#I thought this was queued and turns out it was in my drafts

[einaudis]

december in movies [2/31]: a christmas spark (2022) dir. rhonda baraka "'tis the season, right?"

[bunmuffin]

Just wanna say you’ve been all over my feed and you rattle my brain so this….

😙🤲🌹

[bunbunny02]

Birthday drawing for @igotthegoods522 :3

(Same drawing but with different colors in the keep reading)

[shurisasthmaticgf]

wait a damn minute: max verstappen x black fem! reader

summary: in the midst of the biggest worldwide IT outage you realize your name has come up at the worst time possible

author's note: i wrote this on friday when the entire thing happened, i thought i posted it but turns out it was camped out in my drafts still. this is my first max fic so i hope it's an enjoyable read! feedback and comments are always appreciated and highly encouraged, i like to know what you all think of my work!

warnings: google translated dutch

the hungarian grand prix was only days away and you couldn't wait to surprise your boyfriend with a visit. it killed you to miss his races but you'd recently been promoted to a new position in your company which required more days in office than remote. you'd managed to balance work and personal life pretty well but when you weren't missing due to your new job, you had something else happen last minute. finally, after weeks of working long hours on end in an office, you were in the clear to start remote working more frequently.

you managed to clock out of work right on time so the minute the clock hit 6:00 pm, you were logging out and grabbing your already packed bag. one of your coworkers passed by you in the elevator, he was the only one around your age in the entire department so immediately you both clicked. he lightly bumped you with his shoulder and commented, "three side profiles and a headshot or selfie." you furrowed your brows in confusion and he clarified, "photo requests for my husband of course." the two of you burst into laughter as you teased, "was the autographed photocard not enough for you, théo? i even decorated it and put it in a holder for your desk." the young man smiled fondly thinking of the small 3x4 inch card that sat on the corner of his main monitor. he brushed one of his locs from his face and dramatically sighed, "fine i won't be pushy...i only want the selfie." you shook your head and refused with a chuckle, "i'm not asking toto wolff for a selfie, théo." your coworker let out a fake sigh of disappointment and lightly pushed you in the other direction as you parted ways to your cars. you laughed and called out, "i'll see what i can do, no promises though!" his face lit up and he blew your air kisses before calling out a goodnight.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

just thinking about seeing your boyfriend racing again brought butterflies to your stomach. although he was doing well this season a few problems had cost him a few wins here and there. fans had jokingly mentioned that you not being at races was the cause of the missed first place wins because coincidentally, every race you've ever attended, max has won exactly that. for weeks fans have asked about your whereabouts and you'd practically ghosted them simply because you were working so much. you were known as one of the more down to earth f1 WAGs who had no problem interacting with fans in person and over social media. so you suddenly not showing up for max and not interacting with people online made them wonder what was going on with you during the past few weeks. now that work had chilled out, you were happy to be back online again, and even happier to be able to make it out to hungary this weekend.

the moment you stepped into your apartment you made a beeline for your bedroom to change out of your professional clothes. you snatched a pair of scissors, a spray bottle, conditioner, a towel, a comb, and a crumpled up paper bag and cozied up on the couch with shrek queued on the tv. you sprayed your head with the warm water in the bottle and spread a glob of conditioner all over the roots of your hair. you pulled one of your braids forward and snipped the end before unraveling it and picking out whatever knots formed in the 6 weeks your hair had been tucked away. thankfully this time it didn’t take too long to get your braids out, only 3 hours compared to the usual 5 when you didn’t have your boyfriend’s help.

right as the last strands of synthetic hair slipped out of your own curls, your phone rang the familiar tune and a picture of your boyfriend flashed on your screen. a warm smile spread across your face as his camera turned on to show face. you braided you hair on each side to get it out of your face as you spoke, “hi my love how was your day?” he rolled over to his side and grumbled sleepily, “long, usual press day so you know how that goes.” you frowned slightly, “i wish i was there with you today.” max hummed and admitted, “i do as well. but your work is more important so i can deal with this.” you watched as his eyes lingered on your face and you giggled while moving out of the frame shyly, “stop looking at me like that.” although it was dimly lit in hotel room you could see the light pink tint to his cheeks as he smiled, “i can’t admire my lovely girlfriend?” he yawned mid sentence and you insisted, “as much as i love talking to you i know you’re tired and you need to go to sleep. so i’ll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?” he sleepily agreed and murmured, “welterusten mijn liefste.” you blew him a kiss and whispered softly, "goodnight baby." [goodnight, my love]

instead of heading straight to sleep you chose to wash your hair rather than waiting until the morning to do so. the flight you managed to snag last minute to hungary was set for tomorrow evening and you hadn't packed anything. not wanting to get onto a plane with a damp head of coils, you decided to just deal with it tonight. the entire process didn't take as long since you were speeding through just so you could sleep. by the time you were done it was around 2 AM and you were more than happy with the results. a dozen thick twists hung past your shoulders until you wrapped them up into a scarf and covered them with your bonnet to head to bed.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

when you woke up in the morning you noticed your phone had over 50 missed calls, messages, and emails. your mind conjured up the worst possible thoughts as you called your boyfriend to see what was the matter. max answered on the first few rings and you anxiously stammered, "baby? maxie? what's going on are you okay? where are you?" on the other line max answered clearly confused on what you were talking about, "schat? i am fine, i'm heading to the track. nothing is wrong here, what are you talking about?" you started to calm down realizing that he was fine but you responded, "i thought- didn't you blow up my phone early this morning? i was worried something happened and-" your boyfriend interjected with a calm tone, "y/n, i promise you nothing is the matter-"

an incoming call from théo, your coworker cut max off and you spoke up, "i'm sorry i think it's work related because théo is calling me." max let out an annoyed sound and you laughed, "i don't get why you don't like him." max scoffed, "he is too touchy and handsy with you." there was a playful groan, "oh god here you go- max, we've been over this. théo is a 27 year old gay man from san francisco who's convinced he's princess diana's reincarnate. he's the least of your worries okay?" max conceded, "okay fine i guess...but i still have my eye on him." another call from théo interrupted your conversation and you added, "but he's blowing up my phone so i need to see what's wrong. i'll talk to you later okay?" max agreed and bid you goodbye before hanging up the phone.

meanwhile you answered théo's call and he was literally running through what looked like the parking garage of his high rise. he panted, "you- you nee-...oh god i'm out of shape- you need to get up right now.. i'll be there to pick you up in fifteen minutes so be ready downstairs." you looked around confused and your coworker/ friend explained, "there's some massive outage or something happening. i know we had off today but they're calling the entire office in to see if we can figure it out." you were already climbing out of bed and you pressed for more information, "what do you mean an outage?" théo shrugged and wiped sweat from his brow as he tried to make himself look less winded, "i dunno i was thinking a breach or something? whatever it is we'll find out but we gotta go right now babes." you hurriedly grabbed an outfit from your closet and started to get dressed and ready to go, keeping him on the line.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

when you finally managed to get to his car, théo pointed to your phone and told you, "check twitter too, the fans are making jokes that you did something to the platform." despite having no idea what the hell he was talking about you opened twitter to see the flood of tweets under your name on the trending topics list. a pit formed in your stomach and you nearly fainted when you realized what he was talking about. you were completely new to this job and panic coursed through your veins on the thought of losing everything you worked hard for. the look of panic drew a laugh from your best friend and coworker as he jested, "they're funny aren't they?!" you shook your head and nearly shouted, "no it's not i'm gonna get fired!" théo waved off your concern, "girl the issue is definitely not from you and nobody thinks so. besides, dante from marketing and eleni from HR were sending the funny ones to our group chat...not that this isn't serious but just to make light of a shitty situation you know?" you shifted in your seat unsure how to feel and he promised, "i guarantee it's fine."

when you actually got to work with théo you were pulled into a meeting where you all were briefed about the situation. they clarified that they knew it was an issue with an update that was sent out early in the morning. after the meeting your boss told you that he knew you weren't supposed to be working today but you did need to stay and potentially over the weekend as well to help your team mitigate the issue as much as you all could. despite it being a global issue and not directly an issue from the monaco office, you knew that he meant he needed you there to help deploy the solution when it came through. he let you have a fifteen minute break to rearrange your travel plans and make the cancellations you needed before having you start work.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

the work day ended later than usual, the later hours were spent at your home office while you were on meetings with other people on your team. luckily you were able to catch up with the results of max's first and second practice sessions through peeking at live updates while you worked. when you got the okay to clock out, you nearly fell asleep on your desk but waking back up when your boyfriend's ringtone jump scared you.

you kept your head on the desk as you opened the video call, "hey you." max's features softened when he noticed the look of exhaustion on your face, "it was that bad huh?" you gave a silent thumbs up and sighed, "i wish it didn't happen...i was so excited to come surprise you and finally be there to see you again. i'm sorry i can't make it work." max rushed to your defense, "er zijn nog genoeg andere races over in het seizoen, je kunt in plaats daarvan naar die races komen kijken." you let out an annoyed groan, "i know but i wanted to be there this time. now you'll have bad luck." max chuckled at the mention of the running joke of you being his lucky charm, "it's alright. don't worry your pretty little head about me. now come on let's go to sleep, i know you're tired." you shuffled your feet against your bedroom floor as you took your phone with you to get ready for the night. [there are plenty of other races left in the season, you can come and watch those races instead.]

as you lay in bed with your lights off max asked, "did you see they asked me about you today?" you hummed a soft, "nuh uh." he smiled at the memory and explained, "i was in an interview and they mentioned that your name was trending on twitter and asked if i saw it. i only saw that your name was trending but i didn't see what for so they told me fans made jokes that you crashed the mercedes, mclaren, and williams servers so that i could win this weekend." a sleepy smile crossed your lips and you asked, "what'd you say?" he turned over in his bed and answered, "i told them it wasn't you because you don't make mistakes in your work. you're too good at what you do. also that you aren't the one that sends out the updates so people don't need to use your name in a bad light." you grinned wider already knowing what he was going to say, "and how did that go over?" max let out an sigh and small chuckle, "the guys have been making fun of me all night for it." you let out the loudest laugh max has heard from you in weeks making him somewhat more fine with getting teased by his friends.

your laughter subsided and you told him, "tell me about something interesting." max thought for a moment then started rambling on about the geologic history of the netherlands, watching as your eyes started to droop with the passing minutes. falling asleep with your boyfriend still on the phone became a habit especially in the early days of you dating. but now you were spending more time with him that occurrences like this just started happening once more, leaving you missing his presence at night. as for now, this was the best you could get.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

the end.

[satoruan]

STOLEN TOUCHES — NANAMI KENTO

✧･ﾟ You were just trying to get a better angle.  

( TW ) f!reader, stepdad!Nanami, highly suggestive, teasing, touched starved Nanami, age gap (reader is 26, Nanami is in his 40's).

note. this was just sitting in my drafts omg I forgot to post 😭 this is for the anon that requested!! sorry you had to wait so long i swear I thought it was queued!

Nanami steps into the dark foyer of his home, taking off his work shoes. He winces from the pain; he’s been running around like a headless chicken in the office. He was supposed to get off hours ago. Nanami shrugs his suit jacket off and hangs it on the small rack before turning the corner. A small part of him had wished you would’ve been up, watching TV in the living room, but as he walked further into the house you were nowhere to be seen. He sighs in disappointment before making his way upstairs.  

Your mother isn’t waiting for him, obviously. She’s probably out with another one of her many men. God, he shouldn't have folded under pressure when she had asked him to open the 'monogamous’ relationship they had. His shoulders slump at the neatly made king-sized bed that sits in the corner of his room. He walks to his closet to grab a pair of satin pajamas you had bought him before making his way to the bathroom. He sets his clothes on the counter before stripping down to his boxers and walking over to the tub. He leans down to turn the water to the perfect temperature. 

“Kenny!” You squeal wrapping your arms around his naked waist from behind. He jumps in surprise before grunting in pain. 

“Kenny? What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” You ask, pulling away. Kento turns quickly despite the pain and grabs your arms. 

“Sweetheart! Nono, you didn’t hurt me. Why are you up?” He questions and you smile sweetly at him. 

“Kenny don’t lie! And I'm up because I’m currently an unemployed twenty-six-year-old who had to move back home. Now,” You clap, stepping in-between his legs. “Tell me why you winced like I stabbed you and don’t lie.” 

Nanami stuck in a breath and your close proximity. 

“Jus’ had a long day at work that’s all. Stupid cramped muscles don't worry about it, sweetheart.” He answers in one long breath before inhaling your sweet smell. Was that too obvious? 

“Well, I can give you a massage if you want, ‘cus my mom isn’t to give you one.” You spit on the last part before staring back up at your Stepdad.  

“You don’t have—” 

“Shush, I want to! C’mon, let's go to bed when you can get comfortable. We gotta hurry ‘fore your bath overfills.” You pull Kento's arm, dragging his heavy body up and out of the master bathroom.  

"Sit—scoot a little further—no your back to the pillow silly!” You laugh. 

“Aren’t you giving me a massage sweetheart?” Kento frowns, confused but complies anyways.  

“Yep!” You lift a leg to the bed and blink your thick lashes at him before lifting the other and crawling onto his lap. 

“Sweetheart—” Kento blushes, hands going to your hips to push you off but also to hold you there. 

“Calm down Kenny! This is just a massage; I've read you can get the shoulders better this way,” You lie, putting your hand onto your stepdad's neck and squeezing. “Just shut your eyes and relax.” You whisper dragging your hands down Kento's’ arms. You squeeze your way back up before gliding your palms to his peaks and resting them on his hard nipples. He grunts when you dig your thumbs and knuckles into his chest, throwing his head back onto his headboard. His grip on your hips tightens and he swears he feels you sit on his lap. 

“Feels good?” You mummer watching your stepdad's Adam apple move. You can’t help but bring your hands up and caresses it. Nanami groans.  

“Mhm.” 

“Sit up so I can get your back, Kenny.” You push on the back of his neck. You smile when his face falls into your chest. Before he has a chance to move you hold the back of his neck with one hand, the other squeezing at his shoulder blade. 

Nanami can feel his cheeks heat in arousal. He hasn’t been touched like this in so long maybe he’s just imagining the tension between you two. He doesn’t have the balls to act on this anyway, he doesn’t want to scare you off.  

“Sorry, gotta get comfortable.” You whisper in his ear as you grind down. You bite the inside of your cheeks when you feel his hard cock graze your pussy. Nanami holds in a groan. Fuck if you keep doing that, he's going to cum in his underwear. 

“Sweetheart,” 

“Hm?” You dig your knuckle onto tense knots in his back. 

“Oh, fuck sweetheart, just like that.”  

“Doin’ good Kenny?”  

“Yes, b-but,” He breathes heavily on your breast. “But my bath waters gonna overfill.” He looks up at you. You move your hand to cup his neck. 

“Oh, well how about we continue this in the tub?” You smile down at Kento. His eyes widen, mouth agape. 

“What!?” 

“Kidding! Gosh, look at your face! I’m gonna go watch some TV, goodnight. Have fun in your bath.” You crawl off his lap, giving him a good view of your ass in the short shorts you were wearing. You look back and smile innocently.  

What you really meant to say was you were going to masturbate about what just happened. Don’t worry, Kento was going to too. 

[theprettyarachnid]

gratitude (halsin x reader)

a/n: i’ve had this in the draft for awhile but i thought id post it also would you like a part two?

warnings: none

"Prove your loyalty to the Absolute!" The goblin yells while holding a branding stick. It had the symbol of the Absolute. You and your friends came here to rescue Halsin. He was the archdruid and there was a chance that he could rid the parasites that were squirming in your head.

You give a quick glance to Shadowheart who gives you a shake of her head. She's telling you to not do it. You look at the woman who is starting to give you a suspicious look. You need to rescue this Halsin and alive preferably.

You purse your lips before giving her your hand. You could feel Shadowheart's disappointed eyes staring at you. You scrunch your face up feeling the heat melt your skin while hearing a roar of goblins shout in approval. If getting branded to fit in meant you could rescue Halsin, you were willing to do it and you did.

The citizens of the Grove surrounded your camp in celebration of their new found freedom and your bravery. You were sat on the floor with a glass of wine watching tieflings and dwarves dancing to the loud music. You take a sip before you feel someone take your hand.

It was tiefling, no older than you, inviting you to dance. You smile while getting up. You couldn't really hear what she was saying because of the music and the other people laughing but she gave you a bright smile which you returned.

You both stumbled a little bit queuing laughter from the both of you. Everyone at this party had a little too much to drink but it was obvious no one cared about the headaches they will have tomorrow morning. The song ends and you and the girl are out of breath.

Before either of you can say something, her friends call her over. She gives you a somewhat flirty look and walks away. You smile, still catching your breath, until you feel eyes on you.

You turn your head and meet Halsin's deep eyes across the camp. Your breath hitches a little before you turn away and try to find Shadowheart.

The camp was quiet but you couldn't help groan in relief as you finally sit down at your tent. It felt like this was the first time you sat down in days. Your legs were exhausted and your back ached from cleaning up the party mess at camp. It wasn't a lot but it was still an inconvenience, another chore.

You stare down at your bandaged hand. You should probably take a look at it. You listen to your surroundings to make sure everyone is asleep before you slowly yet painfully unwrap it.

Jesus.

It was black and still had some loose melted skin at the edges. You can feel the disgusted look forming on your face. You look around once more before sighing. You get up and head over to the river with some fresh gauze in your good hand.

You gently collapse onto the grass. It was nice and cool by the river and the breeze felt nice on your skin. You close your eyes for a few moments trying to forget about the past couple of days. You're so immersed into everything that you don't hear the quiet footsteps coming towards you.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Shit!" You gasp when you hear a deep voice. You turn around and see Halsin who has an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He says with his hands gently raised up to his chest. "May I sit?" You nod with a smile while tapping the spot next to you.

For such a big man, he barely makes a sound

"I never got to properly thank you." Halsin speaks while looking out onto the river.

"You don't need to thank me..." You quietly say repeatedly pulling down your sleeve.

"Yes, I do. My people would not be free without your help and I would probably be dead by now, fed to spiders or left to starve in that cage." He says looking directly at you. You look back studying his features. He had years of wisdom carved into his face, crows feet from how many times he's laughed and smiled, and he has lines in between his eyebrows showing how much sorrow and frustration he has lived through.

You finally look away, unable to keep eye contact any longer, and look at the river. You could see the stars and your own reflection. You look... sad and tired.

"Does it hurt?" Halsin asks making you look up at him. You were hiding it with your sleeve so he couldn’t see it. Did he know what it was? That it was a symbol of everything he’s against? Everything your group is against?

"I'll live."

"That's not what I asked." Halsin says while slowly grabbing the gauze. You completely forgot why you even came to the river in the first place.

"I can handle it." You hesitantly say but for whatever reason you're giving him your hand. He flips your hand to see your palm but you can't help but form a fist. It hurts like all the Nine Hells combined but a part of you still didn't want him to see it.

"Whatever it is, I know you did it for the greater good." Halsin raises his eyes to look at you. They were a beautiful green. You stay quiet and look away as you slowly open your palm. Halsin looks back down and a silence falls between the two of you.

You couldn’t tell what kind of silence it was. Uncomfortable? Tense? Embarrassing? Whatever feeling it was giving you, you didn’t like it. You start pulling your hand away and look away from him in shame. He’s probably disgusted by you.

“I’m sorry you were put in a position where you felt you had to do this.” Halsin finally says and tears creep into your eyes. Why was he being so nice to you? You wanted to say something, anything, but if you did your voice would break and the tears would start falling.

More silence. You flinch a little as you feel the cold water against your burn. You would think it would feel nice but it didn’t. It hurt. More than you thought it would have. Halsin wraps his large hands around your burnt one before reciting something. You feel a bit of relief as a green light shines and slips between his fingers.

“It won’t make it go away but… it should help.” He says and begins to wrap it with gauze.

“Thank you.” You let out and slowly take your hand away. You let out a sigh and look out to the river again. “You’re right though.”

“Hm?” He asks

“The river, it’s beautiful.” You look at him and you realize the river isn’t the only thing that’s beautiful. Halsin is too and you feel your cheeks warm up a little. He smiles and looks at the river too.

“You always have to appreciate the little things especially in nature. It offers us so many things for free and asks for nothing in return.” You let out a quiet chuckle and smile at him.

“You’re a very calming presence, Halsin.” He looks at you and smiles.

“I’m glad, I try to be.” He laughs a little and you can’t help but yawn. You really were exhausted. “You should get some rest, Y/n.”

“It’s okay, I probably won’t be able to sleep.” Halsin grunts as he gets up and offers you a hand. “Thank you.” You give him a gentle smile and stand up.

“You’re welcome.” He returns your smile and Halsin starts to walk you to your tent. You don’t realize you’re still holding hands until you’re at your tent. You both laugh, yours more awkward while Halsin’s is more light-hearted.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” You say with a smile. You felt like you were going to drop.

“Yes I will.” Halsin says and turns around to walk to his tent. You go inside your tent and take off your shoes and your extra clothes. You lay down and you let out a groan. You couldn’t tell if it was out of pain or pleasure.

You stare at the ceiling of your tent and sigh. You couldn’t get Halsin’s kindness towards you out of your head. Nor his smile. It was so genuine and warm. You get more comfortable and close your eyes.

Although you have just gotten out of trouble, you already begin to sense another problem. One of the heart specifically.

[eupheme]

I just read “you’ve got me wanting you” and holy fucking shit is it literally the most perfect thing ever. You absolutely NAIL the characters personalities. And the soft moments at the end literally melted my heart.

Anyway, it got me thinking about something I haven’t read before which is a reader who really wants to have sex and all but it really nervous and easily overwhelmed. (I’ve been asked out once and even then my heart was literally pounding so hard and I thought I would pass out my face was so hot, so sex I think I’d die lol)

I imagine Logan is used to the more passionate, or at least experienced partners. So it might be a little out of his comfort zone he thinks but is willing to walk you through it slowly and keep it light hearted for you to make sure you are comfortable.

ahh anon this made my day! I am happy with how it turned out, I did have to do a draft overhaul, so I have just been like - ooh I hope this reads the way I hoped! 💖 reading this made me feel so encouraged, thank you so much! The soft parts were definitely my favorite.

and ooooh I love this!! I definitely do think Logan has a lot of experience, and right - he might not always be thinking about (initially - like, in his own eagerness) someone needing to take it slower. I love the thought of him being perceptive and taking that mental step back, and he would definitely slow things down and take you through things at your own pace.

(and I couldn't stop thinking about this!! you said you hadn't read it before so I wanted to give it a try - I worked on a little drabble based around your idea, with full credit to you of course! I have it queued in another post, hope that is ok!) 💖

[copperbadge]

What do you mean by digital cleaning?

It's something I've been working on more this year because I had a bit more travel than usual so couldn't do actual home cleaning, but I always take a couple of days in the Month Of Cleaning where I'm focused on my digital life. It's good to make your physical home a comfortable place for yourself, but it's also good to recognize that we have "digital" homes that need attention. And often this is at least less physically demanding, so it's good to keep it in your back pocket for days when you're mentally okay but physically too tired or sore to do more of that kind of work.

In the shortest possible terms, digital cleaning is just making sure that your phone, computer, socials, and other digital "presences" are organized in a way that you find helpful, and that you take a moment to either answer those messages you've been putting off or give yourself amnesty on doing so.

This tends to make a lot of people extremely anxious in a way ordinary physical space cleaning doesn't, so I'm going to put the rest of it behind a cut...

So when I say digital cleaning, I refer to stuff like going through my likes on Tumblr and clearing them out, going through my drafts and turning them into queued posts, answering my asks. I spend time in my email inboxes, either responding to messages or removing them. I am not an "inbox zero" kind of guy, but I like to keep the read-but-not-answered messages to a minimum, and towards the end of the year that usually means a clear-out and amnesty. I clean my Google Drive -- delete old files I uploaded for others, move documents I'm no longer using into an archive, move documents I want to work on into a central work folder. I go through my catch-all folder on my hard drive and organize it; I sort through the year's photos and organize those, partly to archive them and partly because I make a scrapbook from them each year. I don't usually have a ton of tabs open but often have more than I'd like, so I go through them all and either read, bookmark, or get rid of them.

I look in my phone's file tree to make sure I delete files I don't need (mostly menu downloads, Restaurants Stop Making Your Menus PDFs Challenge 2K24) and I sometimes go through each app on my phone, make sure I still use it, and make sure it's set how I want it. If this sounds like a nightmare, bear in mind that I very rarely put apps on my phone to start with -- I think my mother has more apps open at any given time than I have apps on my phone ever.

Everywhere I clean, I look for files named things like "notes" or "deal with" or "random" and move them all into one place so that whatever is in them, I can sort through it and make sure it goes somewhere permanent. Logins go in the login/password spreadsheet I keep, addresses go into my contacts, story notes go into a "fiction scraps" file, random thoughts either get moved into a journal file or put into drafts to become Tumblr posts, etc.

If this sounds like I might have some kind of compulsion disorder, I get that; when I explain my digital hygiene systems a lot of people look at me like I'm spouting a mad but harmless conspiracy theory. But it's something I used to have to do periodically even before I created National Clean Your Home Month, because otherwise I could never find anything, and everything was just...harder. As I once told a boss who admired my organizational skills, "It was this or endless chaos."

Putting addresses into my contacts list means I always know that the addresses I have for my friends are up to date. Putting logins into a spreadsheet means that five minutes spent now will not result in five weeks of procrastination later because I can't find the login and can't do anything else until I do that. Going through my email and archiving old conversations means not only can I find them easily when needed, I don't have to look at them the rest of the time. Sometimes I even go through my various wish lists and remove old/purchased items, or clear out all my "save for later" carts.

There's no doubt this is stressful, but like every part of NaClYoHo, it's broken down into smaller tasks; I don't have to look at my computer and organize everything on it all in one day. I can answer a few asks, then sort photos (something I find very soothing up until the moment I Don't), then read and delete some emails, then I'm done for the day. I can spread "answer or file all your work emails" out over a couple of days. I can maybe empty out my Likes but just turn the ones I actually want to reblog into drafts for now and deal with them later in the "drafts" phase of cleaning. And if I don't manage to empty out my inboxes, at least they're emptier than they were.

I'm struggling this morning with having put a bunch of physical cleaning on the to-do list but not feeling physically up for it, so I did what I felt capable of doing (measuring cabinets for new shelf liners mainly) and later today I might sit down and start building this year's photobook. Or not -- I have to code Radio Free Monday, sort out a prescription and possibly go pick it up, plus a very full day of work and a couple of afternoon appointments I can't shirk, so today may simply be a "get through the day" kind of day. That's okay too; some days the spirit is willing but the schedule is full.

[problematicfactive]

New intro Post

New intro post! How exciting! This is my celebration for reaching 25 followers so fast! Thank you all for your overwhelming support in this journey, it really has been a lot.

If you're new here, my boyfriend and I are both introjected from extremely problematic medias revolving around a very bad person that lived in real life. We are both from fictional medias, bit the person of which we introjected is very much real, and We've gotten a LOT of shit for it.

Spaces that claim to be safe spaces for systems-- or God forbid, safe spaces for *problematic* introjects and alters, tend to be rude or spiteful towards individuals who are factives from problematic sources.

I firmly believe this hateful stance comes from a place of not understanding, so I've created this blog to give people who don't understand a chance to talk and speak to us without losing their cool as we also stay anonymous on this blog. They're always nice until they find out who you are /hj . Since it's creation, the blog has since turned into a big place for problematic factives to just feel safe and seen. I'm beyond happy about this, and glad my blog can serve both purposes. More under the cut!

We post a lot of everything!

We answer asks from people who have questions about us or about being problematic factives, we make positivity posts for problematic factives, problematic factive culture is... posts, and lots of other things you could think of. Feel free to vent in our askbox or message us for a chat! We'd love to have a friend.

Some things off the top of my head that I can't do on this blog (but if you end up making a blog for these things and need a mod, totally hmu!)

Stimboards/Moodboards etc. - I would literally love to do these but the problem is I know like nothing about anyone. Of you were to ask me for a Donald Trump moodboard I honestly do not know what I would do my mind would just blank. That being said, in decently good at making them so if there were a person I knew well enough to do a stimboard on, I definitely could

Icon edits - This is somthing I'm capable of doing, but it isn't something where I would want this entire blog to just turn into requests. If you're making a blog specifically for these creative requests things totally hmu

Art - I cannot draw but my hope is that that changes in the future.

-

Meet us!

My last intro post didn't really have any information on us as people let's try and fix that.

I can't tell you my name, but you can call me Anxiety. I'm the main mod and significantly less source connected/more source ashamed. I go by he/Anxiety with Anxiety being able to work in place of either a name or a pronoun. Unless the host is helping out with something, anything that isn't labeled comes from me. I'm the only one out of the two of us with the physical ability to type so when he posts something, it's a little special occasion and deserves a label.

My boyfriend doesn't have a name option other than a source one. On the blog he has only been referred to as my boyfriend, but if you need a name for him, call him NPC. He uses he/him pronouns and will sign off any post that he thinks up all on his own with -NPC and tagged with # npc posts

Tagging

Here is some of the tagging we use on this blog

# problematic factive culture = Problematic factive culture is.. posts

# kindness and positivity = Kind and Positive asks we've received

# good thoughtful questions = Good questions we received as asks

# positivity post = Positivity posts

# problematicfactive blog things = things that ate moreso related to one of the mods or running the blog than they are about problematic factives

# rainy day drafts = drafts that could be super old because I made them and them left them in the drafts so I could post when I don't have anything else to post

# queued because I am asleep 😊 / queued because hopefully I'm sleeping = posts that I queue to be 5-ish hours away from the last post. I often post somthing at 12 am Eastern Time regardless of the last something was posted, so those early morning positivity posts tend to also be queued with the tag

If you come across us and like what we do, consider boosting or realigning this post! I'd love for as many people to find out we exist as possible

# askers experience = Asks sent in where an asker tells me about their life

# npc posts = posts my npc wrote as a mod on this blog (does not apply to posts where "my boyfriend's answer" is me paraphrasing or trying to speak for him)

[every-sanji]

I don’t have much to say other than I really love your dedication to this, you don’t miss a pixel if it even smells like sanji lmao. You haven’t stopped since I started following you, and I feel like this is an archive the people need. Oda would be proud, I think ❤️ just showing so much needed love your way, have a good day :)

wawawawa thank you!! as thanks i'm gonna give a glimpse into my journey running the blog under the read more :)

this blog has been through a lot of phases at least for me. anyone who has been around since the beginning probably remembers when i still added captions to every. single. post. that eventually evolved into my occasional tag rambles you still see today but the captions ranged from commentary to just random thoughts i was having at the time. for whatever reason i thought i had to caption every post and this lasted for a while until i realized i didnt have to do that and could just post the photo.

also when i first started the blog it was at the very very start of covid and i got very bored because all of my college classes suddenly halved their work load and i had all the time in the world to do whatever i wanted so i instantly threw like 500 posts in my queue and drafts because this was still the era when you had a maximum of 300 posts in the queue. and since you cant reverse chronological sort your drafts, every single day as posts left my queue i would go into my drafts, scroll through all 200 posts in there, and press add to queue for 5 posts to refill it to the maximum.

eventually though i went back to school and suddenly didnt have as much time as i used to so i dropped down to anywhere from 1-3 sanjis a day depending on the era. this is part of why it took so fucking long to get through water 7 and enies lobby because i was going through it 3 posts at a time. i kept the queue barely afloat with like 30 posts at most in my queue and did a chapter or two every week. this period lasted about 3 years as i finished school.

now i should mention that with everything above, i was queueing sanjis from my phone. i didn't have an automatic screenshot clipper on my college laptop so i didn't really have any other choice without going through like 5 extra steps. i went through 4 phones (my first one was a galaxy s8 that i'd had from 2018 all the way until ~2021 when it broke, followed by some notepad phone that just couldn't run games for shit so i immediately turned it back in and went back to an s8 that used to be my mom's which i had until right before i graduated college when the charging port stopped working properly and i finally upgraded to the s22 that i have now). up until about august of *last year* i was making every single post from my phone. after i moved for my summer job last summer i realized my new laptop allows me to clip my screenshots and started queuing things that way.

anyway while i was posting on my phone i did have one brief period for i think a week where my queue ran out and it was during finals for my last fall semester of college since i just had a lot happening. we had a few close calls if anyone remembers summer 2022 when i was going through some stuff irl with a death in the community but it turns out i use this blog to ground myself when i'm feeling bad sometimes lol. funny how that works

well since last summer when i realized it was easier to queue from my laptop i've been doing it like that ever since with only one exception which you might have seen my tags about lol. i had 2 weeks in august this year where i didnt have internet and my queue was running low so i bit the bullet and just added posts from my phone.

as for how i manage to find even the smallest of sanjis: i mostly just skim chapters and try to track his movements between panels. i keep an eye on who sanji is next to and what other landmarks might be there and when the panels zoom out i can normally find him if he's shown somewhere. which leads to those insanely small sanjis that are five pixels tall. it's definitely a skill you have to hone through practice and i'm sure i've missed a few sanjis even doing this but i'm definitely a lot closer to getting every single one. i do sometimes wonder if these gimmick blogs are known outside of the tumblr fandom and if word has made its way back to people involved in the series. this is mostly just a pipe dream and i know its not very realistic but a guy can dream right.

and if you've read this far, just a reminder you can make me post more sanjis a day by donating to any of the gfms in my pinned post! each donation extends the current queue by 2 weeks so you can make me really expedite the process of getting some of these sanjis out there. i'm getting close to being done with punk hazard and i'm so excited to get further

[daryatalia]

Completed my Second Game Jam!!

I completed Brackeys second game jam of 2024! The theme was Calm Before the Storm, and I was one of 1500 submissions!

I cannot fully express how happy I am to have finished my second game jam! The team I worked with were super amazing and I will go into their skills and what I appreciated later.

The game we made was a resource management, mobile defense, hack n' slash. While the submission build is not 100% functional, it still shows off some really cool systems and designs, and I'm very happy with how it turned out! I am continuing to do post-release updates and any new builds will be submitted to our Github while the Game Jam voting is ongoing.

Please check out Automik Breakers and submit your rating and thoughts if you can! All feedback is welcome because I may be fixing/completing it or need to know if it needs fixing.

Designing and programming this game was really fun! This was a week long game jam with a secret theme that was revealed on Day 1. Before the jam, I wasn't sure if I would work solo or as a team, so I drafted some ideas ahead of time for each theme that I was confident I could independently make systems for. Some of those ideas were an endless "swimmer", house break-in incremental horror, and helping neighbors with tasks around the neighborhood.

Ultimately, I decided to find a team. I'm still quite new to game jams and really enjoyed meeting people last time. I searched within Brackey's Discord server to find open teams looking for a programmer, either for Unity or Unreal Engine. I reached out to many cool people and ended up creating a team of my own! I made a Discord server for us to collaborate it, as well as the GitHub repo, Google Drive, and Miro. I focused a lot on making sure everyone was comfortable with one another and that everyone could contribute their skills to the project the way they wanted to.

Once the theme was announced, we started workshopping ideas day one. With team members in multiple time zones from NA to Europe, we met several times over the next two days to hammer out the main game genre, game loop, and systems. There were many ideas and possibilities, so talking through how we would implement each aspect of it and what assets would be needed for development helped us land on our chosen game. We made sure to keep the theme in mind throughout the development of systems, design, narrative, and artwork.

The biggest challenges for me as both a developer, designer, and team lead were managing scope and schedules. We knew what systems we wanted, but getting them to interact properly was already going to be a challenge, and we were essentially developing two "Game Modes" to function as one. As such, we were mindful to keep a list of minimum viable features and to knock additional features into "if we can" territory. When it comes to scope, to improve I would say I would start digital prototype development and systems design even a day sooner, and to build certain features one at a time until completion rather than bouncing around a bit (this is my experience). Using User Stories was especially helpful for helping me organize what the goals of development were, even more so then the task list I made for the team.

When it comes to scheduling, we have 9 team members in 5 different time zones, so making sure work and delegations were queued up for when I was offline and others were up was very important. Task lists as well as morning "hi-hello-today we will-" really helped with managing expectations and updating the whole team on development progress. It was really satisfying seeing the whole team interact and work together. I was actively learning from my fellow programmers, Spoon, Necron, and GraphicEdit, and I hope everyone else can say the same. Also, I think having a diverse time zoned team also helped us with maximizing production development without burning everyone out. Knowing something was being done around the clock without forcing anyone to crunch or sacrifice IRL activities was really nice.

Scope ultimately led to our game being less than 100% complete. We didn't have much time the last 2 days to tune the enemy strength, add greater significance to delivery items, attach power-ups to each resource item, or to fine-tune additional bugs. The story also wasn't able to iterate correctly, the random deliveries queue is still in-production, and the custom deliveries option could be more clear. I'm satisfied that these are aspects that I know can be improved and lead to a satisfying and complete game with replay value.

As for contributions, personally, I worked on a few different things throughout the jam. I managed onboarding team members, creating and updating team resources, and developing task lists for async development. I supported the team by reviewing sounds and music, artwork, and game systems. I developed the Cargo Controller ( the script that controls the movement and inventory of the cargo vehicle), the Hub Manager (the script that controls the inventory of the Hub during "Calm Mode", as well as the assignment of deliveries), and the Storm Mode Journey (which controlled the "Storm Mode"s game loop). With assistance from Spoon, I also worked on the Game Manager, making sure that it had access to both game modes and could keep track of persistent objects and values like our currency, story deliveries, and delivery items. With his assistance I also created the scriptable objects for the various resource and delivery items based on Spoons SO script.

I worked on the UI for the Hub, designing potential layouts, finding references, coordinating with the team on colors and fonts, and laying out the structure and prefabs using Unity's UI system. It was a bit of a headache but only because the nesting got so deep and the layout groups were a little unpredictable. Still, a much more satisfying and improved experience than my last game jam. Thank you to Rusty for the beautiful UI panel art!

Most days, I would start work off by connecting with the team, seeing what they needed to be successful, updating docs as necessary, all before digging into my code or UI responsibilities. My experience in project management really helped me succeed in this, as well as the dedication and talent of the team I was working with.

Thank you to RatDrum for developing the music for this game, as well as additional sound effects. Thank you to JollyGoodFriend for developing sound effects, as well. Thank you to Rustyscreech for designing the UI art and backgrounds and the Cargo Cart, as well as the concept art for the characters. Thank you to Danieluxx for designing the character animations. Thank you to Necron for developing the enemy systems. Thank you to Spoon for developing the background pooling system, the Base Item scriptable objects, and the inventory system, and for helping to optimize my and Necron's code. Thank you to GraphicEdit for developing the main menu and pause menu UIs, for developing the for-now unutilized save system, and for supporting Github commits and troubleshooting. Thank you to SirSunstone for writing a captivating story for our game world, and integrating it piece-by-piece into the Story missions, as well as for coming up with a cool list of items for us to implement.

THANK YOU to our team! Could not have done this without you all!

I'm so excited for my next game jam and to see what else I can do!

[aetherdecember]

I woke up and decided to reblog everything in my favorites. You’re welcome

edit 5/28: the queue is too long. If I share thoughts in the tags, they’re scheduled for later the same day. If I reblog because I like it, it gets queued

…

Hello, feel free to call me Aether ^^ I, uh, have a lot of hobbies, but mainly enjoy writing fanfiction. My current fandoms are Star Wars, BBC Merlin, Encanto, and Sky: CotL, but I’ll reblog anything and everything that tickles my fancy. Speaking of reblogs… everything gets queued. If it didn’t, I’d never reblog anything. Plus, it has the added benefit of helping to put it in front of you again months down the road ;D

…

I guess details of my tagging system and writing will go below the cut…

Be warned, I haven’t actually thought this far ahead so it’s a bit disorganized…

Tags

Humor is Good: all the things I find funny

Quotables: worth quoting

(and that’s it, I really don’t organize around here…)

Fandoms

Star Wars

I haven’t posted anything about my wips, currently, but I have a few in the works.

BBC Merlin

Flipping the Coin: A reversal au where Merlin dies/Arthur lives and now Arthur is the one waiting centuries for Merlin to return.

Last Unicorn AU: Merlin the Magician is two things; a failure and immortal. His powers are real, and destined to do great things, but he can’t even harness them. Turning cheese into butter only causes the cheese to weep from not being eaten. Out of pity, his master, Gaius, gave him immortality so he would have time to learn how to use his powers, but it seems that will never happen. Until he meets the unicorn.

And I have other, older drafts of Merlin fics I never finished. If I find them I might share them.

Encanto

Why Tio Bruno Should Be My Papa: Little Mirabel thinks Bruno should have a kid, specifically her, so presents her parents with a list of reasons why. A collection of one shots focusing on pre-canon events. Mainly, Mirabel being adorable and forcing her tio to be a good uncle despite his attempts to withdraw from the family.

To Be Tio Again: A companion one shot collection to Why Tio Bruno Should Be My Papa focusing on post-canon events. Featuring Bruno relearning how to function in the family and Mirabel being a supportive niece.

Encanto AUs for the Soul: Like it says on the tin, this is for all of my AUs, specifically ones that tickle my soul because I need them to exist. Among this collection is: Murder, Magic, & Mugs - a modern coffee shop/detective AU; Lost Stars - a Star Wars/Encanto fusion with the characters of Encanto in the Star Wars universe (note: this is not a proper cross over as no Star Wars characters appear. Only the settings and lore are used.); Encantomorphs - a wip still but is essentially an Animorphs/Encanto fusion; A Gift of Normalcy - Mirabel’s gift is being Normal.

Misc. Fandoms

Over the years, I’ve written for various fandoms. Slowly, I’m working on transferring those works to ao3. They will all be posted under my old pseudonym, but occasionally I might talk about one here.

[filminah]

work experience (pt 2!)

on my third day i had three new supervisors! the main one was the owner of the law firm who turned not to be not very intimidating like i thought he would be! he was very fun and nice! and he bought everyone in the office food which was really nice but i couldn't eat it because it wasn't halal :( he offered to go out again and buy me something but there was no way i was making my boss do that. he knew everyone in the magistrates court and i was supposed to see some of the clients with him in the cells but they denied me because i'm too young :// thursday i wrote letters to clients, did some general paperwork, looked at case files and made everyone tea and coffee. the main task that day was a review from a teacher at school which was generally favourable! and my supervisors gave us good reports aswell! i had also gone to youth court that day but it was mainly sitting around since i wasn't allowed inside the court - there was lawyer who was 70 years old who i spoke with in the waiting room, he was actually not far into his career as a lawyer as he decided to become one around the age of 40 which i thought was really coolll. then once all the youth cases were handled my supervisor and i got locked out the office so we played squares in the rain on my notepad, then i drew phoenix wright and thumbtacked it to the main board on the wall!. friday i went on a trip to leamington with another supervisor! leamington is really different to my town, i almost walked into a police station because it looked so done up i thought it was the crown court building! they had soo many good songs on the radio that day, i think i spoke a bit too much though, my supervisor was quite sad from something personal that had happened to her so i just kept talking and trying to cheer her up because she looked like she was constantly on the verge of tears, i think she's really amazing for still coming into work despite everything happening to her. the crown court in leamington is really different to the magistrates court where i live - in the magistrates court the public viewing place is just a few chairs at the back of the room but in the crown court, its a whole seperate place with microphones and a tv screen - i got let off early that day because there quite literally nothing for me to do, i wish i had just stayed there anyways for a few more hours because i kinda miss it, i'm really thankful i had such a good placement! sorry this post is a week late, i thought i had queued it but it turns out it's been sitting in my drafts, since that was the most eventful thing that happened in feb i think i won't make a february roundup since i've already told you everything until next time! Amina

[kaoarika]

sometimes I don't know what is going on, but as I try to organize my drafts, I SWEAR I reblogged/queued something and turns out it was/is still on my drafts? And while I DO vaguely remember "hey, didn't I post this yesterday?" in one... I don't remember if I ever clicked on the "edit" option or I did it from OP's post as I was consulting their tags to know how to tag it...

Just now, I had a weird incident as I was going to post something, I even tagged it and all and scheduled it... but somehow the page returned me to the same draft post w/o tags and what I thought was queued, was nowhere to be seen there. When a post fails on "scheduling" because I erred on the date, it usually tells me it is wrong and I try to do it again with the correct date or time... but it never deletes the tags... (unless it didn't proceed or smth like a server error?... it doesn't make sense right now to me?) So, I even copypasted the same tags and now it is on my Queue line, but... man, what? I don't get it ;(

And... man, I dunno if tmblr being glitchy or smth or if it's a thing of firefox? Or just me not paying attention at all at what I am doing? but... no? I even checked if the post was eaten in my drafts or smth, but nope, always the same 7 missing posts, as it always have been.

😵‍💫

I feel like this isn't the first time smth like this has happened? But I always blame it to the fact I clicked two times on "open this in a new tab" (and I didn't notice) but this is nowhere like that? It was already on my drafts...? it doesn't usually delete the tags I am trying to put? it never queued (until I went again to do so), either.

Weird, weird.

I really should stop posting or scheduling so late at night...

[gedwimora]

okay so i've actually gotten a lot done across multiple blogs i have 5 or more asks/replies queued for robb, aenaella, daemon, lyanna and over on aemond. so if i just even out all the numbers to 5 so i don't have to go count i got about 25 done in the last few days which is pretty good. Those queues have been turned on again so expect things there. I'm still gonna work on rotating around and filling up queues and releasing them/emptying out drafts on all of these but i'm happy with what i've gotten done so far. It's more than I thought I'd done tbh.

i'll also say for reference i keep my queues at basically a snails pace to try and keep things spread out and the returns coming back all at once to a dull roar.

my queues go at 1 post a day, all rp content is labeled queued if it is so and there's a non rp post like aes/face/musings/etc put between them as a buffer so replies/asks/etc go out every other day. so like... tragically it might still be a while before people get things lol. this is just what i find is comfortable for me since i feel like things get out but the pace of the queue isn't outstripping me.

[reds-self-ships]

Sketch: The First Draft

Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter

CHAPTER 3: Balance and Flow

"One hot dog for one hero, extra ketchup."

"Thanks. It's not often there's food available at this time of night."

"Yeah, with heroes like you and Batman around, there's more people around at night time these days. Business is booming."

"Good to hear. Well, I won't keep the other folks queuing. Keep the change."

"Give my regards to the big guy, will ya?"

Nightwing swung off into the distance before settling onto rooftop to allow himself five minutes to eat something. It wasn't often there was a break on nights like these, and it was even less often that he had a chance to have a snack.

He opened his mouth wide, ready to chow down, before the communicator beeped in his ear.

"Nightwing," he answered.

"Are you busy?" asked Batman.

"Nope - all quiet around here tonight. Why, what's up?"

"I need you to go and meet a detective for me, Detective Johnson from the GCPD's Organised Crime division, he says he has a lead on Penguin."

"What's he been up to recently?"

"Smuggling in and selling weapons to Maroni and Falcone. If we get him, we can stop an all-out gang war before it even has the chance to begin. I'd go myself, but I'm trying to trace down what happened at the bank. Two Face disappeared before I had the chance to arrest him, and then Bullock said that he apparently never left Arkham. I need time to look over the scene."

"I'll head on over to the GCPD then."

"There's no rush on it for now, Nightwing. You can take the time to enjoy your hot dog."

"Sure I—hey, how did you know?"

"Johnson will be waiting for you. Batman out."

####

As a cold night wind blew through the alleyway, Dryden pulled the collar of his jacket up and around his nose and mouth as a makeshift mask. "Do you really need to smoke that now?"

Johnson took a long drag of his cigar before blowing a smoke ring out, watching as the blue smoke disippated into the void. "Well if I did it in my office, Gordon would take a shit-fit. The rules are a bit more relaxed whenever you're meeting up with a cape anyways."

"Well I suppose it'd be interesting at least. What's Batman like, anyway?"

"Tall. Doesn't say much. Little capacity for bullshit."

"Right. How should I address him, then? 'Batman'? 'The Batman'? 'Mr. Batman'?"

Suddenly, a voice came out of nowhere: "Just 'Nightwing' will do just fine."

As Dryden jumped backwards towards the wall, Johnson very nearly swallowed the cigar whole. "Jesus—!"

"Nope, pretty sure I'm still just Nightwing," smirked the hero, now standing just a few feet in front of the detective and the sketch artist.

Johnson turned to Dryden. "I forgot to mention, they have a habit of doing that. Catches you off-guard and nearly gives you a heart attack." He straightened out his coat. "It's worse when they disappear when you're in the middle of talking to them and they make you look like something that wandered out of Arkham. Oh yeah, any update about that bank robbery?"

"Batman's looking into it, so I'm filling in for the moment." He leaned against the side of one of the spare patrol cars as though he owned the damn thing. "New guy, too, huh?"

"Yeah, Ethan Dryden - rookie cop and sketch artist, working the case with me til he gets to know the ropes."

"Nice to meet you."

Dryden only managed to squeak out: "N-Nice to meet you, too."

"I hear you guys have something for me?"

"Yeah, we got a good tip. Some abuela with too much spare time on her hands called in saying that she saw some suspicious behaviour, some guy meeting some other guy in a car, exchanging a suitcase of cash. Thought the description matched The Penguin, got Dryden to draw up the description and it's a perfect match for Cobblepot himself."

Johnson handed the hero a faded-looking manila folder with the case notes, which included a photocopy of the drawing that had been made of Mrs. Guerrera's description.

"Yeah, I'm a Metropolis guy myself, so I'm still reading up on all the bad guys like The Penguin or Harley Quinn or Condiment King."

"Well, for a guy who's never read anything on The Penguin, you sure did a good job drawing him," said Nightwing, opening the folder. "It's like you drew it from a photo of him."

"Really? Thanks. I draw a lot in my spare time, too, so..."

"Well if I ever get more than five minutes, you're welcome to draw me, depends on how busy my diary is. Speaking of, I'd better get going. I'll have a look around Penguin's place and see what I can dig up, you can do what you can in the meantime."

"Will do, Nightwing. And tell the Bat—Goddammit!"

As Dryden snapped back into reality, he looked to where Nightwing, in his tight-fitting costume, had been standing just a few moments ago. He'd vanished as quickly and as silently as he had initially arrived.

"Every time. That gets me goddamn time."

"...Yeah..." is all that Dryden said.