#... I'll add more titles when I actually figure them out

[pryllee]

Eating Out?

Blade x Fem! Reader

The title is self-explanatory, cunnilungus / fingering, slight degrading kink, interrupted at the end, reader is implied to have a date + kinda implied to be friends with some benefits...

A/N: Got inspo from an old fic, and old blog I made/had. Wanted to try making it kinda better though, this time with Blade cus his personality fits it juuuuust right... Might've not went the way I planned it, tho.

——

"Hey," He calls your name, "Are we eating outside this time?" asking a question, and you raise a thumbs up behind the couch in response.

"Was that a yes or a no? I can't tell what you're truly thinking if you dryly raise a gesture into the air without a word." He emphasized the word ’dryly’, with his brows slightly furrowing in annoyance as you continue to remain silent.

Reluctantly, he decided to walk closer to you to find out what you were so focused on that he didn't need to be in your sight.

"So, a yes?" He spoke again with a questioning voice, crossing his arms as he scanned your figure. Head down, staring at your phone mindlessly.

Suddenly, he let out a disgruntled sigh which finally peels your eyes off the screen thats been distracting you so much.

"Oh... Uhm. Sorry. Just get take out..." You spoke with a dejected voice, raising one of his brows.

"Sure, what should we...—" He stops in the middle of his hundredth question as he found you, once again, boring eyes into your phones screen, stuck in a DM with someone.

The last time he had replied was a few hours ago. When he accepted your proposal out to a cafe — a date.

Your train of thoughts were broken as you felt your legs being slowly spread apart, your skirt stretching slightly.

"Blade?" You voiced a concern, finding his head inbetween your thighs, planting a hand on one of them.

"Actually, I think I'd rather eating out today, no?" He pushes the hem of your skirt upwards, then plastering his mouth onto your clothed sex earning a little confused yelp from you, loosely holding onto his hair.

"So, what happened this time?"

He was used to this, actually. You were always suddenly ghosted by people you've matched with on a dating app.

"Hnn...— The usual..." You let out a shaky breathe, adrenaline coursing through your veins as he slid your panties down, discarding it somewhere near.

"Hm, is that so?" He pauses, slipping a finger inside, "Perhaps it's because of how lewd you are with your roommate." Adding salt to the wound, quite like him.

"God...— You're always, mngh.. The one that...!"

"That what?" He adds another finger, making it two. It's starting to bother you with how still he is.

You buck your hips slightly, hoping for some friction from his rough fingers.

He only watches you.

Eyes analyzing your embarrassed expression, you would try to close your legs for your dignity — but you can't, frankly. His upper half was stopping that from happening.

"C'mon. Show me how much you need it."

This fucker, hes amused. But somewhat, you can't help but feel more aroused in this situation. You grind your hips slightly against the couch, his fingers slowly curling inside.

You grit your teeth, curling your toes as you feel yourself nearing your climax. You try to speed your pace to feel the satisfaction — yet was left disappointed as he withdrew his fingers.

"Nnh...– Ugh, I worked too hard to get off from just your fingers just for you to do that." You pout slightly in frustration.

"Mmh, what a slut. I'll get to that in a second. Be patient." He licks a stripe up your folds, making you shudder back into the pillows. You clutch onto your slipping lips trying to stop a waterfall of moans.

"Aah... Ren" You spoke with a trembling voice, his name slipping out in bliss. Completely forgetting the disappointment he just caused you.

He pushes his tongue in, causing your back to arch euphorically.

Fuck, his tongue, you can feel it all too well—

You whine helplessly when his hand slides down your waist, opting to rub your clit in a circular motion as his tongue thrusted inside.

"Shit! Ren, 's so good–" You sob, clenching onto his hair harshly, putting him into a headlock position as you hang your legs over his shoulders.

Your stomach feels tingly. Your minds starting to fog up at the sensation of his mouth against your lips.

.

You breathe heavily, his forehead touching yours as he knees against the couch with him bucking his hips. Still loosely wrapping your arms around his head, legs being lifted up by him.

You suddenly hear a rhythmical knock on the door, luring out an irritated groan from him at the sound. Probably Kafka.

He reluctantly lets you go, resting on the couch on your side.

"Wait for me, won't you?"

——

[kaidatheghostdragon]

Has anyone put Ida Manson and Alfred together? Do they even have a ship name?

I just want a fic where Ida affectionately blackmails the Waynes to help Team Phantom.

She and Alfred have been in a long-term and long-distance relationship

Ida definitely knows the Waynes are the Bats but has maintained plausible deniability up to this point

I think it would be out of character if Alfred didn't know that she knows, therefore he does

The Bats don't know that Ida knows and might not even know she's anything more than a distant friend of Alfred's

I'm torn on whether Sam's parents know that Ida has a relationship with Alfred

Ot1h, it would be hilarious that she kept it hidden from them. Maybe Sam knows and relishes in the rebellious nature of her grandma

Otoh, there is potential for Alfred being Sam's bio grandpa, either legitimate or scandalous, as well as potential family drama of hiding an affair with a butler

It could also color the Mansons' perception of the Waynes, too. Instead of the cliche of constantly throwing Sam at one of the Wayne kids to "marry up," they despise the Waynes because their butler defiled poor innocent Ida, or potentially dont want media attention digging into family history and finding that one of Sam's parents is the child of a butler, an affair, or a butler-affair.

If the Martha/Yhomas/Alfred threesome is invoked, things could get messy if Ida was actually part of a foursome, and one of the Manson parents is potentially an illigitimate wayne. Bruce's kids would potentially be Sam's cousins.

The cliche that Sam hates the wWaynes because her parents keep throwing her at them? Hilariously reversed. They're constantly telling Sam not to associate with the Waynes but never explain why. Rebellious Sam is gonna do the opposite, do her research, and demand to know why her parents hate the Waynes who run a meticulously clean company and dozens of legitimate charities that do some actual real good. Why can't you be more like Bruce?!

Enter Danny's accident and the sudden influx of ghosts. Ida sees the signs and requests that Alfred sends the Waynes over to appraise the situation. Could be extremely early on, or the team has had several months to establish themselves.

Suddenly, Sam is informed that Uncle (literal, socially adopted, or affectionate, use of the title is still up to interpretation at this point, but Ida is the only one that gives him that title to Sam) Bruce and his family will be visiting. She's delighted to meet *the* Bruce Wayne, may or may not be confused about him having a familial title. ("What do you mean we're possibly related? I've had a crush on Jason Todd since before he faked his death!" "You confessed your undying love for him when you were nine, Sammykins. We figured it was a phase." "I almost ran away to attend his funeral!" "You WHAT?")

Anyways, canonically, Sam is the one most interested in Danny becoming a hero, so she's going to be ecstatic to learn that her uncle/"uncle" is Batman and he's offering to personally train her. It'll be another massive point against her parents for not liking Bruce, regardless of the fact that they don't actually know that he's secretly a superhero.

I got a ton more points to add about how introducing the batfam like this, and so early in the timeline, could deviate the story, but this was initially about Ida and Alfred. So I'll just finish off by mentioning that any such fic is contractually required to have both the Waynes and Team Phantom utterly grossed out by the "old people romance" going on between Ida and Alfred.

[cybertroniannugget]

Snowball fight on base

Dec 14

Literally what's going on

The title pretty much gives it away.

"I prefer the old base actually...", Sam mumbled under his breath, but you and Mikaela heard him.

"Don't be a wuss, it's only cold if you go outside."

"He's scared of the Polar bears.", Mikaela snickers, adjusting her scarf.

You turn to look at your brother. "Polar bears...? In a severely feced, supervised and protected area like this? There are none here. Outside of the fence, yes but as long as you don't go there you'll be fine."

"Hrmph", was the only thing he brought out, regretting ever leaving the warmth of the base.

The three of you didn't walk for long, when you spot a group of bots and soldiers having an intense snowball fight.

After getting a closer look you noticed that there aren't any teams, just them throwing the cold bullets everywhere.

Before you could ask to join, a snowball hit Sam's arm. You take this as an invitation, bending down to grab some snow and running towards the battlefield.

Ratchet and Ironhide had a rather bitter 1v1, and you couldn't figure out what fueled it for the better of it.

"Alright, let's form teams.", you say looking into the round of bots and humans alike.

"I will not be in HIS team.", Ratchet states, shooting a glare at Ironhide, who already held two snowballs, one in each servo.

With that, the Medic walks over to Jazz.

"Fine, we'll win.", the weapon's specialist grumbles, staying next to you.

"Wait, you're participating Ratchet?", you ask rather confused.

Usually the medic distanced himself from such activities.

"If I can get some sense into this bot's processor I'll do this."

"That's the spirit.", Epps chuckled, standing next to the Medic.

"Oh come on Epps, that's betrayal!"

"That's what you get for eating the last coconut macaroon. Now that is betrayal"

He points at you. "You gotta make more of those."

You show a thumbs up at him. "Will do!"

"Come over here.", Jazz calls to you.

Shaking your head, you decline, forming a snowball in your hands.

"No chance, I wanna beat yo ass!", you yell, laughing.

You look over to Lennox, who walks up to you, armed as well.

"Alright everyone, walk over to the your team of choice.", Lennox shouted for everyone to hear.

"And keep it even!", you add.

After some rustling, uncertainty and more yelling, everyone had found their teams.

Your team consisted of Ironhide, Lennox, Mudflap, Jolt, Dino, Mikaela and 3 other soldiers.

Jazz's team got Ratchet, Bumblebee, Epps, Skids who was adamant on beating his twin, Arcee, Wheelie, Sideswipe, Sam

"That is not even!", Skids complains in frustration.

A snowball hits him right in the face.

"Cuz we ain't 20 people. We're 19 so live with it!", Mudflap shouts across the freshly formed battlefield.

This was the non communicated sign to let the fire begin.

In the span of 5 seconds, what was a peaceful spot turned into a storm of flying snowballs.

You realized that you didn't agree on any rules, the rather big snowballs hitting you being a cruel reminder of that.

"Try not to make the humans fly away with your throws!", Ironhide calls out loudly, saving your and the other human's behinds.

[onepiece-asl-lover]

Idk if your requests are open if not respond to the Privately but So idk if you actually feel comfortable writing for Luffy I am looki for one piece x reader writers who have the requests open and came across you anyway I request takes place after the time skip where reading I ask Luffy if next year they can celebrate Ace with Luffy aka next year on the day of his death instead of feeling sad they want me make sure Luffy is happy so they will spend the entire day doing things would love like eating us favorite foods and doing things he would love

I'm totally fine writing this! I'll try the best of my abilities to write what you requested. If you dont like it I can make another. Also I'll make it a Luffyxreader thing

First ever ask!!!!

"Changing a tragic into comfort" Luffy x Fm!reader

You knew this day exact day your lover Luffy brother died. It had traumatized him so much that on the next year he sat in his room and barely ate, concerning you and the straw hats.

This year was the day that Ace died and when you woke up to hopefully to find Luffy next to you, you find him at your desk his hat covering his face and when you realized it he was asleep as you brought a blanket and tucked him gently.

Your head was clouded as you went onto deck watching over the railing the ocean. How couldn't you helped your lover the time he needed it the most. Were you just a bad lover and spouse.

You didn't keep track of time that Sanji called for dinner and Nami had to call you over. You could tell everyone was quiet today aswell. The death of the Fire Fist Ace and the traumatic Luffy had effect them as you guys all ate silently.

You step slowly as an idea clicked into your mind. Why don't you guys make him a small party a supporting comfort party with his favourite food items. It was the best idea you ever thought of till now as you spoke up from the quiet dinner hall.

"Please excuse me but I have an idea on how we can help Luffy." You said as you wiped your hands with a towel.

"Help Luffy?" Chopper asked as his little hands ate a loli Robin gave him.

"How can we help Luffy, we can't just being Ace back" Zoro said as he kept eating he wasn't wrong so Nami didn't hit him.

"I've heard of these things for people who have went through a traumatic event and losing sombody, it's called a..-" you tried to remember the title of this party.

"An offer party, where people who have gone through grieving often remember that it is the person who offered reassuring hope, the certainty that things will get better, who helped them make the gradual passage from pain to a renewed sense of life." Robin offered as you nooded.

Everyone seemed to listen up as you continued talking of a party and probably it might be f everyone in the crew. You know everyone in the crew as lost a loved one from a trainer to a father figure ect.

"I hope we could make a kind of party self care I believe where we get our favorite food, items, games, drinks ect and get comfort from each other."

"..." it was silent in the room it made you sweat thinking of their opinion and thoughts about this party thing.

"Y/n your idea is....SUUUUUUUPERRR" Franky says as he does his iconic pose."also can we have cola and bugers there too" he adds as you all laugh.

"And cottoncandy!" Chopper says as he jumps off Robin laps.

"The great captain Usopp declares he will want a grilled fish!"

"Yohohohoho! I would be delightful to have some curry aswell too!"

"I can pick Mikans from my garden!"

"I would enjoy sandwhiches"

"Onigiris"

"Mozuku seaweed"

"Guess I should get onto cooking then if I'll have to make all this food" Sanji chuckles a he goes to start cooking.

The dining room was as loud as it usually was which is more comforting then that dead silence a few minutes ago.

Nami ordered around for decorations. Zoro messed up. Usopp getting some of his fairytails books. Brook being out his guitar and getting it ready to place with. Franky using his robot skills and Jinbei helping Nami with decor. Chopper grabs some small royes he holds in his bag to show. Robin using her devil fruit to help around.

You smiled as you saw everyone getting ready as it remind you, you had to get Luffy as you trolled into his room.

"Luffy?" You said as you peeked your head through the door.

You see him staring at the window as you went next to him.

"Everything's alright?" You asked as you rubbed his head.

"..."

You sighed as you kept looking at him and brushing away fallen tears of his and plopped his strawhat back on.

"You know Ace wouldn't want you crying over him, he called you a crybaby when we were younger remember? He wound want you to accomplish your dreams to be the pirate king not let an incident stop you" you say as you rubbed his head.

You hear him sniffle as he wobbly answers.

"You-?re ri-right I should keep going no m-mattered what. Fo-far Ace"

"Yes, yes for Ace" you said as he slowly hugged him.

".....now how about we head outside? I think everyone wants you back as a captain? A crew can not be a car without a captain."

"Okay." Luffy said as he stood up as you stood up aswell grabbing a handkerchief wiping his tears as you lead him outside.

When you lead him outside onto the deck you could see his face light up at the celebrations with tables of food decor and the crew "helping" eachother.

"Luffy!" Chopper squeaked as he ran towards Luffy.

"Hey your back!" Usopp ran towards Luffy as well.

More and more people in the crew went to Luffy talking to him, showing him items they hold dear or giving him food

You could see him smile wide as he went around talking with his crew.

Usopp had a crafting stand and some childhood fairytale books

Choper has some little toys that Robin joined playing with him.

Sanji showed some childhood snacks he would make for his mother.

Nami opened her garden to anyone who could pluck a tangerine which was rare.

Franky shad a show to show off his robot abilities and skill.

Brook played songs for the crew.

Jinbei played around like a father being dragged to every station.

Robin reached some of an old language she used to know.

Zoro slept.

And Luffy laughed as he sprung around and also ate half the food.

You let out a breath as you saw Luffy happy again and enjoying the time with the crew.Everyone seemed so happy and joyous even when something tragic happened that turned into something joyus, and comforting.

Luffy wrapped his rubber arms around you thanking you for helping him and also letting him have party that is for everyone on the crew.

You loved this crew so much you would shake the world for them to be happy.

You couldn't hope for a better crew than this.

Shoutout to petalpetal for being my first ask I hope I did this the way you wanted this I really enjoyed writing this very much!

[peacesmith]

gif not by me!

ao3 | masterlist

title - he's got a heart of gold

pairing - peter parker (andrew garfield vr.) x male reader

rating - fluff

word count - 966 words

summary - you're a florist, peter is a college student and your number one buyer. you think he has a girlfriend with the amount of flowers he's bought. oh how wrong you were.

notes - i love peter parker, i love andrew garfield, he's my baby girl and i love him <3. also an excuse for me to ramble about flowers cause i love them.

The small, but loud, chime of the doorbell rings out throughout the compact store. The smell of different arrays of flowers fills the store. It's a smell Peter was always excited to experience.

Peter looks around the arrangement of flowers plastered around the shop. He always wondered where you got such pretty flowers. They were always so fresh whenever he came in.

You don't notice him at first until you saw the male come towards you, you send him a smile and he sends one back.

"Hey Pete! You want to buy some more flowers? The usual?" He shakes his head no before asking,

"I actually wanted to try something different, and maybe add a note to it?" You nod and smile again at him. He's so sweet, trying something different for his girlfriend. Although he never said anything you kind of assumed.

Normally guys don't get flowers for their boyfriends, if they do, they play it off as their girlfriend. At least that's what they tell you.

You do wonder if Peter likes men.

Peter follows you towards a bunch of flowers. You put on some gloves, grab some craft paper and start talking about the flowers.

"So, what's the occasion? It would kind of help when making an arrangement." You look at Peter, he thinks for a minute before responding.

"Well, I'm kind of trying to ask them out on a date. I don't really know how to though other than with flowers." He puts his hands in his front pockets and sway back and forth a bit, his brown orbs fall onto your figure. He gives a small smile.

You tilt your head a bit before picking up a white flower.

"This right here is a Camellia, it symbolizes love, adoration and longing. If you give it to someone, you're practically saying that you've been admiring from afar. Or something like that..." Looking away, you calmly pick a few more and place them gently in the paper. You feel Peter's eyes on you for a moment longer, making your face heat up.

You pick up another white flower, this time a slightly different shape.

"This is a Gardenia; it symbolizes purity and gentleness. But it could also mean secret love. Interpret as you will." While putting some flowers in the arrangement Peter interrupts your train of thought.

"Do you have anything that says, 'I love you'?" Peter starts to blush a bit before looking away. He's so adorable, you think.

"Uh well yeah I could do the classic Rose, but it's a bit overused don't you think? So how about this one?" You hold up a red Tulip, sniffing it before giving it Peter. "It stands for passion and a declaration of love."

You pick up some and start arranging it with the other flowers you picked up. Even though it's not a huge arrangement, it's still very pretty.

Peter sniffs the Tulip, it's probably one of his favorites now.

You and Peter go up to the register to get him settled.

"How much do I owe you?" Peter asks.

"Well normally I would charge you the regular price but since this is about your hundredth time, I'll give you a discount." You tell him the price of the flowers and put other pieces paper in the bouquet for decoration. You pull out a piece of paper and fold it in half before grabbing a pen.

"So, you what do you want it to say?" You get ready to write whatever he needs to say.

He looks up at you before giving an awkward smile, "Something simple like 'Would you like to have dinner with me?' or something like that." He shrugs, his shyness showing through a bit. God you just want to give him a big hug.

He's so adorable, you just wish he was interested in men. I mean he's obviously straight. It's a bit sad if you think about it.

You write on the paper before stapling it on the bouquet and handing it to Peter.

"Thanks man, I hope they like them" He smells them before smiling and heading out. Leaving this small lingering of his presence in the shop.

You nod before getting ready to close the shop.

You turn the key and put your hands in your pocket, turning around as you start walking to your apartment. Luckily it wasn't so far from shop, at least ten minutes at the most.

"Hey!" You turn your head at the sound of the noise and see Peter jogging towards you with the flowers he got earlier and a box in his hand of some sort.

"Hey Pete, what's up?" He slightly cuts you off by shoving the flowers and box, which you can now see it's clearly some pastry of some sort, into your hands.

Peter smiles at you with a red face, he's flustered.

"Do you remember what you wrote on the letter?" You nod.

"So, what do you say?" Peter replies.

It stuns you for a moment before you realize what he's asking. You look down at the items in your hand while your face heats up.

Stuttering, you manage to give a reply, "Yeah... Yeah! I would love to go out with you Pete!" You nod excessively before letting out a couple of giggles.

He starts to laugh a bit too before telling you to look at the paper on the bouquet. You do as your told.

His number is on the bottom! He gave you, his number!

"Call me and I'll come get you, alright?" You nod again before calming down on your giggling.

"See you later alright?"

"Yeah, see you." You finally manage to speak.

He walks off as you look at the flowers. You definitely have a place in your home to put these.

[sapphires-and-silver-linings]

JJK Fic Ideas

I made this as a reblog on another post of mine but I think not many people saw it so I'll post separately here as well lol.

Okay, I’ll add a few of my ideas. All of them have chubby reader inserts because I said so. Also a few of them have dark content.

1. Trainer!Gojo

This one is more canon divergent than an actual AU. This one has a lot of backstory lore. Reader is a foreigner in Japan, she and her boyfriend get attacked by a cursed spirit, her dormant powers get triggered, Gojo saves them. She finds out why her powers were never triggered beforehand and Gojo convinces her to come to Jujutsu High. She’s an adult so she can’t exactly be a regular student, so he makes her his teacher’s assistant. He trains her, they get close, she forms a crush on him and he’s attracted to her to the point it becomes distracting. They start an ill-advised friends-with-benefits situation and it’s very… messy. But they admit they’re in love with each other. Might have a happy ending, might have a bittersweet ending, idk.

2. Neighbor!Nanami

Self-explanatory. This one is also more canon divergent than a full AU because he’s still a sorcerer. The reader is his sweet new neighbor who keeps bringing him baked goods. They’re attracted to each other, but he doesn’t want to get a regular human involved in his dangerous life. She asks him to go out to dinner with her on a whim (as friends), and he accepts despite himself. They slowly get closer over time, end up hooking up against his better judgment, and he keeps her at arm’s length after that. Things work out, they fall in love. It’s cute.

3. Roommates!Gojo and Geto AU

This one is also self-explanatory. Gojo and Geto want a third roommate after Shoko moves out, and reader is the lucky gal who they accept. They both think she’s cute. We get a throuple situation with lots of hijinks.

4. Neighbor!Toji and Kid!Megumi AU

Toji is a single father to 6 year old Megumi and is constantly gone for work (no sorcery in this one but he is a hitman lol). Megumi is alone a lot because of this, and one day he forgets his key while Toji is gone and gets locked out of the apartment. The reader comes home from work to see him sitting there and decides to let him stay at her apartment until his dad gets home, which isn’t until very late. He’s pissy about it at first, but when he sees how well taken care of Megumi is, he chills out. And then shamelessly flirts with her, but she rejects his advances. He doesn’t plan to ask her for help, but ends up needing to. They slowly become friends while Megumi opens up and gets attached to her as a mother figure. She discovers Toji has a dark secret but sticks by him and they end up starting a fling, which eventually turns into more. It’s very sweet.

5. Yakuza Clan AU

Sukuna is the boss, Geto is his advisor, Gojo is his second-in-command, Nanami is the treasurer, Toji is the enforcer, and Choso is head of surveillance. Now some of these aren’t like official titles or anything, more so what he wants and needs for his inner circle. I did some research on how the yakuza works but not like… extensively cos this is still fiction. Reader is sold to them by a human trafficker and she becomes their plaything (this one is really dark). The ending won’t exactly be happy regardless of how it turns out.

6. Vampire Coven AU

Sukuna is the coven leader, the other five are just members of the coven. The reader becomes their “pet”, aka their blood bag/toy (also very dark). Now this vampire one has grown extensive lore with lots of coven/clan politics. I went apeshit on the world-building with this one and tbh I’m the most excited to potentially write this. All the main 6 guys have extensive backstories on how they joined the coven and despite being a dark fic, there’s lots of tender moments and it will have a “happy”(?) ending.

7. Incubus!Sukuna AU

Sukuna finds the reader, thinks she’s cute, then proceeds to torment her. No real plot for this one (yet). Might just be a one-shot. Also dark. Obviously.

8. Ex!Geto and Friends-To-Lovers!Gojo

This one is gonna be real sad because it essentially follows the plot of JJK. Reader was with Geto when they were young. Geto leaves for his twisted ideals, and she and Gojo are left to pick up the pieces together and end up falling in love. Just very bittersweet and tragic all around. Season two ruined my life.

[sabrinatvband]

Notes on Comic Art #2: To Hatch or Not to Hatch, also some coloring stuff

One of the most influential things I've ever read on the subject of comic art is a piece Jesse Hamm wrote on Alex Toth where he talks about flatpacking.

[I discovered while writing this that Jesse Hamm passed away in 2021. He was a brilliant educator, one of the best in the history of the comics medium, and will be sorely missed.]

In the piece Hamm basically discusses how over-rendering objects usually makes them function worse as comic art. Many other people have discussed how using thicker lines for objects closer to the "camera" is good practice, how colors can seperate shapes and create depth, etc.

The question is, where does cross hatching fit into all of this? Or rather, various methods of adding more detailed rendering to artwork? I'm trying to figure this stuff out as I'm doing layouts for my comic, because I want to know the answers before I start inking the final artwork.

I try/want to have an uncluttered, clean, easily readable art style. I occasionally add hatching to my drawings, because hatching is fun, but I often feel like I've slightly ruined my artwork when I'm finished.

I've decided to look at some of the art that I feel like my own work is trying the hardest to emulate, at least philosophically, to see how other artists "weigh in" on this debate. It's important to remember that inkers embellish artwork [hence the alternate title "embellisher"], and so I'm going to try and find inkers most representative of a given penciller's intentions when applicable.

As I was working on this piece, I read Hamm Tips vol 1.1, and I discovered this diagram, which seems to relate with what I'm going to discuss later:

I think it's accurate to say that my desired approach is Uninflected/Deliberate; I think most people going for a clean and cartoonish look fall into that quadrant. Some people might describe Toth's work as being "clean", and so I should clarify that I'm talking about clean in the spirit of "lines meet neatly".

Some of the artists I'll discuss have lines that fall somewhere between being Inflected and Uninflected, and I think a lot of this comes down to inker approach. I feel like, in spirit, all of these pencillers are Uninflected, but some of the inkers use brushes, which creates a sort of middle ground. Brushes add different weights to a line, whereas crow quill nibs and pens have a uniform width. [The technical term for unweighted inked lines is "dumb line"; I believe this was coined by David Mazzucchelli.]

Let's first look at Adam Warren's work in the Dirty Pair volume Fatal But Not Serious. I'm a huge fan of how this comic looks; the flat, cel animation-style colors are very clean and easy to read. It's a very pleasant look, and I'm surprised more comics don't do this.

There is some hatching here, but it's not "serious" hatching. Just a few lines on cheeks, hands, etc. 98% of the artwork is shapes delinated entirely by a clean line and color. The convention floor panel is able to have a ton of detail without really changing the visual "rules" of the comic. An artist who does things in a more highly rendered way may've, for instance, reduced the crowd to a series of heavily shadowed figures, or colored in a single expressionistic wash to paper over things, etc.

Warren's Magical Drama Queen Roxy used a very similar approach to Fatal But Not Serious:

Let's now look at Rick Mays. I'm not a huge fan of Rick Mays, I've only actual read a single issue of a comic by him, but as I was reading Gen 13 he immediately stood out as being the best artist on that series, aside from Adam Warren himself [speaking only about issues Warren wrote]. It feels very telling that Rick Mays later did the final art for a graphic novel Warren laid out called Livewires.

These are from Gen 13 vol 2 #70:

The biggest difference between this piece has nothing to do with Warren or Mays, and everything to do with the coloring approach. I don't think the coloring here is bad, but the gradient-y colors do create a vastly different visual effect than the cel look I highlighted earlier.

The inking approach feels quite similar between the two artists; while Mays's art takes one or two steps towards realism relative to the Fatal But Not Serious stuff, texture is largely used to the same degree [with the grass and tornado being understandable exceptions]. What's interesting is that this issue has three different credited inkers; Karl Story, Rick Mays, and Jason Martin. I'm assuming this happened for deadline reasons.

I feel like I'm maybe starting to sound a little repetitive, and so I feel like I should share an issue of Gen 13 that I disliked, and then we can move to things that aren't Adam Warren-adjacent. These are from #43 and #44, with pencils by Lee Bermejo and inks by John Nyberg:

I'm not a big fan of this. The borderline chiaroscuro inking makes everything look heavily referenced, labored, and weird, and the "acting" in the comic suffers because of the over-rendered faces. It's a real shame the artwork is like this, because this two-part story is actually quite solid and would be a minor classic with better artwork.

I notice that many newer comic artists [which is to say, people who began their careers during the 90s onwards] put a lot of heavy shadows on figures in a way that feels too slavishly devoted to a certain kind of realism. I say a "certain kind" because the high contrast look of black spots being put onto a figure make the shadows way darker than they'd actually look in real life, so it almost makes the figures look dirty.

Look at comic art from the olden days and figures are largely defined by outlines/color. If a figure in an old comic has a lot of shadow on them, it's for reasons that are obvious and motivated; noir-y venetian blinds stuff, a mysterious villain being obscured, someone being underlit, or having half their face obscured, etc. There's a clear reason shadows are being used in these cases, rather than it being done to add usually unnecessary detail.

Anyways, let's look at Amanda Conner's work. Image on the left is from a Vampirella story called Fantasy Feast, and the image on the right is from Power Girl #12. Texture is used, like on the walls of the bathroom, but sparingly.

Looking at Conner's work in this context makes me realize, I don't think I've ever seen Amanda Conner's stuff colored flat [at least after she fully matured as an artist]. I don't think the more three-dimensional rendering used in any of these panels is bad, but I'm not going to be doing that kind of coloring in my book, and so it's not quite as instructive to me.

That being said, I really love Conner's style. I've noticed that Marvel and DC are increasingly using artists with styles that are broadly similar to Conner's; I've included an example below. Maybe it's because the artist below is too lazy to draw a proper background, but their work feels so much more flavorless than Conner's in comparison. I think it's because the "acting" is not as impressive, and Conner brings a fun-factor that feels completely absent in the page below.

I realize "fun" isn't always the order of the day, but this page doesn't really reflect . . . anything. It's completely bland.

Here's Kirby, who couldn't be bland if he tried. The left image is from the Young Romance collection Fantagraphics put out, and the right is from OMAC. The former is from the 40s, latter is from the 70s. [By the way, the Young Romance image is photographed from my own collection; there's no warping visible because Fantagraphics knows how to design a book].

Looking at these pieces side-by-side really challenges a lot of my assumptions about Kirby's artwork, because in some ways his artwork changed less than I previously thought it did without direct comparisons. There are some things that are more abstract about the OMAC page, like the wiggly shadows. Someone unfamiliar with Kirby might assume these were drawn by two different people, but only because 30-odd years of growth seperate these two pages.

Kirby's style, in my mind, is highly geometric and defined more so by abstract shorthand squiggles than hatching or other forms of rendering, but there actually is a fair amount of hatching on the OMAC page.

However, that OMAC page I believe was inked by Mike Royer, or at least someone using a brush. I noticed that, by sheer coincidence, almost all of the Kirby art from my first post in this series was inked by D. Bruce Barry, who didn't use a brush and also followed Kirby's pencils perhaps more literally than any other inker he ever had. In those images, it's clear that most of the hatching in Kirby's work was added by his inkers.

When Kirby did ink himself [using a brush], his style was oddly clean. He did add in hatching, but it was never particularly dense.

Anyways, I want to close this by including some Jesse Hamm quotes from his instructional PDFs:

-Simplicity is great, but often you need extra texture to seel weirdness.

-Another sign of experience is texture. The pro-level artist has learned to give different textures to grass, hair, tree bark, bushes, etc. Meanwhile, the amateur uses the same one or two shading techniques on EVERYTHING, giving it all a samey feel.

-Open spaces of black or white may be "activated" with a bit of texture. A few pebbles/ripples/etc will spur the mind to fill what's missing.

-We talk often about spotting blacks, but spotting greys (i.e., details/texture) is also crucial to clear compositions.

The lesson in the bit of Hamm writing I most often revisited, the flatpacking post, was that too much texture and rendering can make a comic exhausting to read. But reading more of his work, it turns out he had a more nuanced, texture-inclusive view of things.

What's the lesson here? Discretion.

[yurinaa-world]

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝒻𝓉 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

Characters: Blade x Gender-Neutral Reader

Synopsis: Back then, you thought you and your dear sweetheart would always be together until the end, but the shock you felt when you discovered he had become a traitor and betrayed your trust has made you despise him ever since. Now you meet again, having been captured and having the opportunity to chat again, but this time you have some unpleasant words to say.

Warnings: Angst? reader and Blade used to be lovers before he became a traitor, not proofread, spelling mistakes, and is not sure of anything else.

Notes: I'm conflicted to make part 2 of this

𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒹𝑒

"You wanted to see me, general," you say while walking into his office to find him at his desk with his chin propped on his hand and a lazy smile on his face. "General? "There's no need to call us by that title after all; we've known each other for such a long time, haven’t we?" Jing Yuan grinned at you and said, "Now don’t stand there; come here and sit down." It was a bit odd that the general wanted to see you since it had been so long since you both actually talked to each other.

Doing as he said and sitting down in front of him, face to face, you wonder what it is that he needs from you: "Quite the nice weather we're having, aren’t we, (name)?" "Yes, we are, but what did you need me for, Jing Yuan?" You say blankly, getting to the point quickly, "Hasty are we? But to get to the point, it seems that your ex-lover is back, and now he goes by the name Blade," he answered.

Those words made you freeze as you clutched your fist; that bastard was someone you wished he had dropped dead. "Why are you telling me this?" you ask, keeping your anger on the down low. "You're his ex-lover, aren’t you? After all, you must have something to say to him," the general hummed before adding, "don’t you want to meet once more after I can tell you want to say something badly?" You stayed silent at his words, staring deep into his eyes, which were staring right at yours, almost daring you to speak up.

You sigh before nodding. "Do me a favour, (name), don't kill him," he then adds before letting out a loud laugh. Your face remained expressionless and cold as you nodded. "I'll try my best," you finally said, "and I'll have the guards escort you." With that, you got up and headed towards the exit to his office. Before leaving, though, you looked over your shoulder and gave Jing Yuan a cold look.

"What a cold expression; nothing like how you used to be."

Walking through the corridors of the doors holding those who had committed crimes against you while a guard escorted you to him, you just didn't want to say his name. He betrayed your trust, leaving you just to be some traitor in their little group called Stellaron Hunters, but after so long not seeing his face, honesty makes you want to beat him to death, but it's better not to.

Stopping in front of the door, "Would you like us to come in with you?" One of the male guards asked, "No, this is personal, and I'd rather not have people watching me." The man bowed his head slightly before going off to do whatever he was assigned to do, while you turned around and entered the room.

In the small hallway leading to a single jail cell with a man with long navy hair and crimson eyes with a chain attached to his hands, while sitting on a bench, walking closer to the bars, he just stares at you and says, "It seems you go by Blade nowadays; honestly, you should pick a better name." You glared at him, trying to mask your anger with an emotionless expression. "And if I may ask, who are you exactly?" he asked, his eyes sharpening on your figure. "Your ex-lover? Who else?" you reply flatly.

He smirks at your words. You get closer to the bars, your hand going out to wrap your fingers around them. "You're lucky you're behind bars right now, or I would smash your skull open on these very bars, you sick son of a bitc-" You stop in the middle of your sentence. Looking at him is aggravating; a curse would be enough to express how much you despise him.

He smirks at your words, getting up from the bench and walking closer to you if it weren't for the bars separating you and keeping you on the opposite sides of the room. "You're getting so worked up over me." He mocks, taking another step toward you, only to end up stopping when the chains on his legs clink together. You let go of the bars and took a few steps backward, away from him.

"You act like you've changed, but you haven't at all," he continues. "Is that what you really think, coming from you of all people?" You scoff loudly, "Because unlike you, I didn't throw everything away for some group travelling going around and having people get hurt. What are you proud of, "Blade"?" You spat his name out like venom on your tongue.

"Why did I even bother to waste time talking to a lost cause?" you mutter before turning around and exiting his prison cell, slamming the door behind you, and leaving without sparing him a glance.

if you liked this, consider tipping me on ko-fi! it'd mean a lot!

[kitkatt0430]

Instead of doing a Six Sentence Sunday today, I think I'll do a short tutorial on copying over fanfic from FFnet to Ao3.

So you've got some old fics on FFnet and you'd like to back them up to Ao3, given the instability of FFnet. And for whatever reason you don't have the original files for the fics, or maybe you have edits to the FFnet versions that you don't want to lose that the OG files don't have. Whatever the reason, you're looking to directly copy over your fic from FFnet to Ao3. And you're looking for a relatively easy way to do so, but Ao3's import functionality doesn't work with FFnet web pages.

Never fear! It's actually a fairly easy process to get your fic copied over from FFnet.

First, head over to FFnet and open up the fic you want to port over to Ao3. You don't need to log in if you don't want to, just so long as the fic in question is yours and you can access the page, then you're good.

In a separate tab, open Ao3 and login, then choose the option for posting a new work.

Now back on the FFnet tab, you should be able to directly copy over the title, summary, fandom, and what little tagging was available on that site onto the relevant Ao3 fields in the tab you have for a new fic. You'll also want to take note of the published date on FFnet and back date the new work in the Ao3 tab.

FFnet may not have a lot of useful tag data, but it's pretty easy to replicate and build off that in Ao3.

Now for the hard part. Which is still pretty easy. Getting the fic body, plus any notes in the fic itself, copied over to FFnet.

While getting around FFnet's lockdown on the text of the fics they host is fairly simple - I'm pretty sure it's entirely css based - you don't really need to do that in order to get the body of your fic copied. And, honestly, even if you do have a work around in place to allow copying of the fic's text... you will probably find the following method a lot easier still.

In the body of the fic, right click the first line of the fic, which should bring up a menu with a bunch of options. On Firefox or Chrome you want the inspect option.

This'll bring up the dev tools with the html inspection tab open and, if you give it a few seconds to load, the specific line you right clicked to inspect should become the visibly selected section of the html.

The selected section of the html should be a paragraph (or <p>) element. You're going to want to right click the div (<div>) element that encapsulates that paragraph and the rest of the paragraphs in the fic body. This'll bring up another browser menu with the option to copy, which will bring up a flyout menu when you select it. From that flyout menu, you want the select the option for Inner HTML.

You have officially copied the html for the fic body. And you can dump that entirely in html format straight into Ao3's html work text editor. Then switch it to rich text for easier editing if you want to fix any spelling, grammar, formatting, or aesthetic issues. I typically try to fix at least the line breaks since it took a long while before FFnet adopted real line breaks and so there are a lot of fics where I have various combinations of dashes, em-dashes, equals signs, and other characters as line breaks. I figure, if I'm bringing the fic to Ao3 then I can try to make it more screen reader friendly in the process.

You can also move fic notes around in order to move pre/post fic notes out of the fic body or basically whatever you want to the fic. Maybe re-read it to determine any additional tagging you want to add now that your fic has access to Ao3's much more robust tagging system.

But that's it. You can hit post and have your fic with all it's original notes, and a back dated post date to reflect when it was actually written, all available on Ao3 now.

It's a pretty quick process, all told, and the only real bottleneck you might encounter is any time spent in re-editing the fic between migrating and posting. Even chaptered fics are fairly easy to migrate with this process, since the bulk of the work in publishing a new chapter is just copying the inner html and then moving any notes to the appropriate location before hitting post.

Anyway, for my fellow fic writers looking to move your old FFnet fics to a more stable archive, I hope this process helps a lot.

[elden-hicks]

the second gen capp and monty headcanon dump

as much as i like the local teens, i think the adults deserve the love too. some of them were created through a collaboration with my dear friend push. i'll add the read more link after goneril's headcanons, so if someone doesn't want to read the full post could scroll through more easily.

the capp sibs

goneril capp:

the middle child with an inferior complex: was convinced that she can't be beautiful as cordelia and smart as regan, and is clearly unfavored by both of her parents. despite her cold and strict façade, goneril's a very emotional person.

a massive people pleaser, especially when it comes to her parents. only had that much kids in hopes that contessa would've chosen her kid as an heir. dropped that idea only after she passed, seemingly regretting even doing so. nowadays, after contessa's death, she's truly trying to be a better mother, even though she thinks it's a little too late in miranda's case.

used to date claudio in the past and was almost ready to abandon her home just to be with him, until she learnt that he only dated her as "a dare". he had also publicly broke up with her, making her look like a desperate. she'd never forgave him for that stunt, of course. years after she's still thinking whether she was in love with him or the idea of him. the idea of being free, to be particular.

one of the best dressed people in the town, always knows how to present herself.

is keen on cooking, though, she's not as skillful as kent, she really enjoys the process of preparing the food

regan capp:

the youngest daughter, so she had not as much pressure from her parents compared as her older sisters. it suits them fine, since they enjoy doing the things on their own. tends to be very independent and stubborn in her descision making as a result.

consort's favorite kid, undoubtedly, since she was named after his prime caretaker (his grandma) and resembles contessa A LOT, both by appearance and character (the list also includes her eyesight problems and difficulties with showing emotions). however, due to her resemblance to their mother, they're often targeted by isabella monty, whenever they cross paths.

is a staunch childfree, she had enough of watching her parents and sisters raising kids to be permanently dissuaded from having them in her life.

is heavily into sports, does a lot of activities like jogging, swimming, playing tennis and football and skiing. they are also a master fencer in the family, tybalt swears one day he will prevail and take over the title from his aunt.

astronomy is her non-sport passion. they enjoy spending their time at the veronaville observatory and fighting with antonio monty over that territory

a bisexual, who also kind of questioned her gender before, has some tendencies towards non-binarity but she's still isn't so sure about it. a she/they pronoun user.

kent capp:

is an accident kid, also the youngest one and the only son - truly a misfortunate fate to have, once you had born in the capp family. contessa had a trouble with birthing him, so consort still (subconsciously) blames kent for contessa's declined health after that. he's the only kid who vastly prefers contessa to consort as a parental figure.

as a result, he hides his unique eyes with the blue lenses in order to have less similarities with that man. would rather die than call consort a father.

has a super fancy STEM degree, never worked a day in his actual work field, instead had changed like 10 to 15 low-paying jobs. from a cashier to a delivery guy to a stripper - you name it!

despite being against the feud, he still takes offence on his sisters' and niblings' behalf. once claudio referred goneril's dress as a "hoe sack", and the next day his car's tires were suspiciously slashed.

has passion for cooking and is darn great at it. once pranked the montys by hiring himself into their restaurant as a cook, they only figured it out after almost a month of his work.

probably one day would open his own gay bar with some cool appetizers and cocktails of his own creating

has a long-lost twin brother in strangetown named vidcund

cordelia capp:

the eldest. the heiress. contessa's favourite. a true capp woman. was very beautiful and charismatic

wasn't as goody-two-shoes person as she initially appeared, though she wasn't necessarily evil or nasty but she had her downsides.

cordelia was very, VERY headstrong and was not afraid to show her teeth when she couldn't have her thing "in a nice way".

yes, she was against the feud, that is correct, but she'd also been driven by the potential financial profit. after all, feuding can be pretty expensive both on money and lives. wasn't above of idea of eloping juliette with one of the claudio's sons, if it could seal the peace deal.

had this surprising ruthlessness when it came to managing stuff in business, yet she lacked regan's foresight in some ways.

still, despite not being the greatest mother on earth, treated her children equally, compared to her parents, each of whom had their own favorite.

the monty sibs

antonio monty:

a middle child, he's meek and overempathetic compared to much bolder bianca and claudio. he's also very easy person to manipulate or guiltrip

had always been on chubby side, since his early childhood, the only time when he was fit was his late teens-early adulthood years

the most skilfull monty in the cooking field (besides isabella) but he had always wanted to be an astronaut instead. still to this day has a passion for astronomy and, of course, out of all people in veronaville, the other person who's into that as much as him is that goddamn capp woman

he likes cooking in general, but he doesn't like do it for life, yet he feels obliged to do so, since his siblings and niblings are quite unhelpful. he personally peaked as a chef with that prize-winning wedding cake of his

used to be a punk in his teen/college student years, looking back, he's not really proud of who he was back then due to some questionable stuff he had done, but those were his golden years for sure

before hero came into the picture, the rest of the family speculated whether antonio was gay or not

he's either insomniac or sleeps like a rock, there's no in between

bianca monty:

the youngest child, also a daughter. unlike kent, she wasn't as screwed being the youngest monty and a girl

is an accountant at the restaurant, won't even come closer to a working stove for more than five meters. she also works as a freelance comic artist and the interior designer (has a degree in it, actually)

is vegan, which sometimes can be exhausting, cause the rest of the family are avid meat-eaters, but antonio usually accommodates to his lil' sis by making her favorite vegan dishes for the family gatherings

is an aroace, doesn't really want a romantic relationship, but still wants a child. seriously considered an option of kent being her sperm donor

she's terrible at handling the alcohol. does a lot of weird shit whenever she's wasted.

claudio monty:

was the eldest son. a proud, self-assured man. patrizio was hoping that he'd take over the restaurant after he retires. unfortunately for him, he outlived his own son.

was an asshole, to be precise. yes, he was very competitive, very determined, was an "efficient business manager", but an asshole nevertheless.

dreamed of becoming a famous musician and even had his own band in his teens. wrote a lot of songs about his exes, lol. most of them are kind of mid, though there was the one which made it to the local veronaville radio station and became a hit. this one he wrote about goneril in particular. even till his later years, he wasn't sure whether he actually loved her or not.

was rumored to be involved with antonio's late wife, hero. no one truly knows whether the rumors were true. he was also named as a main reason for her passing, shortly after his own death, though antonio prefers to believe it was the capps' deed.

romeo was his favorite one, since mercutio was the one who made him tie a knot with his mother

[deke-rivers-1957]

Elvis Puzzler Magazine

I'll be editing this post with my thoughts on each puzzle as I go through it. Thanks @vintagepresley for posting about in the first place.

Pre-Hollywood Puzzles (Despite some of these involving elements both during and after his Hollywood career, they all come before the official movies so they'll all go here).

Ultimate/2 min Trivia: Incredible how obvious my interest in the niche of Elvis movies is that I actually struggled with some of the questions. Funny thing but one of them was whether or not his real hair color was blond. I know he had blond hair as a child but he clearly has brown hair as an adult. Does that still count as him being blond? I know I probably thought about the semantics too much, but it's a true/false question. You wouldn't say Elvis was a blond as an adult but he did have blond hair as a child. I would've reworded it by asking if his real hair color was black.

Mix & Match: I'd say this was pretty easy as long as you know some of the bigger hits. Elvis song titles are simple in that if you only need to find one word, you can use the rest of the title to figure it out.

TV Guide Spot the Difference: 2 of the three had an obvious difference that either involve his name or the heading. The second one was a bit of a challenge since the difference was pretty small.

Word Searches: I appreciate that they each follow the theme well and include specific words from the song/album. The difficulty of them are all about the same.

Missing Letters: I like this one since you really need to keep track of the individual letters for each word. Since there's no space between words, it adds to the difficulty since you need to know how many letters make up each word as well.

Ed Sullivan Show: 5 letters scramble is just not my best type of puzzle. I'm not good at it, but for once the word sudoku didn't give me as much issue. I got the mystery word right away. The criss cross was fun because I learned about so many acts that appeared on the show. You don't realize retrospectively how big the show was until you see how many big names were on there.

Elvis' Christmas Album Spot The Difference: This was really easy. There's so many big presents on the cover that you can tell when something was missing.

Elvis' Golden Records Album Trivia: Some of the stats I have no idea how they verified. For instance, how can you possibly figure out if he sold 1 billion records? Some of the metrics like the Billboard 100 didn't even exist yet so a lot of his early records weren't included in some counts or had to be retroactively estimated. I would've used a more easily calculable stat instead.

Aloha from Hawaii Spot The Difference: One difference I wasn't so sure about was the blue circle on the earth. I had to look really close to make sure they were different shades. I know it's rare but I wonder what someone who's color blind would see. Would they even know there was a difference in colors?

Crossword: I thought the clues involving lyrics from Elvis songs were cool. Some of them though made no sense to me like 46 down being "hon" when the clue was cupcake. How does that fit and what does "hon" even mean outside of a variation of honey? I know you need the h from 44 across and the n from 51 across but you could've just used hen or hun.

Movie Puzzles

Love Me Tender: The word scramble was easy since his songs had very simple titles. The word sudoku was a bit challenging since I'm not used to doing those, but the criss cross was very fun. I love how in the summary they talked about how Clint was exempt from service since I mention that in my review. The main takeaway I got was that I surprisingly didn't know a lot of behind the scenes names for this movie. For instance I never knew Ken Darby was the actual writer of the song "Love Me Tender". When I wrote my review, I didn't go into the same detailing of behind the scenes personnel so it was great to learn more about it.

Loving You: Boy was this quite a jump in difficulty. I made a lot of mistakes throughout all of the puzzles. The 5 letters puzzle was a lot harder than it should've been to me since I didn't associate the same words to what the clues were saying. The word sudoku was a nightmare to the point where I had to use the answer key to finish. I knew the mystery word was Lizabeth because the summary already included her name. The criss cross was a little easier but I still made a couple mistakes on it. Overall, I'm just glad Loving You finally got some representation since it's the least talked about of his 50s movies.

Jailhouse Rock: This a bit easier. The Scramble was very easy but again the word sudoku gave me trouble. At this point I know that puzzle will take me a lot of time. The criss cross I only had one mistake because I miscounted the number of letters.

King Creole: This one took longer to do as I had other stuff going on. Once again the 5 letters and word sudoku were difficult to finish. Only one mistake on the criss cross because I was looking at the wrong section. I'm amazed they mentioned the riots in Mexico that occurred because a lot of teens wanted to see the movie without paying.

G.I. Blues: This one was really easy. The tank one was unfamiliar but once I got one word, the rest was easy to finish. Criss cross as usual was easy as well. What I didn't know was that this movie's soundtrack was nominated for 2 Grammys (one for Best Soundtrack and one for Best Male's Vocal Performance) since I didn't mention that in my review.

Flaming Star: The last letter trivia spiral is only hard if you're not that knowledgable of Yellowstone or Dirty Harry's basic production credit details. We do get a change of pace by having a word search about Western tv shows and a find the different image puzzle. I'd say those two are easy, you just need to pay real close attention to what you want to find.

Wild In The Country: I admit that I'm not that knowledgable in country music either. There was a clue about the leading man from A Star Is Born for the scramble and I have no idea how to spell his last name. Same with a country music legend who grew up with 11 siblings. I got both of their first names but no clue on their last names lol. There was another word search that I had a better time with. Now what was a weird choice was an add 'em up puzzle. The final number doesn't have any significance to the movie so I have no idea why it was included for this movie. I would've changed the given numbers so that the top of the pyramid added up to 1961 (the year the movie was released).

Blue Hawaii: Interestingly there's only 2 puzzles that take up the double page spread: Fill in the Blanks and a word search. The word search I think makes up for having one less puzzle because you're finding a lot more words compared to previous movies that had one.

Follow That Dream: Also only has 2 puzzles that are Fill in the Blanks and a word search. This time though, the word search wasn't that hard. About a third of the page was just a full body shot of Toby which is absolutely necessary. The only thing I wonder though is what exactly is the ceremony from the word search? I wouldn't call the governor seeing part of the highway a ceremony. The court scene at the end definitely isn't one either. If anyone had just seen the movie, let me know if I'm missing something.

Girls! Girls! Girls!: We completely skip Kid Galahad which stinks since I would've loved to see boxing themed puzzles. Only 2 puzzles but this time it's missing letters and a maze. Mazes to me can be tricky since you almost need to start off on both ends and try to meet in the middle. I'd say it makes up for not have 3 puzzles.

It Happened At The World's Fair: After taking a break in the middle of a word search I think that really helped my concentration. It was a decent sized word search since you had to find really long words like paddleboat rides. We also got a new puzzle with code words. I love this puzzle. You got the trivia aspect where you have to find cities that hosted a world's fair and the puzzle aspect where you need to figure out what the other letters are. Definitely makes up for only having 2 puzzles.

Viva Las Vegas: We skip a couple movies and only get 2 puzzles. A Cluefinder puzzle that's only 3x3 for each category is a bit too easy. Since you also only have a word search I think this was a bit underwhelming. I would've added another puzzle like a word scramble that included trivia about Ann Margret.

Girl Happy: We skip Roustabout and only get 2 puzzles. The word search is standard but it was interesting to see the names of some famous pin up girls that I've never heard of. The code puzzle is good in that you're using the alphabet's number positions to spell out the names of songs used in the movie.

Harum Scarum: We skip Tickle Me and still have 2 puzzles. Word builder is fun since you have to remember how to spell certain words. The one word word search shouldn't even be part of this since you're only finding Elvis. It's a general Elvis puzzle when this is supposed to be about the movie. It would make more sense if you're finding his character's name Johnny.

Change of Habit: This is the last movie and even in an Elvis magazine all of his movies past 1965 except for this one was skipped. It's not even a big send off to his movie career. Only one puzzle and it's a measly word search. I feel like they could've done a better job. I understand that this was made by the editors of TV Guide and it won't be a complete package, but the ending of this section is so underwhelming. I might make my own puzzles for the movies that weren't included some day.

Post-Hollywood Puzzles (I know some of them were made during his movie career but that's how it's set up in the magazine).

[phantom-playdough]

Macaque x GN!Reader: Comforting

EDITOR NOTE FOR TITLE

Changed the title cause I WANTED to use the quote: "You're worrying me..." But I completely FORGOT about that line, LOL

Didn't know what else to call it, but it is LITERALLY 2:00 am, so this is the best I could come up with.

===========================================

This is my first post on this Tumblr blog, and I thought it would be super fun to write something for Macaque cause I adore this boi. I also noticed that there is a distinct lack of hurt/comfort fanfics for him on every platform I am on. So I will do it myself.

TWs: Mentions of nightmares, a lot of trouble eating and sleeping, the reader struggling with self-care in general, angst(?) in the beginning and middle, but there will be sweet fluff and confessions at the end to make up for it! I will add to these warnings if need be.

==========================================

Macaque tried to let it slide at first. He really did. But it was almost 3pm and Y/n was still sleeping...! Normally, he would probably just assume they went to sleep late the night before or something. But the thing is... this has been happening for over a month now.

It worried Macaque because his first thought was that something was wrong with Y/n’s sleep.

As the clock ticked on, closer and closer to late afternoon, he decided he couldn’t wait anymore and went to wake Y/n up.

When Macaque opened the door, he realized he had not been in Y/n’s room in a while. It was rather messy, to say the least. Clothes were thrown on the chair and desk and were lying on the floor. There were small wrappers all over the dresser.

Even though Y/n was lying in bed, it was super messy. Some of the blankets and pillows were lying on the floor around the bed, and one of the plushies that previously was on the bed was somehow thrown to the other side of the room, in front of Macaque's feet at the bedroom door.

Macaque picked up the plushie and slowly approached the bed, placing it by Y/n's feet. When he looked at Y/n's face, Macaque noticed their face twist into a look of discomfort. Their eyes were screwed shut and they groaned like a zombie.

It didn't take a brain scientist or rocket surgeon to figure out what was happening to Y/n in their mind. Macaque wanted nothing more than to wake them up; he wanted to relieve them of whatever horrors they were dreaming about. But he bit his tongue and held back, knowing better than he probably should that being woken up during a nightmare can cause more harm than good.

The mental image of Y/n being woken up, crying or even screaming because Macaque was too selfish made his heart clench. He just decided to wait by his best friend's side, even though his heart raced so fast it almost made his ears ring.

Macaque gently grabbed Y/n's hand, swallowing his pride, and rubbed gentle circles onto their skin. He couldn't say how much time had passed as he watched Y/n, his heart breaking as he saw them grow antsier in their dream.

Finally, Y/n opened their eyes. They squinted at the sun shining through their bedroom window. They looked over at Macaque, seeing that he didn't even bother trying to hide the fear on his face. It was only then that they noticed Macaque's hand on their own as his grip tightened slightly. It wasn't enough to hurt, but it showed that he was very scared.

Y/n simply spoke in a hoarse voice, "Hey, Macaque." They then cleared their throat. "What are you doing in my room? Is something wrong?"

Macaque adverted his eyes, glancing around. He had a smirk on his face to try and hide his anxiety. "I, uh... I was actually kinda hoping you could tell me that."

Y/n shrugged. "Nothing new." They said as they slowly sat up. Before Macaque could question what they meant, Y/n turned to him and spoke with a slight blush. "Mind if I get dressed?"

Macaque blushed and cleared his throat. "Yeah, sure. Take your time. I'll go make you some lunch."

"Don't you mean breakfast?" Y/n asked, clearly unaware of the time.

"Breakfast doesn't happen past three, Y/n." Macaque said with a smirk. He then left the room. Y/n sighed as they checked the clock.

Sure enough, 3:15pm.

Y/n dug through the piles of clothes on their desk and chair. They finally landed on an outfit they had worn a few days this week. While they were aware they should do laundry, the thought was too depressing to commit to. The idea of all the clothes to sort through and self-loathing over not doing the laundry sooner made Y/n shiver in discomfort.

The aroma of eggs on the frying pan, mango juice, and waffles filled the air in the kitchen. Y/n felt their mouth water, their stomach growled so loudly that it alerted Macaque of their presence.

"Hungry?" Macaque asked with a chuckle. Y/n nodded sheepishly.

"I thought you said breakfast doesn't happen past three." Y/n pointed out with a sweet smile. Macaque found himself staring at that perfect smile for longer than he should've been. He snapped out of his trance and cleared his throat, turning his attention back to the eggs.

"I don't remember saying that!" Macaque played dumb to see if he could get a reaction from Y/n. He did.

Y/n laughed lightly, before their expression turned soft. "Thanks, Macaroni." Y/n was the ONLY person that could call him that. Period.

There was a small silence that followed as Macaque focused on finishing the cooking.

Eventually, it was all done, and the pair started eating. Although, Y/n suddenly felt very full, despite only eating less than five bites. They pushed the food on their plate around, trying to motivate themself to eat. But for some strange reason, the smell of delicious food that made them want to eat a mountain suddenly made them never want to touch food again.

It was all so confusing, these feelings. Macaque noticed that Y/n lacked the sparkle in their eyes as they stared down at their plate. He heard another loud gurgle from Y/n's stomach, but they didn't make an effort to eat.

"Does it taste that bad?" Macaque chuckled as he asked to hide his disappointment.

"No! No, no, no! I-it tastes good, I swear!" Y/n yelled, their hands waving in front of them frantically. "I just have been having trouble eating lately! Sometimes I feel really hungry and everything, but I--"

Macaque grabbed Y/n's hands in an attempt to stop their loud rambling. It worked, thankfully. "It's okay, Y/n. I'm not mad." Macaque said a soft and sweet tone in his voice. "How about I save your food for you?" Macaque was reaching for Y/n's plate, but he still waited for them to say something, to not pressure them.

There were a couple seconds of small silence, but eventually, Y/n nodded once. Macaque frowned for a moment, but he smiled again as fast as he could to hide his fear deep inside. He took the plate and saved the food; the two were worried, even if for different reasons.

Y/n felt scared of the idea of telling Macaque was wrong because they didn't even know what was wrong!

Meanwhile, Macaque was trying to figure out just that. Things were so good only a month ago, but slowly, Y/n fell back. It worried him so much because Y/n and he had become so close over the time they had known each other.

Macaque hadn't expressed it much, but Y/n had helped him in ways he never thought possible! They helped him overcome his insecurities. They helped him grow more comfortable with touches that didn't involve fighting. Heck, they even helped him become friendly enough to do things like offer a stranger on the street a small smile!

Macaque didn't like the fact that he was unable to help Y/n at the moment. He felt that problems were meant to be solved. He wanted nothing more than to scoop Y/n up and pepper them with kisses. To give them comfort for whatever was troubling them. But he didn't want to scare them off.

The two of them had been friends for so long. Macaque didn't know he could feel this level of love for someone since...him. Even though Macaque knew Y/n long enough to know that he loved them, he didn't know if that was reciprocated.

But it was. Y/n was just as afraid of the idea of Macaque not feeling the same way, so they made their affection as subtle as possible so they wouldn't ruin the friendship. When they first met Macaque, he was so bruised deep inside. Y/n refused to call him broken the entire time they had known him. Because he was so much stronger inside than he ever thought.

But now, Y/n felt much more bruised than they had in a long time. It scared them.

Eventually, everything was cleaned up and put away. Y/n was still sitting at the table when Macaque walked over to them and offered them his hand.

Y/n gave him a confused look. But they trusted him and placed their hand in his. Macaque pulled them out of their chair and led them to the couch. He sat the two of them down and very gently wrapped an arm around Y/n's shoulder to pull them close to him. He leaned them back, and Y/n curled their legs up onto the couch and leaned on him.

The two of them stayed like that for a while, their faces beet red and hearts racing a million miles a second. But eventually, Macaque couldn't handle the silence anymore. He turned his head to look at Y/n, bringing a hand up to hold their face to meet his gaze.

"You know you can tell me if something is wrong, right...?" Macaque whispered the last word so softly that it made Y/n's stomach flip.

They nodded one time. But they knew that kind of response just wouldn't cut it. Y/n sighed and pulled their head away from Macaque's grip.

"I know I can tell you. But I don't even know what I know to tell you. For some reason, I have felt really out of it the past couple of weeks. I want to eat, but I can't. I need to sleep, but I get nightmares. I...I want to hug you, but I am scared."

Not even a second after that last sentence left Y/n's lips, Macaque grabbed them and hugged them as though they would disappear. "You don't have to be scared, Y/n. I...I don't usually do this. Expressing myself, I mean. But with you, it's different." Macaque laughed just a little bit. "I don't usually let people get as close to me as you. I trust you to call me Macaroni. I let you touch me. I...I let myself love you."

At that moment, Y/n smiled wider than they had probably all their life. They pulled away and looked Macaque in his gorgeous eyes. "I let myself love you too." Macaque smiled, and he looked from Y/n's eyes to their lips. Y/n got the hint pretty quickly, and the two of them slowly leaned in.

Macaque and Y/n were a hair away from kissing, but Macaque still mumbled over the thick silence, "Are you sure?" Y/n answered by closing the distance and kissing him. It was short, and they pulled away too soon for Macaque's liking. He pulled them back in but gave Y/n room to break away should they choose to.

They didn't.

Eventually, the pair parted for air. Macaque took Y/n's hands and held a look of love on his face that made Y/n feel like royalty. How many people got to see this side of him? Sadly, not enough.

"I'm willing to work with you on what's bothering you. I can't fix this overnight," Macaque said sadly but smiled as he continued. "But I mean, you helped me. I might as well try and return the favor."

Y/n smiled, kissed one of his ears, and whispered, "I'd like that."

[safetycar-restart]

https://www.tumblr.com/safetycar-restart/726211490572648448/i-know-weve-discussed-collars-in-the-ds-au-and?source=share

Would loves a little thing about marc trying to keep his necklace on if you would

YES YES ABSOLUTELY.

So this is in reference to ask I answered about Marc in the D/S AU where he has a necklace he wears as a collar that he never ever takes off. He has formal collars that he wears to events or when he wants it to be very clear that he's collared. He'll also sometimes wear his formal collars to doctor's appointments, because it just adds an extra level of comfort. But he ALWAYS has his necklace on, to him that's his real collar.

I also mentioned that when he has surgeries, you have to get him some string that you tie loosely around his neck so that he can still have something on, because before his first surgery he had a complete meltdown because he had to take his necklace off and then when he woke up he was desperately clutching at his neck trying to figure out where his necklace went. So I'm gonna expand on that a little.

(Also I am ALWAYS willing to discuss Marc in the D/S AU, and fabio. And enea. Just MotoGP D/S AU. It's always a fave)

Firstly, Marc doesn't actually realise he'd have to take his necklace off before surgery? Logically it makes complete sense, but he somehow never considered it.

You go into the hospital with him, of course, and he asks you to put one of his formal collars on beforehand. He is well aware that he'll have to remove his formal collar before surgery, but that's fine. He just wants the little bit of comfort as he heads in.

You sit in his hospital room with him after he gets checked in, help him get changed into his own and then gently remove his formal collar. You kiss his neck gently and promise him that you'll be right there when he wakes up and that you'll be there throughout his recovery. He gets a little teary eyed then, thinking of how many years you've been his dom and you've been through all his world titles with him and now you'll go through this with him too.

That's when the surgical team arrives to take him away, they tell him he has to take his necklace off and he freezes. He double checks with them that he has to, and they tell him that it's metal so it has to be removed.

Instantly he's turning to you and breathing hard.

"I'll keep it safe for you," you tell him, like that would make any difference but it doesn't.

He's shaking and crying within a few minutes, and then more people arrive to see what's taking so long which only makes it worse. He hasn't been without his necklace ever since you gave it to him, and now he must remove it? Now, when he's most scared, he must go without his collar? He can't.

You end up having to just take it off as quickly as you can, ignoring his protests because it has to happen.

When he wakes up from surgery, the first thing he does is move his other hand up to his neck and then he startles awake. He doesn't remember the pre-surgery meltdown, but he does know that he doesn't have his necklace on right then and it scares him so much.

He tries to get up, scaring his entire medical team because he absolutely should not be moving yet. But he won't calm down, and his doctor ends up having to call you into the recovery room and bring his necklace with. He calms the moment he has the necklace back on, promptly falling asleep.

So yeah, you always bring some string to tie around his neck for his future surgeries because no one wants to relive that.

[seiwas]

hi sel! i was wondering if you had any tips or tricks or advice for making fic banners and dividers? yours are always so cohesive! ❤️����💛💚💙💜

hi nonie! omg i'm so flattered you asked me this 🥺 i’m happy you like them!! admittedly, i am a bit particular about the aesthetics of my fics, but don't really expect anyone to notice 😭

i am by no means a designer! but i'll share a few of the things that have worked for me 🥺 under the cut will be what i do for sizing, editing, and inspo!

SIZING (w x h dimensions, 300 dpi)

› banners: 1280 x 320 for my thicker banners. 1280 x 249 for my thinner ones. i've been preferring the thicker ones lately just because i prefer how it looks on the post compared to my thinner ones (more balanced and stuff!)

› dividers: 1280 x any size you want or 500 x 5. i have both jpg (thinner) and png (thicker) versions for my dividers, mainly because my jpg ones stopped working after a while* 😭 i use the png ones more now because the actual image itself is also bigger in height; there are transparent spaces above the bar itself that allow more control over the space your divider will have between text (please let me know if this is confusing! i'm not sure if i'm explaining it well).

*tumblr can be really selective with the media it allows on the feed and tags, and for some reason, some dividers have been causing that problem 😭 i still haven't figured out what characteristics/factors exactly cause it, but i suspect it might be a combination of size + colours. i usually have to do test posts to make sure it appears!

i'm attaching some screenshots below for reference!

EDITING

› software: photoshop, figma. though i know there are others you can use (e.g., photopea, canva, picsart, etc.)! i just use these because i'm more accustomed to them 🥹

› process:

find a manga panel i like and clean it up (background removers can usually do the trick)

find colours i like and use it as the base for the background

*if using photoshop/figma/photopea: set the manga panel layer as 'multiply'

add the text

*for dividers: i usually just grab from the background of the banner (either i crop a portion of it or colour a long, thin rectangle the same colour)

attaching what my editing board looks like on figma! (i could be more organised but i usually do these things in such a rush i could never be bothered 😭)

› things i consider

for general fic banners: i like to keep a consistent format, which is: character panel + name + identifiable colour because they're the details that i'd like to inform people of first when they stumble upon my post! (some people will put fic titles too, which i don't do bc i can't be bothered to mess with the spacing 😭)

*keeping a consistent format also makes it easier to duplicate elements of your banners into other banners you'll be making! ex. if i'm writing 2 different gojo fics and decide to change what manga panel to use, at least i can always duplicate certain elements (i.e., name text) and find colours along a similar saturation/hue! it makes things a lot quicker and easier.

for event fic banners: i usually pattern it after the event banner itself! so for example, the fics under my 'how to be your loverboy' collab share similar elements (i.e., the wavy edge) to the main event banner. sometimes i use the same colours too (i.e., in's and out's event).

*on dividers not showing up on the dash: i notice it a lot more with light-coloured banners (some neutrals) and super thin ones. to find a way around this, i either change the colour and/or the size OR i'll find a photo that shares the colours i want and crop it to the size that i want (for some reason, it works this way 😭)

INSPO

i usually browse through pinterest for inspo on digital design stuff! i learned a bit of UX/UI so there's also a part of me that's influenced by its trends.

lately, i've been really into gradients! because it's a fun and easy way to make things look clean but not boring, and i think it can evoke the ~vibe of the fic based off the colours you end up choosing!

when i can't think of anything and want to come up with the banner quickly, i'll usually choose a photo/aesthetic i associate with the fic and blur the image until all you see are kind of blobs of colours. they're similar to gradients but have more shapes and require less of your brain power 😭 (i.e., by your passenger seat, and there's something...)

... and that's it!

sorry for this really lengthy post, i hope it's helpful nonie 🥹 let me know if you have any other questions/if anything is unclear!

[signiorbenedickofpadua]

"lecturing" for the wip game! xo @hardly-an-escape

Certainly, my dear ❤️ I believe I've described the premise once before, but I'll give you a little recap anyway as well as a snippet! Perhaps this will somehow help this poor fic get out of WIP hell... I know how I want it to end, but I just can't figure out whether to throw some smut in the middle or just...skip it, uncharacteristically enough... A wise reader may at this point ask, "Why don't you just write the ending first then and decide later if you feel like calling it done or if you want to add a sex scene?" Well. That's a good question. Hm. I'll have to think on that.

So, anyway, it's a human AU wherein Professor!Hob (well, lecturer, technically) holds a series of intro lectures on Literary History. A certain tall, dark mysterious stranger sits in the front row every week without fail, watching and listening very intently. Of course, Hob does his best to ignore how attractive this guy is, because god dammit he's trying to be a better person these days and hooking up with his students does not help with that. Except...is he actually a student...? *the soundtrack in the background turns mysterious*

You may find out if you read the snippet below and also PART TWO and PART THREE since several of you asked about this WIP! (List of titles in the og WIP game post here.)

PART ONE

Part of the problem was that the man always sat in the front row, thus giving Hob far too good of a view of his full body, which was just as unfairly gorgeous as his face. His proclivity for the skinniest of jeans did nothing to help Hob in he Sisyphean task of keeping his eyes away, nor did the fact that he kept looking right back.

Of course, Hob was lecturing, and so it was to be expected that his students would look at him when he talked, but he also expected them to look away at least some of the time. At their notebooks or laptops as they took notes, for example, which this bloke never ever seemed to do. Sure, it was not an advanced course by any definition, and he might have a good memory, or was one of those people who preferred not to distract themselves with taking notes during lectures, instead refreshing his memory by studying at home later. Or perhaps he didn’t care about getting more than a barely passing grade for a basic course like this—except he appeared to be paying rapt attention at all times. It was likely this intense focus which made it so hard for Hob to just ignore him. He had taught plenty of good-looking people throughout his career, and it had never been a problem until now. He was quite practised at turning off the part of the brain that noticed such things, and, even when he did notice, it normally didn’t fluster him like this. The man just had a…a weight to his gaze, somehow. His pale eyes were piercing, and Hob could practically feel them boring into him even when his back was turned. He also believed that he had caught them wandering over his body every so often—lingering on his arms when he rolled his sleeves up to combat the heat of a fully packed and poorly ventilated classroom, homing in on the sliver of tummy skin exposed as he had to stretch up to turn the projector on with a pointer when the damn remote control malfunctioned again, and fixating on the hint of chest hair visible that one time he had accidentally left one too many buttons undone on his shirt. He really, really wished that he had not noticed any of this, because the only thing worse than being attracted to a student was being attracted to a student who reciprocated. Fortunately, the man had done nothing to indicate that he intended to actually make a move on Hob, which was some small consolation. In fact, many tortuous weeks passed without him saying a single a word, never raising his hand to answer one of Hob’s questions or ask one of his own, never approaching him after lectures with queries about the curriculum or the final exam, never even talking to his classmates. All he did was sit there, in the same place every time (front row, third seat from the right), silently staring at Hob while nursing a cup of coffee from Bennie’s café two buildings over. Then, every week without fail, he quietly slipped out of the room exactly five minutes before the time was up and the lecture ended, presumably to rush to some other lecture on a tight schedule. Hob could only hope that he checked the information he put up online about suggested reading and the end-of-term examination, since he never stayed to hear Hob’s reminders at the end of the lectures.

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

The Simon fic with the prompt hit me like a brick.

It was SOO GOOD, i really bow before you, you’re very good at what you do. The Hotel was such a nice little unique detail, really feels like you’ve given Simon more depth which i appreciate. Overall it’s such a nice change of pace from what i normally see written for him. Thank you for “fixing him” <3

ohmygosh thank you so much 💗😭💗 like I said in the notes I have a lot of feelings about him, and when I was thinking up how to tie the prompt to his canon I was wondering how to get the reader close enough to him to say it when we don't really see a ton of him outside of his villain plot, and what we do see is everyone just beating him down the whole time because they think he sucks.

It's good for short things where you can make him into whoever you need him to be for your plot and use those brief moments to still keep him in character however you interpret him, but since the prompt is intimate that made it a little harder for me to work up to, so I decided to go a little deeper and add him to my Deep Dive List of Characters I Really Enjoy and Need to Fully Interpret My Way.

More under the cut, it's finally deep dive time and I ended up writing a ton, here we goooooo

Okay so to start, here's what we do know about him from on screen things and context clues, things mentioned in passing:

He really is good with building things. Obviously the bomb collars weren't bought online, his credit card statements mention 'electronic equipment' and they have to figure out on the fly how to disarm them, they're something they haven't seen before. He also owns a giant satellite so he more than likely figured out how to hook it up to his minicam system so he could get the feed no matter how far they travelled, as well as keep his stream from being properly locked onto. He was only training in the Academy so he never actually made the bomb squad before he was kicked out, and it all just tells me he's gotta be smart, handy, his memory must be damn good to remember what he learned before his removal, and he for sure knows how to work with tech well enough that he didn't blow himself up while building the things.

He has a temper. It's seen the most when Jeannie is saved, that entire end of the stream did him no favours with him broadcasting how she felt towards him while everyone was on her side. When he hears her call him creepy he looks hurt, but to have everyone agree switches it to anger, panic, how dare she do this to him when he was finally getting the attention he deserves. When she's saved it's just insult to injury, she gets to bring him down this time to his face pretty much, have 5000 people join in on that, and when she not only lives he becomes the target of their hate before leaving him. It's no surprise he breaks his screen after this, he's just been insulted to high hell, and he's just learned that the man who did it got a second chance after doing way worse things than he did. I believe his temper stems from other emotions first, like sadness and panic, he only gets mad after everyone leaves, when the cops show up to save Kennex and them being on site could mean his arrest or worse, and when he's already emotionally vulnerable about venting about his black marks. He's never mad right out the gate, annoyed or frustrated yes but never truly angry, so I'll bet a lot has to build up first before his temper turns vocal or physical. I don't doubt a bit of this showed itself during the loan meeting, which got him the title of unstable if he started getting overwhelmed and worked up when things started going south.

He's desperate for attention and getting it makes him emotional. This one doesn't fully show until the end, but the entire episode is nothing but him vying for attention and approval and even respect. He's been nothing but rejected leading up to this, 'unstable,' 'unqualified,' 'creepy,' 'gives a bad feeling,' he had a bad psych evaluation, so when he finally gets that approval when he tries his killing game something clicks, this is it, this is what he's been yearning for. No more doubt, the viewers love it, he gets to enjoy seeing the people who hurt him get hurt, and having those two things overlap fills him with actual joy to the point that it makes him cry. It genuinely makes me wonder just how lonely he had to be and how bad his mental health had gotten for it to build up to this point, get this bad all around, and I truly believe that having someone there for him while all the bad things were happening could've avoided his turn to villainy entirely.

He truly believes that this is justice. They hurt him, insulted him, they deserve to pay. He really is a villain here, there is no denying that, but I also think he's probably completely isolated outside of work, and all that loneliness and isolation and pain can convince you to do anything, that what you're doing is right, and this time it convinced him that revenge was the best medicine. He thinks that using them to get him the attention he believes he deserves will also help his pain, no more reminders of being rejected, it'll be cathartic, and when people start cheering him on it only solidifies that thought. This is what they want to see, now he can deliver and feel better at the same time, two birds with one stone, no more villains out there to hurt him and others while he's finally respected.

He might work from home. When he sees Kennex during the stream he appears to look him up immediately, so he might have access to the trashed data from home, or he's made it so he can access it away from work, which again ties into how smart he is. This one isn't as big, but working from home would only isolate him more and send his mental health straight into the garbage with how much I already doubt he gets out, which would make his desire for positive attention even stronger; this is something I can relate to since my only means of social interaction is through my family and work seeing as I don't have any local friends, I know how your mental health can tank when it's just you alone in your room for days with no one to talk to, think pandemic times only it never ends, so I just know if this one is true then this is probably why he latched on so hard to every other point.

He's 'creepy'. This one I cannot fathom, since we don't get to see him outside of villainy stuff, but I will also fully admit that my DD bias also doesn't believe he was creepy enough to ditch before the date even started, that is legitimately so cold. I mean, he brought roses and packed a picnic, he was clearly trying, and he did want to meet someone enough to make a dating profile, even left it up after he was dumped, although I do bet he abandoned it after that since oh my god my heart would be so broken if that happened to me, writing that part of the fic nearly made me cry. Since she did leave before the date started he must've said or done something to give her that vibe, but like in the fic I bet it was something probably along the lines of not knowing how to talk to people and having it come off wrong; maybe he was overly affectionate right away and asked for hugs or a cheek kiss that first meeting, gave off the impression of needy/clingy right away and like she'd have no choice but to leave early? Like if she said something he would put her in danger and/or not let her leave? If something like this had happened before there would probably be more warnings in the forums for people to stay away, not just hers, so my guess is that a bunch of things happened that made her too wary, and that mixed in with the callout that he may or may not have seen hurt him bad enough to make sure she was on his list. She was probably the first match he made on the site as well, or really was his first date, so finally feeling wanted and then getting burned so bad did not help his already bad mental health.

Despite his knack for tech, he wanted to open a bar. This one is so interesting to me because why of all things would he want to open a bar? He was training to be on the bomb squad, he works part-time in Data Waste Handling, and he's smart enough to build things and quite possibly code and/or hack, so why a bar? This is another thing I really had to think about while writing since it stands out to me so much, and I think I might've been onto something with his desire to connect with people; they could've given him any reason to want that loan, it could've been to help get a better place or at least expand his trailer (my aunt and uncle did that and goddamn it turned into such a beautiful two-story house, no joke you can't even tell unless you already know), it could've even been to start a different business entirely based around the previous things they built up for him, and instead he wants to open such a social thing in a future where tech is already super advanced. I truly believe he was really trying to connect with people via this desire, his attempts to date, but thanks to his black marks haunting him as well as his social and personality problems it only pushed him further into his isolation.

I don't think he ever realized that not everything was terrible because of his black marks. As mentioned above I think his isolation and poor mental health convinced him that hurting people was the right thing to do, but I also think that he genuinely could not see that not everything was because of that bad psych eval. I think that he started rationalizing things away, blamed everything on the eval, and refused to acknowledge when something was actually his fault, creating a terrible personality that did not help his cause at all. I don't think he knew how bad he himself had gotten, and as such saw no need to work on himself, since it all went back to that black mark, so all that rationalizing warped his personality and made him bitter, stubborn, and cruel.

He really did kill someone. I had forgotten about this since it's only shown on screen so you have to pause, this one will be talked about more below.

Now, here's some things that the reader's presence and I changed based on canon:

He has a second job. We don't know how long ago the loan was, but I'm guessing it had to be recent and stacked on top of the heartbreak, which was only a couple months ago according to Jeannie. I don't think he'd have been a pretty good bartender with that little social interaction, so having him work in another bar to learn the ropes and teach him first would've been very good for him while he saved up. In my fic I never had it mentioned on his dating profile since DWH seemed more professional, and since he didn't actually get the bartending job he wanted he might not have wanted to add in Waiter to that section to make himself look a little better.

He doesn't drive, or at least doesn't currently own a car. It's a small detail, and Jeannie does mention that she bailed when he went to the car to get the picnic basket, but I wanted to give the reader an excuse to drive him around. This one was a purely plot-related choice but it works so well with how much things aren't going for him. Maybe when he got evicted he lived in his car for a while, it's how he was able to keep his computer and remaining things safe, and when he was buying his trailer he had to sell it to get the money? I can see that, I should've written that in the fic itself OTL

Jeannie asked him out, not the other way around. Since the reader was there to tell him to wait, he didn't rush into things, which he might've in canon, but he still did ask her to meet him at the park. I also chose to go the tech route instead of clingy route for their date because yeah it's such a bad start to tell someone you know where they work within five minutes of meeting them. Still creepy, but in a consistent-with-my-narrative misunderstood way since the reader knows him and how that wasn't his intention, in fact he probably thought it was okay because he was blinded by excitement and the fact that the reader already gave him permission to look them up, so he figured it'd be fine to do it again in case he did want to surprise her. Dumb of ass and clueless, not malicious or dangerous.

He needed encouragement to go through with his canon choices. He still would've done them, but having the reader there to cheer him on has him go into both situations with hope and more confidence than he probably had in canon, which only makes the fact that he still had to fail hurt so much more. He also probably went in with less volatile reactions, especially with the loan, since my version of him has him actively talking with people and has his emotions more under control, so I wanted to blame his rejection entirely on the psych eval instead of what had to be a mix of both.

His self-worth is directly tied to his canon situations. It isn't mentioned at all straight out in either canon nor fic but I dialed this one down; in canon he believes that people should've respected him, which screams delusions of grandeur based on too many times getting rejected mixed in with being unable to see the problems in his own life caused by himself, and blatantly ignoring them while blaming them on his black marks. In my fic the highest it gets is him believe that he deserved basic human decency after he keeps getting shot down over and over due to misunderstandings. This isn't a man who's about to become a vigilante for the views, this is someone who just needs anybody to be there for him, tell him it's okay, help him work through where he went wrong and adjust what he did so he doesn't fail in the future. Maybe one canon presence in his life could've led to this path and the episode could've gone entirely different with someone else while he lived a normal life, but sadly it isn't which is the entire reason I'm doing this deep dive in the first place.

He was able to open the bar with the reader's help. This one is only implied, as well as the fact that he now lives with them, but I feel like if he did have someone like that on his side then he'd have had a better chance at getting that loan, and he would be so much happier and social and mentally well thanks to it. Running the place would take up a lot of his time but it would also get him outta his own head a lot more, and having so many other people around directly interacting with him as the boss instead of sometimes ordering him around as an employee would really help him fix any remaining personality issues all around as well since he'd be more aware of how he was acting and treating others.

He killed someone in self-defense, not to actually hurt them. This was a big one, since it happened before the episode and he obviously was released prior to this, and I feel like if this was an actual homicide he kinda would still be in prison, right? His mugshot looks recent (only because of filming which I get but I'm rolling with it), so it couldn't be too long ago, but it's more than likely closer to present in canon than the five years ago I timed his eviction around, since I think if that happened too close then he would just be a mess. I can't see him getting his DWH job immediately after either thing happened, going for a loan after either is so out of the question as well, and killing someone and then going on a date is just ridiculous. For canon, my guess is that an argument escalated and that temper of his as well as the unstableness and reasons for his bad psych eval all came out at once, or maybe this was a test to see if he actually could kill someone, and it either had to happen before or while he was in the Academy like in my fic, or it happened in the two months leading up to the episode, even though I can't for the life of me explain him getting out so soon if he did do it on purpose. And that's fine, it does make sense if either of those are close, they needed something dramatic to put on his rap sheet and make him terrible so he's not just randomly jumping straight to murder, but I personally like the idea of him being broken down so much that this is just the icing on the cake, another black mark on his life that'll follow him forever, and it's only through him being acquitted and a miracle that he gets his two jobs a year or two later.

Things I'd love to explore in future fics:

He might actually enjoy streaming. This one is obvious but I wanna do my own take on it! I don't know if he would be the type to stick to only games, but there is someone I watch who does whatever makes him happy now as well as games, and I think Simon might mesh with that a lot. He would obviously put a lot of weight on the numbers aspect of it (again, very me-coded, it doesn't matter how much I do things for myself, having that approval makes all the difference in the world and I know he's the same), but the reader would help him try and get over that in time. When he's able to hire more staff and spend more time at home I think he would do random weekend streams, and if he got AH's version of the youtube play buttons he would definitely cry and put it on display with pride. He would treasure all his viewers, and make his streams very personal because of that, learning frequent viewers' names, doing stuff like giveaways and shoutouts, give all the appreciation back to them.

He would need to realize he needs to work on himself, no more excuses. While he is miles better in my fic, he still very obviously has depression, emotional issues, and relies too much on what others think of him, so him working on that and finding happiness in what he does have will do him wonders. Of course having the reader there every step of the way will also help him heal that much faster as he goes through it all.

I think that's everything! I did not wake up this morning expecting to write my first deep dive on Simon of all people lol but I'm glad I did, I relate a lot to parts of him, this is how I personally see him and how I wrote my fic based around all this, and I mean no harm if any of my thoughts conflict with anyone else's who checks this out 💗

Also as a bonus, I said it in the tags but the Hotel is real :D it's an ooooold restaurant in my small town directly across from where I live, and back when I was either in or just out of highschool they rebranded from the Hotel to what it is now, had to shut down and everything as they changed everything up inside and added in a bunch of new décor to fit the theme. Everyone calls it by the new name of course, but my family never really started, so whenever we talk about ordering from there we'll say something like, 'wanna get Hotel tonight?' I too have to correct myself whenever I accidentally say it around people who don't know about the old name lol

I always add in stuff from my personal life into my fics in some way, and since Simon wanted to open the bar I thought it'd be sweet if he and the reader bonded over something food related like I did with Joshua, instead of say meeting up for drinks instead and just getting afternoon drunk every Friday since it directly went with him wanting to be a bartender.

Maybe in the future I can do a drabble about a bar date before he and the reader get together, tie in that he also started to take lessons in preparation for applying for the bar he works for at the start of the fic, something sweet like that as they get closer 🥰