Oh damn, that sounds lovely!! And that's SUCH a pretty color omg, I'm so jealous! Looks like I'll have to order a few bath bombs at some point...
It has occurred to me that i should totally put the finished fake paper here too, for easy access by the demanding public (literally nobody asked for this i just crave validation) Here we are. Behold, Robot Does A Plant Science (peer review welcome)
Putting this here so i can c/p it into gdoc tomorrow Spoiler: merverse fairytale Many stormseasons ago there lived a mermaid known for her beautiful voice. She was sleek and silver as many of the Wanderers are, the like of a herring and her parents had named her Fins-of-Silver for that. But her voice was so beautiful that she could sing the fish out of a reef and onto her pod's spears even when ill. One day her wandering took her close to the coast of the Pale Ones. She'd been warned about them, for while they were merfolk as well their customs were strange and they distrusted outsiders. She knew all that, but when she heard the faint echos of a song, she had to follow it. It was a song about dreaming and discovery, but much sadder than any she'd heard before. She answered with her own song, and soon their voices coiled around each other like eels. The sound drew her a sheer stone cliff and to her surprise, the voice seemed to come from inside the stone. She searched for an entry into the cave that surely had to be there, but found only a small opening, too narrow to even allow her hand through. But the owner of the other voice was waiting for her by that tiny opening. He was as excited to meet her as she had been for him, and even without seeing each other, they settled down to talk. For hours they shared tales about each other's life. To her, the unending darkness of a cave was as foreign as the endless expanse of the open ocean was to him. They were so caught up in each other's stories that they even forgot to exchange names. They talked for hours, until suddenly the faint echo of another voice called the merman away. He was clearly unwilling to go, so they made a promise. Tomorrow he would come back here and sing again, so that she knew they could talk once more. Both of them held their promise for day after day, even as Fins-of-Silver's pod decided to travel on. They were sad to lose her, but even though she refused to tell them why she stayed, they could see that she was in love. But while her pod left, his lived in the cave, and their singing couldn't stay secret forever. Soon when Fins-of-Silver came to speak to her beloved, a strange voice answered her, accusing her of trying to lure him away from the safety of the caves. She protested, of course she did, and swore her love to the stranger, on the names of all Deities, even invoking Destruction themself to swallow her, should she lie. But the stranger disn't believe her. Pretty words were too easy too form, and the Pale Ones thought their only Deity to be a loving corpse, not someone you could swear by. Their argument had drawn more people behind the wall of the cave, and finally an old mermaid spoke up. Fins-of-Silver was to prove her love. The Pale Ones were loathe to lose one of their number, so in exchange for her beloved, she was to trade something of equal value: a caught star. Fins-of-Silver didn't dare to Protest such an impossible task, but inside she despaired. Still, as she was sent away she tried to think of a way to satisfy the challenge. For days she traveled the ocean and asked every mer she found for help, but none knew how to acvomplish this, so she asked the fishes and crabs themselves. One lobster told her to make a net of seasilk and take it to the edge of the world on a newmoon night. Just before the sun rose, she should try and wrap her net around a sinking star. There was no better advice to be had, so she tried. It took her nearly three moon cycles to make the net, and another to find the edge of the world, where the ocean was cold and rose to giant white cliffs. There she waited for the newmoon, but when the stars fell into the ocean, they were small like sardines and her net was too coarse to hold any of them. Twice more she tried, making her net finer and finer, but the stars seemed to shrink each time, until they were but Plankton between her fingers. Fins-of-Silver despaired. Wrapped in her seasilk net she let herself sink to the dark bottom of the sea, wailing and lamenting for her caught beloved, who'd never seen the open ocean with her. She laid there until her voice was broken by pain and soft as her seasilk net. Like that she fell asleep, exhausted. In her dream she was chasing after stars in the dark of the abyss, but they eluded her, seemed to mock her even. Just as she was giving up, a hand took her wrist. She turned, and found herself face to face with Scholar, her armoured lobster body glowing faintly in the dark. "Child, you are going to make a fool out of yourself, trying to capture stars as if they were common minnows" Scholar's voice was soft, and old, and seemed to shake the water between them, but her tone wasn't one of chiding. "Stars love their freedom as much as any mer. If you want to take one with you, you have to comvince them to do so of their own free will" With that, Scholar leaned close and hugged her. When Fins-of-Silver woke, she was confused, unsure if the dream had been just her imagination. But she decided to take the dream's advice, it could hardly work any less than her earlier attempt. But how to convince a star? Well, she decided to Start with an apology. It was the night of the first silvers of the moon, the stars were still bright as she came to the surface. It took more courage to apologize than to try and catch them, but it only made her hesitate for a moment. Then she opened her mouth and sang. First of her apology itself, and the stars sank lower to listen to her. Then she told them of her captured beloved, whom she'd never seen, but whose voice followed her into her dreams. She sang lovelier than she ever had before, her eyes closed as she put her feeling into each note and spilled them like Sand. It was lovely, and sad and desperate, so much pain and hope lost that the frozen cliffs melted and one by one the stars settled down on the waves, crowding around to comfort her. She only saw it after her song had ended, the last crystal note carried so long that it seemed to become the only note in the world. Fins-of-Silver opened her eyes and nearly blinded herself, for the stars had gathered so close that the waves around her were whiter than ice and glowed brighter than the sun. As she watched, the stars settled into the knots of her seasilk net and only when they were all filled did the remaing stars return to the sky. Stars and merfolk share no language, but it was clear enough what she was to do. Fins-of-Silver raced back to the cave, almost without rest or food. She was like a shooting star under the waves, and her voice filled with so much joy that not a single shark or orca dared to come near her, if her starlight cloak hadn't scared them off before. She arrived at the cavewall like the sun itself, demanding that the Pale Ones uphold their bargain. They didn't argue. Even through the tiny channel the starlight was almost too bright to bear. The elders only told her where she was to meet her beloved. It wasn't far, but the entry to the cave was so well hidden she would never have found it alone. A pale arm with blue tattoos was extended out of the gloom, and when she handed her net over, she caught a glimpse of huge eyes narrowed to pinpoints and skin so pale it was translucent. Then the cloak of light was gone, and her beloved was pushed into the open water. He was as alien looking as the other, gaunt and pale, gills extending out past their opercula to form a delicate, crimson cloud around him. But when he opened his mouth and called her 'love' and 'free dem' she stopped caring. Before the elders could change her mind, she took his hands and with a single wave of her tail brought them away from the cave. He seemed scared at first, afraid of having space, but the further they moved from land the easier he seemed to breathe. As they swam into the open ocean, she told him how she had captured the stars. Her hugged her close, tail winding around her, white to silver and told her that they belonged together and that her silver scales were but hiding her true nature. He named her Calls-down-Stars and she took the name with pride, and as they traveled and told their story, soon it was the only name she was known by. That got longer than intended...
This just in, when lush says 'bubble bath' they really mean it. I could take a selfie of My naked self RN and all you'd see be Foam Everest and a diaembodied head.
@Acey i'll have you know that you featured in a dream of mine today. You looked like you but purple and for some reason we went hiking together
the purple thing makes SOME sense given my Brand the hiking thing, not so much :P idk about you but i am not an Outdoorsy Person (that's hilarious though, thanks for telling me! <3)
That's the thing, I'm not an outdoors person either, at least not for hiking. And yet there we were, hiking up a damn mountain.
Loved the Aquarium. Bought a small plushie hammerhead shark because i'm me. Took picture of Sir Horace.
Alright I gotta show her off more widely so here you are, my Troll lady who'll be in a WoW themed rpg campaign Her name is Trish, she's a hunter and will either punch you in the face or hit on you the other way, depending on what she thinks will be more fun.
did the fandom tropes thing for science: in no particular order, since they literally all shared first place: Fairy Tale/Mythology AU Enemies to Friends to Lovers Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings Seemingly Unrequited Pining Polyamory Snowed-In Cabin/Isolated Together For Extended Period of Time Vampires/Werewolves AU Supernatural Creature/Human Romance Magical Connection (Telepathy, etc) Royals/Political Marriage Turns Into Feelings my longt time rp buddy and bff @KaidaShade was completely unsurprised by this. Bottom three, for reference: Amnesia Fic Body Swapping Hogwarts AU
Brought on by @artistformerlyknownasdave having excellent davekat opinions: Spoiler: matt, nsfw I'm trying to have my boy ride the line between forward and pushy because like. He knows what he wants and he goes for those things the direct Route. But at the same time he does look just /young/ and he's had enough people react to advances with 'oh no childe' to make him counter that with just being very Direct and Clear about 'yes this is what i'm in for, yes i know the cknsequences, will you stop waffling now or do i literally have to climb on your lap because i fucking will' Like, it's not that he can't take a no, it's that he takes a maybe as a personal challenge. And also he's of course pretty used to calling the shots all over, which combjned with his preference for bottoming means that sure you get to fuck him. But he's got some really strong opinions on the 'how'
y'all i just got back from work to find a link in my discord PMs from the DM of my DnD campaign and it's THE BEST FUCKING THINGS?! quick context: I'm playing Petric, a rogue. He's... a brain parasite piloting a dead woodelf for a meat-mecha. We (the party) have been chosen by the False Moon as its emissaries and agents to help it (Magic Innitiate: a gift from your DM). The False Moon is an ages old, sentient, magical hubble space telescope and God of the Warforged in this verse. As the chosen, part of our job is it to protect the warforged and help them where we can and we've been doing pretty well so far. Petric, as someone who's also not great at being a person does feel very connected to them, and so far the FM has been extremely helpful to him, bestowing the additional extra favour I can't get into detail rn. But basically, I've been setting Petric up to get warlocked to the FM on his next level up. So my DM went and wrote up a little text based rpg and linked it to me, and it's basically the...dream/vision/whathaveyou where Petric first gets access to his new shiney warlock abilities and it's SO GOOD?! And the ending screen is: That was the absolute best fucking thing to come home to i swear to fucking god. The entire mood of the thing and the structure and the lines just fit it so well? and it fits Petric so well?? I am. AHH. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
btw in case someone needs a better visual for my trash boy Matt: if he'd been allowed to get a proper bit of aging in, 'Ezra Miller as in this photoshoot, but with long black curls' is... pretty accurate. So like. imagine a softer, younger looking version of that, 5 feet short and EXACTLY THIS GOTH and you're basically there.
So with the current Whatever In The Fuck Pagan Drama Is event going on...I have to say I am reminded of how much I rather like how you portray Matt's necromancy thing? No idea if you've dived into the wild and wide world of necromancy in the pagan world, but his concerns and what not do ping similarly to some of the stuff I've seen from among them. Which is neato to see!
I gave it some cursory poking, but a lot of it is based of my grumbles on how in popculture, necromancers are often seen as default-evil which.... Makes no sense tk me and also i'm a contrary bitch so 'mad lichking' is a risk, and the dreaded endpoint, but Matt - and necromancers in General - have a purpose as balance- and gatekeepers. And outside of his dark timeline he takes it seriously. It's his Talent as much as his calling. (Also i'm like SUPER PLEASED to know than An Actual Pagan Person thinks my attempts at it are good)
