#please tell me if so

[the-great-papyru]

He wasn’t too far into the resets when he got the idea. Late enough that the thought of death didn’t make him blink. Early enough that any real “experimentation” with it was only to involve himself.

And boy, did Flowey—Asriel have a lot of questions. What was the quickest method? (Hotland’s lava) Could he do it at the same time as a SAVE? (No) How long would people miss him if he were to “suddenly disappear?” (He’d gotten bored after a week)

Recently, though, what interested him more was the concept of life. Specifically, how long he could make it last in the harshest of conditions.

That was what led him to Snowdin.

Asriel didn’t have a real reason to spend any time there—the only people there were some snowdrakes, bunny monsters, that armless kid, the deer girls, and those two skeletons. All of them incredibly easy to give a happy ending. Their “problems” tended to resolve themselves as he fixed everyone else’s.

Even so, wouldn’t do any harm to figure out how long he could survive Snowdin’s cold. He was bored. This was a thing to do.

Unfortunately, this was still pretty boring. At least Asriel didn’t feel cold—no skin!—but that just meant he was waiting out in the middle of the forest to die, with minimal indication of how much longer he had to wait.

He’d picked out a spot he knew no one would visit. He had everyone’s routes mapped out. Snowy, Chilldrakes, Ice Caps, that one really annoying guy he could never remember the name of (Jeremy?) would all walk right past him. Sentries tended to stick to their posts. The dogs would patrol where they always did, far from this spot. The perpetually positive skeleton (Garamond? Times New Roman?) had a more erratic patrol, but Asriel had seen where he had patrolled today last reset, and was far from there. The annoying one (Serif? Sans.) was far from a problem. It wasn’t easy to find someone when you were napping.

Speaking of napping, Flowey bit back a yawn. He was beginning to feel quite tired. So that was how freezing to death felt. Not a bad way to go out. How long had it been? 13 hours? He closed his eyes, ready to meet the cold blackness of the reload screen when he awoke.

Before Flowey even opened his eyes, he knew something had gone wrong. This was not the reload screen.

For one, it was much too bright. Warm lighting lit up wherever he was in lieu of the darkness he was anticipating. For a brief moment, Asriel thought he was back in Toriel’s house, sitting by the fireplace—but no, the light wasn’t flickering, it was constant. And rather than putting him to sleep, it seemed insistent on waking him up. Groggily, he obliged.

He was in a warm room, a tv in front of him playing what was probably a movie. He was wrapped in some sort of fabric and steam was rising next to him from a mug of hot cocoa placed on a wooden table to his left. The air smelled heavily of cinnamon and chocolate. Beneath the dramatic music coming from the television, Asriel could hear soft humming coming from a kitchen to his right. That tall skeleton (Candara? Bodoni?) exited and grinned when he spotted Asriel.

“OH! GOOD, YOU’RE AWAKE!”

Now that he’d seen the owner, Asriel vaguely recognized this place. He’d been there once, early on, when he decided to look in every room in the Underground. The hyper skeleton (Merriweather? Abril?) had come in when he was in the middle of exploring. Flowey had been discovered immediately, of course, and he’d quickly reloaded before the skeleton could even say anything.

“YOU SEEMED VERY COLD OUT THERE. SO I DECIDED TO TAKE YOU HERE. I HOPE YOU DON’T MIND.”

Flowey—Asriel narrowed his eyes. There was no logical explanation as to why the skeleton had come past him. It was possible that he’d messed something up, changed a variable. He’d have to try again, in a different location where he wouldn’t be found.

As for now, though… this was new. Maybe he could talk to this skeleton. For whatever good it would do him.

“I don’t mind at all! Thank you so much…” Asriel said. Why was he out there, he needed a reason to be out there,

“I was out exploring, but I must have taken a wrong turn and gotten lost… I really can’t express my gratitude at being saved…” Was that laying it on too thick? No, the skeleton was puffing with every word.

“IT WAS NO TROUBLE!! SURELY ANY OTHER PASSERBY WOULD DO THE SAME! HOWEVER, YOU ARE QUITE FORTUNATE THAT I WAS THE PASSERBY PASSING BY. SNOWDIN FOREST CAN BE QUITE DANGEROUS, AND IT’S REALLY MUCH BETTER TO PASS BY THAN PASS THROUGH IT. A MUCH GREATER PLACE FOR PASSERBY TO PASS BY IS MY HOUSE!! WHICH YOU ARE CURRENTLY PASSING THROUGH! NYEH HEH HEH!!!”

Asriel blinked. Those were definitely words that meant something.

“AND THOUGH I AM CERTAIN YOUR HEART PINES FOR ADVENTURE, THERE ARE MANY BETTER PLACES TO FIND IT THAN AMONG THE PINES. YOUR WILD SOUL CAN FIND BETTER PLACES THAN THE WILDS.”

That. Also meant something. “Was… that a pun?” Asriel got out, bewildered.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” the skeleton replied straightfaced.

“…nevermind.” Asriel used one of his roots to grab the mug of cocoa. As he brought it to his mouth carefully, it slipped out of his grasp and landed on the ground. The mug shattered, spilling hot liquid all over the ground. Asriel bit back a cuss.

Darn it, darn it, darn it! The skeleton would be so— It was fine.

There was a shard of mug right in front of Flowey. He could pick it up and reload right now. He got ready to grab it. This time he wouldn’t be clumsy.

“OH NO! YOUR DRINK!!” The skeleton rushed in with a broom and dustpan before Asriel could make a move. “DON’T WORRY! WE CAN MAKE A NEW ONE!!”

What? “You’re not angry?”

“OF COURSE NOT! WHY WOULD I BE ANGRY?”

“I broke your mug.”

“NONSENSE! YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING. GRAVITY BROKE IT!!”

“That’s stupid! I—”

“I’M NOT ANGRY.”

Asriel looked at the skeleton’s face. There wasn’t a hint of anger or even disappointment in it.

“I CAN GET A NEW CUP, AFTER ALL!! I CAN’T GET A NEW TEMPORARY HOUSEGUEST.”

Huh. Maybe he’d stick with this timeline after all.

By the end of the day, Flowey had learned the skeleton’s name, (Papyrus) learned the skeleton’s favorite font, (Papyrus) and found his new favorite person (Papyrus).

Unfortunately, he still had an experiment to perform. He finally reloaded, chose a different location, and tried again.

When he woke up to warm lighting and the sound of humming, he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t with a smile.

[bugflies00]

TINAAOS GOT RESTRICTED TO AO3 MEMBERS ONLY...? brother thats it thats the last straw after three years im finally gonna make an account

[lavellander]

what if I arbitrarily decided that in tevinter long hair is seen as more masc and short hair is seen as more fem. what then

[bereft-of-frogs]

There’s that post that’s like ‘everyone should get into a tiny niche fandom at least once’ fully agree, that was really fun -- but I would like to add that everyone should get into a fandom where their opinions run counter to major fanon because it really teaches you about sticking to your guns and trusting your interpretation of the text without having to rely on peer validation

because WHAT are people talking about sometimes

[goinggoats]

I hope there are published works that started off as Homestuck fanfiction in the same way that so many books have turned out to be Reylo or Twilight fanfic.

[dillyt]

Great news for uninsured adults in the USA who want a COVID-19 booster! It now appears that ALL CVS locations are now active participants in the Bridge Access Program. The Bridge Access Program gives out free Covid-19 vaccinations to 18+ adults who otherwise can't afford one, so if you have a CVS near you, please go get one! For others who don't have a CVS near them, please go to vaccines.gov, click on "Find Covid-19 vaccines", fill out which vaccines you prefer (you can mix different vaccines if you have to so i reccomend just marking all of them for the age groups you need), and when the next page loads mark the "Bridge Access Program Participant" option to see only locations that are Bridge Access Program participants. Hopefully, other places that aren't CVS will start participating soon, so just check back every so often to see if there are any updates. The CDC Bridge Access Program website also has more details on what locations will be participating, but only CVS is appearing as an active participant on the vaccines.gov location finder at the moment.

[skipppppy]

shoutout to gay detectives and their husbands across history

[mauvemischief]

Ok wait but can we talk about how awkward Wymack probably felt during the Andreil scene in the hotel room??? Like nora had our man CHAINED TO ANDREW while they had THE Andreil moment and he was just like ‘yup, handcuffed to one of the problem children while he confesses his love to my other arguably more problematic problem child mhm just a day in the life’

[tam--lin]

In light of increasing anti-trans and anti-abortion laws in the United States, I am once again humbly requesting you inform yourself about jury nullification, your ability as a juror to vote against convicting people being prosecuted under unjust laws. Nullification was instrumental in legalizing abortion in Canada - it informed jurors can use it to help protect healthcare workers and protesters in the US, too.

[bdaemonis]

Made this instead of paying attention to class. Cuz I had a vision

Original post under cut

[vaxxildamn]

finally…… the legendary Level 20 Scissor Gal-adin

[formywriyinglalala]

this genuinely breaks my heart

[captainjonnitkessler]

I truly, TRULY do not know how to say this, because the fact that I have to say it makes me feel like I am losing my grip on reality. But no, in the post-capitalistic anarchist utopia, I will not be relying on “autistic minecraft girlies” to be building inspectors because - and this may shock you - one of those occupations takes years of education in how to read and interpret hundreds of thousands of lines of regulations based on complicated math and physics that were the result of decades of tragedy and death, and the other one involves playing a children’s video game.

[magicpiano]

DCXDP AU where Batman is one of the few survivors of the apocalypse from The Ultimate Enemy.

Danny meets Batman when trapped in the future and is shocked that Batman doesn't think he is too evil to be saved. Together they make a plan to stop his other self. Before Danny leaves, Batman gives him a secret code and tells him that if he needs help, he should go find Bruce Wayne.

Well Danny doesn't really plan on doing that, but after some event (his family dies again, a bad ghost reveal, the GIW, ect.) he finds himself running to Gotham.

Danny gets to Wayne Manor, gives the code word and says, "this is going to sound crazy, but I met Batman in the post apocalypse via time travel, and he told me to find you if I need help."

To Danny's surprise everyone immediately believes him. The kids take one look at him and know they have a new sibling.

[ragsy]

big big big fan of found family relationships with shithead sibling dynamics

sure, yeah, they had no one in the world until they found each other, and they will fight tooth and nail for each other's safety, but they will also eat the last of the other's cereal and put the box back in the cabinet or tell the other's significant other every embarrassing story about them or greet each other by means of full body tackle and chokehold