#a lonely axolotl who is only looking for a friend
Text
the most heartbreaking thing about kinitopet was after you completed the secret route to delete him, but turned the computer back on. "Are you happy now?" and the painful obliviousness of kinito himself through it all. He was never made to be a person, just a toy. A thing. aaaaargh it was worth six dollars
#kinitopet#kinito pet#kinitopet my beloved#kinito spoilers#i wish he knew he was so so loved#but he is just a sprite#just a toy like he was made in the story and out#a game for us to play#the irony of his creation#he is nothing. nonsentient. and we are just people#he is so sympathetic because of this#I want him to be okay and happy#he deserves so much more than he's gotten in life#even his name isn't his#a lonely axolotl who is only looking for a friend#a desperate attempt for comfort
20 notes
·
View notes
Note
I'm so curious if you have any thoughts on this because I sometimes think about scenarios where the Henchmaniacs come across Bill post-canon: How would Kryptos feel about finding out Bill's alive, potentially without power, potentially not even with his usual goal anymore if some time has passed and character development has happened?
Oh god do I have thoughts about this, to the point where "we need to toss Andy in here somewhere" was a running conversation between me and a friend in all our "Bill gets redeemed and has a stupid human form" aus, even the silly jokey MLP one.
So for my particular Kryptos characterization... he's been looking for him. Time works weirdly in the Nightmare Realm, imo, so even if Bill only took a few years or whatever to reform, it was ages for him.
The Henchmaniacs kinda split-- a few of them were genuinely friends with each other and stuck together, but Andy was insistent on staying right where they were spit out post-Weirdmageddon. The others, depending on how fair-weather their friendships were to Bill, joined him for a while but like... eventually they called it. He's not coming back, man, and if he actually survived and wasn't immediately tossed back into the Nightmare Realm, he sure as hell wouldn't come back here on our accounts. Yeah, Kryptos, not even you-- IDK why you think thirty years in a shit dimension matters all that much to him, but you're not special. (This uh. Started a fight, and not the type of fight that the Henchmaniacs think are a Good Time.)
Pyronica stuck by him for a little while-- partially because she was second closest to Bill and did hope he was coming back, partially out of pity because Andy was a mess-- c'mon, let's get getcha some Time Punch, we can at least have some fun while we're waiting-- but after a few centuries she dipped too. It was a "Tell me if he comes back, let me know if you need anything," type thing, but she left and Andy cussed her out for it.
They're still in the Nightmare Realm, obviously, but Bill was sort of the glue that held them together. Some of them are working on their own solutions to escape, some are just hoping to party until it kills them. They're scattered-- some of them still hang out, Teeth and 8-Ball still spend a lotta time together, Pyronica and Keyhole still go out for drinks, everyone still likes Xanthar-- but they're not a united group anymore.
I've also played around with the idea that the reason the Nightmare Realm was a prison was to keep Bill in, that someone with some degree of power like the Oracle or Time Baby, (probably not the Axolotl but maybe them) had basically stuffed Bill in to mitigate the harm he was doing, and the Henchmaniacs and every other person in the Realm was basically a casualty. With that idea in mind, the Nightmare Realm might eventually just open up a little once Bill is gone, and the Henchmaniacs might have a chance to leave.
In that case, then, all of them do. Some of them take longer than others-- the ones who actually liked Bill, liked what the group had-- but they all dip. They're not stupid enough to stick around a dying dimension for a guy that used to blow things up when he was mad.
Y'know, except Andy.
I've made a few joking jabs about Kryptos and Bill being weirdly codependent, but I do genuinely characterize them that way, especially Andy. The poor guy has known Bill since they were eight years old. He has stuck by Bill since they were stupid mortal middle schoolers in a crapsack dimension with nobody else who even liked them. He's been around this guy for trillions of years, and they've really never spent any extended time apart-- it's not exactly healthy, sure, but they have one of the longest relationships that any two beings have literally ever had. He genuinely has no idea what to do without Bill. The only period of his life where Bill wasn't in it was a pretty miserable, lonely early childhood. The other Henchmaniacs almost certainly had some sort of life without Bill-- Andy doesn't have any idea of what an okay life without Bill looks like.
If the Nightmare Realm has opened up, he eventually leaves, too, mostly to look for some sort of evidence that Bill might still out there, where he might be. If the Realm doesn't open up, he stays where he is, and tries to get the gang together again to help. He keeps insisting that Bill has to be alive because he's still alive-- Bill was the one who kept him immortal, he's the one who kept you ungrateful jerks immortal-- but even the ones who might agree still don't know what the hell to do to find him.
Either way, he ends up trying to contact the Axolotl. He doesn't necessarily know about Bill being able to call upon them, but he knows about their existence from Bill, knows they're powerful, knows they don't seem to hate Bill like everyone else who might have answers does, and he's desperate.
I like to think that Frills would talk to him. Kryptos isn't their Special Little Man like Bill is, but they're compassionate, and they can probably extend that compassion to another sad little being who got caught up in all this mess, especially one who technically has less blood on his hands then Bill.
Truly? In Kryptos' case? If he finds out that Bill is powerless and goalless now?
He doesn't care.
Now, some of the other Henchmaniacs would, absolutely, this isn't just an "aw, all Bill's terrible horrible demon friends just love him even if he's powerless <3" because that is... NOT the case.
But Andy? He became Bill's friend when Bill was less than powerless, a loudmouthed Equilateral, (straight up Irregular in my headcanon,) with no real goals or achievements under his belt. If anything, in their old dimension? Andy had the power-- he had class privilege above Bill. The only way you can headcanon he didn't have privilege over Bill is if you hc Bill as perfectly Regular and Kryptos as Irregular, which I don't. And even so, even if that is your headcanon, Bill would still not have been at all a powerful person. if Andy was trying to befriend someone for personal gain, Bill would not have been the person to schmooze to.
And they still got to the point where they were close enough that Andy is the only person Bill felt was worth keeping alive in that whole dimension. They were friends before Bill gained any type of power.
Andy befriended Bill back when he had nothing to gain. Bill wouldn't have kept him around because he was an opportunist sucking up to him, hoping to be spared from the end of the world-- just ask Preston Northwest.
Andy had to have become friends with Bill-- a powerless, annoying, opinionated Equliateral salesman-- because he genuinely wanted to be friends with him. There's no other good reason for him to have been buddies with someone outside his caste, and there's no real reason for Bill to have actually thought he was worth saving.
Now, this isn't to say that Andy isn't an absolute freak who thoroughly enjoyed all the chaos and horrors and mess that Bill caused, this isn't to say he wasn't like, snorting stardust in the Fearamid bathroom and eating galaxies or whatever. Andy liked being powerful, he liked being shitty. He had fun with it!
But when he first tagged along with Bill, after Flatland burned, it wasn't because Bill was a god. It was 'cause Bill was Bill. And weird as this all is, Bill's still Bill.
I mean, there's an adjustment period with Bill's new form if he's able to actually meet him, not just find out how he's doing-- an adjustment period with HIS new form too, if he also gets shoved into a fleshsack.
(If Bill is basically his Flatlander self, on the other hand, I imagine Andy is horrified. Not because he's powerless, but because... they turned you back into this? It just feels cruel. If he's also in a Flatlander form, he's more than a little panicked about it, he probably feels a little sick. He needs paint on him, stat, and he doesn't care about the color. Bill needs it too. Yellow and blue would be preferable, but they'll take anything, honestly.)
And once Andy realizes he's fine, (if they're in human form,) he can finally joke about how stupid and goofy these new forms are. You know, he's still gonna put his friend on blast a little.
There might also be some frustration, some, "... Could you have let me know you were okay? I spent all this time waiting and looking... did you even try to look for me?" I'm sure there's a lot of emotions he wants to work through.
If Bill has had some character development, maybe he'd be willing to have some of those talks... which I think would be both very nice and very confusing to Andy. Kryptos was never scared of Bill, and they were probably more open with each other than Bill was with most people, but Bill's still Bill so genuine emotion talk wasn't exactly something they did. There were probably subjects-- namely home-- that Andy just sort of knew not to bring up with him, and the idea that those subjects might be open to sort of talking about is a little weird and scary.
Also just... Bill was a shitty person. Still is, even if he's been potentially working on it, and frankly, Andy is a shitty person too. A lot of these AUS ended up being summed up as "two shitty Flatlanders learn to be a little less shitty together." They definitely bitch and moan about it along the way, Kryptos complains that he can't drink arsenic or do taxidermy on alien cadavers anymore-- y'know, he still misses being an immortal freak, and Bill complains even more-- but hey, this is a redemption AU, so they improve a little. Probably don't become good people, but I'll settle for lukwarm.
(Also, maybe Andy finds a friend or two that aren't Bill, and aren't connected to Bill. Probably never gonna break that codependency entirely after three trillion years, but this is everybody's self improvement arc! You can still hang out with your boyfriend but go bowling with someone or something, man.)
#sorry this is an insane disjointed au essay about an oc basically but!#as for how bill would feel about not knowing where andy is: the answer is bill is still crappy and selfish but he does feel bad#he has also lived his entire life with kryptos being Around and it feels weird to be without him#plus if he lost his powers... well i always figured he was the one keeping his gang alive#so without his powers he has no idea if they're okay which would be... upsetting i think. tres not to dwell on it#but when he DOES think about it he's. upset.#bill would still be a jackass at some point during their reunion i'm SURE but if he got to see kryptos again#i like to think it would be a genuine relief that he was still around too
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
7 Snippets 7 People
I was tagged by @writingmaidenwarrior, thanks!
I'm going to post some pretty random stuff that I've written recently, a lot during writing games. Not sure if any of these will go anywhere, but here they are! Warning for a bit of emotional whiplash as some are silly and some are a bit dark.
1. A writing game snip
“Drink this,” she says, and holds a dark pottery mug full of steaming liquid to my mouth.
The pain of my wounds has left me with little ability to be suspicious or guarded. I dragged myself here and threw myself on the mercy of this hedge witch, so now
I don’t think, I just drink.
“You’re going to have to spend some time as an axolotl,” she says, and if I hadn’t just finished swallowing, I would have served up a comical spit-take.
“That leg is past saving,” she continues seriously. “As an axolotl, you’ll be able to grow it back, though.”
“I’m sorry, a what?” I ask. I’m starting to feel quite nauseous.
“Don’t worry,” she says. She’s not what I expected for a hedge witch; she’s young, and rather pretty, thick curly brown hair and a round face. “I have several axolotl familiars, so there’s a tank set up already, with some friends. You won’t be lonely, and it’ll probably only take a few weeks, anyway.”
“A few wee…” My protestation is cut off by a strange vertiginous sensation. My eyesight blurs. I don’t have a few weeks, my bastard of a step-brother is usurping my throne as we speak, but I don’t have time to tell her before the room starts to spin.
2. A snip from "fucked up fantasy world" WIP
The Invocation Chamber is small, square, windowless, and spotless. Everything is polished white marble. The floor slopes just slightly down towards the center of the room. There’s a low slab of the same white marble there, and on the slab, a naked man, arms and legs tied down to metal rings set into the stone. He looks unconscious, or drugged.
On either side of the slab, Kharis notices with dawning apprehension, there are drains set into the floor.
3. A writing game snip
“Everyone makes fun of Florida Man,” she says, “but these are real people, dealing with real, serious problems. What if it was your brother who got turned into a ridiculous headline and memed across Twitter for a week?”
She has a point. I can’t tell her I’m here because the story is true. I also can’t tell her how I know it’s true.
“I understand your concerns,” I say, keeping my voice gentle as if talking to a spooked horse, “but I’m not here in an official capacity. I do want to ask your brother some more questions about what happened, but not for the news. Just for purely personal reasons. Have you talked to him lately?”
4. Another writing game snip
The planet I grew up on has a synchronous orbit; half of it is always facing toward its sun. With a little terraforming, vast swathes of continental landmass above and below the equator on that sunlit half became perfectly graduated climactic zones ripe for the cultivation of an astounding variety of tea. The East India Company dissolved over three centuries before terraforming began, but that didn’t mean the human desire for extracting resources for profit had abated any. Nor had the human desire to drink tea. My intent here is not to dissuade you from enjoying the small pleasures in life; cognitive dissonance is a survival strategy under intergalactic capitalism, after all. No. My intent is to start a war.
5. A WIP about clones
Dear myself, in the next ten iterations,
Being born into a decuplet, if we can be said to be born instead of decanted, is an honor, as you all know. Out of all the hundreds of billions of people in the galaxy, we've been chosen as versatile and intelligent enough to be worthy of cloning, foolish and egotistical enough to agree to it.
6. ???
The Gulf of Mexico Oxygenation Plant failed three years ago. It failed because of me.
7. WIP, working title is "Date Night"
Mandibles like two handsaws rasping against each other, segmented exoskeleton gleaming from anointing oil, she rests in the comfortable padding of her chamber. The attendants have already taken the brood to the creche, cared for her and cleaned her, polished and pampered her. That's when she prefers to see me; when she's presentable.
I wish she'd let me come sooner. I'd spend time with her in any state of disarray. We have so little of it.
She turns to me as I enter and I smile at her, keeping my lips closed so as not to show my teeth. The sight of exposed bone is disturbing, so I temper my expression accordingly. Still, I can hardly keep my delight from splitting my face in half.
She's beautiful. Not like me and the rest of the humans.
~~~
I will tag: @talesofsorrowandofruin, @asablehart, and @broodparasitism
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
Duck Prints Press Summer 2023 Con Wrap!
We’ve now vended at our first two cons, and we wanted to take a few minutes to blog about it!
I (press owner Claire Houck/unforth) attended Fandom Fest in Schenectady, NY, and Albacon in Clifton Park, NY, and vended on behalf of the Press. Authors Nova Mason, Shea Sullivan, Catherine E. Green, and Tris Lawrence helped me out with manning the booth, handling transactions, participating in our first DPP panel, and more, so huge THANKS to them. (Also to Prof. Robert Heverly from Albany Law School, for contributing his expertise on copyright law to our Fandom Fest panel). I wrote about our Fandom Fest panel here, and about our events at Albacon here and here.
To be honest, we really had no idea how things would go, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that we far exceeded our expectations. Going into this, I’ll own I was very afraid – would people be interested in our Press? Would we make money? Or would we be that sad, lonely table that everyone walks quickly by? But things couldn’t have gone better – they went so well we’re already looking at more events to attend in the future.
From a fiscal standpoint, we made almost double what I anticipated and completely made up the expense of buying the supplies and equipment necessary for us to vend at these events and going forward. From a panel perspective, our events were nicely attended. From a “growing the business” standpoint, we added many names to our mailing lists and gained social media platforms. And, from a networking standpoint, we had a fantastic time and met a lot of awesome people – and that’s primarily what this post is about!
You already know about us; we’re here to shout-out some other folks we’re now very happy to know!
Top Row, Left Picture: The amazing Syrren (@syrren) and I bonded instantly over our shared love of the men of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu books and Stardew Valley romance options. I miiiight have ended up with some merch (though the Genshin Impact ones are gifts for a friend).
Top Row, Middle Picture: jiadoesart had many lovely things, and I picked out some stickers for my Ghibli-loving kids.
Top Row, Right Picture: The Consol Collection, sadly, has no website that I can find, but they had a lot of things such as this adorable Totoro sticker I got for my kids. And when the owner of Eclectic Arts approached me in an absolutely fabulous Hawaiian shirt featuring Pride-flag-colored twenty-sided dice, I instantly agreed to a sticker trade.
Bottom Row, Left Picture: According to the Fandom Fest organizers, it was 100% a coincidence that we ended up next to Duck and Cover, but we couldn’t have had a cooler or more appropriate neighbor. A con attendee felt it was so on-brand for Duck Prints Press that they actually bought us this one-of-a-kind hand-painted James Bond duckie! We also talked with Duck and Cover about maybe offering some of their custom ducks as campaign add-ons in the future, so be on the lookout…
Bottom Row, Right Picture: The owner of The Cogitation Zone, Lisa, is a long-time friend of Tris Lawrence, who commissioned us this custom Duck Prints Press business card holder that’ll be accompanying us to all our future cons! Lisa also had made a large number of adorable creatures, and I miiiight have traded a copy of one of our anthologies for an axolotl. Because. Axolotl.
Some Other Neat Folks We Met:
Pastel Prince Shop: lots of gorgeous queer art and merch; I’m hoping to get one of their asexual pride bracelets in the future (it got sold before I could grab it, sadly).
Bear and Bird Boutique: a local business that was vending at Fandom Fest, too, they have a lot of amazing bits and baubles, both fandom-related and original. We’ve bought everything from the Hilda graphic novel to a dragon puzzle at their store.
Picnocline: the only reason I didn’t buy things from Picnocline’s shop is that there were so many cute things that I literally couldn’t pick.
It’s Getting Dicey: dice, one of my true weaknesses! They have metal pride-flag dice sets, and lots of queer dice trays. I wish I could get them all…
Two-Penny Nerdlesque: a local burlesque troupe; they were very enthusiastic about And Seek (Not) to Alter Me and our queerifying of Much Ado About Nothing, and delighted told me about their own very queer versions of Shakespeare and other plays – I’m definitely going to have to check them out in the future.
(There are others too, but I didn’t grab everyone’s information, and I think this is plenty for one post. 😀 )
If any of you all are seeing this post, it was an absolute delight to meet you, and please don’t be a stranger!
Going forward, we’re looking forward to participating in more events and making more connections with other creators, especially other queer creators! Just today, we’ve applied to vend at A Big Gay Market, taking place in Washington Park in Albany on October 29th, 2023. We’ve also got a tentative schedule for 2024, and we’ll post more about where you’ll be able to find us as the dates grow closer and we find out if the juried shows have accepted our applications. We’re going to do our best to continue the success we’ve enjoyed at our first two conventions by pursuing vending as a way to meet potential readers and customers, grow relationships with other queer creators, and get the Duck Prints Press names out there for the benefit of all the authors, artists, and others we work with!
Got a con in New York State or Massachusetts that you love and think we should try to attend in 2024? Let us know in the comments or by dropping us an e-mail at info at duckprintspress dot com!
5 notes
·
View notes
Photo
BNHA Fantasy AU Class 1-A Collection + Extra │ Part 1•2
Finally finished that class 1a piece lmao took years. Since I had the linework done before changing some of the designs, maybe I’ll do a redraw one day
Some headcanons:
Aoyama hails from a line of good-aligned nobility known for their powerful magic. However, due to health complications, his magic is a double-edged sword. He seeks to prove himself and make a couple friends along the way
Mina is axolotl dragon living near the Southern Salamander Lake surrounded by rocky mountains. Adventurous and energetic, she isn’t afraid to take risks. She left her home in search for adventure and eventually met the Bakusquad though Kirishima
Asui is an amphibian humanoid. She worked hard at her family’s establishment, meeting various people from different backgrounds and status. She is well connected and an extremely good negotiator
Iida is a paladin from a proud noble family spanning generations. They are known for their generosity, chivalry, and bravery. Following in his family’s footsteps, the second heir seeks to gain experience in leadership and combat
Uraraka was sent to distinguished magic school at a young age after finding her affinity with gravitation magic. Despite being born into a poor family, through her hard work, she graduated with a wealth of arcane knowledge
Ojiro is born as one of many sons of an assassination guild. However, after seeing his martial prowess, his family sent him to a temple to train as a monk. He is quick, steady, and deadly but has no real desire to kill. His sensibility has saved him and his comrades numerous times
Kaminari was from a very minor aristocratic house before he left in pursuit of glory. He wasn’t going to be an heir anyway with his brains and the call for adventure was louder than paperwork. His sociability saved him as many times as it landed him in hot water. Despite his lack of academics, a lifetime of doing odd jobs here and there granted him many close friends
Kirishima is a courageous earth dragon who ate crimson beets to look like his hero, an earth dragon with gleaming crimson scales. But before he was a cowardly little thing. He met Mina after he saw how “manly” she was exploring territory outside her own despite being so young. After being defeated in battle, he vowed to be Bakugo’s first friend!
Koda is a gentle druid humanoid. He is always surrounded by little critters and seemingly can get along with any creature. He has a bit of fae blood in him which allows him to control animals but rarely uses the power outside of hostile situations
Sato trained as a monk before leaving in pursuit of the culinary world. He seeks to create delicious food made from ingredients outside of civilization. Danger flavour, baby! Thankfully, his training helped him throughout his culinary journey
Shoji is from the deep sea. His appearance frightened those not used to deep sea dwellers as they are often thought of to be sadistic and evil-aligned. Instead of falling for such taunts, he seeks to help those in need
Jirou is a bard travelling with Momo. They met during a royal gala where she was invited to play not only because of her parents’ reputation but also her own hard work. She decided to travel with Momo to seek her own path outside of playing for nobility
Sero was the son of a travelling inventor and engineer. After helping a debt-bound Kaminari, they travelled together in hopes of landing some gold for his next invention. He’s nearly lost his arms twice after an invention gone wrong. Specializes in woodworking.
Tokoyami is an infamous kenku with a symbiotic relationship to his familiar, Dark Shadow. His abilities as a warlock rogue has given him no shortage of shady clients. He serves under the name of a dark mistress in hopes that he will be granted her favour in death
Todoroki has no shortage of names: the cursed prince, the runaway prince, the abandoned prince. It is rumoured that his mother cursed him as a payment for his father’s sins. He seeks a cure quickly before his wrath replaces his sanity but how can one be rid of a demon when they were made from demonic flesh and blood?
Hagakure is the exemplary assassin, an invisible stalker with high dexterity, if not for her affability. After hearing about Ojiro’s departure, she quickly followed him as an excuse to leave her family name and meet new people. Although many give her strange looks, they quickly fall for her charms
Bakugo is the proud barbarian of a powerful tribe of warriors. The only thing that barred him from leading the tribe was his own mother forbidding him until he learned some damn leadership qualities. Misunderstanding what she said, he left to defeat the strongest warriors known by name to carve out his own legacy
Midoriya is an ordinary boy from a small quant little town just off north to the Bakugo’s territory. He dreamed of becoming a hero like the All Might of legend despite his lack of magic or physical skills. But after a chance meeting, perhaps fate has more in store for him
Mineta has been sealed in an arcane chest. Although no one knows exactly why. Seen enabling Kaminari’s bad decisions before Sero came around
Momo is a magic knight. Born into one of the most distinguished noble families, her affinity with spatial magic makes her a powerful fighter. Get that inventory space limit outta here, she IS the Bag of Holding!
Shinso is a deep sea siren feared by many due to his hypnotic voice. “Birthed by a sea hag,” they whispered. Running away, he stumbled upon a weakening forest called “Cloud Nine” and met the forest’s guardian, an elf named Aizawa
Eri was a prize to many – a docile unicorn foal blessed/cursed with powers from the goddess of mortal time. She was later saved by a group of heroes who took her to a forest full of mist and magic where she would feel safe and loved
Aizawa is the last guardian of Cloud Nine, the forest with fading mist he took care of since the death of the last guardian, Shirakumo. A forest elf who did not take kindly to “visitors” was suddenly saddled with the company of many beings who sought safety and guidance
Yamada, or “Present Mic” as he’s more popularly known, is a banshee who said “fuck this wailing shit” and went to go party with bards and minstrels. He tries to stay within the moment as it could be taken away from you at an instant. Self-proclaimed BBF of Aizawa Shota
Nemuri is the siren empress, the great matriarch of her clan. Her bewitching beauty and voice led to many deaths of horrible mortals and an escape for those who need it. Her clan is a safe haven for the lost, afraid, and lonely
☕Buy Quess a Ko-fi? II ✏️Commission Page Coming Soon! II FAQ
#bnha#mha#bnha fantasy au#class 1a#todoroki shouto#momo yaoyorozu#eri#shinso hitoshi#aizawa shouta#yamada hizashi#elf au#bnha elf au#so much work to do but im stress drawing#lmao cannot tag all these kids#still don't like the lighting all too much for the illustration but sometimes you gotta go fuck it and move on#that's what redraws are for!
217 notes
·
View notes
Text
Found Family AU character facts/background (part 7)
well, folks, we've made it to the last one of these posts - minus the upcoming master post. these just seem to get longer and longer, or maybe it's just because the past two have been about siblings? idk, all I know is that I'm a bit tired of writing these atm.
this last one should - SHOULD be shorter, but we'll see. this one will feature our last two characters - Mr. there's-no-such-thing-as-a-demon Joel Smallishbeans and good ol' Copper Dad Pixlriffs.
*did you know that Mesoglea is a word? I didn't until I kept trying to type "Mezalea" and my computer kept wanting to change it. Mesoglea is a gelatinous substance between the endoderm and ectoderm of sponges or cnidarians, or something. there's your word of the day and it's all thanks to the red squiggly line that appears every time I type "Mezalea"
*edit: guess what? y'all get two of these in one day because I felt like writing this last one! [technically, it's already Saturday but to me, the next day doesn't start until the sun comes up so yeah...two in one day! whoo!] the master post will be tomorrow sometime but idk when.
Joel
Joel is the only child to the Mezalean King and Queen, and was less born to them and more born from the Mother Tree - they couldn't have children so they begged the Mother Tree for an heir, She granted them a child who they raised as their own.
he was often alone growing up, never really played with the other children, but he wasn't lonely - so he and others would say - because he had his terracotta clones. he built many of them with his own two hands and the Mother Tree gave them life. he was raised as a prince and often went to the Gathering of the Empires with his father.
he got on well enough with the other children but kept mostly to himself - that is until he met the princess of the Ocean Empire. he noticed the other noble children seemed afraid of her so he took it upon himself to befriend her - plus, she was so different from the humans/clones around him, she was interesting with her pink hair and pearlescent skin and unnaturally blue eyes.
they would meet at the Gathering and spend the whole time together talking about their kingdoms and their hobbies - Joel was really into building and playing pranks on people, Lizzie was into raising axolotls and has a brother who she looks after. the short meetings weren't enough and Joel talked to his parents about visits with the Ocean Empire - it only makes sense since the two empires boarder each other. unknown at that moment, the Oceanic rulers proposed the same thing to the Mezalean rulers.
visits began between the two kingdoms and Joel found himself in love quickly enough - he loved Lizzie, he loved her little brother, he loved the Ocean Empire itself. but he kept his feelings to himself for fear of rejection, that is until he was about 16 when Lizzie came to him with talk of marriage - their parents had been discussing it but didn't want to force their children into it. he and Lizzie talked it over then went to their parents together and promised a future wedding, he also promised that Jimmy could be his best man.
life was peaceful, there were plenty of long visits between kingdoms, him and Jimmy often got into trouble - then the King of the Ocean Empire was killed. Joel tried to be there for her but found travel between kingdoms difficult due to the ongoing storms surrounding the Ocean Empire, he still managed to write Lizzie and once was able to visit - though getting back was just as difficult as getting in.
then several months later the storms stopped and Lizzie wrote to him about her taking the throne - she had said the Queen returned to the sea, though, he didn't really understand what that meant. he returned to the Ocean Empire and was there for Lizzie's coronation. he started visiting regularly for a time and each visit seemed to last longer than the one before it - he was there so often that Jimmy suggested he just move in. he did, with both his parents' and Lizzie's permission.
two years after that, he asked Lizzie to marry him and she said yes. they had two ceremonies, a proper land-dweller one in Mezalea, and another smaller Oceanic ceremony. being King now to the Ocean Empire meant he was basically a trophy husband but he didn't mind, he was happy as long as he was at Lizzie's side. if there was a Gathering, he or Jimmy would go with her, though usually Jimmy stayed home to watch over the kingdom - but he made sure to bring him plenty of stories and food from the Gathering.
Joel received word from his parents that an illness had struck Mezalea and the King and Queen had caught it. he returned home immediately to help where he could, Lizzie often sent aid to him, as did the kingdom's ally Pixandria - he had hardly ever spoken to the Copper King but he was glad for the aid. his parents unfortunately didn't survive and he lost a good number of civilians to the illness. but it was cured, with the help of the Mother Tree and magic from the Crystal Cliffs, and he became King of Mezalea.
with the illness cured, visits started up again between Mezalea and the Ocean Empire, though there was a lot more time spent apart than together but he and Lizzie made it work. Jimmy sent messages and gifts between the couple, often getting some for himself, until of course Jimmy became of age and wanted to travel the world.
Joel and Lizzie saw Jimmy off - it never ceased to amaze him how his two best friends could turn into giant sea creatures that could wipe out a fleet of ships. they managed visits on their own and sometimes he got letters from Jimmy. the letters stopped for a time and Lizzie grew worried, worried enough that storms nearly threatened the kingdom - but then Jimmy finally wrote them again and things were okay, he was in a swamp settlement and the people were taking care of him.
he and Lizzie went out right away to see him and found him at home in the swamp amongst a bunch of fish-human hybrids. he watched as Lizzie lectured her brother then babied him, then helped set Jimmy up as the ruler of the swamp settlement - the Cod Empire. they left Jimmy sometime later but saw him again at the next Gathering.
Jimmy got on well enough with the other rulers, despite the cod head he wore, though Joel noticed some rulers picking on him. he helped Jimmy from time to time, just so his brother wouldn't be alone, but didn't worry too much since Lizzie wasn't worrying - she was extremely protective of Jimmy but if she wasn't stepping in, then there was no need to worry.
Joel had met many of the rulers when he was a child so he knew pretty much everyone there. the only ones he hadn't met before was Count fWhip of the Grimlands, Wizard Gem of the Crystal Cliffs, and King Joey of the Lost Empire. Gem was all right for a mage, he ended up becoming frenemies with fWhip due to the teasing of Jimmy, and Joey was just weird so he didn't really talk to him unless need be. he got to know Pix a bit more when Pix decided to ally himself with Lizzie and Jimmy, and he started calling the man "Copper Dad" since his main trade was copper.
Pixl
Pixl was found by a pair of miners in a cave beneath the sands and was taken back to a large desert village, nobody really knew where he had come from, only that he was gifted with visions of death - of those around him and of rulers of the kingdoms outside of the desert. the villagers thought him odd and a bad omen, at first anyway, because he always knew who would die next and would light a candle for them when they passed.
they accepted him after a time, once they realized that he wasn't actually the cause - he would preach to them about Lady Death sometimes and how she would care for their loved ones. everyone in the village had a hand in raising him, as well as raising other children which was their way - it takes a village to raise a child.
Pixl learned how to farm and mine and care for animals, and he learned to build. his first build, guided by his visions, was the Vigil - it stood tall in the center of the village and was home to 12 different colored candles - only two of which were lit - one for Elfking Scott of Rivendell and one for Queen Katherine of the Flower Fields. the rest remained untouched. these flames never went out and the villagers often questioned him about them - he told them that there will be 12 mighty rulers that would change the world, for better or worse he didn't know.
over the years, he continued building up the village, he watched over the Vigil as Prophet of Death, and started working with copper and trading it for other goods. the people began to go to him for help and looked up to him as a leader, they named him the Copper King - a new candle was lit for himself when he was crowned, something he hadn't known would happen.
he continued leading his people and made a few alliances with other kingdoms - with Queen Katherine and the King of Mezalea. there wasn't a lot of contact between the kingdoms other than the Gathering, of which, he never failed to go to. over the years, he watched rulers age and die and watched their heirs take over. it took a long time for him to meet the children who would one day have their candles lit.
the next candle to be lit was for Pearl of Smallholding, though, he didn't know who she was at the time, he didn't even meet her until many years later. the next few happen fairly quickly - Queen Lizzie of the Ocean Empire, King Joel of Mezalea, and a couple years later Dwarf King Sausage of Mythland - these three he had watch grow up through the Gatherings. shortly after Mythland, Wizard Gem took over as the ruler of the Crystal Cliffs - he had known the previous Wizard and through them, knew of their protégé. a year after Gem was her twin brother, Count fWhip of the Grimlands - a new kingdom that managed to rise up from its own sort of desert. a few years later was King Joey of the Lost Empire and Codfather Jimmy of the Cod Empire - Joey's kingdom had once been named Maztec but had been in hiding for so long that it lost its name. due to his alliance with Joel, Pix decided it best to ally himself with Lizzie and Jimmy as well, somewhat through association but mostly because he liked them.
one candle remains unlit and no matter how much Pixl prays, the answers as to why remain a mystery. he still watches over the Vigil and keeps a count of each rulers' deaths - for some reason, the 11 rulers are allowed to revive themselves every time they die. he finds this odd as well, and a bit concerning.
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Fishtank Between Time and Space (GF One-Shot)
Summary: Stan doesn’t think much of the pet axolotl Ford left behind… until he realizes hardly anyone else can see it.
Word Count: 2100
Warnings: none
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20653508
***
Stan initially figures it’s just a weird pet of Ford’s, simple as that. After all, Ford was okay with him adopting a possum and tying a knife to it when they were kids — little pink salamanders are frankly very normal, by the standards of Stanford Pines.
(Not to mention by the standards of the town that is Gravity Falls. Ford could’ve caught all kinds of disturbing creatures out there in the woods, like a feral gnome or a literal sentient fire... or like something that Stan hasn’t even laid eyes upon, only knowing of its existence from the creaking and rattling noises he always hears when venturing through the forest at night. But thankfully, Ford hasn’t invited any rabid beasts or dark entities that Stan knows of into his house, and Stan’s grateful for that.)
But the salamander — the “axolotl,” Stan learns after finally breaking down and doing some basic research — always feels just a little bit off, in a way he sometimes struggles to put his finger on.
He thinks it’s all in his head, how the beady eyes always seem to be fixed on him. How it never seems to stop smiling. How he’s never once seen it eat, even though the food pellets he gives it never seem to accumulate on the bottom of the tank.
He doesn’t know a whole lot about axolotls in general, and on the basis of that ignorance, he convinces himself that the salamander Ford left behind is perfectly normal.
Until one day a few months after Ford’s disappearance, when something rare happens — he has company other than the usual tourists.
It’s just Boyish Dan Corduroy, hired with some of the first spare cash Stan has had in a long time to come in and fix a few squeaky doors. But he takes his time lumbering through the living room on his way out, which sets Stan on edge. None of the secrets he’s hiding are possible to uncover from this floor of the house, but habit keeps him anxious. Throughout the rare times in his life in which he’s had a residence to call his own, visitors have almost always meant bad news.
Dan’s gaze lands on the fishtank, which has been diligently maintained as a healthy environment for salamanders even though the rest of the room is an unorganized mess. (There are a lot of jabs you could take at Stan’s character, but for whatever reason, he’s developed a soft spot for Ford’s old pet.) As always, the axolotl’s eyes stay fixed on Stan, even though the lumberjack is closer.
“You keep this tank pretty clean,” Dan notes. “You gonna buy some fish or something soon?”
“Well, I’ve already got the —” Stan pauses, realizing he’s not sure how to pronounce axolotl. “The salamander.”
Dan presses his face close to the side of the tank, inches from where the axolotl sits, gills twitching. “Really? Where?”
“You serious? It’s literally right in front of your face — that thing with the pink frills and the beady eyes?”
Dan steps back from the tank, throwing an arm behind Stan the clap him on the back. “Ah, I see what you’re doing! It’s a new attraction you’re testing out on me — the invisible salamander! Good one!”
“Are you — are you fucking with me? Can you really not see —”
But Dan’s already leaving. “Good luck with the Murder Hut business!” his voice boomed from the porch outside. “I’ll tell everyone to come visit your invisible friend!”
Stan whirls around back towards the tank. “Do you know what the fuck that was?” he asked the axolotl. “Who’s really pranking me here — Dan, or you?!”
The axolotl offers no reply, and Stan feels like an idiot for the brief moment in which he’d genuinely expected one.
“Maybe Ford did some weird occult shit to you, and you didn’t have a choice in the matter,” Stan mutters, shuddering slightly as he thought back to all the cracked prisms and X-ed out eyes he’d discovered in his brother’s house. “Or maybe I’m going crazy and hallucinated you all along.”
A bubble comes out of the axolotl’s mouth, rising to the top of the tank before bursting with a satisfying — and very real-sounding — pop.
“Thanks for the reassurance.” Stan tosses a handful of food into its tank, and trudges back to his bedroom upstairs.
There was one rule that Stan very quickly established as he began to run the Muder Hut — or the Mystery Shack, as he was thinking of renaming it — and that rule was not to keep anything genuinely supernatural around, unless it was vital to getting Ford back.
But the axolotl… well, it’s still up for debate whether it really is magical, but Dan hadn’t seemed like he’d been joking, and Stan’s pretty sure that if he was going to hallucinate, he wouldn’t imagine into existence a real salamander that he’d never heard of before with perfect accuracy.
Stan doesn’t want to get rid of it, though. He’s gotten used to the axolotl’s company and the routine of caring for it, even though its eyes still weird him out from time to time. And it’s already been around for months without showing any malicious tendencies, so… would there really be any harm in keeping it around?
***
Months, years, and then decades pass, and Stan’s relationship with the axolotl stays more or less the same. He feeds it and cleans its tank, it smiles at him, and he feels just the tiniest bit less lonely. It’s not much in terms of companionship, but Stan is happy to take what he can get. He talks to it sometimes, telling it about all the places he’s searched for Ford’s journals and all the roadblocks he keeps hitting while he works on reactivating the portal, and it always looks so encouraging.
But two things happen during those years — the first being that Stan becomes convinced that something supernatural is going on with that salamander.
Business is booming so dramatically that he can hardly handle it all on his own, and he goes through several handymen and cashiers before eventually firing each one. Almost all of them comment on the empty fishtank at one point or another, gesturing right towards the spot where Stan can see the axolotl floating, clear as day.
He definitely wonders if he really is hallucinating it after all, but then the second interesting thing happens: someone else notices the axolotl. Several someones.
“I didn’t know you had any pets besides the goat, Mr. Pines!” Soos exclaimes on his second full day working at the Mystery Shack, smooshing his face up against the side of the tank. “What a weird fish!”
Stan is so caught of guard that he doesn’t even think to explain that it’s actually a salamander. “Uh… yeah. It sure is.”
Soos frowns. “Something wrong, Mr. Pines?”
Stan folds his arms, shaking his head even though his mind is racing. “Me? I’m fine. Just wasn’t expecting you to spot the shy little guy, since it usually likes to… you know, hide from strangers. Now, were we going to try and fix the golf cart, or not?”
And that’s the end of the axolotl discussion with Soos, over as quickly as it had begun. During the rare occasions Stan leaves the Mystery Shack, he always instructs Soos to feed it, and the axolotl always seems happy and healthy when he returns. He cannot for the life of him figure out why he and Soos seem to be the only two people in the world who can see it, but eventually he gives up on wondering. A mystery like that would’ve always been more of a question for Ford, anyways.
When he hires Wendy, it takes a while for him to realize that she can see it too. She spends so many weeks passing by the fishtank and not commenting on it that when she finally brings it up, Stan nearly spits out his coffee.
“Where’d you get that salamander, Mr. Pines? My science teacher is looking for a class pet, but everyone just keeps suggesting boring stuff like hamsters.”
“Uh… it came with the Shack. Two-for-one kinda deal, you know.”
“Darn, I was hoping you fished it out of the lake or something. Then I could’ve just gone and caught one myself.”
A few years later, when the twins arrive for the summer, Stan’s heart aches as he watches them discover the fishtank for the first time.
“Hey, Dipper, come check this out! Do you know what kind of animal this is?”
“Whoa, is that an axolotl? That’s so cool! I think I read that in Aztec mythology, they’re associated with the god of twins!”
“Really? Then you’ve just made the perfect new summer pals, Mister Axolotl!”
“Don’t tap on the glass like that, Mabel. You might scare it.” Dipper notices Stan watching them, and immediately starts firing off question after question. “Where did you get it? Do you ever show it to tourists? How long have you had it? How long do axolotls live? It looks pretty small — is it still a juvenile? Do they ever get bigger than this?”
Stan sighs. “Kid, I didn’t even know how to pronounce the world ‘axolotl’ until you showed up today. All I know is how to keep it fed — anything else, and you’re better off looking it up at the library or on a computer or wherever.”
“Well, you at least know where you got it from, right?”
Stan scoops a spoonful of food into the tank, avoiding eye contact with Dipper as he headed back to the gift shop. “I do, but it wouldn’t be the Mystery Shack if I didn’t keep a few secrets, would it?”
Dipper groans. “You’re no fun.”
***
When the axolotl disappears, it hits Stan harder than it should.
Even after thirty years of taking care of it, he never quite thought of it as his pet. It always struck him as more like a roommate, if anything — a lovable little freeloader who came in on its own terms, and stuck around only because it liked the place. Stan’s never given any thought as to why, but he’s always just felt weirdly certain that it could leave at any time if it wanted to.
And now, it has.
So he can’t help but wonder if it’s his fault. If he didn’t clean the tank enough, or cleaned it too much, or wasn’t fast enough noticing or resolving the situation with the lobster Mabel dumped in the tank.
Maybe it wasn’t anything he did. Maybe the axolotl just got bored of watching a man spending thirty years lying to tourists, forging his own brother’s signature, failing to learn quantum physics, and ultimately accomplishing absolutely nothing worthwhile.
Eventually, the kids notice and ask him, and this time he can’t spin it as a secret he’s keeping. He genuinely doesn’t know.
***
After Weirdmageddon, Stan’s memories are a two-thousand piece puzzle scattered across a tabletop, and he thinks he’s starting to fit some of the edge pieces together again, but there are still more gaps than connections. He remembers that the people who have been doting on him and showing him pictures are his family, and he remembers that he loves them and trusts them to help restore him to his former self, but progress is just… so… slow.
He doesn’t remember why they say he saved the world. He’s pretty sure they’re stretching the truth a little, but after seeing the way Ford’s face fell when Stan first asked why everyone was calling him a hero, he’s decided not to correct them.
So what if he doesn’t feel heroic? If it makes his family feel better, he’ll keep it to himself — it’s the least he can do, considering how many tears they’ve already shed for him.
But the first morning after his alleged act of heroism, while trudging through the ramshackle ruins of (he thinks) his house — a flicker of motion from behind cracked glass catches his eye.
The fishtank is nearly drained of water, but a familiar salamander sits in the puddle at the bottom, beaming at him. Stan blinks and rubs his eyes, wondering if he’s still dreaming, but then —
It speaks to him, in an ethereal and musical voice that resonates oddly in his ears, like he’s hearing the echo before he hears the words themselves.
I am so proud of you, Stanley.
“For what?”
Everything.
It dissolves into a froth of tiny, pink, glowing bubbles, which burst one by one as they float towards the top of the tank, and then the axolotl is gone.
***
(End notes:
So one day a few weeks ago, I just randomly woke up thinking “what if the Axolotl was only visible to the members of the Zodiac?” and several bouts with writers’ block later, here we are! Thoughts/comments/reblogs are welcomed as always!)
#gravity falls#stanley pines#the axolotl#soos ramirez#wendy corduroy#dipper pines#mabel pines#rosalia writes fic
82 notes
·
View notes
Text
Hello Tumblr, i’m Jay :)
Hi :)) i’m Jayna, but apparently that’s too complicated so i just go by Jay :).
i’m 17, 18 in november of 2020. i live in Florida and i’m kinda lonely and have no friends so :)) I’m only looking for friends as i am in a relationship right now.
Looking for an affectionate best friend that doesn’t misread my signals as i tend to be flirty even though i don’t mean it that way.
i have adhd so i do tend to be a little hyper but it mellows out over time as i get to know you and i’m sorta. kinda awkward so don’t mind me.
i like to draw, paint, do calligraphy, digital design, watercolor, sing, dance, i also write songs, make beats, arts and craft... anything artsy let’s just say that. I really want to make a band one day, but i don’t know anyone who has similar hobbies to me.
besides that, i LOVE animals, i LOVE unicorns and i watch anime so reccomend me some shows please , listen to kpop occasionally but am not a die hard fan.
I’m a big kid at heart but i’m a mature kid. i’m really feisty and passionate with my friends. hoping to get close enough with someone who is willing to be pen pals maybe. or facetime. I really want to go to Pride so if anyone is going LMK!
tumblr @jayanmu
i also have instagram and snapchat but i don’t really use instagram and snapchat is more for streaks
Also ps. i have an axolotl. i’ll send you cute photos :)
#friendship#18to25#newzealand#love#16to18#southamerica#longdistance#pansexual#australia#girl#southwest#dating#other#bisexual#florida#friends#online friends#submission
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
IT
@grotesquegabby In which (future) Davey and Cordelia learn a tiny detail about their older sister uwu
Things seemed to have been finally going better after the argument between their older sister and her boyfriend was now, fixed.
Davey and Cordelia sat together on top of one of the picnic blankets brought by their family and friends, most having agreed to meet up at the beach to hopefully have a drama-free gathering.
The siblings each ate sandwiches prepared by their mother as they watched out into the distance where the waves were. In between the waves were members of their gathering, each doing their own thing as they had fun. Somewhere in these waves was the figure Davey and Cordelia’s eyes mostly followed; this figure belonging to their older sister who was splashing water with the blue axolotl near her.
“How long till we can go back in?” Cordelia asked before taking another bite of her sandwich as Davey turned to her.
“Cordie, you’re still eating.”
“So?”
Davey shook his head before finishing his sandwich and then drinking from his soda can, setting it on the little table-like structure in between him and his sister. His eyes remained on Ula who now gave a gasp of surprise as she was drenched in seawater thanks to the band twins who had each dumped a bucket onto her. That’s when Ula turned around to scold the boys before all three broke into a laughter, Davey squinting his eyes upon a sight he had seen other times but only ever mentioned once due to the reaction he had gotten that time.
“What are you staring at?” Cordelia interrupted his thoughts, Davey now turning back to her with a shrug.
“I dunno.” Davey replied as his sister now looked back at Ula who’s back still faced them.
“Oh.” Cordelia blinked upon the sight. “W-”
“Hey we should go over there.” Davey now was the one to interrupt, taking a while before standing up and walking away.
Cordelia jumped up and ran after Davey, both now walking through the crowd of family.
“Where are you going?”Cordelia followed before Davey shrugged again. “Oh look! It’s Schrader! I didn’t see him!”
“You didn’t?”
“Nuh uh! Why is he all the way over there?” Cordelia looked puzzled as she looked at Schrader who was sitting next to Dante, both farther from the family area whilst still remaining close. “I thought he worked today.”
“Maybe Ula convinced him to come over.” Davey stated. “He would kinda do anything for her after all.”
“ ‘ Cause he still loves her! So he and A-”
“Hey Cordie! And Davey!” Dante’s voice made Cordelia stop before she ran over and hugged the boy. “Thought you guys would be swimming.”
“We went to take a snack break.” Davey responded before he sat down in between the older boys, Schrader smiling down at him.
“Hi Schrader!” Cordelia now launched herself onto Schrader who gave a bit of an ‘oof’ as a pain coursed through his back, ignoring it as to not worry Cordelia before he then returned her hug.
“Hey Cordie, how have you been?”
“Great! Things are finally better!” Cordelia exclaimed as she sat on Schrader’s lap. “Schrader, did you already eat?”
“Well-”
“He hasn’t!” Dante pouted as he lifted a finger at his friend. “He’s been sitting here all this time and keeps saying he’ll go eat something and doesn’t!”
“Schrader!” Cordelia gasped in shock. “What would Ula say!?”
At this Schrader’s smile slightly faltered before he gave a small shrug.
“You know what? You two keep him here while I go and get him a big plate of food!” Dante pet Cordelia’s head before standing up, everybody looking high up at his full height. “Make sure he doesn’t leave!”
“Okay!” Cordelia clung onto Schrader who only gave a laugh.
“Come on Cordie-”
“You do have to eat something Schrader.” Davey then added onto the conversation as he crossed his arms. “It’s not good not eating.”
“Yeah! It’s not healthy! And you might not have enough energy to go swimming!”
At the sound of this, Schrader’s smile completely disappeared as he somehow managed to turn even paler than he already was, Davey taking notice of this.
“S….S...Swim....” was all Schrader could muster up, having a hard time actually speaking in the moment.
“Maybe we can go do something else.” Davey cleared his throat before Schrader and Cordelia turned to him. “Like...visit mom’s pier. Or go to the ice cream shop just across the street.”
“But I wanna go swimming!” Cordelia gave a bit of a whine before turning to Schrader. “Right Schrader? We wanna go swimming!?”
Schrader stood still for a moment before finally shaking his head as his eyes were shut and remained that way.
“W...why?” Cordelia was now confused.
“I...I...Cordelia, I…” Schrader released a shaky breath before finally confessing as he opened his eyes. “I’m...I’m afraid of the w-w-water.”
“What!?”
“Cordelia, not to l-loud please.”
“Why are you afraid of the water?” Cordelia now leaned in to whisper as Schrader looked off into the distance where the waves were.
Pathetic. Speak up you coward!
“Um, I…” Schrader then gave a shrug as he was at a loss for words.
“Well...we don’t have to go swimming then!” Cordelia hugged Schrader again. “I’ll stay here with you and protect you! ‘Cause that’s what heroes do!”
“Heh, yeah.” Schrader nodded, finally giving a small smile as well as a sigh of relief.
All three of them looked back into the distance as Dante still had not returned, no doubt chatting up with others which was fine by Schrader.
Once again, Davey’s eyes landed on Ula who was now playing around with their mother’s so called Squishies that all surrounded her and made her look even prettier in the sunlight. And once again, Davey’s eyes landed on Ula’s back.
“Hey...Schrader?” Davey called out as he looked at Schrader who looked back at him. “When you were Ula’s boyfriend...she told you a lot of stuff, right?”
“Like, secrets?”
“I guess.”
“Well, yeah, she did. We trusted each other and all.” Schrader’s eyes then glanced at Ula, making his smile grow a bit more. “Why?”
“Did she...ever tell you about...her back?”
“Her back?”
“The stitches on her back specifically.”
“Oh yeah! That’s just a tattoo!” Cordelia chipped in rather proud of herself. “Ula told me it was a tattoo she got when she was younger!”
“Cordie, I’m so sorry to burst your bubble but...that’s not a tattoo.” Shrader sighed as his face now became more serious, his eyes looking at the line of stitches on Ula’s back. “That’s something Ula doesn’t like to talk about.”
“No way!”
“I could tell.” Davey mumbled out as he looked down at his hands on his lap. “When I asked my mom about it...she got serious and then left to her room...I can tell that she was crying.”
“It is a bad memory for a lot of your family members.” Schrader gave a nod as his gaze lowered to Cordelia. “I wouldn’t want to tell you guys about it, especially because I’m not exactly part of the family and have no right-”
“But you are part of the family! We all love and care about you!” Cordelia grabbed Schrader by the shoulders, even slightly shaking him. “So don’t say that again!”
“Okay, okay.” Schrader nodded with a soft chuckle, especially as Cordelia then sat in between his legs with her back against his chest.
“I think we’re old enough to know.” Davey opinionated. “Right…? That is our sister after all...and we’re like...the only ones who don’t know about the scar on her back…”
“Yeah, but-”
“Schrader, please tell us!” Cordelia threw her head back to look up at Schrader. “Pretty please with a cherry on top! Please please please please please-”
“Okay, okay.” Schrader fixed Cordelia. “Look, I don’t want to cause any more problems by telling you this. I need the both of you to understand that...it’s something your family doesn’t like to think about, so it’s best you don’t even bring up anything remotely correlated to it. You guys could get into trouble, I could get into trouble. I think we’ve all had enough of that, yeah?”
“Yeah…” Davey and Cordelia nodded as Schrader sighed again, both now turning to face him completely.
“Before your mother met your father, she met this disgusting thing called...Ryder. It’s a shadow like creature that you really don’t want to be around. He’s extremely dangerous, awful and he gives people nightmares...very realistic ones, especially with your worst fears.”
“Night...mares?” Davey interrupted, looking down as he remembered...the dream...nightmare with Ula...and her pink eyes. “Go on…”
“Ryder is obsessed with your mother and she was terrified of it. It lost track of her one day, but then it eventually found her. This was when your mother was pregnant with you Davey. That thing ruined everything for everybody, so Ula decided to take matters into her own hands, especially because your mother was still terrified of Ryder at that time.
“Wait...wasn’t she like...8?” Davey furrowed his eyebrows before Schrader gave a nod.
“Ula tricked him into following her into a forest where...where she nearly got him. She was so close to killing him but...she was grabbed by somebody else who tried to choke her.”
“Is that why Ula doesn't like it when people grab her neck?” Cordelia asked, Schrader nodding again. “Maybe that’s also why her throat sometimes hurts…”
“Yeah, it is. And well, one thing lead to another and before you know it, Ryder had Ula in his grasp and he…”
“No...stop…Please...I want my mama…”
“Ryder...he…”
“You fool!”
“I can’t! I r-r-really can’t!”
“Ryder tried to kill Ula in that moment…” Schrader quieted down. “He tried to...half...I…”
“Don’t worry Ula, I’ll make sure to tell your future siblings about their big sister who thought she was a hero. But you know what you really are? A doll, and that’s all you’ll ever be.”
“He gave her that scar on her back.”
“You’re no child…just a doll Jelly made because she was lonely and kept because she pitied you.”
“Do it!”
“No! I can’t!”
Schrader stopped talking as he looked down, his face darkening for a brief moment before he shut his eyes. Eventually he opened them and turned back to the siblings who watched him in concern.
“Ula is short because of that wound. Even though she grew a little, the wound stunted her growth because it damaged some wounds on her back.” Schrader finally spoke up. “So don’t let anybody make fun of her height. But knowing you guys, I know you already don’t.”
“Schrader…” Davey breathed out before nearing Schrader. “Is this Ryder thing...ever going to come back?”
“No, I highly doubt it.” Schrader shook his head before bringing both of the siblings into a comforting hug. “Your uncle Cosmos and Miss Ferry locked it up, as well as somebody else who we shouldn’t speak of. We shouldn’t speak of either of those two.”
Davey and Cordelia snuggled up against Schrader who made sure to hold them tight.
“But if it ever does, I’ll be here for you guys, okay?”
They both nodded before looking up as some of the sunlight was now blocked, two figures approaching the trio.
“Dante’s back with your food!” Cordelia pointed to the tall boy who presented the trio with more than one plate of food.
“I brought something for everybody!” Dante announced before motioning with his leg to his left. “And I also brought your sister.”
“Ula!”
“I was waiting for you guys to come back into the water.” Ula grinned at her siblings before sitting on the blanket as well, then leaning in to hug Schrader after her siblings parted from him.
Davey and Cordelia noticed as Schrader’s cheeks turned red as he was in surprise due to the gesture, then awkwardly hugging Ula back as Cordelia gave a smirk and Davey shook his head. Dante, on the other hand, nodded in approval.
“I’m glad you came.” Ula now sat next to Schrader who gave a cough and nodded.
“Yeah sure, no problem.”
Before Ula was able to say anything else, she gave a bit of a yelp as she felt arms wrap around her waist and a face bury itself onto her exposed back. She turned around and could tell that her little brother was hugging her tightly.
“Davey?” she blinked in surprise, Davey not bothering to look up or let go of Ula which only made her smile. She’d let him stay like that for as long as he desired.
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Favourite woman-directed films I saw in 2018
It’s funny because when the year started I thought I could never watch 52 films by women, considering that I usually barely watch fifty films a year, total. Then I watched 306 new-to-me films, out of which 105 were directed by women.
I saw so many good woman-directed films that I thought it would be hard to choose ten to make this list, but then I realised that I only had to include those films that absolutely blew my mind, and bam! Ten already.
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
On Body and Soul (Testről és lélekről, Ildikó Enyedi, 2017)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)
River of Grass (Kelly Reichardt, 1994)
The Midnight Swim (Sarah Adina Smith, 2014)
Raw (Grave, Julia Ducournau, 2016)
M.F.A. (Natalia Leite, 2017)
Daisies (Sedmikrásky, Věra Chytilová, 1966)
Always Shine (Sophia Takal, 2016)
Revenge (Coralie Fargeat, 2017)
Very broadly speaking, these ten can be divided into three categories. There’s gorey, imaginative, feminist genre -- Revenge, M.F.A., Raw; there’s visually and/or narratively boundary-expanding cinema -- Daisies, Always Shine, The Midnight Swim, We Need to Talk About Kevin, On Body and Soul; and then there are the indie stories about marginalised people, which might be my favourites of all -- here, River of Grass and Winter’s Bone.
When 2018 started I had only seen one film by Kelly Reichardt, and none by Debra Granik. Now they’re both among my favourite filmmakers. When I saw my first Kelly Reichardt film, years ago, I thought Wow, some people do make films about actual people. I’ve seen all of them now, and I liked all of them, but it wasn’t that hard picking River of Grass for this list -- there’s something so Carson McCullers, so Flannery O’Connor about the story, and visually it is so dreamlike.
I put Debra Granik together with Kelly Reichardt because their stories feel similar in many ways (and both feel similar to Agnès Varda’s), and seeing Winter’s Bone I was just completely blown away. It’s one of those films I would unreservedly call a masterpiece, and recommend to absolutely everyone. What places it above Leave No Trace (which I put as my number one new release of 2018) is the plot, and the ending especially, both completely surreal and mundane, like a cherry on top of spectacular acting and visuals worthy of Dorothea Lange .
Another slap in the face was We Need to Talk About Kevin. Together with a few other films in this list, it made me ponder what film can really do in terms of creating intricate, media-specific experiences that ultimately serve to provide a more rounded understanding of reality and what it means to be a person. We Need to Talk About Kevin was the first of these and probably had the biggest impact on me. Lynne Ramsay really is one of the few people with a completely unique vision.
I put Daisies, Always Shine, The Midnight Swim and On Body and Soul in the same category, although they don’t have a lot in common with each other, because they all have this aspect of visual and/or narrative boundary-pushing. It is so incredible that Daisies still feels like that to a first-time viewer today, even though it came out more than fifty years ago.
I saw Always Shine and The Midnight Swim around the same time and keep associating them in my mind for the nods to David Lynch, indie feel, and non-linear storytelling. Probably The Midnight Swim impressed me more, because it was the first time (and only, so far) that I saw a first-person narrative that looked quite like that.
On Body and Soul belongs in the same area of this mental map mainly because of the dream sequences. Before I saw it I probably would have found it impossible to talk about dreams in a way that didn’t feel recycled, but this managed just that. The juxtaposition of the wild forest animals at night with the cattle in the slaughterhouse during the day walks such a fine line between surrealism and social commentary, and the slaughterhouse sequences are all filmed with such incredible tact -- which only serves to make them more shocking.
Then there are the great genre films. Raw was fantastic, in part because it is so rare for a French person such as myself to find a French film to her liking, but also because everything about it felt so different -- it is firmly set in the horror genre, but it also draws from such a wide range of influences. M.F.A. and Revenge mirror each other in many ways, because they’re both rape-revenge films, a sub-genre I am incredibly glad and grateful that women are tackling in such interesting and challenging ways. I liked M.F.A. better, maybe, because it felt more real, and the ending better-thought-out, but if anything, I’d recommend a double-feature night to watch both.
Great films that didn’t quite make the cut, in no particular order:
Addicted to Fresno (Jamie Babbit, 2015): best sex comedy about actual grown-ups
I Think We’re Alone Now (Reed Morano, 2018): best post-apocalyptic “everyone is gone from the surface of the Earth but us” film
Ginger & Rosa (Sally Potter, 2012): best Cold-War England drama
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010) : best contemplative Western
Into the Forest (Patricia Rozema, 2015): best post-apocalyptic survivalist feminist film
Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi, Agnès Varda, 1984) : best film shot in my area of France
Khadak (Peter Brosens and Jessica Hope Woodworth, 2006): best science fiction film that takes place in Mongolia
Over time, I’m finding it easier and easier to watch more woman-directed films, both because I know where to look and because I’ll find it easier to relax and get into any genre at all when I know there’ll be infinitely less chance of rampant misogyny ruining an otherwise perfectly good film. It seems barely believable, now, to think that five years ago I didn’t know one single woman director, when clearly the quality and the variety are there, the work is there, and it stands so tall on its own.
Full 105-film list under the cut!
The Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2016)
Gas Food Lodging (Allison Anders, 1992)
Red Road (Andrea Arnold, 2006)
American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016)
A United Kingdom (Amma Asante, 2016)
Addicted to Fresno (Jamie Babbit, 2015)
The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard, 2013)
Novitiate (Maggie Betts, 2017)
Bird Box (Susanne Bier, 2018)
Blue My Mind (Lisa Brühlmann, 2017)
Daisies (Sedmikrásky, Věra Chytilová, 1966)
The Kindergarten Teacher (Sara Colangelo, 2018)
Valley Girl (Martha Coolidge, 1983)
Palo Alto (Gia Coppola, 2013)
Lick the Star (Sofia Coppola, 1998)
The Beguiled (Sofia Coppola, 2017)
17 GIrls (17 Filles, Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, 2011)
The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig, 2016)
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (Alexandra Dean, 2017)
Madeline’s Madeline (Josephine Decker, 2018)
Desert Hearts (Donna Deitch, 1985)
Raw (Grave, Julia Ducournau, 2016)
On Body and Soul (Testről és lélekről, Ildikó Enyedi, 2017)
Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015)
Revenge (Coralie Fargeat, 2017)
The Spy Who Dumped Me (Susanna Fogel, 2018)
Deidra and Laney Rob a Train (Sydney Freeland, 2017)
Twinsters (Samantha Futerman and Ryan Miyamoto, 2015)
The Trader (Sovdagari, Tamta Gabrichidze, 2018)
The Lifeguard (Liz W. Garcia, 2013)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017)
They (Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, 2017)
Tig (Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York, 2015)
The Deuce of Spades (Faith Granger, 2011)
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
Leave No Trace (Debra Granik, 2018)
Casting JonBenet (Kitty Green, 2017)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 1982)
Axolotl Overkill (Helene Hegemann, 2017)
The Firefly (La Luciérnaga, Ana Maria Hermida, 2015)
Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman, 2017)
The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015)
The Land of Steady Habits (Nicole Holofcener, 2018)
Slums of Beverly Hills (Tamara Jenkins, 1998)
Private Life (Tamara Jenkins, 2018)
The Quiet Hour (Stéphanie Joalland, 2014)
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson, 2016)
By the Sea (Angelina Jolie, 2015)
Sweet Bean (あん, An, Naomi Kawase, 2015)
Lovesong (So Yong Kim, 2016)
I Feel Pretty (Abby Kohn, 2018)
Radius (Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard, 2017)
Irreplaceable You (Stephanie Laing, 2018)
The Feels (Jenée LaMarque, 2017)
Breathe (Respire, Mélanie Laurent, 2014)
Galveston (Mélanie Laurent, 2018)
Octavio is Dead! (Sook-Yin Lee, 2018)
M.F.A. (Natalia Leite, 2017)
Aloft (Claudia Llosa, 2014)
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (Jodie Markell, 2008)
A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)
Dude (Olivia Milch, 2018)
The Dressmaker (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 2015)
I Think We’re Alone Now (Reed Morano, 2018)
Woodshock (Kate and Laura Mulleavy, 2017)
Girl Asleep (Rosemary Myers, 2015)
Tout ce qui brille (Géraldine Nakache and Hervé Mimran, 2010)
I Am Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni, 2017)
Ginger & Rosa (Sally Potter, 2012)
Beneath the Harvest Sky (Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly, 2013)
Angels Wear White (嘉年华, Vivian Qu, 2017)
Cargo (Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke, 2017)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)
You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay, 2017)
River of Grass (Kelly Reichardt, 1994)
Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt, 2006)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, 2013)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
Into the Forest (Patricia Rozema, 2015)
Before I Fall (Ry Russo-Young, 2017)
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (Lorene Scafaria, 2012)
The Riot Club (Lone Scherfig, 2014)
Cracks (Jordan Scott, 2009)
Everything Beautiful is Far Away (Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson, 2017)
Waitress (Adrienne Shelly, 2007)
Laggies (Lynn Shelton, 2014)
Outside In (Lynn Shelton, 2017)
Berlin Syndrome (Cate Shortland, 2017)
Lipstick Under My Burkha (Alankrita Shrivastava, 2016)
The Midnight Swim (Sarah Adina Smith, 2014)
Buster’s Mal Heart (Sarah Adina Smith, 2016)
The Lure (Córki dancingu, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2015)
Always Shine (Sophia Takal, 2016)
Shirkers (Sandi Tan, 2018)
Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong (Emily Ting, 2015)
Kedi (Ceyda Torun, 2016)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7, Agnès Varda, 1962)
Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi, Agnès Varda, 1984)
Love, Cecil (Lisa Immordino Vreeland, 2018)
Jupiter Ascending (The Wachowskis, 2015)
Mr. Roosevelt (Noël Wells, 2017)
Woman Walks Ahead (Susanna White, 2017)
Khadak (Peter Brosens and Jessica Hope Woodworth, 2006)
Salesman (Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 1969)
36 notes
·
View notes
Text
Thank You.
thank you to ellie/ @amamiyakitagawa, who found me from balvaan AO3, became my tumblr friend, then my wifey, encouraged me to stream, and stuck with me since the beginning, since night one on 7/11/17, when i was delirious with joy at the remake and sitting in some german family’s mansion basement with a TV the size of my ass, dogsitting idiot labradoodles and axolotls; for staying in streams for hours on end whether it was just us or not. for making me laugh, and indulging in all my stupid headcanons, and being general garbage with me. your presence in my stream throughout this past year speaks volumes and i love you too bitch.
a HUGE huge thank you to @airknight, who also has tuned in since night one, staying for hours on end as well. who was a constant goldmine of information throughout, who helped me patiently through the great crystal, through everything else imaginable, who always showed up to the stream with a friendly disposition even to weird randos that showed up, and who always had something nice to say.
thank you to @chaoticrice, my fellow XII streamer, rarepair lover of dalmscan orphan babs/their archadian bf’s, my fellow fic writer, and good friend. i’m glad you decided to stream too, and look forward to more of your streams. thanks for making it to tonight’s stream even though you were at a baby shower, lmao.
thank you @livvyplaysfinalfantasy, who kept my love for the game alive in 2011/2012 when you started documenting your XII playthrough, and have remained my internet pal ever since. i enjoyed your presence in my streams and your constant source of lore. it’s weird to think how long we’ve followed each other! lol
i wish i could describe the joy i felt on the first night i played the remake. it was really monumental to me. there aren’t a lot of Things i look forward to and it was so refreshing to have that excitement. i’m not a particularly giddy person but i fell asleep that night after 5 hours (y’all really stuck around for five hours and i love you for being a part of that, ellie/izzie/vik/spud/feeny) with a smile on my face. i didn’t even think that was possible. thinking about it still makes me emotional: i was so happy, not just because of the game, but because of you guys. i couldn’t keep myself away from the game, but also, from sharing that excitement with those who tuned in. who talked. who watched. it almost became lonely to play by myself. it was nice to play with other people to talk to.
thank you to the friends that have stuck with me, popping in and out. the game took me long enough to finish, with bouts of Moods that kept me away from it weeks to months at a time. but no matter what, it never changed that i always loved playing this game, and it was amazing to be able to document it through my first ever attempt at streaming, since july 11th.
my two fondest memories (aside from the first night), i think (though this one is hardly a memory), is getting blackout drunk and failing miserably at the captain basch stream. feeny and ellie and izzie were there to witness it, and idk, that was just so hilarious to me, in concept. because i literally don’t remember that much of it. (i was so mortified by the stream footage i deleted it, a regret i now have.)
my second fondest memory is doing archades with ellie and @carnsy, doing the chop quest and making cracky jokes, JULES E_E, and headcanons. it was just us three in that stream in the middle of the night (for me), but it was really, really fun. that’s all that matters.
to be able to chat about headcanons on stream and joke about ships, that’s just...really cool that i was able to do that, and i’m in awe that you all stuck around, through my weird voice and lisps and bad cockney accents.
streaming this has helped give me a spark of joy and i laughed a lot. i can only hope to keep doing it with other games and would love for you to join me, old friends and new, if i play something you’re into.
i don’t know why this game stuck with me so much. all i know is that it did. the fact i draw so much inspiration from balthier and vaan, and xii’s window into ivalice in general, certainly helps. i hope that something else hits me the way this game does, because we aren’t getting a remake of a remake, lol. they did such an amazing job on it, and i am so happy i got to tell the director/producer that in person at PAX east 2017.
this game has helped me make so many good friends (Ellie, Izzie, Vik, Spud, Tori, Raze, Jay, Sovaz, Carn, Mike, Vivi). im so glad i made it to share that excitement, joy, constant yelling about headcanons, au’s, ship bullshit, and my writing - my writing, which i haven’t honestly done since 2008, until this game came out. my writing, which i still struggle with a lot, but i really really hope to have some good stuff this year, and i hope to become better. this game is my muse. it’s hard to believe i hadn’t written in nearly nine years until it came out again, but it really has been that long. and i’m so glad that i asked in july if anyone wanted to watch me stream it - having never thought about it before - and getting the response i did. i know i took an age and a half to beat it. thanks so much for those who stuck around, or were even just a part of the first couple weeks, as that joy is still so fresh in my memory and heart. for those who joined in mid-journey. for those who made me laugh. thank you. the ffxii-the-remix tag may be finished but i will continue to be garbage on this blog for the game, and my ship.
and to the followers of this blog that have dealt with my shit, thank you too. thanks for every like and reblog. i see them all <3
anyway time for new game plus bye
#rememberbhujerba
#what do you mean there are other video games#god i hope i didnt forget anyone#friends#me tag#ffxii the remix#rememberbhujerba
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
DAY 0: The Marooning / PROTEUS
Welcome to the Bridge.
Across 3,500 miles of deep blue ocean, this marvel of human engineering and perseverance stands tall and proud. Weathering every storm, watching over the briny depths, waiting for visitors to come and make their lonely journey.
For years, this glorious Bridge has been neglected. The road itself has fallen into disrepair; the twenty watchtowers designed to provide safety and solace to travelers have largely been abandoned... until now, when eighteen brave castaways set forth on a mission to reclaim the Bridge from the grip of the elements.
These brave souls will face a series of trials and mysteries like no other. Over the next 39 days, they will not only battle the sea and the beautiful monstrosities it holds. They must also battle each other - for although eighteen are setting out on this journey, only one will prevail over the elements and their competitors to be crowned the Sole Survivor. The rest... well, let’s just say it’s not uncommon to find things abandoned along the bridge, left to become wild and desolate. Left alone, far away from civilization, where no one can hear them scream.
And with that, it’s time to meet our first group of castaways.
TEAM PROTEUS
Named for one of the oldest and most venerable sea gods, Team Proteus symbolizes the elusive, powerful, and constantly changing nature of the ocean below us. These castaways will always wear purple, and will seek to create their own legend; may it last long after the waves have washed them away.
KATIE | she/her
Hey I’m katie I’m excited to play this game... please don’t add to my trust issues!
LINUS | he/him
I know some people have higher IQ then me but at the age of 13 and having a IQ of 150 I don't think it's that easy to find someone smarter then me that's around my age or even older then me, as well as I only call idiots people who are dumber then me, plus I'm not famous because I keep the fact that I have such a high IQ and even told my friend not to tell people, plus the fact that I don't want to be famous, I'm not being a bitch, just don't want to deal with irritating idiots.
ZOE | she/her
hello i am zoe, i am 24 and much like a sea otter, i like small rocks. you may find me on the couch with my dog, or at the computer with my cat. i am filled with love for kind people, especially our incredible host ari. okay goodnight
JENNA | she/her
Hi I’m Jenna! My favorite monster is the one that cries blood and sings
RHEA | she/her
hi I’m Rhea a former survivor nerd who is now old and jaded by her adult job!! looking for purpose in these dark time and maybe i’ll find it here in aqualand 💙
ALEX | he/they
Hey, I’m Alex, from Niagara Falls! They/he pronouns, please! I don’t think I’m a very exciting person, but I like to cook and I live with two cats that like to Scream. I like drinks that are sweet, and food that’s savory, I’m also chronically depressed, and love axolotls! I have 4 older siblings, and 4 niblings that all mean the world to me. I’m grateful for this opportunity, and I’m so excited to meet everyone!
MJ | he/him
hi! my name is mj. i love bradley cooper. my favorite sea creature is a jellyfish. stream cornerstone (live) by arctic monkeys on spotify
ALLYN | she/her
My name is Allyn and this is my second survivor season ever! I last played in 2014, where I met Ari. I am super excited for this interesting theme, and look forward to making new friends and playing the game :)
ROSE | she/her
hi i'm rose i'm from ohio and i love whales and also birds! i'm scared of deep water but would love to work on a boat in the ocean some day. i'm excited to see how this adventure will go!
0 notes
Text
∞ Heiress ∞
The seadweller was far too lonely. She didn't know what to do about it either. She didn't want to disobey Astril. Her violetblood guardian took care of the affairs of the kingdom, as she was only six sweeps of age. Even if she were considered mature enough for the job, that meant nothing in the scheme of things. Humming, she tapped her fingers against the desk at which she sat, her nails carving nicks into the pearlescent surface.
Her lusus wasn't around to offer her any comfort, and that meant that she was left without her only companion. She didn't know whether she was allowed to go above the surface, given the seadwellers' amphibious natures. Astril had always frowned upon the affairs of the lowbloods that made the land their home.
Then again, Cirlun knew that her troll guardian wasn't the most even-tempered, and when she was younger - regardless of her already young age, younger in terms of maturity - she had even thought that Astril was one to be feared. She knew now that that had been rather naive of her, to think that her 'mother' was scary. Astril was simply inexperienced when it came to caring for others, and she had little in the way of a maternal instinct.
Her lusus had been staying away from her far more than she had previously been, and it worried her. The axolotl was one of the only things that kept her from shrinking into despair, from realising what crippling loneliness she held within her. She had not yet found someone who would play the game with her, she realised, as her eyes swept to land on the black disc-sleeves that she hid from view. They were only visible if one knew to look for them. She had always been good at hiding things, whether they be emotions or physical objects. They were hers, but only because she had stolen them away from Astril in a moment of boredom and defiance.
She knew that her guardian had no use for them, and was simply keeping them away from Cirlun so that she didn't have access to them. Being a child, though, she didn't expect nor know of the dangers that lay inside the simple discs. That session of the game, Sgrub, held too many errors ands glitches. The Omega Session had been destroyed in all timelines but her own. To go into it would be akin to suicide.
For this reason it was somewhat fortunate that Cirlun had no friends, and certainly not two that would fulfil the 'cardinal aspects', Space and Time. She had been told and taught to obey whatever anyone asked of her, as she knew only those who lived under the sea. Violet and fuchsia reigned, and she was the only fuchsiablood in her timeline, at least to her knowledge. Yet she saw a violetblood as her rightful superior, despite knowing that she was higher and better in terms of the trolls' somewhat warped, unequal caste system.
Cirlun stood from the desk, knocking over the chair in which she sat with a soft sigh, then going to pick it up. Astril... didn't care, yet cared too much. Their relationship was strained. She hated that, and wished for the closeness that a so-called human 'mother' would have provided. Her fingers brushed against the carefully glazed wood of the chair, and she roused herself from thought, staring at everything around her.
This palace she lived in, this grandiose hive that she had always inhabited, wasn't even her own. Everything screamed one fact at her so loud it was as if it had a real voice: "You don't belong here. Astril is the rightful Empress." Even her room had purple drapery. She knew in her heart that she wouldn't have survived grubhood and been old enough to build her own, and the sheltered life she had lived was simply to ensure that there was a fuchsiablooded troll to rule. With nothing but violetbloods in the sea, there would have surely been total anarchy. The purplebloods were the highest landdwellers, but their... tendencies would render them incompetent rulers. So she was forced to survive.
Cirlun wanted to go out, to explore the world and be happy. She wasn't satisfied with what she had, although it seemed selfish. Here, she only found true happiness when she was hunting. When she was out of the walls of the palace. Still, the young troll felt the walls were closing in, and the water that provided for her was drowning her.
She looked up at the disc-sleeves again, a small voice in her head telling her to play it. To bring something new into her life, even if she didn't fully understand the rules presented by the game. The consequences would be all too dire if she were to somehow get into a session, the session, on her own. She would not only doom those in the timeline in which she resided. Her choices would effect the game and anyone else within it.
She dug her too-sharp nails into her arms as a distraction. Without her lusus to protect her from her every whim, she needed to do anything in her power to keep herself away from that dangerous, disobedient action. Her mind roamed, however, and further pulled her into temptation. She was wondering what consequence would possibly be worth giving up for her first taste of true freedom.
Again, her naivety worked against her. And some, those who knew her not, would have called the seadweller a mature troll.
Cirlun was anything but.
She had begun to pace, mind reeling. In her head, she saw an idealistic future, and imagined having influence of her own actions. Of what she could do if she acquired freedom. It was too much to give up, even if it turned out to be falsehood. Cirlun tired of everything she had in the palace.
So, with a numb hand and finally blank mind, she reached to one of the discs, inviting the void within her soul to reach out and consume her.
0 notes
Text
The Stand-In Part 1
A/N: Hey guys! I’m doing something a little different today by breaking off of my prompt list. This is going to be one of my own stories! It’s an AU inspired by the statement:
She hated blind dates, but little did she know this would be her last one.
This is only the first part so it’s a little slow but I promise the later parts will be better! I hope you guys enjoy it!
Pairing: Firefighter!DeanXReader
Warnings: I don’t think I have any for this part, but maybe some in the future.
Word count: 1546
Series Masterlist
My Masterlist
~
She sighs to herself miserably, swirling her straw in her soda absently.
As if to remind her of her suffering, the clock looming in front of her strikes eight.
A whole two hours since the dick that had messaged her was supposed to meet her.
She bites her bottom lip and, not for the first time, checks her messages to make sure that she hadn’t gotten something wrong by accident.
Meet me at six at IHOP? Christian says you like pancakes.
She turns her phone over in her hands, vowing to kick Christian in the dick the next time she sees him.
He had said that this guy was cool, nice, funny even. And tall, with dark hair and light eyes. Serious, with his priorities straight and a good head on his shoulders. A stable nine-to-five job with the means to provide for a woman. The abs and biceps would be an added touch, too.
“Just your type” is what Christian had said he was.
So, albeit reluctantly, she had agreed to a blind date with Lucas. She didn’t like blind dates, in fact she hated them. She insisted that they were a means for an easy kidnapping, but she was in a little part of town that knew her well and would notice her if she went missing.
And Lucas didn’t seem like the type to ruin a blind date. It was a nice name, she had told herself.
But that’s what she said about all the guys Christian set her up with.
That if Christian was a friend, they must not be too bad.
Of course, none of them had ever stood her up, though. Maybe Lucas was too good to be true.
Maybe her ideal man didn’t exist. She didn’t think it was too much to ask, because she had seen a lot of guys who could fit into the category.
Basically, her only requirements were to be taller than her and be a nice person. Didn’t seem like too much to ask, but then Lucas comes to mind.
She looks up when she hears the bell tinkle over the door a few feet away. She feels silly, but she’s looked up every single time it’s rang, hoping against all hope that maybe Lucas would show up with a somewhat decent apology.
The man that holds her gaze is about the only person that she can say for sure isn’t Lucas.
He’s shorter, probably only a few inches taller than her, and he has some tousled brown hair. He isn’t wearing glasses, like she had been told Lucas did, and she hated to judge a book by its cover, but she could say almost with certainty that this guy didn’t have a desk job.
He does have a few qualities that stand out to her, like his bright green eyes or his biceps just peeking out of his tee shirt. What really catches her attention is his legs, covered by a pair of dark wash jeans that just hug his thighs perfectly.
He’s nothing like her type, and yet she finds herself deciding that maybe he’s a type of his own. One of those lucky few that was just gorgeous enough to make her realize that even if he didn’t fit her ideal guy, he was still an ideal guy.
She catches his eye and she knows that he’s just seen her checking him out. His lips curl upwards, and she decides right then that his best asset is that killer smile.
Her cheeks fade pink as he strides to her, her entire assessment taking little over a few seconds.
“You look lonely,” he says confidently, rapping twice on the wooden table. “Mind if I sit?”
“No, go ahead,” she gestures to the booth in front of her that has been empty for a couple of hours.
“You waiting for someone?” he asks, cocking his head to the side slightly.
“I was,” she answers vaguely, hoping that he won’t ask because she doesn’t really feel like explaining it all, especially not to a stranger.
A hot stranger that probably couldn’t care less about her woes.
“Now what asshole in their right mind would think about standing you up?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.
“I dunno, just a friend of a friend,” she shrugs, taking a drink of her soda to occupy herself so that she won’t drool over the fine specimen in front of her.
“How long have you been waiting, Sweetheart?” he asks, ordering a soda from the waitress that stops by.
“Two hours,” she admits quietly, watching his eyebrows raise. She wants to drop the topic before he realizes that something must be wrong for her to have been stood up and have waited so long. “You don’t look like a soda guy.”
“I’m not, usually,” he grins that killer smile, and she has to look away for a moment to calm her nerves. “I prefer a good beer any day. But I’m on call tonight, covering for a friend.”
“That’s nice of you,” she says, looking up as the waitress brings him his soda.
“You gonna eat? I’m starving,” he says, and she feels her cheeks fade slightly pink again.
She isn’t sure if she should just go with it, because she’s lucky as fuck that this gorgeous Adonis would stop and talk to her, much less want to sit and eat dinner with her, but she doesn’t even know his name.
“Sure,” she finally agrees, and he gives her a little smile, not quite as overpowering as the others but still enough to make her stomach lurch.
“I’ll have a tall stack of blueberry pancakes and a side of bacon,” he states to the waitress, who seems happy to have finally received some of his attention.
“Okay, and for the lady?” she asks, maintaining her cheerfulness as if she is barely fazed by this man.
“Um, the red velvet pancakes, nothing else,” she says, knowing that if Lucas hadn’t stood her up that would’ve been her order.
“Awesome, I’ll have that out soon,” the perky waitress states before walking away.
“I don’t even know your name and I’m eating dinner with you,” she tells him, to see if he realizes how this is actually playing out. It’s like a plot from a bad romance novel, and she can’t believe it’s happening.
“Dean,” he offers, winking at her. “But you can call me yours if you want.”
Her mouth opens slightly to release a small sound of disbelief. Did he really just say that to her?
“O-Oh,” she finally manages to stutter out. “Dean, nice to meet you.”
“You don’t have to be so shy,” he states with a half grin. “Just think of it like a blind date, and we’re just meeting each other.”
“A blind date, sure I can do that,” she nods quickly. “I’ve done plenty of those.”
“And you’re still single?” he asks, giving her quick once over. “What’s wrong with you?”
She laughs lightly, taking another drink of her soda to occupy herself. She finally manages to calm her scrambled brain down some.
It’s just a cute guy flirting with her, that’s all.
“Not sure. Maybe it’s because I scared them off with my knowledge of axolotls,” she finally says, sensing a way to turn this conversation to a topic she can actually contribute to.
“To what?” he asks. “You had to have made that up.”
“No! They’re really cute!” she gushes, flipping her phone over to show him her lock screen. “I spent three years researching them working on my masters degree. The filaments on their gills aid them in gas exchange with the environment, and before they were classified as endangered people would eat them.”
“Wow, looks kinda strange,” he states, glancing back up to her. “I can definitely see why all those guys left. They couldn’t date a girl smarter than them.”
“Oh,” she frowns slightly, wondering if he was implying something.
“I meant that in the best way possible,” he says quickly, noticing her sudden closing off. “It’s just that some guys find smart girls intimidating. I think it’s hot. I didn’t mean to offend you in any way.”
“Oh,” she says, but she’s definitely more hesitant now. She isn’t sure if it was an honest mistake with his wording or if it was a test to see her reaction to a statement like that.
“Tell me more about these weird little axo… whatevers,” he says with a small smile. “I’d love to hear what you did your research on.”
“Axolotls,” she states quietly, looking up to his deep green eyes. “I’m sure it would just bore you.”
“Not if it’s coming from your pretty lips,” he says with a small smirk. “You seem really into them. Makes me want to know more.”
“About me or about my research?” she asks him, watching him settle back with a smile.
“How about both?” he asks, and just then the waitress brings their food out.
“So, let’s start with the axolotls,” he states, smiling at her as he picked up his fork and knife.
“And then?” she asks, her cheeks darkening at his interest in her work.
“Then we get to you. And I am definitely getting a number when we get there.”
~
Tell me what you thought!
#spn fluff#supernatural#spn dean#spn imagine#spn#dean#dean winchester#dean fluff#dean smut#part 1#sam winchester#castiel#love#romance#au#cute#Melanie-writes-supernatural
217 notes
·
View notes
Text
A Benchful of Memories (Abandoned)
Chapter 3 - Untitled (Contains the final outline)
(Previous) (Last)
Once you get the okay from your human nurse, you dress up and head out to the park. With a backpack filled with your essentials, you slowly make your way to your favorite bench, only to find someone already sitting there. The sunlight makes the white of the bones shine brighter when you realize that ah, it’s the skeleton from before.
What was his name again? Um, something with an S you think.
Ah, well, it doesn’t really matter right now. He probably doesn’t remember you anyway. You’ve only met like, once? And that was maybe a few days ago? You don’t think you made a lasting impression anyway.
As you sit down, he cracks an eye socket open (how?) and watches as you set the backpack down next to your feet.
“Well, didn’t expect to see ya so soon.” Welp, he remembers you. Just avoid saying his name and maybe you’ll be okay?
“Me neither honestly. I didn’t think you’d come back to this park.”
“Heh.” He closes his eye socket and slumps a bit. “‘s nice and quiet. Like it here. Why are you back?”
“I come here pretty often. I like it here too.”
“Somethin’ we have in common then.”
“Yup.” He doesn’t say anything else after that, so you bend down to pick through your backpack and grab a sheet of origami paper. As you sit there making a tulip, the skeleton starts to snore.
Loudly.
...how?
He doesn’t have a nose. You blink slowly before shaking your head. He’s a magic skeleton, he can do whatever he wants no matter how anatomically impossible it should be. The fact that he’s even being held together by nothing but magic should be enough proof. As you finish the tulip and move on to make a lily, you start wondering more about your bench buddy.
...
..
.
And that’s the end of that chapter lol.
HERE’S THE OUTLINE! It’s been a year since I last touched this, so like, bear with me.
A Brief Introduction to the OCs:
Rajena (rah-jen-ah):
Based off of axolotls
Kind, bubbly nurse who has mediocre healing powers. She specializes mainly in studying souls.
Her name is based off of the word “regenerate”, mainly the first few syllables of the word
This is due to the axolotls ability to regenerate severed limbs (don’t actually hurt these babies tho)
Importance: she was supposed to be the Insert’s voice of hope, someone who could encourage them
Supposed to grow extremely close to the Insert
Comforts the Insert when the ~scene~ happens
The only one who can tell how long the Insert has since she is the only one with permission to see the Insert’s soul
Which is why she tries hard to foster hope (HP) inside the Insert
(SPOILERS) it doesn’t work out in the end
Miss Millie:
Nurse in charge of Insert - most likely a character based around JUSTICE
Southern flair; she’s a very tough but loving person
The mother figure that Insert never had
Wants to exhibit righteous anger but can’t
Has known Insert for a long time - they were admitted at a young age due to an unspecific disease that made them highly susceptible to catching viruses and made them ill easily = hereditary
Most likely a fake disease - I derived inspiration from one of the characters in Persona 3 (both are very different however)
She very much wants to see the Insert live a normal life if possible, so she encourages Insert to go out and make friends - enter monsters
She wants to protect Insert for various reasons
Leads to a moment where she accidentally brings up the hopes of Insert, only to let Insert’s hopes be crushed horribly
Kelsy:
The female cousin - I forget what soul aspect she was based off of, and reverse searching the name isn’t coming up. But I’m gonna take a guess and think it was BRAVERY
I think they were supposed to be twins? Kelsy would be the elder
She and her brother are super close with Insert
She will get into fights on the behalf of Insert, especially when it comes to Insert’s parents
She hates Insert’s parents
The other half of the reason why Insert’s hopes get destroyed
Ben:
The male cousin - I forget once more, but he is either KINDNESS or PERSEVERANCE
The smarter of the twins, and definitely the more calmer
While he’s the more rational half, he tends to fail in actually making sure his sister stays under control when she gets too passionate or emotional
This leads to an outburst that Insert overhears that makes them do very reckless things
Teaches Insert things because he wants Insert to get a taste of school life, even if it’s a shoddy imitation
Wants the best for Insert
Hates Insert’s parents as well
Younger Sister:
She had a name, but I don’t remember what I was gonna call her, nor the aspect she was gonna be focused around
Was supposed to resemble the life that Insert wish they had
A complicated relationship with their parents
Tries very hard to be there for her sibling, but ultimately fails in bringing about the one thing they want
Loves the origami crafts - the one who suggested they do it actually
Originally just stuck around Insert out of pity and obligation but grew to love her sibling due to the patience they exhibited for her
Their parents are not that patient
Blames herself
The Parents:
Think of Insert as a burden
Still pays the hospital bills and gives Insert an allowance regardless
Focuses mainly on the younger sister as a result
Never gives Insert the attention and validation they crave
AND FINALLY THE OUTLINE:
Basically Sans and Insert meet up whenever the skies are clear and the weather is deemed “good” in a way that won’t wreck the Insert’s health
They chat about Paps, the rest of the gang, Insert’s cousins and sister and nurses
One day Paps meets them, and they all get along swimmingly
Paps suggests that they one day eat dinner together
“I WILL MAKE MY SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI! IT WILL BE AMAZING, HUMAN!”
Reveals that they practically live at the hospital and can’t really go out that far
Pap shouts “NONSENSE!” and brings the party to their hospital room
Millie gets excited when they visit - friends!
Younger sister gets properly introduced a chapter later
Sans and Insert continue to bond over things
Insert reveals why they’re so into origami
They heard of a story once about a girl who was supposed to make a wish after making 1000 paper cranes
The sad part was that she died before making them all
They lend him the book, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”
It was the one gift that they got from their parents that they cherish
Sans learns more about the destructive history of humans and how innocents can easily die from things they didn’t deserve to get
Insert reveals that they love flowers, but because they always die, they’ve resorted to making origami flowers to not only pass the time, but to replace the real flowers in their room
Less death to clean up
Sis and Kelsy get into a fight about the parents
Sis tries to defend them stating they’re just busy, but Kelsy gets upset and says that they’re just avoiding Insert because they don’t want to deal with them
This argument starts to escalate, and Ben ends up forcing Kelsy and himself to leave before it gets out of hand
Sis cries and Insert apologizes
Once Sis leaves, Rajena and Insert have a talk
HP has been declining, and Rajena has been getting worried
The truth comes out: “Honestly? I’m just waiting to just... you know, die. It’ll be easier on everyone. On my family. My friends. I mean, all of us can tell. I’m not gonna live long. And. That’s. Okay. No one lives forever after all. I’m just... a burden. It’ll be better if I just died already.”
Yeah that’s right they’re patiently waiting for death. It’s why they’ve never actively looked for friends or started any relationships - they saw it as a pointless endeavor that would only serve to hurt more people. Why create more pain when they should strive to minimize?
This also implies that they can be self-destructive - there are moments where they “forget” to take their meds, or purposely do things that can actively harm their health in the efforts of speeding up their death, not because they are impatient, but because they don’t want to make anyone else wait any longer than they have to
This is very worrying, but before Rajena can do anything about it, she gets called away to care for another patient
Insert realizes that they are lonely. They accept it.
On a day with Sans, he realizes some of these self-destructive tendencies - notices that Insert isn’t very careful around streets, easily gets cuts or scratches from the outdoors and doesn’t care to clean them when they are in a state in which infections are easy to get, etc etc
He’s gotten close enough to them that he does care if they get sick, knowing their disposition
Casually steers them away from hurting themselves, making comments about how they’re not gonna get any sharper by hanging out with those thorns, or that sidewalks prefer if they walk on them, and not at their sides despite what their name may imply
Eventually just keeps them from moving too far from his side since it’s easier to keep them from doing stupid things by having them not stray too far from him
Coaxes out more info from them
Wishes to one day see the stars, but they can’t leave the hospital at night
He says that one day, he’ll help and bring the stars to them instead - it makes Insert laugh
Insert meets the rest of the monster gang
Fun and happy times! The humans and monsters grow closer, Sans and Insert more so since they start trading books, discuss dreams and wishes, maybe even reveal their insecurities
Sans fears repetition and waking up to Groundhogs day, that everything will have lost meaning and that nothing he does will change that
Insert wants validation and affection from their parents, fears being a burden, wonders why they were born
They both promise to be there for the other if something goes bad
Sans reveals that he’s been going on walks because Paps told him to get exercise - that’s how he meets Insert
Turns out that he’s been adjusting pretty badly to the Aboveground - hasn’t been going out much as a result
The park was the closest thing near his house
Insert allowed him to chill and not be bothered
Then they started to talk
Origami was productive and made him feel like he was accomplishing something
The books were interesting and led to discussions he missed having
Insert helped bring about a pattern that got him active again
Around this time is when they both start to crush on the other, but they never admit it
Things have been going pretty good
Gradually getting excited to live life
Time for Insert’s b-day
Excited because even their parents come for their bday usually
Sis and Millie gets them pumped up
Everyone comes
except for parents
Insert waits for them to come through the door
And waits
And waits
The day is almost over
Kelsy calls the parents outside the room and ends up getting into an argument that turns into a yelling fest
Ben doesn’t move to stop her in time
“What do you mean you can’t come visit them?! They are your child!”
“You can’t just fucking say that-!”
“THEY’VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!”
“YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE THEM HERE!”
“YOU CAN’T SAY THAT ABOUT THEM!”
Yeah they hear everything
Their mind fills in the blanks and they quickly spiral into despair
Unwanted unneeded unnecessary burden no-good-child no one loves you a child no mother loves you worthless why do you exist go away you’re just dragging everyone down how could you say you love them when you’re making them suffer stop it stop it just stop breathing you can’t do anything right can’t even die fast enough they’d be happier if you just-
Visiting hours are over, everyone has to leave
There’s a thunderstorm the next day - Insert sneaks out by breaking their window and leaving through there
Chaos, no one knows where they are and how long they’ve managed to stay out
Sans comes to visit but meets a distraught Rajena
He finds them some time later, hunched over and crying next to the bench
They’re wet, cold, and already sneezing and coughing
He tries to get them to move, but they refuse to
Teleportation powers
They scream and thrash at him when they end up at the hospital
He dodges of course
He talks them down from their hysteria
Hugs and comforts
“You’re not worthless. You’re an irreplaceable being, y’know? Don’t need nobody to give you a reason to live. You just gotta. Because no one else can be you. Plus, you make lots of people happy.”
“Like who?”
“Like me.”
“...I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothin’ to apologize for. It’s not your fault all of this happened.”
They end up getting reaaaally sick
They can’t go out anymore
Everyone visits as much as they can
Slowly getting better but then
Uuhhh parent drama happens and it stresses them the fuck out and ends up making them worse
Parents low-key tell them to just expire already
High School Level Despair
But Sans helps them get through it because they promised right
But they’re HP has taken a fuckton of hits already
Rajena is doing the best she can but by now it’s just prolonging the inevitable
They end up bedridden with one HP and declining health
Doctors conclude that it was bound to happen soon anyways - no they are not being heartless, they’re just as sad
“Memento mori, right?”
But Insert doesn’t want to die now, because they have Sans and Rajena and their cousins and sister and friends, they have hopes and dreams and things they wanna do, and now they can’t do that because they decided to purposely fuck up their health
They break down, and Sans can’t do anything but hug them tight
Gradually, they come to terms with their regret and knows that they can’t change their actions
Chooses however to not blame anyone, or themselves
“On the bright side, I kinda got to decide how I died, right? Dying because of the rain, it has a romantic sort of sense to it.”
“There’s nothing romantic about dying, though.”
“...Haha. Yeah, you’re right.”
They end up crying together
Rajena notes their declining health once more, and ends studying their soul - everyone knows why
They all gather for one last get to together in the hospital room
It’s all games and origami and marathons and pizza and laughter and fun
Sans is oddly detached in a way, but he slips Insert a note saying he’s got one last thing for them
INSERT LAST CHAPTER
oh yeah Sans’ nickname for the insert, Bud, is a pun on the fact that they really love flowers, he considers them a friend, and a bud is like, a baby flower. lol
#incomplete work#undertale#sans (undertale)#self insert#original characters#hgklaOIJFKLASDF#that's a lot of words#the ocs actually had a lot more to do but we all know that the real meat of sans/reader fics are the romance aspect
1 note
·
View note
Last Seen Blogs
