#the link is just to the page of blue ponies

[dailyg3]

Daily G3 My Little Pony is: Whistle Wishes! ♡

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, March 2, 2025

Silent Hill 2 update: If you sneak over to my Patreon, you can watch the first commentary video already (I'll be replacing it with an updated version). I’m still working on the timestamp writeup (links, sources, etc.) and, uh, that updated version with some corrections at the end. I’ve also been formatting the writeup for Tumblr and, uhhh.... it’s like four posts. It’s honestly just embarrassing. But I know what the carving on the church door you might not even notice says, I know why all the oscillating fans are turquoise blue, I’ve found a thematically relevant Goya painting hidden in a shop you don’t even have to enter, and now we all have to suffer for it. 

The second video’s been recorded but isn’t uploaded anywhere, and I’ve finished taking notes for the writeup. I’m taking so long that I might honestly just clip out a few excerpts and put them on my YouTube channel (I have a YouTube channel) (in theory).

(Yes, watching other people play video games IS a valid way to enjoy them, and it’s how I got into playing in the first place.)

Meanwhile: I just wanted to address the idea that medication obscures your real personality, and I ended up writing a memoir.

Reblogs of interest

It was a bad week for celebrity deaths: Roberta Flack ("Killing Me Softly"), after two years diagnosed with ALS; Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy, Gossip Girl), after a prior liver transplant; and then, under circumstances that still haven’t been explained, Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa.

Now, it’s important to know about the political protests happening in the U.S. (and I hope people run HARD with “Impeach President Musk” for maximum in-fighting), but it was “Vermont insults” that gave me the most joy.

"NASA released the clearest pictures yet of our neighbours in the solar system"

What Queen Nefertiti may have looked like in real life, improved

Microsoft is shutting down Skype

Joann Fabrics is going out of business (+ online alternatives)

“YOU FREAKS CRASHED THE DASHCON SITE AND THEN SOLD OUT THE TICKETS IN UNDER 30 MINUTES” (“I need you all to understand this is a post from February 22, 2025”)

“Help your local library; get books out even if you know you can’t read them all!”

Ursula K. LeGuin: “As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation”

This full-series retrospective of Animorphs, however brief, is so unhinged that I went and legally downloaded the entire set of books. 

“Good night to only the team names at the Seattle women’s hockey club” (personal favorite: Rink Pony Club)

Sometimes I wonder what the Victorians would think of “naked” dresses. Anyway, I really like Elie Saab

All they know is charleston, shake cocktail, eat hot chip & lie

“stop what you’re doing right now and look at archaic period terracotta fox scratching its head”

“The bath house duck spirits from Spirited Away, taking a dip in this lava lamp”

Tumblr: Where “Pelican Childcare” is inherently funny

Crow Time: Business bird

Gorgeous Dominique Ramsey art with a Langston Hughes quote

Grocery cats (“but then you scroll down and it’s like oh, there’s a team of cats ringing up that lady’s tea and jam”)

Look this bunny in the eyes and you will understand why I tagged this “become ungovernable”

“where is that cat with the kind and reassuring face”

Paint me like one of your French bears

Hi. 1 quastion

Video

LOTR film fandom has been going strong for 20+ years and we’re not gonna stop now (re: Pippin’s song in Return of the King)

Zelenogorsk is sand bathing

The sacred texts

Periodic reblog: this massive catalogue of parody lyric tweets

“The neurodivergent urge to do this,” or: the origin of a very popular reaction pic

Personal tags of the week

Wet Beast Wednesday is worth a look, plus the newest Beneficent Chain Post (happiness will come to you. “When You Least Expect It. Probably Late March”).

[melonthesprigatito]

You ever just suddenly unlock a memory of something from your childhood that lay completely forgotten in the back of your mind for nearly a decade?

I just had the cartoon Puppy in my Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville pop into my head today and I INSTANTLY got flashbacks to the summer of 2011. It was on every day at 3pm after My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I watched it every single day for that entire summer, I even dragged my parents home from whatever they were doing just so I never missed an episode.

I collected all these figures and this plushie of Princess Ava (my favourite character and the reason why siamese cats are my favourite cat breed) which I DIDN'T lose, by the way, I know exactly where it is, it's buried in my toy basket under a mountain of plushies stacked on top of it and I couldn't be bothered getting it for this one photo so have a stock image instead.

Genuinely one of my favourite cartoons as a kid.

So today I remembered it and out of curiosity, I checked to see if it had a TV Tropes page and it does. I was aware that the cartoon is Italian dubbed into English. This is important and ultimately led to one of the most horrific discoveries I've ever made in my life.

Puppy in my Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville was made by an Italian company called Mondo TV. That raised alarm bells for me when I read that particular part of the TV Tropes page. I remember hearing that name in several "Worst Animated Movies of All Time" lists on YouTube

So I clicked on the blue link to Mondo TV on TV Tropes to see what else they made and…

THIS WONDERFUL PART OF MY CHILDHOOD THAT BROUGHT ME SO MANY FOND MEMORIES

WAS MADE BY THE SAME PEOPLE WHO MADE THESE

The fucking SHIVER THAT RAN DOWN MY SPINE. I can't believe that the people who made Puppy In My Pocket also made the fucking animated Titanic movies (with talking animals, nobody dying because everybody got saved by magic whales, a dog that does a rap number in 1912 and Atlantis) and that one North Korean Lion King/Jungle Book crossover soccer anime 😭

I've seen the likes of Nostalgia Critic, PhantomStrider and Saberspark tear these movies apart!

Suddenly I'm 200% certain that Puppy in my Pocket isn't nearly as good as I remember and I've decided that I won't rewatch it because I want to keep those wholesome memories and not destroy them any further.

To say I'm distraught would be an understatement

[cnidocyst]

1 or 2 robins

[IMAGE ID: Doodle page featuring Nico Robin from One Piece, mostly pre-time skip on a light gray background. All are drawn in a very cartoony style. Drawing 1: Head shot of Robin looking up with tired eyes. Drawing 2: Chest up drawing of Robin tackle hugging Franky. Franky doesn't move, but he smiles and thinks "yay" with a little smiling face next to it. Drawing 3: Robin looks at Chopper with big eyes, hands under her chin, and asks him: "What's your favorite disease?" Chopper is drawn on all fours and looks up at her like a regular animal. Drawing 4: Sketch of Robin holding 3 pistols in 3 right arms. She has a cowboy hat on and is smirking. Drawing 5: Head shot of Robin with big eyelashes, looking to the side. Drawing 6: The previous drawing with exaggerated sharp angles, eye pupils are drawn in a diamond shape. Drawing 7: Head shot of Robin with big brown eyes. There's a little highlight in the shape of a heart and rings of lighter brown around the pupil, mimicking the G3 My Little Pony style a bit. Butterflies are doodled around her head. Drawing 7: Head shot of Robin looking down at something. Drawing 8: Robin and Luffy stare at each other with wide eyes and no mouths and the caption: "Autism link" in big purple billo font. Robin is also wearing her cowboy hat and a t shirt with a cartoon armadillo on it. Drawing 9: Head shot of Robin with dot eyes, half lidded with eyebrows raised as she looks at the viewer with her smiling mouth open like she just told you a joke. Drawing 10: Head shot of Robin staring at the viewer with big eyes, no mouth, and heterochromia. Left eye is brown, right eye is blue. Drawing 11: Waist up, Robin smoking a cigarette with half lid dot eyes and is wearing her default pre-time skip clothes. Drawing 12: Shoulder up, Robin points at something with a long finger, captioned "dedo largo fleur" (Long finger flower in English). She has half lidded dot eyes and is smiling like she thinks this is funny. Drawing 13: Aokiji looks down at Robin, like he's baffled that she's even there. Robin stares at him with big eyes, panicked, and says: "What the fuck." Drawing 14: Robin holding up a middle finger with four other arms with middle fingers sprout out of her real arm. Petals fly around them and it's captioned: "Fuck you". Robin is also drawn post-time skip. Drawing 15: Robin drawn from a low angle, as if the viewer is the height of Chopper. Robin reaches down and holds a cotton candy in front of Chopper's face. She looks down with big eyes and says: "Wanna?" Chopper looks very happy. Drawing 16: Loose drawing of Robin shooting at something with blue eye lasers, and png of an explosion is used. Drawing 17: Full body of Robin in her default pre-time skip outfit. Hand on one of her hips as she looks towards the viewer with tired eyes. Drawing 18: Head shot of Robin with tired eyes and a very square jaw. Drawing 19: Head shot of Robin looking surprised, big eyes, no mouth. Her hair is colored in. Drawing 20: Head shot of Robin looking up with big eyes, no mouth. Drawing 21: Side view of Robin, chest up. She's holding a fork or spoon in her hand and is looking at the viewer, as if mildly alarmed. Her hair is colored in and there's light cross hatch shading. END ID]

[koraandnova]

Introduction!!

Yaya!! Hello all y'all people (about half a person, most likely,) since I keep seeing introductions, I decided, you know, how about I finally step up and do one myself on this godforsaken website that I never even look at. Just for fun. You get it. :3c Name(s because I have slight identity issues): My name is Kaya! I have some names some others might know me by, such as Sunny and Lyra. Kaya is generally preferred as a safe name though, and other times I'll go by Aspen or Willow. Pronouns: Pronoun Page! The link is https://en.pronouns.page/@kimikorruption , if you don't want to click. (I hope you don't mind if I have some fun from time to time on my pronoun page!)

Age: I'm not nearly stupid enough to post that on the Internet. I wish I was. Still, no NSFW if you can avoid it. What the Fuck I am: Furry. Little bit of a brony. I haven't been diagnosed, but by God the amount of neurodivergent people who have told me I am likely ADHD and/or autistic should say something about me. Transfem, ace, demiromantic, bi. Atheist, but raised Catholic. Blah, blah, blah. DNI if: pedophilia, necrophilia, weird fetish stuff, furry hate, lgbt+ hate, you get it. The works. Though I'm not sure this section of the bio will achieve anything. ⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣⌣ Okay, time for some less essential stuff. I guess it's kinda comparable to flavour for a D&D character?

Favourite Colours: Purple! Gods, I love purple. Lighter pink is kinda nice too, I guess, followed by aquamarine as a third pick. Purple just expresses a silent, beautiful protective power that I really love and hope to embody (pipedream but I'M TRYING AISFHAIOSF), and pink/blue are just pretty in general! Single!?: Yes. Though I've only ever felt attraction and confessed to one person, and rejected others, five times? I think? The only thing that could have happened is what did, so no regrets, I guess. Doesn't stop me from being a bit of a romantic, though.

Books: There are so many good books, so it's really hard to choose, but I'd have to recommend Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor for the fantasy romance girlies and Demian by Hermann Hesse because descent into insanity. Mwah. Obsessed With: Vylet Pony's music, 70s music, D&D character building, trying not to fuck up art and failing miserably, writing (burnout is a bitch though.) alright, that's the end.. hope i didn't bore you. meow. happy trixie tuesday. insert post padding here.

[sinnersandsaints-linwrites]

hey! do u have any physical descriptions of the ROs? (also hope u are ok <3)

Ah, thank you, anon, I'm okay (fairly okay at least, I'm happy to interact with all of you), hope you're doing well!

There's general physical description of them in the 'love interests' tag.

as for a detailed one, it's always tricky for me, because I generally see my character more as their personalities, backstories and aesthetics than their bodies and faces (those come always last for me), so what I'm saying is bear with me (it should be my catchphrase by now, ALSO, for all skin tones I referred to writingwithcolor, the specific post is linked in the FAQ page):

Sasha: They are 180 cm tall (6ft I believe), and their hair is platinum white, straight, reaching just above their collarbones. They have pale brown eyes, and their skin has a sand skin tone, with cool peach undertones. They have no scars nor tattoos, no piercings. They have thin lips (upper lip is basically non existent). They're not thin or slim, I'd say more stocky than anything. No defined muscles, and they're generally soft to touch. Their face is more triangle shaped, and their eyebrows are of the same color as their hair.

Sage: They are 192 cm tall (6ft 2 I believe). They have ginger red, soft curls to their collarbone, most often tied up or straightened and slicked back. Their eyes are deep brown, and they have an alabaster skin tone with neutral undertones. They have no scars nor tattoos, but high cheek bones. They're more on the muscular side, treat their body like a temple, but by no means are they thin. They have a sharp jawline, and long fingers (like a pianist).

Ariel: They are 202 cm tall (6ft 7 I believe) and have curly, chestnut coloured hair past their shoulder. They often tie it in a braid, a pony tail or a bun for convenience. Their eyes have the color of honey, and they have a golden skin tone with warm yellow undertones. They do have a tattoo; detailed black wings covering their skin from elbows, through shoulder blades to their back. They also have scars; one on the right cheek, one on left eyebrow, one on lower lip, as well as many on their torso, back, legs and arms. They are muscular, most of all ROs, and have rather broad shoulders, they're more on athletic side.

Khari: They are 175 cm tall (5ft 8 I believe) and their hair is straight, jet black and past their shoulder -- always kept in braids or a bun for safety reasons. They have deep green eyes, and bronze skin tone with warm olive undertones. They have a long, nasty scar across their neck and on the right shoulder blade. They also have two tattoos; a crescent moon on the right wrist and a sun on their left wrist, the moon done with white ink, and the sun with yellow ink. They are have curvy, but have some defined muscles.

Roan: They are 170 cm tall (5ft 5 I believe) and have raven black, wavy hair to their shoulder, often loose or kept in complicated hairstyles. Their eyes are black, and they have a golden oak skin tone with warm undertones. They have plenty of flowers tattooed on their left shoulder -- mostly forget-me-nots, buttercups, jasmine flowers, sunflowers. They have no scars, but they do have a lip piercing (lower lip, left side). They're not muscular, nor slim, really or thin. They are soft, with slightly thicker thighs I'd say.

Morgan: They are 167 cm tall (5ft 4 I believe) with coal black wavy hair past their chin. Their eyes are pale blue, and they have a tawny skin tone with cool undertones. They have a black bird skeleton in a small cage tattooed on their ribs (right side) and scars on their forearms, as well as a scar across their left eyebrow. They are slim, not muscular.

Riven: They are 179 cm tall (5ft 10 I believe) and have wavy, auburn hair barely reaching their shoulders. Their eyes are amber, and they have olive skin tone, with warm olive undertones. They have scars all over their chest and back, and a tattoo on the fingers of their right hand, the letters ACAB in black ink and simple font (they are for the idea of dismantling the police, they're passionate about that) and have a pierced right ear. They're fairly muscular, have a sharp jawline and slightly broader shoulders.

thank you for the ask! <3

[pumpkinsy0]

Remake of the one old ass model pony purly au oneshot shit show for the funsies

heres a link to the og: purly shit show oneshot

Perfect. Everything had to be just perfect. Everything about him had to be perfect. From his brunette hair, so fluffy and fine, that it takes hours for him to get it just right, but just seconds for it to all come undone. His skin so fair but riddled with small scars he can never let anyone see. His eyes an intoxicating emerald like green, in the tabloid’s eyes, but a nauseating, taunting green to him. One wrong thing and it’ll be plastered everywhere on the front page of every magazine, becoming some kind of poster boy. A jester, almost. Only there for a moment, only for a split second for their entertainment, before being thrown to the curb for the next best thing.

“That wont happen to me, everything is fine”, he told himself in the mirror everyday when he woke up. It sounds stupid, talking to his reflection about it, but who else could understand him better than himself?

But then he got close. That gutsy, headstrong, individualistic boy that the media alienated, got so close to him. Its a strange thing, to be attracted to someone who embodies your fear. The thoughts of the media and that blue and brown eyed boy raced in ponys mind leaving him with many sleepless nights.

‘What would everyone think?’

‘What would his hand feel like on mine?’

‘What would happen if rumors spread?’

‘What would his lips feel like on mine’

…

“Why do you let everyone else decide what you do?”

Thats what Curly asked him 3 days ago. He didnt have answer for that then and he doesnt have an answer for that now. The truth is, there will never be an answer, not a good one at least.

So for now, he’ll just stay behind the curtains, stay away from all the cameras ready to document his every move, with curlys arms wrapped around him.

authors note: ive had this shit in my drafts since JANUARY and i just want it out so if it seems rushed thats bc it is, i refuse to right ever again🫡

[legend-of-zelda-voices]

Compilation Post

Caitlyn Bairstow

~~

~ Thanks to @squid-ink-personal, @shirebeast, @losswoods, @the-wicked-bitch-of-the-best, @novirp13, @crowndaz, and @soflashtastic for allowing me to use their art in my collage! More info at the bottom of the page. ~

~~

First Role as Link: Cadence of Hyrule

Other LoZ Roles: (None)

Main LU character: Cadence of Hyrule Link/Rhythm/Cadenza/Tempo/Beat/Treble/etc. (Not actually in LU, but there are multiple fanmade versions inspired by LU with various names)

Alternate LU Voice for: (None)

Some characters with the same voice:

Lucky (Super Lucky's Tale), Mary (Crypt of the Necrodancer), Suna (Mega Man: Fully Charged), Glitch (Spy Kids: Mission Critical), Miss Hiss (Littlest Pet Shop: A World of Our Own), Mia (Lego Friends Holiday Special), Kobo and Shreya (Aegis Defenders), Cony and Bommbi (Line Rangers), Blue Bobbin (My Little Pony), Plink (Gigantosaurus)

...

In the game:

Cadence of Hyrule

Original Post

_______________________

Speaking

Voice Compilation (Various Voices)

She says a line as a boy character at 0:53.

Original Post

---

Lucky from Super Lucky's Tale

Some times are 0:52, 1:42, 2:39, 3:47, 6:56, 7:12, 10:10, 10:12, 10:49, 13:23, 18:00, 19:32, 19:34, 19:48, 20:50, and 21:49.

Times are 0:32 and 0:42.

Says "Come on!" in this video.

Original Post

---

Bommbi and Cony from LINE Rangers

Link to YouTube Video with Time Stamps 1:03 - 1:23

Bommbi is the one that explodes. Times are 1:04 and 1:18.

Cony is the rabbit with wings. One time she speaks is 0:38.

I think this is an episode that was made to promote an app.

This voice and the post before are the only "boy" voices that I could find by the actress.

Original Post

---

Caitlyn Bairstow the voice actress

An interview with the voice actress.

Original Post

_______________________

Singing

"Opposite's Days of Cosplay" (12 Days of Christmas Parody) from Youtube Channel

Used audiospeedchanger to see what the song sounded like when pitched down 4 semitones.

-3 semitones here

Original Post with Lyrics

---

"I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas!" in YouTube Channel Collab Video

Song is between 1:59:00 - 2:02:08, or see the video below

This is a duet between the actress and another person.

The other person tends to overpower her voice, so it's kind of difficult to hear her.

Some lines where you can hear her a little better are at 2:00:10, 2:00:14, 2:00:48, 2:01:00, 2:01:17, 2:01:25, 2:01:34, and 2:01:42.

Some lines where you can hear her a little better are at 1:09, 1:13, 1:46, 1:59, 2:15, 2:24, 2:32, and 2:40.

It was very difficult to find songs for this actress.

Original Post with Lyrics

_______________________

~~

Thanks again to those who let me use their art in the picture! It was fun to make and I found so many cool designs in all kinds of unique art styles!

If Tumblr ruins the quality of the picture as it tends to do, click on it to make it clearer. You can also check out the full pictures below.

Specific Pictures Used:

@squid-ink-personal [Here]

@shirebeast [Here] [Here]

@losswoods [Here] [Here]

@the-wicked-bitch-of-the-best [Here] [Here] [Here] [Here] [Here]

@novirp13 [Here] [Here] [Here] [Here]

@crowndaz [Here] [Here] [Here]

@soflashtastic [Here]

I used a picture from Linked Universe as the background

I also tried to edit a picture of LU Legend to look like Cadence of Hyrule Link (+Marin→Cadence) [Here]

~

These are some nice pictures I found too, but the artists didn't respond when I asked them if I could use their art / I found them after I already made the picture, so I'm not putting them in the collage: [Here], [Here] [Here] [Here], [Here]

Also, if there's a design that's not in here, I probably just didn't see it! Feel free to tell me about anything I missed!

~~

[ask-iamnotanalicorn]

The Crystal War Timeline

Equestria had already been stunned by the return of Nightmare Moon - learning that one character of myth and legend was real, was the sister of Celestia herself, proved a powerful blow to the nation. Their princess was in a period of mourning after the re-banishment of her sister, and uncertainty crept across the land.

When the Crystal Empire returned, bringing with it living shadows and mind-controlled armies, that shock was compounded twofold. 

But shock gave way to determination. Princess Celestia rose from her grief. The ponies of Equestria rallied. Peaceful ways of life had to give way to sacrifice for the good of the nation. 

At first, there was concern among the alicornis imitato; where could they serve? A few felt capable of joining the call for volunteer fighters, but found themselves rejected. Too handicapped magically. Too great a distraction. Too high a personal risk if they were targeted for their alicorn appearance; too great a chance the few with cult followings would accidentally cause dissension and disobedience in the ranks. 

Then Celestia called them in. Each one of the twelve, and their families, escorted to the castle in Canterlot under guard. For their safety, she assured them. They would bear no suspicion, they would not be harmed, and their loved ones were welcome to the same protection unless they wished to help the cause in some other capacity. And the AIs trusted her, for hadn’t Princess Celestia always made an effort to get to know each AI, to befriend them, to demonstrate to them her friendship and wish for their good?

None were aware of the ulterior motive behind this special consideration. True, keeping them safe, keeping them under a watchful eye, was a wise tactical move. But in truth, Princess Celestia had need of something else they had power over - power none of them realized was theirs:

The Guardians.

With each AI safely protected in the castle, the Guardians were now available. Twelve of the most skilled, elite agents in Her Royal Service. Twelve ponies picked for their patience, their decision-making, their stealth, and their fighting skills. Twelve ponies who had proven themselves not only strong and capable, but compassionate and rational - ponies with the rare skillset required for competently watching over, protecting - and, if need be, stopping - another pony in secret, for decades on end. And never once be found out, or require gratitude, for their service.

She had a special mission for them, if they agreed. They did. And so the Guardians gathered, trusting their charges, their foremost responsibility, to the Princess’s care.

There had been a Crystal Heart once, she told them in the secret meeting chamber. The Crystal Ponies had once powered and protected their city with its strong enchantment - an enchantment fueled by their love for one another. It had been a beacon of hope and light, a physical manifestation of the King’s love for his creatures. And Sombra had stolen it from them, filling the void left behind with his malice and lust for power.

He could not have broken it, she was certain. It must be hidden in the castle. And if they could find it... reactivate it... free the crystal ponies from their enslavement... the war would end, and no more innocent lives, lives utterly overshadowed by Sombra’s wicked hubris or laid down to defend Equestria’s freedom, would be lost.

The plan might not work. It might be too dangerous. It might be a fool’s errand.

But there was no group of ponies, Celestia felt sure, who could be more well entrusted to such a task.

-----

Welcome, one and all, to this special What If? series of “I Am Not An Alicorn!” 

This has been a LONG time in the works. I initially started brainstorming this project back in January with Reversalmushroom, as his Patreon reward for supporting me under the Resplendent Royalty tier. He asked if his comic reward could be used to give a glimpse of what life would have been like for Salespitch & Co in the seven alternate timelines created by Starlight Glimmer in the Season 5 Finale, The Cutie Re-Mark. As you can tell from the time gap, it took me quite a while to get it done, and now I’m very excited to show you all the result!

I am quite pleased Reversal wanted this for his reward, and also for his commissioning of Panel 7 - as you may or may not know, there were seven timelines, but the Patreon reward only allows for up to two pages of comic, and I could only satisfactorily fit six of these panels onto those pages. So he commissioned the seventh one out of his own pocket (and lemme tell ya, I REALLY like that one :D) Thank you again for your patronage, Reversal, and I’m glad you have been happy with the results so far!

The descriptions I’ve added are not part of the original reward; I just really like adding lore, and thought ya’ll would enjoy some further elaboration of what’s going on in each timeline. It’s not a full story, but hopefully gives you enough fun details to imagine how things might have gone. I know I have fun with that kind of thing. :D 

There will be a long post at the end with all of the timeline art cards together and links back to these description posts, but I hope you will enjoy the next seven weeks with me as we explore these different What Ifs! Also, feel free to send additional questions in about each timeline; I might answer a few of them during the week.

(And remember: no matter how dark or catastrophic things may seem... there is always hope.)

Some Fun Facts About The Crystal War Timeline/Art:

- All of Sales’ family is safe and well in this timeline. Pitch Black is the only one going into danger (and I assure you, he doesn’t die; the mission, while not without some serious roadblocks, is successful.) 

- Sales feels a little cooped up at the castle, but Celestia has people who try to give all the AIs ways to put their talents to good use, and he ends up making some solid connections with the ponies of the Department of Equestrian Commerce. He actually has some suggestions that help streamline the war effort supply lines. 

- All of the AIs in the upper half have appeared in the comic before! Some are from the MLP show, others (like the little red foal) are made up by me, and Willow Resin (the blue and blonde mare talking to Sales) was the winning entry for my Alicornis Imitato contest, created by @johndoestudios! 

- The yellow AI is based off the show glitch of Lemon Hearts that made her into an alicorn, and the sunglasses guy is obviously Neon Lights, but while this is NOT Lemon Hearts and I made a new cutie mark for her lookalike, Neon Lights is still Neon Lights. I figure he just hides his wings under his vest when he’s working with Coluratura’s shows. Also, that purple tail is one of the VERY obvious on-screen “alicorns” in the episode where Rainbow Dash goes to Las Pegasus (named Purple Rain by me).

- The ponies with Pitch Black and Celestia aren’t all named yet, but I like them all, and I named the green guy Strawberry Spice.

- The blue pegasus Guardian ended up looking so much like Agent Windigo that I decided he is her twin brother. Their real names are Storm Front and Spring Frost. I haven’t decided a codename for Frost yet, but all the top-level special agents have codenames based on dangerous creatures or constructs (i.e. Black Knight, Windigo, Phoenix, Golem, Manticore, Hydra, Chimera, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Siren, etc.) Kinda too bad his sister stole the ice monster already, I bet she ribs him about that. XD

Hope you’re all well and taking time to relax and appreciate the little joys in life! They’re still out there, I promise. :) And let me know if anyone has any prayer requests! Jesus is still Lord, and He’s never surprised no matter what craziness we run into!

~River Babble

Next Week: Changeling Times

[taiblogcomics]

Just Deserts

Hey there, taunts to your editor. Well, I'm almost out of regular issues of My Little Pony. "So soon?" you ask. Yeah, that's how these things go. But we're not quite done visiting Equestria this month! We'll see more ponies, don't you worry. it just won't be this current storyline, which isn't finished yet. And speaking of this current storyline...

Here's the cover:

No, Tempest. From your perspective, maybe there's singing. But to us readers, there's only lyrics. It's poems at best. We can't hear the music, there's no known meter or rhythm, no included CD or link to an MP3. There aren't even guitar tabs. As has been pointed out many times, music in comics just doesn't work. In fact, when we get to it, I will probably skim over it at most. More importantly, though, here's a good look at our other cast members, for those only reading these blog entries. Dust Devil's the brown and grey one way on the end, then Crystal is the purple-haired kelpie next. Following her is Cactus Rose, and Medley Brook is the splashy-looking blue kelpie. Marini still has yet to make a cover debut, though.

So last time, it was revealed that Zecora has been seeking her own magic since youth, and her devotion to it kind of ruined her potential friendships. Meanwhile in the present, a grootslang (which is a real monster, I found it in my Pathfinder Bestiaries) has been wreaking havoc all over the Farasi Coast, so both Applejack's and Marini's groups are headed into a perilous desert to check it out. Thankfully it's not a perilous dessert, or they'd regret not having Pinkie Pie with them.

Anyway, we begin with a flashback showing Zecora and her friends being huge nerds and LARPing. Zecora's the DM, and the rest are a thief, mage, druid, barbarian, and knight (based on the order I mentioned them on the cover). Unfortunately, the group can't agree on a course of action and descends into in-fighting. This is related to the present predicament because they were arguing about a desert, and it's a good thing it was just a pretend desert because they'd never get through a real one. So anyway, they're now trekking through a for-reals desert. Ah, irony. It might be even a stronger force than friendship~

Turns out both Marini and Zecora are thinking about the same incident. The pair of them end up apologising to each other, repairing their friendship slightly. The group quickly comes across a gorge, which Applejack didn't have a plan to cross. Cactus Rose decides to step up, becoming relevant to the comic for the first time. Turns out her specific abada magic is being able to talk to plants. This is kind of an underwhelming power, and it figures why she hasn't factored into the comic much until now. Anyway, Henry Crabgrass here tells her that there's a bridge further up the gorge. This seems like a problem that could've solved itself~

After some delightful banter between Crystal and Tempest Shadow, the trek continues northward towards this rumoured bridge. And while they do find the bridge, there's a roc blocking it. No, not a stone, but a giant bird. Tempest offers to use her magic to blow the roc up (Crystal encourages this), but Dust Devil steps in. Their friendly demeanor gets through, and the roc explains that she got trapped in this valley while looking for food. There's not enough headwind to get airborne, so she's pretty much been blocking the bridge out of spite. You know, I can respect that.

So Dust Devil takes off like they're the Flash and begins creating a super-speed funnel to generate lift. This does manage to get the roc airborne, but Dust Devil is not actually the Flash and does not have a Speed Force to compensate. So their attempt to stop afterwards causes them to stumble and go flying. Crystal leaps into action and uses her ice magic to create a big slide to catch Dust Devil and crash them safely into a pile of snow. Just because she's a bitter, wretched sort of kelpie doesn't mean she doesn't care about her friends, you know.

Once again, the trek continues, but suddenly Crystal collapses. She used more ice than she should have, and now she's all dried out and gross-looking. Kelpies need a water source (even an internal one) or they quickly expire. Out in a desert, though, there's not much to go on. Cactus Rose talks to some nearby cacti, and they're willing to share their water in exchange for a song. It's so very boring out in the desert, after all. Medley Brook leaps on the chance, and the promised musical sequence begins. It goes on for several pages~

The song has a dual purpose: in addition to encouraging the cacti to refuel Crystal, it also lets Zecora and Marini work through their issues. Even Crystal apologises for her bullying. So now that everything's nice again, it's time to shake things up. The grootslang suddenly leaps out of a sand dune, and the ponies scatter.

Spotting the temple they were seeking, most of them head towards that. While they're in there, Tempest and Rockhoof volunteer to stay behind and distract the grootslang long enough for the rest to find out what they need to know. Inside the temple, though, everypony's very shocked to discover... the Tree of Harmony?? And also, the end of the comic!

That’s all the story I have for you right now, but allow me to make a prediction. It’s pretty evident where this is going, isn’t it? Like, if you actually read the issue, Zecora comments on Marini’s honesty, Tempest notes loyalty as one of Crystal’s traits... Dust Devil (who is apparently non-binary and has been using they/them pronouns the whole issue) displays kindness towards the roc, while Cactus Rose generously offers a song to the cacti. And it’s Medley Brook, the silliest one, who leads the song. Hmm, those traits seem familiar, don’t they~? Just mull that thought over for a bit until we get the next issue~

Meanwhile, as for our next issue, we’re not done with magical talking horses... or their adventures with giant transforming robots~

[agirlunderarock]

How I accidentally wrote 20 page paper on Boromir for one of my Final Ever University Papers PART 2

So this took me 5ever because I had to go through my actual paper again to find the sources and the citations I had, and then throw out the academic fluffer I had to speak with. But anyway just be prepared for a long ass read because we gotta touch on nearly every source I argued with in this post before getting to the good stuff. If you haven’t read Part 1 well here it is

Okay Okay where was I?

I said that academics were wrong with how they were judging Boromir right? Is that where I left off? Well thats where I’m starting

So before I go further I need to explain that the main premise for my paper is an argument to characterize Boromir with loyalty and fear, instead of power hungry and whatever the hell used, and then throw out this good vs. evil binary that’s often used to describe the lord of the rings- because lets be real, it looks like that on the surface but everyone has their ups and downs at least once or twice, and if not within the Lord of the Rings, it comes from books that are set in previous ages. 

ANYWAY

Keep the fear and loyalty things in mind alright?

Fear sounds like an odd choice for a character I’m supposed to be defending right? I know.

We’ll get to that just bear with me. 

So in order to say that academics were wrong, I first had to look at where they were coming from and try to see what textual evidence they had. Because if you’ve done academic research, you know how important textual evidence is. 

So while finding literally nothing that focused specifically on Boromir, I found  J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia : Scholarship and Critical Assessment by Michael D. C. Drout, which I still have questions about but hey it was a good starting point. You would think that a whole Encyclopedia dedicated to Tolkien would have more than a handful of entries dedicated to Boromir. I mean mentioning him in Gondorian politics or relations with Rohan or even Boromir I instead of just Boromir II but heres the thing, IN THE WHOLE IN ENCYCLOPEDIA HE WAS ONLY MENTIONED 8 TIMES.

THE NAME BOROMIR (which in this document only refers to Boromir II) ONLY APPEARS IN EIGHT ENTRIES.

You know what those entries are? 

‘double of,’ - okay what the fuck does that mean?

 I honestly don’t remember what it means I think it had to do with character foils, you know like how Neville is a foil for Harry in Harry Potter? If I remember correctly, it identified the common foils, Gandalf v. Saruman, Frodo v. Gollum and Aragorn v. Boromir. I could be totally wrong about this, its been exactly a year and I didn’t focus on this entry.

 ‘Faramir and,’- yes we know Boromir is Faramir’s older brother. What else ya got?

 ‘herosim of,’- Ah yes sounds promising

And you think it would shed some positive light on our boy right? RIGHT? Heres what the entry said per the quote in paper “It is in fact Boromir’s desire for the victory of Minas Tirith and his own glory there in that motivates his own grasp for the ring: the heroic motivations of fame, reward, and revenge (in this case on Sauron)” ( Drout 270 ).  

LIKE EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK- sorry wait, let me show you how I rephrased that for academic purposes:  This description does not actually describe Boromir as being heroic, but later explains why these descriptions of heroism are actually evil compared to characters like Aragorn, Frodo, Gimli and the rest of the Fellowship.

 ‘penance of,’- Yet another character who achieves redemption through death. Great. I hate it. Shut up. Kill this trope.

 and finally,  ‘tyranny of.’- yes because Boromir was obviously a tyrant, but I say again SHOW ME TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

AND I’M TALKING ONLY ABOUT THE BOOKS HERE REMEMBER ALL OF THIS IS INFORMATION ON THE BOOKS. like there were entries on things from the movies, and even fanfiction, but THESE ENTRIES WERE BUILT ON RESOURCES THAT BUILT ARGUMENTS ABOUT THE BOOKS

I’m getting off track here

SO 

ANYWAYS

At the end of each of those entries were list of sources that the author used to create those entries. So guess what that meant- Ya girl was hand delivered sources to search for and hopefully they had some specific pages references for me to look up within the actual book series. At least you would think thats what I found, but NOOOOOOOOO, what I actually found is that EVERY SINGLE REFERENCED SOURCE CHARACTERIZED BOROMIR ONLY BY HIS ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE RING FROM FRODO.

Thats like living your whole life and having people who say they know you intimately (not in the romantic sense in the knows you to your core sense) BUT the only thing they really know about you is that one time in pre-school you tried to draw a rocket on the wall but actually it looked like a penis thats the only thing anyone will remember you for. I didn’t do this by the way, nor know anyone who did this but some kid somewhere probably did

But you know me at this point I had to check the sources and see what they were saying. So I took up Patrick Grant’s  “Tolkien: Archetype and Word,” where he talks mostly about Frodo. I know its a stretch BUT he talks about loyalty specifically Sam’s loyalty to Frodo, and remember we want to establish that Boromir is incredibly loyal, so we have to see what he’s actually up against according to the critics

“…Sam Gamgee, whose part is least publicly acclaimed of all, but who in the sense in which we are now using the word, is especially heroic. His unfailing devotion to Frodo is exemplary, and here again Sam is a key link in bring the meaning of the book to the reader, the everyman who admires great deeds but wonders what his own part might be in important events which seem well enough wrought without him” ( 180 ).  

Okay that seems fair from how Tolkien himself has talked about Sam right. And you’re probably like okay, but what the fuck does that have to do with Boromir? Literally just further down the page  he says:

“…. The fellowship breaks only when the bond of obedience is broken, as it is by Boromir, whose pride and lust for personal power are evidence of false heroism” (180).

LUST FOR PERSONAL POWER???? PRIDE?????

SHOW ME THE PAGES SIR

GIVE THEM TO ME

I know you’re probably thinking, ‘but wait he’s actually kinda right-”

WRONG

Its anxiety, I’m telling you

I counted 

its fear and anxiety

but again I’m getting a head of myself. Basically Grant just took a shat on Boromir to make Sam look good.

EXCUSE ME SIR SAM IS A GODDAMN MASTERPIECE ON HIS OWN THANKS. DON’T TRASH BOROMIR TO COMPLIMENT SAM. Also be wary of people who do this in general, if they put someone else down instead of just out right complimenting you take it as a warning

Oh and did I mention that because Grant says Boromir is technically being selfish, another critics analysis makes Boromir Evil, because acts done out of selfish pursuits are seen as evil and a “perversion of human will.” But you know, thats just how it be sometimes when you’re putting literature in conversation with one another.

Just know I pick on Grant a lot, mostly because he says shit like this:  “…the most blinding love derives directly from such obedience,” (180). when it comes to Sam, and then takes a shit on Boromir. Like we’re going to come back to the obedience thing in a little bit, but just know that Merry, Pippin, Faramir, Eowyn, Even Sam at one point, and I mean I guess by some extension movie!Arwen take a big ‘ol shit on the idea that the only way to be heroic is to be OBEDIENT.

I get it, its another Catholic thing. I’m Catholic, I know what its getting at. But consider- no

Basically I boil this shit down to one thing

Sam Only Owes Loyalty To Frodo.

Literally his main concern throughout the book is Frodo and then the Shire and what that encompasses. So yeah its easy to be loyal and obedient to someone who shares all the same ideas and values as you and has a pretty similar lived experience right??? ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY And before anyone says Sam was loyal to the fellowship, Sam would literally cut a bitch for Frodo. He woulda fought Aragorn in the Prancing Pony if he thought he had to. He gave a second thought to Merry and Pippin when they left the Fellowship, but it wasn’t a “we should go back for them all or wait for them” It was “i’m gonna support mr. Frodo, even if Idon’t much like the gollum creature he decided to drag around but fair i guess cuz none of us know the fucking way into Mordor.” 

So I made a chart to demonstrate why comparing Boromir and Sam is a big no no, and what kinda things Boromir was working with the whole time he was part of the fellowship.

Did I forget to mention that this was supposed to be a visual research paper?

So Sam and Frodo had a lot of the same Fears and values.

Our Boy Boromir over here has to deal with being a political/military figure, meet the demands of his father, he’s gotta try to be a good brother, he’s gotta learn to get along with the fellowship, and then each of those new or old loyalties has different responsibility and expectations he’s supposed to meet. And because I had to include Aristotelian ideas as part of the class, to quote myself: Despite the Aristotelian concept that it is impossible to be a virtuous friend to many, Boromir’s actions throughout The Fellowship of the Ring show him attempting to do this ( Aristotle 9 ). Like thats literally why he ends up a member of the Fellowship, he’s a little unsure of this plan, but hey its the best one he’s heard and if everyone thinks its going to work then by golly he’ll see it done. But again Aristotle (just in your head pronounce it like chipotle for me please) wants to try to establish a structure that I think is stoopid, he’s got a thing that says  “it is a more terrible thing to defraud a comrade than a fellow-citizen, more terrible not to help a brother than a stranger, and more terrible to wound a father than any one else” (15). 

So remember those loyalties in the little blue squiggles up in the picture, we already know that Denethor, and Faramir bump heads a little, and then the soldiers serving with Boromir probably have their own ideas about how Gondor should be defended, and then he goes to the Council of Elrong and they’re saying something completely different from what he’s heard- theres a lot of threads pulling the Captain in different directions. He’s got a lot hats to wear and demands to fulfill and living under the shadow of Mordor with all of those responsibilities is bound to give anyone anxiety. 

But don’t just take my word for it

The movie actually reinforces this. I know the book says Boromir was “...pierced with many black feathered arrows” But the movie specifically makes it 3

Now I’m sure Mr. Peter Jackson didn’t intend for what I’m about to say, but I think its a pretty cool notion to think about. Because you can summarize Boromir’s conflicting loyalties into “family’ ‘country’ and “Fellowship’. Like his father would have him bring the ring to Gondor, his role as a military/political figure for Gondor means he should be doing whatever he has to in order to protect his country, and the Fellowship is like nah man we destroy this thing and everything else will fall into place, and Boromir is left having to decide whih of these things to act upon. Family, Country, and the Fellowship are the competing signs that make up is character arc, and his grapple with these three things is ultimately what leads to his death.

Now if your thinking family and country should be lumped together- theres a reason for it, just trust me, bare with me please

But basically what I’m trying to get at is given all these factors, you can’t compare a character like Boromir with all these responsibilities hanging off him to be comparable to Sam whose only responsibility is Frodo. 

But you know who does share all these same demands

Faramir

Like take a look at their character arcs- if you can the text on this next pic is super teeny

If thats too small for you don’t worry about it because we’re gonna get into why Faramir is a better foil for Boromir, and how this should affect the way we as the reader come to understand his character. So fun stuff in the next part! Sorry for dragging this out, but just like my original paper, this turned out to be WAY longer than I expected. 

[ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes]

Burned Part 15

Summary:  Alfie Solomons is in need of a secretary. Tommy Shelby mentions a young woman in need of employment. From there the two step into a dangerous dance together.

Part 15: Serious discussions are had. 

         Alfie had some experience with caring for children. He helped his mother as best he could with his younger brother. But he was a bad influence on Adam and it showed early on. His mother urged her youngest to pursue a more respectable life so she didn't have two sons stuck in a cycle of crime. Perle encouraged Adam to focus on education and was extremely proud when he joined the military. Alfie didn’t do anything to pressure his brother into the life he led. If anything, he agreed with his mother and steered Adam away from a life of crime. The last thing he wanted was to have his baby brother’s blood on his hands. His mother would never forgive him.

           Adam Solomons was a family man. He loved his wife and son. He also loved his country and proudly marched off to war. His body was never recovered from Gallipoli. Alfie promised to look after Rose but she was distrustful of the gangster who was making his way through the ranks of the underworld. When he returned from the war, he had no family left aside from his nephew and sister-in-law. Rose, overwhelmed with grief and her reckless seventeen-year-old, took off. Goliath was dropped off on Alfie without any notice.

           He didn’t raise the boy though and couldn't teach him anything of much use. He was already too set in his ways.

           Alfie had been around Ollie’s children before. They all pounced on him the second he walked through the door screeching about lord knows what. They called him Uncle Fie and the oldest boy said he wanted to be a boxer, always trying to get Alfie to fight him. Aside from a tousle of the hair and the occasional piggyback ride, he was uneasy around them. Children were so fragile and vulnerable. He was accustomed to men who could survive a severe beating and get right back to it. Ollie’s wife would smack him if Alfie so much as uttered one swear around the kids. But Alfie saw the pride on his assistant’s face when his children were around. Ollie lived for them and he spoke so fondly about them. It made him wonder what it was like to be a father, lighting up at every mention of his pride and joy. To boast about their achievements and how they made him smile. To see Louise pregnant and thrilled to be a mother. It was tempting.

           Inglewood needed work before they could have any function, especially their wedding. But Louise was thrilled to take on the project. She talked endlessly about the memories she had in each room. How she bruised her knee sliding down the banister, the first pony her father bought her, the stories her mother would tell her at night, and the chocolate cake made for her birthday each year. She wanted to bring those memories back to life as best she could by reviving Inglewood. Improvements and cleaning were left to staff that Alfie hired after a strict vetting process. But Louise wanted to be involved because she felt protective over her home.

           Alfie had never seen her so interested in anything. She paid attention to the restoration process and even began gardening once the overgrown yard was cleared. He could fondly remember one of the early days they were there. Louise had gone out into the warm sunshine, clad in pants and one of his old shirts. She wasn’t afraid to get dirty in the soil and eagerly showed Alfie what she’d planted by the end of the day.

           She was happy and that made him as happy as could be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

           One week, Alfie returned back to Inglewood from Camden Town. Louise had stayed, working from the office that had just been redone and furnished along with a portrait of her father proudly hanging by his original desk.

           Alfie stepped out of the car and noticed a few kids bicycling down the driveway. There were three of them, a boy around fourteen, a girl about nine, and another boy that couldn’t be more than seven. They were dressed well, albeit most likely their play clothes, and he could guess they were from around the area.

           When they saw Alfie, they screeched to a halt.

           “Sorry, sir.” The oldest apologized. “This home’s usually empty so we ride up the drive and back.” He explained. The boy was the complete opposite of how Alfie was at the same age. Clean-cut, well mannered, and cautious.

           “S’alright.” Alfie didn’t see the harm with the kids riding their bikes up the way.

           “Are you moving in here?” The girl asked. Her blonde hair in a short bob with a silver clip parting her bangs to the side. “We live down that way.” She pointed past the front lawn of Inglewood where a foot-high stonewall divided the land.

           “Erm, yes, just doing a few renovations.” He nodded and felt out of his comfort zone. He had enough sense not to act the part of the big scary gangster boss in front of children. So that just left him as plain old Alfie.

           As if hearing his silent pleas for help, Louise stepped outside. “Alfie?” She had heard the car pull up and expected him to rush inside to embrace her. “Oh, hello.” She smiled when she saw the children.

           “Do you have any kids our age?” The youngest boy asked hopefully. “I’m seven ‘n a half.” He beamed proudly.

           “I’m afraid we don’t have any children, darling. We’ve only just got married.” It was a lie simply to throw a veil over the situation. Despite the distance between neighbors, word traveled fast in upscale country settings. None of the fashionable ladies of the manors would want to hear that Louise and Alfie weren’t married but still living together. It was the 1920’s but some people were still stuck in the past.

           The little boy pouted. “That’s okay.” Even though he was disappointed, he managed to keep the politeness instilled in them by their nanny.

           The eldest leaned forward, resting his forearms on the handlebars of his bike. “Mum will want to have you ‘round for tea.” He told Louise.

           “That would be lovely. Alfie and I will come and visit once we’re all settled.”

           Alfie furrowed his brow. Afternoon tea in Surrey was not on his to-do list. He cleared his throat and nodded. Whatever Louise wanted and whatever would make her happiest. “Yeah, we’ll pop on by soon. And don’t worry ���bout us, you can ride your bikes wherever. We don’t mind, yeah?” He looked to Louise who was smiling.

           “Of course not.” She agreed.

           “Thank you!” The littlest shouted a bit louder than necessary and rode off. His sister followed, the wheels kicking up bits of gravel as they went.

           The other boy lingered, glancing at Alfie for a moment. “Well, thank you. Have a good day.” He nodded and went to catch up to his siblings.

           “So sweet,” Louise said softly and linked arms with Alfie to walk inside.

           “Yeah, proper posh kids, aren’t they? You like that when you were that age?” He wondered.

           “Well…I suppose.” She shrugged and led him into the office. “Wasn’t much else to do around here besides spending time outside and with friends.”

           He sat down on one of the couches near the unlit fireplace. Louise happily sat beside him, tucking her feet under her. “Were a lot of things to do in Camden growing up.” He chuckled. “Bad things, yeah, but things all the same. Was probably robbing people at his age.”

           Louise wrapped an arm around his shoulders and snuggled close to his side. “I think we might have gotten along. I got bored easily here.”

           “And you would be the beautiful posh girl that I would do anything to win over.” He nearly laughed at how sappy he was being.

           She watched the lines around his eyes wrinkle in happiness. Her fingers grazed over the nape of his neck, dancing along the edge of his hairline. “You wouldn’t have to try very hard.”

           He chuckled and stretched his legs out in front of him. “Well, m’fraid I won’t be a very good socialite.” It meant to come off as humorous but he couldn’t ignore the passing look the neighbor’s son had given him. Alfie knew he didn’t fit into that society and part of him was perfectly okay with that. But the other part was guilty about not giving Louise everything she wanted.

           “Alfie.” She sighed and turned his cheek so he was looking at her. “I don’t want you to change just because we have this home now. Where we are or who we’re around doesn’t matter. I just want you to always be my Alfie. And I never wanted to be a socialite and I sure as hell don’t want to be one now.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “All I want is to have a life with you.”

           “Lou…” He rested a hand over hers. His blue eyes shining with adoration and a bit of relief. “I don’t want you to ever change either.” He agreed softly.

           She smiled and touched her forehead to his. “I love you.”

           “I love you too.” He closed his eyes for a moment and let his thumb graze over the sapphire embedded in her ring. “D’you want kids?” He asked before he really thought about what conversation he was possibly opening up.

           Louise drew back in surprise. “I-well I suppose we haven’t talked about it.” She agreed without outright answering him. She wasn’t in the mood to strike up a heated debate over the issue. Especially when they weren’t even married yet.

           “I think we should.”

           The admission came out fast and for a moment, Louise thought she hadn’t heard him right. “Well, I…yes I agree.”

           They let the words sit in the air between them. They were thrilled that they were on the same page but both very worried in their unique way. The decision seemed much larger than anything else in their lives.

           “I just know you’d be a good mum, s’all.” He shrugged sheepishly and looked down at her hand still resting in his. “Like to have kids of me own.”

           “I think you’d be a wonderful father, Alfie.” Louise murmured truthfully. “You might not think so but I know how much love you’re capable of having.”

           “I could protect you both.” He vowed. “Would fucking never let anything harm you. I’ve made mistakes that put you in danger but I-”

           She pressed a finger to his lips. “You don’t need to explain yourself to me. I know you could take care of us, I trust you. You’ve earned my trust and I know we’ll be able to keep that as we create a life together.” Her voice was breathless with excitement. It was surreal to imagine Inglewood full of life again. Not the hollow, stone building that had been drained of the love it once held. But a child, maybe even more than one, running around the home and playing in the yard. A little boy or girl with Alfie’s beautiful blue eyes. She could easily picture the smile on her fiancée’s face as he picked up a little child that so closely resembled him.

           It nearly brought tears to Louise’s eyes. “I can’t wait for forever with you.” She whispered and took his face in her hands to kiss him.

           Alfie wrapped his arms around her, letting her take his breath away like she had done many times before.

~~~~~~~~~~~

           Alfie stayed the night in Inglewood. Louise fell right to sleep but he was restless. The silence of the countryside was bothering him and his own thoughts were much too loud.

           So, he decided to take a lap around the home just to clear his head. He cursed the draft in the large halls and crossed his arms over his chest. The stairs creaked under him as he made his way downstairs. He passed through the foyer and wove through the parlor, the dining room, the front hall, and to the office.

           The large portrait of Mr. Barnes startled Alfie for a moment as he passed by the doors. He paused and decided to go in.

           Henry Barnes was a younger man when the portrait was painted. He had only just met his wife-to-be, but he was still the son of a wealthy aristocrat. He stood tall and proud like in the foyer portrait with his wife, Lily. His gentle eyes appeared to be looking down right at Alfie.

           The gangster faced the painting and took a deep breath. He felt like a Christian going into confession. “I know that…” He sighed as he realized he was talking out loud to a piece of canvas. Nevertheless, he continued on. “Maybe m’not the best for her. Could be better men out there, right, that she could be with. All I know is I would do anything to keep her safe and happy. Would fucking die for her in a heartbeat if I had to.”

           Henry didn’t move. The placid expression on his face remained just like it had for decades.

           Alfie ran a hand through his hair and nodded absent-mindedly. “Never loved anyone like I love her.” He mumbled. “Fucking hurts me chest when I think ‘bout it sometimes. Yeah, dunno if I’m enough. Or if I’ll ever be.” He swallowed hard and took a few steps back. “Fucking talking to myself.” It was enough to get the words out of his head though, and he felt a bit lighter as he left the office. No matter what insecurities he might have, he knew for damn sure he was going to marry the love of his life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

           While London was swarming with whispers of Alfie’s marriage, Camden Town had its own take on the matter. Simply put, Alfie was Jewish through and through. He was raised that way and despite his criminal activity, he would stay that way. Louise was not Jewish. Baptized in the Church of England, she had lost most faith in God. As far as Jewish law was concerned, they would not be allowed to wed.

           Ever since he hit puberty, Perle would say Alfie needed to find a nice Jewish woman to marry. He never did, most fathers didn’t want their respectable daughters around the hellish Solomons boy. That didn’t bother him because he wasn’t interested in settling down. As a young man, he was more interested in laying out his empire.

           Now that he had, Alfie only had eyes for one woman. Jewish law wouldn’t’ stop him. He tended to disregard all laws except his own.

           Ollie and Alfie were inspecting areas of the bakery, making sure everything was running smoothly.

           “Ollie, mate, can I ask you something?”

           “Of course, sir.” The curly-haired man nodded. He looked up from his checklist.

           “You said you and Shayna went to temple in Hampstead? What’s the rabbi’s name?”

           Despite years working for him, Ollie was never able to guess what his boss was about to say. But they normally didn’t talk about religion. Alfie celebrated holidays typically with friends of his late mother or Ollie’s family. Camden embraced him because he gave to the Jewish community. Men tipped their hats and greeted him politely. Grandmothers often scolded him, saying he looked thin and promised to bring him heaps of food.

           But they all knew what he did and how it conflicted with their shared beliefs. A busy man, Alfie attended temple when he had the chance. He sat in the back, a silent and domineering figure.

           “Rabbi Mayer?”

           “Right, you know him well?” Alfie continued to be cryptic.

           “I suppose.” Ollie shrugged. “He married Shayna and me.” He reminded his boss who had been present.

           “Thought so.” He scratched at his beard. “You think he’d be willing to overlook a few things?”

           Well, Ollie had been asked stranger things before. “Like what?”

           “Small bits ‘n bobs. Louise’s religion mostly.” He answered casually.

           Rose had told her husband about what the other Camden women were gossiping about. How was Alfie, a Jewish gangster going to marry someone of a different faith? Certainly, no rabbi would conduct the ceremony. So would he neglect Jewish tradition? That was simply unheard of.

           “And what if they have children?” Shayna had asked, throwing her hands up in disbelief. “It’s in his family. His brother did the same thing! He had some legal ceremony and never taught his son properly. Look at Goliath now.”

           Ollie could understand his wife’s opinion. The community struggled to keep their traditions and identity. But he also knew Alfie would do as he wished. Hence, why he was asking for a rabbi who would break the rules.

           “Sir, I’m not sure-”

           “Look, I fucking know.” Alfie cut him off. “Not s’posed to do this but I ain’t going back on what I said. I’m marrying her.” His tone was firm and unyielding.

           “Sir, even if he does marry you, everyone will know.” His assistant pointed out.

           He grimaced. “Fucking gossips.” He grumbled under his breath. “Fuck it. You go to the rabbi, yeah, and let him name his price. If not, I’ll do it me own way.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

           Louise was back in Camden that same night. She was getting dressed for bed when Alfie arrived home. He entered the room with a smile.

           “Love that color on you.” He admired the indigo nightgown she was wearing. It was one of many that Alfie had shipped in from Paris.

           Louise smiled. “You say that no matter what I’m wearing.” She sat at the vanity to carefully undo the pins from her hair.

           “Well, then.” He chuckled and stood behind her to rest his hands on her shoulders. “Maybe that’s ‘cause you’re beautiful in everything.” He murmured. “Also beautiful with nothing on too.” He touched his lips to her neck.

           Louise rested a hand over his. She nuzzled his cheek lovingly. “How was your day?”

           “Fine, nothing to write home ‘bout.” Alfie shrugged. He drew away and sat on the bed to remove his boots. Cyril curled up by his feet begging for a pat. He obliged, scratching behind the bullmastiff’s ears.

           “Evelyn was talking to me about the wedding.” She informed him.

           “Yeah?”

           “Telling me about Jewish traditions.” Louise turned on the vanity seat to face him. “We can’t be married by a rabbi, can we?” Guilt hinted at her features.

           “Well…” Alfie rubbed the back of his neck. “Not too sure yet.” He admitted.

           She played with her engagement ring, circling the band around her finger. “Maybe I could convert, that way we won’t be breaking tradition. I don’t want people looking at you badly because you’re marrying me.”

           Alfie frowned. “Lou, we just discussed this. I ain’t gonna make you change who you are for me.” He held his arms out for her.

           She gladly curled up on his lap. His arms cradling her close and keeping her safe. She rested her cheek on his shoulder.

           “I’m marrying you whether anyone likes it or not, yeah?” He kissed her hair. “Our wedding, our relationships, s’none of anyone else’s fucking business. If you want Jewish traditions then we’ll do them. Don’t fucking care if a rabbi’s there or not. Only care that you are.”

           Louise frowned and chewed on her lower lip. “But your family…” Alfie came from hardship. Most of his family had been killed because of their religion. Perle had fought against all odds to deliver her sons to safety and provide for them. She raised them in a Jewish community to keep the culture alive even if they weren’t in their homeland.

           “Lou, me mum only wanted me to be happy.” He assured her softly. “She probably would give me hell for it but at the end of the day, yeah, you make me smile. Not a lot of people can do that.”

           She gently touched the corner of his mouth. “I want you to be happy.” Her eyes locked on his. “Whatever makes you happiest.”

           Alfie could appreciate where he’d come from. He couldn’t neglect his past and what it took for him to get to the place he was. But of all the ways he had sinned, he decided that marrying Louise would be the least damning. “You make me the happiest.” He murmured and traced his thumb over her cheek. Her skin was warm, a faint blush forming under his touch. He briefly thought back to his monologue in front of her father’s portrait. “D’you ever get that feeling when your chest, right, when you love someone? S’like…” He scrunched up his nose in thought.

           “It’s some sort of ache?” She suggested because she knew exactly what he was talking about. Her hand pressed to his chest, right above his heart. “It hurts because you had no idea you had the capacity to love someone so much.”

           He nodded and let out a small laugh of fright. “Fucking afraid m’gonna wake up tomorrow and you’ll just be a dream.”

           “One day you’re going to wake up in Inglewood, next to your wife.” She lovingly rubbed circles over his shoulders and the back of his neck where he held all his stress. His tense muscles started to relax after a bit of coaxing. “Your son or daughter will run into the room to wake you up and beg for you to come and play with them.”

           He closed his eyes for a moment to picture the scene she was painting for him. “Sounds too good to be true.”

           “It isn’t. Because you deserve peace and happiness, Alfie Solomons.”

           He opened his eyes to find her looking earnestly at him. He tilted his head to the side and grumbled in protest. But he couldn’t argue with her. She held firm to her beliefs. “And that’s why no one can say anything ‘bout us getting married. ‘Cause you’re fucking perfect, ain’t ya? I’m going to marry you and our wedding, yeah, we’re doing it our way.”

           She cuddled close to him. “Don’t tempt me with a good time, Captain Solomons.” She teased softly and tucked into the crook of his neck.

           He chuckled and rested back into the pillows. “Go to sleep, love, we’ve got lots to do tomorrow.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

           Evelyn was thrilled. Life seemed to be going so well for her and everyone she loved. Alfie and Louise were getting married, it was about time, and they had given her a hefty raise to come work at Inglewood every other week. She adored being in the countryside but she could still go back to Camden to see Ishmael. The young man's face always lit up when she came back. He'd tell her how much he missed her and asked when they could see each other again. Things just seemed to be going so well. She was completely oblivious to the threat that Alfie and Louise were well aware of.

         That weekend, Evelyn was accompanying Louise to try on her wedding dress one last time and make sure everything fit. They were only going down the street, but Alfie insisted Ishmael and another young man go with them along with Cyril.

           “We’re not going downtown, we’re going to Nessa’s.” Louise told her fiancee, as he was busy sorting through shipment papers.

           “I know, I put a call into her this morning.” He didn’t look up from his work, his blue eyes peering from behind his glasses at Ollie’s slanted handwriting.

           “So I don’t need Ishmael and Nathan to come with us.” She said and knelt down to clip the leather lead to Cyril’s collar. Of course, she wouldn’t argue against taking him along. The mastiff’s tail wagged wildly, thumping against Alfie’s desk.

           “I’ll just be a block away, Evelyn and I don’t need to be escorted.” She argued and stood up.

           Alfie paused and dropped his papers to the side and opened the top left drawer. He pulled out a telegram and handed it to her without a word.

           Uneasy, Louise took the paper from his hand and unfolded it.

Dear Mr. Solomons,

I hope to hear from you. I will be arriving in London soon. Mr. Shelby and his family have been notified.

Luca Changretta

           She swallowed and absent-mindedly folded the telegram back to its original form. Her hands trembled. “What does he mean by notified?”

           Alfie’s jaw was tight from the worry he was attempting to conceal. He reached for his empty revolver and spun the barrel a few times to keep his hands occupied. At that point, he wanted to get rid of Luca himself just so the man didn’t interfere with his life. The gangster would be damned if that Italian did anything to disrupt his wedding plans. “I contacted Tommy, they’ve all received black hands in the mail.”

           “I’m not sure I know what that means.” Of course, she could guess it was nothing friendly. Cyril sensed her anxiety and pressed against her leg and nosed at her hand. She stroked his ears a few times to try and calm herself.

           “Death threat. Changretta’s marked them as dead, all of them.” He rubbed his eyes and placed his gun down. “Lou, m’not sure what he’ll do to get me involved.” He admitted wearily. The telegram had only arrived that morning but it had already drained him of his energy. “The Shelbys are fucking scattered ‘bout and aren’t speaking to each other like fucking children.” He sighed. “I need to play me cards right.”

           Louise wasn’t sure she liked where his line of thinking was going. “You better not be thinking about helping him.” She whispered.

           He put a hand over his mouth and averted his eyes. A clear sign of deception. “Didn’t say that, did I?” He muttered.

           “You were thinking it.” She accused. “Alfie, just try and stay out of it. You don’t have to team up with the Shelbys but you can’t help to kill them!” Her hand was wrapped tightly around Cyril’s lead as she tried to steer clear of an argument with him. She couldn’t risk getting into a fight a week away from their wedding.

           “Lou, I told you it weren’t that simple.” He stood up and walked around his desk to stand in front of her. He slipped the paper out of her hand. “Yeah?”

           Louise pressed her tongue to her cheek and exhaled steadily. “What are you planning to do?” It was the same question she asked months earlier when Luca sent the first telegram. But things had advanced even though Alfie had been static.

           “Wait.” He replied. “My focus is on our wedding. Changretta ain’t here yet so there’s no need to fret. The Shelbys will get their act together once they realize what they’re fucking up against. Whatever comes our way, yeah, we’ll handle it.” He lifted her chin gently.

           “I’m worried that your judgment may be clouded if Luca threatens us.” She admitted.

           A stormy look dashed across his eyes. “Sabini would be wise to inform them of the consequences.” His voice was low with anger. Even the thought of Luca going after Louise made his blood boil.

           She sighed and touched his cheek to distract him from his obvious displeasure. “I may be naïve to a situation like this. But I urge you to talk to me about it so you don’t make any unnecessary sacrifices.”

           Alfie had a feeling that she didn’t know how much he’d be willing to sacrifice if he was forced between a rock and a hard place. “There’s a Yiddish saying, right, ‘for a little love, you pay all your life’. I can leave this be.” He gestured to the telegram still in his hand. “You’ll go back to Inglewood tonight and get ready for the wedding.”

           Indeed they had spoken about traditions and which ones Alfie wished to respect. When Louise got word of her fiancee trying to bribe Rabbi Mayer, she had to step in and stop him from extorting a man of God. After the weekend, Louise would leave Alfie behind in Camden Town and they would be apart for a week for Kabbalat Panim. Now that she knew about Luca’s message, she was hesitant to leave just in case Alfie decided to make a move without telling her.

           “And what will you do?” She inquired.

           “Nothing.” He tossed the telegram onto his desk. “Just keep listening for news and stay neutral. Focus is on you, love.” He promised softly. “We’ll get married and be off to Paris ‘fore you know it.”

           “What about the Shelbys?”

           “Not much I can do, can I? Fucking got themselves in this mess.” He shrugged. “Tommy clearly has a plan, don’t he?”

           She nodded slowly. There was a knock on the door and Evelyn’s voice piped up from the other side. “Louise, are you almost ready?”

           “I’ll see you tonight ‘fore you leave.” Alfie kissed her forehead. “Try not to worry too much ‘bout all this. Nothing will happen until I decide what to do.” Of course, he couldn’t promise that. He had no control over what Luca did once he crossed the Pond. He could show up at the bakery door the same day he arrived with a proposition for Alfie. And he sure as hell didn’t have any clue what Tommy was planning. To say Alfie wasn’t worried about his wedding day being ruined would be a lie. He was desperate to make Louise happy and if his dealings interfered with that, he would be upset with the perpetrators, of course, but he’d also be upset with himself. She deserved a quiet life in Surrey with her husband. But with the danger looming, Alfie could only hope that they would have an interrupted wedding. After that, he could handle the chaos. He could take care of what he needed to and take care of whoever was in his way. Whether it was Luca Changretta or Tommy Shelby.

Permanent Tag: @sansajonsastark​ @giftofdreams​

Tag list: @vehement-care​ @kimmietea​ @eleventhdoctorsangel​ @fire-treasure-iii​

Masterpost

PB Masterlist 

[ngame989]

“Brew” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 6

Writing: @ngame989​

Art: @toxicpsychox​

Editing: @toxicpsychox​, @seddm​, an IRL friend

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: After close to a year on Earthni, Tom's been dragged back into the princely life, and it's a lot less exciting than he'd expected. With Star and Marco away on urgent business, can Janna help him turn a boring errand into a fun adventure?

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Masterpost

This one’s a nice change of pace from the last two chapters, I think. TGG’s still a Starco-focused work, expect these to be the exception not the norm, but I think it’s important to strike a balance. See below for the text, hope you enjoy!

“No results.” Huh? Three eyes narrowed at the screen in frustration. Maybe a different search term? “No results.” Alright Tom, no big deal, man. Maybe you just spelled something wrong. Annnnnd… there. “No results.” How could there be nothing?

Tom leaned back in the chair and sighed, exercising restraint over the little anger demons inside him as he’d trained himself to do. In the past he’d needed a physical bunny to pet if he wanted even a hope of keeping his cool, but at this point suppressing the urge was such reflex that most would think he just had a regular Mewman quick temper and nothing more in all but the most extreme of conditions, but he was getting pretty close to that point now. Grandpa Relicor’s study had everything, or so he thought, but this was the first time he could ever remember being here where it come up short. He’d checked every shelf, everything he could think in the computer, had even fireblasted a few of the shelves just to see if there were any hidden switches or anything. Even Relicor had been at a loss and had been screeching in distress on the floor for long enough that Tom’s brain had graciously tuned it out. What could be so important about this book his mom needed? He hadn’t even had time to change his casual graphic tee from a cartoon he liked, simply tossing his maroon jacket over it before heading out at his mother’s behest. He wasn’t one to say no to her, but it had been hours since he’d shown up here and he was no closer to figuring this out than he had been this morning.

Suddenly his phone buzzed, displaying the familiar beaming face of his ex-girlfriend close up to the camera. A toothy grin erupted as he picked it up, holding the phone up for a video feed. “Heya, Starship.”

“Hey, Tom!” Star beamed into the camera. “How’s it hanging? Long time no see. So,” she rambled out in one breath, “I may have a teensie weensie wittle problem.” She backed up to reveal her hair in complete disarray, sans horns, and black marks all over her light blue dress. Before Tom could even ask the question, her other hand held up charred fragments of her headband. “Someone still hasn’t learned how to use an Earth oven properly!” she forced out through gritted teeth.

“Look, gurl, I said I was like, so sorry! All the Cloud Kingdom kitchens are powered by glitter and horn blasts, like that’s just how ovens are supposed to be, that is all I am saying here,” Ponyhead’s indignant voice chimed in from behind, punctuated by a snort.

“Anyway, we just finished putting out the fires and I need a new headband and their website says they’re almost out of stock and I’ve wanted to show Marco around the Underworld for a while and- wait, is that screeching in the background? Where are you?”

Tom shuffled away from the elder demon still writhing on the floor and cleared his throat. “Just in Grandpa’s study trying to find something for my mom, she really wants it today. I don’t know if I can go- but I can still send the carriage for you guys, if you want.”

“Do you need help with that?” Marco inquired as he peeked his head into the frame, casually wrapping an arm around Star.

“Naaaah, no big deal,” Tom shrugged. “You two should go, though! I can just fly over whenever I finish this.”

Star and Marco looked at each other hesitantly. “Alright,” she said. “Carriage to our house in maybe five minutes?” A fire alarm went off behind her followed by a scream from Ponyhead and an even girlier one from Marco. “Maybe ten,” Star sighed, burying her face in her free hand.

“You got it,” Tom chuckled.

“OK, bye!” Star said with relief before hanging up. He rolled his shoulders from inside his jacket and ran his hands through his hair before stepping into the main foyer, taking advantage of the space to summon the carriage and its horses, the incantations coming effortlessly to him. Demons had been fortunate enough to retain their powers on Earthni, but the location underground and the relative lack of portaling methods available left them even more isolated than previously. While most of the other kingdoms had dissolved or integrated into a loose coalition of government covering all of the Echo Creek area, the Underworld had been content to stay completely under the banner of Lord and Lady Lucitor, and Tom found himself pitching in more and more in his role as Prince. In truth, he would have appreciated the company his friends were offering, but he knew how much it had meant to Star to be able to give this life up, and he didn’t want to drag her - either of them, really, considering Marco had earned an official title on Mewni himself - back into the boring thick of regal errands. Was Prince Thomas Draconius Lucitor really going to let some stuffy old book collection get the best of him? Hah, as if.

With a flick of his wrist, the half-demon shuttled the carriage to the surface in a pillar of flame, barely looking and instead pulling out his new phone. He was still getting the hang of the new and improved Reflectacorp’s Earth tech integration, but he’d at least learned how to open yesterday’s text conversation thread from its new message notification.

Janna: anti-gravity potion attempt 4 failed. affected bottle glass itself and launched into sky. note to self: work under roof. star and marco’s suggestions didnt work either. not all bad though, it went towards cloud kingdom lol

Tom: careful, don’t hit pony’s ego and make it fly even higher ·;) btw pony + starco are going shopping in underworld soon. im stuck working for mom though.

Janna: stores r lame. even in underworld. and srsly dude u gotta stop using starfans dumb name for them. otoh it bugs them so actually nvm go 4 it

Tom: it was mine first >·:( it saves letters when they’re together!

Janna: which is always

Tom: exactly. speaking of which, they’re here ttyl

Star stepped out of the carriage in a nice white polka dotted green dress, quickly followed by Marco, the pair’s fingers remaining intertwined until they gave him a hello hug, and Tom honestly wasn’t sure they’d stopped holding hands even then. Ponyhead burst out a moment later with her phone floating in front of her pointed at herself, and she was in the middle of a monologue to no one in particular.

“-so yeah anyway as you all can see we have now arrived in the Underwoooorld. So yeah this is, like, basically the best place on all of Earthni to go shopping as I’ll be showing you today. Oh yeah, I guess some demon boys live here too. Oh my goodness, say hello you guuuys,” she rolled her eyes as she butted in between Star and Tom, side-eyeing him for a split second before grinning back into the camera. After all this time Pony still hadn’t dropped the passive aggression over his and Star’s messy history; Tom had to admit it was a bit understandable, but did she really have to keep it up in such an annoying way? He rolled his eyes - it was Ponyhead he was thinking about here. “OK, the Ponyhead Experience will be taking a short break. Tune back in soon! Love y’all, buhbye!” She snapped the phone shut and caught it with her tongue. “Ugh, why do all of my vlogs with you dorks get like ten times as many viewers? Tom, you were in the shot for like three seconds and do you know what happened? 2000 more people tuned in! What the heck! It’s like, just because I have one less horn and one less eye I’m not exciting to you? But I can’t stay mad at my adooooring fans.”

“Must be the Lucitor charm.” He flashed a toothy smile and a pair of finger guns at her, accidentally flinging his phone across the room in the process. “Totally planned,” he blurted out with a much less authentic grin. Marco chuckled and picked it up, handing it back and patting him mock-sympathetically on the shoulder while holding back a smirk.

Star giggled but tapped her foot impatiently, looking around the room nervously. “OK, great catching up, but on the way here I checked the website and the headband shop is almost out of stock! We have to go, now! Let’s move it, people! Tom, can we borrow the carriage for the day?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Fine by me.”

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou, you’re the best!”

“You sure you don’t need anything?” Marco inquired again.

“You heard the girl, Marco, my audience wants to see us get our shop on!”

Tom blew a raspberry, pushing them towards the carriage. “Relax, it’s nothing. I’m practically done already! Tooootally almost done!”

Marco finally relented, nodding his assent. Star was bouncing up and down so much that she looked ready to launch around the room. He giggled as she wrapped both her arms around his middle and kissed his cheek before hauling him the rest of the way into the carriage. “C’mon boo, mama needs a new pair of horns. Plus we can get whatever you need, too! I saw a few things in the catalog that would look preeeetty good on you,” she sing-songed, walking two fingers up his chest to boop his nose after they plopped down onto the seat together. Ponyhead mimed vomiting at Tom, who silently laughed in response; they were so engrossed with each other that Tom was fairly certain they wouldn’t have noticed even if he’d shouted his laughter, though. He blankly stared at the spot the carriage had been for a few seconds after it exited in a blaze.

“Pretty gross, right?” Tom started and launched a fireball in the direction of the voice, hovering away from the intruder. A split second after, his vision caught up with his instincts and saw Janna in her usual green shirt and beanie and yellow skirt, sans jacket, nonchalantly sidestep the flame. “You do the same thing every time, you really need to work on that,” she chided with her arms crossed and a devious smirk on her face.

He rubbed his temple and gestured at her in sullen disbelief. “How did you-”

“Roof of the carriage.”

“Huh.” An eyebrow up in surprise, studying her expression. “You never usually, you know, answer that.”

She shrugged, kicking a boot into the hard stone floor. “Whatever, guess I’m just bored. Besides, half the reason I do that is to get a rise out of Marco,” she slyly snickered, and Tom couldn’t help but join in. “Alright, demon boy, what adventure are we going on today?”

Tom crossed his arms apprehensively. “Just trying to find a book for my mom, not really much of an adventure.”

“Like I said, dude, I’m bored and shopping is dumb. I don’t mind hanging out here for a study session or whatever, your family’s got great taste in decor.” She picked a skull off the ground and tossed it back and forth between her hands. He grinned back at her, grateful for the company. “So what kind of creepy curses are in this book?”

The pair started walking back into the study as their conversation continued. “Don’t think there are any. It’s called ‘Historia Homewnum’, according to my mom, so it’s probably a history book but that’s all I know.”

“Darn. Demon history’s bound to be pretty cool, though.”

“You’d be surprised how little actually happens down here, it’s just a lot of maintenance. Last month the most important thing I did was a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new boba cornshake shop, it’s really caught on here since the Cleaving. But man is it good! Marco was right, the little pearls are just so tasty, I like the creamed corn version best.”

“What is it with you and corn, seriously...” Janna shuddered.

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it.” He knew he’d gotten distracted thinking about the delicious creamy beverage, but that didn’t seem like an adequate reason to look so horrified, especially coming from Janna. Not able to figure out any other reason she might be disgusted by his comments, he got his thoughts back on track. “Really don’t know why she wants this thing so much. Anyway, I already checked the entire study for it, and the search archives don’t have anything either. Oh well, what can you do, might as well just give up and-”

“Found something,” Janna piped up, somehow already in the computer chair with her feet on the desk.

“Really? How?” he asked incredulously, throwing his hands in the air for emphasis.

“OK, I didn’t actually find the book, but maybe we should check this place out.” He leaned into the screen to see a Mewgle search for ‘how to find weird book in underworld’ on the screen.

“I already tried that, Janna!”

“Yeah, but your antivirus was blocking this link to some place called the ‘Librarinth’.”

Tom slammed his palm into his forehead. “Of course, the Librarinth! How could I not think to look there, that’s where all the oldest books are. Why was it getting blocked?”

She clicked on the link and both recoiled at the sight: an abhorrent patterned background with almost unreadable randomly colored text and low quality cartoon images scattered all around the page. “Yeah, it’s awful,” she said in response to his obvious horror. “Seriously, whoever must made this website must be, like, a thousand years old.”

“Probably , yeah, but why does that have anything to do with-” His eyes widened in realization as he clapped his hands together in contemplation. “Right, humans and their lifespans. Go on.”

“Look.”

She scrolled past the despondent, blurry faces of demons of all shapes and sizes in the staff section until she arrived at the catalog, folding her arms triumphantly. Tom excitedly butted in, typing into the search box and being greeted with a loading wheel. “Uh, Janna? It’s not working.”

“Pfft, yeah, I might actually be dead by the time the search finishes. But that doesn’t matter because they have our book. It’s the header image for the whole catalog.” He squinted and brought his face closer to the monitor, and to his surprise the title was clear as day on the cover of the book, although all the other information was too difficult to make out. “Alright, let’s go. Main page says the Librarinth is on Floor 216.”

With a snap of his fingers, the demon elevator was summoned into a bookshelf much as it had been the day they had dealt with the Blood Moon. Relicor’s shrieking, which had slowed to a whimper since they’d left, resumed in full; fortunately they began descending, which quickly put them out of earshot. Tom awkwardly stretched his arms, unsure what exactly to say. She was his friend, yes, but he was never the best at small talk, and Janna being Janna didn’t make that any easier. After long, messy years of broken hearts and misguided feelings, he finally felt comfortable forging friendships, but even though they got along quite well there was something about Janna that made that vibe a lot less effortless than with Marco or even Star. Thoughts of his other friends reminded him of something. “Uh, by the way… how did you even know about the carriage earlier?”

“A girl’s gotta keep some secrets.”

“Pony was posting about it every 15 seconds,” he guessed, calling Janna’s bluff.

“Touché. Every 10, though,” she coolly responded. “Ha, now she’s just flipping out because Star and Marco have way more likes than her selfies.”

“Figured you’d have him bugged or something,” Tom chuckled as he scooted over to get a look at Janna’s screen, and sure enough there was a picture collage of Star sitting in Marco’s lap with tens of thousands of likes and comments already. They were laughing their butts off at themselves in a mirror in front of them with novelty sunglasses, fake mustaches, goofy props, and even a few absurd full-body costumes; Ponyhead joined the fun for a few but just as often butt in trying to take over the mirror by herself.

“Ew, no, I disabled it all months ago. Boyfriend Tom was already too cutesy for me, and you two just had a little flirty fling. Do you think I’d really want to see or hear whatever Star and Marco have going on? They’re, like, deeply in love, or whatever, and it’s gotten even worse in the last few weeks.”

He murmured in tacit agreement. Now that he thought about it, they had seemed even more affectionate than usual, but he wasn’t too keen on uncovering why that might be. The ding of the elevator saved him from any further speculation, and he and Janna stepped out of the elevator into the lobby, which was empty with cobwebs coating most of the weathered stone walls. Janna looked at him with a quizzical expression. “Anyway, so the Librarinth is basically a combination of a library and a labyrinth-”

“Right, I got that,” she curtly retorted.

“The legends say that some ancient librarian demons wanted to challenge any who sought knowledge, so they hid all the books in a giant maze that only the worthy could navigate. But everyone who made it still decided to organize it thoroughly for some reason, and you still had to check out the books and bring them back and all that.”

She ran a finger over the dust on the front counter, and the surface of the desk sizzled in response, causing her to pull her hand back before poking the bubbles that formed with a curious smile. “So why is it completely empty?”

Tom rubbed the back of his neck. “Weeeeeeell, after a few people went missing or insane, everyone realized it really wasn’t a great way to, you know, run a library. Grandpa actually started collecting books to try and get them away from this place. No one really knows what goes on in there, but as far as I know it’s still maintained even though no one uses it. The kingdom stopped staffing the lobby but they could never just shut it down because anyone who tried, well-”

“Went missing or insane. Sounds cool, I’m in.”

“You sure?”

“Dude, you brought me to a wicked hell maze filled with psychotic demon nerds. Maybe there’ll be bottomless pits or a wicked dungeon boss. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re flirting with me, Mr. Lucitor,” she purred, running a finger up his chest and flicking his nose.

“Haha, very funny. And it’s Prince Lucitor,” he sarcastically chided, poking her arm in response before crossing the room with her following, but he couldn’t help but hide that he was flustered. Seeing Star and Marco’s relationship in the past year had reinforced his already-firm convictions about romance: he wanted someone with whom he could be life partners in all ways, not just handholding and rooftop picnics. Otherwise, what would be the point? He’d made that mistake enough times, and even just a light jab at the notion of him casually flirting struck made him feel self-conscious about that past. Finally his reflection was halted when he found what he sought: a large wrought iron door furnished with ornate demonic symbols and various carvings of mythological creatures dwarfed them both. With a soft, steady flame for light, he brought his hand up and ran it over the rusty engravings. He jumped back with a gasp as the fire spread into the lines of the door, lighting up the patterns on it and causing it to creak as it slowly opened.

“Nice,” Janna muttered in awe before strolling inside, with Tom hesitantly following. She was the most eager of their little group to dive headfirst into the unknown, even more than Star most of the time, but he trusted her gut.

They started walking down the long, cramped hallways, hearing only the sound of their own footsteps on the cold floor. Janna peeked her head into a small doorway that appeared to their left, earning herself an explosive blast to the face and getting knocked onto her butt. Tom slammed the door shut and leaned in to read an inscription next to it. “Incinerator for any books too damaged or damaging for further use. Probably not the right place.”

Janna huffed, brushing herself off and finding scraps of paper among the char. “I can see that. Seriously, what kind of labyrinth labels its doors?”

“Maybe one run by book nerds,” Tom offered, gripping her hand to help her up.

“So it’s just as bad at being a labyrinth as it is a library. Neat. Great adventure.”

Tom pressed on, keeping his focus ahead of them. “Hey, I’m just here to help my mom. You’re the one that said you were fine with anything.”

“Fine, fine. Just saying, I could be working on my potions or something.” She pulled a glass bottle full of purple liquid from her skirt pocket and casually tossed it at a wall. Janna snickered at Tom’s yelp when it shattered, but found herself joining him in backing away when a chunk of stone quickly deteriorated and slammed into the ground at incredible speed. She went over and carefully kicked a pebble, finding it impossible to even budge. “See, this was just a stupid pro-gravity potion. Worthless.”

He leaned against the stable wall opposite the hole, sighing. “I’m sure there has to be something interesting here. What if we, I dunno, make it a competition or something?” His frustration with both the situation and Janna were there, yes, but he still wanted to try and get something fun out of the day.

“Go on,” Janna said, eyes flickering up from the bottle that she was tossing between her hands nonchalantly.

OK, maybe he should have thought further ahead. His arms flailed as he scrambled to come up with an idea. “OK, so, uh, whoever finds the weirdest thing in this place in the next hour wins. Just call them out if you think you found something. Or whoever finds the book, whichever comes first, yeah. Mom still needs it.”

“Momma’s boy. I respect that. You’re on, Tom.” Janna cocked an eyebrow, staring at him for a second before pushing off the wall into a sprint, opening the first door she could find. “Empty. Another empty. Three empties, dammit.”

Tom used his flight to travel more smoothly from door to door on his side of the corridor, but still found himself losing ground as he took the time to read the sign posted by each threshold. The ‘Demonic Studies’ room had a very ornately ghoulish aesthetic, with macabre skeletal models throughout. Definitely something to show Janna on the way out just for the aesthetic, and it’d have been weird for most humans, but it wasn’t any more abnormal than what the two of them were used to as a daily routine. Another room for astronomy had an exquisite planetarium dome, but it turned out to be rather useless as the Underworld did not, in fact, contain any stars since it was underground. There was, however, a plentiful selection of guides to stalactites stocked on the shelves. The next four whole sections were devoted to anger management self-help books, which only made him waste precious seconds cringing at old memories.

His pace picked up as he kept going from door to door finding nothing but normal library fare, although he had to admit it was certainly well-maintained. On any other day he might actually enjoy some of the things here, but today he was on a mission to get out of here so they could actually have fun elsewhere.

‘Bookworms’... now that had potential. What sorts of hybrid creatures could lurk behind the inches of wood? “I think I might have found something!” he shouted, throwing open the door only to receive a harsh shushing. Within were only elderly demons in cozy sweaters reading by candlelight, all now glaring at him with an intensity that reminded him of his mom’s own rare reprimands. “Never mind,” he loud-whispered back out into the hall as he gently closed the door and found Janna in a nearby corridor. “Ugh, why is there nothing interesting here?” Sparks trailed behind him from his mounting anger as he paced.

“Tell me about it, even ‘Wormbooks’ was just a bunch of regular novels, somehow,” she sighed. “I was hoping for a big long chain of open books slithering around on the ground, now there’s a party.” She slumped down against the wall next to the streak of flame he’d left on the ground, idly stamping it out with her boot until Tom sat down beside her.

“Wouldn’t a wormbook be the opposite? A big fat worm in the shape of a book?”

“Nah, it’d totally be a book made of a bunch of little flatworms all working together, duh. Still pretty lame.”

OK, now he knew something was up with her. “Janna, is- is something wrong?”

Her body slouched further down until she was almost horizontal on the cold floor, staring ahead of her like a zombie. “Being weird has just felt so pointless lately. Everything’s weird now, all the time! I’m wasting all my time trying to brew potions when there’s a shop that sells them on every corner. I got so bored that I even passed that same dumb test Marco did and now I’m done with high school, like, for real this time.”

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself, that’s pretty impressive.”

“It’s easy if you know who to blackmail.” Tom blinked a few times, not sure why he’d expected anything different. “Everyone else is moving on with their lives, but I’m still feeding the same old possums and picking up the same old tennis balls. The whole point of my routine is that it’s different, it’s me, it’s my Jannanigans or whatever Star calls it, but it’s just not the same. I’m still into all that stuff, and Earthni’s actually really cool, but… ugh.” With that, her head fully sunk to the ground.

Tom brought his palms together over her head, opening and shutting his hands while wiggling his fingers around. “It’s a wormbook,” he said hesitantly, not really sure what he was doing. It was silly amusement, but perhaps that was just what she needed right now. Janna frowned and rolled her eyes, so he snapped at her arm with his hand puppet wormbook a few times.

“Alright, I get it,” she barked out, but her sullen demeanor slowly cracked under the onslaught of frivolity as she sat back up with an unusually ponderous look at him.

“Remember that time you took me bootsledding?” She nodded. “You told me that I needed to find a life outside of Star, and- and it was really great advice. Didn’t mean I still couldn’t like spending time with Star or anything, heck, I still do! But I just needed to get out of that rut of depending on it. Maybe you just need to do that, too. If doing your weirdness by yourself is normal, then adding something normal might be kinda weird.”

“That’s it.” Janna leapt to her feet, looking very suddenly invigorated. “That’s it!”

“Well, uh, glad you liked it. It was nothing, really, just trying to be a good pal-”

“Yeah, yeah, that too,” she waved dismissively, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit scorned. “If weird is normal then normal is weird. We were looking for the craziest things we could find here, but everything that should have been weird was normal, so we should be looking for the most painfully boring room here!” All three of Tom’s eyes blinked a few times as her words sunk in. Could it be…? “Tom, over here!” He hustled over to a particularly plain wooden door. Janna pointed at the plaque on the wall, which was far more faded than the others had been. “Look. ‘Government Records’.”

A burst of energy coursed through Tom’s blood, sparking life in him once more, and he could see the same reflected in Janna’s determined brown eyes. “And the book Mom wanted has something to do with history. Maybe it’s political history! Janna, you might be a genius!”

“Pfft, ‘might’. Now we just gotta…” She grabbed his arm, aiming it at the door, and he looked at her incredulously. “C’mon, dude, who knows what’s behind there. We’re gonna bust in with a demon blast, duh. Pew-pew!”

He rolled his eyes, but the corner of his lip turning up in a begrudging smile gave away his agreement. The pair aimed at the door and blew it off its hinges before charging in through the smoke.

“I see you two have finally solved the grand riddle of the Librarinth!” A deep, booming voice greeted them from the smoke. “Janna Ordonia, Thomas Lucitor, you certainly took your time. I expected you to book it here much more quickly. No matter, for this room shall be your tome!”

“How do you know my-” Janna stammered.

“Uh, don’t you mean tomb-” Tom started at the same time before realizing the wordplay and groaning in misery. Wait a second… Epic threats, an obvious personality quirk…

“Dungeon boss!” the teens cheered together, glancing back and forth between each other and the remainder of the room in front of them obscured by shadow.

“It is I, the bookkeeper of this place. I guard the most sacred treasure of all… knowledge!” Paper rustled loudly, echoed throughout the cavernous space, far taller and wider than Tom had noticed when they first entered with a massive array of bookshelves many times taller than him in a single row near the back wall. The ground beneath them began to shake and Tom tossed a puff of light in front of him, exposing the wide chasm that had just opened up in the ground, swallowing all the shelving in the room. Neither were prepared for the sight that greeted them: a coiled mass unfurled from the abyss and slithering with purpose along the ground, finally raising itself up to stand at fifteen feet tall, swaying back and forth with enough force to create an artificial wind within the space. A closer look showed that the body was made of some peculiar segments of… books, of all shapes and sizes. The volume at the top of the chain was much larger and far more ornately embossed than the others, and on the blood red surface of the cover Tom could make out a set of eyes. As the picture became more and more clear, he could finally see what they were up against. Now THIS is a bookworm.

“Aren’t libraries supposed to be, like, public and free?” Janna blithely inquired.

“You are correct, child, but perhaps try reporting that to your friend there! The Lucitor family is the sworn enemy of this great Librarinth! That fiend Relicor pilfered our collection for his own use for millennia, and the rest tried to shut this place down for good. But worst of all, in the most egregious display of contempt I have witnessed since the dawn of writing itself… Prince Lucitor and his ilk have amassed twenty-six dollars in unpaid fees!”

The tension in the room nearly evaporated in a heartbeat as Tom and Janna paused momentarily before bursting out into raucous laughter.

“Seriously, dude? I could just, like, repay it.” He fumbled in his pockets for his wallet for a moment before being interrupted once more.

“Do not condescend to me, children! It is far too late to make up for these sins with mere currency. Revenge is my fee most overdue, now prepare to meet… Overdoom! I shall harness the power of the written word to spell your demise!”

Books were hurled from the depths of the crevice en masse. Tom stepped in front of Janna to blast them away, but they had taken on a life of their own and homed in on him, covers flapping in the air like wings. Behind Tom, Janna snatched one out of the air to thwart a flank attack. She grabbed his left arm and pointed it up, tapping his elbow frantically. He spared a glance and saw the paper tornado coalescing, and understood her intention. Demon flames surged out of both hands with Janna calling the shots for the left side and Tom focusing on his right. They used the opportunity to back up to a wall, letting them cover every attack vector but creating a stalemate they were sure to lose in time as the seemingly endless offense droned on. Overdoom for the time being simply floated out of the abyss, glaring harshly at them as more and more papers kept emerging.

“Wait, Tom, look…” Still using his hand, she pointed to a shelf that had fallen at an odd angle and hadn’t collapsed into the abyss. There was a large, torn-up poster on which he could barely make out the word “Historia”.

“That might be it,” he breathed out, starting to feel the burn from minutes of nonstop vigilant defensive demon blasts. Oddly, none of the books in that corner were joining the assault. Almost as if...

“It’s making them magical in the chasm.” Tom’s heart leapt up in his chest at the revelation, hope and adrenaline mixing in his veins to keep him fully alert. But charging in was a suicide mission and they clearly couldn’t win on raw firepower.

“Have you had enough? Are you children yet ready to come scrawling on your hands and knees to a-tome for the sins of your forefathers?” the imposing figure growled, bristling impatiently.

“Did it seriously just use the tome pun again?” Janna griped, running her hands past her eyes and down her cheeks in disgust. “For a word nerd, that’s just awful.”

“Yeah…” Tom absent-mindedly responded. He knew she was right, though. Book, tome, scrawl… even if the creature’s summoning powers were off the charts, and it wielded them with calculated ease, its cocky wordplay taunts left something to be desired. It struck him then: what if they’d been approaching this all wrong? If the battle couldn’t be won by blows, then they had to find another option, and Tom was ready to put his plan into action.

He quickly shook off Janna’s rather tight grip on his arm and stepped forward, mustering up a confident expression masking any fears he still had left. “Nice try, Overdoom. Your words aren’t scaring us. Learn to read the room!”

Its “body” immediately began wiggling violently in the air as it crawled a bit forward towards them. Tom paid careful attention to its back end, which had climbed a few feet out of the ground in the move. “How dare you! Petulant brats!” Literary fire and brimstone rained down upon them with more fury than ever, and the two backed up into a corner which was the best they could do in a room largely devoid of any cover.

“What the hell-” Janna whispered through gritted teeth. Tom wriggled his tail out and waved it in front of Janna’s face momentarily. “Now is not the time to-” She was cut off when a barrage of index cards launched at them with enough force to somehow chip the stone behind them on impact. Tom forcefully nodded his head towards the worm’s tail, waggling his own once again. Her eyes lit up much like his had and she nodded in understanding.

“Come on, is that the best you got? I’ve heard them all before, at least give us something novel!”

Janna stood beside him, and her grimace even managed to spook Tom a bit. “I’d alphabet you couldn’t do better even if you tried!” Not what he would’ve gone with, but hey, if it helped tick Overdoom off then who was he to say no?

“You can talk up a storm all you want, but no matter what volume of air you blow, all I feel is a not-so-rough draft!”

“ENOUGH!” Overdoom’s tail launched out of the chasm faster than either could follow, crossing the room in a heartbeat. Tom shoved Janna out of the way before it wrapped itself around him, dragging him much more slowly towards the abyss. His jacket and jeans mercifully protected the paper edges pressing into him, but it was still a painfully tight squeeze that left him gasping for air. His arms were uselessly pinned inside the embrace as he was dragged headfirst, but their hypothesis had been proven correct as all the books around them had dropped to the ground lifeless.

“Tom!” Janna called out. He strained his head to see she’d removed her beanie and had something purple in her hand that she lobbed at that moment. Through the haze of pain he recognized it as another of her potions. The arc was due to miss until he summoned his energy reserves and redirected it with a weak burst of flame from his boot. Though the glass was durable enough to not melt or shatter, the demonic heat changed the potion into a bubbling olive green milliseconds before it contacted a random segment of the behemoth they were fighting. All at once, its hold on Tom and the rest of its body went limp as it began floating lazily into the air before bouncing off the ceiling a few times like a balloon. Janna ran over and helped Tom up as Overdoom screamed inarticulately from many feet above. They traversed the chaotic mess towards the pile they’d spotted previous. After some digging around, he found ‘Historia Homewnum’ miraculously unscathed and protected by a large, sturdy slab of mahogany that had fallen flat on top of it. “I got it!”

“Cool, potion is wearing off. We need to go.” Janna calmly stated. Twin jets of fire erupted from his feet as he swiftly passed the book to Janna and scooped her up in his arms, carrying them across the room towards the door. After setting Janna down, he hesitated for a moment as she stood in the doorway.

“Do you think I should still pay the late fee? I feel kinda bad and-”

“TODAY MAY HAVE BEEN YOUR VICTORY, BUT TOME-ORROW WILL-”

Tom sighed in resignation with a very unimpressed expression. “OK, yeah, never mind.” And with a quick slam of the door, they were both out scot-free. They didn’t stop running until they arrived back at the elevator. Once inside, they slumped down onto the ground as they began the journey back up to the main surface of the Underworld.

“Woo!” Tom was caught off guard by Janna expressing visible joy, and it was immediately infectious. “Now that’s an adventure. Of course, demon fire is what makes the potions work. Makes a lot more sense. Stupid ink smudge, I burned all those lemons for nothing.” He belly laughed, falling over to the floor and clutching his gut as Janna kicked him in the arm.

“Sorry, sorry, couldn’t help it.”

Her foot backed off after one last good hit. “So now you just have to give that book to your mom?”

“Yeah, should only take a minute. Want to come with?”

“Dude, she’s half a story tall and cries lava. I’d be honored. Oh crud, Pony’s current stream title is ‘WHY Y’ALL CARE MORE ABOUT EARTH TURD AND B-FLY THAN ME?!?!’” Janna showed him the notification on her phone. “That can’t be good.”

Tom pulled out his phone and called to see what was up. Pony picked up after only one ring and didn’t even bother with a greeting as she screamed so loudly that he lost hearing for a moment in his right ear. Her voice carried through the elevator car even without being put on speakerphone. “Yo Tom, why do all my Pony Pals just want to watch those two idiots kiss and cuddle? What is up with that? I even gave my fanbase a stupid nickname, they eat that stuff up, so why won’t they looooove meeeeee?” Business as usual with Pony, it seemed. “An-y-way, this whole shopping spree was amaaaazing, I am all kinds of extra fabulous now. B-Fly and Earth Turd took over the stream cuz the viewers, like, wanted a Q&A sesh but I’m only giving them twenty minutes! Hmph!”

“Might as well just make a whole show about them,” Janna chimed in, rolling her eyes a few times for good measure.

“Wait, demon boy, is Janna there? What the heck have you two been getting up to? Don’t tell me you too are getting your freak on too, I could not handle that T.M.I.-”

Yeah, there was nothing more to gain from that conversation. Tom flipped his compact shut, disconnecting the call. Wait, ‘too’? Did she mean- he shuddered involuntarily. You know what, nope, just not going to think about that one.

“So glad I turned off the cameras,” Janna mumbled, curling up into a ball on the floor, clearly not wanting to touch that whole situation either.

He opted to make contact with the other group via Marco instead - why he hadn’t just done that in the first place, he’d never know - and sent a quick text. “Marco wants to get dinner at the Waterfolk Kingdom in, like, an hour and a half. Apparently Star found some earrings she wanted at the last minute, and Pony got arrested for shoplifting three seconds after I hung up.”

Janna cackled in response. “Let’s just meet them there. My jacket got ripped to shreds by the possums last week, might as well get a new one while I’m down here. Been thinking about changing it up. I kinda like that style.” She lifted up his arm and poked at a button on the sleeve of his own.

“Uh, yeah, sure, I can show you where I got it.” He stumbled over his words, still caught off guard by this new normal-person-Janna. The elevator dinged and the teens began their trek through the Lucitor castle in search of the queen. “So, the Librarinth... we’re definitely going back there at some point, right?”

“Totally, bet’s still not over. We should do this more often, you’re not so bad a friend.”

“You too, and yeah, we should.” Looking back on the day, it had honestly been one some of the most fun he’d had in a while, despite almost dying at least once. Tom still wasn’t sure what to make of this friendship brewing between them, but if it meant more days like this to look forward to? Maybe he could get used to that.

[feferipeixes]

Jay’s Brother (3/?)

Jay has been working in the cobalt mines her entire life. Against all odds, she’s still alive when so many others have fallen. It’s been decades since she’s had anyone she could call family. And then, out of nowhere, a demon shows up and says he’s her brother.

Naturally, she’s upset.

Chapter 3: Hope Against Hope (link to chapter 1) (2)

Shout out to my awesome beta reader, @toothpastecanyon!

(See the most updated version on AO3!)

===

Chunk.

The girl slammed her axe into the blue rock in front of her. The rock resisted -- gaining an ugly scratch but otherwise surviving unharmed. It seemed to sneer at her, seemed to say, “What, having a hard time? Getting too old for this?”

She groaned in response. Dropping her pickaxe, she straightened up, and heard a creak as something shifted in her back. She nearly doubled over again, but caught herself by resting a hand on the cavern wall. She breathed in through her nose and tried to swallow the hacking cough that she felt wriggling its way out of her. Everything was okay. She could do this. She did it every day.

Still… it seemed harder that day than usual. She glanced down at her pickaxe -- an old rusty tool that seemed to be aging before her eyes -- and then peered out at the other workers around her. They all raised their axes in unison -- brought them high above their heads before each clicking a button that shot beams of energy into their respective hunks of cobalt.

“Hey, wait a minute.” She could barely recognize her voice when it came out. It sounded about as bad as her pickaxe looked. “What’s the big setup? Why do you all have quantum axes and I’ve got this piece of junk?”

Every worker turned to look at her. “Because you’re obsolete, Miss Du,” they said together, their collective voice echoing through the cave like it was a scream in her ear.

“And junk like you doesn’t deserve more than junk in turn,” came a voice from behind her.

The girl tried to gasp, but what came out instead was an awful, spluttering cough. She whipped around to find her shift manager looming over her, staring down with a wicked grin.

“Tick-tock,” he purred, pulling up a clock display on the wall panel and thrumming his fingers against it. “You’re slowing down. If you don’t increase your output we’ll have no choice but to -”

Knock knock knock.

Her manager’s mouth was still moving, but no sound was coming out. Instead, there was a steady knocking coming from behind her. Confused, she glanced back to see a door standing freely in the middle of the room. She could see it rattle in time with the knocking, and there was a soft, white glow pouring in from the edges of the frame.

The girl stepped toward it. Her manager tried to stop her -- jumped in her path with fire in his eyes and snakes pouring out of his mouth -- but she ignored him. He wasn’t a threat anymore. All she could hear was the knocking.

She brushed her fingers along the access pad, and it slid open. A brilliant, blinding light stood on the other side. He was much brighter than Prima, but she had no trouble looking at him.

He stepped across the doorframe and extended a hand to her. “Let’s get out of here.”

She went to grab his hand, but hesitated. “I don’t know. Why should I trust you?”

His smile flickered, plunging her momentarily back into darkness. “What?”

“I don’t know you.” She sensed her manager reaching over her shoulder with a slimy tentacle, and she slapped it away. “But I know this. I know how to survive this.”

“But... this is awful. Why would you want to stay here? What happened to your dreams of exploring the cosmos?”

The girl looked up and saw the night sky projected onto the cave ceiling, semi-transparent like a hologram. It was beautiful, but it made her feel emptier than ever.

“Could I really do it? Could you actually take me there?”

“Anywhere,” he breathed. “Anywhere you want.”

She sighed. “I need some time to think about it, alright? Give me some time.”

The star nodded. “Of course. Just… let me know, alright? It’s lonely in here.”

She tried to respond, but her throat fought against her. She shuddered with pain, clutched her stomach, and a rough, stuttering cough heaved its way out of her. She looked up at him, his hand still extended out to her, his smile weak but there nonetheless. Cautiously, she reached up and accepted his invitation.

Quick as a whistle, he pulled her up to her feet. The pain was gone, her breathing once again simple, and she could swear the air around her was sparkling. She stared at her hands, which suddenly felt so strong and capable, and gulped.

“Thanks,” she said.

He only bowed in response. He spun around to leave, filling the room with a brilliant display of colors for a brief moment. Then he vanished, and it was dark again. She was holding a pickaxe again. Her manager was behind her, fury radiating out of his empty eye sockets. The world was her burden once more.

And yet it was so pointless. So insignificant.

Gritting her teeth, she turned around to face her manager. Before he could say a word, she reached out and grabbed his head with both hands. She felt the power pulsing through her, felt the fear radiating off him in her grasp. She smiled, because for once, she was in control.

She smiled, and she squeezed his skull as hard as she could, letting the slime ooze over her fingers and waiting for the moment when it would POP -

---

Jay gasped and opened her eyes.

It was a dream. It was a dream and she was awake now and she definitely hadn’t snapped at work and killed her manager. She let out a sigh of relief. Everything was fine. It was just another one of those weird dreams she’d been having for the past couple of days. No matter how much she hated Kanif and her job, physically attacking him would do her far more harm than good.

Although -- she had to admit that it felt really good to take her frustrations out on Kanif. Maybe the dreams weren’t so bad, as long as she never really acted on them.

As she gradually returned to consciousness, Jay began to realize that she wasn’t in her bed. The pillow she was using was flat and rough. Her glasses were already on, and the room was bright. She wasn’t at home at all -- she was at the library.

She jolted upright. There was a tearing noise -- a page of the book she’d been sleeping and apparently drooling on had stuck to her face. She pulled it off and examined it.

In folklore, a deer is a mythical beast that is believed to appear in times of need to guide lost souls to safety. It is often depicted as tall, furry, hoofed, quadrupedal, and antlered. According to the Encyclopedia of Ancient Creature Lore, a deer is an ordinary pony that has been touched by a divine being and granted immortality.

Jay grimaced. None of that made sense. She picked up the book she’d been resting on and read the cover -- A History of Magical Creatures. Why was she reading… Oh yeah.

It had been three days since she’d met Alcor on the way home from work. Since then, the candles and magic circle he’d left her had remained untouched in the corner of her room as she wracked her brain for reasons to contact him again. There was so much about him that didn’t make sense -- a normal person would’ve dismissed him entirely at this point -- but some part of her was curious. Some part of her wanted to believe him.

One of the things that continued to confuse her was his claim that he was a demon. She’d been combing both the library and the Interweb for any information on what a demon was, and after three days she still had nothing to show for it. She’d woken up early that morning so she could go to the library again before work, but apparently her lack of sleep had caught up with her and…

Jay jumped out of her chair. Work. She checked her phone and -- heck, it was 12th trentile. She was very late for work. Panicking, she dropped the book and darted out of the building. The torn page she’d slept on fluttered slowly to the ground behind her.

It was 12:25 when she made it to the lobby of the mine, hoping against hope that no one had missed her. She already knew her pay would be docked, but if Kanif saw how late she was she'd surely get fired, and she couldn’t let that happen. He'd been mysteriously absent the past couple of days so maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be there -

Her hope vanished quickly when she breached the double doors and saw Kanif staring up at her with a furious look on his face.

“I’msosorryI’mlateKanifsir!” Jay blurted, out of breath from running. “It won’t happen again, I -”

“Rhysti-Du!” Kanif barked, cutting her off. “I thought I made it very clear to you what would happen if you were late again! Tick-tock!”

“Sir, please, I can’t lose this job. I’ll work late again!”

Kanif grinned at her, words starting to form on his lips, and then -- something happened.

Jay’s vision flickered. The air suddenly felt very thick, like they were standing in honey. She refocused her eyes to see Kanif’s smile dead on the ground, replaced with a look of abject horror. He took a step back and hit the wall behind him. Jay could’ve sworn he was trembling. He looked so weak and puny -- kind of like in her dream. Her dream, when her hands had felt so full of power. Her dream -- or was it real life? -- where something inside of her had whispered go… do it… do it now…

Then the moment passed. The pressure in the air was gone, and Jay couldn’t remember what she’d been thinking about a moment ago. But Kanif was still backed into the wall looking as scared as if he’d just seen a monster.

“Mr. Kanif… sir?” she asked nervously. “Are you alright?”

He didn’t respond at first, just looked both ways a few times. “Yes, I’m fine, Jay!” he choked out eventually. His words were studded with nervous laughter and he could barely keep his eyes on her. “Everything is up to code. About being late today -- we can just pretend that didn’t happen, do you hear me? That’d be exemplary! Get along to work now, there’s mining to do.”

“Uhh…” She looked behind her to make sure there wasn’t some other person there named Jay that Kanif might’ve been talking to. “Alright…?”

“Great! Off you go!”

He then scampered out of the room more quickly than she’d ever seen him move. For a few minutes she could only gape at the space where he’d stood. Never in the decade that he’d been her manager had he ever shown her any mercy for lateness or mistakes of any kind. It was baffling.

Something had happened -- she thought to herself as she collected her mining equipment and set off to her post -- something had happened a few days ago and since then her life had gotten weird. She wanted answers, and she was beginning to think there was only one person who had them.

---

There was an electronic chime as Jay pushed open the door to the diner. A cheaply decorated room greeted her on the other side. The atmosphere was sleepy -- most people were eating silently, with the odd couple sitting together in a booth and whispering in each other’s ears. None of this was out of the ordinary.

Jay stepped over to the counter and sat down on a stool. A couple of people sitting nearby glanced at her -- people she’d never met but must have seen countless times before -- but they returned quickly to their food. She looked around for the waitress -- they really needed more than one, but for some reason couldn’t seem to afford another -- before spotting her at the other end of the room, taking someone’s order. She gave her a little wave, and turned to look out the window while she waited.

The world outside was still lit, thanks to Jay getting out of work a trentile earlier than she had the previous day. The view out of the diner’s front window was mostly occluded by the shops on the other side of the street, but there was a small alley between the laundromat and the convenience store through which she could appreciate the setting star. The sky was awash with color -- the greenish-blue of day replaced by a brilliant orange, soon to fade away into the saddest pink.

It was beautiful, the small slice of the sky she could see while waiting to order her food. It was beautiful and it was filled with so many memories of lying in the grass watching the sky, hand-in-hand with Akko or Sunil or Evan. These days, she never really got to watch Prima set. She wondered if maybe she should try waiting a bit before grabbing food after work, so she could spend some time outside just letting the colors swirl around her, just thinking and dreaming and hoping and -

“Jay?”

The sound of snapping fingers brought Jay back to the present. The waitress -- Gnern or Gnert or something -- was staring at her with a weird expression on her face.

Jay grimaced. “What?”

“I said, can I take your order?”

“Oh. Yes. Of course.” She shook her head. “Sorry about that. I’ll have… uh… the usual. Slashnorts with umbrella broccoli. Actually, no, wait. Make that umbrella pipsqueaks instead.”

The waitress nodded and made a complicated gesture at the notepad she was holding, which responded by dinging. Then she cocked her head at Jay. “How are you doing, pip? Holding in there?”

Jay blinked. “Uh. What does that mean?”

“You just looked distracted, is all. I don’t mind it, I mean. They say that’s supposed to happen to old folks, right?”

“I…” Jay paused. “I think I read that once.”

She tilted her head slightly to catch view of herself in the mirror behind the waitress. She studied her wavy grey locks -- once a deep brown, the color had started draining out of them years ago and they were almost white at this point. Her skin was wrinkled where it had once been smooth. She hadn’t needed glasses when she started working in the mines, but at some point everything had started getting blurry, and before she knew it, she was in the convenience store buying a cheap pair of rectangular frames.

She knew that these were things that happened when you got old, but it still felt like she was changing somehow -- like the person she had been was being squeezed from her and soon she’d become something else entirely. It was one thing knowing theoretically that people changed when they got old and it was another to actually become an old person herself. And the idea that her mind could be changing too as a part of it was very stressful.

“Yeah…” she continued. “Maybe all of... this... is because I’m getting old.”

The waitress snorted. “Pip, I’m old, and you’re twice my age. I think you borrowed the kilter on ‘getting’ old a few decades ago.”

Jay frowned. “Yeah, yeah. Are you here to take my order or gawk at me?”

“I wasn’t -” she started, but hesitated at the annoyed expression on Jay’s face. “Your order, I guess. I’ll be right back hun.”

She quickly turned away and walked into the kitchen. Jay winced at how hurt she’d sounded -- she hadn’t meant to come off so brusque but the few days of confusion and frustration must’ve taken a toll on her. She didn’t want to take that out on anyone else. The waitress stepped back into the room a moment later, carrying a couple of plates of food on her arm. She started placing them down in front of other customers sitting at the counter.

Jay cleared her throat. “Hey, Gnern.” The waitress glanced up, looking nonplussed. “I’m sorry I was being rude. I’ve had a long few days, and I might’ve been kind of annoyed because I was trying to research something earlier and was coming up with nothing, blah blah blah.”

The waitress put down the last plate she was carrying and cocked her head at Jay. “Well, pip, my name’s Gnert, not Gnern,” (DARN IT), “but I accept your apology. What’s eating at you?”

Jay stared at her blankly until what she’d said clicked in her brain. “Wait. You’re asking me about my day?”

“Yeah. You’re in here a lot and you don’t really speak up much. What’s eating at you?”

“Uh…” Jay mentally juggled images of all the weird stuff that had been happening to her. There was no way she could even begin to explain most of it. “Well, this’ll sound strange, but… Have you ever heard of a demon?”

“Oh, yeah. Is that all?”

Jay felt like she’d been kicked in the gut. “What? You- how- how do you know? I spent so much time in the library and I found nothing!”

Gnert shrugged. “Mom told me when I was young. It’s an old story for kids, you know? You wouldn’t find anything like that in the library.”

When Jay could only wordlessly flap her mouth open and shut like a fish, Gnert laughed and leaned over the counter. “Alright, pip. Here’s the story. I don’t remember any names or morals or nothin’ but I remember the basics. They say a demon is a star that fell out of the sky and has to live on the ground like a person.”

Jay felt a tingly sensation creep up across her neck. She nodded at Gnert. “Go on.”

“Well, the star is lonely down on the ground. It can’t ever go back where it came from. It misses its family in the sky so bad that it turns to wickedness.”

Jay furrowed her brow. “Wickedness? Really?”

Gnert shrugged. “It’s a story for kids. There’s always a good guy and a bad guy.”

Jay remembered Alcor telling her that most demons weren’t as nice as him. The tingling feeling spread from her neck to her torso. “Okay. Go on.”

“You know how you can go wish on a star? They say that’s because stars are made out of magic. And that means demons are too.”

Jay saw herself turning around and around and finding Alcor in front of her no matter what she did. Her arms were tingling now.

“The demons try to trick people by giving them nice things and doing favors with their magic.”

His words rang in Jay’s ears. I can’t really do magic for free.

“And then right when you’re not expecting it… BAM!” Gnert slammed her hands on the counter. “They gobble you right up!”

Gnert started laughing, but it felt very far away. The tingling had spread across Jay’s entire body at this point, and with the tingling came a thought. A memory. An image floated into her brain of Alcor crouching down next to her, her hand in his, his tongue lapping away at her cut -- lick, lick, lick -- and there was blood on his teeth. Her blood.

Something in her brain flipped over. She jumped out of her stool, and banged her hip against the underside of the counter. “Frick- agh!” she yelled, barely avoiding falling over in pain.

Half of the diner looked up at her shout. Gnert dashed around the counter to her with a panicked expression on her face. “Jay, I’m sorry, I got too excited about that story. Let me help you.”

“No, stop, I’m fine,” Jay grunted. She grabbed the edge of the counter to pull herself up. “It wasn’t the story. I’m just old, haha, remember? I’m fine.”

Gnert seemed torn between offering her more help and leaving her be. Deflating, she returned to the other side of the counter, and started fiddling with cooking instruments, all without taking her eyes off of Jay.

It took a minute for Jay’s breath to go back to normal. Her hip should’ve hurt quite a bit, but it was barely registering to her in her mind. She was too preoccupied with Gnert’s story. Her thoughts were circling around and around like a swarm of ringwats. She knew it had only been a fairytale, but at least some of it had to be true because she really had met a strange man that could do magical favors. And if some of it was true, she couldn’t help but wonder…

The star is lonely down on the ground. It can’t ever go back where it came from.

She wanted to go home. “Is my order almost done?” she asked.

Gnert flinched, almost dropping the pot of coffee she was refilling. “Sorry. Let me check on that for you.”

Jay watched her go, and felt a funny tickle in her mind. “Actually,” she added, almost absentmindedly, “can you throw in a bar of candy with my order?”

Gnert looked surprised. “I can definitely do that. What kind would you like?”

“Uh…” Jay looked at the pile of candy against the far wall, and realized that she hadn’t eaten candy in a really long time. “Wow, I don’t know. Surprise me?”

Gnert nodded, and rushed off to gather Jay’s food. She was back a minute later, and Jay quickly paid for the meal and left. She could still feel the whole diner’s eyes on her as she walked out the door and down the street.

It wasn’t until she was a couple of blocks away that Jay realized what she’d done. She looked at the candy bar in her bag -- a Sneakers bar -- and slapped her forehead. What was she doing, spending hard-earned money on candy so she could call a guy she barely knew and wasn’t sure she could trust? What was she doing spending money on the chance... to have... a family again?

Jay stopped in her tracks. Was that really what this was? The chance to have a family again? She’d gone so long without anyone she could call family. Everyone she’d ever loved was dead -- or at least, in the case of her sister, probably dead. From what he’d told her, it sounded like he was in the same situation. If she was his chance to have a family again, maybe he was hers too.

Feeling her resolve strengthen, Jay rushed the rest of the way home. She dropped her meal onto her bed and clapped her hands in front of her computer. Her computer seemed to struggle to turn on, but eventually the screen illuminated and displayed the poem she’d started writing a few days. She felt like the breath was being squeezed out of her as she reread it.

Harsh cold nights in the recesses of space Plucked right out, leaving me without a trace Death defied, now she’s on her way back home One last hope that I won’t be so alone

She’d had her sister in mind when she’d written it, but as she turned Alcor’s words over in her head, she wondered if maybe it wasn’t about him instead. Maybe he was the family that she’d been hoping against hope for all of this time.

Jay took a deep breath, and made a decision.

There wasn’t very much space on the floor, but she managed to find a spot big enough for her to completely unfold the magic circle picture Alcor had given her. She arranged the candles so that they sat on the symbols that went around the edge. She activated the lighter on her phone and lit the candles one by one. Almost done. She looked around for the bag from the diner -- it was still on her bed. She reached in and grabbed the candy bar. It was light, but she felt out of breath anyway. She unwrapped it and dropped it into the center of the circle.

“Hey, Alcor,” she said, trying to sound confident. “I’ve thought about it. I want to give this a try.”

Instantly, all of the lights in the room went out. The candles lit up by themselves shortly after, but their flames were blue instead of yellow. A prickly presence came over her -- the fuzzy feeling she’d been having on and off for the past few days. And finally, a smile appeared in the middle of the room.

“Jay!” Alcor exclaimed. He hopped over the candles and wrapped her in a vice grip hug. “You mean it?”

The light gradually returned to the room, and in the light she was reminded of everything that was wrong. His positively ancient clothing, his pointed ears, his wings like windows into the sky. How was it possible that this was her brother? It didn’t make sense. This was madness. She couldn’t be doing this.

“Yeah,” she breathed. She hesitated for a moment, and then hugged him back. “Yeah, I mean it.”

(AO3 link)

[fanfictionlive]

Fic Requesting Etiquette

Allow me to start by saying I've been writing and posting fanfic for a long time (I'm talking geocities, webrings, etc.) and recently, I set up a new penname so that I could try posting in a new fandom.

My story was just starting to gain a little traction when I got a PM out of the blue, asking me if I take requests. I've never gotten a request before, so my initial reaction was to be very flattered. I agreed to hear them out and decide once we settled on a fandom and pairing. Everything was nice at first. We hashed out the basic premise and I thought I would just... go? Like, start writing?

But then it seemed like things got weird. The requester seemed REALLY stuck on certain details and it became increasingly clear we were not on the same page. I was worrying about things like pacing, story flow, and character voice, while the requester just wanted the characters to BE in certain scenes, doing things, without concern for how they'd get there or how out-of-character they acted.

I tried to find ways to bridge together their ideas, but was shot down. I quickly lost all motivation to write them this fic and the experience has left me asking a lot of questions: why did they choose me to write this story for them? It wasn't for my writing style, clearly. Was it just to be able to read more about their particular kink (which is absolutely fine and not at all what my problem is)?

Am I the one who's being out-of-touch and unreasonable? Is this normally how the requesting process goes?

People who request fics: how much say do you expect to have in the plot of the story after giving the prompt? Do you trust your chosen writer to bring your vision to life?

Writers who take fic requests: what is the best way to tell someone you've agreed to write for that you no longer have an interest in working with them? How would you have handled this situation?

submitted by /u/TheAgashi [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans https://ift.tt/3fbXodD