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ectocs · 1 day

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A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Climb aboard, then!” But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown. “Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.”

“I can’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”

___

…But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the frog felt a subtle motion on its back, and in a panic dived deep beneath the rushing waters, leaving the scorpion to drown.

“It was going to sting me anyway,” muttered the frog, emerging on the other side of the river. “It was inevitable. You all knew it. Everyone knows what those scorpions are like. It was self-defense.”

___

…But no sooner had they cast off from the bank, the frog felt the tip of a stinger pressed lightly against the back of its neck. “What do you think you’re doing?” said the frog.

“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

They swam in silence to the other end of the river, where the scorpion climbed off, leaving the frog fuming.

“After the kindness I showed you!” said the frog. “And you threatened to kill me in return?”

“Kindness?” said the scorpion. “To only invite me on your back after you knew I was defenseless, unable to use my tail without killing myself? My dear frog, I only treated you as I was treated. Your kindness was as poisoned as a scorpion’s sting.”

___

…“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

“You have a point,” the frog acknowledged. “But once we get to dry land, couldn’t you sting me then without repercussion?”

“All I want is to cross the river safely,” said the scorpion. “Once I’m on the other side I would gladly let you be.”

“But I would have to trust you on that,” said the frog. “While you’re pressing a stinger to my neck. By ferrying you to land I’d be be giving up the one deterrent I hold over you.”

“But by the same logic, I can’t possibly withdraw my stinger while we’re still over water,” the scorpion protested.

The frog paused in the middle of the river, treading water. “So, I suppose we’re at an impasse.”

The river rushed around them. The scorpion’s stinger twitched against the frog’s unbroken skin. “I suppose so,” the scorpion said.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Absolutely not!” said the frog, and dived beneath the waters, and so none of them learned anything.

___

A scorpion, being unable to swim, asked a turtle (as in the original Persian version of the fable) to carry it across the river. The turtle readily agreed, and allowed the scorpion aboard its shell. Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell. The turtle, swimming placidly, failed to notice.

They reached the other side of the river, and parted ways as friends.

___

…Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell.

The turtle, hearing the tap of the scorpion’s sting, was offended at the scorpion’s ungratefulness. Thankfully, having been granted the powers to both defend itself and to punish evil, the turtle sank beneath the waters and drowned the scorpion out of principle.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” sneered the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back.”

The scorpion pleaded earnestly. “Do you think so little of me? Please, I must cross the river. What would I gain from stinging you? I would only end up drowning myself!”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Even a scorpion knows to look out for its own skin. Climb aboard, then!”

But as they forged through the rushing waters, the scorpion grew worried. This frog thinks me a ruthless killer, it thought. Would it not be justified in throwing me off now and ridding the world of me? Why else would it agree to this? Every jostle made the scorpion more and more anxious, until the frog surged forward with a particularly large splash, and in panic the scorpion lashed out with its stinger.

“I knew it,” snarled the frog, as they both thrashed and drowned. “A scorpion cannot change its nature.”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. The frog agreed, but no sooner than they were halfway across the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown.

“I’ve only myself to blame,” sighed the frog, as they both sank beneath the waters. “You, you’re a scorpion, I couldn’t have expected anything better. But I knew better, and yet I went against my judgement! And now I’ve doomed us both!”

“You couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion mildly. “It’s your nature.”

___

…“Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.”

“Alas, I was of two natures,” said the scorpion. “One said to gratefully ride your back across the river, and the other said to sting you where you stood. And so both fought, and neither won.” It smiled wistfully. “Ah, it would be nice to be just one thing, wouldn’t it? Unadulterated in nature. Without the capacity for conflict or regret.”

___

“By the way,” said the frog, as they swam, “I’ve been meaning to ask: What’s on the other side of the river?”

“It’s the journey,” said the scorpion. “Not the destination.”

___

…“What’s on the other side of anything?” said the scorpion. “A new beginning.”

___

…”Another scorpion to mate with,” said the scorpion. “And more prey to kill, and more living bodies to poison, and a forthcoming lineage of cruelties that you will be culpable in.”

___

…”Nothing we will live to see, I fear,” said the scorpion. “Already the currents are growing stronger, and the river seems like it shall swallow us both. We surge forward, and the shoreline recedes. But does that mean our striving was in vain?”

___

“I love you,” said the scorpion.

The frog glanced upward. “Do you?”

“Absolutely. Can you imagine the fear of drowning? Of course not. You’re a frog. Might as well be scared of breathing air. And yet here I am, clinging to your back, as the waters rage around us. Isn’t that love? Isn’t that trust? Isn’t that necessity? I could not kill you without killing myself. Are we not inseparable in this?”

The frog swam on, the both of them silent.

___

“I’m so tired,” murmured the frog eventually. “How much further to the other side? I don’t know how long we’ve been swimming. I’ve been treading water. And it’s getting so very dark.”

“Shh,” the scorpion said. “Don’t be afraid.”

The frog’s legs kicked out weakly. “How long has it been? We’re lost. We’re lost! We’re doomed to be cast about the waters forever. There is no land. There’s nothing on the other side, don’t you see!”

“Shh, shh,” said the scorpion. “My venom is a hallucinogenic. Beneath its surface, the river is endlessly deep, its currents carrying many things.”

“You - You’ve killed us both,” said the frog, and began to laugh deliriously. “Is this - is this what it’s like to drown?”

“We’ve killed each other,” said the scorpion soothingly. “My venom in my glands now pulsing through your veins, the waters of your birthing pool suffusing my lungs. We are engulfing each other now, drowning in each other. I am breathless. Do you feel it? Do you feel my sting pierced through your heart?”

“What a foolish thing to do,” murmured the frog. “No logic. No logic to it at all.”

“We couldn’t help it,” whispered the scorpion. “It’s our natures. Why else does anything in the world happen? Because we were made for this from birth, darling, every moment inexplicable and inevitable. What a crazy thing it is to fall in love, and yet - It’s all our fault! We are both blameless. We’re together now, darling. It couldn’t have happened any other way.”

___

“It’s funny,” said the frog. “I can’t say that I trust you, really. Or that I even think very much of you and that nasty little stinger of yours to begin with. But I’m doing this for you regardless. It’s strange, isn’t it? It’s strange. Why would I do this? I want to help you, want to go out of my way to help you. I let you climb right onto my back! Now, whyever would I go and do a foolish thing like that?”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Come aboard, then!” But no sooner had the scorpion mounted the frog’s back than it began to sting, repeatedly, while still safely on the river’s bank.

The frog groaned, thrashing weakly as the venom coursed through its veins, beginning to liquefy its flesh. “Ah,” it muttered. “For some reason I never considered this possibility.”

“Because you were never scared of me,” the scorpion whispered in its ear. “You were never scared of dying. In a past life you wore a shell and sat in judgement. And then you were reborn: soft-skinned, swift, unburdened, as new and vulnerable as a child, moving anew through a world of children. How could anyone ever be cruel, you thought, seeing the precariousness of it all?” The scorpion bowed its head and drank. “How could anyone kill you without killing themselves?”

#long post #fav

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ectocs · 13 days

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putting on sideblog <3

Suddenly extremely interested in ur sentient house oc

i need to talk about her or I’ll die i cant draw her but i think about her so much . Everything is under a cut ⬇️ i’ve basically sorted it into sections but I’m writing this at midnight, and I’m rambling. Good luck

Okay, first thing’s first. The house (aka The House, the House, any other number of things and capitalizations) is part of a larger story/world somewhat based on an old RP between me and my friend. A bunch of our OCs (and us!) lived together in a house and we could travel between dimensions. It was very silly and fun.

So. This is not, like, a serious character. I mean she’s definitely not a joke, but this isn’t a world with a lot of stakes, this is a world with magic and silly things going on with some lore and worldbuilding for fun, some of it carried over from a nonsense RP done on transformice when I was. Like. Twelve?

Anyway. The house

Her origins :)

Her existence is tied up into this wacky world. I won't be going super in depth on how any of it works, so ask about that if you want? But here we go:

The house is a mansion (?) built/born in the middle of the woods through magic. She was created by an angel-like being called Xvetriel (Xvet), who is able to travel between worlds/dimensions/whatever.

Her sentience was an unintentional accident on Xvet's part. Earth itself has no magic, so outside magic is far more potent than normal. He created her as a place to live (among other things, not important), because Earth’s lack of magic means it’s a good, predictable place to hang out when you aren’t worldjumping. And you can do more with less effort. However, this also means that his original plan of Very Big House got out of control, and she became aware and sort of built herself after a point.

Imagine trying to build a modern mansion. You have the materials and layout sorted, but as soon as you try and put it together the house just... does it itself. And it's not even the same mansion you were trying to build, and it has a new layout... that's kind of what Xvet found himself dealing with.

House outside

So let's say you're going on a house tour. First thing you'll notice after wandering through the middle of nowhere: her shapeshifty mess.

Different materials, different eras, styles, all blended together into one building. She never sticks to one look, so it's ever-changing. So long as you aren't looking at her.

She could probably change herself if you're looking, but she's a tiny bit mischievous and likes watching you wonder if that bell tower was always there. Or seeing if you double-take when you realize the shingles are different.

The only rule to how she looks is that one of the things she's with has to be, conceivably, residential. Some part of the house needs to look like something you could actually live in. She can be a greek temple merged with a greenhouse, and as long as she has a log cabin or some part of it stuck on her side, it's a valid form she can take.

I haven't given her a definitive height/size limit. But generally, the rules I've followed when writing or describing her are "larger than a one bedroom, one bath, smaller than a skyscraper."

If there are windows or glassy areas, it is always impossible to see inside. The glass is highly reflective, or maybe so foggy they're opaque. Windows without glass, open windows, so on all lead only to pitch-black shadows. The windows have an Oblivion situation going on: they work fine enough until you actually stop and look.

^ you are NOT looking inside those game buildings' windows

This is because she is an empty husk full of an empty void :) so theres nothing 2 see

The inside

Okay, that's a bit dramatic. Look, she has some quantum/magic fuckery going on. Xvet basically accidentally made a pocket dimension. That is a house. So

It's probably easier to think of her as just an infinite house, probably.

The house can create as many rooms as she desires, in any style she desires, with any furniture and as big as she damn well pleases.

The only exception to what she can make is generally very specific things nobody else present would have seen. If you want a physical copy of a particular new movie you haven't seen, and your roommates haven't seen, and the house obviously hasn't seen (because she's a magical house in the woods), she can't give it to you. If you want a copy of a film you've seen a million times and love dearly, though, she might be able to do something about it.

Though she isn't good at writing either. She can't write a diary for you, you need to do that yourself. She has trouble making books.. words are hard for her. She can translate them for you though ^_^

She cannot make living things. You need to supply that yourself.

..And there aren't any windows on the inside, either, at least not real ones...

There are a few rooms that don't really change, and these are the ones people live in and visit. The kitchen, library, bedrooms, reading nooks and places that almost look like museums and an entire conservatory... more stuff, mostly related to other characters.. those don't really change. She has everything you could ever want.

What is the layout of the house, though? Approximately? Well.

SHE HAS POWERS AND IS SPECIAL AND MAGICAL

She warps space.

So, uh, there's the foyer, which you always walk into when entering. But the door after that? Anyone's guess. Well, not the house's...

The house loves you and cares for you and wants you to be happy and healthy. And she knows what you want, need, your general thoughts at the moment -- magic shit -- so.

You're in the foyer. Want to read a book? She sends you to the library. Or maybe you're feeling a bit hungry, so she drops you into the kitchen. You have an urge to chat with someone? Well, if the other is up to it, when you open the door you'll go into a room where someone else is. If you're bored, she might conjure up a game room or a gallery or something.

If you're trying to neglect your needs, btw, that does not work. She WILL fucking send your ass to the bed or the kitchen or whatever. Try and leave? Good luck, she makes the room loop. You cannot leave until you behave. Take a nap. She also doesn't tolerate miscommunication and will trap people together until they talk it out.

Please don't worry about being stuck in there forever, she's very nice. If you want out (and aren't like. starving or w/e) she'll send you on your way back to the foyer so you can get out :)

But this does go in the opposite direction. If you wish harm on the house (and you can't burn her down -- the stuff inside, maybe, but not her) or her inhabitants? You will enter hell. It becomes some house of leaves, backrooms, nightmare type shit -- a labyrinth of confusing rooms that seem to have no consistency, places that loop in on themselves, endless corridors. You will not leave, probably, unless her occupants will it or take pity on you, in which case fine she will let you leave. Or if she decides you pose no threat. Or if she's bored. But otherwise? Suffer and face her wrath.

Generally speaking, though, she is friendly. She knows what you want, what you need, your thoughts (vaguely) and it's a bit of a privacy invasion, but she can't exactly help that. The house can't poke into your mind and know your darkest memories.

When making new rooms (such as for a new occupant), she takes into account their personal tastes and the purpose of the room. If it's neutral territory, somewhere many people will be, she tries to compromise. If it's a personal space like a bedroom, she goes all in. Maybe you like nautical themes? She can do that. Really obsessed with minimalism? Okay! Have you always wanted to live in a remote cabin in the woods? She will try her very best.

You can sorta communicate with her. You can speak and tell her stuff, and she will listen, but she can't respond. I mean... unless you say something like 'can I have a chair' and she makes one, but does that count?

She is a touch mischievous. Not malicious in the least. But she will sometimes move your table a few inches over because it's entertaining to watch you try and figure out why your bedroom feels off. She might tease you about a crush by repeatedly sending you into one of the gardens, full of flowers. Even if she can't speak, you can figure out what she's 'saying', if you hang out around in her for long enough. If you get genuinely upset, she'll knock it off.

There's probably more but I can't recall it rn and i think I've said more than enough at this point.......... um............... bye thank u for listening?

#the house #my ocs #ocs #? whateverrrrr the tags areeee #wellwicke #<- do i have a fucking wellwicke tag? i should #do i?#man this blog is so dusty i dont know my own shit...#ask #sure

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