#and just. god. sure it may just be a trolling attempt or an experiment in composition on his part but god is it beautiful

[99probalos]

making my seasonal dive into the vlogs. it all makes sense. TO ME. you don't get it though

#/j of course #but also i am going back to watching them #not. all in one big binge perhaps but #anyways. Anyways. it does make sense to me in a way. something something it tells a story that i cant quite parse out but i see it #and just. god. sure it may just be a trolling attempt or an experiment in composition on his part but god is it beautiful #it IS a good composition and the soundtrack is GORGEOUS and just. GOD. GOD! #idk. Idk. I dont know. not in a good place right now and the only thing that can help me feel better is candle gift ice change #bigfoot took the wheel

[vanillapie-80]

The Road to Recovery Chapter 3: Does the End Justify the Means?

Steve gets arrested by the Tribunal and has to make a choice to either go to trial or give up the amulet. 

Ao3 

Waiting for the children to enter to trollmarket was absolutely nerve-racking for Blinky and Aaaarrrgghh. They had no knowledge of troll law and didn’t have enough time to fully educate themselves about it. The large troll tried his best to help his companion, but books and fancy words were never his strong suit. After a few days, they finally got a message from Toby that they’d be here tonight. As Blinky was trying to organize which books would be proven useful to their case, until the redhead suddenly slid into their cave with a panicked expression. 

“Blinky! We have a huge problem!” Toby shouted.

“By Deya’s grace, calm down Tobias. What happened?” The two trolls huddle around the teen as he gasps for breath. “Where is Claire and your classmate?”

“So you know when I explained about Steve?” The historian remembered clearly about that conversation, so Blinky nodded.

“Of course.” He responded.

“Well Usurna decided to arrest him instead of me or Claire. That wasn’t supposed to happen!” This was most puzzling for Blinky unless this crime extended beyond the subject of Gunmar’s release.

“How odd. Could it be that this case requires the trollhunter to be arrested, regardless of whoever wields it.” Binlky wondered to himself. “Come, we must go to the holding cells at once.” 

When they got there, Toby could hardly call this room a holding cell since the “cells” were just cages hanging in the air. “I’m not going locked up like some kind of animal!” The redhead saw Steve with Claire by his side standing in front of Vendel and Usurna. “Whatever Lake did has nothing to do with me.”

“Be as it may, trollkind has relied too much on Merlin’s antiquated magic to shelter us, and now look where we are. The trollhunter has failed trollkind and unleashed Gunmar to the world. You will face trial in front of the Tribunal for James’ crime due to his absence. If found guilty-” 

“The consequences could be.... Death.” Vendel finished solemnly.

Steve tensed at the sound of that, would he seriously be killed for a mistake he even didn’t do? “Woah! Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme? Steve has only been the trollhunter for less than a week and this is his first time using the armor. Yes, I get that this is for Jim’s crimes but can’t you take it easy for him?” Toby attempted to reason, trying his best to keep his cool. 

Usurna's expression did not soften at the redhead’s suggestion. “There is mercy set on the table. If you allow us to destroy the amulet, we shall exile all of you, but no one will be harmed.” 

“Really?” To Steve, it sounded like a deal of a lifetime. He won’t have to die and they could walk away scot-free, this all just didn’t seem worth fighting for. 

“But without the amulet, there won’t be a trollhunter. How will you defeat Gunmar?” Claire asked suspiciously. To here, they’ve done so much to find a way to kill Gunmar, and she wouldn’t let all that effort be for nothing. 

“That is for our kind to decide. Not for some human children.” Usurna said with a dominating tone. 

Anger began to rise from Claire. “So that’s it? You’re just pissed that two humans just so happened to be chosen?” 

Usurna gave the young girl a bitter expression before Blinky pulled Claire closed to his side. “My dear child, I understand your grievances, but Usurna is not someone you want to make an enemy of.” Blinky warned quietly for only her to hear. “I apologize on behalf of the welp, we shall accept the terms you have given us.” 

 As Usurna scoffed, Claire forced herself to stay silent, tightening his fist as hard as she could to restrain herself, and allowed the elders to leave. 

“The trial begins at dawn. You have until then to decide.” Vendel looked down at Toby and Claire. “Let’s hope you choose the right path.” 

Steve was then shoved into one of the cages by the guards, the door closing behind him. The cage was then lifted from the air at a height that would be too dangerous to jump from. 

“Do we really have to wait until dawn to make a choice?” Claire blinked when she glanced up from where the blonde teen was and narrowed her eyes. “It seems like the answer is pretty clear.”

“I’m afraid that’s not true Steve. Without the amulet, we do not stand a chance at defeating Gunmar.” Blinky added as he took a few steps forwards towards the teens.

“But if I keep the amulet I’ll die!” He shouted. His voice was filled with fear while grabbing the bars with all his might.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s a chance that we can win this trial, right?” Toby looked at the two trolls for reassurance, but they grimaced in response. 

“When trolls are put into trial, it’s uncommon for a defendant to be proven innocent.” The historian then quickly closed his mouth shut once he saw the redhead’s glare. 

“Uncommon or not, I’m not taking that risk. My life is not worth sacrificing over a piece of jewelry.” Steve tried to take the amulet out of his chest but to no avail. “Why won’t this stupid thing come off?” He scowled.

“It doesn’t come off when you’re in distress,” Toby explained bluntly. 

“No shit I am! And I don’t care what any of you say, I am not keeping it.” Steve finished with the stomp, which shook the cage.

“You’re not seeing the bigger picture here. Gunmar wants to take back the surface world. If you choose to walk away from this, all of humanity will be in danger.” Claire just wanted Steve to understand, but she knew how stubborn he was. Claire waited for the blonde teen to say more or to do anything really but he stayed silent, all while avoiding her gaze.  She wasn’t sure how else to convince Steve, other than letting fate take the wheel and hope that he’ll change his mind before dawn. 

Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea. Claire sighed and turned to the others, “Let’s go to the library.”

“Huh. Why?” Toby asked in bewilderment. 

“If Steve refuses to listen to what we say, then trying to change his mind will be a waste of time. In the end, it’s his choice. So might as well prepare ourselves for everything.”

Steve didn’t bother watching them leave, and coincidentally that’s when armor finally came off. “Of course now of all times, you start working.” He muttered. 

The longer Steve looked at the amulet, the more he felt his anger grow. Lake was stupid to even keep the damn thing. Who would risk their life like this? They were just teenagers. The vivid image of holding his dying classmate crawled back into his mind. The blonde teen immediately slammed his hand against the side of his head, trying to push that memory far to the back of his mind as possible.

“What makes you so important enough that I have to gamble away my own life?” He glanced once again at the magical object and has had enough of it. “You just make everything worse and everyone around you miserable. No one would ever want that in their life.” Steve hissed with such venom in his voice.

He straightened himself up and threw the amulet across the room. Steve leaned into the cage and dropped to his knees. Toby and Claire’s pleas at him echoed in his thoughts. No, he wasn’t going to change his mind. The amulet made a mistake when it chose Lake, and it continued to do so when it chose him. 

Steve didn’t notice the amulet ticking rapidly. A bright orb is released from it and flies out of the holding cells all the way to the hero’s forge. The magic makes its way to Unkar’s petrified body. It placed itself where the amulet used to be and the armor’s markings began to glow. Back at the holding cells, Steve continued to be lost in his thoughts until he heard a voice all of a sudden.

“So the amulet made a mistake, eh?

“What the-!” The blond teen jumped from where he sat, clearly startled by his new “visitor”.

“You and that other fleshbag would not be the first.” Steve rubbed his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was correct. 

“God, and I thought this day couldn’t get any weirder. Wait, what do you mean it’s not the first time the amulet made a mistake?” He questioned while trying to keep his focus on the magic orb. 

“Do you not know who I am?” The voice almost sounded offended.

“I’m new to all of this magic business so no.” Steve tried his best to keep his distance away from the strange newcomer. 

“Well I didn’t have much luck being a trollhunter, either. Couldn’t even last a day, I was ripped limb from limb.” 

“Wow. Sucks to you.” Steve remarked, though very disturbed at this new found knowledge.

“You don’t say? For that, I’m known as Unkar the Unfortunate.” The spirit announced.

“That’s great and all but why are you here?” The blonde crossed his arms as he was becoming impatient. 

“You’re so close to giving up the amulet yet you have doubts. Do you really wish to be the one to end a long line of grand warriors?” Unkar explained. “Many have sacrificed for this cause, even your fleshbag friend.”

“He’s not my friend, and why should I protect people who don't give two shits about me.” Steve interjects fiercely, now having the confidence of bringing himself closer to the spirit.

“Do you think Trollmarket simply accepted your predecessor with open arms? Carrying this mantle is never easy. But what do I know? I never got the chance to experience those hardships.” 

The blonde teen pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, “Wow, you’re really proving your point there,” with a sarcastic tone.

“You think I would leave this as just a pep talk?” Unkar let out a single laugh before clarifying, “For a fleshbag like you, more must be done for you to truly see what it means to be a trollhunter.” 

“Now hold on-” Suddenly the troll’s spirit began to shine brightly, forcing Steve to cover his eyes. 

The next thing he knew, Steve was back on the surface of Arcadia, standing on top of the canal’s bridge. It noticeably was no longer nighttime, but there were too many clouds that blocked off the sun from ever appearing. The harsh winds shook the trees back and forth, and the faint sounds of thunder could be heard from afar. 

“My sixteenth birthday, but do I get a vespa? No.” Steve looked to his left to see Lake trying to paddle as fast as he could in his bike while looking behind. Didn’t Lake’s birthday happen months ago? “I get a food processor and killer flying troll!”

From the other side, a large creature with wings came flying down, claws ready to snatch the trollhunter. “Lake look out!” The blonde teen shouted as he saw his classmate turn around just in time for the winged troll to grab him by the shoulders with an ear-piercing screech, flying off into the air. 

Claire and Toby glanced at the stacks of books that were laid all over Blinky’s library. “So these are all the books about troll law?” She asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t say all of the books, rather the ones that seem most necessary for both of you to learn. Especially in a short amount of time.” Blinky started passing a few books to the two teens. 

“You mean if Steve decides to keep the amulet,” Toby adds while glaring at the book he was given.

“Toby-”

“He’s going to give it to the Tribunal Claire! Steve cares for no one but himself, you should know that already.” Toby couldn’t understand why Claire was defending him so much. Steve says he’s trying to be a better person but that didn't change the fact that he was a bully most of their lives and tormented so many people under his own volition. 

“Maybe, but the amulet must’ve chosen Steve for a reason. So forgive me if I have faith that he’ll make the right choice once dawn sets.” Aaarrrgghh gently separated the two so their argument would cease. 

“You say that Steve now wields the amulet, despite master Jim being alive, correct?” The historian asked, hoping that he wasn’t mistaken. 

Toby nodded before stating, “I’m not sure how, it didn’t look broken or anything.” 

“Been long time since that happened.” Aaarrrgghh recalled to Blinky. 

“Hold the phone, so this has happened before?” Claire questioned, very much intrigued by this fact.

“Yes. If a trollhunter were to be severely wounded to the point where they would be out of commission for quite some time, then the amulet can grant them the power to choose someone temporarily to take their place.” The historian explained, looking through a page in which it had the image of Merlin’s creation.

“So it’s like picking a substitute.” Toby suggested with a shrug.

“If you wish to view it like that then I suppose so.”

“Okay then, why didn’t you tell me or Jim about this from day one? Sure sounds like it’d be a useful thing to know.” The redhead didn’t want to get mad at Blinky, he was sure that the historian had his reasons. But it rubbed him the wrong way that it had taken his best friend from almost dying to find this out. 

“The trollhunter themselves cannot control when to use this power, only the amulet can. And even then, it is extremely rare that they choose someone else when given the opportunity. As you know trolls are very adamant to doing things alone.” The historian clarified. 

“That means Jim chose Steve when the amulet gave the all-clear to pick someone else in the woods.” Claire stated, more to herself. There was a long, awkward pause amongst the four of them. 

“Why though?” Toby quickly raised his hands up once Claire turned to him with a furious expression. “I’m just saying. Wouldn’t Jim pick someone like you or me? You know, someone who knows how to deal with magic and trolls.” 

“I don’t think the question of why matters at this point. Steve’s the trollhunter for now, so we have to make sure he doesn’t give up the amulet and die.” It was quite mind-boggling that Jim would choose Steve of all people, considering their history. She remembered their conversation from the campsite. Sure, maybe the two have grown closer, but it certainly wasn’t enough to explain this decision.

“And how exactly do we do that? None of us can change Steve’s mind like you said, and the Tribunal are pretty head-strong on their case.” 

“Well, we make a plan. For whatever happens. And we can start that by learning how to be good lawyers.” Claire opened the book she had and gestured Toby to do the same. “Okay Blinky, where do we start?” 

Steve sprinted towards Lake and jumped in hopes of catching him, but he was too far away. The winged-troll soon disappeared through the clouds as the blond teen landed back to the ground. Steve looked at the sky in hopes of finding something, he wasn’t just going to stand there like an idiot despite the many confused thoughts that were swarming through his head. 

“Auuurrghh! Too high! Too high! There’s no way I can ever get down from here!” There was no source of sound to Lake’s voice, as if he was everywhere. His voice sounded so close yet no matter where Steve looked, Lake nowhere to be found. 

“The amulet. I need the amulet.” Although it was hard to see, the blonde teen could see a small bright flash of light from above. 

“Come on Jim. Hit the stalking, Hit it. But what am I going to do after the stalking lets go of me, the drop from here will kill me- shit!” Steve could a distant screech coming from the winged troll and bit his lip, then noticed Toby and Aaarrrgghh making their way to the bridge from the corner of his eye.

The redhead and his troll companion made no acknowledgment at all that Steve was here with them. “Hello? Am I invisible or something? He tried putting his hand on Toby’s shoulder, but it seemed to phase right through it. Steve was alarmed by this and quickly retracted his hand back. “I didn’t mean it literally!” 

“Let go of me. Let go of me. Let go of me! Let go of me!-” The blonde teen hit his forehead with his palm in an attempt to somehow cancel out his classmate’s voice. 

“He’s up there! How do we get up there?” Toby asked Aaarrrgghh as he managed to spot Lake. 

“No wings.” 

More questions continued to puzzle Steve, and hearing Lake repeating the same phrase in his head was starting to drive him crazy. The trollhunter then switched to cursing multiple times in fear, to screaming whenever lightning struck. Steve could feel the fear Lake was going through. The fear of falling to such heights that he could die on impact, the fear of not knowing how stalking had planned to dispose of him, and the fear of the lighting surrounding them.

“Too high.... Can’t breath.... Not enough air.” Fear was then slowly replaced by dread as Lake’s thoughts began to drift apart, with only the thunderous electricity to keep him alert. 

Steve wanted to get out of here, he wanted to silence out the thoughts he was forced to hear. The blond teen tried leaving the scene, only to be thrown back to where he was by an invisible force once he made it to the end of the bridge. “You don’t need weapons. Your environment can sometimes be the weapon.” 

Before Steve could wonder why he heard Blinky’s voice overlapping with Lake’s, the trollhunter thought, “The lighting ..... I could die.... The lighting is how I’ll finish this fight…...I could die....” 

“What?!” There was no way Lake had the guts to do such a dangerous feat. Steve frantically tried to find where the stalking and Lake were in the sky. 

“I’m going to end this one on my own terms..... Please be quick, please be quick, please be quick. For the love of god hurry up please!-” Then an ear-piercing sound was all Steve could hear. He wished it was a scream, but it was too distorted and there was no longer any hint of the trollhunter’s voice. It was like hearing nails scratching on a chalkboard. The blonde teen quickly tried to block the noise off by covering his ears, but it was pointless. He could still hear it very clearly. 

Soon the noise was abruptly gone, and there was a long pause of silence. Steve slowly lowered his hands with much hesitation, it even took him a while to realize that there was a few tears streaming down his face. 

“Hurry! Hurry, Hurry!” Toby shouted at Aaarrrgghh, watching his best friend fall from the sky. As Steve was attempting to register what had transpired, Aaarrrgghh jumped and managed to catch the unconscious trollhunter just in time from hitting the hard concrete of the bridge. 

The large troll looks down at Lake, who began to open his eyes. “I’m still here.....”

Before the blonde teen could get closer to the group to see if Lake was okay, everything around him disappeared like dust being blown away from the wind, giving Steve the realization that it was nothing more than a memory, and one that wasn’t even his. Now stuck in an empty, back void, Steve began to call out, “Alright. I’m officially done with all this magic shit! I don’t even know what the hell is going on at this point.” 

“I told you fleshbag, I’m going to make you see what it means to be a trollhunter.” Steve turned around and saw the spirit of Unkar’s.

“Okay one, I have a name. Two, I’d rather have the long boring pep talk than go through whatever you put me through again.” He snapped with a fierce tone, now trying to swat the spirit away but always managed to reappear. 

“Ah but what of your predecessor? You knew very quickly that it was a memory of his. Must have taken a lot of bravery to kill the stalking that way. Why do you think he did such a thing?” 

Steve thought for a moment, but was having much difficulty finding the answer. “I...I don’t know. Lake thought that he was going to die no matter what he did-”

“And yet the human trollhunter is alive. What would you think would happen if he let the stalking live?” Steve still struggled to find the answer, so Unkar continued. “I see that you have yet to figure it out.” 

“What do you expect me to do?” Steve asked, his voice breaking. “Clearly I don’t have the answer you're looking for, and making me go through someone else’s memory didn’t work.” 

“So far.” The spirit clarified. “Now you know that there’s something you must look for in these memories.”

The blonde teen questioned, “Hold on, what do you mean about that?” with an anxious expression before Unkar vanished.

 Soon enough, the void where Steve stood began to take shape. It was replaced by rough, rocky walls that had green carvings that glowed, sharp orange crystals that seemed to act like bars in a prison cell. Once Steve looked around to see where exactly he was, a small dark room made him realize that it was, in fact, a prison cell. 

“Not again.” He thought bitterly. But Unkar did say there was a reason he was showing Steve Lake’s memories, so perhaps he should listen to the spirit. 

“Dictatious! Bring the trollhunter for another battle.” A distant voice bellowed, and despite being able to barely hear it, the blonde teen could feel so much hate through each word. 

“This is.... Sooner than I expected.” Steve spotted Lake sitting in the corner of the room, where the light source was the weakest. “He’s not stupid, Gunmar knows that you have a limit. He wants to wear you down.”  

Steve tried pushing down the creepy feeling of hearing Lake’s thoughts as if it was his own. “God everything hurts. I just want to go home.” He wasn’t successful.

The sounds of footsteps echoed in the prison and only grew stronger as time passed. “Here they come.” Outside of the cell was a green troll that looked eerily similar to Blinky, and two larger trolls by his side, who were most likely guards Steve assumed. 

“Get up trollhunter. Lord Gunmar has requested your return, as always.” The green troll explained while removing the orange crystal as well.

“How much will it hurt this time Dictatious?,” is what Jim thought, but he said out loud, “Hate to break it to you but I don’t think I can make it.” Steve was not ready at all hearing Lake’s voice being so dry and hollow, just how long was he stuck here? 

“You will battle against Gunmar’s soldiers, no excuse will suffice whatsoever.” Dictatious was beginning to lose his patience rather quickly.

The trollhunter didn’t look fazed from his response, just tired really. “Well, if you really want me to fight. I don’t suppose any of you know how to fix a broken leg?” He remarked with a small smile he managed to muster. “Amongst other things.....”

“Do you wish for us to remove your leg trollhunter?” Steve was startled that the troll was being actually serious about it, and he could sense that Lake felt the same way. 

The trollhunter pictured the idea of his leg being viciously torn apart by a Gumm-Gumm, and it made Steve sick to his stomach.“On second thought, I think I’m good.” Lake muttered with a shaky voice. “Do you have something rigid like a big stick or something and some cloth?” 

“Why do you ask?” Dictatious asked in an uncaring manner.

Lake rolled his eyes. “Why do I even bother? They wouldn’t care less if I was blind.” The trollhunter lifted himself up with the support of the walls of his cell. “Nevermind. Just drag to the arena like you always do.” 

He limped his way to the cell's entrance and sure enough, the two guards grabbed Lake by the arms and pulled him out of the prison. As Lake was being pulled away, an invisible force began slowly pushing Steve, as if the walls were closing in on him.

“This is new.” He thought, then brought himself closer to the group. 

Wherever they were, it was certainly the worst living conditions he had ever seen. Any form of life beyond its inhabitants seems to be nonexistent, unless rocks count as forms of life. Any signs of natural nights appeared nonexistent as well, as if the sun had disappeared. 

“Is this going to be my last?” Lake thought. “I want it to be. I want it to be so bad. No one is coming for me, but it won’t make things better, I know it won’t.” 

Steve wondered how brutal this place must’ve been, which then led to the question: just how long was Lake stuck here? When Domzalski was trying to explain the whole troll business with him, he said Lake was trapped in a place called the Darklands.

“It’s a super creepy place. Everything around you looks dead and it’s a pain to figure out where you’re going,” He sighed, then said, “To be honest, we were kind of lucky that we managed to get out in one piece.” 

From the vague description Steve got, it wasn’t so far-fetched that this place was the Darklands. Soon enough, they made it to their destination. There were tons of guards everywhere inside some kind of area, and in the far-middle was a looming throne that Steve was sure any stereotypical villain would revel in sitting on. In the throne was a troll whose appearance was covered in the shadows, presumably Gunmar. 

The two guards dropped Jim off the ground and exited the room. “The trollhunter Dark Lord, as you requested.” Dictatious said. 

“Get up.” The large troll demanded with a growl. “At the very least pretend you are a worthy opponent.” 

Lake slowly looked at Gunmar in the eye, and summoned his sword from his hands and jabbed to the ground, lifting himself up and using it as a support.

With no warning, various guards began charging at the trollhunter. As Lake glided to the sides away from the Gumm-Gumms’ attack, his broken leg was roaring with pain. Lake managed to keep a straight face, but Steve could hear it, the agonizing screams that were pushed into his thoughts. One of the Gumm-Gumms managed to hit the trolllhunter from the back of the head with their spear. Lake was quick to summon his shield when the Gumm-Gumm striked again. He diverted the weapon in front of him away with his shield and thrusted his sword through the Gumm-Gumm’s chest. The large troll petrified and crumbled into pieces. 

Steve watched as trollhunter continued to fight relentlessly against Gunmar’s soldiers, and the longer Lake was fighting back, the more irritated the Skullcrusher was becoming. The blonde teen was in awe of how well Lake held on his own in a fight.  After another Gumm-Gumm was slain, the trollhunter abruptly stopped and stumbled down. He gripped the leg Steve remembered was broken with a shuttered breath. 

“Hurts....” Lake repeatedly thought as he winced. “I knew it was going to get worse if I moved too much” 

The trollhunter could sense the presence of another Gumm-Gumm attempting to surround him. “Gunmar never seems to run out of soldiers.” Lake swung his sword diagonally at a Gumm-Gumm that was in front of him, but the newfound pain of his leg made him lose his footing. The large soldier swung the butt of their spear to Lake’s stomach with enough force to make him fall to his knees. But the Gumm-Gumm didn’t stop, they continued to hit Lake with their spear until it looked like he wasn’t able to stand back.  

Gunmar seemed pleased, so the Gumm-Gumm swiftly made his way to the Skullcrusher’s throne and bowed to him, like a robot following its master’s commander. Steve heard the quiet coughs coming from Lake. He wiped away the blood from his mouth and slowly reached and grabbed his sword. “I can still take out one more.”

“Oh no.” Steve knew what the trollhunter was going to do, and it was a bad idea. Steve ran in front of Lake to stop him, but the trollhunter fazed right past the blonde teen, giving him the harsh reminder that all of this was just a memory, and he couldn’t change anything about this. 

Lake raced towards the Gumm-Gumm and stabbed his sword deep into their back. As Gunmar’s soldier turned to a pile of lifeless rocks, the trollhunter smiled in satisfaction at the sight of the Skullcrusher’s shocked expression because to him, this was the only kind victory he was ever going to get. 

Gunmar soon became enraged, he slammed his fist onto the handle of his throne and stood up with the look of murder in his eyes. But Dictatious quickly ran in front of the large troll. “Lord Gunmar, calm yourself. Don’t let this flessbag get to you so easily. Patience remember.” He advised with a shaky voice.

The trollhunter watched as Gumnar stared down at him and sat back down to his throne. “Take him back to his cell.” The Skullcrusher gritted his teeth. 

The guards grabbed Lake and began dragging him out of the arena. On the way back,  Steve could only hear the trollhunter’s abstract thoughts that felt too disconnected, itoo uncanny for him to listen to. The Gumm-Gumms threw Lake into his cell and closed the crystal bars. Lake laid in the same position for a while, still coughing up his blood, until he started to laugh. It started as quiet and soft until it slowly became loud enough that it echoed throughout the prison. 

There was one thought in the trollhunter’s mind that, for some reason, was absolutely entertaining for him. That no matter how hard his enemies try and maybe even himself at this point, he can never seem to die. Many memories started to resurface. Steve couldn’t see it, but he sensed the feeling. That cold, bone-chilling feeling as if you looked at death straight in the eye and dread that comes with it. However the feeling always seems to last for a short amount of time and be replaced with pure relief, but the impact is still there, and it never loses its value. 

When the laughter died down, Lake hissed as the pain of his injuries finally settled in. He dragged himself to the corner of the wall and leaned onto it. “Gunmar is going to make me regret what I did back there next time.” The trollhunter lazily tried to wipe off as much blood as he could from his face, but only made more of a mess than it originally was. 

As Steve bent down to his knees and felt nothing but pity and regret for his classmate. “Got to hand it to you.” He muttered. “Takes a lot of work to pretend like none of this ever happened.” Steve thought of all of the strange occurrences surrounding Lake for the past few months. It was unnerving, everything seemed so clear now when it’d be damn impossible to connect the dots single-handedly before.  

The blonde teen could feel how much the trollhunter missed training his friends. How much he missed hearing Blinky’s. How much he missed Aaarrrgghh. But most of all, how much he missed his mother’s presence. It was a warm, bittersweet emotion that Steve hasn’t really felt for a long time in such a way as this.

“They’re safe.” Lake thought. For the trolllhunter, it didn’t matter that he was going to be stuck here for the rest of his life, because Lake did what he came for. 

“Am I ever going to see my baby brother?” Claire’s voice echoed. It was fine, if they were fine, he was fine. “A trollhunter answers every call. No matter what.” Steve turned and looked at Lake, before everything disappeared. 

“So?” Unkar asked. The two of them standing in the void once again. “Do you understand now?”

As Steve stood back up, he responded with, “I guess. Don’t you think kind of messed up? That someone has to get hurt when they do something right? ”

“That is the harsh truth. A truth that you needed to know, doing good in the world like this must require us to take risks, even if it’s at the cost of our lives. I could not see that when I was alive and my cowardness had led me to my death.” 

What Unkar said didn't sit well with Steve.“Then why did the amulet choose me?” He asked, his voice wavering. “I never took the time to do anything good for someone for so long. Why would it expect me to be capable of even being that brave?” Steve didn’t realize how much the words he was spouting out would hurt him.

“It wasn’t the amulet that chose you, rather you’re fleshbag friend.” Steve held his breath and looked at the spirit with a confused daze. 

“Are you serious?” 

“I have no reason to lie trollhunter.” Unkar said as reassurance.

Steve ran his fingers through his hair, choosing to ignore the spirit calling Lake his “friend” again. “That makes even less sense. He could have just picked his friends then. Why me? I’m not qualified to be a hero. I...I don’t deserve to be given this.” 

“Your friend knew you before you took the wrong path. What’s to say he didn’t see that there was still good in you after all these years?” The blonde teen narrowed his eyes at Unkar.

“I told you, he’s not my friend, and I have no idea what you’re talking about with your cryptic ghost talk and all.” Steve remarked with a low voice. How would Lake want to be friends with someone who tormented him for years?

“No one is ever born evil trollhunter.” Steve blinked once, and Unkar and void were replaced with what looked like a playground. 

His surroundings were blurry and faded. As if he was inside a badly done watercolor painting, and yet Steve had a feeling of familiarity. Something in his gut told Steve that he’s been here before, but could not remember no matter how hard he tried. There was an unnatural silence that made Steve incredibly uneasy. All of this just brings more emphasis that none of this was real, at the very least the other memories gave him the illusion that he really was there. 

Steve walked around slowly and cautiously, trying to find the meaning of this memory, and he managed to find it. There was a secluded spot, where it managed to have every detail and aspect of its environment that separated itself from the abstract reality. In this spot were two young boys. One with dark hair who was trying to make something with the bundle of small flowers he had, and the other with blonde hair and was watching attentively, mindlessly fiddling the spare flowers with his hands.

The both of them seemed to be talking to each other, but none of the words came out, the conversation long forgotten. However, the blonde teen could see how happy they were and as he brought himself closer, Steve realized something that shook to his core. One of the little boys just so happened to be him. He then quickly turned toward the direction of the other boy and saw the black messy hair and the ocean blue eyes, there was no doubt in Steve that this was Lake.

But how? Steve had no recollection of this at all. Could he have just simply forgotten about it? No, that can’t be. It’d be absurd for Steve to forget something such as this. To know that someone he’d bully was also someone he was on good terms before in the past. 

The young boy with dark hair hopped up and plopped the entangled flowers onto the head of the blonde teen’s younger self. Steve watched in bewilderment, there was no tension between the two, no hatred, fear, nothing negative of the sort, it was just a heartfelt, innocent moment and nothing else.

“Whatever happened to that boy?” A voice whispered to Steve’s ear, but it wasn’t Unkar’s, rather an older man he has never heard before. 

The blonde teen glanced at his younger self, who was proudly wearing the flowers on his head. He began to recall an old memory of him coming back home from kindergarten, Steve remembered the moment his father saw him, he was absolutely furious. After that, Steve couldn’t seem to remember what happened next exactly, but rather fragments of it. Someone yelling, a child sobbing, the sharp pain of getting beaten over and over again, the bone-chilling fear that came with it, and the desperation to make it stop no matter what.

As Steve returned to the void, he thought of the day before the car wreck. The genuine smile on Lake’s face when he told him that he’d like to know the real Steve. How on earth did he manage to get his classmate to look at him the same way as all those years ago? The blonde teen sat still staring at his hands with a blank expression, the guilt inside of him building up as he thinks of every time he threw a punch at someone. Then sparks of magic formed in the palm of his hands until it began to form into the amulet of daylight. 

“James has given you an opportunity.” The mysterious voice spoke. “A chance of redemption, this is your chance to prove that that kind boy is still there in you.” 

Steve was awakened abruptly as the cage he was in was being lowered. When he looked down, Steve saw the others and Usurna. “I was asleep?” Steve thought, new questions now buzzing through his mind. 

The moment the cage went down, Steve got up quickly as the door was opened for him. Claire noticed how startled he seemed to be and made her way towards him. “Are you alright? Did the guards do anything to you?” 

“Huh? No, I’m.... fine.” He answered, still a bit dazed.

“So?” Usurna asked, “What is your choice, trollhunter?” Her staff slamming gently to the ground. 

The blonde teen glanced down and saw right in front of him the amulet on the floor. As he picked it up, Steve began to think about his sort-of-maybe- dream, the mysterious voice echoing in his head. He then looked at his classmates. Steve could see how the two were bracing themselves for anything really.

“I....” Steve hunched over, closing his eyes shut. He thought as long and hard as he could, before taking a deep breath and finally straightening himself up with confidence. “ I’m going to keep the amulet.” Steve held the amulet close to his chest and then managed to summon the armor without saying the incantation.

Claire, Toby, Blinky, and Aaarrrgghh looked at the trollhunter in surprise, then was replaced with smiles. “Really?” Toby wondered.

“Y-yeah. If it’s the thing that can kill the evil troll you told me, then  I guess it’s worth fighting for.” 

“So be it trollhunter.” Usurna raised her right hand and gestured to Steve towards the prison’s exit. As Steve walked past the troll, he heard her say, “Your trial awaits.” 

Claire placed her hand on Toby’s shoulder with a determined expression. “See? I told you he wasn’t going to give it away.” 

The redhead placed his hand to his hips and shook his head, his smile still present. “Yeah, I suppose you were right.” Toby began to think that perhaps there was more to Steve than just being a typical bully, but his doubts still lingered. He could only hope that what Steve told him at the hospital would be true in the long run.

“Don’t celebrate just yet you two. We still need to convince the Tribunal that Steve is not guilty, which I shall tell right now that it will not be an easy feat.” Blinky reminded the two teens. 

With the others following behind, Steve walked through trollmarket. Hoping with all his might that he made the right decision. 

#tales of arcadia #steve palchuk #toby domzalski #claire nuñez #blinky galadrigal #aaarrrgghh #jim lake jr #trollhunters #vanilla writing

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy chapter 261 - called it.

As the break surrounding American Thanksgiving comes to an end, I have a little more time to write this week’s meta.  Overall, I’m feeling pleased that I was able to predict the major plot point in this chapter, but it was pretty obvious.

The chapter starts off with Meiji era firefighters doing their things and Kikuta wanders back into the plot.  The fire crew fights the fire sending a crew to the rear of the brewery.

Kikuta is wandering through the building in a less smoky area.  Seeing that he’s cool and collected, I’d guess his strategy was to try to slowly cover the ground to find Asirpa. 

Usami raced off to chase Kadokura since his obsession with him seems to overpower his ability to follow Tsurumi’s orders.  Kikuta is met with the barrel of a rifle as he turns a corner to bump into the regrouped 27th.

He looks a little awkward since someone pointing a gun at you isn’t exactly a relaxing situation but the unnamed private apologizes as everyone looks at him.  Tsurumi seems pretty relaxed, Tsukishima seems resigned as he holds Asirpa and Koitio and Nikaido just blankly look at him. I like how Kikuta is able to remain calm as he greets Tsurumi, he is truly a classy man.  He simply listens to Tsurumi’s update about avoiding Hijikata or Sugimoto and that there is also a sniper on the loose.  It is then that Kikata shows some nervousness knowing that the body is that of Usami.  I think he does a great job of either acting surprised or maybe he’s honestly surprised since Usami was a great fighter, but he also knew he rushed into situations while he has always been methodical.

It looks to me that Koito and Tsukishima are both looking down towards Usami and not actually looking at Kikuta.  I think if Koito were looking at Kikuta, his gaze would be more to the left but it isn’t.  I wonder if both of them are thinking, Usami was a bit crazy thank goodness . .

The action then shifts to Ogata wondering where Vasily is as he thinks what his plan would be.  He states he’ll try to move upwind of the smoke for better visibility.  Is Ogata continuing the sniper battle?  I’m not sure, he may be just trying to avoid him.  He’s had a long evening and he’s smart enough to know when to retreat.  The fact that there is smoke, I would expect him to use his previous experience with Tanigaki and how he knew he retreated too late when Tanigaki escaped from Huci’s home.  It seems that Ogata evolves as a sniper and strategic thinker, but Vasily is just doing what he’s always done. 

We get some rare Vasily thoughts as he is looking for Ogata at the ground level.  It seems he finally figured out Ogata’s name so now we get the thought of his name.  He predicts Ogata trying to outflank him using the smoke to conceal his movement.

I dunno Vasily, Ogata already dealt with this situation with Tanigaki so I think he’ll do something unpredictable to pursue Tsurumi and the 27th from the shadows.  Face it, you are out classed.

The action returns to Sugimoto charging at Boutarou who whips his hair into his face blocking his vision.  He easily dodges his strike and grabs his rifle.  More importantly he asks Sugimoto if this will only be settled if one of them dies.

Which is a logical statement before he kicks Sugimoto in the face.  But Sugimoto can’t be stopped as he hits him in the face with the butt of his rifle and he falls to the ground as he draws his rifle ready to kill Boutarou since he’s immortal so it means that he won’t be the one to die when this is settled.

Very unusual for the manga, Boutarou decides to surrender.  He holds up his hands and smiles that he’s been beaten, but Sugimoto isn’t having any of that.  But then just as he fires Shiraishi deflects his shot (I think he was close enough that he wouldn’t miss.)  Oh YES!  Shiraishi indeed comes to the rescue of Boutarou.  I knew there is something between these two.

Shiraishi points out the obvious fact that Sugimoto needs to calm down and that they won’t find where Asirpa is if he’s dead.  Shiraishi, the underrated guy who is pretty intelligent!

Boutarou points out they will have to team up and Sugimoto is already walking away once he hears it was the 27th and assumes Tsukishima is the one who got her (incorrect) and he’s ready to just leave with Shiraishi.  Boutarou got some skins from Kadokura and he’s got the insider Ainu information, he thinks it is more than enough.  I love how Sugimoto thinks that because Boutarou hit him with a shovel he can’t trust him and thinks Hijikata is better (you know the man who has tried to kill you more than once) and he orders Shiraishi to come with him.  He the also assumes that Vasily will somehow protect Asirpa and that the 27th can’t escape.  

God, his logic is so flawed.  We know that Vasily is after Ogata, and Ogata only.  He doesn’t care about Asirpa and he never has for all we can tell and his inner dialogue in this chapter indicates as much.  Plus, Tsurumi always finds ways to escape so thinking a Russian sniper who doesn’t understand Japanese is going to snipe the entire 27th to protect Asirpa is - well insane.  Perhaps, the hit to the head with the shovel was too much.  Aaannnnnd the next page proves my point.

Look it is Vasily now up on a roof again asking for Ogata to come out of his hiding position.  But Ogata is no fool, he’s instead inside at a higher level with his rifle ready as he scans for Vasily.  He’s likely looking for him so that he can just move to avoid him and he’s not running outside.

Sugimoto then runs into a random guy with really weird round eyebrows, tied up.  Of course it is the fire crew that went around the back and they were tied up by the 27th who are escaping under the guise they are the fire crew!

Tsurumi drives the fire engine and Tsukishima walks off close to the viewer.

I wonder if Ogata is looking at them to determine that they are the 27th and if they have Asirpa?  It would be great if Vasily thinks he is continuing his sniper game and Ogata just follows the 27th and he’s left sitting on the roof of some building into the dawn.

Sugimoto unties the firefighters and asks were the 27th went. They don’t have any horses for obvious reasons, since the 27th stole them, but Boutarou has a solution.  Shiraishi is supporting him!  This means he ignored Sugimoto’s call to leave him behind and he’s even helping him move more quickly.  I want to know more about their relationship as characters!

And boom! Boutarou has found a Sapporo beer promotional car!  Which he can drive.  Sugimoto is of course impressed as his ability to drive a motor vehicle and there was a Sapporo Beer car, though this one is a lot fancier.

We learn that he learned to drive with Eddie Dun while hanging out with Wakayama.  The flashbash shows him wearing some cut off shorts, his arm around Dun while Wakayama holds his shoulder.  Does this confirm bisexual/pansexual Boutarou?  Considering how he acts around Shiraishi as well, perhaps.  There is also the fact that the other flashback had him in the nude when Wakayama told him to give up on the gold.  We also know Dun was running around nearly naked with the Ainu woman’s garment from Asirpa’s relative’s daughter. 

With that the chapter ends as Boutarou drives off in the direction that the 27th is headed in the beer car!  Which oddly makes me think of the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile and all the jokes that go along with that.

Conclusions from this chapter are pretty simple.

1.) Tsurumi has found an easy way to leave and is heading north with Asirpa.  Koito and Tsukishima seem distant and reflective and Kikuta is playing it calm like the 007 that he is.

2.) Vasily is continuing the sniper battle.  Does he care about Asirpa? Fuck no.  Does he care about Tsurumi? Nope.  Does he care about Ogata?  Too much.

3.) Ogata is avoiding Vasily.  But if he’s continuing the sniper battle is questionable at best.  I predict he’ll use something from his battle with Tanigaki to evade Vasily.  Either he’ll pass by in the open while Vasily thinks he behaves in a predictable fashion.  Which Vasily should know that Ogata already doesn’t act like a typical sniper so he should stop thinking that way.  Ogata doesn’t waste his effort or actions, he sniped Usami because it was the right thing to do.  It doesn’t mean he’s in the mood for more of this waste of his time as Tsurumi escapes with Asirpa.

4.) Shiraishi is the hero of the day!  He’s on a roll. He saved Sugimoto from the fire and now he saved Boutarou from Sugimoto.  He knows that Boutarou is a smart guy and as I’ve stated before, he’s there to make Sugimoto uncomfortable.  It is because of Boutarou that they are able to steal the beer car to pursue the 27th, but I predict something will prevent them.  Like they run out of gas or end up in a ditch and have to retreat and rest up before attempting to rescue Asirpa. Does this mean that ShiraBou is real?  Or are you just trolling us Noda?  Eh? Eeehhh?????? Boutarou clearly wasn’t worried wearing shorts with other men, flaunting his sexy figure.

5.) Hijikata’s group has fully retreated.  We didn’t see them in this chapter, but they are smart enough to have withdrawn versus trying to pursue the 27th or Sugimoto.

Well that is all for now. I think the 27th will successfully escape since it will have to make other groups consider how to rescue her.  I’d love for Ogata to stalk the 27th and sneak her out from Tsurumi’s grasp leaving everyone else to clash.

#golden kamuy #golden kamuy meta #asirpa #tsurumi tokushirou #koito otonoshin #tsukishima hajime #warrant officer kikuta #ogata hyakunosuke #vasily golden kamuy #sugimoto saichi #shiraishi yoshitake #boutarou the pirate

[autumnblogs]

Day 24: Murderstuck

https://homestuck.com/story/3297

This is one of my single favorite flashes.

I wonder if Sacrificial Slabs are Paradox Space’s way of rewarding players who have an indomitable will to prevail, to the extent that they are completely prepared to either to live or to die to fulfill their true will.

Aradia certainly bore the Burden of Time - of death, and endings, and inevitability - on behalf of her teammates to its absolute conclusion. Vriska may have struck the final blow, and Gamzee may have done the absolute largest single blow of damage to the King, but I’m inclined to say that Aradia is the real MVP.

Of course, sometimes, power is just meaningless, and characters stumble ass-backwards into it, or are deliberately manipulated into it by nefarious actors, but part of me likes to imagine that P-Space itself, to whatever extent it is an actor, tends to push those who have the Right Stuff to become gods, rewards strength of mettle and character, for good or ill.

That is to say, it rewards the sort of people who are probably already going to die a Heroic or Just death, not the sort to be ignominiously murdered. Of course, the vast majority of characters who God Tier in Homestuck are ignominiously murdered and become Gods purely because they are manipulated or maneuvered into it by someone else. So maybe the real moral of the story is that Power Has No Spiritual Significance.

More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/3306

Act 5 spends a lot of time writing checks that won’t be cashed until the very end of the comic, with an enormous gap between the setup and the payoff. A lot of this stuff is completely irrelevant until about the last 100 pages of the comic, mechanically, but thematically, it exposits on some of the central themes of Homestuck by making the mechanics parallel to the themes, I think.

https://homestuck.com/story/3315

Taking note of this - Ectobiology is dependent on the force of destiny in Homestuck. Things have a canonical future.

Non-canonical outcomes are rendered irrelevant when they are doomed.

https://homestuck.com/story/3320

This is actually starting to become a running theme on closer examination - experiences like Godhood, and Lunar Awakening, which are clearly telegraphed as being intentionally spiritual experiences have their spirituality sabotaged in almost all cases by some nefarious influence.

So maybe in keeping with its general criticism of narratives and character arcs and attempts to categorize the human experience, the deconstruction of the universe mechanics that it has built up are part of the way that Homestuck criticizes cultural narratives.

https://homestuck.com/story/3321

It occurs to me that unlike the entire rest of Homestuck, characters in these walkarounds are able to talk to each other unmediated - at least, the trolls are. I’m not sure if the kids ever do, but probably not.

The Trolls’ set up lends itself to the interpretation of computers and mediated communication as basically alienating in the Homestuck setting. The meteor computer room creates a setting where the most pain free way of engaging with each other is still pretty much through text, and with the exception of the sparse conversations the characters have like this, I don’t think it’s likely that they talk much once they’re on the meteor.

Karkat and Terezi’s short fling is extremely defining for both of them as the real romantic leads amongst the trolls, in a sort of ass backwards sense. They don’t get together in the end, but by the end of the comic, with the exception of Dave for Karkat, and Vriska for Terezi, they really do seem like they are the most important people in each other’s lives.

https://homestuck.com/story/3355

Doc Scratch and Lord English’s memes really are forced memes - something that they make A Thing practically by orchestrating events in order to make them A Thing. They’re empty signifiers, self-referential phrases and images that symbolize nothing except for themselves, emblematic of Lord English’s hegemony. Like Caliborn’s fixation on red herrings and shitty twists.

https://homestuck.com/story/3365

One half of Terezi’s facade is broken - she obviously can’t stand to look death in the face once it’s someone that she knows. But she’s still pretty attached to her whole vigilante schtick. It’s all she knows.

https://homestuck.com/story/3438

I think it’s fascinating that Nepeta ships Tavros with Dave considering the parallels between them. It’s implied that Nepeta has contacted Dave at least some, and as the Rogue of Heart, maybe she’s picked up on those parallels.

And as long as we’re discussing Dave, let’s discuss Gamzee and Equius who are both trolls associated with Dave in terms of which humans they have important interactions with.

Equius and Gamzee are, to some extent or another, both parodies of Dave, through their unhealthy relationship with cultural fixtures and figures, and their physical struggle, I think, corresponds to Dave’s internal struggle with starting to question his idolization of Bro and his own indoctrination into the sort of miniaturized death cult represented by Bro’s toxic influence.

What I’m saying here, I guess, is that if we view Gamzee’s religiosity as corresponding to Dave’s Hero Worship, and we view Equius as a parody of Dave, what we can read out of murderstuck is this;

If Dave attempts to live up to his Bro’s ideals of manhood, it will strangle the best parts of him to death.

https://homestuck.com/story/3465

This seems a fine place to pause. We’ll get into John and Vriska’s feelings jam tomorrow.

I beat the Four Kings solo on NG+ today. I’m probably going to spend the rest of my shift, between chats, finishing that playthrough. I may be a Homestuck theorist, but my more impressive credential is that I have, in fact, beaten Dark Souls.

For now, Cam signing off, Alive, and feeling like Hot Shit.

#liveblogging #commentary

[studentville-struggles]

A Double Life

Chapter 3

A self-indulgent Daniel Ricciardo fic.

Summary: Returning to old passions results in the start of chaos and living a double life. We say we hate chaos, but the thrill is unlike anything else.

Words: 1,575 (short im sorry - its a filler really)

Masterlist / Part 1/ Part 2

The reception to your hot lap was incredible. The reception to season one of your show was even wilder. You couldn’t quite believe that people actually wanted to watch you live your life. It was a weird life, you’d give them that, but you wanted to drive, and you also didn’t want to let your supervisors down, so this life was the one you would live. You were lucky enough, and you knew there was a lot of luck (and money) involved, to have the most supportive driving teams, drivers’ academy and university. If even one of them decided it wasn’t worth it, or that it was too much hassle, all of your dreams would come crashing down around you.  

People pleasing was very much the name of the game.  

Your following on social media also increased significantly – which you expected considering there’s more TV coverage for F2 than F3, but this seemed more than normal for an F2 driver. People wanting immediate update on what was going on in your life, wanting to follow on from what was seen on the show.  

In an attempt to keep driving life from your uni life, you had been posting more and more on your ‘drivers instagram’ which you had started when you got the opportunity to go testing. What had started as a space for you to spam your ‘omg im back in a racing suit yay’ posts, soon became full of official team and racing pictures and slowly but surely has become your main professional ‘driver Rachel’ instagram. It also meant that you neglected your old account and so many of your friends didn’t technically follow you anymore. Not helpful in them knowing what you were up to.

You had rarely tweeted (you didn’t know what to tweet about and honestly it felt weird) but you had gained tens of thousands of followers almost overnight. Your friends thought it was hilarious. Lewis was right there to help you freak out about and learn to ignore the negativity such a platform brings in. A surprising amount of people had an issue with you coming back to racing and not having been driving for your entire life.

Life at home was as busy as normal, you were in the routine of 5am starts and 16hour days but you honestly couldn’t wait for the race weekends – the small respite that it allowed. For most drivers, race weekends meant early mornings and an intense schedule. For you it was relief. You considered the 7am wakeup calls a glorious lie-in, and if you were truly honest, you were almost bored in the evenings with nothing to do. Although you had taken to writing papers and collating notes in the emptier evenings.  

You were growing into a real adult you thought. You might only be 22 but you could hold your own in a corporate setting. You’d done enough presentations to your research group, as well as at the occasional conference to deal with hard, complicated and irrelevant questions. A skill Lewis often claimed he wished he’d learned earlier in his career. The two of you were different than other drivers. He was the first black driver in formula one and you had hopes of being the first female driver in formula one for years. My god and if you could score points, you’d be the first women to do so in over 40 years. If you even made it into formula one.  

You’d been approached by a couple of people about testing or going for ‘a chat’. Not all of them followed up with you, and you had a feeling it would be purely miraculous if you even got to test an F1 car. Maybe if you could jump up to third in the standings, you’d be within a shot. After all there had been three rookie drivers only a year ago.  

You were currently sat in fourth place in the F2 standings. Frustrating with how close you had been to improving that score even further in a few races, but still incredibly strong for a rookie year. The rookie luck seemed to be following you everywhere, not that you minded. Some people claimed it was purely ‘beginners' luck’ and that you would crash and burn soon enough, others had a far more favourable explanation. You were lucky enough to have people supporting your racing and a fair few of them, who had seen your show, were adamant that your dedication to a strict and somewhat extreme lifestyle, was the reason for your success. You read these uplifting comments, shunning the trolls, saying that you committed to both a stressful academic course and a stressful motorsport career, you arguably worked harder than half the drivers on the grid. You agreed that you worked hard and were perpetually stressed about your to do list, but you could never say you worked harder than other drivers. You merely worked at different times, weirder times.  

As the season progressed you reaped the rewards of your hard work, with the odd experience bringing you back to reality. A few race wins combined with a DNF brought you into 3rd place as the season end drew near.

You were feeling great, fighting fit and looking to finish the season on a high. Abu Dhabi was new tracks for you so you wanted to make your penultimate race in Sochi count as much as possible, not wanting the unfamiliarity of Abu Dhabi to throw you off. You’d sat with the team management and your engineers, done the math and you knew what you needed to do to maintain your third place standings. You calculated whether a second place finish was possible, which although unlikely, it was doable with some outstanding results.

By now your camera crew were your biggest cheerleaders trackside, beside your parents of course, perhaps a side effect of the amount of time spent together. Upon discovering a second place finish was technically possible, had lost the majority of their decorum and were hyping you up no end about it. Secretly you loved it, though it also added to the pressure you felt.

People often thought you were exaggerating how close you were to your team, but you honestly loved them all. You spent every day with them, from walking into university with them, to travelling to test days and Grand Prix's with them.  

The off-weeks before the end of season, had been planned with an abundance of lab time and note taking, allowing for the final weeks of the season to be nearly fully focused on racing. Well as close as was possible for you to allow full focus on racing. As you were far too aware of now, plans are rarely stuck to, and you found yourself on a mid week road trip from university to Woking. You’d had a series of calls and were subsequently invited down for discussion surrounding a drivers spot with McLaren. Apparently Carlos’ contract was up and he had accepted an external offer.

Excitement would never be the right word, but it was as close as you could convey.

Lando Norris was everything you expected him to be and more. McLaren had the whole teammate situation under control and the ‘perks’ of working for them were more than your entire life had been previously working towards. Your manager okayed the contract and your formula 2 team were stoked to see you progress once more. Your presence in motorsport was sudden and it was making waves.

---

The announcement of your confirmed contract with McLaren for the next season came as you were busy getting dolled up for the end of season gala. All the drivers, from both F1 and F2, would get together at the end of the season to go all out, have fun and hopefully repair a few friendships the competitiveness may have ruined within the season. It was also one of the first opportunities to get black out drunk for a while. So there was that too.

With both the F1 and F2 seasons ending at the same time, it was handy for you to say goodbye to your team mate for the year, as well as the rest of the drivers you’d been competing against. It wasn’t that you wouldn’t see them again, you just wouldn’t be seeing them so constantly next year. The gala also gave you the opportunity to spend some time with your new team mate, Lando Norris, and suss out some of the other drivers.  

Lewis had obviously been teasing you about seeing Ricciardo again, having successfully avoided him since your hot lap. Though he did randomly follow you on instagram a couple weeks back. Weird. You weren’t sure what to make of him now. He had always come across well in the media, perfectly charming and unfairly attractive; a fact you didn’t dare say out loud. However, when you had met him that day, he’d seemed almost arrogant and well, you didn’t stay to find out what else.  

You felt a little guilty. He had made assumptions about you based on his experiences at races, and you had in turn made assumptions about him. Should you have tried to get to know him better? He did compliment your drive in the end. Perhaps the gala was an opportunity to set things straight; he can see you as a driver and you can see what he is really like.  

#studentville-struggles #rachel tries to write #daniel ricciardo #daniel ricciardo imagine #daniel ricciardo fic #f1 imagines #formula 1 imagines #f1 oneshots #f1 fics #lando norris #daniel ricciardo x reader #f1 x reader #motorsport imagines

[xxx-cat-xxx]

Peter Parker and Bruce Banner’s Guide on How To Make Iron Man Sleep

For @sallyidss. Happy Birthday, Sally! This is about 1% hurt and 99% comfort, or in other words, pure fluff and chicken soup. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Thanks to @whumphoarder for beta reading and to @maikkuax for the video game reference.

____________________

Peter wakes up to a dazzling amount of texts on Saturday morning. 

One is from Tony, sent at 3am, telling him that Bruce is sick and might not be able to help Peter with his biology project today as they had planned, but he is still welcome to drop by the tower.

Then there’s another one from Tony three hours later asking him whether he could pick up some soup while on the way; one from Bruce at 8am, telling him that Tony is sick too, but ‘he won’t admit it so just try to somehow get him to rest once you come over’; and then one more from Tony telling him to ignore whatever Bruce just told him.

Peter grins to himself while reading the texts - he can almost hear his favourite superhero couple bantering and fussing over each other. Then he gets up for breakfast with May and a shower before heading down to the corner grocery store. He gets soup (chicken for Tony and vegetable for Bruce), as well as some of the Fairtrade chocolate bars that Bruce buys for ideological reasons and Tony eats en masse because he’s got a secret sweet tooth. Peter stuffs the groceries into his school bag along with his laptop and makes his way to the tower. 

*

Tony definitely looks under the weather when he opens the door; pale and with a very clown-like red nose that is dripping constantly. 

“Hey kid, thanks for the delivery,” he jokes with a raspy voice. He takes the bag and mimics shutting the door in Peter’s face before smirking and opening it fully to let his unamused mentee in. 

“Very funny, Mr. Stark.” Peter removes his shoes and jacket and then stops, frowning. Through the hallway, he can see that the bed in the master bedroom has been demolished into what looks like a heap of firewood. “Uhm, what happened to your bed?”

“Well…” Tony interrupts himself to cough harshly into his elbow. “So, uh, we had a bit of an exciting night. Not in the fun way, unfortunately…” he trails off. “Anyway, Bruce went back to sleep after breakfast, but I thought we could head to the lab and start working on the chameleon fabric you suggested for your suit.” 

Peter is sure that working in the lab is the opposite of what Tony should be doing just now - his mentor looks even more tired than usual and the slightly glassy quality to his eyes suggests that he is running a fever - but Peter also knows that saying this out loud will only be counterproductive. 

“What if we watch a movie instead?” he suggests.

“I’m not watching a movie at eleven in the morning,” Tony protests. “We have the whole day in front of us - time to build, invent, change the world..." He flaps his hand. "All that jazz."

“Okay, okay…” Peter thinks for a second before an idea hits him. “But before we start with the suit, I do need your help with something else.”

“Now what?”

“So, Ned and I have this gaming commentary channel on YouTube where we livestream playing “The Witcher 3”? And it’s going pretty well, but Ned says he needs help developing his stage persona, you know, talking in a way that is interesting and keeps your audience engaged? So, he thought that you might give us some advice because you’ve got a ton of experience with speaking in public and all that?”

(It’s not entirely a lie - Ned and Peter have joked about getting Tony involved in order to increase their viewership, but he is pretty sure that Ned would be mortified upon hearing that Peter actually suggested it to the billionaire.)

“Wait, you and Ned are making videos of you killing virtual trolls while talking about it? And people actually watch that?”

“That’s...another way of putting it.”

“Sounds like a gigantic waste of time.” Tony scrunches up his nose. “Either I play the game myself, or I spend my downtime watching something interesting.” 

“Hey! Our last one has more than 3000 hits!” Peter defends.

“People have too much free time. Including you.” Tony points his finger at Peter before quickly covering his mouth to contain a sneeze. “But I suppose I can take a look if you really want me to…”

Peter grins. Stage one: complete.

They settle on the couch in the living room. Tony can’t suppress a small sigh when he leans against the cushions. He massages the bridge of his nose in a way that makes it clear to Peter he must be nursing a headache. 

“Hit me, kid,” he orders.

“Okay, but before we start, you need to know a few things...” Peter launches into a long-winded explanation of the game’s storyline with more than a few unnecessary details of the characters’ backgrounds. He pretends to concentrate on the screen where he walks Tony through different tutorials, but out of the corner of his eye he sees his mentor slowly sinking deeper and deeper into couch.

“...and then they bring Uma to the witcher school of Kaer Morhen,” Peter goes on as Tony tiredly attempts to follow along, his blinks growing longer and longer each time, “where Yennefer removes his curse and transforms him into Avallac'h...” 

When Peter can’t think of anything else to babble about, he starts playing their most recent video. Tony sits up a little straighter and rubs a hand over his face to concentrate. But at about the two minute mark, he stops the screen with a wave of his hand.

“So, not to be rude, but that was kind of painful, Tony declares. “You guys literally started with a 45 second explanation of why you prefer the old controller design to the new one. No wonder you’re putting people to sleep.”

Peter frowns a bit. “I mean, we weren’t that bad…” he defends. “And the new ones do kind of suck.”

“Sure, kid,” Tony huffs. He shifts position on the sofa with a sigh. “Alright, listen. It’s obvious that you two are knowledgeable about this game, but if you want to engage your audience, you’ve gotta try to establish your credentials in a way that’s still interesting and relatable. For instance, I once started a TED Talk by describing how I hacked NASA during an MIT frat party so that I could send a rocket to draw a dick over San Francisco. ”

Peter snorts at that admission. 

“See? Exactly,” Tony points out. “That’s the kind of reaction you want your audience to have - that’s called a hook, kid.” 

The longer they watch, the more Tony seems to be melting into the couch. His comments become less and less frequent, and at some point he leans his head back against the pillow, barely looking at the screen anymore. By the third video, Peter can see his mentor’s eyelids fluttering shut. 

He waits for a few minutes and then pauses the screen, just to see Tony’s eyes fly open again. “I’m listening!” he assures. 

“Yeah, I know.” Peter hides a smirk. “Just, uhm, relax a bit.”

“I see what you’re trying to do here, kid. I’m not stupid,” Tony protests nasally, stifling another sneeze, but he doesn’t make any move to get up from the couch. 

Peter starts the video again, knowing that the battle has been won. Five minutes later, Tony is asleep. 

Peter watches a few more videos on his own (now that he pays attention, he realises that most of Tony’s suggestions, despite being sarcastic, are actually in line with what the popular streamers do) before FRIDAY informs him that Bruce has woken up. 

He finds the scientist in the kitchen, making tea. 

“Hey Dr. Banner,” Peter greets. “How are you?”

“Hey Peter.” Bruce gives him a warm and slightly sleepy smile. His voice is a bit hoarse. “I’m fine. Is Tony asleep?”

“Yep,” Peter declares proudly. “Used my hypnotically soothing voice. And obscure video game lore."

Bruce heaves out a sigh. “Finally, thank god. I had, uhm… kind of an incident last night and I don’t think he slept at all after that.” 

Peter thinks back to the broken bed frame and chooses not to comment.

“Do you want some tea?” Bruce asks.

“No, thanks. I’m okay.”

Bruce takes out a box of cookies instead and hands a few to Peter. “So, what was this thing you wanted me to look at with you?”

“Oh, it’s just a bio project,” Peter says with a shrug. “But we can do it some other time, when you’re feeling better.”

“I’m okay...” Peter gives him a suspicious look and Bruce’s smile deepens. “No need for that - I’m not Tony, I would tell you if I wasn’t up for it. But I am actually feeling much better after sleeping and I wouldn’t mind some distraction.”

“Okay, well then...”

Peter likes Bruce a lot. It took him a while to get close to him because Bruce is not a person who easily lets people in, but now whenever Peter visits the tower, he looks forward to seeing the scientist almost as much as he does to seeing Tony. 

Tony is brilliant, energetic, and funny, and he constantly encourages Peter to think deeper, work harder, do better - to improve himself. Which is a fun challenge, but it can also be quite exhausting at times. Working with Bruce is the exact opposite. He makes Peter feel calm, slows him down when he overthinks, and makes it clear that mistakes are something that happen to everyone and nothing Peter should be too concerned about. While spending time with Tony is the equivalent of a rollercoaster ride, being with Bruce feels more like a calm day at the beach, and Peter has realised that he needs both from time to time. 

They move to Bruce’s study (since Bruce doesn’t allow food in his lab and they don’t actually need to do any experiments for Peter’s project) with Peter’s laptop, biscuits, and several bars of Fairtrade chocolate. 

*

Tony wakes up with the blurry images of a nightmare still on the rims of his consciousness. He feels cold, achy, and slightly out of breath. It takes him a few disoriented moments to realise that his face is mostly buried into a couch pillow, blocking his mouth and nose. He frees himself and sits up stiffly, wiping at his slightly damp cheeks. His nose is dripping annoyingly and he isn’t sure whether that’s only because of the cold. 

“FRIDAY?” he prompts nasally. 

“It is 1:17pm on Saturday afternoon. Dr. Banner and Mr. Parker are working in the study room. Everyone is safe and well, boss.” 

“Okay. Thanks, FRI.” Tony takes another few moments to ground himself before getting up from the sofa, rather unsteadily. His body seems to have tripled in weight and his head feels like an overfilled balloon that’s ready to burst. He kind of wants to fall back onto the couch and go to sleep again, but at the same time he definitely doesn’t want to revisit the dreams he just had. 

Instead, he ventures into the study where he finds his partner, who is sporting an adorable bedhead, together with his mentee enthusiastically modelling a DNA strand on a laptop screen.

“Coffee?” Tony asks hoarsely.

“Good afternoon to you too, Tony,” Bruce smirks and nods towards a pot sitting on the table. Tony pours himself a mug and downs it in one go, marvelling at how much better it makes his throat feel immediately. 

Feeling slightly more human and ready to deal with the actual world, he leans over Bruce’s shoulder and nuzzles his head against his partner’s ear. “How you feeling, green bean?”

“I’m much better. Sleeping helped a lot, actually.” Tony gives him a critical once-over and seems to accept that. “Peter is doing an impressive job with his project, by the way,” Bruce adds.

Peter blushes at the compliment. “It’s not me - Dr. Banner is helping me a lot!” 

“I’m really just sitting here and watching you work,” Bruce dismisses before addressing Tony again. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m”—Tony’s voice breaks in the middle of the sentence and he has to clear his throat before continuing—“I’m good.”

“Mm-hmm.” Bruce raises an eyebrow. “FRIDAY, what’s his temperature at?”

“100.2 degrees, Dr. Banner.”

“Thanks.” He turns to Tony, who is coughing again. There seems to be a brick stuck inside his chest and it feels like he can’t take a full breath at all. Bruce gives him a concerned look. “This sounds painful.”

“‘S okay,” Tony dismisses.

“Maybe you should try using the inhaler -”

“Stop mother-henning, Bruce,” he grumbles with a glance at Peter, who is very clearly trying to act as if he isn’t listening to every word, but the pain in Tony’s chest is suddenly replaced by a surge of warmth upon realising Bruce’s worry about him. The scientist seems to understand and just squeezes Tony’s hand before turning back to the screen.

Tony pours himself another cup of coffee and grabs a slice of toast as well as two of the chocolate bars before settling into the chair across from the two of them, munching away and watching them work. Seeing them together leaves him with an annoyingly sappy feeling. Bruce, usually rather shy, is much more self-confident around the kid and visibly happy about Peter’s genuine interest in everything scientific. He is also a much more patient teacher than Tony ever manages to be, which seems to be putting Peter at ease. 

After finishing his food, Tony debates moving to his own lab to get some actual work done, but he is so, so tired, and everything kind of hurts. Standing up seems like a lot of effort. So instead, he crosses his arms on the table and rests his head on top of them, closing his eyes for just a moment.

He listens to Peter and Bruce when their conversation shifts from Peter’s project, to May’s new vegan disaster recipe, to the idea of using Peter’s webs in order to create a hammock that can hold the Hulk. Tony smiles into his sleeves, imagining Hulk chilling at the beach between two palm trees, swinging to and fro, to and fro, to and...

“Hey.” Bruce rests his palms lightly on Tony’s shoulder.

He jerks upright. “Wasn’t asleep.”

“What, I would never think that,” Bruce says with a smirk. 

Tony rubs his tired eyes and then his aching forehead. “Where’s Peter?”

“He went to heat up the soup for all of us.”

“Hmm.” Tony grabs Bruce’s hands and presses them against his overly warm cheeks, enjoying the cooling feeling they provide.

“Did you have a nightmare earlier?” Bruce asks, his hand now moving up to cup Tony’s forehead. “You seemed kind of out of it.”

“Yeah,” Tony admits, leaning into the touch. “I don’t remember what it was about, though.”

Bruce hums and presses a light kiss to the top of Tony’s head. “Fever dreams are awful. But at least you didn’t break any furniture upon waking up.”

Tony, sensing the guilt below the light tone, only huffs. “I’d been wanting to get a new bed anyway for a while now. Did you know there are self-making ones now? And levitating mattresses? Or we could go for one of those free-swinging beds, to match Hulk’s upcoming hammock.” 

Bruce smiles and shakes his head. “A normal one would do, Tony. Or we could try something different. Did you know that sleeping on the ground is actually quite good for your back?”

Tony snorts. “Yeah, no. I’m a billionaire, Brucie, we’re not sleeping on the ground because our bed is broken. Levitating one it is.”

Peter comes back with the steaming soup, which does wonders for Tony’s raw throat. At Bruce’s advice, he takes some Advil that muffles his headache a little and remembers the times a few years ago when he would be sick with only JARVIS as his company, feeling a little chilled and very lucky. 

*

In the end, Tony does agree to watching TV, but mostly because Bruce admits to still not feeling up for anything more demanding (which Peter suspects is not entirely true, but he definitely won’t call him out). They let Peter pick, who of course goes for the newest Orville episode, and settle on the huge living room couch with a steaming mug of tea (Bruce), a packet of chocolate (Tony) and another helping of soup (Peter). 

Peter notices after a while that Bruce is gently massaging Tony’s head, playing with his hair. Tony seems to be sort of melting into the touch, his head leaning against Bruce’s shoulder, eyes almost closed. He looks old, but not frighteningly so - more in a serene way that makes Peter want to capture the moment on film. 

In the years he’s known him, Peter has rarely seen Tony anything but buzzing with energy, jumping to and fro between ideas and lab tables. The only person who is able to slow him down and occasionally get him to take a break without having to outright trick him into it seems to be Bruce. And as sorry as Peter is to see both of them sick, it’s also heartwarming to observe how they are taking care of each other. 

Peter knows that most people his age find the idea of spending a lazy movie Saturday with their family kind of boring, but something in him loves the idea of settling down like this. Maybe it’s the fact that it reminds him of how it used to be with Ben and May, or that the time he spends as Spider-Man is already adventurous enough, or the sheer thrill of seeing Iron Man and the Hulk’s alter ego in their pyjamas on the couch, nuzzled up against each other. 

But whatever it is, there’s nowhere else Peter would rather be.

____________________

If you liked this, make sure to check out @twentyghosts‘ beautiful fic Cold, Comfort with a similar setting that inspired me to write this one.

All my fics

Taglist: @toomuchtoread33  @yepokokfine

@badthingshappenbingo This is my fill for the ‘Common Cold’ square.

#sick tony stark #science bros #science boyfriends #irondad #sickfic #tony stark #bruce banner #peter parker #chocolate #common cold #fanfic #it was so hard to find a title for this

[sharethisgemwithme]

Zach and Grace Friday panel at Connecticon 2019

Some highlights and notes from the "Growing Up with Steven Universe" panel featuring Zach Callison and Grace Rolek, Friday afternoon at Connecticon 2019. There are some promo spoilers. Most quotes are approximate from the notes I took on my phone. There may be a recording of the panel, but the camera was blocked by the audience question line for a while and when I got to the front of the line, I saw it wasn't even pointed at Zach and Grace.

Sorted into broad categories:

Movie hype / spoilery talk

Host asked about the poster. Zach said he's kinda looked at it, but not studied it closely. Grace: "Spoiler alert, someone has a neck." Zach: "That's all anyone can talk about."

What's the hardest scene to record that you've done. Zach: "I hate to do this but the hardest scene I've done I did a few weeks ago and I can't talk about it for quite a while." [audience groans]

Audience member: "I have a question about the movie." Zach makes police siren noises, "Oh no the Cartoon Network spoiler police!"

Attempts to get even small details were denied. "So we saw you have a neck. Is your voice going to change?" [pause] Zach: "A week from today (Friday), there's a big panel and there's gonna be a bunch of stuff. I recommend you watch."

This was earlier in the day, when I met Zach in the autograph line. Me: "I'm really looking forward to all the stuff that's gonna come out next week in San Diego." Zach: "There's so much. I'm not going to be there, after six years of going, I need a vacation."

Zach makes ABUNDANTLY clear how excited he is for what's coming up, "I am thrilled with what they've done after CYM."

Reaction to the new gems from CYM. Zach: "Sunstone is one of my favorites now. Like an after-school camp counselor." Grace: "Obsidian is one of the hardest secrets I've ever had to keep on this show." They finished recording CYM in 2017!

Have you ever cried in the recording booth? Zach: "Over a dozen times. One time really badly... with something that hasn't come out yet."

What's the biggest theme you've taken from the show? Zach: "I'm really sorry to do this, but I'm gonna skip this question because the theme I take away is something that hasn't come up in the show yet." He says the show has become intensely personal to him and his experiences, both intentionally and unintentionally, and says if he accidentally gave hints as to upcoming themes, it wouldn't be fair to the crew. (This probably ties in with some of the stuff below under “Outside of SU”)

Favorites and funniest

What's the hardest scene to record that you've done. Among stuff that's aired, Zach: Storm in the Room. Connie: "Either Nightmare Hospital or Full Disclosure when Connie is like 'Stop ghosting me, Steven!' "

What are some funny moments from recording? The opening scene from "Winter Forecast", the directors INSISTED on real marshmallows, "nothing else would do". Grace: "And these were not small. There's jumbo and then there's novelty size." Zach: "They got novelty size." Grace: "I could barely fit one inside my mouth."

Favorite episode (this question might've had a "besides the Big Plot episodes" caveat).

Zach: "Onion Gang. Any of the weird Onion episodes."

Grace: "I realize this is an unpopular opinion but I love the Ronaldo episodes. I have a Keep Beach City Weird sticker on my laptop. I don't like having stuff that's too overtly Steven Universe because I don't like to toot my own horn, but KBCW is great because it's 'if you know, you know'." Zach: "It's a lifestyle."

That segued into talk about "Rocknaldo", which Zach thought was hilarious, especially the way CN trolled everyone with the Bloodstone promo. Grace "Was that the one where Ronaldo tried to kill someone in the basement?" Discussion brings up that's "Horror Club". Grace continues, "That was a great one, like what are we DOING? No one went to jail for this?"

Favorite songs:

First, ones that they did.

Zach said "Let's Only Think About Love". I think he added a second one, but my notes say “or” and then stop there so I think I moved on to the next bit and forgot what else he said.

Grace says "Of course 'Do it for Her'" but also that she loved providing background harmonies for "Escapism". "Aly and AJ was the first concert I ever went to, so to do back-up vocals for AJ was the greatest fangirl moment." (There’s been some confusion as to whether Zach and Grace had vocals on that song, it’s now clear that they did)

Then, overall. Zach immediately sings "It's over, isn't it? Isn't it over?" Grace grumbles that she can't take the same answer, so she throws out "Stronger Than You".

"Back in the start of the show, it was a lot more lighthearted. What's the funniest or weirdest line you had to record?" Zach IMMEDIATELY goes into voice: "A boy on the cusp of manhood can't spend the whole day wackering." Grace enjoyed her line from "Open Book": "Of course you like the ending, you LOVE schmultz."

Pivoting into the weirdness of early episodes, Zach says "Frybo and Cat Fingers were back to back, 5 and 6. I don't know how anyone stuck with the show after that."

What's the biggest theme you've taken from the show? Grace: "I think about Mindful Education all the time. Here Comes a Thought is such a great song but also an important mantra."

Other than Uncle Grandpa, what crossover would you like to do? Zach: "I wanna be the very best!" Audience cheers. Grace says she would've loved to do "Adventure Time".

This segues into a joke that people confuse Zach for Jeremy Shada (Finn), in some cases even when Zach is standing in front of a poster that says ZACH CALLISON. Grace says that her boyfriend loves the joke so much that Zach is listed in his phone as "Jeremy Shada".

Behind the scenes

What was it like seeing the show blow up the way it did? Grace: "I used to go on Tumblr and read all the posts, all the reactions people had, but after Jail Break... couldn't do that anymore." Zach: "I poke my head into a reddit every once in a while."

What's it like in the booth with the rest of the cast? Grace: "Deedee and Michaela always get to do the funniest things."

Discussion of how voice acting lends them a little more anonymity than live-action, and there's still a spectrum of how recognizable people are.

Grace recounts a story from earlier in the day, possibly on the way to that very panel. "The elevator was pretty crowded and I was able to get on but Zach wasn't. And as soon as it closed, one of the other people in the elevator was like 'Oh my god, Zach Callison almost got on the elevator with us!' And I was like 'Oh my god, that would've been so cool!'"

Both Zach and Grace recounted times when they've greeted stranger wearing SU apparel and gotten blank stares in response, like, "Uh, yeah, what's your point?"

Zach: "As of Sunday, I'm leaving the country to be a hobo for a bit." He's flying to Siberia, then taking a 62-hour train ride to get on a boat to Korea, where he plans to visit the Korean animation studio where SU is drawn (as seen in "Steven's Dream"), something almost no actors do (apparently Michaela was more or less the first to do so, for any show at all).

Sometimes Grace will have a lot of "catching up" to do with the plot. "One time Rebecca was like 'oh by the way Lars is pink now." Zach jokes, "Lars is pink, Ronaldo and Pearl are married, oh and Steven is dead."

Have you ever cried in the recording booth? Zach: "Over a dozen times." Grace says she has, sometimes in group records.

More joking around: "Yes, I'm Zach Callison, the voice of Onion. I'll be in my booth." "You should have a print that's just Onion." "With the flames behind him."

What were your auditions like? Grace: "I was reading the sides from 'Bubble Buddies', and Connie is worried she's gonna die with no friends and I was like 'This is a kids show? This is a show for children and I'm supposed to say these words?!'" She saw Rebecca Sugar's name attached to the show, which she recognized as a fan of Adventure Time, particularly Marceline "I'm edgy like her!"

Audience member starts her question: "Ohmygod, my heart is in my ass. Wait, can I say ass?" Grace: "You can say whatever you want, you're not under the thumb of Time Warner." Zach: "Technically, I've never signed any NDA. Oh hell, I'm leaving the country in three days. ACT ONE!" [laughter, and he does not continue with joke spoilers]

Outside of Steven Universe

Tell us about yourself outside of Steven Universe. Zach: "I'm a dirty rowdy hippie." He goes to music festivals barefoot (but not urban ones).

Zach talked about some of the over-the-top scenes he's been in or seen on "The Goldbergs", where he plays a minor recurring character, including one where the actual rain they were filming in wasn't enough, so the producers dumped thousands of gallons of additional rainwater on the cast.

Zach said he hasn't auditioned for anything new in a while (I think he said at least a year) because of burnout. Whenever SU may end, he's ready for a break. Following on with that, discussion of what a shitty industry Hollywood is, especially for kids.

Zach: "A lotta people (in this industry), their big break is a show they hate, and that kills me to think that. And it couldn't be further from the truth for anyone in SU. If I had booked a live-action sitcom that ran six seasons, I wouldn't be here. I'd be in a much darker place."

What would you be doing if not this?

Zach: "I enrolled in college, signed up for things, never went to class, and eventually dropped out. I never had any other plan." Ties into further discussion of what an absolute nightmare Hollywood is for kids, that some of his friends from high school are no longer around.

Grace: "I went to college for two years (she would've graduated this spring), trying to make sure I had a plan B lined up. But flying back and forth from San Francisco to Los Angeles was getting ridiculous and I realized I wasn't being fair to my plan A."

#connecticon #steven universe #zach callison #grace rolek

[pagan-sanctum]

Pagan Sanctum Discord Server Rules:

We thought it would be a good idea to post our server rules here so that anyone who may be considering joining us will be able to see what we stand for (and won’t stand for) in our community.

In order to keep our community safe for everyone we have come up with the following rules. We reserve the right to change or add to them as needed.

1) Be kind, respectful and considerate of others and their beliefs. Absolutely NO hate speech, non-verbal symbols or depictions of hate, discrimination or bullying will be tolerated here. This includes, but is not limited to: any expression of hate or encouragement of violence towards an individual or group on the basis of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental abilities, or physical appearance.

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3) Please remember that there are minors here. Try to keep conversations and pictures rated PG-13 unless discussing academia/education or worship. Swearing is allowed, but use your good judgement when discussing sensitive or NSFW topics.

As a general rule of thumb keep all NSFW talk in the #adult-practice channel. Otherwise, if you need to mention something NSFW (or inappropriate for minors) in a separate channel, use spoiler tags and warnings as needed for this.

If you aren't familiar with triggers, we have a #trigger-list which we are constantly updating. If you know of a trigger not on the list, please dm one of the mods, or the admin and let us know.

We know it may be difficult to remember all these triggers and refrain from mentioning them in casual conversation. All we ask is that you make your best effort, we know slip ups will happen. To help yourself become familiar with them, make it a habit to periodically check the list. This can be difficult to police, and the mods will need everyones help to do so. If you notice someone (including a mod, or the admin) openly discussing a trigger, kindly remind them to use spoilers or talk in the appropriate channel.

Always use warnings and spoilers when mentioning one of those triggers. You can add a spoiler/censor tag to your words by typing || both before and after the words you want censored.

4) Please don't ask for very personal information from other members. Things such as a person's exact location or real name can be dangerous to share online. If you choose to do this in DM's that is your decision. But I would encourage you not to give out information that could possibly endanger you.

5) Do your research before attempting to educate others. Upgs/Vpgs/Spgs are welcome here but please state when you are using them or if something is your opinion rather than a verified and carefully researched topic. Resources are always encouraged.

While we appreciate that everyone has different experiences with the divine, we ask that you please not share any detailed upgs about divine punishment. This can be a sensitive topic and one that inspires controversy and discourse among the pagan community. This creates an anxious environment and could possibly trigger someone. We strive to keep our server a safe and welcoming place.

(In reference to Rule #5, it's come to our attention that some folks may not know what UPG, VPG and SPG mean. UPG stands for Unverified Personal Gnosis and is basically whenever you have an idea about your gods or your spiritual practice that is your own personal experience and not something based off mythology or ancient practice. Shared Personal Gnosis is when these ideas are shared in your community. Verified Personal Gnosis is when a UPG or SPG turns out to actually be based off ancient practices!)

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10) We understand that it is tempting to pass on spiritual information to the rest of the server. However, please do not post any unsolicited prophecies or readings. Unsolicited messages like this often result in an anxious atmosphere, and crosses personal boundaries. Please only read for those who are willing, and be mindful of the impact your message has.

11) You get what you put into the server. Please do not expect to get free readings or spiritual advice from members if they haven't even gotten a chance to know you! If you are inactive, we encourage you to become more active and get to know our little family before asking for these things. If you aren't able to be more active, we ask that you offer something like a reading in exchange.

The first time a rule is broken (except for #1 and #8) the offending party will get a warning or reminder from the mods. Repeated offenses will warrant the person being removed from the server.

Breaking rule number one can result in being instantly removed from the server, depending on the situation. Blatant trolls will be kicked immediately. Misunderstandings will be investigated by mods. Anything else will be discussed by the mods and the admin to determine what is best for the specific situation.

As mentioned in #8, Voice chat is difficult to police but will be removed if abused.

Please feel free to contact me @Cool Admin 😎 or our @Cool Mods 😎 if you have any questions, comments or concerns. Please do not feel uncomfortable or afraid to come to us with anything! Your questions are welcome and any concerns you have we can investigate and address.

If you haven't already:

-introduce yourself in #introductions using the prompt we provided.

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But most importantly, have fun!

#server rules #rules

[dolphin-enthusiast]

Ok, sowwy miss друг kssk. May I get some headcanons of the Bucci gang playing Minecraft? 🤡

Once again I'm livin for the playing Minecraft trope lmao (I also have another Mc Bucci gang request coming up so s t a y t u n e d.)

Bruno:

- Minecraft lord. He is the owner of one of the biggest servers and he manages to keep it hidden very well. If Passione would find out about it they would try to dethrone him.

- The only ones who know about it are his own gang. They all made a serious pact and promised Bruno that they will never tell anyone about his secret Mc identity. In return he gave them all ranks on his server. Snitches get stitches though.

- Knows literally all hacks and tricks and has all sorts of sick ass textures. He's a pvp pro as well and also a good builder. Literally all players wish they could be him.

Giorno:

- Another boi that's good at Minecraft. He knows his way around crafting and also is able to build very nice and aesthetically pleasing houses.

- Doesn't really like fighting but will not flee from combat either. If anything he's very calm most of the time but you'd be able to see his Brando genes kick in sometimes as he'd WRYYYY in anger while rushing mobs and other players.

- Has a let's play channel where he also does building tutorials and design ideas. If anything he plays Mc for the building creative part mostly.

Abbacchio:

- Very good at survival. Prefers playing on singleplayer since he finds it to be more peaceful and relaxing.

- Has attempted hardcore mode many times and keeps track of his progress. His goal is to survive an entire goddamn year on hardcore and he sure as hell will not give up until he succeeds. Mista and Narancia fucked up his progress many times which made him almost kill them.

- Actually sucks at houses and envies Giorno for building such lovely ones. Will throw shade at him many times and insult his houses even though deep down he only wishes he could build like that.

Mista:

- Crackhead player. Literally always plays on multiplayer and teams up with the other disaster kids so he can troll people (especially Abbacchio.)

- Loves playing skyblock just so he can fuck with everyone and push them off the island down into the void below. Has a CHAOTIC let's play channel full of him and Narancia (sometimes Fugo too) playing minigames and trolling.

- Actually really good at pvp, it's just that he hates 1v1 because it gives him anxiety. He'd rather battle in teams and he always refuses to have 4 people on his team obviously.

Fugo:

- His temper is very short so you can only imagine how many times he'd rage. Mista legit did countless of compilations of him raging russian kid style.

- His temper either helps him or fucks him up, no inbetween. Sometimes his anger helps him yeet enemies faster other times it makes him fuck up and slip into lava or something (sometimes Mista and Narancia push him into lava on purpose just to hear him scream again.)

- If he keeps his calm he can actually build pretty nice houses but he usually has no patience and just hides in caves or digs some holes. Constantly gets shamed by Mista for living in holes.

Narancia:

- Minecraft noob but full of memes. What he lacks in experience he makes up with enthusiasm and cursedness.

- Attempts all sorts of dumb shit 25/8 and has most likely tried sleeping in the nether. Mista and Fugo were the ones that encouraged him to do it and told him that if he sleeps in the nether he's going to gain new superpowers.

- He may not know how to properly craft but he's a troll god. Literally no one ever catches him, he's quicker than the wind. He has trolled many people on lots of servers and didn't get banned once. He's the ace and Mista always puts him to fuck with the others.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #vento aureo #bucci gang #jojo headcanons #headcanons #feral tag

[arcadiaoaksusedbooks]

Jumbo Ship thing: Angor Rot and Nadia!

SEND ME A SHIP || JUMBO Post

Who wakes the other one up with kisses: Nadia, which does annoy Angor but he rarely stops her

Who is the morning person/night person: Nadia is much more the morning person, due to being mostly diurnal. And Angor the night person, who gets droopy eyed once the sun starts coming up. Both pester each other to go to sleep at normal times because both are stubborn about work or other things to go to bed.

Who is the romantic one: Nadia is best with romantic gestures, but is always touched whenever Angor tries. She still has that leather teddy bear and takes good care of it. And she leaves him little gifts in their usual spot whenever she thinks about him.

Who is the more cuddly one: Nadia LOVES to cuddle, but knows Angor doesn’t really like it, so she respects it. But she does rest her head on him when she’s tired and wants to be close. He lets her.

Who cooks: Nadia can make both human and troll dishes, and Angor does tell her they taste good, which makes her happy. 

Favorite nonsexual activity: Sparing. Nadia isn’t opposed to learning how to defend herself and fight without magic, but she’s fairly terrible and her reaction times are awful. Angor knows that relying solely on magic is a grave mistake and wants to be sure Nadia can protect herself and her household in the worst case scenarios.

Their favorite place to be together: There’s a grove of trees by the river that try to grow into each other and make something of a natural seat at the center. Nadia loves sitting there because it provides the perfect view of both the forest and the sky and Angor can feel the Heartstone energy from Trollmarket easily. It’s perfect for star/moon gazing and they can just be together comfortably.

Any traditions: Ring making. Humans do use rings to signify relationships, and some trolls wear them to help with fights if they aren’t strong enough punchers. They can also have small spells bound to them for easy casting. But Nadia likes using the forge to make rings that just look nice, and it’s the gift she makes Angor the most. He’ll give her rings in return, sometimes ones found that were lost by other humans, and once he forged some old rings into a new one with a strong protection spell for her. She wears this one with a chain around her neck happily.

Their “song”: “War” by Poets of the Fall. Okay, it’s not romantic, but it’s an odd song that puts Nadia at peace remembering how chaotic her past truly was. Both feel a bit at piece when they hear the lines: “I’ll let the memory heal. I’ll remember you with me on that field.”

What they do for each other on holidays: Angor knows of most human holidays and doesn’t really follow any troll holidays. Nadia, however, does. She’ll invite him over for something to eat, or go hunting together for a trollish holiday. She always leaves more elaborate gifts or ingredients or some new jewelry he can wear. He’ll give her any books he finds, materials or ingredients she doesn’t have, or veggies or red meat she hasn’t had in a while.

Where did they go for their honeymoon: Angor took Nadia to some underground pools he discovered previously. There were colored gems hanging from the ceiling and walls, all around the floor and at the bottom of the pool. He new Nadia would be enchanted by the sight. She was, gave him a huge kiss, and went in for a dip. They camped there for a few days, exploring and enjoying each others company.

Where did they first meet: Nadia had called on him for a favor, in exchange for some of her own magical energy. She did pity his past, knowing there was more to him than the stories told, and grew to love the troll he really was. Her kindness grew on him, and Angor couldn’t leave her be.

Any pets: Nadia has her familiar, a barn owl named Beatrice, and she disguises her staff as a large albino python named Fluffy, whom she takes care of like a normal snake. Angor will pick up most any injured animal he finds, so those tend to rotate out once they’re healed.

What do they fight over: Nadia loves Angor, but there’s a lot she’s not okay with. She’s directly opposed to his cannibalism. Not hunting, she’s fine with him hunting animals as long as he respects the ecosystem. But hunting and killing fellow trolls to eat just makes her head spin. She can’t understand or accept it. It’s the one thing she’d rather he change, but he’s a stubborn troll and sometimes, you crave troll flesh. All Nadia can do is tell him to not tell her when he does it, so she doesn’t have to think about it. There are also times Nadia is too soft on bad things, or she has a human habit that Angor doesn’t understand that causes spats too.

Do they go on vacations, if so where: Nadia likes traveling, so does Angor, but it’s hard to find places that both like. They typically settle for mountains surrounded by woods, with interesting cave systems. Nadia loves exploring with Angor, while Angor is usually looking for new things to eat and collect but watching Nadia enjoy herself or find something new is adorable.

Who kills the bugs; Bugs freak Nadia out, but unless they’re actively dangerous she doesn’t want to kill them. Angor won’t kill any curious bugs either, but it’s usually him who puts them outside. Or adopts them if they’re interesting.

Who hogs the sheets; Angor may be bigger, but Nadia absolutely steals all the sheets in her sleep! She has at least six blankets on her bed because she gets cold at night, and Angor can’t keep a handle on ANY of them! She has too many pillows too! He can’t stand it!

Who hates mornings; Angor, hands down. And when twilight comes and it’s time to get up, you can’t get him to rise for anything.

Who’s cranky before they had their coffee; Nadia is closest to that, but it’s rare for her to be cranky when she wakes up

Who’s doesn’t like their mother in law; Both of their mothers have long since passed, so neither have this problem

Who drives; Nadia, as she has the car and can fit in it. 

Who gets horny in awkward public places; Nadia may do the occasional “thing” without knowing that gets Angor in the mood in a store but he can control himself. Nadia hates heavy PDA in public. So he’ll often pull her close and whisper something naughty in her ear, which IMMEDIATELY gets the body into make babies mode. And she has to suffer with it until they get home.

Who had a scene phase; Neither, but I imagine Angor came close during his adolescence of being the typical rebellious grumpy teen

Who wore braces; Neither, they weren’t invented in their times

Who got bullied; Angor was picked on by bigger kids in his village because he was so small. He showed them up by being faster and smarter in fights, habits he kept his whole life.

Who is louder? Nadia is a natural screamer, and is super embarrassed by it. She’ll often cover her mouth once it feels too good.

Who is more experimental? Angor has centuries of experience over Nadia, so he has plenty of ideas to try on her. While Nadia loves the idea of experimenting, her prude mind tends to blank on what they should try.

Who takes more risks? Neither would run the risk of hurting the other, and the second one says no to something they stop. Angor doesn’t want to seriously hurt Nadia despite her immortality, and Nadia respects Angor too much to attempt something new without his go ahead. Typically Angor takes the lead with new ideas.

Do they fuck or make love? They make love, but sometimes it gets so rough it might as well be fucking. No one’s complaining though.

Lights on or off? Lights off. Both prefer it that way.

Who is more likely to be caught masturbating? Nadia, actually. Raunchy romance novels tend to leave her with a need she has to work off. Which is typically during a bath.

Who is more likely to suggest a threesome? Both want to try it with someone in mind, neither will bring it up out of fear of getting into an argument. It’s going to depend on the third person anyway.

Has either stolen the other’s underwear? Nope. Angor has no need for Nadia’s undergarments. And he doesn’t wear any.

Who comes first? Nadia. Multiple times.

Who is better at oral and who prefers it? Both think the other is a god/dess at oral and both want it. They tend to sixty-nine pretty frequently.

Who is more submissive? Nadia, absolutely, one hundred percent of the time. It’s a little frustrating to Angor, who wants Nadia to be more assertive in bed.

Who usually initiates things? Angor, again, because Nadia is too submissive. Though Nadia does ask if Angor wants to sometimes.

Who is more sensitive? Nadia’s human flesh is more sensitive everywhere than troll stone, but touching Angor in the right place immediately changes the pace of things.

Who has the most patience? Nadia is overall the more patient one, but I assume we’re still in bedroom habits? Angor is infinitely more patient in bed with Nadia’s lack of confidence.

Which kinks do they share? Nadia is still exploring so both don’t have a kink in common yet. But his voice and naughty talk do help push her over the edge. Angor’s into most anything.

#lemon #lime #that was fun but it took forever and it went THERE! #xdeusxmachinax

[roonilwazlibb]

KEIYNAN LONSDALE? No, that’s actually HARRY JAMES POTTER from the GOLDEN TRIO ERA. You know, the child of LILY POTTER (NEE EVANS) and JAMES POTTER? Only 22 years old, this GRYFFINDOR alumni works as an AUROR (FOR NOW) and is sided with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. HE identifies as CIS MALE and is a HALF BLOOD who is known to be MERCURIAL, BULLHEADED, and PRIVATE but also EMPATHETIC, BOLD, and SELFLESS. — &&. ( LIZ, GMT+2, SHE/HER, 22. )

pinterest.

Instead of writing the longest intro possible I’m just gonna ignore Harry’s background BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW IT ALREADY !!!!!!!!!! thx

depression tw, death tw, war tw, PTSD tw

AFTER HOGWARTS.

So, the war is over ( a war that Harry has grown up fighting, mind you, the boy hasn’t had time for much else, has he now ? ) and people look to a teenager to continue being what he has been for the last seventeen years ( but what they’ve also rejected, when it suits the current tide of war ). But Harry James Potter doesn’t care much for being a beacon of hope ( of clarity, of light ), anymore. He’s not their symbol ( but at the same time, he knows that he will always be just that ).

The aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts itself is a blur, for him. Tugged in every direction. Not so much a man, more of an object, something that his entire world feels entitled to. But he’s exhausted ( has he been able to breath properly for the last year, at all ? ). It’s too much for any seventeen year old, yet people expect him ( the boy who lived, never just Harry ), to carry it with gratitude, with a smile, with bravery. 

The days after the final battle, he feels very little, barely anything at all. All he really does is sleep.

The mark on his back is gone ( the one on his face isn’t ), but it doesn’t feel like it. Sure, he doesn’t have to fear for his life anymore, but the crowds are relentless. Suffocating him. He’s grieving, and all the masses ( the strangers, people who think that they know him because he’s famous ) want to do is hug him, shake his hand, clap him on the back. He tries to be understanding ( they’re grieving too, logically, he KNOWS that ). But by now, Harry is growing a little bit tired of being everyone’s emotional-support-boy-who-lived.

Anyways, a few weeks after the war ends, Harry falls off the map. Disappears from the grid. Could not be found, through any means. Some of his friends say that he rented a muggle car and drove through Europe. Others say that he just slept, refused to leave his house, so exhausted and depressed that he couldn’t be reached. Others are firm in their belief that he was busy hunting down the last of the Death Eaters. No one truly knows what Harry did, during those months. Only those closest to him have a vague idea.

He eventually returns, a little bit better. The weight on his shoulders lighter. Back to his former self ( though, he’s not quite sure who that was, this war has tried to consume him since boyhood ). His smile comes easier, it’s less weary. He has that Potter sparkle back in his gaze ( the one that makes his eyes look less like Lily’s, more likes James’, despite what the color might tell you ). He’s not at peace yet, but he will be ( his scar hasn’t hurt in months, that’s a start ).

Harry finds solace in his friends, that much has not changed. It was them he fought for, and it’s them that he continues to live for. The war never changed Harry’s capacity for love.

So, he’s back. People still look to him ( and they think that they know what he will do, ALWAYS always, always ). He can’t escape their eyes, their whispers, how they think that they know him. Most of the time, he hates it. But he’s also the type of guy to poke fun at it, doing his best to not take himself too seriously. Everything’s easier, that way.

Maybe he does it out of habit, or out of duty, but he does what he thinks will make the most people happy and joins the Aurors ( they had been nudging him in their direction ever since Voldemort fell, who wouldn’t want the famous Harry Potter in their ranks against the dark? ).

But Harry is just Harry, and Harry is so tired of being Harry Potter. For the first year after the war, the poor guy could barely go out for a drink without being mobbed, you know? The excitement eventually ebbed out ( thank god ) and became less exhausting, but it was still there, in smaller waves.

ANYWAYS ---- so he’s an auror. He doesn’t hate the work by any means, but he feels as though he has just gone from fighting one war, to fighting another. Which is really the last thing he needs right now? He still suffers from night terrors, about his friends dying, about Voldemort ( not so much Voldemort as other people remember him ----- in his dreams, Harry sees the Voldemort in limbo, at King’s Cross ). Eventually, those will go away too. Partly.

The Wizarding Wars have taken a lot of things away from Harry, and for that he is silently angry, a little bit, all the time. The war he fought may have ended —— but it’s still taking things from him. His agency, for one thing. Did he want to become an auror? Well, it would have been ONE possible path, but perhaps not the one he would have chosen first. Ever since the war, everyone just keep looking to him, to have him continue being the symbol of hope and greatness that he was during the last year of the war. But Harry is just Harry, you know?  Not much has changed since that evening when Hagrid came to get him, all those years ago. But people just assume to know what The Chosen One will do next, and Harry’s just sort of…. along for the ride, for the most part, when it comes to that and his public image. Right now, he is just doing what he thinks is right, for the greater good. He does what he thinks is expected of him, what he thinks will make the most people happy. He’s not thinking of himself, at least not yet. I don’t think Harry even realizes that he has grown resentful, a little bit bitter, angry. 

With that said, I really like the idea of post-war Harry as the biggest troll possible when it comes to the media. All those ridiculous rumors you read in the papers about The Boy Who Lived are often started by Harry himself !!!! It’s his way of gaining some of that agency back but also he just thinks it’s a fucking blast. 

Constant bad jokes about how 'he didn’t die for this’ and ‘did we really defeat Voldemort so that you could’.... are PRIME coping mechanisms too!!!! 

Never actually finished school but totally got away with it because he’s Harry Potter. Finally some perks, am I right.....

Overall, Harry IS concerned with being a good role model for the younger kiddos, but that year after the war? Harry was in a dark place, not fit for returning to school. Not fit for returning to anything, really.

Harry is a really good teacher and we ALL know this, so why isn’t this man teaching? It would be much better for his mental health too. Damn it.

With that said ----- I think this version of Harry will either continue down the auror route, eventually become head auror, but devote his life more to teaching the new aurors and reshape the auror department. BUT I have also always adored the idea of Harry returning to Hogwarts as a professor, taking up the position as the Defense against Dark Arts professor. We love full circles in this house !!!! I also think that would be really good for Harry, to be surrounded by kids ( who wouldn’t have really lived through the war, the boy who lived would just be a myth to them, it would be less dramatic, they’d soon forget that Harry has ever been anything other than their professor ).

Never really replaced Hedwig. These days, Harry uses various messenger birds and owls, mostly borrowing those of his friends. He did adopt a dog, though. 

I don’t think Harry will be fully at peace until more time has run its course. He has been through so much trauma, way more than any man ( much less a boy ) should ever have to experience. The scars may fade ( no, not THAT one ), but they will never quite heal, not for him. BUT he will be at peace, eventually.

TLDR: Harry is an auror, right now. He hasn’t washed off his past, but he has come to terms with it, in a way. 

PERSONALITY & OTHER FUN STUFF.

Harry Potter is compassionate, selfless, kind. Good at seeing the good. But also petty, impulsive, seething, moody. Bad at letting things go.

So incredibly brave, but shouldn’t have had to be? An eleven year old should not under any circumstances be led into the lion’s den and that’s that on that.

Has a hero complex, but it’s one that was forced upon him ( do not get me started on Albus Dumbledore, it will take up the rest of the intro ). Harry was LITERALLY just Harry, until suddenly, he wasn’t. 

The sheer dumb bitch energy of this man sometimes....... Thank god for Ron and Hermione is all I’m gonna say.......

Masks a lot of his trauma and pain with bad jokes, sarcasm and a seemingly carefree attitude. Tries his best to play down a lot of things ( his pain, his fame, his trauma, what he did during the war ). But he has a really serious streak too.

With that said, Harry does struggle with PTSD and survivor’s guilt. 

A total smart ass ( there’s no need to call me sir, professor? ). Harry has a sharp tongue aND is often much sassier than he should be, especially when challenged / when he sees something as unjust / when there’s someone that he just doesn’t like. But that sharpness can seep into his everyday life too.

Like I mentioned earlier, Harry is a total troll and will leak the most outrageous rumors that have 0% truth to them to the press. It’s all in good fun. Most of the time.

Honestly that thing Dan Radcliffe did when he wore the same shirt everyday for a month so that the pictures of him would all be un-usable is peak Harry behavior.

Harry would ultimately LIKE to forgive the remaining Death Eaters, the ones who has repented ( eg. The Malfoys ), but he is having a hard time with it. He is prone to spite and pettiness, and forgiveness ultimately doesn’t run easy in his veins. But the attempt IS there, and he doesn’t want to live with a sliver of bitterness in his heart, you feel?

The war hasn’t so much hardened him though, as it has softened him. Sure, it has made him weary, careful, closed off. But it has also made him kinder, more empathetic, more understanding, stronger in his sense of self.

Isn’t as rich as he used to be. Used a large chunk of his fortune after the war to help victims of the war to get back onto their feet. Anonymously of course. Harry has no desire to make headlines, ever again.

Refuses interviews. Most of the time. Only The Quibbler will get an ounce of truth out of Harry.

TIME CLASH.

Harry has always had a family ( a found family, his friends, family doesn’t end in blood ), but suddenly everything has been amplified, he has his parents back, his godfather, their friends. But they’re all his age, they don’t recognize him ( but he barely recognize them, either ---- if it hadn’t been for staring himself blind at their photographs, he wouldn’t know them ). It’s basically like The Erised Mirror Extreme Version, for Harry.

But there are also The Death Eaters ------- and the fear of having to go back, be the figurehead of yet another war that he has to sacrifice EVERYTHING for. Frankly, Harry has had quite enough. He doesn’t want to be their Atlas, anymore. But at the same time, his parents are back. And he doesn’t want to lose them again. AND he knows that they’d fight this war for him. Which makes him want to fight this war for them. Can you see where I’m going for this? It’s a really tumultuous time for Harry, he’s confused and just a little bit lost.

AND then there are the KIDS !!!!!! HIS KIDS !!!!!!!!! It’s a total mind fuck, Harry doesn’t feel ready to be a father, nor does he feel that the world is ready for him to have children. But his children are all grown up and from the future. He wants to protect their future, their peace. 

It’s a little bit selfish too. Harry wants that peace for himself. He wants all to be well, you know?

#quantum intro #this is my MESSIEST intro yet #ha

[rayadraws]

The Three Goats

”Okay, so, once upon a time there were three goats, and they were going to… uh… their favourite udon joint, so they could grow fat.”

”What did they look like?!”

”Oh, you know, there was the tiny one, very cute and with spiky hair, and there was the middle one who had blond bangs, and then there was the big goat who had-”

”No horns!” a first little voice squeaked up.

”No hair!” A second added. ”Bald goat!”

”Hey! I’ll have you know the big goat had very impressive horns! The middle goat was in awe of them! Isn’t that right Genos? Back me up here!”

”It’s not the size of the horns, Sensei, it’s how you use them.”

With an indignated huff the storyteller crossed his arms and went quiet, until his listeners begged him to please continue the story. Nine pairs of pierced ears listened eagerly, sitting in a range of poses that varied from rigid seiza to sprawled out in a manner near identical to the storyteller himself.

”Okay, so, the three goats were going to get udon, but they had to cross a bridge over this river first, but they couldn’t, because-”

”Couldn’t they jump over the water?”

”No, the river was too wide. They weren’t super goats, they-”

”Could they swim?”

”No, the water was too wild-”

”Call doctor Kuseno! Send a drone!”

”No, listen, alright? They had to walk over the bridge, but there was a scary troll that lived there, right? It looked like… uh…”

”If I may, Sensei?”

”Sure?”

”The troll had greasy black hair, and dressed in purple and sequins, and it had the most disturbing smile anyone had ever seen.”

”Oooh,” eight little voices said in unison, spellbound by this latest development.

”Okay,” Saitama continued. ”So first the littlest goat went on the bridge, and it went trip-trap, trip-trap, until the sequin troll stopped it. ’Who’s there, tripping on my bridge?!’ the troll said, and the little goat said, ’it’s just me, the itty bitty goat!’”

”Incinerate the troll!”

”No, Pow - and no demonstrations, stop that! - he said ’hey dude, don’t eat me, take the middle goat instead, I’m so stringy’ and the troll said ’alright, fine’ and the little goat crossed the bridge.”

”Then it was the Genos-goat’s turn!”

”Right, so the middle goat stepped on the bridge, going trip-trap again, and the troll shouted, ’who’s that, stomping all over my bridge huh?!”

”I too will incinerate you, you useless scum,” Genos snarled.

”No! Goats don’t incinerate trolls!” Saitama replied. ”He said ’don’t eat me either, you big ol’ troll, just wait for the biggest goat, he’s super tender!’ and the troll let him go, as well.”

”It was goat-sensei’s turn now!”

”Right, yes. So the biiig goat stepped onto the bridge, and he was so big and heavy, the whole bridge creaked under his weight. And the troll was like ’who’s that, making all that ruckus?’ And the goat was just like ’it’s me, the big goat, you got a problem with that?’”

”Scary…” one little robot whispered, climbing onto Genos’ lap, hiding its face behind little metal hands.

”Hey, it’s okay, don’t worry! So the troll said ’Imma eat you!’ and the goat was just like ’come at me bro, I got these kickass horns and I ain’t scared of you!”

The frightened robot carefully peeked between stubby fingers as the other seven cheered their storyteller on.

”And then what happened, Sensei?”

”Then the troll came onto the bridge, and he was super mad, and-”

”Sensei, if I may help paint the picture?”

”Knock yourself out, dude.”

Genos cleared his throat before speaking up, his voice clear and loud throughout the apartment - he was made for storytelling, Saitama thought to himself, as he listened to him.

”The troll clambered onto the rickety bridge, clumsy despite his supposed skills in ninjutsu. His hair was cropped short and standing on end after a previous encounter with a cyb- a goat, and his clothes were far too tight on him, looking ridiculous. He was sporting his unnerving smile, showing far too many teeth, but for all that, the big goat felt not an ounce of fear in himself, sure-footed, standing tall, muscles bulging under surprisingly short yet well-groomed fur, his eyes showing their rare serious side-”

”Okay, I think that’s enough… So the troll ran straight at the goat (and upon hearing this, the frightened minibot burrowed itself as deep as it could into Genos’ hoodie pocket, receiving gentle pats to help it calm down) and the goat just - POW!” He curled his hands into fists and punched the air before him, just hard enough to ruffle the hair of the collection of blond heads in the room.

”One punch!” seven bots shouted in unison, clapping their hands excitedly.

”He headbutted that stinky old troll, right into the river, where it… floated off, I guess? Found someone else to bother, maybe. But the big goat crossed the bridge and joined up the others and they found the udon place and ate all the noodles they could.”

”The Genos-goat ate the most,” one bot assured the others, speaking from experience.

”Yeah, he would,” Saitama agreed.

”Troll gone?” the scared bot asked, peeling out through the hoodie pocket.

”Yup, all the goats were safe, now.”

”Yay!” all the bots cheered in unison. ”Goat-sensei is the best!”

”He sure is,” Genos agreed. ”Shall we get udon for dinner today?”

”Sure, why not. Maybe we’ll run into the troll, haha.”

All eight bots looked hopeful, at that. ”We’ll kick his butt!”

-

Sonic did not often run into those eight little robo-brats, and when he did, they were always closely guarded by that robo-hen mother of theirs, so he didn’t usually even get close to them.

It’s not surprising in the least that those little robots have been indoctrinated by Demon Dork’s own dumb ideas, of course, but still, he does sometimes still wonder about that one time, when all he wanted was to get some god damned dinner only to suddenly be met by eight tiny robots shrieking ”troll! Troll!” at him and attempting to headbutt him into next Wednesday.

If anyone is a troll here, surely it’s Genos himself, spamming about Saitama on the HA forums?!

Those guys are, without any sort of doubt, the downright weirdest family he’s ever met.

(Based on this fairy tale)

#minibots #saigenos #genosai #mini bots #ficlet #raya draws

[journeysintowebcomics]

Stand Still Stay Silent Liveblog #81

UPDATE 81: No Language Barrier For Once

Last time Lalli stopped Emil from going into a giant troll’s lair by harming himself enough for Emil to get a pretty bad headache. Now they have to continue onwards, to places where no trolls are waiting to ambush them, hopefully. Let’s continue!

The troll inside the house begs for Emil to return inside, frustrated the attempt to kill him didn’t work, and tries to shimmy through the doorway to go drag him back. It doesn’t work because of the troll’s sheer size. Hmmm...I suppose it also lacks the strength to break the walls, and the sunlight outside is another deterrent, no? Emil and Lalli are free to leave, hopefully far away enough for that thing to not be able to catch them if it ever manages to get out of that house. Lalli sure doesn’t seem worried about that possibility, at least.

There are a few houses not that far away, hopefully sans troll. The first thing Emildoes when he enters is make a fire at the fireplace, set the heating hut, and huddle inside with Lalli. Time to sleep! No pretenses of guarding anything, which isn’t really that bad of an idea! The more he rests, the better he’ll feel tomorrow for dragging Lalli for another twelve hours or so.

Dream time! Looks like Lalli was floating around in nondescript shapes and a couch, without even a little bit of food around. Speaking of food, is his body outside...slowly dehydrating or something? Because he’s unconscious and what not? That’d be pretty worrying. Then again, I’m sure Lalli would make sure his body is well kept and intact, to the extent of Emil’s abilities!

The answer must be never, lady. It must have been never; the brat wasn’t exactly a likable person...whenever this was.

Speaking of the brat, there he is! To take his place in this tedious dream of cake and lots of food, dream that is derailed when he sees Lalli and realizes something is off. Emil protests, saying Lalli should have tried to convince him he really was invading his head, to which Lalli asks if he would have believed it. Well, personally, I say the incredible headache Lalli caused would have been more than enough proof, but I’m not a skeptical mage-denying person. Hey, maybe all Mikkel needs to accept the existence of mages and their powers is for Lalli to invade his headspace! Go, Lalli, cookies and candle soup await over there.

Emil is thankful he got his hide saved, and asks if that’s Lalli deals with all the time – the trolls beckoning and being unable to control yourself. Interesting question! If so, then I’m sure Mage 101 includes making sure nothing like that happens. And indeed, those who can’t overcome that just don’t stay alive for long.

Pfft, oh my god. Goshdarn, Emil, you and your empathy, making yourself vulnerable by being so much of a good person! Also, I’m amused Emil takes offense about the weakness of his mind. Hey, maybe that’s why Lalli was able to get in here in the first place! The doorway to Emil’s head was wide open – proving that yeah, Emil’s mind has zero protections at all, haha

Lalli also apologizes for being here, because that’s what made the troll be able to target Lalli. Being called like that is a mage problem, and Emil here, not being a mage, hadn’t experienced anything like that before. Lalli is who is making such experiences happen. Hey, if the bad things of being a mage are leaking through, maybe the good things can leak through too. Can Emil do magic out there now, I wonder...

Apparently not. Only downsides, no wonder Lalli looks so guilty about this.

The bad part is that Lalli has no idea how to return to where he belongs. Hmmm...maybe proximity will help? Anything that helps for Lalli to wake up. Also...

That’s brilliant.

What terrifies Lalli the most seems to be that he doesn’t know what will happen if his body dies. Will he be stuck inside Emil’s head forever, or will he be able to reach Tuonela? That’s...a tricky question, certainly. I for one hope the swan will know what to do. But hey, Emil would never let anything happen to the body he’s dragging around, things will be fine. Hopefully. I think.

When the woman taking care of Emil appears, he reverts to the behavior from years ago, and apologizes to Lalli for being such a jerk. He has experience growth since then, he says. I believe him, he doesn’t have this amount of jerkassery anymore. Hell, I wouldn’t have wanted to sleep on the gross seats of the train station from eight hundred pages ago, it was acceptable jerkassery.

Lalli doesn’t seem to realize yelling at people is rude, and actually has to get an explanation about how that’s like. He also is told saying ‘you’re welcome’ is something he should do. Looks like Lalli knows the basic concepts of politeness, but he just isn’t used to follow them. Look at that, he’s thanking Emil for helping him. He’s genuinely grateful! Even though he insists Emil doesn’t think too hard about it, something about the expression just drives home he means it, in my opinion.

Say, now that things are more or less fine now and they have like eight hours of sleep ahead of them, may as well talk a little! Catch up, bond, take the advantage of speaking the same language for once.

Guess we’re not getting Lalli backstory. I mean, we know some of it thanks to Tuuri’s flashbacks, but Lalli’s point of view could be enlightening, especially if the pages show his inner thoughts. I’m aware there’s like one hundred pages left, buuuut there isn’t really going to be much time left for flashbacks and backstory. That’s a shame.

Since Lalli isn’t in mood to be talking about himself, Emil will do it, although he’ll do it in a roundabout manner, by telling Lalli to ask him any question he wants. Lalli says it’s not necessary, because he can make deductions. He’s the Finnish Sherlock Holmes, and he shall demonstrate it now.

Nailed it. I bet finding out Emil was a rude person may have influenced that deduction. You didn’t get adopted because you yelled to everyone, Emil, gosh! But yeah, Lalli is completely off the mark.

Apparently covering the table with food and having two entire cakes was a normal meal for Emil, back when the family was rich. Makes me wonder what other things are so different to his current life.

Life is fine here in the dream, leaving aside how it’s a rather repetitive life. Here clothing isn’t damp, nothing is pursuing you, there’s plenty of food...but Emil made a promise to take Lalli back home, so he has to fulfill it. Lali sure isn’t going to let Emil forget that promise! Which is the right thing, really.

And so, Emil closes his...dream eyes...and goes to have a dream sleep. We’re getting the crossover with Inception. Gonna dive deep! But yeah, here’s the end of the update.

Next time: in three updates

#Stand Still Stay Silent #ssss liveblog #webcomics #liveblog #webcomic liveblog

[fantroll-purgatory]

PROXIMIA, LAND OF DEEP WATERS

(Did I design a fanplanet for fun? Blame Hussie releasing the Epilogues for this. This is an extension of my broader thoughts on how Trolls are basically Space Orcs? Without further ado:)

PROXIMIA, LAND OF DEEP WATERS

PITCH: Sometime after the tribulations of The Sufferer and The Summoner and of Mindfang, Her Imperious Condescension decided to try an experiment. Could the troll species brood on another planet besides Alternia? Having two sources of soldiers would certainly make her conquest more swift. And if it didn’t work, no skin off of her horns- she has all of eternity to try again. However, things didn’t quite go as planned. Her fated Duel for that cycle never happened, as her Heiress apparent died in a freak accident, so there was a time where The Empress had to deal with her old Lusus. She loaded her Ark Enterprise with a young Mother Grub, as well as some hopefuls from every blood caste tier still in existence- Rust through Violet, though she had her doubts that anyone below Blue would survive the long journey to the planet she had selected within her empire.

When she left Alternia to return to overseeing, the Ark never arrived. She presumed them dead, and thought no more of it. But, the truth was much stranger…

  AU IDEAS ABOUT TROLL BIOLOGY: Trolls are an insectoid species with multiple metamorphic stages throughout their life cycle. They are brood parasites, and possess a relationship with the Mother Grub species that now neither can divorce themselves from. However, over the course of Troll Existence, the species that the Trolls initially resemble has changed, creating a bizarre and redundant genome that has the potential for many fantastic and visible mutations. From Spiders to Bulls, Trolls have been it all. Trolls are by design Crepuscular animals, in that they are most active during Twilight hours (such as Dawn and Dusk). Alternia’s overactive sun and impending environmental collapse have made their nights bright enough that true darkness never quite falls.

 God I do love this setup a lot. I like the idea that trolls are able to just pick up lots of variation. It makes me wonder if the lifespan and # split has a more functional role for trolls, too? Like, lowbloods can go out in Large Numbers, all over, and live relatively short lives where over generations they pick up biological niches that they can then propagate through the other blood colors via the Gene Slurry. It’s fun to imagine in this context what trolls might’ve been before coming to Alternia. It’d be hilarious to imagine they became less buglike and more mammalian/humanoid because of, like, musclebeasts. Be The Horseman.

You talk about sort of reciprocal mutations later down the line and I also wonder if that could be the case for trolls. Like, do trolls sometimes get wings on accident because mother grubs have wings? 

HISTORY: The Fuchsia that was to battle the Condesce did not die, she cleverly faked her demise and stole away onto the Ark in hemoanon. Her original intent was to steal away and die helping trolls for the rest of her long life, but things went wrong on the ship almost instantly. A solar flare from Alternia’s incredibly active sun fried the ship’s navigation as they were leaving the system, causing the ship to veer incredibly far off course. The panicking trolls needed a leader, and the woman who had spent her whole life leading stepped into the role.

When she revealed herself to be their rightful leader, the reaction was fierce. But, when push came to shove, she was the best person for the job. Eventually, her title became known as The Forgiven, who lead the trolls out of darkness and into light.

The journey lasted longer than anticipated, and more things went awry than could be accounted for. Soon after they had moved into dark space, the Mother Grub began to waste away due to a buried disease in her blood. The Forgiven transfused her own blood into the creature in an attempt to save her life (and her species’ future) because as a Fuchsia, she had the most blood to give. This worked, but something in the blood of the Fuchsia warped the Mother Grub. With all of her Jade replaced with pink, her body began to independently produce Fuchsia blood, effectively changing her caste. This caused freak mutations to occur, which warped her body into a semi-aquatic creature, conferred her massive psychic resistance, and, strangest of all, caused the now Forgiven Fuchsia to calm down in her presence. Gone was her deeply buried bloodlust, replaced with a surreal stillness in the presence of the Mother Grub.

Eventually, the Ark crash landed on a habitable planet far away from their intended destination. In a way, it was much like Alternia in that it had deep oceans and a temperature range easily habitable for trolls. It was a veritable paradise for both the cryogenically frozen lowbloods who had survived the many-sweep journey as well as the Highbloods who were awake for the entire trip.

The Forgiven took her Mother Grub, which she had begun to see as a personal Lusus, to a cave system not unlike the Brooding Caverns. In the center of the caverns was a deep pool down into the waters that make up the core of this unlikely planet. Here, the Forgiven decided to create her own society, that would be better, more humane than the world she left. For her part, she may have been right- but “humane” is a relative term. Once her society had existed for a number of sweeps that she deemed enough to ascertain its survival without her, the Forgiven descended to the bottom of the sea, far out of the reach of even other Fuchsias, on a quest even her closest companions could not fathom.

In the modern day, Proximian society has progressed to a point that modern Proximian Trolls are taking to the stars and attempting to replicate their success on other planets within their solar system. This has left Proximia with a much lower Adult to Teen ratio than one would expect.

 A really good justification for keeping the story Teen Focused as is the case on Alternia! I do have to wonder what I always wonder about these sort of aus- Are they worried about being found or have they decided they’re out of probable radius and safe? Do they take any precautions against being found? Or do they think they could take the Condesce if she did find them? 

ENVIRONMENT: Proximia is a hothouse planet, characterized by heavy rainfall, higher than average oceans, and very small polar ice caps. Proximia therefore is primarily a rainforest planet, being more tropical towards the equator, and temperate on the northern and southern extremes. Landmass is less than Alternia, but still decently spacious. The ecosystems have undergone several radical changes since the Troll species arrived, which will be detailed later under whose responsible for each change.

  CHANGES TO THE HEMOSPECTRUM

While the biological blood castes of Alternia still exist to an extent, the changes to both the Mother Grub as well as to society have redefined the entire system. The Forgiven decreed that no longer would blood be a line, but a loop. Each caste needed to pull their weight in order for the species to survive. This has create a more egalitarian society.

The Fuschiablood that permeates the Proximian Mother Grub has extended the lifespan of lowbloods born from the Grub, but oddly, reduced the lifespan of highbloods born from the Grub. Proximian Biologists theorize that it is some kind of enzyme or hormone must exist within the Fuchsia coloring that clamps down on Highblood cells. Or something. They’re not really quite sure about the science of it all yet.

The Limebloods have returned anew on Proximia as full members of society. Mutants on Proximia are not culled immediately. Instead, they are divorced from all castes, and are considered a sub-caste to Fuschia. This will be expanded upon in the Fuschia writeup.

While the Hemospectrum has turned into a cyclical hierarchy, the actual use of the blood castes is in groups of three, known as the Hemotriads.

 Creating a triad system is a great way to break them up, very clever. 

THE HEMOTRIADS

The Hemotriads are the backbone of Proximian Society. While different groups have broken off and move around the planet, they are tied by their adherence to the Triad model.

  The Carving Triad: Bronze, Lime, Purple

The Carving Triad are the Triad responsible for taming the planet and making it habitable to Trolls. All three castes have some measure of psychic prowess, but each has a particular focus that separates them from the Controllers.

Bronze: The Tamers quell wildlife, making them docile and turning them on their fellows. You don’t tend to find Bronzebloods within cities, as their talents are in such demand throughout the planet.

Lime: The Converters were so feared on Alternia because of their innate ability to warp wildlife into new forms. On Proximia, their birth on the planet signaled the beginning of Lusus naturae, native animals of the planet becoming tied to the Troll species and losing their pigment.

Purple: The Subjugators are the defenders of the Carvers, using their psychic powers to keep dissidents in line, and physically destroy any who dare get in the way of their mission, animal, alien or troll alike.

 I of course have to ask the question if there are any ways that purple Rage is kept in line. Is it something that’s been soothed developmentally over time? Or are they partnered with limes who help steady them? Have they found some substance on-planet that keeps them level? Or do they just let the purples go full Red-Eyed Murder Clown Party Hours? Did anything of the story of the Messiahs survive over to Proximia, or is Clown Church completely cancelled? Have any other religions sprung up to replace it? 

The Throne Triad: Fuschia, Jade, Indigo

The Throne Triad live in the Brooding Caverns, where they focus on defending the Mother Grub and rearing the next generation of the Troll species. Together they form the core of Proximian society.

Fuchsia: The Sustainers live in the waters directly below the Brooding Caverns, and it is their role to keep the Mother Grub alive, and to ensure that the grubs make their way to the dry land of the caverns.

Mutants: The Chosen live in the caverns surrounding the Brooding Pool, where they are clients to the Fuchsiabloods. Their job is to be the last line of defense against any and all threats, as well as to cull any wigglers who cannot make it out of the caverns.

Jade: The Infiltrators are the Throne caste most likely to leave the Caverns. When they enter a settlement in full Green, all goes silent. Traditionally masquerading as other castes when they leave the caverns, Jades root out dissidents and threats to society before they become too big to handle.

Indigo: The Builders are the innovators of Proximia. Focused on the future of both their own caste as well as the Troll species, the Indigos build rocketships and training gyms in equal measure. They are considered the second line of defense to the Mother Grub, with Jade being the first.

 This is funnn. Okay, I do have to ask about Rainbowdrinkers in this society. Are they more or less common? Nonexistent? How do trolls feel about them? Revered and/or feared or are they generally accepted? It seems like over time, Alternia developed to think of them as something as a beauty standard (see: that makeup product I told you about that’s meant to mimic their shimmer). Did ideals on Proximia happen to Converge with that, given the status of the Jades? Since caste living spaces are changing over time, could it be that rainbowdrinker traits start bleeding into other castes? 

This cavern arrangement also definitely implies wrigglers are aquatic. Do they experience a tadpool phase and grow up onto land? Do they all retain some of those aquatic features or do the traditionally landdwelling bloods lose all echoes of that? 

The Control Triad: Burgundy, Cerulean, Gold

Scientists and thinkers in equal measure, the Control Triad is linked by their primary colors as well as their psychic powers. The Controllers often fill the upper echelon of Proximian society, despite its claims of being truly egalitarian.

Burgundy: The Speakers can move both the dead and the living with a combination of necromancy and telekinesis. Often responsible for the creation of many troll cities, Burgundybloods are very cosmopolitan, and are seldom found on the frontier.

Cerulean: The Twisters with powers over the mind, are often the enforcers of Proximian law, working closely with Teals and Jades to deal with threats and criminals. “Blue Rules” is often a turn of phrase used to refer to Cerulean caste allowance of brainwashing criminals for reformation.

Gold: The Medics are programmers, doctors, and disability advocates upon Proximia. Due to their caste-specific disease of Voidrot, it became a necessity for the early Golds of Proximia to learn medicine on top of their Alternian technological training.

 This could be a fun one to play with, especially if you play with the idea of proximity to the furthest ring. Does goldblood voidrot get more common the farther they get from the protective layer of good old Glub Glub? Outside of intratriad interaction, do golds and blues often find themselves working together considering the hard/software sort of split we see here? We know from Equius that on Alternia, blues are oft associated with the craft of prostheses. (You could also consider how prostheses themselves might change on Proximia, though. Do they go from metal to more biotech with the advent of the Gold Doctor?)  

The Worker Triad: Olive, Teal, Violet

The most common of the Triads, the Workers keep society going, and are found everywhere there are Trolls. While not the most glamourous of the Castes, without them, everyone would starve and society would collapse in on itself.

Olive: The Farmers were the first Trolls on Proximia who tamed the land after the Limes and Bronzes made it habitable. Olives are notoriously lucky, and those who don’t go into agriculture (such as those in big cities) often make big names for themselves in entertainment and other flashy industries.

Teal: Known as The Keepers, The Tealbloods found that the nascent Proximia was the perfect place for them to be themselves. Found abundantly in cities, the Teals are primarily lawmakers and judges.

Violet: The Sailors, in the early days of Proximia, were never far from the Forgiven’s side, though her commands were for them to create pathways for the Carvers to reshape the planet. Violets, as a Seadwelling caste, have pockets of insular cities under the sea, but the majority of them are sailors, fishermen, and public transit workers.

 We’ve talked about it before, but trolls do seem to be omnivorous with a carnivorous bent. And Olives are, at least somewhat (because of Nepeta, at the very least) associated with hunting. Does this caste take care of hunting, too? Or do they do ranching? Or have troll diets shifted completely to rely more on plant matter than on meat? Did they pull a panda on us? 

Design Notes: Proximian Trolls wear their blood colors proudly, regardless of what colors those are. To wear primarily black is seen as juvenile, similar to presenting as Hemoanon. Even mutant bloods with odd blood colors often scrounge up things that match their inner selves.

Really good, really fun. All around love this! Thank you for submitting. 

-CD

#sonatinetheworld #fan planet #submission

[chuckling-chemist]

A Study In Novels

((The second piece I wrote for the @fantrollszine! This one a little more comedic than the other piece I wrote. And don’t forget, if you like it consider buying me a coffee or checking out my AO3 -- where both of these short stories will be going eventually)) 

Dontoc wasn’t one for reading romance novels.

Maybe it just wasn’t for him. Dontoc much preferred subversive fantasy steeped in lore and original wiggler’s tales from before the Empire found and censored them. Books that praised the Empire or grounded themselves too close to reality weren’t likely to catch his eye. That’s not to say a romance novel couldn’t be subversive or fantastical -- Dontoc’s sure they existed somewhere -- but his experience in the genre was limited to whatever books he acquired secondhand from either his moirail or his hivemate. Which, to be fair, Dontoc held as little interest in books describing in excruciating detail the ins and outs of traditional interstellar subjuggalator pailing that his moirail found morbidly interesting as he did the godawful romance self-published stories his hivemate regularly printed off from some blog and left sitting around on tables when she got stuck on something in the lab.

Then again this current one he attempted to slog through, recommended by his matesprit to give him a good example of the genre, wasn’t any better. It felt less like a novel and more like a subpar lecture on the importance of keeping quadrants filled and separated, combined with a bizarrely saccharine tone out of place for a novel that critics heralded as “diving into the dark, twisted secrets of forbidden flush love between two castes”. It was no more than yet another creepy realistic-fiction that tried to play off the caste difference as something inherently disturbing.

His so-called matesprit, to give the kindest words to a troll forcing their relationship on life support through thinly veiled threats against his friends, lamented his apparent lack of interest in romance novels indicated a lack of romanticism. Had Dontoc not had sufficient evidence to the contrary, he might have believed her.

I reach across the desk, over to the looming seadweller on the other side and he snatches it out of the air. I flush, face turning impossibly teal under his watchful gaze. How did he know I would try to grab it?

“Okay, that is enough of that for tonight,” he said with a groan.

“Enough of what?”

Even knowing the voice instantly to be the chirpy lilt of his hivemate, Pallia, her sudden entrance into the mainblock still made his heart skip a beat. She plopped down on the seat next to him of the black couch, peering over half-moon glasses to grimace at the book in his hand. She didn’t have to say anything to exude the level of judgement he felt from her.

“You, lover of subjuggalator documentaries, cannot possibly be judging me for reading something bad,” he said lightly.

“Oh come on, Dontoc there’s bad and then there’s this.” She glanced down at the book again. “What’s it even about anyway?”

He shook his head with a sigh, letting the finger holding his spot slip out of the book. “Certainly you could wager a guess.”

“Oh a puzzle?” Pallia shifted around in her seat, turning to face him with crossed legs. She was dressed for ultimate relaxation in a pair of sweats and loose sweatshirt, with her hair pulled up in an unusually well-kept bun thanks to a few well-placed pencils. She contrasted him, tall and fully dressed in a three piece suit with his perpetually unkempt short hair, quite perfectly. Her teal eyes sparkled with mirth from behind the glasses. “Do I get any hints?”

He smirked playfully. “You have not somehow ingested enough bad media to hazard a proper guess?”

“Not for romance.” Pallia crossed her arms and huffed. “God Dontoc, I only have one quadrant. Do I really strike you as the romantic type?”

Did Pallia strike him as the romantic type? Dontoc wasn’t actually sure. With her only having one quadrant, he couldn’t accurately say for sure if such were true, or if he simply never had the chance to see her interact with a quadrant proper. She might not be the same affectionate, teasing troll who went out of her way to make sure he felt included around a quadrant. His doubt might just be his own long-time, latent flush crush on her causing him to project.

After all, he did have a flush crush on her. That much was certain. A sweep or two ago, he might have tried to deny to himself, but by now there was no other way to explain the way being around her made his whole body feel ten pounds lighter and pointlessly giddy at any little thing. His other friendships, even his actual matespritship, failed to elicit similar reactions. The closest was his moirail, Valeba, who always always brought serenity with her presence, but even that wasn’t this bizarre effervescence that floated him away from his anxieties. Not that he’d ever tell Pallia any of this. Managing to get a best friend whom he adored, despite their caste difference, was more than acceptable. To ask anything more was selfish.

“You simply strike me as the type to have read enough bad media, regardless of genre, to take some sort of guess,” he said. “Or have I somehow misread that one and you happen to unironically enjoy ‘Subjuggalating Mentor to Highbloods is Put Under Great Scrutiny after Explaining to Bluebloods the Importance of the Mirthful Messiahs Upon Inquisition. When the Bigoted Seadwelling Upper Staff Wish to Cull Her, She Goes to the Courtblock to Defend Faith In Schoolfeeding, Alongside a Plucky Tealblood Looking for His Big Break’?”

She snorted. “Please. I don’t think a single person unironically enjoys that. How can anything fall face first into every stereotype while acting like it doesn’t? There’s never been a more--” she paused to slap her forehead with an amused groan “--oh of course! The book’s hemoist isn’t it?”

Dontoc grinned. How could he not? “Oh, extremely. The highblood is the dominant one in the relationship, and he is honestly worse than you would expect.”

“Tall, well dressed and…” she tapped her finger on her arm in thought… “indigo? That strength is attractive to a lot of trolls.”

“You are not far off. Think higher.” He gestured upward toward his own twitching fins. “Much higher.”

“Violet? Really?” She looked at the cover again doubtfully. “But this looks like some kind of rich businessman type of story. I thought the violet caste normally keeps to themselves.”

“Oh they do. This book bypassed such a problem by saying he simply moved onto land when he was very young, shortly after his lusus was culled by extreme hemorebels, to get ‘more out of life’. Or perhaps it was not. Honestly, the backstory was brushed aside in favor of having the two stare blankly at each other.”

Pallia raised her eyebrows. “Is the protagonist’s backstory any clearer or is it just as bad?”

Dontoc shrugged helplessly. “If I tell you her backstory, I assure you it will give away her caste immediat--”

“Oh, so she’s a tealblood. Probably ten sweeps old, if they’re playing off twenty sweeps as young somehow. Tiny waif of a troll too, I bet.”

Well. That happened. Dontoc blinked owlishly at her assessment. Every single piece was completely true, down to the size of the tealblood. There’s no way she read the book. He would’ve seen it somewhere. “Um...how...how did…”

“You said if you tell me the caste, it gives it away. Teals and jades are the most rigid in jobs, but jadeblood romance is mostly always two women, while this love interest is male.” It was her turn to smirk, pointy fangs poking out from underneath her lips. “Despite your best efforts, you still gave away way too much.”

“You asked for a hint,” he pointed out.

“You said you weren’t giving it to me.”

He hummed, running a hand through his hair. “I suppose I did. My mistake then. Perhaps we can try this again the next time Careen insists I do some reading.”

Pallia’s amiable expression dropped into a far more worried one. “She insisted? Really? That’sss abssolutely…” she trailed off with a shake of her head. “Ignore me. That’sss not my place.”

Dontoc set the book down on the floor, shifting so he could face Pallia better. She must’ve scooted closer at some point. Or maybe he just hadn’t noticed how close they were? It was only a loveseat after all. “Are you certain? After all dear, I--”

“It’sss fine. Ssserioussssly.” She gave him a reassuring smile. It looked somewhat forced, but it was clear she didn’t want to talk about it. Better to just move on. “So, anything else to guess about the book?”

“Hm? Oh, yes right. Let me just, ah...” He reached toward the empty space in his lap for the book, but Pallia got to him first, stopping him with a soft hand. He looked at her with a puzzled expression, a stark counter to her amused one.

“Dontoc you put the book on the floor,” she said with a chuckle.

He glanced down at the floor, realizing with growing horror he most definitely did put it down on the floor. Heat pricked up his neck, causing his lips to twist into a sheepish grin. He wiggled his hand out of Pallia’s to run through his hair instead. If nothing else, the action helped calm his nerves. “So...so I did. My apologies,” he said finally.

She shrugged. “None needed. Do you even need the thing, or is the book that forgettable?”

“I ah...well, poorly constructed story or no, it is comforting to some degree to hold it. After living in what may as well have been a library alone I suppose it just...it just happened.” He sighed, a mixture of bittersweet and wistful. Memories of his childhood flooded back in waves. The lonesome library ran by a kindly jadeblood. Her impeccable ability to find whatever he should read next. The other kids trying to steal and damage them. His instructor taking his copy of The Grimdark Narrator’s wigglers tales and insisting it was inappropriate for him to read it.

Thank God Pallia was there to keep the focus, or else who knows how long he’d reminisce on the parts of his life he’d rather forget. “So you said it’s a violetblood right? And a tealblood? Not any other mid-caste.”

“Erm...yes.” He quirked an eyebrow. “Though I am not sure why that is important. It is just a caste gap. From what I understand, those are quite common in romance.”

“Oh they are. Totally common. Which is funny, considering it happens anywhere else and people can’t take it.” She pointed down at the book on the floor, the cover of which showed a lone desk covered in papers. “But that’s beside the point. So the teal is probably some personal assistant to him?”

Dontoc nodded slowly. That much was hardly a guess. While in reality tealbloods got well-to-do, white collar jobs, it seems any time a tealblood actually showed up in media, they were subservient to some higher caste. Not the same way the lowbloods were, how many of them were maids or butlers at best, but the paid equivalent of such didn’t feel like much of an improvement to him. “Of course. Did you not know that teals are little more than suck-ups to the Empire? Constantly following around the Empress to compliment her and give her the newest gossip on the common folk. After they round up all the little bad trolls, of course.”

Pallia crossed her arms, smirk playing at the corners of her lips. “Did Careen let you in on that hot tip?”

“Oh no, someone far more reasonable in such a regard. Someone with a good head on their shoulders, you see.” Pallia seemed to sag in disappointment until he added, “It was Pothos.”

“Oh my God!” she squealed. Her whole body convulsed with laughter as she fell back into the couch.  “You are not allowed to do that again!”

“...Make you laugh?” he asked cautiously. He didn’t think she was upset, but at the same time her worried look when mentioning Careen earlier had him on edge. “You are ah...you are--”

She heaved herself up and nodded, bun askew and grin plastered on her face. “Oh I’m great. I cannot believe you got me to think about that bumbling idiot. Did Careen tell you about when she thought we’d work as a quadrant?”

Dontoc shook his head: she hadn’t. While Careen was always eager to do nothing but complain about Pallia, and had been downright enthusiastic to tell Dontoc all about when his hivemate supposedly expressed flush interest in Pothos that he didn’t return, she never gave any more details. The whole story felt off in a way he couldn’t fully explain (in fact, it was another one he was willing to brush off as him projecting his crush --  sure, he can’t imagine Pallia wanting to be with a troll who truly thought skull shape indicated intelligence but maybe it was only wishful thinking), but he never told Careen such. It was good to know he had every right to be suspicious.

“How did it go?”

Pallia snorted. “About as bad as you’d expect. He learns I have a hint of an interest in something, and just starts talking over me like he’s suddenly the expert. He knows the chemical formula for table salt. That’s it. Wouldn’t know a stem cell from the stem of a plant.” She paused, eyes suddenly going wide. She wasn’t looking at him, not anymore. Her gaze was pointedly focused on that book. “Wait a second. This is her book right? Does Careen have some kind of thing for violets and teals?”

Dontoc rolled his eyes. “I doubt it. She has an odd hatred for teals. Jades too, to a lesser degree. She will not voice it, but it is present. Besides, if she really wanted you to be paired up with a violetblood to conform to her romance tropes, there are far better options.”

Pallia chuckled. “Yeah, at least if it’s like...us, it subverts that ‘teal employed by violet’ thing.”

Whatever train of thought he had immediately crashed. His face burned, and fins fluttering in embarrassment or not, there was no cooling it down in time to reduce the flush. “Ah….uh…” he swallowed harshly, realizing as he spoke his mouth was suddenly dry as sandpaper, “excuse me dear, what?”

“Oh you know. Technically speaking, you’re my research assistant. Not the other way around.” She paused, closing her eyes with a sigh. If she recognized how flustered he was right now, she wasn’t saying anything. “Then again though, considering the whole Preypal thing...maybe that doesn’t count? But sponsorships don’t count as employment. This might be more complicated than I thought.”

“You’ve thought about this before?”

“Well yeah. I mean…” They locked eyes, and he only just noticed the blush creeping on her own face. “I get bored waiting for the ion spectroscopy to finish. The logistics of how our lives would function within a work of fiction is far from the weirdest thought experiment I’ve had. I think that one started with a conversation I had with Aisral? I dunno.”

“But you have thought at length about the logistics of us...uh…”

“Ssssort of? In the same way I’ve thought about like...I dunno, me and Aisral or something. Purely hypothetical. Don’t worry. I realize you’re with Careen and talking about it’s probably strange to think about dating your hivemate...” Pallia trailed off, letting out a quiet, awkward laugh as she rubbed her neck.

“Oh impossibly so, but continue.”

“But seriously, it’s not the most unlikely thing I’ve heard. More likely than anything in that book, anyway. If that makes any sense. Sssorry for worrying you.”

“Think nothing of it.” Okay. So it’s only that they’d make a better story than whatever dribble Dontoc was reading. That’s probably true. While not the worst novel he’s come across, there weren’t many worse. His fluttering pulse calmed down enough that he actually felt he could breathe again. “If it helps, I would much rather read about us than this couple.”

Pallia smirked. “Even the pailing scenes?”

Dontoc’s face fell. He erased those from his memory, too. “Okay, we’re finished here.”

#fantroll #homestuck #hiveswap #fanfiction #fantrolls #ft #fantrollszine #homestuck zine #my writing #dontoc #pallia

[bronzedwingedgeneral]

Bronze Meet1ngs }:)

In which an Ancestor is meet and he is now everyone’s dad.

Discord RP Thread with @vampofaflyboy and @lassosandleashes

~

Summoner Last Thursday at 9:33 AM

You are still one Petrus Nitram, better and more commonly known as the Summoner and you are still seated with perfect militarist posture upon your chosen seating close to the off-world transport area, switching between watching the city as trolls, carapacians and trolls alike walk rush past you going about their days. It's nice, sitting back and people watching. 

... The other thing that you're switching between people watching and is looking over the map you were given. It's... really not that good. Not really no. But hopefully you'll... figure out what to do now. Mainly how to get where you need to go... whatever counts as law enforcement in this place (yes you know the building's called a precinct }:| shush)

Rufioh Last Thursday at 9:49 AM

You are Rufioh Nitram, and you’re currently walking to the precinct after getting your mandatory coffe, as you normally do, when you see an unmistakable set of horns attached to a troll on the bench. 

Your horns. 

You’re so shocked that you nearly let go of your coffee cup, but you don’t. That would be a disaster. But you take a deep breath and shake your head out to clear it. And you... walk right on up to him.

Summoner Last Thursday at 10:01 AM

Between one switch in your activity and the next you've got a troll seemingly approaching you, which has you tensing momentarily before visual cues and clues adding information to the troll before you. 

Adult moult, but much younger than you are. Bronze-blood from his eye colour, safer than being approached by random Highbloods on the street. And... oh well look at those, horns like yours but smaller, also with a bit of a healthier shine than yours because you... haven't exactly taken all the care you needed for them. Shame on you }:( 

You straightened yourself up as he approaches you, finishing looking him over you cock your head at him. "You uh... you need something?"

Rufioh Last Thursday at 10:15 AM

You take a deep breath as you approach the older troll, shutting your eyes. Wow, how are you supposed to react to possibly- probably, definitely- meeting your ancestor? A troll you’ve looked up to your whole life? 

You offer a smile and motion toward the map in his hands. “I figured... you might want some help findin’ wherever you’re lookin’ for... those maps are real awful.”

Summoner Last Thursday at 10:21 AM

You blink and then, "yeah, they're uh... pretty d*rn awful you know? Don't know how they uh, how they expect anyone to find anything around here." You fold the map in your hands, it's a useless piece of paper, an insult to topography everywhere, and then you offer your hand out to him as only's polite. 

"They call me Summoner, nice to uh, nice to meet you." Now don't make things awkward Petrus you've got this pretty good so far - "You've uh, you've got my horns huh? Nitram?" ... }>:( really Petrus?

Rufioh Last Thursday at 10:32 AM

You chuckle and give a nod. “Yeah... they certainly are... I think that’s probably why the police force tries to at least point folks on their way...” You switch the hand that’s holding your coffee and shake his. 

“Nice to meet you as well...” But then he says that and you can’t help but laugh a little. “Yeah... Detective Rufioh Nitram.”

Summoner Last Thursday at 10:38 AM

Oh well that's fortunate, meeting a police force...er? police forcer? police force member? The second one sounds less stupid, you're using that one now. You grin at the younger troll, a bit giddy with the fact that oh wow this is one of yours? That's... that's really... yeah. 

"Rufioh's a good name," you tell him, shaking his hand in a strong and firm grip. "This is uh," don't say anything about fate, you don't want to even thing about clown things right now. "A really good coincidence? Cause I'm uh, I'm trying to make my way to the precinct, try to help out and all that uh, jazz? All that jazz, yeah." 

But oh wow, oh wow this is one of yours oh wow, oh geez, oh wow... wonder if he has to deal with the whole... wing thing as well?

Rufioh Last Thursday at 11:04 AM

You’re really good at hiding how fr•ggen excited you are to meet your ancestor. Thank goodness your wings are beneath your coat, they might’ve been fluttering at this point. This was so cool. 

“Thank you...” You smile and make sure you have your own strong, firm grip. You’ve got to make a great first impression after all! “Seems like a great coincidence to me... since I’m headin’ into work now. But I’m sure we’ll all be happy to have you.” 

Are... are you technically one of your ancestor’s senior officers? That’s great.

Summoner Last Thursday at 11:19 AM

“Great.” You’re still grinning, still on this side of giddy, your descendant, your descendant, oh geez, oh WOW. “Can’t wait to uh, get into things.” You really can’t, you wanna get into things, get your hands dirty and steeped back into work. 

Also helping people, it’s been so long since you’ve felt like you were actually helping people, god you are so ready. 

You pick up your luggage, including the case holding your lance and stand up and oh you’re only so very slightly taller than him oh wow, oh wow your descendant

Rufioh Last Thursday at 11:30 AM

You drop his hand and take a drink from your cup to hide the giddiness that creeps it’s way into your own grin. On the inside, your 6-sweep-old self is bouncing up and down, barely not taking off into the air. But you’re cool. This is fine. You’re calm. “I’m sure you’ll get somethin’ to do pretty quick.” 

You watch as he gathers his luggage up, eyes landing on the case for his lance. Oh wow, oh wow. That’s the lance! No, calm, you can geek out later. “You’ll... probably want to use a room at the police dorms... unless you’ve already got your own place. Someone... else will have to help you with that.”

Summoner Last Thursday at 11:36 AM

“Yeah uh, probably will.” You are not always the best forward thinker, enough to be able to work and lead an army into battle yeah, but those big complex, expanded plans have never actually been your ah, been your strong point. 

“Besides, staying close to uh, close to base sounds pretty good. For the uh, the moment at least, until I learn the place better.” You can worry about problems as you run into them, as you tend to do. 

“Ready when you are.” You are so ready to get moving and grooving.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 11:47 AM

You nod, and run a hand through your hair, grinning at him and flicking one of your ears. You glance over his luggage, and figure you may as well offer a hand. “You... want me to take any of that?” 

“That is... a very sound idea... probably should’ve done the same when I first moved here... dorms weren’t quite up and runnin’ then though...” You shrug. Even if they had been, you were even more bullheaded and independent when you first moved to Derse than you were now. 

“Then lets get goin’.”

Summoner Last Thursday at 11:53 AM

“Yeah actually uh, bit of help’d be nice.” You probably don’t need it but hey, hey, yes. There’s not much in the way of thinking before you offer the case of your lance to Rufioh to take, if he wants to. 

“You’ve been here a while then?” It sounds like it, probably for the best too. Alternia, not the best place even after everything you and others have done to try to catch that. Derse was probably much safer for the younger bronze, younger bronze with your clan sign, and name. Oh wow.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 12:03 PM

You can’t stop your ears from perking up, or the slightest movement of a flutter from your wings under your coat. You get to carry his lance??? H•ck yes you will absolutely take that and carry it for him, feeling like a kid in a candy shop. 

“Moved over around my twelfth hatchday... so definitely.” And it was definitely for the best with how stupid you were back then. It’s a surprise you’re alive really. But so worth it.

Summoner Last Thursday at 12:09 PM

“Oh really?” That’s pretty young, though you don’t have a reference for how long ago that was. “How old are you now?” 

You walk abreast of him as he guides you towards the precinct, eyes sweeping over the buildings and streets you pass to help learn your way.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 12:17 PM

“Just turned 24 sweeps last month.” You shrug a bit. You’ve had equal time on both planets, so you can say that you enjoy Derse better. And, anyway, you wouldn’t have met your darlin if you hadn’t moved. 

You make an attempt at pointing out various shops and restaurants along the way, so you know he won’t starve by getting lost. Besides, he’s gotta learn it somehow.

Summoner Last Thursday at 12:28 PM

“Half your lifetime then.” Which sounds like a pretty good medium, though you’re definitely of the mind that the less one has to experience everything regarding Alternia the better. Or at least, everything wrong with it, which is most of it, some things are getting better, others not so much, but hey. Life. 

You definitely pay attention to the places he points out for you, marking them down in the slowly forming map in your head. Are you going to get lost at least once? Most likely yes, it’ll be fine that’s where the wings’ll come in handy. 

“Is there uh, anywhere with some greenery? Park or uh, or anything similar?” Please say there’s somewhere with grass and/or trees, even if it’s a dying tree you’ll take it.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 12:38 PM

“Yeah... I can say with complete... certainty... that Derse is a lot nicer than Alternia...” You glance over at him with a grin. “Probably would be down a leg or both... if I’d stayed.” Will that probably worry him? You expect so, but it’s fine. Because you still have both legs, and all your other appendages. 

Hopefully you’re doing a good enough job at showing him around as you lead him to the precinct. This... is not something you’ve done often. The last time you did, you’re pretty sure you were flirting the entire time. 

“Yeah... there’s a park. I can... show you more of the city another time... if you’d like.” You hum faintly. “Oh! And we have a garden... on the roof of the precinct I believe... might still be working on that actually...”

Summoner Last Thursday at 12:49 PM

“Yeah that uh, that sounds like Alternia.” The homeland, with all its... yes. “I’m uh, more than aware of the um, the kindnesses of the planet.” You were almost culled so many times because of your mutation it was not even funny at all. 

“Yeah, yeah I’d like to uh, see it later.” GREEN PLACES WERE SO GOOD. “Gardens are nice, I can uh, can into helping on that.” Let you at the garden you will bleed in it, but not really because that’s kinda weird and you’re trying not to bleed too much anymore.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 1:25 PM

“Yeah... almost lost my leg the half sweep before I came here...” You can’t help but chuckle. You had a lot of run-ins with... a lot of people over your mutation, but that’s the good thing about it. They can’t get you in the sky. “Yeah... only good thing is... it’s hard to get you when you’re flyin’...” 

“Next time we’re both free... I’ll give you a proper tour... unless someone beats me to it.” You don’t have the greatest green thumb, but you do definitely appreciate the green. “I’m sure it’ll benefit from the help.”

Summoner Last Thursday at 1:28 PM

“Don’t uh, don’t I know that.” Wings, a great big bother but oh boy do you love them and the freedom they bring you. 

“I’d appreciate that,” planning on spending time with your descendant. You’ll fall quiet for a spell until the two of you reach the precinct.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 1:39 PM

You smile at him and nod. Yeah, they were your favourite thing that your ancestor had passed on. You adore your wings, and flight. You couldn’t imagine your life without them. 

Another nod is your reply to that. Honestly, you really hope that no one will steal your chance to show your ancestor around your home. It was so cool to think that you get to work with him, and so nice that you seemed to have a much easier time speaking to each other than Horuss and Darkleer. And those things are what you quietly think about as you walk, arriving shortly at your destination.

Summoner Last Thursday at 1:45 PM

You definitely whistle at the sight of the precinct, now that, that is a neat building. A neat building where justice that doesn’t always lead to execution happens, its pretty sweet. And you’re gonna work there which is yeah, it’s pretty fr**king sweet if you do say so yourself. 

“This is where you uh, where you work huh? It’s nice.”

Rufioh Last Thursday at 10:17 PM

Your ear flicks toward him when he whistles, grinning to yourself as you lead him up to the door. Yeah, it is pretty sweet to work at the precinct, pretty d•ng sweet indeed. 

“It is... now how about we get you inside... to get started and meet everyone?”

Summoner Last Thursday at 10:25 PM

"Think that uh, that sounds like a pretty neato plan ya got." It really is, meet and greets are great and you're all kinds of ready to be stepping into that. You shift your grip on your luggage just the slightest bit, older joints telling you that keeping the same grip is not something you should keep doing.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 10:39 PM

You open the door for him and hold it so that he can go in ahead of you. You’ll find a place he can put his luggage for now... it’ll probably be your office. That just seems easiest. You do wonder, however, if anyone else is going to be as excited as you were to meet him.

Summoner Last Thursday at 10:48 PM

Stepping into the building and yeah, yeah it's pretty nice, pretty nice indeed wow look at this place. There's not blood coating most available surface, it's so cool. 

You take a few steps inside ears and eyes sweeping over the room slowly taking everything in, now this... this is what a cohesive and safe work environment looks like, one where individuals didn't have to worry about being culled over not reaching a quota or something stupid like that. It was... amazing.

Rufioh Last Thursday at 11:04 PM

You follow after him with a grin, ears perking up. You can’t look too excited when you walk in, or you might never live it down. Depending who’s in already. 

You smile and motion to your office. “You can put your stuff in my office for now if you want... so it’s out of the way.” You can’t help but to chuckle as you watch him take it all in.

Summoner Last Thursday at 11:10 PM

"Yeah, that's uh, probably for the best." You probably shouldn't just carry your lance around a law enforcement building, it's probably not the smartest thing to do? So yeah, yeah tucking that away is a priority, also setting down your own case and giving your fingers a rest? A good decision. 

You catch his chuckle and focus back on him, young, free of Alternia and the fate that would have been his, was almost your more time than you care to count, and you smile at him, smaller and more subdued than your previous grinning but still warm all the same. "It's just so uh, different. In a good way." You're just... so very pleased you got the chance to live long enough to experience all of this.

June 14, 2019

Rufioh Yesterday at 12:39 AM

“Wouldn’t want you to lose anything... or hurt yourself.” Yes, you were teasing your ancestor. Look how mean you are. 

You smile at him, a warm, genuine expression rather than the childishly excited grin that had been on your face since you’d confirmed that he was your ancestor. “It’ll be really nice to have you here...”

Summoner Yesterday at 8:00 AM

You roll your eyes but accept the teasing, it's good natured enough you're cool with it. 

"Hope so," it'll be nice to feel like your working towards a common goal again, you haven't since... for a long time. "I'm sure it'll uh, it'll be nice here." You like people, you tend to get along with others, you'll probably be alright. 

"Let's uh, set this stuff down and you can give me the tour yeah?"

Rufioh Yesterday at 8:16 AM

You grin and lead him into your office, setting the case down in one corner so it’s out of the way.

Once you’ve set it down you run your hand through your hair, grinning. “I really hope so... it’ll be so cool workin’ with you.” You flick your ear lightly and glance out your door, humming faintly.

Summoner Yesterday at 8:52 AM

You set your own case new to where he lays your lance's case, letting yourself take a moment to reassure that yeah, it's the same one as you gave him you idiot, it's not like he had chances to switch 'em out or something silly like that. 

Then you stand again, back to your full height, the movement easy and painless. Your joints only really give you issues in your hands these days, first signs that your blood-allotted life-spans starting to catch up with you. 

"You say that now," you grin. "All you know I could be uh, awful with the more um, official side of things."

Rufioh Yesterday at 9:13 AM

You don’t pay any attention to him checking the case, let the old man do his thing. You really don’t mind what he does. You’re busy checking for Horuss who all’s here. Pay no mind to the very soft, gay sounds Summoner. 

You turn back to him after your short gay time, and smile. You’re glad that he doesn’t seem to have joint problems at... whatever his age is. Because you worry about these things; probably not for the most appropriate reasons. 

“Like I’m not?” You grin in return, chuckling faintly.

Summoner  Yesterday at 9:19 AM

"Least I won't be uh, ruining your good name then." You return. 

You move back over to him and turn your eyes towards the floor outside, looking over the gathered mix of individuals out there once more. "So uh," you start. "Who's got your eye out there?" Yes you'd caught the noises and yeah you were a little curious about who they were directed at, though you wouldn't push of course.

Rufioh Yesterday at 9:32 AM

“Nah... I might’ve ruined yours with... many late nights stayin’ here.” 

“Aha... you heard that?” You blush a little and rub the back of your neck, your wings giving a little flutter. You got called out. “Horuss Zahhak... he’s the big indigo right over there,” You gesture to him with a smile. “Don’t tell him I was making those sounds... he’s not into pda...”

Summoner Yesterday at 9:40 AM

You snort there because yup, he sure did. Then you go quiet as you process what he's said, Zahhak huh? That's uh, not that common a clan-sign, not for indigos at least. "Haven't heard that name in a while," you muse, looking over the troll in question, similarities sure are there, physical stature, dark lenses and those horns... 

That's definitely a Zahhak if you've ever seen one. 

"Don't worry, I won't uh, won't rat you out." You're not that mean.

Rufioh Yesterday at 10:14 AM

You smile a little in embarrassment, wings still faintly fluttering. But that’s probably because you’re still looking at Horuss, how very gay of you. “Oh? You know Darkleer then?” 

“Thanks... kinda don’t want to fluster him... this early in the day...” You grin a little. “That’ll have to... wait until later...”

Summoner Yesterday at 10:20 AM

You can't really respond to anything he's said because your pan is just stuttering right now, stuck and trapped on the first thrown-away bit. 

"How do you know Darkleer?"

Rufioh Yesterday at 10:25 AM

You look toward him and flick an ear up in confusion. Should... should you not have said that? 

“He... works here...”

Skylla Yesterday at 10:26 AM

"Hey Partner got a minute?? Reckon I need---!" 

Hindsight be twenty-twenty when ya chose t' walk in his office at that exact moment. T' be fair, you were just with yer hounds, makin' sure they were all rested after another night o' training. Still, there's loads of paperwork and ya need some signatures. That is, until ya notice the other bronze in the room. With them looong horns. 

"Uhh.... this be a bad time..??"

Summoner Yesterday at 10:31 AM

You... don't know what to do with that piece of information right now. You're... ... 

You're something right now. 

But distraction comes in the form of someone coming into the office and yes, you will take that you are going to gladly take that, you're not really ready to think about... the other thing just now. Maybe later. 

Anyways! You turn your attention to the new face, oh another bronze? Neato! Your features shift from the blankness of a second prior to a warmer, welcoming one. "Not at all. Especially not if uh, you need to get something important done." There is never a bad time to cut in on sudden, dramatic revelations.

Rufioh Yesterday at 10:42 AM

You... feel like you’ve said something very stupid without even knowing it. Well cr•d... you hope you didn’t mess things up with your ancestor already. He just got here! 

And then Skylla walks in! Thank goodness for your favourite cowgirl! She just saved you from something very, very awkward probably. 

You smile at her and shake your head. “Nah doll... you’re fine. You need somethin’?” You perk up an ear, ready to scoot over to your desk to do work related things if she needs it.

Skylla Yesterday at 10:47 AM

"Ah... reckon I just need some signatures for them paperworks. For that last case we did." You explain slowly, glancing between yer friend and his very tall ohmygog that's his ancestor OHMYGOG IT'S THESUMMONERWHATINTARNATIONS---!! 

"Am I seein' right right now??" You can't help but blurt, your cheeks colouring in surprise. "You be his Ancestor??" Themotherfuckin'Summoner!?!

Summoner Yesterday at 10:55 AM

"The uh, horns give it away a bit don't they?" You chuckle, lifting your hand to rub at the back of your neck. "But uh, yeah," you offer your hand out to her. "They call me Summoner." Introducing with your actual name? Haven't done that in years and you aren't starting anytime soon, only a few trolls alive that know that one and maybe one more onto that now. 

Then you really hear her answer to Rufioh and your whole demeanour brightens. "You work here too?" TWO bronze bloods in law enforcement positions? That's so great!

Rufioh Yesterday at 11:05 AM

You nod and go over to your desk to find a pen to get those signatures for her. “I can get that for you right now doll...” Time for your horrible excuse for a signature, you should work on making that more legible. Yeah... that won’t happen. 

And then you look up at her and grin with all the childlike excitement you’d been holding in... after making sure he wasn’t looking. Skylla gets to see, and bond with you over, your excitement for your ancestor being the fr•ggen Summoner.

Skylla Yesterday at 11:13 AM

OHMYGOG HE IS THE SUMMONER!!! "Bless myy pumper yer the Summoner!" You give him a firm handshake, as one does, but there's also a wide smile 'cross yer face as yer eyes sparkle in delight. "Aye I do Sir! Skylla Koriga, at yer service Sir!!" 

You are acting like a wee lil' wriggler right now but it's the motherfuckin' Summoner you can't EVEN.

Summoner Yesterday at 11:20 AM

"Lovely to meet you Skylla!" Look at these kids doing law enforcement and proving that they could do it just as well as anyone else! Take that highbloods. 

"What do uh, what do you do for work?" You want to hear all about it, please.

Rufioh Yesterday at 11:27 AM

You grin and start signing the papers. You’ll let them chat, and actually do some work that needs to be done. 

But you’re sure you’ll be having a lot of excited conversations with her after this.

Skylla Yesterday at 11:31 AM

There will be some much excited conversations with Rufioh later!!! 

"I work the K9 unit!" Ya answer honestly, just bouncing a little on the balls of yer feet. "I'm real good with them woofbeasts! Also other cases, but myy priority is them." Wait what is he doing here---OHMYGOG WAIT. "Are yya also in law enforcement Sir??"

Summoner Yesterday at 11:44 AM

"Far as I'm uh, I'm trying to yeah." You've planned it, sent in an expression of interest before uprooting yourself from... what little you'd had left back on Alternia after everything. "Try to do some good where I can um, help where I can." 

"But woofbeasts? How you enjoying that? They all good for ya? Aside from being woofbeasts and good for everyone because woofbeasts are all good." Tangent? Yes. Woofbeasts deserve tangents.

Rufioh Yesterday at 11:50 AM

You can’t help but to smile as you listen to them talk, ears perking up a little. You’re just liking your ancestor more and more by the minute. 

He’s so relatable with this right now. Woofbeast tangents are the best kind.

Skylla Yesterday at 12:13 PM

Yer gonna get t' do lawfolk stuff wit' the SUMMONER good golly miss molly you could cry wit' joy right 'bout now! You hope ya don't look as eager as ya feel; don't wanna be too much of a fangirl, even though ye totally are. 

"I adore woofbeasts! My lusus Lady, she be one too!" You explain. "And my hounds are a good bunch! I trained them up and paired a few o' them wit' a few other lawfolks, but they mostly are mine." Ya got a good bunch! Not too many, but enough t' help out 'round the city. Such good woofbeasts ya got!

Summoner Yesterday at 12:18 PM

“That sounds AMAZING.” It really does, wow, you are so happy for Skylla. “Even more so that you’re uh, you’re happy with what you’re doing.” Being happy with and able to choose your career is such a great thing you’re so glad they got. “You’ll have to show me them sometime.” Blatant invitation, please let the old bull meet your dogs.

Rufioh Yesterday at 12:20 PM

“I still need to meet them too...” Hint hint. Let the bulls cry over the woofbeasts Skylla. You smile at her and flick your ear. You love woofbeasts so much.

Skylla Yesterday at 12:22 PM

You laugh and nod to both them bulls before ya. "O' course! I'd love t' show them off to ya! They'd probably would really like ya both anyways." They're used t' you and how ya talk wit' them instead of at them. Woofbeasts are smart, especially yours!!!

Summoner Yesterday at 12:25 PM

“Then it’s uh, it’s decided. Gonna hold you to that one,” woofbeasts, woofbeasts, woofbeasts. But first, the rest of the precinct. “After I uh, see the rest of the place.” Save the best thing for last.

Rufioh Yesterday at 12:50 PM

You smile brightly at her reply, internally pumping your fists in the air. You like interacting with the animals, and you’d honestly enjoy working with them. If you could not be tempted to commune with them, but you always are, and always end up migraine riddled. “Woofbeasts and hoofbeasts last... I can introduce you to the hoofbeasts... but they’re really Horuss’s domain nowadays...”

Skylla Yesterday at 1:14 PM

"Oh Horuss' hoofbeasts are great!" You assure him. "They be real chill! Though they do like t' gossip now and then." You don't get hoofbeast gossip but then again you be biased for yer woofbeasts! 

"Oh right, ya gotta get settled in!" You so wanna include yerself on showin' him 'round, but he ain't yer ancestor. Ohbuthe'ssocoolUGH "What have ya seen thus far??"

Summoner Yesterday at 1:25 PM

“You’ve got hoofbeasts too?” You are loving this right now, but uh, best to avoid Zahhak territory while you can. For the uh, the moment at least. 

“I uh, know where the entrance is,” your smile turns sheepish because you’ve really just gotten here, you’ve seen very little yet.

Rufioh Yesterday at 11:53 PM

You smile happily and nod your agreement with Skylla’s words. Yeah... your darlin does a d•rn good job with the hoofbeasts. But yeah... yeah they do like to gossip. 

“Hadn’t gotten the chance to show him around yet...” You smile once again and flick your ear. “You... wanna join us?”

June 15, 2019

Skylla Today at 11:16 AM

OHMYGOGYOUREALLYWANNAJOIN--- "Aw I hate t' intrude on yer time together! But uh, iffin ya really want, I wouldn't mind?" 

Ya really gotta stop being so eager!! But you can't help it hhhhh---

Summoner Today at 11:19 AM

"I don't mind extra company," you also definitely don't mind the opportunity to chat at her about her experiences leading up to this point, send reports back and all about how well and FUNCTIONAL systems that aren't Alternia are and about the multi-bloodcasteial workforce.

Rufioh Today at 12:54 PM

“Well... I don’t want to bore the old man... on the first day I know him...” You chuckle and shake your head. It’s also so they can keep each other’s excitement in check. “Besides... it’ll be fun.”

Skylla Today at 1:31 PM

WELL THEN! "Then it'll be my pleasure t' help show y'all round~!" AHYOUGETTOBEROUNDAVENRABLELEGEND!!!! "Shall we then?"

Summoner Today at 1:33 PM

“Neato.” H*ck yeah this is going all kinds of good right now. “Lead the uh, the way!”

Rufioh Today at 1:35 PM

You grin and run a hand through your hair to muss it up a bit, giving them both a nod. “Let’s get goin’ then!”

Skylla Today at 1:45 PM

Ya lead them outta the office before lettin' Rufioh take the lead; is his t' lead after all. Yer just hopin' yer still lookin' calm and not extremely excited, cause ya totally are.

#RP Log #Discord RP #lassosandleashes #vampofaflyboy #Offline #// thank you for the fun thread <33