#{ put this under a 'read more' because it got a little longer than expected lol }

[orphiclovers]

I think the most notable bit of character insight on Yoo Joonghyuk that Yoo Mia SS provides is how much the apocalypse did not change him at all.

It's one of those Big Themes orv has, and simply brilliant writing. Y'know how they kept beating us over the head with the concept of 'the people who find it easiest to adapt in a ruined world are those who could not adapt to real life?'. That applies to YJH too, and even more than other characters. But it's hard to notice on a casual main story read because genre conventions and his character archetype tell us not to look deeper, that he is just a basic brooding power fantasy manhwa protagonist, even when he's really not.

So the audience writes off his quirks because it's expected of his brooding hero archetype and the other apocalypse survivors write off his quirks because everyone who has gotten this far is a little nuts and also they have bigger problems.

But when Yoo Joonghyuk acts exactly like he does during the apocalypse in a pre-scenario world where there's no convienient explanation it's really clear that he is different and he just comes off as...off.

His silence during conversations is no longer mysterious and cool but just weird and a failure to read social cues. His 'glare' is frightening and people don't like when he makes eye contact with them. His manner of speech is off-putting. His blank emotionless face is not stoic repressed hero-esque but ""rude"" etc etc. Every single mainstream society conforming person can tell there's something off about him so they avoid him. And YJH doesn't know how to communicate so he ends up totally friendless (save for a literal mafia boss and a crazy time-traveling teenage girl - and only them, because they don't fit well into society either.)

Umm where was I. So, but I don't know how much effect all of that has on World of Zero. Firstly, because between Yoo Mia side story and World of Zero there are 3-4 years of '?????' where afaik we have no idea what Yoo Joonghyuk was doing. He stopped being a gamer at some point but also got rich at the same time (doing what?) and bought the house he daydreamed about and also became a total shut-in who 'doesn't go outside often'. I have fanfic-y theories but nothing canon.

Onto the second part of the ask.

With World of Zero era joongdok I feel like there's a lot of writers out there who have made their own versions that are better than anything I could come up with so I hope you wont be disapointed. That being said I do have some thoughts.

Speaking of fanfic, here is mine under read more lol.

I think it's super that Kim Dokja gains the power of an omnipotent god and the very first thing he does is devote his time to Yoo Joonghyuk's happiness and safety. The whole reason he became OD was because of his massive guilt complex about YJH, so it makes sense that he would try to atone.

Zero starts off mistrusting him but gradually KDJ proves himself as having Zero's best interests at heart 100% of the time. DKOS is YJH's guardian angel. And then KDJ stays watching over him even after the scenarios were over, seeing him go through boring life milestones, happy as long as YJH is happy, for seemingly no reason.

So it's no wonder Yoo Jooghyuk fell in love.

He might not know Salvation's real name or appearance or anything about him but he wants to get to know him, this person who has saved him so many times while asking nothing in return. It doesn't matter that he's a constellation because he is good, Yoo Joonghyuk knows. He confesses all of this to Salvation, looking up at the sky with eyes sparkling with life and passion.

Salvation lets him down gently, for what it's worth, but rejection is still rejection and it hurts.

In the following weeks, as he goes through the motions and pretends nothing happened, he continues to feel the gaze of Salvation on his back, but the constellation stays mercifully silent. Yoo Joonghyuk does not want to know if it's pity he's looking at him with. Even heartbreak heals, of course. Months pass, then years. Lee Seolhwa was a dependable companion to him during the scenarios and stays a steadying presence in the world after. They're compatable. She is someone with who he could see himself growing old.

Salvation told him to 'be free, to fall in love with someone who could be with him, to not waste his time chasing after a dream, to live his life to the fullest'

He knows about his attribute of course, just like he knows everything about Yoo Joonghyuk.

Yoo Joonghyuk sees no point in lying. He tells Lee Seolhwa everything. How due to his attribute he will grown old and die while the rest of them stay youthful as ever, how he doesn't remember his childhood or know his parents. His hopes and dreams, how he yearns to learn his origins. About the first scenario, about the constellation who would have been his sponsor, whom he loves.

Then he asks to marry her. She says yes.

Salvation is the first person Yoo Joonghyuk tells. He's happy for him, of course, says he always knew there was a spark between them.

They live a long 50 years together.

When Yoo Joonghyuk's hair started turning more salt than pepper, he told Lee Seolhwa that he wouldn't hold her. She laughed, stroked his head and said that she might not look it but she is two years older than him, that she vowed to be by his side till death did them apart and she will not break that promise.

When his time comes and he knows he has to leave, he tries to explain himself to Lee Seolhwa at least, if not the rest of his old companions. But he needn't have bothered. Before he could start, she took his hands in hers and smiled wistfully. She told him she always knew this day would come. That his heart has always belonged to someone else. She's thankful for the time he has given her anyway and that she could not have asked for a better husband. She sheads a few tears and Yoo Joonghyuk does too, but he leaves their house with a sense of purpose and a lightness in his heart he has not felt once since the day he beat the final scenario.

And then he accepts the sponsorship contract with Salvation.

... .. Sooo, that's how I think round zero went.

[noturlondonboy]

Hiii, can I ask for more autistic Yelena hcs? I love her sm but there's so little content for her :(

Autistic Yelena Belova is the genuine love of my life and I would do anything for her

Also this was MUCH longer than I thought it would be so I hope that’s your thing lol

-first of all, Yelena has literally no clue what autism is. They were never taught about neurodivergence in the Red Room, because there was no point. Each Widow was already tested on their cognitive abilities over and over and over again, with the weak links being weeded out. Yelena got “lucky” in that aspect; she didn’t start showing signs or symptoms until later (which can happen) and would be considered high functioning or even neurotypical when under the Red Room’s control. She unknowingly taught herself how to mask and always blamed the discomfort she felt on the fact that she was in the hell that was the Red Room in the first place.

-the first time she ever mentions something that could be related back to her being autistic, she and Kate are out clothes shopping. She’s already overstimulated from the bright sunlight, the store lights glaring off the floor, and the sounds of people’s shoes clacking, shopping carts creaking, and the children throwing a fit on the other side of the store. She physically recoils away from a jacket after her knuckles brush over it, her face scrunching up and tears welling in her eyes as she desperately shakes her hand out to get the disgusting texture off of her skin. Kate is worried and confused, but once they’ve gotten into the safety of their car with the window shades pulled up and the AC blasting, Yelena is able to explain that the texture felt awful and it felt like her brain was on fire from all the noise (even tho the store was actually relatively quiet). Kate starts putting two and two together after that day but doesn’t say anything for a while.

-when the idea of a diagnosis is brought to her, Yelena literally laughs in Kate and Natasha’s faces. She doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about, but she’s for damn sure knows that that’s not her. She avoids the topic completely for weeks, changing the subject abruptly, leaving the room, of just full on putting her noise canceling headphones on and blasting her favorite music. That entire time, she is masking HARD, still without even realizing it, because the thought of a medical professional analyzing her is terrifying and just brings her right back to the Red Room. Kate is finally able to get to her one night when she pulls out her laptop and shows Yelena a list of common signs/symptoms of autism, and Yelena reads over them with a blank look on her face. She spends the rest of the night feverishly researching as much as she can about it, and by the morning, she’s a crying, exhausted mess in Kate’s arms.

-when they finally make her an appointment to see a neurologist, Yelena is practically bouncing off the walls with how anxious she is. The wait time is months long, but Natasha pulls some strings and manages to get her scheduled for the next month. Yelena needs a ton of cuddles after that, curling up with Kate on their bed and having the archer rest on top of her so it can feel like her body isn’t trying to escape her.

-the appointment itself goes smoother than she was expecting, but she still doesn’t like it. She’s asked questions and given scenarios to react to, they have her complete all sorts of different kinds of puzzles and equations, but she completes them all beyond easily because her brain was literally rewired to be cognitively brilliant. They don’t really start getting anywhere until the topic of her overstimulation comes up, and from there it pipelines into a conversation about how she hates certain textures, how some foods feel impossible to eat, how she has to complete patterns in her head to feel better, how anxious she gets about small things, how she stims and ticks almost constantly without even realizing, etc etc. She gets the official diagnosis a few weeks later and doesn’t know how to feel, so Kate and Natasha just hold her and they all watch a movie together.

-with Yelena’s stimming, you can bet it’s pretty constant whenever she’s not masking. Stimming is the repetition of certain physical movements or noises to help calm someone down. And seeing as Yelena is who she is, she’s stressed pretty much all the time. Her biggest stim is playing and fidgeting with her rings, but she also taps her fingers together a lot in patterns that she can’t explain, blinks rapidly when it’s bright wherever she is, rubs her thumb over her cheek, presses her hands together tightly and rubs them together, and runs her hands through her hair. She tries to get herself to stop doing those things once she knows what they are, but masking is getting more and more uncomfortable, and she only lasts a few days before she breaks and has a meltdown.

-she ticks when she’s particularly anxious or overstimulated, or when there are sudden unexpected loud noises whenever she’s relaxed and not masking. Ticks are a lot like stims, but are most often involuntary and can’t be controlled unless a lot of effort is put into it. Keeping oneself from ticking can be extremely physically painful, more so than holding back on stimming. Her ticks are usually small- clicking her tongue, making small noises in the back of her throat, tilting her head back and forth, snapping her fingers, etc. With the loud noises or high levels of stress, they turn into full body twitches, which usually renders her entirely nonverbal and prone on the couch or in bed while she shivers and jerks. It freaks Kate out until she understands what’s happening and learns how to help, but only because she’s so worried.

-Yelena finds out that she loves to have something in her mouth, and at first it weirds and freaks her out, but she can’t help herself when Natasha buys her a chewable necklace. She adores the texture on her tongue and how she can sink her teeth into it without it breaking, and she wears it almost constantly, often accessorizing different color pallets of the chewelry with how she dresses. She also likes to chew or suck gently on Kate’s fingers, which usually happens when they’re cuddling or after sex. Kate doesn’t mind, as long as she doesn’t bite too hard, and she makes sure to always have her hands clean whenever they’re together in case Yelena randomly wants to go full puppy on her.

[vidavalor]

So I'm on a bit of a roll from just having finished some writing (probably post in the next day or two), so have some random thoughts!

Legit can't remember whether or not your linguistic analysis of Bildad the Shuhite touched on 'cobbler' as Cockney rhyming slang for either testicles (as in 'kick in the...') or nonsense (as in 'load of old cobblers') -- the latter meaning especially feels kind of appropriate!

What kind of 'madeleine memories' might an amnesiac Aziraphale get from a roast beef sandwich???

Do you think actual madeleines are likely to appear on screen in some capacity in S3?

Tiramisu has coffee, chocolate and alcohol, and thus feels like a VERY Ineffable-Husbands-speak dessert :D

Was poking around the Royal Albert Hall website for research purposes and found this: https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/tours-and-exhibitions/afternoon-tea/ Not quite as hyper-fancy as the Ritz, perhaps, but lots of little bits of Ineffable-speak meaningfulness in the food as well as being potentially a lovely little engagement celebration date???

Ehehehe

Hi, luv. Looking forward to reading your new writing! So many goodies to ponder here! 😍I actually have some madeleines today. And good coffee. It's raining here and ah, this is all a heavenly combination. 😊 Throwing this under a cut because your mention of tiramisu led me to write about two, related words in Ineffable Husbands Speak that I've noticed repeated: might and found...

We'll do the sea ties to insinuate while we're at it... 🐟

1- Cobbler: I need to do a whole thing on cobbler actually and will add & credit the findings you shared to you. I mainly just wanted to quickly make a post about how cobbler connects to sherry but there's actually a whole web of overlapping words they're using. It also ties to the root kob-- which quite literally means "good omens." 😊 I'll put a longer post on cobbler on the list.

2- Roast beef sandwich madeleine memories?:

*Bildad voice* You tell me... 😉

3- Madeleines on screen in S3?: I'm not expecting it but it would be fun. Would actually also go with the theme of the literal-and-the-figurative, especially with the food, so I guess it might actually be more likely than some other things. I mainly just want Aziraphale to eat something because he had a sherry and a couple of sips of tea in the present in S2 and that's why everything went sideways, really. That angel needs a sandwich in the worst way and in both ways that you can read that sentence.

4- Tiramisu: Yes. It actually also has one of my favorite meanings for any food, as it means a "pick-me-up" in Italian, which is very cute, no? It is very Ineffable Husbands-y for the reasons you mentioned and now you've got me going on about a word that we haven't heard them say lol but I can connect it to two words that they have said, so...

Tiramisu (originally from "tireme su") is thought to have been invented by the owner of a brothel in Treviso sometime around 1800. This innovative Mrs. Sandwich would offer it to clients as an aphrodisiac or as an after-treat and it was basically considered the Viagra of the 1800s in Italy. Coffee, alcohol, chocolate, as you pointed out... food + seamstressing = no way this isn't an Ineffable Husbands Speak thing.

It is perishable, as we know, and it was invented in a time before mainstream refrigeration so it originally wasn't as available outside of bigger cities, which is why it was often offered at the end of a client session as well, before the clients were sent home-- yeah, medicinal tiramisu was a thing. 😲 The actual origins of the dessert apparently weren't really discussed publicly until sometime around the 1980s as, once it became easier to keep things chilled, generations of Italian ladies were making tiramisu constantly and it got a bit awkward to acknowledge that all these adorable old nonnas for generations were passing down how to make this sexy dessert that was created in the first place by a lady bordello owner for, um, reasons...

But tiramisu would, by The Ineffable Husbands' wordplay rules, mix the origins and meanings of the word with its phonetic soundings in English and, as we've seen, French... so, it would also be spoken as: "tier a me sous."

A tier is an arrangement of things in an order and, also, in keeping with our amusing seamstressing origins of the dessert, rows of overlapping trim on a dress. Sous (the last s is silent) means under and/or below in French. In that way, expressing a desire for some tiramisu is expressing a desire for a tier in which you are sous your partner.

[Sidebar but this is reminding me that the sous vide style of cooking translates literally from French as "under/below the vacuum" and... I feel like Crowley does not have the willpower to have never not connected this to Mr. Brown of Brown's World of Carpets in some way 😂... *doesn't look up from his book* "Oh, the Whickber Street Monthly Whatzit's getting takeaway? Gonna get the sous vide chicken this time, angel?"]

Tiramisu means a "pick me up"-- a mood-booster-- but "pick me up" is also obviously both tongue-in-cheek expression of wanting to be seduced and a request to be quite literally picked up, as in lifted off the floor... which is how you know that tiramisu is likely a dessert that Crowley thinks is the tops.

Since we're taking apart a word not in the series, I'll give you two others that tie to it that on their little vocab list: might and found.

There are at least two scenes that I've noticed so far where one of them is using the word might as innuendo in reference to Aziraphale. Might falls into the category of words like wily, thwart, smitten, etc..-- words that are amusing in how they have wildly different, often contradicting, definitions, and where at least one definition is a bit suggestive, allowing them to use it around angels or demons or in public with one definition on the surface and the flirtier one underneath.

On the one hand, might is the past tense of may and involves gentle suggestions or polite requests asking permission. On the other hand, the word might also has a real oomph when used in its other definition, which is to express the strength and power of a nation, a natural force, or a person.

It's basically Aziraphale in a word-- unfailingly polite and gentle on one level and full of raw strength on another.

The other word is found, which can be, uh, found lol, in the Crowley-penned Aziraphale entry in 'Demon's Guide to Angelic Beings...'. The sentence is actually constructed around the inclusion of 'found' and what makes that extra-amusing is that it suggests Crowley was eager to get the word in there, likely because of its nautical definition.

In seafaring terms, for a ship to be described as found is a very positive thing and, to be defined as such, it must meet both of two requirements:

The ship must be both well-equipped (*cough*) and, equally important, fully stocked.

A person who is stocked or stocky is, as we know, one who is broader, more shoulders and chest than height, and of a fuller and thicker build in thighs and arms. Someone like Aziraphale, who is physically strong and brawny and who would not have much difficulty picking up what would be being thrown down if Crowley were to order a tiramisu for dessert, if ya get mah drift...

Insinuate: To subtly introduce slowly into hearts and minds; to maneuver someone or something into a desired position; to thrust in, push in, or wind one's way into; to introduce with torturous slowness; and, of course, the best one: to hint at obliquely (ha!)

The sinu part of the word comes from sinus, a word that I've *achoo* been cursing all damn week because the gorgeous trees and plants are trying to kill me but which is Latin for all sorts of things a lot more pleasant than 'the part of the head that is often pounding during Spring.'

English-language writers of the dreamy sort-- the poets who call rainstorms "tempests", like a certain red-headed demon we know-- would also use sinus back in the day to describe a gulf, a bay, or "the arm of the sea", as well as any hole or cavity in the Earth.

Insinuate = In sinu ate. In the sea, eating. 😂

Why ever [eve/"temptation"/"sin"] would [wood] Aziraphale insinuate that Crowley might [mmm strong] possibly [which shares roots with potent] want [to want; also contains ant, the humans in the insect analogy] something [so/sew, me, thin; opposite of might]? = the actual dessert isn't invented yet in this scene in 1601 but seems like Crowley wants to get tiramisu'd something fierce...

5- Royal Albert Hall: Love this idea. It reminds me of how The British Museum also has an afternoon tea but how they've met in the cafe and how they've probably both wanted to get tea there. While I was on the Royal Albert Hall website, I was laughing over the copy on the menu for the box service, especially the *very* rare modern use of rhubarb in this way:

Choose from a wide range of canapés, sandwiches and sharing plates, finishing your meal with sweet treats. All food is prepared with the finest seasonal ingredients and is always presented with signature rhubarb style.

Aziraphale, back away from the copywriters... 😂

Cheers as always for the amusing stuff to think about @jotun-philosopher 💕

Original posts regarding fish, madeleines and memory, for anyone who might read this and is confuzzled and wondering wtf we're on about:

[coruscqte]

dear @lesbianbootheng + @sundays-wing-piercing ask and ye shall receive! i have some answers for you about xiayu under the cut :)

the astral express trio:

- xiayu’s parents! dan heng, stelle and march 7th are probably one of the longer passengers of the express, definitely spend a couple years (read: closer to a decade) still aboard the train with pom-pom, himeko and welt

- (crossing every finger on my hands himeko survives hsr)

- regardless of what happens towards endgame, the three of them are dating for quite a while before dan heng finally actually asks to mate with both of them. stelle and march (obviously) readily accepted. i think march made a bigger deal out of it than the other two intended it to be, but it was a cute little party with their friends to celebrate it.

- (perhaps the luofu races have mating ceremonies? headcanon i suppose)

- im not sure if marriage is a concept in hsr (as we still havent come across any married couples yet) but they have matching jewelry. necklaces, with jade pendants on the chain. for two people who use two handed weapons, rings were out of the question anyway.

-xiayu was wholeheartedly an entire accident. i dont think dan heng ever expected to be able to have children of his own for obvious reasons, it probably never really crossed stelle’s mind, but march mightve had some serious baby fever a few times in those ten years. just because they were cute, not so much because she wanted to raise one.

- but i also think all three of them were pretty okay not being parents because being a nameless is dangerous work. as many times as theyve come home to the express scratched and beaten to hell, it wasnt something they wanted to put onto a child.

- but again, xiayu. she’s an odd little bean. mostly because how she came into existence at all is a bit of an ongoing question even bailu's still stumped over decades later. vidyadhara shouldnt be able to reproduce, yet her running theory is that something about the stellaron + vidyadhara biology interacted and the three of them just got unreasonably lucky.

-(or unlucky, if you ask a very morning sick dan heng)

-i don't care to get into the nitty gritty or even just details of how one child came from three different people, im very handwavey in that sense. easy enough to say dh (for lack of better terms) incubated her egg, she stayed in said egg for another couple months after being “born”ish and pop goes the new vidyadhara baby lol

- egg! i hc xiayu came out of an egg just like any other vidyadhara, but she cracked out of it way earlier because she’s a brand new person. in that in between time thought, she was carried around by the three of them. one of them was always with her, whether on them or in the little nest she stayed in.

- march was no longer allowed to go shopping for xiayu somewhere around a month or so before she was born. himeko was required to go with her if she wanted to buy anything else for the baby — one kid only needed so many things, and march was not the best about staying on topic. or budget.

- stelle was also, naturally, excited. but mostly curious, after all the only vidyadhara child she’d met was bailu, so she was a little concerned itd be different from human children. still, shes the one that assembled the creche and such, as well as sitting w the egg most of the time. the stellaron helped keep it warm.

- i think dan heng was the most worried about xiayu. from the fact that he was the one who incubated her to another fact that theyd created a whole new person together, he was a bit of a nervous wreck. tried not to show it much, failed pretty miserably towards the end of that period.

- xiayu’s egg cracked while march and stelle were away on a trailblaze mission, terribly harrowing moment for everyone involved when dan heng called in a panic. thankfully, she waited to make her proper debut until her moms could be there but dan heng had never been more stressed

- i have a very clear vision in mind of their skin-to-skin session directly after xiayu cracked her egg. gently pulling the shards off their daughter, cleaning her up a little. pulled close to stelle’s chest, warm and so soft. all three of them absolutely in love. there were tears. lots of them.

- so, so small. even with the extra time in her egg she was still smaller than most vidyadhara “newborns”. certainly smaller than dan heng had been — had he ever been that small? as innocent as the little person staring up at him? he doesnt know.

- and a million and one photos taken by march afterwards. she documented all of her achievements and milestones with her trusty camera. she never wants to forget these moments, her first moments as a mom, her first moments with her daughter.

- stelle is so content with her baby. parenthood was something she’d been mostly neutral on the whole process, and yet it seemed like everything they did was worth it. healthy, cooing in her arms, these cute little fingers that all wrapped around one of her fingers with a surprisingly strong grip. oh yes, xiayu was her baby. she’d be up to bat soon enough.

about xiayu:

- xiayu was a terribly fussy baby. never wanted to be left alone, never really wanted to nap, cried probably excessively. but she also babbled plenty, was all too happy to spend some time on her parents hip or to see the stars outside the express. this is why welt coined the nickname nova for her. the way her little eyes would light up in the parlor car seeing space was just adorable.

- dan heng purrs. this is relevant because i think a content xiayu also purrs.

- floppy toddler. likes to scare her parents a little by just going limp whenever. contrary to stelle’s belief, this is not as funny as xiayu thinks it is to her other parents lol.

- stelle likes to toss xiayu in the air. dan heng is not as big of a fan. march im not sure minds, she just loves that xiayu is happy.

- stelle is more of a … hm, a mom who cares a lot but doesn’t smother. likes to let xiayu figure things out on her own, see the world for herself. of course, she always keeps an eye on her, ready to swoop in whenever.

- march is more of an emotional mum. she leads by her heart, as per usual, and xiayu usually goes to her for comfort naturally. ofc she goes to all of them, but if she just wants to be babied, its march she seeks out.

- march and dan heng are usually the ones dressing her, you can tell who did what rather easily.

- dan heng isnt … strict per se (he values xiayu’s autonomy and freedom just as much as he values his own) but he is more worrying than stelle or march. perhaps its because she’s the first new vidyadhara theyve had in literal centuries, or that a fear of the preceptors finding her scares him shitless, or just trying to keep his own fears in line, he keeps her safe the best he knows how — with his tail wrapped around her middle if she wanders too far away.

- (though, xiayu thinks this is hilarious and attempts to run away a lot. it was a curse for her to pick up toddling so quicky)

- she has a raccoon toy that goes with her everywhere lol. his name is caelus 😌

- infinite loop of “goes ask your mom” “go ask your mum” “go ask your dad”

- stelle is called mama, march is mummy, and dan heng is baba in the early years. as xiayu matures it becomes mom, mum and dad.

- auntie himeko and uncle welt! xiayu likes to see the maps and such that himeko works with, and welt usually has a different selection of books than dan heng has. it’s a treat when they visit.

- the four of them live on the luofu until xiayu is about twelve. it’s simply safer to have a baby in a more concrete location, and have a permanent home base. they disembark the astral express for a few years, but promise to return when she gets a little older.

- given they dont stay long. dan heng is far too paranoid about the preceptors doing something terrible to her, and xiayu isn’t well received by the wider vidyadhara community. people find out eventually that she’s a descendant of dan feng, and hell breaks loose. when she comes home crying one day from lessons that her playmates won’t play with her anymore, dan heng blames himself even if his partners tell him not to.

- jing yuan does enjoy her visits when they bring her around. after all, who could say no to such a cute face? (march concurs. dan heng is worried about the pair of them). a beloved baby under the watchful eye of the luofu’s general.

- bailu is just happy to have another baby vidyadhara around, though the concept is a bit foreign.

- xiayu doesnt call the luofu home, which opens up confusion when introducing herself. the express is her home, moreso than somewhere that didnt even truly accept her.

all about trailblazer xiayu:

- xiayu herself is a bright soul with a great deal of trailblazer branded curiosity about the world around her. she just loves to explore, and has a semi decent sense of direction — its rare that she gets truly lost

- if she were playable, she would be nihility / imaginary. five star, obviously.

- her tone is a little bit deeper than that of march’s , probably alongside the timbre of stelle’s.

- star carver was commissioned by dan heng for her, and march and stelle had some input on it as well. theres a three star motif on the hand grip and on the axe blades themselves. its her birthright and beloved axe, though she doesn’t use it much until she boards the astral express as a proper trailblazer when she’s about twenty.

- never a quiet moment with xiayu. she always has something to say or something to share. bit of a yapper depending on the parent shes with. she and march are usually the ones doing something together, while pompom has probably lost a vase or two in the observatory car to xiayu and stelle working w their weapons. she doesnt really do the whole silence thing well, but it is comfortable with her dad while they work on separate things in the archives.

- i do think dan heng tries his best to teach xiayu about her heritage. whether she dislikes the luofu or not, she does still need to know what his kin do. im not sure if shes terribly talented with cloudhymn magic though, considering shes only been to scalegorge a few times with her father.

- xiayu i dont think considers herself vidyadhara. only for her lifespan, but otherwise chooses not to identify with them first. i think the wider community is split on opinion, but most are just in awe of her existence.

- at twenty, xiayu is considered a full trailblazer, and begins accompanying the current passengers on missions. by this time, stelle and march are both around 50ish, so theyre not always in attendance (similar to welt) but when they can be, they are.

- i think her parents are, understandably, a bit protective of xiayu when out and about on missions. they compromise that she always keeps her phone on if she just Has to go wandering around, but otherwise theyre usually together.

- she is not allowed to touch the archive, even as an adult. only for entries not organization lol

- she does get her own room on the express! big window to space, little window rest for her to sit and more often, nap on.

- i think she takes after march the most, easily. but you can see dan heng in her mannerisms, her quiet thinking at times. its stelle you can see when shes in a fight, those swings are trailblazer brand lol. and perhaps, when she goes about collecting trinkets wherever the express has stopped — akin to stelle’s foraging.

- re: vidyadhara: vidyadhara usually live anywhere from 10 days to aeons know how long. for those aboard the xianzhou alliance, likely children remain a bit younger-minded for longer. xiayu has always considered herself an adult when her parents began treating her as one, so her experiences on the luofu are a bit skewed. to put it simply, she is not particularly happy about some things being age restricted to those a hundred years and over.

- primarily, sushang and bailu are usually the ones accompanying her out and about. this helps her get around these restrictions a lot of the time.

- now, all good things usually come to an end. by the time xiayu is barely forty, march and stelle are already in their 70s. its odd, watching your moms age and grow grey hairs and wrinkles while your father looks nearly the same as he has all forty years youve been alive.

- they return to their old home on the luofu for their twilight years, while xiayu remains on the astral express.

- stelle doesn’t live to see xiayu’s fiftieth birthday.

- (contingent on hsr not removing the stellaron from the trailblazer) the stellaron was already corrupting her since before xiayu was even conceived, and age catching up with her rapidly doesn’t help. she passes away relatively quietly in her sleep at 74.

- xiayu was with her, curled up on her side. she won’t ever forget that moment when her mom didnt wake with her.

- the rest of the family is, obviously, devastated. little spider cracks appear then and there in xiayu, trying to stay positive for her parents. arguably not dissimilar to march, but even she has to admit that things won’t quite ever be the same without stelle.

- march goes later. it’s quiet, when she goes. dan heng is the one to discover her this time. around when she’s eighty six. xiayu is barely fifty five.

- this is where i think xiayu’s brand of whimsy comes in. xiayu has always been between worlds, treated like a short lived person by her immediate family, treated like she’s live centuries by her peers. in that disconnect, xiayu’s mental cracks.

- she calls stelle and march as if they were still alive, just waiting on them to pick up their voicemails. she takes pictures for march, sending texts and just ignoring the error messages. after all the signal is probably just bad, right? she keeps stelle’s original jacket to wear and march’s hair clips, after all, theyll come back soon enough.

- dan heng tries his best to cope for the same reasons. hes known that he’d outlive his partners, but hadnt been really thinking about it until theyd moved back to the luofu. he tries to keep xiayu safe the best he can, to the point of occasionally overstepping. shes not allowed to leave into the mara struck areas without sushang or yanqing, shouldnt be away for too many days. even on the express he has her check in with him or with someone who can contact him.

- its a mess. they both love each other to pieces because theyre all the other has left, but dan heng hasn’t exactly helped much to cope with march and stelle being gone. if anything they just keep feeding into each other.

- but for about fifty years, it was truly joyful. after all, caelus still accompanies her on her travels.

edit: send in writing / art prompts for her if youd like! ill happily do even more brain rotting over her by request lol

[stolitzsings]

💖, 🖋 and 👨‍👩‍👧 for the ask game! (I probably got at least one of the emojis wrong but hopefully they still make sense 😂) - @blitzwhore

💖 What do you like most about your own writing?

Can't believe you're gonna make me think of something nice to say about myself 🤣 I've been told I have a very "lyrical" style of writing, and sometimes I'll write a sentence or paragraph that flows really well and just Hits. I love those moments when I feel like I've really nailed it at a word-for-word level.

👨‍👩‍👦 Do you tell people in real life that you write fic?

Most people in my life know I do writing of some sort, but I'm pretty vague with the details lol. I only talk about writing fic with irl friends who also write/read fic (and I don't tell most of them that I write smut, just bc I know it isn't their jam). I told my therapist I write "character studies," because what is smut if not horny character analysis? 🤣

🖋 Post a snippet from a current WIP

Putting this one under the cut!

Ok I was a little nervous about sharing this because it's from a longer AU I've been toying around with, and historically I'm very bad at sticking to longer projects. But regardless of what I do with it I had a lot of fun writing this scene of M&M tormenting Blitz lmao

Blitz could feel his face heating up. “He isn’t— It’s not like—” Fuck, he was losing this one fast. “Okay, so maybe we’re boning or whatever, but it’s just a casual thing, you know? It’s not like we’re dating or anything.” Moxxie raised an eyebrow. It was almost impressive how smug he looked. “Who said anything about dating?” “I think he just did, babe.” Okay, now they were getting on his nerves. He could feel his spines starting to bristle.  “Look. It’s just a convenience thing, ‘kay? He gets to have his bad boy fantasy, and I get a reliable fuck who I know won’t steal my kidneys while I’m asleep.” It wasn’t like Stolas would ever really consider a relationship with someone like him. Disowned or not, he was still a royal. And that was fine! Blitz didn’t want anything complicated, anyway. Fucking was easy. It was comfortable. It was all either of them was looking for.  “If you say so, sir.” Moxxie had somehow dialed the smugness up to eleven.  Blitz rolled his eyes and walked towards the door. “I’m firing both of you. And I’m keeping your shares for today.” He was pretty sure Moxxie started to say something in response, but he was out the door before he heard it.  He let himself stew as he made his way down to the parking lot. “Looking for excuses,” for fuck's sake. They were hired killers! What did they expect? He was going to get injured sometimes. And it only made sense to go see Stolas, who knew more about this shit than any of them did. Besides, a quick fuck sesh was good for you, or something. Boosted your sero-whatever levels. Got your blood pumping. It was basically healthcare, anyway. Talk about a bedside manner, he thought to himself, grinning. He made a mental note to use that one with Stolas later. He'd think it was funny.

“C’mere, B, let me take a look at that scratch for you.” Millie had opened up their first-aid kit and had just finished bandaging a shallow cut on her thigh. Blitz looked down at the wounded arm that she’d gestured to. It wasn’t serious— an annoyance, more than anything. He shrugged. “Eh, that’s okay. I’ll just have my guy take a look at it.” Millie eyed him skeptically, like she was trying to catch him in a lie. “You know, you’ve been spending an awful lot of time with this mysterious “guy” of yours lately.” Moxxie looked up from his paperwork with a conspiratorial smile. “You’ve been seeing him for everything, even minor injuries. Almost like you’re looking for excuses to pay him a visit.” Oh great, the famous M&M tag team. “What? No, I haven’t.” Even he knew he sounded defensive. “Sure looks that way to me.” Millie crossed her arms and perched on the edge of the desk so that she and Moxxie could give him the double stare-down. Cute. “Are you sure that medical attention’s all he’s been giving you?”

Thank you for the ask @blitzwhore! I'm still answering these prompts if y'all are curious 😊

[moonshine-nightlight]

2024 Writing - Plans

similar to last year, i wanted to post a little look forward at my plans for writing this year are. the necessary disclaimer: this is 100% high level, optimistic, ideal situation and subject to change but i still like thinking about it and posting for anyone who's interested. see this post for last years!

so, i like separating things out it mini goals/sections so see below:

Nothing's Wrong with Dale: with DSM self-published under my belt, I'd like to focus on the NWWD publishing journey next! The main obstacles/costs are time and money. Hiring an editor and a cover artist are the pricey-est part of the process but my own edit (first to convert everything from 2nd POV to 3rd POV and then another high-level edit/revise once i've got it in the right POV) will take the most time and needs to be done before i hand it over to an editor. Then after the editor takes their time (and NWWD is much longer than DSM), and finally i need to process all of their edits as well. And i need to do all of this while i do my day job lol.

i've already converted the first 11 chapters to 3rd POV (i hav some IRL friends/betas who only read that version, so if u feel like the tumblr version took a lot of time lol). the timing of being able to publish this year will all end up depending on how quickly i can do all that and kick off the part of the process that depends on outside parties. Even if i manage to self-publish in this year, i don't expect it to come out until lik December and even that's ideal, super best case scenario.

Long Stories: I want to outline both A Perfectly Ordinary Research Position and Shadow Diplomacy and then pick one to be the new long story on here. I do what i call a chapter outline and a scene outline, which is confusing to not!me because the scene = a chapter on here. i should probably rename that process lol. (NWWD was 11 'chapters' and 35 'scenes' for reference).

once i pick a project, i just hope to post as many chapters as i can. Since this will be new, long, and likely just building steam, i actually think it'll be my lower priority after the Short Stories and NWWD publishing, but we'll see. i'd like to start putting that up in June, according to my tentative 2024 schedule.

Short Stories: Since i didn't get as many of these done in 2023 and they've been haunting my brain longer, i want to for sure get some of these shorter stories done. learning from last years overestimation lol, i plan to post 3 short stories: Courtship Confusion, Feral, and finish Free Piano: Haunted, in that order. i'm excited about all these stories and will let me cover 3 different types of pairings (although technically all are Reader) which is fun. All have been outlined and have parts and pieces written. I wish Feral and FPH could both happen in the fall but the timing just doesnt work out so summers gonna b a little spooky lol.

The schedule i worked out makes it so all this will be possible, but also basically has no breaks in sunday postings after my haitus which is beyond optimistic but i lik to start overly confident lol

Hiatus: this is also your reminder that my work has a specific Busy Season which honestly started already (lucky me) and i will b beyond busy Jan-March at a minimum. i hav more projects than ever with my promotion, a lot to learn, and a lot to juggle so minimum 6 day work weeks will be the name of the game - but hopefully all goes well and i'll get a nice bonus i can feed directly to my editors lol

anyway, that's where i'm at right now and I'm looking forward to all the exciting writing and publishing to come in 2024!

Feel free to send in any asks about upcoming/current stories!

Thanks again for all your support in 2023 and Happy New Year!

[sarandipitywrites]

Happy WBW, Saran!

Please pretend it's Wednesday, because I just found a single spoon on the floor and am gonna use it before it's gone: So your DRDW is based on a video game I know absolutely nothing about. How much of the game did you keep? Is it the same setting, same world, or something new?

Happy WBW, Elli!

"I found a single spoon on the floor" is such a mood though (I'll get to your other asks at some point, I promise - this just looked like one I actually had the brainpower to answer lol)

The quick answer to this is that the essentials (characters, setting, magic system, some plot beats) are there, but very heavily changed and expanded upon, to the point that I don't actually think you'd need to know anything about the games to understand what's going on in DRDW. The long answer is... a lot longer lol

(Putting the rest of this under a read more for spoilers for a 20-year-old game and because infodump mode was activated)

The Jak & Daxter game series is - and i say this with all the love in my heart - completely fucking bonkers. In summary: in the first game, Daxter (a human) falls into a pool of Evil Magic (dark eco) and turns into an orange otter-weasel-thing, which sends Jak on a quest to change him back. While they don't succeed at changing Daxter back, they do find a time machine (?!) which they take into the future, where Jak is promptly arrested and subjected to magical mad science experiments and injected with dark eco (this is the start of the second game). This does not, notably, turn him into an orange otter-weasel-thing, but does give him the ability to turn into a demon (and anger issues. It also gives him anger issues). He then uses these powers to overthrow the dystopian future government and save a kid who's destined to save the world because the kid is also Jak (because Jak's originally from the future, of course). He then sends the kid back to the past to repeat the cycle.

I won't get too into the third game (except for how you find out that the otter-weasel-things are actually a race of spacefaring gods, and Daxter has technically been a god all this time because Reasons?!) because DRDW doesn't cover that, but i can assure you that it is also a trip.

DRDW was originally meant to follow the canon a lot closer than it actually does. As it stands, though, I've scrapped pretty much all the events of the first game (Daxter in DRDW does not turn into a weasel god, although he did get to keep a bit of magic-ability-worldbuilding i gave him as an explanation for why dark eco would turn him into a rodent instead of a rage monster), including the time travel.

For the setting, this means that I smashed together the settings from two different time periods into one map, as well as moving things around and adding new locations where it made sense. As far as time period goes, I went for the Jak 2 time period (a little bit of 'recovered ancient tech,' but mostly modern-futuristic tech).

Without the time travel, the kid being young Jak doesn't make sense, so his story got completely changed. A couple characters didn't have anything to do, anymore, so they've been excluded (although I'm considering bringing them in for other roles in another story). This also affected how the main characters (Jak, Daxter, and Keira) grew up a lot more significantly than I expected, so while the core of their characters is similar, there are significant differences from the canon (plus i wrote them as being more explicitly neurodivergent than they are in the games [although in the games they're already pretty heavily ND-coded, in my opinion]).

In this version, Daxter also takes a bit longer to find and rescue Jak (because. Look. You give me an excuse for prison/experiment/post-whump, I am going to run that shit as far as I can, ok) - because of this, Jak is pretty much stuck in magic demon mode. So plot-wise, there are a lot of parallels to the plot line of the first game as they try to find a way to change Jak back (but it's complicated, because of course it is).

The magic system got a total overhaul - in the game, magic (eco) is very... well, video-gamey. Green heals you, blue makes you go fast, dark turns you into a monster/orange rat, etc. I put a frankly unnecessary amount of work into figuring out what eco *is* - where it comes from, how it forms in different environments, how it interacts with people, how it's used in connection with technology, etc. Tbh I spent so much time on this part that it made me consider spinning this whole story into original fiction. But when I tried, it just Felt Wrong so I put it back 😂 Really though, I think the magic system rewrite is one of the bigger factors in making this fic actually kind of comprehensible without knowledge of the games - I'm really proud of it 😊

Thank you so much for the ask (and the chance to infodump about my favorite games and favorite project 💜)

[soildmud]

reading inky mystery

good morning y’all, it is currently 3AM right now and i have developed some very strong opinions about inky mystery that i need to projectile vomit onto the internet. this is gonna be like a book review so i have some disclaimers/warnings:

#1: this “review” is not intended for the author, TAP, or anyone directly involved with the writing of IM. this is readers-only!

#3: i will most likely say very few positive things about the fic so if you don’t want to see negative remarks about your fav fic/story, maybe don’t read this. and also if you can’t handle strong language.

#4: i have not read all of IM, and there is a reason why. i will explain later on but i don’t need anyone to try and avoid spoilers. i don’t care for this fic enough to worry about that. talk to your heart’s content, i want to hear what y’all have to say!!!!

#5: i still enjoy inky mystery and its concepts and the overall story ideas. i think it’s fun and a cool spin on the original qftim au (an au that had so much potential and such shitty execution) and love how the fic has created an entire community around it! don’t get this twisted, i got nothing against IM or TAP.

now i’m gonna put the “review” (more like a rant) under a cut so as to not take up space on people’s dashes more than i already have lol—have fun!!

with such an interesting and promising premise, inky mystery has so far been a frustrating disappointment. i started reading it a while ago (had to stop because of school) and picked up again last night, hoping to get further into the fic and reach the parts that seem to be much more compelling than the exposition. i’m only on chapter 20 and already want to just stop reading it altogether. the more i progress through this the more i think to myself, “is this fic even worth reading 2.5 million words and 335 chapters?” as i’ve come to the beginning of chapter 21, i’m starting to think it most definitely is not.

obviously the biggest criticism is the length. there is absolutely no reason for why this fic is like 3 times longer than the fucking BIBLE. twelve “books” for what? to leave us in the same spot of the plot for the fifth time in a row when the conflict could have been resolved in almost half a chapter? the over-explanation of everything and the placement of practically useless dialogue is excruciating. i don’t understand how having chapter long bits of the warner shenanigans was necessary; i get it was meant for comedy but i don’t think they should dragged any longer than like a paragraph. their dialogue gets old incredibly fast, and it’s just a hinder to the fic’s flow. and before anyone says anything—I HAVE WATCHED ANIMANIACS BEFORE. in fact, i used to be obsessed with them and watched every episode until it stopped airing in 2014. i know they’re supposed to be the way they are in the fic but Holy SHIT DUDE. SHUT THEM THE FUCK UP ALREADY.

listen. i know this was originally written in 2017, but if you’re still updating this into 2024, at this point you need to remake the whole fic and shorten it. the way the author is updating the fic with basically filler makes me feel like they care more about creating content for their readers rather than actually writing a coherent narrative. you don’t need to take down the OG fic but there has got to be a way to shorten it so it doesn’t take literally a week straight to finish the fic in one sitting.

anyways. apart from that, i need to say that the writing style is so juvenile in a way that feels aggravating. i read the most recent chapter to see if anything changed and while it certainly improved in small ways, i feel like TAP still hasn’t learned how to not make sentences like four words long and dialogue sequences that don’t make up half the chapter. i also feel like the narrative is just…holding the readers hand and explaining every little thing like they expect the reader not to have any media literacy at all. i don’t need to know explicitly that boris and bendy are tired from walking for hours, i knew that from your narration mentioning their legs aching and them getting mucky from clambering in the forest.

next, i hate the random inclusion of unnecessary characters. the way the two detectives seem to only show up when it’s convenient and how the warners were used basically like a deus ex machina is frustrating. don’t introduce so many characters with so much detail and then have them show up like twice. i don’t know how to explain this because it’s almost 4AM now and my brain is foggy but god. when those two fox characters were randomly introduced at the end of idk what chapter to have a completely useless conversation with the detectives i felt so annoyed. i don’t know if they have any real significance later on in the story (and i don’t mean that they show up to say hi later) and honestly i cannot be bothered to find out if they do, but if they don’t, that entire section of the chapter was fucking stupid. let your MAIN CHARACTERS learn information from other sources for the love of god.

in the end, i don’t know if i’ll ever finish Inky Mystery, at least not anytime soon. i had fun at the start and now i’m just annoyed and frustrated. also, to the wiki people, PLEASE MAKE CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND SHIT—IT WOULD BE A DREAM FOR THOSE OF US WHO DON’T WANT TO SIT THROUGH 2.5 MILLION WORDS FOR PLOT AND STORY!!!!

also, i am not claiming to be a better writer or have superior knowledge to TAP. i think TAP is good at writing, but has some flaws that really limit their full potential. i myself am an amateur writer with no training or anything, but i am a reader, so that’s why i’m yapping.

ALSO ALSO, i am not doing this to shit on TAP or IM or anyone who likes this story and everything. like i said, i actually like IM and really want to get into it so i can make fanart and everything, but it has been a struggle and i want to voice that because this is my blog and i use it like a virtual diary. i will continue to skim and push through IM, and will most definitely use it as a learning tool for my own au, SITP.

again, this review was made with zero malice in mind. however if anyone wants to say anything i’m 100% open to conversation, and if this reaches TAP’s screen somehow, please know i’m not trying to be a hater!!! i love your ideas and the community you’ve created, promise!!!! i’m done now cus i’m tired and need to sleep so bye to anybody who read through this beast of a post lol plus i don’t have the energy to write all i wanted to say. sorry if there’s any mistakes i’m falling asleep as i write LMAO

bye!!!!!!

[somany-fandoms-solittle-time]

In A Sentimental Mood: A Ruggie/Yuu Oneshot

Some quick Housekeeping! This was originally meant to be a song-fic but the only time I remembered to/felt inspired to write was nearly the middle of the night (as writers do lol) so I didn’t have enough mental energy to splice the lyrics together into the story. Instead, I listened to the song on repeat while writing, like, HALF of the fic but I thought it was cute enough to fit the vibes. The narrator's voice and descriptions were hard to keep consistent as well as concise, but whatever. I don’t think I properly matched Ruggie’s speech pattern but I think it’s close enough to ‘random, working class teenager’ for now.

Also! It’s an X Yuu but I’m pretty sure I used all GN! Pronouns so please feel free to read it as an X Reader (who’s the Ramshackle Perfect). It felt kinda awkward to not describe the character or use open descriptors (like Y/N, HC, etc.) but feel free to add any notes or styles to try out for an open reader audience. Honestly feel free to comment or message any feedback lol! I don’t have a beta reader atm (I might ask either my gf or my IRL friend who’s also into TWST) but it could be fun to have a random stranger react to my writing so they’re disconnected from personal feelings and whatnot.

 I have a fic introducing my oc a little interacting with the Pop Music Club, but it’s making out to be longer than expected so between writing for my own AU/ocs story I’ll be posting cute lil song-fics as well as crackhead interactions lol! Maybe a few headcanons as well. I’m not sure if I would have ever actually started writing fanfics (or writing in general) instead of simply daydreaming about it if it wasn’t for @twst-beam and @krenenbaker , so a quick dedication for them for lowkey lighting a fire under my ass. Not only have you opened the creative floodgates, but actually gave me the motivation to actually TRY and put it into action. Anyway…. ON TO THE STORY BITCHES!!! ENJOY THE THE SWEET HYENA BOY (who weirdly looks exactly like my Boyfriend, lol) AND COME REALISH IN THE CHAOS~

In A Sentimental Mood:

A Ruggie/Yuu one-shot

It had been a long day. Scratch that–it had been the longest year of Ruggie Bucchi and Yuu’s life! However, there was something especially trying these last 24 hours. Maybe it had something to do with how this was the first day off the both had (that lined up) in w e e k s and they STILL BOTH got called in to run some nonsensical errand. Or maybe it’s because when the First Year Squad were supposed to be babysitting Grim the entire first floor of Ramshackle got absolutely trashed. 

Something about stupid bets, idiotic magic competition, and a prolonged chase. Afterwards, Rugs and Yuu had to help clean up! The aftermath of the wreckage was too much for the Hodge Podge group of freshmen.

What really topped the day off was the mission impossible scheme the couple failed to pull off. Originally, the two were simply planning to “borrow” on one Leonas (numerous) credit cards while the latter was passed out for an all-expenses-paid date out. It’s not like they were about to rob the second prince blind! Just a few trips to their usual thrifting stops, maybe hassle with a local boutique and then some semi-fancy free grub. 

Instead they got caught two shops in when they decided to grab some food before being totally weighed down by paper shopping bags. Since they had a later start, Yuu suggested getting dinner to the new uppity wine-and-dine.

“C’mon Rugs~ When are we gonna have another chance to dine like Kings? And on a Royal Dime at that!” they foolishly (but successfully) tempted the poor Hyena into a little more Mischievous than the two realized.

Too bad their Dinner Date got cut short from one of the waiters recognizing the Sunset Savannah Royal Seal on Leona’s card. It took an hour and a half of being corralled into a backroom, 3 ominous threats of calling the police, snarky back talk and just general arguing before Leona strutted into the Restaurant and vouched for his underclassmen. Seeing the lazy Lion not only WAKE UP, but come off campus was a bit of a surprise for the thief couple. 

What wasn’t as surprising was his smug, diva face while declaring that they would need to pay him back for disturbing his nap. After hasty, and admittedly sheepish, promises to the Prince, he collected his missing card and strutted back to campus. Luckily, he was secretly a bit of a softy towards his unofficial Vice and the magicless Perfect that saved his life (and probably his status for not ratting him out to his older brother). It’s safe to say while making the switch a decent stack of Thaumarks was placed in Ruggie’s wallet.

So yeah, in a word, the day had been a bit of a shitshow. A clusterfuck of misfortunate events (and if it weren’t for Leona, Yuu and Ruggie would not only be in some kind of jail but also flat broke). 

But finally–finally–this hardworking hyena Beastman and the Ramshackle Perfect were about to have some peace and quiet! A moment for just the two of them. A small, precious moment late at night. After the longest night of their collective lives, the two were able to cuddle up and appreciate what they had. Even if all they had was encompassed by long, tiring days and horrendous luck… and having the bend to the whims of some of the brattiest Divas of NRC.

Regardless, this time isn’t about them. It’s about Ruggie Bucchi and Yuu enjoying what left they had of their day off, Damnnit!  

“Ya’ know,” Yuu hummed into where their face was buried for max comfort; Ruggie’s chest. “Today wasn’t a total bust.”

Ruggie snickered sarcastically as his left hand paused its petting motion through his significant other’s hair. He was clearly only humoring his lover's thought process, yet paying attention all the same.

“I’m just saying it wasn’t a total loss,” they began to half-jokingly argue, “I still got to spend the day with you. Besides, you gotta admit it was pretty funny watching that stupid manager’s annoying face drop when Prince Grumpy strutted in all pissy!”

“Shee Shee Shee! Fair enough, Sugar! Good thing he didn’t realize Leona’s always cranky… or that His Majesty~ was mostly just pissed he had to wake up.” Ruggie answered playfully.

“It was kinda sweet of him for letting us, mostly, off the hook though. He even let us keep our goodies along with that sneaky bonus,” Yuu mentioned while lazily motioning towards the small mound of shopping bags and the miscellaneous items inside.

“Pleeeease~ He probably spends more on a single earring than we did with his card and cash combined,” Rugs pouted enviously. To emphasize his pout, he completely encircled Yuu with his arms and clutched them tightly. He was hanging onto them tighter than a swiped snack from the cafeteria on Doughnut day.

“I don’t know,” his partner giggled in response, “Leona’s been such a softy lately… but his whole dark and brooding reputation gets in the way a bit.”

“Dark and brooding?” Ruggie snorted, “Dunno if Leona’s habits of lyin’ around counts as dark and brooding.”

Yuu tried to suppress their elated smirk at feeling the slight tremor of quiet laughter. “True, that’s more of Mal’s stick isn’t it? Angsty and depressed?”

“Nahhh, that’s Idia’s thing! Also, I still can’t wrap my head ‘round you calling Malleus by some nickname.” His laughter died down as he scrunched his nose at the thought of his partner so buddy-buddy with one of Twisted Wonderland’s most powerful mages. And a crown Prince… with servants and castles and-

“You do realize that Malleus is like a GIANT kid right? I mean, yeah he’s some super powerful wizard-”

“Mage!”

“...whatever. He’s an absolute beast when it comes to magic and whatnot, but he’s got this whole ‘homeschooled only child’ vibe going on and honestly? It’s a little pathetic, in a cute stray way.”

Ruggie didn’t really know how to feel about his partner’s revelation. On one hand, he knew they were just friends and had befriended each other longer before Yuu realized Malleus’ status. That didn’t necessarily make it any easier to cover up the inherent inferiority or the slight unsettling fear. Good thing they didn’t feel the usual pressure of this world’s social ladder… but that doesn’t mean they won’t start worrying if he stayed lost in thought for too long.

“.......what was your world like for you to turn out so weird?” 

“Hey!”

Ruggie continued to laugh, but it came out a little bit strained. Yuu finally glanced up in order to catch a glimpse of their boyfriend’s adorable pout.  His lightly scrunched eyebrows and the way his ears seemed to fold-in on themselves made him look like a grumpy puppy. Absurdly cute, but clearly bothered, and they both had had such a long day t wouldn’t be right not to cheer him back up!

“Oh, c’mere!” the Perfect said through teasing giggles as they flipped Ruggie over to switch positions.

Rugs was currently (and quite contently) snuggled face first into his lover's chest; enjoying the sound of their heartbeat along with the comfortable extra cushioning. His arms reached slightly down to wrap around their waist snuggly as the two pairs of legs naturally crisscrossed at the joints. The moment he fully relaxed was when Yuu started to softly pet his bushy hair and scratch along the base of his ears.

Pure Heaven.

“Were you getting grumpy because I kept mentioning Leona and Malleus?” the Perfect lovingly taunted now that he was trapped and attacked (with euphoric head scratches) in his weak spot. Truly, an idiots mirage of paradise.

“C’mon Sweet Cheeks! Ya Couldn’t’ve least let me keep my pride?” Rugs whined, quickly going back to frowning deeply but unable to hold it for long. There was no chance in all of Twisted Wonderland he could stay “upset” while his precious Dandelion Fluff’s fingers softly caressed his sensitive ears. At least he could cover-up the way he melted, burying himself further into their figure. Luckily, Yuu was already squeezing him closure with a burst of affection,

“Don’t worry, my silly Hyena, the only one I was focused on today was you. The only one I wanted to spend time with was you. And the only person I think of from dawn till dusk, and dream about the whole night through, will always be you, Ruggie Bucchi.” Yuu declared playfully, then slowly breathlessly serious with a sappy amount of affection as they watched Ruggie's tail wave faster and faster.

“Shee shee shee,” Rugs bashfully replied, “where did all that come from outta nowhere?”

Yuu wistfully sighed, “I guess I’m just in a sentimental mood.”

The two shared some playful hushed whispers until Ruggie had to turn his head to hide a yawn. His attempt was futile however, as Yuu caught it–but instead of teasing him over it they simply snuggled him closer and quietly sang an old, sweet crooner love song from their home world. Despite the long day, it felt blissfully short as the two peacefully drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms. 

[xxmissarichanxx]

✨XMACX Monthly✨September 2024

September is here! I always think of this month as my sister’s month because she was born in September lol. Anyway, I was lowkey happy Beau won the character poll because it means I get to dedicate September’s cover art to my sister’s fave color: yellow. Happy Birth Month, lil bro~ Big Love!

You can read the update on XXMISSARICHANXX.com or under the cut below!

What’s Happening in September?

Well, the poll this month will be a little different. Usually, we vote on who next month’s cover model will be. This month, however, I was thinking — since the whole month of October is basically Halloween and peeps dress up — we could vote for Kaimana’s Halloween costume this year? Last year I put ‘em in an ATSV Spider-Man 2099 costume, hehehe. This year, IT’S UP TO YOU! It’ll be fun. It’ll be GREAT. To the left are the options, all tsunderes because I’m so weak for tsunderes and I consider Kai to be one as well lol. Poll drops this Friday, September 6.

A) MCU Wolverine (zaddy u///u) B) Vegeta (my prince u///u) C) Bakugou (my hero u///u) D) Asuka (my queen u///u)

Other than that, I’ll be continuing to stitch Froot Basket White together and draw Ippon! pages. I’m hoping to finish adding all the voiced lines so I can work on drawing/cleaning stuff up in the coming months! You can read about my progress below!

VN Dev | Froot Basket White

I now have all the voiced lines for Sutoro and Azrael! I’ve been inputting them into the current build. Check out a preview of Sutoro’s voiced lines!

I also received some track samples from our composer! I can’t show you right now, but, trust me. It’s a banger and a chill cafe bop for sure! The composer I’m working with went to town on it! I’m so happy with how it’s turning out! It’s got lyrics and vocals too!

I adjusted one of Sutoro’s poses because the anatomy seemed off. BUT! I also wanted to add more poses to make Sutoro a little more lively to match Jesse’s performance. Here’s some of those new sprites I’m working on!

Comic Creation | Ippon!

I haven’t talked about Ippon! in a while, mostly because I haven’t been spending a lot of time on it. I… went back and adjusted some previous panels, and I keep going back and forth between adding more pages to adjust the pace or not…

One of the things I changed, for example, are the shape of the panels on page 4 (above). I noticed as I was drawing that I tend to have a lot of dynamic panels. There were so many, that I thought it became hard to read or even look at the pages… It bummed me out a bit, so I had to stop drawing for a bit lol.

Another thing I learned: having to really think about how two pages sit next to each other. I saw online somewhere that comic artists plan out their page turns. That’s something I’d like to keep in mind too.

Other than that, I’m trying to learn to pace myself better. Some pages take longer to complete than others. For me right now, this action page (above) is taking a lot out of me. I expected it would because I’m trying to figure out where everything is situated — the anatomy, whether or not the action makes sense, etc.

I was thinking about adding the name of the move somewhere, kinda like how in shounen action series characters name their moves and whatnot or have it written out on the page or something. But I’m not too sure exactly how I’m going to go about doing that…

Cover Story | Meet Beau!

Sweet, energetic, loving Beau. In the Froot Basket series, he’s the player character Jordan’s childhood friend and neighbor! They played basketball together in baby days and continued hanging out and growing together in high school! Beau loves eating, gaming, reading comics, and playing basketball with his pals! He also has a big crush on Jordan and a big dislike of bananas — they’re mushy!

Along with Sutoro, Beau was one of the first characters I doodled when I came up with this lil series. He and Sutoro were best friends. He was meant to be a sorta delinquent character, hence the piercings and dyed undercut hairstyle. But as I developed him more and more, he just seemed like a sweetheart through and through.

I tried to include a bunch of yellow things in the background and in the illustration’s design. I’m hoping it displays Beau’s fun-loving personality! A few Easter Eggs: Beau’s playing Froot Basket Valentine on his handheld console and Froot Basket: Dark Chocolate on his desktop.

Other News…

Momotarou Post-Mortem

Momotarou was the micro-visual novel I impulsively made in July for O2A2 Jam. I managed to write the post-mortem for it late last month! If you’re interested in my thought process for the project’s creation, read it here!

I can’t believe it’s already been 50 days since I released the micro-visual novel! Time flies… A few peeps have play-throughs that I’ve very much enjoyed! Thank you so much for playing! I also received some really great feedback and observed some peeps getting confused. I’ll be updating the game with a few sentences referring to Froot Basket Valentine, the game whose events immediately precede the events of Momotarou.

Thank you again to everyone who played, commented, and left reviews! I really appreciate it!

Kaimana Zine

I released a Kaimana Zine filled with sketches and illustrations of Kai between 2019 and 2024! It’s 5 USD or pay-what-you-want and you can find it both here in my shop or on Itch! It contains explicit images not meant for minors, so please be responsible.

Next Month?

I will be in Japan the second half of October! I’m excited and can’t wait to have a bunch of fun and eat a lot of food! I’m planning to wear pink every day! I hope I’ll remember to take OOTD pics instead of just food pics… I’ll try to have the cover art for November done before I leave, but whatever will be will be.

Anyway, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s instead have a relaxing September!

Aloha nui, xxAri

[bthump]

idk if you've heard yet, but the newest chapter was leaked!

(ok apparently posting links in asks have gotten weirder ugh)

Ty for letting me know! What are your thoughts on it, if you feel like posting about it?

Here's the link for anyone else who hasn't seen it yet

And my thoughts and a couple more asks under the cut, ty for the asks!

Anonymous asked:

What are your thoughts on the latest chapter? It was centred around Casca. Also idk if you already knew but there’s another chapter coming out a month from now. Which is kinda insane for berserk lol

Yeah I'm glad we're gonna get another string of chapters instead of just occasional chapters in isolation.

And my thoughts are: whatever lol.

Like, it's basically what I expected. The magic-induced stupor Casca's in is both boring and shitty for people who wanted Casca to exist as a character, but for me it's also reassuring in that it prevents most things I don't want to happen from happening lol, and it keeps Casca's trauma and big emotions on ice for a while longer because I'm still hoping for the behelit to be hers. If Casca's a full character then I risk disappointment with how her trauma is handled and what she chooses to do. If she's a drugged up damsel in distress who occasionally wakes up enough to punch a guard then I don't have to care, basically. Cool, go through the motions, I'm not invested in this part of the story so idgaf. Sucks to be Casca, same as it ever was.

She's finally got an animal association, and yk, I don't mind it. I can roll with raven for her. (plsplspls say it's laying the foundation for her apostle form pls)

I would like to imagine there's some meaning to be gleaned from Danann putting Casca in a dress to go see Guts and Casca wearing a kind of similar dress here in Falconia (feathers, head-piece) but probably the only throughline is Casca not getting to choose her own clothes/highlighting that she prefers to wear pants.

The moment she wakes up was mildly interesting, I'm glad the memories were of Farnese and co even if she did start fretting about Guts lol. There's a subtle zig-zag pattern in the last drop of water before she wakes up and starts fighting guards:

Which may be absolutey nothing, but made me think of the Beast of Darkness and gives me hope for Casca's inner darkness.

Anonymous asked:

I’m sorry bthump but after ch372 it seems like the story is indeed heading in the direction of Gutsca being endgame and Griffith being this manipulative machiavellian emotionless type villain, that last panel of him looks so exaggeratedly evil

Idk, I mean we already knew Casca still has ~feelings~ for Guts, it's not surprising to me that she'd dream about being carried away from him and think about him. It's not great, but it didn't majorly disappoint me or fill me with dread. If anything it makes Guts' sword obsession even funnier lol. Talk about emotional one-sidedness.

And rather than feeling terribly romantic, that moment when she fights the guards and thinks that she has to get back to Guts or he'll... makes me think she's anticipating Guts walking into a trap to rescue her, which, yk, is probably what's going to happen lol, unless this sword crisis resolves in a way that gives Guts an upper hand/a better plan B. But again, it's not surprising, the only thing I'm really curious about is what's going to happen when Guts gets here.

Though it does make me a little concerned that enough time has passed during this chapter that we're skipping over Guts' side of the story for a while and he might actually show up soon? We left his story on a cliffhanger so I feel like that would be stupid, and when I read the chapter I parsed it as like, Casca's first day as a damsel, but upon re-reading it's more likely one day in the life after days/weeks/months, so who knows?

And Griffith's cartoonish evil smile is dumb but I don't care honestly, I already got over it last chapter which also ended with an evil grin lmao. I know Miura would draw him with an ambiguously neutral expression so I just substitute my own in. I don't think it's a sign that he's going to be a 2 dimensional cackling villian, though frankly if he is I'd still chalk that up to non-Miura writing lacking all nuance and subtlety. What I imagine is in the future for Griffith though is more evil smiles, some Guts taunting, and then like, a crumbling of the facade in a moment of truth. It's just that the facade is no longer mildly neutral it's smug sinister evil because the new crew can't draw him.

Though man I read your ask while I was still at work before I could read the actual chapter and I was like 😟. But also I appreciate it lol bc you gave me the chance to brace myself for the worst, so I ended up pretty neutral on this chapter rather than disappointed.

I see a lot of people very annoyed with this chapter (and the continuation as a whole), and like, I get it because it objectively largely sucks lmao, but idk, I guess I have very low expectations for the continuation of Berserk comparatively. I'm no longer here for a good emotional story, I'm here to find out how it ends. I'm reading the cliffnotes version as far as I'm concerned, just scanning it for clues that point towards my desired ending.

[sunfudge]

(Gonna send you another ask because I really wanna talk about the new Sunday leaks. HOPE YOU DON'T MIND!!)

AND I AGREE WITH YOU, THE DESIGN IS SO PRETTY, like the colours are so good?? AND WE GET TO SEE HIS WINGS TOO FHSKWKDKWJX I LOVE IT SO MUCH

But I still don't understand the astral express thing 😭 Elio said "And a brother and sister were doomed for eternal separation", which means that Sunday and Robin will never meet again. So why and how did Sunday join the astral express then? If he joins the astral express, he will still has a chance to meet Robin again

OOOOF I NEVER MIND TALKING ABOUT SUNDAY SEND AS MANY ASKS AS YOU WISH IT GIVES ME AN EXCUSE TO RAMBLE ABOUT HIM !!!!

This actually turned out a lot longer than I expected so I'll put this under a read more

The design is such a huge turn from the previous design, and I love that. The old design was almost entirely symmetrical apart from I believe the thigh belt he had, the piercings on his wings and the badge? Ooh actually I have the old design right here to look at and compare

Like LOOK HOW SYMMETRICAL THIS OLD DESIGN IS and we're going to something so massively asymmetrical?

I really wanna ramble about it but because we have so little information, like literally only his fucking in model boots for sure lol, and no information about what he'll be doing in the future so I have very little to go off, but I think this means massive change for him. To go from the way he is as an NPC design to his new playable design with an outfit that fucks on a number of levels we're looking at some pretty big character direction changing stuff

I really hoped they'd keep gold in his design, the gold suits him so well I love it so to see it still utilized in the new design is sending me to fucking Pluto

I'm still not 1000% sure that's even a ticket? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what was being said on the Telegram leaks chat, but I got the impression it was a redraw of the previous art we already got before by an artist. If so, then surely the ticket would be based on the guess that the previous artist made? Because I'm still not sure if that first art was drawn by someone who actually saw the model or not.

Unless they're super dragging us out, surely a leaker would've very simply stated 'that IS an astral express ticket on Sunday's deisgn' so idk. Maybe they wouldn't have? Maybe they're keeping that info to themselves for whatever reason LMFAO who knows

I do still think that the biggest piece of evidence we have for anything at the moment is that Death of a Crow readable, to the point that I think that even if he does join the Express it'll have something to do with Elio. Like you said, if he joined the express he'd be able to see Robin again, but the future Elio talked about was super clear that they'd be doomed to an eternal separation. People have claimed this is due to their differing paths, however they'd still be able to see one another in that case. I think it's literal. As in they will actually be physically separated.

I'm still a huge Path of Finality Sunday truther and this is honestly because apart from Order I don't see him fitting into any other path, but when we learned more about Finality this patch I thought instantly that that was the only other path I could see him treading, the only other path that would fit him. I still feel that way now.

Since there's so much conflicting information about whether that ticket is even confirmed or not I take any art with the ticket with a grain of salt because when that blurry image dropped people quickly guessed it was a ticket first and then all the art came after. I initially thought the art was drawn based off the description of Sunday's design, not the person having actually seen the model. I may be wrong but the whole thing has been so muddy that I don't know what to believe.

Even so, the art of the design will be pretty accurate because we got a description of what it looked like back on July 7th. I honestly think that until someone posts the model, we'll be in the dark. And if he does join the Express, I think there'll be more to it than just him deciding to do that, and I still think he'll be connected to Elio. I just think that readable is such blatant foreshadowing for something.

[youremyheaven]

HEYYYY [insert whatever pet name u like] it's ur venus stellium anon from last month.. do u remember me? sorry life happened 🤩 n i've been pretty low energy so i didn't get around to bothering u. I've been looking at yt vids of some of my chart placements lately and i've discovered something funny (along with other developments like me. I've been looking at ur blog the past one or two days a little and I obvs haven't made my way through the whole "backlog" but some silly thoughts:

I didn't know u were bi! For some reason I felt a little awkward talking about this because I didn't want to be That Person lol (aka everyone was talking about guys and I didn't wanna weird anyone out 😔) but my exes were women 😂 supposedly I gave them daddy energy lmfao I hate it because I wanted that from someone. I talked about them a bit vaguely but it might've sounded worse under the assumption of it being a man. (Unless I didn't say much and just forgot)

I've been reading celebrity gossip and only now realised how people - even the most successful - can have it so truly bad when it comes to romance and idk it made me a little apathetic and allergic to it. Not in a "im swearing off of it" way but in a "im no longer going to expect it in my life. If I get surprised, yay for me. Otherwise eh." (my mind's at a weird place though so it'll probably change when other things calm down, don't worry about me 🫶 this is all about the hypothetical future anyway because I'm not looking for a relationship rn)

Sorry u got hate about ur blog. I can understand anon got upset but the unkind language was uncalled for.

I came across the ask about nodes conjuncting big 3 and one of mine does; i can assure u (and the hate anon) that yes, this particular example (me) DOES happen to be cray cray 😭

This is related to the yt vids and point 2: My charts basically say I'll have an okay enough career, but the romance department would be dodgy because I will never be satisfied by anything anyone does for me (to put it shortly) 😂😂 that had me a little shocked at first but then I was like u know what we kinda knew this.. let's just focus on that career instead LMFAO

HARD AGREE WITH U ON THE FLIRTING IN NON-ENGLISH. I gotta be honest I cringe if I hear flirting in anything other than English (I've only ever been exposed to it in that language) but I read a fic (english) once where this man called his lover "meri jaan" and it had me in a DAZE FOR DAYS (excuse the lame pun pls) SO YES I AGREE W U. I've been collecting other little terms (just 1 so far) that I've seen people around me using affectionately and they're sooo sweet.

I HOPE U'VE BEEN WELLLLLL. I'm away from tumblr lately so I probably won't be able to send u asks in the near future but I hope u stay safe and take care of urself 💖💖 BYEEEEE

HEYYY bbg 🥺

I thought this was going to be astrology related but you're just checking in on me 😭😭😭😭and I feel so touched 🥺🥺🥺

1. About being bisexual

I feel like there are definitely different dynamics at play bc I do attract more butch leaning women who want to be my daddy 🫣🙈 but whenever it's a femme x femme dynamic, I always feel like I become the more dominant one and I do kinda hate it 😭😭

It just wears me out to be the giver tbh 🙃 especially because I already assume that role in so many other areas in my life, I just want to sit back and be babygirled 😭😭 this is why despite being attracted to women , relationships with women don't really work out for me 😭😭

it's all a matter of luck when it comes to love and relationships and sometimes things find us unexpectedly.

what I've learnt from some of my recent experiences is that someone can do all the right things, give you princess treatment and all that yet not make you feel anything 😭 so to be physically attracted to someone, emotionally in- sync with them, AND have a healthy relationship,, it's all down to luck 😭

2. not u calling yourself cray cray 😭😭

majority of people in this world are not living happy lives, be it with regard to love, career or family. To even have one of these things going well is a huge blessing ✨and while it's possible to have all of them, it's okay to not beat yourself up for achieving all 3 in one go.

One of my dad's childhood friends, remained unmarried into her late 40s. This is veryyyy unusual in India and she's not from a bougie artsy family where such things are chill or anything either. She, however, had a brilliant career and is a civil servant and rn she's in a veryyy high ranking position because she's worked her way up. Everybody around her pitied her (for being single and childless) but she was just out there making $$$ by the time she hit her late 40s people stopped pestering her because by that point, it's kinda "too late" to settle down. BUT GUESS WHAT HAPPENED??? she met a reallyyyyy cute Swiss-German man who was visiting our state/city and she happened to be the one showing him around?? (someone linked them up basically) and that wonderful meet-cute led them to marriage in like 2 months lol ,,, this lady who had been single for 47+ years found the right guy and married him in less than 2 months???? Isn't that sooooo romantic??? It's all about timing 💛💛 and now they've been together for a decade and spend most of their year travelling the world ✨and are very much in love

So different eras of our life will have us focusing on different things. Rn it's probably best to make that $$$ and focus on yourself. Love will find you when it needs to 💛✨💛

3. About flirting in non-English

JAJAJSJ yess I used to cringe 😬 hearing Desi flirting across languages 😭but now I feel like I've finally decolonised my mind to find it cute 😭

My ex was Tamil and he used to call me "bomma" which means "doll" in Tamil ,, I had a flop talking stage with another Tamil guy who used to call me "Kitty kutty" ("little kitty") and idk if it's a Tamil guy thing but they go hardddd with their affection through terms of endearment

Flirting in Hindi is always fun bc it's all "aapka this, aapka that" (using honorifics) and respect turns me on i guess lmao 🤭🥵 Idk if this is just a Desi thing but yk how men start calling you madam and ma'am 😌yeah I live for that shit 🤭🤭 they'll be like "madam is still getting ready" and I'll be like 😍yes the hell I am 😍😜

4. Thank you so much for checking in with me angel 🥺🥺 I appreciate it and you soooo much 💛💛💛 you're the sweetest

I'll take care of myself 😜 😌and I hope you do as well!!! 💛💛 May the rest of July be wonderful for you ✨

[kay-elle-cee]

Happy birthday Kelsey and congrats on the milestone!

I believe the first work of yours I read was Magic Like This when it was published last year, and I absolutely adore it. James is so soft and sweet and I love how you wrote Lily embracing her growing feelings for him.

Then, a few months later, I rediscovered you with A Thrill Divine, Down My Spine (so incredibly fun 🤌) and was pleased to be reminded of Magic Like This (because I'm notoriously bad at keeping track of first I love). And then I went down the rabbit hole of all your other fantastic works and here we are. I am a huge fan. 😁

I love restless waves rise and fall. It might be one of my all-time favorite Jily AUs out there. The backstories and universe you've created have been so fun to explore, and the micros you occasionally write bring me so much joy.

I especially love how you wove thematic imagery throughout. A scene that comes to mind in particular is when James and Lily finally talk at the end of chapter 5 about their feelings...Lily "anchoring herself to her spot," her "bursting through the surface" as she admits her feelings, "a swell of emotions eddying within her." The imagery truly elevates the emotional climax of the story, and you should be proud of what you accomplished.

Now...a couple fan questions if you'd want to share your thoughts on one or both of them.

1. Do you have a way in which you envision James and Lily admitting they are in love with each other? They're clearly very close to that point by the end of the main story.

2. Do you have any insights you'd want to share about what was going through James' mind during my waves meet your shore (forever and evermore) - specifically re: "our ship" and also when Lily confesses what she said to Petunia?

Thank you for all you bring to the Jily community - we are lucky to have you! ❤️ (Also, sorry this became way longer than I anticipated lol)

Okay hello first of all you should know I've reread this like updwards of 20 times because oh my god this is so sweet? This makes me so giddy? Truly truly truly makes me warm and fuzzy, thank you SO much for all your lovely words!

Magic Like This was really the first fluff piece I wrote and I did not expect the reception it got, but I'm so glad people enjoyed it! A Thrill Divine was something that took over my mind that I HAD to get out, and is probably up there on the list of my favorite things...it was my first magical AU and just so much fun. I'm glad you enjoyed them both!

Okay okay okay you have to know how NOT chill I am about your words for restless waves rise and fall. Like. That is my baby. My first born child. My first multichap, my first AU, it's SO close to my heart and to know people love the little self-indulgent cross section of HP and pirates (because yes I also used to write POTC fic) just 💕💕💕💕💕 I promise I have SEVERAL more micros planned out because I have so many Thoughts about them all the time.

I had SO MUCH FUN with the thematic imagery in that fic, playing with the water metaphors, etc (which I know I'd done elsewhere, but felt more fitting here), and I'm glad it enhanced the fic for you and didn't feel too on the nose 😅 Now for your questions...

1. Yes. Yes I DO. I've had that scene envisioned since ending restless waves and I've been MEANING TO WRITE IT. It was always my intent to write it but then my waves meet your shore got way out of hand (after the Lily & Euphemia scene, the characters absolutely took control of the narrative) and I've been writing in that timeline knowing how much I need to go back and write the I Love You scene. I don't want to give too much away but I will say there is a phosphorescent bay involved.

2. AHHHH Yes I am HAPPY to talk about this (but will put under a cut for spoilers and also length because I feel like I will be RAMBLING)...

Follower Milestone Celebration

OKAY so "Our Ship". James is so attuned to Lily in this conversation with his parents and the Dursleys. She's not really engaged in the conversation, she's putting on a brave face but he knows her footing is off—here on land and in the presence of her sister. So, this is absolutely James' way of bolstering her both in the conversation and in their presence, as if reminding her "You have something. You are someone. And they can't take that from you." I think he also realizes that there is no way to hide what they do from the Dursleys, so before it's revealed Lily is his First Mate, he positions her more as an equal than anything else.

And then this poor man his brain is SHORT CIRCUITING during that moment when Lily tells him that she told Petunia they were married. He's got the family ring in his pocket, he's got the proposal all planned out for their next stop, he's got her to meet his parents, and she's just jumping ahead. I think it's definitely really heartening for him to hear that she jumped to that (and him) as a way to support herself/protect herself from her sister, but also while they unDOUBTEDLY love each other, maybe there's this one underlying fear that this woman who's been at sea all these years living an untraditional life doesn't want a traditional marriage and maybe a partnership like they have is good enough for her. (And I think this kind of comes up at the end where she points out a lot of priests probably wouldn't marry them. Maybe it's something she's just resigned herself to). BUT the fact that she reaches for marriage with him as a lifeline just makes his heart swell.

And he is so. happy. It's that kind of moment where everything aligns and it's like oh we're on the same page and also just like....their whole life flashes before his eyes in that instant and he just gets consumed by the need to propose NOW. He's the one that pushes on past the "oh yeah we're married, sorry we didn't tell you," and proceeds to tell her exactly the moment he wanted to propose in a code that only the two of them know. He literally can't stand the fact that she doesn't know the depths of his devotion for her in this minute and wants to give her that reassurance and security that everything she said is what he wants. <33333 OH MY GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

AH. okay I'll chill. But thank you SO MUCH for asking about my bbs. <333 You are an absolute GEM.

[outer-edges]

just finished reading your spiderverse tlou stories and I adored it! I'm so curious about the future stories in the series! Spare crumb about what other characters to expect? Henry? Riley?? Marlene???

ahhh omg thank u!!

i'm gonna be perfectly honest, i have NOT thought thru what roles henry, sam, and tess are going to play in this au, but i can tell you that their futures will most likely not be as bright and bubbly as the au has been thus far...bc ya know, what is being spiderman without a little tragedy?

i HAVE thought thru riley and marlene and i have been wanting to talk about this but haven't found the energy to start the fic so thank u because now i just get to talk about them here.

(throwing it under the cut because it got longer than i thought lol)

in this au, the fireflies are a group of vigilantes with a network spanning most of the major cities in the country, but the central cortex is in boston where marlene is the leader. i know as a concept that sounds very high super for this world, but it is very much like semi-ineffective small-time street level vigilantism that doesn't have too many members, nothing super organized or anything.

the fireflies move out of boston and to the vague 'out west' because the authorities have been hot on marlene's tail, and she and the other fireflies pack up and skedaddle shortly after ellie is bit by the spider and gets her powers.

trust. marlene and the fireflies will be back in the future, and they will cause some problems for joel and ellie. because. again. what is being spiderman without a little tragedy?

marlene's exact civilian identity is kind of up in the air (i.e. i can't decide if she has one or not) but in the initial outline she was both the leader of the fireflies and riley and ellie's social worker.

which brings us to riley...

like in the game, riley is another orphaned foster kid going to the same boarding school as her. they're roommates and best friends and maybe a something lil more, but they're both too scared to ever really address it or talk about it. marlene recruits riley for the fireflies young, and ellie disagrees and her and riley fight about it.

the night ellie gets her powers, she and riley have snuck out, and they're out doing some urban exploring when they end up in an old defunct science lab. while in the lab, they're both bit by the same genetically engineered spiders, but while ellie ends up with powers, riley ends up with a completely unknown degenerative disease. the doctors don't know how long it will take to kill her. could be decades, could be days.

but they don't ever really get the chance to find out. not too long after she's diagnosed with the disease, riley and ellie are caught up in an armed robbery. riley urges ellie to help, but she blows it off because even though a little part of her wants to help, she's scared and too self-preservational. riley jumps in to try and help even though she's brand new at this firefly thing, and she gets shot and killed.

riley's death is ellie's defining moment as spider-woman. this is what makes her put on the mask and start going out as spider-woman.

[girlvinland]

Since today was that day, I wrote a little Merc-related drabble because idk, I needed some angst I guess. I think only a few people really know enough about this OC to care about this lol, but I'm going to post it anyway. For reference, Mercurio is a Dark Souls OC who is a sorcerer and traveling merchant from a village near Oolacile. They're heavily inspired by my close friend @knighthoneybee's OCs, and she was the one who created Reimhaile, the village from which all of them hail. The people from this village have connections to the ghru of Dark Souls 3, and they even have horns on their heads. Once Reimhaile was overtaken by the Abyss, most of the villagers either succumbed to it or fled.

Putting the rest under read more because even my description got a bit long-winded.

Mercurio is the eldest of five siblings, and was born into a family that owned and operated a catalyst shop. When things turned bad, some of their family members perished while others were left to fend for themselves. For nearly a decade they'd searched for their parents and siblings to no avail until finally, finally happening upon their sisters Calla (the second eldest) and Viola (the youngest), who had taken up residence in a port-side town in Catarina. So yeah! This drabble is about Mercurio and Calla having a little spat on whether or not to leave Catarina or not.

And a note about Mercurio's name: in a lot of writing about them I use their birth name, Mera. The character is genderfluid, and Mera isn't so much a dead name as much as just...a name very few people know or use for them anymore. Mercurio was a name they gave themselves to sound more...wizard-y (they kind of went with this gimmick to garner more attention as a merchant lol). That being said, they're quite attached to the name now, but either is fine to use while talking about them.

Onto the drabble (please forgive any typos or whatever, I wrote this in about thirty mins and didn't want to spend much longer on it than that for now, it's pretty rough lol). Also, not really canon in their story, as they do end up leaving Catarina, I just kind of wanted to play around.

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“I am not discussing this with you anymore. I’m not going anywhere. Neither of us are.”

Calla sat on a wooden bed, a worn quilt beneath her legs. Its pattern was thoughtfully put-together, the colors and shapes sewn with intention, and even if the vibrancy of the quilt was gone now, the sense of love it’d been created with remained. A tiredness pulled at Calla’s features, worn just like the quilt. She stared up at her sibling, dazed. 

“I thought you would want this,” came her sibling’s voice from above. “Going back home, restoring what we can, setting up shop again like nothing ever happened.”

Mera shook their head, exasperated. All this way to bump into the one person they thought could make things better, and now they’d hit a roadblock. When they’d first arrived to this port town, Calla had been the last person they expected to see. The second last had been Viola, the youngest of their five siblings. And even if Mera had always gotten along with their closest sibling, there was salt in the air, not only from the sea.

“Home will never be the same again,” Calla remarked, shaking her head. “How could you be so foolish to think otherwise? Look around you, Mera. Catarina is safe, this town is safe. Home was never even so guarded as this place. Viola and I have people looking after us here,” she went on, raising one of her hands and beginning to count on her fingers. “We’ve food on the table, we’ve new clothes when we need them, work, our sanity. And you’d want to risk it all for some pointless dream that can never come true. That’s just like you, really it is.”

Mera shut their eyes, thumb and forefinger coming to rub at their temples. They sighed. “Maybe it is safe here, but how can you just…give up on everything our family built from the ground up? Mother and father woul-”

“Mother and Father are dead, Mera. Or…Mother is, at the very least. I saw her die with my own eyes. As for Father…he could be anywhere by now. You always wanted to follow in his footsteps, so go. Leave. You want so badly to trade the promise of safety for a life of uncertainty, then hop to it. We won’t be following.”

“How can you speak for Viola, Calla? She should have a right to decide what she wants without your interference.”

“And you really think she’d choose to go with you?” Calla laughed, humorless. “She barely knows who you are anymore. She and I have been through things, Mera. And all the while, what were you doing? Fancying yourself a traveling merchant, just like Father? Finding yourself before you ever even attempted to find us.” 

At that, Mera stared at Calla with a furrowed brow, hurt. “What was I supposed to do?” they questioned, disbelieving. “I looked…I looked in so many places, anywhere I heard that was safe. I went all over Lordran searching for everyone. To Carim. To Astora. To places even further. I never saw a hint of anyone until I found you here. Do you really think I didn’t try?”

The conversation halted, the two siblings at a stalemate. Finally, Calla shook her head again, looking away.

“It doesn’t change anything. You still want to go, so go. You talk about family, about home. You don’t even realize that you’ve found those things here.”

Mera’s lips parted, a quiet breath leaving their lungs as they took a tentative step forward towards Calla.  “You were the one who wanted so badly to keep the shop running, to keep the legacy we had going. I’m trying to do what I think is best for us, for Viola, for you.”

Another step. 

Another.

“You have no idea what’s best for us,” Calla spat, standing and meeting Mera where they were. “You have no idea the things Viola has had to see since she was a child. She saw Mother die too, you know? And where were you?”

“I was-”

“Where were you??”

As Mera opened their mouth to speak again, Calla forced them back with her palms, glaring at them as they hit the wardrobe that sat against the wall. From upstairs, the sound of speaking was heard. The family who let Calla and Viola stay here didn’t need to hear this. They didn’t need to get involved at all. 

Mera shifted slightly, trying to move, but before they could, Calla rushed them, one long, sharp horn being thrust into the wood of the wardrobe right beside their head. Mera felt themself blink, shock pulsing through their limbs. 

“Calla, what are y-”

A sharp pain sliced across Mera’s cheek as Calla yanked her horn from the wood, pulling herself back, then further back until her legs hit the bed again. She watched as a trickle of blood slid down Mera’s cheek, dripping onto the floor once it reached the bottom of their chin. Mera reached a quivering hand to their face, fingers becoming wet with blood, their eyes gazing down at it as they pulled their hand away. 

“Go,” Calla whispered.

Mera’s gaze rose, their eyes meeting Calla’s for one final, tired glance.

“I’ll go,” they echoed before shifting away from the wardrobe, gaze dropping to the floor as they crossed the room towards the door. But before they left, they couldn't stop themself from speaking again.

“I love you.” Mera’s voice was weak as they struggled to hold back a wave of tears, their body pausing before they let their hand rise to the doorknob. “Tell Viola I love her, too.”

Memories said today was the day I like "officially" made Mercurio an OC, so that's nice.