#flora's just yapping

[florashifting]

"You can't shift if-" WROOONNNNGGGGG INCORRECTTTTTT

Yall can shift however the fuck you want. If you wanna breakdance and do cartwheels before you shift or while you try to shift GO AHEAD. If you have doubts or "blockages" you can still shift! Cause guess what? There's no such thing as a blockage!

Now I used to be skeptical of the whole "there's no such thing as a blockage" thing. Because I thought to myself "but I have ____ mindset, so I can't shift. That's a blockage" WRONG the only "blockage" there was was ME.

What I'm saying is if shifting blockages were real there would only be one and that's YOU. The only thing "holding you back" from shifting is you, and even then that's not really true. You can shift without even knowing was shifting is.

Basically what I'm saying is, JUST SHIFT IT AINT THAT HARD YALL NOTHING'S HOLDING YOU BACK AND NOTHING CAN! YOU CAN DO IT I BELIEVE IN YOU 💗💗💗

#shifting tips #reality shifting #shifting #desired reality #shiftinconsciousness #reality shift #shifting consciousness #shifting realities #shifter #flora's just yapping

[flora-ocs]

Realizing I have to actually do research on the Victorian era in order to have an oc in the Victorian era

#flora's just yapping #original character #oc #original characters

[hopelesslyromanticshark]

Hii, i loveee your writting so muchh i can’t get enough of it. If you’re not busy do you mind writting a fic of frank zhang x reader slow dancing together maybe to the song perfect by ed sheeran or can’t help falling in love with you by Elvis Presley

⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚ Don't Step On My Foot, Zhang!

content: frank zhang x reader fic warning: mushy gushy softness author's note: barely counts as blurb but frank deserves a fic so imma call it a fic yall can die. i have been struggling so bad with writing legit cannot write anything except this. this came from me but also i hate it. and i hate everything and im dying send help im so done but also like im fine don't freak out but also at the same time...save me good lord save me. i need to get through my inbox and my drafts but also i can't???? but i need to- LORD HELP ME JESUS FUCKIGN CHRIST-

frank, over the years, had forgotten how to sit in domestic bliss. sure, he tried to remain as soft as he could, refusing to let life toughen and harden his roman skin. but, just sitting in the comfort wasn't something that came naturally to him. which is why he was grateful for you. somehow, through training your childhood away and two wars, you managed to keep the gentleness of a dandelion. you clung to it, seeing it as your saving grace. and, in turn, frank clung to you.

so, in the early mornings, when no one was ordering frank around and no one was trying to stab you, you'd force frank to stay in bed for just a while longer. truly, just a few minutes and then you'd let him get up. but every morning you did this, frank knew more was too come, more small breakings of his roman rules and his discomfort with just being still.

you two would get up slowly and softly, no urge to rush or run flowing through your blood. he'd pour the coffee and you'd start on breakfast, working like a well-oiled machine. then, as always, you'd shot a smirk over your shoulder to frank and turn the radio up. he'd pretend to roll his eyes and stomp his way over to you, but his smile betrayed him. you'd wrap your arms around him and he'd tangle up with you as well. and the pair of you were just sway. it didn't matter if it was a fast song or a slow song, you two were just doing it to hold the other.

"oh! my waffles!" you'd nearly scream at one point, scrambling out of frank's arms and diving desperately to save them. frank would laugh, a deep belly laugh that only you could ever pull from him, and you'd glare over at him as you just barely save your breakfast.

"don't laugh at me! it's your breakfast, too" you reply, his laughs contagious and making you lose all your venom. you shook a waffle on a fork at him and he'd just roll his eyes, reaching up and grabbing plates without needing to look. it felt like everything he did with you was second natural, like he'd been doing it with you for eons and centuries. for lifetimes and lifetimes. as he set the tables, you grabbed the maple syrup and slid it to the canadian, who proudly took it and just drowned his waffles.

"i don't even know why i bother cooking for you. i could just give you a plate of syrup and you'd be happy," you teased with a wrinkle of your nose and frank offered you a cheeky but soft smile.

"it adds to the experience."

"it so does not!"

music continued to softly float through the air, just background noise as you curled up in your chairs and talked, if you so pleased. some days the pair of you would be gossiping and yapping up a storm, catching up in the way only lovers can. other days were silent, the only noise being the clatter of metal utensils against ceramic dishes and the gentle nearly silently sound of you grasping the hand of your lover over the dinner table.

"and then - you're not gonna believe this, frank, really - lucy told flora that she was gonna date her boyfriend. how crazy is that? so, obviously, flora beat the shit out of her. like, it was bad. but like, i'd do the same," you yapped, pausing to shrug and take a drink from you coffee that was always perfect as frank had mastered your drink years ago.

"you'd do the same?" frank teased, looking up at your with a smirk, and you rolled your eyes, blushing despite yourself.

"duh! youre my man. can't have any girl's stealing you away from me," you teased back, tilting your head at him with a wrinkle of your nose.

"so possessive," taunted frank as he stood up, taking your plate and his and making his way to the sink, rinsing them and setting them out to dry.

"you find it endearing."

"yeah, i do," replied frank, glancing over his shoulder at you with a beaming smile. then the song changed and you were jumping up to your feet, grasping at frank's hands and he twirled you instantly without needing to be told. you giggled as he pulled you back into his arms, dancing the pair of you around the kitchen like you were at some large party when the only viewers were your nearly empty coffee cups and plants from jason.

"don't step on my feet, zhang," you teased, a moment to reminisce on your first night in your shared apartment, in which you asked frank to dance with you around your unfurnished place and he'd been so nervous he stepped on your toes.

"one time! i do it one time. am i ever gonna live it down?" frank groaned, shaking his head as he looked down at you with a playful smile.

"nope! never! this is gonna haunt you until the day we die," you teased, looking up at him with a wiggle of your eye brows.

"whatever. forever with you is worth some teasing about my bad dancing skills," frank muttered, his words getting jumbled as his need to kiss you took over.

that was like second nature too, kiss you. something natural and primal that he was sure even death couldn't strip him of.

#all my love ౨ৎ #pjo #hoo #heroes of olympus x reader #frank zhang #frank zhang x reader #frank zhang x you #frank zhang x yn #heroes of olympus

[sidetongue]

What sort of naughty activities does Miss Budgie get up to?

She is a terror!! We’ve recently had a saga where I discovered she pesters the German shepherd through the fence when I’m not home. Runs up and down yapping and stirring him up. I only realised when I happened to catch the neighbour HOSING her over the fence on the camera!! And honestly, I am 100% team neighbour! What an annoying little dog! So I put up a barrier of pot plants to deter her. Came home and the plants were squished. Presumably she just ran across the pots instead of along the ground. Finally I’ve put up shade cloth and she is being much more appropriate. My neighbour is an angel and insists that budgie and the shepherd are still good friends.

One night she climbed up onto the kitchen table, found a tube of nutrigel in the puppies’ bag (nutrigel is a thick, sludgy, tarry goo - I used it to help prevent/treat hypoglycaemia in the cane corso puppies), carted it off onto the couch, made herself comfortable, and devoured it. Sticky black goop all over the couch, cushions and her beard. And of course, this gave her a raging tummy ache. She had diarrhoea all throughout the house. Then peed on the spare bed for good measure. THEN came back to bed with me before I woke up, and tried to convince me she’d been there the whole time.

She refuses to swim in the kiddie pool I provide for them and instead opts to squish herself into the water dish - muddying it up so everyone else has to drink Budgie flavoured water. She expertly removes lids off of feed containers to engorge herself on food (cat food, dog food, chook food…), she steals toys off her siblings, humps moby, rebounds off moby, tackles moby, bites moby’s butt, shrieks at moby…. Literally any annoying behaviour she has tried it on moby. She is ALWAYS up high on a chair, table, barbecue, fish tank… regardless of whose house we are at - she will find the highest horizontal surface and defy the laws of physics to reach it.

Budgie is a giant twerp! The most mischievous, cunning little dog I’ve ever met!

Also.. it was later discovered that she did not in fact smoosh the plants while fence fighting. The plants WERE an adequate deterrent for budgie, she hasn’t bothered the shepherd since they were planted. I assumed she trampled them to continue her antics with the shep. Nope. Henry squished them whilst thoroughly inspecting the new flora for potential geckos. He was just on his everlasting journey to hunt all the gecks.

[asimplearchivist]

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷

𝐂𝐇. 𝐈 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍, 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍. 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐕 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓.

[𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓬𝓱𝓲𝓿𝓲𝓼𝓽'𝓼 𝓶𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽] [ 𝐏𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐃𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 ] [ AO3 | SPOTIFY | PINTEREST ] summary ✨ ⤏ lu poses a question that makes eliana wonder about the nature—and the unpredictable forgiveness—of time. pairing(s) ✨ grovyle/hero (nostalgiashipping) word count ✨ 4.3k a/n ✨ [header credit] | [divider credit] ⤏ posting the ending arc of a story before the main part of it is perhaps a bold move, but…that thing will take me an indeterminate amount of time to complete (if ever), so I had to silence the voices in my head by at least getting this out of my system. it's been fermenting in the back of my mind since 2016, guys. my infatuation with this old ghost has cursed me in the best (and worst) possible ways. ⤏ any references to what may read as backstory prior to this would be explained in the main story. if I never fully write it out, I do at least intend to flesh out a solid outline here on tumblr, so keep your eyes peeled for that, at least, and I am always welcome to questions either in the comments or in my askbox. I really just want my moots to be able to understand the things I yap on about like I'm stark-raving mad tbh lol ⤏ enjoy the feels-train coming into the station, guys! grab your tickets and climb aboard! :) ✨ MASTERPOST ✨ ✨ ⤏ NEXT CHAPTER [TBA] ✨

The question that would irrevocably change their combined lives came as a casual, off-handed supposition one lazy, sunny afternoon.

Eliana had been elbow-deep in a crate packed full of orbs that she had pulled from storage at Kangaskhan’s for the sole purpose of sorting the muddled amassment, organizing the ones to keep for the team’s utility or delivery to the ever-growing list of clients mounted to the board on the cave wall, and recycling those of which they owned in excess—and thus didn’t need—at Wynaut’s. She had stayed occupied with that blissfully mind-numbing task since they had eaten a mild breakfast of toasted flatbreads with liberal smears of honey and slices of freshly ripened fruit while Lu had taken it upon himself to reconcile the veritable mountain of job requests they kept stored in a chest, which had gotten quite out of hand considering the lid struggled to properly latch when shut.

They had worked in companionable silence while the sun had crawled towards its zenith, the plunking percussion of orbs clinking into the slotted tray Eliana used for such occasions as the mood to take inventory struck her kept time over the underlying rhythm of papers crinkling and shuffling as Lu compiled them into neat stacks by location and urgency filling the open maw of the bluff sheltering them from the worst of its glaring rays.

The balmy, salt-infused wind helped to wick the worst of the burgeoning summer’s heat, but the lack of clouds had cautioned them to stay indoors nevertheless—while Eliana did require a certain amount of sunlight as a part of her daily nourishment, full exposure with no breaks (while traveling at times harsh terrain and facing feral Pokémon while on missions in unpredictably dangerous mystery dungeons to boot) spelled out the possibility of her photosynthetic ears and tail flagging. That condition was uncomfortable at best—and most grass-types at the peak of health don’t even blink to shed the resulting wilted flora in order to allow for new growth to replace the lost organic material—but, at worst, it could pose somewhat serious health issues if left unacknowledged. Sunning in the mornings or afternoons proved most fruitful and kept her leaves glossy and lush.

It was the first day off their little team had taken in months, besides. They both had needed the break between the back-breaking, frantic jobs that had lately dominated the majority of their time after their recent promotion to Guildmaster Rank not even a month prior. As his most accomplished graduates by far, Wigglytuff had been relying more and more frequently upon them for assistance in maintaining the background runnings behind the face of the Guild—and particularly on Lu for the administration since Chatot couldn’t handle as much of the active work (namely running errands and maintaining documentation) as he used to due to the injury that he had incurred in Brine Cave)—so, despite being at the most stable point of their exploration careers thus far, they were busier than they had ever been before.

That was precisely why Lu’s soft-spoken question took Eliana off-guard like it did—it came unbidden, at completely random, considering that the topic hadn’t even touched the fringes of her mind in days for how severely she’d been distracted by the perpetual stream of waking, eating, packing, hiking, exploring (which usually entailed a rather harrowing combination of rescuing and battling Pokémon who, frankly, should have known better), resting, and repeating it all over again while keeping up with basic chores and routines for thier team to continue working as seamlessly as always.

Perhaps her guilt from the fact that she hadn’t devoted the concept much thought was excusable for this very reason, although it certainly did not alleviate the somewhat painful sensation in the least.

“…Do you ever think about what happened to the paralyzed future?”

It took a long moment for Eliana to compose herself, and she bought time by carefully finishing a stack of Escape Orbs that would afford them a refreshed supply of Reviver Seeds for the coming week. She tilted her head as if to roll the question around within her head, her tail curling over her paws as she parsed an appropriate response. “…Of course I do.”

“Dialga said that the timeline was restored,” Lu continued absentmindedly, eyes trained on the wrinkled parchment clasped between his tarsus pads, but the creases of his melancholic frown gave away the depth of his thoughts on the subject, “and you were brought back, but…what do you think happened to…everything else?”

He left that remark intentionally vague and open-ended for her benefit, no doubt, so she could divert the conversation if she needed to. Lu was also so considerate of her somewhat fragmented feelings on the matter, but she did wish that he wouldn’t treat it as though he should walk entirely on eggshells when bringing up one of the primarily defining moments of her conscious recollection.

“I…don’t know,” she answered truthfully, looking out towards the rippling sapphire ocean stretching out as far as the eye could see. “He never told me. I had assumed…”

At her trailing off, Lu raised his considerate gaze to gauge her expression. Besides her furrowed brows, Eliana felt no distress—and after reading her aura just to be certain (because she knew Lu, and she knew how fretful he grew over her), he set the paper down and pinned it with a coin to prevent it from wiffling away in the wind. “…That they’re gone?” he finished tentatively.

To acknowledge her reluctant, if hopeless, conclusion verbally hurt her too much, so Eliana gave him a stunted, singular nod.

“I don’t know, either,” Lu said after a long pause, “and I wouldn’t ever want to have false hopes, but…surely if you were brought back, Eliana, they would have been, too…?”

Eliana didn’t really want to dwell on the possibility. While the notion would vastly alleviate the guilt that plagued her every single time her mind drifted to her old companions (and she, too, had wondered at such a possibility before with the same reasoning), if the contrary were ever to be confirmed, it would grieve her all over again. She still struggled to reconcile their loss—because she had lost them, regardless of whether they had, by some miracle, survived like her, and they were separated by an indeterminate and insurmountable length of time beside—and if such hypothetical hopes were ever disappointed…well, she already had a hard enough time coming to terms with her emotions as it was.

“Maybe,” she offered mildly, returning her attention to her unfinished task. The rest of the crate would likely keep her busy until sundown.

“You know…” Lu resumed his own work, as well, tone then more conversational than cautious. “…we could always ask Dialga. Who knows? Since all the time-space issues surrounding us have been resolved, maybe we could—”

“I find that unlikely,” Eliana interrupted him, coarser than she intended to. When she snapped her head around to look at him, however, with shame lancing through her, he didn’t look ruffled in the slightest—such was the imperturbable nature of her partner, and the rational adult he had grown into from a timid, if somewhat passive-aggressive and hot-headed, youth. “I was brought back as a personal favor to you for saving Temporal Tower. I don’t know that Dialga—or whoever granted that wish—would allow for the timeline to have lingering echoes like that. And if…if they did…survive,” she ground out through gritted teeth, “there’s no guarantee that their memories would remain intact. If everything was overwritten, then…maybe they…maybe they wouldn’t even…”

Lu stood and stepped over to her, coiling his arms around her torso and tugging her into a hug. His warm, broad paws rested between her shoulder blades and stroked the length of her spine respectively, soothing her flaring tide of emotion. She blinked away the sting in her eyes and leaned into his touch with a soft, shaky sigh.

“I understand,” he murmured. “I’m sorry I brought it up. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“It’s alright,” she responded, muffled slightly by the fur cushioning her cheek. “I’m okay, just…I still have a hard time thinking about it.”

“I know. We can talk about it later, or…or never, if you want. It doesn’t affect me nearly as much as it does you, and I hate to see you cry.”

“Lucky for you, I hate to see myself cry, too,” she responded wryly with a sniffle, trying to grasp at the levelheaded disposition she wore most of the time. She didn’t usually keep her walls up around Lu, but she was particularly sensitive about this topic and…well, she had trouble with figuring out what to do with the equal parts grief, guilt, and anger that had come to reside in the scarred hollows of her heart that had once been occupied by her fellow future Pokémon. As she had countless times before since returning from the odd state of limbo in which she’d been trapped for the time between the Tower’s rescue and Lu’s breaking point, she opted to unceremoniously shove the complicated and snaring web of uncertainty to the back of her mind to be dealt with never later. “Do you want to go to Spinda’s tonight? I’m getting thirsty and I found some Joy Seeds we could try.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Lu smiled, although she knew without a doubt that he noticed her deflection tactic. “Let’s finish up all this and we’ll call it a night.”

It didn’t take long to complete their tasks—Eliana tucked all of the excess items they’d elected to trade into a crate for Lu to carry and they discussed what jobs they should take the next day on their easygoing walk through Treasure Town. There was a handful of rescue and criminal apprehension requests for the Mystifying Forest a couple of days old that would be simple enough to complete. They could save the ones farther out for later in the week so they’d have better time to prepare the necessary supplies.

Spinda’s Café was moderately busy, but the background murmur of conversations and laughter helped to distract Eliana’s melancholy mind. She hadn’t quite been able to shake off their discussion of heartaching hypotheticals, even caught up in the soothing routine of taking inventory, so she distracted herself by entering the line to order while Lu when over to Wynaut and Wobbuffet in exchange for prize tickets that they would redeem later, once they weren’t so tired.

Domesticity elicited a more comfortable weariness, however, than exploring did (given the stresses revolving around dealing with the feral Pokémon in the mystery dungeons and their job requests’ oftentimes complex and tenuous mission objectives), and Eliana relished in being able to sit at one of the tables closer to the edge of the room with peace of mind—Kangaskhan had mentioned that their storage limit had been approaching, so Eliana was glad to keep herself busy in such a way.

Lu brought their drinks over once they were done, and they sat in oscillations of companionable silence and idle remarks while people-watching or bringing up recurrent topics that needed updating in context of their exploration team duties.

Not too much later, Bidoof and Corphish descended the stairwell, engrossed in a lighthearted chatter until they spotted the Guild graduates off to the side by themselves.

“Well, howdy!” Bidoof greeted with a toothy grin, “it’s sure been a while, yup yup!”

Eliana chuckled. They’d seen the lot of them only yesterday while checking the job bulletin boards and asking about Croagunk’s stock on special items. “It’s nice to see you two. Would you like to sit with us?”

“Hey, hey! Thanks for the invitation!” Corphish crowed, clacking his pincers enthusiastically. “I’ll go wait in line!”

“Gee, thanks, Corphish!” Bidoof said, clambering up onto the stool to be more closely leveled with the second-stage evolutions. “I didn’t see you two come through the crossroads today, yup yup.”

“We took an off-day,” Eliana told him, leaning down to sip from the dried reed that served as a straw. Lacking opposable thumbs, while something she had mostly grown accustomed to, was not ideal, but given the fact that many other Pokémon also didn’t possess them, there were always accommodations for it. “We’ll probably head back out tomorrow. What did you do today, Bidoof?”

“I sort of did the same,” he replied jovially, “since I filled in for Diglett as a sentry…although Chatot said I was more distracted than usual and didn’t seem very pleased, yup yup.”

“If you did that all day,” Lu said with a chuckle, leaning in and folding his forearms on the table, “I can imagine all the footprints started to blur together after a while.”

“Sure ‘nuff!” Bidoof laughed in return. “My eyes are still dazzled from all the sunshine, yup yup—I don’t know how Diglett can stand it!”

“He’s used to it,” Lu said, “because I’ve asked him the same thing before. He says they’re normally sensitive to light because he’s an underground dweller, but he’s adapted to it since Dugtrio spends so much time outside. Maybe you didn’t strain your vision too terribly—maybe you won’t get a headache on top of it.”

“Aw, I already started getting one, trying to keep up with all the visitors we had today,” the plump mouse Pokémon admitted sheepishly, “and Loudred was extra cranky, yup yup. My ears are still ringing. It didn’t help that I got worked up.”

“About what, Bidoof?” Eliana asked, frowning lightly. While Bidoof had his moments when he frustrated some of the others in times past—with herself included, she couldn’t deny that—he’d come a long way since Lu and herself had graduated. The thought of him getting his feelings hurt by someone else irked her, after all the support he’d given them both throughout the years—and if he had a name to give, one had best believe that she’d have some choice words for whichever poor soul who decided to pick on their mentor. “What happened?”

“Well,” he started, somewhat bashfully, “before you two came along, when I was still the newest apprentice at the Guild, I ran into a little patch of trouble with a group of thieves for a spell. I saw another one of those Pokémon come in—a different one, thankfully—and it reminded me of all of that.”

“Oh, no, Bidoof!” Lu breathed. “Did they show back up? Do we need to coordinate with Officer Magnezone? They didn’t harass you, did they?”

“No, sirree,” Bidoof replied hurriedly, “there’s nothing to worry about there! I haven’t seen their faces turn up around Treasure Town again since the Guildmaster gave them what-for.”

“That’s good,” Eliana murmured. “Were they trying to rob you?”

“Yup yup, my savings,” he said. “I got a mite discouraged with my progress around that time, so I thought about buying a TM to make me stronger. One of them saw it and they tried to ambush me in a secret mystery dungeon they thought no one else knew about. Tricked me right good, they did, but…I got something real special out of the whole thing.”

“And what was that?” Lu asked curiously.

“He got to meet Jirachi, hey hey!” Corphish piped up, his legs tapping the floor as he brought two glasses over brimming with smoothies. “That was his first real mission as a full-fledged explorer!”

“Aw, shucks,” Bidoof hedged, eyes averting and ears curling on his signature expression of embarrassment, “I was just going to say that I found a priceless treasure. I don’t really like spreading that information around a whole lot, you know, since he likes his sleep so much, but since it’s you guys…”

“Right,” Corphish said, setting the drinks down with a clunk upon the table before hauling himself up into the seat next to the normal-type. “I forgot that it’s all hush-hush—I’m sorry, Bidoof.”

“I’m curious, though,” Lu said quietly, leaning closer, “I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned this story, Bidoof. Isn’t Jirachi a Mythical Pokémon?”

“A renowned granter of wishes, from what I’ve heard,” Eliana offered—the trivia case easily, although the reasons she knew it did not…such was the curse of her amnesia, “if they’re awakened from their deep slumbers, that is. I take it that you had a wish granted, Bidoof?”

“He did, hey hey,” said Corphish indignantly, “but he never has told us what it was!”

“It’s sort of personal to me,” Bidoof answered quietly, twiddling his toes. “If you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all,” she told him warmly, “I completely understand. You have the right to share something like that or not.” She glanced sidelong at Corphish with an amused look. “Even if others’ curiosity is strong.”

“I never meant anything by it!” muttered the ruffian Pokémon. “I was just curious, is all, hey hey.”

“That’s alright,” Lu assured him. He looked back to Bidoof. “May we at least ask if it came true?”

“It took a little while, but it sure did!” said the normal-type with shining eyes focused on the pair of them. “Even if it got a little scary, I’m so glad I got so experience all that!”

“You said it was a secret mystery dungeon,” Lu continued, tone brimming with that familiar, scarcely restrained enthusiasm he’d always shown information on new, undiscovered places. “Is it really that hard to find?”

“Not really,” Bidoof said thoughtfully, “but it had a passage that no other explorers knew about. The Guildmaster figured it all out right quick.”

That sounded like Wigglytuff, alright. Eliana smiled. “Does the name of that mystery dungeon happen to be Star Cave?”

Bidoof, Corphish, and Lu starred at her, stupefied.

“Why, yes, it is,” Bidoof breathed. “How’d you know that, Eliana?”

“I’ve read about it before in passing,” she explained. “You forget that I spent a lot of hours in the Guild’s library. There’s not a whole lot on this continent that I don’t know at least a little bit about.”

If the trio noticed how she intentionally left out the second half associated with that recollection, they didn’t point it out. She hadn’t spent those late nights combing through dusty tomes, scrolls, and maps alone, after all, and Lu had never been a night owl like she was, so he had usually ended up snoozing away despite his best efforts to be helpful by remaining awake and alert. She could still recall the looming, massive shadow cast against the plastered wall of the last room in the basement level by numerous flickering candles and oil lamps crackling merrily away in the hushed ambience of crinkling paper, notes scratched out with ink quills, and the harmonious layering of rumbling baritone and whispered falsetto indicating points of interest for further study and investigation within the texts in the otherwise undisturbed and cozy silence. The mere image lurking behind her mind’s eye of that pair of broad, pale hands pressing carefully down on the warped, darkened pages to help her track the pacing of the ancient glyphs caused her throat to tighten, so she shook her head to dismiss it.

“I was always told stories about Jirachi growing up,” Lu remarked, sidestepping the elephant in the room with all the grace of a dancer, “but I always wondered whether they were true or not. It’s nice to know that there’s still a little magic in the world.”

“Yup yup, it sure was an amazing thing to witness,” said Bidoof, his onyx gaze glittering in awe in the wake of the (likely far more pleasant) memory. “I think that I’m mighty privileged to have seen it all happen right in front of my eyes.”

Eliana glanced at Lu, noticing a similar expression mirrored upon the aura Pokémon’s face—a sort of childlike wonder that had, to her relief, never been crushed by the harrowing events they’d endured.

By the time they got home that night, they were properly exhausted. Lu cut up some fruit as a late snack for them to eat while they settled down, enjoying the mild salty breeze combing through their fur and tugging playfully at their ears and tails. Neither of them spoke until they finished, tossed their scraps into the compost bin, and got comfortable on their beds. Eliana let out a content little sigh as she curled up on her side, tucking her legs and venturing out with the end of her tail to curl around Lu’s own. It wagged unconsciously in response—a reaction that used to embarrass him.

“Good night, Lu,” she murmured drowsily, her eyelids fluttering shut.

“Good night, Eliana. Sweet dreams.”

“You, too.” That was something with which she struggled, he knew, especially after what she’d gone through with her Dimensional Scream and the nightmares they’d both had leading up to the final confrontation with the perpetrator of her amnesia. It gave the sentiment all the more sincerity.

Eliana did manage to slip into a steady, if light, sleep unplagued by regurgitations of her traumas… but she roused when she felt Lu slip from her grasp and shuffle out of bed. She lifted her head, bleary and confused by her mind still muddled, and squinted at the shape of her partner sitting near the edge of the bluff in the direct park of the wind blasting up the cliff. Her fuzzy gaze passed over his relaxed form, and she picked up on the light thumping of his tail in the dust on the floor and the fiddling of his blunted claws playing with his scarf.

“What’re you so excited about?” she croaked, digging the heel of her paw into the corners of her eyes to dislodge the crust that had gathered there. “The sun’s not even coming up yet, Lu.”

He turned his head, somewhat surprised, and a flash of sheepishness passed over him at the realization that he had accidentally woken her up. “You can go back to sleep,” he told her gently, “I just can’t get my mind to slow down after hearing everything that Bidoof had to say.”

Star Cave, while rarely marked on any save the oldest maps, was one mystery dungeon which they had not yet explored. She had intended to bring it up to Lu eventually, since she kept a list of locations they had been to, but she hadn’t realized that a Mythical called it his abode. She suspected that there was more to Lu’s excitement than the mere idea of investigating a new place, however.

“Do you want to have your biggest wish granted?” she teased with a lopsided grin, turning over onto her front to prop her chin on the edge of the hay pile. “Bidoof made it sound like that guy gets pretty cranky when he’s woken up from his century-long naps—we may not want to fight a sleepwalking Mythical, you know.”

“I’ve already had my biggest wishes granted,” Lu pointed out after a beat, his expression softening as he looked at her. Her flesh warmed beneath her pelt at the fondness warming his crimson irises. “I got to join the Guild, and I got you back. There’s not a whole lot more that I could ask for, to be honest, but the idea of it is still so exciting!” He tilted his head, considering. “Surely there’s at least one thing you’d like to have, Eliana. You don’t ever ask for very much.”

“I don’t know,” she trailed off, glancing thoughtfully out towards the rippling, mercurial sea. One obvious answer popped into her mind, but it wasn’t one she dared give voice to. She shrugged and settled on, “…I’d like to get my memories back, I think…if I had to pick one thing, that is.” She exhaled forlornly. “Even if…if I never see them again, I’d…I’d at least like to remember them.”

Lu turned fully to face her, folding his legs beneath him as his eyes shone with hope at her admission. “…You know,” he said, “we could go check it out, at least. Jirachi might not even be there anymore, since Bidoof found him, or his part of the cave could have been resealed. But if he is there…I think it would be amazing to have our wishes granted.”

“So you do have one?” she queried, quirking a brow.

“I do,” he nodded, “but it’s bad luck to say what they are before they come true.”

“You have a point. Maybe that won’t come back to bite me.” Eliana rested her check on the soft bedding with a gaping yawn. “You should try to get some sleep, Lu. If we want to plan for that trip, we’ll need to get an early start, at least, and get these jobs wrapped up. It’s quite the hike out there from what I remember.”

Lu obediently returned to his bed, and this time he reached out and grasped her paw in his own. “…For what it’s worth, Eliana,” he murmured, “I know it was hard on you, losing your memories, and that it still bothers you, but…I’m glad I got to meet you, despite it all…maybe that’s selfish of me.”

“I don’t think so,” Eliana returned quietly, squeezing the roughened pads of his toes fondly. “I think everything happens for a reason. Darkrai caused it, sure, but…I like to think that our meeting fulfilled some greater purpose in the long run.” She met his eyes in the dark. “I hope you know that I wouldn’t trade it for the world, Lu.”

“I know,” he said softly, and this time they didn’t wake until the sunrise crept over the horizon.

#fisara's codices #ao3: in the morning light #fanfiction #pokemon #pmd #pmd2 #pmd 2 #pmd explorers #pmd explorers of sky #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon mystery dungeon explorers #pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky #explorers of sky #leafeon #lucario #bidoof #corphish #pmd eos #please let me know if there are any glaring errors #this isn’t beta read (we die like the future pokemon)

[tsupertsundere]

9 PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER . . .

I was tagged by both @iron-sparrow and @archaiclumina - thank you!! I was saving it for a rainy evening... and by the light of tree here it is!!

LAST SONG: THERE'S ONE THAT HAUNTS ME. I heard it a week or so ago, I was shuffling through a citypop song's specific spotify playlist, and I heard one with a chorus that, in english, went "Businessman always tries his best, [something something something] hard, I guess". I missed noting what song it was, and I haven't found it since....!!!

LAST MOVIE: LMAO Rab Ne Bana di Jodi last night and it ROCKED it was really fun. Yet Again srk is playing a guy I might as well have written, the songs were really fun, Anushka Sharma was GREAT as the female lead, a wonderful breakout role for her, VERY fun. a @viiioca certified G'raha Tia ass movie indeed.

SWEET/SPICY/SAVORY: Savory, sweet, spicy in that order. My spice tolerance is unfortunately really low, and I prefer 'sharp' spices over 'hot' ones.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS?: I am single! I love yapping and napping and would welcome finding someone to do that with. all that is to say flora i'm a virgo if you're out there -

LAST THING I GOOGLED: oh shit, it was rab ne bana di jodi to make sure I spelled it (and Anushka's name) right and the lyrics "businessman always tries his best" lmao (unsuccessful). omg before THAT I googled some lyrics translation!!

CURRENT OBSESSION: I've finally developed a workflow I like so I've been putting together outfits for Angeline like crazy!! I'd been slowly collecting mods I was interested in for the past several months, but I was bricked up in actually Doing anything with them. Now it's much easier to! While it's brought its challenges (like 'now how do we Hyperfocus Safely?), it's also been insanely rewarding!!

LAST SONG: I'm coming back to this this song just came on and it's SUPER good???? the fuckin album art???

yeah. this is what it's all about

TAG TIME: this section's easier than before, yay!

SCATTERSHOT UHH @pastelpopcorn @moldy-mold @chameli @wanderersofeorzea @troutlawyer @discountdps @mizutaama @chadhunkler @sjofn-lofnsdottr ... AND YOU!

#tagbox #I need to put together a srk movie/protag tierlist on that tierlist maker site.... #thank you both!!!! hee hee #Spotify

[someonechaotic]

Don't hang up yet... I'm not done.

(Sims 4 strangerville build WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-)

I'm an expert, I'm the one. The one who was right all along, better to be laughed at than wrong.

IN THE SUPER SAR-GASSO SEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

I mean- cough

Okay, come on, you have to admit that Touch-Tone Telephone suits Strangerville (it's by Lemon Demon you should check him out hes super cool and im hyperfixated and i am getting distracted)

focus

This build took me a handful of hours and the edits took me an hour and a half but by the power of caffeinated ADHD i still feel like i could build several more strangerville houses on top of that followed up by a strangerville book followed up by making my own fashion statement folowed up by taking over the world and possessing people by becoming the funny plant myself followed up by contacting alien life and concending to outer space then

can i please not flood this blog

wait in real time i just had a realization that this whole time i was hyperfixated because i downed a can of irn bru and was able to focus

okay thats it im putting a keep reading cut so i dont bombard you with my yapping and dumb images

oh oh! heres a few images that didnt get used, the last one is a picture of whats inside the shed

Also, i did make a house like this previously, but my dumb ass forgot to add a bedroom to the top floor, and even though Dumbass enjoys basements, he'd like the extra room space for more clutter, theories and ₱Ⱡ₳₦₮₴, and also people may point out the fact that he only appears to have a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom.

At least here the only thing people will be pointing out now is the strange flora!

oh yeah i mention dumbass because the previous house i made was for him, and now i like this one better.... and it suits him..... and i did kind of base the whole house off him because i am too obsessed over my own fictional character

anyway, my rambling is up, im super proud of this house, SHIT I JUST REMEMBERED TO GET SIMS STUDIO FAST FUCK DO TAGS QUICK

#sims 4 #simblr #the sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 simblr #sims 4 screenshots #ts4 edit #ts4 build #ts4 community #ts4 pictures #the sims community #the sims 4 build #sims 4 build #strangerville #ts4 strangerville #ts4 alien

[skloomdumpster]

I'd read the hell out of that 45k+ fic 😁 They just fit so well and it was so natural, so carefree but no less meaningful for it. They exuded youth, spirit, trouble, mischief, tenderness, understanding and much more... they could be friends or lovers or both, they could've been a summer love, ride or die, married and in love, with kids or not... I just feel like they could've worked in any setting, in so many different ways

I honestly was very indifferent to Riven as a character in s1 but the writing for him either improved or he got a bit more screentime or both, but I found myself invested in him (and disappointed that we didn't get more lol, he would've been dealing with a lot given everything that happened but we barely scratched the surface). I wasn't expecting much from Flora only because I felt she was being added for the sake of appeasing the fans and the creators wouldn't actually know what to do with her, but I was soo wrong. She was my favourite among the teenagers.

But tell me more about what you think of them 😊 any headcanons? Any ideas for them if the show hadn't been cancelled?

Honestly, I feel you on the whole "I didn't want to like Flora" bit. If anything, I continued not liking Flora even as I was watching, because I felt like she was taking away time from my favorites and it was a very much Who Asked For Her?? moment.

That said, as I'm giffing and rewatching and rewatching, I learn to appreciate all the bits and pieces and Flora's character gets more intriguing at each pass! Like you said, the Riven x Flora felt so natural. It felt flirty and joyful, like they were finally acting their age, that I could say even from my first watch! On second watch though, they were more than just that, it's such a nice show of Riven's character and Flora just seems so relaxed when she's with him 🙈 like brotp to otp speedrun in 7 episodes flat.

I already loved Riven in season 1 and anyone who knows me, knows I was and am a riventrix stan, but I actually think Riven x Flora compliment riventrix soooo well. Do I wish they had gone in more detail there? Absolutely, I've yapped at length about how much more I wanted to see from the riven x dane x bea fallout, but that said, I think Riven picking Flo after Bea makes so much sense??? It's so healthy and fresh and unburdened by these giant responsibilities. He's not trying to fix or be fixed, he's just enjoying himself alongside someone who genuinely finds him fun and entertaining.

And then you add to that the fact their other, less seen characteristics line up too, Flora's reckless bravery vs Riven's cautiousness, and you just get the best mix!!

About the 45k+ fic, I'm afraid it's just you and me in this ship, anon, so it'll be hard to have motivation to write it all (even my beta wont read it 😭), but one day maybe

#fate: the winx saga #fate the winx saga #answered #riven x flora

[skinnamon39]

The Fennec

Content: restraints, gags, some violence, dehumanization, kidnapping/trafficking/poaching, dragging across the ground (briefly), nonhuman whumpee, ear whump

-------------

The rainforest is warm and muggy even in the autumn night. There’s little wind, yet the leaves and grasses flit and rustle in the distance. The animals come alive in the dark.

And here you are, scouring the ground for mushrooms. You’re not entirely sure how to tell them apart; you would strain your eyes trying to look at your flora guidebook now. You let your intuition guide you, picking out plain, inconspicuous samples that remind you of the white, portobello…and whatever other mushrooms you ate from back home.

It’s not like you can ask anyone. There’s no one to be found for miles.

Or, at least, there shouldn’t be.

Something races past you, making you jump on reflex. All at once, the rapid pace stops-

“Gnh-!”

-and a heavy weight falls to the ground. You’re frozen within the underbrush.

“I think we got ‘im!” a gruff voice says in the distance.

“We better have,” whines another, his voice getting closer as he speaks. “My feet are killin’ me!”

“Shut yer yap already,” says a woman. You can hear their footsteps now. “You’ve been complainin’ since yesterday.”

You haven’t heard anyone with their accent in years. What were they doing here?

Creeping forward, you brush a leaf away from your face and catch a glimpse of a prone figure on the ground with bolas wrapped around their shins. The three strangers quickly surround them, blocking any further details from your view.

The woman reaches down towards the person’s head. “What a catch! Not many have this red color.”

“Get off!” the person shouts, a fairly young man by the sound of his voice. “Let go of-!”

A choked scream cuts off his words as the woman pulls up, letting you see the large vulpine ear in her hand. The young man’s face, just barely visible in the dim light, is twisted in agony.

The woman unceremoniously drops him back on the ground, and you involuntarily suck in a breath at the thud of the impact. The young man groans, hands automatically moving to soothe his right ear. You think you can see a tail wrap around his legs.

“Get out the ropes,” she says. “It’s gonna be a long three days ahead of us.”

The woman’s two lackeys get to work, tying his hands and feet. One of them takes the bolas and returns them to his belt. Any resistance from the fox-eared man is met with a kick or a twist to the ear. You swallow, unable to look away.

His ears faintly twitch, and then he’s looking at you. He mouths something to you.

“W-what?” Your voice comes out as a whisper.

His eyes widen. He opens his mouth again, but one of the men sets a cloth gag between his teeth. The young man is left intently staring at you, as though hoping to communicate by telepathy.

“Man, I don’t remember, where did we leave the wagon again?” the whining man asks.

“Well, Andrew,” the woman snaps, “ how about back where we came from?”

Andrew fumbles over his next words as the other man sighs, grabs the young man’s ankles, and starts walking.

“And be careful with the cargo, Gideon,” she continues. “That’s our money you’re risking.”

“We can clean ‘im later.”

“Gideon.”

Gideon mumbles and hoists the young man over his left shoulder, uncaring of his desperate struggles. The boy’s tail bristles.

You don’t process their conversation as they start their trek. The fox-eared boy’s eyes are filled with wild panic as he tries to keep his gaze on your position.

Help me, they silently say.

Help me, he had tried to say.

You have no weapons. It’s a day’s walk to the nearest town. Unease jittering in your fingers and dread sitting in your stomach, you follow from within the shadows of the rainforest.

#whump #whump writing #nonhuman whump #nonhuman whumpee #lady whumper #multiple whumpers #ear whump #tw violence #tw kidnapping #tw restraints #dehumanisation tw #second person pov #I don't think that's the standard in whump but oh well #my first foray into whump please be nice

[florashifting]

GUESS WHO GOT INTO THE VOID STATE TODAY AND WAS COMPLETELY AWARE OF IT? THIS GUY DID!

#AY AY AY AY AY AYYYY #reality shifting #shifting #desired reality #shiftinconsciousness #reality shift #shifting consciousness #shifting realities #flora's just yapping #manifesation #the void state #void state

[hopelesslyromanticshark]

dude I just read your entire smau so far and sgdadsfsgsf??? I cannot WAIT for more!!!

Also, c*lypso deserved to get cussed out like that she's such a bitch

anyway, how was your day? mine wasn't great bcs my headphones broke and I'm actually addicted to music so istg I was suffering from withdrawals but I got an ice capp from timmys at lunch (yes i'm canadian lol) and coffee makes everything better so I survived! I have a science quiz tomorrow I did NOT study for so I'm praying that it goes well. wish leo was here to explain isotopes to me hnnngggh. anyway I've been yapping so I'm gonna shut up now, bye!!

love from 🍒 anon, aka flora 💐 🎧🎙!!!

ahhhh i’m glad you like it!!! i want to make more for yall trust i am cooking but…lemme cook a little longer frfr 🥲🥲🥲

real on the whole calypso thing that was a lot of 12 yr me rage in those texts 🤪🤪🤪

ahhh sorry about your headphones but also as an american there is a whole sentence in there that makes no sense to me😅😅😅 who da fuck is timmy??? what the hell is an icecap??? confused american core 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

#return to sender ౨ৎ #all my love ౨ৎ

[bog-water-030]

Bogs Bullshit Save for Sim Noobs

So I've started a new save on the sims 2 and unfortunately I have like one friend who's well versed enough to really get wtf I'm talking about when I yap about it. Then it hit me it would probably be a good idea to explain from zero. THIS is zero. If you know anything about anything in the sims 2 please skip this post.

If i sent this to you, congrats, find a screenreader, you're gonna be here a while.

"Strangetown is a small desert town with few inhabitants. There are two main streets, known as the Road to Nowhere, placed parallel with each other, around which the majority of the town is built. There are also three smaller roads, two of which are dead ends. Strangetown's landscape is barren, with only scattered cacti as flora... Considering the desert setting and references to Area 51 aliens, Strangetown may be located in the state of Nevada." (Sims Wiki)

THE SPECTERS

The Specters live on this god awful graveyard built up of the lovers and neighbours of Olive Specter.

Olive (pictured far left) is painfully in love with the grim reaper and has one child, a son, who was swiftly whisked away by the government, for obvious reasons. She's also raising her sisters only child, Ophelia Nigmos (pictured to the right), and god bless this poor child's soul she is STRUGGLING. Olives late husbands are just as unfortunate as their names suggest. Earl E Demise, Hugh Thanasia, Rigger Mortis. Its. Its really bad. Ichabod Specter is the only one she stuck with long enough to get her name changed.

Ophelia, bless her heart, is living on the community graveyard and these god damn ghosts REFUSE to leave her alone. She has pissed herself several times and it's genuinely effecting her terribly. Ophelia has two secret boyfriends (they both know about each other. I did not choose to make them polyamorous). Johnny Smith (pictured in the thought bubble), a half alien. And Ripp Grunt, the son of a space racist. She's still a teen so she has very little lore beyond being an orphan at first.

THE SMITHS

The smiths are genetically the worst family. Pollination Technician (pictured far right) Smith (yes that is his full legal name) is kind of a slut. He has four kids. Jill (pictured far left) and Johnny (pictured to the right of jill), with his wife Jenny (pictured to the left of Pollination tech). And Chloe and Lola with what would now be considered his own fucking father in law. This asshole who I will now call Paulie, spent his days as a space man impregnating random men all over the globe. And decided, after it all, to settle down with the DAUGHTER OF HIS FIRST LOVE QUEST. hate. Hate him. He also has a lawn in the DESERT. hate Paulie.

Jenny, bless her heart, does not know of her half-sister-half-daughters, she just really likes the colour green. Their two kids are your standard suburban kids aside from the space racist military man next door. Johnny is so sweet and just finished high-school. He didn't go to college but that's okay. He did his best and he's moving out very soon. And Jill despite being a little shite who doesn't do homework, has my heart and I can't wait to see how she turns out. She's just started ballet and she loves video games. Sweet summer child.

The Grunts

The grunts are my least favourite. They suck balls. They refuse to do the dishes. The dad, Buzz, lost his ex-wife to god knows what I think she was electrocuted. His hate for the world is leeching into his poor poor kids and it infuriates me. Realistically Buzz and his eldest son Tank are the only awful ones. Tank is a clone of his father. All he wants to do is join the military. He refuses to shower and keeps bothering the Smith kids. Ripp is the second and he's a dork I love him. I unfortunately cannot stand his father so I haven't played his household much,

The Curious'

The Curious' are a mess. From oldest to youngest it's Pascal Vidcund and Lazlo. Immediately when you enter the lot pascal goes into labour and has one alien child named Octavius. Lazlo cannot get bitches. He's very handsome and a good chef but good heavens he's too forward. Vidcund pissed himself in front of his first love Circe as a teen, and so struggles with women nowadays. Vidcund is obsessed with his telescope. So obsessed that he uses it during the day for people watching. He has gotten beat up by various neighbours. Mostly Olive. He speaks to one woman consistently and its Bella Goth. Despite also being pussywhipped for the woman he cant stop insulting her. She's exactly his type. He's genuinely very interested but he has negative rizz and everything he says is wrong and bad. He's lucky he's hot because if he wasn't I'd kill him.

Pascal is the only Curious brother capable of speaking to women and he is painfully gay. I love him he's the most tolerable Curious

The Beakers

The Beakers are awful. Circe is this money hungry bitch who enjoys the suffering of children, she is pregnant, I worry. Loki is a general asshole incapable of doing anything for himself. He has a maid, a butler, a gardener. I expect he'll want a nanny for his kid. He has a gun capable of sucking the skills out of people and he uses it on his pet human Nervous Subject (Olive Specters kid). Nervous had an AWFUL upbringing. He's a shy, grouchy, slob who's only capable of working out. He constantly smells. He's constantly offending people. His only friend is Pascal Curious and Erin Beaker, and those two are incapable of having enemies. I say pascal is his friend but he's like 2 minutes away from marrying the man. The issue is he's basically nocturnal, he cant stay awake long enough to call Pascal let alone get ready for a real date.

The Singles

So the singles are this 4 person disaster household consisting of the aforementioned sister daughters Chloe and Lola Curious. Alongside Erin Beaker (Loki's sister), and Kristen Loste who has zero lore beyond being gay as shit and in denial. They're a bin family which basically means the sims team couldn't find a way to make them not fuck their siblings so they've been banished to the shadow zone.

Chloe is a mega bitch. She's actively mean to everyone and generally is only nice to get in everyone's pants. She takes after her whore father I guess.

Lola does nothing but work. She has no other hobbies or interests which is to her favour.

Erin is also gay, she's loved by many (except Chloe who ceaselessly harasses her).

Kristen is doing her best but she spends all her time working, eating and sleeping.

The Goths

Bella Goth is a cross neighbourhood sim so while her lore doesn't actually effect her in this save it matters to me. She's a wife and mother of two but has no memory of this thanks to the power of alien abduction. All she recalls is the name on her drivers license. She was originally from Pleasantview, married to Mortimer Goth and raising Cassandra and Alexander, but after her affair partner's affair partners decided they weren't into sharing she was abducted by aliens and dropped in the middle of strange town. Bella has only just paid to put a roof on her shack house. Since she has no memory of her children she's a okay slutting around with no remorse. Unfortunately, I allowed her sluttery without prescribing birth control. She's gotten with (as of winter) ajax, Lazlo, and 3 miscellaneous townies.

#the sims 2 #TS2:Strangetown

[treeniesg]

The Lorax is back!! Speaking on behalf of Biodiversity

For all those who have read the book by Dr. Seuss “The Lorax” to their children know the heartfelt message this book brings. For those who are not familiar with this book – it chronicles the plight of the environment personified by “the Lorax”, who speaks for the trees against the industry, personified by “Once-Ler”. This fable is relevant even more today as corporate greed poses a danger to the environment and society at large.

Says the Once-ler to the Lorax who spoke on behalf of the trees and animals who can’t speak:

And then I got mad

I got terribly mad.

I yelled at the Lorax, “Now listen here, Dad!”

All you do is yap-yap and say, “Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!”

Well, I have my rights, sir, and I’m telling you

I intend to go on doing just what I do!

And, for your information, you Lorax, I’m figgering on biggering

and BIGGERING

and BIGGERING

and BIGGERING

turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds

which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!”

Fourth edition of the Treeni Sustainability for breakfast hosted by Tata Motors at their Worli, Mumbai office on 4th September was on “Importance of Biodiversity and the role of Industry” began with the book reading of “The Lorax”.

Ecosystem and biodiversity loss is linked closely to climate change. The close linkage is symbiotic as Biodiversity loss hastens climate change, and climate change impacts biodiversity loss. Arvind Bodhankar, Corporate Head- Health Safety Environment & Sustainability, Tata Motors, said, “Biodiversity management has become an imperative today, if we have to mitigate the impact of climate change and keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius. Large business houses will have to play a major role and support MSME (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) sector.” “Biodiversity management has become an imperative today, if we have to mitigate the impact of climate change and keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius. Large business houses will have to play a major role and support MSME (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) sector.”

The key learnings from this interesting S4B event was:

Is biodiversity a material issue for my enterprise?

If you are a company with large landholdings especially in climate vulnerable areas – biodiversity is a material issue from the sustenance of your operations.

If your company with requires resources drawn directly from flora and fauna such as food, cosmetics and pharma sectors biodiversity is core your supply chain vulnerability.

If your company’s operations have direct impact on air, noise, soil, water and are operate in the vicinity of sensitive sites such as national parks, protected areas and biodiversity hotspots then it is a material issue for you.

Beyond boundary for biodiversity conservation

TCS has demonstrated that though their operations do not have a direct negative impact on biodiversity, they can contribute positively to biodiversity through creation of oasis in midst of urban chaos. The incredible work of TCS on protecting the olive ridley turtles showcases how biodiversity project can lead to deeper employee engagement and societal job creation. The value of such work goes much beyond the boundary of the organisation and stands out like a beacon is an ocean.

Natural ecosystem service

Foresight of Sumant Moolgaonkar created an oasis at Tata motors Pune, which was a scrubby baren land and is now a haven of greenery a natural wetland habitat of 245 acres amidst rapidly expanded Pune. It attracts 150 species of birds and 60 types of butterflies. The habitat was planned at the same time as the manufacturing facility. A dam was constructed to conserve rainwater ensures year-round water availability for Tata Motors and sustains the green cover. This oasis also acts as a natural oxygen generator and safe haven for migratory birds. This provides two vital ecosystem services of clean air and sustained water availability. Conservation efforts by the Tata’s are exemplary and here a list of initiatives by various Tata companies. Godrej that owns the mangrove forest spread across several hundreds of acres in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. The three vital ecosystem services provided by the mangroves are carbon sequestration, clean air, and protect the coastline from inundation apart from many other services.

How can biodiversity preservation become a part of our culture again?

Indian customs have traditionally worshipped nature and living in harmony has been part of Indian tradition. However lately widespread disregard for nature by young and old alike due to use of disposable plastics, use of POP idols in festivals, noise pollution, thoughtless killing of snakes in townships & farms, fertilizers & human sewage in water bodies and garbage burning etc., have led to air, noise, and water pollution. The role of the citizen and how we can rally for our green spaces, rivers and water bodies, has the potential for transforming our lives and urban and rural spaces. The need for the hour is cultural transformation where we are back in touch with nature. Lately corporate landholdings and green spaces have been opened up for nature walks such as in Godrej with the Soonabai Pirojsha Godrej Marine Ecology Centre. Active citizenry also means establishment of a new breed of citizen scientists who can contribute to efforts of ecologists in terms of bird/animal spotting in various localities. Understanding how human affluence and greed impacts biodiversity and inculcating a culture of protecting our natural habitat is the need of our times. One great example of how such a culture of protectionism helped in saving the whale sharks along the coast of Gujrat is documented in this wonderful movie called the Shores of Silence.

How can Technology be leveraged to enable biodiversity efforts?

Technology is all pervasive and without making it an ally business will be caught in the backfoot. Increasingly Geographical Information Systems(GIS) and drones are being used in context of biodiversity. GIS applications allow mapped data collection, scenario creation and predictions, understanding impact in geospatial context affecting landcover, forests, and human habitats.

GIS: Business’s today have several free GIS repositories at their disposal.

One such free resource is the Atlas of Global Conservation by the Nature Conservancy. It is a fabulous resource for understanding biological diversity. Scientists have divided up the world into more than 1,000 ecoregions and analysed how they compare across dozens of measures. TNC’s atlas offers dozens and dozens of layers of geographic information by terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecoregion. Dozens of biodiversity metrics can be viewed in this atlas

Another free resource is Global Forest Watch. This WRI initiative uses the most advanced satellite data and crowd-sourced information to track deforestation throughout the world in near-real-time. Global Forest Watch offers the latest data, technology and tools that empower people everywhere to better protect forests.

The India Biodiversity portal has a unique repository of information on India's biodiversity. The Portal aims to provide open and free access to biodiversity information. The portal enables widespread participation by all citizens in contributing to and accessing information on Indian biodiversity.

Drones: Are emerging as a valuable tool for biodiversity conservation. These unmanned vehicles can help monitor protected areas, collect data in inaccessible regions, and even deter poachers and plant trees. In a unique initiative in Burma drones were used for mangrove plantations. First, drones flying 100 meters (328 ft) above the ground take highly detailed, 3D images of the land while sensors record information such as soil type, soil quality and moisture. The data is then used to create a planting pattern, pinpointing the best spots and species to plant in each location. Then a drone uploaded with the mapping information flies 2 meters above the ground, shooting biodegradable seed pods designed to enhance germination success. A drone carrying 300 seed pods can cover 1 hectare in 18 minutes

As mentioned by CEO of Treeni Ankush Patel, “The use of technology to track and monitor industry’s impact on bio diversity has enabled a process for the industry to ensure that a focus on biodiversity is a part of their business operations.” Sustainability performance management and collaboration platforms which enable enterprises to track their biodiversity indicators and share best practices within the organisation across sites are being increasingly used by corporates. In context of sharing platform, it’s worth mentioning about India Business Biodiversity Initiative, which is a business-led initiative which serves as a national platform for business, to promote sharing and learning, and will ultimately lead to mainstreaming sustainable management of biological diversity by business. IBBI was initiated by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, and is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

The pertinent message from this edition of the S4B event on Biodiversity is same as the message from the book, The Lorax, that “Unless someone like YOU cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” In this book “You’ signifies the new generation, but it is clear the going forward industries are the ones that will have a care a whole awful lot...and I was glad to see the exemplary work done by Godrej, Mahindra Susten, TCS.

Originally posted by - https://www.treeni.com/

#Biodiversity #Climate Change #Sustainability performance management

[ee-furoido]

So... Jade x Raven DUO magic when?

Ah! I’ve been waiting to write this for a while, and since @raven-at-the-writing-desk mentioned getting a similar ask, I decided to continue her story.

Raven’s Part 1 is here. My story is Part 2!

...But Only One to Let Go

The courtyard was packed with loitering students; some studying, others lounging on the grass. It was a place of solace for most students, to not have to think about the worries of their classes and tests. But not for much longer.

Jade was sitting on a bench in the center of the courtyard, a notebook and pencil in hand. He was sketching the flora of the courtyard, although his eyes were not on the page. While his hand moved effortlessly across the paper, his gaze lingered on the students. Every once in a while, he would scribble a note to the side of the latest thing he had drawn.

Perhaps another interesting note to tuck away for future use. No wonder there was a wide berth around his bench.

“J-Jade Leech!”

An almost eerie silence fell over the courtyard as the loud chirp rang out. A petite girl with long, black pigtails stomped up to the Octavinelle vice dorm leader. Jade’s gaze shifted to her, placing his pencil between the pages of his book and closing it shut. His narrowed eyes took in her flustered cheeks and clenched fists. A piece of black paper seemed to be crumpled up in her hand.

“Oya, oya, Miss Raven.” He said, pulling his features into a polite smile. The same conciliatory mask he was so used to slipping effortlessly over his more piercing and inquisitorial stares. 

Even within the courtyard's silence, the other students felt a rush of relief. His attention had turned to her. But even then, they watched with bated breath.

“How may I be of assistance today? I was not expecting you to come to me of your own accord like this.”

Jade shifted to one side of the bench and patted the seat next to him. An otherwise kind gesture, but that would entail getting even closer to him. Raven shook her head. She was fine where she was, shouting at him from 10 feet away.

“I assume you received the grade from our midterm exam as well.” Raven huffed, waving the scrunched up paper in her hands before crossing her arms. “I can’t say I’m pleased, and I’m quite certain you’re not either.”

Jade’s smile slipped for only a moment before he gathered it back up. He cocked his head to the side, his thin-lipped smile curling up even further. “Who knows?” 

“Wha- what does that mean?!” Raven sputtered. “You’re saying you’re fine with the C that Professor Crewel gave us!? I for one will not stand for it.”

She pointed at him with a steady finger. “We’re going to retake this test and if that means I have to force you to….. I- I will!”

With a light chuckle, Jade stood up, brushing eraser debris from his uniform as he did so. In only two steps, he was looming over the young Crowley, a wide grin showing off his dagger-like teeth. “Fufu, perhaps you should calm down, Miss Raven. If you continue on your little rampage, you may bite your tongue.”

“Calm d-”

Although she was already flustered, Raven’s face turned a brighter shade of red, one mixed with both anger and embarrassment. She clenched her teeth, trying to stop herself from striking his chest with her fists. ‘Can’t let him win.’

Jade let out another chuckle, amused by Raven’s resistance.

“Since you require a partner for this portion of the exam,” he said, curling his knuckles under his chin, “I suppose I cannot say no. Ah, I sincerely cannot leave a helpless creature in need.”

Much like the start of their most recent partnership, Jade extended a hand towards the bird, a literal offering of his help. “I’m sure you’ll be able to return the favor someday. Shall we adjourn to the training field?”

In a moment of deja vu, Raven’s eyes focused on his black gloves. How snugly it fit around his fingers, how cool it was to the touch when she had grasped it last. She wanted to forget her frustrations and take it once more.

With a deep intake of breath, Raven gave a pout, crossing her arms once more. She would hold her ground, not get lulled in by this siren. “... Yes, we shall. But as equals.” She spat his own words from the examination back at him. “There won’t be any favors or pay for this.”

Jade chuckled as Raven turned on her heel and promptly headed towards the gymnasium.

“As you wish.” He breathed to himself as he followed her.

The courtyard quickly filled with the buzzing of muted conversation after they left. The witnesses left behind whispered to each other about the scene that had played out. It wasn’t often that Jade Leech himself was at the center of potential gossip, after all. 

Raven found herself waiting at the training field alone.

“I’ll only be a moment late.” Jade had said. “There is something I must retrieve first.”

A moment had turned into 20 minutes, then almost an hour. Raven did her best to hold back tears of frustration. She felt foolish, thinking he would be there without question, to care for his grade just as much as she did.

Of course he wiggled out of this when he could, the slippery little eel. ‘I did not shake on it, so he didn’t deem it necessary to actually show up.’ Raven’s thoughts steamed as she kicked her sportswear sneakers. ‘That uncultured, underhanded, untruthful…. slimy-’

“My apologies for the tardiness,” Jade’s voice rang out. While she had been simmering in her own thoughts, he had arrived. And he seemed to carry a large silver orb about the size of a basketball. He had also taken the time to change into his athletic uniform, his usually buttoned up attire replaced by a long sleeve shirt and a half-way zipped up tracksuit.

Raven tore her eyes away from his exposed collarbone to the thing in his hands.

“Where have you been and… wh-what’s that?”

The mer-eel chuckled, tapping a few buttons on the orb before responding. The silver surface started to flicker blue and Raven could hear a light whirr as it powered up.

“A new artifact from the students of Ignihyde.” He explained. “Ever since their successful projection mapping during Halloween, there's been talks on other possible uses of the technology.”

“It came to my attention about a month ago that a few of them were working on what they called a Battle Application Droid. I had no need of it then, so I merely put that piece of information to the side at the time.”

“It took a bit of convincing to retrieve this from the Ignihyde students who have been completing the prototype, but in the end they knew what was good for them, fufu.” Jade’s chuckle was remorseless, only filled with amusement.

Raven almost thought to ask who the poor mob was that had found himself under Jade’s thumb, but thought better of it. Jade would most likely not give a straight answer, anyway.

“... So how does it work, then?”

“Essentially, we should be able to engage in a mock battle with holographic enemies.” He turns his attention back to the ball and inputs more on the keypad. “Ignihyde has access to the cameras of the school since they help maintain security. They also manage the servers where we upload all the videos from Dorm Leader battles and exams. Based on their algorithms, it should give us a randomized battle.”

Satisfied with the scenario he set into the orb, Jade hit the largest button on the side and rolled it out into the field.

“W-wait! Why’d you just-”

“We may need to stand back, Miss Raven.”

Jade threw an arm out in front of the bird and pulled her back a few feet. His hand clutched at his magical pen in his dominant hand. Seeing him prepare, Raven grasped her magical quill as tight as she could.

There was nothing else she could do at this point. No time to prepare, no time to back out.

The ball beeped a countdown in the middle of the field before erupting in a wave of blue light, sending a bright blue shock wave through the partners.

“Kh-” Raven flinched with grit teeth, using Jade's arm to shield her eyes from the light. She gripped onto his sleeve until it dimmed, and only then did she chance a look at their surroundings.

Her beak dropped open. They were in the coliseum. 

'Well, no, of course we aren't.' There was a light blue haze over what should be the stone slabs of the arena, as well as moments of static. But otherwise, it was an almost flawless holographic replica of the coliseum.

Ignihyde’s projection mapping had grown, no longer needing physical objects to display images. 3D holographic projection had arrived.

“Be prepared.”

Jade’s voice seemed so far away to Raven in that moment, but it snapped her back to reality. Facing them from across the field were two faceless students, magical pens raised.

“... Th-they cannot actually hit us, right?” Raven’s voice twittered from behind Jade’s arm. 

“Perhaps, perhaps not.” Jade said. “If you would like to stay standing there and test that, Miss Raven, then be my guest. However, I would prefer to come out of this unscathed and am unwilling to experiment, fufufu.”

“Wha- You-”

A light chortle before Jade quickly pushed Raven away to the side as he jumped in the opposite direction. Right where they had been standing only a second prior, a pillar of blue fire erupted. The flames crackled as it burned up the sweet digital oxygen. 

Despite the close call, neither felt the heat. The simulation really was only an artificial emulation, after all.

“Seems like this should be quite easy to defeat.” Jade’s eyes glinted, the Ignihyde blue of the digital landscape dancing off of his olive and gold irises. “Especially knowing it cannot harm us.”

“We need to think like it can harm us, Jade…!” Raven squawked out from where she had tumbled onto the ground. “Otherwise, what is the purpose of this training?”

“I do believe it is for you to get a better grade, is it not?”

“YOU-”

Raven caught herself. There she went, falling into his rhythm, ready to bite back at the merest provocation. Professor Crewel’s words rang in her ear again.

“Your coordination could use much improvement. You were yapping at one another for almost the entirety of the battle.”

He wasn’t wrong then, and even now she could see them falling into the same pattern. Her fingers gripped her quill even tighter. What was it about him that caused her to act this way?

…

“Miss Raven!”

She had pulled her attention away from the scenario for only a second, but that was all it took for the simulated opponents to take advantage. A large ball of water was hurtling towards her—

—and was intercepted by a column of real leaves and wind, slamming down to the ground like a wall, just in time for the digital water to hit it and disintegrate.

“Fascinating.” Jade muttered, racing over to where Raven was pushing herself off of the ground. “For our physical magic to be able to intercept the holograms… Fufufu, this is much more technologically advanced than I expected.”

He glanced down at the smaller student, flashing a mocking grin. “Eyes open, my dear. I won’t always be there to save you.”

He turned his attention back towards the virtual opponents.

“Now is the time for our counter-attack.”

It didn’t take long for the two of them to find a rhythm, to defeat wave after wave of artificial enemies. Although smart and biting quips were still thrown out from time to time, their wordless communication was their impenetrable defense—whenever one was targeted by an enemy, the other was on hand to assist. While one prepared their stronger physical attacks, the other parried incoming attacks.

Seamless unity.

The sun had started to set on Night Raven College, and the two were almost out of breath. Six waves of faceless blue students they had fought, and it was taking a toll on both of them. Their uniforms were a mess with dirt and grass stains, the crystals of their pens were both getting cloudy.

This was the last round dictated by the orb.

This last enemy was relentless, its speed faster than the others. Almost before either could react, it would send fireball after fireball downrange, keeping both Raven and Jade on their toes.

“Tch!” Jade growled, jumping out of the way of yet another blue ball of flame. “Relentless…”

He paused to catch his breath, gripping his pen. “Miss Raven, we need to settle this quickly, we should—”

“Watch out!” Raven shouted, pulling Jade towards her and onto the ground. A blue swirl of leaves from the other AI barely grazed the top of their heads.

A moment as they realize the position they were in. Jade had fallen, propped up on his hands, hovering over her. Half a heartbeat passed—

Jade rolled onto his back, panting and holding back a chuckle. Raven shook her head, trying to will away her fluster. Now was not the time to be thinking of how close that was.

“Eyes open, I won’t always be there to save you.” She shot at him, the same words he had mocked her with before.

Jade sat up and eyed the two opponents on the other side of the field, warily. From the looks of it, the two mobs were preparing a powerful spell, a duo…

He pushed himself off of the ground and reached his left hand out for Raven. With another light and exhausted laugh, he spoke.

“I’m pleased to know that you have my back when I require it, Miss Raven.”

A warm sensation emanated from Jade’s hand, one that Raven could not describe offhand. But it compelled her to take his offered hand this time, a static of magic crackling as the two of them touch. Another wave of blush scrawled across her cheeks. She gripped the quill in her other hand.

“Sh-shut up, Jade, I’m only doing this because I have to.” Her temperamental defense mechanism rising once more. 

Jade would have let another laugh escape him, but as the two of them connected by both touch and words, he could feel a second wind surge through him. In almost an instant, his exhaustion melted away. 

His heartbeat grew louder every second, and he could sense the magic radiating from his core to his pen.

His gaze fell on the artificial students.

‘Give no quarter.’

An immense pillar of water crashed down where the opponents had stood. Despite their distance, the water from the attack splashed all the way back to the two weary students. Jade gritted his teeth with determination.

The second strike materialized three large pillars of water dropping the AI to the ground, their magic concentration lost.

Jade’s eyes glittered with malicious glee as he swung his magical pen a third time, covering the other half of the field in a destructive wave of water. The digital enemies flickered under the pressure and disappeared—

—Quickly followed by the rest of the projection. The simulation was over.

“Well,” Jade said, wiping the sweat and dirt on his brow with his equally dirty sleeve. “I suppose this is a day well practiced.”

Raven nodded, letting out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding during his ultimate attack. “Yes…”

…

“Jade…?”

“Yes, Miss Raven?”

“... Y-you can let go of my hand now.”

“Fufufu, of course, as you wish.”

Jade untangled his fingers from hers and gave a light, polite bow. He made his way to the center of the field to pick up the prototype B.A.D., wiping off the battle residue with his shirt. 

Raven stared off after him, proud of the difference their day of practice made. 

They would be ready for the makeup exam. No doubt about it.

#Jeido responds #Jeido writes #Mob ask #raven-at-the-writing-desk #Twisted Wonderland #twst #Jade Leech #twst Jade

[border-spam]

Leech Lord - Monster

Troy designed it as part of the aesthetic changes he made to himself over the first year that they began to grow their following, trying to find his place in this new set of identities they had crafted. The piercings were first, then the arm and back tats, then the chest piece, and Calypso last. The maw was different, it came years after. 

Does the skull have deep meaning to him? No. He'd say no anyway.

Like almost everything he creates, it's rooted in parts of his psyche that he finds uncomfortable.

If you were to keep pushing him to explain why he'd designed a horned skag mouthed monster to ink across his heart. then he'd start getting defensive pretty quick, he'd go weird, he'd go snappy, because at the end of the day he doesn't LIKE to think about his own decisions too deeply. It's rarely a happy outcome and he usually regrets trying to delve into his own warped logic too far.

What is it exactly?

It's a lot of things. A lot of feelings, fears he came across early on Pandora.

Skags eat each other, you know. Cannibals. The most powerful leads the pack and consumes the runts. Family, siblings, doesn't matter to them. Nature isn't cruel, it just doesn't care - and he'd taken quite a while to not squirm internally when Skags would race alongside the technical he was being driven in, or he'd hear them howling through the night dunes in that choking, stomach turning choir...

He still sees skulls outlined in the shape of the masks the Bandits around him wear. Genuinely believed that was what they were meant to be - death masks - for the first few months planetside, because everything represented death here. The fauna, what remained of the flora, the fucking buildings were half organically shunted out of the skeletons of things long gone and too monstrous for him to fathom. Nekrotafeyo had no Megafauna and those things, those husked bone skulls the size of a cathedral gave him nightmares for a long time.

The tattoo is all of that really. Pandora.

Inking it into his skin was a way of trying to be part of a world he knows he's anything but.

He’s never really understood this place, it's all an act, it's all a costume. Even years later he feels isolated and confused most of the time, a complete outlier in a reality that the people around him seem to take to so easily, that they get while he struggles to not drown in. The tattoos are just part of that disguise, really. If he covers himself in effigies of what he thinks Pandora is, what Bandits are, if he styles himself to be as cruel and harsh as the land he's trying to survive on, maybe he can trick it into accepting him.

I mean it worked on their followers... right?

Seifa's take on it was as part of his "costume". She's seen that kinda thing plenty, knows all about dressing in character and slipping into practiced confidence and speech mannerisms, played lots of roles when needed throughout her life, and it's an old trick. It's been around a lonnnnng time.

All of it together: the godawful hair, the tattoos, the tryhard makeup he really wasn't pulling off well but was acting like he did, she'd seen all that shit before in different fabrics and styles. A person wearing the shell of another one they'd designed to fit a niche - and he was pretty good at it! That was the surprising part.

When she took the offer and touched down on Pandoran dust for the first time in a year since leaving them with a deposit on a tiny studio in that off road port village, he almost had her fooled.

So loud, so over the top, all quick wide gesturing and bravado. Practiced cocky accent, practiced movements, practiced way of standing... if she didn't know this guy she'd had said he was an arrogant piece of shit who thought he was God's gift to mankind... but Sei did know him. Still Troy, still lost and a bit confused and so happy to see her. Still excited to show her everything he and Tyreen had worked on since she'd said goodbye to them both, still nearly tripping over himself to tail behind her eagerly as she walked towards the rumbling escort of COV branded vehicals, yapping gleefully through that hiccuping stutter like a giant, stretched out puppy.

Everything about him visually was part of that façade. This character he'd made for himself was an asshole but a fucking entertaining one, and she never put more thought into the designs he'd covered himself in than being impressed. They were decent. The centerpiece was nice, and he'd beamed with pride as he explained he'd done it himself.

She never thought it looked grotesque, the skull. It filled out his skinny little chest and decorated his bones in a way that complimented them.

But as the years went on and he started obsessing over his build, it warped somehow. She wasn't as comfortable seeing it, something different in the way it sneered from bulging planes of hard muscle compared to how she recalled what it used to look like. It had been part of a costume back then, but it was part of Troy now.

It's still beautiful, but it's not what it used to be, decayed somehow. Gone wrong.

She doesn't put that much thought into it though, I mean, it's just a pattern, and that shiver when she thinks about its echo in the sigil tattooed across her back is just all in her head.

Asks are open!

#borderlands #borderlands 3 #bl3 #troy calypso #calypso twins #leech lord #seifa #my hcs #my writing