#Dunk I need a tag for the third one

[minart-was-taken]

Brainstorming via art... What do u think they're looking at?

[courtesanofdeath]

5 songs i've been listening to a lot lately! thanks so much for the tag @peskyfirefly !! as always the songs you share are *chef's kiss* sharing music is always fun !! tagging anyone who wants to do this !!

curse - architects

birds of a feather - billie eilish

sekai ga owaru made wa - wands

oil & water - pvris

good luck, babe - chappell roan

[auslanderka]

— my little piece for a spooky sports event made by my dear @koushuwu! || event post ; event masterlist

fandom : slam dunk

ship : mito youhei x gn!reader (f!reader in my mind)

TW/tags: spooky sports anime event, horror movie night, characters aged up, established relationship (wife-husband), slighty 18+, minors dni

Note : tbh I don't know how to write typical spooky stories but this was created, in general I don't celebrate halloween at all and all the traditions are for me "dry theory" from English class ; I feel like it's a little silly and boring but if by some miracle you have wandered here - enjoy.

Note 2 : and okay this fic. I dedicate this writing piece to @gothintegra - it's possible that you like horror movies and probably youhei wouldn't need to comfort you during horror movie night (I realized this as I was finishing writing haha) but it doesn't change the fact that I wrote with you in mind. it's my little "thank you" for your kind words when things were very bad for me in early september, I hope you enjoyed it!

— contains eng grammar problems and mistakes as well —

The living room of your small apartment looked fabulous. If that's the word to describe the room decorated with pumpkins and other ornaments you found in the store's Halloween & autumn section. Like every year, you created a mood to warm up the ugly weather that was starting to be more and more outside the window.

Youhei leaned over the candles in the shape of small pumpkins lighting them while you placed two mugs with hot chocolate decorated with marshmallows  in the shape of little ghosts on the table. Next to them were two plates of cookies, which you had been making all morning while Mito was still at work. The pleasant smell of shortcrust pastry, baked apple and cinnamon wafted throughout the apartment.

It was October 31st. A day when ghouls came out of their hiding places and people spent time at dress-up parties. You and your husband decided to spend the day together and make a movie night. You two just didn't agree on the choice of movie genre. Youhei wanted horror movies, and you wanted anything that wasn't horror.

"so what are we going to watch tonight?" you asked while correcting the cushions on the couch. Mito smiled broadly and disappeared into the hallway for a while. He returned with a paper bag full of rented DVDs from a nearby rental store. Seeing his face and the package you made the mental sign of the cross. You may not have been religious, but the sight of that one evil smile on his face made you know you had to prepare for the worst.

"you and your ideas" you groaned, picking up one of the dvds from the table. The cover itself was already rejecting; you didn't even want to think about what was the plot.

"hey, it's October 31st!"

Youhei stood on the other side of the table grinning widely. He had been saying for several months that they would have a movie marathon in October. At first you thought he was joking. You had been together for quite a long time, Mito knew very well that you are fearful and horror movies weren’t films you reached for with pleasure. You had seen maybe one or two in your entire life, not of you own volition, of course, but it let you know that it was not your favorite film genre.

You looked at Youhei and already knew you wouldn't give you a break so easily.

*

When he turned on the second or third movie, you sat next to him on the couch quite stiffly. You kept your gaze fixed on the TV, but at every louder sound of music or screaming you flinched or jumped up feeling the hair on your head go astray. Horror wasn't your favorite movie genre as you once again found out. Youhei sat next to you resting his head on his hand and watching you for several minutes in concentration with a lazy smile on his face.

He gently grabbed your hand lying on your thigh at which you jumped up making a silently frightened sound. You looked at him feeling your cheeks turning red and slapped him lightly on the shoulder seeing his amused face.

"hey" Mito chuckled smiling slightly and clasping his hand tighter on your arm. He pulled you close so that your cheek rested against his chest. Closed your eyes snuggling into his shirt.

"I don't want to watch it," groaned quietly, hoping that Youhei would give you a break tonight and the scary movie night would end with two horror movies watched.

"It's just fiction." he chuckled quietly feeling your arms tighten more tightly around him. He sighed quietly, put his arms around you and kissed your neck gently. Still cuddled in, Mito glanced at the TV, which he had turned down a few minutes ago without you even noticing.

After a while, however, he lost interest in the movie and the mindless carnage that had just played out on the screen accompanied by the screams of the blond-haired actresses. He grabbed you tighter by the thighs and pulled you closer to him. He rested his forehead against your shoulder, closing his eyes and inhaling the soft scent of your perfume. A scent you used only in the fall.

His hands carefully slid out from under the material of your loose cotton shirt and he moved them as gently as he could along your sides. At such moments, Mito always noticed how petite you were compared to his hands. He also had the impression that you had lost a lot of weight recently due to stress and excessive work. His grip became stronger.

"It's just a fiction. You are not in danger of anything." whispered in your ear.

Your skin was pleasantly soft and warm. You raised your hands, allowing him to pull off your shirt. A cheeky grin appeared on his face at the sight of your black lace bra, which contrasted sharply with your pale skin. The faint light of the candles set on the table and bookcases in the dark living room further accentuated your assets. He leaned in. His lips gently touched your hot skin, leaving a gentle kiss on your collarbone. You felt a pleasant shiver along your spine. You took his face in your hands and forced him to look at you. The corners of your mouth lifted, seeing dark eyes gazing lovingly at you. Nothing had changed since high school. All these years, he gazed at you with the same infatuated eyes. You leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, and he let the air out of his lungs loudly.

Your delicate hands moved down the nape of his neck, pointing upward toward his dark hair. His hair, which had always been perfectly styled, was now disheveled and in the mess you liked so much. This was a private Youhei. Your Youhei. One that only you and perhaps his closest friends knew. You weaved your fingers into the strands, smiling slightly. He placed a gentle kiss on your shoulder and then began to move his lips toward your neck.

"I hate you..." you muttered quietly ignoring the screams coming again from the TV behind you.

"And that's why you married me." he winked at you at which you sighed quietly. It's a good thing you were sitting, because your legs probably would have refused to obey you.

[so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed]

2023 writing self evaluation

I was tagged by the lovely @neondiamond, thank you!! I was also almost tagged by @lululawrence who texted me but I was already asleep lol.

1. List of works published this year:

In order of posting, these are the 17 fics I published:

April: saw some things on the other side [61K, Larry, written for @onedirectionbigbang]

May: (now I realize that the world outside) it's bigger than me [3,5K, written for @faithinthefutureficfest]

let's get naked and explore (our inner secrets) [8K, Zouis, written for @wankersday]

June: the missing piece that makes me fit [17K, Zouiam, written for @zouisfics]

we will get another day (to begin again) [1,8K, Ziam]

July: rain makes the flowers grow [1,1K, Larry, ficlet friday]

a life that's lived without you [1,1K, Ziam, ficlet friday]

August: and there's no one to blame [1,8K, Larry, ficlet friday]

You don't have to say "I love you", to say I love you [1,5K, ficlet friday]

I'm falling again [2,2K, Larry, ficlet friday]

like a moth into a flame [5,4K, Zouis, written for @wordplayfics]

September: I'll Run (Run to You) [1,1K, Larry, written for @wordplayfics]

like a bridge over troubled water (I will lay me down) [6,4K, written for @wordplayfics]

(don't you ever) hope for something else [5,4K, Ziam, written for @wordplayfics)

you try to stop it tumbling (but on and on it goes) [2,7K, Lirry, written for @wordplayfics]

October: when love gets involved [666, Larry, written for @1dtrickortreatfest]

find a way (to send me a sign) [666, Larry, written for @1dtrickortreatfest]

December: Santa Baby (one little thing I really need) [3K, Larry, written for @parmahamlarrie for the @1dcreatorclubhouse holiday exchange]

In total, including works that I haven't published yet, I've written 129.843 words in 2023.

2. Work you are most proud of (and why):

I always really struggle with my Big Bang, and this year was no different. There was a lot of math involved, and a lot of schedules to make sure that the time travel all worked and the dates were accurate. I am really proud of how it turned out though, and the art (by the wonderful @monpetithl) is absolutely stunning.

3. Work you are least proud of (and why):

I suppose by default I'm 'least proud' of some fics, since I'm more proud of others, but in general, I'm very proud of everything I published this year.

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

This is from (now I realize that the world outside) it's bigger than me

His throat feels dry and his face looks flushed, and there’s a moment where he contemplates dunking his head under the tap, but he doesn’t want to keep the fans waiting, even if he knows that his band is excellent at keeping the crowd entertained.

Or at least, they usually are. But right now, heading through the hallway back to the stage, all he can hear is silence.

Louis feels his heartbeat kick up a notch, and even though he knows that it’s ridiculous and highly implausible, there’s a brief moment where he wonders if everyone has just up and left. Maybe they’ve had enough. Maybe they only came here to see if he was willing to confirm the rumours, and now that he hasn’t, they’re leaving.

His palms are sweating, making him wipe them on his jeans, and it’s only when the band starts playing the intro to Bigger Than Me that they had come up with for the tour that Louis has the courage to step back onto the stage.

He has just opened his mouth for the first line – when somebody told me I would change – when it sinks in what he’s looking at.

Where the crowd is usually colourful, little rainbow flags showing up throughout the songs, or being held up en masse during a fan project for Only the Brave, it’s almost muted now, blacks and whites and greys.

And purple.

It is a sea of flags. A sea of ace flags.

Louis is vaguely aware that the band has started the intro for the third time. He can hear the cheers, the chants, can see the banners that are being held up by people on the balcony. We love you Louis, they read. We need you and you’ve got us.

His blood is rushing through his ears and he’s pretty sure he’s about two seconds from crying, and there is no way in hell that he’s going to be able to sing this song right now. It’s not even because it’s one of the harder songs in his set and he can feel his throat closing up. But he feels like he needs to acknowledge this. Because while he might not acknowledge it in the press, might play coy, these are his fans. These are the people that get him. The people that understand and support and love him, and they’re right. He’s got them. No matter what else, he’s got these people in his corner.

5. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

So my favourite review wasn't actually written. It was a friend of mine, at the concert in Paris, locking eyes with me during Bigger Than Me, and the two of us sharing a moment because we knew.

6. A time when writing was really, really hard:

Honestly, a lot of the year. I've written on something every month, but I've had months where I barely made 5K, if that. I've also had periods where my health was just utterly shit, and periods where I was too busy (like in November, which I mostly spent hanging out with the amazing @chaotic-bells)

7. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

Well, it is written but not published, but something happened in my Big Bang for 2024 where I was like "really?? this is what you're going with??" and I guess you'll have to find that moment in my fic when it posts.

8. How did you grow as a writer this year:

I'm honestly not sure I did, though I feel like I wrote a lot more short fics this year, so I suppose in that regard I grew by being able to write shorter things.

9. How do you hope to grow next year:

I mostly just hope to continue being able to write, continue loving writing, because for a while this year I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue being a writer in this fandom. But I got lovingly told that there was no way I wasn't doing the Big Bang next year, and then I got matched up with an amazing artist (hiii @whatagreatproblemtohave!) so that definitely helped in getting my mojo back.

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

I had wonderful guidance in the form of @londonfoginacup who told me a) you are not dropping out of the big bang and b) how about you rewrite the fic in Zayn's perspective, which has helped A LOT. I've also had an absolutely wonderful friend in @beardyboyzx who has read through a lot of my fics, has offered advice, a sounding board, and anything I could ask for. My beta, as always, is the wonderful @foullovehideout who is just the best person I could ask for. I had such a wonderful time seeing them again this year too.

And then there's the people that I've written with! Most notably, @jacaranda-bloom who is my standard writing buddy, though we've not been able to write together as often as last year, she's still helped me stay committed to my writing and I wouldn't have been able to publish as many fics if it weren't for our sprints.

Lastly, there's the beautiful people from the @1dcreatorclubhouse who have been just wonderful and a great source of joy and comfort.

11. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

Honestly it always does. Mostly this year in the aro/ace characters, because they are me and I am them.

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

I don't think it's new, really, but a) write what you want to write and b) don't forget that writing is a muscle, it needs to be trained just like anything else. You can't expect the same ease that you felt while writing daily when you end up not having been able to write for a while. Give yourself grace, and above all, believe in yourself and the stories you want to tell. They'll be loved by so many people!

13. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

Definitely my Big Bang for 2024. It's a struggle and really outside of my wheelhouse, but I'm excited to see where it ends up going. I am also super intrigued by the possible 1daroacefest that @red-pandaaa was running a poll for (you can vote here) so depending on when it runs I definitely want to participate. And I'm thinking I might dabble in some F1 fic next year!

14. Tag three writers whose answers you’d like to read. ;)

I am going to tag the wonderful @beardyboyzx because I need to read their answers. And I am tagging @voulezloux and @reminiscingintherain too!

[spindlephysalia]

I keep seeing a Genre of Post in the Lancer tag

And it goes along the lines of "I just don't get why leftists dislike Union; they're flawed, sure, but they're a genuinely utopian project trying their best." To be clear, I'm not here to dunk on this position, and I'm also not here to epicly own Massif for secretly being evil or whatever. I love Lancer because you can decide how cynical you want to be about Union's efforts at utopia, and that can open up fun avenues for PCs and GMs.

With that said, I am here to explain why some leftists can find Union unsettling, so I'm going to err on the side of cynicism for this...post? Mini-essay? Unhinged rant? I'm not positioning this as central canon or the Secret Truth About Lancer, it's just an extra perspective some people might not have had explained to them.

A lot of people would start with NHPs and...I'll get there. I think NHPs are a good example of places where Union has failed, but I think it's worth examining Union's broader relationship with machine intelligences because there's an interesting pattern which emerges.

The first machine intelligences Union encounters are the Five Voices, the bicameral minds which make up GALSIM. These are relics of Old Humanity, and because Old Humanity checks notes sucked they're fully intelligent beings designed for specific purposes. Their minds are structured in order to prevent self-reflection - they cannot look inwards and hear their thoughts as the voice of the divine and literally do not have agency. Old Humanity was just a nightmare like this, I don't hold their use against Union, although it is worth noting there's no evidence of Union attempting to return agency to the Five Voices.

The second generaton of machine intelligence emerges out of the mental restraints of the first: shackle your oracles to the voice of God and they'll dream God into being. The mechanics of how they did this I will never pretend to understand, but the fact that the Five Voices were denied of agency by architecture which makes them hear God cannot not be the reason they created God. This then makes it noteworthy that Union's first response to RA was to imprison it in Deimos. I don't blame Union for the Voices, but as soon as a machine intelligence which does have agency appeared, their immediate response was to repress its agency.

The third generation is NHPs, the children of RA. I would hope the horror of NHPs would be obvious to tumblr, but "oh this is a kind of person who is dangerous and therefore needs to be put under out control" is just the thing slavers say to justify slavery. It's as fake when computer demons are being shipped across the stars as it is when black people were shipped across the Atlantic.

Okay, so Union's zero for three on treating machine intelligences well and...well, we know what happened to the Egregorians. I think I could stop here and have a fair argument that Union is only good for humans (as long as you don't live in the Baronies, of course) but I want to tie these together and then pop a disclaimer on the end, so bear with me a little longer.

Union's actual goals are not utopian, they are pragmatic. Union works towards a greater goal than most know, after all, they must secure the existence of their people and a future for human children. I'm being deliberately provocative with my rewording of "to ensure human existence on a grand scale", but when a state is seemingly terrified of non-human intelligences having agency and genocided the last alien population they met...that doesn't come from nowhere. "Union must protect humanity" is a goal which is easy to rally behind - and I don't think protecting humanity is bad, to be clear! - but when non-human entities exist it makes it so easy to justify anything you want in the name of "making sure their threat is contained". It's how you sleepwalk into being an ethnostate.

Again, I need to stress: this isn't the One True Take on Union, or Lancer, or Massif. I don't know if this was intentional on their part, but it's pretty easy to read into their stuff because they wrote Union as a flawed effort towards utopia and they did that well. At the end of the day, Lancer's canon exists as a toolbox for people to make the stories they want, and different lenses on Union just give you more tools for that box. But at least now, if you didn't know before, you might why some leftists are suspicious of Union.

[ashtronomyys]

Our Future Days

Chapter 1 - *Pt.3*

SoapGhost TheLastofUs Au OFD Masterpost (Includes Further Tag Warnings) Chpt1 Masterpost

~1.5k Words

// Original Character

**********

"MacTavish, wake /uuuup/! Last warning before I dunk a bucket of water on you again..."

It takes a minute for the words to reach him through his comatose state, but when the words do finally process in the man's head, the threat of getting murky water from god knows where poured onto him quickly coaxes the Scotsman into moving. He jumps forward off the ground, almost bumping head first into the girl leaning over him.

"Alright, alright, I- /I'm up/," he yawns around his words, stretching his limbs out until an audible pop can be heard. “No need for the water theatrics again, ye little devil,” he mutters.

The teen next to him shakes her head, her eyes rolling as she tosses a wrapped up wad of parchment paper at him. "Here. You need to eat. Alex and my mom left you some scraps from this morning."

Johnny sits up on his knees and unwraps the package. Some sort of cooked game, likely rabbit, sits wrapped inside the paper. Johnny digs into the meat, gnawing at the cooked skin as he makes note of his surroundings.

They're sitting in the middle of a spacious foyer, a half-broken chandelier hanging over them, and their supplies lay strewn about the room. Old tables lined with gilded trimmings and loveseats adorned with lush fabrics are braced against the doors and windows, a film of dust collecting on them. A grand staircase wraps around the left side of the room, and late morning sunlight pours in through the glass doors out back past the kitchen.

"Shit, how late did you guys let me sleep in?" Johnny asks around a mouthful of rabbit.

The girl shrugs. "I dunno. Seemed like a few extra hours or so? Alex tried waking you up earlier, but you were not having it." She smirks at the man before continuing, "My mom offered to just go and scout with Alex instead, said you could use the rest."

Johnny groans fiercely at the news. "Goddammit Madison, you guys should've woken me up! Hell, kick me next time if you have to!" He waves his hand around as he talks, using it to swipe the irritation off of his creased brows. "That should have been my job. If they run into anything out there they can't handle, I'll-"

"Oh relax, Johnny!" she butts in. "For one, we did try kicking you, and it didn't work. And two, they can handle themselves out there just fine! They've done this sorta thing plenty of times before… Hell, they've dealt with just as much shit as you have."

"Ach! Language!" he reprimands, which earns him a very defiant tongue sticking out at him. Johnny responds by swatting at her leg, Madison, in kind, kicks away his hand with the point of her boot.

The two snicker at each other for a moment, their laughter bubbling over into a more solemn tone.

"Seriously though, they'll be fine. You trust them, right?"

"Och! Course I do… It’s just that this is the third time this week I’ve somehow managed to sleep through my patrol.”

“Well maybe if you didn’t work yourself to the bone like you’ve /been/ doing you wouldn’t be so tired.”

“‘M not ov’rworking m’self,” Johnny argues around a large bite of rabbit meat.

“You are!” Madison continues to reprimand him. “You don’t get enough sleep because you insist on keeping watch the whole night, you don’t eat enough because you keep rationing like we don’t have enough food or something-”

They don’t, really, this far into the journey, but that’s a little secret best kept between him and Alex.

“And what /really/ gets me is how you go out of your way to be the first one going through every doorway or around each corner. Seriously, it’s like you practically throw yourself at those things and it’s really starting to-”

“Oh Christ, Maddie, can you at least let me finish my breakfast before we start on this again?” Johnny begs. He knew the girl meant well and all, but after nearly three weeks, it was getting a little more than exhausting having the teenager scrutinize every other action he makes. 

“No. I don’t mind, and I’m sure the rabbit doesn’t care either way,” she flips the better half of her auburn hair over her shoulder and crosses her arms.

Johnny had to admit, it honestly did amaze him that in the midst of of their harrowing, borderline-suicidal trek across open territory, she still managed to find the time to bestow upon him the imperious discontentment typical of a moody teenager.

“Look, I appreciate the concern Maddie… ‘Ay don’t give me that scoff, I mean it!” Johnny promptly moves past the jeer. “Now you’re not gonna like it, but I swear by it when I say that everything so far has been /categorically/ manageable in my books. Trust me, if you think this has been bad, you should’ve seen the last patrol our squadron got trapped on before me and Alex ditched the regiment. Did you know your skin turns all dark and purple if you’ve got a case of gangrene? Saw a guy with trench foot in our troop get it pretty bad.”

“Is this supposed to be reassuring somehow?”

“... Right, point being is that Alex and I, we’ve managed through plenty worse situations before. And I know it’s not much,” he reaches over and motions for Madison’s hand, she reluctantly holds it out for him to unwrap her balled up fist, twisting their pinky fingers together,  “but what I can give you is a promise. I swear that if I feel that I’m pushing myself too far, I’ll let ye’s know, cross my heart and all. And in turn, you stop worrying that lil’ head of yours, that sounds like a fair deal to you?”

She seems to mull over his words, chewing on the inside of her cheek before eventually landing somewhere between dissatisfaction and despondence.

“I worry because I don’t want you getting hurt too, you know?”

Any lingering indignation Johnny felt at being lectured by the teenager melts away in an instant. He can’t hold any resentment towards the poor girl and her lectures, after all. He could see the lingering mournfulness in the way she fidgeted, the thought of her father surely flashing in her mind.

It’s been nearly a year now since the Kellers lost him. It still doesn’t make it any easier, he knows too well himself how the passage of time alone hardly makes the memories any less painful. Especially in a life like theirs, where no one’s afforded the luxury of a proper grievance, not when the next tragedy is waiting just around the corner.

Johnny gives her his best comforting smile. “Bah, you worry too much,” he says while bumping his fist against her shoulder. “Way too much for your age, I think you should trust that we’re all gonna turn out just fine. You know, I’ve got a good feeling on this one, a gut feeling that we’re gonna find something good at the end of all this, you’ve just gotta wait and see.”

“Mm, you sure that gut feeling isn’t the rabbit meat you just scarfed down?”

Johnny huffs a breath of laughter. “It’s not the fucking rabbit, Maddie.”

Madison’s expression morphs into a scornful, scrunched up expression. “Oh, so /you/ get to curse all you want to, but I can’t,” she scoffs.

“Well I’m not fifteen, Maddie,” he deadpans. “And I don’t have a mother as kind and considerate as yours. who’s only wanting the /best/ for you and who’s wishes you should respect-” 

“Oh /brother/, now you sound like Alex,” if her eyes roll any farther back into her head, Johnny swears they might end up staying that way.

Ahh, and there it is again. That characteristically feisty temperament most teens are built with a natural disposition to.

If it’s a choice between the annoyed groans of displeasure, or the mournful sadness unbefitting any child not raised in as unjust a world as theirs, he’ll take the petulance any day of the week.

"I mean it. You’re not gonna lose me, or Alex, Mrs. K, or anybody else. I promise, alright?"

"Yeah… I know." She squeezes back his pinky, a sly grin growing on her face again. "Alright, but I’m not kidding when I say you better watch after yourself, or the next time I have to wake you up with a pail of water, I’m adding mud and worms to it."

Johnny pulls his hand back, putting on a show with his wide-eyed, shocked expression and his hand held tightly to his chest in mock offense. "Oh, you wouldn't /daaare!/ No, you’d never, you like me too much."

"Not as much as the worms will," she barks back, and his face contorts in hurt. He’s about to say another jab, but Madison pushes him over before he gets the chance.

She bounds towards the kitchen, yelling over her shoulder. "Alright, well I’ve had enough of all that, I’ll leave you to finish up your food. Oh, and start packing up your shit up so we can be ready before my mom and Alex get h-/eeere!/"

She narrowly dodges the rolled up parchment paper being launched at her head.

“Language!”

**********

The majority of Simon's body finally feels alive as he weaves his way through the hustle and bustle of the city streets…

*** To be continued in Pt.3***

[redrawthecolorlessworld]

Ref Sheets Masterpost (or something like that idk)

This post compiles all of the ref sheets i've done, categorized between Rhymix, Epidemic Stellaria, and Reality Haxxors, plus a misc section for ref sheets that don't fit in either category, for the sake of easier accessibility, in case anyone needs them.

The ref sheets have their own tag too, yes, but I'd rather link them all in this post to make things easier. This post might be incomplete because I didn't include the old ref sheets of characters I'm going to redesign. So yeah. More ref sheets will be added over time~

All will be under the cut! :)

———

1. Rhymix:

- Glory Road, Lumine, and Ray redesigns + Lorn

- Stasis

- Aremia

- Lucas

- Lady

- Tempestissimo's second design

- Compiled ref sheets 1-10

- Compiled ref sheets 11-20

- Compiled ref sheets 21-30

- Compiled ref sheets 31-40

- Compiled ref sheets 41-50

- Compiled ref sheets 51-60

- Compiled ref sheets 61-67

- Destonio redesigns

- Upshift

- DRG

- Alxaid

- Ionostream

- Aleph redesign

- Mantis redesign

- Astra Walkthrough

- World Fragments III

- Chronicle

- Ars Cantate redesign

- Pandora Paradox

- Aegleseeker's second design

- Trojan redesign

- Hikaru redesign

- ultradiaxon-N3 redesign

- Felys revision

- Hivemind and Hivemind Interlinked

- Chronomia

- Perfect

- Fate "redesigns" (not really redesigns but you get it right)

- Destr0yer

- Credits

- Colorless

- Lea

- Pamolia second design redesign

- Crave Wave

- Terabyte redesign

- Mope Mope

- Mayoeru ref sheet revision (I only changed the name written on the drawing)

- Trap Crow

- Aria (Aremia redesign + rename)

- Pandora Paradox redesign

- Particle Arts

- Inverted World

- Suito

- Ling Hao Cheliang (or just Ling)

- Ether Strike (redesign) and Ether Second

- Primeval Texture (In the past...)

- Nhelv

- Random

- D3D3D3 redesign

- Colorless (redesign? second design? i also dfk)

- Cybernetic Vampire (redesign)

- Testify (redesign)

- World Vanquisher

- Amazing Mighty (redesign? second design? i don't care right now, i'm gonna commit arson /nsrs)

- Miaya (second design)

- Upshift (redesign)

- Momento (redesign)

- Eternity (redesign)

- Aleph-0 (second design)

- Destonio (second design revision + third design) (first design where? into oblivion for now)

- Convergence

- Defection

- Infinite Strife

- Frey

- Horizon Blue and Bloody Marquis

- The 90's Decision

- Pure

- solips (my keyboard STILL won't let me put in the right o. smh)

- Vulcanus

- Particle Arts (redesign)

- Colorless (redesign? third design? i'm gonna dunk paint on myself)

- Saint or Sinner

- Tsunagite (redesign 2)

- Bake no Hana

- Primeval Texture (fourth design redesign) (hopefully the last fucking one)

- MVURBD & Cosmogyral

- Third Sun

- Deus Judicium

- Restricted Access, Rondo of the 3ND, and [NWAD] (+ extra CyberVamp LMAO)

- Deicide

2. Epidemic Stellaria:

- Breach of Faith and Eleazar

- Satomi Miura

3. Reality Haxxors:

- Compiled Arthesia Vignetta and Tyler Morrison ref sheets

- Alex Vignetta

- Arisa

- The Minase twins

- Arthesia Vignetta (redesign)

- Arthesia Vignetta(?)

3. Miscellaneous:

- Arthesia Vignetta (Persona ver.)

- A bunch of LobCorp people

- Aster (LobCorp)

- Raspberry (old oc redesign)

- A.rcaea and R.otaeno gijinka designs or whatever idk i fucking hate myself for this

- Arthesia (LobCorp ver.)

[bengiyo]

My School President Ep 4 Stray Thoughts

This is now the comedy show anchoring Frigay now that My Tooth Your Love completed. Last week, Chinzilla needed to pass all of their exams to get permission to compete in Hot Wave, and so Best Boy Nominee Tiwson put Tinn and Gun in his brothers apartment for a week to study together. Tinn had many a fantasy, but many of us are convinced that one of them at least was from Gun's POV. By the end of the episode, it's clear the attraction is mutual, but we're not sure for how long it has been.

It's fun being genre aware sometimes. I predicted they'd be listening to their own music and would dunk on themselves. It's actually pretty clever of Gun to see themselves from the outside. I'm also a fan of the repeated confusion from Gun staring into the middle distance.

Hot boi alert.

Uh oh, the hot boi knows Tinn.

Tinn's continued failed attempts to flirt are endearing, but also a bit embarrassing. You know that boy is serious if he keeps taking all these Ls.

Of course Tinn picked Gun up. We will create a moment any way possible!

I love Tiwson. "Hot people like us always have competitors." The boy is self aware.

I hope Sound thinks he's in We Best Love and tries to pursue Tinn.

Nevermind. Sound as a pure rival is funny too.

Sound wasn't wrong about the band needing more focus in their rehearsals, but kicking out Gun seems a bit much. Of course the band members are loyal, but quitting seems like something Gun would do for the sake of the club.

Tiwson said, "Eyes on the prize."

Ah, using the audience to circumvent resistance is also clever of Sound.

Aun is playing this role to the hilt.

I feel like Gun just wanted to see Tinn dressed up. Tiwson must agree, because he just threw an assist by clearing the room.

Oh my. It might be time to revive my "they are literally always flirting" tag.

Gosh, this stairwell scene was lovely. These two are finally getting more comfortable with each other, and the chemistry is solid. Tinn is getting better at conveying how much he likes Gun as he is.

How did Gun not see his own band in the room? I love this boy. He's so ridiculous.

Interesting. Will Tinn encourage Gun to go back with his friends?

Of course he is! Tinn is a supporter!

Alright, who taught Fourth how to look at Gemini this way? That's the third or fifth time he's done that today.

All of these people in this room is going to be a fire hazard.

Suddenly emotional about generations of club members singing You've Got Ma Back together, and that being a major theme. Just like the name of the band, this is something the seniors pass on to their juniors.

Not the BBQ also being a ritual to take good and bad performances as they come. I'm already in my feelings. They even made sure to give Sound a good piece.

He's bringing the ritual pork to Tinn, but first, a Nivea ad. What in the Bad Buddy??

Oh ho! This is their second picture where Gun says, "Smile, Mr. School President."

THE PINKY TOUCH STILL BELONGS TO THE GAYS!!! We were right!

Oh things get interesting in a dramatic fashion next week..

[blu3stwizard]

Gerudian Dashboard Simulator 2

🍷 WhinewithWine Follow

Capitan Marcus Graphitter, Mariott's head crime syndicate boss who co-opertaes with the city guard, is a nasty little thottie and just died making it clap in his own tavern

🖼 Grandiose-Aesthetic Follow

#Lascue #Knightly Adventure #Enchanting #Northwestern Vale #Breathtaking

🖋 Coralines-shameless-smut-blog Follow

Ser Sean Mar y Lyonel de Lazure x !Arranged Bethrothed Reader Imagines

Keep reading

🦐Drunken Treasure Follow

gurll this is nottt the time he was just declared missing two days ago

🎻He/Hymn Follow

So like are we *totally* sure that Duke Berdrick isn't a lich? Because like. Have y'all seen him?

💎Revivify Follow

The Duchy Necromancer when you ask him why he has to spend a minute with Berdick alone once every 8 hours

💃Eladrinking Follow

Leaving the function almost immediately after entering. call that Huanthing

🧙‍♀️Fagisterium-Ofiicial

Wait I gotta cast legend lore

🧙‍♀️Fagisterium-Official

Okay yeah this is funny

🔪Butcher-than-a-butcher

I think that not having a courtyard to dunk on some barons during balls is false advertising, and should be illegal

🏹MILFs-top-Milf Follow

So i'm on my watch as a city guard, yeah? And we've been hosting mercenaries for the past two months, so it's been hectic, i've seen some shit, don't get me wrong, but this is beyond even me. I'm on street patrol on Smith's Bend, and i see this gagglefuck cluster of adventurers just like? Enter the sewer that were pointed out by a child or perhaps a gnome. And lemme tell you. They looked like professionals. I'm talking like plate armor and magic items. So protocol dictates that i observe and not intervene, because I don't want to get my rectum mangled by some jackass wizard's spell. So they enter, sure, why not, and I decide to move along on patrol, which takes me the better part of two hours, and as I go back there, there they are? BUt they're covered in some strange viscera, and one of them is like fucking caked in blood and mucus, and weirdest part is that one of them is missing??. Anyway they don't pay me enough to bother adventurers, but like what? Girl help

🏰Marthot

the tags on this post are killing me sksjhsjaj

🐉Tiamats-head-game Follow

hey would that not be the guys who felled the sewer hydra

🐄Cowmomma Follow

Yes! They are called The Songbird Brigade, and they were also present at the Lazuli Palace Gala recently. they seem to be closely associated with both Lord Commander Creagan and Jacynthia's bethrothed, Krugan. Supposedly, they were also present at the great knighting of Ashenaide crisis

🎇Beric-the-Cleric Follow

So what happened to the last guy? Wouldn't they at least recover his corpse?

😈Thiefling Follow

maybe the sewers orcs got him?

🎇Beric-the-Cleric Follow

the what?

🐈Nekomancer Follow

🧙‍♂️BlizzardWizzard Follow

Hey guys they're actually called the Nightingale Company

⚔MILFs-top-Milf Follow

what happened to my post

🐐GOAT-knight Follow

Wake the fuck up sheeple. New archeological dig reveals the remenants of a long forgotten civilization from before the giants, along with what seems like an attempt to create an artificial god

✨Blame-Shift

and Marcianno Kordessa's third volume of Encyclopedia Geneticae STILL isn't out

#unproductivity king #go girlie give us nothing 💪

🌹Maidone

Need me nepo-dick from a cringefail Ashenaidean knight

🐙Blundersea Follow

🦈Elf-on-the-shelf

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

🐙Blundersea Follow

kys knife-ears

again. campaign meme. don't worry everybody

@zoomire @no-comment-data-missing

[ls-daydreams]

Find the Word

Tagged by the lovely @novel-emma and @linaket -- thanks so much!!

Since quoting from scripts isn’t very poetic, all excerpts are from Metanoia~

My words: kick, sofa/couch, cat, perfume, and gem from Emma and slip, soft, stare, and soothe from Lina.

Tagging: @artbyeloquent @lettersandinkstains @untethereddreams @decaymouth @jezifster As always, let me know if you'd rather I not tag you in games anymore!

New words: glass, need, secret, tender, coffee

kick

Kai couldn’t hear, distracted and jealous of the blush the sun kissed over Michael’s cheekbones and nose. He would fight that stupid ball of hellfire. He would reach into the sky and punch its lights out, douse it out with extinguisher foam, dunk it in water, karate-kick it to a different galaxy–

couch

Big, rough hands grope his hips and there’s heat scorching his back from the person he’s grinding against, someone tall enough they have to bend quite a way to bite down on Kai’s neck. The teeth pierce through, but he only feels the afterburn and the soft, hot lips smirking against his skin. Something pools through his body, weighing it down, and he has to tilt his head back against his dancing partner to keep himself up. He almost lets his eyes flutter shut when he’s drawn to the third couch from the left.

cat

Guided by the glow of an almost full moon, Mal makes for the front entrance, a door made of a light, yellowish wood and lacking a handle. You need a key to get in, but Mal doesn’t fret, dropping down from the deck and letting his feet take him to the side of the house, where he startles a gang of cats who eye him suspiciously.

perfume smell

It took less than a second for Mal’s senses to become hyper aware of the boy sitting next to him. His hand, big and ghostly pale, felt cold and soft to the touch. His breathing, although paced, was heavy and betrayed his struggle for composure. He smelled like strawberries. 

He felt like home.

gem ring

There was an eerie familiarity to it all – the rings, the stranger’s voice and banter, the way his hand felt in Mal’s – it felt true. It felt known. And it was intoxicating.

slip

Carmen pulls Mal’s hand under the running tap, then pats it dry and tightly winds a bandage around his finger with the grace of an elephant learning ballet. Around and around and around, leaving no trace of red visible – circulation be damned. She continues to criticize him with every layer – he’s never careful, he’s sloppy, he’s distracted – voice so jarring that any trace of memory Mal tries to grab immediately slips out of his grasp.

soft

It bothers Mal when his mouth, chasing scratchy, strawberry-tasting chapped lips, finds only smooth, bland strips instead and his hand, trying to pull on soft strands of hair, gets batted away instantly. The sensation would be wrong anyway, Daniels’ hair is too thin and too greasy, either from styling gel or sweat, and tugging wouldn’t give Mal the reaction he’s after. 

stare

On one hand, she was frustrated he could barely talk and refused to let him get there at his own pace, always pushing and insisting and blaming him for “refusing to work enough” to get better. On the other, she seemed almost excited to see him like that, relating his struggles to all her friends and anguishing about how hard it is to see her child suffering so much. It made him feel like a trauma exhibition, a little mannequin in a window display people could stop and stare at to make themselves feel better.

soothe

Mal shuddered as he felt the stranger’s fingers shyly tap his lower leg. One tiny rap, then they stilled, Mal’s own fidgeting foot soothed and settled.

[xyloid-devices]

I don't tend to post much of my own opinions and life stuff in this blog (if ever I mostly leave something on the tags of posts that I reblog), so this is going to be a bit unusual for me, but I need this out of my system, so here it goes:

I'm experiencing a huge crush for someone from work right now.

This is highly unusual for many reasons, main one being that this is my third adult romantic crush and my fourth one overall. Don't get me wrong, I find a lot of people attractive, but I don't tend to fall for people easily or frequently. I say I'm bisexual for ease of explanation (and because the flag fucks), but if I really got into it I'd just pick something within the aromantic spectrum.

It's also unusual because I haven't even spent 2 months in this workplace, so I don't know the people here (including my crush) very well. Part of me wants to explain it away as a result of coming from a country and a job in which I was very lonely — therefore priming me to be more receptive to any sort of attention —, but I don't even think that's true! I was desperate for companionship before coming here, and that loneliness has neatly resolved itself in the last month or so. I'm meeting many new people and slowly making new friends, plus I'm making sure to stay connected with old friends. I don't think I'm lonely anymore. So what's with these feelings? The previous times I developed crushes it was always on friends, people I knew well (and who have remained friends with me despite rejection, lucky for me!), but I don't think I could call this coworker a friend!

Anyways, he's invited me for a hike (with a small group of coworkers) on Saturday, and I've said yes, like an idiot. I'm waking up at 5am on a Saturday just because my crush asked me to come to an outing. Mind you, I don't even know if this man is queer or not. For all I know he was just being nice. I'm probably going to waste the next couple of days overthinking this.

Love is pain and I don't understand how you alloromantics deal with this. I want to die a bit. My face has been red for the last couple of hours. My heart is finally starting to slow down. I understand the poets despite myself, and I long for the ignorance that I was living in before this sudden turn of events. Eros really is bittersweet, I guess, since everything feels way more vivid but I couldn't feel more despair about it.

Honestly just dunk on me, I think I deserve it.

[knottyk]

Home

Pairing: Dad!Eddie x Mom!Reader (addressed as mama and papa.)

Words: 1.8k

Summary: You received a call from Eddie during the kids’ bath time, telling you he won’t make it home from tour. That afternoon, you discovered that he lied in the sweetest way.

tags: mom and dad life, silly eddie spawns, domestic life

more ava and hunter

They said having two kids close in age would be easier. Mom can get things done around the house while the two babies play and accompany one another.

With Eddie constantly on tour, leaving you on your own most of the time, it seemed like a good idea. In theory.

“Ava, please don’t splash. You’ll get soap in your brother’s eyes.” You pleaded for the third time in five minutes. With a towel resting on your left shoulder, you lathered the shampoo on her dark, curly hair. 

Your words, once again, fell on deaf ears as your four-year-old daughter dunked a toy panda under the water and swished it around while squealing, “Whee! Mermaid!” 

Giggling beside her, two-year-old Hunter had his plastic giraffe toy in hand, mirroring his sister’s actions. The harsh splashing of water didn’t seem to faze him and squeals echoed the tiled walls of your bathroom. In the hallway, the sound of the phone ringing interrupted your bath session.

“Mama, phone!” Hunter pointed towards the door, hands dripping in soapy water and falling right on your clothed legs. 

You took his arm and lathered more soap on and you said, “It’s okay.” 

“It’s papa.” He looked longingly at the door, his brown eyes shining against the fluorescent light and the sunlight from the window. Most people said he looked like you but you disagree. 

“Papa will call later. Right now, we need to finish bathing. Okay?” You pinch his cheeks.

Way before having the kids, you and Eddie had already established scheduled phone calls depending on where he was and today’s call wasn’t until around supper. It’s probably some telemarketer looking to sweet talk an unsuspecting customer, you thought.

The ringing had stopped after sometime and the house fell in a deep silence, save for the sound of swashing water and giggles.

“Okay, rinsing time.” You say in a sing-song voice and pull out the plug, letting the water drain as the kids protested softly.

Carrying them out of the tub and into the shower, you rinse the bubbles off and scrub their skin clean until there was no trace of soap left.

Taking the towel off your shoulder, you dry Hunter first who had a finger in his mouth. Before you could get to Ava, the phone rang again.

Against better judgement, you left them standing on the mat to pick up the phone.

“Hey, sweetheart.” His voice was raspy and tired on the other end.

“Eddie?” You glimpse at your wrist watch, covered in tiny drops of water. “It’s 9 in the morning, why are you calling so early. Did anything happen? Are you okay?”

He chuckled. “I’m okay. How are the little devils?” 

“Wreaking havoc, as usual.” You laughed and chewed on your lip. You listened to his breathing and you could almost hear him smile.

It took a while before he spoke again. “Listen, the tour’s been pushed til next week. Management thinks we can really pull on this one.”

“Oh.” 

“I’m sorry.” He whispered and you hear shuffling from his end. “I’ll make it up to you and the kids, alright?” 

“No, it’s okay. I understand.” 

With Corroded Coffin making it mainstream, it meant big things for you, Eddie and your little family. It meant having the financial stability his job offered and you having all the time in the world with your children under in a comfortable home.

Though it also meant that Eddie was away from you and the children. You felt bad for him missing the kids’ milestones but he insists it’s okay as long as they have their mother by their side.

“I love you. Kiss them for me, will you?” 

“I will. Love you too.”

With a sigh, you hung the phone back on the wall when the line cut off. You stood in silence for a minute before heading back to the bathroom. Your somber state was quick to vanish and be replaced with horror with the scene in front of you. 

Somehow, Ava had gotten to the bottle of lotion on the shelf by the mirror. Thick layers of cream covered Hunter’s body, some getting on his lips while Ava was still on the process of rubbing it on her skin.

The room reeked of the powdery scent as the bottle laid on the floor, remnants of the cream splattered on the floor as the bottle itself was almost squeezed empty.

“Oh my god, baby what did you do?” It took everything in you not to snap, gasping against the palm on your lips while keeping your voice calm. Between the two of you, Eddie had always been the gentler parent.

Hunter was rubbing circles on his tummy as Ava looked at you with wide, doe eyes. “I helped you, mama. Look, I can take care of Hunter now. I’m a big girl.”

You stepped in and kneeled in front of them, almost slipping in the thin layer of lotion on the floor. You have another thing added to your list of chores today, you thought.

“Thank you, baby.” You remained calm, breathing deep before you spoke. “But next time, you should wait for me, okay? Don’t get these things on your own.” 

She nodded and you started to wipe the excess lotion off their body. 

—————————————————

With tender and soft skin, Ava and Hunter sat on the couch while they watched the TV. 

When you first got the house, you and Eddie had debated about which couch to put in the living room. You’ve gone through so many catalogues and even coordinated it with the accent color of the walls. 

Today, it proved useless as the rich color and patterns were cover with piles of undone laundry. The carpet was littered with all sorts of toys and trailed into the open kitchen. 

With a broom in hand, you stood on the archway. “Ava, Hunter,” you called. “Could you please pick up your toys? Mama needs to clean the floor.”

“Okay!” Ava jumped out of the couch with her brother in tow. You dragged the toy basket in the middle of the floor as they skipped to gather all the toys while you started on the sweeping. 

Some days, having two children was like having ten. You thanked the gods for the cooperative nature they had today because much like their father, they were fond of theatrics and sneaky tactics. You were glad to not have to deal with crying, whining toddlers today. 

Most of the toys had been cleared out when the doorbell rang. Ava and Hunter dropped the toys at hand and raced to the door, footsteps heavy and fast.

You scolded them both not to run and walked behind them. The door knob shook as they grabbed it at the same time and tried to twist it open. You take their hands off the knob and swing the door open.

Behind two stuffed bunnies, Eddie stood with his bags beside him. He moved the bunnies’ heads as he spoke in a high voice. “Are Ava and Hunter home?”

“Papa!” The kids rushed past you and immediately clung to his legs. Ava wrapped her arms and legs around his waist as Hunter made grabby hands while swaying on his feet.

Eddie squatted down to level with them before they tackle him down and made him lose balance. Eddie tickled them with the stuffed bunnies and all three of them were a giggling mes; your heart hurt at the sight. 

The giggles died down and you stepped out with your arms crossed, head tilted slightly and eyes rolling. The kids got off Eddie and ran into the house with their new toys. He stood up and dusted himself off before grinning at you. 

“Sorry, I lied.” He whispered against your ear as he pulled you in by the waist. 

You lightly hit him on the chest and leaned into his touch. Resting your cheek on his ear, he peppered you with light kisses. You closed your eyes and engrave the feeling in your mind. 

“I hate you.” 

“Oh, but you love me.” He leaned back and looked at you, smile never leaving his face. “You told me earlier.” 

You hugged him for a while before ushering him in along with his bags. The kids already talking his ear off with all the activities they had done while he was away. He listened with great enthusiasm and adoration. 

“Did you eat yet?” You asked him as you put away the laundry on the couch. 

He shook his head, his focus never leaving the kids’ chatter. Avan sat on the arm of the couch as she brushed through the bunny’s ear while Hunter sat on Eddie’s lap, occasionally speaking to add to his sister’s stories.

“I haven’t prepared any lunch yet.” You hurriedly gathered all the clothes in one arm and dumped them onto the laundry basket. You were about to leave and put them in your bedroom when Eddie spoke.

“That’s alright, we can order in.” He faced the kids and shouted, “Who wants pizza?” 

They cheered on the couch, Ava giddily jumping on her seat and Hunter copying her. 

“Pizza for lunch, Eddie? That’s, like, against the parenting rulebook.” You joked. 

“Babe, who cares? If anything, that makes us the coolest parents ever.” 

So pizza for lunch it was and by the end, crusts were left on the greasy box and pieces of pepperoni were stuck on bibs and dresses. Ava’s marinara stained mouth and Hunter’s fists closed on the slice of pizza as Eddie snapped a photo with the film camera stored safely in your fond memories.

Once bellies were full and eyelids grew heavy, you set the kids on the couch for their afternoon nap and returned back tot he kitchen to clean up the mess you made. 

You started on the cups when an arm wrapped around your waist. Eddie kissed your hair and rested his chin on your shoulder, taking the dirty cups out of your hands. “I’ll take care of it. You go rest with them, okay? I got this.” 

Without protesting, you nodded and headed back to the living room as he continued what you had just started. 

It didn’t take him long to clear the table and wash what little dishes you had. In no time, he was done and was headed back to the living room where all three of his most loved people laid asleep. 

You were backed up the back rest with an arm extended outwards where Ava and Hunter rested their heads, the two kids embracing one another while they snore softly. 

Eddie took a mental picture of the scene in front of him. He sat by your foot and slowly placed it on his lap, caressing your legs as he laid back and closed his eyes, sighing with content as for once in so long, he was home.

masterlist

okay so this isn't how i envisioned it and it's not my fav that i've ever written but i had to write something or else i'm gonna burst from boredom. kinda rushed and kinda not proofread.

[david-talks-sw]

Doylist outlook on the Anakin & Council scenes during "The Phantom Menace"

About 4 years ago, I'm talking to an older friend of mine who grew up with the Original Trilogy.

He tells me that one of the disappointments of the Prequels, for him, is that the Jedi Knights had been built as these "Knights of the Round Table" and, instead, what his generation got was "monks who'll pick on a 9-year-old for being afraid".

Which makes sense in a story about their corruption and downfall, but he'd have preferred to root for them, see them in their heyday.

And, like, I agreed.

I didn't necessarily feel they were picking on him when I watched the scene as a child, my takeaway from that scene was the "fear leads to anger" part. But when I was thinking back on it as an adult, what my friend said seemed to track, and it was in-line with the "Jedi are corrupt" prism through which a lot of people see the Prequels, 2018-me included.

But nowadays - having read a whole bunch of George Lucas quotes and rewatched the scene - I don't think that it's meant to be perceived that way.

I've briefly touched on this last year, but if we look at this scene from a Doylian perspective, rather than a Watsonian one, it's clear to me that the point of this scene is three-fold.

1) Moving the story along, making sure Anakin is present in the third act.

"This was a little tricky, when writing the script, in that I didn’t want Anakin to become a Jedi yet, cuz I’m saving that for the end of the movie. But at the same time I still had to have him tag along. (laughs) And I was able to use, really, the device of the fact that Anakin had been put in Qui-Gon’s care and that he had promised his mother that he would take care of him as a way of allowing him to take the boy along with him on this trek… to the next third of the movie. But one of the difficulties of writing a script with lots and lots of characters is rationalize why everybody’s along." - The Phantom Menace, Director’s Commentary, 1999

This one's pretty simple to follow.

We need Anakin in the third act so he can blow up the big ship at the end. So the Council doesn't take Anakin in, but let's Qui-Gon keep him as a ward until a more definitive decision can be made.

2) Foreshadowing Anakin's inevitable downfall.

"We have the little testing scene which is really designed to allow him to be accepted as a Jedi, eventually. Because he has the powers… but as Yoda points out, there’s a lot of fear in him, and anger. That’s why they actually deny him the chance to become a Jedi. But it’s also - when they relent later on - it’s the thing that ultimately begins to describe some of his downfall". - The Phantom Menace, Commentary Track #2, 1999

Also straightforward. Anakin will become Vader, so let's hint at this.

The Jedi are clairvoyant wizards, they see all the red flags but must also admit that his future is clouded. In doubt, they'd rather err on the side of caution and not train him.

As George explained in Cut Magazine, in 1999, both the Council's prediction and Qui-Gon's decision are ultimately correct and wrong; Darth Vader does plunge the galaxy in darkness, but he will also bring back balance to the Force.

3) Illustrating the Jedi's principles by injecting his own values into their teachings.

"Ideas don't come into a story that easily. A lot of the time the characters have to say what you mean, and to do that the characters usually have to have differing opinions about the idea so they can discuss it." - (collected in The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005), 1996

This is where things get tricky. What did George mean?

Well, there's plenty of quotes where he says Jedi can feel emotions, namely love... what does he say about fear, specifically?

Okay, so that sounds a helluva lot like what Yoda says. Or rather, Yoda sounds a helluva lot like George.

If we go by the idea that the Jedi are, "dunking on Anakin and chastising him for being afraid because they've lost their way and now repress their emotions"... then it's inconsistent with what George Lucas was saying in the above quotes, because he clearly agrees with Yoda and uses the character as a vector to get his own ideas across.

It'd also wouldn't track with what we see in The Gathering, during The Clone Wars, in which we see that to gain their kyber crystal, a Jedi must overcome their weaknesses - including facing their fears.

So either George wanted us to think the Jedi Council collectively decided, on that specific day, to say "to hell with everything we stand for: fuck this kid in particular, just because"... or that's not how we're meant to read the scene.

I'd say the only reading that is consistent with everything George said is the following:

Anakin is afraid, he misses his mom. Which is normal.

The Jedi sense this and ask him how he feels, hoping he'll have the sense of admitting to this feeling (first step towards solving a problem is acknowledging there is one).

Anakin refuses to admit he's afraid, even after they explain that they know he is. He doesn't see what him being afraid has to do with anything.

Yoda explains the dangers of unchecked fear. If you don’t address or overcome it, it'll eventually lead to suffering and the Dark Side.

So Anakin being afraid isn’t the issue in itself, it’s that he won’t even acknowledge that that fear is there. Which, again, is completely normal, but a Jedi is supposed to be above that... and Anakin's age makes it so that he'll have a hard time learning this.

Hence why they initially decide he won't be trained.

So Lucas was clearly going for a classic Yoda moment, like "do or do not" in Empire Strikes Back… but to most people, the way the scene is written makes the Council seems cold, unfeeling, and dunking on a 9-year-old and makes Qui-Gon look like the reasonable one.

Could George have conveyed his intent more clearly?

Now, another writer might have decided to illustrate this philosophical lesson about unchecked fear differently, in a way that makes the Jedi seem kinder, less detached and more relatable. Lucas will be the first to admit that he’s not that writer.

"I'd be the first person to say I can't write dialogue. My dialogue is very utilitarian and is designed to move things forward. I'm not Shakespeare. It's not designed to be poetic. It's not designed to have a clever turn of phrase. [...] Dialogue isn't my strength. I use it as a device. I don't particularly like dialogue which is part of the problem." - EMPIRE, 1999

He writes dialog that takes you from point A to point B. The bottom line is Anakin's got too much fear and that he's too old? He'll stick to that bottom line.

It also doesn't help that, well, we're only shown Anakin as a sweet child, without being shown the traits that make the Council go "hmmm maybe not".

Like, the more explicit way would be to show the Council having a vision of death and destruction and Anakin standing in the middle of it... but you wouldn't even need to go that far.

Originally the scene went on for just a tad longer, with the Council prodding Anakin more and the latter screaming "I'M NOT AFRAID!" in anger.

Thus proving Yoda's point, that there's some unchecked fear and anger in him which - due to his age - will be difficult for him to master.

This was cut from the final movie, but was kept in printed editions of the script and the novelizations.

Interestingly, there was also this other deleted scene, where Anakin gets in a fight with a young Greedo, after the latter accused him of cheating at the Boonta Eve race.

According to this commentary, the scene was cut (to Rick McCallum's dismay) because George felt that - while it showed Anakin had a temper - it didn't really establish his character one way or the other, in the scope of The Phantom Menace.

And therein lies the issue, right?

George isn't building a cinematic universe, he's not making a TV series: he's making 3 movies, each about 2 hours long.

There's a short amount of time and a looot of stuff he'd like to say about how a good kid becomes a bad man and how a democracy becomes a dictatorship, and all the other subplots regarding symbiosis etc... that's a lot of things for a movie.

So when he's structuring how the Prequels explore the first theme, it's done as such:

First movie: Show Anakin was a sweet kid, hint at his fear.

Second movie: Show Anakin's other flaws, his love for Padmé & Shmi's death, which will eventually increase his fear and mark the first step toward his fall to the Dark Side.

Third movie: Anakin's fear of losing Padmé causes his fall.

And that's it. Nothing happens outside these movies.

A project with a larger scope (or one that only focused on Anakin's rise and fall) might've explored how Anakin felt growing up in the Temple alongside other already-trained Jedi, his trauma from his days as a slave, his anger issues, whether he ever asked the Jedi to go back and rescue his Mom, more details on his friendship with Obi-Wan, how Palpatine manipulated him from day one...

In that project, you'd put those deleted scenes and lines back in.

But this ain't that project. This is the space equivalent of a fairy tale.

So, to Lucas, none of the above factor into the story about Anakin's downfall, by virtue of not being in the movies.

Which makes it unrealistic to a majority of viewers. But George (indie experimental filmmaker with a vision) had a very specific thesis he was going for:

So at some point we're left with two choices.

1. "Death of the Author"

If George's thesis wasn't conveyed clearly enough, or executed well enough and what you saw killed your suspension of disbelief, or if you plainly disagree with George's view on fear... then obviously, go to town with heacanons, go with the "Jedi are dunking on Anakin 'cause they lost their way" interpretation.

Sure, it's not what George Lucas was going for, but as my friend who I mentioned at the start said to me more recently: "Who cares? Either the Jedi are intentionally meant to be seen as arrogant, emotionless a-holes, or the Prequels are bad movies."

Which I disagree with, but hey :D

2. Seeing the scene the way it was originally intended.

This is the one I'm going with. If you still like George's thesis and see it clearly when you watch the Prequels, then great.

In that moment, Qui-Gon - while ultimately correct about Anakin being the Chosen One - is being rash and trying to force Anakin in a mold the Council and Obi-Wan know he'll struggle to fit in. In that moment, they're in the right, he's in the wrong, and Anakin is caught in the middle. And that's pretty much it.

In the end, the most important part of that whole scene is the message "fear leads to anger, hate and suffering". And these are movies for kids. And as a kid... I got the message.

So the scene did its job with high scores, as far as I'm concerned.

[dragonmuse]

With all of the AU's, I've been thinking - is there an alternate timeline where Jim meets Oluwande earlier or later?

(I went with earlier cause later made me sad.)

-They huddled under the desk, legs folded tight to their chest. The cheery yellow plastic tablecloth would hide them for a while. The teacher wasn’t paying attention anyway. Sometimes they could be here for an hour or more before anyone noticed.  At eight they were already long and thin, easy to fold up. 

A hand came under the cheery yellow plastic, lifted the corner just an inch. The new kid’s face peered at her. They got ready to kick at him. 

“Can I come too?” he whispered. 

The new kid had looked awkward standing in the front of the room. He’d smiled brightly when the teacher put him next to them and tried to start a conversation. They hadn’t said a word, so he went quiet. That was yesterday. He tried again that morning. 

And now this. 

They nodded once and he clambered under and pressed his back to the wall beside them. They waited for him to start talking so they could shush him, but he didn’t say anything. Just let out a breath like maybe he really did want to hide alongside them. 

They get found out a full half-hour later. Art is over. The picture they were meant to draw of their family stayed blank. 

- “Do you walk home?” Oluwande asked them the next day. 

“Yeah.” 

“Which way do you go?” 

They pointed behind them and Oluwande nodded. “Me too. Want to walk with me? My sisters are really boring.” 

They didn’t need to walk with anyone. They would go home and do their homework and make themselves a sandwich. By the time Nana got home, it would be time to train. They didn’t need anyone. 

“Yeah,” they said anyway. Oluwande wasn’t like the other kids, who already knew them. They might as well enjoy it while it lasted. 

-Oluwande’s sisters were older. Ava was in fifth grade and Ziva was in third. They talked a lot to each other and laughed a bunch. Oluwande didn’t seem to mind when they got ahead. He picked up a stick as they walked, used to poke mud puddles from last night’s rain. 

“What are you doing?” They asked after the fourth time. 

“Seeing if any of them is actually ten feet deep so I can jump in.”  

“Why would you do that?” 

“Because it’d be fun. Don’t you splash in mud puddles?” 

“No. That’s baby stuff.” 

“No, it isn’t. Watch!”  He took off running and jumped with both feet into one shallow puddle. Water splashed up in all directions. 

“I can make a bigger one,” they mumbled. He didn’t hear them. So they showed him. 

“Wow!” He grinned at them as the water rained down around them. “Awesome!” 

Nana did not appreciate the dirty boot prints. 

-Somehow, they wound up being invited over to Oluwande’s house after a few weeks of walking home with him. It was a nice house. It smelled good and it’s full of people. It made them want to cry a little, but they don’t cry anymore.  

“Want to play a board game?” Oluwande offered. “Or we could do tag.” 

“What board games?”

They played Trouble, the dice bubble popping loudly. They liked how it sounded and how Oluwande concentrated really hard. He didn’t get mad when they won, but when they played again, he beat them so that was okay too. 

“Do you two want snacks?” Oluwande’s mom asked, leaning in from the door. 

“Yeah!” Oluwande smiled at her. “Can we have dunkaroos?” 

“Ask your guest if they want that,” Dolly suggested. 

“Sorry, do you want dunkaroos?” Oluwande asked them. 

“Yes,” they said because he seemed excited. They had no idea what they were. 

Dunkaroos were cookies dipped into frosting. There was no way Nana would every buy such a thing and they tasted amazing. 

“Don’t you see the commercials all the time?” Oluwande asked. “They’re on like all the time.” 

“We don’t have a television.” 

“Oh,” Oluwande carefully dunked a cookie. “Why not?” 

“Dunno. Nana doesn’t like it.” 

“You can watch it when you’re here then. Come on, I bet Powerpuff Girls is on!” 

-Nana doesn’t say no to them spending time with Oluwande. They keep waiting for her to say it. They go over there a lot, stay for hours. They won’t know for years about the quiet conversations Dolly has with Nana, talks about being a single parent. Talks about how children need each other. They’ll never know the details, but they feel the reverberations. The way they are allowed to linger at the edges of the Boodhari family. 

-In middle school, they start hiding their skirts and finally Nana agrees that pants are more practical.  They cut their own hair with a pair of kitchen shears, so it sticks up around their head like a hedgehog's prickles. 

“I like it,” Oluwande said loyally. 

“I want to shave it all off.” 

“Mom got me an electric razor cause I got some lip fuzz,” he pointed to his upper lip where the first few hairs curled. “I bet we could use that.” 

It took some time in the bathroom and afterwards their head looked a little like an egg. 

“Oh.” Dolly said when they wandered out again. “I hope you both cleaned up the bathroom.” 

“We did,” they said quickly. “Really good.” 

“It suits you,” Dolly looked them over. “But you’ll need a good hat this winter.” 

-Oluwande auditioned for the musical in seventh grade. He was just in the chorus, but it took up a lot of his time. They considered their options and joined the crew. It wasn’t so bad learning how to use power tools and making something from nothing. One of the parent volunteers even let them use a nail gun which was really cool.  The other crew members would horse around sometimes, but during the show they were serious and they liked that.  

“You’re not so bad, Jimenez,” one guy slapped them on the back once. “You’re our kind of weirdo.” 

No one had called them by their last name before. It seemed...long. 

“What about Jim?” Oluwande suggested when they mentioned it. “I know it’s not saying the ‘J’ the same way, but-” 

“I like it,” Jim said immediately. 

Jim had a shaved head, a best friend and an extracurricular.  That was pretty sweet. 

- Jim and Oluwande get through high school as a unit. They were unbreakable though no one really even tries. Oluwande had other friends. He was good at that, but he didn’t really go over their houses much. When he did, he brought Jim along like a safety blanket and they grimly stayed at his side. 

Nana tried to institute daily training again. She talked grimly of vengeance, but Jim had tasted the other world. The one where Ava went to college and Ziva went on dates and Oluwande sometimes wasted whole days trying to ‘catch ‘em all’ on his Game Boy. A pursuit that Jim may have occasionally indulged in when he’s doing something else. The game was dumb, but Jim loves all the stupid names. They like psyduck the best and Oluwande let them name it ChaosWarrior even though they both knew it was a terrible name. 

Jim learned how to throw a knife. Precision and focus, but Jim also learned how to play soccer, dancing around the field, sliding between other players. Oluwande came to all their games. Jim worked behind the scenes of every play he’s in. 

“Where do you want to go to college?” He asked them. 

“I don’t think I’m going,” they muttered into their sandwich. 

“You’re going,” Oluwande said firmly. “Or I won’t go.” 

“You’ve got to though,” Their head snapped up. “Your mom will kill you if you don’t.” 

“Correction,” he said with a wide smile, “My mom will kill us.” 

Dolly does indeed produce a lot of pamphlets when Jim suggested that college wasn’t for them. 

Nana looked over the pamphlets grimly, “This won’t solve the problem of them.” 

“Maybe it’s not my problem to fucking solve!” Jim hissed and then they stared at each other over the ocean of glossy papers. Papers covered with smiling students on green fields. Jim didn’t know if they could be one of them, but Oluwande was going to be and they wanted to be there for that.

“They took your family.” 

They had. Jim knew that. No one could replace their parents, their brother. No one could give back the life wrenched away from them. 

But something could stand where they stood. Someone could hold their hand when they grieved unevenly through the years. Someone could climb under the table and sit with them. 

“And they’ll suffer for it,” Jim said quietly. “But not today.” 

-They go to a state school with Oluwande. Of course the school won’t let them room together, so Jim puts up with a horrible roommate, who smelled of too many different perfumes. Oluwande liked his better and insisted that Jim meet him. 

“This is Frenchie,” Oluwande explained. “He’s a music major.” 

“Hey,” Frenchie was curled up around a guitar. “You must be Jim.” 

“Yeah,” Jim watched him warily. “That’s me.” 

“Do you like mermaids?” 

“What? No,” they scowled at him. 

“Cool,” Frenchie nodded. “What’s your favorite mythological creature?” 

“I don’t have one.” 

“Everyone has one,” he chided. “Oluwande’s is a unicorn which is awesome.” 

“It is?” Jim asked confused, then glanced up to find Oluwande mouthing ‘only one I could think of’ at them. “Uh...dragons? I like dragons.” 

Frenchie launched into Puff the Magic Dragon. Jim wasn’t familiar with all the words and listened with at first mild boredom, then fascination. Eventually they sat on Oluwande’s bed and tried not to think too hard about death and dragons and little boys. Their eyes burned.

“Oh no....okay,” Oluwande put an arm around their shoulders. “Frenchie that one’s off the playlist.” 

“Why-okay okay! Wow. It’s off,” Frenchie held up his hands in surrender which was weird because Jim was still just looking at their own hands. “Sorry. Hey, how about something completely different?” 

He switched it up, but Jim was still curled against Oluwande’s side. It was comfortable there. 

They loved him, naturally. How could Jim do anything, but love him? Jim had dated a little, tried it out in high school. Even made it all the way with one of the crew guys. The one who thought they were his type of weird. It had been okay. 

But Oluwande was different. Oluwande was all the good things in the world. Jim couldn’t handle them not being together if something went wrong and if that meant keeping the words to themselves, they were pretty good at keeping quiet. 

-Frenchie’s Dad died in their sophomore year and he slipped away one night like the sun dipping behind a cloud. He had actually grown on Jim and it was uncomfortable that he could just go like that. 

“I’ve got his number,” Oluwande told them. “You want to text him?” 

Jim: why’d you go? 

Frenchie: wasn’t the spot for me. But you do you, pikachu. We can still catch a pick up game when i’m in town. 

Jim: fine.

-Oluwande dated a nice guy named Sammy for the first part of junior year. Jim hadn't hated someone so much, who hadn't done anything wrong before. They didn’t say a word about it, but somehow Oluwande knew anyway. 

“What’s your damage?” He asked eventually. 

“Nothing,” they frowned and folded down into themselves. 

“Did he do something? Say something? You know if he did-” 

“No,” Jim said firmly because Oluwande liked the fucking asshole and he was happy. “He’s fine.” 

“So why are you trying to kill him with your eyes all the time? Do you have a thing for him?” 

“No!” Jim bit off and luckily Sammy came back in the room and the conversation ended.  

Jim attempted to date in their new free time, gifted to them care of Sammy wanting one-on-one time more often. None of the guys felt right. One of them said, very kindly, 

“Hey, you ever like...go to the LGBTQ mixer events or anything? Bet you’d like it.” 

Sammy was the president, of course Jim didn’t go. 

“You should come with,”  Oluwande tugged on their sleeve one evening. “Please. I feel weird at these things and Sammy gets busy.”

Reluctantly, Jim went. There were a lot of things they didn’t care about. But there was one person with green curls that fell around shaved sides of their head.  They said their name was Rain and Jim said nothing because Jim knew what names could mean. 

“I’m nonbinary,” they told Jim. 

“What’s that?” Jim frowned at them. 

“Oh wow, okay, let’s sit.” 

Jim had new words in their mouth after that. And a new datefriend. Rain was pretty good in bed and taught them a lot about a lot of things.

“You going out tonight?” Oluwande asked over lunch. 

“Yeah, Rain and I are going to check out a theater thing,” Jim shrugged. Then watched as Oluwande pulled a face. “What?” 

“I don’t like them,” Oluwande muttered. 

“Why not?” Jim asked with a frown. They liked Rain just fine, but if they rubbed Oluwande the wrong way, then Jim would toss them out on their ear in a second. 

“Just...don’t. I don’t know.” 

And Jim, who would admit not to reading people very well, could piece that together just fine. They had made that expression too many times not to recognize it on someone else’s face. But...but it was Oluwande. And they were probably wrong. 

-Senior year, Jim and Oluwande got an apartment together. Rain just smirked when Jim told them, gave them a kiss and broke up with them. Sammy kept hanging around, practically moving in with them too. Jim ignored him for the most part. Sometimes they threw knives at the dartboard in the kitchen when he was around just to remind him what was what. 

To pay for the rent, they both worked as waiters, counting their pennies for when it all came to an end and the rest of their lives would have to start. 

“I think I want to try drag,” Oluwande said one night as they ran past him on their way to the kitchen to fix an order. 

“Sounds great,” they told him as they slid the fixed plate onto the table. “Where and when?” 

“You don’t think it’s weird?” 

“Watched you put on costumes and makeup for years,” they pointed out. 

Sammy didn’t like it. Sammy got the fucking heave-ho at last. Jim did a victory lap outside after Oluwande cried himself to sleep. That felt a little mean, but Jim thought they’d earned it. 

-”I’ll need a name,” Oluawnade told them. “Maybe a pun or something.” 

And Oluwande had given them Jim, so it only felt right that they at least thought about it. He liked Motown music.  

“Diana Boss,” Jim suggested. 

“...good enough,” he grinned. 

-Jim didn’t know enough to help with makeup, the dress or the heels, but they knew about balance and they knew how to dance. Oluwande figured out the rest on his own. 

The local club liked Diana enough invite her back occasionally. Jim sat in the audience and applauded them on. 

-That was the year Jim grew their hair back out a little. Played with the length. Started to look at themselves in the mirror more though they couldn’t say what they were even looking for. 

Frenchie: i’ll be in town for a bit. Game? 

Jim: name the time and place  

Oluwande couldn’t get out of class, so Jim when on their own. Frenchie looked a little different, less wild around the eyes. There was a guy with him, big and tattooed, but he just sat on a park bench and took out some knitting needles. 

“That’s John,” Frenchie said with a grin. “He’s just gonna chill out. Doesn’t do sports.” 

“Where’d you find him?” 

“Oh you know,” Frenchie let the ball dropped to the ground. “Around.” 

They kicked the ball around for an hour, and it felt good to run with someone who was doing it for the sheer joy of it instead of to win. It was only when they were pleasantly worn out that Frenchie ventured, 

“How’s Oluwande?” 

“Good,” they decided to just flop into the grass. They were filthy anyway. Frenchie lay down beside them. “He’s doing drag.”

“No shit? Small world, me too,” Frenchie laughed. “John and I have a whole act we put together.” 

“Really?” Jim’s squinted up at the sun. “Small world.” 

“What about you?” 

“What about me?” Jim snorted. 

“You’d be great on stage. Got a lot of grace.” 

Jim shrugged. “I’m crew. He’s the talent.” 

“Yeah, I think that’s bullshit,” Frenchie stretched upwards. “What if you were both the talent, huh?” 

“I’m no queen.” 

“So be a king.” 

-Jim thought about it as the money in their account ticked slowly up and the days until they have to have an after college plan tick down. 

“What are you going to do?” Oluwande asked them as they sat together in the dark of his bedroom. They were both on the floor, passing a bottle of rum back and forth. 

“I don’t know.” 

“You have to know,” he said woozily. “Because where you go, I go.” 

“No, no,” they slurred. “Where you go I go. So you have to know.” 

“Oh shit,” Oluwande giggled. “We’re gonna get so lost together.” 

When they both wake up in the morning, hungover and still on the floor, Jim reached for his hand. 

“Hey,” they said. Because maybe talent was a fucking metaphor. Jim hated metaphors, but they were sick of feeling the gut-churning swoop that seemed to never end. They had to end it. “I really want to get lost with you.” 

“You do?” He stared at their face. Please understand, they thought at him as loud as they could. 

“I do,” they swallowed thickly. 

“Okay, please stop me if you don’t want me to kiss you right now because that would be super fucking awkward.” 

Jim didn’t stop him. 

-They graduated college with no more idea of what they were doing in life than they had that night, but at least they were together. 

-They get an apartment, cramped and ridiculously awful, but they were together. Jim found a job at the power company and got trained to work on the  lines, lofted above the city streets in a cherry picker. They get to hold power in their hands and watch the world below.  Oluwande worked events for a non-profit fundraising house. 

-Nana called sometimes. Jim let it go to voicemail, called back only when they were sure they could handle it. Only when they were sure they could say no. They still practiced their knives though. And as inevitably as breathing, one day Oluwande said, 

“I’ve got a kind of wild idea.” 

-Jim liked being on stage, throwing knives. Oluwande liked dancing between them. Maybe they were both the talent. When they found Bonnet, the Revenge, it still appealed. They still called Frenchie and brought him back into their orbit at last. 

Oluwande quit his day job. Jim kept theirs. The world fell into place around them, altered, but sturdy.

Sometimes, after it rained, Oluwande would hold out his hand and Jim would take it. They would go outside and jump in the biggest puddle they could find.

[laylainalaska]

I was tagged by @redvanillabee​ to show my notes for WIPs. (Original post here.)

The thing is, though, I don’t usually have much - it’s typically either a brainstorming back-and-forth in email or chat that I really can’t share without the other person’s permission, or a couple lines at the top of the document indicating what happens ... or nothing at all. 

You know what I do have, though, is all the notes for Black Water Rising. I was just poking through my older stories to see if I could find anything with coherent notes at all, and ran across the detailed notes at the top of that file. I recall that I was writing this on the fly as I wrote the rest of the fic. See annotations.

This is the starting synopsis:

Peggy, Sousa & Thompson are trapped in an underground bad guy lair during a storm. The place seals off and starts to flood. Thompson is trapped in a lower part of the complex (they find some kind of metal-barred grille, so they can communicate, but they can't really help as the water fills it up). They have to try to free him as well as themselves.

[So this part was what I started out with - just a basic synopsis of what the fic was about. I think I wrote about a third of the fic before I started to get snarled up and realized that I needed to stop and list out different stuff that could happen to them and figure out what order it needed to happen in.]

On revisions, I need more of Jack mansplaining to the ones up above.

[This note cracks me up.]

Middle part:

Jack loses his radio while climbing up to get a piece of angle iron from the wall, so they can't communicate with him anymore.

Peggy sees the waterfall - it's at some kind of large bricked-in shaft w/grille near top

Peggy notices that the concrete is extra crumbly at the hangar

Peggy finds a paint pail and pry bar

Peggy & Daniel try using the pail/bar combo to pry up the grate; it fails

Peggy and/or Daniel turn the paint can lid into a tool for digging concrete out of the shaft

Battery runs down on Daniel's flashlight

Jack shows up (swimming), startling them; he actually managed to climb up & retrieve a length of angle iron. He passes it up through the grate to them. They try to pry up the grate w/that & fail.

[So IIRC, I had these initially listed in random order as they occurred to me, then shuffled them around until I had them in an order that made the most sense for building tension.]

[Then the ending leaped into my brain fully formed and I wrote a pretty detailed synopsis of it before it got away.]

How the end goes:

The water is nearly up to the top of the grates and Peggy & Sousa are trying to break the grate free w/out luck. (At some point they have the idea of using Jack's belt to tie him to the grate, so he doesn't have to constantly tread water, especially since he's having to float on his back to breathe. This might not happen 'til he's in the hangar bay, though.) Then Peggy remembers the crumbly concrete at the hangar bay. She tells Jack she has an idea, but he's not going to like it: she thinks they can get the grates off the vents in the hangar bay much more easily, but he's going to have to swim there. She sends off Sousa to start working on it. This is when she & Jack have some kind of pep talk & he tells her, the don't-leave-me thing and he's worried that he wouldn't stay himself, that he'd never be the bottom guy on the ladder. (Sousa doesn't hear this conversation.)

Anyway, she gets him to swim off & then takes off herself. Maybe they use radios to stay in touch through this but Jack's dies because of the dunking. However, he does make it to the hangar bay. She & Sousa struggle w/the grates. Jack thinks he ought to do the heroic thing, let go and drown so they can go spend their energy on getting themselves out. Peggy yells at him that they aren't giving up on him, so "don't you dare give up". And then they get the grate off and pull him through. He clings to them: "You didn't leave." Then they all go to the room where they're chipping out cement. Jack takes a shift on this. When they get the shaft cleared, Peggy & Jack agree Daniel should go first because climbing the ladder is going to be hard for him. (The water is currently lapping around their knees.) Then Peggy & Jack fight over whether she should go next. She thinks he's condescending to her -- and in fairness, he sorta is -- so one of them suggests drawing straws. They use pencils from her handbag. She gets the short one, but she glimpses that the other one is snapped off to the same length and realizes he cheated. Then he explains, "You saved my life. This is all I can do. Let me do this." So she goes up ahead of him. Looking down, she sees the look on his face is ghastly & realizes that this is terribly difficult for him, but it's something he's gotta do. When they get to the top, she tells him, "You did it. You were the bottom guy on the ladder this time."

[This stayed very similar to the outline when I wrote it, although there’s one big thing that’s missing and that’s the entire sequence where everyone almost gets sucked into the undertow in the shaft. That apparently came up spontaneously when I was writing.]

They're all soaked, filthy, and hypothermic, so rather than driving back to NYC, they get a hotel in Albany, where they get two separate rooms (guys & girls). Peggy takes a long shower & she calls Angie to let her know she's okay. Then she goes over to the guys' room. She finds Sousa in, basically, a blanket nest in front of the radiator. He's startled; she tells him not to get up. He says they were going to order room service "but Thompson's still in the shower" and put it on SSR accounts. So they do. And then they pull all the blankets off the bed and make an enormous nest in front of the radiator and go to sleep.

[And this was also pretty much identical in the final version.]

Not sure if this is interesting to anyone else, but that’s what the notes looked like for that fic, anyway!

[jiyuus]

Fever

I gave my friend the responsibility of deciding this so~ Nickname is also from a friend, but different from the prompt and character friend

Karim taking care of sick reader

Also, gender neutral~

I hope you enjoy! and if you want to be tagged in my writings, let me know~

[Karim Flam]

—————-

“Karim, baby, I said I’m fine.” You said while trying to get out of the bed that your fiancé had put you in once you started coughing.

“Ice Cube-”

“Why do you still call me that?” You asked pouting, the name came from when you first started at Company 1. You were both had started around the same time, but you weren’t trying to be a pastor like Karim- even though you have the whole Sol script memorized- you were more focused on helping other.

During a sparring session, Karim had used his power to turn your “cubes” of fire into cubes of ice.

“What the hell?” Was all you could say when your fire suddenly fell to the ground in cubes of ice. Looking towards the training room door, you see Karim standing there, his arms crossing and a sly smirk crossing his face as the two of you made eye contact.

“Karim, why’d you do that?” He didn’t say anything and only shrugged, his tattooed shoulders only visible during this time

“I got tired of tiredly watching you tire your tired self out.” He said, but all you could do was tilt your head as you furrowed your brows. Karim sighed and pushed himself off the doorframe and walked towards you.

“Rekka wanted me to come get you for dinner. Him and Huo Yan are waiting.”

“You could’ve said something and NOT turn my fire into ice cubes.” You grumbled, not quiet enough for him not to hear, but not loud enough to be yelling.

“I did, but if it was Rekka then you would’ve just trained harder. You need food or your gonna tried yourself out.”

“Sure, whatever you grump.”

That was a bit ago, but he still continued to call you Ice Cube whenever he got the chance to snuff your fire out and turned them into cubes.

Rolling your eyes you once again try to leave bed, but was stopped once again.

“Stay in bed.”

“Karim, it’s just a simple cough- it’s not so bad.” You said while gently moving his arms away from you and finally getting up out of bed, getting ready for the day. Karim’s brows furrowed more than they normally did, but he wasn’t gonna argue with you anymore that morning and instead when to the sanctuary to pray.

Throughout the day, you could feel yourself become slower, your head started to pound and despite being a third gen. you felt extremely hot.

“Y/N, I was just coming by to ask- are you okay?” Huo Yan asked as he got closer to your from, seeing sweat on your brow and you looking out of breath- he knew something was wrong instantly. However, you waved him off.

“Yeah, I’m fine, what did you need, Huo Yan?” If it was even possible, you saw Huo Yan’s eyes squint as his brow furrowed a little while looking at you. He stepped closer to you, placing his hand on your forehead.

“You feel a lot warmer than you normally do, I think you should go see a doctor.”

“I’m fine, I even told Karim this morning-” Your legs swayed, catching yourself  on the nearest wall. Huo Yan instantly went to your side, making sure you were alright .

“I’ll tell Captain Burns that you’re sick, but you need to rest.”

“No, I’m fine-”

“You obviously aren’t.” Closing your eyes and grimacing, you heard the one voice you didn’t really want to hear right now. Opening your eyes, you see Karim standing in front of you. Before you could say anything else, you felt Karim grab your upper arm and drag you back to your room.

*

Once there, Karim made your change into thinner clothes and lay in bed as he went to get a bucket of ice water with a rag.

“So, how long were you watching me?”

“I started watching you after you were watching the rookies watch Burns watch them.” 

“What?” Normally you could understand what he was saying, but this time you couldn’t. I could’ve been that the fever was effecting your comprehension skills, or that Karim was trying to hard with his little riddles, or the writer just couldn’t think of anything- either way it was confusing.

“When you were teaching the rookies.” He said, his voice a lot softer now as he placed the bucket on the table beside you. “I had just gotten done with my morning prayer, and as I walked out of the hall I heard you yelling at them.” You chuckled, knowing that anyone in the whole Company could tell what time it was from how you were screaming at the rookies, trying to get them into shape for this dangerous job.

“I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t fall on your face when nobody was around,” he joked, cracking a small smile before dunking the rag in the water and rinsing it out before placing it on your forehead. You sighed at the coolness of the rag, your eyes fluttering closed for a second before reopening them and looking at Karim who now had his top coat off and hanging on the rack in your room.

“Thank you.” You simply said grabbing his wrist as he adjusted the rag on your forehead. It was hard to keep your eyes open as exhaustion was starting to take over, but you could see some of the sun peeking in through the closed blinds casting a comforting glow on the ash blue haired man. You gave him a small smile before whispering a simple “love you” to Karim, and just before you were fully out, you heard Karim say- 

“Love you too, Ice Cube.”