iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

// Unironically yes (Also 🤝 about the relatable endless lore building habits in general)

𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

// Old posts didn’t retroactively get the thread numbering, that’s surprising. Torn between relieved because I kind of dislike the clutter it adds and disappointed because “solos” like that aren’t as apparent when reposted

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Reposted by 𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱

𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

( But do you remember the faces of your kin, the scramble of their tiny hands clutching for yours as you climbed, reaching and grasping for the way out and light above? Could you? Could you, the last and only one out, remember them, left behind broken and dark in the pit below? )

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

← Just learned about marimo and is overcome with maternal fondness

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Swaying where they stand. Without fully meaning to, they haven’t slept in days. The cold has crept slowly back in. Instinct over conscious logic has rooted them to the spot at their outpost in some attempt to benefit from the remaining warmth for as long as possible.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

(Not like this one can see anything anymore as it is. The light never brought anything good, anyway.)

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

(What better place for a beast of void and purpose than the dark?)

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

// Surprising no one I got my shins kicked in by poor health again. I'm not claiming to be back to normal just yet but I will certainly be trying. And if I continue to do nothing but flounder like a dying fish then it's not that I lied it's that I failed

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

// In all honesty due to past issues with stalkers I try to keep my head down and be more anonymous than anything, but if that's generally frowned upon here then I'll at least figure out how site lists work

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

// Everyone’s been talking an awful lot about it lately(?) so unfortunately I have neither a proper writer tag nor enough accounts to make a starter pack with. But I do tend to manually list my other guys somewhere in my pinned, so there is at least that

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

'Ensure her children may live.' No more ashes. No more grief or duty or purpose denied and rewritten. Let one of them, at least, live warm and fulfilled, with freedom and family.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Here, given a choice, they will not repeat the same cruelty demanded and imparted by their father. 'Take her,' they plead, watery and faint, urging their hand forward. 'Let her live what she was meant to. No constraints.' 𝘕𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴. 'No expectations.' 𝘕𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘥.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

It would be an unspeakable cruelty to deny her anything, even in part, in exchange for their own selfish wants, known or unknown. '... She will freeze,' Lantana concludes weakly, their likeness to this tiny being—and the experiences they will never get to share—threatening to choke their words.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

She has no promise to anyone but herself and the uncountable children she carries— And what of their mother, caught in tears around a corner, lamenting what they can never know? And what of themself, denied prosperity and things they should or would or could have otherwise existed for?

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

She cannot nest or survive the cold here—neither can they, they suspect. But they remain, for love of community and nearby family both, for self-proclaimed duty, for self-made purpose. She, far from home, out of place, away from all that is familiar and loved, has none of those things, they reason.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Too much runs through their normally calmly sluggish mind at once. Logistics overlayed with empathetic reasoning bring to light too many parallels to their own circumstances—some known, some only guessed, some unknowable. She cannot eat or reliably be fed here—neither can they.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

If you mean to travel onward to the northern city, I beg you reconsider. Warmth here is freely given.'

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

and do not seem inclined to care. Loneliness be damned, they are dutiful, and the exposed crack in the bone-like surface of their forehead aches in a way that can only mean one thing. 'Storms approach. What cold exists now will worsen.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

The guardian's head tilts down as though to better focus on him, as though seeing him for the first time. To a blind bug feigning sight through Soul-magics, he is nothing but a murky figure in a sea of shimmering monochrome. Fellow bug or some other thing entirely, they cannot tell,

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

'Snowside,' Lantana provides quietly, barely audible over the distant howl of icy wind if not for the fact their voice is delivered through something approaching telepathy. A soft thing, not quite feminine, but neither masculine. 'Food and shelter can be found here, traded for goods or services.'

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Surrounding the pair are sparse buildings, certainly, but the streets are wide and empty, and its residents, save for one, are hidden from the cold. A thin line of smoke rises from the outpost behind this towering bug-thing, serving as a comparatively warm and inviting signal to the lost or weary.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

// I look forward to when this inevitably happens again 🤝

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

// Imagine my face when I followed just because this guy’s a fun little trip down nostalgia lane with good writing and find out it’s YOU (positive)

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

They dare to hope as much as they dare not think in equal measure. Seeds not yet sprouted cannot supply a table, cannot be sweetened, cannot be sold and traded for better rations. Some day it will be grand, and they will wonder what it was like to have ever starved. Some day, but not now. Not yet.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

too soon and too unfathomable for the guardian to know, before the higher being responsible for the frigid climate returns from its arbitrary migration, as it always does. The workers themselves are all too aware, and Lantana watches them toil and race unbidden against the known unknown.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

and the burgeoning array of traded goods that promise them accessible meals for a change, cannot come soon enough. The air is warm now, and has been for some time. But not long enough, and gales with biting edges threaten to creep nearer with each passing day. It's only a matter of time,

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

the cold comes again, and the sloped tops of the open-sided shelters constructed in tandem over the rows will keep the snow of tomorrows from smothering the produce. So much progress has been made in such a short few months, and yet it feels agonisingly slow. The new crops, the resulting recipes,

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

They watch, with hazy makeshift vision, as worker bugs sent from the city and familiar figures alike make use of this fleeting spring. Ever-warm coal-stones pried from the local mines are buried deep in the temporarily softened ground—they will keep the new fields thawed and plentiful even when

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

[ Solo ] The economic and agricultural independence of Snowside moves apace. Lantana stands at the fringes of new fields in the process of being dug and tilled and sown with seeds from some far-flung place, sure to grow into plentiful crops that will serve as a new culinary staple and export.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

// Yes and no. It isn’t from typical motion sickness so much as unrelated biology causing a miserable domino effect. Being a tree-based nature deity thing and 100% disconnected from solid ground is a terrible combination, and in their case causes what is best described as intense vertigo.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

'The place you have chosen is a pleasant one,' they agree calmly. 'The air here is sweet with fruit, and the breeze which carries it is warm. Can it be assumed your home is here, then?'

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Indeed, they have lived such kindness since their release from doomed purpose, they may well know nothing else. Carefully, politely, Lantana comes to settle into the offered seat beside him, head mindfully turned only partway when looking at him so as not to loom.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Their hips and legs are wider than that used to be. He had even said they looked like a tree. Surely they must. Easing to a stand, careful not to drop any of the remaining plums, the melancholy of it is left behind. If they think it unusual to be offered a place beside a stranger, it doesn't show.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

It's almost comforting to hear the sentiment not only acknowledged, but also shared. Lantana can only guess, really, what they look like these days, and how much of that appearance gives away their nature. Do they look like their mother? Gentle, softer now, rounder? Could they ever?

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Explanation for the dedicated effort to catch her, it seems. 'But if she is instead from your home, then...' Then this tiny life is incompatible with what this world can provide. A fact the guardian knows, and one they hope Solas may also intuit, for they have not the words to articulate it now.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

'She—' It is unlike them, to pause or stammer in their projected voice. A trip in their thoughts, perhaps, or some emotion not quite caught yet in their naturally subdued state. 'Sounds of her movement have been heard often. My meals she has not appeared for to share. I feared she might be hungry.'

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

It takes them a moment to blink back to reality; no more than a glance down to the still-calm different-bug in their hand as they remind themself of their manners. 'The sleeping quarters,' Lantana reports a moment later, almost as if unsure—of themself, of the situation overall, their mind reeling.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

never quite been conscious of, but have caught frequent glimpses of—in unknowable moments like this, or in visitors passing by their post with tiny children chittering and laughing and flitting about the tips of their legs as though the guardian were a safe part of the scenery for their game.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

but their eyes are empty, and their frame is utterly still as they process this jarring shift in expectations. It's quite a lot to handle all at once. To go from having thought they might care for a child, to hearing instead this is a mother-to-be, brings them a certain pain they have

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

the would-be baby. Hardly in fear of Solas potentially harming it, but to shield and soothe it from being startled by the sudden noise and movement. The word 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 brings them back to their senses, if only enough to relax their posture. Their hand is lowered and open again for them both to see,

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Instincts they seem unaware they even have kick in before anything else. Rather than react with alarmed suspicion for what they might hold, instead they take a reflexive step backward in confused surprise, curling their hand again gently and bringing it closer to their chest as though to protect

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

tension straining the normally soft quality of their projected voice. An ironic thing to ask, no less, from a visitor foreign to this world altogether.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

but too different, and it sets them on edge. They do not acknowledge the flat statement or its implication, nor do they care for or flinch at the threat of the would-be stinger trained on them. 'What purpose is yours, to prowl these woods?' The bug-thing demands instead,

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

They have not the slightest clue what it is they're looking at. Shaped like a hulking bug, they can tell, but with sounds and smells unlike anything they have ever known before. It is like the city to the north of their village, almost—loud and clattering with the grind of steam-driven gears,

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

and it is instinct which has drawn them toward the acrid stench of machinery with something like fury and the need to protect burning in them. It shows in their tense frame, shoulders hiked and head low, and the massive blade already in their hand, gripped tight but low—and backwards—at their side.

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

This forest, it seems, is some other thing entirely—not quite on its last legs so much as learning to walk again, and haunted, apparently, by something utterly incomprehensible to the would-be nature deity standing now before it. Instinct had brought them here to search and perhaps nourish,

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𝐿𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒶 🌱 @branching-paths.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Their little excursions never can just be simple, can they? A forest is rarely just a forest, Lantana's travels and searches have taught them. Often they are already claimed or occupied, if not too foreign or incompatible in some way with their biology or the unknown purpose which drives them.

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