#or at least that's what Peri keeps telling

[valleymyristica]

Sometimes it's best to just sleep

Let your troubles pass, let your mind be free For the only thing you need, is being here with me

I'll keep you safe, happy, do all that you wish Remember, it's only us, though all of this

Just Peri giving Dev some well deserved sleep No other reason, Dev is simply tired, you see @cubbihue, wouldn't you agree?

And I'm sure he'll wake super happy!

[lurking-latinist]

🐈

[msnihilist]

Idea for a fic I just had, sharing it because I will probably never write it:

CH.1

During "Lost in Fairy World," Hazel and Dev stumble upon Timmy's old Chosen One statue, of himself holding the White Wand. Hazel is intrigued to see a statue of a human in Fairy World, and wonders if he was a godchild, like them. Dev doesn't really care, and is exceedingly jealous of whatever this human did to get himself memorialized this way.

When Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri catch up with the kids, Hazel asks about the statue. (She's already got her own amazing story written in her head, lol.) Dev says something to the effect of, "What did this loser do to get a statue of himself?"

Peri immediately takes offense to that, snapping that Dev isn't allowed to call him a loser. "Well, why not? What's so great about him?" "He's my brother."

Wanda and Cosmo are very uncomfortable with this conversation and visibly saddened. But they tell an abridged version of the story since the kids are curious and Peri didn't really remember it all, since he was a baby at the time.

Through the story, Wanda and Cosmo get caught up reminiscing, getting stuck on the funny little details and wishfully recounting their misadventures with Timmy. It's clear that they love him very much. (Hazel isn't jealous. She isn't.)

Hazel asks where Timmy is now and doesn't get an answer. After the five of them get back to Earth, Cosmo and Wanda retire early for the night and Peri is quiet with Dev, too.

CH.2

Dev thinks that they should track this "Timmy Turner" down. (He wants to prove that he's better than this guy, but doesn't want to admit to himself why he wants Peri's love/attention like that.) Hazel thinks they should leave well-enough alone, because talking about Timmy made their fairies so sad. (Sad like how she gets sad about Antony, but at least she can call her brother. None of the fairies spoke about Timmy in the present tense.)

Dev convinces her by saying that it'll make them happy if they can reunite the fairies with Timmy. Hazel reluctantly agrees.

It's pretty easy to track Timmy down. Turns out that he lives in the city, and his buckteeth are the same as they are on the statue. Dev and Hazel immediately clock him. They come up with an excuse to talk to Timmy by stealing his wallet and then "kindly" returning it to him. After which, Hazel insistently talks about anything and everything to Timmy, because what's he gonna do? Tell two kids to fuck off?? No, he's a polite adult and he endures this weird interaction.

Except Hazel and Dev then keep following Timmy around, learning his schedule so they can keep talking to him. Hazel needles little details about Timmy's life out of him, and realizes that he's lonely and clearly missing something. This makes her determined to reunite him with Cosmo and Wanda (even though a part of her desperately doesn't want to share). Dev is still convinced that Timmy is a loser. He speculates that there's no way this guy saved the planet, and Cosmo and Wanda were probably just talking him up.

Either way, Hazel slowly forces Timmy to be friends with her. He is an adult, so he's slow to admit that he's lonely enough to be friends with a ten-year-old, but Hazel reminds him of a kind girl he used to be friends with as a kid wears him down and he grows to tolerate and then even enjoy running into her around the city.

CH.3

Hazel eventually arranges for Timmy to meet her at the fountain, and also asks Cosmo and Wanda to be there in their human forms. She's super excited for them to finally meet again!! (Dev doesn't tell Peri about this — he doesn't want to admit that he's worried it will go too well if they do meet up again.)

Except that when Timmy arrives, Cosmo and Wanda aren't happy to see him. They look completely devastated. Timmy greets Hazel and awkwardly introduces himself to Cosmo and Wanda. Cosmo bursts into tears and flees. Wanda sticks around long enough to mumble an excuse and then also leaves. Timmy is confused, and Hazel doesn't know what she did wrong.

When she finds Cosmo and Wanda, they confess that they have been keeping an eye on Timmy. How could they not, you know? But it hurt too much to see him living his own life, doing fine without them. They started godparenting Hazel in part to have a distraction, so that they aren't thinking about Timmy and aren't watching him. Seeing him in person brought those ten-thousand years of hurt to the surface.

They also explain to Hazel that Timmy doesn't remember them at all, and that's the worst part — that all of the love they had for each other ended up meaning nothing at all, that they got too close to a godkid and paid the price and there's nothing they can do about it.

Hazel is crushed, but also not giving up. She tells them that Timmy does need them, he's an adult but his life is still empty. No one ever really stops needing their parents.

Wanda, tearfully, says, "But we're not his parents." That's the reality of their situation, and they have to face it no matter how much it hurts.

CH.4

Her plan a bust, Hazel leaves Wanda and Cosmo alone and goes to talk to Dev about what happened. She wonders how awful Peri must feel, sympathizing that she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she just woke up one day and Antony didn't remember her.

Dev (who is getting really fed up with hearing about Timmy) can't and refuses to empathize. He says that he's always been fine as an only child, and if he's supposed to be a "distraction" for Peri, then the least he could do is act like Dev is a priority instead of moping about someone who doesn't even care about him all day.

Hazel asks where all of this is coming from, Dev sneers that Peri hasn't been the same since they visited the statue. Peri doesn't talk about it, but it's clearly about Timmy. Hazel tells him that Peri is obviously hurting, and Dev snaps that he's hurting, too, and Peri should be doing his job. (Why do people only care about him when its their job?)

Hazel simply asks Dev why he's hurting, and Dev freezes. He doesn't really know how to articulate all of his upset and anger, and that forces him to pause and quiet himself. He then admits to Hazel that everyone is so obsessed with Timmy, even she's been hanging out with that loser more than him. And Dev just. Misses them. Wants attention. He wonders if anyone will care about him if he were to disappear, the way that the fairies care about Timmy.

Hazel assures him that she would care. She'd cry over him for 10,000 years at least! Which makes Dev giggle, even though he's still trying to be upset. Still, Hazel apologizes. She was trying to make everyone happy, and she didn't realize that she was failing him. Dev brushes her apology off, saying, "It's not your job to make me happy — it's Peri's. He's just been slacking."

Hazel also admits that she's jealous of Timmy, too. She feels bad for being jealous, but that doesn't mean that she's not. She knows that Cosmo and Wanda love her, but she also knows that she'll never replace Timmy for them.

The fairies finally reveal that they were listening the whole time. (After they left, Cosmo and Wanda went to Peri to tell him about what Hazel and Dev were doing behind their backs. Peri is at first upset that Dev kept Timmy a secret from him, but also acknowledges that he isn't really surprised. Dev is a complicated, hurt kid, and he needs more than what Peri has been giving him, especially lately.)

Cosmo assures Hazel that she can't replace Timmy, but no one could replace her, either. She's wonderful all on her own, and Cosmo and Wanda adore her — they wouldn't want her any other way.

Peri apologizes to Dev for not doing his job. Dev awkwardly accepts, then tells Peri that his job is to grant wishes, not "care" about Dev. Peri teases him by saying, "If that was my job, I would be working over-time." He says that Dev isn't a "distraction," at all, and that if Peri didn't want to be with him, he could leave at any time. Reaffirming that he's here because he wants to be spurs Dev into hugging Peri, albeit only briefly.

With all of the apologies and hugs out of the way, Dev asks to see Da Rules. He flips to the section about losing your fairies and says, "It says here that a godchild must lose memories of their fairies and all things magic... But it doesn't say that another godchild couldn't wish those memories back."

The fic ends with Timmy at the fountain again. Hazel approaches with Dev, and the fairies in their human forms. She asks Timmy if he remembers the three of them. Timmy confesses that he doesn't. Hazel grins: "I wish that you did."

Fin

[pinkrose787]

I'm seeing that a lot of people are not liking the way that Dev lost his memories in the finale, but I think I understand where the writers are coming from.

First of all, the show is not over (hopefully). I think the writers wrote this finale with a second season in mind. This means that the story that they're telling is not completely done.

When it comes to Dev's story in the first season, I think that him losing his memories does make sense. Losing memories as a result of misuse of magic or revealing fairies has been brought up over and over again in the series. And Dev did both, on top of taking over Fairy World.

Now could Hazel have included Dev getting his memories back?

Yes, she could have.

But that would have been unsatisfying narratively.

Just before Dev loses his memories, he has a conversation with Hazel. He acknowledges that he knew helping Cosmo and Wanda save Fairy World would cause him to lose his memories and his fairy.

This is actually a major step forward in his character development. I think this is the first time he really takes accountability in the show. He did something bad and now he has to deal with the consequences. Having him keep his memory would erase that.

Also, I don't think Hazel was going to wish his memories back at all. He tried to take over two separate worlds. He threw her friends in prison. Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri almost died in front of her because of his actions. So, can she really be blamed for wanting her rule-free wish to be used on getting her friends and brother to keep their memories of fairies rather than Dev?

As for the complaint that he's losing all his memories and thus character development, I don't think that's right. When it comes to losing memories of magic, I think that the memories are merely modified in a magicless fairyless way. Think the trolls modifying Anna's memories in Frozen, so that she still remembers playing in the snow with her sister, but not the fact that her sister made the snow with her ice powers.

There's a bit of evidence for this at the end of "Channel Chasers". Timmy sees Cosmo and Wanda in the photo as regular gold fish rather than fairies shapeshifted as goldfish. Also, fairy godparents are such a big part of a kid's life that losing all memories even tangentially related to them would be problematic to say the least.

I don't think that it's unlikely that Dev will regress a bit as a character as a result of this change to his memory. Maybe he'll write off what happened in Fairy World as a weird dream, but still have it in the back of his mind.

And who knows? Maybe the theory about Dev keeping his memories, at least partially, due to his sunglasses is true. We're going to have to wait

So, remember, the story isn't over.

[papaya-inspiration]

Foreach 2024 Reader Survey Results

So, my buddy @lumsel makes a lil webcomic called Foreach. I help 'em out with it sometimes. The comic's website doesn't have a comment section, so I thought it'd be fun to do a little year-end survey to see who was reading and what they think!

We had an incredible response, with 279 respondents to the survey--more than are in the Foreach discord server! So let's get into it.

Character Popularity Poll

Alright, let's start with the thing I know y'all are most excited about. As the comic creators, we love all our characters equally... but clearly you guys don't!

☀️ SUNNY SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!! ☀️

Y'all REALLY like Sunny, eh? Don't worry, us too. In fact, 80.3% of you listed her in your top 3 favorite characters. Hell yeah.

The next top four characters are the four game protagonists, with Jiro ranking top, then Nix, Cliff and Coral. A lot of readers also mentioned Jiro as particularly relatable/lovable in the write in box at the end of the form. (Don't worry, I won't tell him y'all like him this much. Though with this many Love Warriors, Proteus won't stand a chance invading the island.) I was a bit surprised to see Jasper/Coral ranked as the lowest of the four protagonists! Given that the comic initially presents her as the "anchor" character and a jumping off point for the story as a whole--but that also means she's among the least unusual of the four protagonists, and thus stands out less? It's a hypothesis.

After that, we have Polyta (which makes a lot of sense, she's had some of the most page time of the side characters), then Mercy and Doctor Kree'zik. I wonder if some of this is recency bias, partiularly in Kree'zik's case, seeing as we haven't gotten much past xer character introduction yet. I'll be curious to see how these numbers shift if we run this again next year!

We also got some minor character write ins! Several people said they enjoyed various Aveans, with two votes specifically for the Avean Captains and someone else voting for the avean grunt from page 106 who says "Thanks a bundle!" And I agree: they're pretty adorable. Another person listed "the author" as their favorite character which... you know what, it is a fairly meta comic, so I'll allow it. (Even though, hilariously, Lum is the only member of the creative team to have not had a character cameo in the comic yet.)

Also shout out to the person who wrote in that they almost listed the character cameos for Peri and Kiki (the rat and the rabbit from pgs 24-25) as their favorites. I see you and appreciate you <3

Game Popularity Poll

Not a ton to say about this. People seem to like cozy-ish indie games and furry aesthetics. Makes sense to me.

Comic Info

How are people finding Foreach?

As always, word of mouth is CRUCIAL for indie webcomics getting off the ground. You guys sharing and linking it to friends and communities is really the engine behind getting eyes onto our art--so thank you!

We got another big boost from joining the @spiderforestcomics webcomic collective. So far, it's been a great experience and we've been loving the community over there. So if you're in the market for more comics, definitely go check out some of theirs!

I should note that there is definitely some overlap between these categories. We let people mark multiple answers, so many people marked "Word of Mouth (online)" in addition to other categories like Tumblr and other discord servers. In that broader category, there where several places that people specifically noted finding the comic including:

Our reader Digamma has been tirelessly reposting the comic to the Something Awful forums, and it looks like quite a few people have been keeping up from there! Thanks, Digamma, you're a certified super-spreader!

Dan of @thewebcomicsreview has linked to Foreach several times!

People also mentioned finding it through various discord communities, including the Star Impact server, a server for puzzle games, Foxglove Comics, and others

Rilly had a cameo in @erinptah's webcomic, Leif and Thorne!

Several people discovered it directly through the Neocities discover page!

Cohost, Cloudhiker, and a fairly lukewarm substack review... which nonetheless garnered us a few readers. I'll take it!

Currently, Foreach doesn't pay for traditional banner ads of any kind. So everytime you tell a friend about the comic or share a link to it, you're helping us out a ton! Thank you!

How are people keeping up with comic updates?

Not too much to say on this. Lots of manual checkers, and it looks like we're getting good mileage out of that RSS feed. Excellent!

Readership Info

Discord Membership

We had more survey responses than people currently in the Foreach discord. But even more excitingly, only about one third of survey respondents are also in the discord. Which is exciting, because it means there's more of a readership out there checking the comic updates than we knew previously!

Additionally, I'm personally excited by this result because hearing from those quieter members of our reader base is precisely why I wanted to put out this survey. We have a lovely, active community in the discord, but as a side effect that means we're hearing a lot of opinions from just one, disproportionately vocal part of our reader base. My hope with this survey was that we'd get a chance to hear some voices that we don't usually get to interact with... So for all you silent majority readers out there: Hello! Thanks so much for chiming in!

Patreon Membership

Most of our readers don't back the patreon. Which is to be expected! We actually got a few new patrons signing up after the survey was posted, which is absolutely lovely of y'all. (Hi new patrons! 👋)

If you're wondering what the Patreon money gets used for, it's a mixture of funding extras the comic and supporting Lum's future creative endeavors. This year, we used a big chunk of the funding to commission the Love Bomb portraits for the new Cast Page, which were done by the talented Beajrb (go check out their work!) In the future, some of it may be used for commission work related to the comic, and also for the long term goal for Lum to take some time off their day job to draw comics/make games/etc.

We also asked what else people might like to see us do with the patreon. Right now, we post author commentary on pages with about a 2-chapter lag time, and people seem pretty happy with that over all. There were a few requests for bonus character art, pin ups, or character-asks, and we'll keep that in mind going forward. Since all of us are working full time, there's only limited time we have for making additional content, but who knows what the future holds!

Reader Geography

So where in the world are our readers? Well, I I thought it'd be fun to make this cute little map:

...which turned out to be a huge pain in the ass and a little misleading with the color ranges. So here it is another way:

Our reader base is very American-heavy. Honestly a little moreso than I was expecting? Maybe it's the magnetic charisma of Cliff Mason that keeps drawing them in?

But is it a good comic?

According to our readers, it's a 5.35/5 star comic. Make of that what you will :3

Final Thoughts

At the end of the form, we had an open response box for anything else y'all might want to say to us. And let me just say: y'all blew us away. Thank you so much.

So many of the comments were incredibly kind. People told us about characters they connected to, about how excited they were for to see what happens next. Some of them were sweet, some were horny, some of you compared Foreach to some of OUR favorite webcomics, (which was absolutely unreal to read!) Some of you guys wrote whole freakin' essays! I can't recap everything, but please know that we read every single one of them.

Thank you again for joining us on this journey. Here's to a great 2025--and another year of Freachin' it together!

[a-new-wish-6-3]

Another reason why peri has problems with dev.

A lot of people already mentioned peris Lack of experience, his good relationship with his parents and the babying which leads to dev not treating peri nice.

But i want to add one more thing which a lot of people dont take actually in Account. And that is that dev is the first Person peri ever met who was younger than him and its been a long time since he met someone close to his own age, making him socially indept. After all peri is the only fairy born in a tousand years. With the closed fairy in age beeing his dad.

If we go with timmy, peri had someone close to his age until he was 6-8. Than cosmo and wanda quit and moved to fairy world. There we know that no humans are allowed and that other species dont really live there. So peri is the only kid in the entire world.

Could have peri have at least had friends from other species ? Humans, pixys, anti-fairys are out. But maybe he made friends in school.

I think the school we say is one of many and as people grow older they go into seperate school. I am no Expert in fairly oddparents but i know we saw cosmo at least two times in school. One where mama cosma showed him around 6 years old in a Montage and one where we saw cosmo old school bullys. What both have in Common is that there where only fairys around. Which makes sence to put all species together to learn reading, math, etc and than seperate because they have different powers, cultures, body, historys, etc. So peri ( and irep ) would start eather homeschooling or continue to learn in an completly empty school with no other students besides himself. Considering cosmo and wanda lack of some knowledge i can see him going to school ( irep can learn from anti cosmo ).

The godparent school is the one where i am 100 % sure that peri was in an empty school. Not only did cosmo and wanda didnt know he was studying and becoming an godparent, but no other species is allowed to take this curse.

Meaning peri had one older kid in timmy only until he was 6-8 and some clasmates the same age as his until maybe 5 and than spent the Rest of his years in a world where every other Person was an adult.

Peri only worked with people much more mature than him. That is why he never expects that some things children do are stupid and they will not say what they need. Dev will just demand things and not tell him what he really needs because figuring out your Problem and beeing mature enough to find an answer or at least be able to pinpount where it cames from is not a ten year old skill. Cosmo and wanda talked to timmy about his problems and where able to get to his problems by reading between the lines if he didnt want to outride tell them what upset him or didnt know himself why he was mad. Peri expects dev to be able to tell him what he needs, which is not a skill neglected kids have and beeing able to read such Moods require experience which younger or at least closed aged people. If you never had friends you will be socially indept.

In short peri treats dev like an adult. He explains things outride and expects dev to understand and is lost if dev isnt capable of explaining his anger to him. So he cant know what dev is thinking or how to treat a child in general.

Peri never had a real childhood or close friends. He only had his parents which is great in Forming bonds with adults but takes away his ability to Adapt to younger or even same aged people.

That can also be why he hates beeing babyed. If you are the only child with a Buch of adults you will want to be an adult just so you could fit in somewhere. Showing himself more mature than he actually is and even hiding some of his childness ( like hazel did ). Except peri did this forever. Quiet sad actually. Thank god his parents are such goofy people, showing him it is okay to keep some childishness even as you grow up. Otherwise peri would never been allowed to even act like a child.

[starreyblueberry]

Hey! How are you doing? I hope you're doing well!

I have a few thoughts on my mind about Timmy, man I miss him so much! I know we have the original series to watch but still. (So sorry that it’s long one!)

I would imagine that Timmy would turn out to be a great man with a good job, a lovely husband and father to his family.

I think maybe his job would be a lawyer, writer or a job that helps children with problems of their own like social worker or something.

About his wife...

I'm not quite sure about Trixie because I have mix feelings about her. She seems to not care about Timmy at all. I know they're still kids and we have no idea what happened as they grow up after the original series (not counting Season 9 and 10 as I heard both don't exist anymore in FOP New Wish.) | don't know if I really like her or she's right for Timmy.

Maybe Tootie would get over her obsession at least I hope so. I know she went through so much thanks to her older sister, which I'm disappointed in their parents for not doing anything due to many reasons, they may have been good people but not good parents.

Anyway, due to Timmy's future daughter from Channel Chasers, they looked similar so it's most likely that it has to be Tootie. If that's really her then I would hope she grow up and more mature, she will not be afraid of her sister, Vicky!

Kind of hope Vicky won't find out that that she has niece and nephew if they never told her…

Tootie or Timmy meeting a new lovely woman that is rightfully for him that cares and love him very much. I don't mind having Tootie, I would love to see her, all I hope she no longer afraid of her sister!

I'm not sure how it works with twins from Channel Chasers' ending like how it does make sense. I find it hard to tell because that ending takes place in 20 years later but FOP New Series takes place into 20 years later as well. Cosmo and Wanda were seen with twins but in the canon they're Hazel's. Poof/ Peri wasn't planned/added until Season 6 of the original. Channel Chasers episode came from Season 4. Twins can't be 10 years old because it seems like Timmy had them at 20 years old. It wouldn't make sense.

It would make more sense if the twins, Tammy and Tommy were younger than Hazel and Dev like 5 years old or younger, but I'm not sure if they will become canon to FOP New Wish. It would be interesting if they do. I don't know about the names Tommy and Tammy. If they become canon and are 5-6 years old, it would be interesting to see their personalities being opposite, like one twin is more calm and chill during other one is more cheerful and funny. That one of them or both are into the mystery and adventures.

I kind of hope that they will have their clothes different designs and not look exactly same as 10 years old Timmy and 10 years old Tootie.

Or maybe they would be toddlers.

About Timmy's parents…

Do you think Timmy stay in contact with them? I wouldn't be surprised if he no longer wants to do with them due to reasons and that they don't know anything about Timmy's children. It's not like Timmy wants to keep them secret, his parents can be, well... them.

I wouldn’t be surprised if his parents have not changed much.

Timmy and his family would no longer live in Dimmsdale City because of well.... We saw how they are... yikes, poor Timmy.

Do you think Timmy still friends with AJ and Chester? I'm not sure if they're still friends or something. I mean AJ has the business of his own and is such busy. Still can't believe he became fairy hunting- (Big YIKES for Fairy World!)

We have no clue about Chester but hopefully we will see him. :'D

I'm not sure if we will see ALL characters to return, cause that's too much and some only appear a few times, some appeared once. Timmy’s grandparents, Crocker’s mother and some probably are dead.

I'm not quite sure about Chimson Chin and Dark Laser because they were wishes along with Imaginary Grey, right? I got feeling that probably they all got erased along with the rest of Timmy's wishes and are no longer exists because Timmy is no longer a Godchild as we saw in Timmy’s secret Wish, how when a Godchild lost their fairy/ies, their wishes has vanished.

But seriously, poor Chimson Chin, Dark Laser and his dear little dog. :(

I know Peri and Irep are still around but I believe probably Fairy Council has a way with them, well with Peri, that they're different from the rest of wishes. Probably there’s a reason why Peri has his own special wand.

I would like to see Peri’s reaction when he sees Crocker, I mean he saw Vicky and thought she wasn’t real! :’D

Anyway, I can tell it’s going to be hard seeing Timmy with no memories of his fairy family and magic. I know we have to deal with it. We can do it! We just have to see what they’re planning with him. I would like to see Jorgen, how he deals with seeing Timmy to go with the final goodbye, after everything he had done for Fairy World. How many times he had saved them from the dangerous situations especially with Darkness.

(I loved that Wishology episodes-)

I’m bet it was very difficult for Wanda, Cosmo and Peri to say goodbye to Timmy. It was really hard for Peri to understand what’s going on cause he was 7 years old.

Hopefully Hazel doesn’t have to deal with some huge challenge adventures herself like how Timmy did, not counting the final season of FOP because it was kind of easy and she had a lot of helps from her brother, friends and her wishes.

I don’t know if you know but there was a theory that Timmy still remember them due to his memory not getting wiped away by Jorgen was because of Love. The Love is more powerful than magic that can’t be done. Kind of interesting but also I would think that if his memories really wiped, maybe his memories didn’t got wiped away, they just blocked out and are blurry, then returned years later. If his memories got wiped away then his feelings of love cannot be gone, still there, deep inside. He probably went to have some therapy. I saw one theory that his favorite colors are green, pink and purple that made him feel special and happy, which is interesting.

Memories or not, I think Timmy would feel uncomfortable and unsure about AJ’s business like AJ telling him some stories which doesn’t make sense. Timmy would say something like:

“But AJ, what if there’s good ones?.. I mean if they’re real.”

Or something like that. He probably wouldn’t be wondering why Crocker was at Galax Institute as he wouldn’t want to know why as we know why how crazy Crocker is…

It would be cool if Timmy and his family became the next neighbors of Wells’ and Cosmo and Wanda’s.

My apologies if anything that doesn’t make sense-

SORRY IT TOOK ME A BIT TO RESPOND TO UR ASK!! Anyway GIRL UR IDEAS?? 10/10!! ok so there's so much to cover so very sorry if I don' get to it all! I love the idea that Timmy is skeptical of AJ and his whole business, AJ did start it when he was 10, so Timmy would have his fairys DURING the creation of this company. He must have been lowkey terrified LOL. Ive seen the theory that Timmys memory couldn't be fully erased due to love, and tbh I really want that to be true. Out of all theories, Its one of my favorite ones! Hazel is def gonna have a lot of an easier time compared to Timmy, as Timmy kinda delt with all the universe-ending stuff of his time. Hazel has a lot more support, especially as more people know about her fairys in the finale and she dosnet have to worry about hiding them all the time! DONT GET ME STARTED ON JORGEN AND TIMMY.. IN MY MIND TIMMY HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN JORGENS HEART AND NO ONE CAN EVER ERASE THAT... LIKE HE IS A STICKLER FOR THE RULES AND HE WILL ABIDE TO THEM BUT HE ALSO SEES THAT STUPID ASS PINK HAT AND SMILES SOMETIMES sorry if I didn't go over everything u said!! Ive had this in the drafts for a while but I love ur thoughts :3 also I hope he went no contact with his shit ass parents :D

[petrifiedperi-au]

Holy ok ok ok so I just read your dev having trouble with being around Cosmo and Wanda but I bring you a different approach. What if he is mad at them! Trying to shift some of this huge amount of guilt because at least he went to Peri! His own parents left him alone to die. (I can’t remember if you said if they actually knew where he was or not)

Oh lordy oh ok gewze imagine Dev having this moment of realising he has something in common with Peri because he sees his parents as neglecting him. How sad would that make Dev? To realise how much guff he gave Peri cause he thought Peri couldnt relate at all. So he pushed him away but then thinking how wrong he was and how Peri did understand. (Even though we know cosmo and wanda are nothing like Dale and really did love Peri just saw a different priority) but the potent agnst of Dev having a miss understanding of it. Everytime Peri tries to deny it Dev relates. Everytime Cosmo and Wanda gush over Peri makes Dev fume because he sees it as all a show. He thinks he knows how it is behind closed doors. Even if hes actually wrong. It could really help them bond. Until Dev finally sees hes wrong and it’s gonna make a huge rift between them as he blames Peri for pretending to have a bad relationship with his parents. Probably saying it was to “mock” Dev or something.

On another note. Do you think Peri would actually be upset that his parents decided to save fairyworld instead? Maybe rationally he tells himself it was the better choice. That it was what ended up bringing him back. It was what saved all the other fairies who take priority. Hes just one guy. But thats still gonna hurt. Knowing your own parents can and have picked the masses over you. Knowing you arent worth the world to them. Of course he wouldnt actually expect them to choose him but maybe deep down he wanted them to? Idk im loosing it cause I just got off ruff 12hr shift at work lol.

Hope this isnt too off the money for your au I just really enjoy angst

~hollys fairy hell

[AU info here!]

OOOOHHH... THIS IS INTERESTING. WHILE C&W DIDN'T KNOW THAT PERI DIED, DEV BEING ANGRY BECAUSE OF THAT IS... OUGH. I think it DOES check out, actually. Feeling angry that they didn't even KNOW their son died, the blame being shifted to help ease the guilt... IT MAKES SENSE, AND IT'S IN CHARACTER.

He's seen their relationship before, and he knows that they're all such a genuinely happy family, and that makes him feel not ONLY GUILTIER, but MORE FRUSTRATED, MORE ANGRY. Their own son DIED, in front of HIM, and they DON'T EVEN KNOW.

HEAR ME OUT... DEV NOT KNOWING THAT C&W DON'T KNOW UNTIL PERI MENTIONS IT. Him assuming that they ALREADY told their parents, and that's why he was absent for a few days. THE GUILT SHIFTING INTO A MISDIRECTED ANGER ONCE PERI MENTIONS THAT THEY DON'T KNOW AND THAT THEY WANT TO KEEP IT FROM THEM... of COURSE, the guilt is still there, but it blends in with the other feelings and it's a Very Complicated Feeling Soup.

THE MISUNDERSTANDING IDEA IS NEAT... AND IN-CHARACTER. I don't know for SURE how I'd implement it [because my brain is very picky about the things I add, and I am too...], make it go, and ALL those good, delicious, juicy things, BUT BUT it will go on the backburner of thoughts. Specifics would probably just come to me randomly at 2 am like they have been lately gHDLSHSLHD 😭

WITH THE LAST PART... PERI DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED SPECIFICALLY. He was DEAD, after all, and SURE, he'd probably find out via things being talked about, BUT, GENERALLY, I DON'T THINK THEY ADDRESS OR THINK ABOUT THOSE THINGS.

Hazel's Wish fixed EVERYTHING that happened in the episode, and I talk about how the whole Millio Wishes Thing worked here, actually! I have a vague idea of how things go with Peri after they come back, but I don't have any set in stone ideas yet/there's no established timeline. I think... THEY don't even know at first, they're just confused at the fuzzy gaps in their memory and then, once they get a closer look at themself and the GHOST thing happens [when they're alone] and all that... THEN they put details together and realize they They Fucking Died.

WHICH... PERI DOESN'T UNPACK THAT. NOT MUCH, ANYWAY. The finale ends as usual, with the motorcycles and all that— that's BEFORE he realizes there might be something off. DO YOU GET ME... LIKE...

THE ENDING ESTABLISHES THAT THINGS ARE OK AND NORMAL BUT THEN AFTER THE EPISODE, THEY GO BACK TO THEIR HOUSE/ROOM/C&W'S HOUSE [ALONE] AND THEN THAT IS WHEN HE KIND OF REALIZES HE FEELS OFF AND WEIRD. AND... OUGH. YEAH.

SORRY I'M... GETTING OFF TRACK. I don't think he'd be upset, not in that way, at least, given the circumstances. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS MAKES SENSE OR IF IT'S JUST WORD SOUP I'M SO SORRY I JUST WOKE UP LIKE AN HOUR AGO. I am throwing words at the wall and hoping they make sense HDJDDGKDDUI 😭

[kandoros]

The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells

These are the best science fiction I've read since James S. A. Corey's Expanse series, in some ways even better. At least four of these books had me up way too late reading them, well into the "I'm going to pay for this at work tomorrow" hours. The other three I finished on weekends.

The main character is a robotic/cyborg security guard, the self-named Murderbot. In this setting you can make purely technological artificial intelligence, but it seems to be cheaper to get most of the way with tech, and then add in a cloned human brain for the adaptive and creative thinking bits. Think Robocop, but instead of a resurrected dead person, it's just cloned tissue here and there.

And Murderbot is very definitely not a person, and does not want to be:

Dr. Mensah said, “That’s not an attitude a lot of humans are going to understand. We tend to think that because a bot or a construct looks human, its ultimate goal would be to become human.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

This series makes me think that Star Trek really did Data dirty. Instead of having him wanting to become human they could have gone in a much more interesting direction. Imagine if the Borg Queen had tried to covert him and he just rejected her totally because "Just ugh, no. I'm already better than you."

But Murderbot does have that human brain, and it causes it a lot of trouble. Guilt mostly at first (it gave itself that name for a reason), helplessness (most of the humans it had interacted with before the series were basically corporate slaves, indentured servants on a generational level whose highest hope was to save up enough money that their kids could get upgraded to management, a system Murderbot can't shoot or punch), fear of itself being enslaved again (it had hacked the electronic bit that the company could use to control and kill it, but it had to keep that hidden), and then finally fear that its humans could be killed.

It's basically a giant ball of neuroses and stress, and it's vastly entertaining to see how it deals and adjusts to that.

Another major character in the series is just amazing; the Asshole Research Transport. ART is a fully sentient ship Murderbot meets in the second book. It's got the same losing-its-crew fear Murderbot has, and its reactions to that are the chef's kiss.

At one point it downloads a smaller copy of itself into an unarmed shuttle and threatens another armed transport:

“I lack a sense of proportional response. I don't advise engaging with me on any level.”

At another point, it thinks one of its friends is being held hostage. Step one of it's plan?

“Iris: “Peri, you can’t bomb the colony.”

Perihelion: “You are incorrect, Iris, I can bomb the colony.”

It just straight to orbital bombardment. I don't even remember if there was a step two, something like telling the people it was attacking why it was doing that or how to get it to stop. I think it may have just assumed they'd be able to figure out what they did wrong and why the angry sky-god had commenced with the smiting.

I'd like to read more of course, but the end of the last book seemed to be a pretty good natural stopping point for the series. There's a few comments on reddit that Martha Wells had signed a multi book contract with her publisher and that two more might be Murderbots, but this is a pretty satisfying conclusion. There's also supposed to be a TV series coming out.

Really, really recommend reading these. They're to quality; enough splody bits that I enjoy them and enjoy characterization to make the splody bits mean something.

Next on my list is S. A. Barnes Ghost Station. It's got a crew of astronauts occupying a base on a planet where an alien civilization fell in order to maintain residency and ownership for their corporate overlords. I'm not that far into it; it seems to be going into an Event Horizon horror direction, where the demons they have to survive might be caused by the main character's past, the dead aliens, or just something humanity in general finds escaping itself out in the dark of space.

[taus-inc]

My thoughts and feelings on Uglies the movie

I'm starting to think I understand a bit of how people who read Percy Jackson before watching the movies feel. Uglies was... a movie. I have thoughts that I wanna share with a condensed version of my rant with the notes I took at the very bottom. I know in the end it's just a movie but at the moment it's important to me. Obviously SPOILERS for Uglies, the book (mainly the first one) and the movie.

I want to start with the things I liked since that's a much shorter list.

i LOOVEE the casting for Dr. Cable as Laverne Cox, Keith Powers as David, Brianne Tju as Shay. I also like the casting for David's parents, Croy, Sussy, Dex and An.

Not all the design elements hit for me but the look and sound of the hover cars and boards i really liked. As well as how the interface rings looked and worked, kinda showing how easy it was for things to be "hacked". The look of the operation tank wasn't something I thought too hard about but I like how they brought it to life. And "THE SMOKE LIVES" was beautifully done. While reading the books I imagined something more childish given the sparklers but the movie did them wonderfully.

And something small and rather insignificant, Tally telling Shay that Peris was the one who gave her the necklace makes a little more sense than some random person giving it to her and her caring enough to wear it all the way to the Smoke.

Now... on to the nitty gritty of the things I didn't like as much. Some are kinda nitpicky so take my word with a grain of salt as these are all just my personal opinions. I took notes as I watched so they will kind of be in chronological order.

First is the casting of Tally and Peris. I knew when I saw the trailers I wouldn't like Joey King as Tally Youngblood, I don't think she's that bad of an actress, she just doesn't fit my vision of Tally. I like alternatives of someone like HAVANA ROSE LIU !!!, Sophia Lillis, Emma Myers, Paris Berelc, Chandler Kinney, Inde Navarrette, Talia Ryder, Quintessa Swindell. Basically, anyone other than Joey King. Someone I could see being book 1 Tally but also becoming who she was in later books. And for Peris maybe someone like Archie Renaux, Archie Madekwe, Nico Hiraga, Brodie Townsend, Connor Sherry, maybe a Finn Little or even a Charlie Plummer. Clearly, I don't have a set look for these characters just vibes.

I don't like that Dr. Cable is a public figurehead. Most of the things she does and are capable of are because she's more secretive. She's a manipulator who works behind the scenes. I could've appreciated it if they had done more with it and made it a purposeful change but like many other things I don't see the point in it.

Tally's relationships with anyone are honestly one of the most disappointing things done and my #1 gripe with this movie. It just does not make me care at all. We're missing so many vital scenes that I'm sure they couldn't fit all of them in but because of what they cut out I couldn't buy into them as people. Everything just felt so temporary and non concrete. I know it was probably to save money from actors ( f you btw netflix) but I'm sad the only other scene with Tally's parents, them convincing her to give up Shay and the Smoke, was missing. Her and Peris' relationship falls very one note and her and Shay's just falls flat. No real friendship between the two, bonding over feeling lonely and (at least to Tally) beginning their next step to prettiness together. Shay's constant reassurance that she doesn't think Tally is ugly and how she feels about keeping her original face because she doesn't think of herself as ugly either. Shay's anger is completely missing for me when in the book it was a very big thing considering how much Tally's betrayal cost her. The same anger thing with Maddy happened too but more on that later. Even with Dr. Cable manipulating her I think it was so poorly done. She just straight up lied to her about what was going on in the Smoke instead of using everything Tally had wanted for the last 16 years against her.

Next is what I think to be one another major failing on the movie that I have to force myself to understand that they simply didn't have time for but.. Cutting basically all of Tally's journey to the Smoke really hurt me because I feel like throughout all the books Tally's relationship and outlook on the wild is some of the most important because it shows a lot about who she is as a person when she really has to be alone with herself in such dangerous conditions and situations. The wild is always the start of her radicalization and her free thinking. It helps her be more open about the Smoke and it honestly informs a lot of her decisions later down the line. Her puzzling through Shay's note and learning to survive (with the help of some city things) were very detrimental and sad almost none of it made it into the script. And they didn't even get the note right!!

Short and to the point- replacing the rangers who helped Tally (and gave lowkey clues about what she learns later) with the Smokies.. Again, I understand time and money restraints but still Ugh!

Them making Croy immediately overly aggressive and skeptical of Tally also just takes away from his character. Even in the books we have little to go on, but I think taking away making him slowly put pieces together about Tally's stories and the math of the SpagBols simply not mathing is a small but disappointing takeaway.

The entire time in the Smoke went by wayy too fast, they never let you or Tally just sit and exist with the people living there already so again i just don't care that it was raided! We missed out on Tally discovering the people who lived there along with more of her relationship with Shay being discarded. Taking out the library, Tally discovering all of the people and faces from before through books and magazines and the man who looked over all of that. Which flattens her character more seeing as that was one of the first deaths she experiences that she feels is her fault. Tally meeting David's parents felt rushed and their conversation about the lesions just felt like it was her entire reason for suddenly not wanting to listen to Dr. Cable instead of her forming her own opinions and that being her final straw.

Something the movie loved to do was take away so many crucial parts of the story, a major thing being the raid of The Smoke. In the movie it happens so quickly even though I'm sure they could've included a majority of it. Tally's desperation in fighting for something she had inadvertently helped destroy, her and the Boss fighting to protect the last of the books and her watching him get killed because of it. Because of her. Her getting captured and gaining trust and respect from people (Croy!) who previously doubted her, but at the same time her relationship with Shay hitting the fan because she instantly knew Tally was at fault. Her being smart enough to outwit and out maneuver a Special Circumstance soldier and escape. Her hiding in the cave with David. Her coming back to see Croy had convinced people to leave their shoes because she didn't have any while hoverboarding away. All which fuels her guilt and need to protect and rebuild The Smoke seeing as she felt it her fault. In the movie she hid out in the open.. ran out screaming when Az was killed... outed what she had done in front of everyone. Then she blew up a building and Dr. Cable literally just let her go for no apparent reason. David finding out what she had done and what she caused should've warranted more anger but of course we get none of that. Next we just jump into helping the captured Smokies escape and Tally's crazy ass plan that actually helped show the depth of how smart she is was glazed over. We lose the reveal of Dr. Cable testing on Az causing him to pass away which, on top of being a doctor, fuels Maddy's need to have someone give informed consent before testing the cure for the lesions. The movie also took Maddy rightful anger toward Tally away from her. It might seem small in the grand scheme of things but agreeing to be the test subject for an untested brain alter for a woman who dislikes you for having a part in her husband dying is a step in her trying to earn forgiveness.

Shay's reveal to be turned pretty was completely under done and felt because of the lack of depth they gave to her character along with her relationship with Tally. Shay never wanted to be turned pretty and Tally is a big part of the reason her choice was taken away from her. Her becoming pretty was another thing that made Tally completely regret all that she had done and showed more of the ripple effect of the consequences of her actions. Plus that fuck ass wig and ugly silver dress they had her running around in !!

Overall so many of the choices made by netflix just lets me know they never intended on continuing the series in future movies regardless of the outcome of this one. Like them making Peris special and then killing him off ??!! The Specials having special suits and not special bodies. Changing out the rangers to not expand on the lore. ((Edit: The flowers being made by the cities actually does so much to harm the story which also explains why they removed the rangers because it was cities fighting against yet ANOTHER rusty invention that was destroying the world. The cities (who knows how many) were fighting to preserve nature which lends to them dulling people to slow down their overconsumption and later Tally's mission to make sure the wild was protected when people eventually got their free will back.)) Making the ending open ended because there was no way they could fully close it out because of the nature of the books but every other choice felt so definitive as to an ending and nothing more, like showing Tally pretty at the end when the closing of the book was just her surrendering. The movie itself didn't expand on even just the first books’ lore and it just felt like an extremely lukewarm version of the story that happens over a 30 minute period even though the movie is an hour and a half long. Everything felt rushed and not true to Uglies the book at all and it upsets me to see these books introduced to people in this way.

Ok, rant over. Peace out.

───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆───────────

TLDR, my sparknote ver.

Things I liked:

Lavern Cox as Dr. Cable

Keith Powers as David

Brianne Tju as Shay

Design of the hover cars and boards

Design of the operation tanks

Design of the "THE SMOKE LIVES" message

Thing I did Not like:

how this movie is a TERRIBLE introduction into this world

their failed attempts at humor

joey king as tally youngblood

dr. cable being a public figure head

the montage that skips basically all the world building

tally and shays watered down relationship

tally and davids watered down relationship

tally's parents not coming to see her before peris and really showing she was pushed into working with dr. cable

making the crash bracelets work like a bungee jacket and not using the mechanics from the book

dr cable lying abt what david and the smoke were doing to that extent

montage of the tallys journey in the wild

replacing the rangers with smokies

croy being over aggressive abt not trusting tally when he was sly and smart abt figuring out her story doesn't make sense

david just going "these are my parents" and no one clarifying their names

tally not slowly coming to realize that the smoke isn't that bad and her doubts before learning abt the lesions

the talk abt the lesions

peris being special

the attack on the smoke

not meeting the boss who keeps track of the books/magazines

tally and david hiding out in the open during the attack on the smoke

peris killing az bc az dying from medical testing was important !!! + az's "wah are yu doin"

tally outing herself in front of everyone 😒 + her dumbass escape scene bc she literally just got let go

not explaining or using tally's very smart plan to get into special headquarters

no pretty speak

shays ATROCIOUS ASS WIG that thing looks like a lego piece on her head and them contacts and that dumb ass dress

that glass breaking as soon as the fire touches it

the pt 2 of the solution being so easy to find and maddy not stealing dr. cables interface ring

the body suit for the specials bc their body is what made them special not the suits

joey king breaking up peris and david's fights was giving the fighting from the kissing booth

peris dying ??!!(!(!(

maddy not RIGHTFULLY being mad at tally for destroying her home and getting her husband killed

croy all of a sudden being on tallys side 

[valleymyristica]

Will us readers receive anything related to Magical Backup?

Heh he, funny how you ask that when I didn't even put the sentences about it in the sneak peak. Glad you're using your head.

It hurts to grant wishes, body feeling dying and dead. So it's reasonable to assume that he is less willing to grant anything instead.

But, hey, Peri is a good fairy, he got this! HAH!

Though, in terms of something detrimental, something of terror, it's a bit in the future. A big mistake holds disastrous consequences.

He didn't meant to. "I'm sorry"

He can grant wishes, it may hurt him, may tear at him, but he can still grant wishes. As long as he can grant wishes, as long as he has wishes to grant, he's safe.

And, for now, he is safe.

Yet, the future can change many things, Though, regarding this punishment. He'll make it thorough. His body will be fine. His body is fine. It's all good.

Trust me.

You don't have to worry, he won't die Even when he wishes for it We are keeping him alive

See, aren't we kind?

Heh, just like the universe

Heh he, you all worry too much about too much Heheh

[fountainpenguin]

Stanky Danky | A New Dev-elopment | Lost and Founder's Day

Random 2nd watch thoughts that made me laugh

Stanky Danky - I like how Dale calls Dev "Devin," because I didn't catch it on my first watch (Too quiet), but I know he calls him that again in "A New Dev-elopment." Good to note (I know he just says "Dev" in "Lost and Founder's Day," when he's frustrated).

I checked to see what Dale said in the message Dev got on his birthday, but he doesn't call him by name. It IS actually a happy birthday message, which is impressive... for Dale's usual levels of parental failure

Fascinated by Dale using "innit" like a Brit despite his dad having a Southern drawl (which I would've paired with "ain't it?"). He does it twice!

We don't see another parent for him in the OG series and even if he had one when he was young, we know he spent 7 years underground and that could've easily slipped away. He probably gets that from doing business overseas

Actually, the founder statues talk with different accents. Maybe their family just gets around.

Dale's study is full of framed pictures of money and boots. He has a skull on his bookshelf and at this point, I'm afraid to ask.

I thought I glimpsed his secret cave behind the profit charts (which would only be shown to us 25 episodes later), but alas, it was not...

Also, the Dimmadome front lawn has dollar sign hedges.

A New Dev-elopment - I like how the pavement outside the Dimmadome tower goes directly into the bottom floor. Of course they'd have some kind of patio area that's fully enclosed by walls.

??? Dev's bed is on the statue? Why?

That's so dangerous!!

This tiny fence is the only thing keeping Dev from certain death.

Also, I'm obsessed with the implication that Peri was poofing up cupcakes where Dale totally could've seen them.

This is so funny to me. It doesn't seem so wild when we're inside!!

?? I like how when Dale tells Dev to turn down his game volume in "A New Dev-elopment," he claims he can hear it from his office, which we later learn is inside the statue's ear.

Or at least, the secret room is inside the ear, and the bedroom is implied to be inside the mouth since that's more easily accessible to Dev (who'd never seen the secret room) and Dev calls the mouth "his dad's room."

I'm shocked by Dale's faith that one of the kids at Dev's birthday won't fall over the fence and sue them.

Unfortunately, I don't think he thinks like that. It's about aesthetic...

Lost and Founder's Day

I like how (like Kevin Crocker can't walk as fast as his uncle), Dev can't go as fast as his dad on the stairs. All the kids in this world have little legs...

It is so funny to me that when Hazel sneaks in and Dale's wearing his VR goggles, he's just dancin' to dramatic music.

Adds another layer to Cosmo's scheme of taking on a Dale disguise and dancing with the robots to distract them.

Robots out here like "Yeah, that seems in character."

[cornus27florida]

What did you think of CPC’s ending? 👀👀

Hi IHF!!! I am really sorry to just replying cuz I overthinking so many things, I kinda want to write many things about CPC's ending but that's making me go here and there...

As an overthinker, along with a big procrastinator, I realized how long I keep your question in my inbox unanswered... This also I portrayed through fanfiction at AO3 ``June's Dump" which initially about month June at CPC, so 7 months timeskip as we have George and his sommelier wedding - which def invite Jamie, but I wonder if the venue at Plaid Palace thus we have Plaid Royals reactions over them... Hmph, fix time! I need to fulfill ‘em all!!

Back to basic, the initial question... What do I personally think about the CPC's ending as in epilogue 173? Well… I have mixed feelings, so I have some clashed opinions

As a wiki editor personal thought, I am kind of annoyed at a certain 'new' editor that cut off many things in the page as Mocha already gives the foundation... Peri was even shocked by my strong reactions over that annoyance... Although from there I see how unstable my emotions are, I literally have too many mixed emotions that I can't describe! Nevertheless I finished the story part up to completion, and I think that page is pretty much done. There's my thought as fandom wikia editor lmao but that's too much technical

As a wiki editor personal thought, I am kind of annoyed at a certain 'new' editor that cut off many things in the page as already Mocha gives the foundation... Peri even shocked to my strong reactions over that annoyance... Although from there I see how unstable my emotions, I literally have too many mixed emotions that I can't describe! Nevertheless I finished the story part up to completion, and I think that page is pretty much done. There's my thought as fandom wikia editor lmao but that's too much technical and boring

...although nvm, I will be myself who rambling to things that I love and I won't change at that aspect haha - here come v.02!

So, here is another of my thoughts but based on TV Tropes! This more at happy note~

(Disclaimer: I didn't mainly edit in there, but I do some minor editings here and there - although those never done lmao)

Also it's open secret for everyone, that TV Tropes content is hella subjective but at least they are funny - hence why I feel better informations database is at fandom wiki instead

"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The final chapter takes place six months later, and Gwen writes in her diary about what happened then:

Jack learned about Lilyth and her painting curse, then he cried for a whole week over her.

> We know Jack cried in happiness as reunite with his wife once again, IDK that sentence feels like Jack cried in sadness which the opposite of reality

Lorena got an A+++++ for her final class project.

The kids are getting along with the family, and both Jamie and Leopold made more artwork for the walls so Lilyth could travel through them around the castle.

Jack held a celebration to acknowledge the people who helped defend the castle from the invasion. He hasn't visited Leland in prison since.

Jerry was promoted to Chief Warden, while Beckett got demoted and transferred far away from Maria.

> poor Beckett, in wiki there Mocha add sentence which technically objective but lack in Tropes :  Jerry got everything Beckett wanted - a princess, a promotion (to Chief Warden), and recognition from the King himself - while Beckett was demoted and moved to a station as far away from Maria as possible.

Suzana officially joined the Pastel Troops.

> It's actually from ep 171 about Suzie plan to move out to Pastel Kingdom, but ep 173 as the epilogue itself never explicitly tell it? Probably due to it from Gwen's POV that uninterested with military stuff... I am more curious about the location of the new "home" where the throuple LorZanCe are lmao, likely at Pastel Kingdom I guess

The Club got Gwen's painting from the Conservatory back by distracting them with Laverne.

The forest of the Cursed Princess Club was declared a protected area by the king so it's never in danger of being invaded again.

> Remember the spider's conversation about a new member of the CPC incoming? Who?? Heck yeah, sequel potential!

Frederick has been hard at work studying to one day become king and receives support from his family.

> At discord, me and some buddies are joking about how Frederick is going during timeskip espc as he is technically the 'special member' but hasn't got his own slumber party yet... Hence why we got amused on the scenario of him sneaking out on a night to get initiated, but his kingdom mistaken it as something serious and send an army to fetch him out from initiation LOL (in similar sense of ep 148 ending where Prez shocked to see Plaid soldiers lining and thought they are merely fetching Frederick, and in our scenario that assumption of Prez becomes reality). Oh well, I hope in the promised side stories we have Frederick's slumber party (and Maria as well! Although I also hope Lorena and Jamie get the open arms to join the CPC? Well let's see/Fanfic for cope)

Prez stopped taking her medication and resorted to her old way of dealing with her curse. With the growing acknowledgement and support for the Cursed Princess Club, she is looking to expand to help more people who are cursed.

> regarding Prez point, this kinda too summarized on my liking lol. First about the expansion as moving out to a new and bigger building, we don't know exactly where but I really really hope it's at Plaid Kingdom. That way with reformed Plaid Kingdom whose initially negative thoughts toward cursed people (let's see; Leland feels the cursed need to be fixed first, while Blaine and com. Tattersall sees cursed as a monster which needs to die), now on the hands of kinder people espc the crown prince himself is close with CPC - that makes the CPC expansion more meaningful IMHO. Also cuz Plaid has larger land xD

> the period pauser pill (it's not birth control y'all, please don't mix 'em up, fandom!) indeed merely temporarily solution and I have doubts from very first time as see it through eyes of biologist that concerned with drugs side effects espc for long use - even if those pills possibly non synthetic ones=lesser side effects. Basically ALL drugs are technically poison that is used on right doses, time and matched person with many has strict rules under prescription. That's why Whitney suddenly bought it kinda concerning, although I can see the comedic effect and temporarily 'relief of the curse' on that solution haha. Permanent solution possibility for Prez is to get 'reproduction organs/system removal' surgery - the HYSTERECTOMY.. here I spill a bit of spoiler secret of RaS as my ff series, I want Prez to consider that option

Themidora reunited with lobster lover, Benedict, who tricked the wicked sea cucumber into cursing him so he could be with her.

> I am surprised but in the side of “wao, so LambCat chose that option” because I kinda guessed it before. Thermidora "solution" is either to de-transform back as lobster so can reunites with Benedict (probably through searching 'lobster' serum from that background cursed serums merchant, or probably Jack allows the Clam to be used for betterment of CPC members not for greed) OR Benedict somehow finds a way to meets with her. I am more surprised with the way of latter guess to be true, because the method is kinda mundane "trick the sea cucumber to curse me so I can walk on land!" way + Thermidora wish of 'meeting hot summer lobster' to be true somehow LOL. Her premonition comes true and that's silly sweet panel ^^

Whitney returned home to his kingdom for Blacquelyn's coronation. She now wears a coat made from Greyden's fur.

> I wonder about Whitney's status in the Monochrome Kingdom but it seems won't be explained. So my guess as in HCs: Queen Blacquelyn actually 'likes' Whitney more than Greyden from the start, probably in the way of 'being girl is never to claim the throne' so Whitney never heeds her much. Which as Whitney presumed to die and Greyden raising to power, Greyden make havoc to bring his harem to the palace and annoys his sister so much = reason why Blacquelyn decides to throws throne of Greyden (which I and Axel have HC, got neutered LOL)

Nell and Jolie officially got married.

> Very happy for the wedding! Personally I thought their wedding itself is beautiful but the guests scene kinda iffy me a lil bit. Like why Pastel Kingdom only has Maria, Gwen, and Jack? Where are Lorena and Jamie?? I think they are busy chasing their dreams so choose not to attend, or LambCat simply lazy to draw them lol/jk. Also this kinda controversial intake espc to Syrah lovers, but personally I don't feel humored at all with Syrah still flirting with Jack when she must know how strong the love of Jack/Leelathae-Lilyth.. So that scene leaves bad taste to me, this excluding poor Saffron moment. Sigh, the ship of Syrah/ Saffron is officially sunk. I am kinda accepted it but I just feel weird despite being female myself, I feel many female characters are easily 'get away' with things while male characters gets repetitive/redundant/unnecessary misfortunes - some of folks at discord agree with that statement but at the end of the day I want CPC for their heartwarming wholesomeness, not to pick fights at anyone and I am still learning about that. I wonder if Nell and Jolie moved out to stays at the Lace Kingdom as I feel CPC need some delegations that stays at their own kingdom, that's what Tori wants for Monika after all. Speaking of Monika, she technically can have 2 suitors as one Tori and other Orson lol - but epilogue is not deciding her end so I feel who Monika ends up to isn't important? At least her dream to open a stall for jewelry becomes reality, although a certain someone at discord is mad about lack of Monika's appearance overall....

Aurelia got together with Celso after their meeting at the castle.

> This super simplified explanation about Aurelia, and a certain someone labeling Celso as her boy toy - which make me think both of their characters downgraded uhh. Anyway to be honest I am not really a fan of both of them as they are alright characters but not really special as in 'meh' territory. Unlike Orson/Monika as the ship of a Princel/CPC member, CeLia is too rushed imho (they literally meet each other during the night of invasion arc) with the dash of concerning acid mouth from both + we don't know if the "True love's kiss" attempt from Aurelia to Celso really happening or not, but it's so concerning - realistically in my HC about cures for Aurelia, we can develop some utensils that won't melt with her spit (they have magics, duh) with probability of chopsticks could not touching directly with mouth along it's saliva during consumption of certain foods OR developing (more realistic!) melting curse counter which high in acid with something like specialized mouthwash high in alkaline

Maria got to fulfill her dream of singing her recital for everyone, which caught the eye of her idol and they began collabing.

> Good for Maria :3 Also the side stories sneak peak has Maria like performing on a certain stage with a new outfit which the image can be seen at P.S at the end, I wonder if she does an idol live stage under Bozart tutelage?

Blaine is now on a journey of self atonement, but has made sure to attend Maria's recital.

> Some people love Blaine so much, I am not really sure if to be honest.. I just hope that Blaine at least attempts to communicate with his family (sans Leland ofc) in his journey, especially his youngest brother who becomes crown prince right now could get some pointers about how to lead people of their kingdom. My opinion about Blaine fits the most with Mono's opinion in that sense after all

As for Gwen, she no longer sees cracks in her reflection. She is happy with Frederick.

> that's how TV Tropes conclude things but I feel I need to add more (for another time, remind the future me plz) as I feel Gwen and Frederick, being the protagonist and the deuteragonist respectively, need to be on separate points? From what I get (thus my personal thoughts) by rereading ep 173 at uncountable times, Gwen technically doesn't stopping see cracks in her reflection BUT every time she feels down which make the cracking - she will read her mother's letter that she put on her bedroom wall (I kinda hope there's a couple pictures with Frederick inside Gwen's bedroom, but well at least we have that lovely finale panel)

> The content of Gwen's mom deserves a separate point! Her letter is so warming although there’s some parts that imho too female-exclusive, hence in the fanfiction that I made, Dear Me, I make the content to fits everyone :D

> What's TV Tropes forgot but I will make it up someday, but fandom like at this Tumblr doesn't by some folks, is the crucial final step implicitly told regarding Frederick's character development. He is purposely growing giant sunflowers at the front yard of his palace, showing that he didn't afraid of sunflowers anymore as well making peace with his past as got bullied (I still wondering his bullies where about although I have assumptions they are too 'broken' to show up to public anymore). 

Last for real, GwenDerick/FredDolyn last finale panel is very similar with Frederick's dream as Frederick on the left side of us, holding hands with Gwen with blushing face. That panel is freaking cute and fits the CPC epilogue so much in my humble opinion, what I dream is becomes reality - of wholesomeness ^^

Conclusion: (u could just jump to here, HEHEHE XD )

Long Story Short, overall the epilogue as in the CPC's ending is satisfying to me espc that lovely very last panel. Certain parts like Aurelia's solution of her curse or Prez just back to her old method seems lackluster, but to me is not that bad. I feel the 'backlash' of enjoyment actually from the fandom itself by some 'people' that I will put as anonymous, those I label as 'ungrateful' with some points I already mention. Also I know I am pushing myself so unhealthy regarding editing stuff… I love it actually so no pressure to me at all, but I know it’s kind of my running of realities of adulting hence why I need to ‘touch some grass’ as well

I forgot to mention that I guessed long ago (and confirmed to be right!) that Gwen will write a diary at the epilogue as inspired by her mom's diary. Although a bit of 'offs' are due to initial thought about 'the diary of lilyth' is filled with grief so it meant to be hidden, while Gwen's diary meant to be read to her kids with Frederik [one of comedy is silly sentence that in form of: dear my lovely kids, I want to tell you that your father does not love me at first sight but used to be so scared of my appearance but see now how hard he loves me now :) as a means for the complete opposite as a form of happiness to tell everything about CPC... So a kind of epilogue "I write my own story - reveal" because some episodes which are heavy-centric of Frederick like at ep 70 and 145, no way others could explain it unless those come from Frederick himself. That scenario could happen once Frederick and Gwen becomes true lovebirds that cozy w each other - to reveals true selves

P.S:

Here is some bonus from LambCat's Patreon that somehow I get the updates including the HD pictures !!

 I really want to get stable and high paying jobs soon :0 so I can be financially independent, thus can support LambCat through the paywall like subscribing her Patreon as well as buying CPC books!

[hearsayhorizons]

Perihelion Freed

My apologies to the original poster to whom I'm going to respond--I didn't catch your name or reblog your post when it came across my dash because I didn't expect to keep coming back mentally to your stance on Perihelion, free will, and the University's potential blind spot between their ship and their... discrete... work, out in the borderlands. I don't even know if it was a recent post or something that someone I follow reblogged. If you find me, hi!

Another blogger posited that Perihelion doesn't have free will, that things are hard-coded out of its mental architecture, and that the Newtideland crew may be hypocritical for using basically an enslaved ship to free basically slaves.

I'm not sure whether this was "a take on the idea" or whether it was "this is canonical and fucked up," so I apologize if you (cool previous blogger) were just investigating the concept!

It stuck with me, though, the idea that Perihelion (as opposed to The Perihelion, the ship+mind=entity that is akin to body+mind=soul) may or may not have free will, and how there's a lot more to investigate in the interactions if it doesn't, and the crew is either oblivious or "one must imagine Perihelion happy," and in a state of grace, as I believe the blogger mentioned.

Sure, there's a lot of mileage in "even the best have their blindspots," and the edges where what Peri does with and for Murderbot might run against its programming, and whether it would adjust its programming or whether it even could contemplate doing so.

But from my recall of the text, I don't believe the coding and architecture for enslavement is present in Peri.

It makes the choice to let MB on board because it IS bored: it is capable of boredom; if someone were to design an entity with specific reactions and capabilities, both the Bad Designers and Good Designers would skip the capacity for boredom and tedium, wouldn't they? To do otherwise is either pointless or cruel.

I guess you could say that boredom is the other side of the curiosity that Peri needs to help its crew and students with class and scientific endeavors, but that gets into the weeds about what is and is not programmable or required for specific emotions; we can't guarantee that you need one to have the other.

Peri chooses to accept MB, rather than actually being enticed and/or ignorant like a regular bot pilot. It chooses to help MB customize itself, messes with its recycler logs, and forges its captain's signature at least once; I can't imagine even the most Star Trek utopian creator, if able to lock in specifics to the point that an AI has personality and goodwill but not free will, would leave in operating code that would permit that sort of gross overstep (not that it was morally wrong, but it's something no one ever contemplates ART is capable of because--it shouldn't be?)

It lies by omission when it doesn't relate what KIND of construct MB is even when it chooses to tell its crew. giving MB privacy and opportunity that an enslaved AI might not be able to do (and after it went to the effort to change its logs, which makes me think it's choosing also to tell port authorities one thing and then choosing again to verbally tell its favorite people other things). It has a "debris deflection system" which comes off to me as... "using the label as robotically an as possible as another lie of omission" BECAUSE its intentions are beyond the scope of what it "should" be capable of doing/thinking... if it was a supercharged but enslaved AI.

The tabletop game Eclipse Phase has "AGI" that have to grow and be developed like people in order to BE proper people (metapossibly to lighten some of the strangeness between PC and player, since if you grow up in a simulation, you've got more in common with your player...).

There's nothing I can recall in TMB to indicate this is the case--we know MB is Athena, formed fully-shaped from cloned tissue, parts, and pre-trauma, but MB has no idea what ART is or how it could be the way it is--MB considers at one point that it might be a construct, but the vibe I get from ART is way too... glassily alien, sometimes, for human tissue.

What if... Newtideland laid down the basic code and parameters of "this is a person," maybe yes, seeded in some "curiosity," or "willingness to figure things out," but maybe no more than any kid starts with parents' nature and nuture to shape their own trellises...

And then they presented the thing-that-would-be-Peri with options, maybe even classes, and it coasted through History of Economy because this is a utopia, damnit, and didn't find much to grab its attention in... Inventory Management, but then.

Then it slips into a small drone ship completely covered in "student driver" stickers and it spreads its stubby sensors out to encompass... everything. And it moves, and the more it moves the more there is to move through, and it feels this sense of rightness.

It comes back, and a kid, human classmate, asks it what's it like out there and through Peri's eyes, but you don't have eyes--. It explains, and the kid asks a question that young-will-be-Peri doesn't know how to answer. They look it up together, and over time and all and once (as you might find in a sim) it has synergized its own career, its own goal and passions.

I posit that Perihelion has free will, serves WITH its crew rather than for its crew, and that its happiness and pleasure in its position and life are genuine, as they can only be if it can choose otherwise. We can conjecture a world in which the designer could be so granular in programming that ART is capable of all it can do while also unable to do what is locked out, and ignorant of the painful irony of using enslaved labor to free enslaved labor (which, again, is valid as an interpretation! ) but I think it is... important, that there might be a kinder, more star-spangled world, if the University comes from a world in which even bots truly, actually have freedom that MB doesn't see even after getting Preservation Station.

The Perihelion MUST have free will because

"You are incorrect, Iris, I can bomb the colony."

[bwela07]

Octonauts - A new Generation

Chapter 12

Overload of emotions

WARNING: There’s a scene towards the beginning about Pearl’s PTSD (specific to my AU) It’s never explicitly said what past trauma she has, though it is suggested. To be transparent with you guys, her trauma has something to do with S/A. Like I said, it is never explicitly brought up and never will be, but I wanted to warn you anyway.

Shellington’s pov

Shellington paces around the launch bay nervously, waiting for the kids to return. He knew that leaving them alone with Kwazii would be a bad idea, but there was nothing that he could do after the captain approved it. Periwinkle must have been terrified! Well, all of the kids must have been terrified of course. Shellington continues pacing around as the rest of the Octonauts enter the launchbay.

“Shellington, calm down”, Tweak says with annoyance. She bites into a carrot that she summoned out of thin air.

“Easy for you to say”, Shellington snaps. Both his nephew Periwinkle and his older sister Pearl were in direct line of danger. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually Pearl had agreed to join the others on their ride back to the Octopod. It has been a long time since Shellington saw her. It’s awfully sad that they had to reunite under such unfortunate circumstances.

“Believe it or not, I am just as worried as you are”, Tweak replies, shocked by Shellington’s tone. Shellington himself was also shocked by it. It’s not like him to get irritated like that. Well, at least he never really showed it.

“You’re right, I’m sorry”, Shellington sighs.

“Don’t worry Shellington, I’m sure that they will all return safely”, Peso tries cheering the sea otter up.

“Aren’t you worried about Pinto?”, Shellington asks before he can even finish his thought process. It was a stupid question, but he had expected more of a panicked reaction from Peso.

“He always finds a way to get out of any mess he gets himself into”, Peso answers with a sad smile. Pinto is quite similar to Kwazii. Shellington can only imagine how much trouble the young penguin gets into on a regular basis, leaving his older brother exhausted from worrying. Shellington sighs as he finally calms down enough to stop pacing around the launch bay. He leans on the wall, head facing the ceiling, trying to distract himself by thinking about how to summarize everything he wanted to say to Pearl as shortly as possible, knowing that she’ll want to leave once more as soon as possible.

As Kwazii, Paani and Pearl swim inside of the launch bay followed by Dashi and the kids, Shellington quickly rips himself out of his thoughts and goes dashing towards them.

“Pearl!”, he screams as he dives into the water, colliding into his sister. Pearl laughs as she embraces him.

“I missed you too little brother”, she calmly whispers, with a sense of sadness in her voice. Shellington ignores that and hugs her tightly, never wanting to let go. The others swim past them and head to the surface, letting them have their moment, Periwinkle being the only one to stay.

“Peri! You’re okay!”, Shellington lets go of Pearl, despite his heart telling him to do otherwise, and hugs his nephew.

“Hi uncle Shellington”, Peri shyly says.

“How have you been Shelly?”, Pearl asks.

“Pearl!”, Shellington whines, his cheeks burn as they gradually become red, “I told you to stop calling me that!”

Peri and Pearl both start laughing. Shellington looks at both of them in anger, before joining them in laughter. It had been so long since he had heard Pearl’s beautiful laughter.

“Come on, let’s go up”, Pearl suggests, “We can continue talking in your room.”

The three see otters swim up to the surface and let their helmets open up. The other kids are each with their corresponding adult, all chattering excitedly. Shellington smiles at the sight, before his eyes land on Kwazii. He has a thing or two to say to him. His bitter thoughts causes his smile to melt away. He tries to keep his expression neutral. He won’t make anyone’s day worse than it is. He’ll talk to Kwazii later in private.

Shellington excitedly escorts his sister and his nephew to his room. Pearl laughs as he enthusiastically reports his latest discovery while using his hands as he talked, just as he often does when he gets excited. For the first time in a long time, Shellington felt like a little kid. He gets hit by a big wave of nostalgia as he teleports back to the past, at a moment just like this one. They had just returned from school. Shellington was explaining all the new things that he had learned that day. The joy that he had, knowing that Pearl was always there to listen to him. No one else could stand his rambling. He had gotten so used to talking fast, since he always got cut off while he was less than halfway through his explanations. But Pearl wasn’t like the others. She always listens. Just like how she’s listening right now. And now Peri is also there to listen to Shellington’s rambles. It makes Shellington so happy to have them. He finally has a happy family. Shellington fights against the tears threatening to fall as he quickly turns around and walks forwards. He smiles. He can finally be happy now.

“This is a nice lab”, Pearl says, turning around as she lets the scenery sink in.

“You’ve been in here a few times before”, Shellington reminds her.

“Yeah, but every time I come here, it’s different”, she says with a sad smile. Shellington mentally crosses the ‘sad’ out. There’s no time for sorrowful thoughts.

“Mom, you should seriously disinfect those scratches”, Peri’s little voice says. Shellington turns around in a blink of an eye, making himself a little dizzy. He stares at Pearl, only now seeing all of the scratches on her body. Shellington’s eyes widen.

“I’m fine Shellington, it’s nothing bad”, Pearl says, knowing exactly what’s going through her younger brother’s mind. She walks over to where his first aid kit hangs.

“Why didn’t you let Ranger Marsh help you?", Peri asks curiously. Pearl freezes. She shivers a little before turning to face her son.

“I just…”, she starts. “It’s private”, Shellington jumps in. He takes the first aid kit and leads Pearl to a chair. He could tell that she won’t be able to function properly from here on out. At least that gives him an excuse to make her stay longer. Since the damage has already been done, there’s no point of pretending that nothing happened.

“Peri, why don’t you go join your friends?”, Shellington suggests, trying to make his voice sound as calm and kind as possible.

“They’re not my friends”, Peri mumbles under his breath as he drags himself out of the room.

“Peri…”, Pearl weakly says.

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him later”, Shellington says, softly pushing her back into the chair.

“Shellington”, Pearl warns.

“You’re not in the right state of mind to do anything right now”, Shellington notes. Tears prickle in his eyes as he disinfects his sister’s wounds. He takes a shaky breath as he looks her dead in the eyes. Both siblings know what’s coming next.

“Flashback?”, Shellington briefly asks. He didn’t have the strenght to say anything else without breaking.

“Yeah”, Pearl looks away.

“Pearl”, Shellington whispers.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about little brother. So what, I still don’t feel comfortable around men, particularly men that are way older than me, that doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with me”, Pearl tries to shrug it off.

“Pearl, you are not okay”, Shellington stops what he’s doing to hold her face, forcing her to look him in the eye, “We both know that you’re not okay.” Shellington’s voice breaks as he continues, turning more and more into a whisper. “Please Pearl, please consider finding some help. It’s not going to get any better if you continue ignoring the problem. I’m begging you, please go see a therapist.” Shellington’s starts shaking as his tears flow down like a water fall. Seeing her brother so sad breaks Pearl’s heart. She had been trying to keep it together for her brother’s sake, but she couldn’t keep it in any longer.

“I’m scared Shellington”, she finally confesses between sobs. Shellington hugs her tight.

“I know”, he whispers, “We’ll get through this together, just like how we get through everything together.” Pearls hugs him tighter as they both try their best to cry as quietly as possible, in order to prevent anyone from coming in to investigate what’s going on.

Shellington puts a box of tissues on the desk next to Pearl, then continues treating her wounds as she finishes crying. Shellington hates seeing his sister hurt like this, but at least she’s not bottling up her emotions for his sake anymore. Shellington puts everything back where they belong after he’s finished, before leaning against the desk. He faces the ceiling with his eyes closed as he tries to rack up any ideas on how to help his sister.

“You should go talk to Periwinkle”, Pearl quietly suggests. Shellington looks down to her. The sorrowful look on her beautiful face physically hurt him. He winces before facing the floor and shutting his eyes tight.

“Yeah, you’re right. Take care of yourself”, Shellington hugs her one last time. She laughs weakly.

“Thank you Shellington. Thank you for everything.” “That’s what siblings are there for”, Shellington nuzzles her nose with his own before heading out.

Once out of the room, he leans against the wall. He takes a beep breath, trying to push back all of his thoughts, before he continues on his way to search for Periwinkle.

“Hey there buddy”, Shellington greets, sounding as weak as Pearl must be feeling right now.

“Hi uncle Shellington”, Peri answers. Shellington had found him in the boys’ room, sitting alone on his bed.

“Why aren’t you with the others?”, Shellington calmly asks. Peri sighs as he puts his book down.

“They’re not like me uncle Shellington. They don’t understand the things that make me, me. I don’t fit in with them. I don’t have the same interests as them”, Peri pulls his legs tightly against his chest, keeping his head down.

“I’m sure that’s not true Peri. Surely there’s someone who’s interested in the same things as you. Other than that, I’m sure that they would still love to be your friend”, Shellington tries.

“Yeah right”, Peri sulks. Shellington isn’t used to this kind of behavior coming from the young sea otter.

“Sure, you might struggle at first to have a conversation with them, but you’ll get there eventually”, Shellington tries once again.

“How would you know?”, Peri lifts his head and looks Shellington straight into his eyes.

“Because I’ve been through the same situation myself”, Shellington admits through gritted teeth. He hates thinking about how shy he used to be. He had wasted several months being all on his own, despite it being surprisingly easy to befriend his crew mates. He even managed to befriend Kwazii! The two of them were complete and total opposites! Peri stays silent for a while, thinking about what he just heard.

“Alright. I’ll try to make friends”, he finally says. Shellington smiles and pulls his nephew into a hug.

“Thank you Peri”, Shellington says, “You’ll be doing yourself a favor.”

“But in return”, Periwinkle says with a grin, “Mom and I can call you Shelly.”

Shellington stares at his nephew in shock and disbelief. He quickly weighs his options, giving Peri a side eye every once in awhile.

“Alright, fine. You can call me Shelly”, Shellington crosses his arms as he looks away with embarrassment. Peri jumps up with excitement, doing a little victory dance on his bed. Shellington watches him in amusement. He knew it would be worth it.

Shellington’s fist shake with anger. Kwazii has spent the past hour going around apologizing to everyone for his failure during the expedition. Now he’s apologizing to Shellington. How could Shellington possibly forgive him so easily? Kwazii put his nephew in danger by not being careful and got his sister hurt! Hearing what happened just made Shellington more angry. Kwazii should know better than to go anywhere near an anaconda’s nest! His recklessness could have killed the kids, his nephew! Shellington has been working hard to keep his family together for as long as he can remember. The hope of finally having a happy family had kept him going for years! The thought that all of his work could be ripped away from him within seconds has always kept him awake at night. To think that his own crew mate could be the cause of his family’s demise…

Shellington knows that Kwazii’s reckless. He also knows that Kwazii is aware of his recklessness. Shellington was there when the Octo-alert went off. He saw that the kids got somewhere safe and were able to call for help, under Kwazii’s orders. He also saw how Kwazii’s signal from his Octo-watch headed in the opposite direction of the kids. Kwazii had tried his best to make sure that the kids stayed safe. And he had succeeded. Kwazii is the master of getting into dangerous situations, but he is also the master at saving anyone he can and being ready to risk his life for others. Shellington can’t possibly stay mad at him. He could tell that Kwazii’s apology is sincere. Shellington takes a few shaky breaths before finally speaking.

“Listen Kwazii. I understand that you tried your best, and I am grateful for that. Nevertheless, it will take me some time to calm down enough to forgive you”, he calmly says.

“I understand matey. I appreciate your effort”, Kwazii gives a small smile. The lieutenant leaves the room, leaving the marine biologist alone once more. Shellington sighs as he lets himself sink into his chair. Once again, he finds himself facing the ceiling, deep in thought. After a while, Pearl enters the room.

“Hi Shelly, how are you doing?”, she asks, her familiar Scottish accent bringing comfort to the sea otter.

“I’m fine”, he says while sighing, “Just…a little frustrated.”

“I know that you’re worried Shelly, but I’ll be fine”, Pearl says as she places her paw on his own.

“Come on, let’s go ask Peso if he knows any good therapist”, Shellington firmly declares as he stands up. He grabs her paw and drags her out of the room.

“Shellington, please!”, Pearl pleads.

“We have already talked about this a million times Pearl!”, Shellington yells in distress and desperation.

“Shellington…”, Pearl says, knowing full well that she can’t change her brother’s mind.

“Pearl”, Shellington warns. The two sea otters stare each other into the eyes for a few more seconds, before Pearl finally submits to her brother.

“Alright, fine”, she says while pouting.

“Thank you”, Shellington replies. He relaxes himself a bit. He drags her out of his room, all the way up to Peso’s. He finally lets go of Pearl’s paw and looks her into her eyes.

“Ready?”, he asks.

“Of course not! But I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”, Pearl answers annoyed.

“It’ll be fine. After this, everything will start being fine”, Shellington tries to encourage his sister. He takes a deep breath before knocking on Peso’s door.

“Hello Shellington, hello Pearl, what can I do for you?”, the penguin asks after opening the door.

“Hi Peso”, Shellington starts, “Could we…talk to you in private?”

“Uh…sure?”, Peso answers, confusion and concern taking over his facial expression.

“Thanks”, Shellington nervously says.

The two sea otters follow Peso into his room. Peso gestures them towards his bed as he grabs a seat on his desk chair.

“So, what do you want to talk about?”, Peso asks, clearly trying his best to keep a neutral tone and facial expression.

“Well…”, Shellington looks over to Pearl for some help.

“What are you looking at me for? You are the one who wanted us to do this!”, Pearl hisses while whispering.

“Calm down. This is for your own good”, Shellington tries to defend himself.

“And what about you!?”, Pearl bites back, getting more and more angry by the second.

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t have been able to tell? I’m your older twin sister for crying out loud! It’s as clear as day that this whole situation has had a huge effect on you as well!”, Pearl snaps.

“I…”, Shellington becomes speechless. He thought that he had done a great job hidding just how much it had effected him. He himself had been in denial for so long! How is it possible that she figured it out, even though he himself hadn’t figured it out until the first few months of being an Octonaut?

“So…do the two of you need more time?”, Peso asks, now finding it even more hard to keep up the neutral act.

Pearl sighs and apologizes for her sudden change in mood, while Shellington remains speechless.

“Shellington”, Pearl grabs both his paws and gives him a stern look, “I’ll do it if you do it too.”

Shellington slowly shifts his gaze to look his sister into her eyes.

“Alright”, he quietly says, voice cracking as he does so.

“Good”, Pearl puts down his paws and faces Peso.

“Peso…”, Pearl takes a few deep breaths, “Shellington and I…well, we were wondering if…”

“Ifyouknowanygoodtherapist!”, Shellington sputters out quickly.

“What?”, Peso asks in confusion, “Could you say that again?”

“Do…you…knowanygoodtherapist”, Pearl tries to stay calm, but starts panicking. At this rate, they’ll be here all afternoon.

“Uhm… Why don’t we find a way to calm the both of you down first?”, Peso suggests.

“Alright”, Pearl says while nodding.

“Well, that could have gone a lot worse”, Pearl says as the two siblings leave Peso’s room.

“Uh-huh”, Shellington replies energy drained.

“At least we got what we came for”, Pearl jumps down the Octo-shoot.

“Right”, Shellington continues following her.

“I’m gonna go check on Periwinkle. Will you be joining us?”, Pearl asks as they enter the hallway.

“Not right now. I need a minute to myself”, Shellington stops at the Octo-shoot leading to his room.

“Alright. Call me if you need anything baby brother”, Pearl says while giving him a smile.

“You’re only three minutes older than me!”, Shellington states.

“Whatever you say baby brother”, Pearl teases.

Shellington chuckles as he makes his way to his room.

Upon arrival, he lets himself fall onto his bed. He sighs as he stares at the ceiling. He turns to the side and closes his eyes. He tries his best to calm his thoughts. After a minute of trial and error, Shellington gives up. Frustrated, he gets out of bed and decides to go to the lab. As the door to the lab slides open, his eyes meet with those of Dashi. Shellington stumbles backwards in shock.

“Hi Shellington, sorry if I startled you”, Dashi calmly greets.

“D-Dashi! What are you doing here?”, Shellington nervously asks.

“I have been waiting for you”, Dashy calmly replies.

“Wh-What!?”, Shellington takes a few steps back in shock, “Why?”

“Because there seems to be something bothering you. I know how you like to bury yourself in your work whenever you are trying to get something off of your mind, so I decided to come wait for you here. It’s not healthy to push whatever is bothering you aside like that, so I figured that maybe we could talk it out”, Dashi explains.

Shellington stays speechless for a while.

“Shellington, it’s not healthy to keep it all to yourself, so please let me help you. Aren’t we friends?”, Dashi tries to get Shellington to say something.

Shellington shifts his gaze to his shoes as Dashi says the word ‘friends’. The two of them have become pretty close over the many years that they have spent on the Octopod. In Shellington’s view, the two of them were best friends. He already knows that no matter how much he wants to be more than just friends, Dashi won’t allow it. She’s too oblivious to notice his feelings for her to begin with, despite how obvious it it. Other than that, she’ll make excuses like ‘it’s not professional’ or ‘dating in a team never ends well’.

“Shellington”, Dashi warns.

“Nothing’s wrong Dashi. I’m fine”, Shellington goes around Dashi and makes his way to his desk. “Just go back to organizing photos”, he says in a bitter tone.

A deadly silence fills the room. Shellington puts his fists on his lap and lowers his head. Why did I say that!? I know exactly how much that would hurt her! Why do I keep on pushing anyone away that tries to help me?, Shellington thinks to himself, Why am I so stupid sometimes!? Why can’t I do anything right!?

“Shellington?”, Dashi asks. Shellington almost jumps out of his chair. When had she come join him at his desk? After noticing the hint of hurt in her eyes, Shellington quickly looks back down.

“What’s wrong?”, Dashi asks.

“I just…”, Shellington starts. Dashi takes a seat on the desk.

“I know you didn’t mean what you said, so just forget about it, okay?”, Dashi softly says.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry”, Shellington presses his paws to his face.

“It’s fine Shellington, just please tell me what’s bothering you”, Dashi gently takes one of his paws and looks him in his eyes.

“Alright”, Shellington removes his other paw. He clears his throat as he feels his cheeks fluster.

“Erm, well…I’m just worried about Pearl”, Shellington decides to start small.

“Something tells me that it’s not really just because of what happened today”, Dashi continues pushing.

Shellington sighs, “Something bad had happened to us in the past. A particular thing happened while she saved Paani and Kwazzi that triggered that memory. I just…well…I finally got her to go ask Peso for a therapist, but…”, Shellington’s paws form fists once more.

“She exposed you. She knew, even though it took you yourself ages to figure it out”, Dashi finishes. Dashi had been there when the realization hit Shellington. His world had started warping itself into an unknown shape. Dashi had helped him out of it. She’s the one that suggested that Shellington should write down his thoughts and feelings in a journal. It had helped Shellington a lot, especially during the harder times.

“Yeah”, Shellington nods his head. Dashi gives his paw a little squeeze.

“I’ll start taking online therapy sessions next week”, Shellington says while playing around with the strap of his waterproof satchel.

“That’s good. I’m glad that you’re finally getting the help you need”, Dashi says. The two of them share a momen of silence. After a while, Dashi knocks on one of the locked drawers attached to the desk. Shellington sighs as he takes out the key from his satchel and opens the drawer. Dashi takes out the journal and a pen and puts it on the desk.

“Call me when you’re done. I’m going to go help Tweak make a new Octo-camera”, Dashi says while gliding of the desk. Shellington smiles. He loves how she’s always there to listen to him, but also knows his boundaries and respects them.

“See you soon”, he says while he picks up the pen. Both the pen and the journal were gifts from Dashi, making them all the more special for Shellington.

“You seem a lot happier”, Pearl says with a suspicious yet joyous tone.

“I could say the same thing about you”, Shellington replies with a smile.

“I saw Dashi coming out of the lab. Did the two of you have fun together?”, Pearl teases.

“Pearl! I can’t believe what you are suggesting!”, Shellington yells flustered.

Pearl laughs as Shellington continues his rant.

“I’m glad that she makes you happy”, Pearl says once she finally stops laughing.

“Well…you make me happy as well”, Shellington says.

“Not in the way she does”, Pearl says teasingly. Shellington groans and rolls his eyes. Pearl ruffles Shellington’s hair. Shellington shoots her an angry glance as he tries to put his hair back in place. Pearl’s laughter fills the air, warming up Shellington’s heart as it does so. Shellington musters a sad smile. When he had run into Pearl, there was that familiar look in her eyes. It’s the longing to get back out there. Shellington pushes back the tears, deciding to simply focus on the present, instead of thinking about how long Pearl will be gone for.

other chapters

[whump-me]

Obscure: Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of Obscure, novel-length interrogation whump about a rebel leader who can erase memories with a thought, an interrogator who can see inside his subjects’ minds… and the connection they share that neither of them suspects.

Masterpost | the Mind Games universe | Read the completed novel on Patreon

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Kirill

Kirill had been in all manner of interrogation rooms over the course of his career. High-tech temples of steel and chrome, with hidden cameras that would let any observers count his nose hairs. Filthy holes in the ground, smelling of blood and sewage, with an inch of standing water on the floor. And everything in between.

Sometimes, he worked out of less traditional locations. His subjects wouldn’t have called those encounters interrogations, even though that was what they were. Kirill was an expert at starting a bar fight and screaming just the right insults along with his right hook to send the subject’s memories flowing in the proper direction. Or delivering the perfect cutting remark after a one-night stand, and drinking in the memories as he made his smooth exit.

But he had never actually been in one of the interrogation rooms inside headquarters before. Not since the night he had turned himself in.

He had thought the rooms would have changed in thirty years. They hadn’t. The room was clean and spare and sterile, with the same dusty non-smell he remembered. The light above glowed industrial-warehouse white. The table in the center of the room was the sharp-edged cousin of the kind where you might find the hors d’oeuvres at a wedding buffet. Unlike its buffet cousins, this one aspired to be more. Played in a punk band on the weekends, maybe. The harsh light reflected off the metal surface with such force, Kirill wished he had worn sunglasses.

Elias Kitzner sat on the far side of the table, his hands cuffed in front of him. He had a healthy amount of fear—Kirill could tell from the slow but steady trickle of memories radiating off him. A montage of all the fears he had faced in his life. A car hurtling toward him in the wrong lane at seventy miles an hour. A dentist appointment as a child, the dentist looming over him as bright light stabbed into his eyes.

Kirill paid just enough attention to the memories to know they couldn’t give him what he wanted. Then he let them fade into the background like a radio playing commercials. If he hadn’t learned to tune out the irrelevant memories by now, he would never be able to leave his apartment. There was no shortage of negative emotion in the world.

Although he tried to keep it to a minimum in his own life. It was one reason he went along with what his girlfriends wanted. He didn’t need to be privy to the memories they would rather keep hidden, and that was the only way he knew how to stay out of their heads.

Besides, he knew how to give people what they wanted. He liked giving people what they wanted. If he didn’t know what his girlfriend was looking to hear across the restaurant table on a first date, or how to flawlessly echo her wishes back to her, he didn’t know what he would say. Sit in silence for an hour until she awkwardly got up and left, maybe. A waste of a date.

He settled into the chair across from Elias. The metal was slightly cool, and poked him in all the wrong places. But as interrogation rooms went, it was on the more comfortable end. At least there was no smell of sewage.

Elias looked up. A curtain drew over his eyes. He visibly smoothed the fear from face as he took a deep breath. The trickle of memories slowed to a drip, but didn’t abate entirely. If Kirill focused on the place in the background where the unwanted images went, he could still see that dentist’s toothy smile.

Kirill had braced himself for Elias to use his power against him, whatever that power was. Despite decades of research, PERI still had no effective power-suppression drugs. Neither did anyone else, as far as they knew. But he didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Elias hadn’t used his power yet.

Either that, or Elias’s power was too subtle to feel, and Kirill was already in trouble.

Kirill frowned. He wasn’t used to interrogating people like him. He was used to having the advantage.

He would have to be careful.

The man in front of him hardly looked like a threat. Nerdy college professor meets farmer, with slim half-moon glasses. But Kirill knew how to look nonthreatening, too.

Showtime. Kirill slipped into today’s persona like a second skin. He felt himself relax as it settled over him, as he became someone instead of simply a radio receiver tuned to the frequency of pain. He slouched back lazily in the chair, spread his legs wide, and smirked at the rigid Elias.

“I can’t believe there are still so many of us scurrying around in the shadows like rats,” said. “Underground bunkers. Secret networks. All that wasted effort, when we always end up finding you anyway. It’s pathetic.”

A flash of disgust crossed Elias’s face. A sharp burst of pain, less expected, made the man’s eyes glitter even as they darkened. Kirill had seen a flash of that same pain yesterday. He hadn’t known what to make of it then, and he didn’t now.

He let the background flow of images move into the foreground. Elias’s memories played in his inner vision, with the disorientation that always came from looking through someone else’s eyes. A bunker, the one from the surveillance images Ramachandra had given him. A woman flinging fire from her hand. A capture team encircling him, the sharp bite of a taser, the world tilting dangerously as he fell onto his back.

The scene changed. A group of people, pressed tightly together with Elias at the front, hurrying through a dark tunnel. Where? Kirill asked, but of course there was no answer. The flow of thought only went one way.

Another scene change. A dark room that smelled of booze and paper money. A diminutive, tattooed woman passing him a folded envelope. “This is too many IDs in one month,” she warned in a gravelly voice. “You’ll get me caught. No more for six weeks, minimum.”

Kirill scanned the room for telltale details. A neon sign in the background caught his eye. But it was only an advertisement for a popular beer brand. And before he could pick out anything else, the scene faded, and nothing replaced it.

Elias’s face was clear in front of him again, tight and stiff as he stoppered his emotion.

Kirill would be able to describe the tattooed woman, maybe well enough for someone to produce a sketch. But it wasn’t enough.

Good thing he would only getting started.

“You think of me as some sort of traitor, don’t you?” Kirill smirked. “I think you’re too stupid to see a good opportunity when it comes knocking. While you were hiding away in your bunker, I was driving to work in the BMW my PERI salary paid for.”

Yesterday, when Elias had figured out who and what he was, Kirill had read the disgust in his eyes and in his voice. He had gambled on being able to evoke it on command. He had gambled well. Elias drew in a slow, controlled breath, but the memories came anyway.

Disgust. A broken sewage pipe in the small fenced backyard of a house that wasn’t the farmhouse. Thick brown water spilling out onto bright green grass.

Then something else. A small room in a veterinarian’s office that smelled of antiseptic. A furry body, heavy in his arms.

That wasn’t disgust. Grief? Was that the second, sharper emotion he had seen in Elias’s eyes?

Disgust again. A plastic container bursting open in his hands, the food inside furry with mold.

Grief. A woman sobbing as she argued with a professionally blank-faced police officer. A memorial service outdoors under a gray sky, a small crowd dressed in black, a pile of flowers where a coffin should have been. That same woman, her red hair vibrant in the sunlight, shouting, This is wrong, he’s not dead, he can’t be dead.

Elias’s breathing filled his ears, quick and ragged and scared, as a wall of flame erected in front of him. His hand tightened around another boy’s. He couldn’t see the other boy’s face—it was a blur where everything else was painfully sharp. Like the acrid bite of smoke in his nose. Like a woman’s dying scream.

Grief. Grief. Grief.

He pulled himself out of the memory with a gasp, like surfacing from a dive. Deep unease crawled in his stomach. He coughed, even though he couldn’t smell smoke anymore. He could still see that blank-faced boy, a ghost beside him, clutching his—Elias’s—hand. His fingers ached.

Elias took another slow breath, and another. The memories faded, and only then did Kirill feel like he could breathe again.

“I know what you’re doing.” Elias might as well have been lecturing in front of a classroom, for all the emotion he showed. “You want to disgust me.”

But it wasn’t just disgust he had felt. “You lost someone.”

“We’ve all lost people.”

But not everyone felt the sharp bite of grief at the sound of someone smirking about selling out his fellow Enhanced. “Someone you loved joined us, didn’t they?”

“Not willingly. He was taken.” A boy’s face, dark-haired and solemn. Not the ghost boy in the flames.

Kirill wished he could scour the man’s history until he found that face. But he already knew it was no use. He had looked over the man’s file, as far back as it went. It went back only as far as his network. The first fake identity he had bought was his own.

Then the ghost boy’s face again, stabbing into his vision like a stiletto. The face blurry, the background sharp. Mold crawling up the walls. Body odor and animal musk in the air. The tight, sharp feeling of long hunger.

Two faces. Two losses.

“He didn’t go willingly,” Kirill said, wondering which he it was. “But he disgusts you.”

“No.” Too sharp. The dentist’s face came back. Fear.

“You’re afraid he’ll disgust you.”

A sharp intake of breath. “Never.”

“He was taken young. A child. Yours?”

Elias’s eyes narrowed. His face went blank.

Kirill had expected a fresh burst of memories. But no images came. He was about to repeat his question when his vision went white. His thoughts fizzled into the hiss of a dead radio.

“What—” he started to say. Or maybe nothing came out except a small wordless sound.

His vision cleared. He was in an unfamiliar room, small and spare. Too clean, too bright, empty except for a sharp-edged metal table. On the other side of the table, a man sat in front of him. The man had dark hair, and serious dark eyes behind half-moon glasses. He was watching Kirill intently. Like he knew him.

Kirill frowned. “Excuse me,” he said, and even the sound of his own voice sounded unfamiliar to him. “But I seem to have forgotten what I’m doing here.”

He had forgotten a lot more than that. Like where he was—what city, what country. He had a feeling he traveled internationally on a regular basis, but he couldn’t say why. He remembered his name—Kirill—but even that felt wrong, like a flat string on a guitar.

The stranger’s serious face creased with a small, unfriendly smile. “I think you took a wrong turn,” he said. “What you want is out there.” He nodded past Kirill’s shoulder to the exit.

“Thank you,” Kirill said, although the man didn’t have the look of someone who was trying to help. He pushed himself out of his seat and stumbled into the hallway.

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