#out of mice

[nando161mando]

[canniefish]

for the art prompt "mouse world" - necromantic scions & cavaliers primary of the eighth and ninth mouse houses

aka op suffers from chronic symptoms of "read way too much redwall in middle school"

[kedreeva]

I need you to understand that the very straight and immediate line from someone's very confident "I don't like mice/I've handled mice before so I know what they're like" to joyous wonder as they hold the first calm, friendly mouse they've ever held and murmur "they're so soft/sweet/warm/gentle" practically to themselves is basically a drug

"I work at a petstore," says the young man with much disdain, "so I don't really need to hold another one. I know what they're like."

"These aren't petstore mice," I say, as I turn my hand over and the mouse holds on tighter. "They're not like any mouse you've ever held," I say, as I close my hand gently around the mouse and flip her onto her back for a second so I can touch her mouth and demonstrate how difficult it would be to get one of my mice to bite.

"I'm sure you've handled them extensively from a very young age, though."

"They haven't been handled before today, except to be moved into clean cages." She arranges herself in my hand and cleans her face. "Are you sure you don't want to hold one?"

He opens his hands, and she pours from my hand into his like a viscous liquid. She is soft and warm and sweet, and his entire face lights up when she hunkers down onto his warm hand and closes her eyes.

"....She's changing my mind."

"They tend to do that when you leave it open."

He took her and two companions home.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Congratulations to TEAM CHEESE for winning the popular vote on the Charcuterie poll!

[figmentforms]

Part 246 of  “A Tale of Two Rulers” (Oct 26, 2023)

THIS IS SO LATE!!! My brain finally kicked back on. I'm sorry, but thank you so much for understanding and being patient as always.

Thanks so much to all my amazing supporters that help make this comic happen! ♥

Also special thanks to loud-monotone-screaming for the great name suggestion for Duskar! Much appreciated! That's his name now.

And also thanks to biggaymatt for suggesting Bidna for "Boy Midna". Simple. Powerful. Good middle name for him.

★ Webtoon-  https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/a-tale-of-two-rulers/list?title_no=292453 ★ - I’m still building up this archive.

★Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/LorIllustration ★

★Store - www.etsy.com/shop/FigmentForms

for those that wonder how the medical stuff is going, I'll put that below the cut so anyone who doesn't want to see it can skip it easier:

Three of the 12 eggs made it to blastocysts and are now frozen! One is a boy, one is a girl, and one is a ninja who's test results came back 'unknown'. Unknown is a excellent gender. Very proud of all my little frozen snow babies. I really hope they live. Hopefully I will only have to do one more surgery before I can see if my body is fit to give these kids life. If you happen to pray, please send prayers to make these kids powerful. I really really really want them to live. I'm kinda worried sick.

[spookygibberish]

do Thrones like in the smile picture retain useage of the mouth of their Headless portion, and if so, do they use them and how socially acceptable is that?

It depends on the application. For eating, usage of the greater mouth is entirely necessary to render eating an efficient process. Without it, Thrones would struggle to feed themselves without devoting a significant portion of their day to the task.

For speech, the matter is more complex. Headless can talk, although their voices don't sound particularly human as a matter of course. Unthroned headless mostly speak to each other, their close relatives, and their instructors. Headless don't speak with people from outside their houses, as a matter of custom. Rather, people are uncomfortable with talking to them for fear of 'corrupting' them with knowledge their house does not wish them to have, which is a real and very punishable crime.

For Thrones, use of the headless mouth for speech is not taboo, per say, but is discouraged as uncouth. The different portions of a Thrones body are seen as belonging to different domains, and embody distinct roles, and speaking is not in accordance with the role of the headless portion. That being said, Thrones are renowned as vocalists, and nearly all Thrones receive voice training in order to put their tremendous respiratory systems to sublime use. The field song is the only territory this particular more does not extend to.

[wazzygoo]

in any era, cruelty becomes beauty, and the world stirs in delight

[the-witchhunter]

DP x DC: The Titans and the Phantom Cat

Danny doesn't do magic. He doesn't understand it or really know about it, and frankly he'd be more skeptical about it if it hadn't explicitly been used on him several times before. His parents are scientists and engineers, and they managed to accomplish what would typically fall under the realm of magic with nothing but recycled parts, wires and Fenton ingenuity.

So, when caught in a magic spell to bind him, he didn't know what would happen if he were to intentionally mess it up. Apparently, nothing good. Danny, free from the intended mind control, is now bound to the form of a cat with minimal use of his powers.

How could this get any worse?

Turns out, no one seems to understand what he's saying, they just hear meows. And without the use of his powers, he get's caught and finds himself in an animal shelter in Jump City.

When a group of young heroes comes through on a mission, and then proceed to mess things up, Danny can't help but throw out some snide commentary. Besides, it's not like they'll hear him

Welllllll... Turns out Raven and Beast Boy can tell what the hell he's saying. Of course the magic user and guy who can turn into animals can talk to him... Still it's nice to finally have someone to talk to, and also get him out of the cage while he's still trying to het a hold of what's left of his powers

Raven immediately clocks him as a powerful spirit bound to animal form. With a little persuasion, she ends up with a new familiar consultant and Danny the Cat gets to live in Titans Tower with them

or

Magic shenanigans happen, now Danny is basically Salem the Cat living with the Teen Titans and teaching them what he knows while mainly lounging around and sassing them. The actual usefulness of his advice may vary

[torveiglyart]

Sad headcanon time. After being brought back to life by Allura, Lance can hear the mice. The image speaks for itself.

Shiro can too, but he doesn’t know he’s not the only one.

[bagofmice]

naked michael save me.....

naked michael

save me naked michael

[jothemouse]

elliott stardew

(ie my number 1 google search for like the past two months🫥)

⭐if you like, please consider donating⭐

[fant-asm4]

Ok, i’ll say it: when are we finally getting a d20 campaign for the freaks?

And why have i just created the perfect table?

System: Monsterhearts 2

DM: Ify Nwadiwe - allowed dropout to air the list of the # of times he and Em fucked each month, posts videos of himself crushing watermelons between his thighs when baited, includes Polysecure on his list of campaign essentials

Aabria Iyengar - #1 Monsterfucker, instigated the first in-game threesome in CR history, created A Court of Fey and Flowers

Erika Ishii - #2 Monsterfucker, seduced every PC and most NPC’s in the CR Monsterhearts one shot, created an enchanted cock ring for a villager in her first scene in WWWO

Brennan Lee Mulligan - will match anyone’s freak at any table, created Plug Strutt

Rekha Shankar - known big ass cartoon-lover, pulled that move (spoilers in the tags) in the Of Mice & Murder finale, every table of freaks needs one person who is this level of wild card

Grant O’Brien - “Hello, I’m…FIFTY?!” literally just watch any of the True Facts About Grant Anthony O’Brien episodes of Breaking News

Ally Beardsley - would somehow be the grounding force in the season, no one plays uncomfortable and horny like they do, 69 for healing

[setmeatopthepyre]

🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

this took a little while, but I knew I wanted to write this scene especially for you and needed a little time to think about how to approach it. so here's a whole bunch of antarct-fic, just for you! this uh. got a little long.

-

It takes some time for Buck to get settled in, find his way around, discover the Skype stations, figure out the difference in timezones between Los Angeles and New Zealand-slash-McMurdo, and find a moment when the Skype stations aren't all occupied that also works for Maddie and Chim – but he gets there.

“-And so Brooke's walking in ahead of me, right? And she freezes -- No, Chim, not literally, haha, very funny – and she marches right up to Bucky, and keep in mind, Brooke is like, 5 foot, max, and Bucky is at least a foot taller – and she demands to know where Larry went. And that's when the rest of us realize, holy shit, Larry is gone. Just. Gone. Not a trace.”

Maddie and Chim are on screen, staring at him like they're expecting a punchline, and Buck realizes he may have skipped over a little bit of necessary context.

“Right, so, Bucky was the only one in the kitchen, because he was just there to get some of the baking prepared and to jump in if any of the people coming off night shift needed anything--”

“Wait, so this kitchen has a Bucky and a Buck?” Chimney asks, balancing a squirmy Jee on his knee. Maddie raises her eyebrows at him, like she had other questions, but--

“Oh! Yeah. Right, so. I'm Evan.”

Maddie squints at him. “We know you are.”

“At the station. Uh. This station. At McMurdo – or Mactown, as Katie calls it, but really, there's so many nicknames –uh. I'm Evan. Here. Because there were already a few Bucks, and, well, a Bucky. One of the Bucks also works in the galley, which is already confusing enough with a Bucky right there, you know? So I'm just. Just Evan, here.” He frowns a little, wondering if any of that made any sense. Or maybe the connection just froze up again?

“Wow,” Maddie says slowly, carefully. “How do you... feel about that?”

He takes a second to think about it. “It's... a little weird. But not in a bad way? It's kind of... nice. Like-- like I'm a new person? I know that's probably dumb--”

“No, Buck, that's not dumb,” Maddie says quickly, and she's smiling, and Chim's expression has softened as well, matching Maddie's. It makes warmth spread in Buck's chest, though it's followed closely by something achy settling in his stomach.

“I miss you,” he confesses.

Maddie's eyes are a little wet. “We miss you too. And Jee misses her uncle Buck. Or- should we say uncle Evan?”

Buck huffs a laugh, and that heaviness dissipates, at least a little bit. “No, no, uncle Buck is-- that's good. I'm still getting used to people I don't know calling me Evan. So.”

“Buck it is,” Maddie smiles, and he can feel her warm affection even across the continents between them.

“Well this is a beautiful little moment,” Chimney says, aiming for teasing but failing miserably due to how his whole face is crinkled into a smile. “But back to the story, uncle Buck," and Jee-yun echoes Uncle Buck!, slightly muffled, from somewhere just out of frame. Her pink-legginged legs kick into view a second later, just barely missing Maddie's face.

Buck takes a minute to enjoy the happy little family wrestling on his screen. That ache is back. He's fairly sure it's homesickness, and isn't it weird that he isn't sure he's ever really felt that before? He's missed the vague concept of home before – usually in the form of Maddie, when she was back in Boston – but never really in this way, where he can point to a place on a map where his people, his family are, and miss them.

Well, most of his people.

One of them is right here where Buck is. If he still wants to be. His people, that is. His person.

He clears his throat. “Right. So. Uh. Where was I?”

“You were talking about someone who went missing?” Maddie prompts.

“Uh. Right! Yes. Larry. So Brooke, obviously, immediately assumed Bucky had something to do with it--”

“Wait, I'm confused,” Maddie interjects straight away. “If Bucky was the only one who was supposed to be in the kitchen, how did Brooke know Larry was missing?”

“Oh, good point, detective,” Chimney says, then winces when Jee lets out a loud squeal right next to his ear. Maddie grimaces in sympathy at the same time Buck does.

“Oh, because Larry is always in the kitchen,” Buck explains.

“Always? How?” Chim asks, looking seriously at the screen while Jee giggles and squirms in his lap, one of Chim's hands clasped over her mouth. He raises his hands in dramatic mock surrender when she starts snapping her teeth at him.

“Didn't I say?” Buck frowns. “Larry's our mascot.”

Maddie sputters. “Larry's not a person?”

“No? One of the overwinters a couple of years ago made him out of the cutlery that got chewed up in the dishwasher, and the galley crew just... keeps adding to him.”

“You're telling me you have some sort of... cutlery homunculus named Larry watching over your kitchen?”

“Well, not anymore," Buck points out. "That's the problem. He's gone.”

There's a silence in which both Maddie and Chimney take a second to process this new information, and then Chim's getting up to fix Jee a snack and get her set up with some coloring sheets, and Maddie tells him about her latest check-up and how everything is still looking good with the pregnancy, and that they're debating if they want to know the gender ahead of time or not. It isn't until a little later, when Chimney comes back into view and Buck is fairly sure he's maxing out his time at the Skype station, that Maddie broaches the subject he'd kind of been hoping he'd gotten away with avoiding.

“So, while learning about your-- uh, Larry? – is fun, what we really want to know is... how did things go with Tommy?” She's smiling kindly, being gentle about it, so very Maddie, but Buck's leg is shaking enough to make the screen move a little and he needs to consciously force his jitters to a halt.

“Uh. It hasn't. Yet?”

“What do you mean?” Chimney asks, offering Maddie a slice of apple with peanut butter. Apparently Jee isn't the only one who got snacks.

“We haven't really talked yet,” Buck admits.

“Okay, so you haven't talked-talked yet. But how did he react?”

Buck shifts in his seat. “React when?”

“How did he react when he saw--” Chimney stops mid-word and mid-chew. “Now wait a second, Buckley. Tommy hasn't seen you yet, has he?”

And fine, maybe Buck bristles a bit. “Well, it's not like--”

Maddie interrupts him, momentarily saving him from having to think up some flimsy defense on the spot. “Hold on, you've been there a week, and... Buck, does Tommy even know you're there?”

Buck dips his head, wonders if he can fake connection issues, but he knows the guilt of cutting their call short would probably eat him alive. “Maybe,” he mumbles instead. “I don't know. Probably not?”

Honestly, Buck thinks, the news that Larry got kidnapped – cutlerynapped? homunculusnapped? – should be way more shocking than the fact that, okay, maybe he has been avoiding Tommy just a little bit. Just until he, you know, figures out what to do, what to say. But Maddie and Chim are gaping at him as if he's just admitted he's decided to move in with the nearest penguin colony and leave his human life behind.

It's almost a relief, then, when a woman taps him on the shoulder and asks him if he's okay to wrap up soon so she can talk to her husband before he has to leave for his night shift. Buck wraps up their call, promising pictures of penguins for Jee as soon as possible, no time to explain that he needs to follow some sort of training before he's allowed off-base, but he can tell them about that next time. Whenever that next time is.

That achy feeling lingers, even after he hangs up.

-

[make me write]

[julnites]

I had a blast doing part of the cover for the Mirror image zine for the @d20zinejam! ✨ Check out this, and many many more zines, in the full charity bundle!

[spookygibberish]

Horotmu-Pavam of Solēsne was a Southern Throne born of the union of Unbodied Horotmu of Solēsne and Headless Pavam of Hatab, and was one of the most famous Solēsne Throne, much to the despair of House Solēsne. They are known best for their failure to synchronize, and the resultant death of a House Venvin scion at their hands, or rather teeth. Horotmu-Pavam has become a character of academic interest, a case study on the art of matching Headless and Unbodied, and a dramatic illustration of the consequences should a pair be ill-considered.

[batfambrainrotbeloved]

IM SCREAMING THERES A MOUSE IN MY CAR AND IDFK WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT