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mirror-ralsei · 1 year ago

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THEORY: The Ink Blot Test & Symmetry in UTDR

This isn't as much of a typical theory as it is pointing out a design element that I think really needs more discussion: the distinctive style used in certain visuals in the game.

It's actually kind of difficult for me to describe. But there seems to be a recurring style used across many enemies and their weapons. This style is typically white in color, and typically very ornate and detailed-looking. It's easy to pick out because most of the shapes in Undertale/Deltarune's sprites are more simple...and because of one fact: all of these designs look symmetrical.

Here are the places I noticed this style appearing. Hopefully as you look at these, you can understand what I mean by a particular “ornate, symmetrical look”:

Reaper Bird's overworld appearance

Reaper Bird's body

Asriel's CHAOS BUSTER

Final Froggit

POSSIBLE: Knight Knight's Good Morningstar (listed here as “hammer”)

POSSIBLE: Memoryheads (they're in 3/4 view and melting-looking so it's harder to tell, but notice the curly parts and comb-teeth-like parts)

Gaster Blasters (using the unused version since it's easier to notice the style without the eyes)

(While most of these designs are technically not symmetrical if you look closely, they all definitely give the impression of being so.)

There's some other possible references to this style, but I'm just going to focus on the more distinct ones for now. And even some of the ones I've listed are debatable. If I had to pick just a few, I'd use Reaper Bird, their overworld sprite, and CHAOS BUSTER as the definitive examples.

So it's taken me a couple years of not quite being able to place why this style felt so familiar. At first I thought they might look like fractals...

...but that wasn't quite it. Finally, all of a sudden, I put my finger on it.

This design style reminds me of Rorschach blots.

For anyone who doesn't know, the Rorschach test is a psychological test involving the subject looking at inkblots and determining what these patterns look like to them. As you can see, the inkblots are very intricate and symmetrical - just like the examples above.

How does this connect to Undertale? Not too much. But Deltarune? Possibly a lot! Maybe that's the reason most of the instances where this style appears seem connected to Deltarune in some way.

For starters, inkblots are black and white. Specifically, they're black patterns on a white background. So far, every instance of these inkblot-like designs in UT/DR have been the inverse of this: they're all white patterns on dark or black backgrounds. We know light and dark have meaning in Deltarune, so this makes sense.

The ink blots' meaning are what you make of it. Your brain determines what real world things this abstract ink on paper looks like to you. This seems like it could tie into the concept behind the Dark Worlds, and how they seem like “interpretations” of items in real life: For example, the Halloween Pencil becomes a SpookySword. (It's possible the ShadowCrystals may play on this “perception” idea a bit too, but we don't know yet.)

Doctor Gaster seems to be conducting tests on us (Sound Test, SURVEY_PROGRAM, etc.) to observe our feedback. This thematically fits with this whole Rorschach blot test reference. I'm not sure if “WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK?” from Entry 17 and the egg man's flavor text 'What do you think?” are necessarily connected to this at all, but it does happen to fit the theme, lol.

All right, so we've established that there seems to be a symmetrical-looking style. We theorized that maybe they were supposed to evoke a similar look to Rorschach blot tests.

Now we're going to speculate even further.

So why exactly was this Rorschach blot looking style chosen? I think this symmetrical look might be based around reflections. After all, Deltarune involves a Light World and Dark World that reflect each other. And there are actually a few important references to reflections across Undertale and Deltarune.

Kris first appeared in Undertale as the PC's reflection in a puddle if Undertale is being run in Debug mode (Video by marxvee)

Reaper Bird is encountered in a mirror

Asriel and Kris' sides of their room are almost perfectly symmetrical in terms of layout and furniture

Kris' room in Ralsei's Castle has mirrored sprites of Asriel's trophies

The File Select text before Chapter 1's completion states “CHOOSE THE TARGET FOR THE REFLECTION” when copying a file, “IT IS IMMUNE TO ITS OWN IMAGE” when trying to copy a fiile onto itself, and “IT CONFORMED TO THE REFLECTION” when overwriting a file with a copied one

Mettaton NEO's attack is incredibly high but defenses are low, Spamton NEO's defense is incredibly high but attack is low

Gaster's motif of “666” is “mirrored” by 999: 999 appears in multiple places, eg. Chara's attack, stats of Grandpa Semi were “atk: 99999, df: 99999, hp: 999” (pointed out by LeedleLel's comment on this video by Lil' Alien).

The background of Jevil's fight is a mirrored image of a carousel.

The mirrored sinks in the right hospital room read “(It's a regular sink.)” and “(It's a clone of the other sink.)” Also: “(Perhaps there was originally one tall sink that was cut in half to create both of them.)”

All leg options in the GONER_MAKER are identical except the final one, which is mirrored. (pointed out by Shayy via Semi Frequent Undertale Facts)

The background of the GONER_MAKER itself is mirrored.

The background of the Asriel Dreemurr fight is mirrored.

The strange fog graphic before Papyrus' battle appears mirrored.

"I can't get any closer to the camera, I can't even see...my...little reflection." from the Spamton Sweepstakes

youtube

POSSIBLE: Gaster's belly face (upside down, details are white on black background, where Gaster's main face are black on white background)

POSSIBLE: Hot Fridge (inverse of the function of a normal fridge. look this one's loose lol, only including it because Alphys invented it and fridges are tied to Asgore's egg fridge, Snowdrake's mother, the Sans fridge call, and maybe the unused “rustfridge” in the Trash Zone (a place rife with possible Deltarune references))

POSSIBLE: Unused rooms 123 and 321 (123 is a relatively accessible unused room with interesting dialogue and 321 is...dark, and "empty").

So notably, the places we find this reflection motif in Undertale seem mostly connected to Deltarune: Kris is the PC of Deltarune, Reaper Bird is tied to Deltarune through Everyman, Mettaton NEO is similar to Deltarune's Spamton NEO, and Gaster is...well, probably the one who gave us our SURVEY_PROGRAM in the first place. Even the more tenuous examples of reflections seem plausibly Deltarune-related, such as the fridge Fun call and the Gaster belly face in Spamton's dumpster and a reflected dark room.

I'd like to expound a little bit on the File Select and sink dialogues. Both of these seem to be playing with a concept that could explain this reflection motif.

Copying a file in the File Select seems to mean we are “reflecting” it onto another slot: “CHOOSE THE TARGET FOR THE REFLECTION.” We cannot copy a file onto itself because “IT IS IMMUNE TO ITS OWN IMAGE.” If we overwrite an existing file with a copied one, “IT CONFORMED TO THE REFLECTION.” Interestingly, though, if you copy a file into an empty slot... “THE DIVISION IS COMPLETE.”

Not multiplying the file - dividing it in two. The original file is also implied to be changed in some way by this, because if you cancel the action of copying a file into an empty slot, “IT RETAINED ITS ORIGINAL SHAPE.” Meaning it would not have retained its original shape if it were copied.

The flavor text for the “cloned” sinks reflects this (hah) exactly. “(It's a regular sink.)” and “(It's a clone of the other sink.)” are followed by “(Perhaps there was originally one tall sink that was cut in half to create both of them.)” Aside from being relevant to the only tall sink we know of, Papyrus' in Undertale, this seems to be setting up a concept of “reflections” representing “an original being divided in two.”

That's about as far as I can take this with the context we have now. We don't know what exactly this reflection/division concept will mean in the plot of Deltarune, as it hasn't showed its hand yet. We don't know if the resemblance of that one recurring style to inkblots is intentional or just coincidence. But at least we have some possible explanation for why these motifs of symmetry and reflections keep showing up.

#undertale theory #deltarune theory #utdr theory #reposting this here without really editing it much so sorry if it's a bit messy!#also yeah this motif is what my url's referencing lol. i do wonder if the reason there's multiple ralseis is this reflection-division thing

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mistymountainsmc · 2 months ago

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An Overseer’s Bond

400 after becoming Overseer:

Niserra stood near the nexus point of her dimension, M-1923, waiting for the man who requested this meeting.

She let her eyes wander across the layout of this very familiar planet. It was a lush planet, with tall trees and thick moss coating the floor and trees of the forest. A pale fog danced beyond her eyesight, restricting her sight to about 20-30 feet all around her. This planet is meant to be a test for any otherworld travelers, much like TAHE, but more simple than an ‘open understanding of the multiverse.’ Niserra wasn’t too opposed to otherworld guests, but she’d prefer them to know how her dimension works before doing anything stupid.

As if he was summoned from her thoughts, she felt a presence added to her home. Niserra turned and saw a tall man with padded armour on his chest and shoulders, leaving his ashen grey arms and head bare, crusted like hardened magma. His yellow and purple eyes were cold and almost dark. His left arm displayed red and yellow runes, the same liking as hers, signifying his status as Overseer. Purple-pink streaks illuminated from his left eye of the same colour, veining like a scar.

“Overseer M-1923, I presume?” The man spoke, his voice as cold as his gaze.

“Yes, I can only assume you are Dresden?” Niserra replied. I was given his name, but he doesn't use mine. Elloise wouldn’t have left that out. But she is Elloise.

“You are correct,” Dresden answered. “Elloise Ludum said you were interested in my assistance.”

So he uses her name, but not mine. Interesting. Niserra continued to make mental notes of him. Gotta be careful. I don't know everything about him.

“Yes,” Niserra said. “I was told you can house entities that may be difficult for either me or my dimension to handle.”

Dresden started to walk, circling Niserra. “Yes. Any being from your dimension that gets too out of hand for you, I can deal with.” He finished circling, holding strong eye contact with her. “In exchange for a favour.”

His eyes showed little to no emotion, almost piercing her soul. His figure seemingly casting a shadow all around them, darkening the already dim forest. He seems to have as much Dark Side as a Sith. What could he want?

“I am willing to make that a reality,” Niserra responded, careful to not reveal any hint of concern.

Dresden backed away slightly, the shadows drawing away. “And what might you want for your side of the Bond?”

“Just a ‘safety precaution.’” She began her request.

“I am listening,” Dresden’s voice remained level.

“I have a project of mine,” Niserra started. “I have tested it before, but putting it into effect could be, almost lethal, to say the least.” She paused, hiding a shudder of who might disapprove of her motions. She straightened up, returning a cold gaze to him. “I am confident that my plan will work. But just in case,” She stepped closer to the man. Her blue runes spun, changing her blue eyes to blood orange. “I may need him contained.”

Dresden stood unfazed by her boldness, matching her cold gaze ten times. “Deal.”

He began spinning and tapping his runes in a pattern. The red and yellow runes blended together and formed a circular pattern on the palm on his right hand. He then stretched out that hand forward to Niserra, the runes slowly spinning.

Niserra in turn spun and tapped hers and a blend of pink, blue and orange runes formed the same pattern on her right palm. She met his eyes once more, still refusing to show any emotion. She held her exhale in and gripped his hand in a firm handshake. A bell tolled inside her head, ringing like a sound echoing her fate. Both of their runes spun in unison and shone brighter than before, disappearing seconds later into their hands.

Dresden promptly released his hand from hers, meeting her eyes once again. “When could I expect your part of the deal, if it is to fail?”

“It will not fail,” Niserra gritted her teeth at the comment of failing. She released a sharp exhale. “But, if it comes to it, one year from now.” That will be long enough for things to be set in time.

“Very well,” Dresden lowered his eyes just slightly. He began to tap and spin his runes in a different pattern than before. He opened his hand to his side and his yellow rune spun and left his extended arm, creating a portal into what she assumed to be his world. It was a musty hall of a sickly yellow colour and glitching lights, a rank smell matching the sick sense of the halls. Without hesitation, Dresden stepped through the portal into the room and said: “Until we meet again, Overseer M-1923.”

The portal closed, leaving Niserra in the forest alone. She calmly exhaled in the silence, thinking through the Bond. This will count as the second bond she’s made in her lifetime as an Overseer.

Her Jedi senses took over as she felt a nagging feeling, urging her of some danger. Niserra spun on her toes to search her surroundings. Nothing, not a person or animal on this decolate planet. The fog lay still and undisturbed. She furrowed her brows in confusion. That isn't normal, Niserra slowly turned her head as if something caught her eye. That couldn’t be caused by Dresden, my Jedi senses never set off with an Overseer before. And I specifically set this planet to be uninhabited and hidden, why would this happen here and now?

Niserra dug her heel into the ground, disturbing the blanket of moss. She looked down to her left arm, her runes continuing to slowly spin. Her countenance fell in sadness with the loss of her mentor, a fellow Overseer who long passed after giving his world to another. I wish you were here. Could really use your help right about now.

The forest lay still, not even the wind responding to her request. Niserra took a deep breath before spinning her pink rune and extended her arm, letting it fly and open a portal into a spacus void with stars speckling the dark canvas. She stepped in, her feet now on something solid than the soft moss of Loclenea. She promptly shut the portal and began to spin and tap the orange runes. “Now, back to work.” An orange hologram of information appeared in front of her. She tapped on it like a screen and it split into dozens of other screens circling around her. “Lets see how ready you are, Mythical Sausage.”

This is definitely not foreshadowing chapter 9 even though this is an AU of the AU, nope, none whatsoever…👀. Am I also doing this to get more traction on the AU itself? Not entirely, trying to do these so it’s somewhat easy to pick up on even if you haven’t read A Force Apart.

God bless!

#a force apart #Dresden Oakland #dresden #multiverse tales fan fic #multiverse tales oc #multiverse tales #overseer au

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brilla-brilla-estrellita · 10 months ago

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Crafting Wings

I finally remembered today that tumblr is a blog, and that in addition to whatever fandom nonsense I reblog, I can also post bloggy things on it. Obvious, right?

I am making a set of dragon wings for an event coming up in mid-June. They are of course inspired by Simon Snow and will be red dragon wings (though the pattern I bought from them is technically for a wyvern). I'm hoping that posting progress updates here will help me stick to it and actually get it done in time. I'm breaking it down into teeny tiny easy peasy steps and only looking at the very next step to try to keep the overwhelm and executive dysfunction at bay. This is likely to lead me down a path of "If I'd thought about it earlier, I could have..." But you know what? I always end up there anyway.

So first, I spent a long long long long long (long long long...) time trying to decide how to make these wings. I really wanted articulated wings, bonus if I could move them without obviously pushing or pulling or something. But looking at how people had made that happen was overwhelming. They require so much time and skill and I am prone to procrastination and crying and quitting when I mess up. I finally settled on this DIY Mechanical Wing kit by Chimera Wings. That would give me the frame for the wings, but they also have a sewing pattern (with printed AND video instructions) to make the covers for them!

This is what the contents of the kit looked like when I got it:

And this is the completed build! I almost didn't post this because I don't like the way I look, but you know what? Fuck that. I built something cool (using very simple, easy-to-follow instructions, sure) and I don't want to have to find a better fancier more flattering way to film that, so. I'm getting over it.

You can tell that I kinda struggle with the wing on my right side. I clearly need to stretch my arms out before wearing these. Truly. I tried it after I stretched and it's no big deal. Or maybe I'll add some sort of pulley after all. (HAH. Like I'll have time for that.)

Otherwise, the kit and wings are fantastic. It was so easy to put together and they feel very cool to wear. I should probably go write them a review...

I didn't actually takes pics of the next step, but I printed out the pattern on regular 8.5x11 paper and taped it together. It... was not very well done, but I'm hoping I got it close enough to not have messed up the pattern dimensions. After taping and then cutting out the completed pattern, I could move on to working with actual fabric!

I'm making a mock-up out of old sheets first because I have never once done any sewing project successfully the first time. I decided to mock-up only one wing instead of both, so this will surely be my downfall when I move onto the real deal.

The next two pictures are the front and back pieces for a single wing. I decided to cut them separately instead of at the same time by folding the fabric in half because every time I do more than one layer at a time, at least one of the layers comes out real fucked up. I blame being a lefty in a right-handed world. Scissors are of the devil.

The next step was to make buttonholes that are actually strap holes. I have a little baby basic machine, and it has some limitations. I discovered one of these limitations during my buttonhole test runs. As you can see, the machine-provided "buttonhole" stitches are just... lacking. I messed with a screw that controls the length of these stitches, but for some reason it can only be used to balance out the stitch lengths, not make them overall longer or shorter. I have no control for generally change stitch length. I only have the options presented to me on my stitch chooser knob. Alas, I have less than optimal buttonholes.

Pictured above: (Left) One very sad buttonhole test. (Right) A second buttonhole test in which one side is almost respectable and the other should be ashamed to call itself a buttonhole stitch.

Finally, I gave up and balanced the stitch lengths and just went with it. When I do the real deal, I will likely go use my friend's much fancier machine. For the mock-up, this is sufficient. The next three pictures show, with increasing zoom and blurriness, the completed buttonholes.

I am intentionally using very bright, contrasting thread so that when I inevitably fuck up, I can hopefully see the point of fuck up more clearly so as to rectify it on my next attempt.

And that brings us up to speed! Next Step: Pin the pieces together. That's it. That's the whole step. How many days will it take to overcome executive dysfunction and do it? Only time will tell.

As long as I can remember to update regularly, future posts should be quite short.

#yes #i also read butthole every single time #it is an unfortunate word #chimera wings #articulated wings #simon snow #dragon wings #diy craft #sewing #cosplay #i know i'm missing some very obvious tags here

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mulderscully · 2 years ago

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thank you so much everyone who helped me i'm so grateful. this whole week after my diagnosis has felt so hopeless and scary but i'm so humbled by all the support that has come my way. i am trying my hardest to get healthy again because i don't want to die the way my mom did.

under the cut i am gonna put more about what i have been going through with my type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease. i am going to be talking about food and eating patterns and somewhat disordered eating so tw for that in case you are curious.

i hope this can help some people though.

i have been very scared since my doctor told me i have fatty liver because i watched my mom die from cirrhosis of the liver - which is a real possibility for me now if i don't make changes.

i saw how awful the progression of that disease is.

when my mom was diagnosed she was already jaundiced and had full blown cirrhosis, which i did not understand at the time meant that it was irreversible and that she was absolutely going to die unless she recieved a live transplant. cirrhosis occurs when your liver has received so much damage that it has become scar tissue and cannot function any longer. your liver is an organ you cannot live without. if it is caught very early you have the option of a transplant, but since her disease had progressed so far her heart was not functioning properly and she had a 75% chance of dying on the operating table.

simple fatty liver usually does not cause symptoms and if it does, as with me, they are mild and can be ignored. this is why usually people do not know until it's too late and larger symptoms such as jaundice (yellow skin and eyes), red palms, swelling in the legs and stomach, confusion and hallucinations are present.

this has all scared me so much because i have ptsd from her illness and death, not only did i see all this happen to my mother very quickly- she was diagnosed in 2008 and died in 2010- but now i see it very differently. i understand now that she did not take her diabetes seriously enough, and taking her off the pedestal i have put her on has been hard. i remember how unhealthy she ate while diabetic, i remember how high her blood sugar was. i remember hiding bread and oreos from her. and now i understand that she must have had fatty liver and not known it, and because she already had hepatitis in the past AND was on a medication for depression known as cymbalta, her disease skyrocketed. she was not dieting, she was not exercising and she died without understanding how she got there so fast because non alcoholic fatty liver is SILENT until it's too late and it's not something doctors generally look for.

i do not blame my mother. she had a lot of mental and physical issues that i do not, and everyday i am so grateful that she raised me. but i now know that if they had tested her liver enzymes in say, 2005 or 2006, and told her what i know now, she may still be alive if she had changed her way of living. and that is hard.

when i was laying down for the gallbladder ultrasound there was something telling me it was my liver, and i imagined how scared she must have been in that situation but having no way to get better the way i still do. my mother loved me more than anything, and knowing she was going to die and leave me (her words) was something i know she felt guilty about until the final weeks of her life. i fully believe if she knew what i know, she would have changed.

i am not jaundice, i do not have serious symptoms except occasional discomfort in my abdomen. the craziest part is that this all happened on the anniversary of my mother's death, june 24th.

if she is still somewhere in existance, maybe she was warning me to change before it was too late.

the truth is until now i did not understand the connection between what you eat and your liver, especially if you are diabetic or prediabetic. i am trying really hard not to blame myself, but the truth is my diet for the last few years have been absolutely atrocious. i would wake up and have a sugary iced coffee and a chocolate croissant every day. for lunch i would have pizza or something fast and easy like that and when i got home i would have pasta almost every day. then i would have snacks like chocolate covered pretzels or a pint of ice cream like it was nothing.

if i had been more careful, maybe i wouldn't be where i am now. but the past is the past and truth be told i have an addiction to sugar. the first two weeks after my diabetes diagnosis i felt insane. i cried in the grocery store because i wanted to get candy and soda so bad. it was physically painful not to. but... now a month later those cravings are gone. i do not even WANT a ben & jerrys - as if something in my body switched. and that step was hard, but it has been worth it.

the hardest part has been finding food in the us that is actually healthy and not MARKETED to be healthy. these are different things and i learned that recently too.

i want to make it clear that i am not shaming how anyone eats. i am not trying to lose weight because i don't like looking fat. i actually realized i am going to miss my fat body as i start to slim down. but i have to do this to live- this is not the case for everyone but it is for me.

now, if you made it this far i want to tell you some warning signs that i was seriously ill that i ignored for months.

1. i noticed random parts of the skin my body getting darker, specifically beneath and between my breasts and behind my neck. this is a sign of diabetes. i also noticed my skin would tear very easily, specifically my hands.

2. i had to pee all the time. like. literally every 15-20 minutes. at one point i was getting up to pee about 7 times a night. and when i did it smelled like liquid cane sugar. this was my first "oh shit" moment.

3. this is taboo to talk about but i suspected i was diabetic when i suddenly got a really severe yeast infection.

4. my skin was breaking out like it never had. i also had light colored stools.

5. oddly dizzy and feeling weird. down the list bc everyone knows this one.

6. lastly. pain in my upper right stomach, under the ribs. if you feel pain here and are either diabetic or prediabetic, ask your doctor to check your liver enzymes and if you cannot see a doctor consider making changes to your life style within your personal capacity.

anyway, thank you for helping me and if you read this thank youuu for that as well and i hope it's somewhat helpful to someone out there 🫶🏻

#personal

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skellebonez · 1 year ago

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Celestial Crossing (A MoonStone, SWKxChang'e, ship fic): Chapter 5- Double Surprise

This chapter WILL have spoilers for S4! Minor ones.

I have been stuck on this chapter for so long, but it's finally done! I think it's gonna be worth it to see the surprises that are showing up in this one.

AO3 Link.

"So... What do you think?"

Chang'e hummed, chewing slowly with her eyes closed in deep thought. Or at least Sun Wukong hoped she was in deep thought. Her poker face was so much better than he ever could have guessed before really getting to know her.

It felt like ages before she swallowed the bite of food in her mouth, letting out another hum before nodding her head.

"It's... Amazing!" She said, chuckling when Li-Yan chirped in a pattern that mimicked the sounds their mother made. "You're getting much better at baking, Mooncake! MK is going to love this."

"Really!?" Sun Wukong exclaimed with excitement. He had to hold back from spinning around, not wanting to jostle the child in his arms.

"Really," Chang'e assured. "You know I am always honest about my opinions on food. If I say it's good I really think it's good."

It was a genuine moment of basic and simple domestic normalcy. Just Sun Wukong, Chang'e, and their baby Li-Yan in Sun Wukong's lap. They sat in the kitchen, taste testing a new batch of vegetarian desserts that the king wanted to make as a special surprise for MK getting so far in his training. Just making nice little tarts and buns and having a good mid-morning.

It had been a few days since Li-Yan's surprise entrance into the world and they had finally gotten into a bit of a routine. The little one had less trouble staying awake for long periods of time and needed less energy to sustain them-self through the day, so much so that neither parent felt drained enough to immediately need sleep after a feeding session. And true to his word, Macaque had left after that first night once he was certain that Li-Yan would be sustained without assistance.

Nothing could possibly ruin it.

Nothing.

........ of course that was too much to hope for.

They really should have guessed something like this would happen eventually. Or at least Sun Wukong should have. He KNEW Macaque. He KNEW the other monkey demon couldn't resist scheming in some way. He didn't know how to have fun without scheming anymore.

But not even the Monkey King himself could have seen this one coming.

How was he supposed to guess that, before the clock had even struck noon, that the Six-Eared Macaque would stumble out of a sudden (and very shaky) shadow portal in the wall, barely making it half a food out of the wall before immediately face plant

"Uh-"

"Did your friend just die on our kitchen floor?"

"He's not dead!" Sun Wukong yelped quickly, handing over Li-Yan to Chang'e carefully. "I don't think he can even die anymore, man's like a computer virus that just keeps coming back. But..."

He trailed off slowly, moving toward the body in front of them even slower. Macaque was alive, his breathing making his back and chest rise and fall was enough evidence of that, but he was... definitely unconscious.

He would never just lay down like that, not around Sun Wukong. Their relationship had started to mend over time, but Macaque never seemed to relax around the other immortal monkey fully. Understandably so, he supposed.

So this was... off. Disconcerting in a way that the Monkey King couldn't put his finger on.

Then something inside, INSIDE, of Macaque's shadow moved, the top of a very small head peaking out quickly before dipping back inside the darkness cast by the lights overhead.

... he didn't...

"Does he normally have little guys in his shadow?" Chang'e asked. Sun Wukong had a feeling she already knew the answer, however, despite voicing the question.

"Definitely not," Sun Wukong said. Macaque couldn't have... "This is... not no- ... oh. Oh THAT DUMBASS."

"Uh?" Was all Chang'e could say, so surprised by the outburst she couldn't think of something else.

"He copied me! AGAIN!"

“I don't really think that-” Chang'e started, pausing only when she saw the look on her love's face. It was a mix of frustration and concern, something she had only seen on him in very specific circumstances. She wasn't entirely versed on the relationship the two immortals had, though she knew a lot more than most people. She could tell that, as annoyed and not 100% trusting in the other the Monkey King could be... he still held some amount of care for Macaque. “...that is the most pressing matter right now. If he copied you? We can chastise him for it later. For now, we should check and see if he is ok.”

“... you're right,” Sun Wukong said, almost if his mind was elsewhere and it had taken him a couple of minutes to register her words (and by all accounts, that was entirely possible). “But he's OUT. If he hasn't moved by now, listening to me yell, then he is really unconscious.”

“True...” Chang'e said, petting Li-Yan between their ears as she pondered on what to do. “I would say we should let him rest, but if our suspicions are right... it may be best to wake him backup.”

"Maybe if I kick him really hard-"

"Sun Wukong!" Chang'e snapped. "You are not kicking an unconscious man in front of our child!"

"Aww, not even a little?"

"Absolutely not, you cannot be a bad influence on them!"

“Ok, ok!” Sun Wukong said with a hearty laugh. “I wasn't actually gonna do it anyway, no need to literally kick him while he's down. But... hmn... how are we going to wake him up... We could try shaking him or yelling, but I really don't think that's a good idea in this scenario.”

“Do we have anything with a strong scent that you think would work?” Chang'e suggested. “We don't have smelling salt, but maybe there's something else we can use here.”

“Not a bad idea! And I think I know just the thing...” Sun Wukong agreed quickly. Chang'e watched as the Monkey King rushed off and returned just as quickly, with a bottle of peppermint extract. ”With our noses this should do the job well enough.“

”Just as long as you're sure he won't react too violently at the smell,“ Chang'e said with a soft chuckle.

Li-Yan watched on in curiosity, head tilting left and right. Their ears flicked in time with their tail, and the way they moved their head in her arms almost mimicked the way a small rabbit might sniff the air. Hmn...

They WERE made up of parts of her bunny bots, not just the original ones but also parts that Sun Wukong had managed to salvage and put together. It was likely that some of those parts were from some of the person sized robots she used within her mooncake factory. They were built to have sensors that could detect the ”smell“ of things like smoke and and burnt or spoiled mooncakes for safety. Perhaps they worked together with the unintended magic they tapped into to create them to change that...

There was a lot about their little bunkey baby that neither of them knew about.

But there was also plenty of time for them to worry about that later.

For the moment, the two of them kept a watchful eye on the shadow monkey's face as Sun Wukong rolled him onto his back carefully. He looked as if he was merely sleeping, the only way for them to know he wasn't was them seeing him fainting before them earlier. Sun Wukong opened the bottle of peppermint extract and carefully waved it under Macaque's nose. They could have sworn they heard the softest tiny little kitten like hiss from somewhere, but neither could really take any time to focus on that when Macaque suddenly groaned, lifting a hand to attempt to weakly push away the offending odor.

“What the fu-”

“Language,” Sun Wukong said quickly, closing the bottle and putting it in his pocket before carefully grabbing the other's hand. “You can curse all you want when you're NOT around my kid. Let's get you sat up.”

“Aw man...” Macaque groaned and his face fell instantly, not fighting the Monkey King as he helped him sit up with only a little effort. “I feel like I just got hit like a truck.”

“You look like you got punched in the face,” Sun Wukong countered. “Or swapped face masks with a raccoon, with those eye bags you have there.”

“That bad, huh?” Macaque said with a groan, rubbing his eyes in clear exhaustion. “I'd... hoped I wouldn't need to ask for any help actually but I kinda... overestimated things a little.”

“Are you ok?” Chang'e asked, slowly coming around to kneel on the other side of him so she wouldn't just be looking at his back. “Be honest, we can't help you if you lie to us.”

“I mean,” Macaque shrugged, putting a hand behind his back with a flinch as they all heard the soft of a soft hiss once again. They didn't miss how his eyes widened and he looked around in worry. “I'm just exhausted. And hungry. I'm fine outside that.”

“And the thing in your shadow?”

There was the sound of a breathless squeak that escaped from the shadow monkey, not unlike the sound of a deflating balloon.

”That's... uh...“

"What were you thinking?" Sun Wukong asked, face in his hands as fingers gently massaged his forehead. "No, no I shouldn't ask that. WHY WEREN'T YOU THINKING? That's a much better question. You very literally just finished explaining the dangers of this stuff to us a few days ago."

"I was thinking!" Macaque snapped, hand still behind him. "I just... didn't exactly expect what I got?"

"What, exactly, do you have?" Chang'e asked softly. Li-Yan chirped in curiosity, little paw reaching out to wave towards Macaque. “Like I said. We kind of saw something earlier, so you can't exactly hide them from us.”

"OK, don't... just don't spook them, alright?" Macaque said slowly. "They're really, REALLY, shy."

Sun Wukong tilted his head in mild curiosity, but nodded slowly. He could see his wife nodding as well behind him from the corner of his vision. He could also see her eyes widening as Macaque slowly pulled his hand forward, and his shadow... slowly started vanishing before their eyes.

In it's place, once his hand was pulled in front of him, were two very small baby monkeys. They were black with tiny red spots and wide eyes filled with confusion, a little fear, and lots of curiosity. And they were so...

Small.

Barely bigger than a couple of fingers, one easily able to sit in Macaque's palm like a kitten while the other clung to his wrist. Both had their long tails wrapped around whatever part of Macaque's arm or hand they could, and the same small hissing sound escaped from one of them.

Well, that explains that little mystery.

"... ta da?"

”You made TWO of them!?“ Sun Wukong whisper yelled, gesturing to the babies.

“Not intentionally!” Macaque snapped, flinching as one of the babies let out a soft chirp. “No no, shh, I'm sorry that was too loud, uh... They have sensitive ears. Like me.”

"Like their..." Sun Wukong started, trailing off slowly. "Wait a minute..."

"Oh Macaque, you DIDN'T-" Chang'e said.

"Did you. Make two magic babies... without a partner?" Sun Wukong asked slowly. "After you explicitly explained to us that we would need to work together to keep our SINGLE magic baby intact?"

"I already said I didn't make two intentionally!" Macaque insisted. "They just... happened. Like Li-Yan, sort of?"

"They're so small," Chang'e said in awe and concern. "Surely regular macaque babies aren't this tiny."

"No, that's a side effect of the magic," Macaque admitted with a nod. "They probably would have been roughly normal sized if I had used more than I did or they were just one being."

The one sitting in his hand dunked their head behind his fingers, barely peaking out from behind them. The other hissed softly, once again like a feral kitten. Though they didn't actually appear to be that scared... perhaps they were testing the limits of those around them. Both of the other parents couldn't help but notice that the hissing one was slightly smaller than the one hiding themselves away, if only by a little bit.

Then the larger one let out a yawn, stretching out one of their hands.

"They have little beans," Chang'e said with wonder. "They have toe beans on their hands!"

"I also have beans on my hands," Sun Wukong muttered softly.

"So do I, Wukong, you ain't special," Macaque muttered back in turn, carefully pressing on the soft paw pads on the palms of the child as he grabbed their hand between his fingers oh so gently. It was the most gentle motion Sun Wukonhg had ever seen the other make in all their lives together. "They're so... SOFT."

"They're brand new," Sun Wukong said with a shrug. "Of course they're... HOW new are they? Don't tell me they were literally were born literally yesterday, please tell me they're older than that."

The lack of answer and the way Macaque quickly tightened his mouth into a thin line as he looked away told hem both everything they needed to know.

"They're only a DAY old?" Chang'e whispered in concern.

"I hate being right... Macaque..." Sun Wukong said slowly. He took in a deep breath, brushing his hair back with a sign. "OK... ok ok ok...Can you please explain why I just happen to be looking at what appear to be 2 brand-new born monkeys and how, exactly, we got here?"

"Who also seem to be made out of your shadow," Chang'e chimed in.

"Yes, that too," Sun Wukong agreed with a nod. "I'm all ears."

"... I wasn’t copying you this time-"

"Lies!"

"I'm not lying!" Macaque snarked back instantly. "I'd... I'd wanted to do this for a while. That's actually how I knew what you did. I'd already looked into it for me."

"How long is a while?" Sun Wukong asked in suspicion.

"... 3 centuries, give or take?"

"3 c-THREE centuries?" Sun Wukong balked, blinking with his mouth agape for a moment. "You planned them for THAT long and you STILL... What?"

"This wasn't supposed to go this way!" Macaque half explained. "I thought I genuinely had everything planned out perfectly, I don't know how THEY happened. I've never actually seen a single person bring two of them about before. I didn't even think it was possible."

"Well..." Sun Wukong said with a shrug. "You're the 6 Eared Macaque. Maybe that has something to do with it."

"Why don't you just... start at the beginning?" Chang'e suggested softly. "Walk us through your planning and what you thought would happen, not from the other day but waaaaaay back."

The change in Macaque's demeanor was slow. First even more tense, then like he was considering the offer, and then he finally relaxed with a sigh before he nodded.

"... You remember how I would always help out with the little ones on the mountain? I'd always loved taking care of kids," Macaque started. "Didn't matter if it was the monkeys on the mountain or the humans that Azure got us to help. I always had a weak spot for making sure the little ones were ok."

"Yeah, I remember that you used to keep them occupied with little shadow puppets back then," Sun Wukong admitted. "Especially the duck ones."

"Kids LOVE ducks," Macaque said with a sage nod. “It honestly wasn't hard to make sure they were entertained while the adults around them cleaned up or did work or whatever else was needed. I'm pretty sure Peng thought it was funny that I was constantly volunteered to be a ”glorified babysitter“, but the one thing I'll give Azure is that he knew I liked it. That's why he always had me take on that job.”

“Wait,” Chang'e said slowly, tilting her head a bit in thought. “By Azure and Peng... do you mean the Azure lion and Golden Winged Peng?”

“Yeah,” Sun Wukong answered for Macauque with a nod. "The four of us were in a Brotherhood together with YellowTusk Elephant and DBK, remember?”

“I thought those names sounded familiar," Chang'e said with a nod. “I didn't get to hear a lot during the banquets I was able to go to in the Celestial realm back then, but it was hard to miss the talk of Celestial warriors who had decided to remain in the mortal realm and started fighting along side the Monkey King himself.”

“I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you heard about all that,” Macaque said with a nod. “Even if you could only go to banquets on occasion I imagine that we all caused a LOT of trouble for everyone up there.”

Sun Wukong chuckled at that, looking more than a little smug at the memory for a moment before a softer expression overtook his face. If his companions didn't know him as well as they did they might not have recognized it as the melancholic look it was. As if the weight of all that they had done in the past had suddenly crashed down on him in an instant.

But the moment was gone as quickly as it came, the sage nodding at Macaque to continue.

“You know how the story went,” Macaque continued. “We fought the Celestial realm, got kicked in the teeth, Monkey King got trapped under a mountain, journey west, so on and so forth. Got revived, headed on my way after ditching LBD.”

There was a noticeable tension in Sun Wukong’s shoulders at the mention of HER.

It was clear there was a lot that Macaque was glossing over, but neither adult wished to press the matter. Not when they already knew the outcome of those details. Chang'e had already been filled in on what she needed to know before, that Macaque had died and been revived by the Lady Bone Demon and had been running from his obligation to work for her and bring her back. She knew that, somehow, he had lost his life in a fight with her husband.

The details weren't necessary when the two of them clearly had been trying to move past it, had already accepted what had happened and were mending the rift between them.

“And you just... happened to find out about how to make magic children on the way?” Sun Wukong asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Kinda?” Macaque said with a shrug. “It's not like I set out looking to have a kid, I was on the run and didn't know when I wouldn't have to worry about a certain lackey anymore. Turns out he was never looking for me to begin with, after I ditched the skeleton key... but that was probably because she'd told him about her ”destiny“ predictions and he knew it wasn't time to act.”

“Sooooo, where to the magic kids factor in again?”

"I'm getting there!" Macaque said with a huff. "She said to start at beginning and I have a flair for the dramatic, give me a break."

Sun Wukong would have said something snappy back, he really would have. That had been his relationship with Macaque since the defeat of Lady Bone Demon. Macaque says something snarky and he snapped back and they exchanged barbs back and forth for a while.

But then he saw how the little twins, held so softly in the hands of the shadow monkey, were so curiously patting at each other's faces. As if trying to memorize each other. And how Macaque watched them with so much softness in his eyes.

"OK, I won't interrupt anymore,“ Sun Wukong said with a nod.

That was a lie. But he would make an ATTEMPT not to.

”Thank you... now... Oh yeah,” Macaque readjusted himself, making himself comfortable as he continued. “When you spend a lot of your life as a wanderer you start to hear things a lot more and you pick up on patterns. You hear the same stories, you notice people doing similar things miles apart from each other. That's how I first heard the tales of these magic constructs, these children that those unable to bear their own children would create in the hopes they could have a family.”

Both other adults nodded, encouraging the other to continue as they listened with genuinely rapt attention.

"It wasn’t hard to find some of the sources of these tales once I knew where to ask," Macaque answered with a shrug. "It wasn’t like I had much else to occupy my mind at the time. This was YEARS before I started on my “let's find the Monkey King and try to take vengeance every few years” thing, so I didn't really have any idea of what I even wanted to do with my renewed life. I just existed. I didn't know what to do with myself at all.“

"So you just gravitated toward the stories?" Chang'e prompted.

"Sorta," Macaque answered. "It really started when I tried to settle down in a village for a while actually. There was this older couple who was really well known by everyone who had been trying to have kids for years but it just never worked out for them. Then one day... Boom. Kid."

"Just... suddenly kid?" Sun Wukong asked.

"One day they had no kid, the next day?" Macaque continued. "Kid. Not quite a new born, but not more than a few weeks old. And clearly not made from traditional means, which the couple didn't even bother trying to hide. They actually kind of bragged about how well what they tried out worked. And the villagers were so happy for them."

"Sounds like a very accepting place you sound," Chang'e mused softly.

"It was. I just... seeing all those people around that kid, proclaiming it as a miracle... something just clicked in my head. I thought, "heck, I can do that", so," Macaque said with a shrug. "I started looking around, asking questions. I may have gotten a job at a nursery-"

"You worked in a NURSERY!?"

"YOU SAID NO MORE INTERRUPTING."

"YOU WORKED WITH BABIES."

"YOU SAY THAT LIKE YOU EXPECTED ME TO EAT THEM!"

"BOYS!" Chang'e interrupted, voice loud and firm but not quite a shout. "You're scaring the kids."

Sun Wukong and Macaque instantly froze, not realizing they had fallen so easily into their usual bickering. Both bristled, fur sticking up as they realized the mistake they had made as they looked down.

Macaque's twins were no longer holding onto him as they were before, one ear pressed into his arm while another had let go to cover the other. Li-Yan, meanwhile, was pressed into Chang'e, little ears pointed back and their face plate displaying only a !? in place of their usual face display.

"No no no, shhh," Macaque said, being the one to jump into action first. He covered the twins with his hand gently, chirping soft assertions of comfort to them. "I'm sorry, daddy's sorry, shhhh..."

Sun Wukong jolted, hands already gently petting Li-Yan's ears in an attempt to do much the same comforting, Macaque's words making all this feel much less bizarre and much more real than it had before.

Macaque was a father now.

... that was not something that the Monkey King had ever expected to acknowledge, even in the times long ago. Long before their falling out, long before even the brotherhood days.

"... what made you stop?" He asked carefully, taking Li-Yan from Chang'e to hold them in his own lap for a moment. "With everything you know about the process you must have been doing research for a long time."

"Years," Macaque admitted. "I wanted to know everything about this particular process, how wide spread it was and what different methods there were. It's extremely uncommon, but not taboo. Just difficult, and with easier ways to do the same thing around, like the river in the women's country, most people would opt to try something different first. I left that village after a few decades so people wouldn't question why I never aged. I tried to pick it back up after... after the first time I came after you. And I did, for a while. But the desire for revenge kept taking over and distracting me. Then... I saw our Not Mayor again."

"He was trying to get you to pay back your debt?" Chang'e asked.

"No. He just.. was smirking at me. Like he was planning something, or sending me a warning. Knowing the Lady Bone Demon was close to coming back just... made me give up," Macaque finished with a shrug. "I didn't see the point in trying after that. It was too dangerous to try knowing she could send me on the run at any moment. And then I uh... heard you got a successor."

"And we know the story from there?" Sun Wukong chanced slowly. "Outside of some of your motivation."

"More or less," Macaque said with a shrug. "Anything I haven't told you about that isn't relevant to these two."

"Why did you make two babies, though?" Chang'e asked softly, concern laced in her tone. "You were almost completely drained by them feeding on your essence when you came to us."

The way Macaque immediately clamped his mouth shut and looked away told Sun Wukong that there were only two options. And one he was certain was less likely because Macaque knew how to plan ahead.

"Oh my gosh it was-" "CEASE." "- an accident." "SHUT UP!"

Sun Wukong couldn’t help it. He TRIED to stop. Really he did. But...

"Stop laughing at me you asshole!"

"La-ha-ha-language!" Sun Wukong barely managed to wheeze out between laughs. He carefully placed Li-Yan on the floor between them, the little one looking up at him with a confused chirp as he double over in laughter. "Sorry, I'm sorry, it's just... the fact you decided to finally have a kid because WE had a kid and then you wanted that kid so bad you accidently magicked up TWO kids is. KINDA FUNNY. You... you failed successfully!"

It took no time at all for the Monkey King to fall to the floor again, trying his best to hold in his laughter at Macaque's accidental super success at baby making.

"You're lucky there are children here or I'd kick your-"

"Can we please stop cursing in front of the babies?" Chang'e said, firm and a small lilt of frustration edging into her tone. "And maybe try to work out how Macaque is going to take care of two children? Li-Yan alone is enough to drain us a lot, and it's probably not healthy or safe for you to constantly pass out because they need to sustain themselves."

"... ah, yeah," Sun Wukong said after a moment, staring at Macaque with realization. "That's why you just kinda. Face planted on our floor, isn't it? You can't feed them at the same time. It's not sustainable for you."

"It is!" Macaque protested. "I just... need some assistance afterwards..."

"That's one way to put it," Chang'e said, matching her partner in tone for the first time in their conversation. "Look... You helped is out. A LOT. And clearly you need help now. So, whatever you need? We'll help you."

"You will?" Macaque asked, staring at Chang'e with a sideways glance. "I mean, I kinda expected you to because you kinda owe me, but I also expected you to... I dunno. Need convincing."

"We're not the Lady Bone Demon, Mac," Sun Wukong said after a moment. "Even if you hadn't helped us? We would still have helped you just because you need help."

"Oh," Macaque said, as if he was genuinely surprised.

Sun Wukong had a feeling that he actually was.

"Like I said, let us do for you what you did for us," Chang'e said firmly. "Stay here, we'll make sure you and the kids are good until we all know they're stable. Deal?"

"Sounds like I'm the only one getting a good end of this stick."

"Take the stick before we smack ya with it," Sun Wukong muttered under his breath. He couldn't help it.

It was just a habit for them to take shots at each other.

"Do I have to keep you two in separate rooms?" Chang'e asked. "Cause I can call in the bunny bots to babysit each of you separately while I make lunch."

"That's not-"

"FOOD?"

Chang'e and Sun Wukong stared at Macaque, the excitement in his voice not easy for either of them to miss.

"... I've been extraneously hungry since the babies started feeding on me," He said, clearing his throat in embarrassment.

"Yeah, that tracks," Sun Wukong said with a nod. "We've been the same since we had Li-Yan. But with two I bet it's even... worse, what are your twins doing?"

Macaque must have been incredibly distracted by the promise of sustenance because, before he knew it, the twins had crawled away from his arm and were sitting in front of him. They started at Li-Yan, who returned the favor by staring right back at them, before letting out a questioning monkey like chirp in their own little digital sounding way. And the twins, clearly confused, tilted their heads as they chirped back their own question in response.

The three adults watched as the 3 little ones stared at each other, heads tilting in almost perfect sync as they tried to understand the other tiny being before them.

Then. Slowly. One of the babies reached out...

And slapped one of Li-Yan's ears before rushing backwards, grabbing their twin and forming back into the taller monkey's shadow.

The three parents watched in stunned silence as Li-Yan froze, as if unable to process what had just happened. Themselves also taking a few moments to process what happened.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

Then they all watched in confusion as the robot baby started to LAUGH.

The amount of relief that rushed through the adults at that exact moment could not be put into enough words for the author to describe. But you can imagine it was a lot.

"Why would they do that?" Chang'e asked in curiosity. "Is it because Li-Yan looks like a rabbit but sounded like a monkey?"

"Probably," Macaque said, clearly looking like a man who was fully expecting to be ejected from the moon base. "Once the twins get used to them they likely will treat them the same as any other baby around them."

"Aw, Li-Yan has their first little playmates!" Sun Wukong said with delight. "But my gosh they are shy."

"Yeah," Macaque admitted with an awkward chuckle. "They uh... tend to hide when they get spooked. The first time I sneezed around them was an experience. but they should pop back out in their own time. Probably when they're hungry. They tend to sleep when I do, but they've woken be up to feed before."

"Sounds like we need to work around that," Sun Wukong mused softly. "We don't want them draining you while we're all passed out."

"We can take shifts like we did when Li-Yan was first born," Chang'e suggested. "All of us. One of us stays awake when Macaque is up in case the babies drain him too much again, and one of us stays awake while he sleeps in case they drain him in his sleep."

"You are going to babysit me and my children?" Macaque asked in dismay.

"Sadly, you have proven Sun Wukong correct in one regard," she answered solemnly. "You cannot be trusted with your own well-being."

"Ok, you got me there," Macaque admitted with a nod, which was not what either had expected. He stood up, slowly and carefully. "I'm not above realizing that I really messed this up, I should have at least had someone to watch me while I did this. It's like weight lifting with no spotter."

"Just don't do it again," Sun Wukong said as he stood as well, picking Li-Yan up as he did so. "Now... I am hungry again already, because SOMEONE was munching on my energy the entire time we were talking."

He smirked, immediately bringing Li-Yan up to his face to pretend to each them, much to their squealing delight. Even Macaque seemed to find this sweet, a soft smile ALMOST gracing his face.

"What do you want to eat, Macaque?" Chang'e asked with a smile of her own.

"Food," Macaque answered quickly.

"...you can be more specific, MAYBE?" Sun Wukong said.

"Edible food."

"Don't make me wish I disagreed with my wife, Macaque," Sun Wukong said, clearly joking.

Both adults were surprised by Macaque actually chuckling in response this time.

"I know you would never, you lovesick dork. I just don't have a food preference, I'm starving," the shadow monkey said as he stretched. This turned out to be a mistake, as he had to grab onto the counter to keep steady. "Ah, lightheaded. Making two kids on your own really takes a lot out of you."

"Would that technically make you their mom?" Chang'e asked, rubbing her chin as she pondered this.

"Momcaque," Sun Wukong offered so helpfully.

"I will do anything you ask me to if you NEVER call me that again."

"Then tell me. What are their names?" Sun Wukong asked in curiosity.

The silence that greeted the question made the air around the trio of parents feel incredibly awkward.

"You've planned this for CENTURIES and they don't have NAMES YET!?"

"I was planning on naming then after I got to know them!"

"THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!"

"You didn't NAME YOUR OWN BABY AT FIRST!"

"WE DIDN'T PLAN ON A BABY AT ALL!"

Chang'e sighed.

This was going to be a very long co-habitation.

"I can call them Thing 1 and Thing 2 until I figure out their names," Macaque said uncertainly, shrugging vaguely as he held the larger of the twins.

"You cannot be serious," Sun Wukong said. "Can't you think of any better nicknames? Something? Anything?"

Macaque frowned, watching the smaller twin viciously attempting to bite his tail, which wasn't even the least bit successful or painful given her size. Held the larger twin, feeling the purr radiating through her entire tiny body.

"... Rumble and Savage?"

"That-!... actually, that's not bad," Sun Wukong admitted with a nod. "The little one who smacked Li-Yan, they're smaller-"

"She," Macaque corrected. "They're both girls."

"Oh my gosh, you're a Girl Dad," Sun Wukong said without even missing a beat. "Mei is going to tease you forever."

"I'll let that one slide, FOR NOW. Look, I don't know how long it's gonna take me to figure out names for them," Macaque admitted with a shrug. "I had A name picked out, but I either need a new set of names or I need to pick one that matches."

"You really don't need to-

"They. Will. Have. Matching. NAMES," Macaque said with insistence. "It's what I want so that's what they're gonna get."

"Ok, ok," Sun Wukong said with a chuckle, admitting defeat. "Is there anything else we need to know?"

"Nah, I told you pretty much everything there is to tell."

There was no way in any of the known realms, from the Celestial to the Underworld, that Macaque would ever tell them the rest of the story...

"And what, exactly, do you need that many orders of bao for?" Pigsy asked with a raised brow.

He was onto him.

"You've seen my kwoon, Pigsy," Macaque said with practiced nonchalance. "Place is a mess. Last time Bai He came by she threatened to clean it up herself when I wasn't around and, ya know, I think her dad would actually kill me if any of my weapons hurt her. So I'm in for a long project to prevent my imminent demise."

#Monkie Kid #lego monkie kid #fanfic #sun wukong #monkey king #chang'e #celestial crossing au #six eared macaque #liu er mihou #rumble and savage #hehehehe

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m34gs · 1 year ago

Note

Please tell me what sort of Saw trap each house warden in Twisted Wonderland would design if they were the mastermind in a Saw movie.

Hello friend! Well, this is a fun ask! I am actually very excited to get into this, ahahaha. You have no idea how eager I got when I read this ask. I literally went "AHA" and started grinning. I'm going to write each scenario out as if the Housewarden is a Jigsaw Apprentice, and I might even take it a little further and describe what kind of apprentice they would be.

I'm putting a cut, both for length and because these will get a bit graphic. Please see the tags for trigger/content warnings.

Riddle - Riddle is the Rule Boy, By the Book, Stick to the Pattern. The one who adamantly protests every time to the other Saw masterminds "It's not a trap, it's a TEST".

Because of this, Riddle's tests are not overly imaginative, but they get the job done. I think, due to the nature of his signature spell, Riddle would lean toward decapitation being the end result in his traps. It's easy, effective, and doesn't prolong suffering. I like to think he's not one to wish others to suffer. Indeed, if he was a Jigsaw Apprentice, he'd be the one to parrot John Kramer the most about learning to love and cherish the life you have and atoning for past mistakes.

The rules for Riddle's test would be simple. "Find the key to unlock your chains in a certain amount of time, or a saw will cut your head off". Of course, the tricky part is getting the key. No one escapes a Saw trap without some kind of mark, be it visible or invisible. The placement of the key I will leave up to the imagination, as it will have to be specific to the individual in the trap or it will mean nothing. (Keep in mind, canon placements have been: at the other end of the room needing a mad dash that puts co-victims in danger to get to it, in the stomach of a heavily sedated companion in the trap, surgically implanted inside the victim's own eye...etc.). If the victim survives, they are off the hook. Riddle wouldn't dare mess up that part of the game. If they die, he follows John's example and dutifully cuts a puzzle piece out of their flesh, the symbol of that person's "missing piece" that prevented them from winning the game(this is also how Jigsaw got his name).

Leona - Leona can do the job, he understands the assignment. He thinks John's a bit nuts, though. He's another one where there's not a whole lot of imagination involved; he designs the trap to get the job done, makes sure it meets the requirements (because he will not be given a bad grade on Jigsaw Traps, something apparently possible to achieve and normal to worry about?...), but it won't be overly complex, and he makes Ruggie and Jack do the muscle-work for him. Don't worry, he pays them well.

Leona's traps will probably involve some test of strength (keeping in mind the different physical capabilities of individuals, of course). I'm thinking something like a low tunnel filled with various-sized shards of broken glass the person has to crawl through to get to the exit, or climbing through a vent connected to an oven that is on max. heat to get out. Something like that, of course tweaked for the individual.

He makes Ruggie cut the puzzle piece. Ruggie doesn't mess around when it comes to his finances. He cuts every piece perfectly.

Azul - Let's be real, Azul doesn't mind suffering...as long as it's not his own. His traps are always complex, and he sees each new victim as a chance to one-up himself. And it's no problem getting his victims; Jade and Floyd help with that.

I think most of Azul's traps will involve the victim inflicting pain on themselves on purpose. Not just doing things that result in pain (such as crawl over glass) but actively cause themselves harm; probably ripping their own molars out or cutting off a limb, or something, and dropping it in a bin/chute to trigger the exit to open.

Jade and Floyd help with set-up...but Floyd is Not allowed to cut the puzzle pieces afterward. For obvious reasons.

Kalim - In order for Kalim to be an apprentice, he would need to have something awful and drastic happen to someone close to him that pushes him over the edge. When it comes to it, he sees the traps as a job, a duty. It's not something he enjoys and he always observes with a tired distaste but, because of whatever trauma pushed him into this life, he believes it's necessary.

He can't stand the sight of blood and brutality. Nor does he want to know they're dying a slow death. His victim is hooked up to a syringe pump, hands restrained, and they need to figure out the code to turn off the pump before time runs out (probably voice password or something; definitely based on important memories related to the reason they are in the trap, which is hinted at in the tape) or the syringe will rapidly infuse a lethal dose of potassium into their veins and they will go into cardiac arrest.

Jamil has to cut the puzzle piece because Kalim cannot stomach it.

Vil - Vil, like Kalim, needs to be of the mind that what he's doing is necessary, even if he doesn't like it. He has to believe that people need him to teach them in this way, or he won't be able to stomach it.

He also doesn't want a bloodbath; that's not his style. Vil would rather use poison. Poison for his victims, already injected/ingested, with an antidote they have to get...probably behind a locked door needing a combination password. But, in order to get the code, they will have to face what they've done and figure out what the code is, very similar to Kalim's style. However, unlike Kalim's, if the victim gives the wrong code the door will seal shut forever and the victim will be doomed. They need to get it right and they need to be certain.

Vil may request Rook's assistance with making sure people are brought in and the trap set up properly, but he cuts the puzzle piece himself. He believes it's his role, and he refuses to put that onto anyone else. It disgusts him, but he treats it like his cross to bear for the acts he is committing, because a part of him still feels uneasy about all of this and he hates looking at himself in the mirror some days.

Idia - Idia is so removed from the front lines of the traps, he's actually quite desensitized to the violence. He treats it a bit like his video games and he does try out a variety of different traps, each one extremely individualized. He's got all the info on his victims; every single trace of them online, their social security number, their bank statements, anything and everything that can be accessed via computer is his. He knows them inside and out. Every trap is an attempt to be more unique and "entertaining" than the last. It's questionable if he's even in it for the "righteousness" that John preaches, or if he got bored and decided this was an interesting way to pass the time.

All his traps are set up to run completely independently, and all are under video surveillance. I think Idia would get to the point that there's not enough moving parts for him if there's only one victim in the trap, so he starts doing bigger traps, with groups of people, where it's a challenge to try and predict how they all will react, how they would push each other's boundaries and if they would try to see the hints laid out for them or if they would misinterpret it (for anyone who's seen Jigsaw, think about the gun scene with the keys at the end. That kind of a hint. Idia would like to see who gets it). So, yeah, Idia probably builds a maze-trap with multiple little traps within it that the victims have to go through to get out.

While he hasn't yet created something that can cut the puzzle piece and deliver it to him, he has developed a little punch that he can bring to punch out the piece of the victim's flesh should they fail. It's the only time he's on-site after the trap has been set. (Ortho refused to do that part because the dead bodies made him sad.)

Malleus - Malleus believes he is helping people, and he's curious to see how far a person would go to save their own life. He thinks it's his job to bring out the worst and the best in the person in his trap to help them be better than they are now. He's not beyond pushing buttons and upping antes; he sees it as doing what he can to help someone value their life and overcome their own shortcomings.

A trap from Malleus is probably going to involve some form of self-mutilation, giving enough flesh or giving enough blood, but also some emotional pressure. He will bring their families into the traps; likely remotely so as not to harm the innocent, but to use as leverage to make someone push themselves more. He wants them to succeed. But he will not go easy on them. In order to succeed, they need to pull on their own inner strength.

He cuts the puzzle piece himself, but he's always sad when he has to. He feels less that the person has failed and more that he has failed to help them bring out their better self.

Thank you again for the ask, friend! I hope I answered to your satisfaction :D If you have any questions or comments to add, please let me know, I am always happy to expand on these kinds of things!

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eyes-inthe-dark · 1 year ago

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Hi Hello I actually make things sometimes

I don't know if anyone who follows me is interested in this stuff bc I very rarely post things from my own life, but I decided to be a little more active on here besides reblogging funny shit regarding my current hyperfixation.

So, here is the (incomplete) crafting diary of a neurodivergent trans person surviving christmas with the family and the dark and dreadful times (winter) in general by making shit! with my hands!

First: fiber stuff

I picked up tablet weaving over the last few months of 2023 and made my first pair of somewhat mistake-free shoelaces over the holidays! Only got the pattern completely right on the second try with the red but both laces now get to add a fun little detail to my shoes.

Next I tried a more complicated pattern and experimented a lot, hence the irregular pattern and troubleshooting at the start of the band. I'm now repurposing it as a camera strap and I learned a lot from it tho.

My current setup is basic cardboard tablets (I had to make extra ones so I had enough for the last band with 30 cards), tying the warp to something sturdy like a bookshelf, and sitting down with a backstrap belt on the other side of the room. I used thin wool yarn for this, which stuck to itself quite a lot, but not too much to be unmanagable, and I really like how the finished product feels.

If anyone's interested, I could make a longer post on how I made the shoelaces, I think it's a very beginner friendly project.

I managed to get my hands on a drop spindle and gave that a try, but I ran out of wool after making a very small amount of very chunky yarn and am currently working out where to best get sth local. It was fun tho!

I also finally finished the knitted scarf that has been in my wip pile for... approximately three years? I started it when I was still in school, feels like an eternity ago. It's just a simple (although very long) red wool scarf, but it keeps me nice and warm in this cold, harsh- *checks weather* ...5°C and neverending rain.

Next up: woodworking!

Noodled around with my grandpa's old dremel that we still had lying around, which resulted in this truly terrifying weapon:

Behold! I named it Toothling. It's great for poking friends and family when they least expect it.

This was more of a test run to see if it all still works and to try out doing small scale work with wood, now I gotta think of something fun to make. (I say, as if I didn't already have 50 different ideas)

Before that fuckery, I made this magnetic dice box/rolling tray for my lovely partner's birthday.

Though I don't feel like I can take credit for working the CNC magic on this, I did all the hands-on work with the sanding, assembling the magnets, shellac coating, and whatnot. I'm pretty sure wood is some sort of fruit tree, since it smells strongly of what I suspect might be plum or cherry.

Last but sure as fuck not least: embroidery

This I actually get professional instruction for at uni. I've kinda lost patience for it atm, but mostly because I cannot resist making unnecessarily complicated pieces with tiny little stitches and then am forced to finish it because I do actually kinda need to pass this class. My lecturer keeps telling me not to go so detailed, yet I have proven resistant to her good advice. But, I figured if I have to make two full pieces of embroidery to be graded on and put hours of work into, I might as well choose designs that I can turn into patches for my jacket:

Catha and Ruidus! I love me some big moon little moon imagery. The prompt was to incorporate most of the techniques/stitches we've learned so far. Added the little gold chain stitch around ruidus for the arcane latticework. It came out a little wonky shape wise, but I love it nonetheless.

And my most recent wip, a stained glass window design with the Ninth House skull and Gideon's sword behind it, to feed my current Locked Tomb obsession.

And that's it!

#fibre crafts #embroidery #tablet weaving #tablet weave #weaving #wool #handcrafted #woodworking #if you wanna call it that #Eli has a life #and needs sth to do so i pick up random crafts i see people do on the internet #critical role #locked tomb #art #dnd

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lemontartc · 6 months ago

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This took me literally all day. If anyone knows good free/cheap patterns for plain tight pants and shirts for the various MH G3 body types, at this point I'm willing to abandon trying to pattern stuff myself 😅 I thought my human sewing experience would help me, but usually I just make things a bit big and continually take them in, which doesn't work very well at doll scale...

An example of how many patterns I went through, fronts on top and backs on bottom. I also made some separate bottoms which informed the changes in the legholes from V3 to V4. I actually haven't even tried the final version of the bodysuit on the doll, I'm just kind of trusting it works because V3 mostly fit with just some awkwardness (mostly around the leg and armholes). Originally I did intend to make her bodysuit out of two different fabrics and then just draw on the small detail of her waistband, but I couldn't find any fabric that came close to the color of the top half of her bodysuit at the store, so I resigned myself to making a one-piece and "dyeing" it with fabric marker (this is why I haven't tried it on: the marker needs plenty of time to dry before putting on so it doesn't stain her) and honestly I'm glad I did because as you can see, patterning this simple bodysuit was hard enough!

The leggings look like a mess in the back. I honest don't know how they got so messed up. When I was making one leg and testing the fit, and there was always plenty of room in the back, but when I made the pair and sewed them in the front first, they came nowhere close to meeting in the back and I had to sew in a scrap to extend them. The bodysuit and cape will cover all of that, though. Technically I could have made these as legs attached to the bodysuit, this just seemed easier. It will be more accurate and if it ends up leaving a waist/seamline under the bodysuit sobeit.

I want to use patterns in the future just to cut down on the frustrating trial-and-error re-patterning, re-cutting, and resewing because that part took literal hours without enough satisfaction as a pay-off, but I am proud of what I've put together! Just burnt out on sewing, but that's fine because that phase of the project is done. All I have left for the clothes is affixing the cape to the shoulders, but right now the velcro glue is drying there in addition to the marker, so I'm waiting. I went with an unusual pattern of a bodysuit sewn up on every normal seam except the shoulders, which is where the velro is. This way I slip the bodysuit up her legs like you would with shorts. I did this because I wanted to minimize arm movements as much as possible since every one both rubs a bit of paint off and deepens the crack on her left bicep mod. Making the clothes not require any arm movement to put on seemed like the best call, and the shoulder seam will be covered up by the... shoulder pauldron things, anyway.

I'm suspecting already I might redo this doll some day, and if I do that, I'm definitely going to skip the body mods. They were a good experiment, but they were difficult to work with and necessitated me to use way more paint than I wanted to due to how different their starting color and texture was to the rest of the doll. The main reason for revisiting would be to fix the body repaint so she's a lot easier to pose/redress and I can make all her various outfits and enjoy playing with her in them. I'm definitely going to think hard about what I can do for the future body repaints in this series since most will necessitate them, but I guess I can do Mermista and Catra first in the meantime lol (I'm still holding out hope for a G3 Nefera that will make a perfect Netossa... We'll see) and for the most part I'll stick to using the doll's natural skin color for OCs/random customs.

Next steps: Wig cap, wig, pastel blushing on the body and face to color-correct her skintone and add depth, and then finishing up the faceup as I seal those layers of pastels. Once everything's sealed, I can finally dress her, so for now I'll just attach her cape tomorrow and then set them aside. Shoulder pauldrons will be made out of foam clay somewhere along the way, maybe the boots as well though I am a little stumped on them. I have no idea how to do the gloves without painting them on, which will limit her outfits since she's always wearing different ones, so for now I'm leaving them off, but eventually I might settle on a pair for her to use across outfits.

#custom: glimmer #my customs #og #wip

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aswallowimprisoned · 9 months ago

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Restless far from a Wine Dark sea - Resisting treatment

Logan tries to pursuade the sea monster to submit to a blood test. He is not keen on the idea.

@medwhumpmay

Tw Panic attack, needles, non-con medical procedure, Dead Dove Jewish vampiric whumpee, religious whumpee, coercion

This is set fairly near the begining, when Nathaniel's behaviour has been getting more erratic, swinging between compliance and resistance

masterlist

≪ °❈° ≫

“Fogal, we have a medical task to introduce you to.” Logan spoke evenly, allowing no cause for panic, “We want to take some blood for a blood test. It will only be a very small amount, a syringe full.”

“A test?” Fogal enquired softly, “But I thought you were… experimenting… last time you gave me blood?”

“We aren't giving you blood this time.” Logan corrected, “We are taking a very small amount of blood from your arm, and then Dr Orange can do some tests on it to make sure that your blood is healthy.”

The merman paled.

“You want to take my blood?”

“A very small amount. You won’t even notice. I promise we will be careful. It's ok,” Logan soothed. The merman was far more anxious than Logan had been expecting - he was usually very good with needles, associating them with heroin and a release from pain.

“No, I, I, what do you need it for?”

“To make sure you are healthy. I promise this is a very common test…”

“That’s… I don't understand.” Fogal was trying to keep the panic from his voice, “You can't tell if people are healthy from blood. I know because all human blood tastes the same. Except if they have been drinking or on coke. And I promise I have only taken the drugs you have given me.” The merman was begging, “I can't move off this bed, I promise Logan. You don't need my blood, you know everything I promise.”

“Hey, hey, calm down Fogal.” Logan let his surprise leak into his voice, “This doesn't have to be frightening, it's very simple, it is just a small needle, it won't hurt much.”

“Ok. Ok ok ok ok ok.” Fogal started tapping out a breathing pattern into his tail. Logan let him calm himself, -Pause. Calm. Please. Pause.- he asked.

“I can pause for a moment to let you calm yourself.” Logan allowed. The merman struggled through his breathing exercise, twitching occasionally against his restraints.

“Why?” Fogal finally gritted out.

“Blood contains many chemicals that can tell us about health. We give you opiates frequently, and so we are worried about giving you too much medication that will damage your liver and make you ill. We want you to stay healthy, so we want to check it.” Logan watched the words sink in. The merman continued to writhe in discomfort at the concept.

“I don’t understand why this one is so frightening to you,” Logan socially pressured, “you are usually so good with needles…”

“You want to take my BLOOD,” Fogal ratchetted right back up to borderline hysterical.

“It is a medical test. I myself undergo regular blood tests. It does no harm.”

“You let them take your blood. You.” Fogal whispered, still terrified.

“Yes. There is no reason not to. It is for my health.”

Fogal shook his head, disbelieving.

“Blood is the soul, the lifeforce of the body. My cursed vampiric diet is proof of that.”

Ah that makes sense.

“I see why you came to that conclusion,” Logan conceded, “And why, because of that belief, you are more worried about this test.” He validated the feelings, “But if, as you say, blood has no use other than to nourish you, surely there is nothing nefarious we can do with your blood, other than the aforementioned medical reasons?”

“I can’t do magic with the blood…” and yet the merman was still near wordless with terror.

“And neither can we.” Logan tried to shut the conversation down, try to bulldoze on to the procedure so the sea monster could see a blood test was genuinely not frightening “Let us show you. Nurse Brunel is just going to put this piece of rubber tightly around your arm…”

The merman burbled with fear as the nurse secured a tourniquet around his upper arm.

“No, no Logan please, don't do this, Logan...” He started to writhe, viciously fighting his bonds, leather creaking.

“This is getting dangerous Logan,” Elias warned over the comms, “I don’t think he is ready…”

Logan acknowledged his co-anthropologist’s input, and dismissed it. If they gave up now, the sea monster would never allow the simple and essential procedure. And if he did try to fight, this would be a learning opportunity as to why resisting his captor’s wishes would always be fruitless.

“It will only hurt a tiny tiny bit, a little needle, then it's fine.”

Nurse Brunel took up the needle.

“NO!” Fogal gasped. He looked Logan straight in the eye, and started to chant.

“Khri khmimi bdikula bziia”

“I don't know what he is saying.”

“…aibdur tbluniikhi, prkha zika lmurika khdta…”

“Fogal, stop speaking, stop speaking and calm yourself.” Logan commanded, tone steady, before lowering his voice to speak into the microphone. “Is it a prayer?”

“Not one I recognise.” There was fear in Elias’ voice, “Logan, we should stop him. The merpeople’s magic is song based, and we don't know what he is saying.”

The fear in the room was palpable.

“Gag him,” the military coordinator intervened. Immediately, the merman was restrained from all angles, a rubber strap forced between his teeth as he screamed. “But complete the blood test anyway. We can’t keep letting him get away with bad behaviour.”

The sea monster writhed, and writhed and screamed and writhed. Nurse Brunel’s body language was showing his reluctance and pity, but still he forced the butterfly needle into the writhing merman’s arm.

a/n Nathaniel believes in witchcraft. It is very rare for Jewish people to believe in evil witchcraft nowadays, but Nathaniel is a couple of centuries old and from a time where a belief in witches was more common place, and from a place/time where witchcraft was viewed negatively (many times in history Jews were much more tolerant than Christians of witchcraft when being used for good, and most women kind of dabble in witchcraft cos thats what women do).

And, he reasons, humans didn’t believe in merpeople till recently, so why couldn’t witches exist? (Witches are the same in the wine dark sea universe as they are in real life, but he is still afraid).

I found this curse against witchcraft on My Jewish Learning, then anglicised it using google translate, making it equal opportunities indecipherable to anyone, whether you can read Hebrew or not.

But it is an awesome (but graphic):

Hot feces in torn date baskets in your mouth, witches; may your hairs fall out because you use them for witchcraft; your crumbs, which you use for witchcraft, should scatter in the wind;

#whump #medical whump #mer whump #restlessffawds #whump writing #interrogation whump #pushing people too far

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