#Been working on so many things to write aaa

[the-cauldron-witch]

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, c’mere. With Donnie pls? Maybe still crush state? 👁️👁️ (thank you in advance!)

Thank you so much for the ask!!! 🫂🫂🫂

I'm really sorry for taking so long, Donnie was being difficult and wouldn't let me write this out apparently! I hope you like it!

Taglist: @silverwatergalaxy @thelaundrybitch @sophiacloud28 @iridescentflamingo @thegirlwiththeninjaturtletattoos @yorshie @truffle-draws-turtles (message me if you want to be apart of my taglist! I just started keeping it, so if I forgot to tag you don't be upset)

Sparks scattered from the tip of the soldering iron in Donnie’s expert hand, putting the finer finishing touches to the circuit board inside the device resting on his work bench. Sweat beaded at the top of his brow, trickling down his face and neck behind the welding mask as he worked. Once he was satisfied with the work he lifted the shield from his face and smiled down at his creation, closing the panel and sealing away the wires and circuits from the rest of the world. With the final touches finally complete Donnie felt confident enough to test out his new invention; a shuriken wrist launcher. Although his brothers and himself had incredible accuracy with shurikens, they could only throw so many so fast, with this new device whomever used it should be able to send multiple shurikens at a target at top speed.

“Hey, Donnie!” Your voice broke the silence like a thin sheet of ice, snapping him out of his studying gaze and fumble with the invention for a split second. “Oh, jeez, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you” You couldn’t help but giggle an apology while Donnie sighed in relief with the invention still in his hand.

“No worries, I just finished my shuriken launcher actually,” He said with a grin, peeling the welding mask from his sweat covered head and placing it on his bench. Donnie was grateful for the way his purple mask hid the slight color that came to his cheeks at the mere sight of you standing at the entrance to his lab, shifting from one foot to the other while watching him. This could be the millionth time he saw you, yet it still gave him butterflies like it was the first time.

“Shuriken launcher? Seems kind of redundant,” You questioned with a raised eyebrow, walking into the lab and to Donnie’s side so that you could eye the metal gauntlet in his hand.

“Well, because of our tridactyl hands we are only able to throw at maximum two shurikens with each hand, totaling to four shurikens for each of us. Leo is the only one who managed to throw three in each hand successfully, but they weren’t as accurate compared to throwing the typical two in each hand.”

Slipping the gauntlet over his muscular green forearm Donnie studied his invention, pressing a button on the side facing himself. The gauntlet hissed for a second as the inner cuff began inflating, securing itself to his arm. Donnie flexed his hand and wrist, making sure that the cuff wasn’t too constricting but also held firm enough to not budge easily. Curiosity now piqued you watched while Donnie flexed his muscular arm, admiring his physique more than the invention if you were being honest.

“I recycled a blood pressure cuff machine for the base so that it could be used by anyone who wears it, no matter the size of their forearm,” Donnie explained, pointing his arm to an invisible target ahead of him. “It keeps the device secure against the users arm for better aim,”

“Oh, like the ones you see at the pharmacy?” You questioned enthusiastically, drawing yourself closer to Donnie so you can inspect the shuriken launcher closer. Now that you were closer to it you could see he had taken the blood pressure cuff as he said, mounting what looked like a modified multi-disc CD player onto the top where the shurikens were stored and ejected through a slim opening at the wrist. There were a few other components you couldn’t identify, but they all seemed to work together by Donnie’s ingenuity.

“Yeah! I haven’t put the shurikens inside the launcher just yet, I was just about to test it out in the dojo for the first time, if you’d like to join?”

“I’d love to! Can I try it out next?” Bouncing on your toes with eagerness you followed him out of the lab like an excited puppy. Your enthusiasm and excitement to help and learn from Donnie always sent a small whirlwind of butterflies fluttering in his stomach, something about the way your eyes lit up and voice heightened made him feel weak in the knees.

“O-of course, sure! But I want to take the first test, just to make sure everything is programmed correctly” Donnie spoke a little louder than intended, mirroring your own excitement as he strode his way to the dojo. Once entering the dojo Donnie made his way over to the training dummy, many shuriken already scattered about and lodged into different surfaces. Plucking the ones from the floor and pulling the three out of the wooden dummy he pressed a button facing him, the top of the devices panel popping open. Placing the shuriken collected in his hand into the compartment and closing the hatch he turned to you.

“Alright, so here’s how it should work,” Slipping into his ‘Bill Nye voice’ as Mikey described once, Donnie began explaining the device on his arm to you with a small smile turning the ends of his lips, “I modified the blood pressure cuff with some sensors that read the way your muscles move and flex, so that when I clench my fist and move it in just the correct way it should launch one shuriken at a time when flexed or sending multiple when your hand is held in that position,”

Taking a stance in front of the target practice dummy Donnie locked onto the blue and yellow target painted on the torso, lining up his shot and flexing his hand downward as though he were throttling a motorcycle handle. There was a long, drawn out moment of silence where nothing happened. Another moment and Donnie flexed his hand in the same way again, clenching and unclenching his fist in the manner needed for the device to launch a shuriken. Still nothing.

“Did you turn it on?” You questioned, giggling nervously as you earned an incredulous deadpanned look from the tall terrapin. After another second of holding the gauntlet out, Donnie sighed and brought his arm towards himself once again and relaxed his hand.

“That’s strange, maybe I didn’t calibrate the sensors correctly?” Donnie murmured to himself, studying his invention with a furrowed brow and small annoyed huff. He had gone over the programming his usual four dozen times and tested the sensors inside the blood pressure cuffs with his computer the same amount, the device should at least attempt to launch a shuriken.

Approaching Donnie as he continued his intense gaze as though the problem would be written on the surface of the uncooperative device, he didn’t register your proximity as he continued scrutinizing and silently questioning what could not be working right. Grazing the tip of his finger over the area where the shurikens had been loaded into earlier Donnie noticed the small door had not latched shut properly. Pressing his finger on the hatch the smallest and softest ‘click’ registered in Donnie’s ears a millisecond before a glint of metal shot from his wrist.

You didn’t have time to so much as blink. The weapon was ejected in the flicker of an eye with incredible speed, the sharpened tip grazing the skin of your cheek and leaving a thin trail of crimson beads behind. Hissing as the fiery sting settling into your cheek you reached a hand to your face, fingertips meeting warm blood as you and Donnie stared at one another in shock. Blood trickled down your cheek for a second longer before Donnie snapped out of his daze, pressing the button to disengage the gauntlet from his arm and let it drop to the floor without a care.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit, c’mere” Donnie breathed as he quickly leaned down to capture your face in his massive hands, the sudden closeness causing your breath to hitch in your throat and heart to stammer a beat. Not giving you a chance to find your voice again Donnie swept you off of your feet and into his massive arms, carrying you to the med-bay hastily in one fell swoop. How could he have let something like this happen? Something as stupid as the hatch not being closed correctly shouldn’t have gotten you hurt! You practically blinked and the two of you were in the medbay. Placing you on the exam table gently Donnie studied your face with concern and guilt wrinkling his brow and eyes.

“Donnie?” You questioned as he darted to the otherside of the room, opening a drawer or two before pulling out a plastic med kit.

“So fucking stupid...should have fucking known better, didn’t pay attention enough!” You could hear him muttering angrily to himself, berating himself for letting you get hurt in the most ridiculous way. Guilt clutched at your chest as you heard him curse under his breath. It wasn’t like he did it on purpose or knew something so small would go wrong, things like this just happened sometimes.

“Donnie?” You tried again when he sat himself in on a rolling chair and slid clear across the room to your side. The cut no longer burned as harshly now, but the sting still lingered and pulsated. Blinking himself out of the fog the panic settled in his mind Donnie’s eyes finally met yours.

“It’s okay, really,” A smile attempted to dimple your cheek, making you wince a tiny bit from the fresh pain, “I’m okay, honestly. It’s just a little scratch! Stop beating yourself up,”

“I...I know...I should have known better than to point it-” He began berating himself again as his fingers fiddled with the antiseptic wipe in his hands, fingers fumbling and making him more frustrated. Taking his jittering hands in your own you brought his attention back onto you, his heart hammering in his chest as he felt the warmth of your soft hands wrapping around his rather larger ones. The sudden urge took over you, leaning you forward and pressed so that you could press your lips to his forehead for a moment. Electricity ran from where your lips met his skin down his neck and through every nerve ending in his shell and skin, sparks crackling and sending shivers down his spine. Pulling your lips away from his forehead you registered what you had done, offering a shy smile.

“It’s just a little scratch. I’m okay, really” You giggled nervously.

Swallowing the thick lump suddenly lodged in his throat Donnie couldn’t bring himself to speak again, knowing his voice would crack and betray him now. Instead he focuses on the dried blood staining your cheeks, despite the fact they were already flushing red from your own doing. Not that Donnie’s own face wasn’t heated by the kiss placed on his forehead, but he wasn’t going to admit that out loud just yet.

[nadvs]

I love love love this new au🥹 coming from a severely stressed Uni student could you write how rafe would take care of her when she’s studying too much barely eating or drinking and just really anxious for exams and stressed out.

aaa thank you angel 🥺 yes of course!! i hope you feel better soon!!

based on this fic

“…practice until five,” she hears.

“sorry, what?” she mumbles to rafe, her stare focused ahead.

her boyfriend gazes at her profile as they sit in his bedroom, watching a show on his flatscreen.

“my schedule next week,” he says. “you asked about it.”

“right,” she says. she meets his concerned blue eyes. “sorry. i was out of it again.”

she can feel herself retreating from reality all the time. finals are only a month away and she keeps catching herself zoning out out of lectures and conversations, spiralling into nerve-racking hypotheticals.

“did you eat today?” he asks.

“um… i think so?” she says.

“you’d remember if you did.”

rafe grabs his phone out from beneath the covers to order takeout. she looks at his screen, his wallpaper the photo of herself in his jersey that she’s seen so many times, and realizes it’s minutes away from eight p.m.

“fuck, it’s eight?” she says, scrambling out of bed. “i was supposed to go home to study like an hour ago.”

she grabs her things, staring at him with wide eyes, confused why he isn’t rushing to leave.

“you can drive me, right?” she asks.

“chill for a second,” he sighs. “what if you skipped it tonight? sleep here.”

“i can’t. i can barely sleep in my own bed,” she says. “i can barely sleep at all. if it’s a hassle to drive me, i can order a-”

“no.” rafe stands, relenting. he knows she’ll just argue if he pushes. “let’s go.”

“are you mad?” she asks.

“no,” he says.

“we don’t bullshit-”

“bullshit each other, i know,” he finishes her sentence. “i’m not mad.”

she trails him out of the room. even though he said he’s not mad, he’s acting like it.

rafe’s hands are tight on the steering wheel as he drives to her college campus through dark, busy streets. his girl’s been in her own world lately. every day, it gets worse.

he knows fighting will just stress her out more. he tries to encourage her to take breaks, but it seems to just make her spiral more.

he gets it. his mind gets tangled up, too. pressure can be a bitch. so, he bites his tongue for her sake. she’s the only person he cares enough to reign in his temper for.

“you’re really not mad?” she asks softly.

“i’m worried,” he admits.

she’s silent, staring out the window.

“it’s just finals,” she says. “i’ll be okay.”

rafe’s not entirely convinced. but he gives her the space she needs and drops her off.

about half an hour later, she gets a text from him that there’s takeout waiting for her downstairs. she can’t manage to eat everything because he sent enough food to feed a whole group of people.

then, he texts her close to midnight to see if she went to bed yet.

she replies: can’t fall asleep.

he texts: i’ll be there soon.

when rafe arrives, he calls her to come downstairs. she tries to climb in the passenger seat, but he tells her to go the back. when she opens the door, she sees that he laid out blankets and a pillow across the backseat.

“what is this?” she asks.

“you said you can’t sleep in your bed. or mine,” he says. “what if i drove around? could you sleep then?”

“are you serious?” she says.

“i’ll park in front of my place when you fall asleep. i’ll stay in the car. just get comfortable, alright?”

she settles in the back, leaning across the seat, following his instructions to still buckle herself in.

“thank you,” she says as he starts to drive. her eyelids are already getting heavy, the steady motion of the car genuinely helping. “sorry i’ve been so stressed out.”

“just sleep, baby,” he says.

“okay,” she whispers.

it works. she dozes off within minutes. he drives around for a while to make sure she’s deep asleep.

after he parks in his driveway, he sprawls out in his seat. this is uncomfortable. he’ll be sore tomorrow. and maybe the next day, which is a game day.

but as he listens to her deep breaths, he doesn’t doubt that she’s worth it. she hasn’t been taking care of herself lately. if he has to do it for her, he will. every time.

[aethon-recs]

This Week (x2) in Tomarrymort (11 – 24 October 2024)

Bundling 2 weeks’ worth of updates together, sorry for missing last week! In terms of ship happenings, @exquisite-tomarrymort-telephone has been posting a series of fics loosely interconnected by prompts, which started this week and will wrap up next week. 

As before, please feel free to add some extra context to your fic update in the reblog, ie, a little bit about the chapter(s) updated, and I’ll throw it in the update for next week. See below for a recap of the author notes from last week:

friend of the devil (a friend of mine) by @shyinsunlight (E, 17k, WIP) “Red flags are good party decorations, and love can be blind if you keep your eyes shut tight enough. Rodolphus discovers team spirit, and Abraxas finds that his home is no longer his castle.” a pound of flesh by @ictyn (M, 21k, WIP) “Harry, trapped and undying in his own mutilated corpse, must turn inward to find his salvation. Inside his very soul is the key to annoying his nemesis into returning for him. In the end, he'd much rather lose his mind to torture than to eternal boredom.” the precarity of virgin souls by @izharmilgram (M, 4k, complete)  “The second part to on line sex & rabbit stew. It includes dueling, cooking (the rabbit stew!), a first kiss, manipulation, and a horcrux reveal.” the alchemy by @cindle-writes (E, 2k, WIP) “A college AU rom-com wherein Harry is the star of the college baseball team, and tries to convince Tom to go on one, just one, date with him.” Anytime, Anywhere, Always by @moontearpensfic (E, 18k, WIP) “In this last update of AAA, Tom explores how he feels about his attachment to Harry. Very fluffy chapter!” Infinite by @moontearpensfic (E, 4k, WIP) “Infinite is a prequel fic to Love, Murder, Horcrux. In chapter one, the boys start their first year of Hogwarts together, and Harry is Sorted Slytherin. I love playing with the dynamics of Harry in Slytherin House in the 90s! We usually see it in time travel fics, but it's great to explore it here.”

I’ll also highlight newly completed multi-chaptered fics, as it’s a wonderful thing to celebrate with the authors as their work comes to an end! 🎉

Part One - The Solitude of Suffering by @iseliljathedreamer (M, 187k, complete) Many things are different and many are the same as Harry begins his fifth year at Hogwarts. Here, living with Dursleys that aren't just neglectful but outright abusive made Harry unable to withstand more than a few weeks of Trelawney's "predictions" back in his third year. Instead, he took Ancient Runes, and uncovered that he had a prodigious knack for runic magic, which opened the door to the darkest of rituals and the magic of mind and soul. A year later, Harry uncovered something horrible within himself - a parasite. So, when Voldemort sends him dreams of corridors and doors, Harry sends him pieces of hell in return.

*

Tomarrymort One Shots and Completed Fic

Chapters 38 and 39 (Completed) of Part One - The Solitude of Suffering by @iseliljathedreamer

One Shot | To be Guarded by @cyandenial

One Shot | nineteen (ten years apart) by @midsummersins

One Shot | compromising positions by @virgil-anon 

One Shot | time and a rabbit foot for luck by @izharmilgram 

One Shot | Aliquot by @crowcrowcrowthing @cindle-writes

One Shot | Pink Shorts by @crowcrowcrowthing

One Shot | Premium Pussy by @hopeforthewitch

One Shot | as sweet as blood red jam by @cindle-writes

One Shot | Locked in Focus by @v33r00

*

Tomarrymort Ongoing Fics

Chapter 22 of What In Me Is Dark, Illumine by @telelli-writes

Chapter 16 of Sits the wind in that quarter by @mosiva

Chapter 10 of Ills of Murder by @shadow-of-the-eclipse

Chapter 37 of With a resolute heart by Act_Naturally

Chapter 5 of some like it hot by @duplicitywrites

Chapter 2 of Touch of Death by @moontearpensfic

Chapters 128 through 130 of Liquida Tenebris (Remastered) by @dymis

Chapters 18 and 19 of Outrunning the Villain in You by @zenyteehee

Chapter 17 of with eyes like these (who sees anybody else) by @cealesti

Chapter 1 of every step I choose to take begins to set the world aflame by @boyneptunee

Chapters 8 through 10 of Hole in the Wall by tomrddle

Parts 1 through 13 of Broken Tomarrymort Telephone by @exquisite-tomarrymort-telephone

Chapter 1 of throne sex by @xxx-codtyl-xxx

Chapter 113 of In Willing Sacrifice by @hikarimeroperiddle

Chapter 6 of i am anonymous, you are a concrete wall by Pensievable

Chapter 6 of Syzygy by TimaeusKosmou

Chapter 5 of Memories of a Killer by @chemfreak89

Chapter 4 of doublethink by confunded

Chapter 4 of i might be the writer but you'll always be the words by @wixen-writes-tomarry

Chapter 1 of If I were you by @onehitpleb

Chapter 5 of Dreams Beyond Blood by @hikarimeroperiddle

Chapters 3 and 4 of What quickens me is the violence in thee by @i-dream-of-libraries

Chapters 19 and 20 of Learning to love by @l-archiduchesse

Chapters 3 through 5 of Venom or Valor by @lightningant

Chapter 7 of Like we were before by tzutzutrain

Chapter 20 of Date Ideas for the Linguistically Inclined by Antique_Mango

Chapters 1 and 2 of Solitude by TimaeusKosmou

Chapter 23 of Time Stumbler by @wintumnly

Chapters 13 and 14 of Saint Harry by @alenablack @chaos-bear

Chapter 6 of Fetters of the Damned by @sc0rpiflow3r

Chapter 2 of A Murder by Crows by @iseliljathedreamer

Chapter 8 of God is a Wizard by @onehitpleb

Chapter 2 of Auror Potter by @albondiguilla

Chapter 15 of A Dead God's Faith by @selfishrot

Chapter 8 of Actus Reus by TimaeusKosmou

Chapter 8 of These Fragments We've Shored by @rowena-rain

Chapter 5 of Dream a little dream (of me) by @cenedrariva

*

[merakiui]

AAAAA ok so. You're one of my favorite authors here on Tumblr and slkssnlssksn I'm so nervous waaaa thanks for taking your time to brainrot with us <3 I'm in love with your writing and your delicious concepts and how you execute them oh god and when you write about stinky greasy incel Idia OK I'm gonna stop and actually order aaa

Can I please get assorted macaroons with a lacy lingerie along with a hint of sea salt caramels and a finishing touch of a pineapple parfait with Floyd and Jade, together? Something sweet and cute but with a lingering feeling of uneasiness <3 Hope it's well-ordered! Please and thank you very much!! 🥹

yandere!jade leech x (gender neutral) reader x yandere!floyd leech cw: yandere, unhealthy relationship/behaviors, drugging, implied captivity, brief mentions of implied nsfw, obsession note - thank you for checking in, dearest guest! enjoy your order! [lunar love hotel]

˚���· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ ᴊᴀᴅᴇ ʟᴇᴇᴄʜ & ꜰʟᴏʏᴅ ʟᴇᴇᴄʜ

☆ Your “wedding” was unofficial, a quiet ceremony without an audience. Jade dressed you for the occasion, prettying you up as if you were a doll. You certainly felt so as you watched your reflection in the mirror, drifting in and out of a daze. Floyd poked at your shoulder to rouse you, giggling about his “sweet, sleepy Shrimpy.” When the wedding bands were slid on your ring fingers—the left for Floyd and the right for Jade—it became official. They kissed you on both cheeks and promised you a future filled with love and happiness. You couldn’t protest; there was no room for such a thing, not when Floyd’s mouth was already closing over yours.

☆ The first five days are for Floyd, and the next five will be Jade’s. They planned it together, all with your and their shared interests in mind. The first five days of your honeymoon are spent at a tropical resort. You delight in local cuisine and beautiful sights, allowing the twins to hold your hands while you walk between them. They spoil you rotten, buying all sorts of clothes and jewelry to add to your wardrobe, trinkets that catch your eye, sweets you seem to fancy. Money has never been an issue, which is why everything feels so grand and lavish. You’re taken to the beach, to a quiet, desolate strip that few tourists know of. Towels are laid out; an umbrella is propped. Floyd drags you towards the sea, eager to shed his human form and swim with you. Jade reads in the shade, occasionally glancing up from his book to watch you.

☆ As the sun shifts through the sky, you tire yourself out. Between swimming with Floyd, sunbathing alongside Jade, and indulging in a picnic with both, you’re plenty sluggish by the day’s end. They snap your picture just as you feel yourself falling, giggling to each other about how cute you look. The twins intend to capture many of your best (and possibly worst) moments during the entirety of this honeymoon. When the secret contents of your lunch catch up to you and render you sleepy, you assume it’s just the result of a long day sapping your energy. It makes you pliable, has you dragging them into bed when you’re oscillating between slumber and wakefulness. The camera shutters, capturing you curled up against Floyd in bed—perfectly, peacefully asleep.

☆ The twins take turns cooking for you. Mornings are for Floyd. He prepares all types of breakfasts, all with your favorites. You think he has too much fun in the kitchen because some meals are decorated cutely—pancakes looking like cats and bears and fruit cut into stars and hearts. Jade takes care of lunch and snacks throughout the day. They work together on dinner. It’s a guarantee that you’ll always feast on delicious meals regardless of which twin cooks. Strangely, the meals are so delicious that they leave you sleepy or, in some cases, achingly hot. The twins take good care of you whenever this happens. Maybe something just didn’t agree with your stomach… It’s nothing to worry about. They’re here for you.

☆ As the days wear on, you find yourself swamped in love. Whether you’re enjoying mornings down at the beach, exploring and shopping in town, touring popular destinations, or enjoying drinks on the balcony at sunset, the twins are always by your side. Floyd clings, his arm perpetually wrapped around your waist. Jade likes to slide his hand into yours, holding it with such a gentle fondness. He kisses your knuckles softly, eyeing the rings on your fingers with a pleased smile.

☆ Jade booked quite the quaint cabin for his half of the honeymoon. For the next five days, the three of you will see endless, sprawling pines from your spot in the mountains. He’s got a vague itinerary in mind, but it’s subject to change as you get through these five days. Surprises are more than welcome. The cabin is so cozy, equipped with all the necessities for a trip such as this one. It even has a fireplace. Jade is much too eager to gather and chop firewood even though it’s already supplied.

☆ He takes you out on hikes through the woods, pointing out flora and fauna as you encounter them. His eyes are sparkling the entire time. Floyd’s not as into it as Jade is, but he does enjoy walking alongside you and taking pictures of your most candid moments. You’ve been feeling groggy ever since breakfast, so you’re not nearly as alert as you usually are. Floyd takes this as his opportunity to snap your photo when you least expect it and to steal quick kisses. Jade thinks it’s so cute that you can hardly keep your eyes open. He promises the lot of you will turn around and head back after he gathers just a few more mushrooms for tonight’s dinner. You’re lying down for a nap by the time you make it back, the sun dipping below the horizon. You think you feel the bed depressing under Jade’s weight, his hands ghosting over your clothes to help change you into something comfortable. You let it happen.

☆ This place is oddly isolated. The locals are sweet, though. When Jade tells them you’re here on honeymoon, they all smile and tell you to have fun, to enjoy these special moments, to feel lucky that you have two husbands who adore you so very much. You thank them with a pleasant smile. Jade and Floyd keep their hands on you beneath the table during lunch. Even if you wanted to say something, you couldn’t. They make sure of that. And if you seem paranoid, they wave it off casually. Jade tells anyone who asks that you just love the variety of mushrooms here, especially the fun kinds. You’re not sure what he means until much later when you’ve digested your meal and your vision blurs. Jade’s there to steady you before you can fall over, petting your head in that affectionate way and cooing at you to calm down. It’s your honeymoon. You deserve to relax. His sharp, overly sweet smile is all you see in your dreams.

☆ Honeymoons are especially exciting because they come with amenities fitting for the occasion. A complimentary bottle of wine, luxury chocolates, condoms… Floyd tosses that last one aside. You won’t need them. If you insist on using protection for whatever reason, Jade will ease your worries with a placid smile. He’ll indulge your request. He wears one, yes, but then it’s not a guarantee that this one hasn’t been tampered with in some way. You’ll never know. Floyd’s a bit more difficult to convince. He adores cumming inside and then felching it out of your slick hole. You shiver through it all, clawing at the sheets as you melt beneath them. Your husbands pamper you excessively, so don’t think about anything and just enjoy yourself.

☆ The mountains are peaceful. Unlike the tropical paradise you previously came from, things are slower here. You enjoy watching the sunrise cut through the trees in the mornings, sitting at the window with Jade and Floyd. You sleep late into the afternoon, sandwiched between both of them. Floyd’s an early riser, so breakfast is always waiting for you when you and Jade eventually wake. It’s quiet bliss. You sit and sketch nature alongside Jade in the afternoon, who adores every little line you make with your pencil. He tells you so, leaning in to kiss the corner of your mouth when you pout and insist his is better. There’s no competition here, and even if there was he will always love yours more. When night falls Floyd prepares a campfire. You roast marshmallows for s’mores. Floyd dances around the firepit, singing gleefully and pulling you up from the log to dance alongside him. Firelight reflects off of your rings. It’s a wonderful honeymoon.

[mariacallous]

Ashley Poprik has never been the model for a video game character. As a writer on projects like Spider-Man 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, they work on games, not as characters within them. In 2023, however, a cabal of angry gamers was convinced otherwise. They were furious over how Spider-Man 2’s Mary Jane looked; more specifically, they complained, she simply wasn’t hot enough.

The problem, these gamers falsely claimed, was that Poprik—then a writing intern with no ability to change a character’s face, let alone one based on a real-life model—had inserted themself into the game. Gamers concocted this conspiracy based on a photo of the writer, placed side-by-side with Mary Jane; in the photo, Poprik and MJ both sport long hair with a middle part, are smiling, and have a similar face shape.

Poprik, who identifies as gender-fluid, describes themself as having androgynous features. “A big narrative spun up that I was a trans woman, and so I was getting hate from any alt-right winger,” they say.

“I was getting so many death threats, pictures of decapitated women, and YouTube videos about me that were just straight made-up information,” Poprik says. “It forever changed the way I feel about video games.”

Eventually, things got so bad that Poprik had to wipe personal information from the internet out of fear for their safety.

Poprik has faced months of ongoing online harassment as well as in-person accusations of making things “woke”—especially for features within the games they had no involvement in. Yet in each case, Poprik says, they received no support or security resources from the companies they worked for.

“When a marginalized dev is harassed, they’re on their own,” Poprik says.

Today, being anything other than a cisgender game developer in the United States is more dangerous than ever. Online, transgender and gender-nonconforming developers become harassment targets at the whims of reactionary grifters railing against anything socially progressive or the result of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Offline, President Donald Trump seeks to deny their existence with executive orders aimed at “restoring biological truth to the federal government,” restricting lifesaving health care for minors, and removing trans people from the military.

Other executive orders, though, pose a more imminent threat. Trump’s move to eliminate government funding for programs that battle discriminatory practices are already being mimicked by tech companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon. Developers fear their own employers could follow suit. Given that so much of what’s come to be known as “Gamergate 2.0” has focused on gamers railing against real or perceived DEI efforts, these worries don’t seem unfounded.

WIRED spoke with seven developers across the industry in workplaces ranging from AAA studios to small, independent companies. Many spoke to us only under the condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety or because they did not have permission to speak to the press on behalf of their companies. (WIRED independently confirmed all their identities and employment.) What emerged was a consistent narrative of fear, stress, and alienation that follows them into the workplace and is thriving in the online culture surrounding video games.

As Poprik notes, “being a queer person in games can feel really lonely.” Very few people seem to reach out to their affected colleagues, they add, and “sometimes it feels like the lack of any sort of support means they’re happy with the state of things right now.”

Ellen, a trans developer working in AAA games, says the thought of rolling back DEI initiatives in the games industry is particularly disconcerting because, while these programs offer support to employees, they also positively impact the larger games culture by fostering an industry that produces titles that speak to and welcome a larger group of players. (Ellen is a pseudonym.)

“At the corporate level, you're making a case why it's good business,” Ellen says. “But on a personal level you're trying to make sure your community has a space carved out in the company, and your fans have a space carved out in your games.”

Like the other developers WIRED spoke to, Ellen describes daily stress that bleeds over into her work. “The news comes like an assault,” she says. “Times like this just enforce that it's important to keep going, that art like only trans people could make needs to exist in the world more.”

Even as she wonders if she should leave the US altogether, Ellen is fearful of traveling within the country as well, given that protections for trans people vary by state. Laws related to even the basic ability to use the bathroom according to a person’s gender identity shift from place to place, and Trump’s recent moves are further complicating such matters.

Return-to-office policies in the games space, for example, are removing developers’ ability to work remotely—including in states where they may feel safer. Developers who travel internationally for work could also be at risk of losing their passports. The State Department, following the president’s executive order on “gender ideology,” is no longer issuing documents with “X” gender markers, and has begun confiscating passports and related documents indefinitely when people attempt to renew theirs.

Professionally, this spells trouble for affected developers. Many gaming events take place across the US, from Los Angeles to Boston. These gatherings are business opportunities for game developers, where they can network, learn from peers, scout new jobs, find funding, or show their games. Next month, thousands in the gaming industry will gather in San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference. But some developers will be forgoing the show out of concern for their safety.

“I'm concerned I'm going to get trapped in the US,” an American developer based in Canada tells WIRED. It’s also unclear if they’ll even be able to enter the States with their current passport. “No way I'm going to risk it.”

The video game industry has a poor history of standing up to targeted harassment. It’s only in the past few years that companies have begun instituting policies and taking serious action against abusive individuals. Developers themselves have complained that their companies are not doing enough to weed out harassment online. More than a decade later, the impact of Gamergate remains as a playbook for mob-driven harassment, and the communities to utilize it.

Three developers WIRED spoke to pointed to the events of Gamergate—a large-scale misogynistic and transphobic harassment campaign by online trolls in 2014 that profoundly affected all of gaming culture—as a sort of canary in the coal mine.

“Even before the bathroom bills, around the time of the first Gamergate, you could see people getting more and more bold with their anti-trans beliefs and folks just brushing it off as a ‘joke,’” says one developer. “But then jokes became memes, and memes became popular, and then an entire culture of spreading anti-trans hate became acceptable and something we are supposed to tolerate.”

Over the past year, anti-DEI efforts intensified in gaming communities as people blamed perceived flaws and flops on diversity efforts, while ignoring the macro factors of a struggling industry. Conservative circles targeted small companies and consultants they perceived as having influence on progressive values in video games. They went after anything they considered antithetical to games they wanted made—stories without minorities or queer characters, fictional women they think are attractive, and narratives bereft of what they view as leftist political agendas. Similar anti-DEI sentiments have since ripped through the tech industry and expanded nationally.

The trans community in games has felt these attacks acutely. Controversies around inclusion on something as small as optional top surgery scars in a character creator made developers targets. “It's felt like a slow creeping horror of watching right-wing party after right-wing party realize we're a softer target than the rest of the LGB community,” one developer says.

Many developers feel frustration that the gaming industry overall has remained silent so as to not alienate an imagined audience. “It signals to players and their own workers that the company lacks a spine in standing up for their work, while signaling internally that the bottom line will always be dollars,” says another developer. “Can’t piss off the bigots, because they spend money.”

It’s even more disheartening for trans, genderqueer, and nonbinary developers who work at the very companies that won’t publicly defend them. “I know there's a lot of the rainbow capitalism, ‘Hey, we're all in it together. Look at all these flags we're waving,’” says Dax, a trans developer at a AAA studio. (Dax is a pseudonym.) “But in the end, it's a company making money. They want to appeal to as many people as possible.”

Even among progressive colleagues, Dax feels disappointed in what she feels are empty platitudes: apologies with no action, or sentiments that appear to be empathetic of her experience, but reinforce the idea that she’s suffering alone. “I remember being a cis white man, and I was scared of saying anything, or doing anything,” she says. ”I wanted to stay in my lane and not bother anybody, and that's what they're doing. The second I transitioned, I was treated differently in the industry, overall.”

Over the course of reporting this story, WIRED reached out to companies that have previously participated in corporate pride events or included trans or nonbinary characters in their games, including representatives at companies such as PlayStation, Xbox, Riot Games, and Activision Blizzard, and asked about supporting their employees. Only one company replied: Devolver Digital. In a statement, the indie publisher said that it respects the rights of all individuals and does not tolerate discrimination, victimization, or harassment based on a person’s race, sex, gender identity, or gender expression. The company added that it will continue to support its colleagues by ensuring their voices are heard.

The developers WIRED spoke to are asking for more from the places that employ them, the people they work with, and the players that enjoy their games. “We should be out there being shown off,” Dax says. Companies should not shy away from hiring or representing queer communities in their games, many of the developers tell WIRED, and they want to see company DEI initiatives highlighted, rather than hidden away.

The industry is already bleeding talent through mass layoffs; refusal to support its own employees may push many more out the door. Even before the current administration, trans and gender-nonconforming developers faced discrimination. “I went from being trusted with my knowledge to being questioned,” Dax says of her transition. “They suddenly are not giving me the same respect or understanding.”

Dax says that some people are casting blame on the trans community and its current predicament for being “so out and proud.” She disagrees with that idea. “I want to see [companies] take bold choices and stand with us instead of cowering, wanting to appease this very loud, very small group of people who just can't stop slurring and screaming and being unreasonably hateful. By saying nothing, they're siding with hate.”

[octosan]

No but when I say that the problem isn't that Veilguard is bad (when it is IMO) I'm specifically saying that I would have forgiven so much about this game in a vacuum.

In a vacuum, Veilguard feels like a genuine attempt to release a AAA game that isn't preying on its consumers with live service models, overpaid DLC that should have been in the main game, and obvious gamebreaking glitches that turn average players into unpaid beta-testers. And when I was playing it, in a lot of ways it felt like the most technically finished dragon age game of the series. It's the first dragon age game since Origins that doesn't need to be launched by the actually broken EA App! It actually has accessibility options!

But is it really less predatory to misrepresent the tone and content of the game to longtime fans? To not give so much as a warning that it, at the very least, would not be more in line with the writing and depth-of-lore of previous entries? To baldfacedly and repeatedly lie about the development cycle which shrewd players knew by heart already? Is it really okay, is it really acceptable, to wave our hands and go "well the devs probably signed an NDA that makes it so they can't openly address critique" for a game that is 70+ dollars USD and pushes merch that costs upwards of 150 dollars and is (in my understanding) even more expensive overseas? Should I, an average player, have been expected to research the ins and outs of game development language to read between the lines?

Like there's so many... greedy? decisions in this game. I have such a hard time believing that they redesigned the complex and terrifying red lyrium idol into a generic blue fantasy dagger (a redesign so half-assed they had to include a beat in the game where a character "recognizes it" for players to even know it was the same thing) for any reason other than making it easier to replicate as cosplay merch they can sell in their Rook's Coffers bundle which doesn't even include the game.

I mean the fact that they claimed, in the marketing, that the character designs in Inquisition and Veilguard were both made with cosplayers in mind should have been another red flag to me tbh.

Is this really okay?

Like,

I was (briefly) in the Bioware server, you know? I was surrounded by people who were so excited for this game and how it would follow up on previous installments. And every time someone had misgivings because of what they were seeing in the marketing, the general attitude was "everyone who worked on the game is so excited about releasing it, the writers and the devs and even the voice actors, so I will trust them that it is good." People pre-ordered the game even knowing it might not be good because "It's Dragon Age", to say nothing of people who pre-emptively bought that merch bundle.

I was one of those people. I thought "why would they bring attention to this stuff if it wasn't good? Why would they go on about how deep and rich the lore and characters are, how the story balances grim and light-hearted moments, how good the banter is, how much you can shape your Rook and their feelings on their own backstory in roleplay, how Veilguard is better written than all of the prior games, why would they say that this is the best DA game they've ever worked on, if they, at least, don't believe it? Even if in the end I'll find my tastes are different in regards to the narrative choices, it can't be worse than DA2--very flawed but which I loved--or even Inquisition--which I hated (or thought I did until now) but still get a lot of mileage out of. It will still feel like Dragon Age. So yeah, it'll be worth it to me to spend this money."

My sister dfkgkdfkgfdsk begged me to wait until the game was on sale before buying it, but the thought of waiting months and months for that made me feel depressed and again--I took the developers at their word that it would be good.

This is a joke I know the developers are not literally as bad as Gortash.

Now, though, I feel sick and embarrassed that I spent so much money on this game in a time of my life when money is increasingly becoming an issue. When I actively wish I hadn't played this game at all and had its lore and narrative decisions burned into my brain.

And it's taking me days and days to even unpack and articulate this, every time I think I'm done venting the worst of my grief I realize I have more to say.

I've seen that Jenny Nicholson quote going around lately and it's very poignant, but you know what Jenny Nicholson video reminds me of Veilguard the most?

The Star Wars Galactic Cruise video. If you haven't watched it yet, you really should click the link and check it out because it's a fantastic video, the best example of niche journalism I've personally ever seen.

I think about the ways that every point she makes in her video talking about this atrocious money-sucking Disney attraction reminds me of Veilguard. Right up to the very end where we see what we COULD have gotten and didn't because of corporate greed.

As well as the fact that there is a significant crowd of people who not only enjoy Veilguard (which again, is not an issue and I'm genuinely glad if the decisions the devs made made this a better experience for you than previous games because I would not wish this sheer level of buyer's remorse on anyone) but are claiming that the fans sitting here feeling scammed out of unreasonable amounts of money because of the misleading marketing just had "too high expectations" and "you get what you put into it" as if we don't have previous dragon age games with their shitty development cycles to point to in what we wanted out of this one and what the devs were capable of putting into it.

Exactly the same crowd claiming that people paying for an upwards $6,000 USD LARP experience are being "too nitpicky" when they point out various problems like the game breaks for some people and they didn't even make sure everyone can see the stage at the dinner show.

[avocado-writing]

I’ve been really getting into this game, and I really want to draw something for it.

So, I come here to request BG3 ladies’ reactions (or all companions if you’re up to it) perhaps reacting to Tav taking off their helmet/mask for the first time in a while? Maybe because they have a new horrific scar they don’t want to show yet?

Either way, all your posts are a joy to read!

Aaa I’m so glad you like my writing, and yes of course!! writing their immediate reaction to seeing you (and as if you’re in a relationship).

Karlach

Is shocked, but only for a moment before she starts comforting you.

Tries to reassure you that your new scar is really, really cool!

Shows you her own scars in response, telling you the story behind each of them, trying to reassure you that she thinks no differently of you.

“Babe… you never need to hide anything from me. You know that, right? We’re a team and I love you.”

Gives you a kiss if you’re happy to let her, otherwise just holds you and lets you find comfort in her arms.

Shadowheart

Goes into healer mode immediately.

Tries to work some healing magic on your scar if it’s new and help the healing process along, or if it’s older will attempt a greater restoration for you.

If she can help it she’ll keep going down that path and start a long course of healing magic.

If she can’t she never directly comments on it, but every night she makes sure to kiss you on your scar so that you know she still loves you so dearly.

Lae’zel

Pauses to examine your scar and asks you how you got it.

She listens and nods along to your story, and you can see her internally damning herself for not being there to protect you.

“The Githyanki wear their scars with pride. Each one is proof of another well-won victory against a vicious opponent. This is no different.”

In tender moments alone she runs her hand across your scar, mapping it out, caressing you. Letting you know she loves you through her actions.

Minthara

Maybe this is not what she expected, and will let you know that it’s a shock - but mostly she’s just annoyed that you didn’t tell her.

“We are equals, and you should be honest with me about all things. Never hide anything like this from me again.”

At night you see her looking so sadly at you, and she goes back to training at double the enthusiasm. You realise she wishes she’d been there to protect you and that you never had to go through it at all.

She’d never admit to it, of course. however you do hold her tighter when you fall asleep by her side.

Jaheira

She is old enough to have seen many scars in her time, and this is just another one on the list.

She cups your face in her hand, caresses the new wound, and then holds you close to her.

“You are very brave, little cub. This is something which can never be taken from you.”

If anyone says anything snide about it, she threatens to wildshape into a panther and see how they like getting a new scar.

[n0tamused]

Heyyyy so im feeling evil and thinking of some sort of reader x blade x jingyuan where blade and reader like each other but jingyuan likes reader and it's this sad painful dramatic thing where jingyuan has to let reader be happy because happiness for her is with blade not with him

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾. A Haunted House‧₊˚𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ

A/n: I hope you like this you... youu!! (pointed finger at you emoji) Tbh I wish I could write concrete chapters for these things, but I don't hav the time.. Maybe one day I'll something long/multi-chapter. I love long angst and build up aaa

Content: Angst, Jing Yuan reminiscing about you, how he watched you and Blade grow closer together, remembering how he could never bring himself to stand between you and the person your heart called out for; unrequited love, no comfort

Words: 1490

Ko-Fi

Ages have come and gone with the turns of every amber era, each one feeling slower than the last and bringing by joys and sorrows uncounted. Jing Yuan had read too many words, tested his tongue with various titles and courtesies, yet the words he was attempting to read now tasted like ashes and looked like broken ripples. He found himself losing focus as of late, much more frequently and he could not blame the habit onto his usual sleepiness or the duty of a General that weighed across his shoulders. The papers before him were the reports of his fellow subordinates, Cloud Knights, about their recent investigation. He had read the same paragraph multiple times and found himself more disappointed than the last when the words did not seem to be written in his language. 

His thoughts were plagued by you. To anyone else in his shoes such a notion would bring shame to the General - this wise and old figure who has blooded his weapon and led his ship to prosperity, but he breaks at the notion of a missing warmth and imagined what-could-have-beens. But that small world of memories and dreams is all that was able to comfort him these days, it helped him wake up in the morning when it stabbed through his chest and prevented him from further sleep, all with a sad smile on his lip. What it could have been, if you had your heart for him and not Blade.

It was the late evening when he left the confines of the Seat of Divine Foresight, fresh air filling his lungs. The new assistant that was hired to tend his office greeted him on his way out and he bid her farewell with a gentle smile, although he could hardly call her new at this point, she had been around for almost a century, yet it made little difference to him. Little things meant little, they made him sad and made him lose sleep. Ever since the stellaron had been sealed away he could not stop thinking about the disaster. His mind’s eye drifted to the image of your face when he told you the news, always preferring to tell you these kinds of things in person. He told you to keep your guard up and remain close to your residence if you had no other pressing matters in terms of your work - but the image that floated forward more often than not was the way you left.

His easy smile traded places on his face for a look much more solemn when the roof of his residence loomed over his head, heavy and cold. 

“Hello, Mimi..” he bent down and extended his hand to the white feline as it came up to him, pushing its head against his hand in a strong greeting before making figure eights around and through his legs. At times like these, Jing Yuan felt as if this little creature alone harbored love towards him or took him into consideration, be it when she licked his face to wake him in the mornings or when she didn’t mind when he scratched her ears when she brought him a dead mouse as a trophy for him. A show off, this little one is. Sighing, he carefully stepped from her and took off his boots, placing them back into place.

Moving further inside he glimpsed the darkening sky outside, for a moment wondering if some of his more sensitive plants could use some more watering. He spots the low hanging leaves of the more dramatic sort of his plants. It was watered more than any other plant in his care, yet it curled its leaves and blooms in on itself, drooping from its clay pot, asking for another gallon of water.  

There are letters on the table, he had received them and read them that same morning. The letters themselves looked like they had gone through the disaster, with crumbled paper and torn edges, but Jing Yuan could recognize your handwriting anywhere, even in its most unshapely of forms. The envelopes are open neatly, yet torn at the edges where he couldn’t keep himself from ripping it open, his patience bending in the way of his gut-wrenching curiosity. Every step he takes towards the low table makes his feet feel heavy as lead, agonizing, slow, too heavy to bear, but the General has been through many trials, and none felt as painfully rewarding as this one.

In the corners of his eye he sees a different image than the dull walls of his empty home, he sees fragmented images of better days.

You’re sitting next to him and there are drinks on the table instead of letters. Blade- no, Yingxing is sitting across from you, lifting his cup of rice wine up into the air and towards yours. Baiheng is there too, exclaiming how they were going on with the toasts without her. There is one other, but Jing Yuan wishes not to remember. All hands join together making the porcelain cups clink and sing. 

Yingxing looked less gloomy, less reserved, he looked a century younger with the smile he wore on his face and the faint flush on his cheeks which he styled to perfection after a few drinks had settled in his gut, his eyes fixed on you. Your hands suddenly slap Jing Yuan on the shoulder, a playful act, it barely hurt but he swayed as if the impact had him reeling - you scolded him for not paying attention to you when you asked him something. What was it that you asked? A blessing? For what? Why his? There is a ring hanging on a necklace around that pretty neck of yours - only it wasn’t something he gifted you. Yingxing ,for once, used his skill for something other than weapons. He remembers your squeals of joy when you came over to show it to him. 

It was fine steel, an elegant band of rippling black across it, a red crystal on the top embraced by thorny ivy. It was a bold ring, a rather big ring, and the work of it showed that its master did not specialize in jewelry making - but that did not make it any less special or any less beautiful.

He remembers your joy more than the ring, your flushed cheeks and how you were nearly out of breath by the end of the conversation. Your face is fading, he realizes.

Yingxing is what he sees next in his mind’s eye in his later years, wrinkles decorating the corners of his eyes and the corners of his mouth, leaving permanent reminders of his joyous life. He asks Jing Yuan to relay something to you, a velvet box with a metal handle to clasp it shut through a loop. He wonders why he can’t give it to you himself, why task him with such a thing? But he doesn’t refuse. The memory doesn’t end there, but Jing Yuan can’t make himself remember more of it. The doubt, the hurt, the betrayal..

The mirage slips by like indents in the sand which the waves lap away. Another memory takes place. It is just you and him. There are words unspoken. You look older with the weariness in your eyes, and lean forward, resting your forehead against his shoulder, but you don’t seem to dare to press yourself any closer to him. This one is not a recent memory, and in hindsight Jing  Yuan wonders if you were trying to apologize to him then, in advance. Did you know things would turn out this way? Did you know he’d let you slip from his grasp like nothing ever existed between the two of you? He let you go, knowing you wouldn’t return to him, yet it hurt. You weren’t his. 

He deserved to know you were alright, he deserved to know the truth of it, deserved to be told not to hope - that’s what all those letters told him, what you said in woven careful words, and he can swear there are dried tear stains on the paper. Were those from you or from him?

“Keep her safe”, he whispered, frowning as the house around him grew gray. Lan, keep her safe. Blade - don’t you dare hurt her. It wasn’t a threat, it was a plea. 

He thought of sending you a response back, it was what kept him occupied the entire day besides his ghosts and your fading scent. Perhaps he shouldn’t - the letters would not reach you, and even if they did they would consist of his words telling you how he wished you all the best, wishing you safe travels through the stars - he could never will himself to hurt you, by words or actions. Sorrowful words would do him nothing, and they wouldn’t return you to him either. 

Jing Yuan decides to not write anything back. 

“(Y/n).. Stay safe. Stay happy..”

Dividers at the top: heavenlayt

Ⓒ n0tamused. Do not repost, translate, edit, and/or copy any of my works. Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated.

[atinyniki]

파이팅 해야지

my mooties ! (in no particular order) pt. 1 || pt. 2

@mjailene15: hehe i don't think we interact much either but i looooooooove your reblogs ! from what i know, i think you're multi-fandom ! it's so cool to see other fandoms among our little kpop community on tumblr hehe <3

@extrhotjne: jane... your reblogs... so fucking yummylicious i find soooooooo many twt links on your page lmaooo, pls stay freaky and never change <3

@tujhe-chaand-ke-bahane-dekhoon: aaa hi ! i'm pretty sure we met through koko, and i'm not even quite sure if you're a part of this fandom lol, but i hope we can interact again soon <3

@becomingmina: minaaaa ! lord im literally in love with your fics. you are such a talented fucking writer and i love the way your writing is so like... neat idk how to explain it. either way you're literally amazing at what you do, hope to see you back after your break <3

@ashxxgyu: ashhhh hehehe :3 i love your works they're literally soooo amazing and i def have to go through your masterlist soon ! the first kiss series actually changed the trajectory of my life js so yk <3

@soullostinspaceandtime: hehhwhahahah... i don't think we've spoken to eachother since like kylei or wtv, but you're genuinely so fucking hilarious i love you so much <3

@oddinarylani: fuckk your angst is so inspiring... i remember crying over your fics/scenarios when i first read them, and even now i still go back to them from time to time. you are genuinely such a talented writer, i love you <3

@xpeachesncream: hehehhahah i think we lowkey have like the same name or something but your drabbles are so augh... you're so cool i literally love you pls never stop writing your fics are my lifeline <3

@mnwrld: kana !! i think you've gone offline too, but i miss your fics :( i'm pretty sure you've deleted them all to but omgggg i loved them ! i hope you're doing well now <3

@vanillacupcakefrosting: lordd i'm pretty sure we first started interacting through reblogs but i've just recently read one of your fics and i loved it ! glad to see you're still around love <3

@2miniverses: aaa hi :3 i don't think you're too active rn, bc i'm pretty sure the last thing i saw from you was like a month ago... but i hope your writing career here goes well ! excited to see what you put out <3

@vixialuvs: kjhewgfukjwf idk if you write anymore, but holy shitttt your smut is so fucking good. i think you went on a little break around the same time as me, but omg i still go back to your fics every now and then. they're soooo good <3

@bangchansgirlsblog: i remember reading your little series 'my biggest regret'. i loved it soooosososso much but i'm honestly just a sucker for angst lmfaooo </3 but omg it was sooo good ! i hope we can interact again soon <3

@minhosbitterriver: aaa miss you so much ! i was way too scared to reach out over discord, but your fics are absolutely phenomenal. i don't even know how someone can write that well uwegfiowilf omfg. but all that aside, i hope life is treating you well <3

@maximumkillshot: omg we've been mooties for sooo long honestly it's hard to remember how we first found eachother ! i love the entirety of your skz masterlist it's soooo good ! hopefully we can interact again soon <3

@linos-kitten: eugfuwfi aaaaa omg i miss you so much :( i'm pretty sure you're only active as a reader rn but your fluff is so heartwarming and i feel like i'm genuinely going to melt whenever i read it hehe ! i hope you can get your spark back soon !

@babybreadddd: i've only read one of your fics i think, but it genuinely has me in a chokehold. i love the way you write angst so much, it's genuinely so perfect ! i'm not sure if you're active anymore either, but i'll always miss our interactions on here <3

@astraysimp: aaaaaaa hehehaha your cutie little fics omgg ! i love them sooo much and even tho i honestly don't know how much you write anymore, your fics are still better than everrr ! sooo cute hehe <3

@skzstannie: i honestly don't know how long it's been since we've spoken to eachother, but i honestly love your fics ! especially your angst hehe :3 i'm glad you're still active here hehe <3

@ihrtsimi: waaa omg i love your fics omggg especially the smut ?! say less. i know you haven't been too active recently because of school and mental health stuff, but i hope you know you always have a place here <3

@laylasbunbunny: layla aaa holy shit i missed you ! honestly you were one of my first moots ever, and even tho you don't write much, the things you write are amazing ! hope to see more from you soon <3

@number1jeonginstan: aaa hiii omg i miss you ! your fics are so incredible and honestly they inspire me to be a better writer myself hehe :3 i always go to your account when i need something to read, i hope you come back soon <3

@felixvsp: hehe i'm pretty sure you mainly reblog, and i'm not rlly sure if we've interacted much aside from that, but i hope we can talk more soon ! you seem so sweet hehe, glad to see you're still active <3

@jazziwritesthings: aaa jazzi ! i know you don't write much for skz but i loooove your fics sm regardless ! i'm pretty sure you reblog a looot of good fics too so thank you for that hehe ! hope we can talk soon <3

@linocvp1d: hiii hehe ! i know you don't write but i honestly think you're so cool... i'm just way too shy to talk to you haha... hope we can interact sometime thooo <3

@gyustarzzi: aaa omg i'm pretty sure you've gone offline too, but i love your fics ! your entire blog is just soo cute and i love your little headcannons/scenarios, i hope you can come back to us soon <3

@onmykneesforstraykids: your audios holy shit. don't even play i literally listened to like 5 this morning i can't even lie to you. i'm deadass pretty sure we became moots today but aaa i hope we get to talk more <3

@panthresss: i also think we literally became moots this morning but you are sooo cool and i love the things you reblog ! i’m not even sure if you read or write but your posts are honestly so relatable lol <3

[mythalism]

Curios how creative director became a scapegoat while lead writer is almost unanimously treated as a victim who fought against “bad creative directions” however they could.

While I personally believe their writing was the best DAV offered (Solas), but story cohesion, pacing, inconsistent protagonist’ voice, overall confusion what is the game tries to teach us had many issues. It all comes under umbrella of what lead writer is responsible for. There is some hard pill to swallow: sometimes one can be a great writer, but lack what it takes to enable and provide leadership to people who follow.

It also concerns J E, of course. (Minus writing part. Sorry, but I don’t think you can just switch specialisations without compromising the quality of what you produce.)

I encourage everyone to find old panel discussion with ex creative director Mike Laidlaw and a couple more directors/leads of DAI. And compare segments on lore/characters with post Veilguard AMA.

Working in a AAA company myself, I can’t stress enough how integral good leadership and coherent game vision is. What I noticed happening at my place (and what I highly suspect happened at Bio) is big corporations motto “director/lead has left, let’s find replacement in the team. It’s both cheaper and they will onboard faster”. Candidate’s competence becomes secondary to history they had with a company. And it backfires more often than not. Because it also harder to give objective feedback on how good of a lead your pal you spent years having lunch with is. How they perform on a managerial position.

i 100% agree. i think to answer your original question; its literally just that epler has been more vocal and visible, both during marketing and post-release. trick has barely spoken about the game and thus we have nothing to go off of regarding their thoughts, but i agree that its not fair to completely exonerate them of all responsibility for the poor writing. epler just gave us a window into the thought process behind this game with his comments during that AMA that we have not gotten anywhere else, aside from a few tweets, and so he became the scapegoat. i think theres also something to say for he and corrinne being thrown on that AMA and all the interviews rather than someone trained in PR and marketing. i think trick was a fantastic writer, and i think epler was a fantastic cinematic designer. but those two jobs have nothing to do with leading an entire team. leadership and managerial skills are their own unique skillset that do not come naturally to most. people literally get entire masters degrees in such things. i think they both got put in impossible situations; roles that did not match their strengths

[prince-liest]

hi princely! i was rereading through your 666 series and i wanted to ask if you have any tips for writing dialogue? its the one part of fiction ive always struggled with, i.e. making conversations flow naturally instead of sounding robotic. imo one of the most memorable aspects of your work is how real your dialogue feels

(also i was skimming your tumblr while writing this, im so sorry about your car that's genuinely insane??? and sorry if this is terrible timing aaa)

Hello! Thank you, but no worries, not terrible timing - I could use a distraction, haha.

When I started writing fanfiction, I actually really struggled with writing dialogue for a really specific reason, which was that I was really used to RP and felt like getting into the head and talking style of more than one character at a time felt like a lot of effort and something that I had to actively swap back and forth between. This is something that got much, much easier over time, and unfortunately the #1 tip I always have is that practice not only makes the quality of your writing better, but it also makes the process of writing much easier as you get used to things.

That said, specifically for natural-sounding dialogue, I tend to pay a lot of attention to how specific characters talk and try to mimic it. This came particularly naturally for me with Hazbin Hotel because the show is full of bombastic characters with really amazing voice actors and very specific styles of talking. When I write a particular character for the first time, I go back and watch various scenes that feature them, both generally and in different emotional states.

With a form of media like Hazbin, where I actually get to hear the characters speak, it honestly helps to just imagine them doing so in my head when I'm writing with whatever accent they have going on, too. Sound it out in your head: does it sound like something someone might naturally say? Why or why not? Adjust accordingly.

So, that's where I start! I diverge from there over time as my own interpretation of a character grows and changes, or I put them in different circumstances for different stories, so on and so forth. But For pretty much every fandom, it's always been very helpful for me to go back to the source material with the explicit goal of paying attention to characters' styles of speech, turns of phrase, and reactions. This is good not just for dialogue, but for characterization, especially for characters that tend to get pigeonholed into a particular archetype (for example, I frequently have to tone down how prim or "old-timey" Alastor sounds in my dialogue because he doesn't actually talk like that in canon despite the vibe of his reputation (and sometimes I don't bother, LOL)).

Last but not least, thank you very much! I'm really happy that you enjoy my dialogue. It's definitely one of my favorite things to write (if you couldn't tell by how many fics I've written that are basically two characters talking for extended periods of time), so it brings me joy to know that I succeed in making it enjoyable for others as well.

[afyrian]

AAA OMG THIS WRITING EVENT IS SO COOL WYR!!! I'M GOING TO TRY TO REQUEST THIS CORRECTLY BUT IF I NEED TO CLARIFY PLEASE LMK <3

i'm calling natasha romanoff bc there's a cat in a tree and we need some detectives with osamu please!!! <3

greasy dinner for two osamu miya x gn!reader (fluff) m.list | wc: 721 | prompts: private investigators + forced proximity

    your knuckle taps against an old sedan's window, the driver's side window tinted. a brown bag is held carefully in your hand, the top rolled up as a little bit of grease makes its way to the bottom. your other hand keeps a hold of a drink carrier, two coffees resting diagonal of each other. you tap your foot incessantly against the asphalt as you wait for the window to slowly roll down.

  it cracks open at first, taking a moment to get halfway down. pulling down your sunglasses partway (resting on your face far too late in the evening), you look into the car and at the driver. "shot of espresso and a splash of cream, sir?" you rest your weight on one leg, your other foot pushing against the curb.

  osamu looks up at you outside of the car window, eyebrow raised. it's been a few months since you started working together. quickly, the two of you are starting to get used to the other, their coffee routine to what items they tend to leave on their desk. pursing his lips, he nods, "yeah, now get in the car before the suspect sees us."

  "right, right, like this doesn't look like a sweet partner getting their boyfriend a cup of joe?" you joke, walking around the front of the car to enter the passenger seat. 

  the street is empty besides a few parked cars, neon lights shining off of potholes filled with old rain water. harsh overhead lamps illuminate the majority of the streets. yet in your spot, there's an odd darkness emanating from the alleyway. taking in a deep breath, you open the door, handing off the drink carrier before sitting down.

  the old undercover car sports cracked leather seats, the cup holders filled with crumbs. looking over at your partner, he's already opening his lid, taking a sip of the blazing hot coffee. rolling your eyes at his kiddish impatient behavior, you unroll the bag, uncovering the freshly fried karaage chicken. along with a few extra side items that were added.

  "how many you want? there's like seven of them, decently sized," leaning back in his seat, osamu looks over at you, his eyebrows raised.

  "probably like four or three, depending on how many you want. i'm not super hungry if you want something," he shrugs his shoulders, trying to get a gauge on your preferences. 

  grabbing out the container, you purse your lips, staring it down. the grouping of comfort food sits slightly queasy in your stomach. "yeah, just like three of them. feel free to snack away, i know how much you love food. especially because that's the only thing you ever tell me," you look over at your partner, grabbing one of them.

  you've known osamu for a few months, the 'hardened' detective persona weighing heavily on his reputation. he cracks a joke here and there, but never, ever, will he talk about his personal life. the only thing he ever told you (on one drunken night in the bar) is he harbors of love of food and cooking.

  "the only thing i ever tell you? we're coworkers, what else are we supposed to know about each other?" he smiles, his outer shell that he presents to you slightly cracking. 

  propping your leg up, you finish swallowing a bite, giving him your own smile. "but we're also responsible for saving each other's lives.. i think that's a bit more extreme than 'just coworkers'. so, anything you like to do outside of stakeouts?" your gaze returns to the nightclub, searching for the same annoying blonde mullet. 

  "outside of the riveting stakeouts? cooking-"

  "and outside of cooking! osamu, you've already told me about that, give me something to work with."

  unable to look at you, he looks forward. gaze scanning every moving car, every door opening to reveal some other patron. swallowing his nervousness, he leans forward, hands dropping to his sides, "well, sometimes i play pickup volleyball games with my brother. he still plays, so it's something we can do together."

  "volleyball? would've pegged you as more of a rugby guy or something," you smile, nodding your head, making sure not to let him feel embarrassed or judged for his interests. especially when the thought of him in a jersey isn't such a bad thought... "but that's definitely a start, now, what team did you play for?"

a/n: ahhh thanks for requesting ness!! this was so fun to write 🗣️ gen. taglist (open): @eggyrocks @causenessus @applepi25 @softpia

[dragonwitch77]

Tiny

Chapter 12: Slow Days

Days were slowly passing by.

At this point, things had become a normal routine for Bittergiggle.

Work on new jokes, plan on how to get to the queen, try to teach Scylla how to talk, leave the hideout when the two clones started their usual daily arguments, swing by the Employee Exercise Sector to say hi to Kitty, relax there for a few hours with the kid, showing her various objects in the sector and what their names are and what they did, check the boxes to see if there was anything useful for him to use, head back to the hideout and slap the two if they were still arguing, write down whatever joke he thought up and help Scylla try to speak more.

He was honestly surprised at this point that he hadn’t made much progress on getting to the queen. Bittergiggle knew he was fairly smart. Smart enough to avoid the sheriff’s traps and how to get out of them, plus he knew roundabout ways to avoid detection by the humans.

Still, he should have at least thought of something by now to get to the queen. Yet, he hadn’t.

“How peculiar.” Bittergiggle said, tapping the end of a pencil against his face. “I’m usually not this bad at coming up with ideas.”

“A baba.”

“I mean, usually I lean more towards making jokes, but planning is something I’m a bit more capable at.”

“Aaaaaawwwwoooooooo.”

“Not that I’m saying that I’m bad at jokes or anything, I just like to plan things more than thinking of jokes! It takes waaaaay less effort to think of something funny than planning to get to a giant kangaroo.”

“Na a. Aaaaa ab ab ab.”

“Though, I maaaaaaay have underestimated the simplicity of this plan.”

“Awa?”

“See, it’s not the problem of getting to the queen. It’s the problem of getting around the only thing standing between me and the queen.”

“Aaa waa! Aa wawa!”

“Exactly! It’s not me who’s the problem. It’s the sheriff! That big old meanie pants. Hmph! Though, he… never really wears any pants… not that he would look good in pants… probably… maybe? Huh… what would he look like wearing pants?”

“Ba ba ba ba ba.”

“Wait, why am I thinking about that?”

“Aaaaabbbbbbbbbbaaaaaa.”

“Well it’s not my fault he would probably look good in pants or not! Wait, what?”

“… aaannnaaa.”

“Ignore that.”

“Aaaaaaaa.”

“Anyway, we need to focus here kid! Getting to the queen isn’t going to be a cakewalk you know!”

“Haaaaaaammmnana.”

“I mean, it would be a cakewalk if a certain sheriff wasn’t in the way. But that should be easy to get around… ish.”

“Woboobooboo!”

“The sheriff is a cunning man… toad. He’s built more elaborate and cunning traps than you ever had in your life. And you’ve only been alive for almost two months now.”

“Oooooobooo.”

“He’s fast. And strong. Super strong. Getting in a one-on-one fight with him would be out of the question. Not that I would ever dream of getting in a physical fight with someone like the sheriff. That’s a certain death sentence right there! A kick to the gut from that guy would be fatal! Hehe, it’d almost be a gut-punching irony if that would ever happen. Hehehehehehehehehehe. Haaaaa. But it won’t. The sheriff’s too nice of a guy to kill anyone. Even on accident.”

“Lababa ba ba.”

“So, we need to figure out a way to get the sheriff away from the queen or find a way to distract him. Because, let’s face it, Toadster is a very duty-driven kind of guy. He doesn’t know the definition of relax and can’t take a break without being ordered to by the queen.”

“Aaaoooooooo!”

“I mean, the first day we brought him back to the Kingdom, he went around setting up traps and patrolling the place for hours. Got lost so many times too. I had to show him the way back more than once before he memorized the layout!”

“Na! Na! Na!”

“Maybe that’s why I can’t use the secret pathways to get to the queen. I’m not gonna lie, that was a big oversight on my part. Never thought that would come back to bite me.”

“Baoo!”

“But that doesn’t matter! Oversight or not, getting to the queen will still be a piece of–are you eating my hand?”

Scylla let out a small gurgle around Bittergiggle’s fingers, nibbling the small area between a pair.

“Heeeeey. I’m not food, kid.” Bittergiggle huffed, lifting his hand. To his surprise, Scylla came along with it, her tiny limbs wrapped around the larger appendage in a shockingly tight grip.

He gave his hand a little shake, tilting his head this way and that. Lately, Scylla had been testing out her limbs once she realized that she had them, ogling at them or trying to stuff whatever part that she could into her mouth. He didn’t understand why she did it. She obviously couldn’t be doing this if she was hungry, which was impossible since she wouldn’t ever feel hungry or the need for food.

Maybe she just liked to nibble on things? Though Bittergiggle was quite sure he didn’t like to be the one nibbled on.

“Kid, my hand is for playing with. Not for attempt cannibalism.” The jester huffed, shaking the kid off his hand and plopping her back on the pillow that he may or may not have stolen a long time ago.

“Aba!” Scylla eyed the hand above her, reaching out to it with her little hands. “Aba! Aba!”

“No, you cannot eat my hand. I need it, if you want to eat someone’s hand, eat his.” The jester pointed to Hoidni, who upon hearing the statement, whipped his head around at the pair.

“What?!”

“Aba!” Scylla waved her hands about, looking at Bittergiggle with those big eyes of hers. “Aba!”

Bittergiggle stared at the tiny babbling jester for a long moment before letting out a sigh. “You make a fair point, kid. That’s very hard to argue right there.”

“Awawa!”

“Hey! I don’t even have a nose!”

<Previous/Next>

[beemovieerotica]

oh god ok I just caught up on this and WOW

so, thought #1: yeah these are awful lol

thought #2: I don't think AI is going to create a uniquely bad atmosphere for fraud in academic articles, because we've already established the incentives and conditions for fraud to be a substantial problem in the first place

most people heard about the foundational Alzheimer's research that was found to be fabricated, and that was probably the most high profile case in recent years

institutions basically lock PI's in an eternal grant-writing grind where they have to produce interesting, relevant, and novel research continually in order for them and everyone under them to keep their jobs. it de-incentivizes any type of research that seeks to verify or reproduce previous studies (journals generally won't publish this) and if you end up NOT finding something ground-breaking, then it's seen as a scientitic failure rather than a naturally possible outcome of investigating the world, in which things sometimes aren't interesting

this obviously lays incentives for fudging data in the whole field of science itself, but there's been high amount of fraud coming from institutions in china which is why I was disappointed but not especially surprised by this

I'm prefacing this by saying that scientists based in china have been asking for solutions to this and rightly pointing the blame to the uniquely weird government funding scheme as the cause. I'm not going to get too much into it, but there have been issues with fake paper mills for years, and "citation circles" (iirc you can get a cash kickback for how many times you're cited) of people agreeing to cite each other's irrelevant papers.

it's gotten to the point where, and this is really bad, PI's over here will ignore papers that come from china-based institutions under the presumption that the data is unreliable.

excerpt from the article:

For example, in 2017, Tumor Biology published by Springer retracted 107 papers, all of which are by Chinese authors, because authors provided made-up contact information of potential reviewers, and the review processes ended up being manipulated by third-party agencies that make profit from “faking” the review processes (Chen, 2017). Also, certain journals have in recent years witnessed a concentration of works by authors from China. We suspect that this is because of closely knit networks of editors, reviewers and authors, which results in superficial peer-review, easy acceptance, and deliberate self-citing from the same journals to boost impact factors (see Guglielmi, 2019 for similar patterns of behaviors occurring to Italian scientists).

re: the last sentence, it does happen to a lesser degree elsewhere, which is why this is a field-wide problem

the chinese government has I think in recent years realized that the way everything is structured is de-legitimizing their research, and there have been huge efforts to crack down on fraud and basically place sanctions on these scientists. but that's sort of just handling the symptoms and not the cause - I'm not sure how far along they are on rectifying the index by which they ascribe merit and funding potential to PI's (we do this in other ways too) but yeah, the whole system of academia itself has to change.

[solvisun]

Hello! First of all, love your blog, how you write Tsukishima is so special to me <3. Honestly for the longest time he was one of my all time favorite characters (along with Kyoya from OHSHC, surprise surprise lmao) but I ended up never consuming any content because he was so often mischaracterized! So finding all of your fics was so fun omg lol

And second, so sorry if you've already said but I have looked everywhere on your page and scrolled back 8 months LMAO, Did you ever create the part two of '011125' ? Totally alright if not! Or if you decided to discontinue it! But if you have or are still planning to I'd love to know, mwah! <3

hello lovely anon! thank you so much aaa you’re so sweet >_< !!! kyoya & tsukishima being your all time fave is very telling hehehe /pos, glad you found my small pocket of space here on tumblr and my fics <3

as for my “011125,” the part two is still on the making— it’s one of my wips that i have started but could not finish/or could not thoroughly edit, including my hershey’s kisses series, due to my packed schedule and constant fatigue from said packed schedule. though to emphasize: i don’t plan on discontinuing any of my works once it’s up. i put a lot of thought and outlining first before posting any of these fics, and thus discontinuing them wouldn’t give them the love that they deserve— at least to me. i cherish my writings, especially because it’s tsukishima <3

unfortunately i literally don’t have the time to write at the moment, and cannot give promises for my return. i did say i’d make time like a month ago, but i haven’t touched tumblr nor other of my socials since then. i actually deleted the apps, as i could never trust my adhd brain to cooperate with me & to not get distracted.

for this march, i have at least two upcoming exams (finals) next week, one college entrance exam i’m supposed to take today but cancelled it ‘cause i also have a (separate) scholarship exam review class in a few hours (and my mom won’t let me choose both). i also have another (top pick & most important) college entrance exam next week, a school contest, and a pile of backlogs too overwhelming to list everything.

i’ll also be graduating next month, talk to many people, bring my best friend back (we’ve been distant cause of all these workloads), make time for myself and my well-being cause i keep putting that off

aaaaand i may or may not have been seeing someone as of late :]

so yeah, life is lifeing for me. i might need a month or two to recover from the stress & to settle down. i literally miss everyone. so much. i hope you all are doing well please, i’m sure you’re going through things too & i do apologize for not being able to reply or get back to you like i promised. i’m always thinking about this blog and this blonde and my moots and my fics, and wishing every night that i could wake up when march is over

[clangenrising]

So many thoughts:

"the birth of his eldest kits": he wants more!!! which isnt a bad thing but the way its phrased its like, an expectation not just a want. He WILL have more kits, and that makes me a little nervous for what will happen later on.

Also i know they aren't raising them together but the "his" only is interesting. And backed up by what Mystique says later: "I feel like you made it pretty clear they were your children." The kittens belong to Russetfrond. I'm sure this won't impact them as they grow up at all.

"Be warned though: the kittypet is in a mood" MISS MA'AM. SHE JUST GAVE BIRTH. GIVE HER A MINUTE. And as we see from her interaction with Russetfrond, she's kinda upset they aren't going to stay with her! or have a relationship! (seemingly). I'm sure she's in a mood!!!

Kitten Crash!!!!! That's such a cool in universe name for PPD, do you mind if i yoink it for my own warriors ocs??

"You should probably stay out of the den, at least for a while." While good advice for not upsetting Mystique, and even tho the kittens are to young to remember what happens, I feel this is likely to have some affects on how they view Russet... and an inevitable downfall when Mystique leaves and Russet pressures them to uphold his legacy...

Overall I loved this update. I know writing is good when I'm inspired to go into an english class literary analysis of it 👏👏👏

AAA Love this! 100 RisingBucks for your literary analysis!

Most of this, I don't have much to say about, although I really enjoyed reading all of it. I will say though, you've definitely misread why Mystique is upset in your third paragraph. She doesn't want them to stay with her at all, she definitely doesn't want a relationship with Russetfrond. She's been pretty clear about what she wants.

Also, feel free to use Kitten Crash as a name for PPD in your own works, all of you. If you post them I would love a shout out but it's not required at all. We're all just making art, I'm not gonna try and stop you from using my work as inspiration.