#I think I'll soon need some more happy stories XD

[bilolli]

Just Dance Care AU!

Ok ok so I thought of a story for this Au but it’s nothing really impactful or full of drama and angst like my other au’s, I wanted to leave this au easy and fun to play around, because, let’s say it. Just Dance and drama in the same sentence makes me laugh. 

story and PNG version under the cut!

(I gave up on Y/n design because I couldn't figure out a general look for them. This is you we are talking about! Draw your own JD fit, I'll draw mine soon XD)

Anyway here’s the story so far: 

Year 2029, videogames industry made a huge step forward and classic consoles and devices were substituted by the new and upgraded VR headsets with full body tracking. It’s something like the NerveGear in Sword Art Online without the kill switch. Some games still require you to actually move your body (like fitness games or sports because yeah, they don’t have a purpose otherwise). 

Y/n wanted to buy the newest VR headset but, while searching for the best offer, they found out FazCo entertainment was hosting a giveaway, the prize? One of their prototypes, a VR meant to be released the next year coinciding with the opening of their first mega pizza plex.

(so the plex doesn’t exist right now). You decide to sign up for the giveaway and after a while you receive an email telling you you won the VR headset and that, to claim it, you need to read and sign a series of NDA policies (understandable, it’s a prototype headset that’s not even in commerce). Some clauses are a little bit concerning but nothing you hadn’t read on other electronics booklets, so you decide to sign. After, like, a day, you have the VR in your hands. 

The box let you know with super saturated and colorful writing, that the VR came with a game pre-installed inside. Uh, that’s why they were giving one away, they wanted a free game tester…but you know what, it’s worth it.

You always liked Just Dance games, they make you think about happy memories of your childhood. This pre-installed game called “Five Dances at Freddy’s” is a close copy of your childhood game with original FazCo songs, characters, environments and also some collaborations with other famous artists. It probably will be the cause of a big copyright infringement report.

There are various ways to play it: story mode, Casual dance, Five Dances, and Just Dance Care.

The first one is similar to the casual dance mode but with little cutscenes between a dance and another to tell a tale, Casual dance is how you can play the collab songs, Five Dances is the multiplayer mode and Just Dance Care is a more uhhhh “hard” way to play the game with all the other modes mixed in it. You stare at the description of the last mode smirking and decide to try it first just to see how far you can get before losing (yes you can lose in hard mode in this Just Dance, but you don’t die, you just have to restart from the beginning). Turns out the FazCo wasn’t kidding when they advertised the new headset as a breakthrough in the world of virtual reality headsets, the thing TRANSPORTED you inside the game itself. 

You almost have a heart attack when you can’t find your VR on your head, but before you can try something you are blocked by two tall individuals who you think are the “tutorial” characters. 

Yadda yadda, tutorial, you can pause the game and exit whenever you need just by opening an hidden menu, you find out your tutorial characters are called Sun and Moon and that you are way worse than you remembered at dancing (damn full body tracking, there is no way you are going to do a cartwheel in the middle of a dance, you still don’t know if your body is inside your home and if you’ll physically feel pain if you fall and you don’t want to find out).

You pass an embarrassingly long time trying to win your first dance battle just to discover it was still the tutorial. 

You try to go on with the story but you fail at the first real battle with a bear character named Freddy. 

And guess what? You have to start again from the tutorial! Y/n is gonna spend A LOT of time with Sun and Moon if this goes on.

[kaxtwenty]

Star Wars Rebels is one of my favorite shows. I can still remember back when it was just a planned project I'd occasionally hear about either online or in a commercial on Disney XD. I found it a bit funny at the time, because I remembered wondering what they were gonna name the next show after The Clone Wars--because obviously there was gonna be a show after The Clone Wars--and lo and behold I got my answer; Star Wars Rebels (way better than Star Wars Galactic Civil War). I caught the trailers, interviews and the character profile videos online and even managed to catch the shorts during the months leading up to the premiere. Little eleven year old me was optimistic that somehow this show would help fill the Clone Wars shaped hole in my heart.

And boy did it. I remember watching the premiere sitting on the floor, loving every second of it. I especially felt connected to Ezra, who, at that point, was the Star Wars protagonist that I was the closest to in age. Next thing I knew, three and a half years had gone by and the Rebels finale ended up being one of the most emotionally distressing episodes of television that I had ever viewed. At first I didn't like the epilogue funnily enough, but soon came to realize that it was perfect.

This show means a lot to me. It was never the most popular in the fandom, honestly it felt like a good chunk of TCW fans just wish it didn't exist, still bitter about Clone War's cancellation and blaming Rebels for it. The show was chided as childish and silly (this is a Star Wars show we're talking about btw), the animation was cheaper than the later few seasons of Clone Wars, the lower rating meant that it couldn't get away with the same level of violence as Clone Wars and the only things about it that were universally praised were the elements and characters that related to Clone Wars. It felt like Rebels, like many of its own characters, just couldn't escape the shadow of The Clone Wars. But those of us who watched and kept up with it, grew to love its characters, its art, its music and its story--we knew that Rebels was special in its own way. I honestly believe now that Rebels surpasses The Clone Wars in many regards and it's been exceedingly vindicating to see Rebels increase in popularity and become well-respected by the community at large.

Rebels still one of the only pieces of media to really make me engage with fandom at a deeper level, for better or worse. I definitely wouldn't have made this tumblr account last year if it weren't for me rewatching the show with my family and getting back into the swing of things. And I probably wouldn't have found the courage to try and get into art earlier this year if it weren't for that either. So...I owe this show a lot and I got more to say but...I don't think I'll ever find the words that could properly convey what this show means to me.

Happy 10th anniversary Star Wars Rebels, I'm thankful for the decade we've had together. I wish I had more to show my appreciation, but for now I suppose this study/redraw of some concept art I did for art class will do.

Shoutouts to Rebels Recon, y'all were an indelible part of the experience that more of the newer fans need to check out.

Star Wars Rebels Appreciation Week: Day #1 - Favorite Character

Ezra Bridger

[simmerianne93]

[Simmerianne93]Solo_poses_05

Hello everyone!!!!

So... I have being struggling a lot (and when I'm saying a lot is A LOOOT) with the accessory that comes with these poses (and some poses I'll be sharing soon)... why?... see, I made two acc for these poses, one of them "High resolution" (with the texture in HAT cathegory) and another "Low resolution" (with the texture in RING cathegory).... the thing is, the low resolution was not showing ingame, so I tried to make another new archive, but now the acc is missing one of the meshes and I haven't figured it out how to fix it.

I noticed that in my blender (V 2.79) there is an option now in s4studio mesh tool that is missing since I updated the s4s program to "star version" and I don't know how to fix it. Before I was able to choose the mesh type from NONE to GEOM but I have not that option anymore and I think that is the problem.... If one of you know how to fix that problem, I'll be really happy if you tell me how to. I tried to redownload the wishes version, I tried to merge the two meshes into 1, I tried to change the cut in both meshes to 0000 (It should be 0000 and 0001 since there are two meshes in the archive), I tried to export the High res version and do again the object to import it in s4s to the new archive and none of that options worked. So right now, I have no idea on how to fix it and that's why for now, you will have just the "high resolution" version available... Unfortunately with that version you cannot use hats (wich, for these poses is not needed... unless your sim sleep with hats xD... but for other poses that can come later maybe you want your sim to have a hat and it will be impossible, since the texture will overlap both objects).

I'm not and expert making objects, I have not idea how to make objects... I just have a barely notion on how to convert objects already made to make a pose accessory and it is frustrating I couldn't find a fix on time, but it is what it is....

Anyway, I have to say that the meshes are not mine (obviously), as I said, I have not idea on how to make objects, so I converted a mesh from "Around the sims 4" to use as a pose accessory, and I have to thanks the creator for making a pill bottle object 'cause I really need it. You  can find the clutter object right here.

About the poses, I made them for my own story.  I found some from other creators but I decided to make my owns to make the right expressions and movements I wanted my sim to have and to make the last pose with a bunch of other poses xD haha... So here you have the info of theses sad poses in bed:

----------

What is on it?

12 solo poses (made with a female rig) + 1 all in one.

What do you need?

Andrew's pose player 

Teleport any sim by Scumbumbo.

Any single bed.

[Simmerianne93]ATS4_PillsHD_Convertion_Poseacc

Instructions on the original post.

——

TOU

Do not claim my creations as your own.

Do not re-upload or modify my creations.

Do not make money of my creations.

Do not include my creations in Mods folders to download.

Please follow my Term Of Use.

——

Download it now here — [EARLY ACCESS UNTIL September 3rd, 2023]

——————

If you want to support me:  Patreon | Ko-fi

For more poses: Pinterest |  Wix

My socials: Twitter | Instagram

——————

I really hope you like them and I will say on advance: Thank you so much for use them.

@ts4-poses​​​​​​​​​​​​ @emilyccfinds

[yanderes-galore]

For mirror verse Low-key had a crush on Aladdin when I was younger (still do XD ) now I’m wondering would it be alright to request yandere story of him with a darling who can create illusions (however reader wants to break up cause Aladdin behaviour ) ^^ for the mirror verse game please, if you want include a prompt can I choose  37.) "We should get married! It's been long enough, hasn't it?"

I decided to treat this as a prompt story as I just wasn't getting ideas. I couldn't entirely figure out how to include your power so it's only really mentioned you're a Guardian in this, I apologize :(

Yandere! Mirrorverse! Aladdin Prompt 37

"We should get married! It's been long enough, hasn’t it?"

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Possessive behavior, Manipulation Toxic relationship, Clingy behavior, Coercion into marriage, Delusional behavior, Dubious turned forced relationship.

"We should get married! It's been long enough, hasn’t it?"

You weren't expecting to hear those words leave Aladdin's mouth. Especially with you now developing uneasy feelings towards your relationship. Marriage... it's such a big step...

For you it may even be a trap.

Your mixed feelings towards your boyfriend falter for a moment when you see how happy he looks. For a moment he seems like the man you fell in love with as a Guardian. However, that didn't excuse his behavior.

Aladdin, also known as The Cutting Desert Diamond, was a Guardian you've been dating for months in the Mirrorverse. Since you met him he seemed like a street rat turned hero. He seemed so charming and humble.

You felt delighted when he asked you out, you were a supportive Guardian that used illusions to aid others in battle... he was combat based and you supported him.

Yet... once you gave in to dating him... red flags made themselves known.

Aladdin is obsessive. He's clingy and more greedy than you thought when it came to your love. He slowly seemed to have his usual behavior corrode the longer he was around you.

The humble street rat you fell in love with... began to change.

It was as though there was some sort of hidden evil in his heart.

"Al... it's such a big step, I just don't think we're ready-" You find yourself suggesting in a soft tone, noticing how his happy gaze faltered for a moment.

"What do you mean? I could treat you like royalty... I may not be the richest man but I could try to get us a big wedding!" Aladdin continues, wrapping his arms around your waist as he leans his head on your shoulder.

"We haven't been dating for that long... only maybe a few months. I just don't know if we're right together..." You admit. Aladdin's grip tightens on your waist when you say that. Guilt soon creeps into you.

"Do you think we're not good enough for each other?" Aladdin whispers, his tone dangerous in your ear. "What makes you think that?"

You can hear the possessiveness dripping from his tone. The tight grip on your waist didn't help either. Your heart beats fast... be it from fear or the proximity you don't know.

"You've been acting strange lately..." You whisper, only for Aladdin to pull away to look you in the eyes.

"I've been excited! After all... I already picked the perfect ring for you... it compliments your beauty." Aladdin whispers, his eyes never leaving yours as he holds your chin.

You're scared... hesitant. Aladdin is delusional to the behavior he has around you. Being possessive and clingy didn't bother him.

All he wants is you.

"There's no need to be so hesitant..." Aladdin whispers, pulling you closer. "You'll be in safe hands... you'll be in my hands... we'll be happy together. I'll be your hero, okay?"

His words are meant to be reassuring, but you still stare like a dear in headlights. Aladdin ignores your silence and pulls you in to kiss you softly. Sure, you may be scared of the thought now...

But you'll warm up to it...

He's sure of it.

[thisgirlnamedblusy]

Hi Blusy! I really like all of your work, so I may or may not have notifications turned on for your account lol but

1.) I’m so happy you had a great time in Rome! I hope you get to go back, or have many chances to see the world, you deserve it!💖

2.) Remember how I said your writing is really nice when university is stressful? Well I study anthropology/archaeology too and I think it’s incredibly cool that your father is one! Maybe I’ll get to work with him one day and see the world too!✨

3.) The name Blusy coming from you doing laundry is actually incredibly cute, and a very good “origin story.”

4.) Stay warm, and take as much rest as you need! I hope you feel better soon, but in the meantime have hot cocoa and good food. Curl up under some blankets and enjoy your time! 💜

Sincerely, a very appreciative annon

-🪼

Hi, anon!

It's so nice to see that amount of nice messages on my day off ;)

Well, I like your way of asking so I'm going to do the same, haha *evil laugh*.

1.) Yeah, it was so, so great! Thank you for asking! Actually I didn't travel around the world thta much, (I went to France, UK, NYC and finally to Italy) I'm a home lover to be honest, I guess I'm quite similar to Donna in that matter xD

2.) I'm glad to know that my writing helps you to deal with the university stress. I remember my university years, and I know what you mean... I love the studies you chose!!! I hope you get to make your dreams true!

3.) Well, It's the way it happened, xD. When I changed the fandom I just added "Shadow" to the name to make it a little more... darker... (Silly, I know)

4.) Oh, don't worry about me, there's people (and a cat) by my side taking care of me, besides, it's just a day, surely I'll feel better tomorrow. (I love hot cocoa btw)

Thank you for your nice words and for being always there, anon! With you is imposible to be alone, and this is simply wonderful!!

Take care of yourself!!

[sinvulkt]

20 Questions For Writers

Wow, thank you so much for the tag @fanfictasia !! I've wanted to participate in something like this forever!! 🎶✨️✨️

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Right now? 66.

"Yes, as a star wars writer, I am very proud of that. No, I do not intend to change it anytime soon."

I really need to focus on (and finish) some of my WIPs, and that mean trying not to disperse my energy amidst one shots (no matter how much i love monthly challenges and fic exchange events). Also I'm very proud of that 66 count and want to appreciate it xd.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

321k words!!

(More or less 100k / year 🎶 little me would never believe that 0.0

My school exam results sure don't, with how they are dropping 🤣)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star wars mostly (Vaderkin or my OC Sinvulkt), then Marvel (Dr Strange), Dream SMP (Dream), Le Visiteur du Future (Renard) and more recently Batman (Bruce Wayne) as well as Avatar: the last airbender (Zuko).

Plus the original stories I am supposed to write but almost never end up doing xd (the engagement in fandom compared to original stories make the switch hard xd).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Dreamt of a Never Ending Sky (Dream SMP)

669 kudos

2. To Fly Free Under The Morning Sun (Star Wars)

480 kudos

3. On the Edge of Twilight (Star Wars)

380 kudos

4. Scales of Embers (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

353 kudos

5. Crash Landing on Space Australia (Star Wars)

319 kudos

I'll never know how my Dream SMP fic got so much engagement. Good timing at a moment the fandom was in effervescence, I guess. Scales of Embers scoring so high is also a surprise 0.0. I discovered it had that many kudos today. It’s a shame the Dr Strange fandom is small because I think my Dr Strange WIP What If Doctor Strange Lost His Humanity ? would have deserved a place here. It definitely does in my heart.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! As a reader, I always feel super happy when the author shows that they’ve read and appreciated my comments. I know that personality an author who answers make me more likely to want to drop a comment.

As an author, I absolutely want to show how much I love every single comments, so I try to answer them all. But I get a little overwhelmed sometimes, bcs lots of other stuff going on irl or another reason. As such, it can happen that I don't feel the energy to answer a comment on the spot. And if I don't answer it on the spot (using the power of the wiggy dizzy nice happy feeling of getting a comment), I don't necessarily have the energy to answer later on. I currently have something like 60 unanswered comments I think? TT.TT

But rest assured that whether I answered or not, I absolutely adore and cherish every single ones!! Comments are amazing! ✨️.✨️

(This kind of engagement is one of the only reason I managed to settle into such an active rythm of writing after years of trying then dropping the hobby~)

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Glance at my fics.

Uhhh... This is a hard question here... Many of them have angsty endings XD

Mostly the ones at the beginning (the worst written ones xd). I wonder why~

Also a lot of them don' have endings yet XD

I'll say amidst the 'old' fics from 2021, Day 8 - Screaming (Star Wars) would be the angstier one (or most horrible one ig xd).

But as far as recent fic go... While I haven't finished writing it bcs its wordcount exploded in my face, I already plotted / drafted it a few months ago and I know the ending, so I'll choose:

Batman’s Downfall (To Stand Alone) (Batman)

I noticed my kind of angst doesn’t have much success around these parts 🫠🤣. Oh well. I cherish it all the same :3.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Sometimes I think I wrote too many fics. It's hard to select one.

Uhhh... My fluffiest works are one shots in Of Feathers and Freedom serie, but they are part of the series so it’s not really an 'ending'.

...

I'll answer for the crackiest story rather than the happiest ending bcs all my finished fics ending are ominous open ending at best xd.

The Blob Adventures Of Excentrics Jedi (Star Wars)

Because it's cute blob drawings of our crazy team of OC in taaoej, and I love them (although we are all angst lovers in taaoej, so it's more crack-angst, and we don't know the ending bcs there isn't really one. Not yet at least. Hopefully never).

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

Just my own innervoice as far as I'm aware. But then I've always been rather clueless when people tried to 'hate on me'. The message usually just got lost somewhere in dreamspace immensity, never computing.

I've found the fandoms communities really welcoming at the very least!!

9. Do you write smut?

No.

I don't really enjoy reading smut. Nor romance for the matter. I don't think I'd enjoy writing it.

But maybe I'll try one day, for the sake of experimenting all genres.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I never did. I don't know why. Maybe I just never felt the need to mix characters and universes. There are amazing crossovers out there though, so who knows, maybe one day I'll try one.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of. In all honesty, I don't think my works are nearly popular enough to get stolen xd.

My writing style isn’t that good yet, and my dislike of romance when the majority of the fandom community is ship-powered means I end up in a corner quite niche. (A corner I love, that being said. Yay Crack, Angst and Gen~)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but maybe I'll translate some of mine in french someday. Be it only so that I do write fiction in my native language from time to time.

Anyone that wanna translate my fics, feel free to!!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes, To Fly Free Under The Morning Sun (Star Wars)!!

I’m still waiting for my co-author @purpleopossum to come back to me / get back in star wars mood to continue that one. 🫠

Can’t say my hopes are that high up after all this time, but it’s the redemption | healing part of the serie and I don’t really have fun writing alone redemption | healing part... i prefer doing the whole mayhem that create the injury in the first place. And with how long some of my fics hiatus are (and I got no excuse for those xd), it’s only fair for me to wait. (I did write more other works for the dragon Vader serie in the meantime xd).

I made an oath to myself to never leave a work unfinished though, so we’ll see. If in several years purple still doesn’t wish to continue it, or if she inform me she is dropping the story, I’ll try to make some kind of ending. It’s part of the game i guess.

Alternatively, the The Amazing Adventures Of Excentrics Jedi universe is a group of star wars OCs that we made together with @pat-the-togorian , @asteral-feileacan , @ct2002-rema and Xylian. I don’t know if that count as co-writing? We usually write our OCs pov.

But in all cases, co-writting is very fun and I’d definitely do it again if other opportunities arise in the future.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

The absence of ship is my all-time favorite ship. Otherwise, "main character / digging their own grave" would be my 'favorite ship' since I tend to synch with idiots snarky jerks disasters.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

To Fly Free Under The Morning Sun (Star Wars) that I mentioned for question 13? 🤣

More seriously, I'll answer On the Edge of Twilight (Star Wars)

Because it's my vent fic. I know the main plot line, I vaguely know the current arc, but no one can predict where the next arc will go. It's all pure impulse and while I have a vague idea of 'ending', I refuse to plan a path towards it. This fic specifically, I want to keep pure impulse. So I'd love for it to become some kind of "The NeverEnding Story". :3

16. What’s your writing strengths?

I write.

No seriously, it's not something I did four years ago appart from vent poems here and there. Writing is in itself a huge writing strenght!

Otherwise I'm also a bottomless well of idea. It's pretty neat.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

... romance?

Or dialogues. Lastly I have a lot of frustration around the transition from dialogue / transition / dialogue. I feel like I'm crap at properly timing that.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

It's fun. I do it for games sometimes. Since apparently writing normally is not chllenging enough for my brain sometimes. It did teach me bits of mando'a.

Recently for Sēċan (Star Wars) I decided last minute to put the whole droid dialogue in morse, and I regret none of it.

I'm usually only doing it for one shots though, and never 'official existing' languages until now.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star wars :p

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Now that's another hard question, how am I supposed to select one.

I'm gonna answer the whole Of Feathers And Freedom (Star Wars) serie. Bcs wings. :3

Tag time~ (if you wish to)

@purpleopossum @pat-the-togorian @cinderfeather @beguilewritesstuff @purple-iris @dreaminghour @ravenite-void @trickstress333 @bluntblade @doctorgeekery @stewardofningishzida @jenae-0 @trickstress333 @kittonafoxgirl @pastelcourage @salparadiselost @kefalion @charlottevader @ravenstakeflight @starr234 @aelaer @sarcasticfirefighter @mckiwi @linzerj @sonderwalker @exomal @tonhalszendvics @nephilimswitchlight @firejay112 @only-here-for-the-star-wars @ajedilikehisfather @makaronik @chickadeechickadoo @dirtkid123 @numerousbees1106 @akizumy @25centsoda @udekai @wendingways @silvereddaye @in-company-of-misery @wisechaosglitter @kuraiarcoiris @alright-anakin @wyvunn you're more than welcome to join on the interview fun!! (Or to ignore the tagging if not interested xd).

I know I tagged. I lot of people. Some of you may recognise my pseud, some may not. But I thought it would be interesting to hear the answer of the various authors with whom I interacted on ao3 over the years, so I went and digged up those with tumblr I could find from my inbox 🤣

(Hopefully I didn’t bother any of you >.< - otherwise I apologize. Same for if I accidentally tagged a non-writer.)

I'd love to hear your answers! 🎶

[jazlynriddle-legacy]

Welcome to your life - Pt 3:

It's My Own Design Ch 20:

Summary:

Ominis fought to control his expression, to keep his hands from trembling. Five years. Five years since he'd seen his parents, and this. This was the reason they'd given him the honour of their time? This was the reason they'd sought him out at Hogwarts?

The bitterness welling up within him was thick enough to gag on.

New year, new allies, new responsibilities, new avenues of revenue, and new aspects of their own Ancient Magic to explore. As the Keeper and their partners enter their last year at Hogwarts, it remains to be seen if the new school year will bring with it new problems or adversaries, but they are confident in the strength of their relationship with Sebastian and Ominis. The three of them would endure, no matter what befell them.

And if they were wrong?

What a joke, they would suffer no alternative.

Warnings: Sebastian x MC x Ominis! Drug Addiction! Spoilers! Slow-burn corruption! Dark content! Fucked up 1800s orphanages! MC has no love for Anne or Solomon! Dubious happy ending (it's happy for MC, Seb and Ominis at least).

You can also read on AO3! (chapter specific warnings below)

Notes:

Warnings: A bit more torture but mostly plot and world building.

Finally, we're back to moving the plot and story along. I revamped a bunch of JK's lore, threw some of it in the trash bin, and came up with my own spin on the rest and created goblin culture, hopefully ya'll like the world building here =D

Also, if anyone's thirsty for pain, I posted a short ass alternate sad ending for Sebastian's questline titled Let's Go, Together. Go check it out if you want to cry.

God, I'm exhausted, I got food poisoning, I think I'm getting a cold too, greaaaat-

I'm also writing another Sebinis AU that features the Keeper as a historical cameo, so readers of this series will (hopefully) understand why the Keeper in that AU is... past-tensed. Good lord, it's already like 20k words and it's still like in the world building and slow... er, medium burn part. If you like Peter Pan (and no, not the Disney version) you'll like this one xD I'll probably upload the first chapter of that new fic next weekend, so please look forward to it! =D

And, at this point, I should probably just fix my upload schedule for this series to once every four weeks, it's been like that for ages now and I can't seem to make my chapters shorter than 10k words x')

Edit: One of my cats died, my oldest companion, and it's been rough, so, I deeply apologise, but I'll be dropping my upload schedule and I probably won't be able to finish the next chapter anytime soon. I need a break, but I'll definitely continue this when I'm feeling better!

“This is all I could find. Seems like he didn't have much left by the time I went after him.” The Keeper dropped a small pouch on the table between them and Mrs. Taylor, their tone slightly apologetic.

They kind of felt like they’d gotten more out of this than Frederick's wife, but if she really needed the money, it'd probably be helpful regardless, the pearls should at least fetch a decent price. The Keeper wasn't exactly an expert, but the yellow tint to the pearly sheen made them likely to be natural pearls, and the gold ring was decently heavy.

“It's alright, I'll come back to give you your share after I sell off what you've found.” She nodded, accepting the pouch and, as she did so, a blue flame burst into being over her hand, startling her.

“Don't worry about that, it's just the contract. Evidence that I've fulfilled my end of the bargain.” The Keeper assured, taking a sip from their glass.

“I- I see.” The lady's smile became uncertain. “Is he-”

She cut herself off and shook her head. “Nevermind, thank you.”

“You're welcome.” The Keeper answered with a level gaze, amused that she clearly wanted and didn't want to know what had become of her husband. Perhaps they'd gotten used to reading that on Ominis’ more controlled face, and could spot it easily on hers. “I look forward to receiving my pay.”

At the clear dismissal, Mrs. Taylor nodded and stood. “I'll be in touch.”

With a last uncertain glance, she left the Phantom’s Flask, and the Keeper moved over to sit at Alasdair's counter, where the bartender gave them a wry smile. “Congratulations on clearing another job. How was your visit to the Rogues?”

“Rowdy.” The Keeper answered with an amused snort. “Think I prefer this place. Drinks are better too.”

A wide smirk covered Alasdair's face. “Flattery won't lighten your tab, kid. Out with it then, what do you want?”

“I don't suppose you know where I might be able to acquire two-way mirrors like Owl's, though I'd prefer a set of three that are linked.” The Keeper asked, stirring their drink idly with the straw.

“Well, starting out with the tough requests, hm? Two-ways are rare enough already, a set of three-way mirrors would be even harder to acquire.” Alasdair chuckled. “But I'm sure you've already guessed as much.”

“Can you help me or not?” The Keeper huffed, not particularly in the mood to play.

“There's only one merchant I know who could have something that rare, but they're involved in an ongoing fight with a fairly powerful enemy, so you might want to be careful when dealing with them.” The bartender warned. “It's not the type of beef you want to get dragged into.”

“Noted.” The Keeper cocked an eyebrow at the man. Well, all they were interested in was trade, so they didn't see how that would be a problem.

“They rent a room on Tuesday nights to do trade, come by during opening hours and you'll find them in room sixteen.” Alasdair jabbed a thumb towards the stairs. “Wear your mask.”

That bad, huh.

The Keeper nodded as they finished up their drink, sliding the glass over to Alasdair and making to stand, when he asked. “Have you ever met a vampire?”

Eyes widening, they shook their head, a vampire, eh? That should be interesting.

“Well, greet them with a bow and don't tilt your head to the side or raise your wrist. Might take that as an offer.” The corner of Alasdair's mouth quirked upwards in amusement.

“I'll keep that in mind.” The Keeper huffed as they stood. “Thanks as always.”

“See you soon, kid.”

The streets of Diagon Alley were about as cramped as one might expect on a Sunday in the middle of the Christmas season, and Sebastian was starting to worry that he wouldn't make it to Gringotts on time for his first lesson with Borgok.

Which would be a pretty piss poor way to start his apprenticeship, so he took a breath and began to shove himself through the crowd. Ignoring the glares from the surrounding shoppers, Sebastian elbowed his way to the bank, huffing and puffing as he struggled against the flow of traffic.

When he finally made it to the large white doors, the bank itself also turned out to be crowded as all hell and, for a moment, Sebastian was worried that he wouldn't be able to find his mentor. Only to breathe a sigh of relief when he spotted the heavy-set blacksmith standing near a counter, speaking with another of his kinsmen, and he quickly waded through the sea of people and goblins.

Fortunately, Borgok seemed to spot him as he made his way over, saving him the awkward task of interrupting the conversation, and Sebastian stopped a few steps away. Leaning against a wall to catch his breath, Sebastian waited for Borgok to finish his discussion, and the other goblin left after a few moments.

“Master Borgok.” Sebastian greeted when his mentor turned to face him, giving him a slight bow of the head in respect.

It still felt odd to regard a goblin with deference, but he knew that this was something he had to get used to, goblins weren't the enemy, and this one would make him more useful to the Keeper. He needed to be useful, needed to take the pressure off them, they were already carrying so much of their future, it wasn't fair for both he and Ominis to need them so much.

The Keeper’s breakdown on Friday had reminded him that they weren't mentally invincible either, even they needed rest, and Sebastian knew that he only got to spend more time with the Keeper than Ominis, because most of it was when they were working.

And they were always working.

Which obviously meant that Ominis was left alone more often than not.

Sebastian had managed to get Ominis to talk about what was bothering him during their walk by the lake, and he'd felt rather stupid when the blond had hesitantly admitted that he was feeling lonely. Of course he was, the throuple could usually spend at least a few hours and mealtimes together every day during previous holidays, this was the first time they'd left Ominis alone for days in a row.

It wasn't fair that Sebastian's own needs were being met - purely because he and the Keeper conveniently took pleasure from working together - and Ominis’ weren't.

So, even though Sebastian loved watching the Keeper work, loved how hot they looked when they were focused, loved how good it felt every time they gave him one of their approving nods. He decided that he was going to do his best to reduce the amount of time that the Keeper needed to spend on work. Ominis deserved to get his relaxing dates with them too.

Hopefully, learning about goblin silver and how it worked would allow him to give the Keeper more time to rest and relax with him and Ominis. It was with this determination in his heart that Sebastian met Borgok's gaze, and a sharp toothy grin of approval spread across the goblin's face. Okay, still kinda unnerving, why did goblins have to have such creepy looking teeth-

“Sebastian, glad you made it on time, punctuality in the face of unexpected adversity is a sign of dedication.” Borgok chuckled, and the pink that had been leaving Sebastian's cheeks immediately returned. “Come, follow me.”

The hefty goblin turned and took a few steps over to the counter and Sebastian followed him with some trepidation.

“Nodrog.” Borgok greeted the goblin behind the counter, who was wearing the uniform of a security guard.

“Borgok, busy morning we're having, innit?” The guard chuckled wryly. “What can I do for you?”

“This is Sebastian.” Borgok gestured at him, before introducing the goblin. “And this is Nodrog, you'll have to get clearance from him to enter the employee's section of the building.”

Sebastian nodded at him in greeting, deciding to go with the standard. “Good morning.”

“So, this is the apprentice, bit younger than I expected.” Nodrog eyed Sebastian critically and he fought to keep his expression neutral, chanting in his head, don't get mad, don't get mad, don't get mad.

The goblin behind the counter then presented him with a ledger and a quill. “Here, you'll need to sign this every time you enter and leave.”

Taking the quill obediently, Sebastian found the first empty row to scribble his name on and, after passing the ledger and quill to Borgok, the security guard offered Sebastian a gold necklace in their place. “And you'll need to wear this.”

The golden chain was not very long, and its links were thick, broad squares, weaved together in an intricate interlocking design. Most prominently, was a curious pattern along the side that was large enough to be seen at a glance, it looked almost like letters, though Sebastian couldn't quite recognise them.

“It's got an identification number on the side. And it's how we'll know you're working here.” Nodrog explained, and Sebastian nodded, taking the chain and fastening it around his neck, rather surprised to find that it wasn't quite as uncomfortable as he'd thought it looked.

“Alright, that's everything settled. Welcome to Gringotts.” Nodrog pressed something on his countertop and the shutter gate beside the counter opened.

“Come along then, lad.” Borgok quipped as he led the way through the gates and down the corridor behind them.

Sebastian followed him for a short walk, and the corridor eventually ended at a chamber with three doors, which were all - oddly enough - lacking handles. The door to the left bore a bronze sheen, the one in the middle, silver, while the third was made of or possibly plated with gold, and Sebastian wondered which they would be entering. Not to mention, what the significance of each differing material was.

The blacksmith lumbered over to the golden door, and as he did, Sebastian noticed that there was a small keyhole set into the door's frame. He watched with curiosity as Borgok lowered his collar slightly to reveal a necklace that looked almost identical to Sebastian’s and lifted one of the golden keys hanging from it.

Sebastian's eyebrows rose when Borgok moved like he was going to pull the key off the necklace, only for the necklace to elongate. The links of the chain unfolded out of themselves elegantly, till the necklace was long enough for the goblin to easily slot the key into the keyhole on the door frame.

The key turned with a click, and a golden circle that Sebastian had previously thought was merely one of the intricate designs on the door's frame, popped out, becoming what was quite clearly a button. Its job done, Borgok released the key from between his fingers and the links in the necklace began folding back into themselves until the chain was once again hanging comfortably from around the goblin's neck.

With wide eyes, Sebastian tugged lightly on his own necklace, observing it as it elongated and then shrank back when he released it. A bright grin spread across his face, okay, that was pretty awesome.

When Borgok then pressed the gold button he'd unlocked, the door slid to the side, revealing its ornate interior to be a very small room lined with golden grilles and elegant frills. So much gold, Merlin, the goblins really liked their precious metals.

For a moment, Sebastian was confused, until he followed the goblin inside and realised that this was an elevator, a rather rare piece of machinery, though it made sense that Gringotts would have plenty. Sebastian examined the slate of buttons on the side, spotting a few with keyholes beside them, the third of which Borgok unlocked with yet another key, and then pressed, causing the doors to close.

With a deep rumble and a jolt, the elevator began descending and Borgok took a small pouch out of his pocket, offering it to Sebastian. “As you might have guessed, the smithy I manage is in the most secure layer, you will need the keys in this bag to reach it for our lessons. You can attach them to your necklace to avoid losing them.”

Accepting the pouch, Sebastian opened it, finding two golden keys and one silver key inside, and he asked, as he removed his necklace momentarily to secure them to the chain. “Most secure layer?”

Borgok chuckled. “Yes, well, I may have neglected to mention that I'm the head of Gringotts’ Diagon Alley branch Design Department, overseeing research and development of Gringotts’ tools, locks, security and machinery.”

Sebastian's eyes widened, so Borgok was a bigshot. Great, that could be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time, a voice that sounded an awful lot like the Keeper’s echoed in his head, followed by one that sounded more like Ominis, better be careful how you behave around him, but Sebastian himself was pretty excited about this, so he shooed the voices away.

If he performed well and managed to win the approval of Borgok and his team, he'd gain connections and it would bolster his credibility, giving his decisions more weight. Not to mention, the things he could learn from them, this was an incredible opportunity that he could still barely believe had landed in his lap. Thanks to the Keeper, as always.

But your stubbornness will be your ruin, you've never gotten on with authority, you're your father's son, after all, the snide voice of Solomon sneered in his mind, you're unteachable.

Sebastian smothered that one aggressively, it only ever came out when the Keeper wasn't around, and he yearned to have them here with him. They always made him feel more confident and assured, even before he'd fallen in love with them. Having their unflinching presence by his side always made him feel like any endeavour was possible, like he could take on the world.

“My smithy team followed me when I took the position, and your training will begin with them till you have enough of the basics to learn from me.” Borgok continued, unaware of Sebastian's internal havoc. “I will introduce you to the team, and then leave you to their care.”

Sebastian nodded, the keys around his neck feeling uncomfortably heavy and anxiety churning in his stomach. Fuck it though, he was going to do his best and he was going to win them over. He had to. Failure was not an option.

Hopefully Borgok would have enough for Sebastian to do - to keep his mind occupied and quiet - it was always less noisy and easier to think when he had a problem to solve or a puzzle to figure out. He felt the vertigo of motion cease, before the elevator doors opened with a clunk, and Sebastian's eyes widened with awe at the incredible sight that was unveiled.

Outside the elevator was an enormous dome chamber filled with large machinery and workshop benches covered in tools. The warm light from the roaring fires peeking out of numerous furnaces, glimmered across the gold and silver strewn about the room. A dozen goblins or so, were either seated at the benches or moving back and forth across the workspace like a well-oiled machine. Some pushing carts of materials and others carrying tools from one place to another.

He could also see several doors along the walls, and vents snaking their way across the ceiling, along with an absolutely chaotic mess of pipes crisscrossed beneath the grates that made up the floor. Oh boy, he really didn't envy whoever's job it was to remember which pipe went where, that looked like an absolute nightmare to manage, maintain, and repair.

If Borgok tried to give him that job, Sebastian would pack his bags and leave.

Said goblin beside him chuckled, and Sebastian jumped, reminded that he was standing in the elevator doorway, staring like an idiot.

“Quite something, isn't it?” Borgok wore a proud smile as he ran his gaze over the room.

“It's incredible.” Sebastian agreed, stepping out of the elevator and returning his attention to his mentor.

“That it is, you should've seen how it looked before I got here.” The blacksmith laughed to himself as he shuffled over to a row of silver lockers beside the lift landing.

“However, the first lesson you must learn is that everything that inspires awe, is also dangerous.” Borgok rapped his knuckles against a pigeonhole locker with the number thirteen engraved on it. “You are not to descend the steps into the workshop, until you have donned the protective gear from your locker. And take off those useless robes, wizarding fashion will cost you an arm down here.”

Sebastian approached his locker and spotted a small keyhole beside the handle, quickly guessing that one of the keys hanging around his neck would likely fit. He tugged the necklace out from under the cotton tunic - that Borgok had instructed him to wear in advance - and pulled on it, still rather taken with how beautifully the necklace stretched, and attempted the smallest silver key, which fit perfectly, and he opened the locker to examine its contents.

At the sound of another locker opening beside him, Sebastian peered at Borgok, watching the goblin don the gear inside his own locker, and Sebastian shucked his robes quickly to copy his mentor.

In a few minutes, Sebastian was decked out with a small pair of goggles that sat snugly over his eyes, a face shield that could be flipped up to sit atop his head when not in use, a thick brown apron that he'd tied around his waist, a pair of safety boots - was that steel covering the toes? Fascinating - and a pair of gloves.

The gloves weren't as thick as he'd expected, but had a mesh design that felt incredibly sturdy. He'd bet good money that these gloves would stop a knife from taking off a finger and Sebastian wondered if he could get a pair of these for the Keeper. He could also feel the pulse of magic in his gear, and he noticed several runes embroidered into the waist-tie of the apron and the wrist cuffs of the gloves.

He was honestly a tad surprised that they would have gear within a human's size range, he'd already given Borgok his shoe and glove sizes, so those were customised as he'd expected, but the rest were adjustable. A rather strange choice of investment.

Finished donning his gear, Sebastian lifted the face shield and closed his locker, hearing it lock automatically, and looked at himself in the reflective surface of its door. Huh, Sebastian grinned, maybe if he showed up looking this professional, Ominis might actually trust him.

He snorted to himself in amusement, yeah, if the blond could actually see him maybe, shaking his head, he descended the stairs to join Borgok.

Fortunately, the goggle lenses seemed to be made of crisp clear crystal, and Sebastian could easily take in the sights as he followed his mentor across the chamber, his steel-toed shoes clanking against the metal beneath them.

“This chamber is the common workshop. Those five doors lead to the workshops for specialisation teams focused on a different aspect of smithing.” Borgok explained as they walked, gesturing to the doors spaced evenly along the dome's walls. “There's the Material team, the Forging team, the Finishing team, the Tooling maintenance team, and my team, the Design team.”

It was a struggle to focus on his mentor's words while goblins bustled around them, and Sebastian's eyes were constantly flickering back and forth as yet another curious machine caught his attention. Wait, was that a cart of platinum!? Sebastian's jaw went slack, an entire cart full!? He suddenly felt rather nervous, if he messed up something here, he might end up costing them more money.

Ugh, was this what being responsible felt like? Sebastian sighed, not fun, but he supposed doing good by his partners was worth dampening his excitement.

“And this is my office, you can seek me out here if you have any issues that your assigned teacher can't address.” Borgok continued as they arrived at a brass door, whose frame was like an oval cut into the wall, and Sebastian thought it a curious design choice.

The goblin unlocked the door with yet another key, and Sebastian frowned as it opened, wondering why he wasn't hearing any jangling, despite the many keys hanging from Borgok's necklace. That, and how his mentor kept track of where each key went, Merlin, there had to be at least ten hanging off the goblin’s neck.

The inside of his office was surprisingly modest, in contrast to how shiny most of Gringotts seemed to be, and it felt less industrial than the workshop outside as well. It was more akin to a Professor's office back in Hogwarts, with a large but low desk on the other end of the room, though it was made of steel rather than wood, and covered with small gadgets, papers and tools.

Borgok lumbered over to it and Sebastian followed him, past an even lower coffee table, surrounded by short yet plush, comfortable looking couches and armchairs.

“Take a seat, while I call my team to the room.” The goblin gestured towards the short stool in front of the desk as he walked around it to sit in the high-backed chair behind it.

As instructed, Sebastian took a seat, though it felt more like he was crouching on the short stool, and Sebastian watched curiously as his mentor reached out to flip up the covers on four... pipes? The four brass pipes were sticking out of the desk and, leaning forward, Borgok spoke clearly and evenly into those four pipes at the same time.

“This is Master Smith Borgok, could the Masters of each department please come to my office? Thank you.” Finishing his announcement, the goblin closed the four flaps and leaned back in his seat to face Sebastian. “They should arrive in several minutes. For today, I will have you spend an hour following each of the four Masters around as they go about their work.”

Sebastian nodded slowly, and his expression must have looked not unlike a warrior going into battle, because Borgok gave him a small smile, saying. “Don't look so worried, they're my friends before my employees, and I can assure you that you will be treated no differently than one of our goblins.”

“Thank you.” Sebastian returned his smile, grateful that his mentor was taking the time to ease his nerves. Still, he'd had enough bad experiences with adults to remain wary, though he supposed he was already considered one himself, by all technicality.

“After you've taken some time with the other Masters, you can come by my office, and we'll speak for a bit about any observations you've made.” Borgok continued. “Though some of my friends might be... strict, I hope you'll be able to learn much from them, though it would probably be prudent to give you some warning.”

“Warning?” Sebastian echoed warily.

“Yes, see, amongst goblins, we men commonly handle interactions with Wizardkind, your people aren't very... tolerant towards our women.” Borgok flashed a wry smile. “Of course, I don't understand it, I think our goblette ladies are absolutely lovely, but humans seem to find them rather... scary.”

Sebastian's eyebrows raised, even more so than goblins!?

“And our culture is normally one of express honesty. Humans in general seem to think that ‘polite’ means lying. In contrast, when we goblins feel a certain way, we will make no attempts to hide it, out of respect to those around us. The more we care about each other, the more effort we put into being our authentic selves.” Borgok explained, and Sebastian felt something stir inside him, he really liked the way that sounded.

“However, humans... they take offence too easily, and when our women show anger, it can put them in grave danger.” The goblin sighed. “So, us men, the physically stronger and less... ugly by - human standards - handle interactions with humans. And I won't lie, it's... painful to suppress our emotions the way humans do.”

Sebastian winced in sympathy, he knew what that felt like, that sounded rough indee-

The door slammed open with a clang that echoed through the room, and Sebastian jumped, spinning around to stare with wide eyes as a foot hovered in the doorway for a moment. Before it lowered to the floor and a goblin - just a tad shorter than Borgok - entered, wearing an admittedly, rather terrifying scowl.

“The blazes are ye doin’ callin’ me in the middle o’ engraving!?” The goblin's voice was slightly higher in pitch, though no less rough than Borgok's, with a hooked nose that pointed upwards rather than down, long brown hair tied up in a tight bun and twice as many wrinkles as the average goblin. “You gonna do me last twenty hours o’ work if I botch the batch, eh Borgok!?”

“Melain, my friend, please, we should give young Sebastian a chance to get used to dealings with fine ladies like yourself.” Borgok sighed, and Sebastian blinked, so that was a goblette. Merlin’s beard, she did look terrifying indeed, were those tusks peeking out from her lower lip!?

Another goblin shoved past Melain, this one was a little taller than her but also had long hair - blonde this time - in a braid, another goblette, from the wrinkles and long fangs. This one flashed Borgok a sharp grin, revealing two rows of teeth that were even more jagged than his, as she scoffed. “And that's our problem, how?”

“Rozen is right. If the boy wants to learn from us, he'll have to get accustomed to our customs.” Came a flat and uninterested statement from a bespectacled goblette with her black hair in a messy bun, who strolled past the others, staring at a clipboard in her hands as she absently took a seat in one of the armchairs. “Jason managed without any coddling.”

“That's very kind of you to say, Loleu.” The next person to enter was - to Sebastian's surprise - a human. The man's voice was deep, and his warm blue eyes followed the goblettes as they seated themselves.

He was also intimidatingly tall, at least a head taller than Sebastian, and he was large and muscled, with cropped dark brown hair that was almost as messy as Sebastian's own, wearing the same apron around his waist and the same gloves too. He had a strong square jaw that made Sebastian think of muggle soldiers, and there were numerous scars crisscrossing across the thick arms, showing under his rolled-up sleeves.

A part of Sebastian wondered if he would eventually look... like that, after working here for a while. Would Ominis and the Keeper like that? If he had big muscles to touch? It would be pretty cool if he could carry Ominis bridal style one day.

Catching Sebastian's curious eyes, Jason grinned broadly and strode towards him, saying. “Hey there, Sebastian, right? I'm glad to see the gear fits! I thought it should - from your shoe and glove sizes - but one can never really know in the wizarding world.”

Jason chuckled as he offered his hand for a shake, and Sebastian couldn’t help but feel some relief at seeing a gesture he knew how to respond to. Standing and taking the hand, Sebastian smiled. “So, I have you to thank for the gear. You have my gratitude, I must admit, I'm surprised to see another human.”

At his words, the three goblettes on the couch began to snicker and Jason chuckled as he released Sebastian's hand. “Not quite, I'm a werewolf.”

Sebastian's eyes widened and Jason gave him a rueful smile. “The Ministry doesn't make it easy for my kind to make an honest living, Master Borgok was kind enough to give me a chance when he saw the craft I was trying to sell.”

Sebastian followed the werewolf's grateful gaze to the goblin in question, and Borgok shrugged. “I didn't have enough coin on me, so I offered to teach him, in exchange for what I needed to buy. Saved me the embarrassment of showing up to my mother’s without a gift.”

“Luckily for me.” Jason chuckled. “I trusted his word and let him leave with the artpiece, even though I was raised to see goblins as uncivilised. And it was the best decision I've ever made.”

“We simply see no point in denying merit when we see it. Effort should always be met with equal appreciation, and it is an insult to give more - or less - than fair, in exchange for work.” Borgok paused with a bitter smile. “That's all we ever wanted from Wizardkind, to be viewed with the appropriate recognition for our hard work and efforts. But humans value results over effort. I will never understand such a way of thinking.”

Sebastian felt something clench in his chest at those words, that's right, that's all he ever wanted too. For his uncle to respect him, for his efforts to be recognised. Did it matter if he failed? He was trying. Could Solomon not see that? Did he not care? Sebastian could have had everybody in Hogwarts admire him and it wouldn't have been a substitute for his uncle's recognition and support.

He bit his lip, heart aching, until he thought of the Keeper. They hadn’t given a fuck when he failed, and so spectacularly at that. They saw how much he cared, how hard Sebastian was always trying. Always. Trying to be strong and confident, trying to look and feel like he knew what the fuck he was doing. Perhaps it would hurt less if he could just show his honest feelings without need for hiding, like the goblins did.

They may look scary, but their hearts weren't very different from his own, it seemed.

Maybe it wasn’t so strange that Ranrok's Loyalists were all goblin men, they were the ones who had to endure humanity's farces and toxic masks. It made Sebastian feel a strange guilt, that those goblins had just been infected by human poison. The same poison he himself had been choking on. He'd been taking his anger out on people who were in the same boat that he'd been in for years.

“Because the goblin way makes sense.” Loleu muttered, flipping a page on her clipboard and pulling a... pen, out of the mess pretending to be a bun on her head, to scribble something on the clipboard. “Jason made an excellent recovery and great progress under our care.”

“My dear, you'll make me blush.” Jason grinned sheepishly.

“Maybe I want to.” Loleu tossed back with a smirk, as she shoved her pen back into her bun.

“Urk- gross. Yer flirting'll give me hives.” Melain stuck out her tongue and Rozen snickered.

“It's not flirting, get your head outta the gutter.” Loleu rolled her eyes. “So, what's the plan, Master Smith?”

Borgok cleared his throat. “Yes, first, let me introduce my Masters.”

Sebastian sat up a little straighter and followed Borgok's palm as he gestured from the left to the right.

“Rozen is the Master in charge of Raw Materials, she handles refining and smelting raw ore from the mines, for use in forging.” The blonde goblette gave him a rather unsettling grin, but Sebastian bowed his head respectfully. He was just going to have to get over his discomfort, Jason managed, he could too.

“Jason is the Forging Master, he manages our forgers and they handle the conversion of ingots into the rough designs my team and I develop.” The large werewolf waved cheerfully, and Sebastian grinned back at him, he had a feeling the man would be a fun teacher.

“Melain is the Finishing Master, her team makes the finishing touches on every piece of work that leaves the forges. Engraving, polishing and all the detailed work.” The brunette goblette gave him a curt nod and he already felt like she would be the scariest teacher in the group.

“And finally, Loleu, our Tools Master, ensures that our forge is running around the clock. Maintaining or replacing any machinery or tools necessary for us to work.” The bespectacled goblette didn't even look up from her clipboard, simply sending a small wave in his general direction.

With the introductions done, Sebastian glanced at Borgok who moved his hand towards the blonde goblette, saying. “So, for starters, I'll be handing you off to Rozen, she'll introduce you to her line of work, before handing you over to the next Master.”

The blonde goblette sighed and stood. “Come on then, lad. Time's a wastin’.”

Giving Borgok a nod of farewell, Sebastian followed Rozen out of the room, his earlier trepidation returning as he did, still not entirely sure what to expect.

Returning to Borgok's office four hours later, Sebastian rapped his knuckles on the brass door and waited for Borgok's invitation. “Come in.”

Dutifully pushing the door open and poking his head inside, Sebastian saw the Master Smith scribbling on some papers at his desk, and Borgok spared him a glance, before returning his attention to his work. “Please take a seat on the couch, I'll be ready to speak with you in a few minutes.”

“Yes, Master Smith.” Sebastian nodded as he closed the door behind him and took a seat on one of the couches, slumping into the low cushion with a tired sigh. Merlin, that had been more exhausting than he'd expected.

His long tour had begun with Rozen had showing him to the Refinery Chambers, which - contrary to their name - were not mere chambers, but in fact expanded rooms so large that he wasn't even able to see the ceiling.

The Sifting Chamber held mountains, and he meant mountains of reddish-brown grains of iron, silver and gold. Apparently, they would grind up the raw ore transported from the mines and then use magnets to sift the iron from the dirt, and large gallons of water to wash dirt from gold and silver.

Rozen had given him a mask to wear over his nose and mouth, so he wouldn't choke on the fine dust, and Sebastian had commented that that would be a rather... fine way to die. Which had earned him a round of laughter from the crew nearby and a couple of hearty slaps on the thigh from Rozen. Which kind of hurt.

The Chemical Chamber had been rather pungent but was apparently vital to cleaning impurities from the precious metals between the various phases of smelting. Said connected Smelting Chamber had been extremely hot, enough that he could feel the burn on his skin despite the protective charms on his gear, and Rozen had told him that the temperatures in the coke coal forges reached almost half the heat of the sun's surface itself, according to recent muggle findings.

Sebastian had been admittedly awestruck when Rozen handed him a monstrously heavy ingot of pure gold, he'd almost dropped the tiny thing when she first passed it to him. However, the most exciting part of that hour had been watching the first phase of the process of enchanting the silver ingots to convert them into Goblin Silver.

Apparently, goblins could hear something that humans couldn't, or at least Sebastian hadn't heard shit when Rozen tapped a silver ingot with her hammer and went. “Ya hear that? When the silver sings like that, ya know it's good fer enchantin’.”

She'd tossed the ingot into a crucible with moonstone, before removing her glove and pricking her finger with a needle from her pocket, adding a drop of her own blood to it. Before handing Sebastian a stack of already cooled enchanted silver ingots, which had a blue sheen reminiscent of moonstone itself, to carry with him to his next stop.

He'd been relatively unsurprised by the addition of goblin blood to the mixture, their race had always been the least unsettled by blood magic.

Then, she'd dropped him off at Jason's forge, where the man had happily invited Sebastian to watch him forge a shield that'd been commissioned for a noble family, from the ingots that Sebastian had carried over. The werewolf had shown him how to get an ingot safely clamped between tongs and slide it over the burning coal furnaces to heat the metal evenly, before it could be hammered into the appropriate shape.

It had been rather amusing, how excited Jason had been to introduce one of the newer machines in the forge.

Apparently, the Power Hammer was based off a state-of-the-art piece of muggle machinery, it linked a spinning clutch with a hammer that would bounce on leather springs once engaged. It had been invented by a muggle designer named Christopher Bradley only a year ago, and Jason had chuckled as he described how enraged Borgok had been that a muggle had out-designed him with such a brilliant tool. One that would significantly reduce the amount of magic needed to power the process.

The werewolf had instructed Sebastian to lower his face shield as he hammered the metal into shape, folding it several times to improve its durability.

Sebastian had then asked, as Jason hammered away without anything protecting his face. “Why aren't you using a face shield?”

“Because I know what I'm doing.” Jason had answered with a grin.

“I'm a quick learner.” Sebastian hadn't been able to resist shooting back.

“That's what Greg said.” Jason had laughed, before turning to the side and shouting to be heard over the hammering of metal. “Hey Greg!”

“What?” Came the reply from one of the goblins nearby, who'd lifted his own face shield to reveal a large scar over his left eye.

“Tell the kid how you lost your eye!” Jason had called back.

The goblin cackled and flashed the wide-eyed Sebastian a sharp grin, shouting back. “Corner o’ coolin’ metal snapped off while hammerin’ and flew in me face!”

At his words, Sebastian had eyed the red-hot metal that Jason was hammering warily, and the werewolf cheerfully added. “Besides, if I mess up and injure myself, that's fine. But if I mess up and injure you, well, bugger me. So, keep that shield down.”

He wasn't sure if this was all a joke, but Sebastian kept his face shield down till Jason handed him off to Melain. Who quickly gave Sebastian her own variation of the same warning and told him to stay outta her way while she finished scraping, polishing, and engraving a goblet of goblin silver.

He'd watched with fascination as she sang in Gobbledegook under her breath, while etching little runes that glowed under her chisel. This was apparently the last step in enchanting Goblin Silver, which was why Jason was able to handle forging, despite not being a goblin. The main components were goblin blood, added during the smelting, and then runes charmed with goblin song and etched by goblin hands.

Sebastian was slightly disappointed that it wouldn't be possible for him to just make Goblin Silver for the Keeper, but he supposed if it were that simple, it wouldn't be so damn rare and expensive.

The blonde goblette hadn't given him much instruction or introduction, so focused she'd been on her work, but he'd found it enlightening to watch her all the same. While the Raw Materials were taxing and laborious to refine repeatedly, and forging required both immense strength and aim, finishing was no less difficult, and demanded intense focus and finesse. Not to mention, the amount of pressure there must be on the finishers to not waste all the work that had already gone into an item.

Loleu had dropped by to pick him up, correctly guessing that Melain was too caught up in her craft to remember his existence, and the black haired goblette had brought him to her workshop. Which... looked like an absolute nightmare. Machinery laid about in varying states of disrepair, an entire stack of spanners and hammers, a pile of screws and bolts was heaped in one corner, with another pile of nuts and gears in the other.

The messy room was apparently the equivalent of a spare parts scrap pile, and Sebastian had thus discovered - when Loleu asked him to pick up a handful of nuts for her - that the necklace of keys hanging around his neck would stay plastered to his chest even if he leaned forward. Which explained why he heard no jangling from the keys.

Loleu had then, absentmindedly told him that the necklace was charmed to stay against his chest so that the keys and chain would not get caught in any machinery or grinders, which would be quite... bad. Sebastian had swallowed at the unsettling thought, and then wondered if the goblette had a second pair of eyes hidden in her hair, since she'd been staring at her clipboard the entire time.

He'd watched as a seemingly endless stream of goblins came into the room, one after the other, to ask for a specific sized screw or nut or a size-sixteen Box-Head Ratcheting spanner or a replacement for a Steam-Powered Mechanical Trip Hammer Piston Assembly. Whatever the hell that last one was.

And every single time, she would simply check her clipboard or skip it entirely and just walk to one of the many piles of scrap, rummage through it for a moment, before returning with the requested item. She'd occasionally ask one of the other goblins in the room to retrieve something from storage, but the sheer amount of things that that goblette seemed to remember herself was somewhere between impressive and daunting.

Sebastian had made a mental note not to let any secrets slip around her. All in all, an exhausting four hours and he felt like, while he'd gotten a good look at what the work here entailed, he still wasn't sure where he fit in all this.

“Alright, my apologies, I had to get these signed as soon as possible.” Borgok sighed, catching Sebastian's attention, and he watched as the goblin set aside his quill, before placing the stack of parchment on a tray. “Come, take a seat.”

Sebastian dutifully made his way to the desk, while Borgok pressed several buttons on the side of the tray and the stack of papers vanished in a shimmer of gold particles.

“So, tell me, how was the tour?” Borgok smiled as Sebastian sat down.

“Incredible really, I never realised so much went into even just preparing the materials to be used.” Sebastian answered, thinking of the construction they'd done on the castle. “I've done conversion of metal ore into usable materials, but only with magic and on a much smaller scale.”

“Yes well, it's less practical to use magic for mass production on the scale Gringotts requires for minting and crafting.” Borgok's smile became bitter. “It also doesn't help that we're denied wands that would make using magic for mass production less dangerous for my goblins.”

Sebastian grimaced at the reminder of the role his people played in the oppression of the goblins, before frowning. “Dangerous?”

“Yes. The amount of magic needed to control fire at the heat of coke coal for example, would strain any goblin's magic and it would only take a slight loss of concentration for it to go wild.” Borgok explained. “A more extreme scenario would be, if an atmosphere change caused the amount of necessary magic to increase while the goblin is already tired, it could require them to strain themselves past magical exhaustion. It's just not practical without wands.”

“I see.” Sebastian nodded slowly. “That's why there isn't much use of magic in the process."

“That is one reason, yes.” Borgok smiled wryly. “Another is familiarity with the Material. And indeed, I was very impressed that you'd managed to craft a blade entirely with magic, but no doubt you noticed that the quality of your metal was nowhere close to the ingots we craft.”

Sebastian blinked. “I thought that was because I was inexperienced.”

“That is not entirely accurate.” Borgok shook his head. “Wizarding magic is capable of... short-cutting a great deal. But a problem that comes with being introduced to crafting by the use of magic, is that you don't learn enough about what you're working with first.”

Sebastian's expression must have shown his confusion, because Borgok chuckled and elaborated. “Essentially, a wizard who already knows how to make a good table, can find a way to make a good table with magic. However, if you simply learn the spell from him, without first knowing how to make a good table, your table will not be as good as his.”

Oh, that made more sense, Sebastian nodded thoughtfully, that was not unlike what Professor Weasley taught about transfiguration.

“In that scenario, the quality of goblin smithing, and even muggle smithing, will always be superior, because knowledge and experience informs what you can do with magic.” Borgok concluded. “There is a difference between lazily enforcing your will on reality, as Wizardkind do, versus moulding reality by working with it, as we goblins do.”

Sebastian hummed thoughtfully, perhaps he should redo the metalwork for the dungeon cell doors, once he was better at forging. The Keeper had done woodwork during their time in the workhouses, so they'd been relatively confident about the wooden doors they'd crafted after additional research and Rackham’s guidance.

However, Sebastian had handled the metalwork for things like torch holders and cell doors, and while it was probably enough that the metal wasn't breakable with inmates’ bare hands, he would feel better having done his best to improve them.

“And that's why you want me to learn all the aspects of forging.” Sebastian nodded.

“Correct.” Borgok gave him an approving grin. “I chose to teach Jason forging because I saw in his art, the hard work, dedication and meticulous attention to detail necessary for a forger.”

The goblin jabbed a finger at Sebastian. “And I chose you, because I saw in that dagger the resourcefulness and determination to make do with what little you have. Your dagger did no more and no less than what you needed it to do, with the bare minimum in skill, experience and materials. That efficiency and creativity is necessary for a designer.”

Borgok grinned, lifting his chin with a touch of pride. “Design comes before everything else. It is the stage where we decide what an object can and will do, whether it is going to be a cursed helm or a blessed goblet. It is where we decide what runes and enchantments will be woven into it.”

With every word, Sebastian felt his heart climb up into his throat, he hadn't thought it possible for him to feel quite so excited about anything besides Dark Arts. The doors of possibility had never felt quite as wide, could he one day even make something like the relic himself? Hang on...

“And that's why Gringotts is partnered with the Ministry overseeing the Curse Breakers!” Sebastian exclaimed in understanding. “Because goblin craft intersects with the enchantment of physical objects!”

Borgok nodded with a pleased curl to the corners of his eyes. “Indeed, there are none quite as skilled in the enchantment of objects as we are, and thus, reverse engineering it is also our expertise. My Design team works closely with the Curse Breakers to break the curses on tombs or objects they attempt to retrieve.”

Sebastian felt like he was close to vibrating in his seat and had to take a breath to calm himself. Alright, he couldn’t screw this up. He was going to be the best damn student Borgok ever had.

“And that's why you asked if I like reading.” Sebastian chuckled, that had been the strangest question the goblin had asked him while discussing his apprenticeship in the Phantom's Flask.

Borgok flashed him a sharp grin. “Design is a highly theoretical field, if you were hoping to get jacked like Jason, you better tell me now, lad.”

Sebastian shook his head with a snicker. “I'm all for reading and calculations. No worries there.”

“Good.” Borgok nodded and pushed a stack of books across the table. “I think that is good enough for today. I'd like you to read these whenever you have time, and when you are experienced enough, I will introduce you to my Design team. I look forward to monitoring your progress, and I'll see you in my office again next week.”

The goblin raised a hand towards him, and Sebastian took it firmly, his eyes bright as he shook hands with his mentor. This was his path, he just knew it. He would become useful to the Keeper, and maybe even find a way to break Anne's curse if the Keeper's Ancient Magic didn't manage to.

His future had never been so bright.

“Sebastian, could you pass me a jar of E-Pain?” The Keeper asked as they fastened the empty Energy collar around Frederick's neck, before doing the same with the equally empty energy armlet, around his upper arm. Hoping to discover the differences between the collar and the armlet with today’s tests on the man.

“Here you go.” Sebastian chirped, tossing them the jar from the pack beside him before returning his attention to the book balanced in his left hand.

The Keeper eyed him with amused fondness in their heart, which book was this one? Minerals From The Mine-rails... presumably about mined minerals. Their adorable lover had been positively jubilant since his first lesson with Borgok, he'd spent the entire dinner last night and breakfast this morning, babbling about his tour and the books he'd been given to read, and he'd been reading every free moment since.

Ominis had told them not to expect anything coherent out of the brunet for the next two days, and he'd been quite correct. Sebastian had been following the Keeper from one place to another, like a duckling, his nose buried in his books. It was nice seeing his impressive dedication on display again and they'd found it cute that he still wanted to join them for their experiments.

Which was quite alright, since they were still in the process of confirming the collar's functions, they weren’t likely to need his mind present.

Though it was frustrating that, through all this time, the Keeper had only made progress increasing the amount of energy they could extract without tearing the Aura. Going from being able to extract a fraction of a needle's pain to being able to extract two needles worth, and even then, that was only because their skill and finesse had improved, not because they'd found a better method.

Then again, Isidora had been a bloody Hogwarts Professor who'd dedicated her entire life to refining this extraction process for mass usage, and she'd given up on preventing Aura tearing. Then again, she hadn't even noticed the tears.

The Keeper sighed, whatever. That was a problem for later, for now they had to continue testing, so they'd be ready for the big Macnair overload test. That was going to eat into their miniscule stash of C-Pain substantially, but hopefully its significantly greater potency will make that small stash go a long ways. Perhaps they might even figure out how Aura tears worked at the same time.

With that, they drew the E-Pain from the jar and inhaled it, closing their eyes and instructing the energy to inject three seconds’ worth if he disobeys instructions. They'd already confirmed that the collar's instructions could be overridden by adding newly Aligned energy - of any quantity - to an already Aligned energy pool, this included instructions to ‘return to neutral’.

Which made it less worrying that they might accidentally contaminate their Repository, at least they could simply revert it to Unaligned by overriding it. Still, they would try not to mix Aligned Energy with their main Repository altogether, so that they would never have to find out of quantity did make a difference on too large a scale.

Exhaling the Aligned energy, they lowered it into the collar and the man flinched as they did so, though he seemed more wary than panicked today, perhaps he had forgotten his fear of pain. No matter, he would no doubt remember soon. Then they extracted a tiny sliver of E-Pain from the jar and added it to the energy armlet this time, without Aligning it.

“Now, Mr. Taylor, do you feel the warmth around your arm?” The Keeper asked idly, and he nodded slowly. “I want you to imagine the warmth as mist and picture yourself breathing it in.”

“Why-” He'd barely gotten the word out, when he was injected by the collar.

“Do it, or you will experience more pain.” The Keeper cocked an eyebrow at him and the trembling man gasped for breath a time or two, before closing his eyes and taking a slower breath.

The Keeper watched with interest as the armlet emptied and, when he opened them, the man's eyes glowed red for a brief moment, a goofy expression of bliss on his face. Ew, gross.

“What- what was- what was that? Can- can I have more-” Frederick stammered, and they glared at him.

“Did you respect your elf's request for more food?” The Keeper asked rhetorically. “What makes you think I'd respect yours?”

They felt some satisfaction when he flinched, and - itching to hurt the man rather than give him anything remotely pleasurable - an idea popped into their head. It was worth testing out, so they inhaled a sliver of E-Pain, instructing it to inject immediately, before exhaling it and placing it in the armlet, rather than the collar.

The man jolted in pain as soon as the energy entered the armlet, fascinating. So, the armlet could allow both absorption and injection, whereas the collar could only allow injection. They wondered what the difference was, and they took a breath as they thought, before it occurred to them, perhaps it was like that.

After all, there was a difference between breathing willingly and at one's own pace, versus having air forced down the throat. Or as with water, one could be thirsty, but would absolutely still choke if someone just sprayed water into their mouth. Perhaps the same applied to the energies, which would explain why the Fear-Pill they'd given Selwyn hadn't boosted his reflexes, only caused him to enter a waking nightmare, because they'd forced it down his throat.

That made sense, though in that case, what about Aligned energy that isn't being forcefully injected?

The Keeper extracted another sliver of E-Pain and inhaled it, instructing it to inject if subject leaves the cell. Then they placed it into the armlet and gave the man a glare when he flinched. “You're lucky I need to test this further, take a breath again.”

Relief coloured his face and Frederick took another breath and, as expected, the energy was absorbed painlessly this time. So, it was possible to absorb Aligned energy as long as it hadn't been instructed to inject, like drinking water from a rushing river by scooping the water into one's hands, perhaps.

They wondered how that might work with the Imperius curse, so the Keeper drew their wand and cast. “Imperio.”

With the man safely under control, the Keeper added another sliver to the armlet and instructed him to absorb it. The energy disappeared from the armlet accordingly, so the Imperius could force someone to absorb-

“Ugh- what-” Frederick groaned, and the Keeper frowned as they felt him break free from the curse. Interesting, E-Pain could increase one's resistance to the Imperius curse? Perhaps because the positive effect of that energy was a boost in magical capability?

Well, while that might cause some complications during Macnair's test, it was good to know, and as of yet, it didn't seem likely to pose an issue. Now, was there anything else they'd needed to test? The Keeper wondered to themselves, and their eyes wandered the cell as they thought, before catching sight of Sebastian, nose still buried in his book, and they recalled his suggestion of using Fredrick’s own pain in the collar.

“Hm, worth a try.” The Keeper murmured, how would they go about it though? Thinking for a moment, they remembered the note they'd found sitting on Frederick's bedside table when they'd ransacked his room, signed off by one Vanessa. Likely the woman he'd been cheating on his wife with.

No surprise really, the Keeper had a hard time imagining anyone being attracted to this guy, perhaps that might be a sore spot worth prodding.

“That reminds me, Mr Taylor, I dropped by the apothecary you worked at, this fine Monday morning. Seems like nobody's wondering where you are.” The Keeper commented idly, watching the man as he stiffened. “Thanks to you stumbling from the Rowdy Rogue drunk last Friday, your boss thinks you might’ve frozen to death on the way home.”

They flashed him a smirk. “I doubt anyone's going to be looking for you, and it's not like you have someone waiting for you back home, after your girlfriend dumped you. Vanessa, right? How sad, to leave your wife, only to lose your dear Vanessa when the coin ran dry.”

The man flinched, and, pressing their wand to his chest, the Keeper drew a stringy blob of red black smoke from his heart. Nice, that hadn't taken much effort. Now, hopefully-

The Keeper felt a sudden burst of heat travel up their wand, so searing that they almost dropped it, and they watched with wide eyes as the strand of E-Pain they'd been extracting from his Aura, seemed to burst into flame. Orange embers chased the energy up from his chest, engulfing the smoky bubbles and turning it into a bright golden thread.

“Sebastian- pass me an empty jar!” The Keeper called as they lifted the orange energy away from Frederick.

Startling at their sudden command, Sebastian almost dropped his book, but quickly caught it and shoved it under his arm. Before following their instructions, grabbing an empty jar and opening it for them to lower the orange energy into.

He stared at it in wonder and murmured. “What is that? It looks almost like smelted gold.”

“I- I'm not sure. It started as E-Pain-” The Keeper breathed, also leaning closer to examine it with curiosity.

As they did so, the jar of E-Pain in their hand was unintentionally brought closer to the jar of orange energy. There was a clink as the glass of both open jars made contact, and to their alarm, the E-Pain promptly burst into orange flames as well.

“Oh, cool, now we have more.” Sebastian quipped with a grin, before frowning. “Wait, that’s not good, is it.”

“No, it isn’t.” The Keeper agreed and took a few steps away from their satchel. “Come here Sebastian, I think it's proximity, we can't let the rest of my E-Pain or C-Pain catch fire too.”

“What do you think it is?” Sebastian asked as he followed dutifully, eyeing the orange-hued gold in the container. “It feels hot, I can even feel it through the jar.”

“Indeed...” The Keeper murmured, examining their contaminated jar. “I was jabbing at his painful memories of his girlfriend dumping him, and it was definitely E-Pain when I extracted it, but it turned into… this, halfway through extraction.”

Sebastian's expression was thoughtful for a moment, before he suggested. “What if it's anger? I mean, I can imagine him being angry at her betrayal.”

“And anger feeds off pain!” The Keeper nodded. “That makes sense, that's why it turned this jar too, anger is contagious and burns through any other emotion. Hm, we'll need to store them in different places then...”

“I wonder what effects this'll have.” Sebastian gave them an impish grin and the Keeper chuckled, holding up their jar with a smirk.

“Only one way to find out...”

Notes:

In this chapter, Sebastian shows a lot of the results of the slow growth he’s made over the course of this story, overcoming his racism against goblins and stepping out from under the Keeper's wing to begin forging his own path. There is a fine balance to strike between feeling nervous about messing up and determination. Kids struggle with that balance.

And finding maturity is sacrificing enough of one's excitement and immersion in something, in order to be cautious and continue to examine the situation from an oversight perspective. It's not a fun feeling, but it's necessary in order to not fuck up. And the difference between a child and an adult is that an adult knows what it means to feel accountable for one's actions and the impact it makes on your loved ones.

At the same time, one must be careful not to let fear stop them either. Too much oversight distance and one might lose the sense of investment and flee before anything can even be attempted. This is equally as bad as throwing all cares to the wind, though it may not appear to be as immediately dangerous as the dangers of having too little fear.

Fear of failure/loss is slow corrosion, but no less destructive than blind fearlessness. This fear of loss is the one I fail at a lot aha ha ha- But, like every teacher has said; Please, do as I say, not as I do x'D

And a thing that I hope people, particularly parents, guardians and mentors can come to understand, is that there is no replacement for you. A child's love for the person who raised them is one of the few bonds that don't go anywhere, even if they feel betrayed by said parents/guardians/mentors. Betrayal hurts because love is there.

Even if a kid cuts contact with their parent, it's not because they stopped loving their parent, it's because they still love their parent, that's why they have to cut contact, because when betrayed, love causes pain. And it doesn't go away. Ever.

The deepest cut a parent can give, is to hurt a child, then blame the child for forcing them to inflict hurt, and then declare that the child doesn't love said parent because the child isn't changing/able to change.

A good parent/guardian/mentor seeks to discover (through observation and conversation with the child, and research on patterns) what a child needs and form fit their approach to each individual child. You may not successfully discover it, we are human and not all knowing, but a child can feel effort.

My mom never discovered what I needed, she was simply not equipped to do so and like porcupines huddling together in the cold, there was much hurt on both sides, until I found it myself. But she tried her best to not make my pain worse and provide what she could, until I found what I needed. So, while she already had my love, through effort, she earned my eternal respect.

Love is given and will always exist once a child has formed a bond with the person/people who raised/care for them. Respect is another thing altogether, that one must be earned. Through a willingness to be vulnerable and honest to those who need you and rely on you. Acting strong, tough and all-knowing like Solomon only hurts those who love you and costs you their respect.

"I will do what's best for you, even if it hurts you. You can hate me, but I'll do right by you." This self-martyring bullshit is just arrogance and self-satisfaction. It only leaves a scar that will never fade and if you don't put in the effort to communicate, they'll learn the lesson the hard way anyway because they don't respect you. You need to earn respect first.

As for the world building in this chapter, my partner is an engineer and works in a semiconductor company, so I used everything I've learnt from their yapping about their work supplemented with the good ol' research mwahahaha

And hopefully you guys like my rationale for why we don't see female goblins in the Potterverse, the culture, and the new OCs! The OCs not gonna be suuuuper prominent in the story, I don't think, but eh, we'll see... xD Some of them have quirks from my partner's whacky colleagues, art imitates life and all that, my partner and I often joke that our lives could make a decent romcom slice-of-life show xP

Put the two of us and my childhood bestie in a room and you have the most writable trio-of-main-characters dynamic, with my stoic unflappable bestie's deadpan commentary, my insane bouncy and random partner, and my passionate speeches and lame jokes. Speaking of which, I hope everyone's been enjoying the puns in my book titles, I love doing that haha-

[maah-long]

I read TSaTS, and loved every second of it

I disappeared from social media to do that, and seeing things now, apparently people are hating on the book??? I honestly have no idea why, and honestly, it makes me sad. I wrote those notes as I read it, and never felt the book was weak or messy, and I'll stand on that boat, 100%. I LOVE this book with my entire existence now, and what people are thinking about it won't affect that, I truly hope.

And I've been binge reading all of Riordanverse in the last month, so everything is fresh on my mind.

Anyways, I'll just leave the notes I did here while I read it. Of course, SPOILERS! I read it without getting even one spoiler, and that made the experience unique and much more enjoyable than others I had in the past.

• I LOVED the silly star war discussion in the beginning, even not quite understanding it xD It was so cute and genuine, maybe with some probably thinking it’s cringy!

• WILL TALKING ABOUT HIS PAST 🫶🫶🫶🫶 I really wanted to see more of him and his story, so they just there, chilling and talking about things, forgetting, even if for only a few seconds, how their situation is so cruel… It made me really happy! Hope they’ll be back soon to just relax and be cute… (haha...)

• I hope the tiny snippets about the water Nymph will have its own scene!!! I was dying to know how their love story start, so it needs its own full chapter!!! (now finishing it, that didn't happen, but the scenes got longer!!! So, victory!!!)

• Now the first POV switch (ch 10) …. Sus. Is pretty weird that the what they see does not seem reliable, and right after it each one of them shares a vision were they’re suffering, but the other one is being kinda “selfish”, and not like themselves. I totally think what they’re “living” is not true, but I don’t know when they stopped seeing things right, or what happened to them. Where? Weird. I do know Will wouldn’t just give up, “I can’t be here”, or Nico going “Coward!”. The POVs don’t match, and I’m CONFUSED.

• Of course it’s a demon! And I do think it hilarious how they’re discussing gender norms while the demon is trying to strangle Nico…,,, normal day, I guess? And Will immediately saying sorry to them like, LMAO

• Man, playing Hades and seeing Nyx like this on the Riordanverse is PAINFUL. She’s so gorgeous (STUNNING), calm and mother-like there. And she always has this kinda insane-y vibe here.

• Ah, “‘I’ll always be here”. There it is, they’re getting separated.

• AGAIN? “if Nyx wants your darkness so bad, you can just leave some of it with her! That wouldn’t be so bad.’”. IDK man, I’m thinking this will be more true than they think, I just feel it 😭😭 And more literal than that, too. (here I was thinking about Nico leaving his powers there. I was pretty wrong on that xD)

• I think that addressing Will’s irk towards the underworld is pretty important. I really like how both of them are on different, but pretty understandable sides. After everything we know about the UW, it’s hard to be open and accepting to it. Nico is super related to it, and he knows his father’s palace, so he has a completely different view of it. Will is all about life and light, so it should be even less appealing to him. Man, he NEEDS sun to live, it's literally part of his being. It’s easy to understand his side. But there are good people and beings living there too. It’s almost another universe. It’s Nico home, past, family and history. It probably hurts a lot to see his boyfriend being so contrary to it, basically negating a part of him, and kinda making his thoughts of Will “ignoring the “””bad and scary””” “ parts of him to be able to accept Nico hold place. It’s sad, hope this will get a good development and closure. Too bad I’m pretty sure it won’t be soon….

• Okay! The farm commentary! That made me sad. I think here Nico was a tiny bit too much. I felt the “People farm here?” from Will was genuine confusion. I would picture on my mind automatically growing crops underground. Hey, I killed (and it still saddens me) succulents by keeping them inside my no-that-sunlit bedroom. How would people grow things successfully on the underworld? That totally very much probably is not included in common sense! Will most certainly was not trying to stab Nico or the UW life, just would like some explanations.

•The Mythomagic story in Nico’s past 😭😭😭 The feels, I swear. It was pretty relatable, poor boy. And that was on the last century, too, and I can't imagine how hard it would be to deal with being queer at that age.

•But hey, is Will talking about Hermes’ card there? Does he play Mythomagic?? Do they together?? That would be cute as hell, I hope they do.

•The canoe scenes make me so happy! I loved SO MUCH how they put them in between some painful scenes. It made it easier to breathe and take on the hard parts. One of the things I wanted the most was the backstory of their relationship, and being given ALL the details like that was definitely not what I expected. They’ve been amazing, super super cute.

• And hey, Paolo is queer?? He’s one of my fave background characters, and I really liked that 🫶🫶 Nice rep for us Brazilians, I really appreciate that, lol Really missed seeing more of him! Seeing a mention on this book was unexpected, but nice! Hope he’s getting better at communicating with everyone, hahah

• I LOVE MENOETES! The way this book is showing the nice parts of the underworld too, on contrary of house of hades that was pure hOrOR and pAIN. It was not what I was expecting, and I totally appreciate it, it’s cute. And wait does he grow the nectar and ambrosia? That’s genuinely impressive. He's a pretty cool guy.

• BUT HEY, GERYON? Sorry friend, I’m judgin here. Do hope you’re right saying he’s a changed man……,,,

• Now Persephone’s Garden…. One more time, they’re showing the nice parts of the underworld, and that’s super interesting.

• And the Persephone’s scene? I LOVED it, I think it was so necessary. My image of her was kinda bad ngl, remembering about her older appearances. She seemed a little crazy. But at that scene, the way she spoke with fondness and clarity… It was exactly what Will needed to hear, and it makes me happy to see that she’s much more accepting of Nico. Good times.

• But Anphistemis? That was one hard scene. They getting separated and all, but the worst part was the chaos when they reunited, and how the poor guy was used. I totally see why Will did that, hell, I’d do the same or worse, when it comes to surviving. I just hope that that was not the last time we see Amphitemis.

• COCOA PUFFS!! I love them too!! I kinda thought they were cute since they first appeared, and that made me feel weird. Good to see that they really are nice and petable!!

• The last fight made me so anxious. I'm just happy it's over. I really wanted for Nyx to chill and find some other purpose at the end, but I don't think that would be believable. Kinda sad. And I always liked those children of hern on their other book appearances too!!! Especially Nemesis.

• Bob, oh Bob. He's precious. I truly like this crew SO MUCH. Him, Small Bob, Nico, Will and and the Puffs. They just finally relaxing, free. Oh, that was so rewarding. Good for them!

• I CRIED with Nico's dream. All of his family... That was so warm. Nico deserved that, I really loved it. And good to know Amphis was not forgotten!!

• Nico hugging Chiron!!!! Mr D. being actually super nice!!!! Aw really, I loved this entire ending too. Everyone happy, talking, healing. Endings make me worried, sometimes my judgment of the work changes completely if the ending is bad. This one? No. It was a super nice wrapping.

• PIPEEERRRR!!!! Nico and Piper friends ? I'm super behind that, I love them a lot. I missed Piper! And her talk was so genuine. Full of worries that are pretty relatable too. Very sweet, wish the best to her too. I thought it was me expecting too much to see Piper, but I'm glad to be proved wrong.

• I'm sad Bob already left... I hope it'll still be possible for them to meet sometimes, Bob deserves the best in this new chapter of his life!! While writing this I noticed I didn't mention anything about the trogs. I guess my main impressions about them happened already on Apollo Trials, hahah. But I like them a lot too!!! I was very happy to see they're happy building their little world and society, and making even tastier dishes. Hiss-Majesty is amazing too, and I loved their closure working at the farm xD

• Plus Nico and Will at the ending. Very heart warming moment. Their relationship is super healthy, and I do NOT believe in anyone who says the contrary. Both of them clearly saw where they failed, communicated about that, and deeply, honestly, said that they would seek to do their best. Isn't this the most important thing of it all? They're super happy together, love each others' presence, and looking at their future together fills them with hope. Man, they just left TARTARUS. And now they're stronger, filled with joy about what is to come.

And that's it. Been reading through some other people's thoughts, and well. Sometimes I even wonder if we read the same book. Like people saying the writing is the worst thing they ever read. I literally spent the last 3 days finishing the 3 last ToA books and this one. My friends, it was NOT that different. In particular, comparing to HoO, of course, because of the third person narration.

The only thing different for me was the direct approach about feelings, and about being queer too (probably thanks to Mark Oshiro), and I definitely enjoyed those. Probably because of seeing myself in them too.

I think people are being way too judgemental of Will. You can for sure say he was too impulsive when he was so determined and stubborn about going to a place that would be literally poison to him. But people complaining he was already drained before getting to Tartatus, as going though everything he did was easy? That place was his antithesis. I was actually shocked he didn't crumble at the first step into the Underworld. But he went through it, with Nico always on his mind. I don't know, I can't understand the hate. And of course they would not be bubbly and fun, they were going though HELL. Did anyone really expected them to be on their best there?

And I think both of them are very misunderstood characters. I was in the fandom for like, almost no time, thus, idk much about the fanon interpretation of them. But after everything I read about Nico and Will on the books, nothing felt out of place here, no. And it reminded a lot of ToA too.

All in all, awesome book, was even more awesome than what I was expecting, and I was totally not disappointed. I will hold this book dear, close to my heart, and I wish people were more accepting of it. There's even an anti tag for it? I made the mistake of scrolling through it (I'm the type of person that gets sentimental when people attack something I love), and yes, people definitely have different experiences while going through works.

[casualblacklight]

Ok I need to write this down somewhere else or I'll go insane but I finally have a direction I want for my Fallout/Saints Row crossover qwq

I have so many wips for this crossover so maybe somebody wants read this to understand the weird stuff I'll post soon? idk? maybe? 😅 uhh

Also I like writing things down so why not...

Since I can't draw a full comic or anything close I might actually write down everything more detailed at some point or even write a FF but the vague idea is like this:

I'm gonna connect the story directly to SRIV.

Yeah ...SRIV. Not my fave part of the series but definitely the easiest way to connect both universes 👉👈

The Saints wanna use the time machine to make the destruction of earth never happen but some programming of the machine got really wrong and they end up in the Commonwealth 2287.

(I actually have an idea how it happened but too much to write for now)

Boss will wake up in Vault 111 and find Nate as the only Survivor but all of the other Saints seem to have disappeared.

Since Nate wants search for his son, Boss will 'join' him occasionally to search for his friends.

The story will practically be an altered FO4s story, with Boss travelling with Nate and during their journey Boss will find his friends that ended up in the different factions.

For example Gat got picked up by the Brotherhood of Steel. They liked his skills and gave him an opportunity to join. So Gat joined them to have better access to weapons and armour to also search for the other Saints.

Which fractions I'll gave to which Saint is something I'm still figuring out but I want to bring back some 'forgotten' Saints from earlier games since the travelling with the time-machine actually managed to bring some Saints back.

And I'm kinda happy about this idea, bcs that way I am able to give every Saint a own small story for this AU 👉👈

I honestly have also already an idea for an ending of the story as well and that will happen after FO4 story and return them all to the SR verse... ugh I can't wait to talk about it at some point.

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

Also random side infos but since Boss and Nate are the mains of my AU I think alot about their relationship and they will definitely have some struggles getting along xD

Nate is canonly described with the patience of a Saint while Boss is definitely the other way around ...

...they end up arguing ... alot ... and some bad decisions will happen.

But then again I can see them getting along after all ... they probably happen to have deep talk when they can't sleep. Both have been through alot of shit and I just can see them talking about that and their past.

...

Also can't get rid of the idea of Boss calling Nate 'Mr. Dad' as some kind of mocking.

(I always used british Boss and in SRTT/IV he uses nicknames all the time... so yeah... felt right adding some fun stuff here and there too.)

----

.... If you read through all of this. I LOVE YOU FOR THAT. THANK YOU ( ꒦ິ ³꒦ີ)

[platonic-qpr-selfshipping]

okay let me finally show you my updated f/o list!! I am also planning to add some s/i info but tbh i still havent gotten to it cause im procrastinating it while trying to relax doing other stuff klsdksj here it is!! (I am aware that the first photos look weird in phones so pls bare with me and put it in pc mode lmaoo im a carrd super-beginner)

now if you'd let me, Imma talk a bit about the changes just because

I wanted to get a bit more specific mentioning platonic f/os so even if I like many characters in sources like Obey Me, you can now see which characters I think my s/i would be the closest with :D!! I also played a bit with labels ig but I read this fic where Mammon said there was no need "to be anything" as long as we were in peace with each other and I felt that on a spiritual lvl so instead of overthinking how to label f/os sometimes I just put him as unlabeled lol I just love self inserting in his world being really close to him and he's my fav character of the game and all but ig it becomes hard sometimes to try to fit that into something so I said whatever, it's my little self insert world and they can do whatever they want that brings me comfort XD yknow, sometimes partnering concepts just feel off but at the same time I enjoy saying I am a Mammon simp cause I love the character so it's a bit of a mess in my brain sometimes, trying to make both my experience as a player and my s/i's fit for my best comfort

(yes this was another Mammon UR+ I did not get on Nightbringer)

talking about labels, I've decided to put all the Golden Deer as platonic soulmates :D! I think it suits us all and all the unique bonds they form with each other, and I thought that the whole thing of my s/i probably having this huge feeling of admiration and loyalty towards Claude felt better like this somehow, like it's a part of my s/i lore and not so much about what their relationship can be or not? I dont know if this makes sense worded like this but it seems to work out in my head XD I still plan to someday develop my s/i's story a lot so who knows

anyway, FRIENDS AND FAMILY!! I feel like it's pretty obvious that I've started to play Honkai Star Rail because suddenly I got a friend, a brother and a father from there- listen everytime I see the Astral Express Family written in the groupchat I emotionally cry happy tears (also I wouldnt be surprised if i ended up also f/oing Himeko in the future lmao, I love found families can you tell)

from Genshin Impact I've officially added Thoma as a platonic f/o :D!! (my hearts craves to befriend kind characters, yes) I think my Genshin s/i is probably the one with the most lore right now so I'm excited to write about this in the future! well,,,,, actually my Super Mario Bros s/i also has some info around themselves already,,,,,, like would you believe me if I told you I was already making up s/i lore while still watching the movie,,,,, the self-shipper experience huh.....

I love her

and do you know who I also love a lot.....?

those platonic f/os I've been mentioning in some reblogs lately saying I still havent talked about them......?

the dudes that may have taken over my brain recently using the power of friendship....?

yeah

yeah

aren't they the coolest tho

anyway I love them (repeating it as if i hadnt made it clear already) and I had to rewrite part of this cause I accidentally deleted it it so I think I'll finish it here ksdhkjs I believe there is a bit more to see in the carrd though, I'll put it in my pinned post soon :D! now if you'd excuse me imma go consume more hypmic manga as a healing experience, if you've read until here go drink some water, listen to Break The Wall and thank me later

[solesurvivorkat]

Here Comes the Sun! (Doo doo doo doo!)

I'm beyond tired of ME saying it all the time, but I have not died, disappeared, or given up!

Longer story short: holidays were hectic but good, and I FINALLY got to start my new position within the company I work for - and though I'm only on my 2nd day of training so far, it's amazing the difference I feel!

It's like a huge weight has been lifted off of my back/shoulders/chest. I'm not stressed at work, I'm not anxious, my trainer is like, the sweetest, most patient and welcoming woman, I'm enjoying all that I'm learning so far and am eager to learn some more, I look forward to the future in my new job, I really think it'll be a much better fit for me and my life, and I hope to be here for a long time to come!

It's nothing personal at all against my previous coworkers... but you ever feel like you're just not you at your job? Like it's turning into someone you don't recognize and/or like? My prior position wasn't an awful one (I've had jobs that were soooo much worse), and it wasn't inherently difficult - but I was doing a lot on my own w/ next to no help (not my coworkers' fault, they had their own duties to do), and it felt like I was on a never-ending treadmill with no end in sight. It was just... so discouraging.

I know I'm still in the 'honeymoon stage' of my new position, and it won't always be perfect/'fun'/easy/etc... but I'm so happy to be here (so far) and it's amazing what a difference I feel now (like a '180').

ANYWAY - I feel like I FINALLY have some decent time to devote to 'Shadow of Steel' again, and am actually getting some MUCH-needed work done on it today! I really, really hope to have a chunk of the 'slightly updated', revamped previous chapters up on Ao3 relatively soon!

As for my other fics... well... I'll be 100% honest, I don't know if I'll ever finish 'The Book of John'. ...Which is really a shame, b/c I seriously had so many plans & creative ideas for that fic (plus, I totally wanted to explore the slow burn that would be John & Sarah in that fic). I'm not 100% cancelling it out just yet, but I'd say it's definitely in the 'limbo/chopping block' area of my writing plans. :-(

'I Need to Tell You' - same as above. I'd say it's around 2/3 of the way finished, so I would really like to complete this one (especially since it's more plausible for John & Sarah to have a happy ending in this one, LOL)... but I don't know yet if it'll happen. We'll see, I guess?

Thank you for hanging in there and waiting patiently, those of you that did... but if you haven't, I don't blame you one bit - but I'd like to hope that you'll give me another chance (someday, heh).

.....And in my mind, Arthur Maxson is waiting outside my door with a baseball bat - since his much-liked girlfriend has been kidnapped for forever now, and he really doesn't appreciate my excuses, LOL. *XD

[animeomegas]

you're so right about shika reacting like that, I totally agree!!!

I love the fact that the supernatural are known in your novella, that's so uncommon for books like that and I love it! the vampiric animals is a really cool and original idea omg I can't imagine vampire cats, they're so chaotic already, add vampirism to it??? they would rule the world and I wouldn't complain. the implied conversion of the MC though?!?!?!? I love it, it would definitely be me, who would say no to being a vampire????? I would love to read it 😭😭

you got me with the mystery part of your other story, I'm obsessed with that. I also love it when authors use classic tropes but switch the characters around, it makes it so fun! we almost never get playboy MCs either, so that's also super cool!! and the fact that they help each other heal from their issues and grow? &? $? $? I bet I would cry reading that novel but I would love it 100%

AMY????? FIRST????? THAT IS SO COOL I'M SO PROUD OF YOUUU. CONGRATULATIONS OMGGGGGG!!!!!!!! TELL ME YOU CELEBRATED OR SOMETHING! '! &!! & &

how bad is it to get sick during a trip? that's so sad!! also YES I recommend them, I didn't watch them all but I watched a recap and they look cool, it's a classic whodunit and the murders are brutal at times. there's 6 movies in total!! the 6th was released this year and jenna ortega is a mc, I love her. she also played as Wednesday last year and she's such a good actress. I'll definitely check out happy death day after I finish scream 6!!! <3333 also thank you for your congratulations you're very sweet

Yes! I really wanted to include some of the societal impacts of the supernatural in my book, like my MC being a lecturer in Supernatural Studies. One of her classes is in the book, so you'll get to learn a little about how the Black Death affected vampire clans in London :D

And vampiric animals, yes I wanted to include one, so there is one haha. The process is much trickier than with turning a human into a vampire and it takes much longer, so there aren't many around. Most big clans have one though.

MC doesn't get turned in the book, but it is directly expected and referenced that they will be at some point soon.

As for the novel, yes, I switched it because I thought it'd be very cool to get the playboy's inner monologue. The first parts of the novel include, along with the mystery, a lot of the MC slowly focusing more and more on the male lead and forgetting about flirting with others. Let's just say that MC's friends are sick of hearing them give a play-by-play of what the male lead ate at dinner, and then denying that they're interested in him as anything more than a bit of fun lol.

As for the mystery plot... It's my first time writing a proper one, but I'm having a lot of fun and I think it's a decent one, but we'll see haha.

Haha, I didn't celebrate no, because results were so delayed from the strikes, I only just found out the marks and idk, I'm probably going to get something tasty as a celebration at some point :D Thank you though!!!!! You're so sweet!!!! <333333

I was pretty sick in Tokyo, but it was a combination of the flight, which I predicted would happen because it always does, and then also a really heavy workload while there. I lost 9 lbs in ten days because of how much walking I had to do and I the fact that I was too ill to eat more than two apples over three days. It was a shame, but that's what happens when you're in a big group: you can't tailor the trip to your individual needs like needing to rest after a 14 hour flight and two hour queue at customs XD I still had fun though!

And oh, I didn't know Scream films were who dunnits, that's awesome, I'll put them on my list of things to check out! Thanks for the recommendation!!

And you more than deserve my congratulations for surviving exams hehe

🎉🎉🎉

[valentinos-corner]

Hellooo Valentino! I'm so happy to hear you're on the mental upswing!!! that's awesome, let's hope it stays that way for a right long time, though I do get you when you say you've got little faith; Alas, I shall hope for you always ^^

Oohh got it, that makes sense; I agree, that's really frightening that there's flooding and that that affects people

though I am still extremely grateful you guys are safe, that's so good to hear; let's hope that becomes the universal statement soon

Also! Tonight's story is more or less a little summary of my day ^^

So today was significant in that there was a pretty big prom-style event (it was called prom but was a lot more reserved on the 'asking people out' side), and I got to go!

So for the beginning part of my day, leading up to prom, I woke up and immediately went hard to work procrastinating getting out of bed XD once I finally dragged myself off the phone and out into the world, I did the usual brushing teeth and such, and then took a shower

Then it was about 2:00 at that point, and we were leaving at 3:25

So I made myself food to break my fast at long last! ...at 2 o'clock XD but yeah, I made some eggs and a bagel and monched down, and then I just sorta hung around for a minute because SOMEhow I had forgotten to throw the pants I was wearing to prom in the washload I ran last night?? XD so those needed to get cleaned and dried pronto, and fortunately they did

Then I carpooled with another family whom we're friends with to the pre-prom dinner that the school I'm a part of was hosting! it was at this pretty fancy-schmancy restaurant, which had a wild amount of bodies of water such as pools and a big lake-pond for being a restaurant in the middle of a desert lol

And that dinner was very good! I had a delicious salad, and spent most of the time chatting the people at the table around me, and it was a jolly old time

Then we shipped off to prom, and when we got there the sky was beginning to grey just a little; Then we got ourselves situated (it was a big venue with a tonnn of people for just being high-schoolers) and just had some fun! There was (very, very loud) music playing, and a lot of people danced almost the whole time, and I got to spend my time chatting with people I knew and were friends with

And finally - the one other significant event regarding prom - as we were walking out it began to rain (it had been sprinkling all the time we were in there) and so, for the first time in a very long time, I got to sit outside for a bit when I got home and listen to the rain! 'twas delightful

Overall a very nice day, and to top it all off, I got to have a very tasty singular macaron XD!

Alrighty, I think that's all she wrote for tonight unfortunately; Thank you for chatting and I'm so glad you're having a mental upswing!! I hope you'll find much joy and peace in that, and I especially hope you have a great sleep tonight and have a lovely day tomorrow :D I'll talk to you then, bye for now!!

haaaaiiiiii

so the new chapter of BSD is out and holy shit????

(spoilers for bungou stray dogs below the cut. go read the new chapter it's out on mangadex)

THIS IS. FUCKING AMAZING??? the dynamic between sskk never fails to get me right in the feels

they hate each other so much but they also love each other and it's just. beautiful. to see them literally seeing each others' memories and finally understanding how the other came to be the way they are and both realizing they've been dragged along by the same person and not knowing why (<we don't really know why dazai does anything he does ever either)

and FINALLY we might have a solution to the giant god thing that's been blendering the entire city

through the power of fourth-dimensional bullshit, babyyyyyyy

wooo!

[bilbotargaryen]

Fanfic writer interview

Thank you so, so much for the tags @errruvande and @lord-aldhelm I LOVE YOU for all the tag games ngl you rock <33

I'll have some trouble answering some of those but lets get to it, shall we? :D

My AO3

1. How many works do u have on AO3?

I have 6! And I hope there'll be a lot more soon xD I regret all the time I've wasted over the past years where I could've written more but I'll try not to linger too much on that (Keyword is try lol)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

75,546

3. Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes

1. Fire Made Flesh (39) 2. The Family Dinner (27) 3. Starbucks - A College Experience (18) 4. The Widows Bite Back (11) 5. What could and never should have been (7)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I am super bad at interactions so I am always anxious if I responded well but I do respond to every comment. Sometimes answers take some time if I have to process something for longer though. I love to hear from my readers and I love talking about my works and I believe if something has taken the time and effort to write something about them it's only fair to respond :)

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

Since I (so far) only have two finished fics (not counting the OS Collections), I'd say The Widows Bite Back. (Wanted to put a Question Mark there but no it's pretty angsty I'd say xD)

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

BAHAHAHA. Okay. That's a harder one. Again, don't really have a any finished fics going into that direction. I believe I can give you a less angsty than the angstiest one so....The Family Dinner? lmao I need to write a happy Fluff fic (Mayhap about Hvigon *snickers and runs away*)

7. Do you write crossovers?

I. ADORE. CROSSOVERS. I have too many. My current obsession is Vikings x HotD. But I am also EXTREMELY interested in Vikings x TLK because I want AND NEED to see TLK!Alfred absolutely DEMOLISH the Ragnarssons. (Search your heart, you know it to be true) I have so many lying around. My HUMONGOUS AU is a Multi-Crossover of MCU x SPN x Good Omens x Norse Mythology x Tokyo Ghoul. BIGGEST Monster in the room with us ngl. Otherwise, the Starbucks Fic is a MCU x SPN x The Boys Crossover, then I had thoughts on a SPN x Witcher Crossover, and loads more, but I'll stop here... xD (it already got out of hand, but I'll stop here)

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not yet. But I am scared. (But I am always scared so yeah)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I have started writing smut rather recently and am still very new to it, but hope I can finally strangle my inner priest (sry father). I so far only did Slash smut. I am sry if the joke is offensive, I cope with bad humour.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of. (Shamelessly copying that answer)

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I am aware of. (Shamelessly copying that answer, again)

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did have a Whatsapp group for fic writing with a friend but we've never published it nor have we finished it. It was very, very on crack. It was an MCU x The Dome fic where the Villain was a German fitness coach who is kind of a meme in our country...let's say we had a great time xDD

13. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I have several. Most of them are made up by me. I am so unrelatable. BUT I therefore decided to give you two: One of mine own creations: Hvigon (Hvitserk x Aegon) (I really cannot not put it here, you'd know I'd be lying) One of the 'normal' ones: Stucky (Steve x Bucky) (I am a sucker for tragic gay couples what can I say) Fuck I have so many and cannot decide MOVING ON

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

My AU is so huge and I am afraid to even post the first part I've finished already so...yeah...chances are I just finish the Timeline and the Database and the Lorebook and post those as my legacy before I ever post OR EVEN FINISH that one ksksksks

15. What are your writing strengths?

I don't really feel I can be the judge of that, honestly, I'd let my readers be the judge of that. But since it's asked, I feel like I am good at writing dialogue. Snappy exchanges, double meanings, innuendos (occasionally, not always). But, yeah, I don't really know about that for sure.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions. When I write I practically have the scene playing in my head and see everything and focus only on whatever the focus actually is and later realize I have not lost one word about the place or about the characters' appearance xD

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

I LOVE IT. When it makes sense. It's hard to make it make sense. I learn languages in my free time and at college and with foreign languages it is more usual to just understand gibberish if one doesn't speak them and if a character speaks in a different language they know they'd naturally understand it themselves so...yeah, I have a huge problem with keeping things realistic xD But I actually love it when it's done - and maybe I should loose some of my thoughts about it lol

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

For Fandoms - The Last Kingdom. I don't know why but I don't feel like I know the characters well enough to do so just yet... LotR - I have talked to @errruvande about one of my ideas and I really would like to write that ngl Vikings - I mean I am kinda writing for that one BUT (hear me out): A non-crossover fic (yeah, I know, completely unheard of). I have a few ideas (among them a complete rewrite starting from Season 4b) but I am trying to concentrate on my active projects rn xD And for ships - I have a lot of them I'd love to write fics for. Again, most of them from my own creation (Deaniel (Dean Winchester x Daniel (OC)), Starlight (Peter Quill x Balder), (Loki x Caterína), just to list a few). For 'normal' ships I feel like I want to put Bagginshield here...I don't know why. It's something in my stomach that makes me want to do so...maybe it's nostalgia...idk. There are safe others too but I cannot think of any rn

19. What's your favorite fic you've written?

I really like Fire Made Flesh. Although it's not exactly the Hvigon Fic I had in mind it has become it's very own thing, surprised me on several occasions and already gave me lots of opportunities and challenges to improve my writing and plotting skills! Let's see if that holds up until the end xD

Once more, thank you SO MUCH for the tag <33

Whoever sees this and wants to join in pls do <3

[falseapostle]

✥ @fangedstories asked: ✥ ✥ Well, I can't say there are any of your muses I don't like....But I really enjoy Abe, Decaf, and Aku.

Abe is such a rich character who has so much redemption and starting over, plus his position makes him suited for taking on two broken souls that would have seen no growth of their own had he not taken them under his wings. He is daddy! Abe and nothing will convince me otherwise. His snarky side always gets a chuckle out of me as well!

Decaf...Decaf is so fun to write beside and though he has trauma, it only makes him that much richer as a character. I also love how you seem to use him as a source of stress relief and your interpretation of Hanekoma is the first I encountered, and it clicked for me immediately. Good work!

Aku...when a character punches your gut saying 'please I need a hug and a friend' it's a real treat. OCs are tough to get off the ground sometimes, but you've done well making her identifiable and relatable, and several of my muses can mesh with her personality wise.. My only complaint is she needs more spotlights dammit!! ✥

Your Favorite Muses

♝~✺~♝

{Thank you so much for your words, lovely! I really had no idea Abe would persist so long as a muse. He was really supposed to be a temp character who never saw much of any real interaction, just a figure to talk about from time to time. That everyone has enjoyed interacting with him to the point of his blog lasting this long, it something that still blows me away. How? XD I'll try to keep writing good work for him.}

{Honestly, I never intended to use Decaf as any kind of stress relief. I think getting to write at all is sort of cathartic to me, and Aku is the one that I put most of myself into. She's the one that I try to use as like a coping muse. I feel like if I can get her through hard times, I can get through hard times as well, and the same for if she can find any bit of happiness, it just gives me hope. Decaf I really just wanted to write the most interesting stories with and really explore his character. I sort of fear that he's become more like a canon-divergent "This is an OC wearing the skin of a canon character" type of deal, but I'm glad people can still connect with him and say, "Yeah, that's definitely Hanekoma." Thank you and please keep proving my insecurity wrong.}

{I need to post more stuff for Aku, really I do. Maybe I'll fill out some refillable memes for her soon and try to like starter calls and stuff. I just have to catch up with what I owe first. I am so glad that you like her because I really feel like I haven't done a good job promoting her. I'm glad she's still making an impact on some people. ^^}

[fandom-necromancer]

One push too many

This was prompted by a lovely anon! I enjoyed writing this although it is quite heavy. Take caution but keep in mind all my stories end happy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warning: Misunderstanding, mental abuse, alcohol abuse, desription of suicide attempt (will be prevented)) [alternate ending]

Gavin. Hated. Everything. That was nothing new, it was a well-known fact for everyone that knew him. Only that usually Gavin hated everything equally and made a few exceptions with his cat or one day of the week or maybe even one person in his nearest circle. Lately that changed. There were some things he hated more than others, that he utmost despised. One of them being his newest partner, an android. RK900. Nines. And he took everything he had liked in his life away from him.

Gavin had liked his work. But how should he enjoy his job if he had to do it next to a phcking tin-can that watched and commented his every move, scanned him every few seconds and knew things about him no one else had ever found out. ‘Oh, seems the murderer was the victim’s brother, killing him for his riches. Curious that you never had that idea with Elijah.’ ‘Come on, Detective, don’t pout like that. With a family like yours I thought you were used to having the lowest IQ in the room.’ ‘I think I know how your brother must have felt. Pulling you along all the time. Come on, get your head in the game.’ ‘Sometimes I ask myself how you made it detective in the first place.’ ‘Wow, someone seems to be a particular asshole today.’ ‘What did I do to get you as my partner…’

Gavin had long given up on retorting something clever. The android would just twist it around again and add something even worse. And Gavin really didn’t need to. In the first time since he left school, he bowed his head and let the tin-can push him down. He tried to ignore it, but the words hit him time and time again, wounding him in a spot that never really healed. Yes, his brother was a genius. Yes, he was an idiot compared to that. Yes, his family had treated him differently to his brother. Well, Gavin had made a living despite all that, hadn’t he? He had come out a nearly decent human being that did good or at least convinced himself he changed a few lives and maybe for the better. Hearing what the android told him with a tone that Gavin had suspected to be friendly teasing at the beginning, just made him feel like he was back in that house. Back with the people who loved him but loved his brother more. He didn’t need that. He didn’t want that.

Sometimes he still lashed out. Sometimes, when he couldn’t bear it any longer, he started screaming. Or he pushed his partner against a wall, threatening him. Or he let his fist connect with something sensitive. But it didn’t help; it didn’t change anything. No, it made things worse. When he did it inside the precinct there would be all eyes on him, how he once again abused the innocent new guy. An android. And when Gavin did it outside, Nines would just report him to Fowler or tell what happened to any concerned face. And that had mostly been Tina, Chris and Connor. New never took long to spread from them. Gavin would be the anti-android asshole again, people would talk behind his back how he never even tried to change, how he shouted at the poor RK900. He had always been an aggressive man, they would say. And hadn’t he threatened Connor once with a gun? How long would it take until the next incident? And who would stop him when he tried to kill Nines?

Gavin would never do that. He hated the guy to the bone, wished he could actually punch him until the metal heap was unrecognisable. But he would never kill a man that had never lifted a hand against him, despite what words Nines threw at him.

Over time, his co-workers distanced themselves even more from Gavin. Not that he cared, he had never been close with them anyways. But Tina and Chris seemed to have switched sides. And that hurt deep down. Seeing his friends ignore him or excuse themselves whenever he was near and later meeting them in the breakroom chatting with the android that had been his downfall from the very beginning.

‘Has he screamed at you again?’ Gavin froze in his steps. He had been about to enter the breakroom to get a coffee before checking on evidence. But now he stopped as he heard Tina’s voice from the inside. ‘Yes.’ Nines. That asshole actually dared to sound desperate. ‘Don’t worry. That’s just Gavin.’ Chris chuckled. ‘He shouts and punches and threatens, but he won’t ever do anything to you. And if he does, then we’ll have your back.’ ‘He got quieter, but there are still times when he explodes at me.’ Tina sighed. ‘Then you’ll just have to hold out a little longer. Just do what you do now, and he’ll eat out of your hand in no time.’ Gavin pressed against the wall and risked a peak into the break room, not believing what he had just heard. How could Tina ever betray him like that? How could she tell Nines to continue hitting him where it hurt most? She had been his friend! Did she finally have enough of him too and just wished for Nines to subdue him? He would never-

He stomped away angrily, briefly crossing eyes with Nines. Tina had her hand on his and both her and Chris had been focussed on the android. Nines had been the only one that saw him. But without doubt he would use that information to his advantage, manipulating his former friends further and pitting them against him.

Gavin swallowed. The problem was that Nines would and could subdue him if he continued like that. In fact, he already was. He hadn’t spoken up to him since forever, only showing his teeth when he couldn’t endure it any longer. Nines had robbed him of everything good in his life and Gavin knew he had to get out of this immediately. But how could he get away from the android quick and effectively? Gavin had sat down on his desk, chewing on a pen, as his gaze shifted towards Fowler’s office. It was his only option, Gavin knew it, and still he tried to find another way for the rest of his shift. Even as it ended, Gavin continued to sit there, waiting. At some point Nines had sat down opposite of him and by now, the android was watching him closely. Gavin knew what he had to do, and waiting didn’t help. So, he finally switched off his computer and walked off to the Captain’s office.

‘Gavin, what are you doing here so late?’, Fowler asked. ‘Don’t you have a cat waiting for you at home?’ The man smiled at him warmly and it hurt Gavin to mimic it. So, he just looked down, unclipped his badge from his belt and then got lost of the utility belt completely, putting both down on Fowler’s desk. ‘What’s that supposed to be?’, Fowler asked, frowning at the Detective. ‘I quit.’ ‘Reed? Everything alright? I thought you liked it here. You are one of my best men!’ Gavin kept silent. ‘Gavin. Son, any reason why you want to quit? Anything I should know of? You know, what you tell me stays with me.’ He shook his head. ‘No reason.’ ‘Oh, stop bullshitting me!’ ‘Captain Fowler, I would like to resign my post. I want to quit. Last time I checked I was allowed to do that.’ ‘Jesus Christ, yes! Yes, you are allowed. Just…’ He stood up. ‘I won’t sign the papers today. If you want to come back, I’ll give you till the weekend. Gavin. Please take care of yourself.’

Gavin, in fact, did not take care of himself. He had hastily taken his belongings from his desk and put them into a box, before marching out of the precinct and racing home. He hated how Nines had stood up half-way, thinking about stopping him. No. Not this time. The asshole would not have his grasp on him now. Not anymore.

As he got home, he pushed the box in a corner and kicked off his shoes, walking straight to the fridge and taking out the hard liquor. His cat greeted him by rubbing against his legs while he poured himself a glass. Gavin looked down on the orange tabby, then on the glass, downed it and decided that he wouldn’t need a glass today. He put the entire bottle on the table and pulled out a can of wet cat food, too. Only then he sat down and took another gulp from the bottle. It burned and he coughed as tears came to his eyes from too much booze in too little time. ‘Phck this asshole!’, he shouted through the house, startling the cat. Gavin held onto the neck of the bottle as if it could anchor himself on the table. ‘This damn android waltzes in, makes me his servant, calls me names and offends me, steals my friends and now made me quit my job! Now I have no job, no idea what to do, an ass full of debt and no clue how to get out of this. I…’ He got quiet, drinking more. He cried, wiped away his tears and cried again. He drank more.

As the bottle was half emptied, he had the brilliant idea to call his brother. They may not have separated on good terms, but Eli was still his brother, wasn’t he? And getting to learn Gavin was just the phck up everyone had suspected him to be, had to be something, right? Maybe he could help. He called him and anxiously counted the rings. It didn’t take him much, before the call was declined. Gavin tried again. And again. But his brother constantly clicked him away. Gavin nursed the bottle a bit more. He was truly alone. He had lost everything that he had worked for, everything he had aspired to be. And it wouldn’t get any better.

The bottle was completely empty, as he had made a decision. He went to his bedroom and retrieved some paper together with the gun he had stored away in the nightstand. He came back to the table, laid the gun on it and clicked the pen to begin writing. What should he write? What was important?

Please don’t give my cat to a shelter. He was surprised that was the only thing he was concerned about: His asshole cat that wasn’t even really his. She had just one day turned up in his garden and convinced Gavin to feed her. He thought really, really hard. He should have something besides his cat that needed settling before he could go. But nothing came to his mind as he stared at the blank page, far too big for just one sentence. Once again, he had been too ambitious. Don’t give her to Nines! He added then with a sigh and underlined the “Don’t” with far too much force for his pen that splattered a few ink-drops next to the angry line. He set the paper and pen aside and eyed the gun before taking it in his hand. It was heavy and cold, seeming to weigh so much more than it should.

Suddenly, the doorbell ripped him from his thoughts. ‘Go away!’, he shouted and hated how weak it sounded. ‘Now’s really not the time!’ Gavin watched the door, but it kept silent. He nodded to himself and concentrated back at the task at hand. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before lifting- There was a crashing sound as if a window was smashed. Then, in a flurry of motion, something heavy hit him and made him topple over in his chair. The impact with the ground made him loose hold on the gun and only then did he look up. With a groan he closed his eyes again and was surprised he didn’t throw up.

‘You really are a nuisance, aren’t you?’, he groaned, his head pounding. ‘Says the man who tried to kill himself. Oh, how he hated that voice. ‘Yeah and whose fault is that?’, Gavin spat. ‘Just go away and let me get on with it, asshole!’ ‘I won’t. You are right, this is my fault, so I have the responsibility of setting things right!’

Gavin opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling past Nines, letting the light bulb from the kitchen lamp burn in his eyes. Nines slapped his cheek, causing Gavin to refocus. ‘We will sit down at that table and you will listen to me, okay?’ ‘Fine’, Gavin grumbled, annoyed and tired. The android pulled him up and the sudden movement made Gavin’s stomach turn. The world stopped tilting as he finally sat on his chair, the android sitting down next to him. ‘I don’t have a social module.’ Gavin looked at him through half-lidded eyes. ‘I don’t give a phck.’ ‘I don’t know how to communicate the right way. When I was partnered up with you, Connor told me you liked friendly bickering. So I tried to do the same.’ ‘Uh-huh…’ Gavin was clawing at the table trying not to sag from his chair. ‘When you got more and more quiet, I thought I was on the right path and went on with it. It was never my intention to hurt.’ Gavin laughed loudly. ‘Yeah, don’t phck with me that way. Even a microwave would have realised it did things wrong.’ ‘Then it seems I’m dumber than a household device.’ ‘The first true sentence from you today.’ Nines sighed. ‘Listen Gavin, I… You never told me to stop. It wasn’t your job to do so and I guess I should have told you my… shortfalls. But as you quit your job today, I realised something was deeply wrong. Connor told me the world could end and you would still come to work. I… I’m glad I followed you. And I’m sorry I never noticed how much I made you suffer. Can you forgive me?’

Gavin stared at the android, swaying lightly form side to side. ‘No.’ Nines nodded, looking down on his hands. ‘I… understand. Just please don’t kill yourself. I will do anything you wish for once you promised me that.’ ‘No, you don’t understand’, Gavin slurred, slapping his hand on the paper and crumbling it in his hand. ‘I can’t forgive you for it. But you can make it up to me. You will let me go back to the police. You will explain everything to Tina and Chris. I want their apology for ghosting me because you told them lies. And most importantly: You will never say the name Elijah Kamski again. You won’t ever refer to my family. You won’t ever treat me as something beneath you again.’ He looked at the android sharply, who nodded eagerly but with enough guilt in his face to look serious. Gavin leaned back.

‘And for phck’s sake, you will learn what “friendly bickering” means!’

[>alternate ending]