Hermit a Day May: Day 20, Gem, Personification of Luck!

And here's her full portrait without the text and background:

a small compilation of some of my favourite dredge fish

gem said "stop drawing me cottagecore" and i said yes ma'am right away ma'am. 22.02.2024

Selkie AU

Ok so on discord we went off. A lot of this is just paraphrasing or copy pasted from buddies hii guys. It’s honestly a fun concept to play with no matter how you turn it around~ I’ll start off with the version I drew these doodles for but it’s all under the cut because it got so long... There’s also always place for different flavors like if they realize the other’s a selkie immediately or over time, etc etc so this is all just food for thought. Marcille is always the instigator though lol, obsessed with him no matter the universe. As a selkie wants to learn more about this human and as a researcher is chasing after this secretive mysterious sea-guy while he very much tries to escape everyone’s attention.

Fisherman Chil & selkie Marcille

Old sad fisherman Chilchuck… He drinks out at sea even. Divorcee dad who’s got nothing waiting for him on land anymore. He’s on the sea every day to get fish to sell at the wet market or to the butcher, the sky and sea’s grey and everything’s dull and tedious. Seals are nothing special either. The only stuff he knows about selkies really could have some selkie storybooks he reads to his daughters. Meanwhile selkie Marcille… You could go a lot of different routes I feel. You know I feel like being a selkie fits with Marcille and her mom, with that interaction of "you’ll have to let others go and deal with that", like in this AU she’ll always be different and will have to leave people behind for the sea eventually here and there and whatnot…

Chilchuck and worksongs... Fisherman Chilchuck singing sea shanties while selkie Marcille sings her songs of the sea and then she hears him and gets curious and follows him back on land or something…… Tries to blend in with humans just so she’s like. What’s his deal. But them only meeting out at sea is very cute as well. Eventually she gets on his boat and they hang out. Melancholic psychological horror sea tragedy-romance would be fun idk. Maybe he starts hearing a woman sing out at sea randomly and thinks it’s the alcohol. But he’d be a goner already lmao. Like don’t get me wrong it’d take a while of actual interactions for him to actually fall in love, but also ~~he’s lonely~~ pretty blonde woman waaaa. Siren imagery hehe. "Hmmm I didn't know selkies had hypnotic voices as well" (they don't. he's down outrageous and he knows it.) Mr "in denial so bad maybe magic is the answer yep for sure". I want her to hear him singing something he used to for his daughters/wife etc and shes like 👁️👁️ who hurt this man........... (Could also work for selkie Chil) What’s his tragic backstory…..

I think marcille also deserves to go silly and catch a carp between her teeth, giving it to chilchuck batting her eyelashes like teehee... I'm such a good assistant right... He needs them undamaged if he wants to sell them but he still makes use of her gift anyway... Puts it in a stew and shares it with her... Something we made together..… Marcille being able to taste human food with actual spices and actual heat and actual cooked meat... His home is the warmest place on the surface. His hugs are more comforting than even the water’s. AGH and how long hasn’t he eaten a real homecooked meal you’d bet 😭 Marcille notices he’s underweight and is like "he’s always fishing though??? Does he just need like, a lot??" and takes it upon herself to bring him more fish to feed him. "He NEEDS to blubber up. I know it." Do you think when his wife was still there he'd come home to the smell of cooking.... but now there's nothing......... He’s on his own, he sleeps in the boat… It just smell like fish all day. The stench gets to him and even the burn of alcohol in his nostrils is a kinder hell. NOW he comes back to the stench of roting flesh and he's like :))) ahh.... my gi rl firned 💖 /j

Selkie Marcille getting onto his boat out of nowhere and slapping the beer bottle out of his hand. It’d go hard if he’s so drunk once that he’s leaning over the railing with his bottle hanging down from his grip and the beer goes into the sea and she tastes it and is like. Now what the fuck is this. Ew. He doesn’t look so good maybe I should splash him with water. She could save him from drowning... Girl who puts him on a rock somewhere until he wakes up and hides in the water as soon as he comes to… Peekinh at him from the surface of the water because, oh dear we're shy now because it's face to face… Drawing parallels between swaying (drunk) and swaying (motion of boat on the sea). She sways his world…… Makes him feel dizzy in a nice, light airy way…… He crashes into his bed in his home and still feels the rocking of the waves under him, and he falls asleep thinking of her…

Go out to the sea in a storm because you can’t stand feeling useless. The sea is your livelihood, it's where you're good and useful. On land you never know what to do with your hands. Maybe he should just let the sea pull him under. let it sweep him away.  Marcille does exactly that, but it's not something that erases him. It's not something that swallows him whole. It's something that shows him a whole other world- The coral reefs, the schools of fish that exist below, the lush seaweed forests that Marcille treasures so much. It's all been there for him to see, theres so much beneath his feet. And all he had to do was let her take his hand. This world full of fish and creatures he's caught and gutted... that he gets to see in a different light…… The idea of him trusting her enough to let her lead him underwater... I think the time that Marcille leads him into the water should be on one beautiful evening, with the water shimmering, and the sun casting rays onto the waters surface- enough that it's still scary at first, enough that Chilchuck still struggles against the salty grasp of the waves, but when marcille takes him under he can see just how the light of the sun casts its spotlight on the seafloor- and how even in the shallows therein lies a thousand wonders, ones he's stepped right over before. I'm just obsessed with chilchuck experiencing a whole nother world in there. Give me childlike wonder. Give me a Marcille who wants to show her grump fucking fisherman boyfriend the cute fishies and the minnows, the pretty hermit crabs. Something about the sea looking different from beneath the waves... The parallels of him on the beach stepping over shells and urchins in the shallows with his boots and just crush them right over, not even noticing he did from force of habit and routine having dulled everything… Him working on the sea all the time but never really seeing it because he’s so absorbed in his own shit and he always just uses the harbor so there’s never real contact with it anyways. When the sea water laps at his forearms when he reels the net in but they feel like lashes of frost against his skin. She'd look really pretty with her hair flowy in the waves............ Marcille’s hair should get used for creepy compositions more… In the water she takes him under and her hair tangles and latch onto him against his skin. Her hair is long, underwater it could engulf him probably, he likes blonde hair he'd be happy with that… Not the lowkey suicidal ideation of letting the sea take him and how he’d be happy suffocating in her hair when doing a dive wow ok

I keep thinking about the Dredge AU… The video game yes yes. It’d be a mess but ohhh ohh the sea and its wonderful world but also its dark secrets, Marcille researching the depths and finding dark powers and idk the tragedy of a man at sea who can’t forget what he’s lost and the mythical gf he made that was never meant to be and it’ll destroy them both idk idk. Bc of Marcille helping him fish from below as a selkie, Senshi like YOU ARE OVERFISHING YOU ARE DESTROYING THE ECOSYSTEMMM @ them lmao You are feeding the whole town and making big bucks but you’re fishing so much that some fish are starting to get stale without being bought, the sea is bleeding and the leviathan is hungry

Maybe one time, one of them gets upset at the other and holds the seal fur hostage, its sooo mean but it also feels very them. When I think selkie I think of the movie Song of the Sea and in that movie the father of the protags loved a selkie, the mother, but she had to leave at one point for the sea because that’s her nature etc etc, but he didn’t want her to leave so he hid her skin which like. Ruined everything and hurt her. And ohhh the parallels… Leaving him… Just food for thought.

Selkie Chil & marine researcher Marcille

The reverse of that where Chil’s the selkie, Marcille’s fascination for him has the reverse angle, almost like admiration too. Crying she’d be like "who’s this mysterious guy, why’s he look kinda ethereal(selkie fairy blablabla)?" and investigates meanwhile he doesn’t want anyone to see him transforming and such so he’s like "leave me aloneeeeeee!!" Selkie chil? secretive man who just wants to chill gets grabbed by the most enthusiastic fairytale-obsessed girl out there. She WILL almost drown trying to say hi. C’mon mister mythical let’s have a storybook romance <3 Jumping in da water and he has to rescue her and immediately gains 100 grey hairs. She gets her storybook ‘saved by the merman’ moment but at what cost. "WHAT ARE YOU DOINGGG" screaming, she gets scolded very much but it all goes in one ear out the other tbh. Selkie Chilchuck is even better with his secretiveness... How do you get around the fact you’re a seal? Iunno I’ve never been a seal Obsessed with the implications of his family in this. Except if his wife and daughters were humans and so his work travels are instead selkie shenanigans going out at sea for months on ends, I imagine they’d be selkies too… Did they get separated? Die? Is Chilchuck’s cowl in this one Flertom’s fur? :(   Once more mentioning sea shanties Chilchuck btw, Roll the Old Chariot comes to mind… Ooough Song of the Sea from the movie that he sung to his daughters <33 I’m fine

With the researcher angle actually being pushed there are interesting plots and scenes you could think of obvi, but uh we kind of went off on the fisherman Chil Marcille selkie AU instead haha. It’d be cute if she ends up teaching him how to live on land in the end. Dresses him up like a funky lil guy. I went with tallman Chil when drawing it and selkie Marcille’s more elf-like, and for selkie Chil I’d imagine it’s the reverse where she’s tallman-like and he still looks like a halfling… Sea-related AUs are my weak spot <33

No matter how you turn it, Marcille is the instigator lol. Selkie Marcille: this little man… I want to know more about this human! Selkie Chilchuck = tries to avoid everything but this Marcille keeps chasing him! It’s her job to, Chilchuck minds his business!! He sees a sliver of something weird out at night? Not his job nope keep your nose out of that it’ll only bring you trouble. It’d have to really itch him at him for him to crack I think… Honestly he’d make a great lovecraftian horror protagonist lol. We love a girl with no chill and her nose in everyone’s business

Shout to to @dayundying, @cabinette, @soappox and @lucky-fydraws!! These people were there for the brainstorming and the writing of the scripture…

everyone's talking about witch yuri but have we considered... abominations yaoi

fun thing about dredge is like. the familiarity of the unknown. like sure the various Horrors are scary when you first encounter them, but soon enough you learn where they are and how to avoid them and like, sure they’re dangerous and sure you don’t fully comprehend them but like. give them a wide berth you’ll probably be fine. which is exactly the mindset that any person who was hired to go fishing for a living in the eldritch nightmare town would end up in. yeah the anglerfish have come up to the surface and their lures are clearly designed for me but like. i’ve got bills.

this is too short for fancy formatting have some dredge hermitcraft inspired by @/were-changing-cake-vaults’s fics and gem’s dredge theme for her base!

(there will be another fic out today/tomorrow depending on your timezone btw I just speedran this HLFHD)

gem avoids mirrors.

recently, she’s been finding herself unnerved by the appearance her reflection in windows and water and mirrors. she’s sure it’s fine—that her brain, addled by too little sleep, is beginning to warp her vision just the slightest bit and it’s manifesting in some kind of- anxiety over her self image. but- y’know, for the time being, gem thinks she’s gonna stop looking too hard at her reflection. just to keep her anxiety down, y’know. the new season really- it can get to you a bit, so- it’s just the new season. she’s fine.

but- there’s been.. a couple occasions. gem would be alone in a room, or stood in silence at the edge of the river, and she hears a kind of.. whisper coming from the reflective surface. there’s no doubt in gem’s mind that it’s just her tired ears playing tricks on her.

she’s never checked to see if it was, though.

“hey, gem.”

“yeah?”

“how many reels until I get mending?” 

gem snorts and glances over at grian for the first time since she arrived at his dock- and feels something in her chest sink a little. 

it’s not that- there’s nothing immediately wrong with him that seems to explain why gem feels this strange dread. something about the flecks of red and purple in his otherwise void-black eyes makes gem feel like she wants to run the other way and never look back, but- somehow, it’s familiar. almost comforting, bizarrely.

“did- are you okay?” grian’s voice cuts through gem’s thoughts and she realised that she zoned out. his eyes are scrunched ever so slightly in concern, and gem can see her reflection in them. she’s- gem doesn’t think she’s wearing glasses right now.

grian is still watching her, and gem has missed at least three bites on her rod. “i’m- when was the last time you slept?”

“why do-“ grian starts to say, but his attention is pulled away by a tug on his rod. gem watches as his eyes light up, as he grabs the rod and hauls the catch up onto the dock, watches as it is decidedly not a book, but a regular old codfish-

that’s not a regular cod.

before grian can even finish his startled mutter of “what the hell is-“, gem has lurched across the dock and grabbed the aberrant fish. she doesn’t remember making the decision to do so, but in a moment, the cod is sliced open—it’s three heads laying limply on the wood. in her hand is an old handkerchief—slimed with the innards of the cod. 

gem’s breathing is thick and fast, and she can just about hear grian’s asking what’s wrong over the rushing in her ears. a figure in the water catches her eye: a woman with black, circular glasses, a neat green dress and a purple shawl. the woman walks towards her from beneath the waves and speaks:

“I see that artefact you extracted.“ her voice reverberates inside gem’s mind, sounding as if she’s speaking from underneath the water. “come to me when the moon is at its highest. bring the artefact.”

gem feels herself shaking as the woman disappears, unable to tear her eyes away from where she stood. 

next to her, grian fishes up a mending book.

"Hey Alex, do you know about DREDGE?" Yeah, you could say I do

also! collection of my observations on the various enemies in Dredge! for people who are cowards like me and want to know the mechanics of these Guys!

It's as spoiler-free as possible, but I do have to reference the creatures and the area they appear in, so bear that in mind! JSYK I've been uploading this as a steam guide and have been updating that regularly with new info, so this tumblr guide is extremely outdated! Please check out steam for an updated list! (it should be one of the first guides on the page!)

ANGLERFISH

The 'ghost ship' you will see on the water at night. It seems to spawn around midnight, at some distance from your current location, so it's pretty easy to avoid if you're careful. (Sometimes when sleeping at Greater Marrow or Steel Point, you can see it spawn on the horizon - I assume it spawns a set distance from your location, regardless of where you are, but I have no way to confirm this.)

If it catches sight/starts pursuing you, it'll make a very distinct blaring foghorn noise. Sneaking around it isn't much use, but's not especially fast, so it's possible to outrun it if you want to. It can be easy to get lost in the fog while being chased, so it's safest to try and keep an idea of your nearest dock's location if you're out late at night.

If it catches up to you, it will attack you once (causing hull damage similar to crashing into an object) and then swim away. I assume it despawns at this point, as I haven't been attacked by it more than once in the same night.

Overall, it's more scary than it is dangerous.

GALE ROCKS LEVIATHAN

The large, eel-like creature that lives inside the cliff caves at Gale Rocks. It first appeared for me upon entering the cliff caves for the first time, from the large 'archway' nearest the village dock. It seems to always cross across the 'path' between the cliffs in the same spot, rising out of the water once to attack you before swimming away. Once you know this spot, it's easy to just wait for it to swim by and avoid the hit entirely.

After a time (it may be following completion of some story quests in the area) the creature will begin to swim around the bay at Gale Rocks regardless of time of day/night. It's quite slow, so you can avoid it if you like, but it does make it hard to get to fishing/dredging spots, and it will attack you even if you're idling (ie., not passing time by sailing.)

Like the Anglerfish, it will attack once, doing hull damage similar to crashing into an object, and then swim away. After this, it seems to despawn for a few in-game hours. Letting it attack you so you can explore the area more freely is a valid option, especially since navigating the tight areas can be a bit of a pain.

Again, more scary/intimidating than it is dangerous. Not completely avoidable like the Anglerfish, but pretty easy to deal with.

THE KRAKEN

The giant octopus at Stellar Basin. It lives inside the deep pit at the centre of the ring of islands. The spot is easily identifiable as it's surrounded by glowing blue plants/coral during the day, and bright pink jellyfish at night. The Kraken has large, harmless tentacles that rest around the edge of the pit, and several smaller, moving tentacles within.

It doesn't leave the pit at any time, and will not attack you if you don't stray into the water above the pit. If you do approach it, it will make a rumbling sound for a few seconds, and then quickly hit you with a tentacle. This attack, like the others, causes hull damage similar to crashing into an object. This creature is probably the easiest to avoid, as it doesn't pursue or seek you out in any way, and is only a danger if you deliberately cross above it.

At a certain point in the story, you will gain access to the ability to activate a device that a character claims will either scare the Kraken off for a while, or enrage it. The device will always scare it off, and you'll be safe to explore the entire area for as long as the device is running (which seems to be significantly long enough to check all the fishing/dredging spots you might need to.) When the device turns off, you will get a few seconds of warning as the Kraken climbs back up into the pit (via a rumbling sound).

Even less dangerous than the previous two, just visually intimidating.

MIND SUCKERS

These are (relatively) small, worm-like creatures that hide in the water at set locations within Twisted Strand. They are easy to see if you're vigilant, as they have bright yellow glowing orbs/eyes on their heads. They are initially invisible under the surface, but will slowly peer out of the water as you approach, giving you time to spot them, before emerging fully.

Mind Suckers are sensitive to movement, so when you see one emerge, just hold completely still for a few seconds until it sinks into the water again. In my experience, once they've disappeared into the water, they won't respawn for a while, similar to the other creatures. (Note that there are several of these creatures, and having one despawn won't despawn the rest of them - you'll need to repeat for each one.)

They're very easy to avoid if you're cautious, but if one does spot you moving, its yellow eyes will turn red and it will begin pursuing you. They're not especially fast or nimble, so you can outrun them, but the tight spaces can make it difficult to navigate, so the 'Banish' spell is a pretty safe way to get rid of them.

If they get within range of you, they will begin to cause the fisherman significant panic, similar to the whispering fog that spawns late at night. After a few seconds of this, they will lash out with a set of small tentacles, which I believe can cause hull damage (I managed to avoid being hit by/crashing into these tentacles, so I'm not 100% sure.)

As the story progresses, you will gain access to traps that can permanently remove the Mind Suckers from at least three key locations - I didn't explore enough following this to know if it removes all of them from the area, but I doubt it.

FIRE FISH & MAMA FISH

Fire Fish are small, orange/red fish that live in small groups around the ruins in Devil's Spine. They're pretty harmless on their own - they have a fairly small detection radius and will begin to chase you if you get too close. If they reach your boat, they'll begin making a lot of noise, but won't do any damage. They will, however, slow down your boat, which is very noticable if you have a large crowd on you. They're nimble, but not particularly fast, so you should be able to outrun them if you have a decently upgraded boat.

They're easy to see due to their bright colours, but they can look similar to the lava veins that also occur in the area. You can fairly easily avoid them by being very cautious and vigilant, so as to avoid getting too close to them.

The area has lots of barriers that you can destroy with bombs in order to reach places without disturbing the Fire Fish, but banish is also quite effective. They're also afraid of the hot vents scattered around the area, and will flee if you cross over one, so try to plan your routes if need-be.

Mama Fish is a much larger, paler version of the Fire Fish. She's still relatively small (about half the size of your boat.) She slowly patrols the area, and won't pay much attention to your comings and goings. You can hear her from pretty much anywhere in the Devil's Spines, and her 'roars' will get deeper and louder the closer she is (and be especially loud when she is actively chasing you - see below.)

Mama Fish is blind, so relies on the sound of her babies (Fire Fish) to target you. If her babies reach your boat and start making noise, Mama will start to head towards you. She's pretty slow and easy to avoid, so out-running her is a good solution. Banish will also cause the Fire Fish to disappear, and Mama will lose interest in you and back away.

I haven't been attacked by Mama, so I don't know exactly what she does, but I assume it's similar to every other creature (ie., hull damage.) I'll update when I have a clearer idea!

Fire Fish & Mama were the most frustrating enemy for me to get used to, but they're fairly easy to deal with if you're cautious!

OTHER:

WATER RUMBLES

The deep, roaring noises that you'll sometimes hear when crossing the ocean. Almost always completely harmless - just audio design that makes you nervous. The one exception I know of below.

SPINED LEVIATHAN

A large creature that will occasionally spawn following a 'water rumble' in the deep water nearby Twisted Strand. I've only seen it once, and it didn't attack me, but other players report being attacked (and instakilled) by it. This could be a result of lingering nearby for too long (I immediately moved away from it 'til I reached a dock) or a result of high panic levels.

If you spot it, just keep moving and you should be fine.

(Note: this is the same creature you'll see if you stray too far out-of-bounds from the edge of the map, as well as one other story-related appearance!)

SHIPWRECK CRABS

Giant crabs that disguise themselves as regular shipwrecks in set positions around the map. I found three of them during regular play. They will look exactly like a normal shoreline shipwreck, even having scrap dredging spots nearby, but will become active when you approach. They'll quickly stand up and lash out with their claws, but won't pursue you, and are easy to avoid as long as you don't get too close. If you do get hit, they do minor hull damage.

WHISPERING FOG

Not a creature so much, but it can pose a threat. This is the red/pink/purple patches of fog that appear late at night. They cause significant panic, but don't damage your boat at all. They're fairly easy to avoid, but you can run into them if you're already fleeing from another creature, like the Angler Fish. They're more of an annoyance than a real danger, imo!

BONUS: DOLPHINS AND WHALES

Completely harmless! They can bump your boat a little but won't cause damage and won't actively pursue you in any way. They're just normal little guys (:

If you have any other questions about the game, shoot me a message and I'll do my best to let you know!

What Starstruck Dee theory have people made that is your favourite?

there have been quite a lot, and i genuinely love them all!

early on i think the most popular theory was that she was possessed or had been possessed at some point, most likely by dark matter. she actually debunked this theory personally, but i think people just assumed she was lying! 😂

my favourite part is not any one theory, but watching a shift in thoughts over time as more things are revealed, and seeing people share theories/work together in comments and reblogs. i like the "OOHHH WWWWHAT...!?!" moments a lot; whether they are a reaction to my storytelling or to other folks' detective work!

early theories revolved around how she was weird for a waddle dee, or at least a native of popstar. despite my never explicitly confirming anything to the contrary, theories have now broadly shifted to assuming she is not from popstar at all, and most people do now generally agree she's not really a waddle dee.

i don't recall exactly who first came up with each theory (though some big players are @the-void-is-a-disappointment who did a huge amount of early deetective work and encouraged me to build it as a story for solving, @shibuya-toasted-with-extra-cream, @graycoin and @jojo-schmo) and i'm not sure which of these theories are still held by anyone

but here a few of my favourites, roughly in order that they started appearing...

♻️ she's a total mimic species like kirby or void, copying things around her either by intent or by accident 🗑️ similar to above, but she's an incorrect copy or a "beta" mock-up type of a waddle dee 🧚 that she was just born different, like a fae changeling, and might have been hidden away when young as a result 🕰️ she is something totally inorganic and/or mechanical, created by or like the clockwork stars or stardream, perhaps wish contingent 🥇 sometimes attached to the above, she was created to serve some sort of Greater Purpose. she might have failed at it or been flawed, and was subsequently discarded on popstar 🌠 a dozen and one wildly different things connected to the "falling star that hit her". alien life form on the meteor transferred into her on impact. infection by intergalactic bacteria/dark matter. simply massive concussive trauma that fucked up her signature (back when we thought that was the only thing wrong with her). the star was magic and fused with her. she hatched from it and is literally a star herself. probably missing some here. 🪐 waddle dee from a different place/planet. this one is quite a sensible theory, given that we do see many quite different dees! 🤍 she is a fragmented piece of void/void termina. this one in particular i know is @shibuya-toasted-with-extra-cream 's ongoing theory and she's put in a lot of really cool work towards it! ⚔️ she's somehow connected to the heroes of yore. this theory i think has only started popping up since galacta knight has become a reoccurring visitor in her storyline and we've started asking questions about her familiar looking magic spears, but you can certainly 1hko @moonverc3x with this one 🧿 she's connected to the matters. sometimes soul, because it's sometimes star themed and lacks a token representative. where as a connection to dream might link her to fecto forgo/fecto elfilis in some way (a creature also well known for a catastrophic meteor attack). i've also seen folks confident that she's connected to heart matter as well, probably again due to everyone's favourite grumpy swan showing up

this is all i can think of or locate right now, but there's been a pretty wide range of things. i feel there has been a rather interesting transition over time from "she's a messed up waddle dee" to "she's probably connected to a universal superpower of some kind" which i am genuinely really really thrilled about?! 😂 what a glow up for a pathetic little wawa!!!

i'm also personally really fond of seeing how people's existing biases influence what they can find and draw connections in. for instance: i know @jojo-schmo loves the forgotten land and elfilis, and digs into those connections and draws out some really cool stuff because her knowledge is already so specialised! i think this is the true highlight of working on this story for me, people theorising and engaging in the lore, and laser pin-pointing things that tie into our personal faves-- the way we tend to do with kirby lore as a whole-- is such uninhibited delight

i sincerely hope people will enjoy where starstruck's story does go, in the end!!

okay kim opinion poll. in a long term otherwise good friendship/relationship/whatever with harry, is kim more:

1) secretly grateful for harry's can-opening mind-reading abilities, because it means he almost never has to actually SAY what he wants or is thinking but will have his needs/desires fulfilled regardless, or

2) does he resent the mind-reading because he is a deeply private person and his thoughts are supposed to be the ONE thing truly his own and he doesn't like that harry can bypass the one boundary he thought was truly solid

realistically it's a mix of both but i'd like to know which way people think he leans

every time my family watches the Hunger Games movies or one of us reads the books again I'm reminded why my mother doesn't like me

i actually forgot to post these i drew them like 2 weeks ago,,, oops

Do you think Ishmael would enjoy fishing games? Yeah I di know she’s a whaler instead of a fisherman but do you think she’d enjoy DREDGE

My housemate is moving out in January

She told us this a week or two ago, when she sat down and, after sitting with us watching TV for over an hour, said "hey so I bought a house and I'm moving out. We agreed on 2 months notice so I won't move until the end of January."

The last time she talked in the immediate terms about buying a house was in 2021, when the sale she was working on fell though and she was unemployed so it was a "when I'm back in a position to look I'll start looking again." Since then I've occasionally asked her how she's doing on the house buying front and she's been like "oh I'm getting there financially" but hasn't mentioned anything concrete.

She didn't tell us she was looking at places. She didn't tell us she had put in an offer. She told us when the offer was finalised. A week AFTER she emailed the letting agent about getting out of her part of the lease. And, it increasingly feels like, only because the letting agent's response was that we had to agree to change the lease.

The letting agent's response (which our housemate obviously didn't copy us into; we had to follow up separately and they copied us into the email chain) also includes that when we change the lease, they're empowered to change the rent, quote, "no cap". Rent was already going up in January - there's no possibility of Sam and I paying her share of the rent.

The really fucking upsetting thing is we're not strangers. This isn't a casual "housemate we found on flatshare" thing. She and Sam have lived together literally their entire adult lives. Me and her have known each other well over a decade. I lived in her and Sam's flat when I was homeless. We were the first people she came out to as trans. We're not super close but I thought we were fucking friends. And she's literally gone out of her way to not talk to us about this for what must have been months while the sale completed - which means she's lied to my face at least once cause I've asked her about her finances in that time (cause she's in a job she hates that she only took to get the house money, so it's like. when we've been commiserating about work stuff I'm often asking 'are you almost free?'). she literally went out of her way to talk to the letting agents before talking to us about putting us in a situation where we could lose our fucking home.

And she keeps. trying. to pretend nothing's happened. Every time I've seen her since then she's not mentioned anything or apologised or anything, she just keeps chatting away and offering hugs and fistbumps like nothing's happened. Like we're still fucking friends.

All it would take for us to still be friends and to be happy for her would have been one fucking sentence in the groupchat like "hey, just put an offer in on a house" or "I'm looking at properties, just so you know, that might happen in the next few months". Like nobody begrudges her for buying a house! It's very cool for her! She's 31 she's worked really hard to get the money I would love to be happy for her! Unfortunately she decided avoiding conflict is more important than giving the people she fucking LIVES WITH (who btw fronted her a month on the rent here while she was unemployed and agreed to take on a larger proportion of the move-in cost back in 2021, if we're still holding ourselves to shit we said 2.5 years ago), so no, you are not entitled to our friendship or to going back to normal.

like if she'd been honest with us it would have been something to process but we'd have had time to figure out our next steps. instead she's left us in a position where we have to find a new roommate before she gives her one month notice, which means finding someone by the end of December, which oh look that's the middle of the fucking Christmas holidays. and she didn't tell us anything until the START of December, or copy us into her conversation with the letting agent, meaning we still don't know what the rent on that space will be so we aren't yet in a position to advertise it. Has she offered to help find a roommate? Has she fuck. Has she offered to help out by moving her move-out date? Nah, she's moving as soon as she gets the keys because, quote, "that means her finances won't have to change". SOUNDS LOVELY. NOT HAVING YOUR FINANCES SUDDENLY CHANGE. I THINK THAT SOUNDS LIKE A REALLY REASONABLE FUCKING GOAL.

Thirteen fucking years she's lived with Sam. Four fucking weeks over Christmas she's left us to figure out a way to not turbofuck our living situation. And she's got the fucking nerve to try and pretend we should be interacting like nothing's changed. Jesus Christ. What a fucking unhinged way to treat...anybody, honestly. never mind the friends-your-entire-adult-life part. literally cannot imagine a scenario in which I would buy a house without telling the people I lived with.

(haha actually this is what my parents divorced over so apparently it's not unusual. although at least my dad had the decency to tell the woman he shared finances with at the point he put in an offer not the point the fucking sale went through.)

Like we'll be fine. It's a huge city centre flat with decent rent and queer housemates, hopefully even when the rent goes up it'll be an easy sell in a city with a huge housing shortage and big queer community. We've got a couple of people interested already, sight unseen - worst case scenario we have to live with someone we don't get on with. And it's given Sam and me a push to look at our own finances and as of today, we've got a mortgage decision in principle and can start looking at flats in the area - mind, we'll be transparent upfront and tell any prospective housemates that yeah, we're looking to buy and move out in the next 6-12 months, and we'll tell them if we put an offer in, because we're decent fucking people who aren't going to spring that on someone out of the blue.

But it's been I think 2 weeks and I'm so fucking angry I could spit. It's such a fucking betrayal. And frankly you know selfishly like. I just had a breakup a couple of months ago, I'm in the middle of moving jobs, both me and Sam have a history of housing instability and this has been the first decent, stable, safe, not-mouldy not-freezing home I think any of us have had, and this is so fucking triggering and upscuttling I could just start biting. like I was talking to my friend about it last week and it's just like. Can I have One Fucking Thing of the three main tentpoles of survival - home, work, relationships - that are fucking stable right now? because shit has been In Flux lately. and at least the work and relationship stuff has changed because of my decisions. going through all that work to make myself short-term unstable to gain long-term stability has been really hard and draining and then just as I was reaching the crisis point with work stuff BOOM, IT'S HOUSING INSTABILITY WITH A STEEL CHAIR. fuck. seriously fuck this and fuck her. we're going to make something good come of it but what a deeply, unbelievably shitty thing to do.

Dredge is a Magnus Archives prequel.

Change my mind.