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starry-bi-sky · 4 months

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Clone^2 Damian

If you really think about, Damian's situation in the clone^2 au is... kinda tragic? Especially in the early months of his arrival. Like,,, think about it. Damian has always known he was a clone of Damian Wayne, that he was a copy of the blood son. There was nothing 'original' about him, not even his name (of which at least Danny has that). He was just... a replacement. A disposable one, to boot.

And he knew that, to an extent, by the time he was six years old. he might not have been actively acknowledging it -- he's six years old -- but deep down he knew. And like, he's six years old. Every small child craves the love and affection of an adult, especially their parents, and even though he knew he was clone, I imagine he still considered - and still does consider, somewhat - Talia and Bruce as his mother and father. And I really doubt he was... getting it?

Now, I know Talia loves Damian, her son. At least in some interpretations she does, and in this au she does. But... a clone of her son? I'm not so certain if she would have the same affection for baby Dames as she would for Damian. I don't think she would treat him badly, but I don't think Talia would treat him warmly either. Kinda just, distant. Colder than she would have been with OG Damian.

And, I know I've mentioned Damian's arrival from Danny's point of view, and its kind of comical kind of insane from his perspective -- a little boy clone of Damian Wayne falls through a portal and immediately attacks him. That sounds like a bad joke.

But, if you think of this from Damian's point of view? It's like he just got dropped into a scary movie. Like, think about it. You're six years old, and suddenly a portal, as green and as swirling as your grandfather's pools, opens up beneath your feet and sucks you through.

After an intense bout of vertigo, you end up in a massive, urban city -- completely different from the rural mountain palace that you lived in for the last six years of your life, and in this city, you don't know any of the language. You don't know what anyone is saying, you can't read any of the signs - you are completely stranded, away from home.

And then, to make things worse, you're facing a figure with a terrifying mask and eyes as burning green as the portal you fell through. Of course Damian's first instinct, six years old, is to attack. He's terrified.

And this figure, he's not a good fighter, but he's fast, and he dodges you quickly. He grabs your sword with his hands, and tries to restrain you, saying something in a language you don't know. Naturally, Damian is just scared. He's six! He'd just be learning how to read if he was normal child going to school.

This figure halfway through the fight yanks off his mask -- he realizes you're scared -- and looking at you now, is a youthful version of your father. This is a clone of your dad, someone you have never met but, six years old, still wants to. Damian gets defensive. This is an imposter.

But this imposter eventually gets you home with him - and he's using his little box, his phone, to communicate with you through a mechanical voice speaking in arabic. and it's frustrating. The boy, the imposter, can say whatever to you just fine, but trying to talk back is a hassle and a half. He's six, he doesn't have that much patience.

He wants to go home.

And so he keeps trying to run away. He keeps trying to find out of this hellish concrete jungle, and he keeps getting lost. It's loud, and busy, and there are people talking to you and you don't understand them, and there are rules and signs you don't understand - Damian tries to cross the street and nearly gets hit by a car. He doesn't know how the road signs work, he was never taught. They didn't get to that.

And he gets lost. And it gets dark, and Damian is brave, but he is six, and this is the worst stress he's been under in all his six years of life. He wants, desperately more than anything, to go home. Why wouldn't he? The only stable... semi-stable environment he was in just got ripped out from under his feet, literally! He wants his mother.

And it's not happening.

But there's something good to be said, at least. The imposter that looks like his father always comes and finds him, no matter what. He could have left that morning, and he will find Damian at midnight, frazzled and worried, and carrying an extra jacket with him because it is cold in Amity Park and Damian is six years old.

And sometimes Damian attacks him - he's scared and stressed and he doesn't want to be here. And every time he catches the sword. Even though Damian can see it cut into his hand and pearls of blood well up and stains his fingers. Even though Damian can see him wince in pain and bite his lip, he still catches it.

But with that little box, he coaxes Damian to come back with him. It's cold, it's dark, Amity Park is unsafe at night. They can figure something out tomorrow, please. And every time, he agrees, reluctantly. And the imposter takes the extra jacket he brought with -- a flannel, a hoodie, a jacket -- and he wraps it around him. It's warm, Damian's clothes are not that thick, and even though he thinks he might hate this imposter, he still sticks close to his legs as he leads him down the street.

And sometimes the imposter carries him, because Damian's shoes are not that thick, and he cuts his foot on broken glass while they're walking home. The imposter sits in the bathroom with him and carefully cleans the cut out, and makes sure it doesn't get infected.

There's hope you know, he still has it. His mother will be looking for him. She'll be worried. He's important to them. Damian may not be the original, but he is still a blood son. He is still her son. She will come find him. This nightmare will end soon. He can go home.

And then weeks pass, and nothing. Then months, and nothing. His family is not coming for him, and it hurts. Hurts more than anything. And yet while that happens, the boy he's attacked, and hurt, teaches himself arabic in order to speak to him. He takes Damian out of the house one afternoon and buys him new clothes, or tries to. And then he keeps buying him new clothes. He gives him blankets and gives up his bed to him until they can get him one himself, and steadily he teaches Damian english.

This boy is kind. Kinder than Damian's ever experienced, and he doesn't know what to do with it. He's devastated by the fact that he is not as important to his family as his family is to him. What do you do when you're six years old and you learn something like that? When a random stranger who looks like your father is kinder to you, and cares more about you than your family did?

And then Damian tells him he's a clone. He's Damian Wayne's clone, and he tells him his purpose - that their grandfather made him to kill him. And the boy, the imposter, Damian thinks he probably already knows that he's a clone. But he doesn't say that. He just nods, and asks him if he wants to tell his original about him.

Damian says no. He doesn't want to. He's tired of living in the shadow of his original. He wants to keep this to himself. This is his. For once, all of this is his.

And to his surprise, the imposter doesn't try and convince him otherwise. He just nods, and says okay. And when Damian asks why, the imposter - his brother - looks at him and says.

"I don't care about Damian Wayne. I care about you." And in Damian's gobsmacked silence, his brother continues. He tells him that if Damian doesn't want to tell his original that he exists, then they don't need to. They don't need to worry about the LoA going after him, because clearly if his 'grandfather' needs to make a clone of Damian in order to take him out, then whatever it was that Damian Wayne was doing to keep himself safe, was working.

"Wayne already has people in his corner, he's got Gotham's army of vigilantes to keep himself safe." his brother says with his eyes as blue as moonlight. "You, however. Do not." And he continues, and says that if Damian Wayne has the same training as Damian does, then he will be fine. He doesn't need to be aware of his clone. Because if DW doesn't know about Damian, then the LoA doesn't either.

And here's the thing. Damian would not have survived in the LoA for long. Not as a clone. No matter what, he was going to die no matter what he did, and sooner rather than later. The sword of Damocles was always hanging above his head in the League of Assassins.

That portal, and meeting Danny, saved his life. There's no way around it. And to an extent Damian knows this even at six years old. He may not be aware that he would've died, but he knows that meeting Danny was the best thing to happen to him.

It's no wonder after that, that Damian is as clingy to Danny as he is. Danny is the first person he's met to offer him unconditional love, with no strings attached, only pure affection.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dp x dc crossover #dpdc #dpxdc crossover #clone^2 #like god can you imagine how scared he must've been? how afraid? he just wants his mom - only to realize he doesnt even matter to her #dpxdc au #danny fenton is not the ghost king #this poor kid man. no wonder he latched onto danny the moment he gave up on the league like a leech. he's a six year old kid man and #it doesnt matter how smart he is or how mature he acts. he still is six years old. he still needs that validation and affection from adults #or from people older than him. and his emotional needs were just not being met in the league.#cue the song “two” from sleeping at last - some of their songs are very clone^2 honestly.#'sweetheart you look a little tired. when did you last eat? come in and make yourself right at home. stay as long as you need.'#'tell me is something wrong? if something's wrong you can count on me'#'its okay if you can't find the words. let me take your coat and this weight off of your shoulders'#'like a force to be reckoned with. am i the ocean or a gentle kiss. i will love you with every single thing i have'#'like a tidal wave i'll make a mess. or calm waters if that serves you best'#'i will love you without any strings attached'#like just. just *imagine* being in damian's shoes during all of this. he's *six* you guys. i've worked with six year olds and they're #pretty independent but they're still six. they get excited when they see their parents and they get upset when an adult is angry with them.#they're still developing their motor skills. they're still developing everything else!

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starflungwaddledee · 2 months

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so about the ship thing . . . Have you heard of a little guy called Sailor Dee? They showed up in Revenge of Meta Knight as part of Meta Knight's crew, and I think a couple other times in minigames and merch. I imagine he'd be braver than the average dee since he works for MK, so maybe they'd be able to power through the ick reaction like Bandee

hmmm... i think you might be onto something!

might be about to give bandee a run for his money, perhaps. speaking of... here's a little bonus:

#my art #my comics #🎀💖#sailor waddle dee #starstruck dee #bandana waddle dee #as of current counts sailor has been *the* most prompted-for character of the shipaganza! popular little dee!#i also think sailor can be a little bit of a charmer? as a treat?#learned from th.... well. learned from someone who *thinks* they're the best.#also you know what this ship could be called. it could be ~sea star~. i thought of this when i was considering if her cushion #is space themed or ocean themed. they're probably sailor's cushions so i figure the latter. but still! what a coincidence!#turns out you CAN “flirt” with her but you've just got to say a really specific set of things. and it helps if you're a waddle dee probably #she's got a baseline desperation to be liked and accepted by waddle dees in particular so i think the bar is a little lower

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cosmicwhoreo · 8 months

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Maybe Grand Reef Cookie shouldn't always try to make the things he finds into some sort of tea or meal....

#it's basically that one time folks had to save a sea turtle from a straw being stuck up it's nose.... Clean up after yourselves #you filthy cretins.#He likes to reuse the things he finds as “decoration” or even “ingredients” for the most random of things #not really understanding the real purpose of these things that appear on the ocean floor. he just thinks they're “neat”...#doesn't help the place is basically surrounded by “trash islands” coasting on the surface of the water #YES THOSE ARE REAL AND ARE HORRIFYING TO KNOW ABOUT #cookie run kingdom #cookie run #crk #fan character #fan cookie #oc #Grand Reef Cookie

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emry-stars-art · 9 months

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Whalemack!

He’s a gray/grey whale, very nice and VERY big (though about half the size of a blue whale). He’s been mostly solitary for a while, sometimes joining other whales on their migrations, but then he starts collecting little mer children that make travel hard. I’ll probably add some scars from boats/etc to this design. And we need to figure out if mers have tattoos 🧐

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stardustdiiving · 4 months

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Me explaining in terms of strictly how I read canon I think Nahida not severely punishing the Sages is just meant to convey that Nahida, even when wronged, is not a very vengeful or harsh person and makes the choice to be kind instead, but in my mind I have this idea of a Nahida interpretation which elaborates on that where her self punishing tendencies extend to her being someone who internally downplays her own experiences constantly, and as a result has a hard time feeling she’s allowed or justified in placing a lot of blame on the Sages for what they did to her So while she is following her own philosophies regarding teaching lessons/wisdom/etc in how to handle the Sages and genuinely doesn’t want to be really angry or punishing because of who she is as a person, her decision is also influenced by the fact she’s basically blocked herself out of grappling with how to handle people who hurt her by blaming herself for said hurt instead as a coping mechanism. And like this is all just me being insane about Nahida Trauma and not something explicitly implied in canon but also I really do think this isn’t a far stretch from her canon characterization especially when my vision isn’t to conclude that Nahida needs to be angry and vengeful but she should extend the kindness she shows others to herself and also every day I get tormented thinking about she was the mental equivalent of an average human child when the Sages found her and how they basically specifically discarded her for being a child and the idea of how Nahida would pick up on + internalize that and eventually need time to unlearn it

#nahida #genshin #fern.txt #fandomferns #fictional child abuse cw #anyways is anyone else here normal #see I think a sentiment most ppl get from nahdia’s character is correctly that she is kind despite being treated so poorly #but I want to explore her grappling with Why she does that bc she is genuinely kind #and I don’t think she’s struggling with moving on from things #but based off things she says word for word I feel it’s established nahida is very distressed by not being able to rationalize or #understand things that upset her #this is clear in both her SQs & her voicelines even down to her not liking seafood bc the unknown of the ocean #intimidates her. so I’d imagine she’s someone who responds to being mistreated by concluding #there must be a reason for it. and I actually have dialogue that backs me up here #bc when we first learn the sages have imprisoned nahida nahida herself basically says it’s fine bc her existence has #little meaning and she’s not good enough to be an archon. even as paimon is remarking how awful #the sages are for it and prompting nahida on if she’s upset w them #it’s not that Nahida isn’t insightful enough to acknowledge something as mistreatment #but rather she finds more comfort and a sense of control in having explanations for things #heck the reason she gives up her gnosis to Dottore is states in her char stories to be bc #she doesn’t want the lack of control that comes from a lack of information #nahida leaning on knowledge for a sense of control makes me esp sad when I think abt how #she does not have autonomy or agency for a majority of her life bc of her imprisonment n had fo rely on her #mind n ability to learn n gain knowledge #anyways to reiterate ks anyone else normal

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vaguely-concerned · 7 months

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Thinking about the symbolic weight of smoking in the TLT universe that comes to the fore in The Unwanted Guest -- the way it moves through from person to person: Pyrrha smoked, and Augustine wanted to impress her in all her stone cold fox MILF James Bond glory (and tbf who wouldn't) so he started too. and even though as far as he knows she's been gone for a myriad and is never coming back, he keeps the habit. Ianthe sees something in the hollowed-out Faberge eggshell of Augustine that resonates with her, all that gilded eloquent emptiness and disdain through the ages, so she picked it up from him to try to emulate it. She picked it up so hard that Palamedes -- the exact spiritual antithesis of the 'smoking! on a space station! what a powermove' ennui Ianthe so admired -- spontaneously unnerded enough to even known how to, simply from a sort of contact contamination of the soul.

G1deon and Augustine sharing a jittery smoke after their near-Harrow experience during soup night, and it's the closest thing to any real sense of brotherhood that remains between them. Pyrrha going ten thousand years dying both literally and for a smoke (and then Camilla sold her fucking cigarettes (for a third of what they were worth, probably Pyrrha's own good, and also more importantly grocery money). what an entirely haunted time to be alive etc.). Augustine and Mercy trading a cigarette back and forth in the middle of their collusion over the love and murder of god.

An act of small and measured self-destruction in the name of something a little bit like connection when you're stuck somewhere in yourself where love itself dares not or cannot tread (ritualized, transmissible)..........

#the unwanted guest #the unwanted guest spoilers #the locked tomb #ianthe tridentarius #augustine the first #pyrrha dve #palamedes sextus #this series is going to make me lose my mind completely one day (affectionate)#the locked tomb meta #the fact that ianthe seems to have had some genuine admiration for augustine makes my head spin. of course though.#of course she sees the person who looks the most like he's successfully made himself impervious to the world #utterly untouchable and impossible to hurt because he isn't even really there #and she believes it! even after seeing the john mercy augustine mess at the end! because it's such a seductive idea #when you've stuck yourself in an inevitable ocean of pain to think you could make yourself numb enough that it doesn't matter #it's the emotional equivalent of 'oh there's water all around? well I just won't breathe in then. easy lmao get on my level'#she holds on to that thing from him even when it's been proved to be both impossible and ultimately untrue even in him #because uh. oh I'm about to be kind of sad for ianthe what the fuck is going on. he might actually have been the closest thing #to parental and especially paternal affection she's ever known. certainly known enough to try to model herself after #IMAGINE how fucked up the nine houses must be when augustine the first registers for anyone as a model of psychological survival #ianthe do you really want to be yourself completely so much that you're willing to be nothing. I mean yeah probably but. oh my god #gaining nothing at the cost of everything

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comixandco · 7 months

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cleo sertori had a fear of swimming since she was a child and nobody considered for a second that getting stranded on a boat in the middle of the sea then falling into a cave system where she had to swim through subterranean water tunnels to the ocean where she had to tread water until a s&r team found them would be traumatic and exacerbate her fear into full aquaphobia

secretly becoming a mermaid helped her get over her fear but to everybody else her being cagey about the pool party and washing the dishes makes 100% sense when they stop for a moment and consider she’s probably terrified

#h2o just add water #cleo sertori #lewis like ‘i don’t know what’s going on with her lately’ bestie you know what’s going on #they were missing for hours #it’s fucking rude that her parents weren’t more supportive like ik it was the 2000s and nobody believed in therapy but it wouldn’t be that #hard to switch cleo from dishwashing to hoovering and bin duty or fucking. yard work. or if it’s about helping out at dinnertime they could #teach her how to cook she could do meal prep #honestly not enough people thought cleo was pretty courageous like she was out there facing her fear everyday #she went through those tunnels she painted her room like the ocean and kept fish she helped emma with her training before the incident on #mako she was trying to overcome her fear every day #also. emma’s parents thinking she had depression and trying to help was A+ parenting but it was also possible that emma was also traumatise #like?? it’s one thing to swim in a pool and be fast it’s another to push against currents while pulling your friend who can’t swim #and the tunnels were long too they almost ran out of air #i think after that her reluctance to swim should make a bit of sense lmao

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loxare · 6 months

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do i.. WANT to know about the drumlins?

YES YOU DO

Drumlins are glacial landforms, which means you find them only in places that have been glaciated. And they're very distinct when you know what you're looking for.

A hill with one steep side, one looooong sloping side, and you've (most likely) got yourself a drumlin. (Unless it's small. Drumlins are tens of meters high and hundreds of meters long, so if you've got a short one with way more elongation, you've got a drumlinoid.) They're all over Canada,the north eastern US, and northern Europe. The one pictured above is in Ireland. The ones in Canada and the US formed as the Laurentide Ice Sheet, a kilometers thick mass of glacial ice, was spreading across North America during the Last Glacial Maximum

There are lots of really cool glacial landforms (eskers and kames and lakes (Glacial Lake Agassiz my beloved) and like a dozen types of moraine), but drumlins are my favourite because they're so incredibly easy to identify, they occur in swarms, and they're kinda weird as hell

There's still some debate among geomorphologists about how, exactly, they form but I was told that the (mindbogglingly huge mass of) ice catches on a sticky uppy bit of bedrock and instead of mowing it down like a child kicking over a stack of blocks, moves around it instead. And because there's now a place behind the bedrock where there's less ice, the ice drops a whole bunch of glacial till (all the bits of sediment that did get mowed down like a child kicking over a stack of blocks) on the other side of the bedrock bit

(This is a constructional theory, where the drumlin is built up. the other main one is the erosional theory, where everything but the drumlin is eroded. There's also a theory that drumlins are deposited by subglacial meltwater, but that one is highly controversial)

"Now wait," I hear you say, "go back a bit. What the fuck was that about swarms?"

They occur in swarms.

If you've got one drumlin, good chances you've got a lot of drumlins. Which is actually amazing, because the steep side of the drumlin faces the direction of flow, which means we know exactly how the ice sheet moved. In this image, for example, the ice started at the top, near Lake Ontario, and then moved south. From looking at drumlins (and other glacial landforms, we do like to have multiple reference points), we know that the Laurentide Ice Sheet started in the Hudson Bay and crept out from there

And because they're so distinct (tear drop shaped, made of till, occur in swarms), and because drumlins can only have been made by glacial activity, we can look all over the world and find these things and know that this place was once under several thousand tonnes of ice

Not during the Last Glacial Maximum, but definitely ones before it. And I just think that's neat

#'glacial till' I say as if all till isn't glacial #that's only in there for the non-geologists tbh #I love drumlins so much #they're neat #rocks #long post #Loxie has words #geology #geomorphology #These thing can be made of some weird things too #Here in Alberta we're on carbonate rock #because of that ocean that used to be here before BC crashed into us #but we've got granite in our till deposits #which was imported here by the glacier express from Ontario #where the Canadian Shield is exposed #the Shield which is made of granite and other igneous rocks #(we've got granite too but it's buried *deep* beneath the carbonate)

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bigautomaton · 13 days

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Far Away

aka Space Junk Does The Funniest Thing

#art #digital art #digital painting #painting #ocean #tma #tma fanart #the magnus archives fanart #the magnus archives #i'd be lying if i said i didn't laugh at the space junk hitting the boat #comedy only happens when it's funny #gotta go to the furthest point from people IS THAT A FUCKING SATELLITE?#explodes your boat #anyway unless i'm gripped by the deep again this should be the last ocean painting for a bit #there's other things

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gods-favorite-autistic · 8 months

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Rtc headcanons

Have I talked about my trans Ocean and Mischa headcanons recently because they are and you can’t change my mind

Nobody knows Ocean is trans because she started transitioning when she was little and her parents didn’t enroll her in school until she was like 8 and managed to convince them that no the school system was not going to brainwash her

The only people who know about her are Noel and Constance

Mischa does not hide the fact that he’s trans because he knows that nobody’s gonna like. Challenge him on that fact. What are you gonna do, tell the 6 foot dude who stole wine from the church that he’s not a guy? Nah man, you just say okay and move on

Ocean finds out Noel is going to sneak out of town to go to a pride parade and makes him take the entire choir because they all wanted to go to one but Noel is the only one who has a consistently available car and can drive good

Constance gets her hair dyed rainbow

Ocean decided to get a rainbow flag, the lesbian flag, and the trans flag but she can’t keep it at her house so she asks Noel to keep it

Mischa wears a shirt that’s just the trans flag with the words “god knew I’d be too powerful with a dick”

Ricky puts a bunch of pride stickers on his wheelchair

Penny steals a sign from a protester and hits the protester with it

Noel knows sign language because Ricky taught it to him

Ocean is autistic. That’s it that’s the headcanon

Penny use to do gymnastics when she was little but got kicked out after attempting to bite a child

Ricky loves mochi ice cream and learned how to make it when he was 11

Mischa knows how to bake

Whenever Father Marcus doesn’t show up for class Noel and Ricky decide to have lessons called “sign language for dummies”

It’s annoys Noel that Ocean is the one who is the best at it but like. What did he expect

Once Ricky’s parents can afford and AAC device he immediately makes it his life mission to learn how to speak as many languages as possible

Penny plays soccer and she is mvp almost every game

Ocean swears to hate most sports because they are “barbaric” except for soccer

She’s a huge soccer fan so she goes to all of Penny’s games

Mischa and Ricky go too and at every game at some point either Ocean or Ricky climb on Mischa’s shoulders

Noel loves to draw

Constance is actually on honor roll every year

If Ocean’s grades drop below a 95 she will cry

Mischa texts Talia whenever he takes a t-shot because hates needles and needs reassurance

When Mischa starts dating Noel Ocean gets so confused

Noel almost refuses to explain the idea of polyamory to her but Mischa thinks it’s funny to watch her head explode over things she doesn’t understand

They’re both very disappointed when she just goes “oh. okay” and then walks away

Noel and Talia are the best of friends

Penny can still do a bunch of gymnastics stuff she just doesn’t do it very often

Constance asks Ocean out first actually

Ocean spends like a full day avoiding her cause at first she things she’s joking then she freaks out because she’s had a crush on her for years then she thinks that Constance will be mad it took her so long to answer and not wanna date her anymore

Eventually Noel just locks the two of them in the choir room

Constance is also the one who asks Penny to join their relationship

Penny makes origami cats for Ricky

Ricky can pop a wheelie in his wheelchair

Skater boy Mischa and Penny

On the sidelines are Ocean and Noel going “be safe babe!” and “fuck it up Misch!!!” respectively

Ricky plays so many skating games

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clamsjams · 8 months

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wait the eggs treating the players like eggs is sooooo cute it’s like when little kids play house and want u to be the baby so they can be the parent or like when they don’t get that like u help them with stuff bc they’re kids they think that everyone does that for each other and they try and help u too

#there’s a rlly cute post on here somewhere about someones kid doing the second thing #i love it #qsmp #qsmp liveblog #qsmp eggs #posts from the ocean

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incorrectskyrimquotes · 1 year

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Mercer tries to tell Brynjolf that you died. But Brynjolf just grabs him by the shirt and yells at him that he's wrong. You didn't die. You did not do everything you've ever done for the Guild to have just died.

You're different, he tries to explain. Obviously you didn't die, you just got hurt. Mercer clearly accidentally left you in Snow Veil, where you're definitely still alive.

Brynjolf is going to go to the Sanctum himself, with a sack full of potions, get you back to health, and bring you home. Mercer would have to chain him to the wall to stop him.

So off he goes, to find you. He goes to the Sanctum, gets through it, and sees-

You.

You, on your back, your face turned away, surrounded by blood that can only be yours.

He spots you from a distance. He doesn't get closer. He can't see you like that. He doesn't want to remember you like that. He wants to always remember you as you were. When you were at your best, when you were by his side, when you were alive.

He leaves the Sanctum. He returns to the Cistern. Obviously, he's alone. Everyone understands why he went out, everyone understands why he came back. Mercer tries to talk to him, but Brynjolf isn't interested in an "I told you so."

But that's not what Mercer says. Mercer, instead, says he's sorry, that he should have done more, that he tried to do everything he could, that Karliah is just too good. He had expected her to attack him, not Opal. After all, she was still mad he had uncovered her murder of Gallus.

Brynjolf, fragile and broken, hurting and grieving, believes Mercer. He is at his lowest, and his friend of so many years is showing him sympathy and compassion. Mercer could tell him just about anything and Brynjolf will believe him. And he does.

#brynjolf #mercer frey #okay so Mercer is bad at guildmastering and bad at lying and bad at so many things BUT #brynjolf believes and trusts him. and bryn has all the credibility #and in this PARTICULAR moment. brynjolf is at the bottom of the icy ocean of grief #so the smallest hint of warmth from mercer feels so powerful

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