#I found this in my drafts it was supposed to be part of a bigger piece about Mac living alone while dennis was in north Dakota

[youreeatingthedog]

"He left him a contact number for where he was gonna be in North Dakota, but it ended up being a mental health line. "

[starry-blue-echoes]

I found this old snippet 90% finished in my drafts so W O E, 2k words of Tonio being my favorite character and Mr.Giovanna slowly understanding that he is not in fact Giogio's father anymore <333

(also tw for implied/referenced child abuse since Giorno)

-------------

Tonio noticed the second the man approached Giorno’s table.

His customers knew better than to do so. They knew the boy was under his personal protection and it was best to steer clear. A greeting hello when the boy arrived, a brief exchange of conversation, an offered treat or trinket was of course allowed, but approaching his booth while Tonio was not present?

That was not common.

In fact, by the time Tonio made it out of the kitchen and to the dining area, the man had gathered quite a bit of attention from the other customers if the glances being cast his way were anything to go by.

The man was practically looming over Giorno’s booth, all but boxing the boy into his seat and talking in a low voice so as to not be overheard. Tonio couldn’t even see Giorno from his spot.

Tonio did not like this.

He did not like this one bit.

So plastering on his best Customer Service Smile, he approached.

“Excuse me sir,” he spoke up, keeping his voice light and pleasant. “My apologies, but at this establishment you must wait to be seated.”

The man turned to face him, not moving away from the booth and instead attempting to slide a softer, kinder mask over his features.

Hm.

It was sloppy, Tonio couldn't help but note. Sure the facial expressions were… passable, he supposed, but his body language was all wrong. Maybe spending so much time amongst the real dangers in Italy had made him a bit of a snob, but honestly this was laughable.

“Ah, you misunderstand sir, I’m not here to eat, though I have heard good things about this restaurant.” the man waved him off with what was supposed to be a lighthearted chuckle that only succeeded in feeling patronizing. “I’m here to pick up my son.”

“Oh?” Tonio responded with a slit tilt of the head, and a cold, cold feeling slipped into his gut. “You’re this boy’s father then? I wouldn’t have guessed.”

“Step father, technically.” Mr.Giovanna explained, the veiled insult sailing clear over his head. “His mother already had him when I stepped into the picture, but I see and love him as my own.”

His smile got tighter when he saw Giorno, kind, smart, shy Giorno who loved frogs and ladybugs and the color pink and listening to Tonio talk about recipes, flinch.

“I see.” was all he offered.

Tonio knew so little. So, so little. Part of him knew it was purposeful. That he was giving himself plausible deniability. An empty comfort.

But he knew enough. He’d always known enough. More than enough really.

And now it was looking him dead in the eyes and spitting in his face, daring him to lie down and take it.

“Well, it’s getting late. We’d best be getting back to the house before your mother starts dinner. Come along, Giorno, you’ve taken up enough of this man’s time.” 

How long has he been standing idly by as he’d seen Giorno hurt? 

How many times has he knowingly allowed Giorno to return to that sorry excuse of a family? 

How many times has he merely nursed his injuries instead of doing anything to stop them from happening in the first place?

Well no longer.

“Actually, sir.” he interrupted. “I have some…. concerns I’d like to speak with you about.”

The man froze before slowly turning toward him.

There was a dangerous glint in his eyes and he not very subtly squared his shoulders to make himself look bigger.

“Oh?”

How funny. The man thought he was intimidating.

Tonio had done a bit of asking around about Giorno’s family when the boy hadn't been present. Nothing too nosey of course, just the standard gossip that was floating around which he generally got quite a lot of. 

And the results of his findings were quite fruitful.

Mr.Giovanna had a temper and was somewhat quick to anger, and he’d had a few dealings with the underworld, but that was as all. The man wasn't anyone important nor did he have any connections whatsoever.

He was just a simple, ordinary, powerless man.

A man who in the long run wouldn’t be able to do a thing to Tonio.

Tonio did not normally like taking advantage of his position, of the power he had at his fingertips. The near crippling fear of entrenching himself further and further into this world always had held him at bay, but in this moment he was more than willing to make an exception for this.

“Yes.” he made a slight show of stepping slightly closer to Mr.Giovanna and the booth seat, closer than was socially acceptable and a clear challenge to the man’s current proximity to Giorno. “And in all honesty, I’m not quite certain I feel comfortable allowing you to leave with this boy.”

“And for what reasons would that be?” Mr.Giovanna was openly glaring at him now, trying and failing to loom over a man who had a few centimeters on him.

“I notice things, Mr.Giovanna.” Tonio spoke, keeping his words clipped and flat lest his rage bubble over. “Giorno has been a patron in my restaurant for well over a year now, and I am not nearly as blind or stupid as you appear to think of me. I may be a chef, but I am also very familiar with the practices of medicine and the healing processes of the human body.”

Sometimes Tonio loathed this skill of his. Of seeing the way people moved and being able to pinpoint exactly what was wrong, of seeing the lethargy and careful movements and stiffness and knowing of the presence of bruises or cigarette burns or broken skin.

(In a bitterly comforting way, Giorno had always liked that part of him. Of their shared skill. He said it made him feel less alone and less strange)

Mr.Giovanna simply sneered at him. “And why exactly are you paying so much attention to little boys?”

His rage surged at the accusation, howling and throwing itself against the cage he’d locked it inside, only made worse by the man’s smugness as though he’d just won and Tonio would back down.

Oh how he longed for his butcher’s knives. They cut through skin and muscle like warm butter and would so easily make short work of the man before him.

“You know very well that is not what I’m talking about.” much to his dismay, his calm mask had begun to crack at the edges, his voice growing more tense and taught with every prolonged moment. This man was managing to slide through every crack of his carefully constructed walls in ways the most vile, loathsome mafioso couldn’t, and all with hardly more than a few words.

This needed to end soon. Before Tonio did something he would regret. For Giorno’s sake.

“I am not going to allow you to leave this establishment with this child unless you can offer me a reasonable explanation for why he comes here with bruises every single week, and that is final.” 

A lie of course, he wasn’t letting Giorno go anywhere with this pathetic excuse of a father, no matter what excuses he scrounged up.

“Well I don’t owe you shit.” he snapped back, forgoing excuses and even denial of the accusations completely. At the very least, it seemed Tonio was getting under Mr.Giovanna’s skin just as badly. “I am going to be taking my son and we are going to leave. Giorno, come here right n-” but as the man tried to move Tonio out of the way and make a grab for the boy, Tonio grabbed his arm in an ironclad grip.

The man froze, surprised either by the strength or by the audacity.

Tonio’s expression didn’t falter.

“I think it would be best for you to leave, sir.”

For a second all was calm.

And in the next, pure fury overtook the man’s face.

The punch was quick and powerful, and Tonio barely had a moment to realize what was happening before he had both hands on the booth table to support his weight with a blooming pain in his jaw. With one of his hands he hesitantly brought it up to test the area, but while it would undoubtedly bruise and was rather tender, nothing felt broken or severely damaged.

Tonio should have seen the punch coming, but alas, hindsight is 20/20. He partially expected a second blow…. but it never came.

In fact, Mr.Giovanna was being awfully quiet.

His grin which had temporarily been chased from his face found itself sliding back into place once more.

It seemed the man finally noticed. Now that their conversation had reached a small pausing point, it was likely that much more obvious, but Tonio still couldn’t help but internally chuckle at the man’s horrendous observation skills.

It was dead silent in the restaurant.

The clicking of silverware, the murmur of conversation, the footsteps of the waitstaff, all of it had vanished into thin air.

And as Tonio stood back up to his full height, one merely needed to glance around the room to see why.

Every single customer and staff member was staring at them.

And not one was happy.

Expressions ranged from murderous fury to offended disgust to cold disapproval. Weapons of all types were in hand: knives, firearms, utensils, even a few Stands had joined the fray.

Sometimes being neutral felt like a curse, but in this moment? In this moment Tonio had never felt freer.

Because everyone respected the rules inside Trattoria Trussardi.

And those who didn’t……

“You’ve broken the rules, Mr.Giovanna.” Tonio spoke, a grin still on his face. Only now he let the pleasantries fade away. Now, he let his grin stretch wide and manic, filled with teeth and not quite reaching his eyes.

To an outsider, it was downright predatory.

And Mr.Giovanna, finally realizing the lion’s den he had stumbled headfirst into, froze.

But Tonio did not care.

Not one bit.

He nudged the man to the side with the back of his hand, and didn’t even resist the urge to wipe it on his apron afterwards. He’d need to wash his hands later, wouldn’t want the food suffering from whatever filth that man possessed.

“Giorno,” he asked quietly, his body relaxing and growing soft at the bright, vibrant hope sparkling in the boy’s eyes. “Would you like to join me for dinner?”

Giorno’s eyes widened, growing glossy and shiny yet not a single tear spilt.

“I would.” he said in a hushed whisper, as though the words would break if he was too rough with them, and in Tonio’s heart the only regret he felt was that he hadn’t done this sooner.

He gently grabbed Giorno’s hand to tug him away from the booth seat with as much gentleness as he could, leading him toward the back door that led to the stairs up to his apartment. Giorno’s hand was so small, yet it clung to Tonio’s like a lifeline.

He would call Doppio later tonight to help with the paperwork, of course after Giorno had eaten and gone to sleep. He had more than enough spare funds for the shopping trip that would be required tomorrow, but it would also likely be best to ask if there was anything Giorno wanted from his now-ex-parents house. He’d likely have to rearrange some furniture upstairs, Giorno would need his own room obviously, maybe cash in a favor or two to help, and of course possibly transferring schools which meant even more paperwork-

But that was tomorrow. Tonight, he got to look forward to a nice, calm dinner that for the first time since inviting Doppio in wouldn’t be alone. 

And just as he nudged Giorno through the door…

“Marco.”

“Yeah Boss?”

Tonio liked Marco. A good head on his shoulders, a competent host and waiter, had potential for a manager position, always called in ahead of time if gang work interfered with his schedule, and on the rare occasion things got out of hand he was good at regaining order.

“I’m temporarily waiving the ‘no violence’ rule.” Tonio said. “Make sure nobody breaks anything important and if things get too noisy, see to it that it’s moved elsewhere.”

Marco’s eyes lit up with an emotion he didn’t dare to place, but his face remained stoic. “‘Course, Boss.”

Tonio looked back to the restaurant, his eyes soft and smile warm in a way that did not match the manic and horrifying implication of his words in the slightest.

“You have 30 minutes. Try to keep the mess to a minimum.”

The future looked bright and Tonio felt happy.

[sonkitty]

The Hinge to The Door Catch

Basic disclaimer: I acknowledge that Good Omens 3 might change or drop whatever is intended for what I'll cover here. Still, I think these details are supposed to add up to whatever might be, or would have been, revealed.

There is also a risk of me seeing what I want to see or generally being tricked because this story is deceptive and tricky. I have been tricked many times by the game already.

I'm covering Aziraphale's actions in the Final Fifteen after the kiss and before The Door Catch is actually performed.

The Door Catch is a special Magic Trick Aziraphale does at the end of episode 6. The main posts I have that reference it are:

Rainbow Connection Part 4 - The Door Trick and The Door Catch

The Door Trick Visual Representation

The Door Trick (more detail)

The Door Catch Ground Zero

Some of these incoming GIFs contain a full cut, and some contain only the part I want to focus on. With the exception of one specific part, I will not cover The Door Catch itself since while drafting this post, possibly including more ended up distracting from my main focus, which is these parts leading into it later.

If you don't already know, there is a ridiculous hidden, complex game in Good Omens 2 called Earthly Objects. I am skipping over a lot of the amazing things Crowley is doing in the game to focus on this specific thing for Aziraphale.

This blog (for now) generally focuses on Crowley because I love him, and David Tennant's portrayal of him, so much.

...

As other fans have pointed out, Crowley passed something to Aziraphale's mouth through the kiss in the Final Fifteen.

I think it's a metal clasp like those found on Crowley's tie for his Tied Hands. The metal clasps are the thumb joints of the Tied Hands. The thumb joints are like hinges to make things happen with the trickery in the Earthly Objects game.

Crowley's tie clasps are a little big for what the size of this thing seems to be, but both S1E4 and S2E3 show us Crowley can shape-shift his overall body to be smaller or bigger. As for if he has to do anything special for only part of his accessories, I don't know what it might be, but he gets the job done.

In any case, this thing is The Hinge.

Things don't stop here with Aziraphale showing us he got it in his mouth.

In fact, just before he does, we see that two of Crowley's lower teeth are given some discoloration and shine as if to indicate where the metal came from:

Crowley was able to give himself upper gold teeth when in his angel disguise in Heaven.

...

Immediately after the kiss, one of Aziraphale's teeth seems to have some extra shine to it, but if you look at the frames for this shot closely, he is using his tongue to take whatever is causing that shine and hide it in his mouth:

...

Here is Aziraphale showing Crowley and us he has received this Hinge:

...

After Crowley leaves, Aziraphale looks very distraught and is frowning.

Then he moves to touch his mouth with his right hand. I don't know if this movement adds something to the trick itself. It seems to mainly show him treasuring the kiss he just received. Maybe, and a very big maybe, based on what's about to happen, he has to actually keep it in his mouth because he needs the Metatron to be in the space before he removes it.

Nonetheless, after he removes his hand is when he seems to be telling us he is making an effort to not accidentally swallow this thing that is still in his mouth.

...

The Metatron arrives using a doorknob and has not spoken yet.

Aziraphale turns around. This action seems to be when Aziraphale starts to remove this thing from his mouth. The door is heard being closed as he has his back to the camera, I think just before his arm is in motion to remove the Hinge.

The Metatron asks, "How did he take it?"

Aziraphale has finished removing the thing from his mouth and answers, "Not well."

His right hand seems to pass it to his left hand, but both hands are closed and not really confirming which hand is holding this special little hinge.

...

As the Metatron walks toward Aziraphale, we can't see what Aziraphale might be doing with this hinge, but when Aziraphale is next on screen, his left hand moves as if it to tell us that he is holding it there for the moment while the Metatron is talking to him.

At about this time is where I lose track of it. When Aziraphale steps back and says, "I..." and then looks to the window, his left arm indicates some movement for what he might be doing with this hinge.

I know very little about performing magic, and I don't even know what trick this one might be based on, but given what is going to happen next, my best guess is that he is somehow slipping this thing up into his sleeve. That way, his hands are empty as he gestures upward.

He does that gesture upward for asking about his bookshop.

As both arms go down, they strike his coat, and so my guess is that the Hinge is supposed to fall and be caught into his left hand. It happens when the hands hit the sides of his coat.

I can't really see it happen; I'm only guessing based on all other options.

As the Metatron gestures toward Muriel, Aziraphale's movement of his right hand opening slightly indicates that his left hand is the one holding onto the Hinge.

His left hand is still closed after seeing Muriel and looking to the window where Crowley is possibly still outside by the car.

The Metatron asks Aziraphale if there is anything he, Aziraphale, needs to take with him.

Aziraphale has a very subtle left arm movement telling himself and us that he has what he needs. He has that Hinge. So, no, there is nothing he can think of to take with him otherwise.

He takes another look in Crowley's direction. The Metatron moves to exit.

Aziraphale moves, saying, "I think I..." and stops. His left hand is still indicating he has that Hinge.

There is one particular frame where a small light appears over blurred fingers. In motion, maybe such a light is reflected from his pocket watch. But, if not, it could actually be a little glimpse of the reflective shiny surface of the hinge to help tell us how he is holding it as his left hand keeps moving, clutched between fingers. Those fingers seem to be the index and middle finger.

This hinge will move to Aziraphale's right hand eventually but not yet.

Once Crowley is on screen again, he is in his first "shot" for The Door Trick. As the cut is nearly done, the Metatron starts to talk and says, "Well, I can't think of a better angel to wrap things up, and to set into motion the next step in the great plan."

Aziraphale and the Metatron walk while Crowley watches.

Then the camera shifts focus to Crowley's front again.

As best I can tell, Aziraphale moves the Hinge from his left hand over to his right hand during the cut with Crowley and the girl I named Yawning Yellow passing over on Crowley's right.

She has a hand by her mouth, so that might be a general clue for anyone looking on seeing what will happen once Aziraphale is on screen again.

When Aziraphale is on screen again, he moves his right hand close to his mouth just before he says, "Um, yes, you mentioned that. Can I know what it is?"

I think that was him putting The Hinge back in his mouth, so that's where it is while he is talking.

He manages to keep it hidden. Based on his words and mouth movement, I think it might be under his tongue towards the left side of his mouth.

The dialogue continues, and Aziraphale appears thrown off by the words, "Second Coming."

He keeps at it with the trick in play though.

This cut is Ground Zero for The Door Catch:

It has a special hidden message of, "Here goes nothing."

...

I'm not showing every cut of The Door Catch, but here is shot #2:

Look closely at Aziraphale's lower middle teeth for the shine of The Hinge. Here is another GIF, cropped and slightly brightened for further assistance:

...

And while Aziraphale probably swallows this Hinge after the Metatron presses the button in the Heaven elevator, I am stopping here.

As stated from the beginning, think these things were supposed to be found on the way to season 3 or for people to go back and find after season 3.

[ninadove]

For the ask game! How about shine!

THIS WAS HARDER THAN EXPECTED BUT I FOUND IT!!! From the Dog and Fox AU (drafting ongoing):

“How do you do it?”

Adrien wore his immaculate suit like a shroud, haunting the gigantic mirror without conviction. The silky tie dug into his skin, as did his Miraculous; he did not dare take off either.

“It’s quite simple, really.” Felix’s brushstrokes were artful, decisive, bristling with life: he applied kohl like he would sharpen a blade. “I could teach you, if you’d like.”

“Not that.” Although, he supposed that was part of his fascination; a detail of a much bigger picture. “How do you break the rules, and constantly get away with it?”

“I don’t. Not unless you cover for me.” A smirk. “When the golden child shines so bright, no one gives the black sheep a second glance. Your perfection eclipses my wrongdoings.”

“He notices,” Adrien corrected, reproach and adoration seeping through his tone. “You drive him insane.”

“Good.”

Thank you Bee! Ask game here! 💙🩵🧡

[jades-typurriter]

Gal Pals + Your First Howl

A POV transformation thing: your closest friends are werewolves, they get you in on it, and they sit with you through the process of your first transformation! @bluebearial (the BESTIE) collaborated on this, basically just passing the draft back and forth; her writing is in purple and mine is in blue. PLEASE go check her out she's a fantastic artist and has more lovely and intimate writing like this on her blog

CW: they're gay werewolves. these girls are doing lots of petting and sniffing

Gloomy. That’s the one word that could describe this night. The sky is a deep grey. Thunder, far in the distance, still makes itself known in the form of a near-constant rumble. Despite the blanket of cloud that covers the sky, a pale glow could still be seen. Lycanthropy, as you had recently found out, doesn’t require direct moonlight to take effect. Just the presence of it is enough to make you itch. For new instincts to crop up. You wish you knew about this going in, but thankfully, your friends are a lot more experienced than you. Even better, they’re here to ride it out with you.

“I know the picture of like, breaking into a clearing in the woods, and having the moon behind you and everything when you transform for the first time is really cool,” trills Fetch, and even through the buzz of excitement and anxiety, you know where this is going. You’ve known it since English Lit. in college; it’s had a point-by-point for everything since even before then. “But not a ton of people actually get to do that! It’s like, part of the lycanthrope experience that gets sanitized and simplified a lot for wider audiences. Sooooo many movies do this bit, and the weather’s always perfect, and everything, but like… would you even wanna wander around in the woods on a normal day? Let alone a vulnerable one like this?”

“I dunno…~” lilts Plum, your other friend, from her place on the couch, “Days like this’re perfect for just, skulkin’ around in the dark. Scarin’ people. Like, rahh~” She even puts her paws up, showing off those amethyst-colored claws. As you watch her, you can’t help but wonder if this whole ��lycanthropy’ thing has more of a mental effect than you’d first realized. As recently as this afternoon, she was pretty chipper! Happy to help with anything you’d need. But after the moon came out… She’s definitely the more laidback one now, compared to Fetch.

She always found at least some kind of fun in any situation, though a part of you wished she wouldn’t right at this moment. “Like, think about it. Remember when we first met? ‘N you found me diggin’ through your trash? You thought I was some kind’a dog. I wish I had a camera - remember the look on your face when I just started talking to you? Like…” She takes a pause, putting a paw up to her muzzle, trying her best not to laugh (and failing). Like her namesake, she is covered in a thick coat of purple. You remember that in her human form, she had purple highlights in her otherwise dark hair. You suppose the color of her fur was… somehow related to that? How does that even work? What would your fur look like? Yet another question you’d neglected to ask before, well. Y’know.

“Ohhhh my gosh, are you ever gonna leave me alone about that? I thought you were a lit-er-al wolf!!” Plum looks like she has something to say about that, but Fetch cuts her off: “I know, I know, I wasn’t wrong. You did turn out to be a huge bitch,” it says, voice saccharine and head tilting cutely to the side. Plum reaches over you to bop it with her paw, leaving you acutely aware of your position, sandwiched between your two friends. Squished, almost: both of them are much bigger than they are as humans, and they take up much more of the couch, too. You blush as her paw passes by your face—it’s bigger than your whole head. Thinking about Plum lurking out of sight, rummaging around with those powerful things… Thinking about how your own hands might be like that soon enough. You’d pipe up to ask about how soon to expect more changes, but it would be, what, the tenth time you asked? Plus, you’re not sure you want to draw attention to yourself if the partners start play-fighting. Well, maybe you would… But it’d probably be safer to wait until after your change.

But still. On one side, Fetch’s dense, cream fur coddles your arm and part of your leg, acting as a big, fluffy cushion. On the other side, Plum is really invading your personal space a bit as she tries to reach over at her partner. Being caught between a pair of - how tall are they– one, two, three… - six foot tall wolves has you squirming a bit. Partly to get comfy, and partly because… oh wow. This is really happening. Up until a few years ago, you’d figured werewolves weren’t, y’know, real? Your heart flutters. Your stomach tightens a bit, causing you to shudder - anything to somehow vent these feelings. You clench your fists and oh my god, were your fingernails always this sharp? They dig into your palms, causing you to relax your grip. Remembering the situation at hand - or was it ‘at paw’, Plum cranes her neck a bit to look down at you. At least, you’d assume that’s what she’s doing. Her snout is just about the only thing keeping her fluffy, full mane from completely covering her face.

“Hey, hey, listen dude,” she does her best to soothe you, “We’re gonna be here for you, alright? It’ll be like, kinda weird at first. Um, maybe a little scary? I dunno. But, like, once you get over the hump, it’ll feel sooo~o good. You’re gonna feel all soft ‘n like, fluffy ‘n stuff. Like, bwbwbwbwbwb.” She demonstrates in her own weird way, putting her paws to her own cheeks and rubbing them. Her ears, a little droopier than you’d expect from a wolf, flop from side to side as she bleps her tongue out at you. You do feel a bit more relaxed admittedly… Though, there’s another thing you hadn’t thought about before.

Werewolves smell. They don’t smell bad, really, though you wonder if there’s something else making you think that. They just have… a scent, one that’s hard to describe beyond… furry, and thanks to your spot between your two friends, they were basically hotboxing you with it. Every whiff of it makes you feel just a bit more, like, relaxed and stuff. I mean, these are your friends. They’re helping you through this. It’s just what the pack does for one another.

Fetch leans down, reaching behind you to put one paw on each of your shoulders, reassuring you. Well, trying to reassure you; getting so close is giving you another waft of Wolf Girl, and as familiar and calming as it is—you wonder if maybe you already knew what the two of them smelled like, and you’re just starting to recognize your friends the way dogs do—it’s starting to make your head spin. Or maybe that’s the changes, too…

“It really, really means a lot to us that we’re the ones you wanted to help you with this, bestie. Now, someone could have been a little bit gentler about infecting you,” it snips, pointing its snout accusingly at Plum. Oh, yeah. That’s where you recognize her smell from. She all but bowled you over when you had asked the two of them to bite you, and you… still thought about her weight on you fairly often. You wish you could stop thinking about it for, like, a second so you don’t seem like a flustered, shaky nerd, but it’s harder to forget it with every breath.“But the trust is still really sweet! And like, now I get to repay you for being so understanding when I came out, yeah?” It perks up its ears, smiling down at you. You (mercifully) lose yourself in that memory for a moment instead; you see its tail whipping back and forth behind it, and realize, yeah, you’ve been friends for a long time. You’re, like, besties! It always makes you giggle when Fetch calls you that. And you do trust them! Even if they’re a bit silly, you know the two of them are looking out for you. You’re in good paws.

“Yeah! We like, tooo~tally got you, dude. It’ll be a-okay,” she reassures you. “You’re like, basically our best friend so, like, y’know….

You blink a few times, shaking your head as your hearing gets more and more muffled. Wh,what’s happening? It’s as if your ears were suddenly plugged. You can’t hear anything now. Just as quickly as it happens, it seems to stop.

“Oh, huh.”

It’s not until you hear her voice again that you calm down. Though - wow, um, that was a bit loud?? You grimace, wondering just what caused her to shout like that. It was as if her voice gained a ton more bass all of a sudden. You glare up at her, opening your mouth to scold her, but you quickly realize that… like, everything is louder. The rumbling outside, the room’s ambience, even Fetch’s tail as it slaps the couch. Plum’s paw reaches down to the top of your head, where your… ears… are…? “Ohoho~ Hey, Fetch, check this out~” Like, you could just hear the excitement in Plum’s voice as beckons her partner. A pair of tall, fuzzy triangles peaks up from beneath your hair. Speaking of, has your hair gotten longer? You can like, kinda feel it brushing your shoulders… Your thoughts begin to swim as you feel your bestie’s paw just, rest upon your head like that. You want to look up at her, but something compels you to angle to head down. She holds one of your ears between her thumb and index finger, softly rubbing it between her digits. Your ear flicks in her gentle grip, instinctually moving in a way you like, really cannot control. Like, just a bit, y’know? The same, strange feeling causes your free ear to fold down, your shoulders to slump a bit… You squirm some more as the meekest little whine slips out. You rub your nose. Either that scent is getting stronger, or like, your nose is getting more sensitive. Either way… It’s enough to make you sneeze.

“Awww!” Fetch practically whispers. “The new ears are so cuuuuute! Just go easy on ‘em, Plum, you know those things are sensitive when you first get ‘em.” It bends down, poking its snout right into the ear you’ve angled away from Plum. Its voice is so quiet that it barely moves the air, but it’s still so totally clear: “How do you like ‘em, though, bestie?” You shudder, the tingle in your ear crashing down the back of your neck, along your spine, and into your tail—into your tail?! You twist around, pulling your head away from Plum’s paw (you have to suppress another whimper at the thought of no longer being petted) and, looking down, see a fluffy sprout bunching up the bottom of your shirt. Your eyes get all big, and as you get all excited about it, you watch it start wagging basically on its own? And you can feel it and it feels like you’re dancing for joy? You yell, looking back up at the two girls to either side, and Fetch yells back at you. “Oh my gosh oh my GOSH!!!” It squeals. “I can’t believe it came in so quickly!! It’s soooooo cute oh my gosh…” It pauses, then leans down conspiratorially, its own tail wagging again, energetic and out of time with yours. “Hey. You know what’d be a real fun way to scream it all out? Since we’re celebrating?” You tilt your head, feeling your ears flop with the motion, and realize that you probably look a lot like Fetch did a minute ago.

You have a good idea of what it means. If there’s one good thing about all those werewolf movies you like to watch - you kind of know the beats to this ‘story’. …That, and, your friends finding your collection is what set this into motion in the first place. Your tail wags furiously as you put your paws together. That short, stubby thing grows inch by inch, moment by moment. Every little wag it makes, it feels softer, so much softer. You start to understand what Plum meant by those fuzzy feelings. Just the sensation of having a tail at all, let alone wagging it, fills you with a euphoria you didn’t know you yearned for - a euphoria that seems to bubble up inside you. You’ve never howled before, but you’re totally not against it.

“Scream it out…?” Plum quietly asks, a little slower on the draw than you. She perks up an ear, furrowing her brow. “What, like… Oh. Ohhhh.” And she friggin’ grins. “Oh, man. It’ll be just like when we first came out. She leans a bit, squishing you between the two of them. Plum reaches out for her pawrtner’s paw, gently taking hold of it. “Remember that~? It was like, so romantic…~ Holding paws, howling together, getting nice and close after~ And like, we started getting all grabby ‘n stuff, testing each other out, and…~ And– A-Anyway,” she catches herself, sparing you the more… intimate. details, “You ready~? One, two, three!~”

“AwooOOO~OOO~~!” Angling her head up, Plum gives it her all! It starts low and slow, but ramps up in volume until it’s all you can hear. And you feel hyped! Your euphoria reaches a fever pitch, boiling over until you just can’t keep it in anymore! Why not follow your instincts, joining your besties in their symphony?

With Plum’s voice reverberating between your ears, inside your skull, coursing through your chest like the bass of the speakers at a concert, you lift your voice as well, throwing your head back and lifting your voice to match hers, at least as best you can. It cracks and scratches more than once, but you don’t care. It still sounds beautiful to you, and it’s such a rush! You feel like you’re standing through the sunroof and blasting music on the way home from a frat party; you feel like you’re on stage and your voice is carrying through a packed arena.

Fetch claps its paws together, “yay”-ing and chanting ‘go, go, go!” before finally lifting its own snout and joining the two of you. It effortlessly, naturally harmonizes with Plum—the two of them have been running as a pack for a long time, after all, and they’ve had more practice individually than you have. Still, the sound the three of you make together makes butterflies in your stomach, and then washes them away again with liquid awe. It’s like the crowd you were singing to is cheering back, a beautiful droning of joyful voices, shouting wildly and without inhibition.

You were always so jealous of the two of them, once you’d found out. They’d been your friends for years, but when they started dating, and after Fetch realized it was otherkin, Plum turned it at its request, and well—it’s a lot harder to hide two werewolves than it is to hide one. Of course, it didn’t change anything between the three of you, other than feeling a little weird about your fascination with werewolves. Being a fan of the genre, being a furry, even, felt sorta… like stereotyping them? Fetch would use the word “appropriative”, if it wasn’t currently singing its lungs out.

Now, though, after their reassurance, and after doing a bit of digging into those “weird” feelings, you just feel like you’ve been missing out! You keep howling until your throat gets tired, until you start choking on your own drool and feeling the scratchy strain on your new vocal cords. At some point, Fetch reaches out to pat you on the head again, and notices something about your shoulders.

“Dude! No way! Your coat is coming in now, too!” You finally gulp down a breath, after what feels like holding a note for an eternity (and pretty poorly, but hey, you can already feel yourself getting better!) and reach up to feel around your neck. Your hair hasn’t just gotten longer—it’s begun to crawl its way down between your shoulder blade and along your arms!

You think back to before, the way your tail first sprouted from beneath your shirt. You’re getting the same feeling now, watching your new coat spill over your shirt’s collar. You were always pretty flat, but - your cheeks start to glow as you feel your shirt ride up, buoyed by your developing bosom. If that isn’t enough, that same fur spreads across it, only adding to its mass. A thick tuft sprouts up in your cleavage, helping it to spill over the top of your collar. And god, it feels warm. You grow aware of that as you hug around it. You squeeze it in your arms, and an exhilarating feeling rumbles throughout your body. …Or, was that rumbling coming from you? One end of your mouth curls up as you growl to yourself, prompting an amused coo from Plum.

“Hey. Nice teeth.~”

You break from your self-imposed stupor for a moment, instinctively licking your teeth. They’re sharp. Especially your canines, but the rest of your teeth have grown similarly long and jagged. You whisper something resembling a ‘thank you’, too sheepish and too caught up trying to keep yourself even halfway composed. It’s a losing battle, though. Your shirt rubs up against your chest, making every little squirm a challenge to keep yourself quiet. As your coat thickens, it shimmers in the dim light. Your thoughts are harder to grip, divided among so many unfamiliar sensations. Your ears flick and swivel with every little sound. Your tail curls and wags and bats the cushion behind you. Your nose, well on its way to snoutsville is full of unfamiliar, addictive smells. You don’t know what to do with yourself. You reach out to Fetch, grabbing its arm and clinging to her. You let out a whine, rubbing your cheek against its silky fur, hoping for a lifeline as a warm, kind of itchy, but liberating feeling spreads further down your body as it is overtaken by your developing coat.

It doesn’t help you as much as you were hoping. Like, not at all. Fetch is just sooooo comfy, and you feel Plum’s paw between your ears again, and your head starts getting like… all cloudy and stuff… She gets her claws in, short little scratches that drag further and further down through your hair, down the back of your neck—soooo so sososo sensitive right now!!---and up behind your jaw, and you whiiiiiiine and just slowly slump over across Fetch’s lap. It giggles, Plum giggles, and if you weren’t so busy squirming, you might be laughing too, from the way she’s making your head swim.

With your head in its lap like that, panting from all the stimulation, you smell it even more strongly. It smells good. It makes your face burn, it gets your blood pumping, and you follow your nose to its source without a moment’s hesitation, before looking down your snout and realizing it��s pushing into her skirt, right between her legs. You freeze, eyes darting up to its face. It’s laughing harder than it was before, so like… you didn’t make it uncomfortable? Or mad? At least? Plum gives your rear (oh god you were pointing your butt straight at her) a SLAP with her heavy paw, and both of them crack up all over again at the involuntary YELP. It at least un…unsticked the gears in your brain. You apologize profusely, finally pulling your face away from Fetch’s crotch, but it reaches its paw up to cup your snout. “Bestie, don’t even worry. Everybody gets, uh… kinda excited, on their first time. I know I did!” It pauses. “I mean, me and Plum were already dating by then, so—” The mention of dating makes your face so hot that you have to bring up your own paws—when had they even finished changing!! Omigosh!!—to cover it. “Ohhhhh… I mean, hey, I wasn’t bringing that up to say we couldn’t try stuff!! New instincts, new feelings, no judgment, right? That’s what we said!” You look up at her, half-desperate and half-embarrassed, eager to hear the reassurance. “And I mean… we could try dating too, if you wanted? Right, Plum?”

“Oh, yeah,” she readily agrees, before looking down at you, “If you’re, y’know, comfortable with it. Because…” 

Your ears flop down as she leans in, her snout basically touching yours. The way she stares at you seems to demand your attention. Whatever she’s about to say, it must be important. You nearly flinch as she opens her mouth again, pre-empting what she might say next. And what does she say?

“I can be a little ruff.”

Your embarrassment like, kinda deflates a little. You almost feel annoyed that you walked into that one. You look up at Fetch again, hoping it could relate, only to be greeted with a barely controlled snicker.

“But, really.” The sound of her voice turns your attention back to her. “If you wanna give yourself a test drive, we’ve got you covered.”As she speaks, Fetch’s paw returns to your head, and, like… wow.~ Your thoughts swim and spiral anew as you let out a content, short “hwrrff.” You tilt your head towards her, savoring her touch. Those gentle, drawn-out strokes. You detect a new scent wafting up from the two of them, fanned by their tails’ steady wags. You can’t put a finger on what it means until you feel a warmth between your loins, one that only deepens the more you breathe it in. You suppose that this is one of the many, many things that you’ll learn before dawn. The night’s just getting started, after all.

[semi-sketchy]

That...was it?

I mean, yeah, I probably should've expected it to end in a "adventure continues in SXSG" but that was very abrupt.

GUN, Rouge and Omega know there's something big coming, but just fuck off after this? There's no glimpse of what awaits Shadow? No real cliffhanger, it just stops? This wasn't satisfying.

It started with "Black Doom might be back I have to get to the ARK" and ended with "Black Doom might be back I'm on my way to the ARK." I stopped to look at the timer near the end because I was like "wait it's just gonna end here? We watched a travel animation?"

Maybe this is because I haven't been following SXSG super closely, but I don't understand how Shadow's campaign is going to start so I have no context for how this leads into the game. That's probably partly why it feels so abrupt right now.

I liked the music and action scenes, though I thought some lines should've been cut.

Like this is pretty obvious, but it keeps going.

The scene would've been better had this line been cut. Same thing happens in part 2.

Sometimes, silence speaks volumes. But of course, everything needs to be "spelled out" though that's an issue with the Maria scenes in general.

Man this shot of Shadow though with that music swelling, holy cow.

Hits you in the feels.

Overall though, it was okay!

My biggest compliment really goes to the sound design. I just love how the music and sound effects come together. Also really enjoy how snappy the animation is. By part 3 I definitely was able to tell I was looking at 3D models, but honestly I don't really care which medium it is as long as it's done well. This looked good!

Writing wise, I think part 1 was the worst and that's due to the stiff, on-the-nose interactions between Shadow and Maria (plus the slip-in of "low-gravity remission"). I definitely preferred the action scenes and interactions with Rouge, sadly Omega was just kinda there in the corner like "I CALL DIBS" and didn't contribute anything noteworthy.

I said this about Xenoblade 3 and it rings true here: this felt like watching a draft rather than a finished script. Some parts are cooked and others are raw. If Omega had nothing to do but blow a few things up in the background, why was he here? Even Shadow was the one to take down the GUN ship Omega originally engaged. Give him a bigger purpose or cut him.

The Maria scenes play out the most like a draft, something you'd write to get the basics of what you want the characters to convey before going back over and replacing those lines with actual dialogue. (This is something I do if I'm struggling.)

Now do I really care that the GUN Commander got his Archie name? No. Of all the things in this animation, Sonic Twitter picked the stupidest one to blow up about. I think the "low gravity remission" and Shadow knowing he's part alien is an actual issue. (Although I guess this could be argued since in ShTH he still had amnesia, he wouldn't remember so this wouldn't matter. Still, wasn't it supposed to be a secret? The Commander only found out by accident?)

Some things just aren't as well thought-out as others, which cements my thought that this script needed polishing.

All that said, this is the biggest promo animation project we've seen in Sonic yet and it's quite different from others before it. I don't think I'd call it "the best", I think the Frontiers one was super cool, but it also didn't have the run-time of Dark Beginnings. Like with XC3: Future Redeemed, it simply didn't have the time to screw stuff up as much.

There's good, there's ehh, so overall Dark Beginnings was just okay for me.

My biggest disappointment is still the fact that this animation simply wasn't what I wanted, which isn't its fault. I saw the teaser of Shadow and Maria on the ARK, I thought it was going to be about them on the ARK and it ended up just being about Shadow traveling to space. I wanted and was expecting something this animation was never going to be.

I guess we'll find out soon how the final game handles Shadow's story, though if this animation is anything to go off of, I'm keeping my expectations in check.

[nonexistent-introvert]

Confessions

Pairing: Stephen Strange x f!reader

Word Count: 1.6k

Content: Confessions, angst, idk rlly, fluff

A/N: Another one from drafts. I remember this was inspired right after I finished watching the k drama "start-up" so you may spot a few familiar lines from the show

   You changed your breathing, your movements were swift and quick. The trainee panicked, fighting defensively when you swept your leg, knocking him clean off the floor. You let out a smile as you held out a hand for the trainee to take. The man thanked you before quickly leaving for his next training. 

    “Hey!” You wiped the sweat off your forehead as you turned to the source of your name being called. “I told you, she came back just a few days ago and she’s been training. Why would I lie?” Wong’s voice sounded throughout the field. Your eyes drifted to the taller man with blue robes and his signature cloak over his broad shoulders. You felt your heart pace, he was the reason you left Kamar Taj after all.  With panic overwhelming you, you opened a portal, waving to them hysterically as you tried to casually enter the portal and disappear from both their sights 

   It happened a few more times after that. You almost suspected Stephen spent more time around Kamar Taj these days but you dismissed that thought that he was there for you before you could get your hopes up. You had already gone through the pain of that when you had let yourself hope. One time, you were entering the library when you spotted his back and immediately shut the door again when he was supposed to be your training partner but you went to practice different spells instead lastly when he had sat next to you for lunch, you stuffed so much food into your mouth, you couldn’t even talk to him and then scurried off. 

  You let out a sigh, your hand covering your eyes as you lay on the bed. It had been years since that incident, for all you knew, Stephen already forgot about it, the day he had brought you to Christine’s wedding. 

   You remembered feeling out of place. You weren’t even one to dress up and now you were stuck in a stifling outfit with people you didn’t even know. Stephen was by your side, but it was obvious that man had another person in his mind, his eyes followed her, a longing inside him. The whispers about Stephen bringing a fake date, someone that wasn’t even in his league and the pitiful looks that accompanied you were evident no matter where you went. The worst part of it all was the fact that they were right, you definitely weren’t in his league. You hated crowds, you closed your eyes trying to calm yourself down in a corner. You hated how you were trained to listen to every small detail that day, even if this same skill had saved you on multiple occasions. Because of this skill, you heard the conversation between Stephen and Christine. One that sparked you to leave without him.

   “Are you ok? If you wanted to leave you could have told me. I would have left with you.” He started when he had found her in the kitchen of the sanctum in the late night. You drank your water, trying to swallow the lump in your throat. “You didn’t need to. You should enjoy it.”You replied. He scoffed a little, “ And enjoy the boring questions about my new occupation?” You forced a smile, then smiled bigger to crinkle your eyes, hiding the glistening in your eyes when his worried look scanned you. “It was just overwhelming. Big crowds and all. I’m fine.” You assured with a shrug. Stephen nodded, “Talk to me next time ok? Don’t just leave me.” You pursed your lips, trying to walk past him when he stood in your way. “You’re crying.” He realised, You looked away from him. “You’re seeing things.” Your voice broke near the end. He let the silence hang in the air while he stood in your way, waiting for you to open up. 

   “I can’t Stephen. I can’t talk to you about this.” 

  “You can.” He insisted 

   You met his eyes. “We can’t be friends anymore Stephen.” Stephen stumbled over his words, shock overcoming him at your sudden words. “Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry-” He immediately apologised, trying to find out the problem. You shook your head, “I can’t see you as a friend anymore Stephen. I have feelings for you, for a long time. I thought it would go away but it didn’t. I’m sorry- “ 

  “I-” Stephen started. You inhaled a shaky breath, cutting Stephen off. 

  “You only had eyes for Christine all this time, but I still wanted to stay by your side even just as a friend. Because I thought that maybe you’d look at me the same way one day. That you might notice how much I like you and start seeing me for who I am. I really thought that and I’m now realising foolish I was.” 

  Stephen was at a loss. He knew there was nothing he could do to help his best friend. So he had to just let her go, let her leave. The last time he saw her was when she smiled at him with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and announced to Wong and him that she was leaving to ‘do what she always wanted to’

    You were deep in your thoughts. Your eyebrows furrowed as you buried your nose in a book. 

   “Shit, Sorry.” You apologised when you bumped into someone just as you were leaving the library. However your nose remained buried in the book as you tried to find the text that provided you with the information needed. The man you bumped into cleared his throat and that’s when the scent radiating off him registered in your mind. 

   You scrunched your face, closing your eyes while you cursed internally at yourself . Thinking of ways to be able to brush him off without coming off as weird. 

    Instead of just letting her past, Stephen leaned forward which caused you to back into the library again. Upon entering the library, he closed the door behind him and you silently contemplated climbing out the window which was 3 levels above ground. Maybe breaking a few bones was better than having an awkward conversation with Stephen. You doubt neither you or Stephen were good at talking about these type of things anyways.

   He stood before you, his hands planted at his hips. 

  “You’re avoiding me.”

   You resisted the urge to roll your eyes and snap back at him with a “no shit Sherlock.” All kinds of emotions whirled past you and maybe you stayed silent for abit too long. You awkwardly shifted your hands around, not knowing where to put your hands. 

    “I- it’s been years you don’t need to give me an answer. I sort of know- I mean- it’s okay I don’t need your answer-“ You rambled on, the last time you had a conversation with him was before you left.. Stephen stood closer to you, scoffing slightly, “you’re avoiding me because you’re scared of my reaction to your confession?” You winced, that proved the fact that he still remembered. “I mean it was pretty memorable although I do have photographic memory so most things are-“ he stopped when he saw the smile tugging at her lips. “Show off” You muttered, his grin grew wider at the familiar nickname. 

   “Why do you not want my honest answer?.” 

   You flinched slightly, “because I know what you’ll say.” 

   “What would I say?” He questioned. 

   You swallowed, “Like I said that day Stephen, you have no space in your heart for me.” You laughed coldly, tears welling in her eyes. “I always thought I could act cool in these situations. Laugh it off with a joke and tell you that I’m fine with your decision but it turns out I’m just another lovesick loser after all and I’m not okay. But if I felt okay now, that would mean I didn’t actually like you that much.” Your lips quivered, you bit on your lips but a sob soon escaped you nevertheless.. Claspong your hand over your mouth you turned around away from him. 

     “I just thought it wouldn’t hurt so much. But it hurts- it hurts so much even after these years.” You clutched your chest where your heart is. The voices inside you screaming at the pain. Stephen stood rooted to the spot, his heart breaking for you, feeling his own tears when he realised that he was the reason for her pain. He wiped his glassy eyes and with a determined stride, he pulled her into his arms. 

   “I’m sorry it took me so long to give you a response.but I want to correct you.”he pulled away from you, placing a palm on your cheek while keeping his other hand on your back. “You’re Right, i didnt have space to love you in my heart. But now, my heart is filled with you and you only. I love you and I’m sorry it took losing you for me to realise how my love for you runs deep in my veins.” You glanced up at him, pulling away fully. Chuckling, “This is what I always wanted to hear Stephen.” He grinned at her but he could hear the ‘but’ coming. 

   “But I-I’m a mess. I can’t give you an answer now. I want to do this, with a smile on my face.”

   “I’ll wait for your answer, no matter how long you take because my heart will always be yours.” Stephen replied in a beat, You laughed. “You sound like a fictional romance character.” “You do like those don’t you?” He raised his eyebrows.you grinned, “ a man after my own heart.” 

   “For you? Always.” 

[weebsinstash]

Im not gonna say puerto ricans don't say tio to mean guy bc maybe they do (I've personally never heard it. Honestly even meaning uncle it's rare in PR usually I hear titi/tito for aunt/uncle) but tio (meaning guy) is specifically such a spaniard thing to say, honestly when we mock the spanish we do it saying tio.

Honestly the fact I even know that is because I read it secondhand on tumblr somewhere💀 or I mean, I've heard tio meaning uncle before (unless i was earblind lmao), but I had no idea it also meant dude until, you know. Recently.

bruh I bet Miles learned that in Spanish class at school, I think I remember seeing a post somewhere where they said "maybe miles wouldn't have a b in Spanish if he wasn't doing Spain Spanish in school and Puerto Rican Spanish at home" or something to that effect, idk, unless they're teaching Mexican Spanish at his school and Miles is just genuinely struggling so hard he pulled from a third form of Spanish he ain't even formally learning 😂

Gotta admit, Miles teaching Reader horrible Spanish/Spanglish would be a cute sorta thing to get under Miguel's skin, and I actually did, uh, write this a while back for funsies lol (although I keep forgetting to use those recommended translator sites so, using Google translate I know will set me on the wrong path lmao)

Reader be like "oh Miguel hates Spanglish? Let me tease the fuck out of this man 👏" but like this is one of those drafts that goes absolutely nowhere lmao, it's some dialogue and then Reader saying something to Jess that he actually wasn't supposed to hear and then done haha

I just. I like didn't even finish one Spanish class ok, I had a part of a Spanish class in middle school and obviously im, 26 now, aging �� Miguel could be speaking Spanish talking about leaving me in the bottom of a ravine to die of starvation and as long as he's saying it A Tone I'd be like "o-ok then, whatever you say 😳 i dont know what youre saying but you sound sexy saying it"

I'm just kind of. I'm weird because I can be extremely shy but once I'm comfortable or at least drunk or high or something I can be a huge teasing agitating shit disturber and I keep thinking of Reader just being INAPPROPRIATE with this man

Reader, after 3 glasses down at Spidey Margherita night, looking at Miguel from across the room: look at Miguel over there, just, being gorgeous. Fuck him. His tits are bigger than mine, his ass is fatter than mine, and his waist is smaller than mine. What the fuck. Who let him get away with that. He's lucky this isn't one of the universes where I can get HIM pregnant

Jess, the unfortunate soul who gets to make sure you get home: Girl, you know he can hear you right? Super hearing, genetically spliced, remember?

Reader: bulllllshit, it isn't THAT good, we're so far away, and it's loud in here. Look, I'll prove it. Hey Miguel, you want me to suck that dick?

VIOLENT CHOKING FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM, GLASS SHATTERING, DRINK DROPPED ON FLOOR. Miguel O'Hara found dead in Miami as he looks immediately at you with the most.... girl he doesn't even know how to react right now! He's embarrassed, he's shocked, he's... aroused??? Jess is giving you the most "oh my god you did not just say that" look as you're chugging the rest of your drink and exiting stage right because ohhhhhh my god you can never look him in the eyes ever again (but he'll remember this and seek you out later, don't worry 😉)

[finn-m-corvex]

Lightning in a Cubicle Pt. 1

Did I expect to see my silly little post about Jay being another boring office drone take off? Absolutely not. Hell no I didn't. But here we are and everywhere I look there's office Jay taking over the community person by person and I have no idea what I've done. So, what better way to celebrate my newfound stardom than to do what I do best and write?

Between my drawing today and suffering in pain (I've had twelve ibuprofen today, YIKES) I have put together this little thing. Who am I kidding? Nothing I write is little.

This is Part 1, don't know when Part 2 is coming out, but I hope everyone enjoys nonetheless! P.s. lemme know if anyone wants to be on a taglist for Pt. 2.

"Thank you for reaching out about this issue, Charlie. I will get back to you in two to three business days..." Jay was muttering to himself, carefully clicking each key as he responded to the email. He did not want a repeat of the incident where he typed 'fuck' instead of 'duck' to his supervisor. HR had hounded him for two weeks, forcing him to take classes on workplace etiquette and sensitivity lessons.

Jay hated their HR department.

After he finished the email, he made sure to include his signature and click send, reloading the page and checking to see if it actually sent instead of being banished to his drafts. It had happened to many times already. He smiled at the sight of his finally cleared inbox, happily ignoring the forms that he still needed to fill out and all of the paperwork he had to file.

God, how was it only Monday?

For the first time that day, Jay finally had some downtime (as long as he ignored all of his responsibilities). He grabbed up his cup of pens, intending on linking them all together with paperclips to "ropen" and close his cubicle door. He snickered at his own joke; damn, he cracked himself up sometimes.

Calling it a door was quite generous, honestly. It was really more a spare cubicle wall he had stolen from his coworker Judy after she had gone upstairs for the day. The old hag didn't even realize that it was missing the next morning, only seeing that she now had a view right into her best friend Janet's office. Jay had haggled for some hinges from his buddy in the maintenance department, nailing them to his wall and attaching the stolen one.

He had just found his groove in making the rope when a shrill shriek echoed through the office. "WALKER!"

Jay jumped with a small gasp, panicking when a couple strands of his lightning leaked out. He was quick to get it back under control with his breathing, and he was filled with dread when he realized who had called his name.

Shitty Sharon.

"Yeah, Sharon?" he called back, poking his head out from the top of his cubicle. Just as he thought, Sharon was standing in the doorway to their workroom, face red with anger and hands on her hips. All the other ladies were staring at him as he made the walk of shame to the workroom, and Jay felt humiliated under their questioning gazes.

Could he go one day without being summoned like he was a lapdog? One?!

"I thought you were supposed to fix the printer." Sharon said shortly, and Jay was wondering who the hell he had pissed off in the chain of command to be the only man on the women's side of the floor.

It took everything in him not to scream. "I did fix the printer, Sharon."

"Then why the hell won't it print?! I don't have the time for this," she growled.

Neither did he. He had ropes to make. "Did you make sure it had ink and paper? Like I told you last time?"

"Why should I have to do that? That's why you're here, office boy," she said snidely, and god it was too early for this.

He chose to be the bigger person and check the printer himself, and what do you know? It just needed more paper.

"I'll put the paper in for you," he said, because he was not getting bad karma for being a bitch back to Shitty Sharon. She had hella connections with the company, and she would not hesitate to make his life a living hell. The last time he talked back to her, his water had gotten turned off for a week. He had to haul some in from the communal bathrooms just so he could take a shower.

Grabbing a fresh package of paper, Jay opened it with ease, avoiding giving himself a cut as he placed it in the tray. Closing it, he pressed a couple buttons to make sure everything was working right, and then it took all of his willpower not to scream when he glanced at the tiny screen with all of the functions on it.

"Sharon," he said, in the sweetest tone he could conjure at the moment, "why are you printing a thousand copies of this report?!"

"The damn thing wouldn't work, so I just kept clicking print!"

"You're supposed to call the maintenance department!" Jay yelled, throwing his hands into the air. "Or I.T.! Or me! Not print a thousand copies of the same paper!"

"Whatever," she said flippantly, turning away and walking back to her nice spacious office that should've been Jay's. "Just be a 'dear' and take care of it for me."

He didn't want to take care of it. Muttering to himself, Jay smashed the small buttons on the printer with much more force than necessary, cancelling the excess orders but making sure to leave one still open. While he would've loved to cancel all of them to force Sharon to click print again and come get it herself, Jay knew from experience that she would print out a bunch of the shit anyway and dump it in his office.

Jay started humming, readjusting the tie around his neck to give his hands something to do. He relaxed, fully intent on going back to his cubicle to goof around some more until he caught a glace at the clock.

8:50.

He had a meeting in ten minutes.

"Fuck!" Jay yelled, sprinting out of the room and straight for his workspace. He snatched up his briefcase and jacket, nearly forgetting his keycard before spinning on his heel to grab them. There was something he was forgetting, he knew it, but he didn't have the time to wonder what it was.

Slipping his jacket on, Jay didn't bother to keep the door from slamming shut behind as he escaped the suffocating atmosphere of the accounting department. He ran down the hall, pushing past other disgruntled employees with a quick apology. The elevators on their side of the hall were broken; he was going to have to use the ones by Public Relations.

His ever-wondering mind thought about convincing the decorating department to get them some plants as he hurried past white wall after white wall, only sparsely brightened up by a portrait of the board of directors or some fancy-schmancy paintings that Jay couldn't appreciate. What was wrong with some good ol' greenery? Some flowers here, a little fern there, maybe they would even let him go crazy and get a bonsai tree!

You know, if he ever got an office with a window.

"G'morning Jay!" his favorite security guard said to him, and Jay barely had time to wave to the man before he passed. If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to wait very long for the car to arrive on his floor.

The Administration was a beast of a building; you could see it from practically anywhere in Ninjago. With an impressive two hundred and fifty-four floors, it was the first true skyscraper that Jay could ever remember seeing in his life. Or what he remembered from it, anyway.

One of the reasons it had to be so large was because the Administration also housed all of their employees and necessities. The last fifty floors were dedicated entirely to apartments for the workforce, and Jay's own apartment was on level 275. Thinking about that reminded him that he needed to stop by the supermarket on floor 168 before he went home for the day. He had run out of coffee grounds the day before, and heaven knows he couldn't go on without those.

Jay's bad luck continued to haunt him when he skidded to a stop in front of the elevators, and the closest one to floor 67 was the one on 154. Someone must've been visiting the indoor aquarium. Jay wanted to go to the aquarium.

He slammed his hand on the up button, watching as the numbers along the top slowly counted down. Checking his wrist-watch, Jay saw that he had seven minutes to get to the one hundredth floor; this was going to be tight, but as long as there weren't any delays he should be able to make it.

And of course, because he's him, there were delays.

"How many stops do you have to make"?!" he exclaimed, watching as the damned elevator paused for the seventh time. He didn't have the time for this!

Finally, finally, the elevator stopped on his floor, and Jay pushed past all of the people getting off. He swiped his keycard, ignoring the female voice saying "Welcome, Jay Walker," in favor of urgently typing his floor number into the elevator's keypad, and it shot up into the sky like a rocket.

Most of his coworkers had told him stories about how long it had taken them to adjust to the elevator's speed, but Jay had never had a problem with it. Part of him always wondered what he had done in his past life before he came to work for the Administration; there had to be a reason he didn't get motion sick, or how his reflexes were sharper than the blades in the shredder, or why he felt so uneasy whenever he saw someone swinging an object in his direction (like he was expecting an attack?).

There was also the lightning, of course, but no one knew that Jay had that. And no one could ever know. He didn't want to imagine the training that he would be forced to go through if the Administration ever found out about it.

If they didn't ship him off to Imperium first.

"Can this damn thing not go any faster?" Jay growled, tapping his foot against the floor in an aggressive beat. He was glad no one else was in the elevator with him.

Up and up he went, the numbers growing higher and higher, blinking red. 97, 98, 99...

100! and he still had two minutes to spare!

Maybe Mr. Harding would give him that promotion after all!

The doors started opening and Jay was out before they could finish, making a beeline for the door at the other end of the blindingly white hallway. He could feel the sweat staining his light blue button-up, and Jay just had to hope and pray that his jacket covered it up well enough to get through this meeting without his eagle-eyed boss noticing anything.

He knocked on the door, checking his watch and seeing that he had officially made it at 8:59. One minute left.

Jay slapped his corporate smile on his face when Mr. Harding opened the door, making sure to hold out the correct hand. His left, because Mr. Harding was left-handed and had a stronger grip; Mr. Harding also loved having the upper hand. "So good to see you, sir! I hope you're well."

"Mr. Walker," Mr. Harding said casually, but Jay could already tell that his boss was in a bad mood. Shit. "I believe I told you that I wanted you here at 8."

"Pardon?" that definitely was not what the email had said.

"I sent an email to you around 7:30 that I wanted you in at 8." Mr. Harding said slowly, and Jay quickly pushed down the ire that rose at the childish treatment.

Wait, 7:30? He had staff meetings from 7-8 on Mondays!

"B-but that's when I have my staff meetings," Jay explained, holding back from messing with the cuffs of his sleeves. Mr. Harding hadn't taken too kindly to his fidgeting the last time he had been in here. "I'm not allowed to check my phone during staff meetings."

"I expect you to read all of my emails, Mr. Walker," the man said firmly, his lips curling into a distasteful sneer. "You're lucky that I happen to be free at the moment. Now, would you like to step in, or do you want to wait another hour?"

Jay grit his teeth, swallowing his anger and shoving it down deep inside. "Yes sir, sorry sir."

This damn promotion better be worth every moment of this nonsense, or Jay was tearing the Administration down himself.

[the-lunar-library]

I wish I could read my books.

Right now I'm on the fourth draft of the Next Book, which I love -- so far, it's my favorite thing I've ever written. At this stage, despite the work of editing, reading it is very much a pleasure to me.

Going by history, that won't always be the case.

Part of the process of editing, for me at least, is getting fed up with reading and rereading the same words. That's not what I'm talking about. That's a passing thing, temporary.

What I've found, having published the first two books, is that I can't pick them up in their lovely book forms with their pretty covers and their nice formatting and all of that and sit down and read them. As books, not manuscripts.

Which is sad, because I feel like that was part of the fantasy pre-publishing -- here's my book, finished, I get to relax and read it the same way I relax and read other people's books. But I haven't even attempted that. Even the idea of it just drives that hope of relaxing right out of me.

Rereading the manuscript? Relaxing. Rereading my fanfics once they're posted on AO3? Relaxing. Rereading my published book? Not a chance, move along, brain, it's time to think about something else.

I'm guessing as to why, but I think it's two factors.

The first is that the books are more personal to me than the fanfics. This isn't a judgment on quality or work involved, but just how personal the story is to me. I think detaching is often a big part of relaxing, escapism, so the books' intimacy with me makes that harder.

The second, and maybe the bigger thing, is the feeling of permanence. The manuscript is, by definition, something I can still change. A fic on AO3 can be edited in less than a minute if there's something I need to change, and it's not a big deal.

But a published book? Granted, I'm self-published. It's still possible to edit one of my books, though it would involve a lot more steps -- it's not a matter of opening one file and making a change and pressing Post.

But by the time a book is published, I've finalized characters and arcs I've been working on for years, I've formatted everything, I've bought the ISBN and slapped it in place. Can edits still be made? Yes. It is in the realm of things that can be done. If the edit is small enough, the ISBN can still be preserved. Maybe I won't need to reformat the cover. I will have to adjust the manuscript again. But.

But by the time I publish, my brain is telling me the book is done. It's not going back. It's not being changed.

To me, it's very important that once a book is done, it's done. I'm free to move on to the next project. I'm not just allowed to let go, I'm supposed to.

And I think it's that feeling that I'm no longer creating the book, I'm not "fixing" anything anymore -- I'm no longer in control of the book? -- that makes it hard for me to just sit back and enjoy the end product.

I hope so much that other people can kick back and enjoy my books the way I kick back and enjoy other people's books. Even if I never have the opportunity to read my books like that, I would still want to write them. Writing them means so much to me.

But I do hope that, some day, years down the line when these books no longer feel so close to me, I can kick back and relax with them too.

[sweet-evie]

For My Glory, and Mine Alone

✨ masterlist ✨

“It doesn’t bother you? That people die for you?”

An arrogant smirk unfurled across his lips as his hand stopped moving across the page long enough to look up at this ‘oh-so-innocent’ commander of his. One of his many commanders, that is.

Suzaku was fortunate enough to even deem himself as a counsel-giver, what with the number of times Julius even needed counsel from his subordinates (which was less than three times if he was being critical).

“It is a reality of war.” He stood from his chair with a flourish. “Given the opportunity to choose, would you rather stare down a hoard of rifles and cannons, knowing thousands of men and women drunk on the illusion of pride, are willing to die for you — to die for your glory… Or, would you rather stand with thousands who will abandon you at the first sign of an overwhelming opponent?”

Suzaku knew which option he’d choose — the noble and decent choice. But Julius wasn’t the type of man who would take well to that kind of thinking, and he wasn’t in quite the mood to be berated for his beliefs so…

“I suppose the former is the obvious preference.”

His words gave the military advisor pause, and a scathing glance flashed Suzaku’s way. “It’s the only preference. You either live or die. And I, for one, would rather live than waste away, forgotten in death with the maggots.” A wicked smirk followed. “But if you prefer to buy into the idiocy of martyrdom, then by all means Suzaku Kururugi, be my guest.”

A/N: a Julius Kingsley blurb I found in my drafts... I think it was supposed to be part of a bigger fic, an AU, but shit got in the way. 🥴 I found lots of these lying around today, and I might post some of them just because...

[floofrights]

Hi. As someone who hopes to one day start my own webcomic, I'm fascinated by how your deleted scenes archive features almost complete art that follows a widly different route that that of the final narrative. It's a bit mindblowing to me, honestly.

If I may ask, how does your process work? Do you follow the conventional script -> sketch -> final art workflow and just take "kill your darlings" to heart regardless of which step you're in, or do you use the art itself as part of your writing (and consequently rewriting) process?

My process is very unconventional and also very flawed in a lot of ways. But it's the process that works for me. Sometimes.

(This is gonna be really long by the way and also it's probably gonna be wonky and messy so be warned lol)

When it comes to making a chilli issue, and just most of my comics in general, I don't write scripts. Would making comics be a lot easier if I did? Probably. Certainly. Absolutely. But it's not my process. At some point I'd like to start writing scripts before I work on an issue, but it always just felt easier not to.

Instead of a script, I write a very rough outline in my sketchbook, with notes so illegible only I could read them. I often deviate from these notes as I'm making pages however. Sometimes I'm about to hit a story beat and I decide it can be done in a slightly different way, so I do that instead. But I don't differ too much from these notes. For the most part.

When it comes to dialogue, it's very on the fly. I may have specific character quotes in my head when I'm planning out an issue, but most of it is only written in the moment when I'm actually making the page.

In terms of art, Chilli has a very "simple" style, and that was on purpose. I used to draw final lineart in my webcomics, and I found it very tedious. What I'd often find is I'd like the undersketch of a panel more than the final art. So when I started making Chilli, I just used the undersketch AS the final lineart, and I developed and refined that style as time went on.

When actually making an issue, I start off by figuring out the panel layout of a page. Sometimes this can be edited as I work on a page, but this is where I visualize the panels ahead of time. Once the border is done, I begin to draw the lineart. Sometimes I make a rough undersketch for a panel if it's particularly complicated, but usually I don't do that.

Once the lineart's done, I go back and give a thick outline to all the characters, and any other elements in panel, to make them pop from the background. It also makes it easier to color the page. Because the coloring process in Chilli is so simple, I often just use the paint bucket tool.

Now for dialogue! Again, this is usually only written at this point in the process. Even if I know what HAS to be said, HOW I say it can be tricky to figure out. Once the dialogue's done, I create the speech bubbles, and then boom! Finished page.

On an average day, I can draw four pages of an issue, but this is far from my limit. If i really wanted to, I could make 5-6 pages a day, but my wrist would absolutely not like that lmao.

And so day by day, I work through an issue, four pages at a time, until eventually, I have a finished draft! Does this mean the issue is finished? Nope!

Once a draft is complete, I do a mini "round of edits," where go through and make little changes fit to my liking. This could range from editing dialogue to make it less clunky, to redoing an entire panel. Once this round is finished, I set the issue aside. I don't work on it. I don't even look at it. I need it fresh out of my mind.

Eventually, usually about a couple weeks before it's released, I go through the issue and do an even bigger "round of edits," rewriting even more dialogue and redrawing even more panels. I do at least a few more rounds of edits until I'm finally satisfied, and that's when the issue's released.

Sometimes however, things can go horribly wrong.

Issue 12 was supposed to be a completely different issue. It was supposed to be the start of a new arc, but as I was making the issue, I just found myself unsatisfied and not that confident in the story I was setting up. So I scrapped that attempt halfway through, and instead began work on the issue 12 that would eventually release.

"Red Meat" in particular was a very troubling arc to make. I made probably about 300+ pages for that arc, and I ended up scrapping over a third of that. I did not do a good job at planning out the story for that arc, and it ended up biting me in the ass later when I realized I didn't like where the arc was headed.

Issues 25 & 26 were both drafted at this point, and I didn't like either of them, issue 26 specifically. The problems they had couldn't really be fixed in rounds of edits either, they were fundamental problems. If I wanted to fix them, I'd have to scrap a lot of what I'd already made.

So I did.

I redid a lot of issue 25, and I scrapped that version of issue 26 entirely. It was for the best ultimately, but in the moment it felt very demoralizing having to scrap so many finished pages.

Issue 27 also ended up being way too long (like almost 70 pages) so I had to cut a lot of (finished) pages in that one too to keep the pacing up. I cut out a lot of good stuff from that issue, but it was for the best. Even after those cuts the issue's still tied with issue 12 as the longest chilli issue.

What happened in Red Meat was a worst case scenario though, and going forward, im gonna make sure that something like that never happens again. Because, fuck. It didn't feel good scrapping those finished pages lol.

My process is very messy and slightly taxing, but it's the process I'm familiar with. I would not recommend doing what I do, especially if you've never made a webcomic before, but instead to try and develop your own method that works for you! Different processes work for different people

Thank you for your ask! Good luck on your webcomic journey, wherever it takes ya!

[still-a-morosexual-help]

@🌹anon asked about my ocs sometime back and as I was answering it rn I accidentally deleted the entire thing😭😭😭😭😭

I'm gonna try and write whatever I remember again✌️:

Yes I did it again (shut up);

I'm such a fucking idiot, I found the "deleted ask" hidden deep in my drafts - apparently it went there when I lost my internet connection but instead of getting saved at the top of my drafts it got saved on the day anon first sent me the ask so somewhere in the middle between other drafts??? Anyway:

!!!You asked for it!!

They were all created for some game or another (characters I'll be able to toss away once I'm done playing the games) But I ended up falling in love with all of them🤡

I can't draw people for shit & I don't wanna describe appearances so I'm gonna use picrews (with links added for anyone who wants to use 'em too)

Starting from first created to last & answering it like I'm making them character profiles for a dating sim (but leaving out the three from Choices 'cause I don't know if they can be considered proper ocs rather than just characters the game handed us? Also leaving out the others from fictif because they're not as well developed)

1. "Lex" Alexandra Lane

(Lex after Lex Luthor and Lane after Lois Lane because I think I'm funny)

[1] , [2]

Origin: Love Island the Game S2

25 at beginning now 26 years (Birthday: November 16th)

5'5"

She/Her

Bisexual

Professional Cellist

English/British because the game didn't give me a choice

Married at 26 (because the game gives you no option), will definitely have a couple kids at some point

No gross out factor - probably ate bugs as a kid. Probably will still eat a bug off the ground if dared to. Biggest point of pride is that she can do a backflip in heels. Loves fashion/beautiful clothes that are usually stupidly expensive. Biting her lip and making bedroom eyes at every single person but really just wants to fall in love and settle down. Hates confrontation/any sort of fight but also really wants to know everything about everyone's business. Good at being the mediator. Always the big spoon. Actually pretty buff - can absolutely bench you.

2. Eliza Ramskin

(Eliza after the official name of the porcelain apple doll sitting in a box on my cupboard but then I decided I didn't want it to stand for Elizabeth so now it stands for "A Lizard" after the rubber gecko pasted on my bedroom wall. Ramskin: a bad pun because of the game)

[1] , [2] (yes the little frog is supposed to be me)

Origin: Obey Me!

23 at beginning now 26 years (Birthday: April 21st)

5'10"

They/Them

Queer

Wildlife Photographer

Has chronic pain

Has a scar over one eyebrow - will smugly tell you a cool story for it. In reality dropped a jar of peanut butter on their face. + top surgery scars

-> Essentially just om! gen MC with a background and name. Have you read my post about gen MC's canon facts? Have you read any of my gen MC theory posts, where I take individual canon facts & connect them to see what happens? Have you read any of my obey me! fics? Can you remember what general MC was like in them? Then you know exactly what Eliza is like. But still, here are some of my favourite parts:

Ambiguously human. Would fight God at 2am in a Denny's parking lot and WIN. They're very lowkey an asshole but underneath that they're kinda nice but underneath that they're a bigger asshole but underneath that they're even nicer and so on and so forth. Surprisingly down for murder. 0 self preservation + 0 shame + 0 fear + max drive & determination + max stubborness + max can do attitude + unconsciously charming + actually pretty strong + danger kink + horny = the world's greatest monster fucker.

3. Len

(Len's short for Lenora which she no longer goes by but irl named after my Lenova laptop, No surname.)

[1] , [2]

Origin: The Arcana

31 years (Birthday: June 7th)

5'11"

She/They

Bisexual

Same occupation as the game's MC

The only one who has a defined body shape in my mind and that body shape is plank of wood

Pitch black eyes that reflects no light. Vague cryptid energy. Stoic, cold yet thin polite smile that seems very surface level. Posture's so good just looking at her makes your back hurt. Warms up once you get to know her; is caring and gentle and understanding and soothing but also stuborn and tough/harsh/strict. Responsible but also has no problem breaking the law if needed. Dreams of travelling the world. Gives off black cat energy but is a dog person. Sadistic in both the sexy and unsexy way. Bad puns. So much untapped potential to be a super villain. I think I accidentally just created a female version of om!'s Lucifer...

4. Vale Knight

(Vale after welcome to night vale which I hadn't watched at the time, Knight from the same place but it's also a pun because of what happens to them in the game)

[1] , [2]

Origin: Last Legacy

28 years (July 10th)

6'0"

They/Them

Queer Polyamorous

Same occupation as the game's MC

Not only are they a weeb they're an ASSHOLE. The kind of person to get stabbed because their first instinct was to mock the mugger. Decided to dye their hair for cosplay once and then went "wait a minute -" A shameless flirt until someone flirts back and then they're a flustered annoyed mess. Had a lot of jobs over the years, currently a barista - doesn't want to be a barista forever but doesn't know what they want to do (other than gaming, watching movies/shows/anime, reading books/comics/manga) until they accidentally discover a passion for medicine and go to nursing school

5. River Bouwmeester

(River after Lake from Infinity Train which I've never watched, Bouwmeester because it's a Dutch surname meaning "master builder" because they work as a home renovater)

[1]

Origin: Monster Manor

27 years

5'1"

He/They

Queer

Same occupation as the game's MC

American (because the game gave me no choice) with probably Dutch origins from their father's side

Couple of big scars here and there

BIG "I can fix him energy". Moves around a lot = not much possibility for a long term stable relationship = oblivious and shy when it comes to romantic attraction. Strong, patient, practical. Very little can rattle them. Came from a long family line of home renovaters/builders (of the magic, strange & weird) but no close living family. Unironically loves bob the builder. Trying very hard to forget about the fact that they're extremely lonely by keeping up a very positive optimistic attitude. Their truck is their pride & joy. Absolutely loves their job even though it's what causes them to move about so much and so makes it hard to form close connections. Very friendly from the first moment but isn't tolerant of anyone's bullshit.

6. Roo Kidd

(Roo after the baby kangaroo from Winnie the Pooh, Kidd because the baby kangaroo was a kid. Surprisingly the actual meanings behind both names fit with their character/circumstances)

[1] , [2]

Origin: Twisted Wonderland

16 years (Birthday January 10th)

5'7"

He/They

Gay Demiromantic Asexual

Wears reading glasses

Lots of small scars from scrapes and scratches all along body

Always cold + loves cute clothes = wearing summer dresses and instantly regretting it. Head in the clouds 7 outta 10 times. Has never felt romantic attraction before - believed they never would and was 100% okay with that - so the one time they did start feeling it went "wow I'm really into this friendship" and stayed oblivious for an annoyingly long time. Also similarly oblivious to romantic attraction directed at them. Kinda klutzy. Big wet eyes. Big bright smile. A ball of sunshine but also really snarky. "This might as well happen" energy. Fast with quick reflexes and a sharp eye for detail. A cunning edge that comes out only during emergencies. Strength of a wet noodle though. Gets a shitty impromptu/accidental haircut that leads to him buzzing it all off and having to grow it back.

[sonkitty]

Trickery Post #8 - Muriel

I thought that with the 6 Threshold Tricks found, having posts trying to simplify what they are as much as possible, and some GIF sets made, it was time to tell the world outside of Tumblr...at least Reddit and Discord.

I found on Discord that my post about Threshold Tricks was shared already.

Reddit gave me some upvotes, which was nice, some confused comments, which was understandable, and something I took as an insult of being thought of as AI, which was not nice at all.

My being human is a very big requirement of solving the puzzles because of the imagination required. I have to think of things like, "Looking through a window is an earthly object touch because people look through windows to see things on Earth," and "Crowley never let go of the door."

Setting aside the AI thing though, I did note a couple of remarks about how smart one has to be or people feeling themselves too "dumb" to understand.

I took note of these things and have thought about it a lot.

I take pride in having found the Threshold Tricks because it's not easy, but I also never really thought of my success as because I'm so smart.

I met challenges. I played a game, and I played it well enough to find some things that were supposed to be found.

I had to think about what do to play, but it took me reading 41 Discworld books later to realize the word that might suit what people meant is "clever."

And, indeed, being "clever" is not all that common or come all too easily to many people.

I have been called "clever" once or twice over my lifetime, and I do consider myself at least resourceful when it comes to solving problems outside of playing Earthly Objects.

And yeah, I would say my own play at Earthly Objects is clever, and that's why I think it's as good as it is and am proud of it. All those things I said I like to think of as traits about Crowley? Those are traits I would at least want to have too, if I don't have them. I think I do have them for the play here at least. Being creative is one of the hardest things for me to do, but I still try.

I did go through numerous drafts of trying to explain how to play Earthly Objects, as an audience member, but I was mainly just venting and maybe doing some thinking. I eventually decided not to publish it though bits of it have made it into other posts of mine over time. It's not like anyone has ever asked me how to play.

But anyway...sharing the information outside of Tumblr was an awkward learning experience. I at least took some of the reactions in mind with how I went about making my posts, even if it probably wouldn't help the readers in those places any better. The experience was, in fact, the cause of a massive hesitance to do this project on YouTube though not the main reason in the end.

Still, I wanted to have at least made the effort. You know how sometimes people make a post that goes, "Why didn't anybody tell me that..." something or other? I wanted have it on record, that yes, someone did tell you, or tried to, anyway.

Despite those issues, I did gain something from the process of making posts to try and share my findings with other people.

As a reminder, I did notice the Tied Hands are pocketed into Crowley's vest on the exit for the Heaven elevator.

When I made my GIF set for the Heaven entry and exit, I was very, very selective about which parts of the scenes I hoped could show that bigger threshold best or were most relevant to what is happening in the game.

And this cut right here, this cut showed me that Crowley's silhouette was eerily particular about how it looked with that door frame.

Something was going on with this thing. I lacked the simple explanation for how the Heaven elevator was tricked. I had always known even if I had never articulated it quite that way in my head or my posts. Crowley not touching the buttons is too easy of an explanation compared to the other two bigger thresholds.

Well, I still couldn't think of an answer.

The pockets thing was overwhelming.

I wanted a break.

I had long suspected that Crowley and Muriel knew each other in some earlier draft of the story. This suspicion came from things like Crowley saying, "Who's this now?" the first time he and Muriel encounter each other, and "You're forgetting about the bees." That's a reference to memory, and Muriel seems to possibly be an angel who has had their memory wiped at some point.

Muriel references Crowley by name and talks as if they encountered Gabriel in a scene from the story we never saw.

I noticed that Crowley and Muriel scenes had certain bookend traits. For instance, Muriel's first scene is followed by Crowley's entrance to the coffee shop. By now, we know that is The Perfect Entrance Trick.

So, I figured I could at least make a better log and see if those bookends amounted to anything.

Things did not bode well for my "break from pockets" idea when I realized that Muriel places their notepad in their pocket when they enter the elevator.

Obviously that alone on most viewings doesn't mean much, but now I knew The Pocket Trick existed with all of its monstrous complexities. And I knew that the Tied Hands were at least active during the end of this broad touch for a bigger threshold.

Oh shoot. That meant I had to watch things even more closely now that I got further confirmation that pockets are involved with...everything.

It looked like the Tied Hands might retie and the Belt Head might activate even before the exit.

I could not believe what I found with Muriel.

Part of why this project is so important to me is because of how amazing and special this finding was.

Muriel definitely has special bookends with Crowley. I could find only one scene of Muriel where a Crowley scene was not the front of the back bookend to it. That's when Muriel arrives on Earth and is the subject being seen by Mrs. Sandwich.

Crowley is in the front bookend to Muriel's only minisode scene.

But the Threshold Tricks.

My God, the Threshold Tricks.

We have mainly been focused on The Pocket Trick and The Door Trick the past couple of posts. As a reminder, there is also The Perfect Entrance Trick, The Bigger Thresholds Trick, The Sunglasses Trick, and The Window Trick.

These things matter for understanding the scale of this bookend connection.

Muriel's scenes bookend the Threshold Tricks.

Let me show you.

Here is Muriel's scene before the first Threshold Trick, which is The Perfect Entrance Trick.

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Here is a Muriel scene before Triple Part 2, for the eventual Single, of The Sunglasses Trick:

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Here is a Muriel scene after Single #3, for the eventual Triple, of The Sunglasses Trick:

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Muriel is with Crowley and in the Triple of The Bigger Thresholds Trick.

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Here is Muriel given focus briefly in the scene before the Single of The Pocket Trick:

..,

Here is Muriel in the scene for The Single of The Pocket Trick:

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Here is the show reminding us Muriel is with the other angels for the scene after the Single of The Pocket Trick:

That means Muriel is pocketed into the last touch of The Pocket Trick.

We're up to 4 out of 6 Threshold Tricks by now, by the way.

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Here is Muriel just before Triple Part 3, for the eventual Single, of The Sunglasses Trick, finishes:

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Here is Muriel shortly after Double #2 for The Sunglasses Trick finished:

This part here is the only time Muriel is the one who bookends both sides of a Crowley scene. He tends to bookend Muriel's scenes on one side or both.

This places Muriel before The Door Trick.

Then The Window Trick happens. That way, Muriel does not fully bookend either of those Threshold Tricks.

Muriel is not on screen during these two Threshold Tricks happening in the Final Fifteen. We know they are in the area, and they stay off screen during these things.

Once The Window Trick is done, Muriel shows up on the back bookend.

In case you missed it, that means that Muriel pockets the Threshold Tricks because Muriel is the front bookend to the first of the group and the back bookend to the last of the group.

Crowley still manages to bookend both sides of Muriel's last scene because he gets that extra cut just before the credits start.

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Now you have to have been following along or playing the long game to understand just how incredibly special that was.

Muriel has helped us so much in figuring out Crowley's play with key moments.

Muriel helped us figure out the short sideburns with the literal use of the word "human".

Muriel helped us figure out that Crowley shows reflections in his sunglasses when he wants to see something someone else is showing him.

Muriel helped us figure out that Crowley was possibly invisible in the elevator on the exit from Heaven.

Muriel has just been there helping us all along.

Muriel helped Crowley trick the Heaven elevator while misdirecting the audience into thinking Crowley is tricking Muriel.

I've taken this setup of these various scenes involving both characters to indicate that Crowley and Muriel have a deep trust in each other. They may have had a history as friends and/or mentor and student.

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Other things I remarked on with my Bookend Buddies post was the boxes for Crowley and Muriel and that Muriel convinces Crowley to change his appearance. When he does, his tie is then pocketed into his newly manifested gray jacket.

Crowley knew Muriel's rank before Muriel ever gave it to him, based on the scenes we saw, and Muriel knew Crowley's name before we ever saw them given his name.

Sure, you can make guesses, and reasonable ones at that, for why these things happen, but the story still took the time and effort to put them there.

Crowley can know Muriel's rank because he's the Acting First-Order Archangel due to Gabriel's amnesia. The torch was passed to him, possibly by accident, when Crowley and Aziraphale performed the hiding miracle in episode 1. Hence, the special torch Overhead Light Crowley gets. Then learning the rank is a power Crowley has at least once he entered Heaven first.

Muriel can know Crowley's name because Saraqael does, and Saraqael provided it in any information given for Muriel's assignment on Earth.

If we still want something not so easily explained away, perhaps we lost the first draft of the story where these two really learned this information about each other, and it just stuck with them in their latent memories.

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After that post, I broke down my work on the overall Earthly Objects game into a new set of posts. I made a post with a GIF dedicated to the Ground Zero cut of The Door Catch. I included some text describing the situation. The new Earthly Objects format was 3 posts, all linked to one main post.

In that main post, I acknowledged that this game tricked me into playing it. I'll go on about that here. This series of posts is named "Trickery" after all.

When I read other people's posts about the sideburns way back, I realize now that I recognized a game without those exact words in my head. This recognition was that of an invitation to play. I accepted that invitation without realizing it. All the pieces were in place to attract a player like me to begin with. You've got David Tennant as Crowley, for starters. Then you have a story with a lot of things that left me generally uneasy because I didn't know it, but I felt it, that what I just saw were games.

I just so happen to be a person who has the types of experiences useful into playing the games well enough to progress.

Then you give me an excuse to dig through videos and pictures of David Tennant as Crowley, thank you very much.

But the challenge is something that really impresses me about these games.

Like I said, I thought if it's that obvious, it can't be that hard. And then if it were that hard, I would just give up because I couldn't figure it out.

But that's not what happened.

The sideburns game wasn't all that hard, but in the process of playing it, I found the Earthly Objects game, and I found Earthly Objects just plain interesting enough to play that too.

Earthly Objects was challenging, and more challenging than the sideburns game, but I was still able to pass the challenges right up until figuring out a few things about The Pocket Trick, just enough to miss that one's core concept.

Then I initiated Round Two of the Threshold Tricks without realizing it.

Then the game was very, very hard, but it still wasn't so hard that I completely gave up on it. I had learned so much, and I could still progress in small increments.

If I had known the game was going to get so hard, I might not have played. But I really am glad I played. It is the most amazing game I have ever played. Granted, I'm biased because down in its core, this game is largely built around David Tennant being such a perfect Crowley.

Nonetheless, I was tricked. It really was that hard because pockets, but I didn't know any better, obviously.

...

I eventually made another Bookend Buddies post regarding Muriel since I picked up on a few more things.

I still didn't have the simple explanation for tricking the Heaven elevator, but I felt I was getting close. It had something to do with the threshold thinking Muriel was arresting Crowley.

I didn't have the exact words, but the ideas pointed in that direction.

I also believe I found that Muriel has a Pocket Frame during the exit for Heaven and that the Pocket Frame is "Angel Arms."

Here are my two best guesses for the possible Touch Point:

Oh, speaking of, you remember how I mentioned thumb tips are relevant to the mechanics of The Sunglasses Trick and The Pocket Trick?

Muriel's doing something with their right hand if you look very closely:

Muriel might actually be the source or cause for the light to go up over Crowley. And...when the light does go up, that's when The Bigger Thresholds Trick gets its rainbow.

I also got a clue about the "first" thing with Crowley even though I didn't have it solved.

Just as Crowley prioritizes being first in using the Heave elevator, Muriel prioritizes being last.

In fact, there is a general "last" pattern found with Muriel once you look.

~BEGIN BOOKEND BUDDIES PART 2 EXCERPT FOR "LAST~

During the entrance part of the Triple (using the Heaven elevator), Muriel follows Crowley both times. They follow him in. They follow him out. That makes sense. There is only two of them, and Crowley wants to be first.

But...

When it comes to the exit, Muriel is last in the sequence of Crowley, Saraqael, and Muriel on the trek toward the elevator. When the angels follow Crowley toward the bookshop, Muriel is last there too.

As already stated in the last post, they are also the one who closed the doors.

Here are some more "last" patterns found with Muriel:

In their second and third matchbox scenes, they are the last character introduced to the scene.

They imply their own rank is last with saying they did not know there was a rank down from theirs.

They have a back bookend scene to the last of the Singles that became the Triple of The Sunglasses Trick.

They are the assistant for the last part of The Bigger Thresholds Trick.

They are the assistant for the last part of The Pocket Trick.

Due to Muriel's presence in episode 6, they also are on the back bookend of these last parts of these Tricks.

Both The Bigger Thresholds Trick and The Pocket Trick are complex tricks because they take place over more than one episode. While Muriel could not be the assistant to the last complex Threshold Trick, The Sunglasses Trick, it is the one time they bookend a Crowley scene on both sides without being in it themselves, if one assumes Aziraphale's moment alone is still the argument scene that is and I am remembering things in general properly.

In the entire season, Muriel is the last character seen to open and close a door.

~END BOOKEND BUDDIES PART 2 EXCERPT FOR "LAST~

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Well, so much for a "break form the pockets" on that adventure. It was fun adventure all the same. I really liked seeing the bookends form together that way.

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Speaking of pockets, at a certain point with The Pocket Trick, I had mostly hit my limits.

I redid the introduction for The Pocket Trick and since I like that one, you'll see some of it here in this post; it's probably a little edited since I initially posted it.

~BEGIN THE POCKET TRICK BASICS INTRO PORTION~

The Pocket Trick is difficult to say the least. This Threshold Trick was almost certainly meant to be found last because, from my own experience, it snowballs into an increasing realization of its profound impact on a lot of what is happening in Good Omens 2.

It is the epitome of the saying, "Big things come in small packages," and that was assuredly intentional.

The Pocket Trick is a monster.

It is a gigantic, frustrating, infuriating, challenging monster.

But at least it has a sense of humor.

And it's insightful too.

I call it a "giant pain" most of the time.

The core concept is, "Think outside the pocket."

That phrase is more commonly understood as "Think outside the box," but this Trick is about pockets. We'll think outside the box and replace that word with "pocket".

Once we start to think outside the pocket, a lot of other things in this confusing Trick start to make sense. Specifically, it helps to understand the idea to pocket while pocketing and grasp that these touches are puzzles using assorted word play and imagination.

It takes time for various aspects of this Threshold Trick to truly sink in.

I eventually thought of that core concept because Crowley gets boxed in, like in a frame—a Pocket Frame, but not fully boxed in as part of the touches in the Trick. Reason being, it's like putting Crowley in a pocket. There are both words right there. Plus, there is a lot happening outside the pocket. In fact, there are so many things, when I first started to grasp how much this Trick entails, it felt like everything matters when it comes to the pockets. That realization was—and still is—overwhelming.

~END THE POCKET TRICK BASICS INTRO PORTION~

Something that was lost from my previously shared notes on The Pocket Trick and the above excerpt was that at one point, I described this Trick's effect as more like hitting you like a ton of bricks. A snowball effect is more apt, so that's why I eventually changed it.

As you can see, I eventually committed to believing I have the core concept right.

With my play for The Pocket Trick being so limited, I felt ready to return to working on my posts for Crowley's sideburns. I made a new main post, more assuredly naming the game as The Sideburns Scheme.

I eventually changed the name of the "angry lightning walk" to Storming Out and described it as a dual tutorial for both games. The answer to the question, "How else can I figure out how the sideburns work if I know the story is lying to me?" is that..."The answer is in the question." You can't, so you have to rely on that answer to progress further in the game.

For a few months, I focused on going over all of Crowley's scenes with the sideburns while acknowledging and sometimes playing Earthly Objects in between. I also put forth a theory that Crowley performed a Big Miracle we didn't see that his hidden by that sequence. This miracle put the Book of Life into the matchbox that is in Heaven. I think Muriel was heavily involved in whatever was truly hidden. I suspect whatever this event is also how Crowley earned the more saturated red streak in his hair.

During this time is around when I decided to start reading Discworld novels in a desperate attempt to improve my play.

I ended up redoing the individual posts for The Pocket Trick in between making those sideburns posts. When I reached the first such touch, something sort of crystallized for me that I had already hinted at in the sideburns series of posts: The Threshold Tricks have at least two rounds of play. When I set aside the time to go over The Pocket Trick again and discovered the Tied Hands, that was my initiating Round 2 without realizing it.

While I do think Crowley is visible to Mr. Arnold and Aziraphale during the music shop scene, I think he's supposed to be invisible to the door, for the threshold he is tricking, because you can't really see Crowley's reflection on the window pane itself.

Getting back to the sideburns post series, as I reached episode 5, closer to the episode's end, I did have one extra realization. It's one of my last bits of my progress in the Earthly Objects game.

Every Threshold Trick is linked to a ball invitation.

You may recall that I took note that Crowley has a lot of touches in the magic shop. As I was working on my sideburns posts, I noticed a certain cut that lingered on those who had been invited on camera for the ball invitations. I also noticed Mutt's spouse.

Then it clicked. Mutt's invitation was an invitation for him and his spouse. They are a couple who were planning to celebrate their anniversary this night. Their invitation is linked to The Door Trick. The Door Trick is actually two Tricks, a Threshold Trick and a Magic Trick. Mutt's invitation is actually two invitations, one for him and one for his spouse. Additionally, Crowley touches the door on his way into the location.

That meant that I had to look at the other five invitations to see if they linked to the other Tricks, and they did.

The Window Trick is a match to Mr. Arnold's ball invitation because of Crowley's touch on the window pane. While two Threshold Tricks are happening in this scene, neither is the findable match specifically for the ball invitation. The clue is in the dialogue, Crowley touching the window, and the mechanics in use making sure that he is still visible to Mr. Arnold for Mr. Arnold's ball invitation.

The Bigger Thresholds Trick is a match to Mrs. Cheng's ball invitation. The three thresholds are behind Aziraphale and Crowley though Heaven's is not active yet. There are traces of hints to the touches involved for the tricks.

For example, Crowley is touching Aziraphale, but he does not let go of the touch. Aziraphale does.

Shadows are relevant to the Triple, and Crowley's shadow is on Aziraphale. Also, Crowley is by an angel.

I can't find anyone switching lanes, but I can find Aziraphale switching their sides by his turning around. He did switch their sides on exit from the pub.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is a match to Justine's ball invitation because of the background humans. One is touching the actual same coffee shop door used. Others have visual touches with the other thresholds. There is a human at the door to the coffee shop who I definitely noticed. I eventually determined their Black and White had meaning, but I think I also sensed their relevance was something more...and this link for Justine's invitation to a Threshold Trick was it.

The Pocket Trick is a match to Nina's ball invitation. Crowley touches his left pants pocket, and this pants pocket touch is not part of the touches for The Pocket Trick itself. It notably uses Crowley's left hand and left pocket. Generally, his other present day pocket touches that are not in The Pocket Trick involve the right pants pocket or both pockets.

The Sunglasses Trick is a match to Crowley's special invitation to the bookshop instead of the meeting for his ball invitation. The main clue is that his invitation has the third of three special face touches he has with his sunglasses in his Earthly Objects play.

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In the next post, we'll go over finding the simple explanation for the Heaven elevator.

The play is ridiculous and complex, but given how many months it took to get the answer, and what I'm trying to both preserve and show in this project, it makes sense to make a post about it.

We're nearly done for this series. (For reference: Trickery)

[coins-for-the-moth]

Daydreamer's Flag and Rose

This flag and symbol are meant to represent Daydreamers. They are also open to those with similar experiences that use different labels (including neuronarrators, for example) and are inclusive of both psychological and spiritual daydreaming; Those with MaDD are also welcome to use them, though the flag was made with daydreaming as a positive thing in mind.

Notes: I've been part of the Immersive Daydreaming community for a few years now and I quite enjoy having flags for my experiences, especially since my daydreaming ties into our system architecture and my alterhuman identity. For this reason I've always felt a little sad that there doesn't seem to be any sort of flag or symbol around to represent daydreaming. So about a year ago, I made the first draft for this flag, but I felt nervous about posting it since I didn't know whether it would be well received. Now I've decided to post it anyway, maybe someone else out there enjoys it!

Flag:

[Image ID:] A Flag with eight vertical stripes; from left to right: Dark purple, purple, light purple, golden-yellow, pink, light blue, blue, evening blue; The two outer stripes as well as the fourth and fifth stripe are half the width of the other ones. Overlaid on the flag is the Daydreamer's Rose (ID below). [/ID over]

Meaning: The two gradients on the sides of this flag are meant to represent skies, itself representing the seemingly endless width of daydreaming possibilities. The blue gradient is in reference to the sky of this world, the purple is that of other worlds, to show the different types of settings used by daydreamers. The sky colors were also chosen since skies and clouds are the most common symbolism in daydreaming communities I've seen. The pink stripe is for both innocence and childlike playfulness as well as passion. The gold represents hope and joy that may be found through daydreaming.

Rose:

[Image ID:] A symbol consisting of two roughly half-circles, a smaller one within a bigger one; with five arrows pointing from the inside of the inner circle all the way past the outer circle. Somewhat resembling half a compass rose. [/ID over]

Meaning: The Daydreamer's Rose is inspired by a compass rose as it symbolises the escapism and freedom achieved through daydreaming. The inner circle is supposed to represent the self, the outer circle represents the bounds of this world; with the arrows coming from within the self reaching past the outer circle and into new territory.

[adonis-koo]

tbh idk why a lot of people hate the pregnancy trope sm bc i can't help but love the domesticity and the fluff in it thats why im so happy when i found out u wrote a story w the trope thank uuuu 😭💖

I was genuinely shocked when I found out so many people hate pregnancy in fics- like on one hand I do get it, unexpected pregnancy can really throw a fic off trail- especially if it’s poorly planned on the writers part. But for me it brings a lot of new unexplored dynamics- obviously if it works with the plot!

After finding that out I usually try to give a fore warning if pregnancy is apart of a plot because if can be a big turn off- I learned my lesson during tease LOL while I was planning it I had this running gag that MC would have “signs” of pregnancy during the second arc of the story and in an ironic twist- irs actually just signs of stress and upcoming period.

When I actually wrote the final draft it played a WAY bigger part in the story then it originally was supposed too 💀 and a lot of people did NOT appreciate the joke- lol it was only a joke for me