#<- guy who has collected so many screenshots for personal collections as well as for sonic au reasons

[cat-dragron]

Oh yeah, reaching that point of the obsession where I have so many thoughts and opinions on something that watching reviews about it is difficult bc they miss something I think is important.

I really need to start drafting a video essay at this point... <- guy who has never done media analysis in his life.

[unowneyenon]

edit: hi guys this is from 2023 😭😭there’s still some cool stuff on here but for the most part it is a smidge outdated! feel free to look through anyway though bc i’m not sure if this stuff is on the site anymore :]

‼️UPDATING THE WELCOME HOME UPDATE LIST AGAIN‼️

i feel like i cant keep UP just SOOOO MANY PEOPLE ARE FINDINF INFO EXTREMELY FAST so by using my personal update list and the findings of others, here’s the update list, updated for the second time!

🏡BEFORE WE JUMP IN, i’d wish to highlight some weird things i personally experienced throughout the site🏡

more than one have i heard a sound while using my headphones that sounded like faint morse code.

i feel like i’ve heard a static/white noise on the site before

after exploring the “secret” version of the site, i thought i heard a heartbeat

one more thing that’s probably important! the company who made welcome home’s merchandise—Marlo— has a logo that looks like this

hmmm totally not suspicious using wally’s colors inside of an eye inside of a home silhouette!!

the morse code i am POSITIVE about. enough of that, onto the records and bug videos!

🐛the BUGS🐛

thanks to @underscore-duendie (for searching for hours i salute u solder 🫡) and @angel-lyah ‘s VERY useful masterlist, we now have what seems like a complete collection of all the bugs!! here are all of them, in order (as screenshots tho because tumblr dot com won’t let me post all the urls)

this is @underscore-duendie ‘s post!

🏡audios!🏡

@angel-lyah ‘s list covered this VERY well, even putting all of them together in a message👏👏👏 all of these audios have wally speaking directly to us. not sure if there’s more, but here’s what was found! (this is a screenshot btw i use tumblr on my phone)

angel also put them all together stacked on top of each other! it creates a whole conversation between us and wally! go check it out!

ALSO ALSO @gandalfsbongwater informed me that if you click on the red button on the phone of the “it’s for you” toy (the merch page) it leads you to wally’s duet audio!

@angel-lyah graciously covered this hidden secret too—the safe!

I EXPLORED I DISCOVERED ITS REALLY WEIRD AND IT LOOKS LIKE THIS (really bad screenshot edition)

there’s nothing to click on except the “it’s in here” button. at least, not that i know of. here are the images found on the site! (side note uhh what are those things in the background of the white screen?? like, next to the pictures?)

THERE ARE MORE IMAGES BUT ONCE AGAIN TUMBLR DOT COM ONLY LETS ME UPLOAD A CERTAIN AMOUNT. I WILL REBLOG THIS WITH THE REST OF THE IMAGES.

[moonsaver]

Wait listen‐totally out of the blue but modern!au atla in a high-school or college setting. Zuko x reader btw

Listen listen. Zuko drops down from being a cool popular kid after he joins the gaang,but also? He's kinda the school's crush. Like yes, most of azula's fans and many kids in general from the fire nation dont like Zuko anymore, but many people develop a crush on him. And he's so painfully oblivious to it.

And the gaang is always making fun of his loser aesthetic, posting him on social media and forcing him to actually start using his social media account. He never does use it much except for reposting photos and statuses his friends have on there.

Until you.

He was especially struggling with a problem and awkwardly asked you for help. You were technically just polite out of general respect but you were... really nice. And he groans into his pillow at night when he realizes that small interaction has an irrational grip on him. To make it worse? Sokka from the other side of the classroom saw it and made it his personal mission to track down your socials.

With a lot of pain and difficulty (none, actually. Turns out Suki is quite media-literate), the gaang manages to find your account and send it to the group chat. For once, Zuko's.. actually trying to do normal social media things. Some of them start bickering on whether or not Zuko should send a follow request, but by the time they're done, you've already accepted it, and Zuko curiously scrolls through your profile. The gaang frantically tells him not to like your old photos, he's confused at the concept, but begrudgingly listens anyway. If this happens when they're all meeting up, then they huddle around Zuko and watch the tiny screen and point out all things about your little profile, and ogle at every tidbit of your life. If it happens when they're all at home, then they collectively cyberstalk you, sending various screenshots to the groupchat and discussing about you.

You on the other hand, only know Zuko as the kind of cute, awkward guy who needed your help with a math problem. You wondered if you messed something up while explaining the problem to him, and then brushed it off and forgot about it entirely until you woke up one day and noticed his entire friend group had viewed your status. A few of them had even liked it. (Ahem, Aang and Toph).

It's not soon until one of them actually comes up and talks to you, because Zuko is deathly afraid of messing things up, and he stutters so much everytime Sokka makes him practice talking to you, it's like a lost cause. Of course, in the end, it's Katara and Suki to the rescue! All three of you get along surprisingly well. It's only a matter of time until you actually get added to the friend group. Until then, maybe pretend Zuko's acting skills are believable as he asks for your help with the simplest problems, to borrow your stationaries, and make awkward small talk. You go along with it anyway. He's cute.

[forerussake]

Many-Coated Mayhem #3

In the wake of coat post #1 and #2 I promised I had more still, and I do, because lo and behold: Wu Xie is not the only one in TSF who wears nice coats. There are SO MANY nice coats in this show. Here's some of my personal favourites:

Coat 24

I've mentioned her before! One of the most glorious coats in this many-coated show: Pangzi's floofy, leather-and-fur wintercoat. He starts wearing this at the Retreat in episode 9, and he wears it for some time after that.

It's beautiful and amazing and gorgeous and it looks spectacular on him, and I WANT IT. (Or maybe I just want him to hug me?)

Coat 25

This is the robey coaty situation Xiaoge wears in the flashbacks of him visiting the Yinshaluo Shrine in episodes 20-21. It has furr lining the hood, and nice patches on the elbows and a red belt/sash to secure it around his waist.

It looks soft in a way his modern-day attire rarely does and it's an allround LOOK. Especially when paired with his fingerless gloves.

Coat 26

It's Yinshaluo and Second Bronze Door trip winter coat time!

First up: Zhang Haike. I grabbed this shot from episode 31, when he goes to the Spiritual Retreat to take on the position of Deren, because most of the other scenes it appears in were either too dark, too muted in colour, too snowy, or too fast-paced to get a decent screenshot at 720p, and maybe also because I only decided to include it at all when I realized by the end that I had nothing yet for ZHK for this post and I thought that was a little bit sad. He does have nice fashion, but rarely did this show allow me to screenshot it.

Anyway, it's grey and darker grey, and it's exactly the kind of coat you'd expect this brooding old man to wear on his secret missions into the mountains.

Coat 27

Zhang Haixing's white wintercoat! It's a white wintercoat. It looks good on her. She's ready to go skiing with the girls. Idk what else to say about it. It has furr and pockets!

She manages to keep it clean for a surprisingly long time... until she doesn't anymore.

Coat 28

THE MOMENT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! It's Feng's incredibly in character and on point bright orange wintercoat. Just look at it, isn't it amazing? (See also ZHK in the only other clear shot I managed to get of his grey coat.)

Anyway, Feng's fashion sense has been on point for the whole show, and he proves it again by pairing this orange monstrosity with a babyblue jumpsuit, which you can see here as he is standing there thinking 'well, damn, if it isn't the consequences to my own actions...' Can you tell I have come to love him deeply as the show went on?

Feng is also clearly the only person in this godforsaken party who wants to be saved should an avalanche occur, wearing a bright colour that will not camouflage him right into the backdrop of the mountain, a strategy that is almost undone in the first episode that all of these coats appear in, when they collectively decide to take them all off.

So, kids, what have we learned from episode 21? Keep your plot-relevant coats on!

Coat 29

This is baby!Zhang Haixing's incredible blue trenchcoat. She wears this in the sad flashback in episode 27.

Look, I don't have anything to say about this other than OMG LOOK AT HER SHE IS SO PRETTY. It deserves to be said okay.

"Coat" 30

Speaking of pretty, remember how I said I love Feng? Because I love him. He is ridiculous, a surprisingly compelling character despite also being this DMBJ installment's #1 resident white guy, and a walking model. Which brings me to: his blue robes from episode 28 at the Yinshaluo village.

"But Eru," you say, "none of these shots actually show his outfit." And yeah, I couldn't get a good shot of it, sorry, but it looks good okay. Trust me. These pictures of him being stupidly pretty and apparently a horse-whisperer will just have to suffice.

Coat 31

This is ridiculous leather coat Zhang Haixing wears when she goes to visit her big brother at the Spiritual Retreat in episode 31.

This monstrosity with its straps and lines and incredibly not functional off-the-shoulder slab of furr should not be allowed to look good on anyone and yet somehow she makes it work. Kudos ma'am. Also I am so sorry that your brother didn't hug you. He should've fucking hugged you, the absolute bastard. You deserved that much from him. Alas it wasn't meant to be.

Coat 32

Now we are getting towards the end. I've shown you in coat post #1 what Wu Xie wears on the trip to Yucun in episode 32. Now it's Pangzi's turn:

He wears something that is maybe technically also a shirt, but it's got a green pattern and I don't care I just wanted you to see him once more. Look at him. Isn't your heart healed now? I thought as much.

Coat 33

Xiaoge's Blue Coat™️ Is it really THE blue coat? Is this the one Wu Xie nabs off the statue and wears in a thematically meaningful way for a couple episodes? Is it THE blue coat returned to its rightful owner??? I don't know. The show doesn't allow me to look at it too closely. But it may well be.

I'm choosing to interpret it as such. If you want a closer look: see the final screenshot in this post, and decide for yourself.

Coat 34

Another Xiaoge coat. This the black one he wears on the mountain hike where they find the fisherman, and also when he steals a chicken from their poor neighbour. Oopsie.

Is it a coat? Is it a vest? Does it really matter? He looks soft and warm and happy, and isn't that all we ever wanted for him? The black is a nice return to his roots, though I personally have LOVED the visual shift to blue as his primary coat colour since Reboot came out.

I know for a fact he wears multiple different blue coats during the show, and maybe one day I will piece together another post in which I try to figure out how many different blue Xiaoge coats show up in this show.

For now though, I am leaving you with the Iron Triangle in Yucun, alive and happy and together. Who knows what (coats) the future still has in stall for them? (Sssst, don't tell them yet.)

[jaxt0y]

-- 𝙃𝙀𝙔, 𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙔𝘽𝙊𝘿𝙔, let's all take a peek at the 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕃, ℙ𝕌ℝℙ𝕃𝔼 𝔽ℝ𝔼𝔸𝕂 - he's the jerk with the ＪＯＫＥ of the week . . . 𝑾𝑯𝑶 𝑵𝑬𝑬𝑫𝑺 𝑯𝑰𝑴 ?

[ 1 ] :   INTRO.  hi! my name is mae, i'm 25, i use she/her pronouns & i go by est. this is my semi - selective, low activity rp blog for jax of "the amazing digital circus." icon border & psd are both by jessources. all graphics here are made by me unless stated otherwise.

[ 2 ] :   ETIQUETTE.  you know the rules.  no godmodding, bigotry, racism, forcing ships, or hate of any kind . jax is an ass who loves to mess with others for the fun of it, it's literally nothing personal against your muse, but i will never godmod. just be a decent person i don't do well with drama & i dislike callout culture & i won't be participating in it in any way. of course i want to know who to avoid, but i would prefer these things to be handled & discussed privately & maturely. do not follow if you are a minor or if you use/support: amber heard, gina carano, evan peters, chris pratt or scarlett johanson. if any drama occurs or has occurred with someone i know, i am open to discussing it calmly & in private.

[ 3 ] :   FOLLOWING.  if i follow you,  it means i want to write with you! . if not, it's likely because i can't see our muses clicking well or that i am unfamiliar with the fandom. i will soft block if you don't make an effort to interact with me ooc or ic for some time. i will block you if you break any of my rules.

[ 4 ] :   TRIGGERS & NSFW. triggers you might find on this blog include: themes of existentialism, dissociation, & some violent behavior. i will be tagging triggers as: "trigger cw" & will happily tag anything if asked. my own triggers include: dissociation/depersonalization/derealization, body horror, trypophobia, & eye gore. i'm happy to write nsfw themes so long as we've spoken beforehand!

[ 5 ] :   ACTIVITY & FORMATTING.  my activity is typically sporadic no matter the blog. i do have a life outside of rp & my own mental health to look after. sometimes i'm able to write many replies a day, others only one or none at all. patience in regards to replies is much appreciated & expected. my lengths are usually multi para but they can be shorter or longer depending. never be afraid to send random asks, multiple memes, or turn answers into threads! i love collecting a variety of prompts, but i’m privy to deleting them if they’ve been sitting for awhile or if i can’t think of anything good enough, same goes for threads. sometimes i’ll post one-liner starter calls, but you never have to match my length exactly but i do expect something to go off of. i use small, bold, & italic text. you also do not have to match my formatting & i implore you to tell me if you need it changed for accessibility purposes. my eyesight is not the best, so i ask you to please avoid screenshot-ed replies or using too much fancy text.

[ 6 ] :   SHIPPING. i love shipping with all my heart, exploring dynamics no matter what they may entail is my favorite thing, especially with a complicated guy like jax. he's very closed off & not the most in tune with his emotions, so good luck if you do want to explore a relationship with him (just be sure to talk to me first!). lastly, i ship funnybunny & bunnydoll, but if you write pomni or ragatha i will never expect you to ship with me unless, yet again, we've talked about it. i see jax as panromantic & pansexual.

[ 7 ] :   PORTRAYAL. since tadc is ongoing, my portrayal is subject to change as episodes are released. i know that jax is a jerkwad, but i love to see what makes characters tick, & as of now i don't see him as this irredeemable asshole, just someone who relies on self preservation to survive.

AFFILIATES: @pomniegranate

[fredricwertham]

3, 7 and 11 for the ask

3 Screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

Can’t say it’s the *worst* of all time because I know I’ve seen worse out there but at some point I started collecting takes on Devin Grayson that piss me off in this post. Between the two, I’d say the second is shittier. Buddy, do you think that writing decision could have been made On Purpose to broadcast a point about the character?

7 What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how the fandom acts about them?

None, really! I’m sure it seems like the answer is Jason (and his fans definitely don’t make me like him MORE) but I only dislike characters when I don’t think they work well as characters or that they’re bad for the stor* they’re in.

The fact of it is that I don’t like (okay, hate) Jason because his return has been pretty terrible for characters I like and care about more, and who I think were overall better written than he’s ever been. He’s displaced a lot of cooler, more interesting characters as Gotham’s resident anti-hero, and his revival has been so bad for Dick that writers can’t even use Dick’s post crisis/preboot characterization without new fans complaining that *he’s* too much like Jason, even though Dick preexists Jason by multiple decades in any continuity. Obviously, this specific overlap happened on purpose because DC editorial wanted to kill Dick off in order to make Jason Nightwing II (or III? Not sure how we’re counting the Kryptonian legend here) back in the aughts and, after getting rejected by both fans and writers, pushed the change through in the N52 reboot by sticky tacking several of Dick’s defining relationships and character traits to Jason while reducing Dick to something of a non-character. But I think there’s also an aspect of the problem where… the bat books are very crowded, you know? And they have been since well before Jason was re-added to the cast in UTRH. There isn’t very much room to expand him beyond the straightforwardly villainous role he was returned to the books in without making him redundant to a character that already exists.

Many people have pointed out that fanon characterizations of Jason are frequently “stolen” from canon characters, and I think this is the reason that happens. Sometimes there’s a hilarious degree of precision: you want a complicated-but-brutal anti-hero who’s willing to kill but wants to protect women and children and is also a CSA survivor? That’s Helena Bertinelli. Anti-hero who isn’t totally in control of their actions due to the Trauma and Visions but is a good person deep down? JPV. Scrappy underdog from a lower class background with a mook-level villainous parent who was severely wronged by Bruce but won’t give up the good fight? Steph. Attempts at giving Jason a relationship with either Dick or Tim typically end up being a poor man’s version of Dick and Tim’s canon dynamic, which is among the most significant and well-developed in the entire franchise. I mean, Tim literally WAS one of the characters the reboot tried to staple to Jason. I just want that guy goneeee Jimmy Starlin SAVE US!!!

11 Number of fandom-related words you've filtered

On here?? None. I only follow a handful of people who post about comics and I never go in the tags (imagine…) so it’s not really practical. I do filter out good dad/bad dad, good whatever/bad whatever tags when I look at ao3 on the maybe baseless assumption that anyone who uses them is a bad writer lol

[catchyhuh]

i like your pfp

but on a similar topic, what's your favorite design of the lupgang?

My favorite is usually just all of the shin lupin manga designs, because I'm biased as hell, but i am a fan of fuma, cagli, and dead or alive's style as well!

ty!! it's kind of funny, initially i was weary of the dead or alive designs but (as evidenced by the icon) THEY KINDA GREW ON ME! i imagine the fucking cool as hell animation and ole helped too BUT ANYWAY!! DESIGNS! IM GOING TO PUT MY ANSWER UNDER A CUT TO BE POLITE

okay my favorite lupin design. this one is probably the hardest because i love a lot of different ones for different reasons. i would say it's not a stretch to say lupin has the most consistent design across everything, and that's even compared to a guy who's face is half covered 90% of the time. um this is very basic but every time i like, envision the guy in my head, i'm thinking about part 2. his angles are sharp enough to convey that he's up to no good, but he's got huge expressive eyes without being too cutesy either. if p3 lupin is laffy taffy than p2 lupin is like. silly putty. moldable but slightly more solid. i think it'd be easier if i talked about lup designs i DIDN'T like but that's negative and we're talking POSITIVES. so yes. part 2.

for jigen i mostly base it off of his eyes. i collect jigen eye peek frames like they're pokemon cards. and based on that alone i'm half tempted to say det conan vs lupin but then i thought, hey, that might just be because. jigen was the main highlight of those for me. there's many good eye peeks so i have to observe all my collected studies. and then i went through everything and decided yeah this is probably still my favorite jigen. the insanely fluffy hair combined with the twice as spiky beard probably doesn't hurt in just creating a fun design either yknow

god picking one specific fujiko is ALSO going to be difficult because they literally just invent a completely new insanely beautiful woman every time. which is kinda the point but ANYWAY there's so many and i'm thinking like OH I LIKE THAT FUJIKO but only cuz of her hair. I LIKE THAT FUJIKO but i think it's just because this dress is pretty. stuff like that. so i went through my whole excessive catalog of screenshots and i think my answer is operation return the treasure. aside from just being a nice, if standard, design, i like the way she doesn't have drawn in pupils at some points, which is very small and subtle but kind of like. a visual shorthand to tell you something is Wrong with this woman and i love that! but my final answer is. so strange. it's this figure. this figure is THE fujiko to me. the sick as hell outfit, the charm, the way her smile is equal parts standard fujiko flirtiness but also looks like she's sincerely just in a happy mood. this fujiko ROCKS

goemon's design in princess of the breeze was kinda cute, like the middle point between his old look and the p4/p5 shorter haircut, and i also LOVE fuma but that's just because it's the quintessential goemon experience. i think my FAVORITE favorite is hemingway papers. he's so pretty but still Shaped and solid. a good balance of cool and mysterious but also silly enough to get in on the fun. plus he makes this face and that kinda automatically makes him the best

ok god help me i've been talking way too much about tokyo crisis i'm not going to talk about tokyo crisis. by this point as i'm writing this i've spent multiple hours going through all of the shit i've seen and making a mental list of all the best parts of each design and i've determined you can use the same basic design thirty times but it will FEEL different based on how you let their personality come through. so. because i'm forcing myself out of tokyo crisis mode. i think episode 0 is an ehh level special (with way too muted colors i should add) with a LETS GO!!! level zenigata. look at this guy! final answer: this guy.

[basedtater]

hello i am hawkeye fan by which i mean "a fan of what hawkeye could be but seldom is" and i've read all of the fraction/aja run but haven't really read many other hawkeye comics!! what do you think are the best ones that showcase him? especially if there are others that have characterization in line with the fraction ones 👀

most ppl who love the fraction characterization end up loving Thompson and Rosenburg runs so I'm gonna start there and add some personal recommendations at the end

•Tales of Suspense #100-104 (Rosenburg, 2017) Clint and Bucky team up!! Very fun, weird but fun

•West Coast Avengers (Thompson, 2018) Clint leading the West Coast Avengers, another fun comic

•Hawkeye Freefall #1-6 (Rosenberg 2020) first Clint solo in years, extremely well received, much more serious and a good character study for current clint imo

•Black Widow #1-15 (Thompson, 2021) has Clint in it post-freefall up to like issue 10 I believe? Not my personal favorite but im not gonna get into that

Additional recs:

•Secret Avengers vol 1&2 (I haven't read this yet bc collecting it is a pain since multiple volumes with the same name but if you use marvel unlimited it's easier, but I've heard it's good, it has Deadpool and I've seen the screenshots and there is a huge Clint secret spy focus, but very heavy, set after fractions run)

•Hawkeye vs Deadpool (2014) my first and personal favorite Clint comic even if he's a grumpy boy the whole time

•Thunderbolts (2022) careful w this bc Clint has led two thunderbolts teams at this point but since it's recent it should be easier to find. Better follow up to freefall than Black Widow was, but it's a team centric comic more than a Clint centric comic but nice to know how the guy is doing after freefall tbh

Anyways I'm gonna stop there bc there are very many Clint comics but these are the ones that fraction fans tend to generally like from what I've seen?? Honestly you don't have to read all of them, just picking one and jumping in is probably fine, most writers lately don't need a lot of context to get the general gist of what's going on

Hope you enjoy!!!

[the5n00k]

Choose violence asks: any that Sil didn't include 😅

Y'all making me do HOMEWORK TONIGHT /lh

Again, readmore bc this bitch is heafty

1: I have this problem a lot bc I tend to overcomplicate and project onto my favorite characters but honestly it's Dan from Roommates because the creator has addressed us multiple times to say it's "not that deep" (which is kind of why I went into TGAMM with a surface level understanding and once y'all opened my eyes to the iceberg it was downhill from there I love complicated characters)

2: ... Uh... scratch is ace? This is such an odd question LOL

3: I can't find a screenshot but literally every person who said Molly and Ollie look like they could be related.

5: if I speak I will be shot (owlphibia)

9: worst part of canon? Depends on the fandom I'm talking about. I'll simplify it to TGAMM because that's what most of y'all are here for and simplify that even further by saying the worst part of canon is the fact that The Internship is an episode that exists

11: I think I only filtered Amphibia and Amphibia adjacent tags once on Twitter because I didn't want the finale spoiled for me

12: normally I'd say Ollie but he's picking up some traction in the love department after Frightmares and Unhaunting (nature is healing) so imma say Harriet. Fking love her every time she's on screen I wanna kiss her (it's pride month I can exercise my girl pretty disease)

17: praying coping and seething that we get more corrupted scratch art and fics if I keep making analysis and foreshadowing collecting posts please I am carrying this theory on my back

19: I'm kind of embarrassed that I unironically enjoy Learning With Pibby and some FNF mods like Lullaby and VS Boy and Girl those rock fight me. I'm also really mad I love analog horror. Such a dumb and usually predictable genre but it pulls me in every time (Gemini Home Entertainment, Vita Carnis, and Harmony and Horror my beloveds)

20: uhhhh not much? In regards to tgamm I was never usually bored watching. I think both seasons have been well paced so far although due to my own impatience I do wish for more scratch lore in my veins immediately

21: so funny that I just said that bc I think the answer to this is scratch lore, there's so many other cool things coming this season (jinx, the Chens, the Bizmart guy, Molly's history with street magicians, Sharon's history with musicians to name a few) that it feels like we've gotten tunnel vision (I'm guilty of this too don't worry)

It feels like all we talk about anymore and I don't want to get my hopes up for it, I already have my expectations so high I'm terrified of what we're actually gonna get lol I'm trying to keep an open mind about it

24: APPARENTLY THE PACING OF OLLIE'S REDEMPTION ARC AND THE DISCUSSION SURROUNDING MOLLIE AFTER I WANNA DANCE WITH SOME-OLLIE DROPPED. I SAW SOME ABSOLUTELY RANCID TAKES. Most things surrounding Ollie just. Happen to have some very heated discussions sometimes. It's gotten better but damn it's actually very frustrating (this kid was being compared to every bigoted extremist in the books, he is 13 years old please sit down)

I THINK THAT'S EVERYTHING hot damn y'all put me to work lol /lh

[spikewriter]

I saw another anti-AI post where the first words out of someone's mouth was "Plagiarism!" That is why it's so difficult to have reasonable discussions about these new tools--and how they be useful as tools--because people start screeching, "You're not a real writer!"

The article at the core of the post, however, is worth discussing because, yup, it is exactly what the antis are yelling about. The post, by the way, did not include a link to the article, just a screenshot of Publisher Weekly's Twitter promo of said article. Which is actually a rewrite of a Newsweek article about a man who was about to release his 97th ChatGPT-written "novel." I'll explain the quotes later on.

I've included a link to the original article because it's worth a read no matter what side of the argument you're on. The headline is absolutely clickbait. It's also full of self-aggrandizing bullshit.

Tim Boucher (the article is written by him, or, rather, 60% written by ChatGPT by his own admission) admits to making $2000 over the course of 7 months. Hardly the thousands of the headline. He's sold 574 books as of the article, which equals out to an average 5-6 copies per book, or an average of just under $21 per book. The books are 2,000 to 5,000 words each, so they're not really novels, but serial chapters. He is also, by the way, not selling on Amazon or any other distributor, possibly because some of the stories are too short for them to accept.

It also means he has an extremely small, niche audience who are interested in "dystopian pulp sci-fi with compelling AI world-building." He writes "majority of my readers being repeat buyers, many having bought more than a dozen titles. In one case, a reader has bought more than thirty titles."

I found this paragraph particularly illuminating:

"It's very difficult, for example, to have longer written pieces that maintain a coherent single storyline or character arc. So instead, I've tended to lean into short "flash" fiction slice-of-life collections, interspersed with fictional encyclopedia entries that deliver world-building and backstory, and point the reader towards other volumes where they can continue down the rabbit holes that appeal to them the most."

Right there is the issue with current LLM programs. You can get a coherent storyline and character arc with ChatGPT or Sudowrite, but it takes manipulation on the author's part. It takes being willing to put in the work to revise and massage the outlines. Dear god, don't use it to write scenes, because the quality of dialogue and description is horrendous.

This guy isn't. He's only willing to put in 6-8 hours to create and publish a book, which may include generating the cover and any brainstorming. What he is doing is the tech boy grift of inflating what the program is capable of and his own accomplishments. He's trying to shout, "I am a disruptor! I am the future!" (And taking a look at his website, he's also a conspiracy theorist about underground cities in Antartica.)

Sadly, this is exactly the type of person other tech bros who might be making decisions are going to listen to. And because he's publicity-hungry, he's making everyone else who is trying to use these tools to assist, not replace, the process look like a grifter as well.

Oh, and I can't help including this article written in response to the Newsweek one.

[invinciblerodent]

For the "Get to know the OC asks", with Arvid: 5 and 9?

Aw, thank you! ❤️ (I've not been able to play for a few days and I've been thinking a lot about him, so have a phone-typed rant ❤️)

(after my new PC gets here, I'll definitely make Iona and Petyr as well. Really excited about them, and about finishing- and then replaying this guy, with better screenshots and maybe even gifs ❤️❤️❤️❤️)

(btw, I think I'll age him up from 35 to 45-50, just because I think it fits better, and as a dwarf, it doesn't affect his appearance lol.)

5. Does your OC have a signature weapon and/or attack? How long did they train to master it?

So as a cleric of Tempus who was essentially born into the role, he's been training pretty much his entire life- just about since he could first pick up a weapon. And while he's comfortable with a number of styles (martial weapons, heavy armor), as it is for many clerics, his weapon of choice is the mace and shield. (To the tune of "Juke Box Heroes", Blunt! Force! Trau-maa!)

Lbr, there's no real use to a frontline healer if they can't stay alive themselves, so his "style" is kind of... dressing up as a can of baked beans, and dancing on that delicate edge between attracting enemy attention to himself, AND avoiding getting actually hit if possible- which is something he mastered first through rigorous training, and later in battle. Mainly focusing on melee, and a select handful of offensive spells over the general cleric stuff.

I don't really... well, care if the official lore supports this, but I personally view the clerics of Tempus (a neutral war god, no real values associated with the morality beyond the inherent virtue in battle) as almost a mercenary-like order, so before moving to Baldur's Gate (about a year ago) and before the nautiloid, Arvid took part in his fair share of battles: mainly doing things like aiding local militia in defense against raiders, answering to lords' requests of aid in minor clashes against other lords, etc. So because of the short reach of his rural monastery, very often he and his handful of brothers were the only healers/spellcasters, AND sometimes the only trained combatants on the field, which led them to doing the brunt of the heavy lifting, which definitely contributed to his "let me lead this ragtag band" vibe. He's used to taking charge and acting as a kind of almost-general on the field.

9. Is your OC laid back or do they thrive on drama? What role do they play in their group of friends/associates?

Oh, he's definitely the laid-back camp dad. He listens to problems, gives the best advice he can if asked (18 Wis, babyyyyy), allocates their money... in conflicts among the companions, he often gets dragged into being the arbitrator. That's not really a role he likes, but... well, he just has one of those trustworthy faces, and over the months, I think they just grew to accept and count on that he's understanding and fair to a fault.

I have Shadowheart specced more towards damage output than healing too, so even just out of necessity, everyone comes to Arvid with their cuts and bruises, and he patiently tends to every wound, sore throat, and sprained ligament. It's what he likes doing the most anyway- he just likes caring for people.

.... Which is why I hc that if he survives the plot intact, he'll open a free clinic after moving to Waterdeep. He never really talks about it, and it wasn't really the intent to be that anyway, he's just the healer those who aren't that preoccupied with station (or those with more embarrassing problems) started seeking out, for his discretion and excellent bedside manner lol. (He has treated so many venereal diseases. Of the most exciting, exotic varieties. Sometimes the reason he doesn't ask many questions is that he doesn't even want to know.)

[little-bloodied-angel]

(I'm sorry to say I don't know who the artist for the genderbend is, because I was looking for the actual screenshot and I came upon that. I just saved it for personal reference because it's lovely, not to repost it anywhere, but if anybody knows who did this please let me know so I can credit them. I didn't remove any watermarks either, it didn't have one.)

And now for @pixie-skull 's actual edit... You guys, you have no idea how much effort he put into this. We had discussed it as a possibility a few months back, but we knew he had to be in the right mindset because of just how much work it was.

So a couple days ago he told me he was up for the challenge, and boy was it amazing to slowly see it come to life over the course of several hours. This has so many difficult and fiddly bits and pieces and it came out absolutely incredible.

Skully found all the right body poses and facial expressions, and not only headswapped two of the girls but actually put Odette's face on a completely different shot of her head, too, so it would be facing the right way. I can only imagine the tweaking that alone took. He not only recolored Jane's top for Chel-as-Duke, he refitted it to her body shape as well, and did so at least four times until we were satisfied with how her silhouette looked. He also altered her hairstyle seamlessly and added a bow that, as you can see, was situated totally differently in the original image, and seamlessly erased her original bracelets and earrings, reconstructed her wrists and ears, and then added those new earrings from Anastasia that must've been a nightmare to crop.

Ariel-as-McNamara has had her entire outfit recolored, including adding lineart to the heart on her t-shirt. That's a skirt from the Sailor Moon 90s anime, and it took quite a bit of fiddling with it and with the body itself to make it the right size. The head is swapped, the hair and skin recolored, the bow added because she isn't wearing one in that scene, parts of her neck, hair and the top of her head had to be redrawn in because they were cut weirdly. Even her lipstick is recolored just because I didn't feel like Ariel's original dark red suited this. And when I wanted to add a reference to her father's diamond business and we couldn't find any, Skully out and out made her bracelet and hoop earring from scratch using only the sparkly texture from the beauty pageant in Swan Princess.

And then our supreme Queen Bee. I seriously thought I was going to drive Skully mad with Odette-as-Chandler but he was so incredibly patient with me. And so hard-working. Even just finding the starting pose of Holli's body and clothes took a few tries, and Odette's facial expression needed even more. Then when we found the right one it was at such a weird angle vs her body that I genuinely thought we wouldn't be able to use it. I cannot imagine how much tweaking it required for him to make it look like it has always been like that on her face: check the difference between the screenshots. Then of course he set it on Holli's body, adjusted the skintone, redrew most of her hair, colorswapped the lipstick, added the locket. And basically reconstructed Holli's entire right arm while he was at it since it's cropped weird in the original screenshot. It was my idea to make Holli's dress look like a two-piece, which came out super well but looked plain in comparison to the other two. So Skully hand-drew the plaid pattern on the skirt after not finding one to grab. The bracelets, which iirc are also hand-drawn, were a brilliant last minute touch he came up with. I had wanted the pearl earrings and the gold locket, so he made a matching bracelet for each. Both for this outfit and Duke's, the belt is drawn by hand, but he grabbed that ridiculously tiny buckle and placed it on them so they would look more realistically done. I wouldn't even be able to crop the buckle in the first place.

We collectively decided to give them bows instead of scrunchies because it is a very 80s look and the scrunchies wouldn't be seen as easily or go as well with their hairstyles. But when he added Chandler's, we thought it looked a little plain, just the same as the other two, and I wondered if it would be possible to make it sparkly using the texture of Jessica's dress to make it stand out. Not only did Skully achieve this perfectly, he also came up with adding the little "tails" of the ribbon to make it look even more special. Look at that result.

But what makes all of that even more amazing is that all of Odette-as-Chandler's accessories came AFTER what I would consider one of the pieces de résistance if not the most difficult part of this entire edit. No matter how I looked at it, Holli's original dress with nothing added to it seemed way too simple and almost plain on the top part. Plus, Chandler's jackets are a staple in her wardrobe, both in the movie and then the musical, but especially so in the musical, which this edit is more based on. I genuinely had no idea of what we could do or if there was anything we could do at all.

So Skully, the absolute madman, decided to do that entire cardigan FROM SCRATCH. I gave some ideas as to how it would fall on her body and how open it could be to showcase the tiny waist and big bust that we had chosen the body for, but it was Skully that did a million and a half tiny adjustments to get it looking perfect. Then he added lineart, too. Btw, both Chel's dress and Ariel's hair recolor needed new lines and lineart that he also added himself.

It took at least an hour to do that cardigan alone, and when I tell you my jaw was on the floor I'm not exaggerating. I didn't even think you could do that with the app he uses. Did I mention he did all this ON HIS PHONE?

And after the Cardigan From Hell was done, which I'm reasonably sure gave him an honest-to-god migraine, he still had the patience to listen to me about all the tiny details about the accessories and come up with the ideas I've mentioned above with the bracelets, the tails of the bow and so on, and even do some final fine-tuning on the other two.

This took almost 8 hours and he did it in one go. And his primary motivation was to cheer the both of us up because we're both going through a rough patch. All those months ago when I first had the idea for the Heathers edit I could not have imagined that it would look like this.

All in all Skully is insanely patient, talented and hardworking, and I frankly can only imagine what his stuff is going to look like as he continues practicing. He's also a wonderful friend to me, not just for doing this and other edits to cheer me up but for not throttling me during the collab process as I was talking about each little detail xD

I'm frankly amazed every time I look at this. Funnily enough, he decided to do this shortly after that incredibly rude anon a few days back that threw an impressive tantrum and that insulted both his work and the fact that he's transgender for absolutely no reason other than coming across this incredibly creepy and stalkery towards another editor, whose attention Anon apparently decided Skully didn't deserve. He was upset about it for a bit, and when he approached me to do this edit, he said he both wanted to challenge himself and to not let a person like that steal away his passion. Well, would you look at that. Anon can kindly eat their heart out, and it's pretty clear to me that as he keeps practicing, the sky's the limit to what Skully either can do already or will learn to do.

I'm humbled to have been a part of this and incredibly happy I ever sent you that first message and we became fast friends. You were absolutely right in what you said, and look at this stunning result.

Here's to many more edits and to seeing you grow. 💜

224th edit and with help by @little-bloodied-angel I give you peeps of the world, this edit. BD Please note it is based off the musical, which was a film.

I do know though rewatch this movie (here a link the trailer) and look into listening the music from the musical. I just know the movie as my celebrity crush Winona Ryder in it. :D

I am stunned to think I made this, as this may be my most detailed edit to date. Please note again @little-bloodied-angel did help by suggestions and to review each huge step. Often I am confident on my ability to bring to life an edit request, but this one I know I needed to have another pair of eyes to review and this came out so well. =D By the way @airasora I now understand way too well the pain of editing a light blond haired character who is white, and trying to avoid making the flesh and hair blend in with each other. XD

Not sure who to credit, as @little-bloodied-angel gave me this for hair color reference, but awesome gender-bend of Cinderella. =D

[wh6res]

dreams come true | yuta

"soulmate or not. i don't shoot blanks." — ny

[ part of the my bloody valentine collection ]

tw. gore, blood, murder, death, killings, mentions of illegal organ trafficking, violence, mentions of stalking, minor character deaths, weapons (a knife and a gun), almost (??) suggestive content but nothing happened

disc. this is rlly fucked up and yuta is unredeemable. i dont condone such acts. this is all a work of fiction and meant to entertain.

wc. 5k

every time you sleep, the void is sickening. it was all you could see, lightyears and lightyears away of pitch black that made your head dizzy and your stomach dry heave. you've always wondered when you'll start dreaming about your soulmate's memories. they were like little secrets, another way for two people to be intimate without even being together. their days were flashing before their soulmate's eyes in the form of a dream. it's as if you spent the day with them!

you loved it, the whole concept of it. it sounded so wholesome and sweet and jesus fucking christ, you've always been such a hopeless romantic.

it was sweet until it turned sour. you loved it until you hated it. it was romantic until it turned downright terrifying.

you wake up covered in cold sweat, panting and gasping as if you've run a whole marathon.

moonlight seeps through your glass window, slightly left ajar for the midnight breeze to pass through – you walk up to it, pull it shut, and draw your thick curtains together. you exhaled, breath shaking as you tried to anchor yourself back to the ground.

with the only source of your light disappearing, darkness envelops you whole. for once, you craved the void. you want that void back if it meant never seeing something like that again – something straight out of your worst nightmare.

"119, what's your emergency?"

"uhm, i think… i think i just witnessed a massacre."

you reiterate everything you saw in the dream – the mahogany door, paint chipping off the drywalls. the doorknob was rusty, so were the hinges, and it made an ominous creak when pushed open. the light switches on, the first you see was a bunch of dirty ice coolers in what should've been the living room, it wasn't even the slightest bit organized. they were everywhere, and the floor looked grimy and disgusting, like there's a stain they can't seem to scrub off. only when your soulmate has stalked closer did you see the labels haphazardly taped on top of the ice coolers.

kidneys. livers. lungs. pancreas. intestines – you nearly vomited on the floor, trying to relay everything you saw to the operator on the other end of the call.

then came the gruesome parts.

their deaths.

they were five people in total. men clad in cheap t-shirts and pants, wearing all these similar leather jackets. some were well-built, ripped in the arms and thighs, but some were skinny, the jackets hanging on their small frames.

they never stood a chance against him.

your soulmate is agile, quick on his feet with outstanding eye-hand coordination. only equipped with a butcher's knife, but it was all he needed to take them down and send them knocking on inferno's gates. he was skilled, knowing when to pounce and where to slash his knife to maim but never to kill. by the time your soulmate was through with them, everything is bloody red. all the victims' eyes widened as they sputtered and choked on their blood – not dead, but dying...

because your soulmate wasn't done yet.

a killer should have a modus operandi, should they not? so he took out a desert eagle, stood before the bleeding bodies, and shot two bullets straight into their eyes. the finishing touch? carving a frown on their faces with his butcher's knife.

the operator only told you one thing after she's made you describe the place for them to track the crime scene down.

"double-check all your windows and doors."

because you couldn't be too sure, not when you have been granted a front seat to the sad face slayer's most recent endeavors.

the detective eyes you with a certain pity. maybe that's why you don't bother meeting his eyes. you sit still on a chair, camera blinking red behind him, the interrogation room is freezing even with the thick jacket you're wearing.

seven billion people in the world and you're soulmate's a ruthless serial killer who took it upon himself to purge the world of evildoers – he was playing god, no wonder the detective is looking at you like that.

"uhh…" he's awkward, fidgeting in his seat. "and you saw this all in a dream?"

"yes."

you've known him only minutes ago. mark lee was his name and he seems to be a subordinate of a higher, more experienced detective named kim doyoung. you don't know whether to feel offended or not for having a doe-eyed newbie taking care of the case, but you pushed it at the back of your mind, knowing his superior is watching on the other side of the two-way mirror.

"did you have, like, other past instances where you dreamt of him? of what he…" mark looked like he was going to throw up. "what he does to his other victims?"

you shook your head. no. "i've mostly just heard of him on the news. i don't think i have the stomach to find out in-depth what the killer does."

mark takes out a folder, features walking the fine white line between looking apologetic or wanting to say me too. "i'm, uhh, really sorry to hear that."

there's a sudden pregnant silence encapsulating the interrogation room. it felt like you were mourning for something, the chains of dread dragging your heart to the ground as it pounded against your ribcage. mark looked like he wanted to say something, but you swore his eyes darted towards the camera in the corner and decided otherwise.

"anyway…" he trails. flipping the folder open in one swift motion. "past sightings have given us the sad face slayer's name."

he slaps down a picture of a man, his hair raven and a permanent scowl etched on his face. the quality was shitty. it looked like it was a screenshot taken from zoomed-in cctv footage.

"nakamoto yuta, twenty-five, japanese, and has slipped one too many times past authorities that at this point, it's practically a talent."

and just like that, it made sense why you're here.

your lips pursed in contemplation, palms quaking as your fingers reach forward to inspect your soulmate's picture. "and… you want to use my soulmate connection –" you glowered. never had a sentence sounded so fucking cursed and utterly wrong. "– to catch him?"

mark can't look you in the eye. "yes. he's very elusive. his killings have been happening cross-country and, as you can see, have garnered national media attention. the police are hanging by a thread here. a month in his case and all we got is his MO, name, and that he has this weird god complex on him. if we can't catch him by the end of next month…" he shrugs. "the feds are going to interfere, sooner or later."

"so…" you trail, urging him to continue.

"so, we need as much information about him as we can get and your dreams about him will be able to provide that."

fucking great.

the much newer revelations of precisely who it was on the other end of the soulmate connection put a significant damper on your mood. you'd like to think your new little cop buddy who follows you around gives you the least bit sense of security, but alas, it doesn't. not when you've seen first hand how yuta took down five men all at once without breaking a fucking sweat – you absolutely refuse to call him your soulmate, you'd never accept a person with his nature as a soulmate.

you try to hide the bracelet mark handed you last two weeks ago, during your time spent in the precinct's interrogation room.

"please have this on you at all times until we catch him, okay? this is for extra measures, just in case something happens to the cop assigned to guard you. just press the little button here and we'll be there before you can even finish shouting 'help!' – hey, i was just kidding! what's with the face?"

considering you're now probably being hunted alive for snitching on a serial killer? mark lee, that was not funny at all.

"do you have to get inside the lecture with me?" you whine, shielding your face with your hair when you notice people shooting glances at the rather handsome cop they assigned to you. "it's not like he'll attack in broad daylight! and in a fucking classroom, for that matter."

jaehyun looks just about ready to hurl you out the window. "lower down your voice," he scolds. "serial killers don't pick a time and place, sweetheart. he kills when necessary and if it's fucking necessary to murder everyone in that classroom to get to you? he'll do it in a fucking heartbeat."

you sigh when the chair next to you screeches against the floor, the aforementioned male taking his seat right next to you. jaehyun felt more like a babysitter than a cop, who seems to have a habit of constantly inputting his not-even-needed opinions on the most superficial things.

are witness protection protocols like this?

it was a good thing that overgrown bat doesn't come hanging around in your apartment, but he does have the police car parked right across the building's entrance. judging by how meticulous and thorough he seems to be, he won't miss any face that comes in and out of the building.

you didn't forget exactly why you're under witness protection. for the cops to waste one good officer to follow you around, you needed to be valuable and being valuable meant sleeping through nightmare-induced dreams of what your soulmate does for a living. the scenes are so gruesome, so graphic and utterly gory, that you dart towards the bathroom first thing after waking up in cold sweat, draining all of dinner down the toilet bowl.

after dreaming of him in action a few times, you've now completely understood what detective lee had said regarding yuta's god complex. it was unsightly, yet there was a twisted sense of heroism to it. if there's one thing, he only gutted the bad guys – but that didn't make nakamoto yuta any less of a bad guy, himself.

i need to ask you a favor [sent 2:05am]

JJH: what? [received 2:10am]

often the nightmares were too much. too much that you thought of escaping its horrors by never getting a wink of sleep ever again – until you realized you're a witness and is probably the only chance for the seoul police department to catch that bastard.

buy me sleeping pills? [read 2:08am]

when you peep out of the window, you find an empty spot across the road where jaehyun usually parks the police car. twenty minutes later, you answer the knocking on your door. he used that little "code" he did for you to know it was him. jaehyun was glowering and muttering about how he wasn't some errand boy when he shoved the plastic bottle in your hand yet, you still thanked him nonetheless.

the pills worked like a charm. you managed to stay asleep throughout the whole night, ceasing those episodes of yours where you jolt awake in the middle of dreaming about the sad face slayer's memories.

life continued for you. it became a little bearable, but that didn't mean the horrific murders you see in your dreams are something you can get used to – you don't think you'll ever get used to the sight of him slashing his victims, the blood trickling like a goddamned waterfall.

today the dreams were different. anticlimactic, per se, if you compare it to the violence so utterly present in his memories.

the first you see were black gates, then it shifted to him ordering coffee in a café (amazing what a simple black mask can hide). it switched to him walking on a sidewalk, then he arrives at his destination, an apartment building – it wasn't too rundown, nor was it extravagant.

the serial killer takes the elevator and walks up to a mahogany door –

your room number is a blaring sight.

you couldn't be wrong, not when the 506 with the missing zero in the middle was a sight you saw every day, going and coming home from university.

that was your front door.

he was at your front door.

you jolt awake, ignoring the icky feel of sweat making your clothes cling onto your skin. ice creeps up your spine and freezes you over when you notice with a sinking realization.

those black gates are from the university you attended. that café is your favorite study nook. and that sidewalk is a route you take every day.

you clamp your hands on your mouth as tears roll down your cheeks in rivulets. you pull the comforters up above your head, fear gripping onto you with a vice-like grip as you sob.

it was in the dead of night, moonlight grazing the confines of your room and hours away from dusk. you finally utter those three words in a frightened whisper.

"he's stalking me."

as if having the overgrown bat jaehyun following and annoying you around wasn't enough, you now have another person keeping watch over you. mark lee, unlike jaehyun, may not be as ripped with muscle, but you heard from your cop buddy that the young detective has a few black belts under him. people at the precinct said that if they have to choose one person who can ever come close to the sad face slayer's agility, mark lee's your guy.

"you gotta be shitting me," you mutter, leaning close to jaehyun to whisper like high school girls talking about gossip. "he doesn't look the type!"

jaehyun, in turn, plays along and copies you. "yeah, true. he gets that a lot, i think,"

"guys, i'm literally in the back seat. i can hear everything."

the change hadn't been too drastic. at least mark was there when jaehyun proved to be difficult, pulling him towards the other way when the older male tried waltzing into your class again. "you don't need to sit next to her in her class! are you serious? there's one exit and entrance and we're on the fifth floor. breaking into that classroom will be the end of nakamoto's serial killer career!"

you shoot mark an appreciative smile, one he quickly returned before hauling jaehyun around the hallway. "we'll just be at the canteen, okay? press the 'lil button on your bracelet and we'll be right there!"

shaking your head with a slight smile on your face, you entered the classroom, sat in your usual spot, and did some of your readings from our other class to kill time. you hardly hear the screech of the chair next to you as it was pulled back. not like you cared much for whoever sat down next to you, but you can't deny there's that feeling of missing jaehyun when he used to force his way into the lecture.

"settle down! settle down, people!"

the professor enters and the class begins.

you were meticulous with your note-taking system. it's thorough, leaving no room for information to slip you. having already printed hard copies of the powerpoint presentation and simply jotting down some extra key points mentioned by your professor.

you were just about to raise your hand for a question when you feel something warm graze past your arm. you absentmindedly look down.

the breath is sucked right out of your lungs.

hi, soulmate

there, scribbled with an ominous red crayon on a small piece of paper. it was almost laughable how innocent it looked but when you follow the ring-clad hand, up the black hoodie he's wearing, and finally to his face—

"hi! i'm yuta."

his cheshire smile spikes up your heartbeat. it makes you want to throw up, makes you want to slam your head against the desk. the fight or flight hormone you have is making you restless, eyes pinned on the serial killer sitting next to you, scared that if you avert your gaze, he's going to take out that desert eagle and shoot you until your skull caves in and the bullets in his magazine empties.

"but judging by your reaction, i don't think introductions are needed, hm?" his tone is easy, conversational even and it shoots a freezing jolt of fear right up your spine. it makes you sweat profusely because you don't fucking know what to do, your thoughts in complete and utter disarray.

"just press the little button here and we'll be there before you can even finish shouting 'help!' – hey, i was just kidding! what's with the face?" you swallow, sneakily pressing the button without breaking eye contact with the serial killer sitting in front of you.

"look upfront. now." yuta orders and you nearly snap your neck as you turn your head with lightning speed.

"i thought i was above the soulmate rules, but here we are. my soul is either too tainted or too great to be tied to such trivial things, but oh well, we learn to work with what we have. surprisingly, i learned to like dreaming about how your day went."

you feel something sharp poking at your thigh and when you look down, he has a silver butterfly knife pointed against you. the precision of the angle he held it with doesn't slip your notice. one slice of that knife, no matter how small, and he'll be spilling your guts in this classroom.

a fat tear rolls down your face.

"can you imagine how much my heart broke when i learned you were spying on me? leaking information to that snobby detective? to those incompetent cops? bad baby, that was very bad of you."

"yuta—"

"you think the cops can save you from me?"

his other hand comes in contact with the nape of your neck, holding your head in place as he leaned down to invade your space. he scoffs, and you can picture that terrifying cheshire grin you've seen one too many times in your dreams.

the knife digs through your coat, the tip hardly poking your skin only because he doesn't want to drive it into you yet. how did he even manage to get inside the university? not to mention the weapons he possessed? shouldn't anyone be suspicious when they see a man dressed in all black, clad in jeans and a hoodie, into a university—

he even dressed the part. with that hood drawn up and carrying that one notebook, he looked fairly normal. someone who can easily blend in with the crowd.

you eye your professor, willing him to look at you but your soulmate is having none of that. you squirm when he drives the knife further, at the base of your stomach. with his other hand, he twirls a lock of hair around his finger. "now, now, soulmate. you don't want half the people here to get hurt, do you? unless... that can easily be arranged—"

"no!" you whisper, head jerking to the side to look at him humming in satisfaction. damn. out of all the faces he's seen contorted with fear, yours is his absolute favorite. with those pleading, glassy eyes and parted lips, yuta is tenting in his sweats.

"thought so," he chuckles. "let's get up. we're leaving. that old crook doesn't care if students just up and went in the middle of his lecture."

you don't want to think about how he even knew that because it implied attending the lectures a good amount of times. it's with sinking realization that jaehyun was right. if it weren't for him insisting to sit next to you, nakamoto yuta would've long gotten you in his claws.

you tried gathering your things until he purred into your ear.

"ah, ah, ah. you wouldn't be needing those with where we're going."

the hallways were empty, not that you had much time to scream for help when he had a knife pointed up your back, shoving you into the fire escape stairs. within the tranquil confines of the staircases, the sad face slayer couldn't fucking care less for your personal space.

he disgusts you greatly, he needn't do anything but stand there in front of you but you can already smell the long blood trail from his path. it reeks of rotting flesh and that infuriating god complex he had left a sour aftertaste.

"you know, i genuinely wanted to get to know you," yuta pouts, shaking the hoodie off his head. his hair raven, it's ends kissing the nape of his neck. he looked like he came right out of a shounen manga but the bloodlust in his eyes is something that can never be masked. "i detested the soulmate connection at first, i thought i should just kill you off because you could be my loose end."

his humorless smile is enough to give you nightmares.

"but seeing how sweetly normal and untainted you are made me hold back," the butterfly knife appears before your line of sight, yuta teasingly dragging the tip right down your cheek to trace your tears. "so, why did you snitch, baby?"

you shiver when he noses the side of your neck, inhaling your scent as his other hand hooks underneath your top, freezing fingers making you jolt. when you don't reply, his patience starts to dwindle. then again, he was never a patient man.

"answer me, you bitch. why did you rat me out?" gone is the playful lilt in his voice. the vibrations surge through you as his deep, demanding voice scares you shitless.

you feel, hear, and smell him everywhere. this wasn't like any nightmare. this is real, and you won't magically wake up on your bed, sighing in relief, knowing he isn't there, that it was all just in your head. no, this was very much real and there's absolutely no escape.

"i didn't," your voice cracks. "i didn't mean to—"

"bullshit!" he yells. you wail in pain when he slams you against the wall, head aching as it came in contact with concrete. "because of you betraying me, i nearly fucking got caught, and i never get caught!"

you were full out sobbing at this point, noisy and unsightly as the snot mixes with your tears. your only hope now is he gives you a quick, painless death and that he doesn't carve and mutilate your face like what he always does to his other poor victims. "i'm sorry! please... i'm so sorry. i was scared—"

he coos mockingly, tilting his head to the side as he inched his face closer. "aw, scared? my sweet little soulmate was scared?" he places the blade flat against your neck. as humiliating and degrading as it was, you almost peed on your clothes. "how about now? i'm sure as hell that you're fucking terrified for your useless life right now."

you cringe when his hand abandons the expanse of your stomach, no longer inching higher, finding its purchase on the hair sitting at the crown of your head. he holds you in place like that, forcing your head parallel against the wall, with his whole body pressing up to you that it's nearly suffocating.

"just one quick little slice," he taunts. you hiccuped when you feel the feathery light scrape of the blade moving against your skin. "you won't even have time to scream… but i'm sure we don't want that, do we?"

you forgot how to speak. forgot how to breathe. whenever your mind wanders, you've always thought about how you'll give this killer a piece of your mind, with the amount of fear and sorrow he inflicts upon other people. but you guess realities were a lot more different than expectations. the yuta you dreamed of meeting is in handcuffs, but fate is a fickle little thing.

"do we?" he repeats, slicing ever so slightly at your skin. enough to draw blood in droplets, never a waterfall.

"n – no."

he smiles. "you can make it up to me. do you want to make it up to me?"

the butterfly knife digs even further. a warning. and if you value your useless life, you should be smart enough to know what to answer. drawing a shaky breath, you tried forcing the ends of your lips up to a smile. "of course, yuta."

your voice breaks as your sobbing grips your body whole. the fear consuming your entire being like a parasite consuming the host. you would've shut down altogether if it weren't for the calloused hands gently gripping your face. "i know, i know. i see how regretful you are, baby. don't worry, i won't hurt you. you'll make it up to me."

anyone would be fucking stupid if you believe those words coming from a serial killer.

in your wrecked state, you barely register that he's pushing you down to your knees. skin coming in contact with the freezing linoleum floor as you refuse to look at what his hands are doing. yuta has pocketed his knife. the sound of a belt unbuckling in itself added insult to injury.

you stare blankly at his shoes as he shoves his bottoms down enough for his cock to show. if you squint hard enough, you'll see tiny splatters of blood in the shoelaces. whether or not he feels you're unresponsive, he doesn't show. maybe he doesn't care entirely. he takes one of your hands and used it to wrap around himself. he gasps, sharp, followed by a hiss.

you feel it throbbing and it strengthens the disgust you feel. no way you're going to give him the satisfaction of eye contact when you're already forced to blow this psycho.

"eyes up."

you sniffled, vulnerability present in the tone you speak. "i don't want to. please, don't make me."

if words alone aren't enough for you to follow orders, maybe you'll feel more motivated if held at gunpoint. it's unmistakable, the infamous desert eagle you've only seen in your nightmares. the last thing you ever expected is to be on the side where the bullet comes out.

the barrel is freezing as he digs it into the crown of your head. "soulmate or not. i don't shoot blanks."

your eyes looked up then. glaring as the tears rolled down your face. "you're a monster," you mutter under your breath. where you got the confidence to fight back is unknown.

"i've heard that before, be more creative next time," he holds your hair tight in one grip, shoving you forward, eye-level to his throbbing dick. "now… suck, baby."

"freeze!"

you knew that voice, you've been hearing it for the last two weeks. "jaehyun–!"

yuta cuts you off, shoving the gun into your mouth. the safety clicking off resonating in the tranquil room. it's deafening, and it makes you immobile.

"hands up. step away from the civilian." whether or not mark is nervous as he points the gun at the serial killer, he's doing a damn good job of hiding it.

yuta sighs, exasperated as he throws his head back. his raised arms came down to tuck himself back in his jeans, and the action made jaehyun's calm exterior crack. "i said, hands up, asshole!"

"chill out, motherfucker. i'm just trying to wear my pants." the serial killer hisses, glaring at jaehyun over his shoulder.

"mark, call back up already. what are you doing?" jaehyun mutters, side-eyeing the young detective whose gun shakes as he holds it up. the taller cop takes a step forward, eyes never leaving the notorious killer as he addresses you curtly. "(name), come here."

just as you plant your palms to the ground to push yourself up, one of yuta's hands shoves you down quick as lightning. "no. she stays here, with me."

jaehyun scowls, takes another step forward. "and what makes you think i'm going to let that happen?"

"i don't think. i know."

there's a constant ring in your ear as the gunshot temporarily renders you deaf. you've shut your eyes in utter fright, hands shooting up to cover your ears but it was too late. you refuse to open your eyes, you didn't want to see a dead body lying before you, even if it belonged to a heartless serial killer.

but when your eyes fluttered open, it's not yuta bleeding out on the ground.

"no, this can't be – jaehyun!"

it was a bullet straight to the head, no one could've survived a shot like that. his eyes are empty as he stares at you, unblinking, stoic. the color is yet to drown away from his milky complexion. but you can't even manipulate yourself into thinking that jaehyun's still alive. not when his eyes are empty, not when he just looks so lifeless.

it couldn't have been yuta who pulled the trigger.

his weapons were on the ground and the shot rang too fast. the sad face slayer couldn't have crouched down for his gun to shoot the cop, it would've taken too much time. and among the three men, there's only another person holding a weapon, and that was –

"great shot, mark."

the detective smiles, but with the blood splattered on his face, it looked cold. "told ya i've been practicing."

yuta hauls you up by the arms, addicted to how frail your body feels as it collapses against him. he's finally got his little soulmate in his arms. and he will never, ever let you go.

the cops lost – you've lost.

yuta, with a sense of victory coursing through his veins, took the liberty of trailing little pecks down your neck as he mutters, "mine, mine, mine!" but you couldn't care less about his display of mocked affection. not when the other person meant to protect you, turned out to be everything you think he wasn't.

mark must've felt the gravity of your stare as he crouches before jaehyun's bleeding body. grabbing the fallen cop's gun, he took it upon himself to empty the magazine. the lopsided grin he sends you broke your resolve more than yuta ever could.

"i'm sorry. it's nothing personal."

jenoluck (c) all rights reserved

[entity9silvergen]

How to Track Your Gender Fluidity

Recently I made a post with a screenshot of my gender tracker and was asked how I track my gender’s fluidity. I’ve been meaning to make an instructional post on how to set up the app so I redownloaded the app on a spare phone to show you guys.

In this tutorial, I will explain how to edit the MoodFlow App to track the fluidity of gender including changes and intensity, how to keep the app locked so others cannot look at your data, and how tracking genderfluidity can help someone better understand their gender identity. I will also provide some alternatives if you cannot use this app.

This method of tracking can be used by genderfluid, genderfaun, genderfae, genderflor, gendersylph, genderflux, fluidflux, boyflux, girlflux, enbyflux, questioning individuals, or anyone else on the genderfluid spectrum. Some personalization may be necessary but this tutorial will cover it.

Step 1: Downloading

You want to start by downloading the MoodFlow App.

As you can see, it is intended to be a mood tracker but there are customizable features so you can use it to track other things. It is available for free on the App Store and Google Play.

Step 2: Account Set up

The app will ask you to create an account. You will be prompted to put in your name and birthdate. These are optional. 

Step 3: Color Palette

As part of the account set up, you will be asked to pick a color palette. You can change these later or customize them but this is the first important thing when it comes to tracking your gender. The app intends these colors to represent how you’re feeling (very bad, bad, okay, good, very good) but we will be using them to loosely represent your spectrum of gender. Later, these colors will make it easy to visually track your gender. There are five colors but it is okay if you have more than five genders. We will get to that later. They’re more like umbrellas for now. These colors will be a broad, simplified representation which gender you are experiencing on a given days. We will now look at the palettes (see below).

As a genderfaun individual, I personally use the "Default-Balance” palette (purple, purple-blue, blue, blue-green, green) to represent non-binary (purple), male (blue), agender (green), and the genders in between (purple-blue for bigender and blue-green for demigender). It is not a perfect system it works for me.

If you are a genderfae individual, I recommend the “Silver to Purple,” or “Sunset” palettes to represent how your gender varies from feminine, to neutral, to faded or whatever else.

If your fluidity covers the whole spectrum, I’d recommend “Farfalle,” “Sea and Sun,” “Pink to Blue,” “Yellows and Blues,” or “Kilimanjaro.” They have a range of masculine and feminine colors as well as some neutral grounds and mixes.

For any boyfluxes or masculine genderflux people, “Grey Means Neutral,” “By The Lake,” “Tea,” or “Into the Distance” could be used to represent the varying intensity of your gender.

For any girlfluxes or feminine genderflux people, “Raise the Lantern” or “All Pastel Everything” could be used to represent the changing intensity of your gender.

“Gray Scale Me” is a good choice for any genderflux individual with only one gender.

“Mojito,” “Outerspace,” and “Into The Distance” are good choices for people who are xenogender, agender, or just do not like the traditional “masculine vs feminine" system.

Again, you can edit these later, make a custom color palette, or you can just ignore using colors and use other features (explained later) but having a color palette to represent the range of your genderfludity is helpful. You don’t have to use these recommendations either. For me, I associate genders with their flags so I pick colors similar to those but you can do whatever feels right. Any color can represent any gender. You can also play around with it later to find whatever colors fit you best.

Step 4: Settings

When you are done setting up your account, you will open the screen to a calendar.

If you tap the three bars on the top, you will be given a sidebar where you can visit your settings.

In the settings, you can change your personal information, log in and out of your account, enable or disable notifications, and change your rating colors (the color palette).

Step 5: Personalization and Security

Within the settings, you will see the options to change your emotions & ratings, background, activities, and add a pinlock.

The background change is self-explanatory. There's a wide variety of stock images that are very nice but you can also add your own. I like using flags. If you’ve seen any of my old posts, I use a design with cats in the colors of the transflag. If you would like any wallpapers, you can ask me, you can check out r/lgbtwallpaper, just use google images, take your own photo, or use your own art.

You can use the pinlock to prevent other people from looking at your data. If you are in the closet, this can be a very useful so people don’t look at your information. Make sure you remember your pin though. 

You can also back up data here but that is something to worry about later.

You can make other changes as well depending on preference.

Step 6: Gender(s), Pronouns, Intensity, etc.

Open emotions & ratings to create your genders. You can also add genders later when you are making entries but it is easy to do here.

Here, you can rename your colors. Where it says rating, just tap the words next to it and you can change it.

To make genders, start by picking your layout. The options are grid, mix, segment, and segment #2. I personally like using segment #2. The layout will separate your genders into four categories. You cannot rename the categories (they will be labeled positive & energized, positive & calm, negative & calm, and negative & energized) so if seeing them bothers you, pick mix. For the tutorial, I am picking segment #2.

You will then see a section labeled editor. You will have the option to add emotions and remove emotions. Start by removing all of the emotions. It starts with 60 (the maximum) so this may take some time.

Once you’ve deleted all the emotions, you can add your genders. It will prompt you to name it and put it in a category (positive & energized, positive & calm, negative & calm, and negative & energized). The categories don’t affect anything but it will change the order the genders are displayed and how they will appear in the app’s analysis features. 

Since I am fluidflux and like using the segment #2 layout, I like to order them by intensity. I put libragenders and agender under positive & energized, demigenders under positive & calm, paragenders under negative & calm, and “full” genders under negative & energized. If you are not genderflux, I would recommend sorting them by feminine, masculine, neutral/ other, xenogender, unsure, etc. Again, this depends on the individual so you may want to play around with it. Here is mine:

After you create and organize all of your genders, return to your settings and scroll down to activities. Like before, delete all the activities. 

Below, there are a collection of icons. Tap one and you will be able to create an activity. I like to track what pronouns I use, the intensity of my gender, and how fluid or static my gender is. You can also add things like how you’re experiencing gender dysphoria or euphoria that day, your gender expression, and how you are presenting that day. There are many icons to choose from so pick which ones you think suit which thing best.

Step 7: Tracking Your Gender

To track your gender, exit your settings to the app’s homescreen. If you are having trouble finding it, tap the middle option on the bar on the bottom that says “Feed.” Then, in the same spot, tap the plus (+) button. You will be taken to a screen where you add your entry for the day. You should ideally add one entry per day. You need to pick a color summarizing your gender for the day and can select the individual genders you are feeling at the time. Here, you can also add or remove genders by hitting customize.

Hit continue to move to activities. Here, you can select pronouns, intensity, etc. You also have the option of adding photos or listing medication. Listing medication is helpful if you are on testosterone or estrogen and the photos are helpful if you want to remember how you are presenting that day or want to track the effects of HRT.

There is also a place to type labeled journal if you would like to write a more detailed explanation of how you’re experiencing gender or if anything noteworthy has occurred. 

By hitting customize, you can enable or disable features. A feature you can enable is tracking sleep. Sleep is tracked on a sliding scale so genderflux individuals can use this to track the intensity of their gender as well.

Step 8: Viewing Your Gender

You can best view your gender from the homescreen/ the feed. Any entries from that day will be shown at the top. By tapping it, you have the option of editing it if you would like to change something later. I would recommend not deleting genders from your entry if your gender changes during the day and instead indicating in some way that it changed.

You can scroll down to see the calendar for that month. Each day will be highlighted with the color you choose that day, making it easy to see any patterns. This is why we choose colors representing masculinity, femininity, neutrality, etc rather than having colors represent individual genders.

On the bottom bar, you can tap calendar to see other months’ data.

The journal section is the place to write down any detailed entries. The insight section will provide some analysis of your entries. 

The most useful data is at the top. It will display the oscillation of your gender and the spread over an adjustable period of time based on color.

Below, it will also show how many times you selected a specific gender, pronoun, intensity, etc.

Step 9: More Personalization

Everyone’s gender is different. You may need to edit this further to fit your fluidity. Some people have less than five genders they are fluid between so each color could represent one gender, some people may want different colors to represent different umbrellas of gender, and more. 

If you are multigender/ experience more than one gender at a time, it can be kind of difficult figuring out how to add an entry for that. Adding more genders and activities can make it more detailed. It just depends how specific you want your tracker to be.

Just play around with it and figure out what is right for you.

Step 10: Why Tracking Your Gender Is Helpful

Pretty much every trans person has those self-doubt moments and people on the genderfluid spectrum often experience that to a greater degree. I think we all know that feeling when your gender changes and you wonder “What if I’ve been this the whole time?” Very scary, especially if you’re just beginning to figure yourself out or if you’ve already come out.

Tracking your gender helps with that feeling. By having something physical you can look at that proves your gender really was a different one in the past and you weren’t faking or deceiving yourself.

You can see my tracking from 2021 above. I started a new gender tracker this year. In 2020, my gender was actually male (blue) most of the time and my gender would change in some way every few days. As you can see, I was non-binary or bigender for pretty much all of January this year and flipped to libramasculine on the final day. That is very unusual for me so if I was not tracking my gender, I wouldn’t know my gender fluidity was following an abnormal pattern and I likely would have doubted myself a lot and questioned if I was ever really a boy.

If you are questioning your gender identity, a tracker can be helpful because it is more reliable than your memory, assuming you don’t delete anything. There is less room for doubt if you are looking at evidence you really did experience something. And, if you are questioning the fluidity of your gender, the same thing applies.

Of course, someone who is not genderfluid can try this and if you later realize you are not genderfluid despite having varied data on a tracker, that is okay as well. This is a helpful tool but it is not for everyone and ultimately you are the best judge of your identity.

If you cannot use this app, you can also use a calendar or planner. If you are in the closet, marking each day with a colored highlighter isn’t that suspicious. You can also write down the genders you experience on different days and such. You could also try using a period tracker but that may be more difficult since you usually cannot change the settings and symptoms on those.

Anyway, I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you end up using this. Feel free to ask questions to me privately or in the comments or share this post with others. Have fun tracking your gender guys, gals, and non-binary pals!

[dellinah]

FINE, I'll talk about that The Bad Guys trailer. Not that anyone asked me to, twitter just spammed me with it and I can't escape it

1. I don't think the animation looks bad and some people are being needlessly mean to it. It's not going for that realistic style that Dreamworks usually does and instead is way more cartoony with the movement and expressions but that doesn't mean less effort is put into it even if it might have a lower budget. I think it does that well and it even has some 2D-ish parts to it that I'm always a fan of

(That being said, I'm not sure if it's personal bias or if it's main character syndrome but the wolf looks more finished than the other characters and that's a bit off putting to watch at times)

2. Some human designs suck but they're not the main focus so I'll give it a pass

3. I feel like the movie is trying to do with the Big Bad Wolf what Zootopia did to the 'smart traitor fox' from fables and I like that. Idk if it's gonna do it well but the idea is nice and it's been a while since the classic "big bad wolf" character was used in any way and I'm a fan so

4. The tail wagging scene is adorable and though it might be being played off as a joke I really like it when anything that uses anthro animals try to incorporate real animal traits into their character so it already has points with me

5. It's probably not gonna be the best movie ever and it has some bad things but it looks fun and energetic with a good enough internal conflict so I think its harsh to beat it down just yet. Probs 'borrowed' some stuff from Zootopia, but yolo

6. Someone who animated it has a vore fetish and someone is a furry and yall know im righf (and if there's a wolf paw screenshot in there my friend owes me money)

7. That being said, Twitter is losing its shit over Mr. Wolf and ooof I haven't seen a character pop up on my dash this many times this fast after its release since Loona. I mean I find him cute and I like the character type but I guess I'd need to watch the movie first but who knows. Either way the collective furry thrist gives me life great job guys there's already so much p*rn of him I had to close Twitter in public

Regardless, am I gonna watch this in teathers like the self aware yet still degenerate furry that I am?

Yeah

[morganaspendragonss]

holly's august extravaganza day 4: a friend in me

📍 anon - I don't know but I feel like Carlos and Nancy can have such an awesome best friend dynamic. Maybe something sad/scary regarding Nancy happens where she has to make a report at the precinct and Carlos doesn't tell anyone as she made him promise so he starts to just check on Nancy and they just develop this caring, supportive, beautiful, fun, full of banter friendship to the amusement of TK and the 126.

kept this separate from your original ask because i want to keep those other prompts you sent alongside this one for later 😊

ao3 | 2k | hurt/comfort, brief references to gun violence, mostly just carlos and nancy being besties

Carlos has never seen Nancy look so small.

She’s sitting hunched over in one of the interrogation rooms, shock blanket around her shoulders, hands seemingly moving of their own volition to tear the empty styrofoam cup in front of her to shreds. As soon as Carlos had seen her being escorted into the precinct, shaking like a leaf and clutching her coat like a lifeline, he’d persuaded the officer with her to let him take over the case. His association with the 126 is well known so the officer had been reluctant, but Carlos had managed to wear him down, saying that he doesn’t really know Nancy that well.

And it’s—it’s not exactly a full lie. Through their hangs and TK’s stories, he’s coming to see Nancy as a force of nature, a woman who will let nothing and no-one stand in her way, whether that’s out on the field or during a game of Monopoly. But of her personal life, Carlos knows next to nothing; she mentioned a sister a few weeks ago, and TK delights in teasing her about her growing crush on Marjan, but that’s about it.

He needs to make more of an effort, he decides. When they’re anywhere else but a police station.

Carlos knocks lightly on the door to announce his presence before entering the room, sending her what he hopes is a reassuring smile. Nancy visibly relaxes at the sight of him and she drops the remains of her cup, though Carlos doesn’t miss the continuing tremble to her hands.

“Hey Nancy,” he says, sliding into the seat opposite her. “How are you doing?”

Nancy’s lips twitch, the corners barely curving into the beginnings of a wry smile. She breathes out shakily, meeting Carlos’s eyes for the briefest second before staring back down at the table. “I’m not great,” she answers, and for her to admit to that… Well, Carlos suspects it’s not a regular occurrence.

He nods, reluctantly pulling out his notebook and pen, hesitating before flipping to the next blank page. Nancy tracks his movements, resignation clearly etched all over her features. Carlos glances at the two-way mirror—not that it does him any good—then reaches across the table to take Nancy’s hand.

“We don’t have to do this right now,” he murmurs. “If you need more time, just say the word and I’ll leave. Or if you’d prefer to talk to someone you don’t know, we can do that too. Anything you need.”

The sudden tightness of Nancy’s grip is unexpected, as is the flash of panic in her eyes.

“Please, don’t go,” she whispers. “I don’t—” She cuts herself off, shutting her eyes and breathing slowly for a few seconds. Slowly, her hold on Carlos begins to loosen until her hand is slack in his, then she draws both hands into her lap and straightens in her chair. When her eyes reopen, she seems more like the Nancy Carlos knows—strong, confident, assertive—though there’s still clearly an undercurrent of fear underneath it all.

“I’m fine. Let’s do this.”

Carlos bites back an are you sure and settles for clicking his pen, his smile unwavering. “Can you run me through what happened, exactly?” he asks. “Take your time.”

A second or two passes, then Nancy nods, her voice steady when she speaks. “I was restocking the bus at the end of shift. I was alone; Captain Vega was in her office and TK was with the others in the showers—he did try to help but he’d had to go into a fire on our last call to help a patient and the smell of smoke was giving me a headache, so I told him to go.”

Carlos pauses in his note-taking, mentally filing that last piece of information away for follow-up as soon as he sees his boyfriend again. Judging by the amused quirk to Nancy’s eyebrow, she’s fully aware of where his mind has gone, so Carlos clears his throat and motions for her to continue, forcing his thoughts back to the present.

“Like I said, I was alone. I didn’t mind it; it was kind of relaxing, you know? Then this guy appeared from nowhere and pointed a gun at me, saying if I called out or turned on the siren or anything, he’d shoot. I thought—” She inhales sharply, her knuckles going white on the tabletop and her jaw clenching tightly. Her voice sounds different when she next speaks, more controlled, as though forcing each word out. “I thought it was happening again. I thought he was going to take me somewhere, make me his personal pet paramedic, something like that.

“Turns out, he just wanted drugs. I gave him what we had on the rig and he seemed satisfied, so I figured he’d shoot me anyway ‘cause I’d seen his face, right? He didn’t—obviously—but it looked like he was considering it.” Nancy pauses and flicks her gaze up at Carlos, biting her lip. “I think he might have done it,” she admits quietly, “but he got spooked by one of the guys making noise so he just bolted. I’m not sure how long it was between that and TK coming back and finding me. I’m sorry.”

Carlos shakes his head. “It’s okay. We can check the cameras at the station. With luck, that should get us an ID, maybe a license plate if he drove. I think that’s almost everything; just one more question, if that’s okay. Can you tell me what you gave him exactly?”

Nancy nods. “Morphine, Ativan, tramadol… I’d have to check stocks for the exact amounts.”

“We’ll do that, don’t worry about it.” Carlos taps his pen on the pages before flipping his notebook shut and leaning across the table again. “Are you okay?” he asks softly. “Speaking as a friend and not a cop, if there’s anything you need, anything I can help with, let me know.”

She smiles wanly. “I’m okay. I just want to go home and forget all this ever happened.”

“Fair enough. I’ll walk you out to your car.”

Carlos half-expects her to brush him off, but she just nods and allows him to escort her back through the precinct and out to her car. He dithers awkwardly, shuffling his feet as Nancy turns to him, one hand on the door handle.

“Thank you, Carlos. For real. I have the feeling it wasn't a coincidence that you were the one in that room with me.”

The tips of Carlos’s ears go pink as he finds himself caught out. “That, uh… That would not be inaccurate.”

“Well, thanks.” She pulls open the car door and Carlos takes a step back, wanting to wait until she’s safely away to go back inside. Nancy ducks as if to get in, then pauses and straightens again, biting her lip as she looks back at him.

“Hey, Carlos?” she says. “Can you do me a favour and not tell the others? Not even TK. They— They know vaguely what happened, but I’d prefer it if the details and, uh, some of the other stuff I told you could be kept between us.”

He agrees immediately, just grateful that she trusts him enough to handle this for her. “No-one will know any more than they need to,” he promises, which seems to relieve her. She thanks him again, then gets in the car and drives away, Carlos watching after her with one hand raised in farewell.

*

It grows from there.

It’s not intentional exactly, but one text to check up on her soon turns into a steady stream of messages, stories and jokes and even the occasional meme passing back and forth between them. Carlos especially appreciated Nancy's carefully curated collection of dirt on TK, which, as a concerned boyfriend, it is his duty to know. Many a conversation has been spent griping about TK's accident prone ways or sighing over his latest mishap.

Lovingly, of course.

Nancy, 15.48: you’ll never guess what happened this time

Carlos, 16.22: ?

In answer, he receives a picture of a dejected-looking TK sprawled on the floor with Buttercup’s front paws squarely resting on his chest. Buttercup’s tongue is lolling out, a wide grin on his face, and in the background stand the rest of the crew. All of them also seem to have their phones pointed towards TK—probably the reason TK looks so down, as Carlos knows his boyfriend couldn’t be upset with Buttercup to save his life.

Nancy, 16.26: he thought he’d try to teach buttercup some tricks. turns out, dog trainers exist for a reason

Carlos has to stifle a laugh—technically, he is supposed to be working—but his attempt at being subtle is thwarted when his phone repeatedly pings with similar texts and photos from Paul, Marjan, and Mateo. He screenshots the sudden influx of notifications and sends it to Nancy before saving every single photo.

Nancy responds with a laughing emoji and a promise to keep him updated.

*

Not all of their conversations are about TK, naturally.

Carlos, 19.10: I don’t understand why you don’t just talk to her

Nancy, 19.12: i do talk to her. every shift, actually

Carlos, 19.13: Nancy

Nancy, 19.13: carlos

Nancy, 19.14: i don’t even know if she’s into women, alright? it’s not like i can just march up and ask, that’s like waving a banner saying ‘hey, i’m in love with you’ in her face

Carlos, 19.16: Oh, we’re talking about love now, are we?

Nancy, 19.17: can it, reyes

Carlos, 19.20: Noted. Look, take it from someone who’s been navigating gay relationships in Texas his whole life. Sometimes you just have to go for it. Ask her for coffee, test the waters, see where it leads. You never know, it might work out. I mean, look at me

Nancy, 19.24: wow, way to rub your happiness in my face 😑

(Carlos doesn’t find out if she follows his advice, but he does notice her and Marjan showing up to their hangs together)

(Nancy does not appreciate his smugness)

*

Without even realising, they become a formidable team. This fact is highlighted one game night about three months after the incident, when Nancy and Marjan blow into his and TK’s house, a determined glint in both their eyes.

“We’re switching up the teams,” Marjan declares, much to TK’s outrage.

“What? Why?”

“Because,” Nancy continues, “we’re tired of losing to you guys. You’re like, freakishly good at board games and it’s not fair. Plus, we have to watch you both being all lovey all the time when you’re on the same team and it’s exhausting. We want to see you being competitive for once.”

TK pouts, but Carlos just shrugs when he looks to him for backup. “It’ll be fun,” he says, smiling at Nancy and Marjan. TK still looks put out, so he leans in close and half-murmurs, “C’mon babe. How about a prize for the winner?”

TK perks up considerably at the suggestion, and, going by the twin looks of despair on Nancy and Marjan’s faces, they caught both the comment and the innuendo. Marjan groans and Nancy raises her eyes skyward, as if pleading for divine intervention.

“This was a great idea, actually,” TK says, grinning. He quirks an eyebrow at Nancy. “You and me, Nance?”

That seems to shake Nancy out of her silent prayers for strength. “Uh, no. I’m with Carlos.” To emphasise the point, she strides forward and grabs Carlos’s arm, dragging him to the couch. He nudges her gently when they sit, smirking at the disgruntled way she digs into the snack bowl.

“You did say you wanted to see us being competitive.”

“Shut up.”

*

In the end, TK ends up paired with Mateo, and Marjan with Paul. It’s clear from the outset who’s going to win—Nancy and Carlos dominate the board, and not even Paul’s master strategy is enough to catch up with them.

They win by a comfortable margin, fist-bumping in celebration. There’s a general air of bemusement in the room, and when Carlos looks round at the others, he finds four pairs of eyes fixed on them.

“What?”

“Since when have you two been such a good team?” Paul asks, leaning back in his chair and raising an eyebrow.

Carlos shrugs, sharing a smile with Nancy. “Guess we just are.”