#(to be fair it would not be fun to be the events organiser at the historic home that found this but I Do Not Like Debbie)

[daemon-in-my-head]

Good timezone fellow Durges, Durge Owners and Durgetash enjoyers. I hereby declare; yeah @aleksxo and I are actually gonna do that Bhaalspawn Championship bit, let's go

So, a bit of organisational stuff first:

THIS IS A 18+ EVENT. The game is officially 18+, and so is the community event for it. And well, considering we're throwing a bunch of cannibals into one tiny arena... Do be aware there's gonna be some 'spicy' topics (but no making out on the battlefield, that's what the lockers are for!)

Date: The event will start from August 5th onwards (so, a week after the Gortash week), the Discord Server and the Sign up however will open as soon as this post is published and will end on before then. That way we can set up matches and schedules in time.

Rules: The rulework used will be 5e and for the sake of fun and fair competition, some spells will be banned.

Place: The event will be hosted on a specifically created Discord Community Server and the matches themselves will take place in a VC, meaning; all Participants must be ready to use their voice aka talk while others may listen. Ofc, just spectators are welcome too. Otherwise what's the point of those pretty stages?

OCs: Custom Durges mandatory. No default Durges cuz it's hella immersion breaking. Please give him a moustache and a name if you want to play our fav white dragonboy.

Matchmaking: We aim to keep the Matchmaking as balanced and comfortable as possible, meaning participants of the same region and similar classes will be matched against each other where possible and all OCs will compete with lvl 20 stats, spells, spellslots, feats, yada yada. Depending on the amount of participants we may expand or decrease group sizes (we're literally gonna use Soccer championship rules for ranking).

Inexperienced TTRPG Players: will recieve support! We'll help ya figure stuff out and get ur character to work how u want.

Prizes: OC Art and an OC Oneshot provided to u by your hosts! (Unless...?)

Now for the work part of this thing: we're still headhunting! Specifically people that would like to assist us who are US based (Mods and DMs, cuz we're European and we like sleep actually). If there's any Europeans out here who wanna help tho... We're also looking for support there!

And last but not least, here's the Server link, the specific rules and announcements/orga updates will be posted there (here occasionally if its big stuff) and ofc the form to sign up is live there too!

As per usual, reblog, spread the word, the more the merrier and do feel free to drag ur friends along! If ya like, they'll even get to cheer you on as you fight for Daddy's attention!

Also here's the twitter version of the post if you'd like to spread the word... Cuz neither of the hosts has any presence there. A flaw in our brilliant plans I agree.

[sflow-er]

For YR Faves Fest organised by @youngroyals-events Prompts: 2. favourite teen side character (Henry), 7. favourite (not-quite) friendship, 9. favourite season (S1)

To accompany my Henry & Simon analysis post, I thought it could be fun to post a selection of scenes from my S1 longfic Other people's secrets as Sunday snippets!

These three scenes consist of 1) Henry observing Wilmon on the night of the Society party, 2) him trying to small talk with them the next day, and 3) him apologising to Simon after rowing practice some days later. They should be easy to follow and enjoy even if you haven't read the entire fic.

The first scene is under the cut, and I will reblog this twice (later today) to add the others!

1: The night of the Society party

When a cold breeze touched Henry’s ankle, he realised he had failed to close the window after climbing in. As if on cue, there was a noise from outside – it sounded like someone falling down, followed by muffled voices arguing.

“Fuck, not again. Get up, Wille!”

“Sorry, sorry! Just need to catch my breath.”

“On your feet now, come on!”

“It’s nice here, sit with me for a bit.” Sounds of a scuffle again. “I want to sit with you, come on!”

“No, you’re going to get up and point me in the right direction. Unless you want me to just leave you here.”

“No, don’t leave me! Everything’s spinning and I just, uh. I need a minute to – ungh…”

As more struggling followed, Henry gradually unfroze to look over at his roommate, who seemed to be fast asleep still. He wondered if he should wake Walter up for this but decided not to waste time. This sounded like a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it type of situation. He curiously approached the window and peered out through the corner pane, hiding behind the curtain to avoid being seen from the outside.

It was dark, but Henry could make out two figures on the lawn. One was pulling the other to his feet, but the one reluctantly getting up – Wilhelm, obviously it had to be Wilhelm – threw his arms tightly around whoever was helping him and slumped against them.

“Damn it, Wille, get a hold of yourself! We’re almost there.”

“Don’t be mad,” Wilhelm slurred, still hanging on for dear life, even though the object of the hug tried to pry him off. He sounded desolate saying, “Don’t leave me, Simon, please don’t leave me.”

Henry’s eyes widened as he mouthed the name: Simon? His thoughts were a whirlwind in his still slightly inebriated brain. Why was Simon bringing Wilhelm home from a party he had not even attended, and more importantly, were they really this close?

This was best-friend territory. Not something any two classmates would do for each other. Henry for one couldn’t imagine other than Walter dragging him home like that. Simon didn’t even live here, so he was really going out of his way to do this.

Henry squinted his eyes to see better as Simon let out a stifled grunt and heaved his clingy friend off. It was too dark to see their faces, but luckily there was enough moonlight to catch their silhouette.

“Of course not, I just said that to get you moving again.” Simon held Wilhelm by the elbow as the prince almost lost his balance from the push. His other hand was gesturing towards the windows. “Now, focus: which one is your room? How do we get in?”

“That one over there. I left it open. I’m clever like that.”

“Just not clever enough to say no to whatever junk they put in front of you,” Simon muttered, lifting Wilhelm’s arm on his shoulders and starting in the indicated direction.

Wilhelm groaned and signalled his reluctance to move. He grabbed a handful of Simon’s jacket and whatever he was wearing under it, most likely a hoodie knowing how Simon dressed. Then, he actually nuzzled his face into the crook of Simon’s neck.

Simon, who was quite clearly at the end of his wit, tried to push him off again.

“I don’t need this from you, okay? I know you’re hurting, but this is not the way to fix that. I can’t be dragging your ass home high in the middle of the night, it’s not fair. Okay?”

“Please don’t be mad,” Wilhelm whined again. “I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

“We can talk about this when you’ve sobered up,” Simon said, obviously mad.

Henry was holding his breath, transfixed. This was a much more private conversation than he had expected. He tried to get a better look, but all he could see was Wilhelm’s frame slumped against Simon while the shorter boy insistently dragged him along.

“Will you stay until then? Please stay.”

“Well, somebody has to make sure you don’t choke to death in your sleep.”

Henry stifled a giggle at the similarity with the sentiment Walter had expressed earlier about him potentially dying in the woods. Yes, definitely best-friend territory, although he couldn’t really imagine himself being quite that physical, even with Walter. Hugging, sure, but the nuzzling was a bit much. But then, Wilhelm was obviously high out of his mind, so it was no wonder he was acting strangely.

“Thank you, Simon. Thanks for coming. I can’t believe you came.”

“Of course I came.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Wilhelm sounded sincere, his voice small and broken.

“You have a funny way of showing it,” Simon replied a bit more bitterly than Henry expected.

“I didn’t really want what I wanted.” It was getting harder to hear Wilhelm’s slurred words now as they were getting further away. Henry silently pushed the window slightly further ajar to catch the rest. He couldn’t risk looking out anymore for fear of being spotted, but at least he could hear better. “I’m sorry.”

“I know. Now, is this your window?” Wilhelm did not say anything in response, but he must have made a gesture to that effect, because the next thing Henry heard was the window creaking open. “Get in, and don’t make any noise unless you want your bodyguards to rush in.”

“Quiet as a mouse,” Wilhelm proclaimed at a volume that was anything but. He proceeded to knock something over on his way in, then cursed as that something clanked against the floor. His bodyguards must have heard, but they probably had enough tact to avoid catching the crown prince in the act.

Simon laughed quietly despite himself, and Henry could imagine him shaking his head in exasperation. Wilhelm muttered an ’oops’ and shushed himself, still extremely loud in the absence of any other noise.

When Simon spoke again, his voice sounded less angry. Instead, it was laced with affection. “Real smooth. Now get out of the way.”

Henry heard Simon climb in and close the window. It was quiet again, and he turned back towards his sleeping roommate in disbelief. He really should have woken Walter up for this, because he had no idea what to make of it on his own.

“Well, I guess that’s what happened to Wille,” he whispered to himself. Rubbing his wrist on his cheek, he realised he had blushed vigorously at the awkward excitement of watching and eavesdropping on something he so clearly wasn’t supposed to witness.

He shook his head to snap out of it, then he shut the window and curtains. He lay down to contemplate the discussion he had just witnessed, hands behind his pillow.

Obviously, Simon and Wilhelm had to be very close friends based on everything they had just said and the touchy-feely nature of it all. But if that was the case, why were they hiding?

[---]

He lay awake for about an hour, listening to Walter’s steady breathing from the other bed and feeling low as conflicting thoughts swirled around his slowly sharpening mind. Witnessing that interaction had made it abundantly clear how different Wilhelm was with a true friend than he was with Henry and the others – and if Simon had been able to get through Wilhelm’s seemingly impenetrable walls, there had to be something special about him.

The more Henry thought about how wrong his approach to them both had been, the larger and heavier the ball of guilt inside him grew, until he had to clear his throat in an effort to move it. Thankfully – or unfortunately, he wasn’t sure which – Walter didn’t seem to stir.

And so, he whispered quietly into the dark, “Maybe we should try to be nicer to Simon.”

[canmom]

Where do you read and find web comics?

that's a great question!

these days the scene is kinda dominated by platforms like webtoon and tapas, which heavily favour vertical-scrolling infinite canvas formats. these environments are aggressively competitive, and getting to the top of the popularity pile requires a pace of work that makes even the manga industry look downright reasonable. I wrote a little about one such comic back in 2022. the 'portal' format applies similar pressures as webnovel sites - somehow that's come down to favouring high-concept premises which can be spelled out in a title, and a fairly homogeneous art style. in general you'll see a lot of romance and isekai.

that said, traditional page-formatted webcomics are absolutely still around. usually I read them on their websites - you can use an RSS reader to keep up with updates for most comics, but I fell out of the habit of that years ago.

as far as finding them, there's not really any centralised place to find them, but often webcomics will promote other authors, and there's organisations like hiveworks which serve to cross-promote members of their network. most webcomics have a 'links' page. it's rhizomatic or some shit.

if you are coming back to webcomics, 'I used to read this comic, is it still going' can also lead to a lot of pleasant surprises - you wouldn't believe the number of webcomic authors who turn out to have transed their gender when you come back a few years later (or maybe you would). 'spend years writing a comic instead of transitioning' is a strangely common pitfall [edit: though I'm not sure 'spend years transitioning instead of making a big creative project' is like. a better strategy lmao. they're both big expressions of agency, it doesn't really matter what order you do em.]

some authors tend to stay on a single perpetual epic that will likely last until they die, but others like to write multiple projects, and usually if you enjoy one thing by a person you'll enjoy the others. for example, @bigbigtruck wrote the excellent The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal back in the day, and is presently writing a story about stormchasers with a very similar vibe. Evan Dahm of Rice Boy went on to write some rather cool comics like Vattu.

webcomics review blogs can also be a good place to pick up recs. yes homo, now defunct, put a few things on my radar (I disagree with many of their opinions but that's part of the fun of it lol), as has thewebcomicsreview.

along similar lines, forums can be a good place to look - back in the old old days, I used to be a big fan of a D&D comic called The Order of the Stick and hang out on its forums a lot, and they had a pretty active board for talking about other webcomics (a large part of which was devoted to literally hundreds of threads for the club of posters making fun of a really mid comic called Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire - don't ask me to explain that...) these days I bet there are webcomics discords that function similarly, though I couldn't tell you which ones off the top of my head.

if you're willing to part with a little bit of money, events like the Shortbox Comics Fair are a good way to gather a huge stack of one-shots. I picked up a bunch in the last one of those, I should really write about them.

honestly I should really just draw up a list of comics I've liked, catch up on the ones that I fell off the update schedule on, and put that list on my website somewhere. writing full reviews is fun but time-consuming and I don't want to make promises with how incredibly ADHD I am (the 'comics comints' series lasted a mighty three posts, and of all the writing-about-stuff projects, the main ones I'm trying to get going again are the tftbn and umineko liveblogs), but it is happy-making to spread the word about good shit I've read. I used to liveblog webcomics quite a bit, you can see some of them over here. (I never got around to migrating the Homestuck sideblog.)

ultimately, word of mouth is queen here. all these suggestions are just different flavours of "find people who like the sorts of things you like and read the stuff they like" in the end!

[empiredesimparte]

Oliver: The Polytechnique ball thinks big! Napoléon V: I suggested the Garnier Opera to the school president. You've got to have a bit of fun!

Oliver: How did your honeymoon go? Napoléon V: Very well, thank you. It was strange to be cut off from the world, away from all the hustle and bustle of Paris.

Oliver: Good! You needed a rest. By the way, I thought it would please Hortense to have an estate in Francesim, so that we could visit you from time to time. Napoléon V: That's a good idea, I like knowing that my twin sister won't be too far away from us.

Oliver: Of course, don't worry, I'll look after her… That is, if you agree, officially Napoléon V: Officially, so that's it?

Oliver: Yes, I've been ready for several months now. I'm sorry again for all the trouble I've caused you, it wasn't… Napoléon V: Let's not talk about it any more. It's all settled. I know that Hortense will be happy with you, surely … more than with me.

Oliver: You were born to take different paths. At this time in your lives, the distance is natural. However, I believe I can echo Hortense's sentiments that she loves you dearly, no matter what and despite everything that has happened. Napoléon V: Thank you, Oliver. I'm counting on you to look after her.

⚜ Le Cabinet Noir | Paris, 17 Messidor An 230

Beginning ▬ Previous ▬ Next

Napoléon V and his entourage went to the Grand Bal de l'X, organised by the École Polytechnique to celebrate the end of their year of study. The ball took place at the Opéra Garnier, and featured a number of performances including dances, fencing, a choir and many other distinguished ceremonies. It's a not-to-be-missed event for young students. During the evening, Oliver approached his friend Napoléon V to officially ask for his sister Hortense's hand in marriage. The Emperor agreed to make the engagement official.

(Thanks to @theroyalthornoliachronicles and @funkyllama for the sims deco and accessories! Oliver is a character belonging to @officalroyalsofpierreland)

⚜ Traduction française

Napoléon V et ses proches se rendent au grand bal de l'X, organisé par l'école Polytechnique pour fêter la fin d'année d'étude. Le bal se déroule à l'opéra Garnier, et donne lieu à de nombreux spectacles comme des danses, des combats d'escrimes, une chorale, et bien d'autres cérémonies distinguées. C'est le rendez-vous immanquable des jeunes étudiants. Durant la soirée, Oliver approche son ami Napoléon V pour lui demander officiellement la main d'Hortense, sa soeur. L'Empereur accepte d'officialiser les fiançailles.

Oliver : Le bal de Polytechnique voit les choses en grand ! Napoléon V : J’ai proposé l’opéra Garnier au président de l’école. Il faut bien s’amuser un peu !

Oliver : Et ta lune de miel alors, ça s’est bien passé ? Napoléon V : Très bien, merci. C’était étrange d’être coupés du monde, loin de toute l’agitation parisienne.

Oliver : Tant mieux! Tu avais besoin de repos. À propos, j’ai pensé que cela ferait plaisir à Hortense d’avoir un domaine en Francesim, pour que l’on puisse vous rendre visite de temps en temps. Napoléon V : C’est une bonne idée, j’aime savoir que ma jumelle ne sera pas trop éloignée de nous.

Oliver : Bien sûr, ne t’en fais pas, je prendrai soin d’elle… Enfin, si tu y consens, officiellement Napoléon V : Officiellement, alors ça y est ?

Oliver : Oui, cela fait plusieurs mois que je suis prêt. Encore désolé pour tous les ennuis que j’ai pu t’attirer, ce n’était pas… Napoléon V : N’en parlons plus. C’est réglé. Je sais que Hortense sera heureuse avec toi, sûrement … plus qu’avec moi

Oliver : Vous êtes nés pour prendre des chemins différents. À ce moment de votre vie, la distance est naturelle, mais je crois pouvoir me faire l'écho des sentiments d'Hortense qui t'aime tendrement, quoi qu'il arrive et en dépit de tout ce qui s'est passé. Napoléon V : Merci Oliver. Je compte sur toi, pour veiller sur elle.

[montydollcrew2]

SD Owner’s Tokyo Bay Cruise 2024

Time for me to write another ‘experience’ post, about a month later, because it’s something I like to do. So back when I posted about my Omukae Ceremony last year, I said (on Instagram) that I’d always wanted to go on one of the Volks cruises. I had no way of knowing that they would announce another one that December for the following year!

This post is pretty in-depth so it’s very long and rambly and more for my own memories than anything else, but I hope it’s a little informative to anyone who is vaguely interested in the cruises.

Some background info, the Volks Cruises (or Super Dollfie Owners Appreciation Fair in Tokyo (or Kobe) Bay Cruise have happened at irregular intervals from (I think?)2005, to 2017, so it’s been a good while since the last one. They are mini events taking place on a short bay cruise, and going on them allows you to order certain dolls related to Oath of Silver Coin, Volks original line about pirates and the navy that gets lore added to it with every release.

Oath is one of their most popular lines and has been going for a while (the 2024 cruise was actually announced as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations). It’s cool to look back on the history of the line and see the change in the house style! I won’t say much about the lore other than the fact that Captain Cecile is the main character of the pirate side (and also my favourite Volks sculpt family) and Williams is the main character of the navy side and their relationship seems to be these first and last Kate Beaton strips. There’s fanficfion. I own a printed copy of some.

Anyway the 2024 cruise just happened to be around the time I was planning to be in Japan anyway for Magical Mirai Osaka, so entering the lottery for it was a no-brainer. Since the boat has limited capacity, entry is lottery-based. I genuinely didn’t expect to win - it’s the first cruise in a long time, the two limited dolls are particularly stunning (a 2024 version of Reisner, Captain Cecile’s obsessive first-mate, and new character Abelia, the navigator), there was only one scheduled cruise for sunset whereas previous years had 2 (day and sunset), so I figured competition was going to be very steep, but then I got a nice surprise in my inbox in late August.

Fast forward to the day of the cruise (3rd of November)

I attended a pre-cruise lunch with a small handful of other participants organised by usagicamera/usakame, a mutual of mine (and also the person who wrote and made printed copies of the gay pirate fan fiction), and since we were all kinda nervous it was a nice icebreaker. After that we went to the waiting area at Hinode pier. Here’s Cygnus waiting with usakame’s Captain Cecile in a maid dress and Teddy’s(another lunch attender I met that day) Elizabeth (Williams’s younger sister.), unintentionally looking like two rich siblings and their maid.

After some amount of time checkin began. They gave the GL (global) members a separate checkin line to make things smoother. I think besides me there might have been around 15-20 GL members present, but it was hard to tell because people were arriving all the time, and I was near the front of the queue so couldn’t see who joined after I’d checked in. We received a clear pouch on lanyard that contained a map of the boat, a numbered ticket, a voting slip for the best dressed contest and another ticket that told us which floor (of 3) we were assigned.

Because of the limited space on board, we were advised not to bring too much luggage onto the boat, so there was a cloak room for that reason. It also meant most people checked in their bulky doll bags and carried their dolls in their arms while they waited, and it was fun sitting and waiting while looking around at all the dolls suddenly appearing. (most of which were Oath related, although that wasn’t compulsory).

This was particularly funny because the waiting room was actually divided in half down the middle, with the other chairs for a different cruise that was around the same time - a wedding cruise, to be precise. So half of the room is people in evening dress and tuxedos, looking over in bewildered confusion at all the people - half of which were dressed as pirates, lolita or lolita pirates - carrying giant dolls.

While waiting to board a lot of people were using the photo-op space for the ship, including me. (Although our was a Symphony too the ship directly behind this was the wedding cruise, not ours)

When it was time to board, our assigned groups went in one at a time, starting with the first floor which had included me. Walking towards the ship, I spotted Volks mascot Komame (pirate edition) and Reisner hanging over the deck to welcome us aboard. I completely non-ironically love the Oath kigu cosplay that appears at these events, and the Reisner was really hamming it up, waving and gesturing for people to hurry up and board. (He also did finger guns at one point, but I wasn’t able to get a pic)

We walked past a string quartet performance as we entered the ship, which felt very fancy. I don’t have a photo of them but you can see them in the official event report. I’m not sure if it was something Volks organised specifically or just something that comes with all the Symphony cruises.

We were guided into the area with the main stage, which is also where the buffet was. I later learned that the 2nd and 3rd floor buffets had a giant screen that showed what was happening on the 1st floor stage, so I’m kinda glad I got to see the actual stage. Once everyone was on the ship, there was a welcome and a toast as we set sail - and then we were all allowed to move freely around the boat.

Me and my friends went straight to the Oneoff display (photos not allowed but they’re also on the official report), and it’s probably a good thing we did, because it meant we were among the first in and this didn’t have to spend a huge chunk of the cruise waiting in line like a lot of others did. They would only let a few in at a time and handed us a clipboard and pen with the entry form. After looking at the models in filling in the form, we put it in the treasure chest shaped entry box. On one hand, it was a good method to stop the area becoming too crowded, but the drawback was that it took longer and I later saw that the line was so long it snaked down the stairs and into another room.

The box was out on deck, so after coming out of the oneoff room I got to enjoy the deck with my friends right as sunset was beginning. There were some convenient places (drink rests?) to sit dolls on the railings which I was thankful for because I had so many visions of dolls falling overboard lol.

I was on deck for a while because it was fun, and because it was such a clear day you could even see Mt Fuji in the distance.

I then went downstairs a floor to see what the photo spaces were like, figuring I probably wouldn’t use them as there might be too many people, and I could see a huuuge line…but it turned out to be for the one-offs, and there weren’t too many people at the photo area at all. It was cool because they had combined the photo area with the Oath dolls display, so you could actually pose your own dolls amongst them.

Here is Cygnus standing awkwardly between Captain Cecile and Abelia. As for Reisner, he was on the other side of the display by himself. It was my first time seeing him in person. Actually now that I think of it, it was probably okay to sit a doll next to him on the seat, so I wish I’d done that. But there will be plenty of time for photos of Cygnus with a Reisner later.

I realised i hadn’t touched the buffet at all, so went to get my moneys worth at the closest one, which is when I saw the big screen - it was currently showing the tail end of the Best Dresser contest happening on the 1st floor which I had completely forgotten about until then. It seemed like the people who had registered for it were on stage explaining their outfits, but I’d missed most of it and was also too preoccupied with eating, so didn’t end up using my voting slip. 

After wandering a little more and meeting some friends here and there, I went back to the first floor for the big treasure raffle, which is what the ticket we were given when we checked in was for. There were a lot of prizes up for grabs and the winners were decided by the numbers randomly drawn out of the treasure chest. There were small accessories, doll outfits and a bunch of special Tenshi (the tiniest Volks dolls only ever available as raffle/bingo prizes.) As usual, I didn’t win anything (I have never won anything at Dolpa Bingos either), but it was still fun seeing how excited the winners got. 

The boat was coming back to the dock now, so it was time for the closing speech - which included a surprise announcement for the next Volks release. Everyone did the countdown together and then the Volks staff lifted up the giant placards to reveal the new Macha and Yumepi, a collab with Baby, the Stars Shine Bright! The dolls look spectacular and it’s been many years since a Baby collab, so there was a lot of hype and cheering. It was exciting to be among the first people anywhere to see these new dolls! And one lucky person won a Dolpa priority pass.

It was time to leave now, so everyone had to return to their assigned floors and wait until their group could leave, in reverse order to how we got on, so I was in the last group to leave. Volks staff on the docks were handing out goody bags for us as we left - they contained the newest issue of Volks News - 2 days before it would come out officially for everyone else, a letter of thanks from the Shigetas (the Volks owners, who unfortunately couldn’t come on the cruise this time) and some cute little trinkets in a $ bag. 

I guess I’ll let my Reisner play with them later (Even though I’d paid for him at the time I won my cruise ticket, the dolls themselves weren’t sent until nearly a month after the cruise, and mine was stuck in postal limbo for a bit and only got to me the other day). Some people were disappointed they couldn’t collect and take home the dolls from the cruise but I’m personally glad I didn’t have to manage to get another giant doll back with me, seeing as Cygnus was taking up a lot of luggage space as it was.)

So that was my first Volks cruise! I had no idea what to expect, but I had a ton of fun. The Volks staff were fantastic / they brought a lot of fun energy and were often mingling with the crowd - I even got to briefly talk to Ciera (one of the faceup artists). I got to hang out with some of my friends from Instagram and take photos with their dolls, and also meet some (although unfortunately not all) of my Twitter mutuals. The food was pretty good too, even if I didn’t get to eat that much of it.

But, there were some drawbacks that I hope will be addressed on future events. Mainly, it was very short - only about 2 hours - and that seemed to pass extremely quickly. With the amount of things to do, I really wish it had been at the very least an extra hour long. And I was one of the lucky people who didn’t spend most of it on the oneoff queue! Now, I didn’t win a oneoff, although it doesn’t bother me much as I didn’t expect to - I just knew I’d regret it if I never entered and I will take any chance at a Captain Cecile for RRP that I can. But I also was only in the line very briefly. I imagine it must be extremely frustrating to have been the people stuck in line for ages and ages, sacrificing so much of the time they could have spent enjoying the cruise, only to win nothing anyway - with only 10 one-offs total it was way more likely than not that you wouldn’t win.

The length also affected the Best Dresser contest - I was kinda interested in it, but like I said, was too preoccupied with trying to do other stuff that I missed pretty much all of it and so didn’t get to vote, and I imagine that lots of other people didn’t either (like the ones stuck in the oneoff line or out on deck). Some of the people who watched the whole contest may also have missed out on the oneoff line.

Otherwise, I noticed that Volks did multilingual announcements - Japanese, Chinese and Korean, but not English. I’m not sure how many English-only GL members were even present so I can’t say whether it was truly necessary, but it may have been confronting for someone if they didn’t know what was going on during some of the announcements. (However during the raffle when numbers were being called out they did call them out on English too, which they also do during Bingo at Dolpa)

But something I was a little more personally disappointed in was that I genuinely was looking forward to seeing the silly kigurumi cosplayers on board at some point, but Reisner was only visible when we boarded (and only from a distance). Looking at the event reports of past cruises, the cosplayers mingled with the participants and had photos taken with them. But this also could have been a time constraint thing.

The last cruise also had a giant cake with Williams and his midshipman Cain on it that looked like a wedding cake, so I was really hoping for something like that, but I didn’t see any large cake like that (there were lots of smaller cakes though, and they were very tasty - as well as a mystery plate of macarons somewhere that I only know about from other people’s photos - but I really wanted a pirate wedding cake 😔)

The time constraints would have made more sense had there been two cruises in the day like in the past, but this time only had the one, so there didn’t seem to be much reason to keep it so short (unless of course the time restriction was imposed by Symphony Cruises, which is likely)

But in all, it made for a great and unique memory. If I’m ever lucky enough for them to do another one during a time that works for me I’d gladly do it again.

[wordsofwilderness]

Wrap Up of my Jegulus Kinktober Writing

First of, thank you so much to everyone over at @jeguluskinktoberr for organising the event! It was so much fun to participate :D

In total I wrote 16.117 words across 11 fics, all of which can be found here.

And oh wow, I don't think I've ever had such a productive month in terms of writing before. Turns out it's so much easier for me to get words on to the page when I don't have to navigate complicated character motivations, foreshadowing or detailed plot structures.

I thought it would be fun to have a look at what I did end up writing, so I made a few graphs:

At first glance I would say that James' oral fixation really came through, but most of the eating out was in fact done by Regulus. Though, I sure James has no complaints about that

The switches really be switching here. I am kind of surprised I didn't end up writing top Regulus at all despite trying to vary everything. Though, even more so I'm surprised by the amount of fic I wrote without and kind of anal or vaginal penetrative sex

You can really see what I cut back on to try to keep the fics to a manageable length with these two. In fact the one fic that ballooned completely (Crowded with You) both didn't have a established relationship, and had a proper AU specified. I guess I know a bit better now how to contain my writing. I do really like both grounding my writing in a setting and writing pinning, so idk if it's a skill I'm gonna be using much 😅

For reference only 2 of the 11 fics are omegaverse, yet they completely carried the word count for the month. To be fair, I did actively choose to not hold back with them, I can't just do omegaverse only halfway, that trope deserves proper care

With all that said, I really miss my long fics. I'm gonna be diving into my pile of wips and outlines, so I fear the era of frequent posting is over. Hopefully, I'll be able to get something out to you all before the distant future though!!

[beardedmrbean]

November 4th is the start of seven days of exciting events that make up this year’s Czech Space Week. Designed to promote the space industry in Czechia and inspire the next generation of galactic enthusiasts, Czech Space Week is happening across the country, and has something for everyone. I spoke to Marie Němečková, director of Space Hub and member of the Czech Space Team, about what the week has in store:

Could you introduce for us the whole world of the Czech Space Week? How long has it been going on for, and what organisations are involved in putting it together?

“The Czech Space Week has been going on since 2018, so this year we’re looking at the seventh edition of this festival. It actually is a celebration of the Czech Republic’s ten-year membership of the European Space Agency. It’s been growing and growing ever since. It started with just a few small events, and now it's grown into a much larger and much widely-encompassing festival.

“There are many events throughout the week and we are trying to target all the different possible audiences, from an academic audience, to the professional audience, like businesses and start-ups, to children, families and young students.”

So it starts today, I believe that the first event is happening as we speak, so could you tell us a little bit about what people can expect? What sort of events are there – something for everybody?

“Yes, that’s right. The first event of Czech Space Week, the official beginning, was today, and we were very glad and lucky to have the president of the Czech Republic here, starting the programme. Then, right now, we have the Czech Copernicus User Forum and Remote Sensing, which is an event for a professional and academic audience, focused on Earth observation data. Tomorrow, we have the Space2Business, which is more focused on doing business in space and having companies meet. We have some guests from abroad coming, such as from the US.

“Then there is also a showcase of start-ups with ESA BIC, the ESA Business Incubation Centre in the Czech Republic, which is on Wednesday. We have the motivational debate of Space4Women on Thursday, and there is also a workshop between academia and industry. That's organised by the Czech Academy of Sciences. On Friday there is something called Next Stop Space, which is a job fair for students and an event for students that are interested in going for a space career in various fields.

“During the weekend, there is a workshop for analogue missions, for analogue astronauts. That is organized by the CHASM community and Hydronaut, which is an analogue mission company. Throughout the whole week there is a programme devised by Pevnost Poznání and by iQLANDIA. These are two different programmes that are focused on children, families and young people, for having fun and meeting space in the setting of science and a family-friendly environment."

And do I understand it right that this is not just happening in Prague?

“Yes, we are trying to have the event all over the Czech Republic. So, for example, the Space4Women debate is taking place in Brno. The Space2Business event this year is in Prague, but the job fair is in again in Brno. Pevnost Poznání is in Olomouc, iQLANDIA is in Liberec. We have different events all over the Czech Republic in different planetariums. There's also a space movie screening, which is very much open to the general public. That's on Sunday and it's in Prague again.”

Are there any events that you are looking forward to personally?

“I always look forward to the whole Czech Space Week, and I try to attend as many events as possible, but my personal favourite would be the Space4Women debate. It actually started my own journey in space when I first attended it in 2019. I was so inspired by the amazing women that I decided I want to pursue a career in space, so that's a personal love for me.” _____________________________________

Link didn't want to embed so click here to go to the source.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

About Rollo, friendships and other stuff.

Anonymous asked:

Oh my god your Rollo art gives me life! I gotta ask - who do you ship him with? As a Rollo fan I like to pair him with Deuce, Jack, Neige and Idia, even though I’m probably the only person on earth who likes any of those pairings. Do you have any Rollo rarepairs? Do you have any thoughts on which boys might be interested in Rollo?

Rollo deserves all the love, Anon! Whenever I think about him, I start lamenting about wanting more of him. Too bad he was with us just for one event... I would love to see him interact with the other group of boys :( I think Lilia and the tweels would enjoy him the most: Lilia would think he is obnoxiously righteous but also very fun to tease, the tweels would get a similar feeling to what they feel from Riddle. Floyd could be such a menace with Rollo, and Jade isn’t any better.

Anyways, to answer your question! We don’t like any popular ships for Rollo, but we love him with fukukaicho/vice-president of NBC (the boy is a huge simp lol); and out of the main cast the only ship that kind of “sparked” with us was Azul/Rollo. Rook/Rollo also would’ve been interesting!

Oh, and of course the gargoyles. Gargoyles/Rollo is the best ship.

Anonymous asked:

I think we share the same type of fandom brainrot since looking back at your older works I see you were also a Prussia fan and turned into an Idia fan. 10/10 good taste in men

Yesss, high five Anon! Gotta love this “kind of depressed/lonely genius with unstable ego but also a doting older brother who calls himself niichan and spends too much time on the internet” type! These two have more in common than I thought...

Anonymous asked:

Favourite TWST friendship?

Oof it’s hard to say, Anon! I feel like I answered a similar question before, but I really don’t remember what I said.

I love the friendship aspect of a lot of characters that we ship romantically (like Idia and Azul, for example).

But excluding those, I’d say Deuce and Epel are cute, Vil and Idia (even though neither of them would probably call it friendship) and the Octa-trio and Ortho (it’s basically just bad influence on this already bad kid lol)

It’s a bit weird to call whatever the Octa-trio have a friendship, but I love their dynamic a lot, so it would be unfair not to mention them. I would watch an entire sitcom of just these three and their antics.

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

Okay, I'm a huge sucker for the NRC/others poly/origy plots! Like First Years have one, Second Years, Third Years, you get the idea. My question is is how likely do you think this could happen? What are your headcanons of the year groups (lets add Nobel Bell and Royal Sword for more people even if it's small) having some fun? How pleasing would it be for those involved?

It’s a bit difficult to say because while we are multishippers and sometimes multiple ships coexist in a single story, we don’t necessarily have any poly ships, like nothing necessarily feels like an “organised” poly throuple. So I might not be the best person to answer this kind of question, ironically! But still:

The first years: not really likely, but Ace and Jack should do Deuce together (very not likely to happen due to both of them being stubborn and greedy). Also Epel and some of his senpais from Magift (not Leona though), because he is that eager to prove himself.

The second years: Jamil might find himself surrounded by mermen... in theory, they might invite Kalim as well, but they’re more likely to tease(scare) Jamil by saying that they are going to do that. Silver might find himself as a center of an orgy at some point too, but with a bunch of mob/faceless characters.

The third years: nothing really comes to mind, but there are people who want to involve Trey in their relationship or just for an orgy; Trey dodges it successfully so far.

RSA: nah, they’re too good for that :) Cuties. Too fucking good, not a single dirty bone in their body. Well, to be fair though, they have Che’nya, and he kickstart an orgy somehow. Everyone (especially those who participated and loved it) would be shocked afterwards.

NBC: orgies are a thing. Rollo doesn’t know about it. He will become a center of one soon...

[neerons]

I do have a random fun fact about Yuzuru’s lil horsy logo for his company.

Apart from the obvious knight symbolism that some stories acknowledge, the knight chess piece is the only one that has to be meticulously carved by hand. (The rest can be mostly formed via turning) (This mostly just applies to wood pieces. I don’t know much about other materials.)

Personally I read him more as a rook/tower because he’s straightforward(lol).

I wonder which pieces the other ones would be? I feel like either all or none of the 3S should be kings, so I guess I’ll rule that one out by default.

Kazuomi would probably pick pawn just because he might find the idea of playing at a disadvantage fun.

For Kei, I would just choose Bishop just because we may as well stick to the religious theme.

I don’t much about Seiichi but putting him as a pawn would fit the whole spy organisation thing. It does make him double up with Kazuomi though, so you can put him as your king if you want.

MC would probably be the Queen by default, but a part of me doesn’t like how predictable that is. She should just become the player.

Hi ❤

First of all, that's a very interesting take and detail so thank you for sharing it. I've always been interested in chess but never really got to play it often, so I don't know much about the symbolism and strategies and did a bit of research

It would make sense to choose a chess piece that usually has to be carved by hand for Yuzuru, considering his passion for craftsmanship. I guess that's a detail that was either coincidental, or meticulously picked by whoever was in charge of this.

If we're taking it from the perspective of which chess piece fits their personality the most, then I completely agree that Yuzuru is very similar to a rook. I'm thinking this not only because like you pointed out, he's very straightforward, but also because rooks represent stability and defense, which is pretty much everything Yuzuru values and tries to maintain in his life.

To be fair, Kazuomi is often represented as the Resort King, a winner who never loses his games, and the one who pulls the strings and plans a strategy. Technically, the king would be whoever's route you choose, but it makes way too much sense that Kazuomi would be represented as the king compared to the others.

Although like you said, if Kazu had to choose only one piece he could play as, I'm sure he would pick the pawn too. He wins so easily that it bores him, so he likes difficulty. Being in a position where he has to be constantly active and at risk would definitely please him!

For obvious reasons, I agree that the bishop fits Kei very well. It represents faith, spirituality and guidance which pretty much sums up every issue and key moments of his life. He could also turn out to become a knight along the way considering his acts of chivalry for his MC, and his bravery. It would also make sense with his diplomatic career and his protection toward royalty and England.

As for Seiichi, I think it'd actually be MC who is his pawn, at least at the beginning of the story. He would be the king, and technically, they would both be playing against Kazuomi, Yuzu and Kei (again, that'd be from the perspective of which piece they are more likely to represent in-game, and not linked to the actual symbolism of the pieces).

If I'm thinking of the symbolism, Seiichi could be a king (which represents leadership, protection and power), but he could also fit as a rook just like Yuzuru for the same reasons I've mentioned for him. He protects the world as much as he can, and protects MC and the EAC. Due to his very eventful lifestyle at work, it pretty much goes without saying that he appreciates stability in his personal life.

MC would definitely be the queen. Just like the queen is versatile in her movements, she has versatility in her personas and skills, as well as an ability to come up with strategies for her missions. From a reader's point of view, if we all imagine that we're her, it would also work to think of us (so technically her) as the player.

Although, we could argue that they would all be the player of their own game. It would simply come down to how differently they all play their strategies

Thank you so much for this! That was so interesting ❤

[heathtrash]

The Worst Witch December Events

Well met, everyone! 

It’s that time again where the festive holiday-themed fics are plentiful, and we all come together to collectively ignore canon in favour of being kinder to our favourites. Many of you are probably wondering if anyone’s organising any fun little Worst Witch fandom events, and the answer is yes! Over on the TWW Discord we've come up with two challenges that can be attempted by themselves, or combined - a gift exchange you can sign up for on AO3 via this link, and a December holiday-flavoured prompts list.

Gift Exchange

For the gift exchange, everyone will be secretly assigned a person to write a fic or make art for, matched according to your shared ships. There’s a simple form where you can provide details for what you’re offering as a gift and what you’d like to receive. Be sure to provide as much detail as possible and specify whether you are requesting or offering fic/art, what you are willing to create, and what you’d prefer to receive. For example, “I will write/draw fluff, but will not write/draw anything nsfw”.

When you submit, all fics will be invisible until the final submission date, when they will be revealed anonymously. Try to guess which fandom writer you received! The authors will be revealed on the 25th December.

Fics must be a minimum of 1,000 words (there is no maximum), and art (while subjective) must be of decent image size and quality. Your work must be submitted to the collection on AO3 (linked on this post). To give and receive gifts, you must have an AO3 account. Ships must involve consenting adults only. If you are submitting to the December Prompts, do not add your gift fic/art to that collection until after the authors have been revealed. No AI art or fic is permitted.

While this is for fun, please be serious about having something (relevant to the request given, of course) to submit. It would not be fair for someone to miss out after having put in a lot of hard work and effort on their own submission. 

Due dates are as follows:

Sign up is open until 20th November 2023.

Completed work submission is 18th December 2023.

Authors are revealed on the 25th December 2023. 

Full guidelines are up on the collection. Remember to sign up this week before it's too late!

Prompts List

There is a separate collection just for prompts! You can freely submit your works here to the AO3 Collection as and when you like.

The images below contain a variety of prompts that may be interpreted in any way you choose. How you complete those prompts is entirely up to you - whether it’s doing an entire day’s worth of prompts together, mixing and matching prompts from different days, choosing one prompt from each day, or picking a few that you like and working with them.

Use the hashtag "#tww december prompts" when linking your AO3 works so we can find and share them!

Many, many thanks to @hydr0phius for helping set this up, and all the lovely folks on the discord for providing inspiration!

(silly little art by me)

[happy-kiss-appreciation-week]

Hey hey! So, I have been brainstorming ideas for what to do for another Happy Kiss event this year! And while it is still pretty early in the year and there is NSFW week coming up soon, I figured I should ask about this now so I can get a headstart in organising it, since I'd wanna get it started at around April again.

Would you guys be interested in trying a bingo challenge for this year?

Basically: everyone interested in participating would get a randomised bingo card with Happy Kiss-related and general prompts. Some ideas are:

Character names

Types of kisses (would ask for submissions)

Things that make you happy / or some other way of having a 'Happy'-themed category of prompts (would ask for submissions)

General prompts (would ask for submissions)

Maybe also add some kinks into the mix for those feeling spicy?

Specific prompts rather than categories: 'Rarepair', 'Popular ship' & 'Minor character(s)'

(Some of these prompt categories are certainly up for debate.)

I would get the full list of prompts after a period of taking prompt suggestions like last year. There is a pretty easy to use bingo card generator I know of, so I could simply instruct everyone on how to use it rather than me needing to contact everyone to send each individual card. Plus, it would make re-rolling your card if you get one you are not satisfied with much simpler. (I think it's completely fair to re-roll if you get a card you don't feel you can really get a single bingo on. The generator also has options for smaller-sized cards, so I would be fine with allowing those too!)

(If we do decide to do it like this, I would still give an option to treat it as just a prompt event for those who may not want the bingo elements at all but still want to make use of the prompts themselves! But, unlike the prompt week, there wouldn't be necessarily specific dates to post stuff for certain prompts. Just a certain time frame where everyone posts whatever they've made.)

I think this could be a longer event. Maybe last the whole month of April rather than just a week? Since the number of works one might need to make will highly vary from person to person depending on what you get on your card and how big it is. (But as always, late stuff will still be reblogged if I see it! After all, this is supposed to be just for fun!)

Let me know what you guys think! (Or feel free to ask about anything you would like to understand more!) :D

[cybiirz]

ೃ⁀➷TO CLASH WITH MALICE

Gepard x Gn!Reader

Sypnosis : This celebration had been in the works for quite some time now. Everything was figured out until the very last detail, nothing would cause this event to go wrong. Well, a party isn’t fun without a party crasher right? Who would have guessed that both sides however, would come more than prepared. And when doing so, who would come out victorious?

WC : 3.1k (exactly)

WARNINGS (PLEASE READ) : Gepard is a little OOC in this. There will be a lot violence in this chapter and a fair bit of blood towards the end. I would also like to state that this is pretty much a filler fic. The only reason I have chosen to write this now is because I will be busy the next two days, and this idea has been on my mind for a while now. I wanted to show that I have chosen to go with a more independent reader and I believed a fight scene fic would be the best way. There is almost no actual interaction with Gepard and the reader, only for a very short time. This chapter will be optional to read but will be preferred if you do. I apologise for not adding more of his character, but I can guarantee that he will be the main event in the next! ALSO KIND OF BAD FIGHT SCENES WRITTEN UP AHEAD I THINK?

Read part 1 || part 2 || part 2.5 || part 3

Gepard’s little confession was certainly one that took you by surprise. Luckily, over the next few days, that thought had slowly dissipated from your mind as something else filled that hole instead. The night tomorrow was the viewing of some of Belobog’s most famous artefacts, thanks to the help of the History and Culture Museum. Pela had organised the majority of this event.

The only catch to this event was the fact that it was strictly only nobles, knights of high ranking and helpers specifically picked out by Cocolia who gained access to this event. There was one more thing that really made this little celebration stand out however. The dress code was surprisingly enough a masquerade ball, along with formal wear.

Why, you may ask? Because Cocolia was the one who would give the large speeches, and therefore be up on stage more. Mainly, heroic speeches, about the success of the guards who managed to push the fragmentum monsters back further, allowing the guards to progress more. It was actually quite a large step for the guards, so much so that many supplies had to be sent over in order to build entire new camps.

Now, masquerade, Silvermane guards, artefacts, how do they all link? Well, since this event was no doubtedly going to be in the newspaper for the next few days, Cocolia wanted to be the centre of attention, which is what caused everyone else to be wearing masks, whilst she would not. This would emphasise her more, that much was true. The formal wear would be a stark contrast to her as she had specifically requested that nobody else should wear the colour green, of any shade. And if anyone dared do so, they would immediately be banned from said event.

The artefacts however are linked towards the Silvermane Guards more than anything. The first helmet made, the first axe used to slay a fragmentum monster, so on and so on. But the one and only thing that stood out to you was the large chunk of geomarrow ore that would be displayed. Even just a small handful of that ore would provide enough money to feed an entire family for a week. Which is why you were dead set on carving part of the ore out for the Underworld.

There were about three problems, as expected, unfortunately. First off, your parents wanted you to attend the event, so you were officially put on the guest list, meaning you had to double cross this whole thing without anyone recognising you. The masks were convenient at least. Secondly, the place would be surrounded with guards, which only meant more planning on your part, and planning was one hell of a headache.

Last but certainly not least, Gepard was going to be there. It was assumed of course, but it only made it more difficult. Not only in having to sneak past terms, but also the fact that you had to do this pretty much right under his nose. Before never bothered you since he always came to the scene of the crime after you had taken everything, but now he was right there in the flesh. Not to mention he would be keeping a personal eye out for you as a friend.

All of those thoughts ran through your head as you stared at yourself in the mirror. Examining your outfit again, you tried to make sure the entire piece of clothing was in tip top shape. No wrinkles, creases, simply all prim and proper. You wore a short cape that reached your waist around your shoulders to hide the strap around your upper arm which contained a small revolver with spare ammo. The guards acted on instinct and all it took was a shot to the arm before they would back off. No one had to die tonight, that was never your plan.

After going over the full outfit, you grabbed the mask that sat on the wooden table top and placed it onto your face. Your eyes stared at the reflection as you considered yourself practically unrecognisable at this point. Eventually, you were brought out of your daze as you heard your mothers voice shouting for you. You rushed down the stairs as you began walking with your mother and father towards the Qlipoth Fort, as the event was going to be held there.

Before the three of you could go up the steps, you called towards your father to let him know that you had forgotten your family badge back at the house. He scolded you for a second before shooing you off to fetch it. Truth be told, you still hadn’t found the badge which you had seemingly lost, but it didn’t necessarily matter to you. After all, the old thing meant nothing to you, you couldn’t even be bothered to keep it in a good condition.

As you made your way home, you took a slight detour and went through an old alleyway which people mostly avoided at this late hour. There, you spotted a person who was your height and build as you greeted them. They handed you a bag as you moved behind a dumpster and got changed into the new set of clothes. After fixing your hair up into a different style, you handed your old clothes to the person. As you placed them into their hands you held them there as you spoke.

“Remember, you do not reveal your name under any circumstances unless you are with my mother and father. You needn’t worry about them, but if anyone asks you about how the family is doing, simply say that Cocolia is a good person and you wouldn’t be anywhere without her. Other than that, smile and wave, and be weary of the Silvermane Captain. His eyes and hair are recognisable, you know that. Avoid him at all costs, that’s all. Off you go,” You patted them on the shoulder as you texted Sampo a thank you and how you would also personally dismember him if this person was incompetent.

He simply sent one of his silly emoticons back with a little reassurance before you shut off the screen. After attaching the small gun back onto your arm strap, you made your way through the crowd and looked around for a way to get past the guards. You saw out of the corner of your eye a young chef who seemed to be wheeling a cake up the not too steep steps.

Pursing your lips together, you whistled for the oncoming chef. He quickly paused and looked to the right before you appeared on his left and pressed down hard onto his pressure point as he fell to the floor.

“I won’t ruin your cake bud, don’t worry,” You whispered down to the unconscious man. You quickly dragged him back to the alley way and threw on his ridiculously oversized coat and the toque as you left the mask on to conceal your identity.

After a surprisingly easy trip up the stairs, you nodded towards the guards as they nodded back and let you pass through. You brought the cake to the kitchen before sneaking off to the toilets. You threw off the old uniform and chucked it into a nearby bin before fixing yourself up and readjusting the mask.

Making your way out of the bathrooms, you stepped foot into the large ballroom. Everything here was neat and tidy, the decorations were simply so well done that they could’ve been straight out of a storybook. The food looked absolutely divine as did the people. Everyone had their own dresses, suits and the masks were to die for. And obviously the one face you could spot was Cocolia’s as she shook hands with a few of the guests.

Looking around, you spotted your temporary clone chatting away with a random person as you clapped for them internally. Suddenly, you spotted Gepard, he was hard to miss after all. He stood by the Supreme Guardian, keeping a watch out for any suspicious behaviour.

You pulled your eyes away from him as you slowly made your way over to the table which held all the food. You grabbed a glass and poured yourself a glass of Chardonnay. Walking away slowly, you made sure to keep your eyes on Cocolia and Gepard at all times. You saw the time and discreetly pulled your phone out and left one simple text.

“Now.”

Your impersonator had moved close to the coupe with the other which they were chatting with. You watched closely as another masked guest walked just behind them and quickly snagged a glass from the tower. The glasses of wine soon began to shake, which didn’t escape the Captain’s sharp eyes. Hearing him yell as he instantly pushed the clone out of the way along with their supposed date.

A smile creeped up onto your face as all eyes diverted towards the three. Still keeping a hold of the glass, you made your way through a side door as the guards rushed to check if there were any major injuries due to the outstanding acting of your other.

Making your way through the twisted hallways, you entered a dark room as the motion detector switched on the lights to brighten up the dark place. Looking around briefly at the artefacts, it was safe to say that they were not as impressive as you had hoped. Until your eyes finally landed on it.

There, placed conveniently in the middle, was the chunk of geomarrow ore, practically screaming at you to take it. You lifted your foot as you were about to take a step but quickly paused. “This seemed way too easy…” You thought to yourself as you quickly retracted your foot. Your hand reached for your gun as you held it by your side and began to walk towards the medium sized ore. Sure enough, there stood the Captain himself across from you, the only thing in between you two was the ore as he watched you, without his mask. He was accompanied by his giant weapon of a case.

“Ah! Captain, such a coincidence that we both wanted to take a look at these artefacts. Such deep meaning behind them, wouldn’t you say?” You asked with a smile as you placed the gun behind your back.

“It is over for you thief,” He stated boldly and straight. Soon enough, the rushing of footsteps could be heard as guards came running in through the doors holding axes, guns, spears, whatever you could think of, they had it. You raised your eyebrows as you looked around to see all of them in defensive positions.

“Wow guys, sure you brought enough soldiers?” You questioned no one in particular sarcastically.

“Like I said, it’s over, now do not make this hard for us and give up nice and slow,” His words were firm as a few officers began approaching you cautiously. You raised your hands by your head. This was just like the café, only more soldiers, more risk and certainly harder to escape from.

“Put down the weapon!” One of the soldiers screamed. Turns out in the midst of all the commotion, you had somehow forgotten of the very obvious gun in your hand. You let out a quick hum.

Six rounds, around 14-15 guards including Gepard. No reloads. You kissed your teeth after realising that you were going to have to be diligent with the bullets.

“Alright alright, I'll get on my knees…” You murmured as you slowly began to descend. The officers were pointing their guns to your head. Just as your knee was about to make contact with the floor, you swiftly pivoted on one foot as you shot each guard in their thigh as they cried out in pain.

You began to run whilst keeping your head low as multiple shots began firing at you. You swiftly ducked beneath a stand that protected you from the shots as you checked the gun.

4 more rounds.

Upon further observation, you spotted how there were only about 5-6 more soldiers with guns. The rest you could take head on. But you had to be careful. You were a thief, sure, but that didn’t mean you wanted to become a murderer for crying out loud.

You were quickly snapped out of your thoughts as you heard the grunt of a soldier who had snuck near you and was raising his axe. Your eyes widened as you swung your leg, swiping him off of his feet as he hit his head onto the floor, knocking himself out cold.

“You tryna kill me?!” You yelled at the remaining soldiers. Briefly, the sound of Gepard telling the officers to keep you alive filled your ears. Course he wants to, wants to lock me up for eternity.

You grabbed the barrel of the gun and sprung out of the case as you aimed towards another person, before a weapon fell and the officer held his shoulder crying.

3 rounds, a few more gunned guards.

You exhaled deeply as you peeked around the corner before hearing footsteps behind you. Out of reflex, you managed to roll to the side just in time as an axe came swinging down, slicing the wooden stand in half. Dramatic?

You raised yourself before delivering a kick to his abdomen, causing him to release his weapon and stumble back before you kicked him square in the head, sending him to dream to his heart’s content. Not permanently might I add.

Another shot was fired as you ducked down again. Still 3 rounds. But now, only about 9 guards, including Gepard. But it seems through this whole fight, he wasn’t dealing any blows. Good for you though, because if he did, this battle would’ve been over minutes ago.

You heard two of the soldiers closing in on both sides of you. One with a gun, one with an axe. Dashing towards the axed guard, he attempted to strike you before you turned to his other side. The other one pointed his weapon at you and was prepared to shoot.

Just as he pulled the trigger, you dragged the one next to you by the collar and guarded yourself with him. The bullet went straight into the soldier's arm as he wailed out like the others.

“No hard feelings!” You said nervously to the man on the floor before realising you still had another on your back. Raising the revolver, you shot at the officer. Unfortunately, it seems he chose to do the same. And due to the amount of precision in your shots, the bullets collided with one another.

The small bullets created an explosion of a miniature size, but it bought enough time for you. You ran towards the man and ripped the gun from his hands before knocking the barrel against his head.

Another guard ended up putting you in a chokehold from behind. You gripped onto his arm as you did your best to regain your breath before planting your feet. You grasped his arm as tightly as you could before flipping his body over and slamming him against the wall, his unconscious self sliding down to the floor.

You cracked your neck before turning around to spot another gunner charging towards you. Rolling your eyes, you shot him once again in the thigh. He fell just like the others. You checked the gun and spotted one more round left before someone aimed another shot towards you.

But it wasn’t one, rather two. Shit! You knelt down and remembered how there was one more guard than you had bullets. They were both standing next to each other which allowed you to go forth with this strategy.

You sprinted whilst keeping yourself low as you saw them hiding behind the stands. You leaped to the side and pointed the revolver towards them. Their heads turned towards you as they began to lift up their weapons. But you were faster.

You pulled the trigger as the bullets went through both of their sides as they held then whining out into the night time air. 3 guards left. All gunner guards down. Unfortunately now, you were also out of bullets. Now you had to rely on hand to hand combat.

Two of the guards began sprinting at you, pointing their axes at you. You kicked one of the weapons on the floor and caught it before blocking one of the officers' slashes. Lifting your leg up, you kicked the other in the side as he tumbled back. Whereas you had chosen to wrap your legs around the other's waist and flip him above you, slamming his head into the floor.

The kicked guard quickly stood up and saw his friend fade out of consciousness. Dashing towards you, he yelled about how he would end you as he reached his arm out. Tutting, you grabbed the reached out wrist and swerved him around as you placed his arm onto his back, as you held his free hand straight.

“You’re ambitious aren’t you?” You whispered into the man’s ear before twisting his arm. He shrieked and it almost pierced your eardrums before you let go and he held the injured body part. You stood up straight and gazed around for the final soldier.

In all honesty, you looked like absolute crap. Your clothes were slightly torn and the mask on your face was ajar. You adjusted it before he could recognise you. But the one thing that stood out, was that half of your face and your body had been dirtied with blood from the wounds of the soldiers. It was a whole murder scene, except it wasn’t. The officers crawled out one by one as they went to look for medical attention.

A slow clap could be heard from one of the doors before Gepard emerged from the shadowed doorway, holding his case.

“You certainly have talent, thief. It’s unfortunate you chose this path, even more unfortunate is how you look right now. But it matters not, as I will end this between us once and for all,” He stated as he raised his weapon, ready for combat.

Reaching up your hand, you wiped the excess blood off of the corner of your lips before retrieving one of the axes left on the ground. You slammed the end of the weapon down before pointing it towards him and you spoke in a low and serious tone for once.

“So be it Captain. If it is misery you have chosen, then allow me to bestow that upon you, Gepard…”

A/N : Whoohoo, third fic finished. I had so much inspiration to write this since I just rewatched suicide squad and birds of prey, so you can only guess who inspired me to create this. But I hope that the idea of a strong reader has come across well here and I apologise if this is not the type of reader you like. One day I will make a soft reader but I do not see many strong inserts being written so I decided to try and be one of em. Anyways, any critiques, feel free to leave and I will respond ASAP!

[vanilla-c0c0]

The villains want to embarrass the little robin (William Rex & Victor) - Story Event Premium End

All possible disclaimers are valid! I’m not a mother tongue speaker and I’m doing this just for fun. 100% accuracy is not guaranteed. Have fun!

When asked by WIlliam how she even knows about that, she explains that firstly, the major premise is that they would never carelessly expose someone else to danger. Furthermore, William has already acted as the Queen’s aid once, meaning that there’s no reason why he couldn’t do it this time, too. Her conclusion is that there was no real danger this time. Also, she has noticed that she hasn’t seen Elbert, Alphonse and Roger since the night before; are they on a mission related to Her Majesty? Victor happily claps his hands.

Victor: MC! How smart and insightful you are! Ahh, if I was allowed to, I’d crush you in a hug right now.

William: You’re right, MC. We knew that an incident targeting the Queen wouldn’t happen at the parade.

They recieved intel on a group plotting to assassinate Her Majesty for money; therefore, they spread false information concerning a double attending the parade in the Queen’s stead, and that the real Majesty was at an important meeting at Oxford.

Elsewhere, a gunshot resounds in the mansion where an important meeting is supposed to be held. The men who were planning the assassination are miserably lying on the dinner table.

Alphonse: Oh my, it ended up messing up the whole meeting place like this… this way, there will be no important meeting nor any other kind of shit. Right, Your Majesty?

The woman sitting on a chair removes her veil; it’s Elbert, who asks if it’s already over. Roger notes that this time all he had to do was sit down, but Elbert’s glad it went like that: he didn’t have to be careful about stepping on anyone’s shadow. By now, the parade must be already over, notes Alphonse, and Roger pities that they weren’t able to see Her Majesty MC. The real Queen Victoria was hidden in a safe place by Victor.

MC is relieved that Queen Victoria wasn’t actually ill. Victor apologises for keeping silent; after all, he wanted her to enjoy the life as a queen without any worries. William adds that though that is true, they also believed that she would find out by herself.

MC: Fufu, isn’t that a bit contradictory?

William: Ohh, I do not deny that there is a great deal of contradiction.

MC: Then, I will take it as a sign of trust from the two of you.

Still, they kept a secret! As a way of apologising, William invites MC out on a night date with him and Victor.

A few minutes later, she’s up high, on the roof of the Crown Castle. Then suddenly, William picks her up and starts moving from one roof to another (what in the fate series???). They run through the dense forest, cross the drawbridge, until they finally reach a roof with a view on the Big Ben.

Victor: How was your trip in the night sky, MC?

MC: It was so much fun! I’d like to fly again.

William: Fufu, you really do like bad things.

Victor: Girls who like bad things are welcome; otherwise, she wouldn’t get along with us.

They look down at the city of London, laughing together. It was a unique day that started with the two men’s proposal, but thanks to that, she has learned a lot: the Queen’s feelings and her determination, Victor and William’s first meeting… She thanks them for giving her a valuable experience. She’s still unsure of what her role as a fairy tale master is but she’s looking for what she can do for Victor, William and the Queen.

MC: May the Crown (freedom) shine on everyone’s head one day.

William and Victor: …

William: Fuahahah, Nostalgic isn’t it, Victor? Was that on our way home after finishing our first mission as Crown members? Victor told me:”I’ve decided, William. The name [the organisation’s] name will be Crown. What do you think? May the Crown shine above the heads of all who seek freedom someday”.

Victor: Every time I talk to you, I become more and more grateful about having you as the fairy tale master. Just like you poured your heart out to us, we want to do the same.

William: Yes, we will listen to your desires, cute little robin.

MC finds herself standing between two people smiling beautifully; just looking at them makes her feel like she can go anywhere, like she can do anything. She feels so happy that she doesn’t want the night to end yet. Victor asks her what is it that she wants right now, followed by William who repeats the question.

MC: Victor, WIlliam. Just a little more, with me—

She confesses her honest feelings to the self-righteous king and the aide of the queen.

[rememberences]

what; have a chaotic, fun open starter (3/3) where: the coronation games of king jaehaerys targaryen, specifically the jousting tourney chat gpt prompt: graham royce becomes a key player in a tournament organised in honour of king jaehaerys targaryen's coronation, but the competition takes a dark turn as political rivals exploit the event for their own nefarious purposes.

the thundering of the great stallions from atop of the world was a normal sound to the ears of graham royce, considering the joust and tourneys themselves were an inherent part of valiance and knighthood itself. one would not find a knight who did not partake in the splendour of it all, nor would they find a knight that turned away from the realities of battle. the sound of horses in a tourney and the sound of horses in battle sounded entirely different, and no green boys of summer would be able to identify that fact. his lance was tilted, his helmet secure and guarding his neck; the air zipped by him as his stallion sprinted at full charge towards his opponent.

only, when the crash came, he found himself needing to move the direction of his lance only for a moment, to avoid the impact being directly within the slit of his eye. he was not going mad - the lance had been aiming toward the slit in his helmet.

none would hear the sound of graham royce cursing in the tongue of the mountains of the moon as their lances made violent impact, breaking; as the horses continued to ride from one another. as his stallion continued to race to the other side of the large stretch of the competing area, graham heard another large gasp from the crowd. he looked upwards, to see his opponent had directly turned his stallion around and charged directly at him - a mystery knight, who flew a flag none seemed to recognise. he heard women in the crowds screaming, and as graham realised he would need to move himself from his horse, practically leap himself from his horse, he realised something fateful.

his billet had been sliced, as seen by the way in which his bridle had come completely undone. he had seen this done before, he knew the way in which a bridle was supposed to sit. as the king consort of the vale landed himself into violently into the dust, he knew to roll from the direction of the horse, for if the hooves were to make impact with him, it would be a grizzly end. his hands protected his head as he moved, the way he moved through the rough terrain of the mountains of the moon. and when he rose, a swarm of squires ran forth to try and control the horse, as well as unseat and unmask the other champion - whilst graham raised himself, looking at his horse running over to where the knights of the vale kept their horses.

he watched as jack grafton, who was drunkenly cursing about foul play, held the cut billet up for him to see. it had indeed been sliced.

jousting was all in fair play. there was not a single knight of the vale that was not participating in the events of today. but this? well. his facial expression was utterly displeased, completely unimpressed by the way in which the squires fought to force away the helmet of the champion. and when the man was revealed, it was someone he knew not. only, graham royce would remember him - for grey orbs locked onto the other, as a tiger locked onto it's prey. graham royce would remember.

"they'll hold him." he spoke to the figure approaching him, watching as the face of the crowd changed. this was more serious than foul play. he needn't have looked up to know ravella was out of her seat, already talking with the dragon king. this was attempted murder. not just foul play. because of his position. "are we on break?" graham asked.

[ectonurites]

i don't know if this is weird but i live in india and i don't think we have ren faires here, so i just wanted to ask what a ren faire is like? because it sounds absolutely wonderful (but also very very stressful to organise). thank you very much!!

omg not weird at all!!!

So I mean all Ren (Renaissance) Faires are a little different in how they do things (also i call ours a Ren Faire but technically ours is a little differently themed, but just. Ren Faire is kinda the community/category term. and also when im talking about irl stuff on the internet i am often purposefully vague with identifying details lmao).

Ours is pretty small (and this year in particular is a different smaller event than what we used to do pre-pandemic) but for our full-scale thing we usually would have like a cast of people who are all dressed up as interactive characters (talking in the old-english accent and stuff), an enchanted forest with fairies and trolls and some games/activities for kids (this is where I've typically worked day-of the event), we bring in outside performers like different singing groups or acting troupes or like we had this rat circus lady for a while and this wheel of death guy, there'd be a joust, there'd be like an archery demonstration and boffing weapons (basically foam weapons so nobody can get really hurt but kids can beat the shit out of a person who's job it is to run the station), there's some old-style like circle/line dancing where someone teaches it to people who come so they can dance with the cast people, some years we had a mud put where there'd be a mud performance show, this year we're having an armored combat tournament thing, then there's of course like vendors selling crafts and clothes and all sorts of other stuff. it's a lot of fun!! but yeah there're lots of moving parts that go into coordinating it all and putting it together so it's... a Lot in the prep time.

[tadpolesonalgae]

i want azriel as endgame too but, not that i have doubts in your ability, it will be hard to have it happen. there's already 9 chapters and he doesn't care about her at all and besides if he only starts caring after she gets better it could feel like a "you only love me at my best" situation. since elain moved on from him there's also the problem of not making it seem like he's just going for the second best option. he'll also need to properly apologize for what he already did so there's just a lot to do. eris is just so much more charismatic in this story than him, i know because az doesn't care enough to actually talk to her but it'll be hard beating that

‘not that i have doubts in your ability,’

It’s fine, doubt away, I have no experience outside of fanfics with writing so you are fully within your rights to have questions 😭🧡💛

‘there's already 9 chapters and he doesn't care about her at all’

So yeah, he doesn’t care about her romantically or particularly platonically either, however he wouldn’t want her to be hurt? Also there’s still a long way to go, and as the Spymaster for the Night Court I do think he is chronically stressed and overworked because he just refuses to rest 😭

‘it could feel like a "you only love me at my best" situation’

That’s a fair point, especially with how reader would be insanely uncomfortable and upset with Azriel (or anyone really, maybe with the exception of Bas) seeing her at anything less than her idea of perfect? However, there is going to be a moment where reader’s situation becomes apparent, so hopefully that will avoid the ‘you only love me at my best’ problem :)

‘there's also the problem of not making it seem like he's just going for the second best option.’

So later on, naturally reader and Az will need to spend some time together for feelings to properly develop, but this is still a pretty long time away (sorry about that) There is a certain Thing that’s going to happen that will encourage/push her into spending more time with other people so her and Az will have quite a lot of time shared then!

‘eris is just so much more charismatic in this story than him,’

Honestly I would argue that’s simply because Az doesn’t want to encourage her feelings at the moment? Like he has his own experiences with unrequited love so knows that it would be cruel to (at this point) give her any hope he might return her feelings? Also Eris clearly has something to gain by befriending reader, so it makes sense that Az isn’t particularly fun at the moment :/

Thank you for sending this in! I always appreciate it when these types of ask are sent in that bring up potential problems because it just helps me so much with the writing process and giving me time to think over what still needs to happen and organising the sequence of events 🧡💛