#this feels weird to say it because technically i am not doing anything special but i love each one of you sm i love this fandom & everything

[gojosbf]

i am so glad i started this blog <3

[monsterlets]

conversation tip for autistic people, from an autistic linguist

if you've ever run into this dilemma:

you are telling someone a story or informing them about something. there is a piece of information that you are not sure if they already know or not, but they need to know it in order for the rest of what you're saying to make sense. you are now trying to guess based on nothing. if you tell them and they already knew, they might think you're insulting their intelligence (or just that it was weird that you thought they wouldn't know). if you don't tell them and they didn't already know, then they'll feel lost

you can get around this with presuppositions

a presupposition is a piece of information in a sentence that is not the main point of the sentence, but that must be true in order for the sentence as a whole to be true. this is very dependent on where in the sentence the information is

for example:

you're telling someone a story about a mutual friend. the only way this story makes sense is if the listener knows that the friend's dad used to be a doctor. you don't know if they know that

this is a direct statement: "her dad used to be a doctor"

the main point of this sentence is "her dad used to be a doctor", but more importantly it's obviously the main point of the sentence. if they think you should assume they already knew that, that is now at the front of their mind. and they might think you're implying that they're not close to your mutual friend

here is a sentence with a presupposition: "when her dad was a doctor, he saw this really weird thing"

the main point of this sentence is "he saw this really weird thing". "her dad was a doctor" is just background information. not only that, but including information as a presupposition implies that you thought they already knew it

if they did in fact already know, they might not even register the fact that you mentioned it again, or if they do it wouldn't seem out of place. they just breeze right past it and on to the rest of the sentence

if they didn't know, they likely won't think that much about it since you didn't call much attention to it, and even if they take note of it they'll at least think you assumed the best of them. at this point one of three things is likely to happen (from most to least likely):

they just quickly assimilate the information into their worldview and move on to interpreting the rest of the sentence

it blows their mind so much that they ask you to explain. which is a great outcome imo

it threatens their worldview so strongly that they cannot move past it. at this point they may get mad at you, but it's not because of what you implied they knew or didn't know - it's because they just strongly disagree with you, and they were gonna get mad regardless of how you said it. this will rarely come up unless you're talking about a particularly polarizing/emotionally charged topic

note: as I said, where you put the information in the sentence matters a lot. coordinating conjunctions connect two main ideas. the sentence "her dad used to be a doctor, and he saw this really weird thing" has two main ideas. and one of them is the one that you wanted to not be a main idea

if you want more examples of the forms presuppositions can take with more technical descriptions, wikipedia has a pretty good list

also note, this is a guideline, not a rule. it's hard to go wrong with it, but if you know what you're doing you can break it

for instance, if I am not talking about anything personal, just telling someone about a special interest, I'll do different things depending on how niche the information is

if I know something is common knowledge (ex: t rex was a predator) then I'll either not mention it, or if I think it's something they need to not only know but be actively thinking about for the rest of it to make sense, then I will remind them with a presupposition

if I know something is not entirely common knowledge, but I have at some point seen people who are not deep into the topic talking about it ("dimetrodon was more closely related to mammals than dinosaurs") then I might just straight up ask them if they know that, since it doesn't say anything about them as a person other than what random information they happened to come across

if it's something you almost certainly wouldn't know about without being deep into the topic, I just say it. if they do happen to know about it it's because they randomly heard it and they probably wouldn't think it's weird that I assumed they didn't know (note: in this situation do not say anything along the lines of "you probably wouldn't know this" "this is so niche". just say the information)

you might have noticed that I haven't been following the guideline in this post either. this is for a couple reasons

I'm not talking to specific people, I'm writing for a broad audience. generally when you say things people already knew in that context they're like "well I didn't need that spelled out for me, but I guess somebody does"

I am not aiming this at neurotypicals, and I assume that you'll appreciate me being as explicit as I can regardless of how much you already knew

[nardos-primetime]

first thing that pops up on my for you page from your blog:

i am so lost from where this guy came from. is this an au? also i am extremely jealous of their hair, i want it for no good reason. lmfao sorry for the weird question/ask.

He's from a newer au I haven't talked about yet! Don't feel weird for asking at all!

The whole au is like. Heavily inspired by Cyberpunk 2077 (a guilty pleasure of mine), it could technically be a crossover au, I guess? I dunno, but I'm lazy/like to do stuff for fun, so certain aspects are obviously going to be changed. I'm not totally settled on designs, but I think I'm gonna keep most of the design aspects from this drawing for the "finalized" concepts.

The main plot centers on Casey Jr being put under the care of the turtles by "Mother" soon after having a whole (unwilling) relic insert situation in his brain, leading to former star Lou Jitsu to be revived within his mind!

The issue is that all of the turtles aren't really. The best father figures. None of them even want anything akin to a child, and even if Casey is 19, these guys are Mercs. Outside of their own clubbing and shows they do gigs for cash, including dangerous ones, ESPECIALLY dangerous ones. Having this new guy is like, a total roadblock, especially because Casey still, somehow, despite Night City's clutches and the last group he was pressured into before this, has some morals about him. The only reason they didn't kill him and stage an accident is because Mother promised them financial compensation for caring for him.

So he's stuck with four new "dads" who mostly all hate him or find him annoying, and Lou is not any different, he also finds him naive but he dislikes the turtles as well because he's a jaded old fuck (major hypocrite, too).

While the turtles are baseline all mercenaries, they share some traits between each other instead of leaving it to a "one guy only" job in most cases.

Donnie has the most technical skill, falling mostly under Techie and Net/Edgerunner, he adores tech after all, he also has illegally dabbles in being a ripperdoc, primarily for his brothers.

Mikey is actually the fallback for general medical issues, including those involving backfiring implants. He's only better at this because he's dabbled in researching (and using) tons of remedies, mainly for pain. He's the guy who's helped Donnie when working on inserting implants in the others. He's even stayed awake during his own surgeries to help Donnie during his fuck ups and implants.

Leo, while not extreme netrunner levels, does hold some hacking knowledge, just what he needs to make things a little easier with anything but combat most of the time, as combat is what he enjoys the most within jobs. He also tends to be the one to make their deals with Mother.

Raph is mainly muscle. Not to say he's simple, it's just his main role and main focus, having grown much more protective over the years, often acting as a bodyguard for the others during their own shows (hence he has the least involvement with any of their music). He's the least of the bad influences for Casey, at least directly.

They used to have another member of the group a few years ago, a media. Or a media wannabe, at least.

They normally have some reference to her, even if small, hidden within their shows.

This is all, of course, not tapping into their mystics, which are a bit different in this au as well with how they work. Lets just say Mother allows them special permissions when it comes to mystic usage.

...at least those are some of the basic ideas I've been throwing around in my head for the story, lol. I like to throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks to me. The whole thing is technically a wip still but so are 90% of my aus tbh lmao, this onrs just a lot more wippy because it's mainly a "for fun" au and I also haven't been able to play cyberpunk for myself to brush up on things outside of research and sometimes a man is just... not up for that, especially lately with my attention span, I hope to brush up a little more again sometime soon and maybe even delve into some aspects from the og ttrpg perhaps, I'm not sure yet, though, haha.

Oops long post, huh? My bad </3

[sn-oozer]

The big "nuh-huh" or the TPS fandom member counterattacking

After contemplating the juicy volume of mean comments towards the cartoon, I've decided that it would be awesome to state some things and do a role swap in this old ahh war between the tiny amount of fans and a big ol' pack of haters.

First of all, I declare and swear that I do not call anyone to do online fights, to spread hatred or condemnation based on interests, tastes, etc. All personal, it shouldn't affect people. I just have enough courage and stupidity, I am as fearless as a honey badger.

***

Even before I got involved in the fandom, I saw at least two videos about how bad this show is. Looking it up now, I'm even more amazed by the amount of people saying the same over and over (and over and over) again.

People speaking about special and unique artstyles, plot and character dynamics...are stating all the same??

Like, you know, average "The problem solverz is garbage" video is usually... this. I know, it's a weird thing to notice, but come on!! First they say that the show is rushed, then they cover the bare minimum.

"I'm gonna tell why this show is bad! Because it's bad!"...and they're saying it for 5 minutes at best, sometimes 10. Isn't THAT mellow? It's like they're taking negative reviews, chatGPTng them into one and reading from a paper sheet.

1. MEAN of me and of them. >:(

I should also never forget how these people act on camera. Saying your personal thoughts (I hope they're not copying other's videos and their opinions are just similar) on the show is normal. That's what a review is, it can be negative or positive, sure thing.

But why are they so... arrogant or something about it? Just yesterday I saw a vid that ended with "Don't watch bad cartoons, watch me instead!"

.. Dude. Hear me out, dude. My man, my comrade, pal, buddy, fella. How's watching you yapping about some animation piece makes YOU an animation piece? Or the yapping as valuable as one, at least? What "artstyle, plot and interesting characters" does it give me? None, apart from at least 30 seconds of a segment of it that has zero sound regulation and million decibels of loudness, I'm well aware.

Great job NOT managing the audio tracks, asshole author, I love when it's barely possible to hear you and then you hit your viewer with a sonic boom. Yes, I do know that it can be funny when there's something suddenly being loud, it's my favourite and that's how I can tell when it's low quality editing and when it's a meme. They can't just rant about the show's technical side and then let audio issues slide for their own content. Don't they know that sound design is always essential?

The humour part is also questionable. Once their miserable 16 minutes at best of video starts, they waste it on gags and sketches sometimes. Next they'll be using sock puppets or anything and arguing with them. Saying that a show is unfunny after pretending that you achieved some comedy gold skills is...eh? What if I want an actual review, Iwant at least an hour of explanation why, how and what to do to make the show look or feel better. Not this:

Hi —> Problem Solvers Bad! —> joke —> ugly —> joke haha —> me funny, it's not— > me cool! — > watch MY favourite series instead! —> bye!

I can clearly see WHY they choose TPS for such content. Most likely it makes them seem advanced in their sphere of activity, otherwise I see no reason for speaking about the same cartoon when someone already said something. What would they need a proper scenario, jokes or even points for if they can just say "listen. Problem Solverz is bad! My [someone] called me and said that! My eyes." There was even an attempt to make "the worst animation series of the year" thing. At the same time, there is no competition among critics, why so?

Surely, I'm not talking about every review youtuber in the world. I won't even name them, I won't tell their channels or links to them. There are people who said positive stuff, having great points.

2. Reviews

The reviews are repeatative, of course they are. I can totally agree that the show has it's issues and it's not for everyone. Just like any other show. We know the etiquette, "we're all different in our preferences and tastes" is a damn motto! It works both ways.

But can't they..like...dig deeper into it? Let's see what they're saying most of the time, what's the matter with the show:

1. "My eyes!"

Yes. That's the artstyle. It's all on purpose. We have 8 episodes in the second season for those who "doesn't want eye aches". Ben Jones knew what he's doing.

2. "It's ugly, It's like it was made by a 4 year old".

And then we have South Park or something. Nobody whines about it's artstyle. We have Pilotredsun, for god's sake, a really good music maker and artist. Why don't they say that about Paper Rad as a whole, instead speaking of only one show??

3. "It's boring, the writing is weird".

Well, they had to fit a crazy ahh adventure in 11 minutes. The issue was fixed in the second season, again, but at what cost?

4. "No funnies"

Absolutely subjective, humor is a difficult thing. Humor has many forms, it's subtle, I guess. The pilot (or even both of them) showed how it works. Are they cats or something, do they really need someone to direct their attention to something artificially? Maybe a laugh track to emphasize a joke, a "badum tsss"?

5. "The main characters don't feel alive/human/like they have a personality"

They're missing the rare moments of character model change for better expression. As if they're sitting through several 10 minute episodes to notice.

5.1. "ALFE IS SO ANNOYING I HATE HIM"

They're just jealous of him /j

First they're saying that the characters are "flat". Then they're saying that Alfe is annoying. Because he actually has established hobbies, interests, senses (hunger lmao) and has at least several deadly sins in him? Because it's always in the viewer's face? Well, if it's not emphasized, it won't be noticed according to them.

I still think it's a matter of character archetype and artstyle...

3. Activities

The entire fanbase has like... several tiny communities. Like the one on Reddit or here, maybe also Amino. The show is favoured by around 33 people on archive org. Let's remember the population of people on earth at the moment. A fandom with the size of a blood cell, that's what we are.

And I saw at least once, that a person just went and posted the usual "show bad". Not on their page, not on a review page. On a fan community.

It's obvious that this user just watched the show or maybe a review on it, did a little brain work, searched for a fan community and posted this. I'm sure the fandom doesn't get into any platform algorithms to get popular. There's no real reason for anyone to try to get on the fanbase's nerves. And I don't even know the number of such cases. May be small, may be average, may be huge.

4. The whole show's position

It's unpopular. The fact is that people consciously go to watch this show when they hear about it, and they can choose not to. Again, the motto. It's been years since it's last airing, it's enough for a human baby to reach adolescentce or something. And people still kinda treat it like it's on their TV suddenly, unskipabble, with nothing else to watch. You 🫵, me, us and anyone else are free to watch anything they want on the internet, anywhere, in any quality. There's no need to try to get in a fight with the fans. They choose to watch the show even if they're warned, they get dazzled and then upset.

5. The grand final

How about people quit trying to milk The Problem Solverz hatred and...I dunno, go fight the real deal? The Internet is really taken over by artificial intelligence, you know? The "dumb show S1E2 plot"? The "meow meow meow meow meow 😔" vids. By actually rushed content, the brainrot that is real. The obvious unprofessionals trying to seize the children's animation industry, Elsagate going on and on, the cropped woo-hoo content, the farms. And somehow, it makes the people behind it millionaires in terms of subscribers and views. Where were you, anti ugly-eyestrain-arstyles and animation/plot writing gurus when you were needed before it was too late??

***

I hope that's the first and the last time I post such things, oh my.

[sonknuxadow]

okay big wall of some of my shadow generations thoughts . spoiler warning obviously

i will start by just saying that this game is soo good like in general. ive said before that i was initially very skeptical of this whole thing but very quickly changed my mind upon seeing the first trailer and im SO glad that it did turn out to be good. this feels like one of the first times in a really long time that theyve put actual care into shadows involvement in a story instead of just throwing him in something for five seconds because they know hes popular. the game IS a bit short but i was expecting that and its somewhat reasonable considering its technically only half the game. but what we did get was great. we are so back .

i love the gameplay i talked earlier about how i like that they put more effort into making shadow play differently from sonic by incorporating his chaos powers into his gameplay, but the doom powers are really cool also and were such a fun addition. ive always wished they would do more with shadow being part black arms but didnt expect it to ever come up again so everything about this is kinda surreal to me

i love love love the optional dialogue i went out of my way to make sure i didnt miss any of it and theres so many cute ones and i have to stop myself from mentioning specific ones on this post because if i do ill be going on forever

also the music was good Obviously thats a given with sonic games. but special shoutouts to the menu music i thought it was a cute detail that sonics side had a remix of it doesnt matter while shadows was a remix of throw it all away. and that all hail shadow remix for the final boss goes sooo hard i was honestly expecting them to use i am all of me but this is cool too

as far as criticisms and nitpicks go. uhhhhh . this isnt that big a deal but i do find it the tiniest bit disappointing that they didnt really leave anything a surprise in terms of the gameplay, if im remembering right they showed pretty much everything in the trailers except for the final boss but im sure everyone knew who that was going to be it was jut the specific form he took that was the surprise. but like i said its not that big a deal especially considering they didnt show much of the story in the trailers so it balances out in a way . also i didnt know what the best place to put this in would be but i just wanted to say i got so excited when i got to the final stage because radical highway is one of my favorite sonic levels . peace and love on planet earth

i also think chaos island was a weird choice for a stage because all the others are from games shadow is a main character in but he isnt in frontiers at all? maybe they didnt wanna repeat games and were running out of ideas so they just threw a frontiers stage in since it wouldnt have any representation otherwise. i dont know.

there is only one real "this sucks" thing for me and its rouge's voice acting. its soo terrible ive never liked her current voice but she sounded particularly bad here to the point where it was distracting..... when it comes to other voice actors who are one of my less liked voices for their character im at least able to say that theyre doing a good job or have improved a lot over the years even if theyre not my first pick. but i swear to god rouge has gotten worse

anyway . good game . the ending made me tear up a little. thumbs up emoji . will probably play sonics side at some point too but idk if ill do it today

[animentality]

Since my Durge is the default/canon dragonborn I had this idea of him feeling self conscious about his appearance - looking like a big scary monster in general for one and for two, feeling like an inadequate partner for Gortash, cause Gort can’t even really kiss him the way he’d be able to kiss a human/elf/tiefling/etc. He doubts Gortash even really loves him because he just looks so different. So one night as a surprise Durge casts disguise self to look like an average human and he sets up all seductively in bed and when Gort gets home, Durge is all like “Look! Soft skin! No spikes! Kissable lips! You can make out with me properly now!” 

But the plot twist is that Gort refuses to even get in the bed unless they change back immediately lol.

I don’t know how in character this is technically - like I do think the way these two are insane about each other goes far far beyond physical - but I am really charmed by the idea that at a certain point Gortash is so attached to HIS Durge that it would be too weird for them to look any other way. Even dragonborn Durge, enough that Gort wouldn’t even miss something like proper kissing after a while. He wouldn’t kiss them with a magic human face because that’s not Durge to him. It’s Durge’s real face that makes him so happy every time he sees it, and that’s the version he wants.

So if Gort saw his dragonborn Durge had magicked into a human for him, he’s like nope, absolutely not, too weird, change back right now. I think he would be more annoyed that Durge would even THINK that’s what he wants, more than anything lol. He wants them exactly as they are, thank you very much, so get that other guy out of here!

Tldr I just think what Gortash has with Durge is special and atypical on a lot of levels so that it doesn’t matter what Durge actually looks like, as long as they look like themself... if that makes sense 😭

This is really really sweet actually and I love the idea.

Part of me wants to say though that dragonborns are present at baldur's gate, so we at least know that they're somewhat normalized and I doubt fucking a dragonborn would really be taboo.

You can fuck dwarves and drow and elves and tieflings and whatever the fuck.

However. I admit. Just logistically. It's pretty hard to kiss a dragonborn. It would be even harder to fuck one, I mean, just look at those scales. You'd get your ass peeled off. Some skin chafing at best, flaying at absolute worst.

So I like this idea because maybe dark urge would be a little self conscious because they aren't supposed to love, so they never thought about it before.

But now that they are like...in a weird relationship, then maybe they start feeling odd about it or want to be more normal for him.

And the idea of Gortash insisting that he likes how they look and wouldn't have them any other way...

How romantic :) for those two serial killers.

But also.

Dragonborn. Monster.

Loving someone who sees them as more than that.

Who loves all of their abnormality.

Psychological and physical.

Hrrrrrr.

[flame-shadow]

how do you art so well

more specifically

where are the motivation mines

ahhh, the motivation mines. sometimes it do feel like that. delving into the depths of one's brain to find the seams of creativity...

hehe anyway.

I think differentiating between "motivation" and "inspiration" could help you figure out what'll get you to create more.

My main motivations for art are enjoyment and improvement. I want to draw because I like doing so. The act of moving my pen, the joy of creating things, the satisfaction of visual communication, the act of expressing my ideas. And I want to draw because I like pushing myself. I like trying new things and learning how to work with media. I like getting better. I like seeing how far I've come.

Inspiration is the spark that can make things easier or take your ideas in new directions. Inspiration is not necessary, but it is helpful.

What inspires me are things like bugs, cool clouds, space facts, my friends, my OCs, my friends' OCs, the way light interacts with the world, weird anatomy, other animals, the way I can simplify my strokes and still communicate an emotion, the way I feel, the irritation of a failed social interaction, how someone rendered the scales on a dragon painting, the shape that a curtain makes, the distinct aesthetic of trail cams, etc etc etc.

Even when I don't have a spark of inspiration, I can still draw because I am motivated by things that usually don't need special ideas. I don't share a lot of the extra stuff, but sometimes I'll just fill a sketchbook page or digital canvas with scribbles, circles, lines, smears, etc. That's because even if I'm not creating anything specific, I'm still engaging with the act of creation and working on technical skills like fine motor control, steady lines, and smooth movement. Or maybe I spend an hour drawing what I see around me - the lamp, the clothes rack, the table, the water bottle - which again engage me in the act of drawing and in working on my ability to interpret and express what I see around me.

And if I'm inspired by, say, the way an artist I saw used color, then perhaps I'll try to add color to my life drawing to enhance the scene or reimagine it, make it new in some way.

idk if this is what you were asking, and it's a bit rambly, but hopefully it helps in some way!

there are so many ways to experience art and create, but this is how it is for me :)

[angelofrainfrogs]

Into the Pit: Ch. 4

~Coauthored by @zeitghest~

Fandom(s): Five Nights At Freddy’s: Security Breach

Description: He should be in the Daycare. 

Gregory emerges from the ball pit to find not the bright, rainbow room he’s accustomed to, but a house with a huge backyard and a kiddie pool of plastic “water.” Calling for Gregory is a familiar voice—Michael. Only this time it’s not Charlie or Freddy by his side, but someone completely new. And why do they insist on calling him their son?

Gregory soon comes to realize this existence is vastly different from anything he remembers. Perhaps these last few weeks at the Pizzaplex have all been a dream…?

Rating: T

Read on Ao3

Without fail every time they visited the Pizzaplex, after family check-in Gregory’s goal was to immediately find Freddy and say hello. Even if he had other plans for the day, the kid made sure to track down the huge bear and at least give him a quick hug before scampering off. It was endearing, and Mike was grateful that Freddy seemed to love Gregory just as much as he did. Whether this was because the kid was technically an Afton or simply because he spent so much time with the animatronic was anyone’s guess, but no sane person would deny that the robot seemed to have a soft spot for the little ball of energy.

Gregory led the way at first, though as the crowds started to spill back in he deferred to Michael’s side and let Liz take the lead. Eager to be free of the tiny workshop, her pace was fast and direct while she headed towards Rockstar Row. The area was just as Gregory remembered, with the Glamrocks’ rooms lined up neatly. All the curtains were open except for Freddy’s, and there was a sign outside the plush red velvet that read:

SORRY! FREDDY IS RESTING, BUT WILL BE BACK ONSTAGE SOON!

It was Evan who knocked on the door, seeming nearly as eager to see the bear as Gregory. Despite his horrible fear of animatronics as a kid, he’d grown to love them—especially as their designs became friendlier and friendlier.

“Fredbear, it’s Evan and some of the family!” the man called, and a heavy shuffling could he heard in the room.

“Come in!” responded the deep, familiar voice. Evan obliged, opening the door just long enough for the family to squeeze in before guests saw and thought they were getting special treatment.

There standing in the center of the floor was Glamrock Freddy, as shiny and pristine as the day Gregory first met him. His smile was as warm as a robot’s could get as he catalogued today’s visitors, and of course his focus was immediately directed to the sole child of the group.

“Gregory!” he exclaimed, kneeling down and holding his arms out for a hug. “It is so good to see you, superstar!”

It was him, just as he remembered from his dream.

“Freddy!” Gregory found himself shouting, careful not to call him Dad. Still, the urge persisted even as Gregory fell hard against Freddy; the stalwart mechanical bear was a steady rock in an ocean of uncertainty right then. Gregory knocked hard against the bot, deriving a loud “Aww!” from his Aunt Liz as he flocked quickly to his idol.

She hoped that Gregory never got too old for these characters. His love for Freddy never failed to bring a contagious smile to her face, watching as Gregory nestled in before remembering exactly why they came here to begin with.

Pulling back after the short but intense embrace, Gregory sighed with relief that the bear seemed pretty much the same overall. “Boy did I miss you, Freddy…”

Then, it was down to business. Hopefully Gregory could start getting some answers around here.

“Are you feeling okay? Notice anything weird?” he interrogated, scrutinizing every slight flex of the emotional responses he saw in Freddy’s eyes and ears.

“I am feeling wonderful; thank you for asking!” Freddy replied brightly, still crouched to speak on Gregory's level. His incandescent blue eyes tracked the boy's movements as normal, and they flicked up to Michael when he bent at Gregory's side.

“I hear you got a big software update,” Mike remarked with a grin, examining him with the same ferocity his son was. “Sammy asked us to check in and make sure you're doing good.”

“Your concern is greatly appreciated,” Freddy replied, not minding the scrutiny in the slightest. Looking back to Gregory, he added: “I am not sure what you define as 'weird,' superstar... but I did receive an alert regarding a security threat in the Daycare earlier, though Roxanne and Monty seem to have taken care of it.”

“Yeah, irate parent.” Michael stood, shrugging with a little huff. “We got it sorted, so no worries.”

“Ah... I am sorry you had to deal with that.” There was a beat of silence, until Freddy reached out a blue-clawed paw to gently push Gregory's choppy bangs out of his face. His head tilted curiously, looking the boy up and down with an appraising gaze. “Gregory... are you feeling alright? My health scan indicates a mildly elevated heartrate indicative of anxiety.”

Too late, the bear realized Gregory might not want to go into that topic—although at least Freddy stopped before mentioning the word “nightmares.” The boy had confided in him many a time about his dreams, and since they weren't a direct, physical threat to his well-being Freddy didn't feel compelled to share all the details with his guardians. It was no secret they talked, but still... Gregory had explicitly said he didn't like bringing the topic up around anyone but his dads, and here he was mentioning it with Evan and Liz in the room.

Ah, well. He was just a robot after all, and even the most advanced AI can err.

Michael did say it was alright to be honest. Gregory was around people that understood him and his situation. Everyone already seemed to know he was a little different...

“No, my heart feels like it's gonna explode. I've been really anxious all day.” That was the shortest explanation he could give. Hopefully, it would take suspicion away from him and his sudden bout of amnesia. Gregory laughed; it was humorless and unconvincing to his parents and the guardians around him. “I woke up inside the ball pit in my backyard after a REALLY long nightmare...”

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence on his part, the façade of calm shortly fading before he fumbled for the little robot on his belt loop. “Look though! Pappy gave me this little guy! I'm gonna call him Ditty.”

He held the spider-like musical bot flat in his small palms. The little guy shimmied slightly and played a midi tune while waving to Freddy, and Gregory desperately hoped the little bit of good news would mask how fucked up he was really feeling.

Jeremy looked to Michael, unsure of what to do. Gregory was indeed acting strangely. “Greg, let us know if you need to take a minute to yourself... I'm worried you're gonna get a burnout today.”

It'd happened before: Gregory trying to take on the stress of socializing and having full-on panic attack without either his or Michael's knowledge until he was deep in the throes of stress. It was painful to watch and sometimes even harder to get Gregory to talk about what set him off. Though it certainly gave Jeremy a bit of hope that he'd feel alright, given he mentioned this nightmare he had. Even if he didn't go into details, even just admitting it was a huge step.

“I-I'll be fine, Dad. Promise,” Gregory assured, holding Ditty tenderly in his mitts, careful not to squish or restrict his free movement as the little music man played a sympathetic score for him. Ditty wasn't big like Freddy; all he could do was hug his thumb to show his support.

“Hey, trust me, kiddo—” Evan smiled down at Gregory with a hint of worry deep in his eyes. “—the worst thing you can do is hold it in or not take a second to breathe. Remember how I told you I used to get scared all the time?” He shook his head, glancing to the floor with a far-off gaze. “I can't tell you how many times I tried to push past it and just ended up crying on the floor...”

Sometimes, Evan's honesty was jarring. The adults all knew about his past, of course—Michael and Liz lived through it, and Jeremy absorbed the information through stories and osmosis of being tied to the Aftons for 20-odd years. Evan found that the connection with Gregory, though admittedly not a fun one, made it easy to understand what he was going through to a degree. If he could help his nephew in any capacity when it came to emotional setbacks, he'd jump at the chance.

“...What Evan's trying to say is don't bottle it all in, okay?” Michael clarified after a moment, running a hand through Gregory's hair. “We're always here for you.” His eyes drifted to the large animatronic and he couldn't help letting out a soft chuckle. “Even Freddy. You can turn off Papa Bear mode, Fred—he's going to be alright.”

“Ah... I apologize if my focus was unnerving,” the robot stated, finally getting back to his feet. He'd been watching Gregory intently, analyzing for further signs of distress. Bad dreams weren't nearly as easy to treat as bruises—Moon would be the best animatronic for consolation regarding that topic. Regardless, Freddy still knew a few ways to comfort a child, and a topic change was a good one. With another bright smile, he held out a claw for Ditty. “That is a wonderful little invention! May I hold him for a moment?”

It wasn't Gregory’s intention to worry anyone, and while that was partly why he was apprehensive to tell them much, he had to talk at some point. The boy bit his tongue, feeling the distinct and sudden sting of tears about to break. Against Evan's advice, he held it all in after hearing Michael's words.

Papa Bear...

“Yeah… Yeah, here hold your palm out flat. There you go, Ditty...” Gregory offered the little man up for Freddy to take. The mini musician scuttled into Freddy's palm immediately, waving his teeny arms at him to get his attention while playing an entirely new midi. Toreador's March chimed through his crystal clear speaker.

Gregory watched the two interact out of the corner of his eye, leaning into Michael with a half-buried face as he knew he wouldn't be able to hide emotional distress from Freddy's ever-watchful sensors. It was hard being a priority sometimes. It meant he couldn't hide.

Maybe his uncle was right. He needed the issues to come into the light to stop feeling so badly.

But how do you explain a dream so messed up, it incepted your very memories?

Briefly surprised, Gregory pointed out: “Oh that's a new song...”  

Michael didn't hesitate to lift Gregory up and hold him against his chest, one arm underneath to keep him stable and the other wrapped securely around his back. Most thirteen-years-olds would cringe at the thought of their parents holding them like this, but Mike was secretly grateful Gregory didn't mind. The day he refused to be picked up would mark a turning point that meant he was growing up, and Mike didn't know how in the world he was going to deal with that.

When the little music man started playing a new tune, Michael huffed a laugh that shook Gregory slightly in his arms.

“Oh my god... one of the earlier Freddy models used to play that,” he explained, watching the robot with interest. 

“Oh yeaaaah,” Evan drawled, vaguely remembering the pizzeria Michael referred to. “That was one of Fredbear's idle songs, right? Man, I swear dad never forgets anything those guys performed...”

It was nice how William's gift brought back little memories for each other them. Charlie found herself sighing contently at the music. “Yep—that's a classic...”

It was such a long time ago. The older models long-since retrofitted with newer AI to keep up with the popularity of the Pizzaplex. Still, their old vintage charms never escaped the grownups even now. Charlie could almost hear the music box at the prize counter, Grandfather's Clock perpetually stuck in her head given how long she stayed by her Puppet's side.

Elizabeth watched in awe at the teeny marvel. Looking to Jeremy, a devious little smirk slid across her face. “Still have that fear of Music Man, Jer?”

“No way!” He laughed, albeit sounding nervous when Liz didn't look quite convinced. Ditty was fine! It was the big fella in the West Arcade that made him nervous. Looking to Gregory now, he told their kid: “We don't talk much about the old locations. We should try to find our old photo albums later! That'll jog some good memories of the place.”

Gregory was previously under the impression that working for any of the old locations was a complete nightmare. The things Evan told him were few and far between, but with Michael to constantly remind him that it was a surprise to everyone in the community that their family was never run out of town from gross incompetence shocked him to his core.

Grasping Charlie's arm, Liz asked her: “Wait—remember when our dads got into that screaming match in the back parking lot at Fredbear’s?”

Holding her friend back, Charlie's eyes went wide. “Oh my GOD! Yes! Our moms made them hug it out!”

William and Henry liked to yell at each other. It usually wasn't for real, as they both would just get equally excited about things that annoyed them mutually. Though their mothers hadn't exactly liked them screaming in front of the kids, so in an effort to seem more “normal” they had the two CEOs hug it all out instead. The two made it a point for the next week to hug in front of their wives, much to the poor women’s annoyance.

“Your mom was fed up!” Charlie reminisced, showing Gregory just how warped his perception of everyone was in his dream.

“They’re ridiculous,” Michael agreed with a shake of his head.

Freddy, who’d been completely content to listen to the family reminisce, used the lull in conversation to hand Ditty back to Gregory. “What a sweet new friend; be sure not to lose him!”

Just then, a chiming jingle issued forth from Evan’s pockets. He pulled out his phone, making a face with a muttered “Uh-oh” as he checked the caller ID. “Hey, Cas—”

“Evan, I love your little gremlins but will you please come get them before they melt my ears off?”

Faint screeching could be heard in the background, and Evan winced at the distinctive sound of his triplets annoying the crap out of his best friend. Even the others could hear despite the lack of speakerphone, as evidenced by Michael’s brows shooting up to his hairline. When with their parents, Evan’s kids were little angels. But when they were with a babysitter…

“Yup, noted; on the way asap!” Evan responded, clicking off the phone before Cassidy could gripe at him more. He was already going to get an earful in person. Looking to the others, he gave a short laugh. “Heh… guess that’s our cue to get moving. Bye, Freddy!”

“Goodbye!” the friendly bear waved, and everyone wished him well in succession. He saved Gregory for last, gently ruffling his hair with that happy grin. “I will see you again soon, superstar—please do not hesitate to visit anytime you wish!”

Gregory was preoccupied with clipping Ditty back onto his belt loop. It was jarring to be taken away from his friend so quickly, but his cousins were growing impatient. Though Gregory wasn't sure how much he'd like hanging around little kids so much… He hoped June was more around his age.

“Bye, Freddy!” Gregory called, grasping onto his father's shoulder as the group made it for the door. Alas, there was no time to ask Freddy about what was happening in his life. The visit was over so fast because of Cassidy's distress call. She could clearly only take so much babysitting before Evan's kids took over Mazercise with their overwhelming hyperactivity.

As they approached Chica's noisy attraction, Gregory grumbled and buried his face hard into Mike's shoulder. “It's loud in there.”

“You don't have to stay in there long if you don't want to. Just let us know where you're going, got it?” Jeremy said, reaching up to pat Gregory’s shoulder. It was fine if he wandered off, so long as he could find Gregory after he left.  

They’d barely opened the door to Mazercise before Evan was set upon by a group of three identical children. The Afton genes were strong, since—unbeknownst to Gregory unless he remembered looking in old photo albums—the kids were nearly a spitting image of young Michael… meaning they also shared quite a bit of William’s looks as well.

“DAD!” they cried in unison, nearly bowling Evan over with the force of their combined hug. He’d preemptively braced himself, feet locked in position as six hands tried to wrap around his waist.

“Hi, munchkins!” Evan greeted warmly, wrapping them in a bear hug. With an apologetic smile, his eyes lifted to Cassidy meandering nearby. “Thanks again for taking them, Cas. Hopefully they weren’t too much to handle…?”

Gregory had looked over the various kids. Oh man, how was he going to tell the difference between them? They were all nearly identical and with the way they all swarmed Evan, he couldn't keep track of them as they circled their father like hawks. Cassidy, with her messy black hair set up in a curly low bun and hands on her hips shook her head at her friend.

“Not yet! Glad you came when you did, though; I couldn't hold them back for much longer,” she laughed, rolling up the sleeves of her loose-fitting top as she said her hello's to the group. Judging by the bags under her eyes, she was getting pretty tired and needed the well-deserved break from babysitting.

When Gregory was caught in Cassidy's stare, he immediately knew what was coming. Despite the obvious age difference, there was no doubt the snippy girl was going to pick on him—

“Evan's clone! Good to see you, buddy,” she subverted, smiling sweetly at Gregory. It made him want to question her and everything he knew all over again.

Who the hell are you and what did you do with Cassidy?! his mind screamed. Would Cassidy turn out to be sort of nice were she not a vengeful spirit? In a strange way, Gregory would almost rather she picked on him at least a little bit, even if his feelings weren't going to be spared.

“Hey, Cassidy,” Gregory greeted, cut off as he felt something poking his dangling leg. A girl with dark hair and a face full of freckles stood beside him, nudging Gregory to get his attention.

“What are you doing all the way up there?” she asked, somewhat annoyed. The girl’s tone was muffled, mouth full of candy as the stick of a lollipop stuck out from the corner of her lips. It was clear who she was without anyone even saying: this was Charlie's daughter, as she was the spitting image of his friend when she was much younger and closer to what Gregory knew.

“Uh... It's got a nice view?” Gregory said, managing to bring a smile to June's face.

“Well, get down here. You don't get to be taller than me yet,” she scolded, a playful smile forming over her candy-stained mouth. She seemed fairly nonthreatening; the way she spoke to Gregory sounded as if they’d been long-time friends.

Gregory poked his dad now, queuing for him to let him down to say hi.

“You just wait, June,” Michael teased as he set Gregory back on solid ground. “One day you’re going to turn around and Gregory’s shot up like a beanpole.”

Jeremy couldn't stand the thought. One day their son was going to be just as, if not taller than himself. Another sobering reminder that he was quickly growing before their eyes, along with the rest of the tikes in the family.

“Don’t remind me of that possibility,” Evan remarked with a slightly pained expression. “That means it could happen to these ones, too…”

“Daaaad!” the sole girl whined, tugging Evan’s pant leg. Now that greetings were over, it was time for business. She stared up at him with hands on her hips not unlike Cassidy—perhaps Evan’s bestie was more of an influence than she realized—the little brown pigtails tied under her ears bouncing as she talked. “Theo and Teddy said I couldn’t play golf with them ‘cause Monty said I suck!”

“Tabitha! You know we don’t use language like that!” Evan chided in the age-old lilt of an exhausted parent.

“But they said it first!” the girl insisted, to which the boys shook their heads vehemently.

“Nu-uh!” Teddy and Theo countered. “Monty told us! He doesn’t want Tabby playing with us anymore!”

In response, Evan could only sigh and massage the bridge of his nose.

“Look at him,” Jeremy whispered, leaning into Mike. “One bad PTA meeting away from totally losing it.”

While Gregory was trying to figure out which triplet was who, he was slowly let down from his dad’s hold and relinquished to June. She was short for her age, and like her mother she had unique, smiling Irish-green eyes. After popping the lolli from her mouth, she silently offered it to Gregory without so much as a glance. Gregory looked to her, confused for a moment until June gave him a questioning look. It silently begged to know why he didn't grab the thing from her. When Gregory finally got the memo, he looked to the grape-flavored treat and shrugged.

Now was a time, as good as any, to get over his fear of cooties. He ended up shoving the sugar stick into his cheek and attempted to act cool about it as June leaned in to hug him.

“Sorry I wasn't here Wednesday. Band practice was a freaking nightmare,” she whispered, not wanting her mother to hear her pseudo-cusses. Gregory, still holding nervous energy inside him, spoke with a shrug.

“It's whatever. I wasn't trying to hang out with a whole lot of people anyways,” he remarked nonchalantly, like he knew what she was talking about.

“One of those days?” June questioned rhetorically, not needing a real answer. She was understanding in the way that best friends were, her mental wavelength usually matching.

Though... There was certainly something off about Gregory today. He was more nervous than usual for sure.

Nearby, Evan was desperately trying to convince his kids that Monty did not, in fact, play favorites and would certainly never tell someone they sucked at golf. The triplets weren't having it though, snapping at each other like Chihuahuas until Evan suddenly proclaimed:

“Alright, I think it's time for a little sibling break!” With a strained smile, he grasped Tabby and Theo's hands, walking them over to the other Aftons. “Tabby, sweetheart, you hang with Uncle Mike and Jeremy for a little bit, okay? Theo, you go with Aunt Liz. Teddy—stop climbing the stage!”

Evan had whirled around to see the youngest troublemaker attempting to scale the stage while his back was turned. Grabbing Teddy's hand tight, he narrowed his eyes sternly. “You're staying with me for a bit. Uh—” He glanced at his siblings, realizing he'd yet again signed them up for impromptu babysitting. “—that okay? They just need to be split up for like half an hour, then they'll chill out; sorry...”

“It’s fine, Evan,” Michael chuckled, keeping a tight grip on Tabby's hand as he could already feel her start to pull away. Looking to Gregory and June, he raised a questioning eyebrow. “You guys want to check out another attraction? The bowling alley usually isn't that crowded this time of day.”

He was more than happy to look after part of Evan's brood, but his own son was top priority. Gregory seemed overwhelmed again, so Mike figured a relatively relaxing time at the bowling alley would be a welcome change.

...Plus it'd give Jer a chance to sneak in the back with Gregory and make the famed kitchen-sink-slush for them to enjoy in secret.

Cassidy could be seen smirking at it all. Evan was the one that left her alone with what she would affectionately call 'crotch goblins' when out of earshot from the kids. She did love them—but in the fun loving Aunty way. There was obviously a priority for their fun and safety when she was on babysitting duty, though there was only so much she could take. Seeing how her friend was already at his wits end, she would stick with him. Theodore was being a little instigator today and was working up his siblings.

“Theo—be good for your dad and I'll get you something nice later,” Cassidy remarked, which seemed to grab the laser-guided attention of his siblings. Before they could start, she pointed to each of them with both her hands. “That goes for you guys, too! You will be good and you'll all get surprises. But if one of you acts up—” Cassidy clapped her hands together to provide emphasis. “—nothing!”

Going to Evan, she was recognizing that iconic Afton glare in his eyes. The hard look usually deterred most children from acting up... Unless it was their own flesh and blood. The triplets called their dad's bluff constantly.

“Easy, Evan,” Cassidy warned, touching a light hand to his bicep. “You're getting the scary eyes...”

Overhearing this, Charlie would chuckle lightly in passing. Scary eyes. She hadn't heard that nickname in years. Not since the last big meltdown that William had at Fredbear’s before he moved management... Coming over to her daughter, Charlie saw that June had given up her lollipop to Gregory and made a face.

“Gross guys. Gross,” she remarked, a hint of a smile peeking through the cringe. Like she hadn’t shared food with Michael over their younger years, sometimes to a questionable degree. Jeremy looked between them and laughed raucously.

“It's just germs! No worries.” Jeremy was laid back about it, even if it was just a little gross.

Gregory popped the candy out self-consciously, but managed to answer Michael. “I could go for some bowling.”

To which June replied with a nod as Tabitha joined their flock. Ditty clapped his tiny hands, excited to make more friends on his first day of being powered on.

“That settles it—meet in the Daycare in an hour?” Michael suggested, looking to the group. If the kids still had energy, who better to help burn it off than the Daycare attendant? By the time they returned naptime would be well over, so Sun should be wandering around ready to pull more kids into his fun and games.

“Sounds good.” Evan nodded, his face softening from the “scary eyes” he really couldn't keep up no matter how hard he tried. There was a reason his wife was usually the disciplinarian... he caved far too easily when it came to his kids. “Call me if they're trouble—we'll have to give Aunt Cas a report at the end of the day.”

“I'll be good!” Tabby insisted, her hand shooting up in the air to wave frantically. Whatever the promised surprise might be, she wanted it.

“Me too!” Theo insisted, while Teddy nodded vigorously with a hum of affirmation.

“Let's get a move on, then!” With a gentle tug, Mike urged his niece forward. He held out another hand for Gregory in case he wanted to take it, though his attention was diverted as Tabby suddenly gasped and jerked him slightly in excitement.

“Uncle Jer!” the girl exclaimed, thankfully still walking forward despite her clearly trying to make a break for the blonde. “Guess what?! I beat Theo and Teddy at laser tag yesterday! I was on a different team, so we were hiding but trying to find each other and then Teddy found me and he was like pew pew! But he missed, so it was my turn and...”

Michael couldn't hold in his snort as the kid started to ramble, recounting her story to the group but looking mostly at Jeremy while she spoke. It was easy to tell the favorites, especially when they were young—clearly, out of the Fitz-Aftons the Fitz side was the winner in Tabby's book.

As she rambled, Gregory looked to June who walked in quietly besides her friend. When she caught him glancing over, she would flap her fingers and thumb open and closed while mouthing “Bluh bluh bluh...” Playfully mocking the rambunctious cousin.

Charlie diligently nudged her daughter to tell her to knock it off. The damage already was done, and Gregory had to shove the lollipop back into his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Sometimes, June joked around far too much. Though now that she was a teenager, the boundary pushing was getting worse. She was starting to take on a rebellious streak that reminded Charlie far too much of Michael in his younger years.

“Wow...” Jeremy concluded, looking down with an impressed eyebrow raised high on his forehead. “You must be some kind of sharp-shooting space cadet, Tabby! It's a good thing you're in our group, then! Who knows what danger we'll run into?”

Gregory held in his opinions about the dangers of this place, finding himself scoffing quietly under his breath as they all went merrily along to Bonnie Bowl. Crowds parted for the first portion of their trek. However, the group did not anticipate the highly sought after and prized plushies going on sale in one of the many retail shops on the way. The patrons swelled, standing and crowding the aisle...

Gregory glared at the large crowd, then refused to move his feet. No way was he going over there. Big, lumbering elbows like that were unpredictable. You could get stepped on! Or elbowed.

Or taken right from plain sight.

He remembered that dream; the way it first started with him watching Freddy and the Glamrocks performing. How Vanny, still looking like a helpful security guard at the time, came and tried to lure him away just like she’d done for all the others. How Gregory had run for his fucking life when he’d caught that evil glint in her eye.

As his family walked, sure that he was holding onto someone's hand, Gregory's thoughts were pounded by intrusive flashbacks.

It was in fact Michael Gregory managed to get ahold of, and therefore it was Michael who noticed him stall like a car that'd run out of gas. For a second, they were nearly pulled apart by the crowd and Tabby's insistent tugging right towards the center of the build-up—but then Mike managed to pass her along to Jeremy with an appreciative smile and slip back to Gregory's side. He didn't say anything as he hoisted his son up and made a beeline for the backrooms. Gregory hating crowds was nothing new, and as Jeremy and Michael reasoned earlier that day, surely the Saturday rush would get to him at some point.

And so, without fuss or drawing extra attention, Mike carried Gregory to the safety of the employee-only areas for a little breather. Rubbing soothing circles on Gregory's back as the kid clung to his shoulders, Michael remained quiet until they were in the blessed sanctity of the closest security office.

“Whew!” Mike breathed, locking the door and sitting down heavily in one of the swivel chairs. He allowed Gregory to rest in his lap, spinning in a slow circle with a little grin. Hopefully his son wouldn't pay attention to the obvious concern in his eyes.

“I don't know why we keep trying to come on Saturday,” he mused, stilling the chair only to scoot closer to the computer monitor showing a few nearby security feeds. This office was tiny and had a limited range of cameras—the perfect place to hide without worry of being bothered. “I've gotta either get Sam to stop asking me to help on my days off, or start charging overtime...” He hummed thoughtfully, glancing down at his son. “I'm thinking overtime—more money means more fun stuff we can buy, right?”

Gregory had already been pressed so many times today about whether he felt okay. The last thing Mike wanted to do was prevent him from talking by showing over-concern. His son would open up in his own time, as long as Michael was patient.

Gregory was indeed snatched away, but not by any stranger with ill intentions. Michael charioted him from any perceived danger and took the utility hallway to the nearby security rooms—a place that had always felt safe for Gregory. He relaxed visibly, a long sigh escaping him as he finished the candy in his mouth. The danger wasn't far from his mind on top of everything else, but being here for a clam moment with his father was just fine.

“Sam doesn't pay overtime?” Gregory asked, finding that surprising. Maybe this version of Sam was a little more frugal considering all the family members he was employing. Experience or not, the nepotism was real.

Gregory shook his head; that wasn't really what he wanted to talk about. Instead, in a low voice he murmured: “Dad? I don't think I'm good...”

Still keeping him on his lap, Michael held Gregory out by the shoulders. Now that they were alone and without fear of family barging in with another exciting thing to do, Michael could really look at him. To his relief, his son didn't appear to have any physical injuries. He'd really started to get worried that Gregory bumped his head, but a hand through those shaggy locks didn't reveal any concerning lumps.

His face, though... never before had it been so haunted. The look in his eyes was far beyond Gregory's almost-thirteen years, and—

Those eyes.

Michael thought something was off about them earlier, but he'd chalked it up to a trick of the light. A gentle inspection by turning Gregory's head from side to side proved that this wasn't the case. Somehow, they were a strange, practically glowing silver.

“...Okay.” Michael's tone was calm, despite the screaming in the back of his mind. He'd never seen something like this before. Did Gregory even know? It seemed like he could see perfectly fine, so clearly this wasn't affecting his vision... “Okay. Can you... tell me anything that feels wrong? I need to know as much as I can so I can help you best.”

Gregory was fine with his father's seemingly routine inspection of his face. Though the moment Michael locked eyes in his, he realized what exactly he was trying to deduce.

Were Gregory's eyes always like that? the boy could practically hear him think. It raised alarm bells in his head. If he didn't always look like this, then his dreams may have been more tangible than he previously thought...

“It's my head—my memories...” Gregory tried to explain, blinking away the feeling of harsh scrutinizing. “Dad, my dreams were so bad I can't remember anyone here... It's so scary; I-I remember you, and Charlie and Evan but—wrong. Same with the others!”

Balling his fists in his lap, Gregory used the pressure to keep himself from shouting from the frustration he felt. What horrible thing had he done in a past life for the universe to keep messing up this one?

“I'm so confused... I-I don't know what to do.”

The crease in Michael's brow deepened the more Gregory spoke. He'd had some horrendous nightmares before—ones that woke him up screaming or left him shaking in a near-comatose state until one of his dads rushed in to soothe him. That first year of Gregory's adoption had been rough... but since then he'd been steadily improving. Each day was a little better. To see Gregory fall so far back because of one fucking dream was deeply distressing.

Michael tried his best not to let it show, but he knew he was doing a horrible job of it. If not for that startling thing he'd just discovered, he could chalk this all up to a flashback or emotional regression—something they could deal with in time. It may take another round of intensive therapy, but they'd gotten through it before and they'd get through it again.

And yet, there were those eyes staring back at him, silver and almost pained.

“I... I wish I could give you some answers, Gregory,” Michael admitted. He took a deep breath, trying to center himself. “I wish I could reach into your head and see what you're going through so I can understand. But... all I can say is that this is your life. This is your family just as they've always been, and even if you're a little confused please don't doubt that we all care for you deeply.” He shook his head, huffing in frustration. “I wish I could fix this all with a snap of my fingers, but the best I can offer is to take you home and let you spend the rest of the day in bed if this is too overwhelming.”

He'd certainly be calling the shrink for a second opinion while Gregory was resting, too.

Gregory breathed out through his nose and leaned his head on Michael's shoulder. The only reassurance was that his family would still care about him no matter what which reality was the true one.

“Okay...,” he muttered with some acceptance, knowing there wasn’t much else he could do.

In the end, he would trust Michael. The man was one of the only few people Gregory could truly rely on in the short list of family. And, though he’d never got the pleasure of meeting Jeremy in his dreams, the blonde had swiftly been added to that list.

“...I love you,” He reminded Michael. Wires crossed in his brain, slowly accepting the reality while trying not to think of his fucked-up dreams. This was real; that glitched Pizzaplex wasn’t. “You and Dad. Both of you are really good to me. I appreciate you guys a lot...”

Gregory had no clue if he ever spoke to them so candidly before. He blinked slow, glowing eyes at Michael as he calmed down in his hold.

“We love you, too,” Michael reassured, a smile breaking through as he rubbed a thumb over Gregory's cheek. “So very much.”

Gregory had said things like this before, though they weren't as common nowadays as they used to be. He'd taken time to adjust, of course, but once he realized that Michael and Jeremy did love him unconditionally, Gregory had been eager to return the affection. With the years together came more silent ways to show they cared for each other, so the phrase I love you wasn't uttered as much—especially in recent times as Gregory entered the dreaded preteen years. It was so nice to hear those words again, and Michael could feel a few tears well up in his eyes before he could stop them.

“Ah, shit...,” he murmured, swiping the liquid away with his sleeve. Then he froze with a guilty expression, quickly telling his son: “Uh... don't use bad words, Gregory. And don't tell your dad I said that.”

Gregory's eyebrows silently raised for his hairline at Michael's curse words. Apparently his sailor mouth was a habit he’d never grow out of. As a ghost, Michael didn't exactly encourage this way of speaking, though he never scolded Gregory for any harsh language displayed between them.

Now that his nerves were eased some, Gregory could joke with his dad. Laughing, he attempted to haggle for a deal. “I won't tell Dad you cursed, but I get a freebie later.”  

“Mm... okay, but you can only use the freebie when it's just you and me,” Michael haggled right back. “Don't want Jer lecturing both of us...”

Michael’s phone chimed with a notification that rumbled in his pocket. Jeremy and the crew had landed at Bonnie Bowl and his husband so delicately inquired:

Did you guys split to go take a leak?

Mike snorted at the eloquent text. With a chuckle, he typed a response while saying to Gregory: “Your dad sure has a way with words, kiddo.”

Greg got overwhelmed by the crowd so we hid in a backroom... doing better, but he's overstimulated so gonna take him home soon

He sent the message, then paused when he realized Jeremy was in fact their ride—or at least, the keys to the ride were currently in Jeremy's pocket. Thankfully, Jer had the message open, quickly replying as he laughed to himself at the Bowling alley.

Good luck hot wiring the van boo

Not wanting his tone to sound facetious, he then quickly offered him a better solution to get home.

How about I get our slushies and drive us instead?

Obviously that choice was a decision placed solely on Gregory’s shoulders. All things considered, with Gregory’s inability not to trust anyone so easily until they’d proven their dedication to not attempting to kill or maim him in one way or another, he should naturally fear Jeremy. Yet Gregory found himself unable to be wary of the man. Jeremy was easy-going; a man of naturally calm aspect—and nurturing on top of that. Clearly Michael found something good enough in him to marry the dude, which meant a lot in Gregory’s book.

“Yeah! I mean—” Gregory laughed, almost feeling silly that Mike had to ask such a question. “—he’s my Dad. He’s gotta come back with us…”

He was unwilling to leave Jeremy behind now. His presence was welcome, despite being an unknown variable.

Sounds like a plan, babe; meet u at the car

Michael sent the message while chuckling at Gregory's comment. “That's very true—if we left him here, Pappy would have to drive him back and I still don't like the thought of those two being in an enclosed space together for more than five minutes...”

Locking his phone and slipping it back in his pocket, Michael once against lifted Gregory into a secure carry. “One more trek through the crowds, then its home free.” He walked them to the door, pausing with his hand on the knob to check in once more before they set out—and to offer a warning. “I'm about to hone my years of high school track to get us out of here at the speed of sound... Ready?”

Gregory laughed at this. Opening up really did help; he just needed those words of affirmation to push through the hard feelings. And while he was being hoisted into Michael’s protective grasp yet again, he couldn’t help but think of his dreams.

Maybe in his own brain’s interpretation of Pappy, he’d pictured his grandfather’s and Jeremy’s bickering as something more extreme on William’s end. A murderer and betrayer of their family. That obviously wasn’t the case in real life; this delusion was something carved from nothing more than misguided, deep-rooted anxiety.

…Probably.

“You got this, Dad. I’m just gonna—” Gregory folded his face into Michael’s shoulder. He didn’t care to see the judgmental masses as they ran by, though he was ready now for whatever came their way.

Outside, the afternoon sun was beating down on Jeremy. Cold drinks were safely inside the van with the AC gently blowing over them as he waited for any signs of his family in the crowded car park.

“Aha—target spotted!” Michael announced once they'd entered the harsh glare of daylight and caught Jeremy's blonde hair shining like a beacon. Still keeping up the fast pace, he made it to Jer in a matter of seconds. Mike wouldn't admit he was winded, though it'd been a long time since high school track...

“Hey!” he greeted, pressing a quick kiss to Jeremy's cheek. Gregory had lifted his head to look around by this point, and with a grin Michael lowered him to peer into the car. “Seems like you're getting that slushie after all, huh?”

“Whaaat?” Gregory asked, leaning away from Michael to glance through the tinted windows. Sitting inside the little family van along with two identical slushies was a rainbow concoction: a menagerie or flavors layered but not stirred, meant to be enjoyed by those who favored variety in life. His mouth watered at the sight.

“I couldn’t leave my two favorite guys hanging!” Jeremy laughed. Unlocking the van and sliding open the door for Gregory, he lifted their son from Michael’s arms to aid his winded husband. “I’m making grilled cheese when we get home.”

He figured the kid would be pretty hungry by the time they got back as well. He was happy to see his son’s face light up with the simple phrase; Gregory did look like he was feeling better! But it was still evident to Jeremy that the boy must’ve been crying, judging by the strange glossiness to his eyes…

Apparently, Gregory just wasn’t ready for Saturday’s at Freddy’s yet.  

The drive was spent mostly in silence, save for the sound of slushies sucked through straws with reckless abandon. When they finally parked at the house, Michael was quick to let Gregory out and usher him inside, noting the boy definitely seemed better with the drink in hand.

“Greg, you wanna hang out in your room for a little bit while we get sandwiches ready?” he suggested with a knowing look in his eye. Perhaps going through some of his old things would jog the kid's memory...

Too bad Gregory tried that before with minimal success, though Michael didn't know this. Really, Mike wanted a second alone with Jeremy so he could fill him in on the situation. He was glad Gregory trusted him so much, but this was a lot to deal with on his own... and since their son expressed his trust of Jeremy Michael felt it alright to give him at least an overview on what was happening.

That's right, Gregory still needed to go through all those notepads and papers he found... He hadn't even touched the locked journal under his bed yet. It would give him a chance to reacquaint himself with the world around him. Whatever dissociative spell came over him might be lodged loose with some help from his own personal thoughts and feelings.

“Yeah, I need to chill for a second. Thanks for the slushie, Dad!” he told his caretakers. The drink was halfway full, he'd have to hurry and drink the rest before it became a muddy brown color from the melting flavors.

Gregory was mindful of no running in the house rule, though the sugar certainly helped his mood and begged for him to move his legs. Before he could fully walk away, Jeremy grasped him around the back of his shoulders and hugged him tightly. Much to his pleasant surprise, Gregory didn’t fight his embrace.

“Go unwind; love you, kid.” Grinning, he planted a kiss to the very top of Gregory's skull. He probably flustered the poor teen, as Gregory laughed at this and tugged away. After Gregory meandered upstairs with Jeremy watching as if to make sure he got to his room safely, Jeremy planted his hands on his hips.

“We really need to pick that kid up some eye drops. His allergies must be going crazy today...” Jeremy sighed sympathetically as he made his way for the kitchen to start on dinner. More likely, Gregory’s eyes might be dry from sobbing all day. He remembered being sad at his age—always getting choked up for one reason or another.

Michael was watching the stairs too, though his gaze shifted to Jeremy as he spoke. God, he hated to worry him... But he had to clue him in that this was something much more serious than they'd anticipated.

“Jer—” Michael caught Jeremy's hand as he reached the counter, speaking in hushed tones in case Gregory wandered out of his room. “—I don't want to freak you out, but... I think we might need to call Gregory's therapist again for an emergency appointment.”

He could see Jeremy gearing up to speak, that tell-tale widening of his eyes at the notion of something amiss with his son. Michael pressed on, lacing their fingers together as he did his best to explain.

“I... honestly have no idea what's going on, because Gregory doesn't either. But when we were in the security office, he—” Michael faltered, running a worried hand through his hair. “—he said he didn't... remember any of us. I mean, not like we are now. That nightmare he had was apparently so real it made him think we're the dream. Also, his eyes—”

He winced, looking to the floor and finally showing the emotion he'd been trying to hide from Gregory all day: fear for his son's well-being.

“I don't know how to help him, Jer...”

With Jeremy’s attention captured, Michael’s husband leaned against the counter to listen to him with an increasingly broad worry line that formed in his forehead. It made Jeremy wonder how the hell he didn’t notice anything before—and now that Mike mentioned Gregory’s eyes, he felt so dumb for not doing anything the moment he saw there was something different.

Jeremy dragged his palm up and down his face to try and ground himself. Though when he opened his eyes, the distress on Michael’s face made him flock to his husband and hold their hands together, unsure how much it would help.

“Do we need to take Gregory to the hospital?” Jeremy finally asked. This was going to be a hard decision, something that might cause Gregory a ton of undue stress should he be perfectly fine.

But the near-complete intrapersonal memory loss was insane to Jeremy. How could such a thing happen just because of a dream? His boy didn’t remember any of the fun things they used to do together… No wonder Gregory had been looking at him like he had four damn heads!

“I think with his eyes and the memory loss, this might go beyond the therapist—he might need medical attention,” Jeremy said very quietly. The last thing he wanted was for Gregory to overhear his fathers talking about what might be wrong with him.

“I don’t… know,” Michael admitted softly. He knew how insane that sounded—with everything going on, they should take Gregory to be checked out immediately. And yet…

“Something’s telling me not to.” A harsh, confused frown twisted Michael’s face as he rubbed his thumbs over the backs of Jeremy’s hands. “It sounds crazy, I know—I’m usually the worrywart who’d be the first in the car. But…” He shook his head, then cast a glance in the direction of Gregory’s room. “I think we should give him until tomorrow—see if he snaps out of it. I’d hate to stress him out more with hospitals.”

That was another thing Mike and Gregory shared: a strong dislike of hospitals. Michael didn’t know where his aversion came from, but for whatever reason the sterile air always unnerved him. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t take his son in his time of need, of course—but like Jeremy, he didn’t want to put Gregory under undue strain.

“He doesn’t seem to have any vision problems; maybe we can wait until morning and see how he feels,” Michael suggested. “He was getting a lot better until the crowds kicked up, and you already saw him acting more like himself in the car. I don’t want to take him to the hospital and, I don’t know… have him regress more. What do you think?”

Jeremy was soothed by this admission. Thank god this wasn't something that might require an emergency visit to the ER or therapist whenever possible. Jeremy nodded along with what Mike was saying, as he raised good points.

“I'll call Doctor Freeman, get an appointment scheduled, and we'll go from there,” Jeremy said with certainty and calm. “Do you wanna get dinner started? This might take a second.”

Jeremy slowly let go of Michael's hands—even though his own were fumbling with shaking nervousness as he grasped for his phone. This was nerve-wracking. How does something like this have to affect their son?

The kid never did anything wrong in his life; nothing on purpose, anyway. Gregory was one of the coolest kids he knew—and he wasn't just saying this because he was his kid. Jeremy just didn't understand why life had to be so cruel sometimes. Gregory was probably freaked out all day and unable to communicate this.

Scrolling through his contacts, Jeremy found the therapist’s number and began to dial it. He held the receptor to his ear and listened to the dial tone while nervously rapping his fingers on the smooth counter top.

Grilled cheese. Michael could handle grilled cheese.

“Sure thing,” he said, managing a tiny, shaky smile. Before Jeremy pulled away fully he was able to snag a quick, appreciative kiss on the cheek. “Thanks. I’m sure he’s going to be fine.”

Michael’s tone betrayed his lack of confidence. It was useless to dwell on the situation though; they’d check in at dinner and see how Gregory was feeling. Hopefully his memory will already improve and set a pattern for his recovery. With that worried crease seemingly etched into his brow now, Michael got to work making the sandwiches.

That kiss made Jeremy stay in the room. Something about it had given Jer the feeling that his husband couldn't be alone with his thoughts on the situation right then. On instinct, Jeremy's hand came up to tenderly caress Michael's cheek.

“Of course he'll be fine. This will all blow over soon enough,” he managed to say before he heard the receptionist pick up with her usual greeting. Gently pulling back, Jeremy would answer her. “Yeah this is Mr. Fitz-Afton, and I'm calling to schedule an emergency appointment for my son, Gregory.”

After another firm squeeze around the waist, Michael was released to compete his grilled cheese preparations. A few minutes later the first sandwich was ready, and with a reassuring smile directed to Jeremy, Michael plated it and climbed the stairs to Gregory’s room.

“Greg?” he called, knocking on the closed door. “How are you doing, kiddo? I’ve got food for you!”

***

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[memes-in-a-half-shell]

Profile Me Up! (short fic)

I couldn't stop laughing while writing this fsdjnfsjdfdj It's short and sweet, but only because I didn't want to overdo it 😂

Written for the February "All 4-1 Challenge"!! Tagging @turtle-babe83 and @thelaundrybitch for visibility :) Splinter asks Mikey to help him set up a dating profile, just for the shits and giggles. But they also need Donnie for technical help....

"Oh you've got to be kidding me...."

Donnie said those words while turning around in his chair, now facing his younger brother, Mikey, and their father, master Splinter. The bespectacled terrapin's traits were ones of concern, slightly frowning, while the two others were dead serious.

"What?! Come on, it'll be fun!" replied the orange clad one. "We need your help setting up the profile."

"Dad, please, tell me Mikey didn't force you to this idea," discarded Donatello, his gaze focused on the rat.

The rodent's ears perked up a bit, his expression soft as he simply answered:

"Oh no, it is my idea in fact."

Donnie's expression fell into a deadpan look, a long exhale leaving his nostrils as he slowly swiveled back towards his computer's screens.

"Aight, just tell me which website to go to. jesus fucking christ."

Michelangelo was already rushing to his brother's chair, gripping the back of it and shaking it in slight excitement.

"Tinder!"

"Fuck no!"

"Language," warned Splinter.

Donnie tsked, expertly and quickly slapping one of Mikey's hands away from his chair without giving the action a look. Now how the heck could he find the perfect... dating site for his father?

"You do realize that you won't be able to put an actual photo of yourself, right?" he asked, still typing, while giving a quick glance at his father standing nearby.

"I do have an idea in mind, don't worry."

Oh now Donnie was starting to feel suspicious. After some quick searches (and questionable suggestions from Mikey), the trio did find a somewhat okay website that was targeted to a reasonably normal audience. The purple banded mutant clicked the "Sign Up" option with a sigh, then vaguely gesturing his screen.

"The floor is yours, MC Mikey," he said in a neutral tone.

The younger one was now slapping his brother's shoulder, urging him to give away his seat so he could sit down and get to work. As Donnie moved, Mikey asked him to get a stool for Splinter to sit on next to him. The tall terrapin could only comply, next standing close and watching this weird life event occur...

"Name?" asked Mikey.

The rat shrugged: "Splinter?"

"Short and straight to the point. Love it," added the orange one, typing. "What about your hobbies?" he continued.

"Meditating. Attending to my bonsais. Reading."

"This is getting nowhere," mumbled Donnie, pinching the bridge of his nose under his glasses.

Mikey seemed to be typing more than what he was told, always humming in approval to his father's words.

"Occupation?" ask the younger terrapin.

Splinter's features seemed to light up as he smiled: "A martial arts teacher!"

"Damn, you're the perfect man," commented Mikey, amused. "A dreamboat!"

"I am quite the catch indeed," added the rat in a similar tone.

Donnie was trying not to laugh.

"What do you look for in a partner?"

Oh now the tall mutant was apprehending that answer...

"... To be patient, kind, and with a good sense of humor," started the rat after some quick thinking. "Oh and bonus point if they smell like cheese," he added playfully.

That made Mikey laugh as he typed, soon joined by Donnie's muffled chortle.

"Anything special to add?" asked the young terrapin, still smiling.

The rodent did ponder for a moment, his ears shifting slightly with his thoughts.

"If they don't mind hair, being a bit adventurous in their travels, and are more of a night person, then they can - as you youngsters say - hit me up."

Oh this time Donnie let out a loud snort.

"A true modern man," commented Mikey. "Gettin' hip with the crowd and using the right lingo. I'm so fuckin' proud."

"Language," repeated Splinter.

"My b, my b," quickly apologized the young one.

And now came the question of what to use as a profile picture. Without hesitation, Splinter asked for Donatello's phone (which immediately confused the terrapin). Requesting a web browser to be opened, the rat then snatched the device and started to type into a search bar, patiently scrolling until finding the right choice.

"Let's use this," he said, now showing the phone's screen to his sons, revealing this picture:

Both turtles lost it, the rodent smiling at the reaction.

"Please, tell me all of this is a joke," asked Donnie, trying to calm his laughter.

"Oh, absolutely," answered Splinter. "But I'm still curious to see if anyone would answer to this profile!"

"Fuck, you're the best," giggled Mikey.

"Language. And don't make me say it another time or it's straight to the hashi. Both of you."

"I'd still take the hashi over any spicy responses you may ever receive on this," commented the purple clad mutant with a chuckle.

"Let's get wild on this ride!" said the young one, uploading the picture and finalizing the account's creation.

The clock was now ticking.

[sonnyinthesky]

Shout out to my fellow singlets with "innerworlds/headspaces" (quotation marks as im not sure this is the correct term for a singlet to use!).

A long description of my inner world and the way my brain works is found below....

I am a maladaptive daydreamer and autistic and i have a very detailed inner world / worlds / universes that i interact with very often. I call mine my inside brain. I visualize it as a world in the center of my brain (if all brain functions were on the outer shell, this world is inside like a bubble). It is infinite. It has layers and depth and it can be zoomed in and out to different parts of it. It can also be "swiped" to a different world (i have two main ones) as well as there being many alternate versions of each world. They grow and change with me and what i need most at that time. I only interact with one main one these days but i keep the old one there, in ruins, to remind me of where ive been and how that part of me is now gone and i have a new inner world now. I also have the mind palace (inspired by bbc sherlock) which is on the edge of my "brain" and "inside brain" where i store all important things such as memories and facts in filing cabinet rooms, and there i can project the memories onto the "inside brain" to watch them the same way i watch the characters in the inside brain!!!! Its great fun honestly and has pretty much saved my life as it gives me a safe space no matter where i am. All i have to do is dissociate and go in there and im safe from harm :3 it also helps with academics because the mind palace has a black board room and a few visualizing rooms that i can do math on and picture any words ive read in respectively.

Its very hard to explain how i interact with this "inner world" because i am a singlet and its just me (and my characters who are like dolls, i control everything they do and say and how they look and act etc etc) in there. Its not like a hallucination, its entirely in my head and i watch from different angles like from the perspective of a movie camera. And i can still see the world around me when im in there. Id describe it like dreaming while awake but i am in full control, so its a daydream really, but in the same space every time and its a very detailed world.

My inner conscious is also in there. His name is Harri. His appearance and personality is who i want to be and how i want to look and his voice is how i want to sound, but he does have a different life to me such as he is Australian American and is adopted, and he has hEDS, which I do not have (but many of my family members do). Idk if its weird that he has a disability i dont have but he just does, thats not something i chose, he just started appearing with braces and a crutch and i was like oop- okay then 🤣 yeah anyway Harri is a cool dude idk, hes 38 and hes like my best friend. He replaced the guy from my old inner world who was called Bill (he was technically just Bill Weasley but i changed him so much he was really an OC) but then things got bad with Bill and i had to start a nuclear war in that headspace to get rid of everything a start a new world.....my brain is weird.

Anyway I love my brain, I have to be careful to make sure I dont have a repeat of the Bill situation, but I avoid it by using only OCs and changing the story often so i dont get too sucked in to anything specific and start becoming delusional and dysphoric about not being a 50 something year old ginger wizard from Ireland- yeah.....that happened. I also started having memories of things that happened to him (which was not good because he had a very violent life) and becoming triggered when watching HP movies because I would remember being abused by certain characters 😬

Nowadays i know how to control my mind better so it stays safe most of the time! But yes that is my brain and my innerworld lmao, feel free to share your own experiences (both singlets and systems!!)!

Also bonus fact: my innerworld was actually my special interest for about 3 years? It was hard to explain so i said my spin was harry potter but it was actually my inner world that was based off of harry potter lol

[honks-n-stonks]

save me.... I'm thinking about my goofy puyo x monhun au again..... (disclaimer: I have only played Rise/Sunbreak, GU (still in HR) and World (got to MR before my TV 💥)

EDIT ‼️‼️‼️ this thing got so LONG I'm just putting the entire thing under a "read more" because previously it was at the "characters" section but Jesus it looks so LONG on tablet I am so so SO sorry

nawr it's getting so bad I've been thinking about the TOWNS/VILLAGES now....

Primp (and Grimp, if we want to include Chronicle in all of this) would obviously become a village (Primp/Grimp Village oh how original you are Goose [not that I can come up with any better NAMES okay])

Not... sure about Suzuran.... Yeah it's a city, but MH doesn't have any modern or super technologically advanced civilizations (that are still around, anyway.) Something inbetween a kingdom and a village like. A Town. yeah. I don't know why the idea of a Town™️ seems so farfetched to me when Kingdoms Exist like does Sunbreak and the idea of Schrade (rip) not exist to me ????

Aahh,,, I really need to read up on the villages of the other MH games. Maybe that will help me get a feel for how I want Suzuran to be. Definitely much bigger than Primp or any regular village in GU/Rise, that's what I'll say. (Then again, the hubs don't give me a good feel of their true size. I need CONCEPT ART TO SAVE ME!!!!)

As for the Madou cast... instead of straight up being from another world, I think they'd just be from a distant village (or villages). I'm not TOO familiar with Arle's world, but that's the excuse I'm using! Same applies with Suzuran, and where Lemres, Feli, and Klug originate from. Comically far village! Though... this mainly stems from Primp Village being... prrreetty far away from other civilizations in general (stealing this from some HC that I saw where Primp is far from other towns, basically remote [unless that was already canon]).

As for the residents of the Tetra... well they uh. They live on a spaceship in the games. So, in the AU I'll just make them a traveling group of Hunters (sorta like mercenaries???? but for monsters duh) that go from village to village and help out with any particularly tough monster-related issues. Sorry, that's the best I can come up with...

Small tangent, is it weird I still want magic to be a thing in this AU? Despite the fact that none exists in MH- (Elders can do some goofy stuff, but it's usually from some special organs they possess/bioenergy crud [see: Ibushi and Narwa being able to float due to manipulation of the wind (Ibushi) and something akin to... magnetism, was it? Augh I KNOW it involves the thundersacs and electricity but I haven't played Rise in a fair bit])

Then again, it's an AU and I can technically do whatever I want..... bleh, they don't rely on it TOO much okay but perhaps the residents of Primp (and their neighbors) happen to have some... special powers that give them an edge in hunts and everyday life. I have no idea if I still wanna include Puyo themselves in this. Ehh.... I'll get to that eventually..... oughghjhjjdiskksiskj can you tell this is the most brainpower I've ever put into anything ever?

Oh god, this is becoming long. Too bad, I don't feel like stopping... I'll go onto some ideas for characters that I have... (aka The Trio™️)

Amitie: aw yeah!!! I kinda want her to be the focus in this AU? ahem. I think I want her to use a Sword and Shield, and as for her Hunter Rank I imagine her to be around Low-Early High Rank (4 stars?). I might have to make my own monster rank/difficulty chart for this AU, as there are some monsters I kinda feel are too dangerous for Low Ranks to take on? (see: Elders being in LOW RANK in GU for some ungodly reason, WHY WHY WHY ARE THEY THERE?! [not a complaint, just super hilarious, obviously i'm not taking that as "ooooohh canonically a LR hunter can fight Teostra" just a haha silly thought]) Probably basing it more on Rise/Gu's system works instead of World. Low Rank literally has its own storyline there! (Which obviously is expanded upon in High and probably Master Rank) That... and Hunter Rank isn't tied to the quest rank in World. Not gonna lie, that confused me a little...

Ugh, I went on a tangent.... anyways. Amitie. Sword and Shield User. HR 4 Hunter. I think... she'll have a Rath Heart SnS (why? PINK). Giving her a Fire element weapon might make more sense but... eh, she technically still uses magic in this AU, so it's probably fine. (I can imagine them using magic in tandem with their weapons, or using them as a... conduit? [is that it?] for magic. Think: Schezo's spells, where you can see the magic coming from the sword.) Typically goes on gathering/egg hunt quests, she's not quite good in direct confrontations with monsters! (Still a little klutzy, but when she's in a pinch, she manages to show an impressive-albeit brief- display of power. Not related to any sun goddess here, she's just stronger than she thinks she is!) Prefers to go on quests with other Hunters (Arle and Ringo, more on those two later), especially during a Hunt or Capture quest.

Arle: ALSO uses a Sword and Shield mainly because A) I can't think of anything better and B) hehe funny Arle and Amitie parallels though I can imagine her being proficient in most if not ALL the other weapons available, especially Bow. Can't think of a specific one she'd use though, sorry... I'll get back to that later. A more skilled Hunter than Amitie, she could probably tackle high-end High Rank monsters with ease (HR 7/8), even when going Solo. mmm, not sure about elders. I think it'd be neat if she managed to take down one or two (they're supposed to be fairly rare, I think), with a group of Hunters. (see: other Madou characters [Draco, Schezo, Rulue]). Probably Kushala Daora or Kirin. I consider them to be "easy" Elders (Chameleos is not here because I'd imagine him to be too elusive for her to have encountered... yet.)

Uhhh. Back on track. She currently resides in Primp Village with some other Madou characters. Maybe takes a sorta part-time job at Primp's canteen, I just think it'd be neat for her to make some KILLER curry. Always pumps up and invigorates anyone who eats it. Also just helps around with problems villagers have in general, she's pretty strong!

Ringo: Lives in the far off... town? yeah I'll just go with that of Suzuran. Albeit uncommon, her presence is always appreciated. I think it's mentioned that her family runs a small grocery store in Suzu, soo I think she'd be like... a traveling merchant? Of the food kind. Fresh fruit...? Perhaps her family even owns an orchid, with their apples being quite popular back home. HEY. WAIT. She could be the equivalent of the Argosy/Trader in the MH games! And the market in general. Anyways, although Ringo is not a hunter per say, she still can assist her buds in hunts (see: Sunbreak follower system). When out hunting, she prefers to use a Light Bowgun. (Modified, cause I imagine her with a Thunder or Paralysis iron tree LBG.) Hell, she's pretty damn good at it too. Probably has a good amount of experience fighting monsters, because a lot can happen when you travel around a lot with goods (especially of the food variety) in tow. Oh god, I just remembered those quests in Rise with this ONE dude who keeps getting his stuff wrecked in like... three different quests... by three different monsters..... that man CANNOT catch a break!!!!!!!!! Oh right. Not sure what Ringo's HR would be, cus' she's not officially a hunter. Sorta? Maybe. Would be around Ami's level, if not a tad bit higher. Since she's not quite really a hunter, she doesn't (or can't?) take quests solo. Not that I think she'd have too much of a problem with it, i think.

Um. That's all I got... well, not really. But this is becoming TOO LONG!!! If anyone sees this... lmk what you think? OH. YEAH WAIT BEFORE I FORGET... most of the characters probably are aged up in this AU (young adults?) because I don't think teens are really allowed to risk their lives Hunting that Monster if you get what I mean. No, I'm not counting the Rampage summons.... it's more of a "all hands on deck" kinda deal to be there!

As for how their designs would look.... Amitie's definitely gonna be based off her Swordfighter alt, and Ringo would probably have hers based around the Steam Ages one (but MHified, and that's obviously for her "hunting" look.) Arle? Uh. Probably a more armored version of her normal look. Can't remember any alts in particular. Sorry...

ANYWAYS THAT'S IT FOR REAL!!! Good god I spent too long rambling about this. I think I'm a little bit obsessed....

[ass-sassafras]

If you're an introvert or neurodivergent and social interaction drains you, you may relate to this.

I used to get frustrated and emotional with my ex husband, and he'd be annoyed and baffled as to why I was stressed out when I'd come home from work. I told him I felt like I was always "on" even when I was home and I never had time for myself or quiet time with my own thoughts and so I got more exhausted every day even if I got enough sleep.

He assured me that I didn't have to feel like I was on. Then if I didn't remember something he told me about his job 3 months ago, he'd blow up at me because I wasn't listening to him and it showed that what he said wasn't important enough for me to remember. Keep in mind, this is technical, highly specialized stuff related to his job that I wasn't interested in and didn't understand. I'd ask clarifying questions and he'd immediately get angry because he already told me that a few months ago.

With my last s.o. I felt a little more free to disagree, having been through a divorce and having had some experience setting boundaries, getting comfortable with making people mad at me, etc. He reiterated that I didn't have to feel like I was "on" all the time and added that he didn't need anything from me when I got home from work. With a (I admit) mean-spirited twinkle in my eye, I confirmed "so you don't need anything at all from me?" He answered "that's right."

I proceeded to get home from work, take off my shoes and coat and go about making dinner. I didn't say hi or ask how his day was. When he told me what happened that day (open ended with no questions) I didn't think up a response. When the water was running in the kitchen and he kept talking from the couch, I didn't turn off the water and walk into the living room to hear him better, I just went about doing what I would do if I lived alone and could do whatever I wanted.

Can you guess what happened?

He said I was ignoring him, I was being rude, I was making him feel stupid like he was talking to himself.

I looked at him. I said, "so what do you need from me here?" He rolled his eyes and said again that he doesn't need anything from me. I said, "yes you do. You need me to think of a response to everything you're saying, you need me to chuckle at your jokes even if I think they're not funny, you need me to stop doing what I want to do and instead pay attention to you for as long as you need me to. You need a lot more from me than you think you do. You also need me to either be in a good mood or at least pretend I am even though I just did that all day around my coworkers and on the phone with customers. I had to put on a false face all day long, and apparently I need to keep it on until I finally get to go to bed tonight."

I reminded him that I get pretty much zero alone time while he gets hours of it nearly every day. Commuting doesn't count--I'm paying attention to traffic so I don't get into an accident. Getting myself and the kids ready in the morning doesn't count--I'm stressed out and trying not to forget anything important. Being at work doesn't count even if it's a slow time--I can't be weird and I can't get lost in thought because I know the phone could ring any time or someone could come to my desk without warning, and sometimes it's hard to put the mask back on once you finally get to take it off.

[stargazer-sims]

15 OC Questions!

I was tagged by the lovely @rebelangelsims (twice! But I'll happily do two of these!) I love this type of ask, where the character gets to answer the questions in their own words. It's a great way to improve (or create) narrative voice, and I love the challenge of making it sound convincing, as if the character really is answering it themselves.

Victor Okamoto-Nelson

Are you named after anyone?

Actually, yeah. I’m named after my mom. Her real first name is Victoria, which a lot of people don’t know because she’s always gone by her middle name, Grace. Anyway, if I’d been a girl, I would’ve been Victoria too, but I turned out to be a boy, so I’m Victor instead.

I'm also named after my dad, Thomas Edward Nelson. Thomas and Edward are my two middle names. I lost my dad when I was six, and it’s always meant a lot to me that I have his names because it's like I'm carrying a part of him with me no matter where I go.

When was the last time you cried?

Oh. Uhh… yesterday? I cry pretty easily, and it doesn’t take much. Yuri, my husband, likes to joke that I cry for everything, and he’s kinda not wrong. I mean, it’s not always full-on sobbing. In fact, it’s mostly not, but getting teary-eyed is still technically crying, so… yeah. I guess I’m soft, or I’m not very good at masking my emotions, or something.

Do you have kids?

No. Yuri and I don’t want any. We’re enough for each other.

Do you use sarcasm?

Not really? I think you have to be smarter than I am to use it effectively. Plus, sometimes it’s just confusing. And also, it sometimes feels kind of mean to answer people with sarcasm.

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Their physical condition. Like, if they look healthy or not, whether they’re fit or not and if they’re moving and talking and breathing comfortably. I know that’s probably weird, but it’s something I really pay attention to.

What’s your eye colour?

Blue. They're almost the exact same shade as my mom's. Someone once described them as 'oceanic blue' and even though I've seen the ocean before, I never really saw why that person made that comparison until I visited Sulani for the first time. Mine and my mom's eyes aren't just oceanic blue. They're Sulani ocean blue.

Scary movies or happy endings?

I don’t like movies that are seriously, intentionally meant to scare people. I enjoy some of the more campy horror movies, but I don’t want to see anything that’s gonna give me nightmares. Yuri also doesn’t like scary movies, so I never have to worry about sitting through one for him either. We both prefer happy endings, or at least endings where most — or even better, all — of the characters are still alive.

Any special talents?

I don't think so? I'm super awesome at snowboarding, but I don't think that's what you're asking. Yuri says I give really good massages. Is that a special talent?

Where were you born?

Willow Creek

What are your hobbies?

Snowboarding? Oh, you mean other than my obsession, right? I love cooking and baking. Is that a hobby? I like fishing, gardening and playing video games. Dog training is probably a hobby, right? I really enjoy working with the dogs.

Have you any pets?

Yes, we have two dogs. Rosie is a smooth-coated chihuahua, and Sango is a Pomeranian. When we move to our new house, Yuri wants to have chickens and maybe a cat.

What sports do you play/have played?

All the sports! Seriously, I haven't yet found a sport that I'm not good at. I love all kinds of sports and I've played a lot of different ones. My favourites are soccer, swimming, and of course snowboarding. Not to brag or anything, but I'm a world-class competitive snowboarder. Like, I mean... shredding is life. If I couldn't be on the mountain, I think I'd be super depressed, because that's one of the things that makes me feel most alive.

How tall are you?

187cm

Favourite subject in school?

Physical Education. I wasn't really that great in any academic subjects, but I liked P.E. a lot and I also liked Home Economics.

Dream job?

This is a hard one, because I think I have more than one option for my dream job. Like, my current job as a wellness coach and personal trainer is amazing. I love helping people reach their health and wellness goals. and I'm really happy doing this. But, even when I was in college, doing my diploma program in Health and Wellness Management, I was still thinking about my future career. I thought I'd like to be either a physical therapist or a nurse. These days, I'm leaning more towards licensed practical nursing, and maybe specializing in home health care. I think I'd be good at that.

______

I'll tag: @holocene-sims @theageofsims @ljfoxie @cawthorntales @dandylion240 (I know you've already done this) and @blithesomebawcock

Feel free to ignore this if you've already done it or don't want to. <3

[kitkatsudon]

So. Today has been a weird day.

Rambles below, because I’m in my feelings but that doesn’t necessarily have to be your problem.

The first thing I saw when I woke up today was that Ice Adolescence had been cancelled. The second thing piece of news I received, within a few minutes of this, was that my Grandma had passed away.

The second thing is more personal, and I haven’t come here to talk about that - I suppose more than anything it’s to give context on today’s slightly weird vibe, and why I’m feeling perhaps more nostalgic than I would be normally.

Perhaps as a distraction, I want to ramble about YOI.

Though now I’ve sat down to actually do this… where do I start?

Though my internet presence is very TKEM-focused nowadays, since its release, YOI has always been incredibly dear to me. It came out just as I had found out that my family were going to be moving across the country (and ok, in the UK that’s maybe less of a big deal than if I lived in a larger country, but I was 14, and 14 is a horrible age, so it was still a big deal to me). YOI came out in late 2016, we moved at the beginning of 2017, and I joined a much smaller school with… let’s say less choice for the people I could make friends with.

I was, technically, adopted by a friendship group, but it took a long time, some falling outs within the group, and me learning everything there ever was to know about BTS despite having no real passion for music-based fandoms for me to really feel included. The friendship group I’d left behind was much more diverse in terms of interests, and we thrived on mutual sharing and acceptance of each other’s interests. This new one was more kind of “conform or fuck you,” and I never quite managed to conform properly.

All that is to say… while I didn’t really have friends, in 2017, I had YOI and its fandom. While I was dealing with the huge changes in my life, I was comforted through it by, more than anything else, lurking around the YOI fandom. I had my first forays into posting things online using Google+, of all things (my parents didn’t let me have social media, but I could access this using my gmail), and they were drawings I had done of YOI characters, even a hand-drawn anecdote comic thing, and just… it was rudimentary, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

It became what I was known for, in my new school. It became part of me. That summer, my family went on holiday to Orlando FL to do the theme parks, and despite that having been something that I’d been begging to do for years, what I ended up being most excited about was the opportunity to go to Hot Topic and buy the YOI merch that they’d recently announced. I bought a T-shirt, a blanket, and a backpack, and although the backpack’s strap broke after a year of using it for school, I still have the T-shirt and the blanket, and they’re still special to me to this day. Back then, listening to the soundtrack on repeat, I’d decided that one day I was going to perform a dance routine to ‘In regards to love: Eros,’ and at the end of my first year of uni, that was something I was actually able to do. Was it good? Not really, I’m by no means a professional dancer, but I felt like I was paying homage to my inner… not quite child, more like my inner angsty teenager?

My whatsapp background is still YOI-themed. I still proudly display my Funko Pops and my posters in my bedroom at home. YOI is still my comfort show, and though I’m not usually one for rewatching shows, it’s still the show that I’ve rewatched the most. Even my username is a relic of my ties to the YOI fandom - though I wasn’t really using it much then, it’s something I thought up during the days when I was deepest in it, and I thought to myself “if I ever am brave enough to really start posting things online, this is the username I’ll use.” So even though the first thing I ever posted under the name KitKatsudon was the beginning of a BTS fanfiction on Quotev on all places that I was writing with a friend of mine at the time, it has its roots in YOI.

It’s sort of funny - once upon a time, I used to semi-joke that I couldn’t die before the YOI movie came out. Don’t get me wrong, my mental health was never bad enough that I had actually realistically considered not making it to Ice Ado’s release, but every time I said it, I did mean it. No matter how shitty I felt, I had to keep going, because I was going to have my bum in a seat when it eventually released in cinemas. I guess what this means now is that, unless Ice Ado is picked up by another studio, I’m just never going to die 🤷‍♀️ you’d better buckle the fuck up, mortals, because MAPPA has just granted me ultimate power.

What am I trying to say? I don’t really know. Maybe thank you, to the YOI team, for being such a positive force in my life. You gave me something comforting to hold onto while everything around me was changing, while I was starting my sexuality journey, while I didn’t have the close support of peers to help boost my mood. I don’t watch the show so often nowadays, but that’s because I save it for instances where I really need comforting. Maybe like today.

The story of Ice Adolescence may be over, at least for now, but I’ll always be grateful for what we did get.

[thetwotorches]

A lot of books & videos that are centered around working with the human dead taut the idea that you should want to be a psychopomp-type figure, saying if you want to work with or interact with the dead then you need to be ready to help them move on. However, they rarely explain any dangers or concerns with psycopomp work, and I feel like surely there must be some? In your experience, what would you warn potential psychopomps or mediums about with this kind of work? How do you feel about this common insistence that every spirit worker who specializes with the dead should be ready to do this kind of work?

Hello, Snowy! Thank you for this question. It's very interesting, and I will say now that I will likely go off the beaten path a bit with my answer.

As I can only speak for myself and not the authors of any books or videos, the bluntest way to put it is that weird shit runs in my family and this particular 'task' happens to be my lot of it. I have my theories as to why, but they are ultimately irrelevant. All this to preface that I didn't exactly choose this, it's something I've been grappling with and trying to figure out since I was in diapers.

I wasn't 'ready' for anything when I watched things go flying off of my dresser at three years old, or to be carried around by my great grandfather only to wake up and be told that he had passed away overnight. I am unsure how it is for those who are able to choose this sort of thing, but when it comes as a built-in feature there is no such thing as 'ready', there is only 'well these are things that happen sometimes- better figure it out so you don't have a bad time'. Those are my personal thoughts on 'readiness'.

As for dangers....I have lived in three haunted houses, and to be honest those bothered me more than friends and family visiting me. I have watched things fly off of counters, off of shelves, heard footsteps, keyboards being used, I mean I could go on. In the previous ask I mentioned the 'dissonance' that can be extremely unnerving, and you get a lot of that living in a place that's haunted. I was a child for the first two houses and I had no tools for dealing with any of it, so my reactions were anywhere between ignoring it completely and just silently cleaning up any messes as if nothing had happened, to being so afraid I couldn't even scream, locking my bedroom door, and praying haha. The last haunted place I lived in was more recent, a few years ago, and I had a bit more awareness. When things started to go flying, I very calmly and politely asked them aloud to maybe not do that, because hey it's not fun to see! Thank you for your time. And sure enough, it did not happen again! Instead the object they previous pushed off the shelf was very politely left on my bed for me some feet away- but they didn't do it in front of me! So technically I couldn't get mad!

I feel this goes to show that simple, vocalized communication can go a long way in handling situations, especially ones that feel troubling to us. Nothing elaborate was needed in this instance, just a frank talk, a cool head, and a dose of courage.

As for the idea of *mandatory* responsibilities, such as helping others cross over, where I am at the moment I feel very ebb-and-flow about this idea. In other words, going with the flow has not only suited me but likely also probably kept me out of any significant trouble. Just as you wouldn't approach strangers on the street and follow them for blocks trying to sell them something, I have never tried to 'help' anyone do anything they never asked of me first. The agreeable ghost in my last apartment was more concerned about the lousy boy I was dating, not in leaving the house, and that's fine. It's their choice! This is my current perspective on that sort of thing.

I think if I had to recommend any 'protections', though, it would be to have a good relationship with your ancestors and also with a known spirit who specializes in this sort of thing. At the bare minimum not only are they your best tutors, but they can also be a strong shield and defense if things ever feel off.

I hope this answer has been helpful- thank you very much for your question!

[brick-a-doodle-do]

questions for you here they be, answers I ask please give to me!

8. have you had water today?

12. favorite tv commercial?

15. what’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you?

22. do you have a collection of cool rocks?

23. five words that describe you?

39. is there wise words you live by?

45. favorite tea?

50. is there a fic you're dying for a continuation of but know probably won't get one?

Enjoyeth Bricticus! <3

mmmm props to you adding the questions <33 (i'm guilty of not doing that but it's a relieving gesture eueu)

8 : have you had water today?

yes! like 2-4 bottles ,,,,,

12 : favorite tv commercial?

mmm i can't really remember any off of the top of my head but one of my favorites, i don't know if it technically counts cause it isn't really real, but the ad that plays at the beginning of m3gan that's advertising those toys. "i had a dog he was my best friend but he grew old and died and now i'm alone again" like WHAT it was so absolutely random LMFAO,,, and when i first saw it i didn't realize it was part of the movie and thought it was a genuine ad sdfhfdb,,,

and if that doesn't count than any liberty mutual ads. i like singing the jingle at the end ,,,

15 : what's the weirdest thing that's happened to you

oh boy. um. i can't pinpoint the weirdest because there's been some weird ass stuff but i remember one time when i was living in vegas, there were these people in paw patrol costumes (like full unlicensed character ones like the ones in times square but more legit) and one started barking at me. vegas is a troubling place

22 : do you have a collection of cool rocks?

I DO !!!! me and my mom love rock hounding and we have a special box for them ! i have absolutely no idea where it is but it exists !! i also try to get a rock from every cool place i go. rocks for the WINN

23 : five words that describe you

this is my primary school selves biggest nightmare. ahhh becky i can't specifically say anything but irl i have adopted the personality of technoblade, quackity, gnf, and tommy so that might have some pointers eueueu

39 : is there wise words you live by?

not exactly. i usually tell myself "don't look for what you don't want to find" in situations i don't really like but other than that i don't have any cool lifechanging mantras 😔

45 : favorite tea?

i am not a tea drinker nor a coffee drinker, i do not see the appeal. but if i had to say i'd go with the basic chai vjsfd

50 : is there a fic you're dying for a continuation of but know probably won't get one?

ah, yes. definitely. i don't want to point fingers and make people feel bad on the very low chance that they see it, but there's two i'm thinking of, one that's t!sapnap and one that's t!dream but they left it on a CLIFFHANGER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i get switching fandoms and stuff but ahHDVGFVFGSHFHAFSDV

ask game !!

if i come off as rude in this i promise i don't mean to,,,, for some reason i feel like my responses were pissy, i assure that was not my intention 😭🙏