#sorry for the bad quality i literally just took a picture of my laptop screen lmao

[dirty-bear-rick-sanchez]

It’s so cute that Home Beth is wearing pink pyjamas but has a blue mug to match Space Beth’s blue streak while Space Beth has a pink mug to match Home Beth’s pyjamas.

The blue mug could also match Jerry’s Christmas jumper, which is a cool way of showing Home Beth’s commitment to both of them, whereas Space Beth is only really interested in Home Beth.

[loquaciousquark]

Hi! I think I remember you posting about "making" your own computer? I'm sorry to bother you with something like this, but was it difficult? Would you say you have to know a lot about how computers work to do it? Thanks!

Heck yeah!!! Oh man!! Gosh guys can I talk to you about building computers and how EVERYONE willing to do some basic googling is almost certainly capable of this I promise?

Welcome to:

Okay okay okay so let me spin you a li’l yarn: I was in optometry school in 2010-2011ish and I had been living up to now on prebuilts, mostly laptops, but DA2 was recently out and gosh darn it I wanted something I could play a proper game on. A friend of mine had a 10yo daughter who wanted to build a computer herself, and he told me if I’d buy the parts, he’d walk both of us through how to do it (what really happened was the 10yo built my first computer and I watched and brought drinks, so–no, I wouldn’t say you have to know a lot about how computers work to do it!).

The physical requirements are some basic manual dexterity & arm strength (you gotta be able to manipulate some tiny things and put some pressure on some connections) and you will most likely need to lift up to 15 pounds, although you can limit that if you go for smaller components. The ability to bend forward and twist and reach will also probably be necessary, although some careful planning can also likely mitigate that.

I think I have pictures of the actual build process somewhere, but regardless, it resulted in this bad boy that served me well for about nine years. I was shocked to see how easy it was to put together, honestly; if you can follow a Lego assembly book, you can put a computer together. With tools like PCPartPicker that have built-in compatibility checks to make sure all your pieces fit, it’s a piece of cake to put together a parts list that you can feel really good about. You just pick whether you want your motherboard to come with fancy lights or not (hint: rgb is unironically cool & i’ll fight anyone who says otherwise).

In the end, you’ll need a set of basic components. You’ll need:

A case to put all the pieces in

A motherboard, the circuit board of the computer that connects everything, basically the heart of the computer

A CPU, the brain of the computer that determines processing power, or basically how fast it can do math and direct traffic

a CPU cooling system, which can be either mechanical fans or liquid cooling, gotta keep that baby chill; may or may not come packaged with the CPU depending on what you get

A graphics card (aka GPU), the thing that makes video games look pretty (and what will probably be the single most expensive item in the build depending on how good you go)

RAM, a short-term memory processing component that comes in different amounts (4gb, 8gb, 16gb, 32gb, 64gb if you’re a madman) depending on how fast you need your short-term memory to work. Good RAM allows you to do things like open a bunch of Chrome tabs at once, run Photoshop at the same time you’re listening to youtube videos, or process the demand of loading up a host of enemies in Mass Effect. Most everyone these days can get by just fine with 16gb of RAM, which is what I have.

a hard drive (or the new, faster, more expensive version, a solid state drive) which functions as your long-term storage bins. This is where you save documents, images, and install your programs. These come in tons of sizes–the larger your files are, the more storage space you’ll want. I always put at least a terabyte of storage in my builds.

a power supply unit or PSU, which gives the electrical juice for everything to run

a monitor (the more hertz, the smoother the video will be - you’ll want either 60hz or 144hz depending on how much your number of frames-per-second matter to you)

a keyboard and mouse

speakers or headphones or both!

Optional addons:

RGB lighting for everything :O

an optical drive (aka something to put DVDs, Blurays, or other physical CD disks into)

fancy liquid cooling pipes

additional case fans; most cases come with adequate fans, but if you are using the computer in a room with poor ventilation or you find that certain components are running hot, you can install additional fans

coincidentally you can also get fans with RGB lighting too

cable extenders when you are going for a specific color scheme

So it can definitely all look overwhelming at first, but when you start to look at how everything is laid out, you’ll notice some trends. Look at these motherboards, for example.

These are just four random motherboards I pulled off Newegg, a commonly used computer parts purchasing site. Sure, the colors are a bit different, but the layout between them…is all basically the same! Here, I’ll draw it out.

In just about every modern motherboard you buy, this will be the rough layout. Everything else is window dressing–what kind of GPU you get, what kind of CPU you get, whether your RAM lights up cool colors or not. Your motherboard will ALWAYS include a map that has extensive descriptions of what each connection does.

Much, much, much more under the jump!

Most of these you won’t even need!

There are always some compatibility things to consider–as I mentioned, PCPartPicker can help you figure out a lot of these–but the biggest one to care about is the CPU. There are two major companies that make CPUs, AMD and Intel. They both have pros and cons on the chips they make, but right now, AMD makes a family of CPUs called Ryzen that both outperform and are cheaper than Intel’s current leading brands, the i7 and i9 lines. Intel was king of the hill for a long time, though, and their CPUs are still really good quality, so some people still go with them over the cheaper alternatives for now. (There are some reports of black screens with the new Ryzen lines, but as I’ve never owned one, I can’t personally speak to how common that is.)

Regardless, once you pick which family of CPUs you want to go with, AMD or Intel, you just have to pick an Intel-friendly or AMD-friendly motherboard. This is always specified in the description of the motherboard. I own the Asus z370 motherboard, so here’s what it says in the description for CPU:

Anyway, once you’ve picked all your parts and had everything shipped to you, it’s literally just a plug-n-play, step by step until everything’s plugged in. Your motherboard manual will also include recommended order of installations, too, and often how to install them.

It helps to remember that the manufacturers of all these parts understand that they are expensive, and they really DON’T want to make them hard to install! Broken or difficult pieces during installation means that the customer is upset, and upset customers ask for refunds and lose brand loyalty.

It also helps to understand that a lot of these connections are based on certain standards–I didn’t realize until I was rebuilding my current machine that these holes set for screws really do work with just about everything you get, as long as it’s the same generation, because motherboard manufactures WANT you to have the flexibility to go any attachment brand you like and still be able to use their board to mount them. 

So, you pick your case and open it up, and you put the motherboard down on top of all the little screw holes until they match, and then you screw all the screws down firmly.

Old rig, partially disassembled:

New, in approximately same state:

(One of the reasons I went with this larger white case than a smaller, slim case like my old one, is because this nicer case has what’s called “cable management;” that means there’s a built-in back area behind the motherboard where all my cables can be jammed without messing up the “aesthetic” of the glass window. My first build obviously did not have that, as seen in that first picture at the top of this post, so I had to just jam my cables wherever I could fit them so that the sides would close, haha.)

Anyway, you can see that the motherboard is just screwed in where it should be, and my CPU is already installed where it should be. I haven’t mounted the cooler for it yet because I needed to clean off the old thermal paste and install new thermal paste before doing so. My two sticks of RAM are also mounted in the top right in the motherboard’s recommended configuration & locations for two sticks (vs. one, vs. four).

Then, with the cooler in place, it looked like this:

So the cooler I have is liquid cooling in a closed system (the thick black tubes running right to left) which is attached to a fan that mounts in place of the white fan on the left from the previous picture. It was as simple as unscrewing the old fan and putting the new one in its place. I think I even used the same screws. The fan is powered by that thin cable running along the top of the case that plugs into a little socket on the motherboard labeled “CPU Fan.” It was as simple as just finding the right plug; it doesn’t even have directionality, just a three-pin socket, so it doesn’t even matter which way you plug.

Already it’s looking like a proper computer! And because this case has cable management, I took a picture of what it currently looked like from the backside.

This case is cool because it has a neat set of connectors mounted on the back of this little hideaway to connect the case fans. I could have run the white fan cables through to the front of the motherboard for them to get power/marching orders, but it was cleaner aesthetically to attach them here in the back. Nothing wrong with connecting them on the front, though–that’s what I did in my original build!

You also might have noticed I’ve mounted the PSU in that white case by now as well. It’s the large black and red box in the bottom corner, seen best from behind. The white case comes with what’s called a PSU shroud, which just means there’s a fancy white cover over it to keep the ~aesthetic~ when viewed from the front side.

The next step is to mount the graphics card!

There’s instructions in your manual as to exactly how these mount, but it really and truly is just removing the dust cover brackets where you need to, and then a delicate plug & play, pushing that big guy in until you hear the click! (Click good, snap bad. Haha. I’ve changed out these cards several dozen times and never broken one, though!)

You can also see the ugly red-tipped cables plugged into the GPU and the motherboard, both on the right side. These come from the Power Supply Unit (they are all permanently connected in most brands, and look basically like a squid’s tentacles–once you have your items mounted onto the motherboard, you just look for the connector from the PSU with the right number of pins and plug it in!)

This guy is the worst. He is fat and hard to maneuver and always requires SO MUCH FORCE to click into this delicate bendy board and your heart will ALWAYS be in your throat as your fingers shake from how hard you’re having to push to sink it, and it will ALWAYS eventually go in but you’ll hate every second of the doing. I hate you, 24-pin EATX. I hate you so much.)

The next thing I did was mount my optical drive (because yes, I still own one), my hard drive, and my solid state drive.

The hard drive and SSD both serve the same purpose (long-term data storage), but the SSD is much faster and uses newer technology. It’s also more expensive for the amount of storage you get, so I have a 256gb SSD that holds my operating system, my heavily-used programs like Firefox and Photoshop & Premiere, and one or two video games I play the most that I would like to load as fast as possible. This is the drive that can allow me to restart my whole system in less than five seconds.

The hard drive is 1.75 terabytes and holds everything else: fics, pictures, videos, music, other games, etc.They mount onto the racks with pre-drilled screws. The optical drive just slides into the socket snugly until it hits the back of the rack.

All of these use a standard connector called a SATA cable which runs between the back of the drive to a SATA socket on the motherboard. Most motherboards come with at LEAST six or seven of these connector slots, and some come with more. They look like this:

and are pretty universal. Any kind of extra storage or drive you want to add to your computer will probably connect with a SATA cable. I think my motherboard, my SSD & HD, and my case purchases all came with a pack of loose SATA cables of different lengths to be used for whatever I wanted.

The rack each drive is mounted to came installed with the case and pre-drilled with screw holes (and provided screws) for attaching either the HD or SSD in every slot. Because this case is all about aesthetic, it also comes with two vertical SSD mounts on the back of the case if you wanted to remove the right-side rack altogether, but as I mentioned, I have the optical drive, so I couldn’t go with that option.

So now we have all the major pieces mounted! The last set of connections are a collection of small fiddly pieces that all plug in roughly the same area and do things like light up the case’s LED, provide that startup beep, connect the USB sockets on the case’s front to power, etc. This is by far the section that takes me the longest because I guarantee I will ALWAYS plug at least two into the wrong socket and not have a beep, or my audio won’t work or something until I go back and reconnect them.

The next thing was to plug in my monitors and…see what happened when we hit the power button! (Monitor connections just plug directly into your graphics card in the back of the case.) And here’s what happened!

So it turned out when I was connecting my SSD (which has my OS on it), I was pushing on the little connector while sitting on the back side of the case. I thought I had the thing in the socket, but what I’d actually done was jam the connector just under the lip of the motherboard (that is, not connected to anything at all, just hanging in open space). Once I realized, though, it was an easy fix!

The last thing I wanted to do to complete the clean white look I wanted was to replace those UGHLY red PSU cables with what are called “cable extenders.” I bought some white ones on Amazon; because most PSUs’ cables are permanently attached at the box, you plug your cable extenders into the other end and then feed them through the case, so that’s the only portion visible. The ugly PSU cables are still there at the other end of the white cables, just hidden in the cable management area behind the motherboard.

I spent some time fixing up the cables to curve exactly how I wanted them to, then picked my LED RGB colors and closed up the open side with the glass wall. All that was left was to plug in my mouse/keyboard/speakers/headphones/mic/webcam, etc., and we were done!

Ta-daaaa!

The first build I did, the one in the blue & black case, took us about two days due to some unexpected problems. First, we were trying to salvage an old CPU from my HP prebuilt to save a little money. Unfortunately, they used basically no thermal paste to connect it to its fan, and when we were trying to get the fan off, it actually tore the CPU out of its socket and bent a bunch of its pins. I ended up going to Best Buy or something and getting a replacement off the shelf.

The other issue I had was that I foolishly didn’t back up my files, and lost a bunch of them in the rebuild (including my Hawke’s original run through the DA2 game :( :( :( ) Always back up your files before ever going in and messing with your case!

Over the years I replaced a bunch of components in it, which is why it lasted me so long, but the transfer into the new case only took me about three hours, and that was with a bunch of breaks throughout. I probably could have done it faster if I hadn’t wanted to savor it, haha. The cable management for the backless desk took a lot longer, though! (…and a LOT of zip ties.)

I do set my new build on a small glass stand (again, from Amazon) because Hamlet’s pretty sheddy and I wanted to keep airflow as good as possible. I’m limited on how many case fans I can install since I have the optical drive rack taking up a lot of space on the right, but I could install new fans on top if I wanted. My temperatures are great, though (I monitor with CoreTemp & GPUTemp, as well as my motherboard’s built-in temp monitoring software), so I don’t need to unless I decide I need more RGB.

Anything I might want to add, I run through PCPartPicker to make sure it’ll fit what I already have. For example, my parts list looks like this (full view and complete parts list available at this link): 

ANYWAY.

If you are patient, if you can fit small Lego-like pieces in labeled sockets, and you are a decent googler, you can build your own PC. It’s really, really hard to do serious damage to components nowadays, even if you plug something in wrong. There’s a bunch of resources, though, and I’d recommend the following places to start:

newegg.com - parts for sale, getcher parts here

pcpartpicker.com - put your list of components together, and it’ll flag any compatibility issues or known problems

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/ - great starting point for new builders, tons of advice and how-to’s for every step of the process, and a decently responsive community to help troubleshoot any issues you might have

And I obviously love doing this kind of thing, so if there’s anything I can help with, I’m more than happy to try! Just let me know, and I hope this was helpful!

[cutiecrates]

Cutie Reviews: Yume Twins Nov 18

Before we begin, I wanted to let anyone curious to know that I put in my order from Blippo.com. I was cheap though- so I’m not actually sure when it’ll be delivered!

This months theme: Twinkling Transformation

“Have you ever wished you could transform into something different? Like maybe a magical girl, or even your pet for a day? We certainly daydream about being whisked of into a new exciting world where we get to shapeshift into a something different ourselves! So this November we’re bringing you the Twinkling Transformation box, with some kawaii items that transform literally, an items that will change your surroundings too! The word transform or change is “henshin” in Japanese, so we hope you love your super kawaii items in this months box and that they will allow you to fulfill your henshin dreams!“

The prizes for this months photo contest feature a variety of cute Korilakkuma themed items.

While the Yume Prize box contained a variety of Kuromi and Keroppi products.

Sumikko Gurashi Peg Set

Our first item are these adorable little pegs/clips. These types specifically are the ones people usually use to hang up with some string decorated with ornaments, pictures, notes, etc, giving the area a cute but mature feel.

There are 4 sets available, each with 3 pegs.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

These are really cute little ways to add decoration to something usually so plain and basic. The little pieces are entirely made from wood and the glue is very strong, so I’m pretty sure they’ll hold. These are kind of small but they’ll have no problem doing their duty, I’ve seen tinier ones do it fine.

 Right now I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with them... but I am very happy happy I got Neko x3 besides Shirokuma, he’s my favorite.

Kawaii Changing Pouch

Our next item is a pouch based on a the popular changing sequins trend that’s been going on lately. I love sequins and the idea appeals to me, but besides this I only have one thing featuring it.

Now, these were mostly Sanrio based, but they also have a Doraemon. There was a total of 6 the subscribers could find. As you can see I got the Kuromi and My Melody version. I’ll probably end up keeping it as is in the picture since I like how it looks.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

As cute as this is, the awkward way the pouch opens kind of bothers me. It unzips down one corner and side, due to a flap on the inside, which in a way I kind of like, but on the other hand it’s weird. I’m a bit conflicted on whether I like that or not, but I can definitely use this for stuff so I do like it.

My other complaint is that there are so many white accents (you can probably tell in the pic) and it makes the design look a bit messy. But that’s probably just my opinion.

Costume Pet Plushie

Our third item is perfect for the transformation theme :3 every magical girl needs a companion~

This plush set includes a variation of 10 possible dogs or cats you could get, including ones in full costume or just those with a hood, like mine.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why it’s on it’s side... it needs some “cleaning“ done because somehow it got dirty, even though kept it in the box and it was clean. Also, it’s just easier to get a picture this way.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ 

As much as I love plushes, I’ve seen cuter. Like it’s cute, but I wish it was more... inline with what you would actually see in Magical Girl series. I was also kind of perturbed over its condition and messed up whiskers (probably can’t tell in the picture, but they are very crazy and bent).

Sheep Microfiber Cleaner

This item, practical item is infused with bamboo charcoal to not only pick up dust, but absorb any nasty smells and deodorized wherever it gets put; for example, on the back of the wrapper it shows 2 of these within a pair of shoes.

Besides this brownish color, it’s also available in white and a pinkish-orange.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Not only is it the most kawaii cleaning buddy ever, but it works great!

Today we brought in a carpet to put own on the living room floor and we found so much dust and dirt beneath the couches and corners of the room we haven’t seen in forever- and I’m pretty sure I mentioned this, but I have dust allergies and they were having a field day. So I used this little sweetie to help pick up some of the dust.

I didn’t get a chance to test the scent thing though, I didn’t really get any sleep last night so my mind was elsewhere and it never occurred to me. But I did notice it seems to have it’s own little scent, so I’m pretty sure it could pick.

Sailor Moon Cleaner Cloth

I love when they include Sailor Moon items in the box x3 and this is a very practical item for me which makes it even better. Besides cleaning screens, they can also be used on glasses, or a make-shift hair tie in an emergency if they are the normal square ones (like if you have wind blowing your hair all over the place and you don’t have any actual hair things on hand.... I know from experience.)

This was available in any of the 5 main sailor scouts, and I actually think all 5 variations are pretty, so any of them would have been nice. They all have the same design, the only difference being the name written on it.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

On a side note... It actually killed me separating these two items. I know it’s silly but I loved how this packaging looked, I didn’t want to destroy it.

But as it turns out it was super easy to un-assemble and put back together. The bow on the back is just held together by flaps and the cloth is folded and partially sticking in a slot. So if I ever miss it I can just reassemble it. Word of warning though, the points of the ribbon are very sharp >3<

Uh, in terms of the cloth itself... I mean you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. It’s very silky smooth, a bit thick, and after today my laptop screen really needed a quick wipe.

Kawaii Mini Mini Memo

Available with Mochi Mochi Panda, Yeast Ken, or Animal Life, these mini memo pads are the perfect companion to the sequin pouch we got to look at earlier. Or just for putting in your pocket if you feel like it.

It has a nicely textured spine and a little information on the series/character on the back. The pad also has two styles of sheets, one vertical with a list format and one horizontal with designs like those on the cover. 

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

I know this isn’t the most exciting review, but I had a long day and I really wanted to get this taken care of before bed because after all the work I did today, I won’t be doing anything tomorrow.

But to be fair what can you say about a notepad? I get them all the time from these boxes and you can’t really judge the quality of notepad/memo pad paper because you know it works. It’s paper.

♡ Cutie Ranking ♡

Content - 4 out of 5. I like what we got and I was very happy with the practicality and variety of it.

Price - 3 out of 5. I don’t know what all of these items cost, but most of the items are on the small side, paired with 2 bigger items. So I wouldn’t say it was worth it, but the reason the items usually cost so much is because of the name branding.

Theme: 3 out of 5. This box was pretty much a play on words, like rather than items that would cause personal transformation- these items bring transformation to our things. All items but the memo pad (which is a partner to the pouch pretty much) fit that idea, but... I don’t know, as a magical girl lover I really wish they did something more. 

Total Rank: 7 out of 10. I like the content well-enough and I’m not displeased by the box or anything. But at the same time, something about it just left a little to be desired to me. It’s boxes like this that remind me of how much I liked the Yume Twins I signed up with a few years ago. We got around 10 items, there was a wider variety, (the mascot twins who I still miss), they would include things like blind box re-ments or charms or accessories....

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the box, it’s just that sometimes I find it hard to entirely like it as much as I want to. I always want to love my boxes, and I genuinely like them at the end of the day, but not every single one will appeal to every single subscriber.

♡ Cutie Scale ♡

1. Microfiber Sheep - I’m thinking of naming it Puffy, or maybe Wheats, cause that’s what I end up thinking of looking at it. Anyway it’s so cute and fluffy, I love how soft it feels. I’m not sure I could stand to try to use it to see if it actually removes stench though... I’d feel kind of bad.  

2. Memo Memo Pad - I love Mochi Mochi Panda, it always makes me happy to look at. I wanna squeeze it’s stuffed cheeks~

3. Kawaii Changing Pouch - I really wish the booklet showed both forms of the pouch like I did in my pic. A few of them are obvious without seeing the other image, but not all of them. I also wish the sequins were a bit more cleaned up, as I noted during my review of the item.

4. Sailor Moon Cleaner Cloth - It’s pretty and sorta elegant looking to me, I really like how it was packaged too, it’s so creative!

5. Sumikko Gurashi Peg - I’m glad I got Neko but the poses are very basic. I’ve seen them on tons of things I got from these boxes and I kind of wish they were more unique. 

6. Costume Pet Plush - it’s cute and really soft, but I still can’t figure out how it got dirty...

Alright guys, that will be doing it for this review. I’m sorry it’s kind of lame this time, but I just couldn’t think of much to say about the last few items. I feel like they were so obvious that it took away much opinion you know? Like if it works it works, if it’s cute then it’s a great bonus :D I promise to do better with the Kawaii Box review I’ll be tackling next, so until then remember to continue unpacking those cuteness boxes~!

[howardlinkedin]

Shelter - Part 11

Running title: Shelter Part 11 Summary: Alma reveals their talent for costume design and Kanda cuts things out while the story leads to the inevitable meeting with those Noah folks. Also, Allen makes a very gushy revelation to Link and Cross gets stuck in a bush.  Part 10: Here Part 12: Here

Alma dumped a pile of fabric into Kanda’s arms. “Here, make yourself useful and cut this into a feather pattern.” 

“What the fuck, why?” Kanda asked, because he had literally just walked through the door. Now that he looked around Alma’s room, it was covered in downy fabrics and piles of shredded bits. “Did your beanie babies explode or something?” “No they’re safe in the closet.” Alma corrected, because their collection took a lot of time and heart, and there was no way they’d leave the dolls out to fend for themselves whenever Kanda was about. Their boyfriend had a bad habit of wanting to cut the tags off of everything.

Beanie Babies needed their tags.

Which was not the main point at all. “We’re making Allen his first stage costume!” Alma redirected with cheer. They pointed to the stencil cut out of the feathered design they made and wanted Kanda to cut out.

Kanda looked between the fabric and Alma, contrite. He was between wanting to scowl, because why the hell does he need to make anything for the beansprout, and intrigue, because cutting out patterns for his sweetheart was probably one of Kanda’s favorite ways to waste the day away. Alma was doing that thing with their mouth and their eyes that always made Kanda give in anyway, so the other teen went to the impromptu cutting station. “Why feathers?” “Because it’ll look cool, that’s why.” Alma stated smugly.

---

Ever since Allen had met Mana, even when the child version of himself didn’t want anything to do with the man, a song had started to form in the place of his mind where the music often collected. It started out as a myriad of all that Mana made Allen feel. The frustration, the anger, confusion…

The feeling of belonging.

The longer Allen stayed with Mana, the better form the song took. It’s quality started to make sense and the notes began to adjust into something quite like a melody.

He often imagined that, if he had more time, Allen would have had the entire some completed and composed long before now.

The song itself came to an abrupt stop the night Mana left.

---

“Uh, guys?” Allan’s eyes wavered between Alma and Kanda uncertainly. School was done for the day, and somehow Allen ended up at Kanda’s place.

Tied to a chair.

Alma had a look of approval on their face while Kanda stirred a bowl of...something. All Allen knew was that it was white and smelled like glue.

He thought Kanda hated glue.

“Okay Allen, sit back and think of Link.” The tallest teen joked, eyebrows quirked while Kanda approached with the bowl. Allen began to squirm, because what now?!

“H-hold on KANDA WHAT IS THAT?! WHY-”

Tiedoll, Kanda’s father, popped his head into the room, and asked curiously. “Yuu, what on earth?”

“Don’t worry sir! Yuu’s helping me make a mask mold for Allen!” Alma practically sparkled with faux innocence.

Nodding, and seeing nothing wrong with the situation at hand, the older gentleman left. “Have fun then!”

Allen tried to bite Kanda’s hand.

---

“What is all that white shit in your hair?” Cross asked, tears of laughter streaming down his face, because holy shit. He took a picture of it on his phone and sent it to Socalo.

Considering his kid’s hair was already stark white, it was quite a sight to see it matted up in...even more white. Allen had the look of a very pissed off cat. The actual cat in their house was currently sleeping in Cross’ hat, which god fucking damn hell creature.

Allen practically threw the swear jar at his guardian’s head and stomped down the hall, presumably towards the bathroom. Timcampy, who had not stopped pitter-dancing around Allen feet since he came home, followed after.

---

Lenalee was the first to ask. Always polite and kind to a fault, Lenalee never means any harm. Regardless, her curiosity always got the better of her.

“Hey, Allen? If the Marshall adopted you, whatever happened to your parents?”

Kanda looked up from his homework that Alma was hassling him to complete. Both were also curious, but also shocked that their friend had asked out of the blue.

At Allen’s expression, she regretted asking. “Gosh! I’m sorry; that was insensitive of me! You don’t have to answer if you don’t want!”

With a melancholy quirk of his lips, Allen reassured that it was alright. “You can ask, it’s alright Lenalee.”

With his friends, he explained.

---

“Wait, so you were in a circus?” “Ha, yeah. I don’t really remember much before that.” “And the guy who was gonna be your dad was a clown? Are you serious?” “Kanda why would I lie you butt head!”

“I’m gonna butt your head right off your shoulders beansprout!”

“Yuu don’t curse it’s rude.” “ALLEN WALKER YOU GET DOWN FROM MY DRESSER!”

---

“When I was five, my parents were murdered.” Lenalee allotted. The reality still stung, but after all her years being raised by her brother, it hurt much, much less. “I’ve only ever had Komui as family.”

“I never knew my parents either.” Alma shared. “My birth parents anyway. I don’t think they could afford to take care of me, so I was in and out of foster care since I was born. Foster care sucks! But I’m okay now, with my adopted mother.”

Kanda grunted from his corner. “The old man found me wandering the streets one day. For some stupid reason he decided that I was worth his time. So here I am.”

Allen had learned that it was nice, to have friends who understood. Despite the sadness of all their combined pasts, they had found family.

---

Somewhere between waking up in the hospital to a gruff man with wild red hair, and meeting Link, the song had started back up again.

Which, for Allen was like the first breath a drowning man takes when his head breaches the surface. It had been torturous silence in that place inside of himself. Now the song was back, but the melody was beginning to change.  

With Mana, the beat of the song was steady and consistent. Allen could mimic it with the tapping of his fingers if he had wanted. It was a comforting melody, just like Mana’s hand on his shoulder.

Cross and Link had changed the melody almost entirely. It was no less a comfort than it was much like painting your room a new color. It was still the same, but different now. It excited Allen to no end.

Then came Miranda, Lenalee, and Kanda and Alma. One by one, each person added to the refrain. Even the other Colonels at the Precinct added to the song (except Lvellie. The man had a tune about as refined as a squeaking sneaker on tile).

Which, may explain why Allen had such a difficult time getting the song itself written and composed.

In retrospect, he soon learned that he was actually missing a key component to his song.

---

“My friends are embarrassing and weird and I’m firing them.” Was Allen’s greeting to his nightly Skype session with Link.

The former arched an impressive eyebrow, and moved his laptop so it’s camera was directly on Tokusa and a mutual friend, Goushi, playing a very formidable match of “Chubby Bunny,” as if to say that both of their sets of friends are embarrassing.

“Oh my gosh, I would totally win at that.” Allen states with Atuuda nestled deep in his arms, purring up a storm as though to agree. Timcampy barked from atop Allen’s desk.

“I believe the objective of the game is to get as many marshmallows into your mouth as possible, but not to eat them Walker.” Link sassed, because that is totally what Link does, Allen knows. The young man was the sassiest person alive, and no one could tell the teen otherwise. “Also, why is your dog on top of furniture again?” “He likes to feel tall.”

---

“You know, Lenalee once asked how I knew you loved me.”

Link looked downright flabbergasted on the computer screen, completely unsuspecting the turn of the conversation. He really should have been used to Allen sudden subject changes by now.

“I...see?” Link didn’t really know what to respond to this. The elephant in the room had gone purposefully unnoticed all these years, simply because Link still had no idea how to address it.

“And I gave her a really silly answer.” Allen scratched Atuuda’s ear, which made the cat chirp in praise. “But after this whole thing about...Mana’s family, I really know why now. Like, I always knew? But I didn’t notice.”

Link was belatedly aware that Allen did not state what he had answered to his friend previous on the statement. “And I am to assume your answer is a more satisfying one?”

“Yeah.” Allen blinked his clear gray eyes and smiled at the chat window. “You make me feel really safe Link. Thank you.”

---

Allen took a quick screenshot of the chat window, because never had he seen Link get so red and flustered.

---

“Alma, why is there a cape with feathers?” “Shut up Allen and put it on. It’s cool.”

---

The day of the party, Allen walked up the driveway of the very expansive and pristine mansion that belonged to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Allen began to wonder what, exactly, is his life. Especially since there was a strong possibility that the people inside were Mana’s family.

Link had came, as promised, walking besides him. Also with them were Lenalee, Alma, and Kanda - Allen’s own personal musketeers it seemed.

Also with them was Cross, because like hell he was going to let his kid do this without him. He held less trepidation, though, as he marched right up to the door and kicked it loudly. Allen jumped and hissed to his guardian. “What are you doing?!”

“Shut up.” Cross mumbled and then shouted. “Oy! Sheryl you slimy fuck! Open up! We’re here for your brat’s party!”

Allen was too mortified to demand compensation for the curse, instead thinking of just shoving Cross into the bushes to make him stop. Which, he did. “Allen what the fuck!”

Kanda took a video with his phone. Link signed, while Lenalee and Alma tried to look like they didn’t know any of them.

“Sh-shut up! Why do you have to be so-” Allen was interrupted by the door swinging open.

---

“Welcome to the party, boy.”

“AH! Gas Station Hobo!” Allen exclaimed, pointing at the man who opened the door. It was the xylophone man!

Said man looked rather put off at being called a hobo. “Well that was rude.”

There was giggling further inside the mansion, and Wisely poked his head from behind the xylophone man, newly dubbed Gas Station Hobo, looking as expressionless as he could while stating, “Petition that everyone calls you that from now on.”

“Bite me Wise.” “AH!” Allen once again exclaimed. “Wisely!”

“Hiya Allen, Link. Long time to see.” The young adult waved them all in. “Come in, come in, and thank you for accepting my invitation.”

They all were ushered inside. Cross was still stuck in the bushes. “Oy!”

---

Once inside, Allen was accosted by a rather strong hug around his middle. “Oof!” “I’m so excited to finally see you in person Allen!” Came a squeal. Oh boy, and there were now legs wrapped around him too. Excellent. Link looked particularly bothered and prickly at the situation.

Kanda kept filming.

The human koala had somewhat wild dark hair, and definitely a good head shorter than Allen. Which. Finally. Someone smaller than him that wasn’t his dog.

“Road get off of him and let the boy breathe.” Admonished the accordion hobo. Now that Allen got a good look at the man, he didn’t look like a homeless person anymore, not with the expensive suit he was wearing, or his slicked back hair. Noticing the teens stare, the man grinned and held out a hand. “Tyki Mikk.”

“Um? Hello?” Allen shook the hand.

Kanda had only just stopped taking candid videos of Allen’s discomfort when a rather tall and burly man came out of nowhere and offered Alma a candy bar. “Do you like sweets?” “Yes, actually!” Alma answered, enthused, despite the odd situation they found themselves in. “Hey asshole back off!” “Yuu don’t call people asshole it’s rude!”

Lenalee startled slightly, when two other popped out besides her. They were sniggering in unison. “Hobo and Asshole!” Said one, while the other joked, “I’m sure we can get Neah to change their names for you Wise!”

Everything seemed to be getting out of hand, thought Allen. Link managed to shoo his attack hugger - Road, away and decided standing close enough to be Allen’s very intense shadow was efficient use of his person for the time being. Which, Allen was grateful for, because he felt like he was on the slow verge of a panic attack.

“I would arrange it, but I don’t want dad to get after me when the inevitable fall out happens.” Said yet another new voice somewhere in the mansion. Allen looked towards the voice, which was at the top of the grand staircase in the center of the floor, and felt all the air leave his lungs.

His mind was bombarded with the loud chime of a grand piano, that only he could hear, and it held such an aching familiarity his bones echoed with it.

“Mana?”