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itsscromp · 4 months

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Peter and Miles with a reader who sets up a Christmas for them after the whole symbiote incident? For them to like de-stress and just have fun!

Peter Parker and Miles Morales x reader

Before I start this story, I want to give my thoughts to the insomniac team who unfortunately suffered a data breach and a whole bunch of Wolverine stuff and personal info got leaked. Insomniac don't let these hackers stop you. Take all the damn time that you need, So this story shall also be dedicated to them. Word Count:1K

The first few months since the symbiote incident were physically and emotionally draining for everyone. You and Miles were busy killing off the remainder of the symbiote nests while Peter was busy rebuilding EMF. The three of you were just exhausted from everything.

One night out on patrol to get the last symbiote nests in the area, you noticed it was starting to get chillier than normal. Landing on a nearby street lamp, You noticed that it was starting to snow. "What the ??" You pulled your phone out and found out... It was December 23rd. "Oh shit" Jesus time flies fast when you're dealing with everything that has happened.

Sitting there you thought if Christmas was just around the corner, you decided to celebrate it with the two. Maybe this will help them de-stress and help them smile again. Opening the group chat you then started to text them.

"Hey guys, Any plans tomorrow ??"

"Just about to finish the latest prototype for EMF" Peter responded.

"Ma is helping F.E.A.S.T, so I'm pretty much free" Miles texted back next.

"Ok, so I only just found out about this, Christmas is in two days. So I thought maybe we could do like a dinner and all that" You smiled at the thought of this.

"Wait, It's Christmas ??" Miles responded rather quickly. Peter only responded using the mind-blown emojis.

"So I guess... You guys are both in ??"

They both reacted to the message with thumbs-up emojis, You smiled under the mask. Swinging back to your apartment to prepare for their stay. Fixing out their guest beds and giving the place a quick clean. Now the biggest worry was Christmas presents, You had to figure out what to get them. So grabbing your coat you went out and window-shopped for a little while. Finding something for Miles instantly, He was always ranting about the new video game that he saw about a month ago. Peter was a little tricky cause usually the stuff he talks about have been quickly sold out. But when passing a pawn shop, You found something in the window...

"Oh my gosh... Spider-Plushie... This must be the test one they gave to Peter..." You rushed inside without thinking and bought it.

Now the gifts were done, while also grabbing a few ones that they may like to. You headed back home and hid them for now.

The next day, you decorated the apartment with tinsel and other wall hangings, soon hearing a knock on the door, revealing to be none other than the two.

"You guys !!" You smiled widely and hugged the two. They gratefully returned the hug back.

"Merry Christmas y/n" Peter said softly, ruffling your head.

"Feliz Navidad" (Merry Christmas) Miles smiled as he entered the apartment. "Man, you went all out huh ??" He turned to you.

"Yeah I might have went a little overboard, but I wanted to save the tree for when you guys got here"

"Well then let's not waste any more time" Peter was eager to decorate the tree. Tree decorating was his favourite Christmas activity. So you got the tree and decorations out, But no tree decorating was complete without music. So pressing play on rocking around the Christmas tree, you all got to work.

It was a fun time, just simply relaxing after everything that had happened. Filled with smiles and giggles, Spending Christmas with your best friends was something that you all needed.

Then came the baking of Christmas cookies and Choc peppermint fudge. As the three of you were making the desserts, Peter grew mischievous and dabbed dough onto your nose. "Wha.. hey !!!" You laughed. "What, I didn't do anything" He smirked as he smeared some on Miles' cheek. "Come on Pete !!" He chuckled as well "You both can't prove anything" And then it turned into a light mini food fight.

Soon after, It was dinner time, Now you didn't have time to rush out for ham and such so the best you could do... Christmas grilled cheeses, They weren't complaining though, you all would've done this over a huge dinner. After a fun-filled night, the two trio headed off to bed.

The following morning, Christmas morning, you woke up to feel a pair of arms wrapped around you. Opening your eyes to find it was Peter... softly sleeping... cuddling you. It looked like he really needed something like this. So you snuggled up to him, both of you getting a much-needed sleep in.

After what feels like an hour AKA 20 minutes, Miles then snuck in and flopped on top of you two. "Guys come on it's Christmas !!!" He smiled brightly like any child would on Christmas day.

You chuckled "Alright alright come on" You tried to get up but Peter wanted to stay for at least another ten minutes, gripping you against him a little tighter softly mumbling. "Peter come on" You tried to squirm out but he only gripped harder, Let him have his cuddles y/n !!

"Miles were gonna be here for a while so I guess try and get a little comfortable" You chuckled as you snuggled up to Peter again. Miles sighed and stayed on top of you both, relishing in sharing the cuddles with you both.

After a few minutes, Peter was now officially ready to get up and the three of you headed to the tree. You started to hand their presents. Peter was the first, Shaking the box slightly and soon opening it.

"SPIDER-PLUSHY !!!!. I can't believe you found this y/n" He smiled up at you.

"I have my moments" You smiled as Miles opened his gift next " Yo !! Lies of P !!!" He smiled brightly.

"Last copy too, so thank god I got their on time" You chuckled.

Then Peter pulled out your gift. This one was from both of them. It looked relatively large, Opening it... Inside was a brand spanking new suit... One that looked like Peters's old suit.

"You always complimented my suit... So we figured we decided to get you your own version of it." peter said as he saw the wonder in your eyes.

You put the suit back and hugged them both tightly, They were too much. But they were your too much. This was easily the best Christmas you guys ever had.

Taglist: @callofdudes @fun-k-board

#platonic #reader insert #insomniac games #peter parker #peter parker x reader #insomniac games peter parker #spider-man x reader #insomniac games Miles morales #Miles morales #Miles morales x reader

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foryouthegays · 3 years

Text

spreading propaganda [Dream SMP] liveblog yall lets go. this is so long i am sorry but the end is an actual summary of what happens asldkfa

sellout timer pog: 00:30:20, 01:00:40, 01:31:35, 02:02:03 (for like a second), 02:03:00, 02:34:35

time spent reading donations: 10 minutes, 20ish seconds.

fanart credit he puts up (all from twitter i think): snumkt, reinneart, lihnsu, sestqr, jester_u, Brigade_Lost, natonyy

also taggin @antarctic-empire-technoblade :) theres an actual summary at the end that isnt just me ramblin so,,,,,,ye. i am so sorry its so long a;dkfja i dont know how to condense things

00:00:35 “i stole a lot of sand recently,” ah yes, a casual conversation starter, the admission of theft

00:03:55 hE HAS A VILLAGER TRADING HALL CHAPEL IN THE VILLAGE SIR THAT IS ILLEGAL

00:04:13

tubbo: -..--...---

ranboo: that means beans right

no, ranboo, not it does not (i put it into a translator and it just. it doesnt mean anything. i didnt see any spaces so im just. what was mr tubbo trying to say

00:04:35: relationship advice with technoblade! [reading donation] “‘techno, my boyfriend said he’ll never sub to you, how do i handle this travesty?’ uh, clearly you need to break up with him, and send me more money, is the most- that’s the most unbiased opinion I can give you, it’s just a good life decision, alright? It’s just a good life decision.”

00:16:00 ranboo hi!!!! him garden :D

HOUND ARMY HOUND ARMY 00:18:10

00:20:15 ‘i have not made a tier list [for dinosaurs] yet’ Y E T? ? ? ?? ?

00:20:55

“‘Hey, are you uncomfortable with being part of the SBI family dynamic?’ Uh, I don’t really- it’s not a matter of being uncomfortable, it’s just a matter of people making massive revisions to my character and the lore three months into the story without telling me, and it’s like, ‘no, that doesn’t- the story doesn’t- so many things don’t make sense now! What?? What???’ but if you want to make like, fanart of it, it’s fine”

00:21:25 imagine believing in airplanes, couldnt be me

00:21:35 SKLDJFAK a dono is like, hey can u call my new cousin a nerd, and technos like [claps] yOUVE COME TO THE RIGHT MAN im all about bullying infant children

lakjshdfl 00:26:15 ‘philza this does not sound lore at all please’ poor techno

00:27:30 HKJSFDL :crab: TUBBO IS GONE :crab: also i cant tell if techno says ‘KILL HIM DEAD’ or ‘KILL HIM, DAD’

00:30:20 ‘we should have a grinch episode, where i go around stealing presents from l’manburg’ DO IT

also i was in chat at 00:31:25ish and i said ‘subscribe to technoblade’ and RIGHT AFTER techno said ‘did i hear subscribe to technoblade?’ and i felt so heard

00:33:25 why is his only response to being seen in enemy lines to just stay realllyyyyy still a;lkdfjasf

00:39:45 ‘this is crucial information coming to you live from anarchy news’ A;LSDKFJA;LSDF

00:46:25 :CRAB: RANBOO IS GONE :CRAB: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

alkdfja; 00:47:55 techno talks (sarcastically) abt how great it is when chat tells him where his stuff is

00:48:50 awww techno showin his not-dad his hound army!!! so cute

00:55:30 techno specifies that theyre all characters/roleplayin!!!

techno talkin to phil is literally like a kid talkin to his dad after not seein him for a while. like yeah yeah family isnt canon in this but KSJDFLA hes like ‘phillll tommys being annoying also look at this new poster!!!!’ its so cute

01:09:20 A;SDJFADSL THE VILLAGER JUST. FALLS THROUGH THE FLOOR

techno nd phil reference smp earth at 01:19:50!!!!

(ik some people dont like enbyctechno so heres ur warnin, its just for this line tho) techno says ‘no one man should have this power’ but he HAS that power. therefore. mr c!blade is not a guy 01:35:00ish idk im not goin back to check

01:38:35 alright gang lets split up and look for clues

01:45:20 ‘my chat’s sayin theres a 0% chance this is gonna work,,,,thATS A CHANCE I’M WILLING TO TAKE, CHAT’ skjdflasl;dfjaf (also, bit after, after readin the wiki say its 0% chance: ‘i like those odds’)

01:48:15 [abt the zombie villager baby]

Techno: on the bright side, we may have inflicted the optimal amount of trauma onto this child for it to become funny?

Ranboo: ooooh yeah! it can become a minecraft youtuber!

techno: yeeeeeeah!!

pls get some therapy

a;ldkfassa the mental image of techno ownin an orphanage,,,,paldkfajslfasf 01:51:35

a;ldsifjasdklf ranboo is canonically a villager now, pog 01:56:50

01:57:50 ranboo: ‘they say that im built different, i am built different, in the fact that i have no moral backbone.’

01:58:30 BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD also why is techno so good at the bow like WHAT he looks in third person and turns nd shoots in like a second and hits most of the time its scary literally look at ranboo a;ldsjkfadsf hes like a porcupine

ASKLJDFASLDF RANBOOS ‘OH NO HE KNOWS HOW TO OPEN DOORS’ AT 02:02:25 JUST HAS SUCH TECHNO SKYBLOCK VID VIBES ADLKJFALSDFJA OH MY GOSH

02:06:35 “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” "no thats just how we greet each other in our country” nether lore pog?

02:08:45 why does techno casually type at 120 wpm????? god i hate him so much why is he like thisssss ugh (also it took ~3 seconds to type 7 words (34 characters) which is 140 wpm and 680 cpm if i know how to do math i hate it here) /lh

nd then he types ‘punz we’re all outside your house get over here’ which is 47 characters nd 9 words nd it took him 5 seconds to type which is 564 cpm and 108 wpm so his average (from these two samples which. isnt a lot. should i do a post abt this in the future?) is 124 wpm and 622 cpm. hes so fast.

SDA;FKJASDF PHIL WHY R U SO VIOLENT

02:17:00 PUNZ POG ALSO MANIFOLD KILLED IN THE HOLY LAND

technos complainin bout the fights bein boring,,,,,,,fight them all, techno. do it. 1v8. do it, coward.

02:24:02 ‘maybe the real combat was the friends we made along the way’

02:25:16 i love that technos first instinct when someone dies is to check what sword/axe killed them nd what enchants r on it aldskfjads

i love how techno calls the manhunt music ‘dream music’ its so funny to me

right before he ends the stream he says ‘p e r h a p s’ to techno plushies and i just,,,, wa n t

if ya just want an actual summary and not that MESS:

Technoblade starts the stream in his house. the first thing he does is put another piece of fanart in his house, this one by snumkt on twitter. he goes to l’manburg, where he sneaks around very sneakily (/s) and replaces anti-techno propaganda with pro-techno fanart, stating that “If they take it down, it’s ‘cause they hate fanartists.” (00:09:18).

While placing posters, Techno checks in on his hound army, and reveals that he thinks someone had been in the area, because a wolf teleported to him while he was home. He thinks someone placed water, the dog stood up, and then teleported. (00:18:25)

After breeding the dogs, Techno reads donations and one of the questions is about the SBI family dynamics. Here’s what he says at 00:20:55

He then meets up with Philza, who is being escorted by Tubbo. Techno goes to Philzas house, and hides in his new basement. He joins their VC and finds Phil, Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo. talking about birthdays. Tubbo goes to the basement and sees Technos invis particles, hits him, and he is revealed. Techno kills tubbo, and declares it canon as a joke.

He goes back outside, deafened on Discord, and puts down more propaganda. Philza joins his call, and they meet up to try and find Technos stolen items. They don’t find the barrel, but they do find a hidden room under the podium. Techno puts a piece of propaganda in the room. (00:43:30)

While Phil is killing an enderman, Ranboo finds them, and is killed by Techno. (00:46:25)

Techno takes Phil to see his Hound Army, but they’re stopped by Tubbo. Techno tries to pretend to be Ranboo, but Ranboo goes up to them, so his cover is blown. Techno’s chased to the portal. Phil and Techno meet again in the Nether, and they go back to the house.

At the house, Phil and Techno talk about the SBI characters, the sellout timer goes off, and then they go downstairs to cure a zombie villager. While it’s curing, Techno gathers books to make a new bow, with Power V, Punch II, Unbreaking III, Flame, and Mending.

Philza reveals that Ranboo is coming over to give Phil a present. Techno seems excited at this, mostly at the fact that Ranboo can be his new bows test subject.

Before Ranboo arrives, the villager is cured, and they find out it is a nitwit, meaning it can’t trade or get a job. Techno and Phil start working on a tunnel to bring the villager to a lava pool, so the other villagers won’t gossip and raise their prices.

Ranboo joins the call at 01:15:35, right before they’re going to bring the villager to the lava pool. He gifts Techno and Phil four Netherite ingots.

After struggling to get the villager to the right height, Techno forces Ranboo to boat the villager into the lava. Ranboo escapes by throwing a pearl, and the villager dies.

Ranboo, Techno, and Phil talk about duping Netherite, and the current plot, and then Techno finds a zombie baby villager. It’s caught in a boat, and Techno nametags it ‘Orphan.’ They talk about the cobblestone tower, Philzas’ death to a baby zombie, and how if you don’t see a child's parents, you should assume that they are an orphan and attack them.

Techno talks to Jack Manifold through chat about his axe. Techno, Philza, and Ranboo go around and look for zombie villagers. Techno finds an igloo, with two villagers. Techno was going to try and turn them into zombie villagers, but decides to not when he finds out that theres a 0% chance of that happening on Easy mode.

They all go back to Orphan, and bully it when they find out it still hasn’t grown up. Techno and Ranboo make a joke about how it’s traumatized, so it’ll be funny and can be come a minecraft youtuber. please get some help. (01:48:15)

After Orphan grows up, Techno trades and gets the Bottle of Enchanting trade for one emerald. They all joke about Techno owning an orphanage at 01:51:35.

Phil, Techno, and Ranboo decide go to the Hound Army, but Techno remembers that Ranboo is part of L’manburg, and tries to kill him (with his new bow) when they enter the nether. He doesn’t succeed, and he continues fighting until he drinks and invis pot on the Prime Path. Techno and Phil meet up in the Bee Dome, where Ranboo finds them. Techno tries to kill him, but runs out of arrows.

After reading donations, Techno, Ranboo, and Phil are back together at the Bee Dome, and they decide to team up in case someone finds them. They go outside of the Dome, and chase Jack Manifold out of his own country.

Manifold joins the VC, and they try to blame Punz on his attempted murder. After Manifold says “i feel there has been an attempt on my life,” Techno says that that’s how he greets people in his country.

Manifold asks if they want to help him get revenge on Punz, and Techno agrees. They gather more people, and by the time they get to Punz’s tower, their party is Manifold, Techno, Phil, Ranboo, Fundy, and Antfrost. Punz is in the Nether, so they wait until he gets back.

Ranboo and Techno have a whisper conversation:

Ranboo: are you just going to jump fundy

Techno: no im gonna make jack 1v1 LMAO

Ranboo: good plan

While Fundy is taking a screenshot of Techno for his thumbnail, Philza attacks Fundy with a crossbow and his sword. He claims it was because he was getting bored.

In the same spirit, Techno asks if they could kill Manifold to pass the time. The mob, which now includes Fundy, chases Manifold. He runs to the Holy Land, and the mob boos him. Techno tells Antfrost to kill Manifold, and that the mob won’t tell that he was killed in the Holy Land. Manifold hands Antfrost his sword.

While Antfrost debates killing Manifold or not, the mob chants ‘peer pressure!’ at him. Techno quickly realizes that Antfrost isn’t in the VC, and is extremely confused. The sword gets handed to Fundy, who gets into a battle with Manifold. Philza tells Fundy that he’s forgiven, if he can kill Manifold. The battle calms, and neither of the contestants die.

Techno convinces the mob to go to the pit trap, and tries to lure someone onto the trapped blocks using rotten flesh. Fundy takes the bait, but moves out of the way before the button is pressed. Antfrost sneaks up behind him and punches him into the pit. Fundy survives the fall, but is shot by Manifold to death.

During the commotion, Punz makes his way back to his house, and the mob moves towards him to end his life. Manifold says that he’s going to kill Punz, and Techno says that the mob’ll have his back. He tells the mob to not have Manifold’s back.

at 02:17:00, Punz joins the call, and is confused as to why Manifold wants to kill him. Manifold explains that Punz tried to kill him, siting his source as Technoblade.

also, 2:17:15 technoswear!

Techno encourages Punz, saying “Punz, he actually dropped his sword by accident and now I have it, so it’d be really easy to beat him up,” and “he also just killed in the holy land, so you have a sort of...religious motivation to take him out.”

Punz tries to fight Manifold without armor (Manifold is wearing a full enchanted set of armor, with a Netherite chestplate and everything else Diamond), which fails miserably, and Manifold is killed.

Techno decides to fight Manifold with his goons (the mob) for the audience retention, and Manifold’s quickly killed. The final hit was from CaptainPuffy. Ponk rushes in and grabs some of Manifold’s items. Puffy takes the rest.

Manifold complains about getting bullied, so Techno gives him his sword back and tells him to avenge himself. While looking for Ponk (or Punz? this is kinda unclear), Punz swoops in and kills Manifold in two hits.

Manifold finds Ponk and chases after him, trying to kill him. The mob follows, and Ranboo kills Ponk with thorns. Manifold takes Ponks stuff.

Right after respawning, Ponk was blown up by a creeper, and Techno claimed both as canon.

The mini fights continue, and Manifold is killed by Punz.

Ranboo changes the ‘Days since last war crime’ sign to 0.

Phil tells Techno that he’s going back to the base, and the L’manburgians question him as to what base he’s talking about. Phil tells Fundy that he ripped off his ankle shackles and left. While they talk, Techno starts running back to the base, and Ranboo whispers “lets run back” to him. Ranboo follows Techno, but quickly looses him.

Phil and Techno join a separate VC together and they go back to the base.

At 02:29:15, Phil says “I trust you” to Techno and I am going to cry.

Right before getting to the base, Phil drinks some honey, and Techno says “that’s the only thing we have honey for, now that we’ve uh...uh I guess you don’t know about that.” He’s referring to the Vault, I think, because the redstone required honey to work properly.

Philza responds, “the honey- wait, what did you use the honey for?”

“uhhh....food.” Techno, for some reason, doesn’t want to show Phil the vault.

Ranboo whispers to Techno: “My alliance isnt with lmanburg, its with the people who help me. phil helped me.”

out loud, Techno laughs about it with phil, saying, “well, I’ve stabbed him like twelve times this week, so, I [laughs] I don’t know if that entirely qualifies here.”

Techno messages Ranboo back with “new phone who this”

Ranboo replies, “no one,” and then, “:)”

Going back to the honey talk, Philza asked if Techno had been hiding anything diabolical from him, and Techno asks if he would do such a thing. Philza guesses several things he could use honey for, such as a flying machine, TNT dupers, and a door.

Techno takes him to the vault. 02:32:00. i LOVE peoples reactions to the vault, it’s always so good. Philza responds with a surprised ‘HOLY SHIT’ and some laughing. Techno also confirms my math of 55 withers.

02:34:10 “i’ve seen this government, on the server, and everything to do with government is just bad. I’ve watched it completely destroy and tear down people’s wills and change people, I’ve seen it change the nicest people into complete and utter tyrants, so...I think it’s about time--”

“We need revenge. [sellout timer goes off] and more importantly, we neED SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUTUBE DOT COM” phil joinin anarchy pog?

anyway that was it ;alskdfjas;f

#this ended up bein abt 3000 words whoops #a;ldskfjasldf #technoblade #stream post

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botwstoriesandsuch · 4 years

Note

Do you have any Riju headcanons? Both romantic and general

I honestly don’t have a lot of romantic head canons for Riju, but recently I was doing what I always do, analyzing the crap out of the world. So why not have some

Patricia the Prophet, Riju’s Sand Seal Obsession, and the Most Honorable Job in Gerudo Town

...Headcanons

Warning: Long post, way too much research, and I won’t shut up about business practices, animal fur, and textiles. TL;DR at the end

She is beauty

She is grace

She got a battle scar on her face

Patricia the sand seal, one of the most important members of Gerudo Town, providing guidance as a wise and experienced walrus, moral support in the form of her cute red bow and companionship with Riju, as well as assisting in the plush sand seal business ventures, which we will get into later.

Canonically, Patricia was a gift from Riju’s mother, it would be her first and last gift to her before she died. I see this as the reason why Riju is so obsessed with sand seals, not only because she is a child and loves cute animals, but because it is one of her only links to her mother.

More under the cut:

We can see how clearly Riju loves not just Patricia, but sand seals in general just by looking around town.

Here is her seat at Patricia’s pen (which we will come back to later)

Her room

The booster seat on her throne, along with pillows have sand seals

Her skirt even has a sand seal

Now wait a moment...I think I’ve also seen that logo elsewhere...

Sand seal rental booths, a business that thrives on using domesticated sand seals in order to help people travel swiftly across the desert.

While the existence of sand seal racing might factor into it, it’s still a bit weird that this rental business is able to survive so well even in a time where travel was dangerous and most people just stayed within their city states. Although, I guess is could also be argued that it is a necessity considering Gerudo women must eventually venture out and find husbands, but that’s still a generational, niche market. And consider that there are really only three places that a Gerudo might need to travel to in the desert, the gate way out of the desert, the outpost, and the ice house, with those last two only being accessible by royal guards.

So how is a business being funded so well as to have gold plated signs, and enough space to take up large portions of town? I’ll tell you how, it’s because it’s also being financially assisted by Riju

Hear me out, let’s first look at a map of all of Gerudo Town

The red indicates areas accessible to the immediate public, and the gold being areas accessed only by royal guards/the Chief. The blue is areas associated with sand seals. So not only do sand seals take up a third of the general public market, but they also take of a third of the space within the palace, essentially making up over a third of the space within all of Gerudo Town.

Even leaving out Patricia’s personal pen, businesses can’t just go around taking up that much space without profits to back it up, there’s a ratio that businesses have to account for like “profit for square foot” and even general foot/customer traffic costs massive rent. Buying these areas, much less maintaining them, is gonna cost a pretty rupee.

There’s no way these businesses are surviving all on their own. So that’s why I believe Riju has some influence with these businesses. Now, other than her great love for sand seals, you might ask, “why would she?” I mean sure, everyone loves sand seals, but is she really giving away budget just to fund her hobbies?”

And to that I say, maybe, bUT there is actually a logical conclusion as to why she would do this, as it might not necessarily just be her giving away money, but investing it towards another goal.

Returning to Patricia’s pen, let us observe the gal for a moment.

[Side note: I just find it interesting that Patricia has so many battle scars, interesting considering it is only Riju who rides her. The scars are mostly healed, so it’s fascinating to think about what kind of battle Riju and Patricia encountered even years before Link woke up! I mean, Riju is still only 13 in the game...so she was even younger whenever some event happened with her and Patricia. That’s actually pretty crazy when you think about it]

Anyhow, not only do we see further evidence of Riju’s love for Patricia in the fact that she has a special, royal harness, along with a ruby on her bow, but we see that sand seals have fur.

[In fact sand seals are probably more closely related to walruses, rather than seals, given their tusks and hardened flippers, but walruses still don’t have fur to the same extent. Which is why I’ll be comparing sand seals to desert mammals, cause I doubt they will share much else with their more aquatic counterparts.]

Now fur for desert creatures serve several purposes, whether for climate conditions, protection, and even retaining the loss of water for the body.

At least that’s how it works for another popular, real life, counter part that is also famous for transporting people across the desert, the camel. (Cause they have similar thick fur, along with the same smaller eyes and thick eyelashes, which is similar to the sand seals thick fur on their face) BUT, I’m getting ahead of myself here

Looking further through Patricia’s pen, you will eventually find this room next to the stairs.

In this room there is a lot to unpack, much to me delight because yay! Analysis!

This room

is the key to it all.

Firstly, given the proximity to Patricia’s outdoor pen, along with the special royal harnesses, I’d say this room is specifically meant to tend to her. The room also serves to hold a variety of labeled fruits, including hydromelons and mighty bananas, most likely to feed sand seals.

Then, there is a bath area, again, most likely to tend to Patricia, which has a brush, which can be assumed to be used to brush her fur. In addition there is a spear by a bedside, which most likely just indicates that the guard outside who translates Patricia is also the one who comes into this room.

Finally, and most importantly, there is this desk area, with sewing equipment, and felts, someone was in the process of crafting a sand seal plushie.

A plushie, that is very familiar...

If you take this all in, a picture starts to form.

Riju, a young Gerudo Chief, with an unrivaled love and passion for sand seals, finding interest in areas like sand seal businesses. With her power, wealth, and authority, she allows for large sections to be set aside for sand seal rentals, as well and helping to financially fund them, going so far as to even wear a logo on her skirt, or perhaps the businesses took on the logo in honor of her.

With sand seal rentals thriving, Riju also turns her attention to plushies, pillows, and blankets. Already knowledgeable on sand seal fur, she might use her new found access to several domesticated sand seals in order to commission these items. Notice how Riju is the only one in all of Gerudo Town, nay, all of Hyrule that has any of these special sand seal stuffed animals, blankets, and pillows. All of these, made with sand seal shed fur.

Which, as we previously established, has very similar properties to camel fur/hair! So their shedding rate, consistency, and usage must also be similar which is important because there are already camels being kept for the purposes of their fur in real life.

And before you tell me something like “sand seal fur and/or camel fur wouldn’t make for good textiles” let me side track turn your attention to my research regarding that.

Time wise, this is a very reasonable rate for which sand seals could shed in order to hash out the several products that Riju owns.

Sand seal fur is the only logical way the Gerudo could even craft textiles, as unlike real countries like Egypt or India, there is no cotton plant (and also no British imperialism forcing people to go through the laborious task of harvesting cotton) or alternative plant in order to produce anything else of the sort.

Before you tell me that the Gerudo trade for such materials, first, this is still post-Calamity so it would be impossible to rely soley on imports while Hyrule is still in such an uncertain state and most city states are more isolated. Secondly, Gerudo specialize in exports, with all their fruits, meats, arrows, and such. Travelers typically come to then to trade, not the other way around.

And on top of that, after pouring through several articles online on stuffed animal manufacturing for a few hours, I came across this Guide to Textiles which included several sections on felts, inner lining, stitches, and stuffing

And amoung the pages, I found sEVERAL mentions of camel fur and hair, proving that it if camels can, then sand seal fur can be used for the purposes of stuffed animals

So yeah, sand seal fur is collected in order to make sand seal items. Patricia in particular, given special care, perhaps because we already know she is unique to the other seals so her fur might be more exceptional. We all know the secret ingredient to anything is love. So Patricia even has a special handeler who takes care of her, translates, and uses her fur to custom make sand seal plushies all in that same, preciously mentioned room

(Who might I add, is one of the only people capable of translating the sand seal language, has the honor of living alongside the Chief’s treasured pet who is one of the only links to her mother, as WELL as helping to take Patricia’s fur to craft custom made sand seal plushies for Riju herself? Perhaps only rivaled by Bularia, this guard has one of the most important jobs in the palace and probably gets paid accordingly since Riju values her so much.)

TL;DR, Riju has cornered the sand seal fur market with her power and money, helping the rental business to keep afloat, in order to get access to custom made sand seal fur items, all derived of a love from sand seals that she got from her mother.

In conclusion, Nintendo, I would like my pay check now.

#botw #breath of the wild #legend of zelda botw #loz botw #botw headcanons #riju #Chief Riju #riju botw #sand seal #sand seal botw #patricia botw #patricia the sand seal

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craostulpa · 5 years

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Day 2317: Adventure!

So, I have to admit that I might have lied to you. Well, I definitely lied to you. And I can’t really give the story I’m about to tell justice without revealing it, so here we are. I actually have another tulpa called Fen, she’s very very shy (because apparently that’s a checkbox that every system has to fill), and because of this she didn’t really want me to talk about her on the blog so I’m going to skip over her as much as possible when I can. But in this one instance, I need to talk about her.

Fen is a selkie, which if you’re not aware is a type of creature from Scottish mythology that is a seal in the water but transforms into a human on land and carries their seal coats around. There’s more to those actual myths that I don’t particularly want to get into because there are definitely some dark themes there, but that’s the gist.

So, Fen obviously loves the ocean. And over the past 4 days, we have gone on a road trip with a friend around the northern coasts of Scotland, the North Coast 500 to be exact, so you can see where this links. There’s lots of ocean and plenty of pretty lochs along the way, and the north coast is also where the legends of selkies seem to originate.

We started off from Inverness at 11am and immediately realised how many other tourists were coming along with us, despite our decision to do the 500 backwards in a hope to not get stuck in a convoy along the way. This was probably a stupid idea since it meant that we’d be going head-on with Germans and Italians in massive RV’s on single-track roads, as we’d find out on the second day. On the first night, we camped on the banks of Loch Brora, a little ways off the main 500 route, and managed to set up just in the treeline with a beautiful view of the loch. Of course, camping in the highlands near water is a bad idea because midges exist, but overall it wasn’t so bad. First night in a new tent wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, to be honest, although it did rain rather heavily which woke us up.

The second day was full of activity. We drove up to Wick, where Axelia and Faith decided that we needed an extra blanket in the tent, and so we bought a very very fluffy blanket from a B&M store. The next stop was Tesco to grab some snacks and hopefully a camping grill that worked properly (they didn’t sell any, and Argos was out of stock).

After the brief shopping trip, we headed up to John O’Groats to do the traditional tourist thing of taking a picture of the signpost at the most northerly point in mainland Britain. There was also a gift shop here, which sold all sorts of touristy crap about Scotland (which I don’t really need since I actually live here so I honestly just wanted to leave), and also some plushies. There was a plush seal, and Fen immediately latched onto it, so I had little choice. The label was a little faded but read £13.50 which wasn’t a bad price for touristy stuff, so I took it to the counter. The lady asked for £16.50 and, despite my irritation at being done out of £3, I paid without a fuss because I really couldn’t be bothered arguing. It was only when taking the label off in my tent that night that I realised the label had faded so much that it had originally read £18.50 and I had actually done her out of £2. Score.

After staring across the sea to Orkney for a little while and being battered by the wind, the only way to head was west, towards Thurso and very little civilisation. When we arrived at Thurso we realised how wrong we were to call it “civilisation”, since it was the size of a small town and most of the shops had closed down. We just passed through without stopping. What followed was fields and more fields, most of which were in the rain while we were stuck behind a Dutch couple who were doing 60 through 40 zones and 40 through 60 zones. There was a fair amount of road rage. Eventually, though, the skies cleared and we found ourselves on the first real single-track road of the 500, battling oncoming RV’s and tractors. The views were beautiful, and to post all of the pictures that I took would be far too much, but at one point we entered out onto an entirely flat moorland with nothing in any direction aside from some mountains looming out of a distant rainstorm. Shortly after the flats turned back into winding mountain tracks and, as the sun dipped and we fought our way past 3 large farm vehicles (including a combine harvester, despite the fact that there was nowhere suitable for growing crops within a 50 mile radius, more like 100 if you take the windy roads into account), we came across our next campsite just before Durness. The site was filled with tourists, mostly Italian, but there was a Polish family and we had been stuck behind an Estonian RV for the past 10 miles who had also stopped. But despite the activity, it offered one of the best nights of sleep of our trip. The patch of ground was situated directly underneath the Golden Eagle zipline, which is apparently rather famous to tourists in the area. Having done very little research before embarking on our journey, this was news to us, but waking up in the morning to people screaming as they flew overhead was certainly an experience. But the most important part of the campsite to us was the fact that it had easy beach access and looked out over the north sea.

Naturally, I had a wander along the beach as Fen enjoyed herself in the waves, and after a little while, as the sun set, I collapsed onto a sand dune and watched it go down.

Unfortunately, I was eaten alive by a cloud of midges shortly afterwards and retreated back to our campsite, but it was nice while it lasted. The next order of business was not a pleasant one, it had been roughly 100 miles of driving since there had been a public toilet and my stomach was making complaints. I waited until dark and squatted down behind a stone wall despite the threat of ticks. This proved to be a horrible decision. The next morning, we woke and I picked off around 7 ticks from my legs. To cut a long story short so that I don’t have to keep coming back to it, the following night there were 5 more, and when I got back home last night there were at least 10 others I found. Moral of the story is: Don’t ignore the threat of ticks and find a decent place to poop. We packed up our stuff and were gone by 11am, the sun shining beautifully. There isn’t a whole lot to say about the day aside from that it was a day of worrying single-track roads, 25% gradients, and beautiful landscapes. The few villages that we passed through were barely more than a handful of houses and a general store, although just down the road from the campsite was a wonderful little public toilet. Typical. Towards the evening the sunshine turned to beating rain as we passed Ullapool, and we desperately looked for another place to set up camp. The spot we found was at the bottom of a glen, under some pine trees, sandwiched between a river and the road. We set up camp and after a quick meal of undercooked burgers and pot noodles, we went to bed. The night was by far the worst I have had in years, the rain wouldn’t stop beating against the tent and, being at the bottom of a glen, the wind sounded like a jet engine through the trees, and our little tent was shaking violently. Luckily, I had a seal plush to cuddle and soak up heat, and a fluffy blanket beneath my sleeping bag, so at least I wasn’t freezing cold. At one point I heard a scream and, scrambling out of my tent to investigate, I found my friend also scrambling out of his tent wielding a knife as a bat had become pinned to the side of his tent by the excessively strong winds. We pulled it off and let it get on its way. The weather didn’t let up in the morning, and we were packed up and in the car within 5 minutes. In our desperation to get back on the road again, our friend managed to back into a tree and dent his bumper, but we ignored it and carried on.

The plan for the day was to leave the 500 and gun it across to the Isle of Skye and visit the famous fairy pools, an old grudge from the last road trip to the western isles where we never made it, and then return home. A few miles drive away from where we had been camping, just before Torridon, there was a small village that I forget the name of that we stopped to grab breakfast in. It was a line of houses on the edge of a loch, and it was gorgeous. It was also at this point in the trip, as I paid for my sandwich in the village store, that I had to wonder why every young lady we came across in the middle of nowhere was very very pretty. What do the westerners know that we don’t?

The following drive was filled with chatter about what car we would need for the next road trip, and other things to prepare for the future. As we passed onto Skye, I found out that my phone also has a nice robot lady to give me directions when needed, and we proceeded to the fairy pools after a small detour to a very overpriced gift shop. We arrived at the pools at just gone 1pm and were not prepared for how busy they were. There were tourists everywhere, and after a reminder earlier on Skye about how dangerous the roads could be (two cars were on their rooves down a small drop and in a forest on the side of the road) we were very nervous. Despite this, we arrived in one piece and were directed to a parking spot by a very nice man in a high-vis jacket, something that we didn’t expect in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Faith then got very overexcited with pictures.

I got a few nervous looks from tourists due to the fact that I was wearing full military gear that I had bought from surplus stores, which was nice because they got out of our way. Especially useful since parts of the path along the pools include crossings over rivers, and many of the tourists were pausing and scared to cross, whereas my friend and I just casually wandered across due to years of having to deal with this country’s shit. Mildly amusing. Once we had taken in the sights for an hour and a half, we piled back in the car and started the 200-mile drive home, which we managed to do in almost one trip. Last night I got home, unpacked my stuff, had a shower, and collapsed on my bed. I love camping and adventure, but nothing beats home. Fen misses the coast, but we have beaches near us too on the Moray Firth, ones with seals that show up more reliably. Still, one day I would love a house on the west coast, and probably a Land Rover Defender to go with it. That way we can get pretty views and visit the beaches all the time, and can drive reliably towards civilisation when needed. Thanks, Guys.

#Tulpa #tulpamancy #travel

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sladvlactia · 5 years

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The Division 2 and Dissonance

No one with a platform seems to be talking about the Division 2, other than a few more liberal or collegiate papers. And what can be said of it that wasn’t already said about the first Division? A fetishistic gun-porn cover based shooter. One that asks you to uphold all that ‘Makes America Great” but not in so many words. A strong game so far as mechanics goes, that has forced me to exist in a state of cognitive dissonance as I enjoy my way through multiple hours of the kind of violence so expertly mocked and denigrated by Spec Ops: The Line. It has the potential of being a masterful story, if they only knew what it was they wanted to say.

But let’s start with the strengths the game has, which to be fair, are many. A tight cover based shooter that incentivizes creative tactics and strategies, a well-balanced progression system for your gear that makes you care more about what you use on a more complex level than whatever has the highest numbers. Excellent level design with environmental puzzles and storytelling that require you to look beyond your next place of cover and allows for a more expansive story as well as smaller, side-stories you can ferret out if your curious and determined enough. In fact, these side stories are generally more well thought out and nuanced than the main storyline is.

With cover based shooters, there’s always the danger of having the game devolve into a stagnant hide and seek punctuated by grenade explosions. The mix of enemy types, various elevations of cover, and the myriad of different skills makes each battle feel unique, even if you are replaying a mission, you’ll need to adapt to the different enemies or the different paths they may take to flank you or catch you out in the open. The result is a fast paced challenge that requires you to constantly adapt to your surroundings. You have to keep an eye out for anyone with specific gear, do they have a grenade bag? Wait for them to be near someone else and shoot the bag, taking out them and those around them. Are they near a breaker box? Shoot the box and shock them, buying you time to line up a headshot, or to reposition if you’re being flanked.

That attention to detail, and the effort made obvious by the positioning of each element in the game world, leads to the first issue for the Division 2. Of the four different factions, each has specific strategies they use to combat you. Military tactics from the remnants of a battalion with the True-Son’s. Fast and Furious kamikaze and fire with the Outcasts, or the chaotic and “street-tough” style of the Hyena’s. To explore what I’m getting at, let’s start with the Hyena’s; a faction made up of either black people or, “inbred” white people. The “animals” of the Division world, specifically likened to “Black-Bloc” in the in-game descriptions. Whereas the other factions will rely on the cover given, or use their various tools to flush you out of cover, the Hyena’s will rush you, They’re designed to be chaotic, to be an embodiment of anarchy. A miss-step at best when they’re all brown or poor people in the game world, but outright racism/classism is more likely. The Outcasts are villains because of what they did in response to being rounded up and put into a concentration camp, because they want revenge and took it too far. Is another uncomfortable portrayal; as a friend put it, “I can identify the most, with the outcasts…” They’ve become terrorists to be sure, but when the alternative is to trust in the same government agencies that left you to die in the first place, it’s hard to judge. Especially when the faction that is more or less responsible for their suffering, is the military remnant known as the True-Sons. A fascist proxy force clearly meant to be the more jingoist aspect of America, and those that just “Follow-Orders” a step in the right direction for acknowledging the dangers of power and following orders, one that seems to be mysteriously missing from the Division agents themselves. Perhaps portraying a faction of almost religious fanatics known for nursing a grudge from being forced into concentration camps by fascists wasn’t the best idea.

The gear itself is balanced and nuanced enough to allow for customizing your play style, and giving you the option of spending hours going through your stash of goods, trying to get the right amount of attack, vs, skill, vs, Defense boosts to make use of your various talents or skill modifications. Something that is enjoyable to a great number of people who appreciate such fine-tuning. (myself included) As I go through each armor piece, I find myself attempting to match my branding, as each brand has specific perks unlocked by stacking pieces together, modifying my weapons with various scopes, or larger magazines. It’s well designed, and each piece carries a benefit and a detriment to the stats of the gun. It’s easier for me to ignore that narrative behind it, the oh so blunt tagline in the beginning cinematic “Did you have a gun?...Did your neighbor?” A Jingoist, refrain that all but screams that all that keeps us from turning on each other is the threat of punishment. Of violence, Of Death and the end of a highly customized and lovingly crafted weapon. But it’s always there, in the back of your mind that everything in this world is solved by shooting it, even locked doors, in most instances. In fact, the only real interaction the player has comes via bullets. A sacrifice for streamlining the work put into gameplay, models and animation of course, but maybe I just want experience this world without destroying it.

Which leads into the beautiful level design, and the amazing work and the evident love that went into making DC. During missions, you can generally tell where it is you need to go through clever use of extension cords, or discarded shell casings, or even blood smears. Letting you know that THIS door, of the many available, is the one you want to open to proceed. Every alleyway, abandoned parking garage, or small nook in the sewers has sleeping bags or tents, discarded food wrappers or even torn pages from a notebook, telling someone to be strong, that the writer has gone to look for food. Taken together, the level designers have obviously put in a staggering amount of effort and thought into their work. You can find small treasures, hidden easter-eggs or simply little oasis of peace or an excuse to put something silly in. Searching the sewers, I found a small room full of plush animals, in front was a turtle with a miniature Hard Hat on it. Looking around you can see several plushy snakes wrapped around the pipes. There’s nothing else that’s important in this room, no reason to go through the effort of resizing a hard hat to fit on a plush turtle, just the knowledge that some players will find this room, feel a small bit of levity, and be encouraged to stop and explore before moving on. At one point, I came across an area enclosed in wood, a place that you cannot access as a player. And I hear a blues harmonica playing from somewhere inside. Again, no real reason that I’ve found, just something nice to put into the world, something to break up the unceasing “gritty-ness”. Which is, perhaps, the most damning bit of cognitive dissonance in the Division 2. Each faction has found footage style “intel” little cinematic clips that illustrate just how capitol “E” Evil they are. It quickly becomes absurd; the Hyena’s leave a child alive after murdering the adults because they think it would be “funnier to watch him starve”. The outcasts ritualistically murder the builder of their camp, by literally beating him to death with a hammer. The leader of the true sons, true to his 80’s villain trope, kills a doctor in cold blood when she dares tell him that they cannot just abandon the victims of the plague. Each video, or audio clip is entirely serious, each faction is irremediably evil. Only the heroes, the good guys are allowed to be morally grey.

Which, all told, is I think the largest issue I have with the Division 2, the narrative. Helpign defend America, to rebuild it, restore what it once was. The settlements you are tasked with helping in the game are closed off areas within the city. Large walls, armed guards and patrolling squads of armed militia keep the area more or less “safe”. Loudspeakers tell anyone nearby that they cannot simply take in more people, than only the worthy are allowed inside. ‘If you stay here, you have to pull your weight” is a literal quote from one settlement. As you help to strengthen each, more American Flags, and colors of red, white, and blue crop up. The sun shines brighter, the guns get bigger. The people inside are kept inside, safe with work rotas, physical training time, clear rules and regulations. A prison to be blunt, one that only allows in those they deem “desirables”. You find recordings and messages from the leaders or residents of the settlements, hear the radio broadcasts from those inside. They struggle with the knowledge that they cannot allow everyone in, that they live the life of prisoners or impose that life on others. Each recording found reinforces that it is “necessary”, that they are simply doing what must be done for now for a brighter future. Commendable, but worryingly fascist in its execution. Especially when the difference between the good guys and bad guys, functionally, is non-existent. The Hyena’s control the drugs, The True-sons have the most guns and the best gear, the outcasts are weaponizing their own infection, ingeniously turning their outcast status into a weapon itself. Each group is attempting to restore control, or some semblance of a reason to continue to live, through demolishing the past, through exacting revenge, through imposing order, or by preserving what’s left of a lost empire. It’s difficult to feel any different from any other faction, when all you do, all you are capable of doing, is killing and destroying. Even the end game enemies, Black Tusk; a clear nod towards Blackwater, are ambiguously evil. The only thing you know about them is that they oppose you. Finding more of the hidden story pieces, through abandoned cell-phones, laptops, and found footage begins to show a clear breakdown of government. The almost saccharine portrayal of congress “putting aside their differences” to help the sick and wounded is shown in counterpoint to how they fled as soon as things got bad. The current president may or may not have seized control after the assassination of the previous administration.

In all, maybe my issue with this game is that it gives me no choice but to accept that America is corrupt, broken, and racist. That we as a society are one bad day away from warring factions. That the “best” of us, people sworn to defend us and rebuild us, or little more than glorified trained killers. Who scavenge colorful sunglasses to snap selfies in front of their slaughter. Maybe that’s the whole point of the Division, America is great for a small group of people, who are only kept safe by murdering anyone and everyone who doesn’t fit. “Good-Job!” You’ll be told. “By recruiting this camps only doctor, you now have a barber!” Good thing you can look good while fighting people who revel in killing those weaker. To bring it full circle, your mission here was to re-activate your magic SHD network, one you managed to complete relatively early on, why are you here now? A question asked hauntingly in Spec-Ops. Not addressed or entertained in The Division.

#video games #the division 2 #the division game #racisim #fascisim #cognitive dissonance #Slad's Rambles

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sidespromptblog · 6 years

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Uncommon Falsehoods: Part 7

Summary: Something that no one saw coming, Logan and Deceit bond over being the “least popular characters” and at the new development the other sides feel jealous. They had never thought that Logan wouldn’t always be there with them and for them, now though, they have to deal with the fact that not all falsehoods are uncommon.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six

Seizing his hat and jacket that seemed almost purposefully trampled on Deceit hastily dusted them off before clutching the items to his chest, the familiar feel of the fabric against his fingers made him feel just a little more at home in the room that he was not at all familiar with. Taking in a deep shuddering breath and silently coaching himself so that he wouldn’t completely lose it and burst into tears, making him lose his concentration on Logan’s form. He instead gingerly set the two items down on Logan’s bed as he surveyed the mess that Vigil and Roman had left behind in their wake.

“Idiots.” Deceit grumbled sourly, and without a second thought in the matter, got to work cleaning up everything.

The first thing that he worked on was everything that had fallen from Logan’s shelves, from the books to the intricate science like structures that Logan himself must have made. Looking closer at a few of them, Deceit felt his chest make a weird feeling as he noted that each and every science item was something tying back to Thomas’ now forgotten career in the field of science.

How long had Logan clung to these? How long had Logan clung to the idea that perhaps Thomas would once again do something in this area?

Fiddling with one of the white ribbons that Thomas had won from a science fair, Deceit felt his heart do that odd movement again as he pinned the ribbon back onto Logan’s bright blue unicorn plushie. A deep sigh rattled him as he looked at everything that was back on the shelves, things that Logan had deemed to be important to him and things that he cared for. It really surprised him on just how many things were actually here. Before, he had thought that Logan only cared for his books, or useless boring things that Thomas wanted no part in. It had never occurred to him that this..all of this was a part of Logan as well. He felt ashamed at the notion, actually ashamed that he hadn’t thought to look a little deeper into the resident nerd.

Then again, this only supported his personal theory a little bit more, they didn’t deserve Logan...but then again did he?

“Lo-berry?” Patton’s voice snapped him out of the well that was his thoughts, making him snap his head up looking over to the door as he heard the shy knock from the other side. “You don’t have to open up if you don’t want to but...I’ve brought you a plate of cookies if you want to snack on any.”

On the other side of the door, Patton hesitated as he held the plate that was absolutely filled to the brim with cookies, his thumb traced the design that was around the edge before he had the courage to speak up again. “I am sorry about Virgil and Roman...we were really worried about you, and I guess that they took it to the next step. You know them…” Hesitating a moment more Patton pressed his ear to the door hoping to hear something or at least anything, when he found himself falling the moment that the door opened up on him. His face collided into Logan’s surprisingly cold chest, and within seconds his face was heating up.

A firm hand on his shoulder helped him right back up, but looking at Logan’s face he couldn’t tell anything. Usually, any time that Logan was forced to retreat to his room, he at least had a smile for Patton, when the moral side came up with whatever he had been cooking before. That wasn’t what shocked him though, what shocked him was what Logan said next.

“If they expect me to forgive them for this transgression...then the both of them will need to tell me themselves and not just send you. They are adults, and they are capable of an actual apology.” Logan coldly stated making Patton blink in surprise, it felt so off from what Logan normally did. Usually, the food was taken and the apology was accepted, but no..Logan really must have been upset with the damage they had done to his room to be this angry.

“Thank you for the cookies.” He then added, extending his hand and graciously taking the plate from the moral side, and to Patton’s credit he seemed to get that right here and now he wasn’t exactly wanted. As he stepped back offering him a simple and yet warm smile before Patton shut the door with a gentle click. Leaving Deceit completely alone, as the moral side went back down to the kitchen, to tell the two eavesdropping sides just what Logan wanted.

However, while Patton was doing that, Deceit took one look at the cookies he was holding and sank down. A look of visible relief came over Deceit as he rose back up into his room, as he was able to drop his disguise and welcome back the patch of scales on his face, his snake eye, and even his darker button-up clothing. Logan’s polo was nice but the tie was something that got on his nerves fairly quickly. Opening his mouth to proclaim that he was back, Deceit stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he laid eyes on the figure in his bed and within seconds his face looked like that of Patton’s when he had slammed into his chest.

Logan was there fast asleep in his bed, with his polo shirt neatly folded up with his tie laying on top of it and his jeans folded up right next to them. While he was wearing one of Deceit’s black silken shirts and his snake pajama pants, all while laying right next to Clara who had slithered onto the bed at some point of Logan being asleep. Deceit’s mouth felt all too dry as he shuffled over to the bed. Then after a solid few minutes of pondering about waking Logan up, he simply reached over with one hand still holding the plate of cookies, as he poked the logical side’s shoulder once and then again.

A grunt answered him the first time that he poked Logan, the second time was when a hand came out from under the covers tiredly swatting at him in a pitiful effort to get him to stop.

“I guess you aren’t interested in eating this plate of cookies with me, oh well then.” Deceit slyly smirked as Logan’s head hastily turned to look over at him, and after a moment of fumbling around Logan managed to find his glasses and slide them into place. He looked tired and ruffled in the best way possible.

“Cookies?” Logan muttered, and sitting up in Deceit’s bed he made a simple motion with his hand for Deceit to get on the bed as well. Clara gave a lazy hiss at the jostling she was going through, but upon sticking her tongue out and scenting Deceit, she lazily slithered over to him laying her head on his lap as Deceit passed Logan the plate. Their shoulders brushed together as they sat together, and without even thinking about it Logan rested his temple on Deceit’s shoulder as he plucked a cookie up from the plate.

Deceit though blinked in surprise as he felt the cookie pressing against his lips as Logan held it up for him to eat, glancing down at the logical side he felt his insides turn to mush at the crooked smile that was on display for him and him alone. Without giving it too much thought, Deceit leaned in taking the cookie right from Logan with his teeth before he chomped it down. On his side, he could feel Logan’s laugh shaking the logical side as he picked up another cookie biting into it himself, before he glanced over to the lying side.

“So…” Logan began, his head once again resuming its position by resting on Deceit’s shoulder after he had chewed and swallowed his own cookie, he was hesitant to ask but in the strangest way, he felt that he needed to. “How bad is it?” A part of him already knew the answer to his question, but feeling Deceit stiffening up next to him a sensation of dread bubbled in his stomach.

“Bad?” Deceit began waving it off with a nervous laugh, as if that could somehow downplay everything. “It’s not that bad, in fact, everything is…”

“You don’t have to do that.” Logan cut in, now sitting up a little more so that Deceit would actually look at him, and from the way that the other blinked in confusion as well as surprise, that was when he knew that he had confused the other. “You don’t need to lie to me, I may have..let the emotion get to my head before. But I can take what you tell me, and whatever it is, I won’t get angry at you.” Logan promised, now reaching down and clasping Deceit’s hand like he had seen Patton do to both Roman and Virgil any time they needed comfort for whatever reason. Although judging by the look on Deceit’s face, no one had ever done this for him, and no one had ever assured him of this.

“They broke into your room, and everything is a mess!” Once it was out, it was out and Deceit’s cheek burned a bright pink as the warm of Logan’s hand on his seeped into his skin making it feel all tingly. “I put everything back so it’s all fixed though, so you don’t need to worry.” He hastily assured the logical side, the last thing that he wanted Logan to do was to leave and go back to the others when he was here enjoying some time off from everything that the others constantly threw at him.

If he was being honest, Logan had expected such a thing to happen, pairing Roman who was a fan of grand sweeping gestures with Virgil who had a protective streak a mile long, something like this was bound to happen eventually. In fact, it wasn’t even the first time that Roman had broken into his room, given the infamous exams of Thomas’ senior year, he had learned to take the prince seriously when it came to things like that.

“You’re alright?” Logan seriously asked, his gaze darting over Deceit’s face, “Are you able to handle them for a while longer?” He asked, and watching Deceit straighten his back before earnestly nodding, his worries were momentarily put to ease.

“Then let’s finish up these cookies before you have to go back to being me..how about a movie?” With that one suggestion from Logan, Deceit was over the moon.

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#sympathetic deceit #deceit sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #logceit #logeit

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ruffsficstuffplace · 7 years

Text

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 19)

Weiss blinked. “You're going to what?”

“Kill you!” Ruby repeated. “If there's anything that's going to stop your dad from attacking the Valley anymore, it's going to be that.”

Weiss nodded, before she gripped Eluna to her chest, stared blankly off into the distance, and reminisced about the series of bad decisions that had led to this point.

The most immediate that came to mind was her spontaneously telling her father that she wanted to join his newest venture: an expedition into the Viridian Valley. Like her maternal grandfather and his father-in-law, Nicholas Schnee, he wanted to find a new wellspring of mana to tap, ones similar to if not even greater than the gigantic concentrations of energy that rested under the Nexus, Valentino, Lumania, Zeal, or Solaris—possibly even the unprecedented titan that powered Candela.

“Uh, Weiss?” Ruby asked, before she waved her hand before her unseeing eyes.

She didn't know what it was that set her off about his droning on about all the failed expeditions, the rumours of the Keeper being responsible for it and thousands of other incidents, the new incredible advances in technology that made possible to thrive in a barren hellhole like the one surrounding both Candela and the Valley itself, but the moment she blurted out that she wanted to be a part of the scouting team, personally overseeing the operations like her grandfather before her, she never once thought of taking it back.

Now, she really wished that her father had vetoed that plan as he usually did.

With no response, Ruby turned to Penny. <What's wrong with her?> she asked in Actaeon.

<I believe she's experiencing what humans call 'thinking about where they went wrong.'> Penny replied.

<Why? What happened?> Ruby asked.

Perhaps it was how she reacted to Winter's leaving for the Avalonian Armed Forces six years ago. She should have sympathized more with her decision, understood she would have done the same thing if she could, not held it up as a massive betrayal, put a wedge between them until just before she was selected for Queensguard training, and become so surly, cold, and hostile to everyone, “projecting” her anger and hurt as du Pont had said.

She was eleven, yes, and it was a confusing time for her with puberty and all these new, confusing feelings and new responsibilities thrust upon her by society just because her age was now in the double digits, and the fact that her mother was long dead, that she had few close friends, and that her father was a hands-off parent (at best) certainly didn't help, but she probably should have done like Winter had, when she was twelve, had been old enough to fully understand their mother's death:

Grow the fuck up.

<It's probably when you said you were going to murder her,> Penny replied.

Ruby's eyes widened, her ears pulled back in alarm. <What?! I said I was going to 'fake her death' not 'put her to death!' Isn't that what I said in Nivian?>

Penny shook her head.

<But it's the same word…!> Ruby whined.

Or maybe it stretched even further back, to the one point in life she could clearly, confidently point to as the moment her already less than ideal life went to a constant, ever accelerating downhill slide leading to this moment: the day they got the call from the emergency response teams in Sekhmet, that their mother and her unborn child had succumbed to the plague ravaging the desert, that they couldn't even receive their bodies as they were needed to figure out how the hell they were going to stop the new disease from ravaging the rest of Avalon, and their ashes would likely be mixed with the masses of other dead.

Maybe, just maybe, she shouldn't have agreed with her father, and especially Winter's question, the tie-breaker to her decision to start giving away her beloved collection of plushies, the one thing that reminded them of their mother after her father had every portrait and image of her put into storage or hidden away where he'd never have to be reminded of who they'd lost, what died with them.

On the bright side of things, she'd be meeting her again soon, if the Aether really was real. Winter would probably join them soon enough, though she wasn't looking forward to meeting their father again, even if the Stewards always emphasized that they would be a completely different type of being upon reaching it, “stripped away of all that which divided us, our boundless desires and prejudices, the mortal things we clung to so desperately in life.”

Ruby sighed. <This is why I hate Nivian...> she muttered before she turned to Weiss, still zoned out. “Weiss? Weiiisss…?” she snapped her fingers in front of her face.

Blake turned to Ruby. <May I?>

Ruby sighed. <Go ahead...>

Blake stepped up, and slapped Weiss across the cheek.

Smack!

Weiss reeled from the strike, a new bright red print glowing on her skin. “Ow! Just kill me and get it over with, why don't you?!”

Blake sighed. <Believe me, princess, I would if I could.>

Weiss glared at her. “I don't know what you just said, but I know I didn't like it.”

Blake narrowed her eyes. <Feeling's mutual.>

“Okay!” Ruby cried as she stepped between them. “Blake: calm down! Weiss: what I said earlier didn't come out right!”

“Oh, so you're going to torture me instead, is that it?” Weiss spat.

Ruby frowned. “It's--”

“Ruby actually meant to say that we were going to fake your death,” Penny interrupted. “I believe the confusion came from the fact that Actaeon has very specific variations on the word 'kill'—that of killing an opponent; killing prey; killing predator; killing the enemy's morale or desire to fight; or in this particular case, faking a killing, for purposes of demoralization or manipulation.”

Weiss blinked, letting the realization sink in for a moment. “Can we all agree that, from now on, anything anyone tries to say to me in Nivian goes through Penny first?”

Blake and Ruby nodded.

Penny beamed. “I will try my best to make sure that no more misunderstandings will occur!”

“Good,” Weiss said as she headed out to the exit. “Now let's go make my ransom video! And let's be clear that I'm writing the script—the last thing I want my father to think is that this is all a terrible prank!”

Almost as long as people had been speculating and theorizing about what could be found in the Viridian Valley, they had been dreaming and fantasizing about what they would make of it, the grand cities they would build, the new lives they would lead in a place like nothing that had ever been seen in all of Avalon.

There was no shortage of artistic interpretations and depictions in all manner of fiction throughout the years: grand castles and cities built out of the blackened rock surrounding the area; elaborate wooden mansions dotting the trees and the vibrant vegetation, dirt roads thriving with flowers and herbs, animals left to roam and roost wherever they pleased; sometimes even a modern city like Candela or Lumania, glass skyscrapers, neosteel infrastructure, paved roads and carefully controlled and cultivated patches of nature amidst all the artificial construction, the ultimate symbolism of mankind's domination and control over the surroundings their ancestors were slaves to for so long.

They were all wrong, if only because no human had ever attempted anything like what the Fae had done.

The Bastion was the trees, the mountains, and the vegetation—their homes, infrastructure, and even their transportation built in their hollowed out cores, resting on top of them as foundations, or grown in such specific, intentional patterns and directions, it couldn't have gotten that way by itself. Weiss felt her attention dragged every which way as they walked through the streets of the city—or rather, its many hanging bridges, the giant walkways carved out of even bigger branches, the tunnels and pathways going into and around the rocks and mountains.

She saw Fae in specially made robes and protective gear tending over saplings, fungus, and even living creatures, magic flowing from their hands as they tended to their wards, guiding and accelerating their growth into their desired shapes, grafting and inducing features and details they wouldn't have in the wild.

Water poured out from the faces of rocks and mountains, being piped in by pulsing vines to their crop planters and their homes, spraying out from fountains and intricately carved statues and memorials, adding beauty to the surroundings and a place for citizens of all ages to play and enjoy themselves.

Fae of every shape and size going about their days, tending to all manner of weird and strange animals, giving packages to birds and sending them off, leading their lumbering pack-beasts through the walkways, training ferocious looking predators to attack certain target dummies and not others; going about the various stores and workshops trading, working, or just chatting with one another; strolling about enjoying the scenery, if they weren't immersed in their own version of tablets and comm-crystals, looking not unlike the citizens of Candela when they blogged, caught up on each other on social media, and enjoyed funny holos of cats.

And all the while, Weiss couldn't help but notice the sheer number of eyes looking back at her, the heads doing double takes, the people stopping to take pictures of her before sending it to others.

She didn't understand a word of what they were saying, but regardless of language barriers, you could always tell when everyone was talking about you.

The various “Watchers” posted almost everywhere were particularly wary of her, their eyes trained on her, their weapons at the ready, and their animals heeled, if only for the moment. Some of them were only pulling back just hard enough on their attack wolves' leashes to keep them from getting away, not slashing their paws at the air, barking and slavering at Weiss with their powerful jaws full of massive fangs, their fur bristling and crackling with what looked like electricity.

Ruby, Blake, and Penny surrounded her in a triangle, casting glares and barking warnings at others to stay back.

“I'm not very popular here, am I?” Weiss muttered under her breath.

“Your father's expeditions into the Valley have caused very serious disruption to the peace we usually enjoy here, causing a significant amount of panic, unease, and diversion of time, resources, and labour that would have otherwise gone to different projects,” Penny explained. “And this is not even going into all the casualties.”

Weiss blinked, feeling the pit of her stomach drop. “… Ah. Right.”

Weiss feet were aching by the time they finally made it to the tallest, biggest tree in the very center of the Bastion; she realized she really should have thought of packing at least a pair of bedroom slippers, because apparently the Fae were not fans of footwear of any sort, just straps around part of their feet, or bands of leather, metal, and bone strapped to their toes or heels, obviously meant for combat.

The inside of the “Tree of Life” was not unlike a tower, its circular floors built with giant open ring in the center to let you stare up, marvel at how massive the structure was, see the thick canopy at the very top, the sunlight peeking through the leaves.

“How tall is this tree…?” Weiss asked, dumbstruck.

“Pretty fucking tall,” an unknown, ominous voice said.

Weiss turned, and found herself staring into the face of her nightmares, the terror that haunted the dreams of Avalonians for centuries, like the bastard child of of a rat, a deer, and a wolf, with glowing red eyes that pierced into your soul.

The physical manifestation of fear itself waved. <Hey Ruby.>

<Uncle Qrow!> Ruby cheered, before she pounced and hugged him.

#rwby #fanfic #white rose #the keeper of the grove

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