chahut nodded gravely.

“Not that! I mean… whoa, that’s a hell of an eyecatcher… but no! I mean, Jade’s shop is that way! Have you seen her yet!?”

“No?” Konyyl tilted her head. “Why?”

“I just… look, I gotta get a group together. We’ll need to find a demonstrator, and a caravan equipped to transport potion goods… gods, we’ll make so much money! But, ah!” The human fretted, trying to balance too many things at once in the mind, and thrust two large pouches heavy with coinage at them. “Here! So I don’t forget! Your pay for this trip. I gotta go, just… you might wanna drop in at Jade’s?”

And then, the human ran off, so full of excitement that there was a little bit of hopping and dancing. The two troll women watched him go. “Well,” Konyyl said. “I don’t have anything else going on. Azdaja’s got a while before he meets up with me. What about you?”

“Eh, same here. Not the bit about Azdaja,” Chahut replied, with a wry tusk-filled grin. “Let’s check it out, eh?”

The two of them followed the path to Jade’s shop. As they went, they were struck that navigating the marketplace was a more tricky affair than they remembered it being; almost every woman there was obscenely buxom, occupying at least a couple of feet in front of them with enough boobage to produce scandals in some of the more prim places they’d been. Both trolls moved very carefully to avoid bumping into someone’s breasts, and considering how much of that there was, it was very hard going.

It seemed demand for whatever Jade was selling was dropping; there weren’t that many people there, though all of them tended towards the same buxom frame. The few exceptions were doing their best to fix that; as they entered, they heard Jade’s cheery voice: “And try to drain it down in a single gulp! It won’t do any good to save some for later, it’ll transform you just the same. Be sure to drink lots of water and have plenty of food, you’re gonna be hungry!”

There was Jade, standing in her shop, her back turned to the entrance. Konyyl and Chahut were momentarily stunned. Jade looked so… thick. Even more than she used to be, even more than Konyyl! (Though at least, Konyyl reflected, Jade didn’t quite have the muscle.) A fairly slim dress as vibrantly green as her namesake jewel, clinging tightly to a body that seemed to be a waterfall of slowly expanding curves; a broad and huggable torso, an expanding waistline straining the limits of a dress, with hips so broad that it must have been hard to get through a doorway. At least a couple feet across!

Her butt, plump and round enough that a very small caparacian could have sat on it with room to kick up their legs, waggled back and forth as she spoke. Quite a lot of her big, unbelievably wide thighs must have been taken up with that butt. Konyyl felt her mouth go a bit dry, just at the sight of it. Even Chahut seemed impressed.

Though she did seem to have other things on her mind. “What’s that she’s got in front of her?” She wondered, squinting.

“Not sure,” Konyyl said. Two objects spread out in front of Jade from their angle, taking up a lot of space directly in front of her. She shrugged. “Let’s go in and get some answers.” They both stepped in, the bell atop the door ringing. A few people saw them and greeted them; at the door, sitting on a chair and off-duty, was Dave, waving to the both of them.]

“Sup,” He said pleasantly. “Try not to let her mow ya down.”

He sounded like he was talking from experience. He grinned a little saying it, so it wasn't a bad experience, either. Konyyl didn’t get a chance to ask about it; Jade had started turning around when she heard the doorbell, and the prospective potion buyer had already left with their purchase, and both Konyyl and Chahut stopped cold, mouths open and thoughts empty, when they saw Jade from the front.

The advertisement had not exaggerated, in the slightest. Completely obscuring the front of Jade’s body was the biggest… widest… roundest…

Konyyl’s brain shut down, a little bit. Jade approached. The shutting down got worse. There was just so much… bouncing. And that dress! The cleavage deep enough for her to sink into! Over four feet deep! Cut down to the belly, rounder and firmer, and it was making her look so curvy, just like a fertility icon of the Dragon Goddess…

(Distantly, Terezi had a vague feeling that someone was referring to her, or at least her true nature. She shrugged and got on with what she was doing, which was beating Karkat in a game of strategy despite not even knowing the rules.)

It had been a while since Terezi’s big transformation. Jade had taken her challenge to heart; she’d been growing periodically on her own, but she’d boosted the effects with regular intakes of potion, and spending lots of time with Dave, whenever possible, and the effects were definitely knocking the two trolls about.

Even Chahut was completely lost for words. Well, most words. She managed to get out: “...Hi, Jade?”

“WHAT THE HECK,” Konyyl demanded. She flung her beefy arms out, gesturing at Jade. “We leave for like a few months and you’re all… all… everyone is all…” She inhaled. She let it out with a cry of “Big! WHY.”

Jade swept both trolls, taller than her, into a powerful hug. The both of them, by no means frail, made squeaking noises as Jade’s surprising strength shoved the remaining air right out, or perhaps that was the full weight of her monstrously huge boobs shoving into them. From throat to Jade’s legs they spanned her body, probably weighing more than she did. It had to be her own enormous strength that prevented them from being a physical hindrance, or some kind of wacky magic?

Jade parted from them, the pair still stunned. “So!” She said, a flirty tone in her words. Dave watched, grinning expectantly. “How do I look~?”

“You look… good,” Konyyl said weakly.

“Big,” Chahut agreed, and it was so very surreal to see her look so shaken.

Jade grinned. “You guys haven’t been in town a while. I bet everyone’s looking a little bigger than they used to, eh?”

Konyyl made the connection; the advertisement, Jade’s potions, Jade’s own size… “Was it… did you do a magic thing?”

Jade pulled out a basketful of potions that could have fit into her cleavage with ease. Given that she did a little twirl before bringing it out, it was entirely possible she’d been hiding it in her cleavage for such a dramatic moment. “I might have come up with a potion that does some boob embiggening, yeah!” She grinned wickedly, dangling one in front of them. Both women stared at it, sense of intrigue naked on their expressions. “What do you think? Might you be interested?”

“I might,” Chahut said.

Konyyl tugged out her coin purse. “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY, SEDUCTRESS!”

Jade giggled and passed their purchases as Chahut and Konyyl got a couple each. “Be sure to take them when you’re with someone that you’re close to, or at least makes you feel happy. Like a friend, or something romantic.” She looked at Dave for a moment, across the shop, and absently tapped a massive breast, as if to say ‘he is responsible for this’. “It, um. Seems to help make bigger growth.”

Chahut and Konyyl glanced at him, and then Jade. Chahut made a heart-shape with her fingers. Konyyl said, “You and him…? Is that a thing?”

Jade fluished. “Well, I dunno. Um.” Her confidence, so recently ironclad and as abundant as her bustline, faltered. “It might be?”

The two women chuckled at that, with the tone of someone who had suspected it was a thing for quite a while, and left. Well, Jade thought, People were going to assume it was a thing, the way they liked to talk!

She didn’t really mind the thought, though.

It felt… official.

-------

And then, a few weeks onward, and word spread: even faster and wider than Jade’s bustline, or the average growth rate in town. Word of Jade’s marvelous bust-enhancing potions, and the increases many people had reported in their physical strength.

Caravans had already left, loaded up with bust potion, to peddle them to distant lands. Already, people who’d heard of it from travelers bearing incredibly massive breasts had come there, and left with potions and mighty busts of their own. And they’d told people, who came and told others when they got back…

And word had spread, of this town with its genius alchemist who’d captured a little bit of the past and its faculty for body modification elixirs for fun and profit.

Now, people were coming to town every day, caravans of them, traders zeroing in on the town, and not just for the potion, but for the other goods the town offered.

So, feeling rather dazed, Jade found herself being handed a big trophy, and a hearty handshake from the mayor.

A small, impish figure (so similar to the imps that lurked outside town, in fact, that Jade felt bad when her excursions required fighting them), his black shell glistening in the light like a little playing piece in the kind of games Terezi liked to play. Jade felt enormously self conscious and smiled awkwardly as what must have been a good portion of the town sat expectedly in the auditorium, listening to his speech. Or what bits they could understand; the Mayor spoke exclusively in the private language of the carapacian people, and the Chief Courier translated hurriedly, as best she could. Judging from her winces and split-second word swaps, the Mayor’s actual words were probably fairly profane and coarse at best.

“...And so, for your breakthrough in aesthetic transfigurations bringing such trade to us, we have prospered as we never have before!” The chief courier said. “Food, valuable minerals, magical substances of every kind, and livestock are flooding in, and we are doing better than we ever had!’”

“I didn’t mean to start an economic revolution,” Jade said meekly. “I just thought people would find my invention cool…”

“Well, we’re getting filthy stinking rich,’” the courier said, her expression implying this was the nice translation. “‘So all’s good! In my book! Now, go on, take your… um… yeah, I can’t translate that.” The mayor scowled at her, and waved a hand at Jade.

Jade took the award, a heavy gold thing that would look very nice on a necklace, though it’d probably sink into her cleavage. “Oh, very well… thank you so much! I’m glad to be of service!”

She bowed to the enriched crowd as they applauded, but she tried not to bow too much. Her boobs had continued to grow and grow, and her experiments had finally died down a little in efficacy; regardless of what she put in them, she was only getting a little bit of growth, and she figured she had reached the peak of what her potion could reasonably do, for the present. Her breasts had reached the biggest size she could manage for now.

But what a size it was! Most of Jade’s body mass was now in her breasts, she wasn’t any skinnier or less thick (indeed, her hips had continued to grow, so much so that doorways were too skinny for her now; four feet across, and counting, with a butt sticking three feet out and just the right shape for Dave to sit on it), but if her weight was to be counted, so much of it was in her breasts that she thought of them as the core of herself now.

She wasn’t sure of the actual weight. The scales kept busting. But they were so large that their bottoms dipped down, down, all the way past her knees! Each breast was four feet height, and over eight feet across, obscuring almost her entire body when seen from a front, a size proportionately equaled by no one. The weight of them moving, when she did, was so divine; she felt such pleasure at every bounce and wiggle, a micro-burst of euphoria whenever it surged forward and dragged her along with it.

She glanced at the crowd; she saw Terezi, looming over it, grinning and wiggling her claws at her, and Karkat on her head like an excitable crown, mirroring her friendly gesture. Near them was Chahut and Konyyl, their own breasts as big as the most abundantly fertile gourds; at least down to the naval, and she felt proud in making such big and beautiful women even larger.

Again she thought: No one is as big as me! She felt proud, and more than the award she held, her own body felt like a testament to her willingness to experiment.

She glanced at Dave. He’d helped. Not just the stuff he’d gathered; just being there for her, and the feelings he brought out in her. That was part of it, she was sure. Every time she’d started to grow really big, he’d been there, making her feel big. A feeling in her heart, expanding out and her body growing to match…

It was wonderfully, obnoxiously sappy. She had to love it.

The Mayor followed her gaze, and misunderstanding her thoughts, spoke at length. “The mayor would like to thank Mister Dave Strider for his tireless efforts in helping Miss Harley… despite it being on work hours,” The chief courier added in a stern tone. The mayor nudged her as if to say ‘get on with it!’. “Oh, right. Anyway. Please step up to the podium?”

“What?” Dave stepped over, looking surprised. “What? Oh, come on. This is all Jade!”

“I couldn’t have done it without your help,” Jade said sincerely, gazing down at him, eyes half-lidded and warm.

He flustered in the light. “Don’t be sappy, come onnnn….”

“I mean it!” She thought of a way to convince him that, yes, she really was saying it to be honest, and a wild idea came in front of her. In front of all these people, though? Part of her qualed at the thought…

But another part of her, proud and reveling in having such a massive, buxom bustline, retorted: ‘If we’re gonna be shy now, what’s even the point of having such magnificent boobs!?”

Jade thus leaned forward, her breasts clearing the floor, and encircling Dave’s whole body; he was caught up in boob-age, enwrapped and captured, and he managed a squeak of alarm as Jade tilted her body up, bouncing him even deeper into her cleavage, his whole body imprisoned and his face closer to her own-

And she moved her face to his own, and kissed him firm, softly, right on the mouth.

Lip to lip, the kiss deepened, like a promise she hadn’t realized she’d made

Dave initially didn’t respond, in his shock. And then, to her delight, he deepened the kiss on his own, sincere and honest as she knew he really was afraid to be. She didn’t think about it being in front of so many people, but later she thought: this was the best way to do it. To prove she was serious, showing it on her big moment.

The mayor, blushing, said something like “oh my!” The chief courier goggled for a moment, and she glanced at the mayor, and considered buying a few potions from Jade later, on the quiet.

“What’s going on?!” Terezi asked impatiently, her senses not able to compensate for her blindness this once.

“Dave and Jade are hooking up, I think,” Karkat said laconically on her head. “She’s doing the kinda thing to him that you like to do to me.”

“Boob sandwich?!”

“Yep.”

“Hah! I knew she’d do that!”

Chahut whistled, very much impressed. Konyyl nudged Azdaja by boob-bumping him; as it was, he’d been sitting down in front of her, his horns and height just right for her to rest her new bustline on top of his head. “This give you any ideas, eh?” She asked, grinning wildly.

“Yeah but I think you beat me to them,” He replied calmly.

The kiss kept going on, as the audience took it in. Dave and Jade, together? The overall vibe was less surprise, or shock or scandal (the town being a fairly amiable place, after all), and more ‘oh so that finally happened’. Not surprising, given the general opinion of the pair.

“All right, all right!” The chief courier said, shushing the smooching pair. “That’s enough! On your own time, you two!”

Jade allowed her breasts to settle, and down Dave went. He gracefully slid through her cleavage and back onto the floor, and awkwardly stepped away. He remembered the heat of her body, blushing intensely. He rarely showed clear emotion, or expressed himself too openly…

But now, he was smiling.

Dirk and Hal, in the crowd, both cracked their own smiles at the sight. “There ya go, little bro,” Dirk said softly.

“You owe me money now,” Hal said gleefully. “And here you bet it’d be another half-year before they hooked up!”

Dirk rolled his eyes and passed the construct some coins. “It was a safe bet. Took them this long to hook up!”

The ceremony ended soon enough, after that. People filed out, one after another, some of them pausing to congratulate Jade again. Others went to congratulate Dave.

But soon enough, the two of them were alone. Dave had some trouble marshalling his thoughts, the feeling of Jade’s warmth everywhere around him so beguiling that it was easier to just lose himself in the memory, not in the now....

He did his best, though. “Hey, Jade?” Dave asked.

Jade, thinking about the lovely feeling of Dave’s whole body in her cleavage, pinned and safe there, his heart beating into her whole-breast pulse, made a soft murmuring sound. “Mm?”

“What do you think about, eh… going on a walk or something. When things quiet down, I mean.”

She smiled sweetly. “I’d like that.” She leaned to the side and kissed him again.

It was the kind of kiss a lover gives.

[sunset-bound]

Beta Trolls Random Headcanons

(Part 2 :D)

gender, pronouns, sexuality & misc

(those take place on/apply to an everybody lives post game kind of AU)

Terezi Pyrope

xe/she/they | doesn't care about labeling but non-binary works for them

bisexual (no pref)

5'4 and teases karkat for being an inch shorter (other way around if we're going for 5'6 kat)

although not as strong as some of the others, xe is Very good at fighting and could kick most of their asses

sometimes dreams/vaguely remembers things from the pre-retcon timeline

Vriska Serket

she/her

bisexual (no pref)

5'9 and makes a point out of annoying anyone shorter than her

ngl I don't think about Vriska much

people constantly ask her if she's cosplaying a pirate but no that's just how she dresses

mainly shows affection through acts of service bc she finds it hard to admit vulnerability but still hugely appreciates the people who r patient with her as she grows

Equius Zahhak

he/him | I can't settle if I hc him as trans or not

demiaro bisexual (men pref)

5'10 & buff

Autistic

uses shades because he tries to look intimidating bc that's what he's been taught to look like but if you take off his shades he just looks nervous 90% of the time bc of eyebags, sweating, can't keep eye contact

also because he's photosensitive

actually really compassionate but has a reeeaaaally hard time getting the idea everything a figure of authority says is true out of his head

but once he does he goes head first into trying to make up for whatever shit he did and helped perpetuate

Gamzee Makara

they/them or any pronouns | this clowns knows not gender

bi? I dont know whats up with them

somewhere between 5'11 and 6'2, no one really knows (and I'm not sure either lol)

has scars from fighting nepeta in the meteor (again, everybody lives AU so everyone who dies in og murderstuck either just got hurt badly or got revived in some way)

has since made up with most ppl he hurt in the meteor, some still don’t talk to them much, but no one seems to hold much of a grudge anymore

they learned how to cook and bake for healthcare reasons and are surprisingly good at it

Eridan Ampora

any pronouns | genderqueer

bisexual

can't decide between short eridan or tall eridan uhhh 5'7

has peaked in their gender presentation and passes as genders only shrimp can see

will look like a completely different person every other day, one day she's an eccentric vampire from the 17th century, the next, they look like howl

they end up living with Dirk, Roxy and Callie for some time, he starts off reluctant but literally becomes best friends with them in no time

Feferi Peixes

she/her

bisexual (women pref)

5'6

most sportive of the trolls, girl gotta swim

she, nepeta and roxy adopt stray cats and dogs all the time and at some point they accumulate like 10 pets before finding Perma owners for them

finds it incredibly freeing not having to be the hair to an empire but definitely still uses her influence as one of the gods™ of earth-c to keep things going the right way to the best of her knowledge