i finished ARR in my ng+ so decided to start posting what i've been doing with that ng+ which is writing the Ballad of Fiver. figured the easiest way to organize it on ao3 would be as a series. with a fic for each segment of the game and then chapters dividing those up. some of those chapters might be extremely short, some very long. i have no idea what my posting schedule will be. maybe a few times a week. this is primarily just fun for me and for the three Fiver heads i know will read it so i'm not taking it very seriously. many liberties will be taken with Viera biology and culture, it's not my fault the lore is so vague jskdfl
--
"Where are you hiding, little Fiver..."
Atli stayed perfectly still, crouched on a branch above their home. They watched their sister snoop around beneath them, searching the usual hiding places. Their mouth curled into a smile. She never looked up.
Zirva stood, hands on her hips, looking around. "Okay, okay, I give up!" she called.
Atli waited, still, silent. She huffed a sigh and started walking again, still looking around. They waited until she was underneath them and then dropped out off the branch, landing on her and knocking her to the ground.
"Oof!" she squeaked. She reacted immediately, tensing and kicking Atli off of her, her powerful legs sending them flying. They landed and rolled into a crouch.
"There you are!" Zirva laughed as she got up and saw them, relaxing as she realized it was her sibling who had attacked her. Atli stood, grinning.
"You still never look up," they said, pointing up at the branch they'd been hiding on. "It's a good thing you're not a jack, you'd make a terrible Wood-warder."
She stuck her tongue out at them. "We'll have to hope you turn out to be one then, you'll be the only one able to keep us safe."
Atli snorted, trotting over to her. "I hope not," they said. "Then I'd have to leave."
"Like you don't want to," Zirva said, ruffling their hair playfully as they walked together down one of the bridges, following the smell of food. "I've heard you asking our mothers all manner of queer questions."
Atli flicked their ears, not replying immediately. That they couldn't deny. They'd always been one for asking too many questions – since they had learned to speak if their mother was to be believed. They had a insatiable curiosity about the world around them and it didn't stop at the Wood like it ought to. They wanted to know what was beyond their borders, but they'd been warned away from that topic many times. It was dangerous outside the forest, so they were told. They would understand when they were older. That seemed to be a response that adults favored, which Atli hated.
Lately that curiosity had been rather overshadowed by a looming anxiety. All four of their older sisters had come of age and been determined to be does, Zirva most recently. Atli was the only one still indeterminate, but it wouldn't be long. They were going on fourteen summers, already a bit of a late bloomer, and every day a mild dread that they would wake up and find their body changing the wrong way got heavier.
They had no desire to be a Wood-warder. That responsibility would drag them away from their sisters and mothers, leaving them living in solitude for the rest of their life. Assuming they survived the training in the first place.
It was more likely they would be another sister. Far more likely. Males were extremely rare. But there was always a chance.
"Cheer up, I'm only teasing," Zirva said, and they realized they'd been quiet too long.
They smiled, trying to drive away the inner clouds of anxiety. "I know. And I'm starving. Let's find something to eat."
i finished ARR in my ng+ so decided to start posting what i've been doing with that ng+ which is writing the Ballad of Fiver. figured the easiest way to organize it on ao3 would be as a series. with a fic for each segment of the game and then chapters dividing those up. some of those chapters might be extremely short, some very long. i have no idea what my posting schedule will be. maybe a few times a week. this is primarily just fun for me and for the three Fiver heads i know will read it so i'm not taking it very seriously. many liberties will be taken with Viera biology and culture, it's not my fault the lore is so vague jskdfl
--
"Where are you hiding, little Fiver..."
Atli stayed perfectly still, crouched on a branch above their home. They watched their sister snoop around beneath them, searching the usual hiding places. Their mouth curled into a smile. She never looked up.
Zirva stood, hands on her hips, looking around. "Okay, okay, I give up!" she called.
Atli waited, still, silent. She huffed a sigh and started walking again, still looking around. They waited until she was underneath them and then dropped out off the branch, landing on her and knocking her to the ground.
"Oof!" she squeaked. She reacted immediately, tensing and kicking Atli off of her, her powerful legs sending them flying. They landed and rolled into a crouch.
"There you are!" Zirva laughed as she got up and saw them, relaxing as she realized it was her sibling who had attacked her. Atli stood, grinning.
"You still never look up," they said, pointing up at the branch they'd been hiding on. "It's a good thing you're not a jack, you'd make a terrible Wood-warder."
She stuck her tongue out at them. "We'll have to hope you turn out to be one then, you'll be the only one able to keep us safe."
Atli snorted, trotting over to her. "I hope not," they said. "Then I'd have to leave."
"Like you don't want to," Zirva said, ruffling their hair playfully as they walked together down one of the bridges, following the smell of food. "I've heard you asking our mothers all manner of queer questions."
Atli flicked their ears, not replying immediately. That they couldn't deny. They'd always been one for asking too many questions – since they had learned to speak if their mother was to be believed. They had a insatiable curiosity about the world around them and it didn't stop at the Wood like it ought to. They wanted to know what was beyond their borders, but they'd been warned away from that topic many times. It was dangerous outside the forest, so they were told. They would understand when they were older. That seemed to be a response that adults favored, which Atli hated.
Lately that curiosity had been rather overshadowed by a looming anxiety. All four of their older sisters had come of age and been determined to be does, Zirva most recently. Atli was the only one still indeterminate, but it wouldn't be long. They were going on fourteen summers, already a bit of a late bloomer, and every day a mild dread that they would wake up and find their body changing the wrong way got heavier.
They had no desire to be a Wood-warder. That responsibility would drag them away from their sisters and mothers, leaving them living in solitude for the rest of their life. Assuming they survived the training in the first place.
It was more likely they would be another sister. Far more likely. Males were extremely rare. But there was always a chance.
"Cheer up, I'm only teasing," Zirva said, and they realized they'd been quiet too long.
They smiled, trying to drive away the inner clouds of anxiety. "I know. And I'm starving. Let's find something to eat."
A customer contacted our team with questions, and then finished their email with: "I am daunted by the complexities and unknowns." I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.
as i slowly try to get over my arachnophobia i must confess i always thought it was silly when people told me "don't worry, they're more scared of you than you are of them!" like okay first of all i'm not even sure if thats true, most house spiders seem like they're kinda minding their own business while i am demonstrably freaking out. second of all if it IS true then it doesnt even change how scared i am. like great now we're both scared. i'm scared, the spiders scared, everythings fucked. lets just burn the house down hand in unlovable hand (and hand and hand and hand and hand and hand and hand and hand.)
Presumably seeing that the current model of managing generative AI was unstable, Google has been working to make theirs more efficient, and supposedly succeeded in making it significantly less memory-intensive.
RAM prices are falling because now, nobody can or will buy all the hardware they've been setting aside. Demand is plummeting, which is causing stock to plummet, which is gonna create uncertainty in the whole venture. If we're lucky, this is the beginning of the end.
i know no one on here cares, but it's so wild to watch NASA piloted launch coverage again after years of having to deal with SpaceX. They're explaining minor glitches without bullshitting about weather delays?? There's a guy holding his 2yo kid's model rocket being like "he said I could use this so it's okay. Anyway, the battery for this system is here--"
The Artemis II Moon rocket lifted off from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, 2026. Our live launch day coverage continues on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_UjBMIzNo
Stick with us for more Artemis II content including live broadcasts for lunar flyby and splashdown, daily news conferences, and 24/7 streams providing views from the Orion spacecraft and from NASA Kennedy.
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