#they probably have areas inside buildings to grow food

[toastingpencils37]

How the hell does Imperium grow food? Because there doesn't appear to be any outer area dedicated to it.

[lcriedlastnight]

Oscar has been planning on proposing to y/n for a couple of months by now, already bought the ring, tried multiple times to propose to her but every time he felt too scared/ anxious to do it. One time Y/n accidentally finds the ring somewhere in their shared apartment

this is so cute! thanks for the request! ilysmmm. mwah!

tw: fem!reader, swears, scaredy cat oscar, lmk if you want me to add anything.

w/c: 2.2k

the sunlight peered through your window, through the see-through blinds you insisted on buying for yours and oscar's shared room. the way the light hits your resting features makes your man sigh out in bliss. every single morning he has the exact same thoughts when he watched you sleep, 'i need to spend the rest of my life with her'.

it had almost been a eight months since he first had that thought. seven since he acted on it and asked your sister to come with him when he was shopping for a ring. a second opinion does not hurt.

the ring had sat in his drawer for a good few weeks, maybe even a month as oscar contemplated how exactly he wanted to go about proposing. this was one area he was completely clueless for. give him literally anything else and he would be able to rhyme off the answer quicker than he could answer for himself. your favourite food? those cookies with the chocolate inside. your favourite film? the lego batman movie. clothes size? you were a small but in most t-shirts you preferred them in a medium so they were a bit baggier on you. how you would like to be proposed to? no clue. oscar knew deep down that it didn't really matter where he proposed, or even how he did it. he was sure you would say yes in if he proposed halfway through taking a shit. it mattered a whole lot to oscar, he wanted it to be a memory you looked back on with fondness and love.

the first time oscar tried to propose, it was a super traditional and basic way. the boy had booked for you to both head on a cute getaway before the season started back up again in february. you had always talked about wanting to go to greece, so he had booked you both in for two weeks in santorini. oscar carried the ring in his pocket the whole holiday even though he had planned out when he wanted to ask you.

the restaurant you had both just eaten in was probably one of the most expensive buildings you had ever been in. you told oscar so. he laughed in response.

"i think the paddock costs much more than than, love." oscars arm was around your waist as you walked alongside him, you were basically leaning on him at this point too. you snort at his words.

"fine, the most expensive looking building i've ever been in." you reword your sentence. oscar laughs. he swears he has never laughed as much as he had in those two weeks with you. oscar had ended guiding you both up to the top of this hill, you barely even noticed, too busy talking his ear off from the glass of wine you had drank with dinner. you were on holiday, why not?

there was a cute little bench that had fairy lights wrapped around it sitting pretty at the top of the hill, over looking the city and the ocean next to it. oscar encourages you to sit. he knew he had made the right choice to propose here when, a few days after arriving you had told oscar that greece was probably your favourite place in the entire world now.

you sit with your head on your boyfriend's shoulder as you watch the tide from far above. oscar fiddles with the ring in his pocket, nerves beginning to eat away at him. you grow quiet as your eyes twinkle in the moonlight. jesus, you looked like something out of his wildest dreams, oscar was sure of it. your voice breaks the comfortable silence between you both.

"i know this holiday isn't finished yet but i really have had the best time with you osc. i appreciate you doing this for me. you do too much for me, i want to pay you back for it all one day." your voice is a whisper because talking at a normal volume just doesn't feel right in the moment.

oscar's nerves get the best of him as you bare your heart to him. here you were being vulnerable with him and he couldn't even build the courage to ask you to marry him. the driver was so unsure of where the nerves were coming from, he was completely sure you would say yes, he knew you loved him yet his hand slipped out his pocket to move towards your thigh to give it a squeeze. a sweet kiss is pressed to your hair before oscar is whispering back his reply.

"me too, sweet girl. wanna stay here with you, forever." a part of his brain tells him that if he just proposed like he was supposed to then you would be able to do this with him forever and it would be promised. he shakes the thoughts from his head as he tells himself that now wasn't the right time awayways.

you had come back from that holiday, still his girlfriend and your finger still void of a ring.

the second time almost caused him to have a panic attack. this time it was less traditional and more relaxed. it had been almost two months since your trip to greece and the sight of your ring finger being bare sent oscar into a spiral every time he caught a glimpse of where that diamond should be.

you finally had him to yourself after a gruelling triple header. those races had actually given oscar some of the best results of the season so far, but it had taken it's toll on your relationship as you had barely spoken to your emotional support boy. the time zones messing you up, plus the fact that you had way too much school work to finish causing you to be forced (by oscar, himself. it pained him to do it but he knew how important this degree was to you and he was not going to let you throw it away just because you missed him and wanted to watch him drive in circles for an hour and a half for three sundays straight) to stay at home.

oscar was sure you would be waiting for him on the couch in your shared living room, it's your routine at this point. when oscar gets back home, it is the late evening. maybe around dinner time. he hopes you haven't waited on him to eat.

as the australian boy unlocked the door, he looked around the apartment. three weeks without his home comforts (you) had taken its toll on him. it is sort of dark in the hallway leading to the living room, the door to the room laying wide open. oscar can see the back of the couch and the blaring light of the tv. it was bright.

the ring had stayed at the back of his bottom drawer in his bedside table. it was right next to you, right where you slept without him for twenty-one nights without him. oscar was desperate to get his hands on you.

as soon as the threshold was crossed and oscar was in the living room with you, your perfume hit him like a brick wall. the brown eyed boy almost started crying at the smell, he had just missed you that much.

your laying on the couch, asleep. this actually surprised oscar. you were never usually asleep, you were so good at controlling when and where you fell asleep, waking up however... that was a different story altogether.

oscar takes your legs and lifts them up softly to slide in underneath them. he was not going to lay down next to you because he knew for a fact as soon as he fell asleep there would be no waking him up until at least midday tomorrow. you were like that everyday.

oscar admires you for a bit before the urge to propose to you comes creeping back. the desperation of being yours for the rest of his life, reared its ugly head as his eyes follow the swoop of your lashes against your cheeks. he thinks about shaking you awake to do it.

the boy is too deep in thought to realise you've woken up. it's like you can tell when he is in mental distress and you come to save him from himself.

"you're home." you mumble into the air. it is left hanging, not responded to as you sleepily blink yourself awake to finally get a good look at him. he's lovely to look at. as lovely as ever.

"you okay?" you ask him after period of silence that is too loud to bring any comfort.

oscar doubts he is any good for you, so for the second time he chickens out and doesn't propose, although it does send his tired and self conscious mind into a spiral that almost brings on a panic attack. he's quick to assure you he's alright, "just tired after all that flying." is his excuse. you believe him and do not have to try very hard to coax him into bed.

once you both had done your night routines next to each other for the first time in three weeks and oscar was laying practically on top of you, he thought about the ring again. just sitting in his bedside table when it should be on your finger as you brag to everyone you see in the shops that you were getting married to the love of your life. it will happen and oscar will see it, he just has to build the courage, next time for sure.

that had been four months ago. the boy didn't even try to think about attempting to propose to you, it all bearing too heavy still. the longer he took the more he talked himself into the idea of you not wanting to marry him.

so when you find the ring on a tuesday lunch time, it is safe to say oscar is shitting himself. oscar had been laying on his side with his head on your lap on the couch watching some documentary on whether or not the remains some archaeologist had found was really an alien or not. you were listening in as you scrolled through your phone, carding your fingers through his hair. it had popped into the brunette's mind that he had forgotten to order his sisters birthday present, it was sitting in the basket, ready to checkout but you had distracted him by asking him what he would do if you chucked your glass of water in his face. so he asked you to log into his account and get it for him.

"it's asking for your card details, osc. where is it?" you ask, reading out what the phone in your hand was saying. oscar groans at the thought of you leaving him for even a second physically hurting him. "bottom drawer of my bedside, love." oscar mumbles, concentration falling back onto the tv. unknowing he had just told you the location to the item that had been plaguing his mind for the past eight months. the realisation doesn't kick in when he hears your gasp, or when he is rushing through to your room to check in and make sure you are okay. it only hits when he sees you sitting on the floor in front of the piece of furniture, turning around to face him with tears in your eyes and a ring in your hand.

"is this what i think it is?" you ask him, voice shaking. oscar really is dumb because he cannot work out his you are crying with happiness or out of sadness. although he is quick to sit beside you, hands reaching for the ring but you pull it back out of his grasp, waiting for the answer.

"yeah," oscar sighs. "i've tried to propose to you twice now but every time i get too scared and don't. i've been trying to for eight months". oscar gets even more worried than he originally was when he sees your frown. there was no way he had just fucked this up with you.

"i could've been engaged to you for eight months?" you ask, you seem genuinely disappointed by this fact and that is what snapped everything into place in his brain. you wanted to be engaged to him. oscar jumps forward to wrap you into a bone crushing hug that makes your heart skip beats.

"i will marry you oscar." you tell him.

"i'm so sorry i chickened out, i don't know what was wrong with me. i could've been almost married to the most perfect girl in the world. my most perfect girl." oscar murmurs his apology into your hair but you had already forgiven him. way back before he had even apologised.

the light still beams into the room, oscar thinks about buying black-out curtains until he sees the way the morning light hits your eyes just after you have just opened them. although they close again much too quickly for oscars liking.

it is like you can feel oscar's stare because you grab his arm, pulling him closer to you.

"love you osc." you mumble into the pillow. eyes drooping again as your face relaxes. oscar presses a kiss to the side of your head as he whispers "love you even more, pretty.".

[mysticalstuff]

While you're in the mood, how would the host club folks react when they realize their crush is a country bumpkin? Rich or not, the differences probably throw them for a loop.

Ohshc! characters reaction to country bumpkin! S/O!

Sorry, this took decades 😭

:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ :*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ :*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡

Tamaki Suoh:

Tamaki would be over the moon when he finds out. He’d picture cute country scenes with fields of flowers, cute animals, and picturesque sunsets."A country life? Like in the stories? Oh, how wonderful! Did you ride horses to school? Do you have a family of noble dairy cows?" But when his crush mentions things like waking up at 4 AM to clean animal stalls, he’d freeze for a second. "C-Cleaning… manure? W-Well! That just means you're hardworking! Yes, truly admirable!" He’d still think it’s charming, but the reality would hit him harder than expected.

Kyoya Ootori:

Kyoya wouldn’t react much on the outside. He’d calmly adjust his glasses and nod like it’s no big deal. But inside, he’d already be thinking about the financial side of country living. "Ah, agriculture. An essential industry. The local economy in rural areas often depends on it. I see." If they mentioned something funny, like chasing chickens around the yard, he might smirk slightly. But he’d mostly stay composed, occasionally asking logical questions. "Did your family diversify their livestock to reduce market risks?"

Haruhi Fujioka:

Haruhi would probably shrug. Coming from a modest background herself, she wouldn’t find it strange. "So what? I grew up in a small apartment. You probably had more space than I ever did." She might poke a little fun if they say something particularly country-like, though. "Wait, you named your tractor? That’s… definitely a new one." But she’d respect their life skills, especially if they know how to grow food or fix things.

Hikaru Hitachiin:

Hikaru would be all over this. The teasing would be constant. "Well, well, if it isn’t our little country bumpkin! Did you wrassle some cows this morning?" He’d imitate an exaggerated accent every chance he got. But the more stories they shared, the more fascinated he’d become. If they described jumping in creeks or running through fields, he’d start imagining how fun it would be. "Okay, that actually sounds kinda cool. Can I visit sometime? I wanna try that!"

Kaoru Hitachiin:

Kaoru would laugh along with Hikaru at first, but he’d quickly grow curious. "Wait, so you had to milk cows before breakfast? That sounds exhausting." He’d be surprised by how much effort went into their daily life. Unlike Hikaru, he’d probably feel a little guilty about how easy his own life has been. "You’re stronger than you look, you know? I could never do all that."

Honey (Mitsukuni Haninozuka):

Honey would gasp excitedly if they talked about animals. "You had baby goats? And bunnies? Ohhh, that’s so cute! Did they snuggle with you?" He’d probably beg to visit their hometown just to see the animals. And if they mention homemade desserts, Honey would be all ears. "Country pies? You have to make me one! Pleeeease?"

Mori (Takashi Morinozuka):

Mori would just nod thoughtfully. He’d respect their strength and hard work without needing to say much. "That’s good. Hard work builds character." If they invited him to visit, he’d quietly accept and probably enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. He wouldn’t mind helping with chores either. “If you ever need help on the farm, let me know."

:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ :*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ :*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡

[joy-haver]

Honestly, I think we need to talk more often about the exotic pet trade. It’s such a threat to wild populations of animals all over the world. Anytime i see a post on here that’s like “look at this cute animal you probably haven’t heard of!” I weep over the truth that the more people hear about it, the more they will poach it from the land.

And I ask myself…why are people doing this? Why are we trying to take these often endangered animals from their habitat even as we know it won’t help them?

And I think to my own self. When I was 19, working in an exotic pet store, having just left a childhood full of times in the woods and farm animals. I came to a city that felt like it had none of that. The little glass boxes felt like encapsulations of the nature I had grown up around and sorely come to miss. If I couldn’t have it outside, I thought, I would have it inside. My coworkers and I all talked and watched videos about building little ecosystems for our little pets. It felt exciting. It felt connecting.

But the issue is that these aren’t ecosystems. They are often perpetual death machines of capture, and they often lead to disruption of the native ecosystems you’re actually yearning for. Hell, look at Florida. Hundreds of invasive animals, including everything from great large pythons to little isopods, all brought in through the pet trade. Look at Australia. Species decimated by poaching. Read about all the little monkeys of the world, and what we have done by owning them.

There are entire industries wrapped up in the poaching of wild animals, the breeding of them, the housing of them, the feeding of them. Even some of the most well respected and supposedly ethical people in the trade still think there are different ethics for breeders and normal keepers. They store their animals in minimalistic tiny enclosures. Thousands upon thousands of rats and crickets are bred just to maintain the feed supply to the trade and its customers, creating an endless wheel of suffering and disease conditions. And I must ask, why? For what purpose? It’s not conservation. These aren’t concerned groups creating sanctuary populations for wildlife reintroduction. They aren’t growing things for food, or leather, or research. All of those we can discuss the ethics of, sure, but at least then there is a reason. What is the reason here? Just to have a hollow stare at a sad creature and pretend that is love? Just to propagate more environmental destruction with our ongoing thievery of peat moss and orchids for our tanks?

And still then are the collectors. I’ve met people with hundreds of animals placed in shoe storage racks, living their lives for no purpose other than the occasional glance and the feeling of having a hoard.

We all feel so disconnected from the environment that we are willing to rob other areas of the world, we are willing to further endanger these species we love, we are willing to terrorize the ecosystems we are unknowingly in, all due to our incredible and violent loneliness.

But this is a solvable problem.

Learn to live where you are. Learn to love the things you can find around you. Plant native plants, you will see native birds and wildlife. If you don’t have a yard, offer to care for the yard of an older neighbor, if they will let you use native plant landscaping in exchange. If you truly cannot connect where you are, to its people and to its ecosystems, then research somewhere and move. But don’t live your life with one foot out the door, hating where you are and doing nothing, dreaming or elsewhere and never leaving.

You do not need to collect rare morphs of isopods. My friend, I see so many beautiful native ones outside in the habitat I have helped manage for them. I see swallowtail butterflies and chimney swifts and solitary bees and little snakes and salamanders and anoles. I learn their species names and watch their behaviors. I see what they eat, where they hide, what times of year they are around. And I feel, finally, connected. Everything I was looking for in the commodity of exotic pets, I found in the reality just outside my door. I have nurtured it and it has nurtured me.

Owning that cute monkey won’t fix you. But having a relationship with the ecology around you just might begin to.

[cursedkeyboard]

Babies shouldn't grow up ☆ Jason Todd & GN!Reader (PT.2)

What does Jason do after stealing a kid from Gotham's slums? Feed and give the little brat a home, of course. [PART ONE ♤ PART TWO ♤ PART THREE ♤ PART FOUR ♤ PART FIVE ♤ PART SIX]

pairings: Platonic Jason Todd & Child GN!Reader

To be completely honest, when Jason reached his apartment, he was panicking a little

The drive had been enough to clear his mind and he realized how impulsive he'd been

He is a damn vigilante, one with a hell of a reputation, and who's always messing with the baddest assholes of this city

Fuck, he's got guns and explosives in his house

But even with all the panic and rationality, Jason wasn't going to abandon you somewhere else

Orphanages were great places for villains to hit, the foster system might as well have been created by the joker, and no way in hell was he going to drop you at Bruce's

Anything but that

So he sucked it up and focused on your small voice full of wonder as you two drove through the city

"I didn't know there was so many tall buildings in Gotham!"

"That church is huge!"

"Holy shit is that a theater?! I only saw them in movies!"

At a certain point he was close to biting his fists in pure cuteness aggression

He knew exactly what you were feeling, could even picture your eyes glittering full of wonder behind the helmet

It didn't help his heart that your helmet also had comms, which were connected to his, so every single one of your little comments meant for yourself only were accidentally shared

Your Gotham accent was so thick too, born and raised in an area were the elite never tried to "cleanse"

Fuking adorable

Oh, also, he'd need to teach you not to follow strangers even if they were famous vigilantes

Because he realized how fucking dangerous it was that you just up and agreed to be taken by a random masked man

Sure, he knew he also did the same with Bruce, but hey, look at where that got him

When Jason finally brought you up to his apartment, still carrying you, he knew he'd have to immediately go out to buy some things

His fridge wasn't stocked with what kids need

Like... apple juice and cereal

Or any kind of vegetables

And, he definitely needed some kid safety stuff, even if he knew you wouldn't try opening the dangerous cabinets

... probably

Opening his door, he took you to the bathroom

Look, as cute as you were, you were also as filthy as a drenched sewer rat

He told you as much when he set you down

Your glare was worth the slap on the arm (it didn't even hurt)

"Can I assume you know how to take a shower?"

"I'm nine, not three, Red Hood."

"Not my fault you look like you're five."

He chuckled as you huffed and puffed

"Jason Todd."

"What?"

"My name is Jason Todd. Can't have you calling me Red Hood if you're gonna live with me, right?"

You gaped, big eyes going wide

He told you his name! And showed you his face! Why did this man trust you so much?

It... it made you real warm inside

You were quiet for a moment before quietly telling you your name, shyly, like you hadn't done that in a long time

"Hm, I think I prefer 'squirt', tho."

Okay, warm moment over, the guy is insufferable

Hissing and pushing him out of the bathroom with all of your strength, you hesitantly took your first real shower since... since you don't even know when

The water was black

You realized your skin could feel soft instead of oily

And your nails finally didn't look like you dug through dirt

Meanwhile, Jason was running around the apartment like a crazed man

Shoving his guns inside high drawers you wouldn't be able to reach

Trashing the cigs he had bought out of curiosity

And making sure any items for... his intimate partners were completely hidden away

He'd found those in Bruce's room one time as a kid and, needless to say, Jason still felt traumatized to this day

After making his apartment slightly less deadly and ordering food, Jason knocked on the door to let you know he'd left a change of clothes for you in front of the bathroom

Damian's clothes the brat left behind once he had stayed over when he was rebelling

they'd be a little too big for you but nothing like what his would look like

Once you came out, looking fresh and clean, Jason immediately carried you to the couch

Biting his tongue because the demon brat's clothes were actually so big on you he could cry

He ignored your complaints again, he knew your little feet were all scratched and they must have hurt like a bitch

Once you finally settled and didn't try to scratch his eyeballs out, Jason started to patch you up

Such careful, gentle touches for rough hands like his

He handled your injuries like you were made of glass

And despite your childish pride... you kind of loved it

It made you feel all tingly and cozy inside, like you were precious

Like you were deserving of kindness

As you started fidgeting with all the bubbling emotions inside of you, Jason tried to calm you down by talking

He learned your mother died from a drive-by shooting and your father was an alcoholic with a taste for physical abuse

"It only got bad bad a year or so ago, I think he blamed me for us being poor."

"And you know that's bull, right?"

You shrugged as he finished treating your injuries and started to dry your damp hair, a little awkwardly but attentive

"He left a month ago–or died, I don't know–so it doesn't matter either way."

Well, that was a healthy mindset for a child!

He had to breathe through his mouth to not get up and go put three little bullets in your piece of shit father's head

or his body, if the bastard was already dead

Jason definitely had a lot of work to do, but for now, ding-dong, he was going to focus on feeding you

And, no, he was never going to delete the photo he took of your face when he opened the huge takeout orders

Nor would he forget the way you cried silently as you ate

That was your first real meal in months

Your first real meal, washed and clothed, in a safe apartment that didn't smell of roaches nor booze, with an adult who looked at you fondly

Jason promised, to himself and God, that he'd make sure you'd never cry over something like food ever again

When you giggled at a joke he made and didn't flinch when he gently wiped a bit of sauce from your cheek, he knew he had made the correct decision

He'd keep you safe

To be continued...

[birbmonster]

IT'S WORLDBUILDING TIME SUCKERS! MONSTER GEOGRAPHY GO!

Plant Island

Climate: 

Plant Island has a generally temperate climate, and is almost entirely covered in thick forests, with many trees reaching heights of Earth’s California Redwoods, or even taller.

Architecture: 

The Island’s architecture is built in a way that tries to retain the forest’s natural appearance. There are many walkways and buildings raised a few metres off the ground. Many buildings are integrated with nature, and hollowing out thicker trees to turn into small homes is a common practice.

Food:

A lot of Plant Island’s meals consist of vegetables grown on the nearby Harvheard Titan, or the various kinds of berries that grow in the forest. Meals are often mixed and prepared with unique combinations of food, arranged in artistic ways.

Cold Island

Climate:

It's freezing here, what a shocker. The terrain is rough and mountainous, some areas covered in empty tundras and others in coniferous forests. 

Architecture:

Log cabin buildings that tend to be densely packed together, ensuring that you never have to walk too far through the cold. There’s plenty of torches all around the streets, lighting and warming the winter nights. 

Food:

Because it's harder to grow crops due to the climate, the average cold island diet will include more meat. Here, it's cold enough to be able to preserve food by freezing it.

This Quora post about real-world cuisines from colder countries, which I found researching, explains my vision quite well:

Air Island

Climate: Air Island is colder than most due to its high altitude, but doesn’t drop into the negatives quite as much as cold island. Its quite dry, and the terrain is quite rough and fragmented, With much of the terrain resembling a cold mesa. There are a lot of smaller floating islands coming off the central main one, but be careful travelling between them, since the weather’s not exactly calm up here.

Architecture: Air Island’s architecture has some steampunk influences. Going on a tangent about technology, they’ve probably got da vinci esque flying contraptions here, because why not

Food: There’s quite a few interesting plants and critters that survive at these dizzying heights. I haven’t thought about the food here as much as others- so think alpine or himalayan cuisine

Water Island

Climate: Water Island is located inside of an air bubble beneath tropical waters, meaning its humid and warm. The integrity of the bubble isn’t perfect, with seawater often leaking in as rain from the top, but more often as floods from the bottom, meaning the ground is nearly always soggy.

Architecture: To resist the constant flooding, houses on Water Island are almost always built on stilts, with tightly packed roofs to make sure the inside stays dry.

Food: Seafood, its all seafood, what else are they getting their hands on?

Earth Island

Climate: The hottest of the Natural Islands, and the driest, with calm weather causing the air to be quite smoky. It's just as mountainous as Cold Island. Probably less magma than in canon (I bet the devs weren’t planning to add fire when they designed this), mostly just dark and gloomy.

Architecture: Earth Island has a bustling mining industry. You’ll find a lot of brick and metal buildings, big and shabby alike, furnaces that only make it even harder to breathe on this island than it already was (hooray for pollution /j) there’s blacksmiths everywhere you go. 

Food: Most of the edible things found naturally on Earth Island are either insects or very bland-tasting plants. Spices are imported from other islands to mix with these to make them taste better.

The Continent Fragments Collective

The CFC, or Continent Fragments Collective, is an alliance between the five natural islands. It was formed around 150 years post-Cataclysm, and its creation marks the end of the Great Pause (the era of unrest that came with the Continent’s destruction). 

It is organised by a council, with a rule that there must always be an equal number of members from each island, usually 3-5. If a council member steps down or dies, one from each island must temporarily leave until a replacement is found in order to retain balance. 

___________________________________________

Just wanted to mention that those architecture moodboards were so hard to find images for because I kept stumbling across stuff that was like… “okay yeah that's it… HOL UP… THAT’S AI!”

[phoenixeclipse-lmkau]

u might want to cut this ask into 2... sorry?

so more like cantrips vs full blown artifacts, that eases so many worries. i wonder if anyone would change their vote knowing this lol.

you wanted ideas? lets build off the new info from the artifacts! im running off the assumptions that this is pre curse break.

the phoenix stone- reader could be stuck in rain, trying to stay warm by lighting up the stone, but as the weather gets more windy and the sun goes down it starts getting too cold to stay on, reader tries warm breaths and body heat just to get it starting so it can self sustain on its own heat from its flames. bonus if she is actively putting herself in harms way to warm it up so the monkeys can use it as a heat source.

forest stone- reader could grow plants from home, maybe native food from home and just have a bittersweet interaction over getting to see native crops but being unable to consume them safely. maybe reader grows a garden someday? a bouquet for a would-be human lover? or after they 'mysteriously' disappear, flower crowns for the monkeys? a garden would be nice to remind reader of home

for the healing part of the stone, reader could heal the monkey duo! what's not to say the curse slowed down their healing? imagine the bonding from one of the monkey duo seeing reader doing their very best to patch up the other? they could fake injuries to try and get more one on one 'healing' time. or reader could try and fail to heal a fever, and rely on traditional methods to break it.

the shield amulet- it may be impenetrable, but is it immovable? can reader move while its up? because if she cant, its a test of patience that the monkey duo will win. she cant grow food it will be too slow. she could threaten to eat something fatal tho… playing with fire there. what is stopping sun wukong from stealing it in readers sleep? nothing. bet the only reason he hasn't is because his mate convinced him that its the equivalent of a stuffed toy for reader : it makes her feel safe, even if it really doesn't lol.

im going to straight up guess that the glamor mask is either your oc appearance or a demon monkey form. would be funny if it were a genderbend mask tho. just straight up switch the gender if they try and pull gender related shenanigans. "what princess/queen? i only see men between the 3 of us"

just as i was about to hit send, a wild idea approaches!

[maybe i will polish this and put it on ao3 when i have the time, the will and the patience, probably not though]

this is way outside the scope of the artefact's powers but imagine if reader dies inside the shield, and it stays up. they can't shatter it, and the forest stone slowly but surely grows around the shield, hiding readers body from view.

the plants outside can be cut down, but the plants inside can't. the duo have to deal with the fact that, slowly but surely, reader's body is being hidden from them, and one day will be the last day they will ever see her, inside her would-be coffin, the thing that stopped them from saving her.

oh, how they regretted not throwing it away when they had the chance and now it will not even give them the ability to give her a proper burial. away from flower fruit mountain, will she buried under the sands of time forgotten, left to rot?

unacceptable. clones are left behind to guard her final resting place, the plants growing to make a flowerbed for reader to rest on. any who approach are struck down without mercy.

in the meantime, they need to make a visit to Diyu.

inside the shell of a last stand, a metamorphosis takes place.

they come back, heartbroken. she was not from these lands, and thus was not taken by those reigning over the dead. there was no name to strike from the records, no spirit to rescue from diyu.

they come back to see the site that they left so lovingly preserved in ruins.  all the plants that were growing were trampled and dying, the area carved by the fights the clones must have put up. not a single one was left.

and worst of all, in the very center of it all, the final resting spot was disturbed.

someone took her. somebody had the GALL to break in and steal her body from her final resting place, and they weren't even here to protect her!

they weren't able to protect her again, protect the last thing they had of her.

they would make sure that the perpetrator will wish they had lost to the clones.

above them all, in the treetops, a monkey cub holds its breath, watching.

lmao, i was going down the angst train at full speed, but decided describing the grieving process and the false hope i was giving them only to brutally crush it before their very eyes was maybe a sign i was going too far on the angst ride. idk how much angst is acceptable here so i decided to make reader turn into a monkey for the lols.

i wonder if they would be able to see through it using their true sight. hahaha must suck to the one stuck as a monkey cub now huh?

i like to imagine that reader gets found by them but they don't realise its her, just as she doesn't realise it's them[she died while they were still cursed], and they decide to adopt her in memory of the human who cared for 2 cubs she saw needed help. and reader gets to be at ground zero to see these two warlords grieve.

who does she think they are grieving for?

OBVIOUSLY THE MONKEY CUBS SHE HAD WITH HER, ARE YOU STUPID?? THERE WAS NO WAY THEY SURVIVED THE ATTACK, AND THERE WERE TWO FLOWER BOUQUETS FOR THE TWO CUBS THAT MATCHED THEIR COLOR SCHEME AND THEY LOOKED JUST LIKE THE CUBS! WHY ON EARTH WOULD TWO MONKEY DEMON WARLORDS GRIEVE FOR HER???

truly a foolish thought that could only come from such a foolish human to die such a stupid death and make the cubs die with her!

she was back, but they weren't. she wasn't the one to pay the ultimate price for her mistake.

did spirit grieve for her? did she come back only to she that she had died while she was away, reluctantly leaving to find a nearby village only after reader reassured her that she would be safe with the shield amulet, that it would be alright.

and they died because of her. spirit had to come back to their corpses because of her. the monkey demon pairing had to come back to their children's corpses because of her.

i would imagine the experience made her more introverted. more quiet, less willing to make friends. effectively mute. while the shield from the amulet may have fallen, another shield has formed around her heart.

would the monkey duo realise that reader was with them? would they brush it off as wishful thinking, as them projecting their false hopes onto a random monkey that perhaps they weren't too weak, too late? would they draw parallels between their curse and the cub in front of them? would they beg her for a sign?

would reader, drowning in guilt, give it to them?

what would the troop think? they see their kings grieving, ignoring the cub sometimes to go on rampages, and other times begging at its feet as if to ask for salvation. what sort of life is this for that poor cub, to have to endure their grief-induced psychosis?

no, it would be best for the cub to grow in a stable environment, at the very least until the kings recover from their grief.

it takes the duo 5 days to realise what has happened. it's hard to remember about the cub you so callously adopt when you are too busy going off on rampages throughout heaven and earth after all.

when the duo finds out why the cub is missing they just collapse, emotionally. reader is dead. she isn't coming back. and there is nothing they can do about it. the monkey duo don't leave their bed nest and are inconsolable.

reader feels bad for them, it's all her fault after all, that they lost their kids[she still believes this]. so she goes into their room, where they reminisce aloud about reader, and reader, who is unintentionally eavesdropping, finally figures out that A) its HER that they're grieving, and B) THEY'RE HER CUBS! THEY'RE NOT DEAD! SHE DIDNT KILL THEM!

she is so relieved she starts crying, and they hear her call out for them, not by the names everyone knows them as, but the nickname they got from the one person they miss the most:

"plums? peaches?"

denial, if i remember right, is the first stage of grief. they're in denial at first. who wouldn't be? they saw her die, they saw her die. their eyes cant lie their ears can't lie their nose can't lie she was dead dead DEAD-

anger is next i think. how dare that cub call them by those names, only reader can call them by those names! only she can, only her, only her!

but how could the cub know those names if not for her?

bargaining is the third stage.  its quite an odd thing, to bargain with the small, fluttering bit of hope inside of you. to bargain with oneself, to say that you will believe that if its her if she says it again, if she says something again, if she says anything again!-

"is it really you?"

you wouldn't expect to hit depression, would you? reader is back! They're back and they were here the entire time! they've been leaving you alone all this time, grieving for you all this time, and you were here all this time all along. so many tears, so much misery, and when they find out that you were here the entire time, the only thing they can feel is numbness as they reach out to you.

and you

reach back.

being crushed in an embrace between the two, you feel the shaking first, their tears streaming down their cheeks. you hug them as tightly as you can. they hug you back.

and as you look into their eyes you see acceptance. acceptance of the fact that you are back that is is real that you are in their arms, alive, here-!

that they love you too much to let you go.

while they dont care if you arent human or not, it is a bit worrying that you turned into a cub, like they did. did the curse transfer to you? is this something new?

after talking things through, you realise most of the artefacts 'malfunctioned' in a way. the shield didn't fall even in death, the forest stone grew plants nonstop around you. you found them on you and took them with you.

what happened to the glamor mask and phoenix stone?

sun wukong and macaque swear up and down that they searched, and not a single artifact left your bubble.[they were looking for something, anything of yours that they could keep on their person because you were dead-].

you had them all on you. and well, you did come back from the dead, right?

but that doesnt explain the where the glamor mask went! you didnt have it on you! you would have known if-

...

you tear off [not your face not your face NOT YOUR FACE]

the mask

off of your face.

...

a giggle leaves your mouth. well that was a bit silly wasn't it! if you had less self control and clawed off not your face perhaps this would have been solved much earlier!

well at least you were with your monkeys again.

________

ok now i gotta stop for real. i wrote this with no sleep so ahve mercy on spelling mistakes that slip through. have a nice day

Sorry about the confusion 😅. I always thought artifacts were old enchanted items so it didn't cross my mind to explain all of the weaknesses. Was probably going to later but eh who knows when it's me we're talking about.

For the heat, she would totally put herself into danger trying to get it to work. Spirit of course would try to bundle her up in clothes but they don't have all that many. (Spirit is covered in thick fur and less perceptible to the cold, which makes it worse for her because she can't stand the fact that her sister is probably freezing to death)

The monkey duo would be curled up in her arms trying to both be warm and share their heat with her. They'd probably be snuggled up against her chest holding onto her undershirt for closer skin contact as that would help aid in real warmth. They can't even enjoy this because of how cold they are! (It helps them decide that it's best she stay on Flower Fruit Mountain where she would always have the supplies she needs to stay safe and warm)

For the Forest Stone - I could totally see Reader making flowers. Oh, a human man thinks they're pretty. Here, he can have them sure. Cue monkey duo finding a way for this human to go missing. Was he a lover? They wouldn't care. He was a threat because he might become one. They can't let that happen, not at all. She was there human, theirs!

Another thought goes to your idea with the healing stone! Oh my word, these two would be trying for snuggles so badly that they would totally do that. A little scrape on the hand, it's not bleeding and doesn't even bruise, but it 'hurts.' Reader would try to help them immediately, of course. It's just another reason they want to keep her, once they decide they are going to.

For the patience on the sheild Macaque would obviously win in a test of patience. Depending on the situation there could be another thing that happens.

Reader can summon the sheild anywhere, I'm yoinking the idea of it being immovable to an extent. She can only summon one sheild and that sheild can be summoned to protect someone else. In order to move it she has to deactivate it and reactivate it. So that gives a window of opportunity for the Monkey duo.

Say she has the sheild up and then a group of human merchants come to pass by. Well, the Monkey duo likes her, yes, but who's to say they won't threaten the merchants. (They totally would if they are desperate enough) cue Reader making the sheild cover them. Which, of course, leaves her open to 'attacks' one attack being bombarded in snuggles and kisses.

>>><<<

Idea for the fic idea. I loved your idea with the glamour mask. But- I forgot to mention that the mask is still visible while the user is glamoured. (If you make a fic with an altered mask that isn't visible, that is absolutely fine. I would definitely read it for sure.)

So personally, I'd just have the curse kinda transfer to Reader instead. Depending on when the found her depends on if Wukong has his gold vision yet. Since this starts before the war on heaven, he doesn't have it because he hasn't gotten stuck in the furnace yet.

Also, they would totally take Reader in, even before meeting Reader or any of that. Orphan monkey cubs are always welcome in their home (they are quite biased to their own kind, so they are always offered a place in their kingdom. That's not to say some refuse or still fight them, of course)

Yes, the Monkey duo would definitely travel to diyu and return heartbroken. Would her body still be there probably not, if it's because she actually died she might get pulled back to her world and that might save her.

Or if the curse was transfered to her hoho, now her reaction on telling them would depend on so many things. She might feel guilty thinking they are grieving their cub but seeing the absolute devastation they cause would be terrifying.

Once she learns that it's her that they are doing this for she might get more terrified or be happy. She would be happy her monkeys survived, and she could still be terrified at the absolute power they held.

What would they do with her when they learned the truth? She'd heard stories about these two, Spirit tells her about them, and her monkey friends had liked listening to stories. (Wukong probably liked hearing the fear and terror he spread around)

Did they want revenge that she dragged them with her when they fought at first? If so, why were they mad she was gone? Did they want to make her a breeding mate? There were some demons that tried during her journey. They wouldn't want to make her a true wife, right? She was just a human woman, and the Monkey duo hated humans. She had passed through a town devastated by their kingdom before.

So maybe she would be too terrified to let them know, maybe she'd try to find a way to break the curse and return home. She might try to hide from them more.

In this case they might pick her up and as gentle as they can force her to let them take care of her. Via spoon feeding, and making sure she drinks water. And since she's so young they would make her sleep in their nest with them.

There are so many ways this story could go, both happy and joyful or sad and fearful. You said angst well how would the Monkey duo feel about the one they love being too scared of them to let them help break the curse? They would be so happy she's alive yet so scared of how much weaker and smaller she is verses how she already was.

If she tried to escape before they find out and failed. Oh boy there would be no getting away from them once they learn the truth.

But of course if she's not afraid of them, then she'd probably try to communicate who she is. With broken chirps as she doesn't know tne language at first, the curse would probably mess with the communication that she was granted. So cue her trying to learn the language so she can tell her heartbroken monkeys that it's her, she is reader. Since they don't call her Reader and probably gave her a different name. Oh the possibilities.

>>><<<

I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Everyone is welcome to send me an ask about these! I was bouncing in my seat as I read this ask, I loved the fic! To know my fanfiction helped inspire it 🥰 makes me feel so cozy.

Please send me more ideas, if you have them. No pressure. Or you can just send me something to say you liked my idea or not.

[pearlsxoxohearts]

you should like totes tell your charmy and es headcanonss

AWWHHH OF COURSE!!!!! I have sooo many teeheeee!!

( @merlyybird psssttt I know u wanted to hear some hcs too so here u go teehee)

Identity shenanigans!

Charmy: I like to envision Charmy having adhd and performance anxiety! (The latter was probably formed after the events of the Metal Virus saga) (Although, maybe ‘fear of failure’ is a better word? He’s just scared to mess important things up, basically) I also think he’d have dyscalculia :) (despite this, I also think that Math would be his favourite subject? Like, in the future, when or if he ends up going to school. If he doesn’t go to school I’m sure Espio would ‘home school�� him)

I also hc him to be Agender! He goes by he/him cause that’s what the most prominent figures in his life also go by, so it’s what he likes most :)

Espio: I absolutely ADORE the hc that Espio is trans ftm! A good few of my Espio hcs are kind of based on this, too :) Other than that, I like to imagine him being autistic, as well. Pretty popular headcanons, but what can I say!! They’re good!! Also, assuming that the same cultures that exist in real life could also be applied in the sth universe, I picture Espio to be Japanese with reaaall faint Arab roots. Mostly Japanese, though!

Pre-Team Chaotix

Espio and Charmy have been inseparable ever since they found each other, which was also really early in Charmy’s life! Espio had been searching for food and came across a small alleyway nearing a restaurant, only to find a very much alive bee child in one of the boxes. He knew it’d be irresponsible to take the kid, since, well.. He’s not exactly suited to take care of such a fragile child when he can’t even care for himself! But he couldn’t bear to leave him there knowing he’d most likely die soon.. so yeah! (I imagine Charmy being like.. Two here? And Espio Twelve)

Charmy REALLY loves to communicate! Current day, he uses mainly his words to talk with those around him, but he used to mainly communicate through movements akin to sign language! That’s how most bees talk, after all, and Espio wasn’t exactly much of a talker either! Espio DID start teaching him how to communicate verbally when he was like, three years old? And Charmy picked up a lot from just listening to others! But he didn’t verbally talk that much until they started getting in touch with other mobians :)

Espio (and Charmy, by extension) never really stayed in one place, being homeless and all. He’d gather all he could from one area, like stray bandages to use for injuries or food from fruit trees or dumpsters before leaving and finding someplace else to do all this again. This continued until he eventually stopped by Seaside city. He was fourteen by now, so he actually managed to get a job! :) Granted, it was a job as those newspaper boys who deliver the daily paper, but it’s better than nothing!!

Shorter one, but god, they LOVE the library. Espio’s such a bookworm, and Charmy loves to learn! Granted he does jump from book to book before ever finishing one, but still!

Miscellaneous hcs!

I like to think Espio’s horn didn’t really start growing till he got to seaside city. Chameleon horns can grow wonky or with difficulty if they don’t have enough or the right nutrients, and as I also imagine Espio’s horn to be an abnormality, it’s no surprise it took a while! Unfortunately, Espio used to get a LOT of headaches before it started growing, as it was never meant to stay inside the scales for so long!

Charmy’s reaaaallllyy good at detecting Espio (even when invisible!) granted he KNOWS Espio’s around. The kid grew up watching his brother train!! He’d know his tricks!!

Wherever they go, they build a treehouse. It kind of resembles a hive, in a weird way, and Chameleons are tree huggers! Even now that they live with Vector in the Team Chaotix Detective Agency, they still have a treehouse they go to every now and then nearby the agency!

Chameleons bruise their knees pretty easily, so I like drawing Espio with bandages around his legs :)

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 21

I'm going to guess the title image is Chilchuck's workshop at his house.

And there are some dolls under the table.

After finally dealing with the undine, the party makes their way to the fifth floor and now have to deal with a winding staircase full of tentacles.

Either the orcs had to just power through all the tentacles or they have thick skins and/or thick clothing to deal with the tentacle stings.

I'm more interested in how they got through the water in the fourth floor. They managed to build a small settlement so they likely had brought tools and supplies with them when they fled their village. Either someone in the orc tribe can cast waterwalk, they brought a boat or the materials to make one, or they just had to swim.

I guess tentacles are actually more like anemones than jellyfish. They're interacting with the trap crevices as if it were a coral reef.

That bit about how they can grow on mimics reminds me of the boxer crab which places small anemones on its claws so it can use their stinging tentacles to hunt prey. Maybe some mimics do something similar.

Marcille has a new hair-do.

I don't think there's anything bad about Laios's idea. We've domesticated tons of plants to be harmless and decorative. Most of the plants we grow for food are the results of centuries of selective breeding.

Kensuke is trembling in every shot he's in. It's probably because of all the tentacles in the area, but I am worried if he feels the sting from the tentacles when Laios cuts them.

Those giant frogs are kinda smart. They observed how the party fought and focused on disabling them before attacking. The frog that grabbed Kensuke likely observed that Laios was using him to cut the tentacles.

Although they're not too smart because they didn't realize that Marcille's staff and Senshi's axe might be similarly dangerous until after they'd managed to kill another frog with them.

Ambrosia is the food of the gods in Greek mythology. It's subtle, but Marcille is a bit of a foodie which is probably a big reason why she's been so frustrated about eating monsters. Makes sense that she'd name her staff after a mythical food item.

That ended up being a really close call for Chilchuck. The party is already trying to rescue one party member from the belly of a beast. They don't need to have a second party member in that scenario.

Chilchuck nearly suffocated inside the frog.

The frog hides have the damage caused to them. Marcille blew one of their heads off, while Senshi sliced one of their heads open.

It took me a second to realize that Senshi was doing something else entirely. I was still thinking they were all making frog suits.

The page of Laios and Chilchuck making suits and the page of Senshi making gnocchi are side-by-side in book format. It adds a little to the whole "They're both making weird things at the same time" feel that Marcille had.

Senshi took off his wrist covering when kneading the dough but put it back on after. Guess he doesn't want to get fur in it. If he's that concerned, he should probably wear a beard-net when cooking.

Love how Chilchuck's outfit is just a sack with legs. They only killed three frogs so they had to sow something up out of whatever parts weren't used.

Also, Laios's outfit is made from the frog that Senshi killed, Senshi's is made from the one Marcille killed, and Marcille's is made from the one Chilchuck killed.

Chilchuck's being real careful with his steps since he's just a little sack with legs. The party had to tie his backpack to him since he doesn't have use of his arms.

The frog suits managed to protect the party from the tentacle stings, but now they're coated in frog blood because Laios wasn't able to tan their hides properly. I would assume a properly tanned frog skin wouldn't be good at protecting them against against tentacles because what probably keeps the frogs safe is a mucus layer over their skin, kinda like what clownfish use to keep safe from anemones. If the skins were properly dried, then the mucus layer would dry out too.

I don't think Marcille has anything to worry about. Falin would probably adore seeing her in a frog suit.

SENSHI FLASH!!

back

[picklerocket]

Thin Man headcanons from me because I said so

He can't speak audibly because his vocal chords are distorted and it just sounds like loud garbled static, so he speaks directly into the mind of someone if they are willing to listen.

If he ever got to be free of the tower and feel safe, he would learn he makes low, quick, clicking static sounds which are essentially him purring. Yes I made this up because I think he is some sort of alien.

If he weren't older than dirt, he would be strong enough to not only teleport longer distances, but he would also require less preparation time for each teleport. This means he could conceivably teleport himself into the air and keep himself there by teleporting every second. Pretty much eldritch horror magic flight! I think about the physics possibilities of this constantly.

Thin Man has black/no eyes on his model, which I have taken to mean he literally has small TV screens for eyes. They function less as a way of seeing physically, and more as a way of seeing through the TVs from inside the Tower, and being able to instantly show up out of whichever TV he sees activity from. I think seeing all of that at once would drive anyone insane 🫶

His model is also hollow, obviously, except for his eyes, teeth, and tongue. In my hc, his body basically works like a gem from steven universe without the gem, and more like Mono's body hollows out as he grows taller. He is basically a physical projection of how he feels!

Building off of this, the only thing left in him is his power source that the Tower uses. However, since he canonically has reality-warping abilities, I wager he can create the illusion of any body part/organs/etc. he could require for say if he wanted to try food.

Which then leads me to the hc that he doesn't actually need food or sleep to live. He just sits in the Tower in some sort of fugue state while he distorts from being so bent out of shape (emotionally AND literally LMAO).

But that is to say, if he gets in a fight with a fellow powerful entity and sustains damage, he will more than likely just lose a chunk of himself and show his hollowness. The missing piece will eventually glitch back into existence later once he is repaired by returning to the Tower.

Despite being hollow, he weighs approximately how much one of his height and build would (I always think of him as about 9ft/274cm tall), so he still weighs about 300lbs/136kg. Which in my mind means the Lady is strong as hell because in many fanarts she is depicted holding him bridal style! I love that lmao

Also bonus hc about the Lady- I see her as about 7ft/213cm tall, coming up to around Thin Man's lower-chest area. Probably would make for nice hight difference hugs if they didn't hate each other!

That's all for now! I might add more in a rb later if I think of them 👍

[galaxyseclipse]

grant us the knowledge

hmmmmgh okay :)

since you didn’t give anything specific, I’ll just do inkfish anatomy stuff cause I’ve been thinking about it

as always with my massive infodumps, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! :3c

this post is probably gonna end up long as shit, so I'll put a cut here

this is mostly just "traits that both Inklings and Octolings have, and the slightly different ways they have them"

* Tentacle color and movement are huge indicators of emotions. Usually, the more active and saturated they are, the stronger the emotion is. The one exception is sadness, where they will go more limp and lose color. This also applies to photophores, where they will brighten or dim slightly depending on emotions. So unless an individual has a ton of control over themself(or is in general pretty apathetic), these critters are pretty easy to read emotionally.

* Generally, females of both species are taller/bigger than males. Male Inklings are on average about 140-160cm tall while females are about 150-175cm tall. Octoling males and females are about 145-165cm and 160-180cm respectively. Females of both also tend to be more aggressive overall.

* Both races have pretty sharp nails made from chitin, like their beaks. Inklings’ claws are retractable and Octolings’ nails are not, they’re more like hard, pointy extensions of their fingers. Where do they go in swim form? They become spikes in and around their suckers, of course! On Inklings they are in a ring inside the suckers on the club tentacles(five on each one) and on Octolings there's one inside the ring of suckers closest to the center, with the two largest arms getting an additional one.

visual aid because describing that last part was hard lol

* Both races also have spiked tongues, the spikes are only about 1cm long, but pretty sharp and firm. That's essentially how they “chew”: by rubbing food against the inside of their mouths and grinding it up with these spikes. They also use their beaks like how we use our teeth, but because they’re thinner, they need the extra "help". The spikes would raise issues with… stuff, but we’re not worrying about that right now :)

* Speaking of beaks, an inkfish’s beak grows continuously, but pretty slowly. The pointed ends are the areas that grow slightly faster. It’s not uncommon for teenagers to file their beaks to make the longer parts sharper, or make the entire thing serrated, to look cool.(<- Four did this; they regretted it later)

* Inklings and Octolings both can be venomous. The potency ranges from “wait, the tingles aren’t just because you bit me?” to “requires immediate care so as to not fuckin’ die”, with the large majority falling into the middle ground of “I can’t feel my limbs, but I'll be fine”. Generally, one species will be immune to others of the same species’ venom, until the strength gets on that higher end, but even then it probably won’t mess them up too bad. One can build up an immunity through repeated exposure, but most don’t do that because why would you? <- It is way easier to do this if you're already venomous. Octolings are much much more likely to be venomous in some capacity, with only about 1 in 500 not having venom. For Inklings, this ratio is reversed, where individuals with venom are much more rare.

fun little graph with headcanon-y stuff and my characters :3c

* Almost every bodily fluid is based around ink, save for stuff like sweat or other waste. Thus, it’s all at least tinted whatever their current ink color is. They're essentially water balloons filled with inky flesh. have fun getting that out of your nightmares :)

* Since their bodies are more or less held upright purely by ink pressure, when they’re asleep or otherwise unconscious, that pressure goes down(they get a little squishier too). Also, since they don’t have bones, they’re a lot more noodly than a human is when like that. Like disturbingly so.

* And finally, one of my favorite headcanons: hypo- and hyperpigmentism. Basically: the tentacle chromatophores make either too little(hypo) or too much(hyper) pigment, resulting in near-white or near-black tentacles. Ink color can still be changed, but the tentacles don't reflect that change very much. If anything, usually just the ends change color. In older times -at least in Inkadia- people with these conditions were said to be "blessed by the gods" and given high status because of it(why do you think idols are called that? it's definitely not because the word has another meaning). Eventually it was found out to just be a genetic thing, but folktales still circulate. Many higher-class families still "pretend" to have it by adopting a dark or light color over most of the tentacles(Tsunami's family, for instance).

this one's more basic because i lost momentum

———

I could make an entire separate post about like development and hygiene and maybe some more species-specific stuff(and I probably will make those eventually), so I won’t put all that here. This is just some basic stuff for now.

as always with my massive infodumps, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! :3c

[moonlit-mizukage]

Chapter twelve

SUMMARY: Everything seems to be as normal as can be in Shiratorizawa's gang until Tendou's little sister, Y/n, meets a mysterious man named Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi is the right hand man of Seijoh. The two are quick to discover their true identities but continue meeting up I secret. Soon Iwaizumi develops feeling for Y/n and takes her back to his home. Matsukawa and Hanamaki unexpectedly make a visit to his home when they catch the two in bed together. Matsukawa is quick to recognize the face of Tendou Y/n. What will happen to Iwaizumi and Y/n? What happens when Oikawa finds out? Or worse, when Tendou finds out?

Trigger Warnings: swearing, violence, blood, knives, please keep in mind this is a gang au!

Taglist: open! Dm or comment to be added!

An: Sorry this stories been on Hiatus so long. My health hasn't been good at all but I'm back and better now :)

Y/n waited outside the classroom for Iwaizumi. She texted him with the information and where to find the class. Y/n was also looking to make sure Aone came by today or she’s screwed. 

Iwaizumi walked up to the campus door closest to her classroom. He walked inside the building and walked up to Y/n. 

“Hey Y/n.” He said. Y/n jumped a little for show.

“Sorry, I haven’t seen him yet so I was a little scared when you called me just now.” Y/n fake confessed. If there was one thing they were good at, it would be lying. 

“It’s okay.” He pulled her in for a hug kissing the top of her head. 

Y/n was surprised by the random show of affection he did with her given the situation at hand. 

Iwaizumi pulled back. 

“Shall we go inside?” He asked. 

Y/n nodded as she walked inside the room.

It wasn’t long after Aone had come into the room. She pulled Iwaizumi’s sleeve. She motioned towards Aone with her eyes mouthing the word to him. Iwaizumi felt himself grow mad. He stayed seated though as the lecture went on. Iwaizumi couldn't think of a single thing besides killing this guy at that moment.

The lecture ended a few hours later as Iwaizumi and Y/n left the room. Iwaizumi couldn’t help but feel as if someone was following them. He led Y/n outside to a secluded area. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Aone’s brute build. Iwaizumi paid close attention to Aone seeing him stare and take what he assumed was a few pictures. 

After a couple hours, class ended and Y/n pulled Iwaizumi off to the sides. 

“I think he took more pictures of me.” Y/n said, doing her best to make it believable.  

“I definitely saw him take pictures.” Iwaizumi said. 

What Iwaizumi didn’t know was that they prepped for this situation last night. They bought a new phone and loaded it with pictures, notes, and Y/n’s address. Aone’s new phone contained almost everything about Y/n except she was Shiratorizawa. Shirabu, Goshiki and Y/n prepared for the worst. 

Iwaizumi began to walk from the room and follow Aone. He noticed Aone stopped and sat down. Iwaizumi told y/n to go ahead of him this time just to see how deep it goes. 

Aone followed Y/n through the building while Iwaizumi followed him. 

Y/n stood in line for food, Aone ordered exactly what she got, even went to the same cashier. Iwaizumi had enough.

“Hey buddy!” He shouted. Aone remained expressionless. “What the hell do you want with Y/n?” He asked as he stood in front of him now in the eating area. 

“Who?” Aone played dumb.

“Don’t play dumb or I will pound your face in!” Iwaizumi threatened. 

“I like her, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“You stalked her! I know cause I followed you!” 

 “So you stalked me?” Aone asked. 

Iwaizumi didn’t have a valid response so he grabbed Aone by the shirt and pulled him up from his seat. Aone growled. Iwaizumi pulled him really close to his face. 

“Leave her alone or I will deal with you.” He warned. 

“No.” Aone said, “I am not bothering her, I never approach her, so she's fine.”

“She’s terrified of you!!” Iwaizumi said. “You probably stalk her at home too, don’t you?” Aone remained silent. Iwaizumi grabbed his phone off the table, letting go of his shirt. “Unlock this!” Iwaizumi demanded. 

“No.” Aone said simply. 

Iwaizumi noticed it was a 4 number passcode. He typed Y/n’s birth year, it was wrong. He thought long and hard. Aone tried to grab the phone from his hand as Y/n finally walked up. She grabbed the phone and punched in 4 numbers. The phone unlocked. She stood there shocked.

“What did you type?” Iwaizumi asked. 

“1113…..The date of my dads death….” Y/n was frightened, pretending to be like how he would know.

Iwaizumi was falling for the scam. He pulled the phone out of Y/n’s hand and opened the photos. There were over 1500 photos of Y/n. Some at school, the store, in a car from far away and the worst, photos of her sleeping in bed through her window. 

“How the hell did you get these photos?” Iwaizumi snapped. 

“I did my research.” Aone said. 

“This isn’t research! You're a creep!” Iwaizumi went to grab ahold of him again but Y/n stepped in between them. 

“Aone, how do you know the date of the father’s death?” She asked, she was visibly shaking.

“I did my research on you, Y/n. I think we should be together. I know you and this guy aren't official.” He said. 

Iwaizumi let out a low growl. 

“How dare you! You better leave my girlfriend alone or I will personally kill you!” Iwaizumi snapped.  

“Girlfriend? Ha. I know she's nothing more then a fuck to you.” Aone said. 

Iwaizumi grabbed his shirt collar once again and ripped him up to his face. 

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up!” He growled in his face. Iwazumi pulled out a knife. People started to run away from around them, leaving it to be just the three. 

“What the fuck?” Aone raised his hands in defense. “Y/n I didn’t agree to this.” 

“Agree to what?” Iwaizumi snapped. 

Aone ripped his hand off his collar and backed away. 

“Ushijima will be hearing about this.” Aone said before running off. 

Iwaizumi turned to y/n, eyes wide and full of panic. 

“Did he say Ushijima, as in the leader of Shiratorizawa?” He asked. 

Y/n stood in pure shock. Iwaizumi looked to Aone as he began to chase him down, wanting more information. 

Shirabu, Goshiki, Kindachi and Kunimi approached her. 

“Are you okay? What’s going on?” Shirabu asked. 

“Hajime… he just found out……” 

“Found out what?” Goshiki asked with a gulp. 

“About our secret.” Y/n said 

Shirabu and Goshiki looked terrified.

Masterlist

Taglist: @universal-s1ut @what-dose-nani-mean @johnnysactualgf @dontmindtheevie @opchara

[script-a-world]

hello! i'm currently building a world for a wild west themed ttrpg. the continent the game takes place in is a desert that's been cursed to be isolated from the rest of the world—no one can go in, no one can go out. anyone that tries to escape finds themselves lost in an endless expanse of sand. but i digress, anyways! the main issue of this continent (isolation aside) is the fact that it has no access to water at all. how people hydrate is through this fruit which has a liquid inside that the people can drink. think of a coconut but it can grow properly in a desert since it's magic.

i'd just like to know if there's any sort of worldbuilding advice or questions that could help me explore this idea in a more meaningful way? i already have some of the logistics of how this sort of thing could be distributed in a world like this but i want it to be more grounded. magic exists in this world so that can help explain some things but i want to be careful not to make it so wishy-washy, y'know? thanks so much!

Tex: Even the largest of deserts have an end, be it another biome or a body of water because the continent can only be so large across a planet. Aside from that, clouds will not inherently respect anyone’s boundary on where they can move as part of the water cycle and the natural unevenness of terrain means that water will eventually pool up somewhere, creating oases. Mountains, perhaps, may slow the movement of humidity in the air, but unless you’re willing to make a very, very, very large volcano that’s dead enough and large enough to accumulate sand (which in that instance would be more akin to volcanic ash and as sharp as ground glass), water will still naturally get in and settle into bodies of water. Accordingly, the “wild west” only existed because of the rapid development of trains and railroad lines, so even historically they were not actually isolated - merely delayed, in terms of what they were able to ship. By 1900, someone could travel from the East Coast of the US to the West Coast in approximately a week, depending on the route. If fresh food is packed well (say, seafood in ice), it wouldn’t even spoil for the duration of that journey. For desert flora that can act as reservoirs of water, the Saguaro cactus is a very good example of this (Wikipedia), as are many types of melons (Wikipedia).

Feral: The biggest concern historically, including during the Wild West, in desert climates was not getting hydration for the people but for the horses. Horses drink 5 to 10 gallons (20 to 40 liters) of water a day. Humans need 0.5 to 0.8 gallons (2-3 liters). Although humans/player characters of whichever races you’re using can probably get by with the sources of hydration Tex mentioned, but if they have mounts, there’s going to be a problem. With a ttrpg, this could just be flavor or it could be an actual resource mechanic. To make it more on the believable side, I would recommend wells being a thing. Maybe in towns or along common routes. Also keep in mind, fruits that provide hydration do not spontaneously create water; they absorb it, so there must be water somewhere, somehow. 

Wootzel: If this magic fruit is legitimately the only source of drinkable water, does that also apply to whatever other plants that grow? Are all animals in this area dependent on the fruit as well? Are people having to break the fruits over their crops?

I’m taking a wild guesstimation that if EVERYTHING that needs water has to get it via this fruit because there’s almost no ground water and no precipitation, then 80% or more of the plants growing in this area are the plant that bears this fruit. Or can other plants draw water from the ground in some way (but is it not accessible via digging or drilling a well or whatever because magic curse?), and it’s just fauna that have to drink via fruit?

Do the fruits or their liquid spoil easily, or at all? Do they ferment and become alcoholic? Do the local jackrabbits get drunk on them like deer with apples, and stumble around the desert at night?

What else is in the fruit-liquid? Is it just as functional a source of hydration as water, or are there any other substances in it that the body needs to process out… maybe via the kidneys… resulting in needing to drink more of this liquid than one would need to drink water?

Does evaporating this fruit liquid and trapping/condensating the resulting water work well enough if someone needed plain water for wound care, baby care, or whatever else?

How does anyone bathe?

Are many conflicts involving control of these fruit and the plant they grow on, since having that resource cut off is quickly deadly? Meaning, even if the conflict wasn’t originally about fruit-control, someone burns down someone else’s orchard and now that’s the main focus? Or is this stuff so prevalent that you could try to kill it and it just starts growing back from a crazy tap root the next day?

You have a premise that’s not highly plausible, and it would probably make life rough and precarious for the people and animals who live in this area, but it’s not impossible for human ingenuity to figure out how to make it work anyway. If you choose to keep your water-fruit as the only source of hydration, life is going to look QUITE different in this area.

Addy: I've got a couple thoughts, some are more rambly than others. The first question I've got is no water at all vs no water that's suitable for humans. There's a fair amount of difference in what those will imply for plant and animal life.

Most deserts have some amount of life, after all. Lizards, insects, jackrabbits, cacti, scrub brush, aloe very and other succulents, snakes, birds, foxes, dogs, etc - those all need water to survive. That water might be deep underground, it could be rare rainfall, it could be occasional floods (like what causes arroyos), it could be all sorts of things.

And what about horses? If you've got a wild west setting, horses (or similar mounted animals) and cattle are staples of that kind of setting. What do they drink? Horses need lots of water, especially if they're exercising. What do they eat? No water means no grass, no scrub, nothing to eat. Even if you're riding giant lizards, those lizards gotta drink.

So either this fruit (what season does it grow in?) is cultivated en masse for liquid extraction, or there is some other source of water that's cursed to kill sentient creatures, so you've got stuff that animals can drink but people can't. Still have the plant cultivated en masse, but you've got some more flexibility on it. Your people will need to bring their own water along, but they can stop by rest areas, etc to let their animals drink.

Either way, farms are going to be absolutely crucial logistical standpoints in this setting. Cattle can move themselves (which makes them easy(ish) to steal), but plants need careful tending in an unmoving place. I'm seeing some kind of fortified settlement, where you've got the water farms heavily defended by whatever militia/military forces you've got in the area (having some kind of control system over the water would make it easier to manage people to your desires), with towns surrounding them.

If you've got a strong magic setup, maybe the plants grow best over certain ley lines/underground magical "currents," so you've got isolated strongholds

The strongholds have a heavy amount of control over their local area, since they're the ones who have the ability to produce the fruit on the scale required, but trying to transport that water raises issues of thievery. So once you get outside, say, half a day's ride, you run into logistical issues + thievery problems. That's about 15-20 miles if it's flat, or 10-15 miles if it's hilly, by horseback. A covered wagon can cover ~8-20 miles per day, so that lines up pretty well with a day's distance for a shipment of water. 

And then, outside of those strongholds, you can get smaller crops of water-fruit, but not much. You could get bandit outposts that focus on raiding water (or that have their own secret ley line water nexus growing spot), so as to keep them outside of the law. If you have scrub that animals can eat (even if the groundwater would poison humans), then that also frees up a lot of possibilities for stuff like cattle rustling, since you'd be able to actually keep the cattle watered at watering holes.

That's one way to do it, and sort of the general trend I could see happening (people need water to live, whoever controls the water controls the people). If there's no water, at all, besides what's produced by this one plant, this plant better grow really easily, or else there's nothing around to live off of. Also, if it's a fruit, then the harvest season would be a big deal. 

[echoes-lighthouse]

15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 for the vampire s/i? :333 I hope they're not too much!!

Ummmmm NEVER too much :D thank you so much!!! Apparently after writing 140k about this character I still have so much more to say. Ask Game!!!

15. how big or small is their family? who did they live with growing up? do they live with anyone now?

Grew up an only child with two parents in the house! Now they live in the coven house which is more or less shared with the whole polycule although people leave sometimes for weeks or years and then come back -- and there are guests who stay but aren't part of the coven!

16. do they have any pets? what do they call their pets?

I would do so very badly with a pet in this universe. I think that spending time bonding with an animal would fuck me up about feeding for a while. I tend to only cultivate relationships with other vampires and everything else falls into the 'food' category.

17. how did they spend their summers/free time as a child?

Normal stuff, mostly! Went to parks, played on random patches of concrete, broke into abandoned buildings, sat by the river, visited friends. They grew up in a bad area of town but the kids ran around pretty freely. 'twas the seventies.

18. their opinion on lying, stealing, and killing?

They don't have moral judgments on any of them. They recognize that those things can cause pain, but they're kind of weird about the cause/effect: they'll say 'oh I'm sorry you were lied to' and genuinely feel bad for the person, but they won't blame the other person, even if the wronged party does. They're almost incapable of blaming people for the things they do, even if they're bad things. They're too quick to say 'well they probably had reasons.'

10. are they quick to anger? what sets them off?

I hate being angry, so I avoid being angry at all costs. The one thing that really sets me off is other people judging me or saying that I'm being a vampire wrong. Saying that I hunt the wrong people, or that I trust the wrong people.

20. if applicable, can they drive? if they have their own, what color is their vehicle? is the inside neat and tidy, or a mess?

Yes!! They can drive, but they don't do it often! They do have a car at the coven house and it is a little basic silver Toyota Corolla. It's the only basic car in the whole house: everyone else has something super flashy and expensive and Lestat only bought me the Toyota because I was asking to drive other people's fancy cars too often :( but I mostly like to ride with Gabrielle on her motorcycle for travelling!

[deliruousmistakes]

Let Me Take Your Pain Away (Pt. 3)

Missions don’t always go as planned, they rarely do, actually. Thing is, when they don’t, someone might pay the price with their lifes. 

But they won’t let that be Mikey’s case.

Based on @cokowiii’s ‘Just Another Day AU’

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

“Off I go.” -Mikey said as his actual goodbye before leaving for his mission. He walked and remained hidden first few kilometres, not wanting to attract attention near the entrance of their base -even if it was well hidden-. When he deemed it safe enough he started floating, and then flying; the feeling of the wind splashing against him, of being atop of the world and to be able to be as fast and loud as he can manage was amazing.

He made it to his destination quickly, landing near a giant hole in the ground. That was easy, Mikey thought before going underground, his heart running with excitement and nervousness.

He immediately felt the dust in the air, along with some horrible smell. He used his ninpo to light the place around him as he fell, stopping just before he hit the floor because what’s underneath him looks like something he absolutely does not want to touch; it vanished the excitement in him, replacing it with grievance, anger, and sadness. He looked around, taking in the walls, the rubble and destroyed furniture, as well as the scavengers and their food. On one side, was something purple with bright pink, what he guesses are the remainings of a Krang; in that order of ideas, he assumes the white, red and brown in front of it (far more popular with the animals), is what’s left of a person.

I guess that’s the answer to Donnies question. Concludes Michelangelo, disappointed. He had hoped the explosion was caused by something different, maybe some machine wearing off, or a crashed krang spaceship, or even a meteorite...

Still floating, he took a notebook and a pen out of his bag to start sketching a rough map of the place. After finishing, he uses his powers to pull all the rubble by the walls closer to him in order to find the exists of the area.

There’s four in total.

He starts with the one that’s furthest from the corpses. The entrance is another hole. Looking back, he sees that the big, metal door was busted some time ago. Even before entering  his nose wrinkles at an acrid and sweet smell. The inside is full of broken glass, though the closer he gets to a metal platform in the back, the less there is. Furthermore, there are microscopes and jars knocked over the countertops. The computers, even though they seem to be on good conditions, are not turning on, but that is probably because the place is out of electricity.

He sorts through samples in plastic bags, not understanding what they are before moving on, stopping by a lab coat in the floor to pick it up; it has an embroidered logo and, more importantly, an embroidered name: Owen Keller. He moves a chair and accommodates the coat over its headrest, hoping that somewhere, somehow, they are safe.

On the counter something else calls for his attention: a short, cylindrical, lidded container made of a transparent plastic. Inside it is a pink substance, but it’s not growing evenly, in some parts not at all. He lets it be and goes further into the room to examine the platform, noticing some thick cables near it, some on which have glass attached.

Then he peeks into the cabinets, where he finds, among other things, face masks, gloves, written registers, and books. Donnie might like the missile building so he takes it and puts it on his bag, along with one about the nervous system for Cali and Leo. Lastly, he passes by some machines, held together with tape and willpower, to sit on a countertop. It’s cold, hard, and smooth.

This room alone is absolutely worth making a raid team, even when it’s going to be really hard to empty it out and make it back safely and unnoticed…but maybe they could build another base in here? Either way, he should make the entrance less noticeable.

He lets his thoughts about everything and everything run for a while before going continuing with his map and leaving the lab.

The next exit place looks like a storage room, there are containers, bags and shelves, as well as a door that was barricaded from the side he’s in. The turtle decides to leave it for later and goes for his next option: a hallway. He walks in, passing his fingers over some bullet holes, as well as the carved letters and drawings. He sees the rusted pipes above him, making a mental note about them.

He stops by a door, before stepping on a blood stain. He took a deep breath, trying to pass will away the sting on his nose and his blurry vision. The door leads to a breakroom. His eyes bore into the two dead bodies, noticing the claws and bite marks.

This wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.

Shit happens, and he’s somewhat learning to live with that…Still, he wants to do more.

They both have lab coats with names on it, though he can’t know for sure it’s theirs.

Mickey sits in a couch, and takes his bag off. He stares at the bright coloured butterflies Calimari had embroidered for him, running his fingers through them and feeling the different textures before setting it aside.

He can't help but to mourn these strangers (and the situations, everything that could have been, and the people he knew before losing...again).

Eventually, he walks out, deciding to map the room later.

Back in that storage room, he’s fiddling with some tubes when he hears an incoming caller reads as “Booty-Shaker >:D”.

He forgot to tell him he had arrived.

- “This is the great Michelangelo, Master of Arts. You may speak” – He answers. He continues after feeling judged through the silence. “I just arrived.”

- “Oh really? It says here you arrived over 7 hours ago, Michel.” -was the answer that came from the other side of the line.

- “Time flies?” -He started twirling the tube he had in his hands - “I’m sorry, I did forget to call you. Although, I honestly hadn’t realized it’d been that long.” - The youngest of the two accidentally dropped the tube into the floor and jumped backwards, knocking some cylindrical containers over. He cursed inwardly, before shrugging it off - “I have a theory about the explossion.”

- “Hypothesis, you mean. Anyway, what are your thoughts?” - Mikey started percieving a pungent odor, but he paid it no mind.

- “I think, it could've been on purpose. Some last attemp to take a krang down, even by sacrificing their life, maybe they weren't gonna make it anyway. Could've been a grenade” – He made it to the barricade and started undoing it to open the door.

- "What about the rest? Is it worth going?"

- "For sure."

- “Are you coming back then?” - That's a fair question, lately Mikey's been going back as soon as he can.

- “Nah, it’s fine.”

- “Yes, he said. Convinced.”

- “It is! I just want to look around some more. There’s a bunch of interesting things, and maybe I can find someone who is still alive” - Maybe he’s not too late. He added inwardly as he finished undoing the barricade.

- “Just remember to be careful. Don’t touch things recklessly, and avoid fighting underground, least you want the place to collapse over you.” – When he opened the door he found a humanoid looking krang.

If it still resembled a human, it could still be reversed.

He had to try.

Donatello's advices became background noise. The not-yet krang tried to slam him, Mikey dodged, but it crashed into a bag with powder.  

- “Mikey?” – he didn’t answer his older brother, fulyy focused on his oponent. Instead, he summoned his fire and his chains, planning to restore their humanity as best he could.

The explosion that came afterwards was not part of the procedure.

Michelangelo wakes up, not remembering falling asleep. There’s a bad taste in his mouth and he’s having trouble breathing.

He notices that the chain in his hand is loose and full of black patches. Not a good sign, specially combined with his trapped leg and the growing cracks coming from his fingertips.

He tried to use too much energy, too fast and through few paths.

Dum-dum.

But that only explains the cracks on his hands, not the explosion.

Welp, what’s done is done.

Still, this is not how he dies.

.

.

.

Easier said than done.

His communicator’s is not getting anything out. However, maybe it will if there’s less interference, if he makes it to surface level.

The problem is finding a way out because the path he came from is blocked, and it might collapse further if he messes with it.

He ignores the feeling of something wet and warm sliding down his neck as he frees his leg.

After getting tired of floating, limping, and falling he gives up finding an exit and instead makes one of his own.

Even outside he can’t contact them.

It’s okay, Donnie and Cali must have notices. They’ll come for him.

But there has to be something other than waiting that he can do.

He could send them a signal using his energy, like fireworks, or he can try to make it back on his own. Neither is a good idea.

He can’t die.

Not here, not like this, and specially not knowing (hoping) they are on their way.

This sucks… As in cue, Mikey notices a krang walking towards him, though the universe will have to try harder than that.

Contrary to his expectations, before his chains could get to him an explosion on the ground did.

Is this place a minefield?

Of-fucking-course.

Everything’s starting to hurt. A lot. His heart pounding in his chest; he's sweating, having trouble breathing, doesn’t feel in control of his body, and all he can hear is a loud whistle.

I don’t want to leave; I still want to draw until my hands are numb, to do turtle piles, to see the stars dance at night, watch Cassey grow, and hear the laughter of the kids, and-

He promised himself he would not die crying. If he has to go, he'll go smiling.

Angelo is startled awake by one his brothers. He can notice his odler brother's not okay, but can’t can’t understand what he’s saying. The whistle is too loud.

Dee's examining him, using scans and talking to someone. When his brother’s eyes tear of him, he follows them to see Leo running towards him and his hearts stops in fear.

There might be another bomb in the floor, they’re in danger.

He has to protect them.

Donnie didn't understanding.

He stops them and tries to explain himself until everything is too blurry and numb.

Mikey felt himself be covered in warmth, like someone wrapped a fuzzy blanket around him.

His mind clears enough to realize what’s happening and he can’t help but apologize and worry before being lulled back into sleeping.

[totally-lit-road-trips]

Chapter 22: Farm & Orchard

Welcome back to my Totally Lit Road Trip blog, where the lit stands for literary!

Today’s adventures took us all around Concord, MA, as we learned about Henry David Thoreau and Louisa May Alcott, as well their relationships with each other and other authors in the area. I think it says a lot about the authors that despite age and gender differences, they inspired each other’s writing and played a role in each other’s lives.

Jess and I started our morning at Thoreau Farm, where we were treated to a private tour, because we were the only ones there. Our tour guide, Barbara, is an amazing historian who told us the saga of the Thoreau family’s life on this farm. Even though Henry David Thoreau only lived there for eight months after he was born, the farm played a large role in his writing due to the stories his mother told him about the place. His grandmother, Mary Jones, was living in the house with her husband, and when he died, the “widow’s third” rule went into effect, meaning that even though she couldn’t own the house, she could legally continue living in 1/3 of it. Mary “swapped” homes with her daughter Cynthia (Thoreau’s mother), since she was younger and would have an easier time farming the land to make a profit. This is how Thoreau came to be born on a farm not technically owned by anyone in his family.

In 1995, when the last living owner of the house passed away, developers wanted to purchase the land and build condos. This prompted a group of historians and literature lovers to create a trust and raise the nearly $1M needed to purchase the land and restore the house. Rather than restoring it to its original form, as a lot of historical societies do with old houses, the trust wanted to refurbish in a way that would honor Thoreau’s memory and lifestyle. Given that he was a huge proponent of finding harmony in nature, the house was refurbished using recycled material and environmentally friendly paint, and uses solar panels to provide most of its electricity. 

One interesting tidbit about the house is that its original foundation was about 300 yards away from where it lies now, and no one really knows why it was moved. It certainly would have been easier to just build a new house on the place where it is now, and historians have not discovered a reason for its move.

Inside the house you can see most of the original floorboards and walls, which were repainted to match the original colors in the house, although they left a few spots un-painted for comparison. 

On our tour, Barbara told us about Thoreau and his siblings. He and his brother John both (unsuccessfully) proposed to the same woman. A few weeks later, John cut himself shaving and ultimately died of lockjaw. Thoreau was so distraught over the death of this brother that he wound up developing what we now know were psychosomatic symptoms which mirrored John’s so strongly that his family was convinced Thoreau must have cut himself as well. He eventually recovered, and went on to write A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, about a boat trip he took with John before his passing.

Thoreau’s younger sister Sophia (pronounced So-Fye-Uh) was an accomplished artist, and drew the cover art used for Walden, the book for which Thoreau is probably most well-known. Additionally, the family were abolitionists, and his older sister, Helen, founded the first woman’s abolitionist group.

Thoreau Farm is also still a fully functional farm, and volunteers from a non-profit organization called Gaining Ground farm the land and donate all the produce to local food pantries and meal programs. We took a few minutes to stroll around their crops, and it was really impressive. 

My favorite new plant discovery came in the form of Egyptian Walking Onions, which were growing in one of the small garden plots near the house. When I said I wondered how they tasted, Barbara gave us permission to pick a few, if we would try them and let her know what they tasted like. Can confirm they tasted like red onions, just in miniature form! The Egyptian Walking Onions are an heirloom plant, meaning the seeds were from Thoreau’s time period.

(The little purple buds in the phot above are actually the Egyptian Walking Onions! They’re very small, but very tasty!)

After a quick and delicious lunch at Nashoba Brook Bakery, we headed over to Orchard House, the family home of Louisa May Alcott. 

As you approach the house, the first thing that stands out is the lovely little garden out front, which is planted with the same plants and flowers that each of the four March sisters plants in her own little garden plot in Little Women. The plots are labeled accordingly with the sisters’ names - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. 

The first part of the tour takes place in the Concord School of Philosophy building, which Alcott’s father built in 1879. He was a Transcendentalist, who believed in education reformation. He believed in things like recess and field trips, and opposed corporal punishment, which was widely used at the time. 

In the Concord School of Philosophy, you’ll find benches that were created for the schoolhouse scenes in the 2019 Little Woman film, and donated to Orchard House after filming. You can sit on them as you view a short documentary about Orchard House, narrated by a very compelling “Louisa May Alcott”, played by Jan Turnquist. You can watch the documentary here, if you are a member of Thirteen PBS.

After viewing the documentary, it was time to tour the house. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed, so if you want to see the residence in all its glory and fine detail, you’ve got to come visit for yourself. 

We learned that the family bought Orchard House when Louisa was 25 years old. Prior to that, the family had lived in 29 houses over a span of 30 years, which sounds exhausting. After purchasing the house, which was only a few rooms, Alcott’s father had a nearby tenant house rolled in using logs, and attached it to the main house, making the whole residence much more spacious for his family. Louisa and her sisters helped with painting and setting up the house, although her sister Beth died before the family officially moved in. Beth’s melodium (a reed organ that resembles a small keyboard) and her portrait reside in one of the sitting rooms. 

Due to the success of Alcott’s writing, she was able to furnish the family home with a lot of nice things, many of which are still present in the house today. She was also able to finance her youngest sister May’s art lessons in Europe, which were necessary because in America, art was not seen as a viable career for a woman. May had a small studio room in Orchard House where she gave art lessons, and one of her students, Daniel Chester French, eventually went on to design the Lincoln Memorial.

May spent many years in Europe learning art from the masters, eventually marrying and having a daughter, whom she named after her sister Louisa. Unfortunately, May passed a way shortly after giving birth, and then Lulu was sent back to America to be raised by Louisa for about nine years. Lulu eventually moved to Switzerland, where she lived until her death in 1975 at the age of 95.

May’s artwork lives on, however, as it can be found in every room in the house. From sketches to paintings to ink drawings all over the windowsills and walls, May’s art gives visitors glimpses into the lives of the Alcotts and the art styles of the time period. Due to a current art exhibit with the Concord Library, more of May’s art was on display than usual, including a silk dress which she hand painted. In addition, the wedding dress of the eldest sister, Anna, was also on special display in Louisa’s bedroom. The silvery gray silk was certainly unlike any modern wedding dress you’d see today, but it had a very sophisticated look nonetheless.

Some other items of note in the house were Louisa’s boots and writing desk. The boots are kept in a costume trunk from when the sisters and their friends would put on plays. The very same boots are mentioned in Little Women as belonging to Jo, who wears them to play Roderigo, the same role Louisa wore the boots for in real life. Louisa’s writing desk, though small in size, was large in what it represented - her family’s faith in her writing ability. During her lifetime, it was unfitting for a woman to have her own writing desk, as writing wasn’t seen as an appropriate career for them, similar to art. Louisa’s father build the desk for her, showing how strongly he believed in her.

Something I already knew before visiting Orchard House, but that I still think is interesting and important to mention is that when Alcott was writing Little Women, she fully intended for Jo, the character modeled after herself, to remain a “spinster,” just as Alcott was. However, her publisher absolutely forbid that, so as a “compromise,” Alcott created a sort of unexpected character for Jo to marry, rather than the fan favorite pick, Laurie.

One thing I didn’t know before our tour was how involved the Concord authors were in each other’s lives. Nathanial Hawthorne lived next door to the Alcotts, and Thoreau and Emerson were contemporaries of Louisa’s father, Amos Bronson. They even joined the family for Anna’s wedding.

After our tour of Orchard House, Jess and I explored downtown Concord a bit, and visited a few antique stores, a chocolate shop, and a cheese shop. Then we went back to our hotel to unwind for a bit before heading to Copper House Tavern for dinner. We both had fancy burgers that were quite scrumptious, and very satisfying. Now we’re back at the hotel resting up for tomorrow. We’ve got a lot planned, and it looks like rain all day, but luckily most of our adventuring will take place in doors.

Tune in tomorrow for some more literary adventures in Concord!

<3 Theresa