#that is their ship name for now until/unless someone comes up w a better option

[bvckbiter]

Officers, it's this one. This one made me obsessed with Luke/Zagreus after their comments on Ride or Die.

No, but seriously. I am in love with this rarepair now. The possibilities. The hurt/comfort. The banter. AHHH LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!

Also, thanks for the comments. I loved them so much and replied.

I loved your fic so much, it was the least I could do to show appreciation for your amazing writing!

Also, the Luke/Zag ship... yes i'm fully onboard now goddammit lmaooooo and why are you out here saying it's MY fault, you wrote them like that!! HAHHHAHAHAHAHA <3333

But yes ugh the possibilitiessssss Luke and Zag butting heads becaues they're infinitely obstinate in their own ways, but Luke is such a mistrustful person in comparison to Zag who doles out affection like they're free sweets in a bowl on a hotel reception desk... I'm obsessed with this crossover crackship.

[literatehiss]

Promising Futures

Read on AO3 here

Peter and Simon interact with the children in their lives. It was inevitable really. If you adopted a lot of people of varying ages, eventually one of them was either going to already have children, or would have kids after he had adopted them into the Fairchilds. Which meant that Simon had an awful lot of “grandchildren”.

He sipped on a Sangria as dawn began to break, the sun rising over the mountaintops that surrounded the Fairchild mansion. He hummed in acknowledgement as one of the fine young men he had pulled into the family, stumbled downstairs for a coffee and a half-toasted piece of bread. He was part of their space-faring efforts which meant a lot of long nights that Simon was very glad he had no part of. Clinging to the man’s leg was scrawny looking child whose favourite thing in the world was to be flung around and onto soft surfaces at high speed, a chore Simon was always happy to fulfil. And with their appearance, it signalled the start of the only reason Simon ever came back to the mansion for anything more that to store the things he collected.

 A veritable army of children and young teenagers would scarf down their breakfast and leave their parents and their boring conversations to go spend time with “grandpa” Simon. He rarely came home and, between other avatars and his victims, he didn’t often spend time with people who wanted to be around him. The youngest ones in particular, who were still getting the hang of their motor skills and so greatly enjoyed being thrown around, were a particular favourite of his. Children also had a peculiar enjoyment of terrible, terrible stories and half of his antics with the people he terrorised were just so he had a fun story for the kids. With one child hanging off his arm, Simon started telling the children the tale of a young man, his mother, and a journey up a mountain.

   Peter woke up to the sound of his wonderful privacy and peace being interrupted by the door of his bedroom being cracked open slightly. He glared at the small form who had decided to bother him, the child squeaking in fear and panic before running away. He groaned and turned back over, intending to sleep a little bit longer.

 Knock knock.

 Peter swore violently at the door and scowled at his sister’s laugh as it came through the door.

 Elias had changed the damn locks, the Tundra was having repairs done and he just couldn’t be doing with Moorland House unless he was summoned there, so the only other option was someone who had come into his life very recently.

Forty years after he had last seen her; his older sister, Lizzie, had tracked him down and invited herself into his life. She had been one of the ones who had left the family and the sounds of happy children was not a natural sound to Peter’s ears. But she was happy to have him stay over for as long as he liked and was understanding enough about his more “introverted nature”, as she had put it.

He rolled out of bed, cracked open the window and packed a pipe, deciding not to leave the room until he had inhaled enough nicotine to make him feel less homicidal.

Simon walked through the mansion, one of the pint sized army on his shoulders as he lead the procession through the halls. He was very nonchalant as he walked passed the swimming pool, before he chucked the child on his shoulders into the water. He was surrounded by laughter and cheering as the child crawled out of the pool, clothes sopping wet. A wide grin on her face.

He couldn’t help but sigh. The adults, the avatars that he actually brought into the family, had a more detailed and thorough understanding of their patron, but they just lost the joy of it all. An adult sensibility causing them to see it as a duty, an enjoyable duty, but not something they sought out for their won enjoyment. They found joy in the screams and fear, which was valid, he admitted, so did he, but they lost the sheer exhilaration of falling. The feeling of the wind rushing through your hair and your breath catching in your throat. The children though, they delighted in their own fear, in the sensation of it all and he couldn’t help but be charmed by it.

  Peter accepted the cup of coffee from his sister gratefully, trying to ignore the gaggle of children that were peering at him from the doorway. Their mother had firmly told them to leave their “Uncle Peter” alone. Which obviously did nothing but make them more curious. The oldest waited until their mother left for the bathroom before creeping up to the kitchen counter.

“Hello”

Peter gave her a dead eyed stare.

“Are you mummy’s brother?”

Peter’s glare didn’t subside but he gave an affirmative hum. Better to answer their questions and get rid of them quicker.

“Why have we never met you before then?”

Peter considered his answer more than he would usually think about what he said. The honest answer, that he thought the rest of the family had killed her off secretly, would likely not go down well. Nor would, a second true option, that he had little to no interest in their lives. He grunted, far too tired to bother with his normal false cheer. Peter had never spent time around children and so didn’t realise that answering a child’s questions just invited more questions.

Elias was similar if he thought about it.

“I’m busy.”

“What do you do?”

“Ship Captain.”

A chorus of “oooh’s” from the three children.

“Do you have a ship?”

“Obviously.”

“Is it big?”

“Very”

“Can we see it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Dangerous. You’re mum will be upset with me. Don’t want to deal with that.”

“Why not?

“I don’t like talking to people.”

“You’re talking to us?”

“I wish I wasn’t.”

 That shut them up for a moment and they huddled on the other side of the kitchen. One of them ran off while the others stared at him. Peter wondered if he could sleep in the Lonely until either the Tundra was fixed or Elias calmed down.

It was more likely that he would suddenly reject the Lonely than Elias forgive him quite that quickly. He knew he could expect another three months minimum before the man even considered getting over himself. The child that had run off came back with something behind her back.

One of the brats, the young lad, one of the twins, broke away from his sisters and came back over, Peter didn’t bother restraining his annoyed sigh.

 “Do you have any kids?”

“God I hope not.”

“Is that a no?”

“It’s a ‘Probably not’, my husband might have something to say about it if he found out I did.” he suddenly realised he had revealed too much, and he had said it just as his sister entered the room again. He groaned internally at the thought of the second round of questioning he was bound to receive once the brats went to bed. He saw fog start to curl at the kitchen window at his longing for the cold embrace of his domain. His sister refilled his coffee mug before leaving him to his fate as the children approached. The eldest seemed to be at least attempting to restrain her two younger siblings. As soon as their mother passed the threshold of the door, he was peppered with rapid fire questions.

 “Husband? What’s his name? Is he nice? Is he also old? Can we meet him? What does he do?” Peter took a moment to work out what they were saying before answering in turn.

“Yes. Elias, sometimes. No. Yes. No. Meddling in other people’s business.”

The eldest opened her mouth to ask another question and Peter growled at her in irritation. He saw her mouth “sometimes?” with obvious confusion. Peter took a long sip of his coffee and sighed, already tired of this and he’d only been there a day.

  Simon picked one of his grandchildren up and threw her high into the air, he was scream-laughing as he came back down, to only the briefest glance over from the boy’s father. Most of the children had scattered to the far reaches of the house by now, only a handful staying behind. Just the child clambering over him and a pair reading a book on space. They were looking with targetted interest at the pages that were just made up of huge pictures of the stars. One of them placed their hand on the page and looked up at him with unrestrained excitement.

“Can we go there one day?” they said, tapping the picture of the stars. He laughed and patter them on the head as he stood up.

“Hopefully. If I get my way, definitely.”

He flipped the child clinging to his arm over so he hung from his arm, face going an alarming shade of red. All this time with his family was making him feel nostalgic.

He pulled out his phone and shot off a text to Peter.

 Plukas 11:42

How is it going? Did you find somewhere to stay? I’m just hanging around

  His sister had dragged the oldest off to some club, he didn’t know, he wasn’t listening, so he finally had some time alone as the younger two were too afraid to come up to him without their oldest sister their to “protect” them. Though the thought was laughable. If he intended them any harm, they would already be fading away in the Lonely. He could hear them crashing and tinkering with something and the sound of liquid going down the drain in the other room and if he was a responsible adult he would know that quiet children are children that are up to something. Luckily for the twins, he didn’t know that and so they were left to their crafting.

He was lying on the couch in quiet bliss when he felt his personal bubble being intruded upon. He pried open an eye and groaned at the sight of them for the second time that day.

 “What.” he said flatly. They shuffled nervously before presenting him with something.

It was meant to be a ship in a bottle. And there was a ship. And it was in a bottle.

 To be precise it was a plastic boat from some sort of kids play set and the bottle was a very obviously recently emptied bottle of wine. The bottle which he was sure his sister was going to be overjoyed that her kids had probably poured the contents of down the sink. The bottle was also cracked and glued back together, the kids not knowing how to do it properly. Not that they could, he realised, when they were using a solid plastic boat. He held it in his hands. It was, objectively, utter trash and it belonged in the rubbish bin.

He cracked a smile.

 “Good job.”

 The kids giggled and ran off, leaving him and the bottle alone. He felt his phone buzz, seeing a message from Simon. He typed in his reply, giving a quiet laugh, before returning to his nap, his gift sat on the table next to his head.

 simon 11:49

I’m decent, not too much company, there was some good wine

[universal-kitty]

   Harvest Moon & Story of Seasons: To the Ones I’ve Loved (and Have Crushed On, In Some Form or Another)

   This will be under the cut, because there are a LOT of games to address!

Cliff: More Friends of Mineral Town/DS Cute

One of my lovetime faves from the series! I related to him, what with us both being shy and needing help a lot from the people around us. Look at how cute he is when he blushes!! Whenever I play DS Cute, he’s always my first option.

(He also likes grapes. Always a good choice.)

Gray: More Friends of Mineral Town/DS Cute

I...have complicated feelings for Gray, honestly. On one hand, he’s never stood out too much to me, for some reason. He’s a fun enough character- a gruff grandson of the local blacksmith, who softens up over your relationship with him- but he never caught my eye as someone I’d wish to chase down as much as, say, Cliff.

But at the same time, I have many fond memories of calling him “Uma Boy” (because of his hat) and it’s cute?? It has “childhood friends to lovers” vibes that still makes me hesitate when I want to say I- supposedly- have no interest in him...

Karen: Friends of Mineral Town/HM DS

While I prefer her art design to this one (the one with her two-toned hair), I adore this bachorlette regardless! A part of it her design, but the other part of it her assertive nature... After all, when I’m not looking to grow together with someone, I’m looking for someone who will help me come out of my shell! (Even if I must be dragged out, which Karen would certainly do.)

Marlin: DS Cute

Gosh... I remember overlooking a lot of bachelors back in the day. I was admittedly kinda shallow as a kid, so I easily looked over plenty of fine guys in favor of the “prettier” ones...ignoring my vague interest in the girls. However, in my endless attempts to see all heart events (cheat codes, babey!)....I ended up really liking Marlin. More than I thought I would.

He’s sickly, but determined to make it on his own. Hating that he’s babied, but acknowledging the fact that being sick is kinda scary for the family who looks after him, his elder sister, Vesta (owner of a popular farm in Forget-Me-Not Valley), and their hired help, Celia.

He blushes cute, is cute, and though I never married him in game, I did consider it. He’s doing his best and is so damn supportive...

Celia: HM DS

Speaking of Celia-!! Talk about one of my earlier girl-crushes! I had feelings for her that I could never pin down, because I didn’t hate her or anything, but I didn’t quite....friend-like her, either. Apparently, it’s because I’m panromantic af. Who would’ve guessed?!

Anyways. She’s cute, oblivious like me, and just as hardworking as Vesta, with all the kindness to look after Marlin w/o taking away his agency and wanting to help others.... Basically, I’m saying that if I F/O any one of these two, the other is coming with. Farming power throuple.

Flora: HM DS

(Belated sidenote that HM DS and DS Cute are the same game, but Different Gender. Natsume was slow on that one for a long while.)

Flora was yet another one of those ladies that I liked, but didn’t know it was because I was actually p gay. Whoops! Anyways, you see this lovely lass working on site with Carter (an older bachelor, for those who have a Type for older men). They’ve been working on this mine site, because...I think there’s some archeological finds down there? It’s been a long time since I played, so I don’t remember much!

....However, strong woman in a tank top and shorts make me a happy, fluster gay and her hair looking as fluffy as it does only intensifies it. (Ah, to lovingly brush off the dust and mud from her face from a long day at work... Clean her glasses for her while she cleans up... [dreamy sigh])

Skye: DS Cute

(oh god, I wrote his name as Skype accidentally, oH NO) Another bachelor I really liked during the early days....though for a long time, it was a toss up on if I Liked him or liked him [to pair with an OC]. While I did eventually pair him with an OC (Claire, the blonde MC option for DS Cute), there’s still a fondness in my heart for him...

And a plot twist, now... His “chick beam” ain’t gonna work on someone who’s not a girl~!

Muffy: HM DS

She’s just....cute. And hardworking. Flirty. The girl at the bar not only helping serve up drinks (to the best of her abilities; she’s learning), but a fun time! Definitely a bit of the stereotypical femme, but good gosh, I’d never want her any other way. Literally the only problem I’d have is I get uncomfortable around drunk people (past issues, fear of potential addictive personality, and drunk ppl are usually Loud People).

Otherwise, I’d love to be supportive of Muffy, her dreams, and how damn cute she looks!! (And relate to fears of getting our hearts broken, but oooohhh it’s got fic potential, that does.)

Keira: HM DS

This lovely lady is not only one of the early-day, special bachelorettes, but mute, as well! Her voice was taken away by the Witch Princess and (with no in game way to get it back for her) she communicates by writing on a board.

....Basically, I want to learn sign language with her and create a peaceful house with her and maybe a bunch of cats. Purrhaps.

Jamie: Magical Melody

(I was no longer able to get sprites/icons from this point forward, sorry!!) This game. Is so difficult...and go figure the one I like the best is the hardest possible spouse to woo! Complete the game, ship out at least one of EVERY crop, have owned one of every animal (at some point), and etc. Oh. My goddess. THE AMOUNT OF WORK TO MARRY SOMEONE YOU CAN’T EVEN KEEP!!!!

....Yeah, uh. All that work and the game resets. No post-marriage bliss for the PC and Jamie. (Who is apparently genderfluid.) I.....augh. In the end, it’s not even their nearly-toxic, tsundere personality that drives me up the wall.... It’s the fact that I can’t marry them and have it stay that way unless I want to write a bunch of fanfiction about it. :/

Meanies. Making me write out all this stuff myself...

Ray: Magical Melody

I feel sorry to say it, but I will: When I learned the game wouldn’t let the player marry Jamie permanently, I sought out someone else...and found comfort in Ray. He’s a well-known fisher and- apparently- has a timeslot on the TV for talking about fishing, too.

It’s a very fish-based lifestyle, but I guess that’s why I play as a farmer, right~? We can bring some variety in to the meal table! (Also, he’s a shy guy. What a cutie~)

Chase: Animal Parade

The reason I got into playing this game....and then everything else solidified my reasons to play forevermore! And to this day, Animal Parade is my favorite HM/SoS game of all time. (Literally the only thing that could’ve made it more perfect would be changing hairstyles/colors... Oh, and gay marriage. Gimme that too, pls.)

ANYWAYS, this asshole is tsundere as hell and a prickly pear, but.... If you can fight past it to befriend him, he’s pretty fun and....I guess dedicated to his work, is the best way I can phrase it. He’s still very much not too “soft” even after marriage (though he can be pretty damn cute), but... Basically, imagine Gordon Ramsey in a dating sim, complete with a redesign. Pretty accurate description of Chase.

I ship him more w/ an OC I have than myself, buuuut he’s still precious to me. In a dorky, tsundere way. (Also, I think about the OC I ship him with all the time... That whole save file was me being dedicated to marrying this man, from the name of the farm to the crops I sold. Goodness!)

Wizard: Animal Parade

The husband. Of all time. Not just for his looks, but also his sweet, quiet, gentle personality. Wizard (who’s real name is not revealed until you marry him) speaks in many ellipses.....some longer...than others.... But he’s also a stargazer. Oh, and implied to be long-lived. Y’know. Things to break your heart with.

I simply cannot put into words how much I adore him. I originally played this game to marry Chase (as I mentioned above), but it was Wizard who stole my heart. He’s been on my F/O list ever since and it’s there he’ll stay!

Harvest King: Animal Parade

One who actually used to be on my F/O list, but I removed him because I thought feelings had faded.....haha, fool. Nobody escapes the king. (Or, well, Harvest God, but y’know. Translation avoiding mentions of “god” and all.)

Honestly, I didn’t know how to feel about him aside from “I like his design” for a long while. He’s got a lot of elements that are aesthetically pleasing to me, but w/o good characterization to back him up... What’s left? (Plus, him not living at home with the PC kinda sucked. Was being a single parent really gonna be okay with me...?)

What ended up breaking my heart and reviving it all at once was his 20 heart line. “After you are gone… I shall love what you loved… I shall sing the songs that you sang.”

He is immortal. He must stay atop the mountain, only able to watch...sneak away, perhaps, when he can. He sees the inevitability of the PC’s death...and fuck. It hurts in the most bittersweet way. To imagine him, alone, years upon thousands of years after they are gone.....and yet, remember them so well. Perhaps still distantly watch over what becomes of his family line...

To love this man is to experience the love and pain of mortal/immortal couples, and- truly- know what the phrase means: “To love and have lost is better than to never love at all.”

Harvest Goddess: Animal Parade

There are many incarnations of the Goddess throughout the HM/SoS series, but this one from AP is a forever fave from me. Her design is gorgeous on so many levels (the looping braid, the ombre in her hair color, her outfit, the wing-like extensions on her back, the large hoop bracelets, etc), her face looks so kind and.......breathtaking beyond words--

And much like Wizard and Harvest King before her, she has a name she can only share with you after marriage. And having that detail be a part of her marriage ceremony is what hits a little harder, I feel. It feels so much more personal to have a name that isn’t just “Harvest Goddess” to call her. (I’m pretty sure some of the other games have done this, too? But again, I personally prefer this iteration!)

....If I ever were to ship with her, I honestly feel like I’d have to do an OT3 w/ Harvest King. He’s a prickly bastard and Harvest Goddess here would likely roll her eyes at him many a time, but... Considering their understanding and eventual love of mortal life, I’d say they could reach an agreement someday.

Toby: Animal Parade

Gosh. Another character I didn’t think much of until later... I wanted to do an LP of Animal Parade and- for the occasion- got obsessed with a new OC to focus on; I named her Elise and framed everything after her around musicians and songs. (Because her name was a reference to Fur Elise.) Of course, I then had to think of who she’d marry....

Toby was not only an option for her, but quickly caught my interest as easily as he caught fish. Though it might’ve helped that he reminded me of another, old anime crush!

Anyways, much like he appears, Toby is a laid back young man. He spends his days happily enjoying his hobby- fishing (he isn’t employed, despite his family owning a business)- and soaking up nature. His heart events reflect this, musing about the tranquility of nature and enjoying the silence and relaxation of fishing. (There’s also a few occasions where he opens his eyes... The color of them is SO pretty!)

And if you marry him? Traditional Japanese wedding attire. He looks so handsome in it~!

Candace: Animal Parade

I just....really like shy girls. And Candace especially makes me feel SO MANY warm fuzzies. Has high social anxiety, but prefers her time be spent in her family’s shop, Sonata Tailoring. She’s a talented worker, and with her grandmother’s help and sister’s guidance, it’s become quite the fashion hotspot! (Well.... Perhaps it’ll do far better after the PC helps heal up the island some more, y’know? The place isn’t doing so hot without help from the Harvest Sprites!)

ALSO, I really, really love her big hair and outfit... Her big braids look so soft and she looks incredibly cozy in her cardigan... Honestly, the cardigan, button up shirt, and skirt alone work together to put together the image of someone shy, yet warm in both personality and in being! (...But I bet her fingers get cold... Gee, suppose I could do something about that...?)

Precious. 100/10, would love to kiss her cheek softly and make her blush while snow falls outside, but we’re in my warm home with a big puppy and the fireplace going.

Vaughn: Island of Happiness/Sunshine Islands

Heehee, tiny. Anyways, meet cowboy husband! Fond of farm animals, his work (delivering farm animals to the island)....and that’s about it. Not really too thrilled about other people, but his whole arc is about warming up to you, anyways, so. It’s one of those, fksjfkls.

He’s REALLY cute, though.... I wish I had more memories w/ him, but I lost the OG file where I married him and we had a kid, so. Heck. :)

William Terry Louis Andrew Carrick Jonathan Dredge Hams Redding Rodger Southwark Alnwick Plymouth Junior Regison III: Sunshine Islands

Yes. Yes, I did need to write out his full name. I married this man and if I have to process that this is my husband’s full name, you do, too. (Seriously, why did they make his name so long?!) This man’s long name aside...

Not only is he your typical rich boy (complete with Big Boat), but he’s also....a prince! Bet you woulda never seen that coming... (And yes, he does have a white horse that he rides around occasionally.) I know I’m roasting him, here, but he deserves it. A little bit. Maybe. Totally not because I can still feel the distant effects of this man flustering me in the past...

(He’s so charming and he has some misguided moments, but goodness, he is just Pure of Heart, Dumb of Ass. I love him.)

Lily: Sunshine Islands

Visiting treasure hunter, adorkable, and with a way of finding her next great adventure. She’s so lively! And lovely! Maybe she should look into a mirror and find out the great treasure of all is herself!!!

Okay, that was pretty cheesy.

Regardless, she’s a delight, I love her character, and any jealousy I might’ve had towards her in the past? Gone for deep feelings of, “Let me love you and let’s create the greatest treasure collection of all~!”

Angelo: Grand Bazaar

I remember Angelo not quite being my first choice when I got Grand Bazaar. He seemed adorable, and having another artist around is always a plus, but... I simply wasn’t sure if I should go through with it. Would he impress me that much?

...In the end, he did. I remember being with my cousins when I stumbled into his final heart event, freaking out and hurrying to write it down! (I had a habit of writing down the dialogue to every heart event I witnessed. I have some of them still, to this day!)

He’s far more of a well-rounded artist than I am, but I think that’s just another thing to love about him. Well, that, and a difficulty handling people when he needs them to stop! (It’s relatable, is what I mean; telling people off- even if you really need to- is hard! Especially when it’s a kid!) He’s just....a ton of fun at the end of the day. And that fluffy hair...... You know I love it~!

Emiko: Grand Bazaar

I never got to meet Emiko, to my memory. I didn’t play Grand Bazaar a lot, nor for too long, as the learning curve for the bazaar was steep. (I wasn’t much one for learning recipes, and then they wanted me to learn how to peddle my wares?! And sometimes, it went by so fast!!! It was super overwhelming...) However, she’s a special bachelorette, so getting to meet her at all would’ve been a surprise/struggle for the me who fought trying to learn the bazaar alone...

Looking on her here and now... She. Is. Adorable. Hard to woo, but a secret shrine-area behind the waterfall? The last heart event is letting her see the world for herself...? I love that so much. Getting to re-experience the world through a new view is something I treasure dearly, and Emiko is just that...along with being super adorable. I harp on it because it’s true!!

Maybe someday, if I try the game again with more success... I’ll play as a guy just to court Emiko.

Cam: Tale of Two Towns

Literally the reason I bought this game in the first place, LMAO! He looked really cute and hearing that he worked at a flower shop? How could I ever resist?! The scene was set up for adorableness and potential romance (based around flowers) and so I was eagerly swept away~!

And he does live up to that sweet, charming air...while also being a bit social anxious; how relatable!

Kana: Tale of Two Towns

I haven’t played this game in forever, but if there was anything to ever remember about it..... Kana is a himbo. This man works with horses, so he is strong. Respects women. His dummy part kicks in because this man rarely thinks of anything else except horses (we stan this man and his hyperfixation). You can befriend him with gifts of horse treats.

Marrying this man is marrying him AND getting a free horse-sister out of it (her name is Hayate) and with arms like that? What a dream come true, on all sides.

Nori: Tale of Two Towns

Local seamstress and assistant to her grandfather at his seed shop. Honestly... She kinda reminds me of myself. Although while I’ve quieted down in some ways, I’ve stayed lively in others! I mostly just need friends around to bring my energy up, instead of producing it fresh, myself, ehehe.

But seriously... Her kindness goes above and beyond, perfectionist anxiety is relatable, and it just...sounds nice to put together a life with her. Helping others, helping each other, helping ourselves. Wow.

Reina: Tale of Two Towns

The botanist who- much like someone else- hyperfixates on her work until the world around her is white noise. While it is a shame to feel like you’re not being listened to and your S/O is lost in her work... Honestly, the thought of learning about plants from her has me losing it. Also, a home filled with perfectly cared-for plants? MAJOR serotonin.

It’s like.....the ideal cottagecore couple, just with more farming involved. (Personally, for me, the image of cottagecore has always been small, personal gardens and not the sprawling estate of land-for-crops (and animals!) that HM puts out.) One of us will be making cute journals...or maybe it’s both of us? She does aesthetic research journals and I do cute, personal ones? With poems and such?

UGH. Just call me a simp and get it over with.

Sanjay: A New Beginning

Do I even have to say it? How fast I fell for this man? Because I shouldn’t. I’m incredibly predictable with my tastes and they will likely never change.

Anywho. Butler to Amir (another potential bachelor), but all I wanted was this soft-hearted, gentle man who looks out for everyone, is incredibly kind and friendly, and loves tea a whole bunch. His long hair, put into a braid.... [sighs dreamily] How ever am I going to cope...?

I never did finish ANB, but I want to! Because this man is SO HANDSOME and I wanna put a ring on it. (Sorry, Amir! You might need to employ someone else! Thanks, bye!)

Inari: Trio of Towns

This one came from a recommendation, one I wasn’t at all expecting...and now I’m “stuck” with this one. And don’t want them to let go.

They remind me of two previous spouses already on the list: Harvest King/Goddess and Jamie. The latter for their gender being undefined until marriage (where the game will then either dress Inari up in masculine marriage clothes or feminine marriage clothes, to be the opposite gender to the PC). The former checks out in that- like them and many other special candidates- Inari will not live at home with the player. It breaks my heart, but the reward itself is seeing this lovely fox deity learn how to love, to be willing to put their heart on the line, and even have a child.

I couldn’t be happier to be introduced to this game in such a way. Consider my first save slot dedicated to you, darling kitsune~! (And a spot for you on the F/O list sometime soon, too!)

Yuzuki: Trio of Towns

“I won’t fall in love with another bachelor,” I lied, lyingly. “I will just be in love with Inari. Nobody else.” A fool, I was. Predictable, as all times before. I read a little too much into a character....and suddenly, a proposal comb is being slapped into my hand. Dammit!

Being the fan-favorite occasionally helps my interest in certain characters, but what always gets me in the end...is that personality. Oh, and does Yuzuki deliver... Not only is he a kind, supportive man with his own business, but said business is making hairpins! His grandmother usually helps model them, but more and more during your romancing does your PC model for him, instead. (Literally the first piece you model he made SPECIFICALLY with you in mind, oh my god.)

But wait! There’s more! Being a model that knocks him breathless...and shows a surprising bit of ego. (Not a bad thing, but definitely not a vice I was expecting from him!) So many cute lines. Goodness.

....I admittedly just watched the heart/flower events, so I’m SOFT.

[the--sad--hatter]

Name Calling (24)

FANDOM - MARVEL MCU

PAIRING - BUCKY X READER (female reader, no physical descriptions)

WARNINGS - ALL OF THEM, SMUT, VIOLENCE ANGST

DESCRIPTION -  In which the ongoing and bloody war of words between you and Bucky turns in your favor when a disgruntled one night stand of his lets slip a secret when you run into her in the elevator… Now you have all the ammunition you need to destroy your enemy but you don’t plan on killing him quickly. Oh no, Bucky Barnes was going to suffer and you were going to enjoy every second. You just didn’t count on how much you would enjoy it.

Current Word Count -     70,578

MASTERLIST

Chapter Twenty Four - Around The Campfire

“Exactly how attached are you to Wilson?” Bucky enquired, as he pulled you in front of him, using you as a human shield.

“Touch my Sam and I’ll take your Steve.” You vowed, throwing an apologetic look at the Captain.

“We can get you a new best friend.” Bucky offered while Thor and Clint tried to hold Sam back.

“Well, I could always ask Scott Lang.” You suggested and felt Bucky’s glare burning holes in the back of your head.

“Fine, Wilson can live.” He snapped and you grinned victoriously.

“Sam, Sammy. Can I come over?” You called gently, like you were talking to a wounded animal.

He paused in his struggling to glare at you and you slowly walked over, your hands out to show you came in peace. As soon as you were in reaching distance Sam ducked out of Thor’s grip and grabbed you, shoving you behind him.

“Oh no, how will I ever escape.” You muttered sarcastically.

“Barnes? Really?” Sam barked at you furiously.

“But Sam, Bucky’s soooo pretty. Isn’t that right?” Clint mocked you.

“Clint, not helping. Sam, yes, Barnes. He isn’t so bad… It could be worse.” You offered.

“Name one person worse than the metal armed monstrosity.” Sam challenged.

“Uhhhhh.”

“See! You can’t.”

“Thanks Doll.” Bucky called out indignantly.

“Alright fine, I can’t name someone worse. Ask me to name someone better.” You demanded.

“I can think of at least 500 people right off the top of my head who are better for you.” Sam insisted.

“I can’t. I can’t think of a single person better or worse. When I picture myself with someone it’s him, only him. There is no other option for me Sam, it has to be Bucky. He’s the only person I have ever wanted to be with.” You told him earnestly, desperate to make him understand.

You heard Steve aww at your statement and resisted the urge to flip him off. Bucky’s eyes went soft as he gazed at you and Sam looked thoroughly disgusted.  

“I can’t be the only person who thinks this is a terrible idea!” Sam insisted. Looking around for support.

“Brother Barnes and Lady Stark are formidable warriors in their own right. Combined, their strength will be the stuff of legends and they share similar traumas in their pasts, who better to support them than one another? I wish them both good fortune.” Thor announced.

“Sorry buddy, everyone ships it.” Clint shrugged.

“The only person who’s opinion matters is hers Wilson.” Bucky snarled.

“Well my opinion must matter or she wouldn’t have been sneaking around behind my back.” Sam rebutted.

“SAM! We literally just got together half an hour ago. There was nothing to tell before that. And you found out before Darcy did.” You offered with a devious smirk.

“Oh, ok. That’s not so bad. I can deal with that. I can deal with this. I don’t like it but it’s going to be fine.” Sam said, calming down.

You had just breathed a sigh of relief when Bucky decided to interject.

“Before today we were just sleeping together, no strings attached.” He said, stretching the truth with an infuriatingly evil smirk.

Sam puffed up and you batted Thors arm away as Sam dove for Bucky who stepped out of the way.

“Just let them go at it.” You muttered in resignation.

You plunked yourself down on a seat while everyone got back to preparing the Barbecue, the occasional yell or swear echoing from Bucky and Sam.

They were both being idiots and frankly, at this point you hoped they killed each other.

You busied yourself playing peek-a-boo with baby Nathaniel and ignoring everybody over the age of twelve. Even when Bucky and Sam came slinking back, you very deliberately turned your back to them and ignored them sniffing around you with their pathetic apologies.

“I’m not a toy to be fought over am I Nathaniel? No I’m not.” You cooed.

Your passive aggressive dig hit home and Bucky and Sam guiltily scampered away, leaving you to it. Natasha just sat next to you and fixed you with a blank look until you relented and started speaking to her. She’d had good intentions, every thing she ever did was to help you. It wasn’t her fault the men in your life were overly protective, prideful, possessive morons.  

It turned out to be a fun barbecue, so long as you ignored Sam and Bucky. They didn’t make it easy, if you even thought about asking for the ketchup then Bucky had already handed it to you, if your glass got below the halfway point then Sam was quick to refill it. You refused to acknowledge or thank them because every single time one of them did something that could be construed as even remotely nice, they would shoot a smug look at the other.

So you resolutely ignored them both, focusing your attention on Thor’s vivid descriptions of Asgard to the kids or Laura’s stories about the farm to a fascinated Vision. You conversed and laughed the afternoon away, paying attention to everyone happily, engaging in conversations and jokes. As your mood got brighter and happier, Sam and Bucky’s got steadily lower. You overheard Laura tell them to knock it off and stop competing for your affection but they didn’t appear to get the message.

As evening fell, Clint set a campfire that everyone gathered around and Lila and Copper taught you, Thor and Vision how to make smores. You and vision couldn’t quite get the hang of it but Thor did so you kept pointing out random things behind him and stealing his smores. He knew exactly what you were doing but very graciously pretended he was oblivious.  

As the night wore on, your tiredness crept in. You hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before and you’d had a long day so inevitably you nodded off in front of the campfire.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bucky’s heart was sinking in his chest as he gazed across the fire at you dejectedly. He hadn’t even been able to make it a full hour, let alone a day before messing things up with you. You point blank refused to talk to him and every time he tried to get closer to you or do something helpful Wilson was there to get in the way.

He watched as your eyes got heavier and you started blinking slowly at the flames. Your head dropped down and your breathing evened out.

“Maybe we should think about heading back, everyone’s getting tired.” He muttered to Steve, nodding in your direction.

“Some of us more than others.” Steve chuckled.

“I’ll take her to the quinjet, she can sleep on the way back.” Bucky told him, getting up and making his way round the fire towards you.

Of course Sam had beaten him to it, of course he had.

“I’ve got her birdbrain.” He snapped.

Sam glared at him, pausing with his arms stretched out towards you.

“I don’t know if you noticed Barnes, but all those months you were making her life miserable I was the one carrying her to bed when she fell asleep. I’ve got this.”

“Just wouldn’t want you to put your back out is all.” Bucky snarked.

“You saying she’s heavy?”

“What? No, that’s not what I… Fuck you Wilson.”

Sam grinned victoriously and gathered you up, holding you bridal style. You turned your head and nuzzled into his shoulder, fast asleep.

“Bucky.” You said softly in your sleep.

Sam and Bucky froze, looking down at you. Sam sighed heavily and his shoulders drooped.

“Alright fine. But I swear to god if you hurt her Barnes, it won’t be Tony you have to worry about.” Sam vowed, gently transferring you to Bucky.

Bucky cradled you to his chest firmly, his heart already feeling lighter just by holding you.

“The last thing in the world I want to do is hurt her.” He said softly.

Sam nodded, satisfied and left him alone with you. Bucky held you against himself, careful not to jostle you as he carried you back to the quinjet and laid you down on the seat with your head on his lap. He stroked your hair gently and closed his own eyes while he patiently waited for the others to arrive so they could fly back to the quinjet.

He’d let Sam carry you back to your room when they landed, Sam would make sure you got back safely. And maybe when you woke up, you’d forgive them for being so stupid.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Kotonok, wake up.” Natasha’s voice pierced through your dream.

You jerked into a sitting position, looking around. You were on the quinjet.

“We were on out way back to the compound when we got a call from the UN. We don’t have time to drop you back off, we need to get to D.C.” She explained as you frantically rubbed the sleep from your eyes.

“Whas going on?” You mumbled.

“Aliens.”

That woke you up. Natasha held out something to you and you took it, puzzled. It was the tactical suit and hood that Fury had supplied you with, though it had a few alterations. The once pure black material had two thick red vertical stripes along the chest and a thinner gold one between the blocks of red. Your suit had been Starkified but it was subtle enough that nobody would make the connection.

“Suit up.” She told you with a wry grin.

You wasted no time in pulling the suit on, hiding behind Natasha and Wanda. Steve came over as you were lacing up your combat boots.

“We need as many people on the ground as possible, stay on the fringes and don’t engage unless you have to. Your objective is to protect and escort on civilians away from the fight. Do not act to familiar with any of us. It’s unlikely we will be able to hide your presence from the UN but we can play dumb, say we don’t know who you were.” Steve told you.

“So as far as anyone will think, I’m just a masked vigilante who was in the right place at the right time.” You said.

“Exactly. There are too many civilians around, under no circumstances are you to allow Vernichtung into the fight.” He instructed you firmly.

“Got it Cap. Minimal violence, get the civvies to safety and avoid you lot.” You summed up.

He nodded once at you, satisfied you had your orders and went back to the battle strategizing. Natasha handed you a case with all your preferred weapons in it and you slipped them into the right holsters and sheaths.

“Nervous?” She asked.

“No, it’s not like I’ve never done this before.” You chuckled.

“You’ve never not been able to fall back on Vernichtung before. Or been seen by the public.” She pointed out.

You were aware of that but were pushing the knowledge to the back of your mind because quite frankly it terrified you. Vernichtung was something you despised and feared but it was always there to fall back on, if things got too bad. Now you had no fail safe, if you messed up then that was it. You couldn’t do anything about it.

“I’ll be fine.” You said flatly and pushed past her, further into the jet.

“Cap, you need me to drop out of the quinjet before you land or sneak out after you’ve all left?” You asked.

“Once we’re in the fight nobody will be paying attention to the quinjet, you can leave then. Just make sure you aren’t seen.” He decided.

You felt a hand graze your elbow and turned your head slightly to see Bucky. He gestured to the back of the jet with his head questiongly and you walked away, him following you. It was as close to privacy as the two of you were going to get.

“I’m sorry.” He breathed out.

“It doesn’t matter right now.”

“It matters to me. Never go into a fight with anything unresolved doll.”

“Fine. You need to accept that Sam means a hell of a lot to me, he’s like a brother to me. And he needs to accept that you mean a lot to me, I’m choosing to be with you because it’s what I want. Both of you need to accept that neither of you owns me, I can do as I damn well please.”

“Understood.” He said firmly.

“That’s it? Understood?” You asked in disbelief.

The corner of Bucky’s lip twitched as he fought the urge to smirk at you.

“You’re my girl now sweetheart, but only because you made me the lucky guy you gave yourself to. I know I don’t own you, I don’t want to. I just want to be with you. So will you forgive me for being so damn stupid?”

The only thing you registered was him calling you his girl, everything else was fuzzy. His girl. You felt like The Grinch when his heart grew three sizes. You were grinning up at him like a fool and he took that to mean you forgave him and in full view of everyone in the quinjet Bucky wrapped his metal arm around your waist and pulled you to him, tilted his head towards yours and kissed you breathless.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You weren’t allowed to talk to anyone over the comms unless it was an emergency but you were allowed to listen, which is how you discovered the Aliens currently invading the capital were called the Kree. They were apparently here to demand their property be returned to them. Their property being Inhumans. Humans who’s ancestors had been infused with alien DNA and who had extraordinary abilities when put through ‘terragenisis’.

They were big and blue and had guns that shot some kind of laser at people. That was all you needed to know. You stayed on the fringes of the fight like instructed, dodging past the enemy and pointing people to the best hiding spots.

You refrained from letting out a whoop of excitement when you saw the red and gold blur speeding overhead, a familiar silver blur beside him. You dad had joined the fray and he’d brought War machine with him.

You spotted two who were firing on civilians trapped in a building with a blown out window. You looked up and scanned the sky, quickly calculating who was closest and the least occupied.

“Falcon, civilians at 3’o’clock.” You informed him.

You saw him dive down towards where you had instructed and ducked into an alleyway. You could hear the sounds of people screaming a few streets away but no noises of fighting. You quickly scaled the alley wall and made your way across the rooftop towards the sound.

There were thirty or so people running for their lives away from a small cluster of Kree about four hundred yards away. The group ran past your position on the roof and you saw a little boy, no more than eight years old drop the small action figure he was clutching. The boy tried to go back for it but his father picked him up and ran with him.

It was such an insignificant thing to care about in the heat of battle. But watching that little boy crying out for his toy as his frantic father ran them further away absolutely obliterated your heart. You didn’t even stop to consider the stupidity of what you were doing or how angry the team would be if they found out, you darted out of the shadows towards the abandoned toy figure. In your haste you didn’t check the terrain properly, you didn’t see one of the Kree walk around the corner, mere meters from you.

You scooped it up and gripped it tightly, in full view of the large imposing blue alien. He grinned at you, baring all his teeth and raised his weapon. You were about to be blasted apart, for a toy. Your life didn’t flash before your eyes like you’d heard could happen, instead the last few seconds of your life slowed down as the trigger was pulled and the blinding laser beam shot towards you.

And then it was blasted backwards. The blue killer barely had any time to look confounded before the telekinetic wave charged with crackling black electricity hit him, sending him careening all the way up the street as the death wave shot towards the Kree warriors gathered 400 yards up the street. They were all obliterated, sent flying by your power.

It was all over in the space of a few seconds. Your shaking hand lowered back down to your side and you caught sight of your reflection in the window of a store front. Your eyes looked back at you from the glass.

Your eyes. Wide and full of shock and not a trace of black in them.

Like you were in a trance you turned around and walked over to the shocked civilians who were watching you with wide eyes. You held out the action figure to the little boy who had dropped it. He eagerly took it from you, a smile lighting up his whole face.

“Thank you!”

You nodded to him and turned away, walking back into the battle zone. You were so deep in shock you didn’t register the people asking who you were, or the cellphones pointed at you.

You’d just made your worldwide debut.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Just over two weeks ago I finally found the confidence to do something I had been wanting to do for a long time (at least three years) and posted the first chapter of this. The responses I have gotten to this story are mind-blowing. Every single comment, every single one is read about twelve times before I do a happy wiggle and then read it another twelve times. My confidence is so much higher right now. My general mood is just happier. I live in the middle of nowhere and I literally have no friends or family nearby, and because of this fic and the responses, I don't feel as lonely. My days have a purpose now, I don't have to just sit and mope and suffer, I can write. I just wanted you to know, every one of you has helped me in a very real way. You've made someone's life better and I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you.

On a less sappy note, what do you think the press are gonna dub the reader when they see the footage?

@nerdandproud-86 @harrison-shot-first@chook007@thejourneyneverendsx@thelostallycat@inquisitor-selvala@the-corruptor @iovher@kendrawr-kitkat@phoenix-whiskey-tears @the–real-wombat@buckitybarnes@fairislesheets@angieptt@meganjonezzzz

@dugan365 @fluffeh-kitty@memanda17@krystallynx@theonelittleone

@piscesbarnes @free-as-fishes@tarastudiesalot@captainamericasbeard

[sp4c3-0ddity]

HEY (41) "Damn auto-correct..." With Plance pls?

listen. man, dude, my friend. i know you like fluff and fun fluff is like your specialty but this fic turned into angst and for that i would like to apologize…but i hope you like it anyway??

canon-verse, ~4000 words, not proofread because i shouldn’t be awake now

warning for slight ableism?? 

Pidge couldn’t believe her luck, stranded on a huge,isolated asteroid with almost no gravitational field and no ships in sight.

(Though,of course, space was so empty that she naturally had to suffer the probabilityof getting stuck in it.)

Sheclung to a crevice on the asteroid’s surface with one hand and her feet, herhead still spinning from when the Red Lion expelled her into space. With theother hand, she fiddled with the comm in her armor, seeking a signal strongenough to contact someone - anyone- nearby, or at least within a few light-years of her position.

Stupid Lance, stupid so-called ‘valor’, stupid misguided attempt at being ‘heroic’,I’m going to kill him the next time I see him…

Pidgescowled when all she found with her comm was static, but it faltered the tickshe thought of Lance.

Quiznak, I hope he’s okay…

Herheart sank into her stomach, heavy with dread and worry. She tried to push itout of her mind - she had herself to fear for right now - but every time shereturned her attention to the task at hand, her thoughts drifted back to Lance. 

We both would’vestood a better chance if I’d stayed with you, dammit.

Pidgechecked her biometrics with her armor’s systems, and when she found nothingamiss - her life support still at full capacity thanks to the wonder of tenthousand-year-old Altean technology - she sagged, resting her forehead againstthe asteroid.

Castle on the other side of a wormhole,Galra ship blocking communications, nothing to amplify a signal or detect onethat isn’twithin range…

Empty-handedand alone, Pidge searched again.

Afterwhat felt like vargas - after her stomach growled and her throat turned parchedand her eyes drooped with exhaustion and the air her life support recycled grewstale - she found something.

Staticcrackled, louder than any other instant, and Pidge straightened her backagainst the asteroid with a start.

“Hello?” Pidge said, her voice hoarse. “Isthere anyone there? Come in, this is—”

What if they’rean enemy?

Pidgeswallowed and said, “I’m stranded alone in the middle of an asteroid field without aship. You’re the first vessel I’ve been able to hail. Can you please rescue me?”

Thestatic quieted, and Pidge’s heartbeat echoed in her ears as sweatslid down her face. She pinched her eyes shut, preparing herself to hear thesignal go dead, until:

“Give us your approximate position, lana, and we’ll be there in doboshes.”

“Well…” Pidge scanned as much of hersurroundings as she could with her cuff, letting it view the stars as she sawthem, then sent them through the same signal. “Is that enough information?”

“Oh, it’s perfect, lana!” her savior said. “Hold on.”

Theconnection clicked off - her heart skipped a beat at the sudden silence - andPidge wondered, “Whatthe quiznak does lanamean?”

Pirates.

Theship that picked her up belonged to pirates.

Theycuffed Pidge’swrists behind her back before she could so much as thank them for their rescue,before she could take off her helmet and inhale the breathable air inside.

Atleast she could savor the gravity dragging her down when her knees hit thefloor.

“You didn’t tell us you’re a Paladin ofVoltron, lana,” a humanoid alien with one eye at thecenter of his forehead said. He crossed his arms and clicked his tongue in aneerily human expression of disappointment.

“This is why,” Pidge grumbled. She tried towrench her shoulder from the grip of the part-Galra pirate that held her down,but her only reaction was to squeeze her hard enough she could feel it throughher armor.

“Well, then to the brig you go!” announcedthe cyclops alien with an unfriendly smirk. “At least give us the next varga todecide your fate.” His single eye glinted while the other pirates jeered andhonked and crowed.

Pidgestared at him with wide eyes, fear churning in her stomach and making her heartthreaten to burst its way through her ribcage. “I—”

“Save your threats and promises, GreenPaladin,” the Galra pirate said. She grabbed her arm and tugged her upright,and without waiting for Pidge to find her footing, dragged her away from thecrew.

Theyconfiscated her armor and left her only with the insulated black suit she woreunderneath, though not before Pidge slid her bayard under the thin mattress inher tiny, square cell. She tried to keep a wrist cuff too, but the pirate thatcame to collect was smart enough to count the pieces.

Shewas relieved she had the foresight and the timeto hide the bayard in a different place.

Butmuch good it did her while she was locked in a cell.

Heroptions for escape lay heavily on her mind, but the prospects were thin. She’dseen so little of the ship - not even the bridge - since coming aboard, sounless she could talk a crew member into giving her a tour…

Shecould talk a crew member into giving her a tour!

(Sheavoided thinking that it was exactly the sort of thing Lance would do.)

Pidgecould scarcely believe how straightforward it was to convince the pirate thatbrought her meals to show her around the ship.

Theship’smain engineer was a woman with unseeing blind eyes, but she compensated for thedisability with long, bat-like ears that spun towards the slightest hint ofnoise. Tall and willowy with an easy smile, she was exactlythe type Lance would go for, Pidge observed. 

(Sheignored the flare of jealousy that rose within her; now was not the time.)

Sheintroduced herself as Mara and grinned at Pidge. “You’re lucky it was Heli’s turn to cookyour first meal. If it had been my turn, you would’ve spent the next few vargaskneeling next to the toilet.”

Pidgenarrowed her eyes at the bowl of…some kind of stew, made from a starchypotato-like plant, a vegetable that looked and tastedas pungent as an onion, and a meat that she suspected was the alien equivalentof “mysterymeat”. “That’s a…relief to hear,” Pidge said.

Thistime when she spooned the bite into her mouth, she didn’tgrimace, though Mara wouldn’t have seen it either way.

Sheset aside her bowl after finishing only half of it, the scent emanating from itturning her stomach, and mused that she even preferred Coran’s cooking to this stew.

“Say,” Mara said, still lingering beyondher cell door, “are you really theGreen Paladin?”

“The one and only,” Pidge said withouthumor. “What gave it away?”

“The green armor, of course!” Mararetorted, chuckling.

Pidgeraised an eyebrow, unsure what she found funny…until she recalled that she was blind. Shefidgeted with the hem of her sleeve and muttered, “I guess it would’ve…”

“I did have a question, though,” Mara said.“Are those all the real Paladins in The Voltron Show?”

Pidgeturned her head so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. “What?”

“The Voltron Show.” Mara clasped her hands together,twiddling her thumbs. “I wondered if those were all of you or if they were justactors.”

Pidge’sjaw dropped, but she cleared her throat and wondered, “Why do you want to know?”

Marasmiled. “Iwas curious. I ama fan, by the way, and wanted to know if there would be more shows to lookforward to.”

Pidge,stunned, could only stutter, “Uh, w-well, Voltron has other things toworry about at the moment.” Like finding me…and Lance.

Herface fell, and she said, “Oh, then, maybe you could tell me moreabout everyone?”

“I…”

Pidgedecided to seize her chance.

Shesmirked - working to keep the smugness from her voice - and said, “I’dlove to tell you everything, but why don’t you give me a tour?”

Marashowed Pidge some of the inner workings of the ship - which she learned wasnamed Outlaw Heart. She gestured toevery bit and bob, every nook and cranny, with easy, pinpointing each by sound(or so Pidge assumed).

Sheobserved it all with curiosity, wondering where, exactly, her salvation lay.Sabotaging the mechanisms of the OutlawHeart and holding them hostage?

”You remind me of Hunk,” Pidge said whenMara clasped her hands together while explaining something.

“The Yellow Paladin?” Mara wrinkled hernose.

“He’s not really like he is in the show!”Pidge reassured her. “He’s actually a genius and“—she flinched when Mara hither forehead against a low air duct—”not nearlyas clumsy as you are.”

Abeat later she heard the offense Mara could take from her words, but before shecould stammer an apology, Mara grinned. “Oh, I knewI wouldn’tregret asking you!”

Hijackingthe ship for long enough to find an entity allied with Voltron and theCoalition?

”Tell me about Keith!”

“He’s grumpy and passionate and…” Pidgesighed and admitted, “He’s…not around so much anymore.”

Marafrowned. “Isthat not him in the show?”

Pidgelaughed. “That’sthe thing; Princess Allura actually played him in The Voltron Show.”

Or,perhaps, communicate with the Castle by sending a transmission from the Outlaw Heart’sbridge?

”What about the Blue Paladin? He seemsinteresting!”

“Every other fan has a crush on Shiro, butyou choose Lance?” Pidge rolled her eyes while she inspectedthe ship’s navigation and communication systems as covertly as she couldmanage. Any tick, someone else could walk in and catch taking advantage of theengineer’s blindness…

Maraheld her hands behind her back and said, “I never mentioned anything about a crush.”

“Really?” Pidge raised an eyebrow, barelylifting her attention from the comm station. Could she send a distress signalstrong enough it would reach the Castle? “Too bad, though. He would’ve loved tohear that.”

(Maybefrom anyone but her…)

“I’m sure,” Mara said doubtfully. “Are youready for the next part of the tour?”

“Oh, just a tick,” Pidge said.

Shereached for the comm, mentally running through the steps that would project adistress—

“Mara!” a new voice bellowed.

Pidgejumped backwards - and straight into the waiting arms of the part-Galra crewmember responsible for manhandling her.

“Oh, First Mate Yorik!” Mara said,straightening her posture. “I—”

“Let our prisoner onto the bridge?” The crew member - First Mate Yorik -picked Pidge up as easily as she would a pillow and threw her over hisshoulder.

Shescowled, lashing out with fists and kicks while anger made her clumsy andcareless about where they landed. But her blows proved ineffectual, the firstmate ignoring them as he leveled a furious gaze at Mara. 

“Did you not see that she was trying tosend a signal to her allies?” First Mate Yorik demanded.

“I-I didn’t—”

“Of course you didn’t!” Yorik stormed outof the bridge, Pidge bouncing in his grip. “Why Captain Nubo took on a blind engineer…”

Pidgesmacked his back and glared at the ground, blood rushing to her head. But sheyelled, “Letme go, you bastard! Let me—”

Shegasped when Yorik jerked her around and dropped her unceremoniously onto thebunk in her cell. She pinched her eyes shut and clutched her head, onlydistantly hearing the cell door slamming shut as Yorik locked her in.

“I don’t know what you said to Mara toconvince her to let you out,” he growled, “but rest assured if anything like ithappens again, you’ll regret it.”

Pidgepeeked out from between her fingers in time to see him storm away. Then shesighed and lay down on the bunk to consider her next plan.

Thecyclops alien - who introduced himself as Captain Nubo - visited her within acouple vargas of Yorik “escorting” her back, standing just outsideher cell. “I would like to apologize for my first mate’s behavior,” he said. “I’mafraid he sees you as an enemy more than most aboard the Outlaw’s Heart.”

“I wonder why…” Pidge grumbled.

“Oh, it’s not what you think, lana,” Captain Nubo said, chuckling. “He’s nevermuch liked the legitimate side of the law, Galra or not, but his mother did,and, well…”

Pidgebit her lip and guessed, “She died in the war.”

CaptainNubo hummed, not quite validating her suspicion, then wondered, “Asidefrom that, are you enjoying your stay, lana?”

“It’s better than a five-star hotel,” Pidgereplied icily. “Theywould’vemade me keep the handcuffs.”

CaptainNubo laughed, a sound that burst out from deep within his belly, and said, “Oh,if we weren’t natural enemies I might’ve asked you to join my crew.”

Pidgenarrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “Why?”

“We know enough about Voltron to have anidea of your skills.” The captain curled his dark green goatee around a finger.“We find our tech in need of update, every…legitimate party far outstripping our capabilities.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Pidge asked.“Aren’t you worried I’ll exploit that?”

“Because you haven’t already tried?” Nuboshrugged and admitted, “Perhaps I’m hoping that you’ll abandon Voltron and joinus before this is done.”

“Not a chance,” Pidge said. She stood andpaced to the cell door and met his eyes with a glare. “Voltron needs me, and I—”Ineed them too.

Butshe wouldn’tconfess to that, not to a man intent on making himself her enemy.

“Very well,” Nubo said. “I’m sorry to hearthat, lana, but I suppose I should tell you what the crew and I have decided about your fate.”

“What?” Pidge snapped when he paused fortoo long. “Spit it out.”

“It’s simple, really. For now you remainhere.”

“What the quiznak do you mean by fornow?” Pidge demanded.

“Lana,you’rea valuable commodity on this side of the universe.” Nubo smiled. “On most sides of the universe, in fact.”

Pidgeignored the sweat dampening her palms and hoped that her shock didn’tshow on her face. “All right,” she said, somehow keeping her voice fromtrembling. “Explain.”

“My crew is divided, you see,” Nubo said. “Halfwish to ransom you to some fragment of the Galra Empire, and the other halfwould prefer to ransom you to Voltron. Each has their reasons for choosing whothey will, but neither option is desirable.” 

Ransom me to Voltron…

“What about me?” Pidge said, wrapping hersweaty hands around the bars to her cell and standing on her toes. “Does myopinion matter?”

“What do you think?”

Herheart plummeted, a rock falling through the air from a great height. “I—”

“What benefits the Empire’s factions oreven what benefits Voltron can scarcely benefit my crew,” Nubo explained, hiscordial tone evaporating. “So you see what I must do? And until we decide, aprisoner you remain.”

Pidgestared at him, unable to formulate a proper response.

I could kill Lance…if he wasn’t someone’s prisoner too.

“What’s the matter, lana?” Nubo inquired, his single eye blinkingslowly. “You look like you wish to ask me something.”

Many somethings, Pidge thought, but aloud she said, “Whatdoes lana mean?”

Nubosmirked. “It’san affectionate name you would call a child.”

Theretort rose automatically to her lips, “I’m nota child, I’m—”

“A Paladin of Voltron,” Nubo conceded, “butdon’t you agree that it’s a childish thing to be stranded in space without aship or much means of communicating with your own allies?”

Pidgeblushed, averting her eyes out of embarrassment. “It wasn’t my fault,” she muttered. She curledher hands into fists as a tear rolled down her cheek.

They’llfind him first, she told herself.They have to.

“I will leave you to mourn your lot,”Captain Nubo said, “and I hope you won’t risk leaving your cell again.”

Ashis footsteps retreated down the hall, Pidge leaned against the wall. She sliddown, hugging her legs to her chest and pressing her forehead to her knees.

She’dattempt another escape soon, she promised, but first she’d cry.

Shewas ready the next time Mara opened her cell door to deliver her a meal. 

Pidgeactivated her bayard.

Itmorphed into the grapple, so silently Mara’s bat-like ears didn’t pick up on it.

Pidgeswallowed her shame, heart pounding in anticipation, and stepped behind Mara,holding the blade to her throat.

“I’m reallysorry about this, Mara,” Pidge admitted, “but I have to get back to my team. They need me.” 

Marastiffened, her ear twitching. “I understand, Green Paladin.”

“Then take me to the bridge again.”

“No.”

Pidge’seyes widened, her breath catching in shock. “What?”

“I admire your loyalty to your team,” Marasaid, “but you think you’re not the only one loyal to a crew?”

“I—”

“I don’t think you’ll kill me to make apoint,” Mara continued. “I have no doubt you’re capable if the situationdemands it, but I’m not Voltron’s enemy.”

“Y-you don’t know what I’d do!” Pidgeretorted, blood boiling with anger and her back rigid. “You don’t know what Idid to rescue my family, and you don’t know what I’d do for my team if theywere in the same danger!”

“I’m not your enemy—”

“You’re not,” Pidge conceded. She swallowedaround a sudden lump in her throat and blinked hot tears from her eyes and quiznak why wasn’t she done crying? “B-but one of myteammates is in danger and I have to go save him! What about that d-don’tyou understand?”

Marasagged. “I’msorry, Pidge,” she whispered, “but I can’t let you.”

Pidgeclosed her eyes. “You haveto, Mara. I need to see my team - all my family. I need—”She sniffed when she tasted salt on her lips. “I-I need to t-tell him I—” Shelowered her bayard and whispered, “It wasn’t his fault.”

Herbayard slipped out of her sweaty hand as she choked on her first sob.

Somethingwarm engulfed her, arms wrapped securely around her and rocking her back andforth while she cried.

Stop, shetold herself. Stop crying in front ofstrangers.

“I’ll talk to Captain Nubo,” Mara promised.“I’ll tell him you need to rescue your friend.”

Pidgebit her lip, struggling to get her sobs under control. She trembled, but Marastill held her.

“Tell me more about him,” she said, voicesoothing. “Which Paladin is he?”

“I-I don’t know anymore,” Pidge admittedwith a shaky laugh. She rubbed her itchy eyes and added, “But h-he’s more thanhe seems…”

“Captain Nubo wants you brought to thebridge.”

Pidgeopened her eyes. She’d been trying to sleep since Mara left, but between the promiseand her fear for Lance, she hadn’t managed more than a restless doze.

Soshe sat up and faced First Mate Yorik.

Heunlocked and opened her cell door with a creak of metal hinges. “Whatare you waiting for, Paladin?” he demanded when she just looked at him. “Thecaptain wishes to speak with you.”

Pidgeblinked, her brain sluggish and exhausted, but as she processed Yorik’swords her breath caught in her throat.

Hopereignited.

Pidgeshot to her feet and skipped to the door. She tried to slip past the firstmate, but he caught her arm and pulled her back.

“What’s your rush?” he asked, narrowing hiseyes.

“The sooner I return to my team, thesooner—”

“Nothing’s decided,” he reminded her. “AndI never said anythingabout your return.”

(Well,it was obvious where he stood…)

Pidgeglared at him but accepted his escort up to the bridge.

“What changed?” she demanded, her gazemeeting Captain Nubo’s. “Was it just what Mara said?”

CaptainNubo grinned, a mischievous glint in his eye. “We are not so different, you and I, yourteam and my crew. And to hear the rumors, even one of yours is part-Galra.” Heblinked - or maybe winked; Pidge couldn’t quite tell when he only had one pairof eyelids - and said, “Or, if you wish to believe I was moved by yours tearsand had a crisis of conscious, I won’t stop you.

“So…how would you like to make a deal withus, lana?”

Herheart sank; of course it couldn’tbe so easy…

“That depends,” Pidge said, though a partof her desperately wanted to accept whatever deal he offered, if only it meantfinding Lance and the rest of her team safe. “What do you want?”

Nubosighed. “Perhapsyou can guess.”

“A…ransom? I’m sure that can be arranged.”

“All right.” To her amazement, he agreedeasily, but… “I will send a transmission telling we have the Green Paladin.”

“Wait, I need to reassure them that I’msafe and that this isn’t a trap, Captain,” Pidge said.

CaptainNubo considered her, frowning slightly. “They must pay your ransom before wedeliver you then.”

“Great!” Pidge grinned, her heart alreadypounding and the words she would say rushing through her head.

“In GAC.”

Pidgeslumped. “Wedon’t…the Coalition doesn’t deal in GAC.”

“Then I’m afraid—”

“Wait!” Pidge said before Nubo could domore than turn his back. She wrenched her arm from First Mate Yorik’s firm gripand stepped towards the captain at the comm station. “I-I can upgrade your ship’ssystems instead, and maybe even convince Princess Allura to give your crewamnesty - or, well, maybe convince her to try to convince the Coalition to giveyou amnesty because frankly I hatepolitics and I have no—”

Yorikcleared his throat, cutting her off.

Pidgesmiled sheepishly at the captain. “I can’t promise more than to talk to her.”

“Well, that is as much as Mara promised you…andif you do fix our systems that would be enough.”

“AfterI contact the Castle of Lions,” Pidge insisted.

“Very well.” Captain Nubo made quick work -quick enough that Pidge suspected he’d already prepared it - setting up atransmission. “I’m afraid it’ll be text-based correspondence in the Galrascript. Can you manage?”

Pidgebit her lip. It was scarcely ideal, but… “Fine,” she said. “They can translate it.”

UnderCaptain Nubo’ssingle watchful eye, Pidge composed her first message:

Allura, it’sPidge. I was captured by pirates and they want to make a trade. Ask me toverify.

Pidgetapped her foot, her hands sweating while she waited for a reply that camefaster than she dared to expect:

Pidge! Verify:  what did you name the Galra droid youreprogrammed?

Pidgesighed, freed of a burden, as she wrote back:

I named him Rover. Allura, is everyonesafe? Do you know what happened to Lance?

Everyone is safe, Pidge. And we recoveredLance. He’snow recovering in a healing pod. The first thing he asked when we found him wasif we’d found you, so I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you once you return to us.

Pidgecovered her face in her hands and muffled a laugh, but not before irritationtook hold again when she remembered how, exactly, she and Lance got separated:

Good, because when he’s awake I’m going to kiss him.

Do you want me to tell him that if he wakesup before you get back?

Bloodrushed to her face when she reread the message she sent. “I—what—no—”She hurriedly corrected:

Wait no don’tI meant that I’m going to kill him! Damn auto-correct…

Herheart pounded wildly - quiznak, it neverbeat this fast even when she was in danger! - while she waited for Allura toreply again:

I asked Hunk what auto-correct is. He’s not convinced your statement was amistake.

Pidgelonged to return to her cell and bury her face in a pillow, where no one couldsee her red cheeks or hear her frustrated scream.

[fantroll-purgatory]

@kyuremus

FIRST: Alternia (slight au- she’s not only a sgrub player, but the age for troll banishment has risen.)

Name: Astium Umoora! As she’s a fairly new troll of mine, I actually remember her name reasoning! Astium comes from astigmatism, as her eyes are a main theme. Her smaller 4 suffer from a severe case of this. 

Umoora is pretty basic- Umora means fatigue in bulgarian. She’s pretty angry-tired thanks to a large mess of bullshit she deals with frequently.

I think this all works pretty well!

Age:7 sweeps.

Strife Specibus: Umbrellakind. Truth be told, she’s kind of scared of incredibly sharp objects. However, she needs some sweet, sweet long-distance, as an able-bodied Tavros might stand a chance in a fistfight. Umbrella kinda sounds like Umoora, but that’s something I only noticed right now. The second I’m typing this. The tip of it is rather sharp (because fear aside, she needs stabbing ability), but keeping it open usually protects her from accidentally stabbing an eye or three out. 

Oof… I’m almost tempted to recommend bbgunkind just to make a “you’ll shoot your eye out kid” joke. But given her fearful nature she might not be particularly fond of the idea of using that. 

Maybe a jaws of life/claw grabber instead? A not especially destructive jaws of life. It’s something that isn’t particularly sharp, has some range on it, and that she could use to restrict an enemy in order to give herself a much-needed advantage. It’s also a nice nod to her scorpion relation.

Fetch Modus: 

This is a weird one so bear with me, but Lotus Seed Modus. Basically a little grid that looks a bit like a Lotus Seed Head (Don’t look it up if you have trypophobia, because it’s basically the very common plant pattern that activates that response). She has to fill up the entire pod before she’s allowed to retrieve any items, basically. Pretty simple, but it ties into her interest!

Blood color: Teal

Okay… I do have to say that I might want to change her to Cobalt. If only because eye mutations are sooo common among that caste. I don’t see why it Couldn’t happen with a teal, but. Nothing in her personality Particularly sells me on teal, since she doesn’t have a particularly strong moral position. She at least has a little touchstone with the Cobalt bitterness towards people who are better positioned than her. Also the scorpion association. 

Symbol and meaning: Limini- Derse+Doom

You seem to be riding a lot on her doom power for her theme, so I feel bad about this, but… her personality honestly fits Rage just a little better for me? I usually wait until getting to the title section to address this, but I do want to talk about it here just to get it out of the way ASAP. 

Her anger, fear, paranoia, aggression towards others, dissatisfaction with the current reality… I do agree with her being a dersite, though. 

So depending on blood type, I might change her symbol to either… 

Trolltag: destinedTrypophiliac. Destined is a hint at three things: Her eventual playing of Sgrub, her doom aspect, and some of her specific lil doom powers that’ll be below! She truthfully enjoys trypo-things, due to the nature of her face, she’s both intrigued and comforted by the patterns of small holes.

I think this could still work out even with my change because of her fatalistic nature. She has this perceived terminality that goes along well with the aspect. I also like that it kind of implies she was destined to be super into small hole patterns.  

Quirk: I’m that anon from before- her quirk is a pain in the ass, and she knows this. That’s actually the reason for a good chunk of it, however, she chose things that both kinda looked like holes+eyes. U=☋, N= ☊ and a=∴. She’s got hella vision, so reading this shitshow is a breeze. She talks in all lowercase unless HEATED, and uses punctuation. She also substitutes the word ‘eye’ into anything that rhymes, even if the end result is kind of silly. (reyeght, meyene, etc.) “yo☋ ∴ll f☋cki☊g s☋ck. ”

Haha I love it. It’s definitely a pain in the ass, but I’ve seen way worse. Honestly if you wanted to make it worse, you could replace o’s with ö‘s. Just litter that fuckin quirk with dots.

Special Abilities (if any): I’m sure I mentioned something about eyes. She doesn’t have vision Xfold, but rather, 20/20 eyesight to the highest power. While each small eye on its own is pretty awful, when every single one is open and working, she can make out crisp details as far as she can see.

I do kind of like this, because it reminds me of the nature of various insect eyes. Their smaller eyes tend to be less detailed and focus on things like light/dark, heat, or movement, but when used in combination with more complex eyes they help create a thorough image. Scorpions in particular have really light sensitive eyes. 

I think that’s something you should maybe play with with her. Scorpions can travel by starlight at night, so maybe she’s Really good at tracing light. But also make her really, really hate harsh light. She can still be great with Detail, though. 

She’s got underdeveloped doom abilities. As Terezi was able to use her mind abilities pretty well w/o god-tiering, I’m applying this here. It’s pretty basic, but she’s pretty good on picking up vibes. That’s about it. She has a dislike for a lot of trolls, but she’s only truly scared of some. She doesn’t understand how she makes this difference. 

I think you could still work this with my change- If you wanted to keep it for doom I might adjust it to her being able to sense impending threats in general? Not being able to note the danger surrounding particular trolls, just particular Moments where she or someone else is About To Experience Danger. 

If you go with my Rage change, though, you could have her be able to sense the threat inherent to each individual. Though her perceived threat might be slightly skewed by how much she was Already scared of them.

Lusus: Scorpionmom! Small, angry, the obligatory eye thing- but you can squish em if you’re fast. Astium is vulnerable behind all her yelling.

Personality: She seems like the kind of troll with anger issues. Moreso than most. She’s violently aggressive towards those above her in hemospectrum, but only when guaranteed protection behind a screen. All of this stems from a crippling fear she lives with, however- she is a mutant. It’s not the worst mutation in the world, her blood is teal, and she’s more than functional. Her four smaller eyes developed AFTER her lusus adopted her. They kind of.. burst through the surface of her face, and scorpionmom noticed those bumps. Otherwise, she probably would’ve been culled. (It also changed the pattern of her horn. This was initially just me forgetting which way the red-orange-yellow went, but I rolled with it.) She can’t compensate her mutation with physical strength or cool calculations, and her fear is at fault. There’d be no reason to spare her at the time of drafting. She’s aware that the wrong highblood could end her life in a second, so she tries to compensate this by coming across as impressively scary enough to ward them off. This is also just a side-effect of fear. She’s kind of a coward face-to-face, and she’s disgusted with herself for this. As a mid/highblood, she expects herself to have the natural anger and strength of somebody her caste, but is as weak as the rust spectrum, minus the cool psychic powers. 

Now here’s my least favorite part of having to step in- I think you have some misconceptions about Alternian culture. Since it’s an AU, you could definitely adjust things to suit your needs across the universe… But since you haven’t specified a particular change in this regard, I’m going to discuss this as we know it in canon:

Eye mutations are pretty normal on Alternia, it would seem. Her having extra eyes isn’t enough to have her immediately culled. It might even be common enough to not be particularly notable. In fact, most ‘mutations’ or even disabilities might not even be instantly cullable offenses- the only things we really know for sure result in culling is blood mutations and a failure to provide genetic material for the filial pails. 

Alternia definitely has a “the strongest survive” mentality, but it Also has an “adapt and live” mentality. Tavros’ paraplegia didn’t put him on the chopping block and he implied he still had hope of becoming a member of the cavalreapers. Terezi was completely blind and she was still gunning for the job of legislacerator without having to worry about being culled for her disability. 

Now, I DO… still want to work this for you. So I think you can definitely argue that if she’s particularly frail on top of her eye mutations she might be culled? 

I have two slightly more interesting options for you, though: 

1. She could survive drafting, and would get shipped off planet, but because of her various issues she probably wouldn’t get a high ranking position and would probably just be tossed out as cannon fodder. She’d be a low-ground grunt and her likelihood of survival wouldn’t be particularly high. So she’s still terrified of this fate- she doesn’t want to be some first wave scouting grunt that gets killed in the first fight. This still justifies her fear and anxiety around the whole thing. 

2. She BELIEVES that she’ll be culled at drafting time despite it being untrue. She really, really, genuinely is convinced of this being the case, and is terrified of it. People try to reassure her that this won’t happen and provide examples, but she is just REALLY, STUBBORNLY sure that it’s absolutely the case and that all of their examples are just Government Lies meant to placate the masses. 

When it comes to quadrants, she has the maturity of a grub. Astium hasn’t a CLUE how to healthily establish one- dealing with her feelings is confusing and absolutely terrifying. She’ll also go ham if she gets her “veyebes” from a friend’s quadrantmate, which can really hurt Astium’s relationship with the original troll. However, this isn’t too much of a focus. She’d rather be single for as long as possible. 

I love this. The idea of her trying to warn her pals that a quadrantmate has Threatening Auras is intriguing and the dynamic it could create w/ relationships is nice.

She can also be kind of an idiot about small things, with the stuff said above being prime examples. Covering her eye mutation is.. not her strong suit, despite her fear of being found out? Her eye-quirk is too natural, despite her multiple attempts to get out of the habit. Words feel wrong if not spelled with eye puns.

Astium pushes herself away from most, and this has wound up having her be quite needy and lonely, so she can certainly come across as overbearing and somewhat annoying to anybody who strikes her interest, platonic or romantic.

She loves the word fuck.

She’s a great character! I think if you want to keep her a teal, though, you need to give her a kind of moral touchstone… I think a fascinating one for her might be a sort of “might makes wrong” worldview as a contrast to Alternia’s usual “might makes right” way of doing things. Basically have her fundamentally distrust people who are strong and assume they’re in the wrong/always blame them.

Interests: 

COOKING SHOWS (it’s a small aspiration to become a chef.)

PLAYFUL SPARRING

TRYPO-GALLERIES

HOPEFULLY, A NONVIOLENT CAREER.

VIDEO GAMES ARE COOL SOMETIMES.

The idea of a troll having a nonviolent career aspiration is so fun. Good luck, baby girl, you live on Alternia… Maybe you could give her a theoretical interest in gardening just because of her trypointerest? Or you could make her like Mushrooms. Mushrooms are pretty easy to plant, so she could even grow them in her hive! 

You could also have her practice some escape artistry nonsense. Preparing to run away from the culling drones. Building a panic room. All kinds of fun stuff. 

She could also be interested in getting in Arguments Online. Yelly Online Personality Who Is Mad. An Internet Skeptic For Trolls.

[These are the ones I have the most trouble with?]

Title: Witch of Doom

Witch of Rage could be a fun title for her… The active changer of rage, allowing her to actively manipulate and change the negative emotions that others feel, altering the levels of pessimism, able to generate torment and worry while passively understanding optimism and figuring out how to flex her own negative feelings to the mold of reality… 

But I also think Knight of Rage might be a good possibility to consider? Starting out surrounded by and overwhelmed by all this anger and fear and paranoia. And then having to learn how to exploit and utilize those feelings effectively instead of allowing them to consume her and everything around her.

Land:Plush and Night. Plush is both her direct inverse and secret wish, and night is simply so she struggles to see- her one strength.

Trolls are nocturnal, so her having difficulty seeing in the dark doesn’t make much sense for her species! Plush and Day might make more sense, both biologically and with her having a scorpion mom and with the eye light sensitivity thing I mentioned. 

Dream Planet:Derse

Sorry if this is too wordy/comes across poorly, this is my first time ever submitting a troll for review!! 

Don’t worry, it was the prefect amount of wordy. Sorry my review got wordy in turn, haha! 

Now let’s have some design fun!:

So we have here a teal and a cobalt redesign. 

Horns: For the teal I shortened them a little just because with teals the horns never seem like the main attraction. They’re always relatively understated. I kept them the same on the cobalt, though. 

Hair: I kept it the same for the cobalt, too, but I wanted to make it messier on the teal. My concept when designing her was basically “really exhausted grad student who is a disaster mess and rarely leaves their room,” since teal designs seem to occupy a niche grad student genre. 

Eyes: They seemed just a little too small for the style. I removed the eyebrows to do away with crowding and then made the main set and the lower eyes larger. I also added eyelash definition. And, of course, the undereye bag shadows! 

Mouth: I wanted to give her some bigger, scarier fangs. Mostly so she’d fit the definition of someone looking like they have a temper more. It also makes her look a little like spidermom’s face which is fun. A nice arachnid reference. I gave her some black lipstick on the teal version and some cobalt on the cobalt. 

Shirt: I made her tanktop a little flowerier and less put together. I also adjusted the outline to be more visible. New symbol, of course. On the cobalt I just added a jacket over top of the tanktop. 

Legs: I edited one of fan-troll’s sweatpants sprites to again fit that exhausted image you wanted for her. I also turned her shoes into slippers, though I kept the blood accent on each.

Thank you for sharing! She’s pretty great!

-CD

[ts-nightingaleislands]

Episode #10- “Is Cheatham actually high regularly or is it just a figment of his imagination?”- Sara

that was such a HARD tribal for me. i loved having noah on my side and stuff but also i know he would be one of the ppl to make a big move on me if he stayed . its getting harder and harder for each vote . i just gotta stay focused and hope my alliance stays strong another round or two . tumblr survivor gods i hope your pulling for me!

Austin and Vincent have to be testing me. I dont get why Austin is playing dumb with me or why he act like he didn't know. According to Vincent Austin was in on it. I mean regardless I know who Im just wanting to stick with but yeah, the weird jumped out. Cheatham is also saying this was a week or so then went MIA so thats cool

(LATER)

Austin and Vincent are coming off super sketchy. I mean it is nothing new with Austin, but Vincent oof. I dont mind it all that much because of who I prefer to go with, but it is interesting. If these guys are coordinated then, well, seems uncoordinated

(LATER)

So right now Austin, Cheatham, and Vincent have added me to a chat I guess to work together. I actually worry I am not Natalie Anderson, but Sierra Dawn Thomas Worlds Apart. Nonetheless, I think its smart for me to wait til F7 or so to make the move against Austin/Cheatham. I can't allow enough time to pass for the idol to bite me in my butt!

(LATER)

I now see that Austin probably thinks he can manipulate me, so I have to time when I vote him perfectly. Him feigning ignorance on the Noah vote tells me he likely feels I'm naive enough to believe him and hey people do prefer to keep the ones around they feel are lesser than themselves!

(LATER)

Ive had a change of heart- I think now Kyle is going to get dragged by people, however, I strongly believe he would choose me over anyone so its just a matter of navigating 6 tribals

Inane ramblings from Vincent's cf, dated 3 AM on December 26, formatted terribly bc this cf is dated 3:06 AM on December 26: >i'm looking ahead to the future >austin is likely going to want liam out >bc when he said he wanted to make a move he'd have to mean one of them >them being liam/am/sara >and as far as i can tell liam is being perceived as the glue >so if he goes then am/sara become lone wolves who are easier to manipulate >however if liam stays then the other one, maybe am, is linked with them and they will be mad at austin for doing this >so those are numbers on our side >my previous boot order (EDITOR'S NOTE: never discussed in a cf, but will be discussed at length later) changed due to the unexpected development that austin is willing to flip on his group >however i'll note now that there is a very good chance he's faking >although if he is i can't imagine why he'd put his true allies in such blatant danger when kyle is literally right there as a vote >*person to vote >so let's say 5-3 vote up next >me/cheatham/austin/chris/kyle all against liam's trio >ideally voting out sara >bc she is the messiest and the one i trust least >my goal will be to convince the others that this is the best vote >liam and i are good and he is my decoy f2 >too early for goat stuff but am is a better goat than sara imo >just keeping my options open >liam/cheatham/annmarie could easily each be in my f2 >but not in a "ideal f4" way >so if austin is with me for this vote then he should at least appear to establish further connections with me >he can't do anything without one of chris and cheatham >or kyle i guess >kyle is easily the most expendable of those 3 >so to limit austin's options we need to vote kyle >we >my old boot order is more or less the same >just kyle vote goes from getting austin's trust back to weakening him >then at f6 cheatham chris and i stick together >vote out am unless liam becomes dark horse threat >f5 austin goes >f4 chris >f3 liam >then maybe i win >wow this seems so real >like usually in orgs when i'm at the merge im like'well maybe it's still possible that i could maybe end up at the ftc but lmao imagine getting votes' >oh no i'm becoming overconfident >wow meeting noah in jury again is going to be awkward huh No matter how I place this is honestly one of my better confessionals. Either full of dramatic irony and I look stupid or I win and I look good. One outcome is significantly more likely than the other, of course. But neither isn't so bad, is it?

God I feel this challenge is gonna stir up so much shit! I just hope my target dont get bigger because of it.

Where I stand now is that Austin is very willing to have Kyle go this round quote unquote, but what is to say he may not actually want somebody else? It is interesting seeing him discuss his perception and everything. I guess he cannot help but try to downplay himself, but I feel the ship has sailed for him and now it is only a matter of time. Watch him pull a W

(LATER)

I can't wait for someone to get offended by this Touchy Subjects challenge. I know I won't. If anything, I'll just adapt with it! I also feel like now, it's important to see how AnnMarie and Sara handle things from here on out- either they're willing to try and go for Austin/Cheatham/Vincent, or they'll settle for Kyle. If this happens to go the way I think, I may end up as a potential swing in F7, but I sure as heck am not about to be like Miss Sarah Lacina Cop-Turned-Criminal in Cagayan. No Ma'am! I'm not ever feeling safe until I'm sitting in the Final 2

(LATER)

So Austin asks me for a name and I am like ok I dont mind if it is Kyle unless you guys are up to do someone else. Austin proceeds to say he wants to have options and just wants a name and I'm. It really feels like a bit of a bait just to go to X to say I said their name. I could be wrong but its just weird becaise I haven't heard him say a name yet

(LATER)

Austin! Do not think that Ive forgotten your leaky faucet ways! Like that's the odd thing about it- Austin has shown what he is capable of and it is just weird of him to press about this when I know he has lied to me before. Like right now I literally told him I am fine with anyone going and his response was to know who I actually want out. I really don't know what he wants me to say other than a name to implicate myself but nuh uh! Not I!

(LATER)

The way it looks, I can make the move to get Liam out but I highly doubt I will last much longer. All it will take after that is to say Chris did X lets do him  and so I want to try and wait at least to chat to Kyle. I also want to see how willing AnnMarie and Sara are willing to talk about this vote instead of waiting. I definitely do not want Cheatham/Austin/Vincent all in F6 or at worse F5 however that is easier said than done for this lot

Wowza, Cheatham is playing hard now. SO, basically the votes are supposed to go 6-2, Chris being voted out. Now I do not wanna go any further with Sara, AM, and Liam bc they will take out me and Austin first. So I talked with Chris and now there is a 4 person alliance with Austin, Me, Chris, and Vincent. Im going to use my idol on Chris and then Chris and Kyle will vote out one of the others. Kyle is a wild card and we don't wanna tell him EXACTLY what's going on because he is kinda crazy. So we are thinking about having Vincent vote with Chris to ensure that one of the others go home. This is yet again ANOTHER big move on my part. Im getting worried that people will think that I'm the biggest threat with MORE idols in my hand and doing all the big moves. All I can do is wait. If I keep winning individual immunity like this week then I'm golden.

I think I've had an epiphany and it took talking to Cheatham to figure it out. Apparently I am the vote for tonight, though he wants to do something I've been wanting Cheatham to do in this merge and that is take advantage of the idol system- in doing so he gains a lot of leverage and I felt disppointed that he wasn't optimizing it. Having that said, I think I got a little sad because he told me people feel like I never give a name and truth be told I don't and it is a mistake on my end. I feel like I'm so scared to say a name because it failed miserably for me in the first half of this game and now that I don't do it anymore, people use it as a reason to vote me out. I do feel like its like I can't win with these people, but I want to change as much as I can to give myself a chance

(LATER)

HI am seeing that Austin, Cheatham, and even Vincent legitimately want to work with me and so perhaps I should consider going with them. The question with this vote is how I do I go about it. I've already named Sara because I have the most reason to do her AND I know Austin/Cheatham lowkey wanted her so its a win win for all of us, but it would be interesting to split it if the idol were used on me. Regardless, I just want this to end greatly for me, be that new start to a Chris that has what it will take to make it to the end and win.

I have...lots of questions right now... Am I being voted out tonight? Wouldn't surprise me. Does AnnMarie have a f2 w/ Austin? Cuz I accidentally caught her in something the other day where she told me she knew Austin was asking others for finals. But it might have been an accident because I mentioned that Austin asked for us 2 in a f3 with him....never said f2. Is Cheatham actually high regularly or is it just a figment of his imagination? Why do people get weird and quiet when they're planning a blindside or change loyalties? I literally brought this up to Liam last night a while after results. Gwen/Rizo/Chris did this exact same thing. It's Survivor. Lie and make a move if you have to. I'd respect that a whole lot more. Ignoring people is just shit jury management and I'll totally call Cheatham out at tribal now if I go! At least Vincent gave me an ANSWER! *Giggle* And also...is Austin actually that nice or is it game? Cuz I lit dunno if I'll ever be able to write his name down if that's really his personality. x)

Cheatham wants to invent a situation in which he would play his idol and gain full access to two others. This really feels like a resume padding thing more than a legitimate move out of necessity, because we have the numbers to vote out our target now, and there's no reason that would change any time soon. To me, this solidifies that Cheatham really can't make it to the end, just like Austin. Ideally I want to be able to choose between Liam and Chris because I think I have an ok shot against them both, and it's reasonable for both of them to make it very far. Of course it's the final 8 so it's still way too early to think about the end, but I definitely can't take Austin or Cheatham with me bc they both have a good shot at winning against me.

Sara me and Liam are apparently a strong group so there are plans to usurp our place on the throne! I'm watching a documentary about Queen Elizabeth while writing this. Cheatham apparently wants us gone as well, which hurts. I thought he was with me. I guess not. That is all.

So this round is insane, originally it was gonna be Chris but apparently Cheatham is gonna idol him so we’re having to take out the biggest goat in this game, which is so annoying, but if it must be done to save Sara so I have a shot at making it to the end then so be it. There’s still so much game to play so I need to make the most outta it.

5 votes Kyle (w/ self-vote), 2 votes Sara, 1 vote Chris (negated by idol.)