#I am actually not sure if I am able to use the new editing-thing on tumblr from my laptop? :/

[sweetestcaptainhughes]

ring camera chronicles - Nico Hischier

Word Count - 1700

Requested - Yes

Author's Note - Even if someone requests it I think this will be my last ring camera type fic. I am someone who hates reusing ideas for different players, and it was really hard to come up with 7 original ideas for Nico. But anyway enjoy and thank you for reading.

Warnings - none

Summary - Seven times that Nico's and your ring camera caught cute 'mundane' moments between you both.

Masterlist

Being Nico’s girlfriend naturally meant that you sort of organized lunches with the other wags and tried to keep up to date with them. At first you hated it because you weren’t an influencer, you had a normal job and being a planner wasn’t part of the job. But after a while you did become close friends with a few of the girls including Jack’s girlfriend. Who was now sitting across from you as she updated all of you on her latest mess with having a ring camera. All about how she didn’t want Jack to catch her having all these packages so you went to sneak them in, and got Nico and Luke to help her. Only to find out in the moment that she actually used Jack’s card and he really didn’t seem to care. The entire table was crying in laughter, especially when you mentioned that Nico was still a little salty about it 2 weeks later. Luke’s girlfriend went on to say how much she loves having her ring and how it catches so many cute mundane moments that people tend to forget about, plus it was fun to mess with her boyfriend. Deciding in that moment that you also wanted a ring doorbell to be able to mess with Nico, all you had to do was convince Nico. 

Once you got home you shyly mentioned to Nico, “ hey Neeks I was thinking why don’t we get a ring camera?” He doesn’t even look up from playing with your puppy and says “okay.” 

“Wait really?” The shock is clear in your voice. 

Still playing tug-a-war with the rope toy and currently losing, he answers “ yeah if you want plus it makes sense I mean I have one at home for our other flat it makes sense to have one for here. Especially since we are out of the country for 3 months a year.” 

“Wait, there is a camera for your place in Swittsland?” Generally shocked that you somehow didn’t know this information. 

“Yes. Did you think I didn’t have cameras if I only lived there 3 months a year? Anyway I’ll order some tomorrow.” As he gets up, and kisses you on the head before he goes to the bedroom to get ready for the gym, leaving a hyper puppy who wants to play and a shocked girlfriend behind. 

1.) One last thing

It’s something neither you nor Nico even realized that you did. But when it came to those roadies that he would leave the apartment for, rather than you drive him to the airport. Somehow whether it was 5 in the morning or 5 in the afternoon, you always would run out the apartment and almost tackle him for one last hug before he would leave. Snuggling your head into his chest. He would snuggle into the crown of your neck and you would whisper something about having safe travels and good luck. It didn’t matter if the roadie was for a weekend or two weeks you always ran out of the apartment calling after Nico saying “one last thing” before you tackled him for your hug. Once you got a ring camera you noticed and you asked your videographer friend to edit all the clips together so you and Nico could keep it and watch it back.

2.) I”ll always got you

“Baby, are you sure you wanna wear those shoes?” Nico asks as you both get ready to leave to meet the rest of the team and their significant others done the street at the local bar. 

“Yeah, why aren’t they cute?” as you check your outfit one last time doing a twirl in the mirror that’s in your little makeshift foyer of your apartment. 

“I’m not saying your new shoes aren’t cute, they just aren’t broken in and I don’t want your feet to hurt later.” He admits coming and wrapping his arms around you. 

“But their sneakers.” you whine. 

“Yes sneakers meant for fashion” he argues. 

“Says the man who wears Jordans when he goes hiking.” To which he gives you a knowing look and you don’t want to get into the fact he’s “built differently as a European.” Even if it’s 100 percent true because that evaluation ain’t meant for the weak even in the cities. 

“I’ll be fine.” you whisper as you both exit the apartment. He jokingly looks at the ring camera and says “you got that right she will be fine.” 

Now a few hours later, the ring camera picks up you guys coming home and you were in fact being carried by Nico at this point. A very sweaty and out of breath Nico. In your tipsy state all you could do is laugh as you attempted to unlock the door, at Nico literally hands on knees trying to catch his breath. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be a professional athletic Neeks.” 

“Professional athlete does not mean I should carry a very tipsy girl who wouldn’t stop shifting her weight almost a whole kilometer home and not be out of breath.” he counters and all you can do is chuckle finally getting the door unlocked. Nico looks directly at the camera and says “I just wanna state for the people, that she was in fact NOT FINE with those shoes.” 

“Neeks what people only we have access to the footage.” you giggle.

He rolls his eyes and although you’re not sure what he said you know he cursed at you in Swiss German under his breath as you both stumbled into your apartment.

3.) Baby it’s here!

Nico came up from the mailroom with a giant package in his hands. He's so excited he rings the doorbell even though he knows your at work because the care package finally arrived. 

“BABY IT’S HERE!” not caring how loud he sounded to his neighbors. “Ooo I am so excited I know she set some of my favorite Swiss chocolate and other candy too.” Nico had the biggest smile on his face, you swear when you watched it back on your break he looked more excited then a toddler waking up on Christmas morning to see what Santa left him. 

Deciding to text him to tell him not to eat too much before dinner even though you know there is really no point because, when it came to candy from home and Nico he will always eat as much as his sister is willing to send in one sitting

4.) Are you alright?

Nico gets a notification while he is away on a roadie for “movement in front of camera.” Since he was already dressed and ready for practice he decided to check the notification. He noticed it was you coming home at an earlier time than normal and you didn’t look good. Immediately he’s Facetiming you in the locker room, making sure you have everything you need and even doing a Doordash CVS order to your apartment with a bunch of different flavors of gatorade and Mucinex. Nico has his full pout because he is very worried about his girlfriend who is getting sick and the fact that he is 2000 miles away. 

5.) You didn’t see that

 After being exhausted after a long day of work and running a bunch of errands. The last thing you wanted to do was make multiple trips down the elevator to the parking garage to get all the groceries, your work bag, your lunch box and purse. Of course as soon as you pass the mailroom you see that you received a few Amazon packages. Again deciding one trip was better than multiple you somehow balance the boxes and make your way to the elevator. But of course as soon as you get to the front door as you're trying to reach for your keys to unlock the door everything tumbles. Without even thinking you deadpan to the camera   “ you didn’t see that.” But then you wince because of course you hear Nico’s loud laugh through the ring microphone. Of course in that exact moment he decided to check to make sure you got home okay since he knows you have anxiety driving at night when the roads are icy. 

6.) Shhhh will you some people are sleeping!

After coming home around 2 AM due to a delayed plane because of bad weather he finally comes home from his weekend roadie. Of course the ring camera starts to record as soon as it detects motion, recording how slow Nico is being trying to sneak into the apartment. But of course he somehow forgot about your 10 month Bernese Mountain puppy who starts barking at the top of his lungs. Running to attack Nico because he was so happy that “dad was home.” Of course the camera caught everything including Nico cursing in German for his failed attempts. But then he’s picking up your very big puppy trying to get him to quiet down because “hey don’t you know its 2 AM, your mama trying to sleep bubs.” . The next morning when you see a new notification on your phone from ring and you see Nico trying his hardest to be quiet you can’t help but chuckle and your chest swell a little at how sweet Nico was trying to be and how adorable he always is with your guys puppy. 

7.) Give me my puppy update

Everyday when he’s away on a roadie he demands to see an update on how much your little 20 lb Bernese Mountain puppy has grown on his way back in from his morning walk. He loves it when he’s actually able to catch the update in real time and talking through the camera catching how confused and excited the little puppy is because he hears dad’s voice but doesn’t see him. After a while attempting to pick up the very big puppy becomes such a struggle. It becomes Nico’s favorite part of his day watching you try to pick up the little rascal because he really only likes it when Nico picks him up. He loves hearing you complain to the dog that you are picking him up to show him to Nico. But every single time all the puppy does is schrick in refusal and you huff finally giving up. After 3 days in a row when your dog was around 10 months of that same pattern you told Nico that he’s going to have to settle on videos because fighting this dog to participate everyday in your daily vlogs was taking longer than it actually was to stand in front of the doorbell.

[j3lly-fish]

☽ Halo Horns Set ☾

I am beyond nervous to post this but... here we go... my very first mesh! I actually didn't intend to have that orb at first, so it was an added plus LOL. Would like to thank @gloomiegalaxie and @azeterna for helping me through the process and being so patient with me! I hope to make a lot more of this, as I slowly become more and more comfortable with blender.

THESE HORNS ARE BIG, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE ALL OF IT IN CAS AND I AM SORRY LMAO (lower cas poses may save you here)

Swatches under the cut!

Additional info:

All LODS

New Mesh

Polys: 2400 (Orb is 480)

Disallowed for Random (At least im 99% sure I fixed that)

Discover University mentioned because brow rings are only in that pack, but I was told this wouldn't be an issue. Just slapping the warning IN CASE

Known issues: Both items use the hat texture slot, so things like hats will definitely conflict. If you can't find some of my cc in your game, its likely you'll need CAS Unlocks for it (like occult detail slots)

TOU: Recolors and mesh editing is allowed, but please just link back to my original mesh! ♡

✦ DOWNLOAD (SFS) ✦

Dividers by anitalenia

[gummilutt]

It's been a while but I am back with another creation! I am very excited to share this with you, because it builds upon the work of a much beloved modding duo and I love being able to contribute to work by others in the community :) If you are a user of Sun&Moon's Loads O' Laundry, have you ever found yourself wishing that your Sims would have to do laundry if they wanted access to clean clothes? I love giving my Sims chores to do, I have to do them so they do too. And in this case of laundry, I wanted their hard work to mean something by actually needing the clean laundry for something. So I created an add-on to the original, that gives dressers a clean laundry count! Now your Sims use of them is limited, and they require restocking with clean batches of laundry to be usable.

This mod is meaningless without Loads O' Laundry, which recently got an update that you can read more about here. However, the two mods are entirely separate, mine is an add-on that alters dressers. The overlap is that it uses the clean laundry pile object from Loads O' Laundry.

What the mod does - Dressers now have a clean laundry count visible to you (except some CC, see more info below) - Dressers are given a default clean laundry count of 10. Easily changed in BCON if you want a different number. Your Sims dressers will start out with this amount, both those already placed and newly purchased ones. - When your Sim uses the dresser to change their clothes, outfit change count reduces by 1 - When clean laundry count hits 0, the menu option to change clothes disappears. Your Sim has no laundry in it, so they can't change their clothes! Does not affect dressers on community lots. - All dressers (except some CC, see more info below) gain access to a new put away laundry menu, with a custom interaction to take clean laundry piles in inventory and add them to the dresser to stock up outfit changes. Available to children, teens, adults and elders.

Here is a little video showing off how it works and looks :)

Unfortunately this mod has some conflicts, and I apologize in advance for the fact that this makes downloading it a little confusing for users. I have made compatible versions so you can use it with these mods, but you'll need to figure out which version you need based on what you use. The two conflicts I am aware of is Inteen, and PregnancyWearAnyOutfit. Update: Originally conflicted with Picknmix's Specific Clothing Racks, but I have now added compatibility with that mod in all versions, just make sure mine loads last and both will be okay.

There may be other conflicts I am unaware of. Please note this mod edits text strings, which means you'll need HCDU+ to check for conflicts I may have missed. The original HCDU does not scan for text string conflicts so it might miss some. Please let me know if you find any, so I can update the information :) Now, on to the links!

If you do not use Inteen or PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, download the regular version

If you use Inteen, but not PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, download inteen compatible version here (my mod must load last!)

If you use PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, but not Inteen, download PregnancyWearAnyOutfit compatible version here (my mod must load last!)

If you use both Inteen and PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, download the version compatible with both here (my mod must load last!)

In addition, I have a second version that I made specifically for ChocolateCitySim (whom you'll find streaming Sims 2 every sunday on her twitch channel) that allows Sims to change to their pyjamas and underwear even if their dresser is empty, as a sort of "I'm out of some clothes but not others"-thing. I have not made conflict-compatible versions because it's confusing enough as is, but if you'd like the idea of this version you can get it here. Can't be used with PregWearAnyOutfit, load order will not help, you either get my mod or theirs. Can't be used with Picknmix's Specific Clothing Racks, the menu's will look weird and laundry counter will act wonky. Can be used with Inteen if loading after, though your teens will lose the ability to do romantic interactions in AL closets.

Other conflicts: JellyMeduza has their own version of this mod which offers compatibility with some mods that I do not, so if you have a conflict that isn't covered here, I would check out their post and see if perhaps it is one of the mods they added compatibility for. There are some other minor differences in functionality, but the general gist is the same :)

If you'd like some place your Sim can always change their clothes, in case of emergency, I recommend my edited towel racks that allow your Sims to change to everyday, formal and pyjamas.

Compatibility with CC dressers Unfortunately, depending on how the dresser was made, some CC ones will not be compatible with this. Depending on how much it conflicts, some may give you 10 uses before they become unusable, others will immediately be unusable. Most likely to happen in older CC, made back when it was commonplace to move pie menus to private levels. But fortunately, regular dressers with no custom functionality added are very easy to fix. I have written down instructions that you can grab here, and I also made a video tutorial here. I am very brain foggy so it might not be the clearest I've done, but hopefully it is enough to help you figure out how to do this to any dressers you use that aren't compatible. If you really can't and you desperately want to use both, assuming I am in decent shape health-wise I can help you fix it.

Please note that this method should not be applied to dressers with custom funcionality, such as the Numenor/MaryLou object that lets you buy clothes at home. Their original is unimpacted by my mod, it won't pick up on the mod but they retain their prior functionality. HugeLunatic's 4t2 versions based on Numenors were incompatible, but HL was kind enough to update her files so that there is no longer an issue. If you use her gorgeous wall-mounted dresser racks from GoS, please re-download the files. I'm not aware of any other custom functionality dressers, but if they exist they are likely to be incompatible as well. I am not making a tutorial on how to fix them as it would depend so much on how they are made, so if you have one, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Recommendation: There is a weird game error that is triggered by some mods, I don't know why but I know Laundry Mod is one of them (because I myself got it, and I know others that have as well after getting it). It occurred to me that some of you might end up getting that mod because of my add-on, and I realized I should preemptively address it. The error happens in the Community Lot Populator, and is of the type "Index passed to Manage Inventory out of bounds." The in-game behavior (if testing cheats is off) is that no customers show up on owned businesses. Fortunately, Chris Hatch has a mod posted in a random comment on MTS that will fix it. You'll find it here.

Credits: @sunmoon-starfactory for the original Loads O' Laundry creation that this mod builds upon, some of the code in this is repurposed from the original creation's hamper mechanics, so thank you for both the idea, the reason to make it and parts of the code :) Fireflower also kindly provided dutch translations for the new strings. @kashmiresims for testing and feedback, finding parts I had missed including, as well as hyping up the creation on her twitch streams under the name of Rachums. @picknmixsims because he teaches me so many things and a lot of what I make today is using things I learned through his help answering questions. He often helps me when I run into problems, and I lose track of which creations he directly helped so he gets a shout-out always! @nikkasimms for the awesome posed I used in the thumbnail, love your poseboxes! Rachums and picknmix were also kind enough to assist me a little with the videos, splicing stuff I couldn't myself :) Thanks guys!

[findafight]

Okay I kept thinking about this post and Steve being a BNF of Corroded Coffin message board of the internet of yore.

Alright so way back in the nineties Suzie hooks everyone up with the internet, yes? Yes. Eddie and Steve got together in '92 after some mutual pining and a few disastrous relationships that couldn't handle 1) Steve and Robin's general QPR clinginess 2) Eddie's intensity 3) the secrecy required if having multiple years of monster fighting and subsequent NDAs and the trauma associated therein. They're older and more settled and ready for an Adult Relationship.

Corroded Coffin is gaining traction and doing really well and the internet is still a brave new frontier, so Steve says to Eddie something like "I'm going to see if there's some message boards about you 🥰" and find them he sure does. So he makes accounts and posts under the username EddiesOnlyGroupie because he's hilarious and also the mods banned him from using EddieMunsonsHusband (he figured it was fine on the internet because nobody actually knew who he was but APPARENTLY NOT homophobia lives on in the digital age). He gets pretty well known in the Corroded Coffin fandom, most assuming he's a woman because he will go off on how hot Eddie looked at a gig. Like. Saying unhinged internet shit because 1) true and 2) he and Eddie think it's so funny. Everyone kinda believes the groupie thing too because of all the performance pics he's able to post and how he'll sometimes offer tidbits if knowledge about the band.

When they transition from chatrooms to livejournal etc he follows, with the same username. He's kind of a legend by the mid aughts. EOG is the acronym people use when discussing theories on his identity, and he's like "guys I'm literally his only groupie it's self explanatory. Guys why don't you believe me Eddie hasn't slept with anyone but me since 1992. We're basically married". He goes "it's not a mystery we literally are in love and Jeff and I go to Cubs games and cry when they inevitably lose together. Gareth is Godfather to my cats" (Eddie is still offended that he was not named Sassafras and Moonshine's godfather when Steve and Robin adopted them in '89). No one believes him.

Possibly because he still thirsts after Eddie and whenever someone posts a new Eddie pic those in the know wait for him to pop up with comments like "I want to bite his neck omg" "he has no ass but nobody is perfect I'll settle between his thighs anyway" and "literally a crime I am not married to him right now what the fuck" As twitter grows he swoops in to grab his handle, and follows a bunch of other CC fan accounts (some of them old friends, some of them new to the scene)(EOG 100% has his own fanlore page, which also has speculation on who he is and how he gets all the bts pics. It also doesn't believe when he says what it says on the tin. He's Eddie's only groupie.)

tumblr and tiktok come round and Steve is like. Openly horny on main. He's seen some shit go down on the internet but he's still commenting on Eddie fan edits that are title shit like "why am I attracted to this middle-aged white man" and "retro cc fancam" with things like "I'd let him lick the inside of my ear and only bring it up to tease him on special occasions" "his FINGERS" "back in '89 Jeff and Howie and Claire staged a mutany over this song because they were 'sick of Eddie only writing about biting bats' lmao" and "Jeff is my favourite member of cc"(just to stir the pot)

Eddie comes out in the 2010's and he's like "yeah I've been in a long term relationship with someone who is usually mostly a man kinda (gender is fucky) for the past twenty years, lol. His name's Steve. I love him a lot even if he mocks me online." and of course EOG comments "the mods of that old message board should have let me keep my original handle of EddieMunsonsHusband. When're you gonna make it reality, Munson? smh" and everyone is like Huh?? EOG is a MAN? And he's like yeah? Sometimes?? Not always?

(He 100% thinks this is him telling people he's Eddie's Steve. They don't get the message)

Anyways life goes on Steve continues to thirst under pictures of Eddie, he has his pronouns and name in his bio on twitter (Steve, he/him, she/her, Eddie Munson's first and only groupie 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ ) and continues to post behind the scenes photos that shockingly few people question (she always says "because I'm his groupie" though. He and Eddie think this is VERY funny and also true. Robin groans. They've been making the same joke for two decades.) and people believe it because Eddie has interacted EOG sometimes, liking photos or videos, commenting sometimes. (Steve has a more professional realname account that he rarely uses but Eddie usually tags Steve there)

And THEN Internet user EddiesOnlyGroupie says he's taking a few weeks off for her honeymoon because "I'm finally marrying the man of my dreams!" And people are happy for him but also bummed because Eddie is also taking a two week hiatus but EOG promises wedding and honeymoon photos. (Face reveal! Sorta!)((he doesn't get why people are excited because he's pretty sure he's been in a lot of Eddie's recent pictures, but whatever)

Imagine the Internet's surprise when Eddie Munson posts a collection of pictures spanning '86 to his 2016 wedding of him and Steve, including one of Steve looking seriously at an old desktop computer, captioned "Steve starting his internet career" and tags EOG.

Steve qrt with "I told yall. I'm his only groupie, and they should've let me keep EddieMunsonsHusband even if they WERE homophobic. Because now it's TRUE"

Niche internet community drama chaos ensues.

[kanmom51]

Are you sure? 1st trailer

Well well well.

1st trailer for our most anticipated show of the year just landed.

We got a super wholesome, what looks to be chaos filled trailer, with what has most likely become a full on continuous banter between those two of "are you sure?".🤣

39 seconds trailer and so much to break down. And to take it all in you have to watch it time after time after time, every time noticing something new. Can you imagine what we'll be going through when the actual show comes out? Lmao. This is going to be absolute torture for the cult (already creating an alternate reality where Tae was there, and even showed up in the trailer - the umbrella shot). I might even feel sorry for them. Nope. I really don't.🤣

Ok, so let's start to break this down. What did we get?

They both look so happy. This is them. Together. Freedom looks so good on them. Can you imagine? Being able to travel just the two of them, experience the things they love.

For JM it's travelling and sight seeing, for JK it's being with JM and the experiences, not to mention the randomness of it:

(And while they didn't go to 130911 - funny how the 13-10 and 9-1 are there, eh? - they got to do the random part of it, as much as their circumstances allowed it).

All with minimum interference from staff and fans that might recognize them. Freedom to do this just the two of them, all in the guise of work. This show, you have to understand, gave them a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this out in the open without all those unnecessary questions that would follow otherwise. This gives them the option to be together, be themselves, without having to cross that line that they still might want to, but have the choice of deciding if and when that will happen.

And we will see that in the editing. What we are allowed to see and what we aren't allowed to see (out of hours and hours of footage not to mention the hours and hours that weren't filmed). Just how far they will go. And that is also why I am positive that the two were fully involved in the editing of the show, them giving the final word.

This here:

It's not for nothing that JM brings this up. This is how they felt. Especially there and then. July 2023. In CT. Following a grueling year. With JK's full on promotions and crazy stressful schedule to come. Feeling free in the moment is what they felt indeed.

Can you even imagine how they were feeling during their Japan trip?😭😭

Let's unfold a little more of what this trailer gave us.

We got JK's JM smile. You just cannot fake it.

We already recognize it.

And talking about faking it, another blow for all the antis. Cry, scream, have a tantrum. None of them will change the FACT that both JK and JM wanted this and were having the time of their lives.

The way JK looks in the mirror to check out his bae.💜

Check on/check out same same. He wanted to see that cute ass face JM was making, cause no one loves cutie goofy dorky JM as much as JK does. NO ONE!!! Fight me on this!!

But it's not a one timer. As mentioned JK is smiling all of the time. They both are so happy, and it makes me happy to see how happy they were.

We have a sunset 'date'.

They do like those.

Golden hour and all.

And the moon gazing too. I wonder if we will be getting that as well...

*Side note - that moment is such an underrated oh so very intimate moment.

And talking about dates and romance and intimacy, this moment here:

Although the trailer is very innocent, just two bros on trips together having fun together, especially to those that don't know JM and JK, those that are unaware of just how close those two are, those that haven't seen RB or Hickeygate or Melon 2018 or even watched JK's 2023 lives. Those that just don't see. This moment here is anything but a 'bro' moment. Sorry. It just ain't.

Watching the clouds. Drawing the clouds.

We have them sharing a hat. Nothing new them sharing clothes and accessories.

We also got the black and white couple once again.

Is this one more of those Jikook in their own world moments?

And this moment here:

This is so Jikook. In the rain. Messing around. Can't wait to see this in context.

This is but a drop in the sea of what we will be getting.

And just before I wrap things up, let's get back to my fave word -

Choices.

It was definitely a choice to have both SGMB and SNTY as sound tracks to this 39 second teaser.

Using 2 songs for such a short trailer. Basically bookending (again?) the trailer with those two songs.

Using their 2 songs, not surprising.

Using those specific 2 songs, well, that was a choice indeed.

Crazy thoughts incoming, so feel free to skip.

But having SGMB at the start - a song about confessing your love and being open about your love for each other - even more so playing during those not so 'bro' moments on the yacht (sunset and cloud watching together), and then playing SNTY at the end - the song about fighting for your love, not letting those that don't approve of it separate you, weathering through hardships - seeing them still together and giggly and happy, they have overcome it, they are committed and happy.

This is going to be friggin amazing, and I just cannot wait for it.

[zexapher]

Vacuan Nights, Like Vacuan Days

They’re just so great together! I’d love for Jaune and Weiss to get a little downtime in Vacuo to live out a moment like this. They really deserve it, and I’d love to see Jaune’s guitar make a reappearance.

The comic here was inspired by u/Silverstar1243’s excellent piece of art, A Serenade Under the Moonlight. Send some love to them on their twitter, commission some art if you’re willing and able, they’ve made some great stuff.

You folks may have noticed I threw in a couple of references for those in the know; the Golden Oreos behind Yang (double stuffed, I might add) for the trio’s ship, Weiss liking it rough for Mallobaude’s great fic, and of course I made a whole theme around the Arabian Nights Disney song. A song, along with its Aladdin compatriots, which I spent the better part of a day finding covers for just to listen to on repeat while I worked.

This one’s now officially my longest comic project, with 14 panels, two over the past record since I added the White Knight kiss at the end. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Not sure I’d say it was more difficult than my Vanity of Vanities post, but for this one I actually knew how to use my editing software going into it (at least somewhat).

Put a lot of work into this one, been working on it on and off since February. Took a few breaks for vacation, to make my memorial post for Rooster Teeth, and another five meme edits or so, but I came back around to it. First half was pretty easy, relatively minor edits inserting characters into scenes and so on. The second half with Jaune and Weiss was tougher though, with color correcting, merging poses, redrawing features, drawing Jaune’s entire head to fix some lighting issues, etc. Really like how the edit to make Jaune strum his guitar turned out.

The time it took to make the whole comic got me down a little, until I did a bit of math. Including my side projects since starting this, all the scripting and editing and all, I’ve been pumping out a panel every two days. That seems pretty good to me, that kind of accomplishment makes me a little proud of myself.

Really need to get around to watching the second part of the Justice League Crossover movies. It’s got a few Vacuo scenes that might make things a little more authentic instead of me just using Saphron’s house and pretending it’s a suite in Vacuo. I do love taking yet more character stills from Jaune and friends experiencing deep trauma and turning it into something positive, been making that a bit of a personal habit. And I’ve got to say, the background for Jaune and Weiss’ scene is really beautiful, pulled it from when Sun and Neptune hear Ruby’s message about Salem. That’s just a really good shot all on its own, I even saved a copy for my computer’s wallpaper after editing out the two.

Posting a big RWBY White Knight edit, watching not one but two RWBY Beyond episodes, and all on the trail of the news that RWBY’s found partners that they’re negotiating with and that the creative team is expected to stay on. And I'm sipping bubble tea. Life is good.

Anyway, pardon the long write up. I’m invested in this one, and am quite pleased with how the comic turned out. I hope you all get a kick out of it as well!

[shima-draws]

Tell us about the AU! I know you want to!!

WAUGHHH. AGHHH. OKAY. OKAY SO. I've been watching one of my favorite content creators play through the DLC. Early on in the playthrough he was tossing around theories and said "Maybe KIERAN is Ogerpon??" and that gave me a BRILLIANT THOUGHT.

Ogerpon Kieran AU.......

I've already thought of a very long and complex backstory for this LOL but to simplify it. Before the ogre and its human companion came to Kitakami, said companion was actually living a very happy life with his child. However, they were caught up in the midst of a great war that ended up taking the child's life. The man was so overcome with grief that it summoned a great being (I'm thinking Xerneas), who blessed his dead child with new life. And that child was reborn as Ogerpon!! So kinda like how children who get lost in the woods and die are reborn as Phantump.

Fast forward to many many years later. A long chain of events leads to Carmine's grandfather's...father (so, her great-grandpa?) meeting Ogerpon and vowing to make it a new mask, a mystical and powerful mask that could grant wishes. Sadly, Carmine's great-grandpa wasn't able to complete the mask before he died. This project was eventually picked up by Carmine's father (and I have a whole other thing about him but I'm not gonna get into it right now lol). Carmine's father forms a very close bond with Ogerpon as he continues to gather materials to finish the wish mask. He expresses his desire for Ogerpon to finally be able to walk among the villagers with its name cleared, and for Ogerpon to meet his only daughter. He leaves for a journey to find the last material for the mask...and never returns 😔

Carmine's grandfather has a whole complex about the wish mask, but after seeing both his father and his son dedicate so much time and care into completing it, he takes the last material, imbued with the hopes and dreams of his family, and finally finishes the mask. When he presents it to Ogerpon, Ogerpon dons the mask and its wish is granted...it becomes human :") So it becomes Kieran, basically!! Kieran's wish was to be able to say thank you to all of the generations of mask makers that had helped him, and. To be part of their family 🥺 What he doesn't know is that his wish to be human stems from the fact that he already was human, once. But he doesn't remember his life before he was reborn as a Pokemon.

So, Carmine's grandfather happily accepts Kieran and his desire, and takes him home to live with him and Carmine. Note that Kieran is probably around 5-6 at the time, so he's BABY. And Carmine is only about a year or two older. She isn't sure what to think about suddenly getting a new brother, but she's happy to have someone to boss around lmao.

And once a year, during the festival of masks, Kieran lets his facade fall and wanders around as Ogerpon again. Just to keep in touch with his roots haha

So obviously with Kieran being Ogerpon the events of the DLC will play out differently than canon. Kieran slyly compliments the ogre in front of the player and mentions that maybe it's just misunderstood. He's been trying for a while to change the villagers' minds about what happened to him and the Loyal Three all those years ago, but it hasn't been going...too well lol. So when the player shows up, and things start to shift, Kieran gets really excited bc he realizes he finally might be able to clear his name :")

Is this AU silly and dumb as hell? Yes. Does it not really make sense with canon and is full of plot holes? Yes. Am I brainrotting over it anyway? Also yes.

Take a little edit I did of Kieran's official art to fit what I had in mind for the AU ;) I wanted to draw it but I'm at work rn lmao RIP

ALSO LITTLE DOODLE OF THE BOY

ALSO bc of Ogerpon's original gender Kieran probably goes by he/they pronouns in the AU

[blindrapture]

In 2011, I started writing a thing, on a whim. In 2013, I finished it. A lot of people seemed to love it? Then over the next decade, I put a lot of work into expanding and editing it, with plans for a complete physical book release that didn't happen. Well, here it is again. As an internet novel. A finished novel, this time.

I will start posting the story on May 21st, 2024. May 22nd will be a day of rest. And then, from May 23rd until October 21st, every day will see a new chapter-- a new log. ("F-Five months?? How long is this novel?" Oh yeah, good point. That won't actually get us to the end. There may be another eight, ten days of chapters afterwards. It is important, however, to emphasize the May 21 - October 21 model.)

I will make sure to put the bulk of the contents under "Read More" breaks, so each log won't clutter your browsing experience.

The logs will have art in them. Not as much as in the original draft, but there will still be some. As of May 1st, I expect art by Rappu, RealaChao, Wiratomkinder, and Vis.

I plan on supplementing the logs with the occasional post talking about the making and intention of the story. I dunno, it's gonna be a five-month distribution period, I'm gonna get antsy during that and am gonna want to ramble. That'll be separate content, though.

And when the story is fully and completely posted on tumblr, I will release the full novel on my Website, where I like to keep the rest of my creations. Both the tumblr novel and the Website novel will be free reading, forever. I reserve the right to try again at a paid physical edition afterwards.

So! That's it. Rapture is coming. OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING is coming.

Trigger Warnings: Sex, Gods, and Rock & Roll. (violence. some swear words. teenage angst, cringe. death. insects. surrealism. symbolism. unpredictability of what will be explained and what won't. sexual acts with dubious consent-- you will be able to skip that part. religious iconography. and so much prog rock.)

Get ready for it.

[bengiyo]

BL 2023 Review

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to write about BL for this year. I was originally going to do a The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly framework for it, but that feels meaner than I actually am about it. Instead, I think I’ll just write out some sections and unpack some things I felt along the way.

I Watched Too Much Again

Last year I engaged with about 92 productions around the world. This year it was 99 (I tracked stuff I completed here). Sure I dropped 18 of them this year, but goddamn. The problem with watching as much as I did this year is that I worked full time this year and also maintained a separate hobby. I also continued my twice-weekly watch sessions with my friend Emily, so there are an additional 100-ish watch sessions in here of rewatching, plus a few other rewatches (Theory of Love and My Ride most notably).

One of my struggles at this point is I’m far too familiar with the genre, and find myself feeling impatient and irritable with shows that aren’t to my taste the way I used to. Throughout the late summer and fall I found myself increasingly grumpier about the genre, and it didn’t get better until I had a holiday and basically slept a day to get some energy back. I also found myself growing apart from fans I’ve known and followed a long time. It’s been a difficult year for me as a long-time fan because my tastes, habits, and friendships in the genre have changed even if the amount I watch hasn’t really.

I Wrote a Lot This Year

I recently converted my watch tag away from my gaming internet persona to just my shortname, so all near-1000 of my Stray Thoughts posts can be found under #ben watches now. I’ve also been going back and adding #ben writes to some of the standalone pieces that I really liked. In reviewing them, the pieces I’m happiest about are my ode to Framboise from Kabe Koji Nekoyashiki-kun Desires to Be Recognized, my post begging everyone to watch La Pluie, my post about what it means to actually like queer men, my SBS ep 10 post that ended up being wrong, my post about the Lavender Scare and Be My Favorite, my Tokyo in April is… post about the breaking of the BL line,

However, the two posts I am most proud of is my half-joking response about why I think tagging each other back and forth across Tumblr in our writing is so important. and The Knowing: Being Queer in BL because I had so much great conversations with folks as a result of both of these posts.

Looking back at my own blog, this is probably the most active I’ve been in my entire time on this website, so thank you to everyone who interacted with me this year, because it really is people talking to me that gets me most inspired to write things down. Big shout out to @lurkingshan who will bug me repeatedly until I blog something that I said in passing.

We Started a Podcast!

After hanging out with @shortpplfedup since Bad Buddy, she got inspired and really wanted to bring something different to the BL podcasting sphere. I had time, and liked talking with her enough, so we started @the-conversation-pod. Now we’re a full year into it and planning out future stuff. It’s been so much fun being able to get things off my soul and break poor NiNi in our recording sessions.

From this year, I think my favorite episodes we did were The Moonlight Chicken Episode, the Eighth Sense episode, the ITSAY Anniversary Episodes,  The Wedding Plan episode, , and The Holiday Clip Show. Huge shout out to @ginnymoonbeam for anchoring the transcription process, and @lurkingshan for editing.

The VIIB Awards will begin airing soontm so look forward to that.

Favorite New Term: Business Gay Performance

Let’s be clear, Bump Up Business is not good. It is an obvious BL cash grab from OnlyOneOf that seeks to comment on the fake nature of BL while doing everything it can to trick the audience into believing that the BL pair is real.

Before we got deeper into this year, I was a big fan of a certain pairing, and then their fans took it too far and it affected the way I engaged with their performances and their work. I like that we have a new term for “fanservice” that communicates that you understand that this is for work. (thanks to NiNi for this comparison) I can look at the latest behind the scenes video from Last Twilight and say that I think Sea really understands the work they’re doing, and he and Jimmy have a very relaxed and mature version of BGP without feeling like I’m feeding into shipping.

Do I think they’re dating? No. Do I like the way they fake it? Absolutely!

I can look at one of @respectthepetty posts about Yin and War having personalized, color-coded mics, and we can talk about the next level BGP between the two and both communicate that we know that this is a performance.

It actually makes the extra PR work fun for me again, because now I can just shout “BGP! BGP! BGP!” and it not feel like I’m giving myself brainrot.

Thai BL Needs to Finish Stronger Next Year

Let’s get into some of the show stuff. This year was defined for me by Thai BL starting strong with good premises and then squandering them by not focusing on the details that mattered or leaning into baseless melodrama. Time for some reads. Some of these shows were generally good, but they failed at these things:

609 Bedtime Story: The world building crumpled in the back half and both endings are flat.

A Boss and a Babe: Cher is a pro gamer who worked for a gaming company and there was no plot point about this at all, or collaboration between the two groups.

Bake Me Please: Why was a show about cake so lacking in flavor?

Be Mine SuperStar: You had a real opportunity to explore a fan and idol romance and had Punn show so little growth. I hope the footage of First’s range is helpful now that Ja is out of BL.

Be My Favorite: You redid that whole amusement park date and muddled so much of what the hell happened on that day.

Between Us: You had years to make this interesting. Why are there five pairs and why is the end of this a JC Penny catalog photoshoot?

Dangerous Romance: What the fuck happened to the Sailom we had in episode 1 and 2 before that gun incident?

Hidden Agenda: Tee, what the hell was this? Twelve weeks of this?

I Feel You Linger in the Air: You may be the most beautiful show, with some of the most impressive performances of the year, but you absolutely botched this ending. Finish the goddamn season next time.

Love in Translation: I love you, but that whole kidnapping plot was so stupid at the end.

Low Frequency: I like your OST. That's about it.

My Dear Gangster Oppa: No examination about how gaming friendships become close quickly because of the combination of anonymity and teamwork (shout out to @twig-tea for this excellent summation).

My School President: Saving your gay commentary for the final episode felt like a conservative choice. I want more from you next time.

Naughty Babe: You retconned your own characters to tell a worse story. Unforgiveable.

Never Let Me Go: You didn’t know if you wanted to be a high school BL or a mafia story. It was difficult to watch.

Only Friends: I cannot believe you did Boston like that at the end. Either give Force’s character a clear personality next time, or keep him enigmatic; half measures make him and Book look worse. Sand was absolutely embarrassing. Boeing was a waste. Ending on all of them paired like that felt so unearned.

Step By Step: You forgot to ground Jeng’s external dreams at the end, so the final two episodes are just frustrating.

I’m glad I got that off my chest. We can go into the next year now.

Korea Put in the Work This Year

I really like the efforts from the various Korean studios this year. I really hope we get a Strongberry joint next year, but I want to acknowledge that we had 18 Korean BL dramas I watched this year, and at least three of them I think are must watches: Our Dating Sim, Sing My Crush, and The Eighth Sense. Beyond that, I think Love Tractor, Unintentional Love Story, and A Breeze of Love are easy recommendations.

It’s really impressive how the complaint for me this year with Korean BL is not about them using their time poorly. It’s more about normal drama concerns, where I think characterization is a little weak, or a theme doesn’t land squarely. This rapid iteration from the Korean studios is really impressive to watch, and I’m excited to see what some of the recognized players do next year.

Taiwan and The Philippines Have Been Quiet for Me

I wasn’t really able to connect with much from the Philippines this year except for The Day I Loved You. I never wrote about The Day I Loved You, but this beautiful and heart wrenching show is one of my favorites from this year. I wasn’t too keen on the Oxin Films offerings of this year, and I’m still chasing down the ones from The IdeaFirst Company.

As for Taiwan, this new BL project from the end of the year just isn’t hitting. Kiseki: Dear to Me also ended up really hurting me with the way they used Wayne Song and Huang Chun Chih. I love that angry little man with the white hair, but I’m still salty about Wayne and the general mess of that show.

Japan was Busy This Year

I watched 16 new shows, a few older ones, and a few movies this year from Japan. We haven’t gotten this much from them ever. I continue to love the Drama Shower project from MBS, and my beloved What Did You Eat Yesterday? returned this year. We had pretty stellar outings with Our Dining Table, If It’s With You, and I Cannot Reach You.

I think a third of the Japanese BL I’ve tracked on MDL actually released this year. That’s huge.

Still, I am going to side eye Minato’s Laundromat 2. You were the show that let me down the most this entire year. More than Only Friends, more than Step By Step, and even more than Kiseki. You absolutely blew it. You were telling a great story about a man with an acute case of internalized homophobia coming out of his shell and learning to love his younger partner and you blew it for stupid amnesia nonsense. I will never forgive you for this.

Where Were All the Uncles This Year?

Really, without Jim from Moonlight Chicken, and without the men from What Did You Eat Yesterday? we had an alarming dearth of older gay characters passing on knowledge and wisdom to the youngsters this year. What the hell happened?

Rare Dynamics Won: Second Chance Romance and Friends to Lovers!

We had so much second chance romance this year. It’s really my favorite version of gay romance because gays don’t always have ideal settings when they’re young. We had Our Dating Sim, Individual Circumstances, Jun & Jun, The End of the World With You, Tokyo in April is…, Be My Favorite, Love Class Season 2, and A Breeze of Love. I am satisfied.

Friends to Lovers is actually so rare in romance and we have so many to choose from this year! The best examples are I Cannot Reach You and Sing My Crush, but we also have one of the pairs in Love Class Season 2.

Gay Thoughts

I had a couple of ongoing thoughts this year about queerness in BL.

First, I want to return to my post about Sing My Crush and La Pluie, and how I assert that Men Need to Be Angry Sometimes. More than giving men grace to be righteously angry or upset about things, along with letting them express it in ugly ways, I really want to get into how we engage with these shows. I will stop engaging with moralistic reads on characters in 2024. I will no longer engage with asks, reblogs, or meta gripping the fandom where we're judging the moral fiber of the character.

The question that really only matters for me at this point is: Is this act from the character justified from their characterization, the narrative, or genre conventions; and is it interesting? Whether or not the character is good or bad reeks of the lame arguments about good and bad representation, and I am not watching BL like I’m being graded in Sunday school.

The second thing I really want to acknowledge at the end of the year is that the gay sex is finally getting better again. I watched The Novelist this year, and we have taken so long to get back to the space that show took us on the portrayal of male-male intimacy. We are in the genre about people with dicks. It should feel like it. There should be a masculine component there that feels specific to queer intimacy.

I will acknowledge 2 Cutie 2 Pie, A Boss and a Babe, Be Mine SuperStar, Bed Friend, Candy Color Paradox, For Him, I Cannot Reach You, Kiseki: Dear to Me, La Pluie, Love Class 2, Love in Translation, Love Mate, Middleman’s Love, Naughty Babe, Only Friends, The End of the World With You, Tokyo in April is…, and Wedding Plan for your contributions.

Final Thoughts

I like how broad the genre felt this year, and I enjoyed how much speculative fiction is entering into the conversation. I don’t know how I feel about there being five vampire stories in the works next year, but overall I’m glad that we’re getting more experimental concepts. I’m burnt out on the college engineering BL, and would like to see more shows about working adults.

Despite how grumpy I was for at least three months, I think this has genuinely been one of the best years we’ve ever had in the genre. I made a lot of new friends in BL this year, and I’m excited to see what comes next. Thank you all for spending some of your time with me this year and I’ll see you in the next one.

[corvusblackk]

Hello! I don't know if this blog is still active, or if you answer questions like this because I'm very, very new to the shifting community. But I was wondering how you'd recommend attempting to shift for the first time? I'm honestly just trying to get out of this bad situation I'm in and I'd much rather be at the DWMA right now instead. Anywhere but where I am right now, you know? Anyways you don't have to answer this, but if you do see it make sure to drink water and eat good food! Staying hydrated is key! ✨✨✨

Hey, I would say it can be easy to shift for the first time, without all of the unnecessary information overload, so it’s good that you’re new.

I have so many things to suggest so I have to really clear my ideas right now lol, also because I don’t want to say unhelpful stuff.

Remember that this is all optional, nothing that I say can be your truth, so don’t follow what I tell you step by step if you don’t agree with it or don’t feel comfortable.

I would say to not look for too much shifting content online. Storytimes are fine, they can give you some good motivation actually. But those “the key to shifting” videos are bullshit. There’s not key to do this, it’s all based on your assumptions. What I mean by this is that your main thoughts/assumptions manifests your whole reality, so if you assume that pointing at your nose three times while saying one affirmation will shift you, then it will lol. So do what works for you, of course you can take inspiration from others, but everyone’s journey is different so just pick what you like and assume it will make shifting easier for you.

Now, correlated to this, shifting is SIMPLE, and should be easy too. If you don’t shift the first times, it’s alright! don’t put yourself down, you will try again and with a fresh mind you will shift very soon. Just don’t stress yourself and don’t get obsessed with shifting. Doubts are fine in my opinion, you can shift with literally any mindset, again it all comes down to your assumptions. Many people think they can’t shift with doubts, that’s why they don’t shift afterwards, because they assumed they won’t, of course. So, shifting is essentially a simple and unique process. Do what works for you, experiment with techniques if you want, but know that it is not built for being complicated and difficult, it should be so natural to you, because we shift all the time with every thought and decision. So shifting to your desired reality is no different from shifting to parallel realities with unnoticed differences, it’s simply CHOOSING where to go. Shifting is a choice, an action, nothing else.

This aside, so. To shift for the very first time you can do anything you want really, no need to follow a shifting guided meditation but if you want go on. Or even a “method” is not necessary. You can also just say an affirmation and go to sleep or assume you’re already there and it will work.

If you want an advice I would suggest you to meditate beforehand just to clear your mind from any unnecessary thoughts, and to calm yourself down a bit. Then you can put your intention, and you can do this in many ways really. What I personally do is state that I always wake up in my [name of dr] and say it as many times as I feel like, then if I want i’m gonna use my emotions to feel as if I was already there. And then I go to sleep, and wake up there. If you don’t want to do an asleep method you can simply say that you’re already in your dr and know that the 3d (physical reality that you acknowledge with your senses) will catch up, and you will be there. You will be able to do it even in 5 minutes or something, you just have to do it then.

If something else comes to my mind I will edit this, but I don’t want to overcomplicate this. You just have to do what you want. Easy, no?

[literallyjusttoa]

Hey guys! I'm putting out a call for my commissions again for two big reasons: One, Emergencies have caused me to be low on funds when I wasn't expecting it, and that kind of sucks actually. Two, I have a project that I've been dreaming about for years but have actually been able to start working towards in the last couple of months, but to finish it I need to not be living paycheck to paycheck for like a month at the very least, which brings me back to point one :(. I will talk more about the big project under the cut, bc I think it's something you all might really enjoy!

But for now, I will link my commission sheet: Here (It's also my pinned post)

And my new Ko-fi!: Here for if you just want to donate, which would be literally incredible and I would owe you my soul actually.

Ok now for big Project Time!!!

I am in the process of editing and revising my first Youtube video! This has been an on and off dream of mine for like 7 years at this point, but I've finally taken the plunge and gotten to work on a channel. I wanna talk about all sorts of fandoms (including the riordanverse ofc) With videos ranging from plot and character analysis, to trends in fandom culture in general, to fun little ranking videos and speedpaints. All around, I just want the channel to be a fandom hive, where everyone can find something they enjoy.

I already have PNG's created of my sona to use as assets (And I have a sparkly new sona, the one in the pic above!) and I have two finished scripts, with the first one being fully recorded as well! One for my first video, which will be a retrospective on Gravity Falls, and one for a video about the Percy Jackson TV show, the inherent differences between TV and books as mediums, how I think the TV show could improve, and the things I think it got perfectly. I also have a bunch more ideas, such as:

BIG Trials of Apollo video essay, with a focus on how the books and the fandom have effected me over the years.

Ranking all of my favorite characters from all of the media I've been a fan of over the years (This would be over 70 characters)

Explaining the Iliad, but make it funny (with a side of Troy apologia)

Reading Lore Olympus and pointing out how it deviates from myth (the things I'm willing to do for you people /j)

Canon vs. Fanon, where I compare a characters canon characterization with their fanon counterpart and try to figure out how things turned out the way they did.

And more, but I don't want this post to be 5000 words long.

Now here's the big question. As I said in the part above, I'm struggling a bit now money-wise. And I really wanna make this project work, but there's also, you know. Tuition. Rent. Food. Stupid other adult stuff. So if anyone is amenable (and this is totally up to demand, I don't wanna pressure anyone into doing anything!) I was also thinking of maybe making a Patreon. Now, I'd have to do research for this, bc I wanna make sure anyone who signed up would get the right rewards and really get the bang for their buck. I'm pretty sure there's not gonna be much interest in this rn, cuz like, I'm not that big of a blog oof. But if anyone is interested! Here are some of the perks I would definitely be implementing! (sry it's another list)

Early access to videos, and behind the scenes looks at art assets and video creation

the ability to request topics for videos

Patrons names being shown in the videos. And higher tiered patrons getting custom chibis that will be shown in videos as well (and given to the patrons obv)

This ones a bit complicated, but I want to create a cover of a song that has to do with each video to play during their outros. So like, for the gravity falls video, I'm gonna record a quick cover of the Disco Girl song from the show. Only a small section of the song would be in each video, but patrons would get access to the full covers, and be able to request songs to be covered.

Discounts on commissions

A monthly speedpaint that would be exclusive to patreon. Patrons would be able to vote on what the drawing would be.

All of these ideas I'm 100% sure I want to add to a patreon if I make one, but obv there could be more that comes up later. I'm just gauging interest on this idea rn, so let me know if that's something you'd be down to sign up for! Maybe I'm jumping the gun here but I'm just really excited to create and give back to the community and aaahhhhh

Now, no matter what, I'm gonna have this first video out by mid-September at the latest. Because stupid money troubles are not gonna stop me from making this a thing dangit. So look out for that, I'll link the vid here when it releases! But I am just really stressed rn and any support would go a long way towards making this dream come true. And on that note, one more sappy real talk if I am allowed it?

If you've read this far, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. This community and fandom is truly incredible. My blog is about to reach 5 years old, and I've never seen a group of people so accepting and creative and just fun to be around. You guys have truly changed my life, and I wouldn't have the courage to try for this if I didn't have the support you've given me. I know this is super dramatic for just trying to make a youtube channel, but making a place where I could just talk about all the nerdy and overly specific things I care about and share them with the world is something I've wanted for my whole life. You guys gave me that with this blog, and if this channel works out, it'll be thanks to you, so you'll have given it to me twice. I don't have the words to express how much I love this community and all the incredible people in it. So even if you can't support, just know that being here for however long you have been, whether it's the whole five years or the last two days, has done more than you'll ever know. You guys are the best, thank you for everything <3

[topazadine]

Let's do another spicy writing take, one that is going to get a lot of people very mad. However, please note that I am saying this out of love and concern. This is not an attack on you personally or on your writing process.

Take a deep breath, prepare to listen with an open mind. Alright. Here goes:

Stop starting a million WIPs.

I am serious. Please. Do not do that. Do not start a million WIPs.

Why? Because then you won't get any of them done. And why is that? Because you'll lose motivation, get distracted, and hop on to the next thing, leaving a trail of heartbreak in your wake.

I have 131 stories on Archive of Our Own and have written over 2 million words of fiction. Two. Million. Words.

Don't believe me? Look.

And then there's more that is not accounted for here: a 110k novel, another 109k novel, and a 20k novelette, along with my current WIP which is currently around 10k. All told, I have written approximately 2,084,000 words.

Are they all perfect? No, of course not, especially the older stuff. But is it done? Yep.

And I did that by doing each project one at a time.

If I get another story idea while I'm in the middle of another story, I write a note in my WIP list, but I don't start it. Only when I'm letting a story "rest" before editing do I start outlining another book, but I still don't start. I wait until I've finished one entire project before I do another one.

Your brain does not actually multitask. Our brains aren't wired to do that. This article from Forbes explains:

You are highly unlikely to be part of that 2.5% even if you think you are. I'm not, and you're probably not either.

What you are really doing is task switching. Take it from the software management program Asana:

That article from Forbes elaborates:

And it is even worse when you are hopping from one WIP to another, essentially changing contexts.

Pleexy, another task automation company, continues by discussing 'context switching':

Every time you stop working on one WIP, you are switching contexts and pulling yourself out of the world you have created, jumping into another. Now your brain is struggling to reorient itself, and it's not going to do its best work.

"But I love writing different WIPs and I get some of them done!"

I am sure you do, but is it your best effort? Would you have been able to write faster, more coherently, better, if you had only worked on one? Probably. And don't you want to do your best?

"But I have ideas and if I don't do them right now I'll forget them!!!"

Then write them down. I have a whole WIP list of things I am intending to write later. Make a notepad document, a spreadsheet, whatever, for your different WIPs.

When you think of something interesting for that project, put down a small note underneath it, but don't start writing! Your brain will let it marinate and when you're done with your current project, you'll have a better idea of what to do with it.

I like to visualize things before bed, so a lot of the time, I will use that visualization for a different project as my way to calm down, but I'm not devoting too much attention to it before I'm ready to work. I've got some scenes and images that I have daydreamed about, but I haven't drawn attention away from my current WIP by actually beginning to write.

This way, I can devote all of my brainpower to my current project while reserving a little bit of attention and aspiration for the next one. I also avoid writer's block because I have my next WIP lined up, waiting for me, and I can transition to it almost immediately.

Generally, I don't go more than a few days without starting a new project (after completing one!!!!!) because I am prepared for it: I can give it my full attention. There's no sitting around and waiting for inspiration.

"But I have so much inspiration for this project and want to start right away!"

Something I am learning as a writer is delayed gratification. I am an impulsive person and I want to jump into things right away, but then I get disappointed with the results. For example, I released 9 Years Yearning before commissioning a really good cover. I regret that and I'm going to learn from that mistake with the next book in The Eirenic Verses.

By waiting, you get a better payoff.

I've got four different projects waiting to be released and one waiting for serious revisions. They are all finished, but they're not polished. It would be very easy for me to spend a few hours formatting them and then just throw them up, but I won't get the best payoff then.

Instead, I'll wait for a break between projects before turning back to them and fixing them up, giving them all my attention. Yes, it means I don't release a billion books a year, but it also means I release my best work.

Writing is not a sprint; it's a marathon. It's okay to give your projects a break.

By letting my stories rest, sometimes for entire months, I can come back to them with fresh eyes and make sure they're perfect. The same is true of your WIPs. Let them sit and marinate for a while.

How to avoid having a billion WIPs:

Make a list of future WIPs. Put it in one document. Add things as you think about them.

Put this list of WIPs away and ignore it.

Allow yourself to get some writer's block if you're struggling with your current project. Writer's block is okay sometimes. Don't use writer's block as permission to start something else.

Put reminders up that tell you not to start things. I like the phrase "bird by bird" which I got from the eponymous book by Anne Lamott (which is really good writing advice).

Read up on task switching and the myth of multitasking to show why having a million WIPs doesn't work.

Interrogate yourself. When you have a bunch of WIPs, do you actually get any of them done? Be realistic and ruthless with yourself.

Look back at how many WIPs you have in storage. Identify your WIP completion rate. It's probably lower than you think.

Read about the writing habits of other writers. You'll find most successful writers do not have a ton of different projects at once. They also go one at a time.

"No I'm going to write a million WIPs anyway! You don't know me!"

Okay, then go for it. You're not obligated to take my advice. I can only tell you that the science - and my personal experience - says that's not a good idea.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter to me if you continue to stop and start a gazillion different projects and get none of them done. That's your problem, not mine.

But I'd rather you be able to finish something you're proud of, because then you're growing as a writer, and I always encourage personal growth.

It honestly makes me sad when people go "teehee I have soooo many WIPs and I just started another one hehehe!" because I know, without a doubt, that almost none of them will see the light of day.

You deserve better than a bunch of unfinished projects. You can achieve more than that. Put down the WIP list, focus on your current story, and go for it.

[harrysmimi]

Hey! I absolutely love all your work. And live to see the Desi representation in some of your work. I was wondering if you could do one where everytime H goes out on stage or interviews all dolled up, the reader does the kajal thing for the bad nazar. I just think H would be like soo bashful and cute about it. Love you.

Evil Eye

First off, thanks anon for sending in the req. I love writing fic where I can imagine myself in. I am glad you like my work. Ilysm. Hope you like this one too. I wrote it real quick in like an hour. Pls ignore the typos if there are any, or simply feel free to point them out I'll edit it. Hehe.

More of my work

Harry was getting ready to perform for BRIT Awards.

He was home. He was with family and the love of his life, about to perform one of his hits. This was going to be one of the happiest nights of his life, he could already tell.

It was time for quick outfit change before he went on stage. His girlfriend of six months was hanging out in his green room with him as he got ready, she was on her laptop working away at a couple of urgent emails she had to send out.

It was her day off, but she's been recently promoted as senior manager at her firm and they need her there more often than it seems to be. Harry was more than content with just her presence by his side. He'd gotten into a pair of black pants before his hair stylist was on board. He'd tried on the few different tops to go with it, his last try was a red sparkly piece.

"You look handsome!" He heard his girlfriend chirp from behind him, when he turned around he saw her looking at him like a love struck puppy behind her glasses, her face lit blue from her laptop screen in the yellow lit room. She was sat on the rug using the coffee table as her desk.

"Thank you baby!" He couldn't help but blush at the compliment he for sure hears a million times when he's working. It somehow felt so special coming from her. She just shrugged in reply. "Did you get a good news from work?"

"Yeah, I got the on-paper for my promotion finally!" She shared.

"That's amazing, darling, congratulations!" He was immediately walking upto her with open arms to engulf her in a bone crushing hug and a tender kiss she deserves so much. "It's more legit now, innit?"

"Yeah! It feels so surreal to be honest!" She chuckled in pure joy. "Enough about me, tonight is for you and about you. Are you excited?"

"More than excited actually." He dat down next to her on the rug. "Can't wait to go out there and perform already!"

"I can see." YN commented, "this jacket looks good on you." She leaned forward with her lips puckered asking for a kiss, which Harry was more than glad enough to give her. He took the opportunity to pull her over his lap, making her straddle his thighs with his hands on her bum.

"Though it would look better on your bedroom floor, along with this hoodie, I think we have a good half an hour before the show." Harry managed to mumble between his kisses on her mouth.

"No, not here!"

"No one's gonna come in, I promise." He urged her, hands slipping under the her (his) hoodie over her bare skin.

"Stop it tickles!" She squirmed under his touch. "No, no, Harry not here please."

He let out a dramatic sigh, "fine!"

"But if you loose the shirt underneath, I might be able to trick my aunty thinking I am staying with a girl friend tonight." She challenged him.

"Then you better get to convincing her, love!" He already took off the jacket so he can rip off the tank top he wore underneath it, being his usual dramatic self.

It is indeed a difficult task to convince YN's landlady, who also happens to be her aunty for letting her stay out. She lives away from her family in London, but she's got her aunty a parent figure in the city, which comes with perks of not paying rent but also cons like still following a curfew, typical brown family behaviour. But none the less YN have managed to trick her aunty into thinking she's staying at one of her friend's house, when in reality she is at Harry's.

Her family knows about Harry, they are very accepting of him. Though her parents won't be happy if they find out their daughter spent a night at his place for obvious reasons.

He was tackling her on the rug now as he tickled her more. They spent their time goofing around and poking fun at one another. In no time Harry was ready to be on the stage.

"A lot of people are going to watch you today." YN pointed on trying her best to make her boyfriend keep his hands to himself for now.

"Mhmm." He sounded stealing a kiss from her. He watched her wipe the kohl from the corner of her eye and placed it behind his left ear, "what was that for?"

"To protect you from evil eye tonight." She shared, "you're looking extra, extra, extra gorgeous!"

"I didn't know you were superstitious." His cheeks turned red in an instant.

"Look at you blushing!" YN cooed at his reaction which had him burying his face into her neck to hide his bashful face. "Awe! Harry you're so cute, I love you!"

"I love you." He repeated.

"Now go and sing your heart out." She encouraged him.

"Mhmm." He nodded placing yet another kiss on her mouth before he was off to the stage just in time.

The night was memorable as expected. Harry got wasted like usual. His sister had to take him to her place as he shouldn't be left alone when he's drunk.

......................................................................

N O T E:

This is smth quick I wrote cuz I haven't posted anything sunce August. 😭 pls forgive me.

I love you. And pls lemme know how you liked it!

......................................................................

Tag list:

@vrittivsanghavi @buckymydarlingangel @walkingintheheartbreaksatellite @sleutherclaw @melllinaa @michellekstyles @sunshinemoonsposts @marialikescherries @onlyangelrain @supersanelyromantic @haarrrys @originalsoulcollector @lomlhstyles @im-an-overthinker @tenaciousperfectionunknown @stilesissaved @allthelovehes @sunshinemoonsposts @harryssky1 @sofia-faustina @stylesfever @reputationolivia @kittenhere

Lemme know if you want to added to the tag list

[talenlee]

4e: Spooky Heritages

Sometimes when you’re considering a way to make a character, the kind of thing you might need for say, a Halloween season short campaign designed to give everyone an excuse to sit around, tell a story, throw some dice and fight some things, you’re looking for a way to bring in something spooky. Something that isn’t going to show up in the normal births registry, something that’s going to obviously set the tone of a situation apart from the conventional Dwarf-Elf-Human-Yawn collection that’s been tumbling down the narrative staircase since Tolkein first middled the earths.

What if you want to play a monster?

I did an article on making Horror campaign characters a few years ago. Here’s a revisit to the concept space!

Art Source

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

The Shade

You ever have that thing where you have like, a junky toy, and then one day you get a brand new version of the same toy, or the second version and you forget you ever owned the original one? The Shade is a dead human, back from the dead, that sacrificed its vitality to become part of the Shadowfell, which 3e longtooths will recognise as the Negative Energy Plane. Basically, a Shade is a Human full of spooky juice, and their reward for being a living undead is, uh,

Garbage.

The Shade gives up a healing surge and in exchange gets training in stealth, access to a pool of (bad) utility powers, and an at-will power that lets you set up hiding, which sounds like maybe it’d have some use then you find out it’s a standard action, meaning that odds are good you’ll not be able to use that stealth. Going into hiding every other turn means, functionally, whatever you’re using that stealth for is cut in half, and there are just better ways to try and make sure you can hide.

It’s a shame, too, because at its heart, what Shade feels like it should be, it doesn’t really have the means to deliver on. A shade feels like it should be insubstantial in some way, ethereal, at least based on the name. There should be something missing in the Shade, but in the case of this player option, the thing that’s missing is ‘a good reason to use it.’

Still, it’s a place to start. The vibes are a thing you can poach and put onto a different mechanical package. There’s even an example of this whole suite being outmoded in this very article! Oh no, not the next one, the next one is about scary frog people.

Art Source

The Bullywug

I’m a firm believer that in any arrangement of three, you do need to have one complete carry. It’s easy to list trios of things that can be spooky in 4th edition D&D, limiting yourself to the ‘good’ stuff that stands out. But there’s something to be said for reaching into the genuinely monstrous when that requires looking at something that pretty unequivocally sucks.

The Bullywug is a heritage that needs a rework, but seems unlikely to get one because nobody cares. The actual base heritage is from the Monster Manual rather than any kind of other sourcebook, and that means it was designed to not just be less appealing than the Player’s Handbook heritages, but also never supported thereafter because nobody cares.

The Bullywug has an ability that diminishes the ability of others to use healing surges around the Bullywug character. This sucks not because it affects your allies (who use healing surges) but instead because it doesn’t really affect your enemies (who don’t). Essentially, the Bullywug is a creature that wants to deliver on the fantasy of being a scary river monster toad beast, but also doesn’t give you any good reason to play it.

Which is a shame! It’s a shame because this is an otherwise unattended place for player heritages! If you’re running 4th edition D&D, and want to make sure people have good creepy/horror options, consider giving the Bullywug a look and goosing it. I’d particularly recommend adding some variety of swim speed, and really, the aura could be something as blanket as a -2 penalty to saving throws, and while that represents a unique form of a player character option, it isn’t something that works to do anything amazing on its own.

Nonetheless, you can have a big wide mouth and terrifying tongue so you can sing appropriately horrifyingly it’s beginning to look a lot like fish-men…

Revenant

Art Source

The Revenant is something of a cadillac in the heritage options for 4th edition spooksters, in that it is both a good flavour and a good mechanical package that delivers on that flavour. It’s pretty nice when you get that lineup and don’t have to deal with a good mechanical package whose flavour sucks (the Dwarf), or a heritage whose flavour rules but the mechanics are a complete crater (really, the Hengeyokai is our biggest offender here).

In the case of the Revenant, you are a dead person. Back from the dead to avenge yourself, or someone else, Crow style. The way this works is a sort of mechanical layering; the Revenant chooses what heritage they were when they were alive, and then they get the Revenant baseline but can use feats and other options from that former heritage. They can even pick up the heritage powers of that heritage, with feats, which is especially cool as an obvious ‘oh well yeah’ kind of choice.

The Revenant adds Living Undead to their types, they get a nice utility power (Dark Reaping isn’t amazing but it is useful for every archetype), and then something truly ‘weird’ in that they can still act while ‘dying’ through the power Unnatural Vitality. This power seems really amazing in its context – being able to do half-actions while ‘dying’ is pretty cool! – it has to run headlong into the problem of how rarely people spend much time dying compared to being alive. The niche application of it (setting aside funny build options involving drowning yourself), are such that you get to play your Revenant in a very cool, spooky way, knowing that you have the backup of Not Immediately Dying, but it’s also not likely to come up in any situation where it isn’t a reasonably fair thing.

Thing is, even if it only comes up once, the point where a baddie hits you, drops you to 0 hp, and you don’t die, and then continue fighting for three more rounds, and if you save you can keep going, and then if you crit suddenly you’re back in the fight while people around you go: Wait, didn’t we kill you, what the hell is happening here?

… that’s going to last.

That’s going to be a good, spooky memory.

Conclusion

There are more options, more places to go. Don’t be surprised if next year we’re doing this again, as we steadily work through every heritage and slowly but steadily presenting ways to be a Horror Character using each one.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[dreamii-krybaby]

Murder Drones theory: Cyn wanted Yeva dead from the get-go after she interfered with her original plan (Girlboss moment from Yeva’s part tbh)

Wait- if it’s safe to assume Cyn was the Disasembly Drone’s admin when V decide to kill off Doll’s parents

What if V didn’t kill them off 100% out of free will?

What if, she was influenced by Cyn and actually under her control!?!? We have seen Cyn control other drones before in EP5 and attempting to regain control of N in EP7

And if we assume it was Cyn who was possesing Nori in the past, she knew Yeva, she knew the drone who fucked up her plans and slowed them down by a ton, by shoving the patch into Nori

What if- Cyn took the opportunity to kill Yeva, and probably her family for safety measure and out of pettiness by influencing V or taking control over her

Yeva, if alive, could have once again attempt to slow the solver’s/Cyn’s plans, she was one of the few with the patch successfully installed and was one of the few to slow down their plans IN SECONDS

Or maybe am delulu and V simply killed Doll’s parents bc she was hungry lol

Tho if we assume V killed them meanwhile V didn’t recover much of her memories she could still have killed drones bc she was simply following directives or didn’t want to get fucked up Cyn/The solver again

Alsoooo, yes the “X” or “XD” face that the Disassembly Drones do are mostly used whenever they go “hi, I want your oil, prepare to die” mode buuut. In EP5 when Cyn controls the other drones they ALSO have the “X” on their face.

And guess who also has an “XD” face while it was under the control of Cyn/The solver in EP5?

That’s right fuckers, V

The only thing that tears this entire idea apart is V’s comments when she sees the corpse’s of the deceased couple

“They didn’t even taste that good”

Which means V has SOME recollection when she killed them off, and wouldn’t make sense for her to remember if she was under control

Edit: I just recalled that Doll showed a flashback of V killing her parents to V in EP3, which explains how V recalled their awful taste.

Guess what

V already has shown to remember things that Cyn wanted her to forget or has attempted to alter

V in comparison to N and J probably has most recollection on what has happened back on earth

in EP3, she is shown to know wayyy more than N does, this gets reiterated in EP4

So if V was able to not be 100% be affected by local digital lobotomization (memory wise, bc personality wise she was 100% lobotomize)

What doesn’t stop her from casually remembering the awful taste of 2 random workers she killed off while being influenced by the local anti-christ or Eldritch god?

Or maybe am fucking insane, who knows?

Edit: Or idk Cyn just took a seat back and hoped one of the Disassembly Drones would kill Yeva.

But is still funny to think Cyn rlly went:

Cyn: Oh? You slowed down my plans and got rid of my control over my new host?

Cyn: how about I end your entire life including your family’s? :D

Yeva: Wait WHA-

And tbh we should start entertaining the idea that Cyn has developed some beef with Yeva and with her family out of pettiness lol

Like- its so funny to think about the literal anti-christ who is probably a teenager in present time having beef with a silent, russian, tetris obsessed woman who fucked up her plans after showing up for 2 seconds

Like, Yeva needs more credit for the fact she slowed the Solver’s/Cyn’s plans by half! Sure, she didn’t stop it and unfortunately caused a bunch of domino effects led to more suffering down the line. But if she didn’t interfere, Copper-9 would have fully gotten destroyed ages ago! And like- nobody would have fucking survived if Cyn or the solver was left running around in Nori’s body- would the show even have existed?!?!?

And the fact she chose to chop Nori’s arm instead of killing her :(

(Unlike V who tried to kill Uzi)

Honestly that is such a girlboss move from Yeva

✨queen moment✨

[steddieas-shegoes]

Request: THIS IDEA JUST SPARKED HOLY SHIT?? OK have you ever watched Hot Ones with Sean Evens (first we feast is the youtube channel) so basically that but Steve is the one being interviewed but he LOVES spicy food??(watch the episode with Florence Pugh i LOVE it but basically I want it to be kinda like that) just yeah that. Jxjxnxnx please and thank you

MY LOVE ❤️ I admit, most of what I watch of really anything is either highlights on Tik Tok or short clips my friends send me because I am out of touch with the cool kids. But Hot Ones is SO GOOD. The Lewis Capaldi episode (I do love him anyways) had me actually almost pee my pants laughing. I hope you love this fun (short, sorry) thing for this! - Mickala ❤️

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

“I just don’t know why you got Hot Ones. They could have had the whole band on there making idiots of themselves,” Eddie pouted.

He’d been pouting for two days now.

In fact, his entire band was from the moment Steve called him on tour to let him know that he would be doing the Hot Ones interview next week.

“I told you, they had a last minute cancellation and my schedule just worked. Maybe you’ll get next season,” Steve said over the phone as the oven timer went off to let him know his brownies were done cooking.

“Whatcha makin’ Stevie?” Eddie’s curiosity was adorable.

He was in London, just got off stage from their last show in Europe. Steve was in their home in LA, having the last lazy day in before his awards season started.

“If I tell you, you’ll be sad you’re missing it.”

“Tell us! Tell us!” Gareth said from much closer than Steve would have expected.

“Hi Gare Bear. No personal space tonight?”

Eddie laughed as Steve pulled the brownies out of the oven and shut it off.

“He said personal space is for people who don’t like each other and he likes me very much,” Steve could hear Eddie’s eye roll in his voice. “A shame because I can’t stand him.”

“Play nice boys. You’ll be home in less than 24 hours,” Steve reminded them.

Gareth lived a mile up the road from them with his boyfriend and their excessive amount of cats.

Excessive being four.

Steve was allergic, so any amount of cats seemed excessive to him.

But Steve and Gareth were close, had been since even before Eddie and Steve started dating.

He was Steve’s best man in their wedding, much to Dustin’s bafflement. He only didn’t argue because Eddie softened the blow by asking him to be his own best man.

Usually if baked goods or a home cooked meal were involved, Gareth would show up at their door ready to partake.

“You’ll be home when I get there?”

“Yep. Cleared my whole day just for you, baby.”

“Good. Miss you.

“Miss you too. You heading to bed?” Steve poked at the brownies, making sure they were cooked.

“Yeah, I’m beat.” Eddie yawned to emphasize how exhausted he was. “Did your manager tell them you love spicy foods or are you just gonna let them assume you’re a wimp?”

“Nah. It’ll be fun.”

—-------------------

When he arrives on the set of Hot Ones, Sean greets him with a smile and a handshake.

Eddie wasn’t able to come with him, but Robin had promised to record the whole thing just for them.

She watched from the side next to his manager, Nancy, and his bodyguard, Hopper.

They settled at the table, got mic’d up, makeup touched up, and Sean reminded him that if he absolutely had to tap out, they could stop recording and edit everything accordingly to make it look like he made it through the challenge.

Steve wasn’t worried.

The first three wings didn’t even have a kick. It was just a casual conversation between friends.

He talked about his work with a theater group for kids in New York City, as well as his work on an indie film that was coming out in the fall.

The fourth and fifth wings had a pinch of spice to them, but nothing to make even bat an eye.

Sean continued asking questions, Steve continued answering them.

On the seventh wing, Steve was barely distracted from the question: “What project of yours are you most looking forward to doing next?”

“I think I’ll be most excited to take some time off with my husband, working on starting the family we’ve wanted for a while. He’s been on tour for most of the last year, and we agreed it was a good time to figure out what we wanna do,” Steve said as he took another bite.

He could feel the burn of this one at least, felt the sting on his lips and tongue.

But it was very manageable, and the jalapeno flavor was almost refreshing. It tasted fresh.

“Okay, I have to ask: did you practice these beforehand?”

Steve snorted.

“No. I’m just not very sensitive to spicy foods. I usually keep a lot of hot sauces in my house. Poor Eddie’s learned how to tolerate spice because of it,” Steve said as they brought out the eighth wing.

“I’ve never had anyone so calm at this point. I’m starting to think even the hottest one won’t really bother you!”

“I guess we’ll see!”

The ninth wing was hot. He wouldn’t try to deny it.

“It does have a lovely watermelon flavor to it, very fruity and tangy on top of the spice. I like it,” Steve smiled.

He knew his face was getting a bit red from this one, and he reached for the water, but only had to take a couple of small sips before he was ready to keep going.

“Alright, for this one, we’ll ask a question for you to answer before and then we’ll have one for right after. You ready?”

“Bring it on!”

And it definitely did.

It was hot, and he could feel tears in his eyes, and sweat breaking out across his forehead.

“Finally, we have a reaction!” Sean exclaimed.

“This one’s definitely a lot more than the others,” Steve added, reaching for the milk.

He could tell Robin and Nancy were laughing, probably very much enjoying any amount of pain he managed to have when he went into this so sure that none of them would get to him.

“Final question: Would you ever consider retiring to follow Eddie on tour with your future family?”

Steve nodded once, taking another sip of the milk.

God, this one was hot.

“Uh, yep. I mean, retiring is a strong word. I would definitely take a long break. I’ve always wanted a family,” he stopped to take another sip and a bite of the celery. “I’ve wanted to be a dad for as long as I can remember. And I know Eddie wants that, but he also doesn’t wanna stop making music, and the rest of his band isn’t ready to take a break like that. I know it would be easy for me, so my plan would be to take at least a few years off.”

“Doing alright over there?”

Steve laughed, fanning his face.

“I’m okay. That just went from a kick to a beatdown pretty quick.”

“Well, you’re a pro at making it look easy. You deserve an Oscar for this performance!”

It was a ridiculous sentiment, but funny, and Steve was up for an Oscar this year.

He finished the glass of milk and shook Sean’s hand, thanking him for having him.

“Eddie is already in tears watching Sean watch you in disbelief,” Robin started as soon as he joined them again.

“What was all that at the end?” Nancy asked, arms crossed, face furious.

He usually had free reign in interviews, but he knew Nancy would tell him not to mention anything even slightly related to retirement.

His career had really only just taken off a couple years earlier, and talking about a break or retiring now would immediately cut his chances of good roles in half.

“Just the truth, Nance. You know Eddie and I wanna start a family,” he said as they started walking through the backstage area to leave.

“I just didn’t know that meant taking a break. I thought you’d just take turns with stuff or hire a nanny.”

Steve knew that worked for a lot of couples, but they both were too family-focused for that. They didn’t want a nanny raising their kids.

“Why are you freaking out?”

“I’m not! I just would’ve liked a heads up.”

Robin stared between them, eyes bouncing back and forth like it was a tennis match.

“I don’t have to tell you every single detail of my life. You know all that’s relevant right now.”

Nancy sighed, but nodded, turning away and typing furiously on her phone.

His phone rang seconds later.

“Sweetheart, let me just say: it is so sexy how you handle those hot sauces,” Eddie’s teasing voice was enough to get him back into a happy mood.

“Your standards for sexy are so low,” Steve said as he walked to the corner to get as much privacy as possible.

“No, it’s just that everything you do is sexy.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“But I’m yours.”

“And I’m yours.”

“Steve!” Sean’s voice came from behind him, large smile lighting up his face. “Sorry to bother you, but would Eddie and the guys like to come on the show as our bonus episode this season?”

Eddie was screaming yes through the phone, much to their amusement.

“So…yes?” Sean asked.

“Yes!” Eddie yelled.

Sean walked away to update the producer while Steve kept talking to Eddie.

“See? Now you’ll get your show, too.”

“Yeah, yeah.”