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I've finally started playing Stardew Valley again, after figuring out how to mod it on my Steam Deck. I always liked the game, but the aesthetic was just not for me. Now that I've converted all the buildings to pretty medieval style and switched the color palette to something earthier, I'm having a great time!

I also downloaded a mod that let's you pick from a whole bunch of textures for your pet cat. One of them happens to be the Lykoi breed: that werewolf-looking cat that has sparse, wirey fur and a bald face.

I'm playing a sort of cottage/forest witch, as is my custom, so I picked that cat.

And then I named it Starling.

Because I feel Cuff would take one look at this half-hairless rat of a cat breed and be horrified 🥰

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I feel like Frey knows how it sounds. She knows it's borderline unhinged, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. This is how she feels, and this is the idiot she's bound herself to, and this is the creature she has accepted into her life, forever, despite everything.

But explaining that to Auden or literally anyone else? Forget it.

Like... can you imagine her trying to explain it to Cinta, via Svargana? Or any of the other Tantas? How the demon they call an "it" lives within her heart forever, and despite everything, she never wants him removed?

look, I know we all love the bastard but I think that Auden is allowed to be Really Fucking Mad™ upon finding out that Frey kept Cuff around

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Man, I'm glad I made that little Cuffbird.

Without the ability to snuggle it, I don't know how I'd get through the fics @phoenixiancrystallist and @flyingwide keep writing.

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Precisely!

Sometimes I think about like... Frey pondering this. Being aware of the fact that she finally found "home," a community of people she belongs with, only to build that chasm via Cuff. And I feel like she may be angry about this, in a way. Be angry at him for separating her from them. But at the same time, it was her choice. And at the same time, she finds it hard to be truly angry because that's her wrist idiot, and besides: he has no one outside of her. Without her, he is alone, and the thought of that hurts her more than the thought of this invisible separation from her people.

And the times when they're alone in a refuge, and he's telling her some random story with very badly placed jokes? Or when he chides her for being reckless during battle, and she can just barely feel his genuine distress over it? Or when he scoffs or sneers and she gives him a good whack while feeling that undercurrent of fondness? That anger very much fades in comparison.

look, I know we all love the bastard but I think that Auden is allowed to be Really Fucking Mad™ upon finding out that Frey kept Cuff around

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I am excite.

thinking fondly of my section of the post-canon au simply titled "Why Tantas Don’t Have Children" 🥰

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I honestly feel like it would be... not a dealbreaker in terms of their friendship, but something like... apt to put a firm bit of distance and wall between them.

It would mark Frey as Other, essentially. She's already a Tanta, so she's halfway there. The fact that she has an intimate relationship with the creature whose sole purpose is to destroy Athia would further distance her from "normal" Athian life. Set her very much outside of society in an irreversible way.

It kind of reminds me of a more dramatic, evil-tinged version of aviators in the Temeraire series, actually. Once someone bonds with a dragon and becomes their captain, they all but exit British society. They don't marry. They don't maintain certain rules and decorums. Specifically because that level of emotional bond with a creature like a dragon changes everything, and they become different from the general public.

So like that, but with the unfortunate aspect of "that fucker has killed us, how could you?"

look, I know we all love the bastard but I think that Auden is allowed to be Really Fucking Mad™ upon finding out that Frey kept Cuff around

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Spotted a Little Guy(TM) on the way to work this morning. Hanging out in an artificial cavity!

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Noooooo 😢

All of this discussion surrounding the logistics and motivations surrounding Cuff driving the Tantas mad has really made me appreciate how terrifyingly lonely his duty is.

Whatever situation he gets himself into... he is absolutely on his own in getting out of it.

:c

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No 🥺

All of this discussion surrounding the logistics and motivations surrounding Cuff driving the Tantas mad has really made me appreciate how terrifyingly lonely his duty is.

Whatever situation he gets himself into... he is absolutely on his own in getting out of it.

:c

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All of this discussion surrounding the logistics and motivations surrounding Cuff driving the Tantas mad has really made me appreciate how terrifyingly lonely his duty is.

Whatever situation he gets himself into... he is absolutely on his own in getting out of it.

:c

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Oh, dang... the failsafe version. I forgot that version.

Man, that's a rough version.

The main reason I continue to truly doubt that Cuff drove the Tantas mad on purpose - with any sort of intent or control over the process - is that the entire plot surrounding that event and its consequences is just the worst idea.

Like... if he did that on purpose, then he put himself in a situation that he could not get out of without a truly absurd amount of risky Hail Marying.

I mean...

Driving the Tantas mad essentially traps him on the wrists of a group of completely unreachable madwomen. He can't negotiate with them. He can't manipulate them. He can't kill them. He's just stuck there as they deteriorate.

Which leads to him having to search for another individual - with powerful magic - that can not only fight and kill the Tantas, but who can be manipulated by a moderately dorky wrist idiot.

Thankfully, Frey exists. If she didn't, I don't know what Cuff would have done. But she's here! As a baby. Being tossed through a portal to NYC. So he has to follow her: an act that clearly injures him enough that it causes visible, permanent physical damage. That by itself is a substantial risk: tearing himself off of Cinta, following a baby through a portal to a strange world, hoping he doesn't die in the process, hoping he doesn't get separated from her, hoping they find one another again.

What would he have done if they had gotten more significantly separated? If Frey had left the area? If she had just... not returned to that junk shop? If she had looked at him but not touched him, been uninterested, been distracted?

And then! Back in Athia, he has to bank on the hope that she can learn to use magic and use it well. That she won't get killed by Breakbeasts. That she won't get killed by a fall. Or starvation, or thirst, or an angry mob. That she'll listen to him and learn well and fight well and have the will to kill a Tanta x3.

There is so much chance in all of that. A truly staggering amount of risk. To the point that I can't imagine anyone with any sort of cunning intending to be in a position where any of it was necessary.

Like... Cuff is dumb, but he's cute-dumb. Dorky. A lovable moron. Intelligence-wise, he's incredibly clever and sly and smart. Plus: he's risk-averse. He's not impulsive or careless. He's not wont to just... let things work out however they may.

Cuff strikes me as a master opportunist: he can judge a novel situation and take every advantage he can find to work his way out of it. But actually putting himself into a situation that needs that level of trial-by-fire? I find it hard to believe he would.

So that, to me, means that he either misjudged his abilities with the Tantas very badly, or... or he was imprisoned, and the consequences for the Tantas weren't actually his conscious doing. They were just the equivalent of a bad chemical reaction: one that he had to find a way to escape as well.

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Sometimes I imagine her realizing that she's the first one to hear his stupid jokes. She's the first one to hear his voice crack a bit when he gets overexcited or whiny. She's the first one to get the eager offer of a fireside story or a quiet tale at bedtime.

And upon realizing this, she feels a fierce sort of protectiveness that utterly shocks her... but that she also doesn't want to suppress.

Pro tip: don't read @flyingwide Cuff fic right before returning to work because you will have to fix your face so that your coworkers don't realize you were tearing up over a wrist idiot.

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I remember talking about this with @flyingwide once, I think. This concept of Cuff corrupting the Tantas in large part through his own desperation and fury and pain. Them going mad because they were being constantly bombarded not with calculated mind games, but with what was essentially a trapped animal that wouldn't stop screaming and could only rage at them in desperation.

Y'know what? Another realization in retrospect: if Cuff had done nothing, then there's a chance he could have had help. There's a chance the Rheddig would have attacked again, and he may have had some sort of allied support.

With the Break in place specifically due to the corruption of the Tantas, Cuff is very much cut off from any support his masters may have given him. Which is strategically Not Good.

Huh.

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See, this concept of how the madness works makes so much more sense to me! Him forcibly infecting them with his power, corrupting them with his directive, and thus causing an incompatible mixing of magics is a more logical vibe than him like... gaslighting them or whatever. I can't imagine them succumbing to his bullshit. I can definitely imagine them succumbing to a relentless onslaught of poisonous magic.

Especially if that onslaught is coming from an anguished, trapped monster who has little to lose and just wants to lash out because he lost his wings again. ...though that also makes it kind of sad. Hm.

Still! I am vibing with your vision c:

The main reason I continue to truly doubt that Cuff drove the Tantas mad on purpose - with any sort of intent or control over the process - is that the entire plot surrounding that event and its consequences is just the worst idea.

Like... if he did that on purpose, then he put himself in a situation that he could not get out of without a truly absurd amount of risky Hail Marying.

I mean...

Driving the Tantas mad essentially traps him on the wrists of a group of completely unreachable madwomen. He can't negotiate with them. He can't manipulate them. He can't kill them. He's just stuck there as they deteriorate.

Which leads to him having to search for another individual - with powerful magic - that can not only fight and kill the Tantas, but who can be manipulated by a moderately dorky wrist idiot.

Thankfully, Frey exists. If she didn't, I don't know what Cuff would have done. But she's here! As a baby. Being tossed through a portal to NYC. So he has to follow her: an act that clearly injures him enough that it causes visible, permanent physical damage. That by itself is a substantial risk: tearing himself off of Cinta, following a baby through a portal to a strange world, hoping he doesn't die in the process, hoping he doesn't get separated from her, hoping they find one another again.

What would he have done if they had gotten more significantly separated? If Frey had left the area? If she had just... not returned to that junk shop? If she had looked at him but not touched him, been uninterested, been distracted?

And then! Back in Athia, he has to bank on the hope that she can learn to use magic and use it well. That she won't get killed by Breakbeasts. That she won't get killed by a fall. Or starvation, or thirst, or an angry mob. That she'll listen to him and learn well and fight well and have the will to kill a Tanta x3.

There is so much chance in all of that. A truly staggering amount of risk. To the point that I can't imagine anyone with any sort of cunning intending to be in a position where any of it was necessary.

Like... Cuff is dumb, but he's cute-dumb. Dorky. A lovable moron. Intelligence-wise, he's incredibly clever and sly and smart. Plus: he's risk-averse. He's not impulsive or careless. He's not wont to just... let things work out however they may.

Cuff strikes me as a master opportunist: he can judge a novel situation and take every advantage he can find to work his way out of it. But actually putting himself into a situation that needs that level of trial-by-fire? I find it hard to believe he would.

So that, to me, means that he either misjudged his abilities with the Tantas very badly, or... or he was imprisoned, and the consequences for the Tantas weren't actually his conscious doing. They were just the equivalent of a bad chemical reaction: one that he had to find a way to escape as well.

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*sigh*

Not that kind of cuff. 😔

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That moment when you want a picture to be PERFECT….you are doomed. 

I guess this just doesn’t want to be colored x’D All my attemps look meh but maybe I’ll just give it another try after things calm down here :3 

This is the Redraw I was talking about in an earlier picture. Now Entrapta is holding the important thing in her hands and the less important thing in her hair x’D

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date idea: we drink wine while a dilapidated mansion crumbles around us