#sorry for the maintag it had to happen

[thatimageoftomscott]

posting this and throwing my phone into the ocean never to be seen again.

[svtskneecaps]

if i get a purgatory 3 before the year is out i'm so sorry i'm going to be INSUFFERABLE

[spiritsglade]

was thinking about how titans tower wasn't even a murder attempt canonically and tim was conscious and aware and able to stand up in the direct aftermath so even though jason was all 'let me show you what the joker did to me' he straight up didn't. lol.

but then it's like. this is the guy who was maximizing his capability for murder over the course of like a year max, if you're pushing the timeline. that's not a lot of time to grasp control over the various techniques. he's three years out from bruce's nonlethal training at this point. so far he's mostly been fighting (1) random goons (2) competent people he wants to kill and (3) batman. who's to say he remembers how to hold back and pull his punches. who's to say he doesn't accidentally kill tim because he wasn't careful enough controlling his strength.

[angeliteonfridgeduty]

the "i kind of look like a peeled arbiter with my outside coat icl" to arbiter brainrot pipeline

[gaspshichat]

extremely long pearl appreciation post except this time i'm maintagging bc i want her to see this. she deserves to see this

she is the kindest soul ever. every bit message, every sub message, every gifted sub, and as many chat messages as possible are read. she genuinely doesn't want anyone to be left out

pearl had a rough start to stream today with a bunch of bots saying really weird things and someone revealing private information of hers which is weird. i have choice words for them but i'll keep myself pg for this post

it resulted in her having to turn on sub only mode which she said upset her. what did chat do?

they gifted probably around 200-500 subs to the community

pearl kept saying how bad she felt that she was practically forced into turning on sub only mode but she also said she didn't want her community gifting so many subs bc of an awful situation. they still did

i will always say that pearl is the nicest person ever. anytime smth bad happens to someone in chat, she's sympathetic and kind and gives them a message. anytime smth good happens to someone in chat, she's very excited and happy for them

it takes someone who is genuinely kind and selfless to do that. pearl does not have to read every bit message and sub message. but she does

her community reflects this kindness. i got broken up with two hours before valentine's day and told chat [bc streams for me are 6am-10am]. chat was so kind and gave me ideas on what to do with the flowers [which i did what they suggested!]

i've been in fandom communities for almost ten years now. pearl's is the kindest. there are so many people in chat i recognize [secret agent, sapphicwhimsy, kawaiitron, voxkeys, cardmoney, etc] that i look forward to seeing in chat. usually i dread seeing what happens in twitch chat's

not hers. hers are so full of kindness bc she is full of kindness and it just radiates and spreads to her community. yes it's fairly no nonsense, her deleting any weird messages, but that's to make sure it's a good place to be

i've been having nightmares and flashbacks recently due to reasons i wish to keep private. very few youtubers/streamers are able to help me sleep without those issues. pearl is one of them. her community is genuinely safe

i tell everyone interested in mcyt to watch pearl. i've been spreading pearl propaganda [/silly]. she deserves so much more than she has. pearl deserves the world

this is an extremely long post but i need to get my point across to her and anyone else, whether they're a pearl fan or not [yet]

pearl, we all love you and are proud to be part of the community. you are such a genuinely sweet person who deserves all the kindness in the world. i'm so sorry you had to deal with that bullshit [pardon my language]. it does genuinely suck but i hope the ~300 subs helped make you feel better hehe 🫶🫶

[tubbytarchia]

hi. im relatively new to the life series fandom and wanted to say that you're the first person ive seen actually criticize life series scott, which is actually really nice. i keep getting weird, slightly-icky vibes from him in a lot of interactions, but nothing concrete enough to give me a real actual valid reason to dislike him. i kinda thought i was just being a hater... so it's nice to know im not the only person who doesnt like. worship the ground he walks on.

I actually really like Scott's character, and although I'm not particularly fond of him outside of that within the Life series, like you, I don't think it's anything to warrant genuine dislike, rather it's just things about his editing and playstyle that peeve me personally. And at some point the deeply interesting way in which he skews people's perspectives stops being so interesting and more frustrating the more he keeps harping on Pearl being an "unreliable narrator" and referencing flower husbands for the 12th time this week and claiming himself to have the power to sway a "canon event" (he said he interrupted a canon event by discouraging Scar and Jimmy from teaming up in Secret Life, and when they did in Wild Life, he framed it as if HE let that happen instead of interrupting it again. That is a bit delusional lol) and telling Joel "you deserve it" as he kills him for the 5th time when Joel hasn't really done anything to him. however

Neg CC Scott talk

I do however not like CC Scott because of him threatening to drop a slur once on several people's streams and defending his ability to do so and to say "I hate gay people" whilst one of the other people there tried to rightfully reason with him that that would be very um unwise, lol. And the way he talks about women. Every woman is either mommy or queen to him, there is no other option. He's done the "mommy? Sorry, mommy? Sorry" joke like at least 5 times like by god someone help this guy find other ways to appreciate people. And I can never get over him making that "appreciating my female friends" thread in which his praise for Lizzie is for being an "unproblematic queen". Ok man whatever. The fandom also doesn't help me like him any more because of their very prominent gay bias. Scott gets away with so much like the aforementioned slur threat because he's gay. That was genuinely so hard to watch but what did the chat members on his and Jimmy's stream say? "iconic" and "slayyy". It irks me so much

Sucks to try and engage with a fandom that calls you homophobic for holding Scott the tiniest bit accountable or interpreting his character as having done anything wrong in a death game scenario where everyone has wronged someone anyway. And I know from experience that there is a significant portion of people who hold these similar sentiments, they just don't want to speak up in fear of being crucified in the name of toxic positivity, so it's no surprise that you haven't seen anyone doing so lol. People who do, like myself, also refrain from maintagging this stuff even if a lot of other people refuse to even when their posts are just bashing other people within the fandom for having opinions that they personally disagree with, because there is no discussion or nuance to be had about someone who's canonically gay I guess

There is also the incident he had with an nsfw artist who debatably ended up getting doxxed and presumably attempted the deed at least partially because of Scott's engagement with them because it allowed the larger fandom to also see their nsfw work, but that is a long complicated story that you'd really have to come to your own conclusions to as to whether or not Scott is to blame or to what degree

[antimony-medusa]

forgive me, as I genuinely don't want to come off as mean or anytihng like that, but per your reasoning as to why Phil is adamant about not doing lore on realm smp, I feel like some of your reasons go beyond what he has explained on stream (his own reasons being that after the mental exhaustion of qsmp he just wants a break from doing lore--since he emphasizes that he's just not doing lore "for now" and it's not a permanent thing as far as he has stated), and that it comes across more like theorizing, which in my eyes, feels a touch parasocial in a way?

you're right in that he very much prefers to have control over his own lore, something he makes very clear, but to say he's possibly been "soured on the idea of character storytelling" or that "lore" no longer is appealing to him are... I'm sorry, I don't know where this had come from, and it feels more like theory than otherwise. And it's just that, I think that if we are talking about how parasocial some audiences are and how we really shouldn't be like that, I also feel as if this should apply to a lot of other things, like theorizing on something a content creator does or doesn't do. I guess what I'm getting at here is that, would you find it parasocial to make up theories or speculate on why a content creator does or doesn't do something, even when they've already provided a different reason? or is there something here that makes this different from parasocialism that I might be missing?

Anon, if you think I'm too parasocial for your comfort, you are free to block me. To my mind, it is the nature of communication to attempt to derive meaning from language, and sometimes I attempt to read subtext under literal spoken communication, using the context of other things a person has said (which is an interesting challenge for me, as I am quite autistic). I did not intend to express that this (possibility of phil being burnt out on lore dependent on other people) is absolutely what is happening, as I do not know Phil Watson the person, and am not privy to his thoughts. In response to someone theorizing that phil's lore actions were motivated by a desire to avoid chat being parasocial (something he has not attributed his actions to), I intended to offer an alternative theory, based on what he's said about the ending of DSMP, QSMP and Origins. Which he has spoken on multiple times.

This was absolutely theorizing, but I feel comfortable that it was a level of parasociality that I am okay with, as a) this is a level of analysis that I bring to most language-based communication, attempting to draw a fuller picture by bringing in context of other things a person has said, b) I don't know if it's true and did not intend to make a statement of prescriptive fact, it's just a thing that makes me go huh, maybe this is going on, sure don't actually know though! I apologize if my lack of attachment to this idea was unclear, that was an off the cuff response where I was mostly responding to the idea of phil being "dismissive" of lore, c) I did not say this in his chat or TTS, or in person, this was a response to an ask on my tumblr blog only seen by people who click onto my blog, i didn't even maintag it. It does not affect Philza Minecraft's life in the way that people showing up to tts "dadza can you adopt me" while he's at work does, if entirely privately on a different part of the internet I post "man it would sure suck to have your storytelling efforts blown up repeatedly, I'm not surprised that he's taking a step back right now. Anyways I'm going to put the kettle on".

There's theorizing in direct contrast to someone's stated explanation, and then there's like— having thoughts about the nature of joint storytelling. It's not a worrying level of parasociality to have thoughts about people, you can consider their actions beyond the literal words they say. I have also been theorizing that Phil didn't like people calling him Dadza for the past year, based on him spamming the PARASOCIAL response and his facial expressions when it happened. Or you know, I attempted to read the social cues.

I probably should not have responded to this in detail so I apologize for dropping another essay on your dash, everybody. My word count today has been HORRIBLE because I'm spending it all talking on tumblr. When I get locked into the sprint channel for good in about two days you'll know what happened.

[girldraki]

sorry we just checked the timestamps and the chronology of this is actually fucking hilarious when you take into account (1) we were like two years into a public and literal descent into madness and (2) we had made pitifully few posts in the maintags in the like nine months prior to any of this happening

[beepbeepbeepjeep]

Story details !!

Take 2 . smh. this one is super long so we’ll keep the additional things under the cut !!

The Magic School Jeep takes place a little over a decade after the original events of Ride the Cyclone. It follows the story of Savannah and five other strangers who just so happened to be in the same tragic road accident. Post-revival, Savannah still has ghosts of the past (and the present) haunting her. How will she deal with going from feeling as if she knows nothing, to suddenly feeling like she knows too much?

We’re also given the chance to explore the eventful lives and interpersonal issues of a whole new cast of characters, each carrying their own form of emotional baggage. 

Join them on a jeepney journey through space as they recount their lives through detailed flashbacks, touching heart-to-hearts, and a healthy-ish amount of trauma dumping. <3

By the end, they’re faced with the same dilemma. Who do they bring back? 

What will they do once presented with this decision? Why does it feel like there’s something (or someone) watching and waiting in the wings? How does this game of life and death really work? Is it worth it, in the end?

All these questions we hope to answer in a story about acceptance and healing, with a dash of humor and a sprinkling of queerness (as all narratives should have) (it's. way more than a sprinkling tbh. it's like a whole truckload of queerness). Thank you for indulging us in this already extremely self-indulgent story! We are cringe, but we are free.

additional notes!

there are different ways / iterations of the life games across time. this is important !!

even though this story is built off the events of ride the cyclone, we of course will NOT be maintagging any of these posts as rtc or ride the cyclone for obvious reasons

we view jane doe, savannah, and penny lamb as separate (but interconnected) individuals. this is for the sake of avoiding confusion.

yes, they are in a filipino jeepney. yes, this story is still set in Uranium City, Saskatchewan which is canonically located in Canada. How does this make any modicum of sense? Good question. Anyways.

Silly Interview-style Character Intros

+ ref pics! made with hellosunnycore's toon me! picrews :3 more accurate drawn ref pics coming soon ,, hopefully,, @ pastaboy. (he's the one typing this)

🌔 savannah dean (19)

she/they

5’8”

July 17

Cancer

Favorite keepsake from when you were alive?

Ah. Yes, I had my dollies. They sit above my bed and they all have names. Sometimes the names feel... familiar, but I lose my string of thought before I can figure out how.

Favorite musical?

It's been a while since I've listened to a musical, or music in general, but Phantom of the Opera is lovely.

What helps you sleep at night?

Uh, I don't get as much sleep as I used to, unfortunately. I know that doesn't answer the question, sorry.

🐛 beau balquenn (18)

(his hair is supposed to be bleached at the ends sob)

he/him

5’10”

January 11

Capricorn

Favorite keepsake from when you were alive?

Uh. Well... there's these, I guess. Butterfly earrings. They're really old. I painted them years ago. The very few who talked to me asked where I got them... I never came up with an answer.

Favorite musical?

... I am not proud of this answer but it's Be More Chill.

Can ghosts be gay?

Like the song? I'm gay and kind of a ghost, so... yeah, I guess?

🍂 tauny hep (18)

he/him

5’6”

November 1

Scorpio

Favorite keepsake from when you were alive?

Do I really have to answer this? Fine. I still carry an old pick around in the back of my phone. It's kinda funny cuz it's not even mine. I borrowed it from. Someone. A long time ago. Shit hit the fan before I thought to return it. It's a little scuffed now but, I don't know, I never bothered getting rid of it.

Favorite musical?

I don't LIKE musicals >:( ... Jesus Christ Superstar

First song you learned on the guitar?

There's this song, uh, Good Kid? It's pretty easy to play. I think that was the first. I don't know where it's from though. (Voice offscreen: Hey, you know that's from a musical, right?) ... FUCK OFF.

🍄 ascot mosbirm (18)

they/them

5’4”

August 15

Leo

Favourite keepsake from when you were alive?

I remember this one time I went downtown to buy a bottle of booze. I didn't really mean to, it was a-... spur of the moment thing, you know? Not like it mattered anyway since drinking laws in this shithole are stupid. I was going to save it for the day of my 19th but. I suppose that's out of the question now, hm?

(yes i know that's wine next to them in the pic shhhh - pastaboy)

Favourite musical?

Coldplay. (That's just... not a musical.) Is it not? They make music, don't they? (... well. yes. but-)

Do you get a lot of comments on your accent?

[Sigh] Unfortunately yeah. It gets a wee bit annoying at times, especially if people are being weird. Though once in a while it earns a laugh, so if it's funny I'll put up with it.

🌷 lizabel mayam (18)

she/her

5’5”

June 4

Gemini

Favorite keepsake from when you were alive?

Oh! Well, I don't know if this is a keepsake? But ever since I was around seven, I've carried around this little tote bag. It has all the essentials— water, first aid, stuff like that. It was pretty much a necessity back then since my younger siblings were always getting into some kind of trouble. My parents weren't always present either, with their work and other things so, I've just hanged onto it and haven't really stopped.

Favorite musical?

Do Disney movies count? (On a technicality, I suppose they have to. Any specific favorite?) Oh, I don't know, there are a lot of good ones. Um, Tangled? If I had to pick. (... Alright. At least it's not Coldplay-) Wait, who said Coldplay? (Ascot.) Awwh, of course they would. :)

Are you... you know?

... um no? I do not know? I really don’t understand what you mean.

📘 cato linn (19)

he/any

5’11

August 28

Virgo

Favorite keepsake from when you were alive?

... I don't like this question. But since I'm being forced to answer; I have this pen I received as a birthday present when I was 10. I still keep it in my pocket as a good luck charm and for— memories, I guess. It doesn’t even write anymore, it ran out of ink years ago. Nevermind, it’s stupid. I should throw it away.

Favorite musical?

I saw a local production of Lés Miserables when I was a kid. I can’t recall much but I know I enjoyed it. I don’t have time to see many musicals nowadays.

Favorite bone in the human body?

??? This one is just strange. Of all the medical questions you could’ve asked, why this one? Nevermind. If I absolutely had to pick, I’d say the... pelvis? It’s a rather important bone. I don’t know if that qualifies as a favourite but I’m not sure how else to answer.

☂️ “The Mannequin” (?)

he/it

6'

???

???

Favorite keepsake from when you were alive?

I was never alive. Though if you're asking for a keepsake, I'll have to say my hat. I can't exactly take it off, but if I could, I would feel bald. So.

Favorite musical?

The Muppets.

Favorite Muppet?

I would just like to say first that I AM NOT A MUPPET... however. I am particularly fond towards the purple one. With the schnozz.

🌒 “The Child” (10)

she/they

4’2”

???

???

Favorite keepsake from when you were alive?

Sticker sheets!! I love stickers. Especially colorful ones. I think they’re Neat.

Favorite musical?

Starship! (By starkid?) Uh, yeah? What about it? (Is that appropriate for your age?) Ummmm, no. (How’d you even find that? That’s so out of your age range.) Ummmmmm-

Favorite ice cream flavor?

The purple one! :D

Yippee! That's all, I think. If you couldn't already tell, this is all very self-indulgent. We are cringe, but we are free. :3 Speaking of We!!! Admin Introductions coming soon! probably! maybe. It's pride month and we're officially heading into summer break, so they have no excuse. 😇

[revvethasmythh]

For the critical role ask meme: 15 and 30.

Or, if you want to be spicy: 5 and 11. 👀

Or any combination of the above :)

15: Favorite one-on-one conversation (can be between two PCs, or a PC and NPC).

Caleb and Fjord in episode 62, Domestic Respite. That has been my favorite conversation since I first heard it and it still is. Caleb's "We can remake ourselves into something better" is, to me, the thesis of what the Mighty Nein campaign is about. That is The Ultimate conversation for me.

I do want to shout out Beau and Caleb's one-on-one in episode 57 though, too, because I do genuinely love that conversation and how it so viscerally feels like a turning point in their relationship and the campaign as a whole. Also Beau saying "You don't have to thank me for my time like you're a social worker" and then giving Caleb just a really long awkward hug lives in my head rent free

30: What is your favorite theory or headcanon that has absolutely no bearing on the plot and isn't important at all, but which is completely compliant with canon?

Okay as far as I am aware, this is canon compliant and if it's not don't tell me let me live in it, but it's "Eshteross is Fjord's dad." I have tethered myself to that theory. I am it's cheerleader. The only one who can take this from me is Matt

5: Meta you would write if you did not fear people would be SUPER weird about it. This is also an invitation to write that meta and block the haters.

Oh boy. there's quite a few honestly. But first that comes to mind is an expansion of that very brief (not maintagged) post I made exploring why Imogen has frustrated me as a character and despite wanting to like her, I really just find myself unable to connect with her. In conjunction with this, I think there is something to be said about Imogen and Laudna's relationship holding each other back from developing more. Something about the way they always reach for each feels like a stagnation of their developments that just leaves me wishing we could see them interact with more members of the group more often or to, honestly, see their codependency come up as a topic/be addressed in canon or sever more than it has to date.

It's like you know that conversation Nott and Caleb had in c2e46: Caleb said, "lately, I've gotten a little wrapped up in the group. I've forgotten about us. I've forgotten." And that's an interesting character beat! It'd be something different from the same homogeneity that their relationship has been dawdling in. The rock fight is the most interesting thing that's happened between them and that didn't even get all that heated or really change anything! Like not to abandon all attempts at maintaining a formal discussion on the topic, but I am emotionally poking their relationship with a stick saying "do something already"

okay. that felt good to get out. now ANOTHER THING

Honestly, I feel like a very long meta could be written about the way that fandom had pigeonholed Veth a "Mother" that doesn't actually leave room for her to be a person. I have seen so many people boil down her character to nothing more than a "mom," as if that's a character trait and not just something that she is. Like, yeah, she IS a mom. But "mom" isn't a personality and I don't know why the fandom treats it like one, and then goes so far as to continually behave like Veth is not just Luc's mom but Caleb's too, which she has not only repeatedly said she is NOT, but has openly and canonically admitted to having romantic/sexual attraction to him to the point where I'm like.......what do you think mothers are like? And that's not even about shipping. Shipping goggles are off, friends. That's about ignoring canon and vital character details that contribute to Veth's overall character arc that are willfully forgotten. And man, does that grind my gears.

Okay that's probably enough salt (this got long, sorry) and I can't think of anything off the top of my head for 11, but if something comes up I might add it.

Thanks for the questions!!

Weirdly specific ask meme!

[cupcraft]

I think personally, it’s not really enough to only tag maintagged posts with crit or discourse, because that’s obviously not the only way people see your posts. There’s been too many times now where I’ve been following a blog I really like and then a piece of discourse comes up and they suddenly have a very different opinion from me to the point that I’d prefer to just not hear about it, and when people ask them to tag it they refuse in a very rude way, saying that they didn’t maintag it so there shouldn’t be a problem, you should just unfollow if you don’t agree. But like, I really liked their opinions on other things! I want to keep following, since this is just one point we disagree on, and otherwise I really like what they post and reblog! But it’s happened multiple times now where I’ve just had to unfollow because they refused to tag it with anything at all, not even with like a lore discussion tag. I’m trying my best to curate my experience, but that becomes difficult when I can’t even rely on the filter to do its job properly. Obviously it’s within their right to refuse to tag things, but I feel like that attitude when it comes to tagging crit and discourse and neg is contributing a lot to how toxic the fandom feels and how toxic any given discourse feels

Hello anon! thanks for reaching out with this point. I did talk about this in my post but like i said i know there needs to be other solutions. I tag all my crit when i can but yeah no one is obligated to if its not maintagged.

Im sorry i dont have a solution for you by reading this so im replying in hopes it will open discussions for more solutions about this. because it is a bit complicated. thanks for feeling comfortable to reach out.

[justalittlebluetiefling]

I’m sorry I just... people saying the fj has no development and that f and j didn’t support each other is really not wanting to see things because from ep 1 they have been supportive and have each others back. I feel some people are suck on the avantika arc where he was deep in his fake persona and pushed jester aside somewhat and her badly managed crush, they have grown so much since then

Sorry anon I got on some kind of soap box with this answer. I apologize in advance, but I’m keeping it because I’m feeling sassy. I can recognize that I got on a bit of a high horse. But I’ll own it today, still post it because I’m annoyed, and try to do better going forward.

Also, like, I do care if Fjord and Jester end up together in the sense that I’ll be bummed if they don’t, but it’s not going to be the end of the world if they go a different direction.

Okay have the full unedited answer that I decided to maintag because I’m The Worst.

My first reaction to this: 

Are people really STILL saying this?! How long is my block list now?!

My second and actual reaction: 

Okay. So, here’s the deal. Some people ignore what they don’t want to see if it doesn’t feed the narrative they want. And like, I get it. It sucks when you start to see traction for a ship you don’t like. This happens for me sometimes in any show I watch or book I read or video game I play. I just don’t post about those moments, because it’s not something I ship and (with this show specifically) there are people I like that enjoy those things, so I’m not going to drag them down by complaining about it. Also, I don’t feel the need to complain about it? Because it’s not my game? Maybe people don’t believe me when I say this, but I genuinely do not care if Fjord and Jester end up together. Obviously I would be ecstatic and I am here to freak out about all their amazing moments and write fanfiction about them and make gifsets about them and yell and cry when they interact. Because I LOVE IT. But it is not what I’m watching this show for. Hell, there’s a canon ship in campaign one that isn’t My Thing and I still love that campaign more than anything in the entire world.

Obviously I love to ship things. It’s something that helps me invest in a story, because I love seeing the way relationships (friendship, romantic, antagonistic, whatever) act as a catalyst for character evolution. Obviously I am not a multishipper. But if a person watches a show purely for a ship and then they only get their enjoyment out of that ship, they’re probably not going to have a good time. And since I have tangentially seen the salt today, it’s not gaslighting if the cast decides to go a different direction with romantic relationships than you want them to. We are literally watching these characters grow from scratch. We are watching these relationships grow and evolve every episode. Someone can decide they don’t like a dynamic, but it’s still going to be part of the show. 

The thing that always annoys me when people take the stance that Fjord and Jester have had no development is that it completely ignores the fact that they have, multiple times, stated that they are a team. They are there for each other. They take care of each other. I don’t care if people don’t ship them romantically. But you can’t deny that they have a genuinely supportive relationship. If you view that as a friendship, that is fine. Just don’t erase it. It’s disingenuous to both character arcs. 

[ethereousdelirious]

Yada yada yada I'm on mobile and can't do a read more and I'm not going to butcher this fic by censoring all the names so vanillas please don't be weird or abusive to me on this post. It's not maintagged, so the only reason you're seeing it is because of Tumblr fucking idiotic decision to show posts that haven't been tagged

Anyway. Here's that request for sick!Yasha~ Let's hope the formatting doesn't get all fucked up

For Yasha, waking up in pain was not a novelty or even an unwelcome surprise. Pain was merely the byproduct of work and would fade, as all things did, in time.

Today, however, was unusual. Yesterday had been easy. Like the others, she spent part of the day walking and part of the day riding in the cart. They hadn't fought. They'd even made camp early and she'd spent some time sitting in the grass talking with Caleb.

Why then, did her joints ache like she had spent the day hauling cargo for the circus? Why was her head pounding in time with the drumbeat of her pulse?

"Up and at 'em, Yasha!" Beau gave her arm a light kick.

Yasha sat up slowly. "Morning."

"'Deuces is already done with breakfast. You'd better hurry before Nott eats it all."

"I wouldn't let her," Caduceus said from over by the fire.

Nott glared at him, her eyes shiny. "Like you could stop me."

Yasha laughed lightly and got to her feet. "I didn't mean to sleep in so late." She shuffled over to the fire and sat down beside Fjord. Beau followed her and squeezed in beside Jester.

"You didn't even move when Fjord tried to wake you up," Jester said. "You just kind of--" She threw her head back and opened her mouth, a caricature of Yasha asleep on her back with her mouth open.

"Oh." Yasha looked at what everyone was eating, some sort of oatmeal with berries, and decided she didn't want any. "Was I snoring?"

"Only a little bit," Beau said. "It was kinda cute actually."

"Like purring," Caleb agreed. He snapped a Frumpkin appeared in Yasha's lap.

Yasha buried her fingers in the soft fur, still feeling strangely hungover and overworked. "Caduceus?"

"Hm?"

"Do you have any," she hesitated, still not quite used to just asking for things from this strange new family, "mint tea?"

"Yeah, I'm sure I have something like that." Caduceus sat back and began to pull things from his bag. "Anyone else?"

The group murmured their mixed assents and declinations. Caduceus prepared some water to boil.

"We should probably get a move on sooner rather than later," Fjord spoke up.

"We will," Caduceus said, unconcerned. "This won't take long."

Fjord looked like he wanted to argue, but fell silent.

"Sorry," Yasha said, suddenly hyper aware of how the group might perceive her. "I didn't mean-- I don't want to hold us up."

"It's fine, Fjord is just antsy," Jester reassured her. "You know he can't sit still."

"I have the cure for that," Beau stood up and grabbed Fjord by the collar. "C'mon. Let's go do some push-ups since you're so energetic."

"Save me," Fjord whispered as he was dragged away, and then he was gone.

Yasha chuckled. Sitting like this was nice. Her joints didn't feel quite so sore and her head only hurt when moved too quickly. 

When Caduceus handed her a steaming mug of mint tea, she drank it down quickly so as not to hold anyone up more than she already had.

At first it was pleasant, warming her body against the chill of the morning air.

But the heat didn't fade. By the time they packed the wagon and started down the path, she was sweating. Each step felt like it took twice the effort that it normally would.

She went silent as she walked, trying to figure out what could be wrong. Had she been poisoned? She knew Fjord and Nott were mistrustful of her now, but they wouldn't-- Would they?

No. Yasha shook her head to clear it. They wouldn't. Maybe… It was a slim possibility, but it was the only one that made logical sense. Maybe she was sick.

Yasha was rarely ill, especially not like this. The last time she'd been sick, she had caught a head cold off Molly, and continued to work while he draped himself all over her and complained that he was dying.

She smiled at the memory and let it fade before the pain of his loss could come sneaking in. So she was sick. She could handle it.

Jester stood at the front of the wagon and watched the ground move as she prepared to do something phenomenally stupid. Swallowing her fear, she jumped over the side of the wagon. She managed to land on her feet, but the momentum caused her to stumble and fall.

"Aw, man," she complained loudly, mostly so the others would know she wasn't badly hurt.

"Please don't do that again!" Fjord said from his spot at the front of the wagon. "At least, not without warning me first."

"Sorry!" Jester looked at the dust on her palms. Satisfied that she wasn't bleeding, she wiped them off on her dress.

"Here." Yasha's imposing silhouette blocked out the sun. She extended a hand to Jester and helped her to her feet.

"Thanks, Yasha!" Jester fell into step beside her. "I don't know what I thought was going to happen, but I was hoping it would be cooler than that."

Yasha laughed, but her gaze seemed far away. "Maybe Beau can teach you some tricks."

"Sounds fun!" Beau shouted from the far side of the wagon.

Jester shouted back and soon she and Beau were having a loud conversation about the proper form and practical applications of a forward roll.

She got so wrapped up in it that she didn't even notice when Yasha disappeared from her periphery. It was only when Caleb politely asked them to stop shouting (followed by a less polite request from Nott) that Jester looked around and realized that Yasha had fallen behind.

She was trailing several feet behind the wagon, her feet dragging in the dust and her head lowered.

Jester jogged back to her. "Hey, Yasha! Are you okay?"

Yasha's eyes were hazy, unfocused. She looked at Jester helplessly. "I'll be okay."

"What's wrong?" The wagon was pulling farther away from them but Jester paid it no mind. "Your face is all red. Are you sick?" She stood on her tiptoes and cupped a hand to Yasha's forehead. "Yasha!" she gasped, half-scandalized. "Did you know you have a fever?"

"I do?" Yasha slumped forward suddenly, like the realization had taken her strength away. "I don't get sick."

"Everybody gets sick," Jester said. She smoothed a few errant locks of hair out of Yasha's face. "Oh, poor Yasha."

"I really don't," Yasha said, her brow knit in confusion. "Not like this."

"You've really never had a fever before?"

Yasha shook her head.

"That's okay, I'll look after you!" Jester said. Then her head snapped up. "Oh. Shit." She screwed up her face in concentration. "Hey, Fjord! Stop the wagon for a second! Me and Yasha got behind. We're fine though, don't worry. We'll be right there. How many words was that?"

"I wasn't counting."

"Yeah, me either." Jester shrugged. "Well, they stopped. Can you walk? 'Cause I bet I can totally carry you."

"I can walk."

The others were waiting for them expectantly, varying degrees of concern on their faces.

"We're fine!" Jester said, making shooing gestures. "We're just going to ride in the back for a bit. Okay?" This last word was directed at Caleb and Nott, who had been riding nestled amongst their supplies.

"Ja, that's fine." Caleb shrugged and invited Nott to scurry up onto his shoulders.

"Okay, come on, Yasha." Jester helped her climb into the back. The she popped her head out from behind the cover. "Okay, stop staring already! We're fine. Let's go."

"O-kay?" Fjord started to walk back around to the front. "Beau, want to ride with me for a bit?"

"Sure." Beau kept casting curious looks at Jester, but she went with Fjord. The wagon started to move again and Jester turned back to face Yasha.

"Okay, I'll get you all taken care of, I promise."

"Thanks," Yasha said, looking a touch awkward. "I'm not really sure what to do."

"Well for starters," Jester dug through their supplies and pulled out her bedroll, then Yasha's. "I'm going to make you the comfiest little nest ever." She arranged the blankets and pillows to her liking and motioned for Yasha to lie down. "Umm, let's see. Are you hot? Your face is really red."

"Yes," Yasha said immediately. Her skin felt overheated and irritated. Even the texture of the blankets was almost painful on her bare arms.

"Okay, hang on." Jester started to go through her pockets, eventually producing a small scrap of cloth.

Yasha watched as Jester carefully poured some water over it. "What's that for?"

"It's going to go on your forehead," Jester explained. "Like this." She leaned over and carefully draped the wet cloth over Yasha's brow. "Lie back or it will fall off."

"Oh," Yasha said as immediate, blissful relief washed over her.

"I wish I had another one for the back of your neck," Jester said thoughtfully. "Maybe Caleb has a handkerchief in one of his 600 pockets."

"Jester," Yasha took her hand. "This is. Wonderful. Thank you." No one, not even Molly, not even Zuala, had taken care of her like this. It was almost overwhelming. "Really, thank you."

"It's nothing," Jester said, not looking Yasha in the eye. A deep purple brush was beginning to creep up her neck. "Um, anyway, do you want to sleep now?"

"I don't know." Yasha stretched as much as she could in the confines of the cart. "I'm tired, but not that kind of tired."

"How about I tell you a story? I can tell you all about Princess Fancybottom, the most beautiful, well-endowed princess in the whole world."

Yasha smiled. "That would be nice, Jester. You can-- You can lie down next to me if you want."

"Okay." Jester nodded, satisfied. "Close your eyes so you can really picture the story, okay?"

"That's a good idea, actually. I'm probably way colder than you are." Jester scooted in next to Yasha, settling in so their arms touched. "Ooh, you are warm. Let me know if you start to feel worse, okay?"

"I will."

Yasha closed her eyes. Jester began her tale of Princess Fancybottom as the cart rolled along the simple dirt path.

Yasha knew that the world was full of dangers and discomforts that she would eventually have to face, but in this moment, all she felt was safe.

[venomroses]

[ID: tags by @pocketknifeprayers that say "#i am officially intrigued #[please] write about this im begging you" /end ID]

part ??? of one (1) person shows interest in my hcs so now i inflict a whole rant upon all my followers so thank you vi <3 I'll probably make an actually nice post to maintag and everything about this but for now. this is going to not be that lmao

okay I'm trying to keep this as short as possible and not go on 500 separate rants but. you know how I am lmfao also I think?? I did all the math right for my timeline?? but if I fucked it up then I'm sorry in advance lol

so I think the Witch and Dr. D left for the zones between 1999 and 2000 (D was 19-20 then and Phoenix was 21-22). and at the time Phoenix was just her name and D went by his city name. They're similar to Party and Kobra in the way that Phoenix and Party weren't planning on leaving the city like. ever. but there's no way they were gonna let their little brother go out there alone so they followed. They're also similar in the way the younger sibling is more than willing to embrace everything the zones has to offer but it takes the older sibling more time to get used to all that stuff.

D didn't start out doing radio, at this point it was years before he even thought of it. He was a medic and actually got kinda famous from it in zone's low-life circles (thieves, scavengers, strays, everyone the True Revolutionaries look down upon). He was pretty well known because if someone needed help he would just help them for free without expecting any sort of payment (although most of the time whoever he was helping would insist he take something). That's how he ended up being known as the Doctor. Kobra is also like this in the way he was known for his racing long before he was known for being part of the Fab Four, but in both cases barely anyone remembers them for the thing that got them famous in the first place.

So while D was doing all that, Phoenix meets Raven, who was the Witch at the time. Just a little bit about the Witch: the first Witch was named Crow and she's why the Witch is associated with crows despite every other Witch being named for a different bird. The Witch before Raven was named Hawkeye. The Phoenix Witch is generally associated with purple and has purple eyes, and the others were associated with red, yellow, and orange and had those colored eyes in chronological order. I can expand on this more in a different post but for my fellow TMA enjoyers imagine the Witch as the Eye, the End, and the Web as one entity. Also after Phoenix became the Witch, D and the Girl both had purple eyes as well, but the Girl's became brown after she used her powers to destroy BLI.

So with that aside, Phoenix has to pretty much figure everything about the Witch out herself, and while she wouldn't have become the Witch if she'd known what was happening, by the time she realized it was already too late.

This is getting long so I'll end it with some other thoughts about sibling parallels. I think in both cases the older siblings are overprotective to a fault and a bit controlling but honestly just want what's best for their little brother. The younger siblings have way too much trust in their older sibling, less true for Kobra but he still trusted Party enough to go straight into BLI HQ with the worst plan I've ever heard of so there's that lmao

anyway. thinking about what if dr. death and the phoenix witch were siblings.