#I got far enough in that mostly what I've been doing since they finished their piece is shading and bg

[aurumdoesthings]

one of the other options in my art trade was mina and dabi and they were taking so long I worked a lot on this ;) finally done!

[running-in-the-dark]

kinda disappointed with how this weekend went. I mean, it wasn't bad! but it was our first weekend in the new apartment, and I/we wanted to get a lot done. I already did a lot during the week (a lot for me, not a lot for most people I guess), but there's lots of things that I can't do/can't do on my own, either because I'm too short or not strong enough or I need someone else to hold something or whatever. which realistically just won't get done during the week because my husband works full time, so. it sort of sucks that only one very small, unimportant thing got done. 😔

[echantedtoon]

A Lovers' Circle (Poly Haishira x Reader) Ch16 Setting Hearts A Blaze P2

Taglist: @shadyd3ar @jcrml

@tengensangel @miniverse-zen @mysteri0uz @jjamsbangtan

@the-unknown-fandom

@lavenderdropp @mimisweetz. @purplesoulsapphire

@kksmush @denkpanda18 @whomisi @lessthanimperfect @silver-rin

@namis-noodlebox

@k1ttyluverz @akiramente

@rascalraccoon @ravenclawkae1

@gilded-sunrays @crescent-blades

@yukari1k @bloodymarysgirl21

@artbyrebel @abaker74

Remember if you want to be added to the taglist lemme know

"Does something feel off to you today?"

"Hm? No. Not particularly. Why do you ask?"

It was a bit more nippy out today than usual. Really feeling that Christmas snow getting ready to come in. It had been at least almost three weeks since your aunt had gone on her trip to the wedding and came back. You had picked her up at the airport despite her insistence on getting a taxi back home, and on the long drive home had asked her about it.

"How was your trip?," you asked her with a smile as you began to pull out of your parking spot. "Did the ride back go well?"

"Honey, I think I'm gonna have to take a bus next time." She groaned stretching out her back. "Didn't know you could get jet leg from a plane."

"How was the wedding?"

"Pretty generic as far as weddings go. Wedding cake this. Walk down the aisle that. Though I might get some future business if I'm lucky."

"...Did you do as I asked?"

"Sweetheart." She smiled at you in a smirking knowing way. "Someone's gonna love you.~"

You gave her a weird confused look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, just wait and see.~"

"That still doesn't answer my question."

It still didn't. And your aunt wouldn't give you a straight answer. So you took it as a maybe it'll work or maybe it won't. You'll have to wait and see if anything did change. However days went on. November was passing by slowly and coldly. Soon enough it would be December and the time to start decorating for Christmas. Still no word from Kyojuro...then again you really hadn't seen or heard from him since he picked up Koto for Sanemi from the daycare. You didn't ask Mei or anyone else figuring it'd be rude to ask about someone else's business, and let it be.

However you couldn't shake the feeling that something seemed... different about today. You couldn't figure out why for the life of you even as you both were helping to pick up toys strewn about the place and disinfectant all the surfaces sticky little hands would touch but he had looked up hearing you ask him a question.

You shrugged spraying a toy stuffed bunny with disinfectant spray. "Oh I don't know. It just feels like something is off today is all."

"Did you leave anything on before you left the house?"

"No "

"Did you leave your house unlocked?"

"No."

"Perhaps you forgot to pick up something?"

"No. I paid my bills this month and I went grocery shopping yesterday. I got everything I needed." 

"Perhaps your classes?"

"I've been keeping up with both classes." The bunny was tossed into the toy box nearby and you moved on towards something else to clean. "I don't know what it is, but I just feel that something's off somehow."

He hummed again. "Whatever it is it's probably not too important if you aren't worried about it. I'm sure whatever it is will sort itself out soon enough."

"You're probably right. I'm just a bit stressed out with all the work I guess."

He was right. Whatever it was probably wouldn't be very important if you couldn't remember what it was or figure out what it is. It'll be forgotten about in no time at all. Which is why you put it mostly out of your mind. It was still in the back of your mind but mostly forgotten about in favor of finishing clean up with Gyomei and leaving to go do that day's part of the project with Giyuu and Shinobu. Giyuu had mentioned repeatedly wanting to go by his sister's restaurant again to try out the new home made breaded fish cutlets she was trying out. Sounded good to you but you weren't expecting to see some familiar faces in the park as you waited for a walk about.

It was just business as usual. You met up with the stoic couple. Gyomei opted for waiting again as he did want to make a call, something about a package mix up at the post office. And off you three went. Around one time, and then partially around the second time when you saw a familiar face..

Or rather a familiar face saw you.

"Y/N!!!" 

You nearly jumped out of your skin at the loud voice behind you. You turned- "AH!?" And was quickly scooped up by Giyuu who's face did not change when a pink and green blur whizzed past you both.

Mitsuri had skidded to a stop both arms thrown out still in mid tackle huh before those shiny green eyes blinked, and turned behind her. She let out a happy gasp again before squealing and running towards you both that seemed almost inhuman. This time Giyuu didn't move fast enough and both of you made surprised sounds when he was swept off his feet... Literally.

You blinked as you were sat there in Giyuu's lap with his arms securely wrapped around you, while he blinked as he in turn was held up bridal style by a very affectionate Mitsuri. ....Just how strong WAS this petite lady?! 

"It's you! It's you! It's you!," she squealed happily hopping about. "And Giyuu and Shinobu!~" She sang out before quickly gasping again in a hopeful beam. "Are you three going out?"

....You blinked as you tried to comprehend the situation. "Um...Were out here doing our project."

"Which we need to finish." Shinobu tapped the phone still recording like it was obvious.

Mitsuri gasped again. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!"

Slowly Giyuu was placed back down to his feet and you still processing what was going on just asked, "What are you doing here?"

I'm on a date with Tengen and Kyo!" With a turn and a full arm wave, she happily waved down two other people slowly walking up to you all. Tengen with an arm affectionately lazily resting around Kyojuro's shoulders. 

"GREETINGS!!" "How you doing?" They each greeted you both.

"We were on our way to this new restaurant that just opened up with these huge kabobs I wanted!...*sigh* But they were closed."

Shinobu smiled. "What a coincidence. We were just going to eat ourselves. Why not join us?"

She squealed again. "Really?! That's a great idea! We can all make it a triple date!"

"As soon as Giyuu puts Y/n down."

Said blue eyed man blinked before looking down at your form, suddenly realizing that you were still held, turned a bright pink, and then quickly put you down on your own feet muttering rapid fire apologies. Things sure went on a surprising twist that rest of the day. What turned into your plan on just joining a few friends for dinner and then going home turned into a triple surprise dinner date you were dragged into thanks to Shinobu. You didn't mind of course when you were finally able to process everything  but you did feel slightly guilty about springing it on Gyomei whom was just as surprised when the extra footsteps and voices reached his ears."

And the familiar bone crushing hug of Mitsuri wrapped around his middle. For a brief moment you wondered if she was strong enough to lift him up too or if Gyomei's unusual size and weight prevented her from doing so. You might never know because she didn't try to lift him up.

"It's quite a surprise to see you all here-," he said with a curious tilt of his head, "-but weren't you three going to that barbeque place you wanted to go to?"

"We were! But they're closed and we ran into you guys!" Mitsuri beamed throwing around her arms in excitement as she babbled. "We can all go together and make a date outta it! What do you say?!"

"Oh? That's a good idea but it would depend on what Y/n feels like doing."

"I don't mind." He turned his head to you. "It might be fun to hang out together."

That's how you found yourself walking all the way to the delicious smelling restaurant so familiar with you by now and shivering from the warmth cascading over your body from the inside. Tsutako was happy to see her brother and all him friends, happily greeting you all and gesturing to a large table to seat everyone. 

Perhaps it was a strange coincidence that you were sat right across from Kyojuro as the beaming man laughed loudly at some joke Tengen made that was loud enough to gain the attention of a few other tables in the small restaurant. A few orders later and you seven were left waiting and listening to Tengen telling the tale of the time he flashily narrowly escaped the clutches of a rabid wolf on a hiking trip and was only able to barely escape from it using his survival skills he learnt from his days as a boy scout-

"Wait. Are you talking about the time you jumped into a tree because a lady's rottweiler scared you at the park?," Giyuu asked bluntly silencing the taller man.

Tengen had frozen mix smile before he scowled hard at him. "NO!!"

"Yeah..I remember now. This big rottweiler ran up to you and you jumped into the oak tree. That dog was just a big puppy-"

"S-SHUT UP!!" Tengen's face burnt a bright red only made worse by Mitsuri's high pitched giggles and Kyojuro's loud booming laughs. 

"I remember that! I wanted to get one but the thought of Tengen climbing the furniture out of fear stopped me!"

"JUST DROP IT ALREADY!!"

You giggled at the hilarious reaction to everyone around the table leaving poor Tengen to pour red faced at everyone's expense. To be fair the thought of a huge man like Tengen jumping into a tree to escape a friendly dog was amusing. It'd be if Gyomei ran away from a tiny kitten or Shinobu swatting at a butterfly. The constant giggling only got Tengen to pour more however, mumbling something under his breath and looking away despite the sympathetic part on the shoulder Kyojuro gave him. 

However said firey man then surprised all of you by his next announcement. "How about a change of topic?" No one protested mostly because he spoke again before anyone could say anything else. "I wanted to wait until everyone else was present but they'll be told sooner or later anyways. I have incredible news!" His smile suddenly became as big as his plate. "My father has gotten a job!"

A small moment of silence was broken by Shinobu. "Of course he does. The dojo."

Red hair swayed as he shook his head. "No!..I mean YES!! Yes but no!"

"I'm confused."

"The strangest thing happened earlier this month!," he explained. Your attention immediately went from your cup of tea to the man right across from you, pausing mid sip. "He received a call from the Kimetsu Academy Chairman himself! He wants to hire Father as their new P.E. coach for the kendo team!"

"Eh. Ain't that the prestigious school your mom works at or something?"

"INDEED!!," He beamed proudly crossing his arms. "They only hire the best, so choosing my father proves just how good he really is! I'm very happy for him!" 

"And you're just telling us this now?"

"He didn't want anyone to know until he had time to make up his mind on the matter. Now that he had, he'll be starting next semester!"

"That's wonderful news," Gyomei finally spoke with a smile. "I suppose Senjuro's desire to establish a new club has taken off in ways that even we didn't expect."

Kyojuro hummed tilting his head. "You know that's the strangest part of it." Gyomei hummed back in question. "The Chairman didn't find out about my father's business through Senjuro despite him presenting the idea of a kendo club to him."

"Then your mother was very kind to convince the school of his talents."

"It wasn't her either. In fact she was as confused as he was when the Chairman wished to speak with him. It's incredibly hard to believe but somehow the Chairman was given one of Father's business cards." He made his hand into a semi rectangular shape as if demonstrating actually holding one. 

"Well you did make them to be passed out. One of them must've been passed to him through a parent."

You calmly say back in your chair and sipped your tea to avoid any unwanted attention. You had a feeling of what happened but you weren't entirely too sure.

"That's the strangest thing. Senjuro wasn't able to pass them out at school yet. We had lots made but a good chunk of them went missing not too long ago. Instead he had gotten the card at some social event from a lady called...." He hummed red eyes looking up as he tried to recall the name. "Daki. Dakota. Dakita? Something along those lines."

Gyomei slowly lowered his drink and tilted his head at Kyojuro as if something fell into place.

"Wow. It's like a super early Christmas miracle!," Mitsuri gushed, "*gasp* Maybe it was an angel! Sent to answer your prayers!"

"Yeah..I doubt that, Mitzi."

"Did you say 'Dakita'?," Gyomei's voice spoke slowly making you suddenly freeze right next to his larger form.

Kyojuro nodded. "Something like that I believe. I can't be for certain as it's second hand knowledge."

.....Gyomei suddenly turned to you making you freeze up even more under his raised. "Don't you have an Aunt Dakita?"

You swore it was like a domino effect of everyone turning their heads turning to you. Nervously you gulped under the intense feeling before smiling nervously to laugh it off. "I do. She's a really good matchmaker."

"Hm. That must mean she has a lot of networking to do. Did you not take a card from Rengoku during the party?"

You gave him a look. Was he TRYING to throw you under the bus or something?!

"Your aunt is responsible for the Chairman's call?"

Kyojuro's sudden intense look, eyebrows raised in surprise, had you pausing as a feeling of awkward silence come over the table. You felt like you were suddenly in an interrogation room being stared down at by seven pairs of eyes...Well six pairs of eyes and one pair of ears in Gyomei's case. Either way it was an awkward intimidating moment.

You shrugged. "I-I mean..I did give her a few cards Senjuro was passing out." Wasn't a lie. Senjuro was passing them out but specifically you gave her the ones he didn't get to get. Your f/c looked everywhere but the intense gaze of the man in front of you. "She does a lot of n-networking with clients and you guys seemed like you needed a hand so, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try and help a little bit..."

You trailed off fiddling with the tablecloth under her hands as the silence resumed. Nothing but the clinking and murmuring of the few other tables being occupied by other people in the restaurant with your group. For a moment no one said a single word until something you didn't expect broke the silence.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!"

You jumped, looking up and blinking at Kyojuro who had thrown his head back and was.. laughing. Loud, happy, and not what you expected to hear. He kept laughing and laughing. His smile contagious to everyone else at the table as they also smiled at him. Eventually his smile was directed back to your confused face.

"Mitsuri should've dressed you up as an angel for the party instead of a queen!," his delightful voice spoke out.

You blinked. "...What?"

"Gyomei couldn't have picked a nicer woman to join us! Now I can see why everyone likes you so much!"

Gyomei gave him a look that seemed both a mix of surprise and confusion raising a brow at Kyojuro. However you could only blink again.

"Wait. You're not mad?"

"Absolutely not! Why would I be angry with someone who's been the one who put the ball into motion for my family to get better?"

"Well-" You made a motion with your hand. "-it wasn't really me. My aunt did the real work of getting the right connection."

"Hm. That's true! I'll have to thank her if I ever get the pleasure of meeting this wonderful lady!," he announced loudly. 

Oh gods no. The chaos from that would be so embarrassing to say the least. Just the thought of the two chaotic forces meeting had you filled with dread. 

"I'll pass along the message for you." Without thinking too much about it you just reached out to pat Kyojuro's hand making him blink in surprise while waving him off with your other hand. "I'm genuinely happy to know that I was able to help your family." He blinked as you smiled at him brightly and genuinely. "I'm very proud of your dad getting a good job! He deserves it definitely!"

For a moment Kyojuro didn't speak when you pulled your hand away and turned your attention to the drink you hadn't finished yet. Thankfully no one got a chance to say anything else about the situation because Tsutako came back out with some of your food. Kyojuro however slowly closed his hand where you had gripped it. A pleasant feeling running up his arm and tickling his face a pink as a large beaming smile at you.

"So, Tengen. Have you painted anything new lately?," you asked shifting the topic back onto someone else.

Said white haired man perked up at the question. "Well since you asked, I've been working on this absolutely beautiful landscape of the nearby mountains."

With the attention thankfully off you now, you could relax and eat the daikon in front of you to fill the emptiness in your stomach and hopefully you would be able to get through the rest of this month normally...

No such luck.

Not even a few days later and you were back on schedule again working at the daycare, attending classes, and the usual. So when you were checking out children one Tuesday afternoon, you were surprised when you saw a familiar face walk in again. No not Sanemi.

Kyojuro.

He walked right in smile beaming with happiness. You were both surprised and confused to see him there but have him a smile as the usual greeting you normally gave.

"Hi, Kyojuro. What a surprise! Are you here to get Koto for Sanemi again? I don't remember him telling me about it."

He shook his head long hair swaying. "NO! I actually swung by to see you!"

You blinked. "Me?"

"INDEED! I've regaled your genuine selflessness to my family and they'd like to personally invite you and your Aunt to dinner so they can personally express their gratitude!"

You stared. "..What?"

"Furthermore I'd love to have you come join us more often for outings since I don't quite think we're acquainted enough yet! In fact the girls are going out this Saturday! You should come along!"

"....What?"

[tadpoles-and-daydreams]

A ramble on imposter syndrome and the accessibility of witchcraft

So, I’ve been thinking. I think a lot in case you haven’t noticed. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the major imposter syndrome I’ve been feeling lately in regards to this blog. TL;DR is at the bottom of this post.

People have been, occasionally, sending me asks requesting my opinion on things/how I do things/what I know about XYZ topic. If you are one of these people, I promise I’m not vagueposting about you in particular- in fact, I love these questions! They’re so fun to get and they actually make me sit and think sometimes, or even encourage me to write out something that I’ve been meaning to for my book of shadows. Genuinely, they're wonderful asks to receive. These questions have made me confront something, however; my blog is still small, but some people actually like what I write and value my opinion even if just a little. 

I feel like a mimic hiding in the witchcraft community. I feel like, were people to truly understand my experiences, they would want to “expose” me for knowing so little.

So I sat down with those feelings and turned it over in my head and I’ve come to a conclusion. The fact is, I don’t do research. At least- not what I think of when people talk about research. My "research" consists of the occasional rabbit hole I go down, one and two halves of different books I never finished under my belt, what I see scrolling through various social medias, and conversations I've had with other witches. I check to make sure I'm not stepping on the toes of any closed practices- in fact, that's what most of my energy goes to when it comes to research. This isn't a complaint; I'd much rather know that my craft isn't appropriative.

But I don’t know much about mythology, even that of the deities I work with. I don't even remember the holidays and what they're for. I thought Nyx was an Egyptian deity until like four months ago because I'd just heard her name in passing as a child and had never looked into the mythology... Even though I mainly work with the pantheon she belongs to. Y’all, I’ve done like three spells that I remember. My book of shadows is a messy disaster and I love it but it's got so little information in it, because I rarely write things down. Most resources (especially mythology resources) are academically worded or difficult to read for me personally, and all of these things feel like secrets I have to guard with my life because if I were to ever say them aloud, people would know I'm a fraud.

Today I've come to the conclusion that that is, in fact, absolute bullshit.

Maybe it's not, maybe this post will make some people really upset, but in my practice it's bullshit. All of the above is a result of my ADHD and the fact that I am nothing if not a hands-on learner. My craft is mostly my own experiences because that's how my whole life is; I learn by doing. My ideal learning style is sitting with another autistic person whose special interest is whatever I'm learning about and just talking for five hours, but if that's not something I can do, puzzling it out myself is the next best thing. That's what I've been doing ever since I felt had a basic foundation for my craft. Hell, even before I had a foundation I was putting my own experiences into my craft because "Well that rule just doesn't fucking vibe with me."

This post is mostly for me, but partially for anyone who feels similar. We are not broken or doing witchcraft/paganism wrong. We are simply what happens when the kid who could never do homework ends up practicing the "religion/spirituality that comes with homework." Witchcraft and paganism, in my experience, is far from accessible when it comes to the typical image of it. UPG is what makes it accessible. So yes, my practice is heavily UPG, and I don't do as much research as I think people have assumed. But I'm going to let go of the idea that I'm a fraud, because frankly I know enough about witchcraft to have supported my practice this whole time and my deities haven't smited me yet so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

TL:DR:

Fuck the rules, I don't do much research. I've researched the "basics" and what I need to so I'm not stepping on any toes of closed practices, but people seem to think I know way more than I actually do. I've felt like I was lying this whole time but frankly witchcraft just isn't accessible to someone with my flavor of auDHD, so my craft relies heavily on UPG and I've decided that I'm not broken or wrong for that and neither is anyone else. I'm tired of seeing myself as an imposter just because I make my practice doable for me.

[satorubrain]

Heyy <3

Can i have *another* request for the child eater Gojo~ how he would wake us up:

Normally (everyday)

To be sweet~

In an emergency~

and To be a pain!

Thank you!! i'm looking so forward to this!!!

Pairing: Gojo Satoru x Reader.

Tags: Fluff, slight angst.

Synopsis: How Satoru wakes you up.

A/N: WELL THEN I HOPE U ENJOY THIS BBY <3

Normally.

Lets consider this is the normal one but the real normal is "to be a pain"

He wouldn't. He doesn't even want to get up. But your phone is too far from his reach and it's too comfortable to leave. He nuzzles in the crook of your neck, inhaling your sweet scent mixed with your lotion.

"Babeeee" he whines. "Your alarm has been going off for the last 15 minutes? Think you can do something about it please?"

"Mn. 5 more minutes pleasee" You mumble in your sleep, head buried in the pillow, eliciting a giggle from him.

It's a daily thing and both of you knew that. The 5 minutes might turn into 5 hours and you'll still somehow manage to doze off without a worry in your sleepyhead.

He hugs you a little tighter before dragging you up along with him, rocking back and forth with you, saying sweet nothings in your ear waking you up (mostly because if he annoys you in the morning, he'd be found dead in the next two seconds).

To be sweet.

This usually happens when you return late at night from a week long mission or when he fully knows you've been having a hard time recently, he tries his best to be extra sweet.

He wakes up a little early, drawing you a bath so you can relax. While the water is filling up he gets you breakfast, since he's prohibited from cooking but at least he knows how to make your favourite kind of tea.

Giving you a gentle kiss on your cheek as he slides an arm under your back, helping you get up.

"Good morning, sweet. I've got you breakfast and drawn a bath for you. What do you want first..... Or perhaps you want me?" He mischievously jokes earning a smack on the shoulder from you.

In an emergency.

I dont really imagine what kind of emergencies he might have. But I can think of three to be specific.

Case 1:

If anything that wakes him is your phone ringing because someone called you at an ungodly time.

Thankfully before it could even bother you, he picks it up just to find out about an emergency exorcism of a special grade curse that appeared out of nowhere. All it did was annoy him, he was irritated by the higherups who decided to summon you at 4 in the morning.

No he still doesn't wake you up. Instead he decides to solve your problem and not bother your peace.

Giving you a quick peck on your forehead, whispering "sleep tight, sweets. I will be right back" to which you mumble random incomprehensible words, which was enough encouragement for him. It doesn't even take him an hour to finish up your work and return to your warm embrace, giving in to his sleep.

"Uhh what did I get paid for?" You question, mostly yourself while checking the text message as you got ready for the day.

"Well i wonder" he stands proudly in front of you grinning widely giving you an answer.

Case 2:

He's crying.

It's one of the days when his thoughts get the better of him, his past comes tumbling down, numbing his senses and leaving him so vulnerable.

He's holding you close, afraid that he'll have to lose you too- maybe that you'll leave him or something else. His past has left a deep wound in his heart that is far from being healed, which reopens from time to time leaving him whimpering and afraid.

You soon wake up to his silent sobs, his chest heaving, and his soft sniffs. It doesn't take you long to come to your senses and realize he's probably having an anxiety attack. You know what's aching him, he doesn't need to tell you nor do you need to ask.

You hug him tightly as you gently pat his head. "My love, my Satoru. I'm here alright? You'll be fine. We will be fine okay, love?" you try your best to comfort him, reminding him to regulate his breathing as you wipe his tears, and thankfully it seems to be working.

"P-please... Don't leave me" Satoru pleads, sounding so pained and broken. You feel your heart shatter at his words.

"Always my love, I'll always be with you" You assure him, cupping his cheeks as he rests his forehead against yours, closing his eyes while holding you tightly as he falls asleep.

To be a pain.

Exhibit A.

Another emergency being, him having a stupid question at 3 fucking 48 in the morning.

"babe babe as curses are developing they will start crushing too?" "Do you think Sukuna ever gets lonely? Nah maybe not hes a loser" "Babe will you love me if i was a worm?" "I had a dream of you!!! Did you dream about me too?" He shakes you awake, looking at you with his bright cerulean curious eyes.

"Gojo Satoru are you serious?!"

"My name is not Gojo Satoru, my name is, my love or something like that but not gojo. But what do you think about the question!!!!!!"

Exhibit B.

He has returned from a week-long mission at 4am and of course he wakes you up with a loud announcement of his arrival before he rushes into your shared bedroom, discarding his blindfolds somewhere. The door hits the wall with a loud bang while his throws himself on top of you crushing you with his weight.

"I'm love-starved" He explains cupping your cheeks, frowning and pouting slightly, his eyes a little watery. Enjoying your every movement and grunt that spill past your lips as you try to make space for yourself. Witnessing your beauty makes him realize how much he missed you as he cages with a tight hug.

Exhibit C:

"Rise and shineeeeeee" He declares as he slides the curtains aside causing you to wake up whining.

"Glad you woke up! I need my morning kiss now" He returns to you demanding a morning kiss just to be thrown off the bed when he comes close to you before you rush to the bathroom to get ready.

Oh, how he loves teasing you and annoying you. Knowing you won't even say a word before brushing and getting rid of that morning breath he could care less about.

[REQUESTS ARE OPEN]

[sukibenders]

Some in the HOTD fandom really don't care about black people or their voices, and it shows especially during conversations about the portrayal of black characters. I've been seeing an uptick mostly in regards to the possibility that Ryan Cordal may merge Rhaena's and Nettles's storylines and, while I'm not finished with the book (audiobook) nor have reached Nettles part, I don't want that to happen for a couple of reasons. However, it's very apparent the very "here, there!" energy some have when people complain about this by going "But they made the Velaryons, this great house, black! Corlys and his family, his children, and grandchildren are black, so what's the problem?" If they actually cared then they would have gathered the issue a long time ago, but instead, they play ignorant. I've stated some of the issues of HOTD's treatment of black characters in my post about Laena (+ featuring Baela, Rhaena, and even Laenor), but one really annoying thing is the belief that just making these characters black was enough. This is a very common theme that I see with some who go "Oh, we don't mind that you changed the race of this/these character(s)" but only as long as they remain in the background after that change, completely ignoring how, in the original text, said character was given more to do than what is shown after the change.

I was very excited to hear that the Velaryons would be played by black actors, especially after hearing all the things that happen in the books, but then I get little to nothing from the show in those regards. Many vital plot points for these characters have been skipped over, or rushed, or just plain ignored and yet whenever we criticize it we're met with people saying we should just be happy that we got something. That we get to be in it at all. And it's very apparent the disparities in treatment because I've seen think pieces and the praises they receive when people call out how HOTD portrays Rhaenyra, or Alicent, or Daemon and many of the other white characters (which is fine, as it makes since because there are big differences) but it's crickets or passive aggressiveness when it comes to the black and other poc characters. Sometimes they can't even have any plot of their own without it relating back to their white counterparts (eg. Laena's dragonriders death being brought back to Rhaenyra to elevate her, or her death just being used as a stepping stone to bring Daemyra onscreen). I remember seeing people being mad at Rhaena for daring to be upset at being sent away, not even bothering to see her side of things and calling her selfish and whiny because she dared to make the decision harder on Rhaenyra. Like gods forbid black and brown characters get testy because suddenly it's a problem.

Another argument I see when it comes to Nettles involvement is because, apparently, "there are already black characters in the show" as if that, not only, ignores the treatment they face but also acts as a reason as to why she can't be added to the show. Why can't there be more black characters? Why do they only have to be silver-haired or illegitimate children to be important? Like, at this point, say what you want to say out loud. And I know that some don't want her added because of how it makes Rhaenyra look (because I know she says some nasty and borderline racist things in the books) and the show has a thing for not making her, or other members of TB, morally dubious/complex, as well as splits Daemyra and, if that's the case, JUST SAY SO! Stop creating fake think pieces when you really just don't like this black character because you don't want her to take away from your favorite white incest ship, which, in HOTD, is already crashing and burning from what it seems at this point. Like Nettles and Daemon could still be a thing, maybe with some slight changes, and Rhaenyra could still be involved (because I think these three characters are connected plotwise, from what I've seen so far, so it wouldn't really make sense to split them up) by making her see the same grooming tendencies that Daemon used for her toward Nettles, maybe she gets protective if they want to follow HOTD canon. Maybe not, who knows, but in the end erasing this prevalent black character does nothing helpful to the story just gives some of these fans the ability to not see more black people in their fantasy genre.

[snarky-magpie]

20 Qᴜᴇꜱᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ꜰᴏʀ ꜰɪᴄ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇʀꜱ

Thanks for the tag, @fiendishfyre! 1. How many works do you have on A03? 16 published, 9 hidden.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 673,850. I don't have a problem. No sir.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Harry Potter atm, original, and Voltron (formerly, lol).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? 1. PS. I Hate You. 2. Many Happy Halloweens 3. Catching Crows 4. Call Me By My Name 5. Stealing The Seeker (my first HP fic, yay)

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes, to every single one unless they're rude (they usually aren't). I spend way too much time online and love to talk about my stories.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? None, really. I mostly write HEA. I am planning an MCD fic, but I don't know if I'll find the strength to actually write it.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Definitely PS. I Hate You. The epilogue will give you diabetes.

8. Do you get hate on fics? No, I'm not famous enough for hate. Most people in the fandom have been lovely. I've only got hate from prongsfoot shippers for saying there's a way to enjoy both jegulus and prongsfoot without hating on the other (ironically). Soured me on the whole ship pretty fast, though.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes, but mostly for Voltron. I only have one smutty HP fic. I do love writing it, though, and I've got an explicit jegulus story in the works.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Tried Voltron x Wednesday, and it was a really cool experience, but I gave up due to a lack of readership.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Tried to, with one of my betas. Got as far as two chapters.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Jegulus jegulus jegulus jegulus jegulus (I'm normal about them)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Of Bluebells and Deception. Don't look for it, it's one of the hidden ones.

16. What are your writing strengths? Insert the meme 'you people have strengths?' Dunno. Based on what people say, I'm funny? Yeah, it comes as a shock to me too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Timeline consistency. Please, if you love me, never check if the dates, years, and ages of the characters align. Also, descriptions, and I tend to overdo it with internal monologues.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I write everything in another language since my first language is Czech. It's tough and gives me permanent impostor syndrome.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Voltron: Legendary Defender

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? Ironically, my least popular one (by a long shot). Moorland Skies. Tagging: @courfee @thebibutterflyao3 @howmanyfrecklesdoyousee @starlightvld (No pressure, of course!) And whoever else wants to play.

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics:

Birds of Prey #13: That was a clever use of Cass to finish the storyline. Kelly Thompson's generated enough good will from me at this point that yeah, I'd consider her as one of the strongest Birds of Prey writers since Dixon and Simone, though Sean McKeever probably still edges her out (McKeever had a stronger lead in though to work from, and so many people barely distinguish his work from Simone's).

I'm interested to see where Thompson takes them from here. I certainly still have quibbles (I would love to see a commitment to using Barbara as Oracle only appear on page; I do think Thompson is having way too much fun trying to play with ALL the characters and needs to focus a bit more on the ones she has already), but I'm never disappointed by the title? I enjoy myself.

Batman #152: I've got to say, as someone who has also played around with Darkseid powers, I enjoyed that Bruce acknowledged on page that Omega Beams do weird shit on occasion, revolving around what Darkseid wants, and that Bruce would in fact be cautious of them in ways other people are not. I'm not sure as a story it accomplishes a lot as an an Absolute Power tie-in (mostly I think it's just keeping Bruce out of the way while other characters get focus in the main titles), but I did appreciate the use of the Batman #79 callback to the Beach Holiday Of Explicitly Taking Time For Ourselves While The Children Are Dealing With Drama, because Bruce and Selina and holidays at the beach and on cruises is a long running theme together and I never hate seeing it pop up.

Putting the Birds of Prey Absolute Power set up into the back of this made sense in terms of comics pricing and keeping the number of event comics contained, but also probably needed to be better signalled. Read this AFTER BOP #13.

The Boy Wonder #5: and Juni Ba caps his story off.

This was sweet! In the spectrum of non-canonical or dubiously-canonical retellings of origin stories, I think this straddled the line pretty well, particularly in how it was explicitly pitched as a story someone was telling. Some of the resolution in the final issue was a bit pat for me (in terms of we all moved forward and solved things), but the focus stayed where it needed to be (on Damian and Damian's connections), and plenty of the implications were significantly creepier than Smol Damian here realised.

This would sit happily beside the Demon Trilogy as a quasi-canonical Al Ghul story. I think Dennis O'Neil would have appreciated it.

DC's I Know What You Did Last Crisis #1:

Honestly my opening thought on this was 'why did anyone offer Dan DiDio a writing slot'? Because, I've read a bunch of DiDio's work, and part of the situation with him at DC has always been that he's a mediocre writer that wouldn't rate a title if he hadn't already been working in editorial/management. His credits don't actually contain any stories and titles that people are big fans of, and a lot of his work was done collaboratively with stronger writers (if you're writing with Keith Giffen, I suspect Giffen is handling a lot of the actual plotting work and charm).

Okay rant out of the way:

Batgirl-COIE story: I don't mind this, but I feel like if I were going to pitch a Barbara story at this point I'd want it more in communication with Barbara Randall Kesel's work. I'd have Barbara acknowledge the Krypto stuffed dog and maybe bond with the kid over "I had a teddy called Supergirl". Also, this is...very early for 'Waylon likes kids'. Like, decades too early. Croc's characterisation feels far later than when this story is set.

Dr Light-Millennium: It's not bad as a horror piece, but as a few other people have noted, I feel it wastes the aspect of 'the Manhunters are hidden among us' inherent in their portrayal in the event. Nice moment spent with a few characters who don't get much page time though.

Birds of Prey-Final Night: this very much feels like a missing tie in! Which we didn't get, because BOP had the Manhunt mini instead during that period. Ashley Allen has a good grasp on the time frame and events going on for this. My one quibble is having Dinah working in Gotham here, as Barbara still was focusing on world-roaming problems at this point over local ones, but otherwise, it slotted in very nicely.

JSA-Zero Hour: This is fine. I will say the quip about "the number of Bat-people" for Zero Hour feels a bit thin. You mean, Batman, Nightwing, Robin, ... Huntress and Spoiler? Steph has barely had her second ever storyline, the only person in Gotham who trusts Helena is Tim, JPV is busy dealing with having been insane, and Dick's been home for five minutes. They literally just finished a multi-year event about how Bruce didn't have the support he needed.

Nightwing-Infinite Crisis: it's just sad and pathetic that Dan DiDio remains so mad that his staff rebelled and wouldn't let him kill Dick Grayson. It was almost two decades ago. Why are you still having a tantrum about this publicly? It's not even worth addressing the characterisation, as it's just an attempted take-that that makes him look worse.

Scarecrow-Blackest Night: ...if you're going to set something at the Monarch Theatre maybe take 5 seconds to check the wiki about what was happening with the location around the time of the story. It was not a functioning movie theatre, folks, and we're just prior to The Carpenter's Tale. I dunno. This one felt like a waste of the setting.

Lex Luthor-Final Crisis: look I don't enjoy Final Crisis, but this is incredibly set during Final Crisis. This feels like pretty solid Lex characterisation and introspection, and I'm sure he hates that he's hallucinating a Superman to talk down to.

Midnighter-Flashpoint: I dunno, the characterisation feels off for both Pyg and Midnighter. It's fine, but I would have preferred another story that really felt like a missing backup from an event.

My general overarching opinion? Most of the writers could have used a bit closer attention to context for their stories, if you're playing "this is set during". That's something people can check.

The Warlord #66: I just checked and we are so close to halfway through volume 1 of the Warlord! They simply do not commission 133 issue runs plus annuals of random conspiracy titles anymore. Anyway this week in Skartaris Mongo Ironhand remains the worst. Also Mariah and Mikola finally get to talk to each other and Mariah tells her lost werewolf fencing instructor lover that she's actually now got the hots for an ex-gladiator with a spiked mace for a fist. (Oh, Skartaris)

There is tragically very little discussion of communism. Get back to preaching about the benefits of communism, Mariah!

Also we fight a demon (who transformed from the Gollum creature like...30 issues earlier), Mariah tricks him into stabbing himself in the eyesocket with a trick sword, Jennifer defeats him with magic, they throw the magic book the demon was using into a volcano vent to destroy it, and the men are largely all useless.

Thank you, that has been our back in pre-history LOTR rip off of the week.

[utopiastri]

Fic Writer Interview!!!

tagged by @1425fivefive (forever ago, whoops!) and @miamimaiden

(this was such a funny ask game bc i did mostly end up discussing my F1 fics but I also have a Number of musicals fics on my ao3 so those do also crop up in my answers lmao)

How many works do you have on AO3?

10 in total!!! 4 F1 fics so far though

What's your total AO3 word count?

62,635 apparently (mostly being driven by one of those aforementioned musicals fics lmao)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

who actually texts people this much (3,076) (again. the musicals fic)

you must like me for me (646)

tell me 'bout the first time you saw me (508)

you're always on my team (464)

and i'll learn how to fly (253)

ok other than the obvious outlier at the top, i'm thrilled that my four F1 fics are the ones that have made it into the top 5 because they are undeniably the ones i'm proudest of right now

insane to me how many people have liked you're always on my team!!! i was a little nervous about posting my first chaptered fic in a while and i'm so happy it got such a lovely reception

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes!!! oh my god i love responding to comments as much as i love leaving comments myself!!!

the only thing with this is that i do find myself forgetting to actually put time aside in my day to do it!!! so sometimes, about two weeks after i read a comment and internally squealed about it, i'll go "oh FUCK i didn't reply that comment" and sprint to my laptop

so, uh, if you've ever received a late comment reply from me? now you know why lmao

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

oh god um. none of them? i guess the one abandoned fic on my ao3 account (a she-ra fic from 2018 lmao) has the angstiest ending by virtue of the fic not being finished and no resolution being reached lmao

but genuinely i don't think i could ever write a fic with an angsty ending!!! i think at best i could plot an angty ending??? or maybe write a drabble or something??? but honestly, i really struggle reading angsty endings so it would be a rogue move to write one lmao

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

ooooooo excellent question

honestly any of my finished F1 fics probably work but i think i'll go with you must like me for me! truly one of my favourite brands of happy ending is a reciprocated love confession and (not to spoil the fic lmao) that might be one of my favourite ones i've ever done!

Do you write crossovers?

nope!!!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

oooo once upon a time i received a comment on that musicals fic, who actually texts people this much, that was fairly harsh on the writing??? the worst part was enough time had passed since i'd written the fic and i'd honestly reached the part of the writing cycle where i hated everything about it so i almost agreed with the commenter lmao

even today, i think the critique was accurate! but perhaps not a polite/kind thing to comment on someone's fic lmao

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i'm trying to!!! i haven't posted any yet

i am terrible at describing things (including like. physical movement) so, so far, any smut i've attempted to write has been fairly dialogue-heavy!!! but honestly that's generally my taste in smut so i think this tracks

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

that musicals texting fic has been translated somewhere on the internet! one of my friends in uni dug it up lmao

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

never co-written before! i am a huge fan of brainstorming fics with my friends though! either their fics or mine - i just love the collaboration of it all!!!

What's your all-time favorite ship?

god this is difficult!!! my taste in ships moves around all the time to be honest

ok for F1, it's fairly easy - landoscar do unfortunately possess my entire heart and there is very little i can do about that lmao

other than that? i do have to mention how much i still adore the les mis pairing enjolras/grantaire because i did spend a good portion of my teenage years thinking about them and only them lmao

and i spent many a year in steve/bucky from the mcu hell so i guess it's important that that goes on here too!

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

so many!!! in particular though, i would love to one day finish the first ever landoscar fic i ever worked on (the idea was that oscar and lando are friends with benefits but, through miscommunication shenanigans, have somehow never kissed lmao)

i think i'd just really enjoy the full circle moment of getting to finish that first wip!

What are your writing strengths?

dialogue!!! dialogue my beloved! my favourite thing i have ever written is the unreciprocated love confession scene in you must like me for me - writing a dramatic not-argument/discussion was just so tailored to my strengths of writing dialogue and not much else lmao

there's a reason i'm having so much fun with you're always on my team! and it's because what is a texting fic if not a fic made only of dialogue!!!

What are your writing weaknesses?

description!!!!!! tell me 'bout the first time you saw me was a delight to write but truly i don't know if i could do a first meeting fic again because trying to work out how a stranger would describe oscar piastri was a NIGHTMARE

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

as someone who can only speak english, i simply don't have a good enough understanding of any other language to do it without defaulting to like. terrible google translate

i think it can be fun to read though!!! it depends what effect the author is going for tbh

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

...glee (i wasn't even that into glee!!! my two best friends at the time were though so i wrote a couple things i thought they'd enjoy lmao)

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

galex!!! i don't know if i could do it but i really really want to one day - if only because my girlfriend's sister adores them and i think it would be fun to write something for her!

although i have also been pondering gax a lot with @jusst-you-race!!! so maybe i should throw gax in here too

What's your favorite fic you've written?

you must like me for me undoubtedly. it's the most complete fic i think i've ever written in that there's a clear plot with a clear resolution and, as i said earlier, that unreciprocated love confession/first kiss scene is genuinely my favourite thing i have written of anything ever!!!

it was also the first fic i'd posted in nearly 6 years!!! and i'm so glad i felt happy enough with it to share it because i've just had the most wonderful time in this fandom since doing so!!!

i cannot for the life of me remember who has done this so no pressure tagging @ipleadbritney and @jusst-you-race and anyone else who wants to do this!!!

[scarletsaphire]

Danny, newly added to the cheer team (mostly) against his will, is attending his first lock in with the girls. It's a lot more fun than he expected.

--

4th fic for @phicphight, with this one going to @lavendarlily and @lonelygrayrose, with a special shout out to @hannahmanderr because she asked politely. Prompts used will be at the end!

Danny had accepted that he didn't get much control over his life. Ever since he'd died, he was getting pulled one way or another for ghost fights or school or family stuff. It really came to its worst point went he'd been more or less bullied into joining the cheer team. Sam and Tucker were not help; they thought it was hilarious.

It did mean that the already minuscule amount of free time he had was filled with practice, or games, or other team building exercises. Like right now; the annual lock in for the cheer team, hosted in Casper High one and only cafeteria. Really pulling out all the stops.

Danny had been dreading it since it was announced two weeks ago; knowing his luck, there would be some kind of ghost attack, and then he'd have to play the whole "Oh I've been here the whole time!" game. And if that didn't happen, he'd be stuck in the cafeteria with the cheer leader girls for twelve hours straight! Sure, they were nice enough, especially since he joined the team, but that didn't mean they were friends!

It had only taken an hour for Danny to change his opinion.

The parent chaperone very clearly did not care about what they got up to, provided no one broke a bone or stole something where she could see. This allowed them to roll all of the tables off the walls of the cafeteria and construct a complicated and completely unsafe obstacle course for them to run through.

The first two girls had already given it their best shot; the first one, Abigail, who Danny had never seen without bows in her hair, had made it pretty far for being the first one through, but her hair had gotten tangled in one of the wheels, and the official score keeper (who was, of course, Paulina) gave her a DNF. She was currently off to the side with Star, getting her tied back into a braid and watching the spectacle.

The second girl, Brittany, had finished, if her time was a bit sad. "I don't want a repeat of that!" she'd said while the rest of  them teased her about her terrible performance. "I just got these braids put in on Monday, and I am not spending another four hours to get them redone!"

They were going in alphabetical order, so that meant Danny was next up. He lifted his arms above his head to stretch while he analyzed the course.

They'd done a pretty good job, if he did say so himself. There were several tables that he would need to go under, several he'd need to jump, and one they'd set up to require jumping on the seats instead of on the table. A bit rudimentary, sure, but it worked for their purposes.

"So, Danny Fenton," Paulina said, holding her water bottle out towards him like a microphone. "As the only boy on the team, you have quite the reputation to try and uphold. Do you have a strategy going into this?"

Danny flashed her a grin he normally saved for when he was Phantom. "Course I do."

Paulina returned the smile, and leaned in closer. "And what would that be?"

"And spoil the surprise? Not a chance."

Paulina laughed, leaning back on her seat of backpacks, blankets, and pillows. "You're setting high expectations, Fenton. You ready?"

Danny nodded, settling into a running stance.

"Three, two, one, go!"

He started running to the cheers of his teammates.He hadn't lied; he did have a strategy, and it didn't involve any kind of ghost powers. He wouldn't need them.

Danny had spent the better part of two years dodging bullets, ray beams, fire, boomerangs, bazookas, and about a dozen other, faster, much more painful objects. Two years honing reaction speed, flexibility, and spatial awareness, all of which would help him decimate the past two times, and anyone else who wanted to race after him.

Okay, maybe the practice part did involve ghost powers, but he wouldn't be using any now.

He vaulted over the first table cleanly, chaining the momentum to roll underneath the next table in one fluid motion. He came to his feet already running, ready to vault over the next two tables. In what felt like a heartbeat, he was already at the end obstacle, where he'd have to hop back and forth on the seats without touching the table; if he touched it, that would mean an immediate disqualification.

It didn't prove to be any more difficult than any other obstacle had been, although it was significantly slower. Danny leapt off of the final seat straight into a backflip, landing perfectly on his feet.

That part wasn't required; he just felt like flexing a little.

His grand finish was met with the roaring applause of the eight girls; Abigail had even started whistling, much to Star's annoyance, as she was still trying to fix her hair.

"And that is two minutes and twenty seven seconds!" Paulina called from her makeshift chair.

"Damn!" Alysha said. "That is going to be a tough time to beat!"

"Thank you, thank you," Danny said, taking an exaggerated bow. "I'll be here all night."

Alysha shoved his shoulder even while she laughed.

Danny made his way back to the spot he'd claimed, a little bit to the side of Paulina's seat.

"I am so happy we recruited you," she said as he sat down.

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "I am too."

As surprising as it was, it was true. Maybe he'd originally gotten the spot because of his ghost fighting and powers, but it had quickly become the only (mostly) ghost free thing he had. He'd never gotten that kind of luxury at home, and while he loved Sam and Tucker to death, it was way to easy for their hangouts to become patrols or planning patrols. Or homework, but that didn't count.

There was the additional fact that being on the cheer team had made Danny's life easier at school; the teacher's were more lenient with schoolwork, he had a different group of people he could sit with if Sam and Tucker were out sick, or if they got absorbed in their infamous debates, and everyone was just so much nicer to him.

Even Dash had stopped with the bullying, and after a couple stilted conversations and an emotionally charged apology that was leagues beyond what he'd thought Dash capable of, Danny would be willing to call them friends.

Definitely just friends though. It didn't matter that Tucker had caught him staring at Dash several times during lunch or that he got all flustered whenever they ended up in the locker room together. That was a coincidence. 

Just like Danny had expected, none of the girls came even close to his time. Star got a strong second place at three minutes flat, which was very impressive on its own, but his natural talent and years of practice held him high above the rest.

"You have to tell us how you did that," Aubrey said, jutting out her bottom lip. It was the same look she gave Coach Tetslaff every time she tried to extend practice.

Unfortunately for her, it worked just as well on Danny as it did on Coach. "Yeah, sure. Right after I tell you how I handle flying so well."

"Ugh." Aubrey flopped forward into a heap on the table. "You are. So mean."

The sound of a cellphone ringing cut off whatever Danny was going to say next. The team glanced back at the chaperone, who had settled in a corner of the room with a laptop, a thermos Danny swore was full of hard liquor, and headphones. They all sat in silence as she answered the phone.

"Hello? Uhuh. Yeah, I'll be right up. Everything should already be paid for, right? Good." She hung up the phone with a snap and stood from her spot. "Pizza's here. You kids sit tight, I'll be right back."

The group stayed quiet until her footsteps disappeared down the hallway outside of the door, before everyone shared a conspiratory look. Everyone but Danny, that is.

"Uh... what did I miss?" Danny asked.

Aubrey and Abigail stood up, one moving to the window of the door, the other to the chaperone's bag. The other girls all shared the same look again. 

"Did nobody tell you?" Dakota asked.

Danny ran over the incredibly short list of things he'd been told about the lock in, which was basically just that it was a lock in, before shaking his head. "Tell me what?"

"Oh, Ms. Pachelli is a total drunk," Paulina said. "I'm sure you've noticed its not apple juice in her thermos?"

Danny nodded his head.

"Well, that's not enough to last her a whole night, even on a good day, and dealing with us is never a good day in her books." Paulina studied her fingernails while Abigail fished a bottle of whiskey out of her backpack. "So, every year we switch out her spare bottle for one of Abby's parents' old empty ones."

Sure enough, Abigail pulled out an identical bottle from Ms. Pachelli's bag.

"And... you don't get in trouble for that?"

The rest of team all giggled. "Please," Star said dismissively. "She barely cares about us to begin with, and if she tries to get us in trouble, she'd have to admit she has a problem."

"She's coming," Aubrey hissed from the door, and Abigail made a dash back to her backpack. By the time Ms. Pachelli was back in the room, three steaming pizza pies in hand, the whole team was doing a perfect imitation of teenagers who weren't up to anything.

"It'll be over here when you girls are hungry," she said, setting them down where food was normally served. "Uh. You girls and Danny." She amended when she turned around to see them all pointing at him, a habit they'd developed with Coach Tetslaff. Ms. Pachelli settled back down in her corner, taking one, long swig from her thermos, and putting her headphones back on.

The rest of the team

"She'll fall asleep soon," Dakota whispered to Danny. "That's when the real party starts."

Sure enough, it had barely passed 1 AM before Ms. Pachelli had dozed off and the team was left completely unsupervised. Brittany went to make sure she was sleep, and after fiddling with the headphones, she shot a thumbs up at the group. Abigail pulled the bottle back out to the cheers of the team.

"It's time for the real party to get started!" Dakota called.

"Don't we need to stay quiet?" Danny asked.

Star shook her head. "Nah, she's got some video playing in the background. I don't even think a ghost attack would be loud enough to wake her."

"I think its flat earth videos this time," Brittany added. "Definitely looked like it from what I saw, at least."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Why is she even here? If she sucks and also hates all of you-" he ignored whoever called out "She hates you too!" "-why does she volunteer to do it?"

"We ask for her by name," Abigail said, passing the now opened bottle to Paulina.

Paulina took a swig straight from the container before passing it on to Brittany. "That, and if she didn't volunteer for this, she'd have to actually do something at any of the other events the school hosts. She's part of the PTA." 

"Ok, but that doesn't explain why she has to be on the PTA," Danny pointed out.

"Uh, duh, she's Derreck's mom. You can't have a kid in as many extracurriculars as he's in and not be on the PTA," Star said.

"I guess," Danny agreed. He still didn't really understand, but he also didn't want to spend the whole night asking about Ms. Pachelli's life. Besides, the bottle had reached him. He took a small sip from the bottle, and pulled a face at the unexpected burn.

The girls laughed.

"First time tasting alcohol?" Audrey teased, taking the bottle from his hands.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not the first time. I just. Didn't expect it to taste like that."

The girls all shared a look before laughing harder.

"It is going to be a fun night," Paulina said, a mischievous smile on her face.

--

Danny wasn't sure what time it was anymore. He knew that a couple of the girls had conked out, with Aubrey being the first to fall about an hour ago. He knew that he wasn't getting any sleep tonight, and from the looks of it, neither was Dakota, who was blasting music from her phone and dancing on one of the tables. She'd been the one to hog most of the bottle.

Not that Danny was complaining; he was definitely not sober, although he couldn't say whether he was tipsy or drunk or somewhere in between or another word he wasn't privy to. Either way, he was drunk enough that he'd agreed to let Paulina and Star do his makeup, something he would never have agreed to without the help of the whiskey.

"Stop moving," Star said, holding him by the shoulders and looking into his eyes, as if she could psychically control him into not moving. Jokes on her, Danny knew how mind control worked, and it was only sometimes like that. "Or else we're gonna-" she hiccoughed, then continued as if nothing had happened, "-mess up your makeup."

"Yeah," Paulina said. "And you don't want to look like a mess for Dash, do you?"

Danny snapped his head towards her, nearly poking his own eye out with the makeup applicator she was using.

"Stooop!" Star said, turning his head back towards her.

Danny obeyed, but he turned his eyes to look at Paulina. "Why would I care about what Dash thinks?"

He could just barely make out her flat stare from the corner of his vision. "Because you like him?"

"I do not!" Danny protested.

Star giggled while Paulina talked over her. "Danny, we have eyes, you know. And we've seen yours wandering to him every time he's anywhere near you."

Danny opened his mouth to protest, but Star pushed it shut. "Nuh uh. Lipstick first." He tried again, but was met with the same result. "I will smear this all over your teeth do not test me Fenton." This time, Danny obeyed.

 By the time he had finished, his initial protests had already died out. It wasn't like they were wrong; he just hadn't realized he'd been so obvious about it. "Fine. I might have a little crush."

"Well if by "little crush" you mean that you're head over heels in love with my best friend, then yeah, I know you have a little crush on him."

"Hey!" Star cried. "I thought I was your best friend?"

"Best boy friend," Paulina corrected. "But not boyfriend boyfriend. We tried dating, but he's not interested in me. Which, you know, I was insulted with originally, but he's just not into any girls, so the fact that he was into me enough to try dating is a win."

"So, he likes-"

"Boys, yeah."

"Which means you have a chance," Paulina added. "But only if you sit still and let us make you look pretty!"

Danny really didn't think he had been moving around all that much, but he made sure to sit even stiller now.

"You're gonna need to be the one who asks him out."

Star nodded. "He's worried about doing something wrong, cause he was so mean to you before." Star paused at Paulina's glare. "Oh. Was that a part I wasn't supposed to share?"

"Yes," Paulina said, annoyed. "But it's too late now."

"Wait, hold on, what?"

"Oh, he likes you too," Paulina said. "It's gotten kind of annoying, listening to him go on and on about how 'cool' you look doing flips and everything."

Danny felt his face heating up more. "I mean. I just. I don't really know how to ask someone out?"

"Oh trust me, I know," Paulina laughed. "Don't think I've forgotten all the shit you pulled during freshman year."

Danny's face burned even hotter.

"Polly, you're embarrassing him!" Star said, but she couldn't stop a giggle of her own. "We're supposed to be helping!"

"I know, I know, but I can't help it!" Paulina said, her laughter dying out.

"You two planned this?" Danny asked incredulously.

"I mean, we didn't not plan it?" Star replied.

"No, we planned it," Paulina corrected. "I think Abigail even put it on her itinerary, but she fell asleep, like a loser."

Star giggled again. "So we're taking over!"

"You've got to be more confident, flaco. You get all blushy and stutter, and give up halfway through, and while that's adorable, it's not going to work if you want results."

"We've seen you on the field, we know you can do it, so don't try to deny it," Star added.

"But that's an entirely different thing!"

"It's not that different," Paulina said.

 Star ignored her. "Then just pretend you're on the field! Put on a good show for him, and I guarantee he'll be drooling all over you. Just like he is during the games."

"He is not drooling about me during the games."

"Oh, he so is," Star countered. "You remember the game you first debuted?"

Danny nodded; while he'd done fine, the actual game had been a bit of a shit show. Casper High had lost, fourteen to nothing.

"Dash only fumbled that because he was so distracted by you," Paulina said. "Tripped right over his own feet, cost us the first points of the game, and it was all down hill from there. If you can do that when you aren't even trying, imagine what you can do to him when you are."

"I think we're done here," Star said, withdrawing from Danny.

"I think we've outdone ourselves," Paulina said, angling his face to admire their work. She grabbed a small mirror from her pocket and passed it over to him. "What do you think?"

He looked surprisingly good, much better than he expected considering the fact he was a boy and that the people doing his makeup were at least a little drunk.

"It looks good," Danny agreed.

"No," Star protested. "You look good, and you need to take that vibe with you when you ask Dash out tomorrow."

"Who said anything about tomorrow?"

"We did," Paulina said. "Because tomorrow, we're going to be dragging him with us to the park and finding a convenient excuse to leave him there alone."

"You're gonna swoop in, and you're gonna ask him out and save him from having to deal with us all day."

"Trust us. It'll be perfect."

"I don't-"

"Shh." Star put her finger over Danny's lips. "We're doing this, whether you show up or not."

"Which means we need our rest, and you need your beauty sleep."

"So shoo while we clean up."

Danny didn't really know what else to do besides walk back to his pile of stuff and get comfortable.

He guessed he was going to the park sometime tomorrow. He hadn't been planning on it, but that was ok. He was used to that.

--

Prompts:

LonelyGrayRose - "Well if by "little crush" you mean that you're head over heels in love with our best friend, then yeah, I know you have a little crush on [him/her]" lavendarlily - Who knew Danny Fenton was so agile? Paulina makes it her personal mission to get him on the cheer squad.

[the-fiction-witch]

For Saving The Universe

Media - Star Wars Original Trilogy Character - Luke Skywalker (Original Trilogy) Couple - Luke X Reader Reader - (OC) Allianna / Ali Rating - 15 Word Count -1328

After receiving his honour from the rebels he enjoyed the celebrations and brief peace the galaxy laid in for now. Luke took a moment to get away from the constant praise as well as Han and Leia clearly having some intimate time of their own... and took a walk around the quiet base.

"hum... My, my, what happened to my farm boy?" A familiar voice spoke up inside the hanger.

As he turned he saw her, Alianna. She had been his only friend on Tattooine for all of his life and he hadn't seen her since he left. But now here she was in an orange flight suit and brown vest jacket, her familiar neon blue hair In a long braid, his eyes immediately lit up and a smile plastered across his face.

"Ali!" He yelled as he sprinted over to her and practically tackled her into a bear hug.

she softly squealed as he hugged her so tight, lifting her off the floor and spinning her around the bay, "Whoa! Hi Luke!"

he set her back down, looking down at her, practically beaming "I haven't seen you in so long! How are you? What are you doing here??"

"I know it feels like forever since you ran out on me half way across the galaxy" she teased, “How are you doing?”

"I'm fine ... Getting settled I guess" he blushed, "Why are you here?" he asked, his brows furrowing slightly in concern.

"I signed up, maping and data analyst at your service." She chuckled "joined up right after the sack..."

his eyes widened "You did what?!" he yelled, his tone going from shocked to upset "Ali... you promised me you'd stay safe!"

"And here is the safest place for me." She told him "Here’s safer than home that's for sure tattooine got into some bad ways after you left. But I'm safe I'm mostly just flight control for the ships I'm out of harms way. And I can look after my buddy." she playfully punched his shoulder,

his eyes softened as she explained, his expression softening slightly. He took a breath, trying to calm down. "Promise me... promise me you won't put yourself in danger... I..." he paused, his emotions becoming a little harder to ignore. He had been worried about her, ever since he left her behind, and seeing her now made those emotions surge through him. he stepped closer, his hand gently resting on her face. He looked at her, his eyes searching hers, worry written across his expression. "Promise me, Ali. I can't... I can't lose you... Not now"

"I promise" she cooed kissing his cheek

he let out a sigh, closing his eyes for a moment as her lips met his cheek. He was still worried about her, but the reassurance from her was enough to soften his worries, at least for now. he opened his eyes again, looking at her with a more gentle and affectionate expression. "Good... good... I've worried about you, you know..."

"I know, I'm worried about you too. Some come on tell me what I've missed" she chuckled as she began to walk

he smiled, falling into a step beside her as they walked. "A lot has happened... since I left..." he then proceeded to catch her up on everything that had happened so far, from the rescue on the death star to the battle of yavin to the celebrations tonight and his becoming a Jedi.

she chuckled as he finished explaining everything that had happened and they found a small nook to sit in and look out across the rebel base. "I sort of feel like I rather pale in comparison. Quiet the little hero aren't you"

he chuckled sheepishly, clearly a little embarrassed by all these new titles. "I guess I'm a hero... I don't really think of myself that way..." he looked at her, a soft smile on his lips "You've always been the special one, Ali"

"I'm proud of you Luke. Really" she smiled

he smiled back at her. Her words meant a lot to him. Her opinion, her praise, it's always mattered to him, so much so that he didn't really care about the praise he got from the rebels. Hearing it from her, however… "Thanks Ali... that means a lot to me... and I'm proud of you too. You know that, right?"

"I know." She nodded for a moment silence fell between them but she smiled "I don't suppose you remember the little rocks I use to give you as rewards around the moisture farms... It all seems so long ago now."

he chuckled, the memory coming back to him so easily. He could still remember her little smile as she handed them to him... How cute it was. "I still have all of them. I keep them in a metal box near my bed. I never could bring myself to get rid of them"

she laughed "Well, I'm not sure what size of rock I'd need to give you for all this. Not sure a whole planet would do as a reward"

he chuckled, shaking his head slightly. "Nah... I don't need any special reward. You're more than enough of a reward on your own" he said, clearly flirting with her, gently bumping his shoulder against her in a playful way.

"oh am I now?"

he grinned, leaning back against the wall so he could look at her properly. His eyes were full of affection and playful flanter. "Absolutely. The most beautiful girl in the galaxy, and the best friend a guy could ask for... how could that not be a reward?"

she nodded with a small laugh "still... I think you deserve something." She smiled, and before he could answer she closed the gap between them and let their lips meet in a sweet kiss.

he was taken by surprise, not expecting her to take the first move. His surprise was quickly replaced by a feeling of bliss as their lips met. He immediately melted into the kiss, enjoying the feeling of her lips against his. His hands moved to her hips without even realising, gently pulling her closer.

she pulled back leaving him breathless as she smiled up at him "that's for saving the galaxy" she cooed

he was left a little stunned, his cheeks flushed slightly red. It took him a moment to find his voice. "I... um... wow..." he chuckled, a smile now plastered across his face. "Maybe me defeating the empire is worth it just for that alone" he gently pulled her to sit in his lap, his hands resting on her hips again. He looked into her eyes, a look of happiness plastered across his face "I don't think I'll ever forget how wonderful that felt..."

she softly sqealed as he pulled her into his lap, and she giggled down at him rubbing her nose on his

he chuckled, unable to stop the grin forming on his lips as she made the cute sound and nuzzled him with her nose. He held her close, pulling her into a gentle hug, his head resting against her shoulder. "You're just too damn cute..." he slowly lifted his head, shifting so that he was looking right at her, her face now being a few inches away from his own. His arms still wrapped around her waist as he held her tight in his lap. "How did I manage to get so lucky, that I get to hold the prettiest girl in the galaxy in my arms right now..."

"I guess that's what you get for saving the galaxy. You get a pretty girl to do whatever you want with" she chuckled

he chuckled as well, his eyes tracing over her face and taking her in as the words of her response sunk in. Whatever he wanted with her... the thought of it made his mind wander to all the things he had thought about over the years "You really don't want to give me that much freedom with you... I'll take advantage of it"

“I’m sure you will,” she smirked pulling him back into a kiss, 

[shwoo]

I hadn't written for a while, but I'm beginning to feel up to it again. I have a few ideas, and I'm still figuring out exactly what to prioritise. Fanfic-wise, it's mostly Bugsnax.

-Snorplo prequel: Snorpy is extremely depressed and trying to recover from a nervous breakdown. Chandlo realises his feelings for him and gets back into contact, maybe in that order, I haven't decided. Snorpy recovers unevenly. Got the beginning and midpoint worked out, and just need the bit between the midpoint and the ending. I wrote part of the outline for this on my phone during the tour in the US earlier this year, as an attempt at a mental health booster. I don't know if it succeeded, but my phone's predictive text has been weirdly fixated on Chandlo ever since.

-QPP Filbuddy 2 - Now It's Journalist's Family's Turn: While in Theobe's (Journalist's) home town for Snaxgiving, Filbo and Theobe attend an informal high school reunion. Theobe disappears, and Filbo gets help from the only people he knows in town; Theobe's three mothers, all of whom are named Drebbie. Not 100% sure how this one is resolved, although I have most of it. Going to have to be very careful with the Drebbies, because there's there's three of them and they all have distinct personalities, and I'd prefer for the story to be more about Filbo and Theobe. I made Theobe be an outcast in high school with zero friends, because I was starving for good outcast with zero friends representation when I was in high school. With zero friends.

-Snorplo in-game quests: The campfire event from Chandlo's point of view, Chandlo's main quest from the Journalist's point of view, and Snorpy's main quest from Snorpy's point of view. Have outlined most of this, but I think I got distracted during Snorpy's quest. He stays inside until it's complete, which doesn't help, but he can still do something interesting while in there.

-Bronica expedition: I want to finish writing the interviews for each expedition member to get a better idea of their personalities, but the version in my head so far seems to mostly be about how they died. There's some horror elements I like a lot. Still planning to be vague about what happened to Bronica, though.

-Snorplo... something: Why is there so much Snorplo. Um, this one started out as two separate ideas I had after Isle of Bigsnax came out, one about Chandlo asking the Journalist about Snorpy on the island, and one about Snorpy finding the Triplicate Space on the beach. I've got to the first draft stage, but the whole bit where they explore the Triplicate Space together turned out boring, so I'd like to tie the scenes together in a way that's not just a complete retread of what happens in the game but with Chandlo and Snorpy. It was fun having them react, but nothing really happens that didn't in the original.

-Obligatory Floofty's leg disappears: Floofty's leg disappears. Also they struggle not to be less of a reckless idiot, and also to repair their relationship with their brother. I know how this ends, but I need more stuff in the middle, to make the pacing of the ending work. I'm sure I can find something for Snorpy and Floofty to be in conflict about. (Chandlo is there also)

It's mostly Bugsnax, but I played so much Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth that I got really invested in wherever it is they're going with Chadley's character. I doubt the third game will be out before 2026, but luckily I have "wherever it is they're going with Chadley's character" at home. In my brain! So

-Chadleyfic 2024: Or 2025 depending on if or when I get around to it. Chadley knows many things to be true, for example that a) he is an artificial intelligence who was b) created to be Hojo's research assistant, someone he has c) definitely escaped in every way. He also knows that as much as he tries, he's not strong enough to repress all his feelings and problems as well as his hero, Cloud. And he's been having some weird recurring dreams lately. This story came together really quickly! I think "character deals with being experimented on by unironic evil mad scientist and also learns The Truth" was an itch I'd been wanting to scratch for a long time. I want this to happen in the background of Remake 3's plot, though, so I need to finish up Rebirth and play through the original to make the details feel right. And make sure Hojo wouldn't have to be in two places at once, because obviously he's going to have to put in an appearance.

[andmaybegayer]

Last ??? of the Week 2024-10-08

Flying with the sun and staying awake for eight hours overnight in Turkey and then not really having a schedule because you quit your job and are on holiday will have you forget when Monday is.

Listening: I failed completely to figure out why my bank card wasn't playing nice with Bandcamp right before my flight so I missed this Bandcamp Friday, so here's something I was trying to buy and couldn't: the Bluff City soundtrack from Friends at the Table, which is some really fun noir-ass synthy stuff

Bonus song since some of these are empty: "Lehigh Acres" from White Crosses has been stuck in my head, despite being almost as far away from Florida as you can get in the contiguous US.

Watching: Oh fuck all, I've been so busy finishing up at work

Reading: read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, which has been kicking around my library for a while.

It's cute. It's a fun exercise in "if a guy was 100 years old precisely how much of history could he get himself entangled with." The translated prose gets a little tedious at times, and suffers from some Lavender Unicorn, but I guess that's trying to be faithful to the Swedish.

Constantly tempted to describe bits and pieces of it as "this must go so hard if you're stupid" but that's unnecessarily unkind to what is mostly a pretty funny book.

Occasionally goes "eh? eh?" at you to make sure you didn't miss the tremendously obvious historical reference and would be better if it didn't.

Points for detouring through Indonesia but deductions for not doing Afghanistan twice which would have been really funny.

Secondly reread an old MLP fanfic that's also drifted around my library for years since I read it in high school, which is University Days. I think this one did huge numbers in the fandom back in 2013 so you might have read it.

Cutesy whirlwind romance lesbian times with period accurate internalised homophobia and some fairly tasteful drama. Starts a little weak but gets much stronger after a couple chapters. A pretty ordinary fic other than the nostalgia, which counts for something. Suffers from some Lavender Unicorn but is mostly pretty competently written and doesn't suffer from basic errors, which is enough to count as "good" among a lot of fanfic of the era.

I have actually reread this before but the unique occurrence this time was that before I hopped my flight I remembered to pull down the accompanying clopfic which I have not reread since high school and got to experience the slow horror of realizing, while in flight, that a currently-in-use sex script I have was almost certainly derived from this.

Playing: Nothing much.

Making: Still working on Website League, although that's been interrupted by the trip. We're doing some stuff to try and make it behave more Cohost/Tumblry and it's getting there!

Also of course, photography out here in California. The parks are stupidly pretty and San Francisco is a lovely city. Really looking forward to spending more time in it later on the trip. Getting to exercise my new phone camera a little when I need to go wider than 24mm.

Tools and Equipment: You can fit at least ten days of clothing in a standard carry-on and still have room for other shit. You do not need more bags.

[bbutterflies]

People seemed interested in my slowburn Adrino fic (no distance too far) on the wip reblog post - here's one of my favorite little snippets I've written so far! Context being Adrien was out of Paris all summer and he and Nino are starting at a new school when he comes back.

“You got taller!” Adrien shoved Nino playfully. “That’s not fair!”

“It’s not like I can control it,” Nino laughed, shoving him back. “But I can’t say I’m not enjoying being so much taller than you.”

Adrien pushed him again and then ran into the school before Nino could get him back. He weaved through the bodies, laughing and ignoring Nino’s shouts for him to slow down. Adrien ran aimlessly through the hallways — he’d never even set foot in this school before and was already hopelessly lost — but he could hear Nino’s footsteps and laughter echoing in the halls behind him, so he kept going. Past the crowd at the front, past the more thinned-out groups of students, into relatively empty hallways deeper in the school, when Nino finally caught up to him.

Nino caught him around his waist and lifted him right off his feet. Adrien’s breath caught in his throat at how close they suddenly were. He felt his face getting warm as Nino held on tight. He needed to pull himself together.

“Put me down!” Adrien laughed, pushing against Nino’s arm with little success.

“Stop running away from me, then.”

“Boys! No roughhousing in the halls,” a teacher shouted.

Nino immediately put Adrien back on his feet and took a step away. “Sorry.”

“Sorry,” Adrien echoed, but as soon as the teacher had turned around he shoved Nino again. “When did you get so strong?”

“I obviously hit the gym every day while you were gone,” Nino joked. “Had to make sure you were impressed when you got back.”

“Y-yeah. I am.”

“What?”

Adrien turned around as his face heated up. What was wrong with him? “We should- we should go, um, find our first class. So we’re not late.”

“Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m great.” Adrien picked a direction, any direction, and started walking. “C’mon. I think it’s this way.”

“It’s definitely the other way. You missed orientation, remember?” Nino grabbed Adrien’s wrist. “I’ll show you.”

Adrien choked back a whine and followed him.

Adrien couldn’t stop himself from stealing glances at Nino instead of looking at his notes. Nino had gotten taller, and stronger, since he’d last seen him. Adrien couldn’t stop himself from tracing his eyes up from Nino’s hand — so close to his, close enough he could easily reach out and take it in his own — to his forearm and past his elbow up where his skin met the sleeve of his t-shirt. Even just sitting here typing, it was impossible to ignore how much more toned his arms were than when they’d finished last semester, the faint definition of his muscles flexing as he typed.

(Why did Adrien know that? Why could he remember so clearly what Nino had looked like before?

Had he always been in love with Nino?

He didn’t have time to think about that.

Seriously, though, what had Nino been doing all summer to look like that?)

Adrien wondered what it would be like to be held by him. He wondered what it would be like to fall asleep in his arms.

He snapped his eyes back to his own notes, not that he had any intention of writing anything down. He had to try to focus.

It was inevitable he was looking over at Nino again. 

He found himself studying the curve of his jaw and the shape of his lips, and Nino was warm, probably, and Adrien would bet that he tasted good, and-

Focus!

Adrien stared back at the mostly-empty page in front of him. He was going to have to ask for Nino’s notes. He tried listening to the lecture again but was completely, totally lost. He couldn’t take notes on this if he tried.

Fuck it.

He looked over at Nino again.

He knew from past experience that Nino’s skin was soft. He knew his shoulder was a great place to fall asleep, and it was a tempting offer now, if they weren’t in the middle of a lecture and surrounded by other students.

Was that- was that normal? Did best friends do that? Adrien had never had a good frame of reference for normal-platonic-best-friend behavior, but it was dawning on him that maybe the frequency with which he’d leaned against Nino’s shoulder — cuddled with him, basically — was not necessarily normal. He couldn’t imagine himself like that with anyone else.

But Nino was also his only best friend.

Adrien stifled a sigh, not wanting to draw attention to himself. It was all so confusing and so sudden. Nino’s hair had gotten longer over the summer. Hats were strictly not allowed at this school, which Nino had definitely complained about more than once, but it meant Adrien got the chance to appreciate his dark curls. He wanted to run his fingers through them, to know what his hair felt like. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get the chance to find out.

They were sitting near the window, morning sun filling the room and making Nino’s skin glow like he was covered in honey. Adrien couldn’t help but wonder if it would taste like it, too.

What was wrong with him?

Nino didn’t like him as anything more than friends. It was weird to keep thinking of him like that, in the middle of class, no less.

Nino raised his hand, startling Adrien back to reality. He asked a question Adrien couldn’t even begin to understand, voice smooth and confident, and took note of the answer. Adrien didn’t even bother writing it down, but he tapped his pen on his page restlessly.

Nino glanced at him and mouthed something Adrien couldn’t make out. He just stared back, confused, so Nino stole Adrien’s pen out of his hand and scribbled down a note on the corner of his page.

you good?

Adrien resisted the urge to rip that piece of paper out and frame it somewhere in his room.

He took his pen back with a smile. Tired, he mouthed.

Nino offered him a smile back, warm and forgiving, and turned back to his laptop.

Oh, god, Adrien was never going to pass this class.

He managed to keep his eyes forward for the rest of class, not that he understood any of the material. 

“I have never seen you so distracted, man,” Nino said. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Just jet lag or something, I think,” Adrien lied. He was perfectly synced up with Paris’s time zone, having been adjusting to get back on time for the past week, and had had no trouble at all getting up with his alarm this morning. “I’m alright. Could you send me your notes, though?”

“Mine? Why?”

“I, um, got lost at the beginning.” Adrien pushed his notebook over to Nino. “And then I just stayed lost.”

Nino’s eyes widened when he saw the basically empty page. “Yikes. Yeah, of course, man. Want to come to mine tonight and go over it? My mom’s been dying to see you. She’s worried they didn’t feed you enough when you were gone.”

Adrien definitely wouldn’t get permission, but he didn’t have anything scheduled, and he missed Nino’s mom’s cooking. He could sneak out. “Yeah. Definitely.”

“You’re on.” Nino clapped him on the shoulder. “See you at lunch, then?”

“Yeah, see you later.”

Adrien, by no surprise, had no trouble at all focusing in the rest of his morning classes.

Lunch, though, was spent trying to hold up conversation with Nino without getting lost staring at him.

Adrien felt like he was being a creep. He hated that he couldn't just be normal and talk to his best friend. He hated that he couldn’t stop wondering what the hell Nino had done to get so much stronger, so much more muscular than he remembered.

(Nino had never been able to just pick him up the way he had this morning. Adrien was kind of realizing he was obsessed with that and was stuck wondering what he’d have to do to get it to happen again.)

Adrien had never, ever had this problem before. He was a model, for crying out loud. He was around beautiful people all the time. He’d spent his whole summer around countless attractive people, guys and girls and everyone, each more beautiful than the last. He’d always found it simple enough to ignore any thoughts about them and get to work.

There was no work to be done here. Nothing to do but sit and try not to steal glances at Nino, and try to maybe remember to eat his own lunch while he was at it.

“The food here is so much better than in collège,” Nino said around a mouth full of food.

“Dude, you should swallow before you talk.”

Nino rolled his eyes. “I don’t think I need to impress you anymore.”

Adrien felt his face flushing (which was stupid and not helpful and so unnecessary right now) and tried to play it off by taking a drink of water. “What, don’t care about my opinion?”

“I never said that.”

Adrien froze, staring back at Nino over his glass. “What?”

“What?” Nino parroted. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? You’re being super weird today.”

“I’m fine. Just tired.”

“You look warm.”

Oh, god. Adrien shook his head. “I feel fine.”

“C’mere.” Nino put his arm over Adrien’s shoulders to pull him closer.

Goosebumps raked down Adrien’s arms. “Nino,” he whined, “what are you doing?”

“Are you sure you’re not sick?” Nino held Adrien close, despite the fact he was trying to wriggle free (and oh my god he was so strong how was he doing this so easily with one arm) and brought his other hand to Adrien’s forehead.

Adrien was going to scream.

“I’m fine, seriously.” Adrien tried to push Nino away, as much as he loved being close, because his heart was pounding in his ears and he was struggling to remember to breathe. “Dude, let go.”

“Never. Clearly I need to keep you safe.” Nino wrapped both arms around Adrien, squeezing him tight.

Adrien burst out laughing, still trying to break free. “Nino! Let go!”

“Boys!” a teacher scolded from somewhere nearby, and they both promptly let go and scooted away from each other.

Adrien stole a glance at Nino, who stole a glance back, and they both erupted into laughter.

“Could you imagine what your dad would do if we got suspended for fighting on the first day?” Nino said.

It made Adrien laugh all the much harder. “Oh my god. He’d lose his mind.”

“My mom would kill me. She’d be all over you, though.” Nino rolled his eyes. “Like, convinced I’d actually hurt you.”

“Jealous your mom likes me more?”

“I swear she would just adopt you if she could.”

Adrien didn’t hate the idea, except being Nino’s brother would be… super, super weird.

(Adrien could think of another way to be part of the family that would be way more on track with his line of thinking from the day but they were fifteen and he needed to seriously get his head on straight.)

“Hey, we can always just trade places. Think my father would notice?”

Nino snorted. “I bet I could get at least two days before he did, but only because I, like, lost a fencing tournament or something.”

Given how little time Adrien actually spent with his father, that sounded about right to him, too. “Seems like a fair deal to me.”

“What? No way.” Nino shoved him.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it. Your mom loves having me over.”

“Honestly, she probably wouldn’t even care if you just moved in.”

Adrien really wished he could sometimes.

[mistfallengw2]

Done with the story, and boy howdy am I happy with this expansion~

So, let's get the easy ones out of the way: map design and music are just top notch, even more than usual. Lost count of the amount of times I got lost exploring, it's all just damn neat, and I'm not even done. Likewise, I got so many goosebumps due to the music, and now that I'm past spoilers, I'm due to sit down and properly listen to the full soundtrack. Also, sound design has always been awesome as well, and each time they move up a level.

Story was pretty damn good and DENSE with stuff for lore nerds to chew on. GW2 is back to doing what it does best, and the worldbuilding through dialogue and books has been a blessing this time around. So many of the interesting things "forgotten by the story" got addressed or aknowledged, and I kinda like that we've been out of the loop for a while even before the SotO stuff (we can't be everywhere, and that's a good thing) so that it can be done organically. The Tyrian Alliance have some of my fave dialogue (oh Dougal, hang in there buddy) and books, and MAN the hints at potential future expansions have me running up walls. Also all my homies hate Isgarren's floaty ass and I'm here for it (and for poor Frode who has to wrangle him). The investigative parts are such a pearl of writing, piecing together what happened in Gavril through texts found around the map before the bloodstone story step was SO satisfying, and in general I loved each build-up. I expected things from Waiting Sorrow, and while what I got wasn't what I expected, I love her already (you can whoop Isgarren's supposed ass, don't hold back dear). I've seen people complain about Poky being Braham 2.0, which is fair, but honestly I'm here for it and I really want the two of them to meet and be friend (even Alder thinks the same, come on!). Can't wait to dwelve in all the other collections and achievements I haven't done yet, what I got done so far has been quite fun.

Gameplay? Sure the spears are awesome, the warclaw is fun (gosh the chain-race mechanic in those story fights? Perfection.), but the events and hearts are the kind of small scale stuff that makes me adore GW2, because I like being useful to people in mundane yet meaningful ways and it makes every part of the world feel lived in. I love that they reused a ton of older minigames and event structure for the new maps, and I haven't been so "at home" in maps since Grothmar.

Speaking of homes, the Homestead... Haven't touched it much because I wanted to focus on finishing story before going away for a few days + F2 being bugged for me. Given what I've seen, I'm glad I stocked up on mats, but I'll keep doing that and leave the actual decorating to when I have a nebulous "enough". With the story done, I will not respond of the emotional damage I will soon suffer. Expect posts uncomprehensible keysmashes under screenshots, I can't promise more (might survive since emotes don't seem possible for the alts, and while sad I do know that could have slain me).

My only sore points have been mostly resolved or are known bugs, and I'm trying to make my peace with the warclaw's animation speed ruining an otherwise perfect mount.

Could ramble a lot more, but all in all? If this is what we get after the teething pains of SotO, I'm sold on all future expansions and more. (And I should probably get started with GW1, huh)

Now to think about my OCs... For sure this is a expansion all about Aurelia and Ellara with a side of Zehmik, but gotta see about the rest...

[ellraiser]

Mudborne - Devlog #02

Hey everyone! Been awhile since I opened up Tumblr to write something - I've been trying not to add the pressure to make myself post every single month, as half the time I don't have much to say and the other half making it something I HAVE to do prevents it from being something I WANT to do But it's been a little while of working on Mudborne stuff in between all the final APICO update stuff, and I wanted to share where I've got to so far with your new fav frog game

Back To The Drawing Board

So if you haven't already seen, one of the main things I'm doing with Mudborne is updating the style and the art. The gamejam version was made in a week, and a lot of that was shameless art rips of APICO with some reskins - which was still cute but after working in the APICO "style" for nearly 5 years now I wanted something different. For that I'd already played with a few ideas:

The game is set in a pond, so I wanted it to be mostly water. This meant thinking about what the landmass or even buildings would be like - I've always found the land style I did for APICO really weird as it's severe top-down but all the sprites are like sortof side view? So I wanted to work with that in mind and have the land match that perspective more. I also really liked the idea of the stone slabs as the land instead of dirt, as it had a nicer overall vibe and helped the mud stand out from the "dirt" of the early ideas. I also wanted to have lots of plants and nature stuff that wasn't necessarily interacted with but added to the overall scene. One thing I really hated with APICO is it relied on the trees/shrubs for balance of the overall palette, so this time I wanted enough flora scattered across the waters to make it look pretty all the time not just before the player has a killing spree with their axe. What I ended up settling on after a few weeks was this:

As you can see it's mostly water, with some large stone slabs to act as "land" and break it up, and lots of green. I wanted a consistent darker outline for anything you can interact with, which then let me have a lot of "background" flora and scenery.

The stone slabs also felt like a perfect place for buildings - I'd tried an attempt at a few building designs, but overally didn't really like how they fit in with the world

Having the stone slabs as the buildings felt more natural and the little extra details of grates and drains and windows I think helps sell it more as lived in. Also by having a fixed "size" of the blocks in tiles, I could match that for the inside so all the spaces matched up when going in and out (and also means I'd be able to show "hidden" rooms while inside that give you a clue to how to get into them)

To finish it off, I worked on the menu designs to see how the UI would fit in - there's some similarities to APICO's basic UI style but I changed the colors a bit and added more space around all the elements. I also wanted some clearer slot stuff, so like mushrooms and their powder/magic mud to have a small icon for the mushroom, buckets to have a liquid icon - I'd made a few sprites in APICO that were far too similar, so I wanted to avoid that this time round.

I also wanted to keep the main UI as minimal as possible, just some indicators, a current quest log, and then the tooltips if hovering something - this means I've got some flexibility later to add some more stuff. Once I got this coded up I'd tweak a few things, including the design of the titular mud itself, but overall things pretty much match those final concept arts above.

===

Lost In A Dream

With that done I wanted to work on the next main part of the design - the dream world. In the gamejam when you dream you visit the big frog god and they tell you your progress, but what I actually want is a whole dream world that acts as an "opposite" to the waking world.

With APICO I always felt like the gameplay was fun but the NPCs and story and exploration was pretty non-existant. In Mudborne I wanted to expand that, have a similar "maths for fun" genetic puzzle to work on as the core game but then have a much richer world to explore.

With the dream world I could have things change between the worlds - new doors and rooms appearing, broken bridges now fixed, stone lilypads disappearing. By using the big froggy pools the player can switch between the two, and access new areas they couldn't before, along with new frogs or mushrooms or NPCs. This ends up with a sort of APICO x Metroidvania in a way, you find different mushrooms, create new frogs, and based on the frog genetics you can "unlock" these gates to get to new areas - some part of the main story, others optional to learn more about the secrets of the world, but the different frogs will gate your progress and exploration. It also gives me a lot of scope to do fun things with the differences between the two worlds, whether thats trees turning into jellyfish that float around, or NPCs being different and saying/selling different things.

It also has some importance within the story itself so I think it should end up as a nice mix of fun gameplay, cool vibes, and a nice story to tell.

===

Something Old Something New

With the overworld itself I'd done a lot of changes, looking at the gamejam you can see just how much differs, not just colors but the world objects too.

Some of the items I still liked, like the mushroom designs or the basic tools, some I think make for a fun "nod" to APICO, (like the frogspawn being the honeycomb sprite but modified), with the objects themselves though I wanted to try and match that new "perspective" shared by the stone buildings and the trees.

I also wanted to start using some more colors and have things less flat, so it was nice to finally move away from a lot of the stuff I'd drawn for APICO. When it came to the menus though, I still think the rough style of menus worked really well - it's been battle tested and I know what worked and didn't, but the UI has always been pretty solid. The main changes I did was update the spacing between elements to give the slots + UI inside menus more space, and then I wanted to change some of the border/header styles slightly and have the tiny lilypad icon in there too. To start with I just fleshed out a bunch of the machines I had in the gamejam plus a few extra ones (also yes thats a slightly different shade of brown to APICO, you have good eyes!)

I really liked some of the menus have these sort of "mini" interfaces inside that showed a bit more of what is going on in the overworld, so wanted to lean into that a bit with some of the other machines. I also still liked the idea of having some mechanism stuff - for APICO players I appreciate it's lost the charm, but anyone new to Mudborne thats never heard of ol' bee game can still appreciate it!

===

Maths For Fun

As I started implementing the mechanics some of the menus changed a bit - for the current "vertical slice" I'm making for pitches, the main machines I needed were: - Spawner (frog+frog = frogspawn) - Grinder (mushroom = powders) - Cauldron (mud+powders = magic mud) - Nursery (magic mud + frogspawn = tadpole) - Feeder (tadpole + bugs = frogs) - Bed (skip ahead time)

The main differences to the gamejam version is the extra step with mushrooms (so that you don't have to find + pick as many mushrooms as you'll get multiple powders from one), the cauldron accepting up to 3 powders that can be the same or different (so one magic mud can have 3 buffs), and the nursery having multiple layers (so you could do 3 different genetic changes or use a +1 mushroom 3 times for a +3 in one step) The nursery change is the most important here, as being able to do 3 buffs at the same time is important as it's part of the genetic puzzle I'll explain later - but it also removes some grindyness, instead of needing to do 3 cycles for a 4 trait to become a 7 trait using a +1 mushroom, you can do just 1.

The feeder expands the process to include bugs you find to feed the tadpoles - once they grow they'll appear in the overworld as actual frogs again to catch, but this time they might be some new species depending on the genetic modifications you made with the mud. I'm still playing with what the different bugs might do or how which bugs are decided as needed, but I think it gives me a lot of room to play with from a mechanics standpoint. The final "new" machine I needed was the actual teleportation pools - these would have the genetic "lock" that you need to make a frog to match.

The puzzle starts off simple enough, get a frog that matches the 7 traits the pool requires. Putting a frog in the pool starts the little coloured lines to "move" from left to right, stopping if the number the frog has doesn't match whats needed. Once you have a frog with all numbers matching, all the dots can join up, and the pool unlocks to be used to travel between worlds.

"That's easy" I hear you say, and yes! To start with this is easy enough, sure you might need to combine different mushrooms to counter certain modifications you don't want, but you can cycle frogs as much as you want to keep modifying until you get there. However this is me making a game so obviously I need to then show you something that makes you cry - which is when I introduce the concept of ancestors to the genetic locks

Instead of just looking at the traits of the frog, it also looks at the traits of the frog of the previous generation, and maybe even the generation before that! So starting from the first "column" you need to jump to the next one in a single frog cycle, using the right mushrooms to modify the numbers in one leap (ha). 

You then might need to do that again (and again) until you have a frog that has each previous generation matching whats expected. There'll be some tools to help you "predict" this, as well as lots of different mushrooms you'll find as you explore that do different things, +1, -1, *2 AND -1 etc. Planning this out is a nightmare as you can imagine...

Also having 7 traits each with 7 values means a lot of combinations (823543?!?), which means I can "hide" a lot of frogs to be discovered. For example go scroll back up and look at the "finished" concept art without UI for both the waking and dream world - notice that piller on the left? By travelling to the dream you can get the missing numbers that give you a trait "key" you could make to find a new frog.

In this way there can be a bunch of frogs you have to find to progress through the pools to new areas, some frogs you can get through experimenting (what if I do 777777?) and some found through clues in the world. 

===

What Next?

So right now I've planned out all the mechanics and I've been starting to implement them into a prototype of sorts (in my new favourite engine LÖVE) to make sure it all feels fun and has the right vibe, so lots of little bugs/critters roaming around, a cute day/night cycle, weather etc

I'm trying to spend more time on little details and effects in the world, all very small stuff but all adds up without the player realising, reflections or pollen or subtle movement. 

The goal is to then finish that as a vertical slice I can use to pitch to publishers, cos although APICO did well that was a couple years ago now, and outside of this final update I essentially have no releases until Mudborne is done so money is pretty tight :')

While doing that, I'll be continuing on with the game, starting with the first "training" area that will essentially become the demo. My plan is to release the demo later this year showing that first area, while I continue finishing the game to release in 2025 - right now the demo on Steam is still the gamejam version, which while it has some of the vibes it's not the full concept of what I want Mudborne to be, so I'd like to get that updated to really show people what they can have to look forward to.

I have a lot of the full game mapped out now, in terms of the story, areas, npc, general mechanics etc. I'm also literally mapping it out, each area on some graph paper, so will be interesting to see how closely I follow this for the demo + full game, esp. as I've already changed the houses (and is a nice analogue break for my poor eyes)

===

As I mentioned at the start, having to force a devlog every month didn't work great for me, I'd rather do larger devlogs now and again to catch you all up with what I've been doing over a couple of months otherwise it feels like I'm scraping the barrel some months when I've been busy on other stuff. I do share the odd video + sketch in Discord now and again, so if you want to come chat about it I'd love to see you there, but I'm committing to do devlogs when I can so you can keep up with everything <3 ~ Ell