#I could probably have found a stock photo of this online and used it I don't know why I drew this actually

[wilde-foxgloves]

far from grand art but I haven't made anything I wanted to put here for a bit and I thought this kind of slapped for a second or so's sketch that I did for a bit so here's this. kind of the mood

[powerfultenderness]

something similar happened to me so i had to send an ask LOL könig receiving readers mail.... he'd just knock and give it back to her asap, but he notices she ordered lingerie 🤭🤭

Parcel

Rated: Mature Word count: 744 Notes: Let's take it back to earlier in their friendship :)

König grabbed the package sitting in front of his door before he made his way inside. He wasn’t expecting his order to come in so soon! He flipped open one of his pocket knives and was half way through one of the taped sides when he froze.

Oh no. This wasn’t his mail at all! He spotted your name and address on the shipping label instead of the alias he used for online orders. 

Shit. Good thing he noticed before he opened it all the way. He really didn’t want you to think he was snooping through your mail. Because he wasn’t! It was an accident! 

He shook his head, you weren’t even here and he was already trying to defend himself. Calm down. 

He checked his phone next, you should be home, he thought. Usually you slept in on Saturdays. 

And before he even realized it, he was typing in the company name into a search browser. He figured you ordered something for your new flat and hoped it was something he could help with. 

Turns out LuvMe was not home decor! 

König’s face burned as he looked at the page full of women barely covered in sheer fabric and pretty lace and ribbons. 

He nearly just…opened up your lingerie (and god, could he help with that!)

He was about to close the tab, when the image on the screen flashed and a model who was similarly built to you appeared in a sheer flowery set. His hands acted on their own as he clicked the image and soon he was looking through the product previews, more accurately, he was looking at the women modeling the products, until he found one that looked enough like you that he could picture you as the scantily clad woman in the photo. 

You were so pretty, would be so pretty with cute little flowers swirling around the soft plush of your breasts, with black sheer mesh and red silk against your skin. 

He swiped to the next picture and was suddenly imagining you with a garter of blue satin ribbon holding up lacy stockings. Would you wear this under his favorite dress that you wore, with the tiny piece of fabric and lace that could barely be counted as underwear? 

It’s only when he absentmindedly brings his free hand down to his crotch to adjust himself that he stops his overactive imagination. Quickly, as if someone might catch him looking at lingerie models, he closed the tab and dropped his phone face down on the counter. 

He sighed and looked at the box sitting innocently on his counter. Obviously he had to return it to you, he just hoped he could act normal and not like a weirdo pervert that would scare you away. 

Don’t be weird. Don’t be weird. 

Even as he nervously knocked on your door, he realized it wasn’t that he was being weird. He was being dumb. He could have just dropped the package right in front of your door and left. Instead-

You opened the door as he was mid thought, “hey, König, what’s up?” 

He awkwardly thrusted the package towards you, “this was delivered to me by mistake.” 

“Oh, thanks!” 

König panicked when he saw you inspect the parcel as you took it from him (you weren’t really inspecting it). “I-I almost opened it. But I didn’t! Just one side!” 

“Huh?” You looked down at the box and sure the tape was partially cut through on one side. “Oh. That’s not a big deal. At least you noticed!” 

HIs heart started to race when you smiled so sweetly up at him. Oh he noticed alright. 

“I don’t know!” 

“What?” 

“What’s inside. I have to go!” 

“O…kay?” You blinked as König turned and took a few giant steps to retreat back to his flat. “See you later?” You tried, raising your voice.

He stopped at his door and waved at you, you think he nodded his head but he may have just been ducking through the door. 

König sighed as he closed and locked the door behind him. Great. That went real smooth. You probably thought he was a weird pervert now. 

-

You didn’t even notice as you opened the package that the company name and logo were printed on the top. König’s weird behavior is completely forgotten as you put your new set of basic underwear (that sale was too good of a deal to pass up!) in the wash. 

[Neighbor!König Masterlist]

Neighbor König taglist: 

@warrior-of-justice  @cumikering @ihateuguys @rand0m--fangirl @keiva1000 @dtftheavengers @takeyour-pants-off @aeeliy @milenko115 @sodonuthideout @onegami @nadiauddincrafts @nadiauddincrafts @grizzersmamma @flooftoof @techs-ass @virginalsacrifice @s0rc3r3r @sleeplessskeleton @introvered-violinist @tizylish @romula96 @peach-habibitch @mitchlow @queenotaku27 @fenixnegras @emmbny @love-dove-noora @lesbianmitsuri @supergirl16 @wybwtjmiadz @ghonigsloverbabe @thatmusedhatter @grassclippers @skystreamchan @lordlydragon @luvecarson @thetestsubject666 @mafer383 @darkangel4121 @puppylikethedog  

[ask-the-meteor-crew]

FAQ Behind The Curtain

How do you draw so fast?

I'm currently double majoring in Animation and Creative Writing. I'm built different and also just, not trying very hard on most of these drawings. Drawing fast is kind of the backbone of animation and I've noticed coloring everything makes most people assume whatever line quality or level of finish on the outlines is a stylistic choice rather than laziness. What program do you use? I used Clip Studio Paint until about #021 when I picked up after haitus and used Procreate out of comfort and convenience. Do you use stock backgrounds or make them as you go? Every time I decide a scene needs a new background I draw it out in it's entirety and save it to my collection of backgrounds to use. So yeah, I'm not redrawing the background every single time it appears, I'm basically building out the meteor one room at a time in hopes of one day not having to draw backgrounds anymore. Where do you get the space photos? NASA's Hubble Space Telescope team has politely made all of the telescopes published photographs public domain, I imagine as a service to the planet as the intersection between photographers and people able to go that far into space is understandably zero. Font/Handwriting questions I stopped handwriting for most panels as I realized my best handwriting is all caps and it would be a shame if Karkat was the only character anyone could understand. I still use handwritten text for "special speech" which is whispers, and shouting, anything that's supposed to feel or sound radically different from the rest of the yapping. It did take me a while to settle on a font, I found a really good one for Dave that didn't have apostrophes and gave everyone else a typewriter font for a while, until I found the alternate version of the font I used for Dave that had all the special grammar symbols and numbers I could ever need. It's called the Atari font in the actual file but I have no idea if Atari ever actually used this version of it. Does the ask box ever close? When will my question be answered? It doesn't close and I have more questions than I'll probably ever answer. Some are confused about canon, others have had the core idea of their question asked multiple times already and I just didn't feel like collecting them all as screen shots. And some I just don't have answers for. Some get deleted because I don't like the tone, don't get the joke or found a typo particularly difficult to parse. No biggie. Questions will be answered if and when I feel like drawing a comic for it. Some questions are a better starting point for a comic than others, don't take it personally. Can the characters still talk to John and Jade? Can they run into them in the dream bubbles? According to canon, no. According to this blog, also no. Do you take magic anons? No. While I've gotten flimsy on the vlog framing device in order to make a more entertaining comic overall, the truth still remains that anything beyond messages in a digital inbox from some far off unspecified rift in paradox space would have some pretty immersion breaking implications on the setting overall. I know I answered a question offering Dave some clothes but the clothes were not given to him, I used it more as a prompt for him to take the clothes he already had out of the dryer. Is this blog safe for minors? This blog contains canon typical violence and themes, however when it comes to sexual content (the one thing minors absolutely CANNOT legally interact with) this blog is rated T for teen. Think like The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. Sex can be implied and a frequent topic of conversation but never occurs on screen. Ultimately it's up to you and maybe your parents to decide if you can handle the blogs contents as you are responsible for curating your own online experience. TLDR if you're old enough to be on tumblr you should be fine.

How do I address the author?

My name is Sky, she/her pronouns exclusively. Please don’t try to hold conversations via the ask box. Just DM me.

Where do I send questions and comments for the author?

@meteor-crew-after-dark

[spacelazarwolf]

tldr scroll down to see my new plants.

this is a departure from my usual posts, it's a bit more like hybrid blog/diary entry, idk, but here u go.

for those of y'all who don't know, one of my hobbies is plants. i like to collect them propagate them, trade them, etc. and my favorite type of plant is aroids, particularly philodendrons. it was a very difficult hobby to maintain after the plant boom during lockdown caused plant prices to skyrocket, so for the past year or two i haven't relaly been buying that many new plants, and when i have it's just been from garden centers or local nurseries.

yesterday, however, i went to an aroid show where there was a vendor from south america who had brought a bunch of specimens people could purchase. they're a family owned business that focuses on protection and preservation of biodiversity and native plant species, and all their plants are ethically sourced, usually grown in their own greenhouses from propagations instead of taking them from their natural habitat and selling them. so obviously i had to check them out.

but this is where i sort of pause while writing this post, because i get really nervous talking about spending money, especially on here. i've frequently asked for help when i needed assistance getting my account out of the red or paying late rent, so part of me feels like it would be insulting to post about things i spend money on that aren't the essentials. but my plants make me happy. they give me something to take care of. they brighten up my apartment. they give me something to be excited about. so i'm just gonna tell you about my new plants.

about a month ago when i left my old church job, they gave me a gift card that the choir had pitched in for. i couldn't get cash out, use it for rent, or transfer it to my bank account, so i decided it would be my hobby fund. when i found out about the aroid show, i set aside a portion of that fund for plants because i knew that the specimens at the show would be significantly less expensive than anything i could find online or in local shops, and it might be one of the only chances i would ever have to actually buy some of my wishlist plants.

this is a philodendron esmeraldense. this is what they look like when the leaves get bigger and more mature. this is one i hadn't seen before so it wasn't on my wishlist, but when i was checking the vendors' stock last week i loved how it looked. i'm gonna put it on a moss pole and let it climb. the leaves probably won't ever get as big as the one in the linked photo, but i'm still excited to watch it grow.

this is a terrible picture but this is a philodendron patriciae. they get super long. this one’s putting out like two new leaves. it’s also a climber. the ripples in the leaves get more intense as it matures, so paired with the very long leaves it looks so cool. i can't wait to grow this one bigger.

philodendron pastazanum. it’s a crawler so i’ll be getting a window box to put it in so it has space to grow across the substrate. this has been on my list for a while but i couldn’t find it anywhere. the big heart leaves are just gorgeous.

this is a philodendron melanochrysum. the leaves can get huge. technically i already have a smaller one, but this one was just so gorgeous. i will probably end up planting them together on one moss pole. it’s one of my favorite plants, i am a sucker for velvety leaves. you can see one of the older leaves is getting ready to drop, and i think i'm going to try to make a project out of it.

philodendron tortum. it feels like the kind of plant that would have been growing while the dinos were around. it's very reminiscent of a fern, but it is also a climber. i had one like two years ago but i had to sell it to pay some bills, so i'm happy to have it back in my collection.

the one in the center. anthurium veitchii, or king anthurium. this one was kind of an impulse buy. i don’t usually do anthurium but it was cheap and looked incredibly cool. they look even cooler when they get mature.

what is a king without his queen. anthurium warocqueanum, or queen anthurium. i wasn't sure if i wanted to tackle this one bc it's notoriously hard to take care of, but it was very cheap so i took the plunge. these also get super long, and the velvety shiny leaves are so pretty.

monstera obliqua peru. this was a unicorn plant. it is difficult to find in the wild, grows slowly, and is hard to propagate, so it was mostly just passed from collector to collector until the plant boom during covid. nodes of this plant, literally just bits of stem you would cross your fingers and hope would root and grow leaves, were going for a thousand dollars and a single leaf up to three thousand dollars a year or two ago. and now i have a very full plant for only forty bucks. 2020 me is screaming. this specimen looks a little squished from the trek from south america to the midwest, but when it acclimates to its new environment, it's going to look so cool. this is another plant that has dino vibes.

and finally the grand finale. philodendron spiritus sancti. i honestly can't believe i'm typing this. this plant is considered to be one of the rarest philodendrons in the world - if not the rarest. it only grows in one place, and there are reportedly only 10 known plants left in the wild because of a combination of poaching and the excessive clearing of their habitat. it was another one that pretty much only existed in high level (wealthy) collections for a very long time. now, more specimens of this plant exist in private collections than in the wild, which makes ownership of this plant very emotional for me. this is a plant that was going for upwards of $14k for large specimens at the height of the plant boom. people were scrambling to get their hands on that one plant that no one could get, the highest prize, a bragging point. no one cared if they were getting it ethically. someone even stole a cutting from a botanical garden just to sell it.

this plant was not on my wishlist because i never thought i would even get to see in person, let alone hold, let alone own. and yet yesterday i picked it up, held it in my hands, saw the two digit price tag, and decided yeah. i think it's only fair that the money a bunch of presbyterians gave me should go to adding a plant called a "spiritus sancti" to my jewish plant collection.

it still doesn't feel real. i can just look over at my plant cabinet, and there it is. a spiritus sancti. bc for me it was never about having a big name plant in my collection. it was never about bragging or showing off or just checking names off a list of things i was supposed to want if i was into houseplants. this plant still exists because botanists and aroid enthusiasts have worked tirelessly to conserve it. and having this little piece of history and the world in my little plant cabinet feels more like a responsibility to me than a prize.

so yeah. those are my new plants. i'm excited to see them grow and still a little starstruck that i was even able to bring home the last two.

[hacked-by-jake]

Hello i found this on Facebook and i want to share it with you ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/415087486409380/permalink/872688047315986/?mibextid=Nif5oz) this is the Link of the post

Do you think it just Coincidence that everbyte use this photos?

Hey Ho :)

Yes, I think it’s just a coincidence, as already mentioned, Everbyte uses stock photos for most things. All images, including these two, are purchased images from the Internet. Anyone can buy these pictures there, it’s for videos, websites or book covers as we can see. And as mentioned before, Duskwood is quite a cliché (I love it) but what I mean is that many stories have similarities to Duskwood. Or sound very similar. I often have such moment where I'm like: DUSKWOOD? xD

Furthermore, 'last chance by kate bold' was released in November 2022, when the sequel’s website was already online. Which is why this at least has nothing to do with the sequel.

'The Visitor' was released in 2020. So it can be that someone from Everbyte has read this book, but I think that it is just a coincidence and both authors have simply also used stock photos.

As another example (I have already posted this but now just to clarify it a bit more)

If you google this photo you will get a lot of advertising for flashlights, the sellers seem to love this image. xD Also you get an entry displayed in which is spoken about the Bible. ^^

So what I want to say, what I have already said I repeat myself constantly, I’m sorry, heh; I think it’s just a coincidence and the pictures were bought and used by stock photo websites. Nevertheless, I thank you for sharing and for asking. <3 I had honestly hoped it could really have something to do with it :D

I am always amazed how much the community finds out, we are real detectives. 🤭

Even if it’s probably independent of the sequel, both stories sound exciting, so maybe someone will read a little. Hope you will have a wonderful day. <3

[coffee-in-veins]

Hey coffee! Hope you don't mind that I continue the ask game from a bit ago!

5 11 (drop a playlist if you want!) 14 and 24 (more like, where do you get your references) and 30!!

Have a good day <3!

hullo hullo o/

thank you for the ask! and don't worry, you can ask anything and even from very old asks if you wanna ^^ if i can answer, i will.

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

lately i'm posting almost everything i have that i feel "finished" online because it makes dopamine and i could really use that. if we're talking art, i think all the art i've got is posted online. if we're talking texts... well. most? some i have but again, few people are interested in them compared to art, so i post them more rarely.

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

oh yeah! when i write, i have a huge playlist of postrock:

when i draw - whell, it depends, i have Witcher 3 OST, Hades OST, Final Fantasy 9 OST, and i have a few playlists which actually have words! ^^ which is so nice T^T i can't write when i have songs with words in the background...

i love turning this one on when i draw dd:

one for them is inspiration for RRR. it's quite old one, it was made a few years ago.

now the unpleasant stuff: i'm ashamed to admit but it has songs from a folk group called Melnista. which is ruzzian. they were somewhat against the war... but not too vocally. maybe afraid. dunno. them being against it is the sole reason i've not deleted the playlist alltogether. i haven't edited the playlist since i have to be honest that those were the inspirations, but... i'm very torn on this one and whether or not i should edit it and remove all of those. so... yeah

and one which is a bit of a spoiler if you look at the specifics of the name:

14. Any favorite motifs

oh dear... probably soulmates. finding someone you feel welcome with, even if it's through shit, dirt and blood - either your own, or someone else's. importance of physical touches. found family of horrible people for horrible people who manage to work through their shit and become better while still perceiving themselves as horrible people. lights. undying loyalty, often betrayed because and by another undying loyalty.

24. Do your references include stock images

i hafe a few galleries for stock images, but i also can ask people around me to help with taking a quick photo if i'm desperate, to have at least some approximation.

this thing can help someone but it sucks to set it up and i often forget i have it ^^'

also https://www.tumblr.com/bodytachi is amazing to have a reference for a pose

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

i'd put "Kiss your perfect day goodnight"

it's the first time i managed to draw them together. and i'm incredibly proud of how this one turned out... not to mention that rey had been a bitch to draw ever since

[adultswim2021]

Assy McGee #20: “Squirrels” | July 07, 2008 - 12:30AM | S02E14

Assy ends tonight. In this one, Assy breaks up an underground Squirrel Fighting Ring after getting over his intense fear of squirrels. He in fact conquers his fears to such an extent that the climax of the episode (and the series, as it turns out) is him squaring off with a giant, genetically modified squirrel. 

On the way we get a hunting trip where Assy browbeats Sanchez into drinking duck piss, a shirtless chief, covered in tats, and a few things that actually made me laugh a little. Assy somberly telling Sanchez “I love killing birds,” the dumb exchange between Sanchez and the Chief after Sanchez sees a framed photo of him playing Twister with Gerald Ford: (Sanchez: “Is that you with President Ford?” Chief: “Yeah, that’s me!”), the part where Assy is so spooked at the sight of the squirrel carcasses in the flophouse that his buttcheeks begin quivering. It probably doesn’t sound incredible, but there’s more than usual to like in this episode. 

I did not watch Assy McGee season two at all when it premiered (I think; if I contradicted something I already said, go with the other thing). In 2008, I was probably still a touch adverse to comedy involving squirrels. There was a rotating list of nouns that whenever I heard them used in supposed-to-be-funny dialogue or visuals it would set me off. I called them “stock absurdities”, and they’d force me to sit on my hands and scowl in response. I probably arrogantly dressed down many children who were simply trying to have a fun time online.

Now that I’m a 40 year old man (in a few weeks, yikes), I can admit I was a bit of a handful who took his own posts way too seriously. I probably wasn't even all that funny. But at the time, maaaaybe I had a point? It seemed like people could very easily garner laughs by just mentioning monkeys, squirrels, cheese, pirates, ninjas, or robots. I’m sure I’ve harped on this already on this blog, so I’ll stop, abruptly. 

This concludes my coverage of Assy McGee, which should not have had 20 episodes. I did just do a quick-and-dirty list of my top ten. If you are good at math, you’ll realize that this is half of the series. Some of these aren’t that good, but had enough memorable jokes that they made the cut. I’m not sure how to rank these, but I’ll tell you the strongest episode on the list is “The Flirty Black Man”, and the weakest is “Irish Wake”: 

S01E01: Murder by the Docks

S01E02: The Flirty Black Man

S01E04: Busted

S01E06: Conviction

S02E02: Pharmassy

S02E03: Mile High Mayhem

S02E06: Irish Wake

S02E07: Vowel Play

S02E08: Hands Up

S02E14: Squirrels

As you can see, Assy joins Twin Peaks in the pantheon of shows where season two falls off dramatically, but comes back strong towards the end. "strong", I says. RIP Assy. For better or for worse, I was the only one who truly understood you.

MAIL BAG

Do you think you could beat a kangaroo in a fight should it come to that (your allowed to lie) also the kangaroo is dressed up as space ghost

I would have serious trouble fighting my hero Space Ghost Coast to Coast, but, no, those things are vicious and I am not strong at all and I'm also very scared all the time. It would be a little comforting if the kangaroo delivered the monologue from the end of "Banjo", but I just found out that kangaroos can't speak English, which is sobering to say the least.

EPHEMERA CORNER

[jaywrites101]

So, we got your feedback

When I Blazed the advertisement post for my book The Wingman, I got a lot of positive feedback: from the black mc, to the fresh idea of following a homeless man who stays homeless in the end... It was pretty gratifying for me to get such good notes! But there was one criticism that kept reoccurring: the cover.

Now, I'm an adult. I've been online for a while now, and I thought I understood where this was coming from. Eighty percent of this hate is people just being put off by the idea of Blaze and hoping that, if they complained enough, Tumblr would remove it. Sure.

But then we found this unnamed expert who opened our eyes to the REAL problem!

Oh, right! It's the kernelling, duh! How did we not see it? Clearly, the font and the colorations were just ALL WRONG!

And you can't have a standard font with automated spacings! You need to hand-do that stuff, or people will think you published a book by yourself!

And they're right! So I talked with my illustrator, and we worked together to come up with a solution. For the kernelling AND the quality of the artwork!

See? Much better, right? The kernelling is now 100% hand-done, and you can see for yourself that having it fixes every problem people had with the cover! And that legibility is just so much better!

But I thought we could surpass our limits!

So we did.

The kernelling comment really impressed to me that the problem was just that a hand-drawn style—no matter how gorgeously done it was in five-year-old-kid authentic CRAYONS this time!—doesn't really look good. It doesn't sell that my book is a nitty-gritty serious book for adults! Why it looks like it might be made for children—Perish the notion!

It's the same reason you can't buy hot-pink cars. Other adults might laugh at you!

We can't have that!

So we went to work on a cover that reflects our mature and serious tastes as consummate professionals:

How about that! Now with 95% less color!! This is a cover you can take to the office with you. It just screams I do tax work for fun! With this book in hand, the guys at the office will feel outright inferior to your vast intellect! Girls will be indubitably impressed by your refined tastes. And ladies, if guys see you reading this book, they'll be so intimidated at your agglomeration of literature that they'll leave you alone! And yes, this is 100% hand-done kernelling too! What a savings!!! ...

but...

Gee... I don't know... something just feels... missing.

It felt like we needed some passion! So we went ahead and borrowed from the Romance Genre of book covers to make a third design.

You're welcome.

HAWT!! Now that's how you do a book cover! It's just so original and steamy!

But, oh nose! Now we can't decide which is the best cover to use!

Now it's up to you to vote on which cover is your favorite! Leave a comment or reblog with your thoughts. If you haven't seen it (or just want a reminder), the original post can be found here or you can buy The Wingman at any of these outlets:

Barnes & Noble, ThriftBooks, Bookshop.org, BookFinder, or Amazon

Below the cut is my serious review of using Blaze to advertise The Wingman. Read it to see if Blaze is a good fit for you! This parody of Clinch Cover's Art was made in part using free Unslpash stock photo's by Justin Essah, Meg Jerrard, and Mathew Schwartz.

Okay, now that that's over—serious business time! As you may know, I bought the largest Blaze package at $150.00 USD for approximately 50,000 impressions. This was in effect from Thursday, April 21, 08:38 to Friday, April 22, 08:38.

Overall, I got 58,193 Impressions. This broke down into: 239 likes, 50 reblogs, 7 comments (a few of them were my own.) 1 Follow (which was probably due to me adding them first) and 11 shares off of Tumblr.

I had two people purchase The Wingman. One print, one e-book. Meaning I had a net loss of about $130.00USD. And the post I Blazed has had precious few notes on it since Blazing.

What does this mean to the book industry? Well, it means advertising sucks. For one thing.

We meticulously combed the meta qualities of my serious post to be widely appealing and upbeat (qualities that get lots of reblogs). I know many people think that means I was cheating, but keep in mind—despite gaming the meta content to be marketable, I lost money. This, unfortunately, tracks with similar experiments done on Facebook and Amazon. If you're trying to advertise your stuff as an indie artist/author—DON'T! Tumblr is selling about the same impressions that other sites are using at about half the cost... actually, less than that, if you take in the fact that people find Tumblr advertisements amusing. It is important to note: This was NOT a high traffic day, so doing a similar experiment on a Friday/Saturday may yield slightly better results. Tags are a roulette. I did my best to tag appropriately, but there is most certainly a better method to utilize tagging. I did not follow up with a second Blaze on the same post to see if the extra advertising would reach different people. I suspect it will, but we deemed it too risky to Blaze the same serious advertisement twice. Ideally, an advertisement builds goodwill so people will like you; ours had mixed results on that front. A second Blaze would've stretched people's patience too much. Especially since there appears to be Blaze purists who want Blaze to only be used to meme on people.

Overall, being a novelist is harder than ever. At least with image art, the artist's work gets to speak for itself. The Art of Writing has to evolve, and the Art of Storytelling is trending toward shorter one-off posts or things in which other users can participate.

TL;DR: It's better to use Blaze to advertise yourself than it is to go anywhere else. But Blazing alone will not help you market your books. Expect to lose money.

[discluded]

I was wondering, what are your thoughts on: Who might have bought Apo that green white crochet over shirt? From his IG story where he posted about it, it looks like someone else bought it for him. Since, he mentioned that it looked B***hy, and where would he wear such shirt. I have stalked fan sites and no one has mentioned that it as a fan gift. So, it must be someone from his circle! That shirt cost close to $700 US. So, who would buy him such provocative expensive shirt? Any thoughts!!

Oh friend, you sure sent me down a fashion rabbit hole for this one.

Apparently the MTL called it "super bitch" hahaha.

So you mentioned you think it might be a gift but no one's came forward to claim it, and I want to caveat: (1) I don't know if Thai fans post as much on Twitter if their present gets used, so maybe it is a fan gift and we don't know but (2) this actually made me check Bode's stockists, and lo and behold:

The only place in Thailand that carries Bode is actually *drumroll* The Decorum! Also known as the place that Mile and Apo have been going to get their fittings for the film festival debut. And where they got their Vogue Gala suits. 😊

Apo posted the story on November 23, and Mile's post about doing the fitting again (right photo) was posted November 30, so it's possible there was a week between fittings.

This also had me taking a poke at Bode's instagram page. And look what I saw here 🎯👀

Yes, it's the green shirt Apo wore to Universal Studios Singapore. They're from the same collection.

These were both posted to Bode's instagram mid June (15 and 16) and had the text:

First delivery styles now available online and in-store. To request upcoming arrivals, please contact our New York or Los Angeles stores.

So they arrived at the stockists circa mid June. By the end of July, their instagram had noted both these were out of stock at their online store but available in their in-location stores (they obviously do not track their stockists' inventory). So the earliest Apo could have had the shirt he wore in Singapore was late June as well. No fan claimed that one either, so he likely bought it for himself (or you know. sugar baby privileges 😂)

Just a cute thing I want to note but is meaningless to Apo's choice, the collection both items were released in was named the E.A.B.A. Wedding Collection.

So to answer your question, who do I think bought it for him, I'm just going to lay out all the possibilities:

Fan bought. Unlikely. A lot of fans are pretty conservative about the clothes they buy him and Mile. I'm going to change that and get Mile a tiddy shirt.

The Decorum's owner gifted it to Apo to clear stock. Unlikely. They are friends though, which is why Apo (and now Mile) frequents his shop!

Bought on sale at The Decorum. Most probable. Some places have discounted it for end of season sale where I've seen it available online still. To be fair, "Very naughty, how do I wear it!" has the energy of a girlie who found a good deal on the clearance rack but has no idea how to style this ridiculous piece. So I still think he could've bought it himself.

Bought at The Decorum, but it was a friends and family discounted offered to Apo to move the product 🤷‍♀️

As for whose wallet the money came out of Apo has his own money and job! But Mile's wallet seems to hurt a lot when they go shopping huh😅

Mile: i’m broke because of him ahah

Apo: ahahaha it’s payday i wanna do shopping ahahaha

[nancypullen]

Treat Yo’self

You all know that I’m a big fan of small treats.  It’s a steady diet of small delights that make for a happy life.  Sometimes those treats are homemade - veggies from the garden, blooming flowers, warm cookies from the oven. Sometimes they’re store bought - a new bottle of nail polish, a little piece of home decor, or (as is often the case for me) a bowl...or two.  If you’ve followed this blog for long (can you believe I started in 2008??) you know of my obsession   fondness for dishes.  Plates, bowls, platters, cake plates, you name it, I want it.  When we were packing up the Tennessee house and I was trying to be reasonable, I sold a lot of my dishes. I still regret it.  I don’t miss my never-used wedding china, but I miss my Fiestaware every day. I won’t purchase it again, it took up a lot of space, but it was a tough choice to make.  It came down to my beautiful Spode Blue Italian and the Fiestaware and I’d never give up my Spode. 

I mean, look at her!  Anywho, I am not in the market for sets of dishes but I still pick up a cute bowl or platter here or there.  I always know exactly where and how I’ll use it. Sometimes the piece just speaks to my soul and I know it needs to come home and live with me. That’s what happened last week. I was cruising some of my favorite Salem Instagram accounts and wishing I could live there forever, when a picture from a boutique caught my eye.  It was just a plate and the caption said that they were sorry they were out of stock but would continue to search for more.  You guys...it was love at first sight, the dish pattern I’ve been waiting for my whole life. Behold... Royal Stafford... HAUNTED HOME!

Did I squeal? Maybe.  It was probably more like a cackle. I did a quick search, knowing that I didn’t need an entire set of dishes (that would be foolish)...but perhaps one bowl for my breakfast eggs and a luncheon plate for my mid-day meal?  I’m the only one in the house who would love them, so just a couple of small pieces to bring my heart joy would be enough, right?  The answer is yes.  I found the dishes I wanted on Replacements.com.  According to Instagram women all over America are finding them at Home Goods but the closest store to me is about an hour away. You know that hurts, I love Home Goods. Anyyywayyyy, I ordered and my treasure arrived quickly. I was over the moon to see that they’re more beautiful in person than in any online photo. OH. MY. GOODNESS.

A plate and a bowl that make my heart sing!  Yesterday morning I ate my veggie eggs out of the bowl and at lunch time the plate was a perfect backdrop for tuna and celery.  Make no mistake, these are not Halloween dishes. These are every-day-put-a-smile-on-my-face dishes. I’ll be eating my eggs from that bowl in every season, guaranteed.   Maybe this seems silly to you, maybe not.  I just know that it’s the little things in my life that bring me joy. I spent $30 on something that will make me happy every day for years. That’s a heck of a deal.  So if you catch me eating Cheerios out of a witch bowl in April, mind your own business, I’m happy. Your assignment today is to place some small thing in your life that will make you happy every day. That knick-knack you wanted, an extra-cushy pillow for reading in bed, a pretty door mat that welcomes you home, whatever.  Treat yourself, you’ll be so glad that you did.  Build the nest you want to live in. I’m going to spend the rest of this afternoon painting furniture. I have big ideas. I hope that you’re doing something you enjoy too. Sending loads of love into the universe today, I hope some of it falls on you. Stay safe, stay well, treat yourself! XOXO, Nancy

[chatonne-rousse]

Orange You Glad I'm Not Seeing Green (Nope, Totally Not Jealous At All)

A continuation of my Gifts from the Heart series, the whole of which is written as a gift for my dear friend @sketchy-panda.

Read it on Ao3 here.

Follows Great Minds (and Kind Hearts) Think Alike, which can be found here.

*********

The first forty-two minutes had gone so well.

Marinette was acting weird, but a normal, endearing weird - the kind of weird that warms his chest with affection and makes him smile. There is no one quite like her, and Adrien knows her friendship is a sweet blessing indeed. Even if it takes a moment or two to decipher her jumbled sentences sometimes. Even if she's a teeny tiny bit of a disaster.

When Ms. Bustier had paired them up for a literature project, he was thrilled. Adrien would never scoff at the chance to spend time with his dear friend, much less to enjoy a window of escape, however short, from the echoing silence of his own home. He'd turned to her with unabashed excitement to find her cheeks and ears pink and a strange mix of joy and terror in her eyes.

"Yay!" she'd squeaked, the word accompanied by awkward jazz hands. This had prompted a nudge under the table from Alya that didn't escape his notice. With that, she'd taken a deep breath, set her shoulders, and asked if he'd like to come over after school to work on it together.

Would he ever! The wave of happiness that had risen in his chest must have shown on his face, but when Marinette's smile had softened to match, he realized he didn't care if he grinned like a fool in front of the class. An afternoon with a friend - a friend! - was such a rare treat. And he's already read The Three Musketeers, so he'd been sure this would be a breeze.

And it was. Until six minutes ago, when they realized that the plate of cookies they'd been snacking on had dwindled to one. This discovery came by way of both of them reaching for it without looking, hands meeting over the plate amidst blushing cheeks and murmured apologies. With an awkward laugh, he'd taken the final cookie, carefully broken it roughly in half, and offered the slightly larger piece to his wide-eyed project partner.

Their fingers brushed in the handoff. She breathed a thank you. He smiled graciously.

It all happened so quickly after that.

Before he could take a bite of his cookie, her elbow had knocked into her glass, sending orange juice across her desk, her lap, his stocking feet.

"Disaster!" Marinette had shrieked, prompting Mrs. Cheng to peek through the open trap door a few moments later, looking first at her daughter dancing frantically around her now-toppled desk chair and then to a bewildered Adrien, still holding half a cookie in one hand and Marinette's keyboard, rescued from the rogue wave of orange juice, in the other.

She'd just smiled. "I'll bring up some towels, dears."

Adrien could only nod.

Now, Marinette stands in front of her sink, wiping the front of her pants with a damp towel and sighing every thirty seconds. He's barefoot, his socks whisked off to parts unknown, ostensibly to be laundered, though he'd protested that wasn't necessary. Their cookie and juice supply has been refilled, and calm has settled over the room again. Sort of.

"I'm so sorry, Adrien," she says quietly, a tinge of misery at the edge of her voice. "I'm so clumsy."

He tries to make her smile the best way he knows how. "It's okay, Marinette. Orange you glad it didn't get on your drawings for the project?"

She stops trying to clean off her jeans and raises her eyes to his. "Did you just...?"

His eyes gleam. "You know, workers in the orange juice factory will lose their jobs if they can't concentrate."

Her surprised giggle is incredibly gratifying. He takes it as a green light to continue. "Do you know what language oranges use to talk to each other?" When she shakes her head, he gleefully answers, "Mandarin!"

"You'd fit right in, then!" Marinette laughs heartily, the sound making his grin widen until it hurts. (It's worth it.)

"Well, I am very a-peeling. I have a real zest for life."

She groans, though she's still laughing, and facepalms with the hand holding the towel. Adrien watches as she realizes how sticky it is against her face, throws it on the counter, and blushes when she makes eye contact with him once more. His own smile never dims. Making a friend laugh like this is one of life's great joys. Laughing with a friend like this is one of the greatest.

Finally, she washes her hands at the sink and he takes a moment to right her desk chair, gazing around the room to the sound of her drying her hands. Magazine photos of him still remain, though they mix on corkboards and wall collages with pictures of friends and family. His own face smiles - truly smiles - back at him from several of them. He remembers each of these days, shining memories with beloved friends that he treasures. He's glad Marinette treasures them, too.

His gaze slides to the corner of her desk, near her sewing machine and a large box he assumes is full of sewing notions, and his breath catches. There, on twin display stands to keep them upright, are two figurines he doesn't know how he missed earlier. Ladybug holds her yo-yo in her right hand, Chat Noir's baton is held in his left. Their tiny plastic hands clasp in the middle, just as they were molded to do for the 1st Anniversary Special Partners Edition figures he would know anywhere.

Marinette sits back down in her desk chair, looks at him, then follows his gaze to the figurines. Adrien turns his eyes to her.

"I didn't know you were a superhero fan, Marinette!"

She laughs a nervous laugh as a blush rises to her cheeks. "Me? A fan of Chat Noir? Psssh." She waves a hand as if to dismiss the idea.

He isn't sure if he should be offended or gratified. He'd certainly prefer the latter.

"Why wouldn't you be a fan? I am. I think the heroes are awesome."

"You do?" she breathes, eyes wide.

"Of course! Paris is lucky," he elbows her arm gently and winks, "to have them."

Her giggle makes him smile again. He always feels so light and so carefree here, in her warm home, with her friendly parents and a plate of cookies and the sweetness she seems to radiate in his presence. Paris is lucky to have superhero protectors, but he's lucky in his own way to have found this kind of gentle contentment in a world denied to him for so long.

"I guess we should get back to the project--"

"Where did you get them?"

They each speak at the same time, twin blushes and stammered apologies following just as with the cookie incident.

Marinette breaks the ensuing awkward silence first. "One of my best friends gave them to me."

"I'm not surprised," Adrien responds with a grin. "Alya might be the biggest fan in Paris!"

The blush on her cheeks spreads to the tips of her ears and her eyes widen before she blinks. "Oh, um...it wasn't Alya." Marinette looks at her hands in her lap and then back up to him. "But she does have this set. She's kind of obsessed."

Strange, he'd never heard about any other best friends from Nino or Alya, though that didn't mean Marinette didn't have a very close online friend or someone in the design community she just hadn't talked much about before. He hopes this person knows what a good friend she has in Marinette, that she treasures her like Marinette deserves to be treasured. Though of course she'd gifted her with the set of figurines, so this friend at least knows quality merch when she sees it. Adrien's heart warms at the thought of Marinette having such good friends. She deserves nothing less.

"Adrien? Are you okay?"

He blinks twice, shaking himself from his reverie. "Oh. Yeah. I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You were far away for a minute there."

He smiles warmly. Marinette is so thoughtful. "I promise. I was just thinking what a great best friend she must be to have given you such a cool gift."

"Oh," she says quietly, looking at the figures again, though Adrien is still focused on his friend. He watches as her eyes soften and her smile turns gentle before she speaks again. "He definitely is. There's no one better."

Her gaze snaps to his again. "I mean! I'll bet you're better! At being hot. I mean cool! I mean..." She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "So! The Three Musketeers, eh?" She pulls her notebook back in front of her and opens it to a random page that contains nothing having to do with Alexandre Dumas. She laughs nervously, resolutely staring at the page and not the boy beside her.

The boy who hasn't breathed since her quiet "oh." The boy whose brain is still stuck on one word.

He.

Adrien can feel his smile turn brittle at the edges and forces his face to remain neutral, but it's difficult all of a sudden.

It shouldn't bother him. It shouldn't affect him at all. Marinette is friends with Nino, Kim, and Max, and he doesn't think twice about it. Why should he? This is different, though, somehow. An unknown entity. A boy friend he's never heard of who makes her expression soften like that, with memories of private jokes and gift exchanges and laughter. Probably. That's probably what it's like with Marinette and her other best friend, who isn't Alya and whose name he doesn't know.

An odd feeling twists his stomach. Adrien doesn't like it.

"Well," he starts, sliding his own notebook over and opening to the last page they'd been working on before the orange juice spill, "he has very good taste in Ladybug and Chat Noir merchandise. I have that same set myself."

"You do?" she squeaks, and their eyes meet again.

"I do. But I didn't take mine out of the packaging." He chances a cheeky half-smile at her, the knot in his stomach loosening just a fraction at the smile she returns. "Mine will be pristine when the set is worth millions someday."

When she laughs, the tension in his chest dissipates like springtime dandelion seeds, floating away on a sudden breeze of fresh, sweet joy.

Maybe Marinette's mysterious best friend can make her laugh like this, but right now, Adrien is the one sitting beside her - something rare and precious and not to be taken for granted - and it makes no sense to do anything other than enjoy the moment.

[magnusmysteries]

Part 4: The Sixteenth Fear

The Magnus Archives was a horror podcast. It is now completed. Many of the show’s mysteries were never explained on the show. I intend to explain them. Spoilers for the show, but also spoilers if you wanna solve these mysteries yourself.

In part 3 I said every fear has an opposite. But the Flesh didn’t exist before the industrial revolution. So there would have been 13 fears then, an uneven number, and not every fear could balance against an opposite. So how could that be?

The answer is, there were only 12 fears before the Flesh. The Corruption and the Desolation used to be the same fear. 

Diego Molina of the Lightless Flame cult worships Asag. A Sumerian god of disease that could make fish boil. So Asag seems to be of both the Corruption and the Desolation.

In Infectious Doubts Arthur Nolan complains about it: “Not like I can vent to the others about what a prat Diego is. Got a lot of funny ideas. Still calls the Lightless Flame Asag, like he was when he was first researching it. I just really wanna tell him to get over it; I mean Asag was traditionally a force of destruction, sure, but as a church we very much settled on burning in terms of the – face we worship, and some fish-boiling Sumerian demon doesn’t really match up, does it? Plus there’s a lot of disease imagery with Asag that I’ll reckon is way too close to Filth for my taste, but no, he read it in some ancient tome, so that’s that –“

Ancient is the key word. The tome predates the industrial revolution and the Flesh. Asag probably isn’t a thing anymore and Diego is indeed a prat for worshipping it.

In The Architecture of Fear Smirke writes “I know you say the Flesh was perhaps always there, shriveled and nascent until its recent growth, but to grant the existence of such a lesser power would throw everything into confusion. Would you have me separate the Corruption into insects, dirt, and disease? To divide the fungal bloom from the maggot?”

It is not random that Smirke uses the Corruption as an example here. The Corruption is the opposite of the Flesh, so the Corruption is the fear that Smirke believed had no opposite for hundreds or thousands of years.

In part 3 I said vampires where Corruption/Desolation/Hunt. This is a little far-fetched, but I wonder if the vampire’s we’ve seen have been old ones that predate the Flesh. And that’s why they are part Corruption, since Corruption and Hunt used to be next to each other. Maybe there are more modern vampires without the long sucking tongue. Maybe instead of sucking blood, when they bite you begin to burn or boil. Since the Hunt is now next to the Desolation instead of the Corruption-Desolation combo.

In Vampire Killer Trevor says “I have killed five people that I know for sure as vampires, and there are two more that may or may not have been.” There is a missing middle part of Trevor’s statement. Maybe there he talks about killing two vampires that are modern and therefore different so he’s not sure if they’re actually vampires.

Speaking of fears splitting up, why is the Darkness the opposite fear of the Slaughter? In Last Words we hear of the first fear “A fear of blood and pounding feet, a fear of that sudden burst of pain and then nothing.” 

And of the second fear “The fear of their own end, of the things that lived in the darkness, became a fear of the darkness itself.”

I think the first was a general fear of violence. It includes what became the Hunt “Blood and pounding Feet...” and the Slaughter “...Sudden burst of pain and then nothing”, and the End “The fear of their own end…” And the second fear was the Darkness. They were the opposite by default, simply for being the two first fears.

When the Buried became a fear, the Hunt split up from the Violence to oppose it. When the Vast became a fear, the End split up from the Violence to oppose it. All that was left of the Violence was Slaughter, still opposing the Dark. When humans began warfare, fear of war fit nicely with the Slaughter.

The Eye might have been part of the Dark at first. Still from Last Words: “...because they knew the dark held flashing talons and shining eyes…” 

When the Lonely became a fear, the Eye split up from the Dark to oppose it.

So what about the Extinction? Does it have an opposite? Yes! There is a sixteenth fear. And what can be the opposite of the fear of the end of the world? The fear that the world isn’t real. That we’re all just living in a computer simulation. If you think the world isn’t even real, you’re not gonna be so worried about it ending. I’ll call it the Simulation.

Here is how the fears are arranged on the wheel, with the two latest fears added:

Description of image: A circle with 16 spots similar to a clock. On each spot is a number and the name of a power: 1. Corruption. 2 Extinction. 3. Desolation. 4. Hunt. 5. Slaughter. 6. End. 7. Lonely. 8. Stranger. 9. Flesh. 10. Simulation 11. Spiral. 12. Buried. 13. Dark. 14. Vast. 15. Eye. 16. Web.

The Extinction is next to the Corruption. Disease and garbage are both gross. Possessive is an Extinction episode, even if not acknowledged as such by any of the characters. It’s about garbage. And Maggie is creating people out of garbage. She is making the inheritors mentioned in Time of Revelation. There are also creatures made of garbage in Concrete Jungle. And Maggie was full of moving insect legs, showing Corruption influence.

Quote from Adelard Dekker from Rotten Core: “I’ve spoken before about how keenly I’ve watched news of possible pandemics, which is where I suspect the Extinction may pull away from the Corruption during its emergence.” Adelard knows the Extinction is next to Corruption.

The Extinction is next to Desolation. That fits, nuclear weapons cause fire. Quote from Times of Revelation, describing corpses: “They were stiff, and desiccated, mummified by some process Bernadette could not begin to guess at, but that rendered their flesh like tightly packed ash” Ash as if they were burned.

The Simulation is next to the Flesh. The Flesh makes you think humans aren’t people, they are just meat. The Simulation makes you think humans aren’t people, they are just NPCs.

The Simulation is the next to the Spiral. Both make you question what is real. The Spiral makes you doubt your mind, the Simulation makes you doubt your world.

There are four episodes about the Simulation: Binary, Zombie, Cul-de-sac and Reflection.

In Binary Sergey Ushanka uploads his mind into a computer. He becomes a simulation and it hurts. There is influence by the Spiral, the statement giver isn’t sure if she’s going crazy. And there is influence by the Flesh. Ushanka uploads himself into a computer and then he eats the computer. So that’s cannibalism.

In Zombie the statement giver thinks other people aren’t real, they’re philosophical zombies, In other words they like simulations or NPCs. The man that follows her repeats the phrase “Just fine, thank you for asking” and says nothing else. Just like some NPCs in video games will say the same phrase over and over. The man is identical the three times they meet, except for his t-shirt changes color. Sometimes in video games some NPCs will be identical, except for some colors are changed. (Because it’s less work to recollar a character than to draw one from scratch.)

John thinks Cul-De-Sac is about the Lonely. And yes, the statement giver was lonely. But the people affected by the Lonely choose to be lonely, and the statement giver didn’t. His boyfriend broke up with him because of cheating and then he lost his friends because they sided with his boyfriend. 

I think the theme of the statement is unreality, not loneliness. In the Magnus Archives, when someone gets marked by a power it is because they made some wrong choice. The choice the statement giver makes is to return to the place he found dead and soulless. He drives back to his ex-boyfriend to deliver the moose, rather than send it by mail. He specifically wants to meet his ex. Not an act of loneliness, quite the opposite. Also he is returning a moose that is angular and creepy, in other words it is unreal.

When the statement escapes from the nightmare it’s because he got a phone call from his ex. And he says “I love you.” and that fits neatly with the Lonely. But it also fits with escape from the unreal. He escapes because he communicates with a real person.

The road signs says “Road” and “Street”. Generic and unreal. All the houses look the same. Like in a computer game. The statement giver wonders if they are the same house. Like in a computer game where one might reuse the code for a house many times.

The house he enters has stock photos. Unreal.

The people on TV have something wrong with their eyes, similar to the eyes of the zombies in Zombie. And it's a fake cooking show, and a fake infomercial.

The dead woman upstairs was someone who had social media profiles, and that nobody notices had died. Meaning she lived her life online. That sounds like she was lonely. But living online also makes her a good victim for the Simulation. Everyone she talked to was on a computer, she couldn’t know for sure if they were real.

The woman had killed herself with a mirror. I think what happened was she had looked into the mirror and seen that her eyes were wrong, like the eyes of the people on TV. And she had thought she was just a simulation, like everything around her. And therefore she killed herself. Or perhaps she wasn’t reflected in the mirror at all? Like in…

Reflection. Adelard speculated that this statement was about the Extinction, but I don’t think so. The protagonist was in a world that seemed unreal. A fun fair is artificial so that fits the theme. The people were playing games, which fits the theme via computer games maybe.

Adelard says “I can’t quite get past the detail that there was no reflection at all in the mirror he used to return.” It is almost at the end of Adelard’s letter, it’s clearly meant to be significant. The no reflection might be symbolic for the statement giver starting to think he isn’t real, which might be what happened to him after he gave the statement.

Reflection has influence by the Spiral, with the maze of mirrors. There is influence by the Flesh, with the cannibalism.

[janaikam]

Roommates

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @emsylcatac!!!!!! You are such an amazing friend and I hope you have the best day ever!!!!

Summary:  When the new mayor of Paris offers an apartment to Paris' heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't pass up on the chance.

Beta reading done by the marvelous @macaronsforchat

Read on AO3.

“Woah!” Ladybug and Chat Noir breathed, looking around at the apartment.

Mayor Beaumont, Paris’ newest mayor, had recently offered the heroes an apartment in Paris. He claimed that it was to honor the heroes’ hard work over the years. But Ladybug figured that it was to keep him on the public’s good side. After all, he barely beat Mayor Bourgeois in the last election.

Although Marinette had her reservations about the apartment, she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to have free housing in Paris. She had just started looking at housing for her second year in university, and it was not cheap to find a decent apartment.

Plus it helped that Mayor Beaumont was keeping everything with the apartment confidential. It turned out that he owned multiple buildings around Paris, so they didn’t have to worry about a landlord selling the heroes out.

She was a little hesitant about rooming with Chat, but Beaumont reassured her that he would find the best apartment that would not reveal their identities to Paris or each other.

The last thing Marinette expected was for the mayor to get them a penthouse style apartment.

The apartment had a large kitchen, and after quickly checking the cabinets, it was fully stocked. An island in the middle of the kitchen separated it from the living room which had some nice black couches with some dark grey and white spiral pillows on top of it. Surrounding the couch there were two dark grey single seats. There was a door on the back wall that Ladybug realized was a balcony.

The walls were a plain cream color making the room not as inviting, but Marinette was sure that they could make it feel homier without them revealing their identities.

A little in between the living room and kitchen were two hallways on both ends. Walking down the hallway on the right, Ladybug saw that the hallway had two rooms--one looked to be a bedroom and the other an office--and a washer and dryer unit. Connecting the bedroom was a bathroom that had both a huge bath and a shower.

She could only imagine that the other side was set up similarly. It would definitely be possible for them to hide their identities without having to use their kwamis too much.

Walking back to the main area, Ladybug saw that Chat was just coming back after checking his side of the room.

“Alright, Chat, if we’re going to make this work, we need to set some ground rules.” She went to sit on the couch, and Chat followed.

“Anything for you my lady.”

“First off, I think in our respective spaces we can be detransformed, so we don’t overwork our kwamis. Second, whenever we’re here in the main space, we should be transformed or at least have something to hide our identities.”

Chat nodded in understanding. “What about inviting friends over? Some of my civilian friends know I’m moving into a new apartment, and it’d be really hard for me to keep them from here.”

Ladybug hummed. She had the same issue because Alya was definitely going to want to come over.

“How about we tell each other in advance? Like send a message or write a note? That way we would know when to just avoid coming to the apartment.”

“We could get separate phones to text on!” Chat’s eyes lit up. “It would be like we’re spies with a second phone.”

Ladybug scrunched up her face. “Ignoring the fact that we’d have to pay for phones and service, I think my friends would wonder why I suddenly have two phones.”

Chat deflated a little. “You’re right. Hmmm. Oh! We could use one of those online messaging apps. We could just make accounts and message each other there!”

“That would work.” Ladybug nodded.

“I’m excited to be your roommate, m’lady.”

“I’m excited to be your roommate, Chaton.”

--------

It had been a week living with Chat, and so far it had been going smoothly. Their schedules thankfully allowed them to miss when the other left or came back, so Marinette had no clue what Chat looked like. Though she did make a couple of masks that resembled their superhero ones. She always slipped hers on when she got on the elevator just in case, but there hadn’t been much of a need for it.

They had also found a website to message on to let the other know someone was coming over. He had some friend over earlier this week, and she just ended up spending the afternoon with her parents at the bakery.

It was her turn to have the apartment to herself as Alya was practically demanding to see Marinette’s new place.

Marinette was tidying up her new sewing room--she decided to use the office space for her sewing--when she heard a knock at the front door.

Opening the door, she saw Alya standing there practically bouncing with excitement.

“Marinette!” The brunette jumped onto Marinette and gave her a hug. “It’s been too long!”

Marinette laughed, hugging Alya back. “It’s only been a week.”

“Exactly. Too long.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Marinette shook her head as Alya walked in and set down her purse on the island.

“Not ridiculous. Excitable.”

Alya examined the fairly large apartment, walking over to the living room. Alya picked up one of the picture frames that Marinette had placed down. Marinette followed, looking over Alya’s shoulder and saw that she had picked up the picture of a Ladybug on a green flower.

Marinette smiled as Alya put it down. The photo just seemed like a regular picture to anyone, but for her and Chat it was a little nod to their identities.

“This place looks really nice. How on earth are you affording this?” Alya asked, turning to face Marinette.

Marinette nervously laughed, trying to think up an excuse. It was times like this she wished that she didn’t have to keep secrets to keep her friends safe. “My roommate knows the owner of the building and they worked out some deal, so we got the apartment at a nice price.”

Alya nodded, accepting the answer. “This must be some roommate if they’ve got connections like that.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty awesome.” Marinette sighed, thinking of Chat.

She wondered what he was doing right about now since it was the middle of the afternoon, and he couldn’t be at the apartment. It had been something she found that she was always thinking about ever since they moved in together. Shaking out the thoughts of Chat, Marinette turned back towards Alya.

Her best friend was giving her a suspicious smirk that Marinette couldn’t quite place.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing. I can’t wait to meet this super special roommate. He really seems like something,” Alya said, the smirk still on her face.

Marinette shivered, thinking about the trouble Chat’s civilian self might get into with Alya. They were already mischievous as it was when they were heroes back in collége, who knows what they would do.

“Ah, you probably may not see him around much. We have pretty different schedules, so I don’t see him much as it is.” Marinette let out a soft chuckle. “Hey! Let me show you my side of the apartment!”

Marinette dragged Alya to the hallway on the right, but a thud from the balcony stopped her in their tracks.

Turning towards the balcony, Marinette saw a blur of black before it quickly disappeared.

“What was that?” Alya freed herself from Marinette’s grasp and walked over to the balcony.

Marinette followed her onto the balcony.

“Is that Chat Noir?” Alya pointed to a fast-moving blur on the rooves. Marinette nodded, recognizing her partner from this distance. “I wonder if he’s going to that new apartment the mayor got the heroes. But why is he in such a hurry?”

Marinette turned to look in the direction that Chat had just come from only to see a large purple blob moving towards them.

“I think that might be why.”

Alya’s eyes widened as she spotted the akuma.

“Hey, Mari, I’m gonna have to take a rain check. See ya!”

With that Alya ran out of the apartment, phone in hand ready to record.

Marinette shook her head at her best friend. Despite how much they’ve grown, she was still the same person.

“Tikki, spots on!”

----

CN: Movie night?

Marinette considered the text. It wasn’t like Chat and her hadn’t been in the same room before, but the thought of being in the same room as Chat for at least an hour seemed like a weird concept to her. But it definitely didn’t sound unpleasant.

LB: What movie?

CN: You pick

Marinette hummed. It didn’t seem like a bad idea. Plus she was likely going to watch a movie by herself, so might as well have someone to watch with.

LB: Sure

Grabbing her mask and a couple of blankets, Marinette made her way to their living room.

Chat was already there along with a mountain of blankets and two medium-sized bowls of what she assumed was popcorn. Her kitty had the biggest of grins on his face, and when he spotted her he patted a spot on the couch where the pillows created a hole for someone to sit. The T.V. was already opened to the Netflix search.

Once Marinette had settled herself into the spot, Chat handed her one of the bowls of popcorn and the remote. Glancing down at the bowl of popcorn, Marinette noticed that there was a bunch of M&Ms and hardened chocolate syrup all over the popcorn.

“Omg, Chat, did you make all this?”

Chat nodded excitedly. “My mom and I used to make it all the time when I was younger. I thought you might like it.”

Marinette smiled back. “It looks great. Thank you, Chat. But how’d you know that I would say yes?”

“So what are we watching, my lady?” Marinette glared at his obvious change of topic but proceeded to find her favorite movie on the streaming service.

Clicking on the movie, she clicked play and settled back into the couch.

“Mirror, Mirror?” Chat asked.

“Yup. It’s a fantastic take on Snow White, and the costumes are just to die for,” Marinette said, popping some popcorn into her mouth. “Now hush, it’s starting.”

--

Marinette groaned, snuggling up closer to the wall next to her as a finger poked into her side. The wall chuckled, and the poking shifted into a slight shake.

“My lady…” a voice whispered near her ear. “My lady, the movie’s over.”

Slowly opening her eyes, Marinette saw that the movie credits were rolling, and some Netflix recommendations were showing on the screen.

She looked over to where Chat was and realized somehow during the movie, she had snuggled up right next to him.

She jumped up off the couch, a blush forming on her cheeks. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry for falling asleep on you!”

“You’re good my lady.” Chat grinned. “You were right, the movie was great.”

“Uh yeah, I’m glad it enjoyed you.” Marinette shook her head. “I mean you enjoyed it. Anyways have a good night!”

As quickly as she could with her blanket, Marinette ran into her room, not daring to look back at Chat.

----

Marinette and Nino laughed as Alya slapped Adrien’s hand away from her fries. Adrien pouted but leaned back in his seat beside Nino.

“That’s what you get, you fry snatcher,” Alya reprimanded, holding a fry to emphasize her point.

Marinette couldn’t help but break out into laughter again. She missed spending time with her friends like this. The four of them had all started university at different schools this year, and it was hard for them to meet up. It just so happened that all of them had the afternoon free, so they planned to get lunch together and walk back to Marinette’s place.

Aside from Adrien stealing Alya’s fries, the afternoon consisted of the four of them sharing university stories.

They had already paid for their food and were waiting on Alya to finish so they could walk over to Marinette’s place to watch movies or maybe play some video games.

“There, all done. Now there are no more fries for you to steal.”

Adrien stuck out his tongue, causing Alya to sick out hers.

“Children, children, let us go so you can continue your childish games later,” Marinette said in an obnoxious accent.

“Pfft. What was that?” Alya asked, laughing.

“That was called a sophisticated voice, something you clearly know nothing about.”

Nino shook his head, standing up from the table. “You all are crazy.”

“If we’re crazy, then what are you? Cause you aren’t sane that’s for sure,” Alya teased.

“I’m saner than you.” Nino poked Alya’s nose with his finger and led them all out of the restaurant.

--

The walk to Marinette’s apartment building didn’t take that long. In fact, if Marinette didn’t know better, Adrien looked a little pale as their group entered the building.

“Hey, dude, don’t you live here?” Nino asked while they waited for the elevator to come down.

“Yeah, top floor.” Adrien flashed one of his model smiles, which meant something was bugging him, but Marinette couldn’t fathom what.

“I live on the top floor too. I didn’t know you moved into an apartment.”

The elevator doors opened, and Marinette clicked her floor.

“Yeah, turns out my dad owned this building, and I figured I might as well move into one of the apartments,” Adrien explained, scratching behind his head.

Adrien was lying. He had to be. The mayor of Paris owned this building. But why on earth would Adrien be lying about something like that? It didn’t make sense.

“Oh, uh, that’s neat.”

Thankfully they reached the top floor before Marinette could confront Adrien. He probably just didn’t want them to think he was wasting his money. Yeah, that had to be it. She didn’t know how much these apartments cost, but she figured it had to be a whole lot.

“You know Marinette has this hot roommate. From what I hear, he’s quite some guy,” Alya said to Adrien.

“Alya! You haven’t even met my roommate!”

“Do I have to meet him to know that he’s cute?” At this Nino raised his eyebrow, but Alya waved him off. “Not as cute as you babe.”

“Good.”

“1377. This is me.” Marinette unlocked the door to the apartment and let them in.

“Okay are you guys messing with me?” Marinette turned to see Nino standing in the doorway, looking between Marinette and Adrien.

Adrien himself looked like he was in a state of awe and panic.

“What do you mean?” Marinette scrunched her face together.

“This is Adrien’s apartment.”

“No, it’s no-oh my gosh.” She looked over at Adrien, making eye contact with the blonde. Her eyes widened as she recognized the familiar green eyes of her partner. It suddenly made sense why Adrien had been acting the way he did.

Staring into his eyes, she could see that he was having the same realization that she was. Slowly, Marinette made her way to Adrien, cautiously reaching her hand up to touch his face.

“It’s you,” Marinette gasped, covering her mouth.

“It’s you.” Adrien smiled a real smile, not his fake one.

She hugged him tightly as tears filled her eyes and threatened to fall. Adrien hugged her back just as fiercely, and she could feel his own tears flowing down, causing her own tears to fall.

“This is weird right?”

“Yes, Nino, this is weird.”

[i-dont-want-your-hysteria]

MYTHBUSTERS: LEPPARD EDITION (episode 2)

Attention all DL collectors: I've been meaning to make a post about this on here for a few months, but never got around to it. The question being... do any of you have the release of Pyromania that's on red vinyl- the one that was sold with an autographed sleeve? The story surrounding this is so odd, and @ballistic-lipstick-dream-machine and I have been looking for answers for two years.

More specifically, this is the version I'm alluding to: https://www.discogs.com/Def-Leppard.../release/12655177

The story goes as such: on September 20th, 2019, the Sound Of Vinyl US online store sold brand new copies of this release that were paired with an additional copy of the sleeve- and these extra sleeves were *autographed*. They were signed by everyone in the current lineup. This dual product (both the sealed record and the separate autographed sleeve) sold for $30 in total, and were only available on their website for about two hours until they sold out. Within hours after the product sold out (it sold out once there were no more autographed sleeves), the product page was deleted from their website without a trace. That, and the promo on DL's facebook was deleted too.

For six months, there was no trace of this product anywhere online, and Rachel and I only found one person besides us who was in possession of a copy.

In mid April of 2020, SOV updated their website, and the page for the autographed sleeves became visible again. This page being visible was most likely an error, as the items hadn't been visible since September 2019. On this phantom webpage, the item was listed as 'sold out', but there was still the option to 'ask for notifications for when it is back in stock'. The price was listed as $39.98 (any price ending in $0.98 is usually a clearance item or an item that is most likely unavailable- based on my experience in retail). This page was up for several months (maybe even a year), and upon checking it while I was making this post, I discovered it's since been taken down.

It is still unknown how many copies of these sleeves were signed/sold. There was also no certificate of authenticity that came with these products. Mysterious, eh?

However, the day these items were sold, Def Leppard's official Facebook page advertised these products for SOV, saying that there was a "very limited number of autographed sleeves" available. And, as many of you probably know, Sound of Vinyl isn't just some random company/website that would mass scam people. This site is very legit, but there were a lot of potential red flags surrounding this particular opportunity. For one thing- $30 for autographs!? Sign me up!!

So Rachel and I, naturally, bought them the SECOND we saw them that day in 2019. We didn't take any time to read. Buy now, ask later. Seize the day. We were at the right place at the right time that day and we didn't even know it.

When we each got our packages about a week or two later, we practically got forensic when it came to investigating the details. We touched, scanned, smelled, and searched over those sleeves. We each noticed very distinct differences between our autographs and the ones online. 4/5 of the signatures are in silver sharpie, and Rick's is the only one in plain black. All the names are in the same places on each sleeve we know of.

Despite the lack of authenticity, we went ahead and assumed with 90% certainty that they were, in fact, legitimate autographs. With how under the radar this was, we could only assume.

And because we could only assume, I went ahead and scoured the internet for anything I could possibly find on this listing. As far as Rachel and I knew, we were the ONLY people in possession of this! To my knowledge, it's still unknown just how many copies exist out there...

In my searches, I eventually came across someone on Amazon Marketplace who was selling these products together in March of 2020; both the autographed sleeve and the sealed red vinyl- for about $600. It seemed just a little too coincidental for me that they were being sold together. I contacted this seller, politely explaining this mystery, and asking if they also bought this from SOV. While they did not tell me where they got them from, they did say that they got the signatures on the sleeve authenticated by professionals at the Beckett Authentication company.

To me, that seemed like they were indirectly trying to say yes; a little wink-wink.

Unfortunately, though, that's ALL the info we have on this. I included our proof of these products down below; the screenshots of the official listings on SOV, DL's facebook advertising them, the Amazon listing, and my own personal copy + the barcode that came with it.

It's suspicious how these vanished with all footprints covered, and Rachel and I only know of 5-7 copies in existence! (two belonging to us, one sold on Amazon, two different ones used as advertising photos, and two that I just discovered through the Die Hards group).

Considering how their official merch team is authenticating everything left and right these days, this was just so strange...

TL;DR: Autographed Pyromania sleeves were officially sold for less than a day in 2019, and then they disappeared from the internet without a trace. Only 5 copies are known of in existence, and hardly anything is known about this occurrence.

If you have a copy of this, know someone who does, have any info on this, or if you just flat out know what I'm talking about, comment below!

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

Goddamn it Kyra I wasn't even interested in the Lego Lokis before, but now that you've so rudely posted pics of the options I'm probably going to have to buy some. So, couple questions: I'm not familiar with the website you linked to (it doesn't help that I'm on my phone lol) - do you get them from that site or just Aliexpress? I've kind of poked around there but I don't think I've ever actually bought anything - do you have links to those ones you bought or any tips for finding them on the site? (or like. using the site in general without getting scammed or something? Idk much about it other than stuff being low priced lol).

😇😇😇

putting the rest behind a cut because oops this got long

OKAY SO the cool thing about knockoff Lego figures is that a) there are a ton of them, so you can probably find multiple versions of most characters, and b) they're super cheap, so if you do end up getting ripped off, you're probably only out a few bucks. plus if you don't get ripped off, you feel like a genius, because authentic Lego minifigs tend to cost way more than they should (and if you get them online, you probably don't have a good way to know that they're authentic) and here you are getting something just as good or better for way less.

the site I was getting pictures from is HeroBloks, which I only just discovered myself a couple days ago; it looks like mostly it's good for tracking your collection (and learning more about bootleg Lego minifigs in general, maybe--I didn't really realize until now how many different companies there are making Lego-like minifigs) rather than buying, with individual pages including sale links that are only mildly useful. like, the extremely sad TVA Loki has an AliExpress search link that apparently just searches for "blocks," which is the least helpful search term imaginable; the eBay link uses "xinh+xh1745+loki (tva)" as the search term and that's definitely better, although it doesn't actually turn up anything. maybe that one's too new to be widely available yet, I don't know. (I hope that's the case. I need him and his sad little face to come and live with me.)

anyway--eBay is a possible source. searching for "loki minifigure" gets me results for several of the new ones I’ve been seeing, and they all seem to be shipping from Japan or South Korea. the problem is they're all selling for $4.99 plus $7.49 shipping each, which is...more than I want to spend on something I know is a knockoff of some kind when I don't know anything about the quality control and I'm not guaranteed to get what's in the picture. (here's another listing asking $40 total for all 8 figures I bought yesterday, which is actually a better price, and I'd probably end up doing that if I hadn't found them elsewhere, but that's because I have a problem.)

this is why I like AliExpress, because the risks are slightly higher but the prices tend to be much lower, even with shipping prices having gone up a bit over the last couple years. as I understand it, the site is basically just a huge marketplace for tons of different sellers in Asia, like if eBay only allowed fixed-price listings and it was based in China. the vast majority of the site reads like it went through Google Translate, because it probably did. you can find...basically anything there. I have no idea if any of it's authentic. (I also don't know anything about how or where any of the knockoff stuff is made, so...there is that.) I would not, for instance, drop $300 on a Hot Toys Loki from here, even though I absolutely would have the option to do so, for the obvious reason that I'm not going to risk that much money on an item that might be a cheap knockoff or could arrive broken. there is, in general, a solid possibility of breakable things arriving broken, because decent packaging costs more. cheap shipping will be slow (by which I mean like...up to 90 days), and most purchases either won't have tracking at all or won't have accurate tracking, so this is absolutely not a place to buy anything you want to get quickly. you also don't want to just buy something and forget about it, because there are (variable but generous) time limits past which you can't get a refund if you don't receive your items. the site's UI is...mostly functional. you often have to get a little creative with your search terms to find what you want (and sometimes you won’t find what you want through searching, but through looking at related items on the pages of things that aren’t quite what you want or are what you want but aren’t a good price). you will, absolutely, come across a lot of stolen art on things like pins, t-shirts, stickers, and phone cases, which you might not realize until you see something you recognize from a fanartist you like, and obviously that sucks. listing photos are nearly always stock photos, so in many cases they won't tell you anything about the item you're actually getting. you know the Wish app, and all the crazy things people get from that? you can find all the same stuff on AliExpress, at similar levels of quality.

however, if you approach it keeping all that in mind, it can be a great resource. I can't make any guarantees about the site's safety, but to the best of my knowledge it's secure and I've never had any weird charges show up after buying something. it's also my understanding that Alibaba, the parent company, is more or less the Chinese equivalent of Amazon in terms of the amount of business it does, which would probably be pretty tough if customer data were routinely being exposed to thieves, you know? I've also successfully gotten several refunds for items that never arrived, which actually hasn't happened all that often--but knowing that it can happen and that the return period expires, I’ll check back on the site if it seems like it’s been an unusually long time and I’ll make a reminder for myself of the deadline so I can contact the seller in time if necessary.

so the way I shop there is, I don't buy expensive or fragile things in general, because I recognize there's a nonzero chance I'll get a cheap knockoff, or something that was broken in transit because the seller tossed it in a box with no padding and called it good, or sometimes nothing at all. but like eBay, the sellers and items have ratings and reviews from customers, so that helps avoid some risk. items with lots of reviews tend to include at least a few customer photos, which are great for getting a better idea of what the thing you're buying actually looks like. I took a bit of a risk last year buying a Hot Toys (or the equivalent, I actually have no idea) Steve Rogers head for about $20, for instance, but I wasn't super worried about it because the customer photos looked good, the seller I used had a lot of sales and a lot of good ratings, and it was still a lot less than I would've paid for an authentic Hot Toys Steve Rogers head--and in fact he got here just fine and he looked fantastic. I also spent about $20 for a knockoff Iron Studios Loki statue, because in that case it was like...yep I’d love the real thing, nope I’m not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on it, yep I am willing to spend $20 on something that doesn’t look quite as nice but still looks good enough for me in the customer photos. well, and I’ve also bought knockoffs I knew would look bad, because they were cheap and I want all the Lokis and I have enough of an addiction that all the Lokis does in fact sometimes mean “even ones that look really bad” to me.

anyway, uh, Lego-type minifigs. this is an especially good area to go knockoff, because--okay, apparently I can’t link to a page of HeroBloks search results for some reason, but it’s the best resource I’ve found for this type of thing that isn’t just authentic Lego figures. but if you go there and do a search for “loki” you’ll get a bunch of results and you’ll see that they come from like...9 or 10 different brands. Lego specifically has only four Loki options: Avengers Loki in black, Avengers Loki in gray for some reason (which, frankly, looks like a cheap knockoff but isn’t), movie-inaccurate Ragnarok Loki with the blue outfit and the full helmet, an ugly Classic Loki, and a mostly green Loki from I guess the first Thor movie (and then I think they’re going to release a TVA Loki, a Sylvie, and a Throg). all those other results--all those different outfits from every single Loki appearance, and different variations on those outfits, nearly all of them more screen-accurate and/or detailed than the Lego versions--are technically knockoffs. they’re better and you can buy them for way less. (I mean, a lot of them are new so I don’t have them yet, but I do have frost giant Loki, better Ragnarok Loki, better Avengers Loki, opera Loki who actually has another face that’s half-Jotun, and at least one chrome-helmet option, and they all look basically like the photos. so I think I can reasonably expect most of the new ones to look basically like their photos too.) 

for reasons that I don’t understand aside from a vague guess that it’s copyright-related, AliExpress pretty much no longer shows full pictures of Lego-type figures in their listings--instead, you have to pick just based on the heads. this is a problem when lots of heads look very similar to each other! luckily, the listings also typically have the actual serial numbers for each figure, as do the HeroBloks listings, so you can cross-reference them to see what you’re really getting. for instance let’s take this listing because it’s cheap and it offers most of the Loki figures that are currently available. say you’re interested in one of the horn-less Lokis. there are...let’s see, five of them, but you have no idea what they actually look like aside from slightly different facial expressions and maybe weapons. however, the first one listed says XH1359 for its color...and what do you know, 1359 is the serial number for this Loki by a company called Xinh. okay cool, how about the last one? the “color” is listed as WM2182--and yes, HeroBloks has a listing for a Ragnarok Loki from World Minifigures with the serial number 2182. (I just ordered all 8 of the new World Minifigures ones yesterday, so again, I can’t personally guarantee yet that they’ll look as good in person as in the pictures--but I think they probably will, and more importantly they cost a whole dollar each.) and if HeroBloks doesn’t have a particular figure, you can probably find something useful just by googling the serial number.

I specifically bought from this listing yesterday because they currently have a bit of a sale going and a deal for free shipping if you buy 10 figures, and I wanted a couple duplicates, so it worked out to be the cheapest option. the same store has another listing for a bunch more Marvel characters, including a couple more Lokis I already had, so it should be pretty easy to get the free shipping so the figures are less than a dollar each and you’re only risking about $10. if you’d rather try one or two and see how it goes, it looks like this listing is probably the cheapest, with figures currently going for a little over a dollar each once you add shipping (although it’s totally possible shipping is more for me because Alaska).

that’s...probably already way more information than you really wanted, but I hope at least some of it makes sense. feel free to ask other specific questions if they come up--I might not be able to give answers exactly, but I can probably tell you what my experience has been, which is better than nothing.