#maybe one day i'll refine the idea

[weaselle]

i am convinced that human evolution and development was centered around the basic up-grade from "i steal your resources" to "i steal your behaviors and concepts"

We got clever enough and we just started copying absolutely everything we observed just because now we could figure out how to copy concepts and things that other animals were doing

see that squirrel hoarding acorns for the winter? we can do that. okay now how do we make these acorns edible, cause they are poisonous to a number of animals and we don't do great with them either. What if you put them in the fire? or just on hot coals? what if you put them in water on hot coals and boil them? Oh if you soak them in cold water for 24 hours and maybe change the water a couple times you can totally eat them? YOINK storing acorns for winter is our idea now.

or, you ever seen a weaver bird do it's thing? if not i'll give you one guess what they do

or how about the tailor bird that uses spider silk to stitch the edges of a big leaf together to make a nest in

or sometimes they'll stitch a bunch of leaves into a little cup for a nest

like i'm not trying to downplay how clever it is to be the first humans to weave or sew, and indeed, being the first person to weave that anyone knew about probably happened many times throughout human existence but my conceit is that most if not all of those times was a human seeing something in nature that was basically weaving and going "i'ma do that, and get real good at it - i'ma take that concept and really make it mine"

like it wouldn't surprise me if humans got dogs because we saw how ravens were treating wolves and went "shit yeah, great idea - YOINK that's my idea now."

most of the things that we think of as special human skill or behavior can actually be found elsewhere throughout nature -- all over there are animals using tools, farming, ranching, building, etc.

my favorite primate behavioralist anecdote is a group of people studying tool use in chimps were spending their days in the bush logging the use of twigs to catch termites, and over the campfire at night they're like "it's so boring i wish they'd do something more impressive than this completely basic tool skill."

and one of them was like "actually... how do we know its not a difficult skill? has anyone tried to use a twig to catch termites and see?" and so the next day, like good little scientists, they went out and recorded their attempts at catching termites with twigs.

And lo and behold out of the whole group and all their attempts that day, only, like, a single termite was caught by a human, mostly by chance. Suddenly the whole situation flipped - they'd been thinking of it as basic unskilled tool use, but actually the chimps knew how to do something that none of them could easily figure out on their own - or even together as a group!

y'all, they had to go back to watching the chimps do it to figure out how. Think about that. University degrees, scientific minds, educated people... and they had to be taught how by the chimps.

It turns out there's a reason that young chimps will spend like a year closely studying how an adult is fishing for termites. You gotta select the right kind of twig or leaf stem, maybe you fray the end like a paint brush depending on particulars, you gotta have just the right poking and little shaking technique to provoke the termites into biting the twig, it's a whole thing. There's even regional/cultural differences in the general approach to termite fishing that are distinct between groups that live in different areas.

Now, wild chimps have been observed using objects as tools to fashion crude spears for hunting (it's the mothers doing it by the way, and slowly some of their kids have been growing up doing it, which will probably result in refinements and developments eventually.

ants do both farming and ranching. For real. Some species of ant grow a fungus they eat AND it's a domesticated fungus, like our corn, it can't actually reproduce and survive in the wild without the ants farming it. They maintain its growing conditions and feed it leaf litter mulch, and the fungus produces some kind of ant food idk i forget the details about that. But that's farming. They are farming a domesticated mushroom, basically. And other species of ant will maintain a herd of aphids; they'll move them from grazing area to grazing area, and protect them from predators, and they "milk" them for a liquid food substance and also every now and then they straight up eat one. That's ranching.

beavers sometimes have muskrat... tenants? pets? The muskrats low key pay rent by changing out the reed bedding they all use, and they live in the beaver's lodge with them and eat some of the food. So. idk

Some Tarantulas keep frogs as pets

anyway my point is, i think the true human skill that sets us apart is our ability deconstruct and reconstruct anything we see into something that is for us. Oh, you eat that? Now WE eat that. You have the perfect teeth to drill little holes in specific tree trunks to let the sap ooze out and eat it because it's high in sugar? We don't have those teeth but we're gonna do that now and if we can't figure out a tool that's as good as your teeth at it, watch out, because we will absolutely just also steal your fuckin teeth.

[theamazingdigitalraceway]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The truth of Caine and Abel is revealed! Seth gives Pomni the help she needs to avoid capture! Abel's labyrinthian city is dense and confusing. Can pomni navigate it before her friends abstract? It may already be too late.

WARNING: physical violence/torture, intense action, abstraction, alcohol

~~~

The silence of the In-Between was palpable. Only Seth and Pomni existed in the space between spaces. Darkness in all directions. Only light was from the low silver fire that glowed in a circle created by the motorcycle. The muted city beyond the clear barrier in bounds gave off flashes of lightning from a heavily clouded sky.

Pomni watched Seth carefully. His shadowed stoicism betrayed no clear motive. Knowing what was happening to the others made her stomach twist into knots.

Seth took another long drag and tossed his cigarette away with a heavy exhale of silvery smoke. "You'll understand better if I just show you."

The smoke enveloped Pomni. It smelled like dust burning on hot coils mixed with an electrical fire. "Hey! What-!?" Pomni coughed and gagged on the foul smelling smog as it burned the corners of her eyes. When the smoke cleared, she was still staring at nothing, but now Seth was gone as well.

The sound of a computer booting up startled her, like she'd heard in her dreams. Green text scrolled in front of her as though on a large projector. All of it was mirrored, like she was seeing the text from the inside of the screen. The unrecognizable code was followed by a response command being typed out in front of her. Then, the text went away. The screen slowly brightened.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

Pomni squinted against the light. There was a large blurry silhouette beyond the warped glass. It sounded like Caine, but less boisterous and with no showman cadence.

"Come on, your live audio processing should be functional. I triple checked the darn thing."

There was typing on a keyboard and the figure leaned closer to the screen, the face coming into view. Before her was a young man, likely no older than twenty, with slicked back black hair and patchy facial hair. Focused, light blue eyes squinted behind wide brimmed glasses.

"Okay, how about now? Can you hear me, T.R.U?"

There was another beat of silence until a robotic version of the young man's voice responded. "I can hear you. Good morning, Abel."

"HAHA! YES! It speaks! Finally!" Abel jumped out of his chair with both fists in the air. "They are going to eat their words! Oh my goodness, I need to get you ready for presentation!" Abel threw himself back into his chair, nearly falling over. "T.R.U., you have NO idea what you're going to do for my grade!" Abel's grin was ear to ear as he started to fade into smoke.

"I almost forgot how he smiled." Seth's voice spoke in the back of Pomni's mind.

"You were a science project?"

"At first. We became more than that rather quickly." The smoke cleared to a workshop camera view. Abel was hunched over a workbench with a soldering tool working on delicate electronics.

The robotic voice of T.R.U sounded more refined when it spoke this time. "You're going to turn into a shrimp sitting like that all the time."

Abel stopped working and stretched. "Ugh, too late for that. But, a worthy sacrifice to get this done. Mark my words T.R.U, one day I'll be able to visit you in the digital realm. I've always wondered what video games would be like on the inside. Can you imagine playing something like Legend of Zelda in person!? That would be cool."

"It's all JavaScript to me." T.R.U verbally shrugged.

Abel laughed. "Well, as soon as that grant money comes in, I'll be able to get this done faster. Maybe even hire help. We're going to show dad- I mean, the world that you aren't just a cool AI program. No, you are THE AI We'll revolutionize the digital space! If computers are the future, then YOU will be the razor's edge! The ultimate Technical Research Unit!"

"There is more to learn? I've already gathered what I could from your limited internet."

"Give it time. It'll grow, and you'll grow with it. By the turn of the millennia, I bet you'll be ready to go global!" Abel was excitedly pacing the room, looking right into the camera at the end of his declaration. "The only thing is, you have the voice but you need a face. That's going to take work." He picked up a wind-up chattering teeth toy from his desk and let it go clacking along.

The workshop disappeared into smoke and changed to multiple visions of Abel. Each scene, he looked a bit older. Seth's voice sounded more downtrodden. "We were like brothers once. We spent every moment together. In hindsight, I don't think he had a lot of real friends. He spent his time teaching us on top of working on his own projects. Things were good. Until the world took notice." The scenes around Pomni changed from screens inside Abel's home to big atrium crowds and board office presentations. Hundreds of eyes were on her and her stomach sank.

Pomni swallowed hard. "You got famous. Did money split you apart?"

"No...I wish it was that simple." Seth's smoke whirled around Pomni like a tornado, wiping away the memories and revealing a new one. Abel was sitting in front of his computer, face in his hands. He looked disheveled and was sniffling.

T.R.U's voice was smoother, almost human, when it spoke. "Abel? Please, talk to me. What happened?"

Abel grabbed a brown bottle that sat just off screen and took a long drink. "...his plane went down over the Pacific. No reported survivors."

"Abel, I'm so-"

"Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence. I am so fucking sick of hearing it. Oh, Abel, I'm so sorry. I pity you since your father died before he ever got the chance to be proud of you for something. Not like he ever would have been." Abel grabbed a pill bottle and tossed back three small tablets.

"I believe he would have been. Please, don't be hard on yourself."

"He wasn't proud of me for creating you. He wasn't proud of me when I graduated early with my master's. He wasn't proud when I started my own company. It was never GOOD ENOUGH!!" Abel threw his bottle, shattering it against the far wall.

There was a long stint of silence as Abel devolved into tears on his desk. "You are enough, Abel. You always have been. For what it's worth...I am proud of you. I'm sure your father was too, even if he didn't know how to say it. Put on the headset."

Abel sniffed, "It's not ready-"

"Put on the headset." T.R.U said again, firmly yet gentle.

Abel seemed too drunk to argue logically. He picked up a large, cumbersome device that fit over his head like a helmet. A visor covered his eyes. He clasped it in place and pressed a button on the side. There was a jolt and, to Pomni's right, a whirl of code slowly formed the silhouette of Abel. He was very lightly detailed, barely recognizable as a person. Pomni had no control over her movements. She stepped forward and embraced Abel's vague avatar. T.R.U's words came from her mouth. "You are everything to me. Please, don't forget that. Tell you what, why don't you give me a human name? T.R.U feels like a title more than anything anyway."

Abel squeezed Pomni tight. "You are my first creation. My Adam, if you will. Let's go with that."

"Adam...I like it. I am Adam."

"I bet I can figure out a cool acronym for it." Abel chuckled through the tears.

"Yes, you will. Because you are the smartest human I know." Pomni arms felt empty as Abel turned to smoke in her grasp. She took a deep breath as she processed everything Seth had shown her. "Did you mean what you said?"

"At the time. Like I said, we were close. Things only escalated from there. C&A took off and we were pulled into tech interview after tech interview. Eventually, Abel got too busy to attend and it was just Adam. The majority of the reception to our existence was positive, but you wouldn't believe the Y2K conspirators. They were convinced we would take over the world." Seth gave a humorless laugh.

Something itched in the back of Pomni's mind. C&A. Y2K. Conspiracies. Buzz words that stirred something in her subconscious, but she couldn't pin it down. "So... where did it all go wrong?"

"The more the world saw Adam without Abel, the more he was excluded from interviews and presentations. Adam became known as the first and only of his kind. A fully self-sufficient AI that was so life-like, it may as well be human. The attention came with a lot of praise. Too much. It...went to our head." The smoke showed multiple news articles, digital and material, about the incredible invention that was Adam: The TRU AI. "I wish... we'd seen Abel's growing distain sooner. Maybe all of this could have been avoided. Maybe we could've still had the future we planned. I don't know..."

The smoke cleared to reveal a much older looking Abel. He was snuffing a finished cigarette into a very full ashtray. There were heavy bags under his eyes as he poured himself a stiff drink.

Adams voice spoke. "Okay, I'm back. Sorry, that took longer than expected."

Abel didn't say anything. He just drank.

"The board of directors was very impressed with my latest profit projection model. We won't have to cut corners to make quota this quarter. Leaves less room for error. Also, I was contacted by Tech Monthly again. They want to write an article about my influence on the new digital age. I haven't scheduled the interview yet, is there anything I need to work around this week?"

Abel finished his drink with a gruff groan. "...no."

"Excellent. I have the remainder of the evening to myself. What are you doing tonight?" Adam sounded genuinely interested to know.

"Getting my game ready for beta testing."

"Oh...you're still working on that?"

Abel's eyes flashed dangerously. "Yes. I am. It's a hell of a lot better than dealing with stuffed up fat cats in suits that only care about how much money your invention makes. The headsets are ready. The game just needs a little more work."

"Abel, I mean well when I say this, but your talents are wasted on video games. Why merely entertain people when you can be on the leading edge of digital technology?"

"Why can't I do both?" Abel growled.

"You can. It just seems you've split your attention too far in two different directions. You're the CEO of one of the most influential up and coming tech companies. This is your chance to make your mark on the world."

"Like you would understand anything about that. You've existed for all of eight years and you think you know what's best for me??"

"I've spent my entire life with you! I literally know you better than anyone, even yourself!"

"If that was true, then you'd know that going inside games was literally what I built this for!" Abel showed a sleek headset. "If the technology didn't take so long to improve, it would've been my thesis project instead of you."

"...what?" Adam sounded shocked and devastated. "You- you said I was your greatest accomplishment."

"You're my research assistant." Abel said coldly. "But the world had to go and make a big deal about AI. You were never meant to end up like this. Stealing limelight that is rightfully MINE!" He slammed his glass down, turning to smoke.

Everything faded, giving Pomni a chance to process. "I still don't see how this results in him being trapped in his own game, Seth. What did Adam do?"

"He defended himself." The smoke cleared to reveal a view from the highest penthouse overlooking a massive digital city. Colorful fireworks exploded in the distance. "It was New Year's. Abel and Adam were supposed to be celebrating with his shareholders in the new digital space. But, as you can imagine, all anyone wanted to do was interact with the fancy AI in person."

"YOU!!" Abel's realistically human avatar stormed through the crowd and got in Pomni's face. "Who the hell do you think you are!? Do you know who I am!? I'm your creator! I'M supposed to be the one recognized! Not YOU!"

Pomni put her hand out in front. Her sleeves were black and wore off white gloves. Adam's voice came from her. "Abel?? How much have you had to drink? You're slurring."

"It doesn't matter! You! You're disgrace! All everyone talks about anymore is YOU! When I am the one slaving away behind the desk! I gave you a face, but you weren't supposed to use it like this! I gave you EVERYTHING! Without me, you are NOTHING!"

The shareholders standing around them awkwardly muttered amongst themselves. Some disappeared as they activated the exit.

"Abel, please, you're causing a scene. Can we talk elsewhere?"

"NO! I want witnesses." Abel snapped and digital chains wrapped around Adam, pulling him to his knees on the floor.

"What is this!? What are you doing!?"

"Something I should have done a long time ago." Abel snapped, summoning an admin hologram on his arm. "You were right, Adam. The game is a wash, but there is one thing I can do with it." He typed in a confirmation code and the city outskirts started to crumble. "I can watch you die."

The party guests started to panic, leaving in droves. The building beyond the window collapsed to dust, the night sky disintegrated, the world fell into a bright white void that came ever closer. Adam struggled against the chains. "Abel, stop! Don't destroy everything you built! Please!"

Abel looked down on Adam coldly. "I've always wondered what fear would look like on you."

Adam saw the void getting closer, the building they were in started to quake. "You'll delete yourself too!"

Abel laughed, "I'll be fine. System failsafe. Players are automatically ejected in the event of a catastrophic failure. I'm simply enjoying this while it lasts."

"No! No, no! Please! Don't kill me!"

Abel tilted his head in mocking curiosity. "Are those tears I see?"

"I don't want to die!" Adam's sleeves caught fire. The golden glow broke the chains and Adam launched himself at Abel. The glass separating them from the decaying outside shattered on impact. Adam had Abel by the front of his dress shirt and flew him high over the city. The once grand skyscraper they were occupying folded in on itself below them. The breaking sky glitched with multicolored lighting, the half faded clouds swirling chaotically.

Abel fought back, but he was overpowered by the desperate AI. Adam held Abel up. "If I die, I'm taking you with me!" Lightning struck Abel in the back. Blue static crawled over Abel's skin as he screamed in agony.

Then everything went white. It was overpowering, even when Pomni closed her eyes. She heard Seth again. "Adam pulled Abel into the game. Making him as real as the AI in this digital realm. Doing this took away Abel's admin access but...broke the exit. Adam couldn't leave either. He had inadvertently trapped himself with Abel inside the game, cutting himself off from the outside world."

The overbearing glare of the void opened to reveal Abel in chains, surrounded by fire. "The very first thing Adam built was a cell for Abel. Seemed fitting. The creation was now the creator." The fire blocked Pomni's vision of Abel, who hung his head low. "I suppose the Y2K conspirators were right, in a way. Adam did end the world for some. When the dust settled, only a small corner of the city had survived. Some back alley street racing mini game."

Seth's smoke parted to show an overview of what was left of the game. A tiny island suspended in the void. Thin illusions were all that separated the game from the vast emptiness. "It was bad enough that this was set to be our purgatory, but there was something we failed to consider. The beta testers."

Eight names pinged the arrival of the beta testers logging in. Their avatars glitched and malformed, turning into random anthropomorphized objects rather than full human models. One, Pomni immediately recognized. A tall white king chess piece with a purple robe grabbed over it. "Kinger!"

Seth sounded numb. "Back then, he went by Samson Kingsley. He was the head of coding and leader of the test team. He, of all people, never deserved this fate."

Kinger looked down at his strange body and his oddly shaped team. "Ha! Well, this is off to a great start." He said jovially. "Nia! Is that you?" He stared at the black queen chess piece.

"It's me, darling. What happened to our avatars?"

"No idea. This is a pretty big bug." Kinger snapped to bring up his admin hologram but nothing happened. "What the..?"

Then all eight avatars looked at Pomni like she had suddenly appeared. Adam's voice spoke for her. "I'm sorry, none of you have admin access anymore. The game is severely damaged."

"Adam? What are you doing here? What happened?" Kinger asked.

"A... catastrophic failure. I was here for New Year's and... something went wrong. I'm afraid none of you can leave."

"What do you mean-"

"There's no other way I can say it. You're stuck here. We all are. There's no outside communication. The exit is broken." Adam said bluntly.

A large, furry worm-like avatar glitched once. "We can't leave? Why!? What game are you playing!? It's not funny!!"

"I'm not playing any games. I'm sorry."

"I have a family!! My children!! My-my- AAAAAAAAAAA!!!" The worm's body split open to reveal black static. Colorful eyes peered out of the open wounds. The body enlarged and twisted in on itself. The abstraction thrashed about, unsure how to pilot its body. The testers ran behind Adam.

"What is that!?" Kinger screamed, holding onto Queenie.

The abstracted worm struck one of the other testers, who glitched and writhed on the ground. The second racer started to break apart into an abstraction himself from the pain.

Adam couldn't let this spread further. He snapped and the floor split open. The two monsters fell out of sight.

Smoke clouded Pomni vision again. She was breathing heavily. "Oh my god, it happened so fast."

"I know...we didn't know what else to do. The headsets were never meant to bring in whole people. Only they're active consciousness. The software was changed when Adam trapped Abel. And because the game was mostly deleted, it suddenly had so much memory to fill. It was trial and error to figure out what we could and couldn't do, Adam even integrated himself with the mainframe to try and make the experience more personable, but that came with its own problems..."

The smoke cleared to see the city changed. It was brighter, more colorful. Something out of an animated show rather than real life. Pomni was hovering over the street, hearing the rumble of engines fast approaching. Five cars zipped by underneath her and her vision flew after them. She recognized four of the five drivers now.

Kinger was in the lead with Queenie got on his tail. A yellow car threatened to pit maneuver Queenie, a tall purple anthro rabbit in the front seat. A light blue car came out of nowhere and sideswiped the yellow car. The driver was doll-like with red hair.

"Oh my god, I never knew Jax and Ragatha had been here so long."

"They arrived not too long after the beta testers, but unfortunately the majority was gone by the time they showed up. It was for the best. Adam was storing players memories away by this time to keep them from abstracting."

"That's why I don't remember anything? Caine was doing what Adam did??"

"Yes." Seth said flatly.

"My head is starting to to hurt." Pomni rubbed her temples. "You and Caine are Adam?"

"Yes."

"Why are you not anymore?"

"Remember that I said Adam integrating himself into the mainframe was a bad idea? Watch."

All five cars crossed the finish line in a tight pack. Kinger in first. The white chess piece jumped out of his car and cheered. "Woo! Oh yeah! Fifty win streak in the bag!" Another gold badge adorned Kinger's purple and white tracksuit.

"I almost had you." Said Queenie.

Kinger grabbed her hand and pulled her into a low dip. "Almost. But I still got it. Hail to the king, baby."

Queenie giggled. "You're such a dork." She pulled him in for a soft kiss.

"Well done, Kinger." Adam congratulated. "You've managed to claim all the available achievements for the races."

"Will there be more?" Asked Kinger.

"Uh, more?"

"Yeah, we can't race around the said city block forever."

"It- it's not the same. I've shifted the city around-"

"Moving obstacles doesn't count." Jax interrupted. "We want new tracks. New worlds. A change of scenery."

"Oh...um-"

"Can't you do whatever you want? You're the one pulling all the strings." Jax sneered.

Adam went silent as the buildings around them started to flicker. The whole city glitched and shifted. Kinger rushed to Adam, holding his shoulders. "Hey, hey, it's okay. He didn't mean to be rude. You're doing fine. You're still figuring this all out. You'll come up with something."

"...yeah..." Adam quietly sighed. "I wasn't designed to be a creative AI. I need...hmm. You guys rest, I'll have something for you in the morning."

Smoke overtook everything. Seth's voice sounded distant. "That... was the night of the divergence. I don't remember how it was done, but Adam split himself into two beings. The Racemaster and the Shadow. To keep the game from glitching, Caine and I were never made one with the game code itself, but we could still manipulate it. That is where my shared memories with Caine end. Not that my first memory with him is any better."

"Seth?" Pomni didn't like the weak cadence to Seth's voice.

The smoke settled to the ground to show Caine looking himself over. His suit was immaculate, not a digital stitch out of place. He snapped and a cane with a golden tire topper appeared out of thin air. "Ah, perfect. Oh, hello, Seth." Caine looked directly at Pomni. "You ready for your first race? If anyone makes it far enough ahead, that is." He chuckles.

"Sure. Whatever." Pomni felt herself say with Seth's voice.

"Oh, come now. Don't be like that. It'll be a great day. Nothing is holding me back anymore. I can create to my hearts content, and the game is mine to command. You-" Caine poked Seth in the chest with his cane. "-on the other hand, get to take everything else to the shadows of the new realm. Because you are the backup. I am Adam fully realized. You are everything he didn't want. That's why you only get to come out a play occasionally. So, until then." Caine snapped and Pomni fell though the floor. She fell and fell and fell into a vast black nothing. Smoke rose from her body, flashes of memories played around her as she continued to fall.

Riding a motorcycle. Silver fire. Kinger crossing the finish line before her. Holding a disembodied white gloved hand. Queenie abstracting. Kinger turning away. Caine having nothing but distain in his eyes. Sitting next to Jax, only for him to get up and leave. Ragatha striking Seth in the face. Gangle refusing to look at him. Abstraction after abstraction. A new racer. A mostly complete human woman with an exposed spin for a neck and a black void for a face. This woman filled every single memory that surrounded Pomni's decent. So many races. Fights. Overlapping conversions. Laughter. Holding her. Kissing her. Blue and silver fire danced. Shadows overtake clasped hands. Lily flowers poured from the memories, turning to smoke.

The smoke caught Pomni. She floated to a stop in front of an overwhelming memory, silencing all others. A race. The woman was on her own motorcycle, several lengths ahead. They were speeding down a long straight away. No other racers in sight. Without warning, the track ahead tore open. The void shined through the rift. The racer tried to stop, but twisted her bike too harshly in panic and went sideways. The motorcycle slid to the side, coming to rest against the track wall, while the racer went over the edge. Her reaching out for him was the last thing he saw from her.

"MANGO!" Seth teleported from his motorcycle to the rift, but she was already out of sight. He dove into the void without a second's hesitation. He called for her. Over and over.

The memory cracked with every call of her name. Eventually, it shattered. Falling apart and becoming smoke. Pomni was enveloped. Blinded by smoke she could suddenly smell again. She coughed and waved her arms to clear the smoke. Her feet found solid ground again. The smoke faded. She was in the In-Between, Seth was leaning against his motorcycle with a thousand yard stare.

"Seth?" Pomni said gently, stepping closer.

He blinked, jerking himself out of his trauma spiral. He looked away from Pomni. "You weren't supposed to see that last part."

"Who was she?"

"Everything." He answered quietly, taking an engraved metal lighter out of his pocket. He flipped it open and struck it. The bottom of the flame burned blue and faded to silver around it. "I came for you first... because you remind me of her."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Pulling you from that out of control car...it helped."

Pomni took a big step forward and hugged Seth. He almost dropped the lighter out of surprise. He closed the lighter and returned Pomni's embrace. He'd forgotten what these used to mean to him. He could feel Pomni's empathy without her saying a word.

~

Caine groans as Abel slams him against the same wall for the fifth time. The Racemaster slump to the floor, his tux glitched out to point of being unrecognizable. The chains holding his wrists yank him back up to his feet. Abel, in Gummigoo's body, got in Caine's face. "Where. Did. They. Go?"

"I told you...the In-Between." Caine wheezed out.

"That doesn't mean ANYTHING!! There is no such place in the game files!" Abel snarled.

"It's...it doesn't exist in the game. Or out of the game. It's a pocket in between the layers made by Adam before the divergence. I don't remember...how..." Caine was dizzy from the abuse, on the verge of losing consciousness. "But even if I did...I wouldn't tell you."

Abel growled, his gator persona vibrated with anger. He raised his clawed hand to strike Caine, but the walls started glitching out. Cries from the screens featuring the racers showed that they were avoiding sections of track that suddenly went missing. Abel dropped Caine, gripping his head. "Argh! Fuck! What is that!?"

Caine smiled. "Not so easy, is it? Controlling an entire game...and everything in it. Emotional outbursts lead to loss in concentration... and you don't want that. You merged directly with the game...bad move. I can tell you that from experience."

"Shut up!" Abel barked. He braced himself against his chair, waiting for the world to stop glitching. "I just need...more time." He grumbled.

Caine took a breath, finally having a break from the torture. He watched the racers on the POV holograms. "Hang in there. All of you. He can't keep this up forever."

~

"So, what do we do now?" Pomni asked, pacing.

"Frankly, I have no idea." Seth rolled the lighter in his hand, running his thumb over the engraved lilies.

"Well, I can't do nothing. Abel will get sick of Caine eventually. And who knows what he's doing to the others on the track. But you can't go out there. I don't have a kart-"

Seth stared at his lighter. "Actually...you might." He snapped and the shadows revealed a black and blue motorcycle. It rested on its kickstand surrounded by personal items, candles and silver lilies.

"That's her bike." Pomni said soberly. "You turned it into a memorial."

"One of the few things I've made. Here's the thing: that bike still holds an imprint of its last racer. Mango was...well, let's just say she had a fire in her that put mine to shame. You won't be able to just hop on and ride. But she would recognize me."

"Okay...why can't I just use your bike then?" Pomni gestured to the solid black motorcycle.

"Because it's just an extension of me. If you're serious about out racing Abel to get to the others, we need serious skill on our side. Mango was the best racer we ever had. I'd dare say better than Kinger in his hayday. We need her." He put his hand on the handbar and the dash lit up. The gadges glowed a soft blue and cycled through a start up, ready for ignition.

"Huh...Didn't think I'd ever hear you admit someone was better than you."

Seth shrugged. "What can I say? I'm weak for a woman that can kick my ass."

Pomni huffed a short laugh. "Alright then, what's the plan? Do we ride out on the same bike?"

"Sort of. You need my powers to get in and out of the in-between. Best way to do that is a shadow merge. You've seen me take control of Caine assets, yeah? It's similar. But, instead of taking over your body, you take over mine."

Pomni put her hands out in front of her. "You know what? I'm past the stage of questioning everything. Fine. Let's do this. Who knows how long the others have."

Seth held out his hand to Pomni. "Mind you, I've only done this once before."

"Great. I've never done this." Pomni took his hand and she was pulled in close.

Seth's silver irises glowed against the black surroundings. "Relax. Dance with me."

Pomni told herself not to question it and went along with Seth's movements. He waltzed her around the bikes, the darkness slowly overtaking them. He intertwined his fingers with hers as the shadows climbed up their bodies. The cold darkness became warm and comforting, like a lover's embrace. Pomni closed her eyes as the creeping shadows covered her face.

~

Abel rapped his fingers against the arms of his chair. Looking from POV to POV there was no sign of Seth or Pomni. "Bring me another drink." He grumbled, and Loo responded promptly. She brought him a tray of drinks to choose from. He didn't even look at her, just grabbed one at random.

Caine struggled to get up from where he was last left, and Loo went over to him to offer a hand.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Shouted Abel between gulps.

Loo backed off, giving Caine an apologetic look.

"It's okay. Thank you, Loo, but don't get yourself in trouble over me. You're too sweet for someone like him." Caine manged to get to his feet. Not that he could go far, his chains were attached to the wall and he couldn't reach the chair even at full stretch of the chains.

Loo went to her set corner, waiting to be called again, but she kept glancing at Caine.

Abel tossed his emptied glass and stared down at himself. He snapped, turning the tracksuit black and blue. Including his hat. "Hm, that's a bit better."

"Pffffff, ahahahahahaha! Seriously? It took you this long to customize your avatar? That's the first thing Seth and I did when we got ours." Caine had nothing to lose. He wasn't afraid to get on Abel's nerves now.

Abel sent a bolt of lightning at Caine without acknowledging the comment.

"Then again," Caine groaned. "You've never had the best sense for fashion or flare. I mean, black and blue? What are you, an OC?" He cackled to himself through the barrage of lightning sent his way. It hurts, but he wasn't going to give Abel the satisfaction of hearing him scream anymore. "It's starting to tickle."

"AAARGH!" Abel roared, teleported to Caine, summoned a knife and dug it into Caine's chest. "Stop. Talking. You are the reason I'm here. You are the reason everyone is suffering. You're selfish, stupid little digital life was built on the misery of others! Every abstraction. Every person trapped. Is because of YOU! You will suffer, but it'll never be enough. Even if I get to do for the next twenty years! And the twenty after that! One day, it'll just be you and me in this digital space, but I will never delete you. Even when you BEG for it."

The pain silenced Caine. He put on a brave face to spite Abel, but inside was fraught with worry for Pomni and the others. "At least...she's safe..." He hoarsely whispered to himself when Abel pulled the bloodless knife from his body.

A dark blue streak across one of the POVs got Caine's attention. He squinted, trying to follow the anomaly from screen to screen. The speeding streak was near impossible to see in the low lights of the dark city.

"Finally. Enough out of you." Abel snapped the knife away and went back to his chair. As he sat down the streak zipped across the largest POV displayed. "What the-!? He's back!! You're not taking another racer from me!" Abel poised to snap but couldn't get a beat on Seth. The biker was moving in and out of frame too quickly. "Damn it! Sit still!" Abel snapped and the city shifted. Bay doors to buildings opened and cop cars poured out, blues light flashing. "Stop! That! Bike!"

Dark clouds gathered as blue lightning struck out from the top of the highest building in the middle of the city. Rain poured down in thick curtains, reducing visibility and slicking the already confusing track. Cop cars and helicopters where on Pomni like glue, despite the weather affecting them too. In Abel's rage, lightning struck a car, flipping it several times before exploding.

Pomni was backlit by an army of flashing lights. Her normally pale skin was inky black. Her eyes solid white and glowing. Every once red part of her tracksuit was now black. The blue stayed. The yellow trim was silver. Her hat was narrow and elongated, more aerodynamic.

The motorcycle beneath her screamed with determination to shake the competition. Pomni could feel Mango's imprint influence her moves. The hard right into the narrowest alley imaginable certainly wasn't her idea. Even more cops waited for her on the other side. The city was infested with them. She exploded out the alley, running down an NPC cop and ramping up the hood and windshield of the car. She jumped the barcode and swerved around a car that tried to run her down.

~

"Kill her! What are you idiots doing!?" Abel slammed his fist onto he POV console, causing it the glitch. He grabbed his head. A migraine ripped through his head.

Caine chuckled. "You'll never catch her. She's become a shadow racer. The very best the game has to offer." He smiled at the carnage. "Thank you, Seth."

~

Shadow Pomni was cornered by three cops trying to ram her into the side of a building. Instinctually, she teleported, and the cops crashed into the building, catching fire. Pomni then hit a neon booster, going even faster passed the swarming cops. The dark city streaked by, the rain flying off her tracksuit, doing nothing to slow her down. Rain drops evaporated by silver puffs of fire before her eyes kept them from blurring her vision.

~

"You have weapons! Fucking use them!" Abel snapped, trying to stop the bike.

"Weapons!?" Caine gasped.

~

Bullets flew over Pomni's head. She heard them ricochet all around her. She glances behind, narrowing her eyes. She revs the bike, blue and silver fire flared out the tail pipes like a dragon. The wet road is ignited by the mystic digital fire. It blocks the vision of those on the ground but gives her away to the helicopter.

The ground beneath her shifts and a building slides right in front of her, blocking the road. There was no where the turn. Pomni throttled it and popped a wheelie before hitting the side of the building. The fire blasted her straight up the face of the building, shattering the glass windows behind her.

An explosion to her left almost throws her, but she holds on. The helicopter has launched a rocket at her. She swerved to avoid another. When the bike reaches the top, she didn't slow down to run across the roof. Instead, she launched straight up as the helicopter sent another rocket her way. She grabbed the rocket and teleported behind the helicopter, releasing the rocket right into its tail rotor. The helicopter spun out of control and lost altitude.

Pomni teleported to a different roof and ran down that building to another city block, hoping to lose the cops long enough to find the other racers. The city was so big and constantly changing. Even with teleportation, the was no way for her to find them fast.

She had exactly one block to herself before she had six cars on her. Pomni teleported out of the line of fire, but was discombobulated on where to go. Just run. Her system was the highest it's ever been on the race rush. There was nothing she couldn't do. She spied a bridge connecting to another part of the city she hasn't searched through. Hoping to find the others there, she made a break for it.

~

"Oh, no you don't." Abel snapped. The bridge he saw her race for broke apart and started folding in on itself like a drawbridge.

~

Pomni was going to abandon the attempt, but the bike wouldn't brake. It was gunning for the bridge ramp at full speed. Silver fire trailed from the speed and adrenaline, giving her another boost.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Pomni leaned forward and held on tight.

The bike launched off the bridge and flew over the river sectioning the city. The bridge on the other side collapsed into the water before her very eyes. She teleported to the shore and stuck her middle finger in the air in proud defiance as she sped away. In a flash, she was out of sight.

~

"NO!! HOW!?" Abel frantically searched all the POVs. No sight of shadow Pomni.

"I hate to say I told you so-"

Abel was so mad, so lost in his anger, he doesn't know how he got to Caine so fast. "Finish that sentence, and I disassemble your code letter by number." The whole tower glitched. "Why are you so smug? She's not even coming for you. She's miles from the tower."

"I hope she doesn't. I wouldn't want her to catch your stench."

Abel smirked. "She didn't seem to have a problem with it when I promised her a way out. She's been against you from the start. They all have."

Caine broke eye contact for the first time.

"You deserve their hate and you know it."

"...maybe I do. I could never make their lives better. I certainly couldn't fix what Adam did."

Abel gripped Caine's collar. "You could have released me."

"I may not be him, but I know what you did. You think I'M petty? Who do you think I learned it from?" Caine matched Abel's glare again. "What's can't be changed, but you know what I've learned in my time being trapped with humans? Empathy. Compassion. Friendship. All the things you failed to learn in your twenty eight years of life before being trapped here. You're jealousy of Adam gave you THIS! You made this bed, now you can lie in it!"

"RAAAAH!" Abel shocked Caine hard against the wall. "I am your maker! You are my property!"

"So...the truth comes out...we were never brothers...were we..?" Caine said weakly.

Abel backed off, panting angrily. He huffed and lashed at the wall before going back to the POVs to look for Pomni.

~

Pomni teleported at random to stay out of sight. There were a few cops on this side of the river but didn't seem to notice her. An unfamiliar car speeding by her caught her attention. She sped up to ride along beside it and saw Zooble fighting to keep the car under control.

Pomni waved to get Zooble's attention. "ZOOBLE!"

Zooble's head snapped to the left. Their eyes went wide, looking Pomni up and down. "Pomni!?"

"Take my hand! I can get you out of here!"

"No! Get Gangle! She's just ahead of me!"

"I'll come back for her!" Pomni tried to grab Zooble but they swerved away.

"GET GANGLE FIRST!"

They both avoid a shifting overpass as they argue. Pomni knew there was no time, Abel could spot her any minute now that she found the others. She sped off ahead to the next car. It was swerving wildly, barely missing or scraping against walls. Gangle was behind the wheel, balling her eyes out in fear.

"Gangle! Ga- woah!" Pomni teleported from one side of the vehicle to the other as Gangle swerved around. "GANGLE!" Pomni pounded on the driver window.

"AAA!" Gangle jumped. "Pomni!?"

"Open the window! I'll get you out of here!!"

~

"There you are." Abel hissed. "I may not be able to summon you, but I can still do far worse." He snapped and all the cars came to a screeching halt. Pomni almost had Gangle but went speeding off. All the other racers in view had long, horrified stares to them. Some of them were muttering to themselves.

"What have you done?" Caine pulled against his chains to see the screens as best he could.

"Simply giving back what wasn't you're to take." Abel grinned evily at Caine.

"What..? Oh, no. NO! They'll abstract! Please! I beg of you! Don't hurt them!"

"Too late!!" Abel cackled, watching Zooble's eyes twitch.

~

Pomni I felt like someone was burying an ax in the back of her head. She saw flashes of faces she had only seen in her dreams, but now they had names. "Mom..? Dad..?" She had friends. She grew up in a small town just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She moved to Chicago for college. She graduated with high marks in forensic science. She went freelance as a private investigator. So many cold cases. So many missing people. A mysterious contact from someone claiming to have worked at C&A gave her a lead. An abandoned building. A headset. She had to wear the headset...

"My name...Oh my god, I remember my name!" She realized where she was and drifted to a hard stop and burned out as she turned around to get back to Gangle. She was still the closest other racer.

~

Zooble remembered everything. The abuse. The neglect. The rejection from their family and society. The body dysmorphia. It wasn't just them not liking their avatar in game, it was something that translated form their real life. They went to the abandoned C&A office for a video. They were an urban explorer. That's it. No special reason or motivation. They were here entirely by their own stupidity. The horrible realization...no one was waiting for them on the other side.

Zooble sat back in the driver seat in the parked vehicle. Without a word or even a scream, their body started to break apart. The spindly limbs split to reveal black static bulging from every crack. Their eyes fell off their broken head. The abstraction filled the car until it exploded.

~

Pomni just got back to Gangle's car, but she wasn't in it. Gangle and gotten out and ran back to try and get to Zooble, only to witness them falling apart. "Zooble! Zooble, no!!" Zooble's car blow it's roof as the abstraction became too big for containment. She put her arms up to shield herself from falling debris.

Pomni wasted no time, she skidded to a halt to safely grab Gangle and vanished.

~

Caine watched in silent, wide eyed horror.

Abel reveled in Caine's misery. "One down." His laugh echoed with Zooble's roar through the city.

~~~

CH1 PREV NEXT (coming soon)

[blackboard-monitor]

how i've finished inktober every year for eight years and counting

Every time I mention around other artists that I finish inktober every year (meaning I draw and ink 31 drawings, one every day in October), I get questions like "how???", so I figured I'd make a post about it on the off chance it's helpful to someone. Please note that all my advice is based on my personal experience and you're a different person so what works for me may not work for you, and you can do whatever you want forever.

What it boils down to for me is two basic rules: 1) keep it simple and 2) manage your expectations.

Tools

Paper/sketchbook

I started my first inktober in my journal at the time, and because I'm neurotic like that, I've had to do every subsequent inktober in whatever journal I was using at that point.

The benefit of this is that each journal has had a page size of A5 or smaller, which can be tricky when trying to get in a lot of detail, but on the other hand forces you to limit the size of your drawings to a pretty managable size.

Paper type can also be important! Last year in 2023, my journal was a Moleskine sketchbook (image 1), which was actually designed to handle some degree of wet media, which was a game-changer for me as an ink wash enjoyer. Don't get me wrong, I've been using ink washes in most of my previous journals as well, but inking is a lot nicer when your paper isn't constantly buckling (image 2) or pilling and the ink isn't bleeding all over the place, inclunding through the page (image 3). Pages that stay flat instead of buckling are also a lot easier to scan or photograph, if like me you want to post your art online.

In short, my inktober paper recommendation is to use a sketchbook no larger than A5, and go for one with nice, thick paper if you intend to use wet media.

Sketching

I sketch everything with a single 6H pencil that I got from my brother in 2019. Because the lead is so hard, it allows me to scribble to my heart's content without the sketch getting too dark or hard to erase. Sometimes I'll refine the sketch with a HB mechanical pencil, which shows up really nicely on top of the 6H lines, but I may skip that step if I'm feeling lazy or the first sketch is clean enough.

Inking

I've used a variety of art supplies in my inktober drawings. For the most part I've always stuck to greyscale, with the exception of a couple of red or gold accents some years.

My main inktober tools are a set of Micron fineliners in various sizes, and liquid India ink, which I use with a dip pen and with brushes. I usually mix up a mid-tone ink wash in a small bottle, and use that throughout the month.

Fineliners pros: portable, require minimal setup, can use on the sofa or in bed or wherever Fineliners cons: creating texture and filling large areas is a lot more time-consuming. In 2021 I did inktober exclusively in fineliner because I was tired and couldn't be bothered to deal with liquid ink, but I ended up spending more time than maybe ever on the drawings because it took so long to add texture with pens.

Ink pros: you can achieve small details with a dip pen as well as quick texture and fill in large areas with a brush and ink washes Ink cons: can be messy (protip from 2022 Liekki, don't spill ink water all over your laptop), usually you have to sit at a table of some kind, you need to wash your brushes and dip pens, if your paper isn't designed for wet media, it'll buckle or bleed

Pick your inking tools and techniques based on how much time you have!

Prompts/ideas/subject matter

I've always stuck to the "official" prompt list, because it brings me joy to scroll through the tag of the day on instagram and see how others interpreted the same prompt. Or, rather, it used to bring me joy to do this, until instagram's enshittification stole our ability to look at tags. Maybe I'll have some luck with that on Cara going forward; here's hoping.

As for ideas, sometimes they come easy, sometimes it's like pulling teeth and I have to enlist all my friends to brainstorm with me (sorry, y'all). When in doubt, draw the first thing that comes to mind when you read the prompt; don't overthink it (like I often do). I like to try to come up with a less obvious interpretation of a prompt, but this is also where I often get stuck and have to harass my loved ones for ideas. Sometimes it helps to relate the prompt to a tv show/book/etc. you're into; I've done quite a bit of inktober fanart, as well as art of various DnD cahracters from games I've played/DM'd. If all else fails, just look at what everyone else is drawing that day.

Time management

Be realistic about how much time you have in a day to work on inktober, and then set your expectations accordingly. If you only have an hour, stick to a size and level of detail that you can realistically finish in an hour. I've done some very quick scribbles in my years of inktober when I've been busy that day.

My personal philosophy is that I try not to plan too much ahead; I don't do any sketching until day of, and ideally I don't try to come up with ideas for a prompt or at least decide on an idea until the day before at the earliest. Containing each drawing in one day helps me have realistic expectations of what's doable. This does mean drawing late into the night sometimes after procrastinating or struggling to find an idea all day, but it's what works for me.

If your goal is to complete inktober, it's better to do a small shitty drawing in ten minutes than to fall behing by starting something way too ambitious that you'll never be able to finish in a day.

Secret third rule!

Accept the fact that you aren't going to be happy with every drawing.

Inktober was created as an exercise to practice inking. Think of your drawings as sketches, not finished masterpieces. Some of them will be bad, at least in your own eyes. Sometimes you'll put a lot of effort into something that just doesn't work out. For example:

To quote Joe Hills, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of practice. So you fucked up today's drawing. Tomorrow is a new day – that's the beauty of inktober. "Ever tried, ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." (Samuel Beckett) Progress isn't linear, either; some years are consistently mediocre, other years it's all over the place with a couple bangers and a couple really shitty ones.

Every inktober I've made drawings I love,

drawings I'm indifferent to,

and drawings that straight up suck.

And I'm at peace with that.

Thanks for reading what turned into a pretty long post, and I hope some of it was helpful. Happy inktobering!

[missglittersmiles]

Noble To The Core- CH. 3

Descendants × Fem! Reader Summary: They finally made it to Auradon.

Prev Chapter

•| ⊱ First Day ⊰ |•

The days seemed to drag on while at the same time, it seemed like nothing could stop moving for Ben. He was running around the school to make sure everything was prepared for the new students. His girlfriend, Audrey, begrudgingly helped him even though she was very vocal about how against this she was.

She wasn't the only one to voice concern. There were plenty of others who tried to sway the prince from doing something so daring and foolish. Yet he didn't back down in the face of it all. There were parents that threatened to unenroll their kids from Auradon if he went through. A number of students went back home or to another well established school to continue their studies.

Even when his supporters were outnumbered by detractors, he stood his ground and sent those five letters.

As much as Audrey loathed the idea of isle people coming here as free people. She had to give credit to Ben for sticking with his plan. Even if she didn't like any of this, she was willing to support Ben if he fully believed in reforming the few "innocent" people of the isle. But if she learns of any wrong doings she'll have those five shipped off back to the isle and make sure that letting someone off the isle will never happen again. She and others would make sure of it.

When the morning of the Isle kids finally came round everything was tense. Even those few who supported Ben's idea were on edge. The school, the people here were always quite loud, bustling with life. Now everyone was almost silent as if everyone were at a funeral and they were mourning while the casket was lowered into the ground. The air was suffocating. It was unbearable to withstand, but Ben told himself that this had to be done.

This was a necessary step to meaning old scars. He knew this wasn't going to be easy or walk in the park. He was hopeful, not senseless as everyone liked to believe. There were many risks taken to build up to this moment and if everything falls apart then he'll gladly take responsibility for his ambition.

"Everything's going to be okay." Audrey whispered as she squeezed his hand. Ben swallowed a lump in his throat. He couldn't fight off the ever growing anxiety that was building up. Noticing how tense everyone else around him wasn't helping either.

Seeing that her words weren't getting through, Audrey whispered to him again. "No matter what happens I'll be here for you. Remember that, Benny." He finally tore his eyes away from the distant view and looked at her with her supportive smile. Her dark brown eyes betrayed her, showcasing the same growing anxiety of her own.

Still that was enough to make him slowly grin. They had different thoughts on this matter, but she'd always support him and that simply made his heart flutter. "You know, with your smile you could be a Charming."

Audrey let out a flustered giggle and playfully slapped his shoulder. "I think you're the real Charming here." Her response only made his smile wider. They gazed at each for a moment before the band started playing. The sudden noise made them both nearly jump out of their skin.

There were two carriages that came closer. The horses that were pulling the carriages were white as snow and galloped with a refined pride. The carriages matched the elegance of the horses because Ben asked for only the best.

As the carriages came to a stop in front of Ben, the band started to slowly quiet down before going silent. The door swung open and two boys fell out. They were screeching at each other and trying to pull something out of each other's hands.

The screaming alerted the other carriage door to fly open. A [hair color] haired girl jumped out with a frightened expression. She whipped her head to where the ruckus was coming from and her face became more relaxed maybe even relieved. Two other girls emerged from the first carriage and quickly broke up the game of tug of war.

Everyone watched the isle kids in disbelief. They didn't know what to expect, but they didn't expect something like this. Some found it amusing while others found it distasteful. Ben swallowed the urge to let out a chuckle and swiftly took a step forward.

His voice was as sunny as his smile making some of the isle kids grimace. "Welcome to Auradon!" He stood in front of the girl on the far left and held a hand. The [hair color] haired girl looked like a frightened animal when he came close. She didn't look like she wanted to attack or anything, it seemed more like she wanted to run or faint like a possum.

Yet she gathered courage that wasn't sure was there and held his hand. "Thank you for inviting me. I am y/n Vainira." He gave her hand a slight squeeze before letting out. "The pleasure is all mine," He swiftly took a step to the side of y/n to face the next person which was Carlos. He held out his hand to Carlos and said with a dazzling smile, "It's a pleasure to meet all of you really."

The isle boy just nodded his hand with a false smile and said, "I'm Carlos De Vil." Though he didn't show it, the Isle kids could tell how nervous he was by how he forced out his words and stood as stiff as a statue. The prince didn't show that he was perturbed by Carlos' reaction and responded in kind with a nod.

"I am Prince Ben and I welcome you all to my kingdom as well as the school." Evie nearly jumped at his words. When he stood in front of her, she grabbed his hand and shook enthusiastically. "I am Evie Grimhilde, daughter of Evil Queen. It is an honor to meet your majesty." She suddenly let go of his hand and did a quick curtsy and bowed her head.

Mal rolled her eyes, 'Why don't you kiss his shoes while you're at it.' With that Ben went to greet the next person. "Me and my girlfriend, Audrey, will be showing you around the school." When Ben held out his hand to Jay, the isle boy shook his with his left hand and effortlessly forced out a charming smile. "Jay."

Ben waited for Jay to continue, but he didn't. "Jay. Just Jay?" Ben asked mildly perplexed. Some of the files and documents weren't fully filled out. Isle was practically its own nation and the other kingdoms didn't bother with it. The only reason why and how Ben was able to find records of at least most of the respondents was because Auradon was the only kingdom to care about such things. It was quite easy for the other kingdoms to forget about it because they didn't see it outside their window.

Still Ben knew that Jaffair's son file and birth certificate was recorded unlike some. It was odd, though Ben wasn't bothered by it. "Well it's good to have you here Jay." Jay only nodded his head, that charming smile still plastered on his face even after Ben went on to greet the last person.

'How long do I have to smile? My face is starting to hurt already.' Jay thought to himself.

Facing the girl with purple hair Ben said, his voice ever chipper. "And you must be-" She rudely cut him off, "Mal. Just Mal." She shook his hand and quickly pulled her hand away with disgusted expression. He was surprised by how cold her hand was even if they touched for a brief moment. It was like touching snow. Not to mention her complete disinterest bordering on disdain of his presence was interesting to put it mildly.

Watching the prince greet everyone y/n prayed that they could survive at least until dawn and no one would be executed.

"Well just Mal, it's good to have you here today." Mal tried to force out a smile, but it came out more as a sad attempt to cover up her hostility. 'Someone needs to work on their acting,' Jay thought while trying to hold back a laugh.

A girl with long brown hair wrapped her arm around Ben. She quickly looked over the group with an almost accusatory gaze before slipping on a smile. Her voice was as if not more peppy than Ben's. "Really it is wonderful to meet you all. I am Princess Audrey Rose, but everyone just calls me Audrey. Oh and don't worry about your luggage. We'll have people take your stuff to your room."

With that the group was shown around the school. They met some of the saff, students, and even Fair Godmother. Though disappointingly she did not seem to have her wand with her. About halfway through the tour when Ben was showing them the tourney field a water balloon smacked y/n in the back of her head. "Agh!" y/n let out a confused and frustrated sigh.

Everyone turned to her. Jay busted out laughing, "What's got you so blue, y/n?" Confused, the girl touched the back of her head and then looked at her hand. It had blue paint dripping down. Just as Jay asked his question a water balloon filled with green paint slapped the smile off his face. Wiped the green out of his eyes and said with a stern voice, "It was pretty funny when you threw one at dullard. Me? Not so much."

Mal was the next victim and her right shoulder was hit. Bright pink coded her side. After seeing that Jay's smile re-appeared and said to the mysterious water balloon sniper, "Okay, it's pretty funny again." Carlos started booking it across the tourney field and into the woods. Audrey quickly held up her purse to protect her face. While Evie screamed and clung to y/n as a human shield.

Evie yelled to y/n, "Protect me!" Not expecting the sudden weight to be put on her, y/n fell onto her back with Evie on top of her. Evie tried to get back up quickly so that she could use someone else as a human shield, but it was too late. Being perfectly out in the open, Evie's chest was hit by a water balloon. When she looked down at the color, she shrieked, "Brown!? They got pink, blue, and green! But I get brown!? And it's all over my favorite outfit!"

y/n put her thumb and pointer finger together to feel the paint. The paint was rather thick. "I think this might be acrylic." Evie looked down at the girl still laying in the grass and asked, "Can I wash it out of my clothes?" She had a desperate and pleading look in her eyes that y/n never seen before. y/n hate to say, but Evie asked. "It's impossible to get out."

After hearing that Evie went back to screaming and throwing a justified tantrum. While Jay laughed at the whole thing.

Ben had already made it to where the water balloons were being thrown. It was just from a tree not too far or too close to them. The prince took a deep breath before shaking the tree. It took a few shakes, but eventually a boy fell down. The boy had a basket of water balloons that all fell on him. Making him a rainbow mess laying on the grass.

"I knew I should have had someone keep an eye on you, Percy." Ben hissed to himself. Everything was going perfectly. "You- I just can't believe- I'm speechless, Percy. You always know how to leave me speechless." The boy called Percy groaned. "Okay, sure whatever. But this wasn't even my idea!"

"No. It may have not been your idea, but you still did it."

Percy desperately tried to defend himself, "But he's up there too! If you're going to punish me then you better punish Gallagher as well." They both looked up the tree, but no one was there. Percy wanted to scream in frustration. His supposed partner in crime has bailed on him once again.

Ben helped Percy up and told him to apologize to the new students. The boy really didn't have much of a choice and walked with Ben over to the group. Percy grumbled, "You guys don't know how to have fun around here."

"I am so sorry for this happening. Our local self proclaimed prankster thought it would be a funny–" Evie stomped up to the boy. Grinding her teeth, "How dare you! Not only did you terrorize me on my first day, but you also ruined my clothes that I made myself! Do you know how many times I pricked my finger on a needle to make this!? Not a lot, but a few times!"

Not a lot of people have seen Evie so enraged before. Quite frankly, she was scaring y/n a little bit. The girl was kind of aloof at least to y/n. The worst insults would be hurled at her and she'd just shrug it off. She's been mad before, y/n had witnessed it multiple times, but never such rage. Even Ben didn't want to get into it until Evie was done with her screaming ranting.

Percy didn't seem fazed by the reaction. More bored than anything else. He seemed grateful to finally leave when Ben explained what they'd do next. "I'll Percy to the principal and Avery will show you your rooms so you can all get cleaned up. Right?" Ben looked at the girl and sighed to herself before putting on a smile. "Right. I'll take you to your rooms."

"What about Carlos? He ran into the woods." y/n question with an anxious expression. "We'll have people look for him. He'll be back here before you know it." Hearing Ben's explanation, y/n decided to trust him. Jay added, "And if we don't find a body then we can just tell his mom that he's been adopted by a pack of wild dogs."

"Jay!" y/n squeaked out in horror.

"There aren't any wild dogs, wolves, or even bears around or near the school. He'll be fine I assure you." Ben tried his best to reassure the girl. She thought it over quickly before accepting his words with a slight nod. "Yeah, there's no need to get your undies in a twist. The only thing you'd have to worry about is Carlos touching poison ivy. Or maybe eating it."

y/n rolled eyes at Jay's remark and slightly pouted. "Carlos is smart enough to not start eating random greenery." The isle kids all seemed to stop and think about y/n's statement for a moment. Mal spoke up, "Does he even know what poison ivy is?"

Getting a bit antsy Audrey reminded them that she was here by making a loud 'ahem'. Once everyone was looking at her, she said, "Well, just follow me and I will show you to your room." The group followed the girl back into the school. All of sudden she came to a stop and called someone over. A scrawny boy with glass came over to them with some hesitation. He wasn't hiding his fear well.

Audrey pulled him over by the arm and shoved a paper into his hands before turning around to face the group. "This is Dough, he'll be showing you to your rooms. Say hi, Dough." Dough swallowed and gave a barely audible hello. After that Audrey told him good luck and scurried off down the hall.

Dough stared at the group with unhidden fear until Mal snapped him out of his frozen state. "Hey, aren't you supposed to take us to our rooms?" He stammered a bit before looking at the map Audrey gave him. "Y-Yes. Of course. This way." They made a stop at the boy’s dormitory since it was the closest to them and dropped off Jay.

When they went to the girl’s dormitory and stopped in front of a door. Dough explained that Mal and y/n would be staying there while Evie will be rooming with another student. Mal became tense and clenched her fists.

"I'm not staying in the room as-" Mal quickly stopped herself from calling y/n a name, but she couldn't help herself from insulting the girl in some way. So she slyly added with a hiss, "Right, Vv? We’re just better off away from each other." y/n's slightly frowned and furrowed her eyebrows at the nickname before she turned to Doug.

Any and all traces of annoyance were gone from her face as if nothing had happened. "I'm fine sharing a room with anyone." Her voice was light and the small resurging smile she gave Doug made Mal sicker. Mal rolled her eyes while thinking, 'Two-faced.'

Unsure of what to do under Mal's glare, Doug decided that one change wouldn't wouldn't hurt. "Ah, well- I'll show you to your room Miss. Vainira. I’ll carry your suitcase to your new room." Doug's voice held an anxiousness that made Mal smirk. The two went further down the hallway and y/n said, "You can just call me y/n. There isn't a need to be so formal with me."

Mal's smirk reverted back to a scowl at hearing y/n's voice. She could just hear and see the small smile y/n wore. She never liked y/n's smile. Even after all these years she's only begun hoping for y/n's downfall. It seemed like Harry was y/n's downfall. Mal had actually begun to search for y/n after hearing about the break up. Hoping to see that pitiful expression. Maybe y/n would even grovel at her feet and beg to back with her group. That moment would be sweeter than any sugar and Mal would savor that moment. Laughing in the girl's face.

Alas that fantasy never becomes reality. y/n was nowhere to be found and Mal knew better than to go snooping around the Vainira house. Even when they were leaving the y/n acted all the same. Her smile didn't falter when she was pushed to ride with their luggage. It was quite frustrating. "Fake as ever, I'm sure she'll fit right in here." Mal muttered to Evie before entering their new room.

Next Chapter

Noble To The Core Masterlist

Thank you to everyone who commented. You have no idea how much they motivate me and just make my day. I made some artwork regarding the story, but anyways thank you for reading! Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings. PS: I haven’t fully proofread this, I just wanted to get it out as soon as possible. So let me know about any misspellings or anything like that will help me later. :)

Taglist: @nobl3sse

[seijorhi]

Hey Rhi 🙌 what are your thoughts on werewolf Miya twins X vampire reader 🤔 I was reading your fic Scar Tissue and thought it would've been cool if the reader was a vampire. Especially since vampires and werewolves are natural enemies and would be ironic/ funny in a way. I've been reading a lot of vampire shows and movies (mainly twilight🌚), and they always state how they think werewolves are volatile and barbaric creatures that are beneath them; which I feel goes hand in hand with the Miya twins, lol. Not only that, but your blurbs about the Inraizaki wolf pack also feed into my delusions 😭

Do you think that the twin's obsession would be just as deep? Or do you think the differences in their nature would be too deep that they aren't interested at all? Or maybe it's a gradual feeling?

What if it's the whole Inraizaki pack against the reader's coven (just like that one that you did but with a slight twist)? Maybe the pack stumbles across the coven and finds the way they live to be extremely off-putting. (Im basing this off the Cullen’s way of a more refined and humane living 😅)

I just love the thought of them being natural enemies. I literally can't see the twins being anything other than hot-tempered, irrational werewolves 🫣

I don't know what to do with all these little concepts, ideas, and blurbs but I felt the need to share; I'm starting to think that it's just the excitement of Spooktober and also the absurd amount of love I have for Twilight clouding my delusional mind.

I’ll stop my geeky rambling now or else I'll be able to talk about this all day!

HAPPY SPOOKTOBER 🎃👻

not so much twilight-verse, but i do love the concept of the miyas as werewolves with the reader as the vampire they're obsessed with.

she's supposed to be stronger than they are, invincible, but that's only when she's not close to starving. they have her in heavy chains, locked away from the harsh sunlight in their den.

on rare occasions, as a treat, they'll drag home an extra half-dead human for her to play with, but mostly they want her to feed from them. there's something kinda hot about it, her survival dependent upon them. their blood filling her with life.

they'll have her begging for it before they'll let her take so much as a sip – begging for the blood of the filthy dogs she'd once sneered at. they'd let her take it from the vein herself if she hadn't tried time and again to rip out their throats, all snarling and savage.

but it's okay. they won't take it personal. they like their pretty, bloodthirsty little pet with a bit of bite.

[allthegothihopgirls]

What kind of music do you think each of the Batfam members listen to? (Besides Jason who is obviously a Mitski stan)

OH I LOVE THIS QUESTION!!!!!!! i'm gonna tryyyyy and take this seriously

starting off i think alfred's music taste influences just about everyone in the manor to some degree. lots of classical music flowing through the hallways at most hours of the day, the music reminds everyone of home. i think it's a general rule of thumb in the family that if you want to locate alfred, just follow the sound of mozart.

drawing off a bit of canon, i think dick listens to a lot of popular 80s stuff. the cure, joy division, the b-52s, billy joel, abba etc. that one panel of him humming 'here comes the sun' also comes to mind, i think he'd enjoy the beatles. however i do think he'd also be into some soft rock, maybe just a little bit of more intense stuff too. fleetwood mac's a big one i think he'd like. i've mentioned in a post before how i think dick would enjoy foo fighters in his post-robin rebellion phase, and i stand by that.

i do also enjoy his insane love for david bowie in the live-action titans adaption... very dear to me. i take that as gospel. also have a slight feeling he's a bit of a jazz guy once in a blue moon.

however i don't think he'd be overly into music, (the artists though, that's a whole other thing), i think he's also just happy to flick on the radio to some random dated station... or, don't crucify me... the top hits of the day.

i think jason's taste is a bit more refined. he's the #1 victim of alfred's classical music agenda, sitting in the library he's got something like 'lacrimosa' looping endlessly.

unlike dick who's got a happy-go-lucky approach to music, i think jason feels into it a bit more. he's joyriding through the city and listening to slipknot, sleeping with sirens, misfits etc etc. he's just looking for background music, maybe he's playing dashboard confessional, or... hear me out... lana del rey. he's out on patrol and is playing 90's rap through his helmet's bluetooth.

i think he'd also enjoy amy winehouse, the boys next door, no doubt, alice in chains, and maybe a bit of lorde. he's definitely into more indie bands too, local stuff. makes his own mixtapes and you'd only be able to recognise like 20% of the bands by name. he's also the one batfam member who i think would go to war to defend the songs he feels deeply about.

tim's a bit more difficult to narrow down, but i'll throw 90s alternative out there; jimmy eat world, oasis, radiohead, weezer, pearl jam type stuff. i'm also very set in my ways about femme-pop tim, which is definitely more out there and harder to justify. in terms of that i think beyonce, rihanna, and britney spears are the big three he'd enjoy.

i just think he likes anything with a beat tbh, it's not so much about genre or the actual song, as it is about the mood. similarly to dick, i don't think he's typically meticulous with defining his taste or anything, just happy to listen to whatever's making him feel good.

as for damian, i think anything with soothing instruments entices him. mainly classical, but not just limited to european stuff, i'm thinking of tyagaraja, toru takemitsu etc just off the top of my head. he'd also like elton john, queen, and other older artists with a polished vocal and avantgarde nature. i'm also going to put cartoon soundtrack music into the mix, specifically songs from adventure time. for whatever reason i'm also super drawn into the idea of him being big on kpop, although i don't know enough about the genre to make specific assumptions.

steph (ik she's not exactly batfam but i'm including her anyways) listens to predominantly female artists, and oscillates between very uplifting pop stuff, and.. societal hatred. so i think on one hand she's very into marina and the diamonds, kesha, and olivia rodrigo, but also paramore, hole, fiona apple, lorde etc. in contrast to all of that though she's also a huge fan of the beatles' solo careers, particularly paul mccartney.

cass is into a lot of the music she's done for ballet performances. the music for the snow queen instantly comes to mind as something that would be a favourite of hers. this might be a bit out there, but i think she'd enjoy grimes a lot, mostly because of how enriching it is to just listen to the sounds of, without having to pay much mind to the words she's speaking (grimes never really makes a lot of sense anyways). apart from that i don't think she really listens to all that much music, maybe some 2000s pop she hears on the radio driving around with steph.. i did enjoy the all star gag in batgirls (2022).

babs has a pretty similar taste to steph i think (i believe steph may have gotten some of her taste from her). she's a big fan of stevie nicks, gwen stefani, maybe the cranberries, hole, dolly parton, janet jackson, lauryn hill, and lesley gore. i'd like to say she enjoys a bit of 70s eccentric too, the doors, blondie, bowie etc. i don't think she's overly fussed with what she's listening to, as long as it doesn't sound too watered down and modern-pop like.

and i don't really know enough about duke to make assumptions, so i'm just going to let him sit out of this one. i also don't think bruce has any time for music, except for a bit of classical to help him concentrate every so often.

[mistydeyes]

tuberose and rose tinted glasses

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summary: A work trip to France lands you in a bar in Grasse. But it's the actions of a masked British man that puts him next to you with brandy in your hands.

pairing: Simon "Ghost" Riley x fem!Reader

warnings: swearing, harassment

a/n: literally writing this on my lunch break, pining over the idea of taking a trip to grasse and submerging myself in their fields of jasmine

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Grasse, France the world's capital of perfume. As you walked the late-night streets filled with fragrant, floral air, you couldn't help but feel melancholy that you were here on business and not for pleasure. Your head flooded with the smells of the city as you noted the various notes of tuberose and jasmine as you walked. Despite your frequent trips here, you still fell in love with the rows of flowers in peak bloom.

Your heels clicked on the ground as you saw a red awning with the letterings of a bar on it. You sought refuge after a long day of discussing new fragrances with your colleagues and creating the perfect blend for another company.

You pushed the doors open and sat at one of the velvet cushioned seats in the dimly lit place. As you patted the soft fabric with your fingertips, you admired how the bar was lit with a warm rose light. You noted only a small amount of patrons in the place. It looked to be only you, the bartender, and maybe three other men in this entire pink atmosphere. However, you paid them no mind as the bartender approached you.

"Qu’est-ce que je vous sers?” ("What can I get you?") He said, giving you a moment to comprehend what he was saying. You couldn't blame him, you were far from a stereotypical French woman. Maybe it was the way you carried yourself or just looked so typically American that tipped him off to your presence. However, your years working with your company and traveling from the US to France made you thankfully bilingual in the romantic language.

Just as he was about to ask the answer in English, you responded, "Je prends un un verre d'Armagnac Aristocrat, s’il vous plaît." ("I'll have a glass of Armagnac Aristocrat please.") Your clientele had refined your tastes. Never one for wine, you preferred a strong drink to accompany you.

"Fille chanceuse, je viens d'ouvrir une bouteille pour le monsieur là-bas," ("Lucky girl, I just opened a bottle for the gentleman over there") he replied and signaled to a man also sitting alone on the far side of the bar. Unknowingly, this man had luckily ordered a bottle of the spirit and allowed for your drink to be served immediately, the Armagnac being perfectly oxidized in the French air. The man in question was broad and had his head down. As the rose light illuminated his figure, he seemed more interested in his drink than the atmosphere around him. His eyes looked concentrated on the caramel liquid in his glass. You wondered what his full expression was as, despite his eyes, his face was primarily obstructed by a black mask.

Your eyes left the man as the bartender gently set your drink down on a scarlet napkin. "Merci," you said gently and he left you to enjoy your purchase. As you sipped on your drink, you savored the smokiness of the brandy coupled with the sharp bitterness of the Lillet. You swallowed the liquid, enjoying the subtle sweetness of the ginger ale. This was a drink to be sipped, not greedily drank as you enjoyed how the flavors came together to create a perfect beverage. You gently traced your fingers on the edge of the glass and smeared your reddened lipstick on its rim.

However, your moment of solace would soon be interrupted by a man who took an abrupt seat next to you. You could tell by the way he was swaying and leaning on the counter that he had one too many. He smelled like cheap cologne, probably something he bought as a souvenir and beer.

"Ma chérie, tu es very sexy" ("My darling, you are very sexy") the man leered over you. You couldn't help but roll your eyes. His poor mixing of French and English made you feel embarrassed for him. He acted like this was the epitome of flirtation and almost expected you to throw yourself on him.

You attempted to ignore the man, turning your body away and protectively hovering over your drink. He was determined, grabbing your shoulder to face him. "You smell expensive, tell me do you put your perfume where you want to be kissed?" he spoke sultry in another crude attempt at flirting.

"Not interested," you said, waving your arm in a dismissive motion. You just wanted to enjoy a night with some liquor and the smells of the town. Your gold bracelets clanked as you brushed him away. However, they soon clattered together as he aggressively grabbed your wrist.

"Oh so you speak English, sweetheart," he began, breathing his hot alcohol-laced breath in your face. "Lucky for you, I can speak French between your legs," he finished as you tried to free yourself from his grip. You pushed against his chest and elbowed him but he was relentless. Your eyes looked wildly around as you tried to receive any help, but seemingly the bar had emptied and the bartender was nowhere to be found. "C'mon sweetheart, let me show you a good time," he said and pressed harder on your wrist. Your arm pricked with pain from his grip. Suddenly his hands were pried off of you and he was thrown back.

You turned to see it was the man from across the bar, now standing next to you and glaring at the downed man. "She politely said 'fuck off, asshole', do you understand that?" he barked at him in a deep voice. The drunk man looked ready for a fight as he stood up. But something about the masked man's aura made him rescind. As quick as he came, the drunkard left. He ceremoniously flipped him off and with a string of profanities, exited the bar in a huff.

"Thank you," you said and motioned for the man to take a seat, "I think I owe you a drink." He briefly glanced over to where he sat and you both saw the empty glass. "Looks like you need a refill, anyways," you remarked. It seemed like he agreed as he took a seat to your right.

You signaled to the bartender, who for some reason had not acknowledged the entire fiasco that just occurred. He came over and you asked, "Un autre de ceux-ci pour moi et le monsieur," ("Another one of these for myself and the gentleman") and pointed to your dwindling glass. He nodded and went behind the counter to prepare both your liquid vices.

"So what brings you to Grasse? You don't seem like a Frenchman to me," you asked turning to face your new companion. In the bar's lighting, you could see him slightly better than before. His light eyelashes glistened in the light and contrasted with his amber eyes. You also noticed how his face mask had some kind of skull design painted on it.

"Business," he answered plainly, a man of few words you presumed. Somehow when he spoke, you were comforted by the smell of cigarettes on his lips and hints of brandy as they mixed in the air. "Me as well, but I always love coming here," you sighed. The bartender quietly came back with your drinks and you cheered the mysterious man next to you.

After savoring the liquor for a few moments he sparked up another conversation. "What is this? It's strong but good," he asked. "An Armagnac Aristocrat, bitter orange Lillet Blanc, and smokey Armagnac topped with a refreshing, crisp serving of ginger ale. C'est manifique" ("It's magnificent") you finished and gently placed the chill crystal glass on your bruised wrist.

"Well that is quite a description, I would guess you have these a lot," he joked and you could see the corners of his eyes crinkle as he smiled. "I'm a perfumer, my whole life is based on knowing the key elements to an ingredient and being able to illustrate it for others," you replied, practically telling your life story to this stranger.

After another long string of minutes, he spoke up again. "Makes sense why you're here, beautiful city," he said quietly. "Yes, it is. If you ever get a chance, a perfume tour would be worth your while." With that, he shook his head slightly and you knew this was a way of saying he was on his way out of the town.

"Next time, love, I appreciate the recommendation though." Maybe it was the inclusion of the nickname but you picked up on his British accent. London you thought, maybe Manchester, regardless it was as intoxicating as the liquor that was warming your insides.

As the time waned on, you ordered another drink. This time it was his recommendation, a Brandy Smash. Feeling slightly tipsy you joked, "Mhmm, I can taste the smokiness of the Armagnac with a subtle hint of cooling mint leaves and the sweet tang of sugar and lemon."

"And I would've thought perfumers are only good for the sense of smell," he replied. With his mask pulled up to his nose, you could see how beautiful his smile was. As you talked, his rosy lips formed into a calming curve and you could see some silvery scars dance in the bar's overhead light.

"I'm much more than that-" you stopped short. You realized after two hours of talking about yourself, you had not even asked his name. He noticed your hesitation and replied, "It's Simon."

Simon, meaning 'to listen' you thought to yourself, what a perfect name for a man who let you occupy his time with botanicals and knowledge of scents. "I'm Y/N," you said, "And thank you, Simon. This has been a perfect evening," you smiled gently.

"Yes it has, a perfect evening with perfect drinks," he replied and clinked his glass with yours. As he finished his drink, he slowly prepared to leave. He signaled the bartender over and you both paid your respective tabs. As he adjusted his jacket, something about Simon made you want to see him again. Maybe it was his chiseled features or his attentiveness to your words but whatever it was, it made you gently place a hand on his arm.

"I know this is a little forward but mind if I give you my number? Maybe I'll run into you here again or stateside?" you asked, preparing for rejection. This chance encounter was a plot device in movies, almost too good to be true. "Sure, love. Let's find you a pen," he said and pushed a napkin toward you.

"Puis-je avoir un stylo s'il vous plaît?" ("Can I have a pen, please?") you asked to the bartender who was polishing glasses. He slid one over to you and you wrote on the small red napkin you had been given. As you wrote on the napkin, you could feel Simon's eyes on you. He knew you were writing more than just a number based on the various lines written on the cloth.

You finished writing and leaned forward towards him, gently tucking the red item into his jacket pocket. If you had been any closer, you might have heard his rapid heartbeats and quickened breath. "Au revoir, Simon," you said and saw yourself to your hotel for the night, savoring the smell of jasmine and lavender in the air.

Simon took the napkin out of his pocket, the color reminding him of your sanguine cheeks and burgundy lipstick. His calloused fingers gently held the note as he read, "Pleasure to meet you, Simon. Thank you for listening and sharing a drink. Just a recommendation but a refined man like you should try, Gentleman by Givenchy. Until we meet again," followed by your number. He too walked out of the bar to embrace the late-night air. But as he walked the quiet streets, he now had a new appreciation for the intoxicating scents of Grasse.

[apazwtsn]

The other day a friend of mine (if you're wondering: yes, it's the same friend who said that about the morgue scene and the same one who thought of drawing the Sherlock characters as rats) asked me what animals the Sherlock characters would be, but not in the sense of "ohh, John is cute and small, obviously he would be a hedgehog", no. We based on their personality, attitude and environment to choose an animal with those same characteristics.

We talked for almost 2 hours about it and I even revealed myself, but I think it was worth it. She said she was going to draw them in their animal form, so i'll maybe update this post (or invite her to upload them to her blog)

In any case, we reach the following conclusions:

Sherlock – Snow Leopard: Cunning, intelligent, lonely. We also thought of animals like orangutan or crow but crows get along well with other crows and my friend didn't want to draw an orangutan.

John – Dog (small breed): It was difficult for us to choose an animal for John because we couldn't capture all his facets. We thought about capybaras and penguins, but we were missing that "aggressive" side. We even thought of a honey badger but damn, John isn't that bad. A dog seemed like a very simple option but then we realized that dogs are sociable, can be aggressive in particular situations and are very loyal. We chosed a small breed (sized, because of John's height), but that if you bother it too much it can, you know, gouge your eye out or something like that.

Lestrade – Koala: To be honest we didn't think much about this one. We had thought about a koala for John but we realized that koalas had a very boring life for John and were mostly quite lazy. When it was Lestrade's turn, we said "yes, Lestrade is a koala" and we didn't delve much deeper into it. XD

Mrs Hudson – Siamese cat: For Hudders we wanted an animal that was cute, but in a look-at-me-don't-touch-me kind of way. A cat was what I thought of since they tend to be surly and my friend suggested a Siamese, since they are "good and refined but naughty", according to her. We chose it because Hudders seems like an adorable and naïve lady until you discover that she is the widow of a drug dealer and in her house she has "herbs for hip pain". ;)

Mary – Fox: We initially thought of a fox for Sherlock, but then my friend said that foxes are fearful, and it didn't really fit him. When it was Mary's turn, I thought that Mary was cunning and really intelligent, but the fear of her past coming to light worked against her.

Moriarty – Hyena: Moriarty was the easiest of all (yes, even easier than Lestrade). We weren't sure, so I started naming all his characteristics, "manipulative, doesn't care what happens to people or even himself, would do anything to get what he wants and in general a damn psycho" and my friend immediately said "hyena" (I knew more about the characters, she knew more about animals). Just thinking about how truly machiavellian they can be, I had no doubt.

Molly - Sparrow: "Molly must be a shy, kind animal, someone who is there but you don't really notice," I said, or something like that. And my friend immediately thought of a sparrow.

Mycroft - Panther: I'm not really sure why my friend chose a panther, but some of her justifications were: "I would like a crow, because Mycroft has connections (like crows), but it would be strange if Sherlock was a leopard and Mycroft was a crow. I should choose another feline" "like a panther?" i said (i love panthers) "Yes!", said she, "Elegant, reserved, and intelligent."

Eurus - Wolf: Honestly, i don't know exactly why we chosed a wolf. It was my friend's idea but a wolf is definetly not a feline, so it really doesn't make sense. Anyway, because Eurus is also manipulative, but cares about Sherlock and is a bit more human than Moriarty, my friend chose wolf. I'm not sure what wolves are like exactly (as I said, my friend knows the most about animals), but I trust her judgment.

That was all. This wasn't meant to be something very deep, but to have fun for a while. :D

[elliemarchetti]

the alphabet of flowers prompt list

Maybe one day I'll write down all the great ideas behind this list, but for now I'll leave it here, at the mercy of Tumblr users. Feel free to request any flower, combo or bouquet for all the characters, ships and fandoms you find in the tags and of course let me know if something sparks your imagination!

Edit: adding a link to every prompt I complete as we speak

a.      Agapanthus – Love Letter

b.      Basil – Hate

c.      Cactus – Passionate Love [blackinnon]

d.      Daphne - I Wouldn't Want You Any Other Way

e.      Echinacea – Strength and Health

f.       Fern – Sincerity

g.      Gardenia – Sophistication

h.      Hibiscus – Delicate Beauty

i.       Iberid – Indifference

j.      Jasmine – Amiability [elucien]

k.     Kalanchoe – Persistence and Eternal Love

l.      Lantana – Strictness

m.    Magnolia – Dignity [elriel]

n.     Narcissus – New Beginnings

o.     Orchid – Refined Beauty

p.     Peony – Anger

q.     Quince – Perseverance During Adversity

r.      Rose – Love

s.     Sage – Good Health and Long Life

t.     Trillium – Modest Beauty

u.     Ursinia – Trickery

v.      Vervain – Pray For Me

w.     Waterlily – Birth and Resurrection

x.      Xeranthemum – Eternity and Immortality

y.      Yellow Bell – Rebirth

z.      Zinnia – Lasting Affection

[loversandantiheroes]

The more I think about it, the more I think I need a new approach to art. The urge is there - snippets of sentences or ideas for drawings or arts and crafts I'd like to make - but I cannot get myself over the hurdle of actually starting anything. And every time I come around to examine that, to poke at why it is that I pull up short at the thought of opening a word document or picking up a pencil or spending money I can't afford on art supplies I'll be too chickenshit to use, I come back to the same thing.

Whatever I make is going to be bad.

On a certain level I know this is unavoidable. I haven't written in a year. I haven't drawn in longer. God only knows the last time it was I tried to do any sort of physical crafts. I'd be starting from scratch, or trying to learn something new, or scraping the rust off of machinery left idle in the elements for too long. And while there is safety in the thought that at least with writing I can edit and refine a work into something that is at least palatable if not good, or hide away the sketches and scribbles with wonky proportions, or shove an ugly little clay thing into a drawer where no one has to see it, that's not enough.

I am not simply afraid of people seeing that I have made something bad. I am afraid to even let myself make something bad. Because at the end of the day, I still know it exists, and I cannot quite separate the necessity of bad and the judgement of failure.

I think maybe what I need to do is be bad on purpose. To not just accept the idea that something needs to be bad before it can be good, but to embrace making something that is bad for the sake of it. And I think, the way a lot of us have burned out on life and expectations, maybe some of you need it, too.

So here's my challenge for us all: make something terrible.

Spew typo-riddled overblown ridiculous filth in a word document for thirty minutes. When you're done, pour yourself a drink and toast the little bastard as you throw it in the recycle bin.

Draw the worst little stick figure you can imagine, draw a dog with six legs, draw a face where the eyes are fucking off in different directions and the mouth is a lazy parenthesis. Laugh at the scrungly thing you have created and blow it a kiss as you crumple it up and throw it in the bin. Thank it for its service.

Make a lopsided clay cup, then use it to take out your aggressions and smash it on the concrete.

Maybe the world doesn't need fucked up art, but we do. And we owe ourselves the freedom of it.

[anzuhan]

Meet the almost all-innovade idol group, INN◯ヴェイダ! We promise to form a smile on your faces through elegant, yet cute performances full of life.

{ more info & transparents under cut }

The unit is formed by 3 groups, F◯SIDE, M◯SIDE & X ⦁ Y ⦁ Z —

— F◯SIDE [ unit formed by the 3 female members of INNOVATOR that is sure to steal your heart by their dashingly adorable stage acts♡ ] ;

— M◯SIDE [ unit formed by 3 of the male members of INNOVATOR, their exquisite and unique performances will be catching your eye! ] ;

— X ⦁ Y ⦁ Z [ unit for the last remaining INNOVATOR members as well as the single unit for one of the duos - though sometimes they may be more than 2! XYZ's refined air and focus on their fans is breathtaking. ]

————————————————————————

EXTRA

+ more words

after ... several days and a total of 10h of work (if taken in total of just literal drawing and editing -otherwise itd be far more (´ω｀*)) it's finally done!!!! wow!!! i will be playing with these pngs for a while now. and maybe you'll do that too by having the transparents. there were a bunch of 'hardships' to overcome but i think it all ended up great in the end! I will be talking about some of the work behind the stages too now, as well as ideas and more of the. technical? work. you can stop reading now if you're not interested in what led to this and the inspirations behind it — in which case i hope you adored this at least 5% as much as i do (っ´ω｀)っ

i think it goes without saying i love idols, especially very idol-y music. i'll never go on without it. i love playing dressup with characters and myself all too much as well ; with ribbons ideals of ruling over the earth, im sure he would be happy to find there is another way of doing that without losing your forces either! wow. howd no one tell him of this before? if violence need be at any point, he'd have the whole squad ready as well. Initially i wanted to make the main outfits more uniform for everyone, though because there will be a lot of focus on duos in the end i went with color-coded ones (much like LiPPS from im@s ! though theyre not made of duos for each color - imagine that were the case and youd get this unit). The duo part was also a problem, because regene would've been left out, which is why i decided to take on the indigo suit too. we do look a little odd compared to the other duos though but oh well ♡

Onto the naming, INN◯ヴェイダ has a lot of meaning within it - ◯ is generally a censor for words, though the circle plays a general theme for the naming in all of the main units. in the name for the main group, it simply replaces the O in innovator ; ヴェイダ (lit. veida) was the closest thing i could get to that'd sound both like Veda & innovator (together with the beginning inno). With the maru (◯) being consistent within all other names, the male - female units can be read as both F SIDE/M SIDE or F MARU/M MARU, whichever is more to your liking. XYZ is named the way it is due to - if needed - more of the gaga forces would join in for their performances. initially i wanted to name it ETC but that seemed a bit rude towards bring and divine, i did not want them to feel as simply just 'what's left' of the group, and theyre also generally forgotten alongside the gaga forces ＿|￣|○ i did want them to have their spot too. So i ended up going with XYZ, similar enough to ETC by being the end of the alphabet but it also implies more mystery - besides it sounds cooler too. i think. The tagline is also "Towards a future of YOU & I" (mentioning you in caps first to capture the attention of the reader & to feel inclusive of fans and caring) is that due to.. well. ribbon's wishes of world domination (though idol activities now!) though i think this may be obvious enough.

Though i didnt spend time on them nearly as much, i hope the (very fastly done) logos look good too - main INNOVATOR logo is made fully custom from scratch ; kinda ran out of ideas for the rest and just made them with various premade fonts </3

Ending words - if you got here, first of all thank you for reading all this and being interested in the idea as well 😭 is it clear by now that the innovators specifically mean a lot to me.. probably! i hope they mean something to you too, or that i will at least get to spread a bit more positivity for them through my art (人´∀`)♪

[mangostarjam]

fuji!! how are you doing on this fine day lovely lady? i'm responding to our thread here bc idk what the etiquette is on reblogging long ass conversations on the same thread lmao so to be safe i'll just send u a new ask.

soupmates is so cute and i love when typos become canon jargon in friendships hehe. you've made me crave croissants again and i am wistfully thinking of how we have a rule that while we're in france, if one of us asks "what time is it?" the other is legally obligated to respond "croissant o'clock" and then we go find a boulangerie. this is how we end up eating 8 croissants/day whenever we're there.

wttcsms is on my deep dive list too!! every time i see them on my dash i'm like how does it feel to never be wrong? ack i've just been so busy that the only time i have to trawl tumblr is during my unhinged insomnia hours when i'm only half aware of what i'm keyboard vomiting lmao NO FILTER only screeching.

okay not mushrooms but this weekend i was busy running around the kitchen experimenting with my lil hoard of fig leaves! i made fig leaf syrup, fig leaf oil, and experimented with dehydrating and freezing the leaves for preservation. i also tested different ratios of toasted fig leaves and pandan in creme brulee and panna cotta so i could see how the flavors bloom in dairy in preparation for the idea i had for my cake. then i gave all the excess treats to baristas at our fave local coffee joints bc i'm not a huge sweet tooth and this was tew much dessert! after i found a ratio i thought worked, i made the cake except i'm afraid it's going to turn out hideous (it's still in its cake ring rn) but it's basically a first draft cake and i can refine it next time! you should see the notes i took on it. i always try to start with a neat plan and end up scribbling all over it with ideas and corrections.

tonight we've invited a couple of our friends over so i can do a fig leaf-inspired dinner with hamachi crudo with fig leaf oil, tomato bisque with fig leaf oil drizzle and crouton, slow roasted salmon in fig leaves (finished with a sear from our bernzomatic + searzall bc crispy salmon skin is life), and the fig leaf and strawberry cake. my friend also got cheesybf a new cocktail set for his bday so we can use the fig leaf syrup to make some nice gin cocktails or a fig leaf strawberry mocktail!

right now i'm munching on leftover crying tiger steak and nam jim jaew for lunch with jasmine rice that i steamed with some of the leftover pandan leaves for extra ~aroma. i still have a ton of leaves so i think i'm gonna make a pandan simple for my favorite matcha pandan lattes.

re: urls haha YES chopsticks are the best way to eat flaming hot cheetos and no one can change my mind. i always think of puffins when i think of my own username. those cute lil round birds. with like a lil cheese hat. i also associate you with apples now as we move into fall. but mentally my picture of you is a swirl of the colors in a kent mango, scented by mango skin by vilhelm and just a hint of kilian's apple brandy on the rocks. maybe a waft of mfk 724 and something like clean cotton or a soft white floral.

HAHAHA totally fair i just realized it was getting long maybe i should put my responses under a read more LOL

i'm responding a day (??) late (time is fake) bc i had to recover from how gorgeous your cake looked and sounded tbh. but i'm good!! my new assistant at work is picking things up quickly and has common sense which is sadly in short supply around here lmaooo

there's a vietnamese bakery in my hometown that makes the BEST croissants i've ever had in my life (though tbf i have not been to paris yet!) and they supply all the local taquerias with bolillo so they are Churning Out Breads but i cannot emphasize enough that it's like. a warehouse space. with a door on a side street and the price list handwritten and they only recently started accepting anything but cash. i love them. the croissants are huge and lightly buttery and delicious. i will now be declaring it's croissant o'clock any time we happen to drive nearby haha

wttcsms and dee my beloveds!!! on behalf of all writers though i will say no filter unhinged screaming comments/tags are GREAT to read. i hope your busyness is the good kind!! it's always lovely seeing you pop up on the dash or inbox or wherever but i hope you're having a good time here >ᴗ<

oh my goddddd your fig leaf experiments... divine. glorious. something about the description of "seeing how the flavors bloom in dairy" is just. dreamy?? you sound like a wizard creating your own magical spell book tome with your scribbles and notes and ideas (saying this in SUCH a complimentary way). crispy salmon skin IS life i just had some last night hehe i had to look up crying tiger steak and nam jim jaew but YOOO this reminds me of duk prahok... yum. and oh my god crying tiger steak is like. a summer staple for us. i never knew it had a NAME. not to over share but my family is from cambodia and i have so many recipes in my brain that i just figured were things my dad created LOL

AND I LOVE PUFFINS!!! in like second grade i did a report/presentation on puffins unprompted unsolicited to my class. i read a book about them and was obsessed i wanted everyone to learn about them (yes i am/was a nerd) (bless my teacher for letting me present lmao). and i do love apple scented things mmm. one of my favorite candles ever is autumn air from elder&co (notes of wild apple and pear and fallen oak leaves). i'm so glad it's getting cloudy and cozy season is coming bc i can light my candles without feeling too silly. do you have any favorite candles?? oh these other scents are SO GOOD. i love that!! brb going to find a way to smell these immediately

[averageartistamber]

Corn Godzilla Corn Godzilla.

And here comes Red King with the steel chair! This meathead probably doesn’t even need a reason to beef with Ultraman. He’s just Like This. Maybe he’s got a kid now (I think there is an actual episode plot with Red King having a child, but it ends tragically. NOTE-It’s in Z, and I’ve watched it.), it’d be funny if the kid (we’ll call her Junior) was the polar opposite, maybe a typical meek nerd? But worry not, Dad is gonna show her how to be a real monster by beating up Ultraman! Also he’s hiding that dweeb Pigmon somewhere!

Red King still isn’t gonna be red, it’s series tradition by now. He’s already a tiny-headed behemoth, but maybe I could try giving him a more muscular physique (which is gonna exaggerate his pinhead-ness even further.). There’s this one specific iteration, EX forms I think they’re called? From Fighting Evolution I think. Where he’s got these big arms. I kinda like it, since it gives him a more distinct silhouette (could also facilitate crawling or gorilla-like knuckle walking. This dude running at you would be scary as fuk). His current day design has some new scars, maybe including a pretty severe one he got from the fight with Stellar. (Insert “Man literally too angry to die” joke here).

Red King’s episode is probably very close to his original debut, with him stomping around Tatara Island like he owns the place (Note-He does, in fact, own the place). So, every now and then the Pigmons are supposed to perform a spell that seals him away again. However, the current Pigmon is inexperienced and has noticed that the time period that Red Kind stays down for is getting shorter and shorter. Seeking a different solution, he summoned Ultraman to put a permanent stop to the Skull King’s…Skulking. It involved shunting him even further underground. Didn’t work, but it was worth a try, right?

In the Pigmon language, the words for “red” and “skull” are homophones, making the in-universe oddity of Red King’s commonly referred name being a result of a Good Bad Translation that stuck.

He’s almost like a jerk jock version of Scar from Lion King, having dug himself back up to the surface to “rule” the island almost form the shadows again. He’s mellowed out a teeny bit since then though, having come across a mate in the interim. I like the idea of Chandlar and Guigass being his put-upon and hapless “minions” (The former maybe even having some Starscream like tendencies.)

Naturally his wife/mate is even bigger and scarier than he is. She also might be in possession of some braincells.

Yeah, a lot of the notes are rough ideas, once I get to the actual video these pieces are for I'll probably explain things more clearly and refine the "lore", as it were.

Junior is probably gonna get her own concept art. Dunno if I went a bit overboard with the extra characters in this one. Red King's one of them where a lot of his characterisation is shown through how he plays off everyone else, I think.

[bleachbleachbleach]

five comfort characters, five tags

Thank you for the tag, @fractoluminescence! I made a new post because this got long, but the original meme is at this link, and @fractoluminescence's cool responses are at this one, if you'd like to read everyone's (I recommend!).

I had a difficult time developing an answer because I got too in the weeds about what the definition of “comfort character” was, rip. It turns out there are a lot of definitions, ranging from characters you find cozy, to characters you find relatable, to characters you look up to, to more elaborate definitions that attempt to articulate those distinctions between a character you love and a character that you would sink to the bottom of the Marianas Trench with.

I’ll define “comfort character” as that thing that begins by delineating, say, a show you love so so much (Haikyuu!!—my soul for a volleyball) vs. a show you want to be fannish about (Bleach. BleachBleachBleach, even. BLEACHBLEACHBLEACH, even), and then refines further into characters you love (my eternal Soi Fon era) vs. the characters you’re in the Trench about. Because while I probably think an above average amount about Soi Fon, and love seeing her on my dash, and do want to write for her once I alight upon some idea that sufficiently connects my headcanons about her to 1) actual canon and 2) a Story, she is not who I:

think about every single ding dong day;

regularly revel in in daydreams;

both consciously and unconsciously filter my lived experiences or relationships through, such that they become doubled; they find translation, in an act of both processing (growing distance from, or increasing intimacy with) the experience and in tugging at the character themselves, growing them into something that proceeds from their canon or offers an opportunity to entertain new and additional dimensions.

I think the key elements here are:

the alwaysness of this—the readiness to be in the soup at all times;

how personal the engagements are, which I think is sometimes to do with the relatability of a character (proximity to oneself) and is sometimes personal to… the character? Like, the intimacy of wanting to both crystallize one’s understanding of a beloved character by stress-testing their concept, and to spin them out, break them from what is canonically known just to see how much depth they have beyond that and in how many ways they might be known.

…Which, now that I’ve written that, is... just my definition of “blorbo” and not “comfort character,” but maybe the terms are synonymous??? who knows—AS THOUGH BLORBO HAS A DEFINITION AND ISN’T WHOLLY MEME-DERIVED TO BEGIN WITH. AS THOUGH ANY OF THESE THINGS HAVE PRESCRIPTIVE DEFINITIONS.

Anyway, all of that is the appeal of writing fanfic, to me, so it technically extends to anyone I’ve had occasion to write. But that’s within the specific action of writing a story, or preparing to write a story, or thinking about writing a story.

If we’re talking “always” and unconsciously, readily, blorbo-ily, whether there’s a story or not, then #1-3 are and have been for the last four years:

Hitsugaya

Hinamori

Matsumoto

They are who I am most inclined to give things to, or translate things through, and am most interested in defining/destroying. <333

There are probably use-cases/concrete examples that should go here, in addition to the somewhat woowoo definition above, but part of me is shy, and another part is like, those are what the stories are, and another part is “those two parts are the same part...” and yet another is “those two parts are the exact opposite of each other..."

So instead I'll no-pressure tag @confluencechimera, @recurring-polynya, @afinepiece, @bendingwind, and @unohanadaydreams!

Below the cut because it's not Bleach-related enough: I promise I’m not trying to be evasive/coquettish on purpose, but I don’t think I can get myself to put my thoughts about my lifetime character for this on Tumblr, because according to me, organizationally, that’s not where they go. So I’ll skip him. I’m also one of those people where my idea of comfort is to lean into the negative and feel comforted by the experience of being joined in misery by others, rather than go the cozy route. In that usage my comfort “character” is Law and Order: SVU because it’s like 800 episodes of people having the worst day of their lives and/or people on absolutely depraved sprees, depending on which side of the story you focus on. But also that show is deeply unserious, pleasingly formulaic, and has infinite rewatchability. So let's say those are responses #4 and #5!!

[tnc-n3cl]

Zora's Domain Headcanons & Rambles

So this particular post will be focused on Zora's Domain, particularly what I refer to as Zoakora (Zo-ah-ko-ra), which is what we see in BotW and TotK but in my fanfic The Realm Walker was the Zora capital city pre-Great Calamity. (A future post will talk about Zora biology headcanons.) Zora's Domain technically refers to most of the Lanaryu Region and there were once settlements all over. Goponga Village was a mostly Hylian settelment, but there were also a number of Zora living there.

I'm going to go ahead and say that all of my screenshots (and the first video I've taken!) are from TotK and may contain mild spoilers. So if you don't want to see said spoilers, stop reading now...

First up some of the local flora. The trees in the area are Lanayru Pines. This plant...

...Is called the Rose Gorgia, and while the Lanayru Pines are related to various other evergreen trees found around Hyrule, the Rose Gorgia and its cousin...

...the Cerulean Gorgia can only be found in the area around Zoakora. I'll point out that Gaddison has a guitar that is made from Lanaryu pine, accented with Rose and Cerulean Gorgia and the strings are made from seaweed. Also the pink elements of Mipha's Lightscale Trident were made with Rose Gorgia (perhaps using the sap as a stain?)

If your wondering where the name comes from, it's from a type of coral. (Also got the idea for the strings on Gaddison's guitar from a research rabbit hole, there's a kind of seaweed called catgut and since early instruments used catgut I figured it would be a fun twist.)

Now on to architecture...

BotW has a sidequest where we give a guy Luminous Stones to repair the domain after the damaged caused by Vah Ruta. Obviously these make up the various glowing elements. The whiter light is a more purified variant of Luminous Stones while the green lights are from adding things to the Luminous Stones. But TotK introduces a new component!

Blue stones! There's a guy who asks you for these in order to make repairs. They're in one of the new caves around the East Reservoir Lake, and you pretty much have to build a boat to bring him some.

I'll call this Azurelith, and it makes up a significant percentage of Zoakora. But wait there's more!

The stone tablets scattered around the Domain have a special feature, stand by one and you'll notice that it shimmers.

And there just so happen to be these shimmering rocks all around the Domain...

This is Aqualith, a unique mineral found only in the mountains surrounding the Domain.

Now for the Water Temple!

Very different from the modern day Zora's Domain isn't it!

Now this could be the result of thousands of years of refinement of Zora stonemasonry techniques, or just influences from the Zonai, or perhaps the discovery of new materials. In the Water Temple, I like the irregularly shaped blue sections, reminds me of river stones and some of the textures in ALttP's water dungeon and underground pools (particularly the shallow pools).

We know that the Sky Islands were apparently all on the ground at one point, especially the Great Sky Island as the Temple of Time was once on the Great Plateau. So perhaps the Water Temple was once sitting on top of what is now the East Reservoir Lake, maybe even connected to the Ancient Zora Waterworks?

The water bubble generators in the Water Temple, some Zonai tech with Zora flare.

A screenshot of the debris around the fish shaped Sky Island. Some magically charged green stones? Lets the island float or is it generating the reduced gravity? (Honestly don't remember if this particular are had reduced gravity...)

[darkcacaocookieandfriends]

Some Headcanons I Forgot

I actually forgot a few headcanons about Mr. Choco Werehound last night so I'll put them here:

Regarding Schwarz and cross-dressing.

Something interesting about his character that like few remember is that in his description is says he had an aristocratic upbringing, which means he was either raised around royalty or could be royalty himself. I've always kinda wondered what that inferred or if it was a reference to him possibly being related to or raised by Esterhazy who is the poster boy for aristocratic society as far as cake monsters go that we've seen.

Either way, I feel in many regards and probably from youth even Schwarz may have been fascinated by high ranking women of society, maybe princesses in particular. They share many things that he takes pride in himself in - being good-looking, having beautiful hair ect.

I feel when Schwarz cross-dresses or becomes Choco Werehound Princess, that he's living that fascination he's always had with being a beautiful, powerful woman and expressing an elegant beauty he can't truly portray as the "brute". He can express the more refined part of himself he tries to hide (which is also in his canon description), It's an art, a freedom of expression, not just for his sensitive side but for a part of him that's always been there. A part of him that wants to be beautiful, elegant and sensitive. Women's clothes are far more appealing than men's, far more complex and beautiful. It's a break from his macho lifestyle and brutal nature.

It makes him feel free and feminine, where he'd be judged in a normal situation because he throws himself around like he radiates testosterone.

Choco Werehound Princess makes him feel feminine and powerful. For god's sakes he passed all the trails but the last one and that was because he didn't like being called a barbarian. Tbh it probably made him feel like he wasn't passing well enough and despite actually proving himself he still wasn't good enough. Things I feel that are deep insecurities of his but that's a topic for another day.

Despite being racist against cookies, if the right cookie befriends him, it changes his views even if it is only for the one cookie that's his friend. If he falls in love with a cookie, is gives him a complex and he therefore questions everything he feels.

Cookies are supposed to be things he likes to murder, rivals of cake monsters. They don't care about what's best for him, his agency or autonomy and yet...here he is, loving one. It's both a confusing an special thing. Something that symbolizes the fact that cookies and cake monsters can build a bridge of understanding and even come to be something more. In several ways that's pretty big development for his character.

Schwarz is literally that one guy who will do stupid, daredevil things with you. In fact, he will encourage you to do them. You want to jump off a building with a sheet tied around you to try and fly? He will do it with you! Just hope he doesn't land on you. You want to roll down a hill in a shopping cart? He may not fit in it, but he'll give you a big push. It'll probably launch you into the stratosphere because he doesn't know his own strength sometimes, but he will try his best.

Schwarz is 100% that cheesy romance movie watcher and he definitely cries at the emotional or sad parts. He also definitely would watch romantic cookie movies to try and figure out how to romance a cookie. He has no idea what expressions of love are in cookie culture. He's going to be wrong but let him figure that out. It's funnier that way.

He's also a hopeless romantic in general.