#I will keep posting backlog until I actually make anything

[therealcallmekd]

Like Mother Like Child, I Look Into The Mirror And See Your Face. It Disgusts Me.

beech translation plus textless under cut v

AND I WONDERED WHO CREATED THIS VIOLENCE? THIS RAGE? FROM WHERE DID IT ARISE?

I GAZED UPON MY OWN CLAWS BLOODIED AND CRUEL

[moodymisty]

Hi! Hope you're having a great day! Is it ok to ask for some of your NSFW headcannons for shower sex with the horsemen? (Did not see this in your kink list so apologies if it's not up your alley!)

[ 𝕸𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖞𝕸𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖞'𝖘 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙 | 𝕬𝖔3 ]

Author's Note: Don't worry my friend, this IS right up my alley. Sorry this took a minute to post, I've been trying to work my way through the backlog. Hope this is close enough to what you wanted, despite it being something I am totally on board for it stumped me for awhile for some reason.

Relationships: Death/Fem!Reader, War/Fem!Reader, Fury/Fem!Reader, Strife/Fem!Reader

Warnings: NSFW but not crazy explicit, Shower sex, I knew if i got too detailed this would be like a novel of a post so, Give the stank man Death a bath

✦ War ✦

Honestly, it's a miracle you even got this big angry Nephilim into the shower to begin with.

Not necessarily that he doesn't want to, but he might just, not fit. Though he fits even worse in a bathtub, if at all. Fitting War anywhere meant for humans is a logistical nightmare, honestly.

If you do manage to get him inside, his white hair is soaked, sticking to his shoulders and face.

He looks so unhappy when he first gets in, but you know by now that it's a combination of his default expression, and that War is a stuffy Nephilim who refuses to let himself just enjoy things. Ruffling his hair doesn't help. A kiss will help that though.

Claustrophobic. But a good kind. War's a big guy who tends to monopolize the spaces he's in, and this is no exception. It's going to be hard to not have skin on skin contact at all times. You don't mind it but War's a little more, shy.

Took a lot of convincing. But now that he realizes it's not all bad, he regrets being so hesitant. Turns out he really enjoys feeling your wet skin on his. And it's nice to feel have all of his armor off, he oftentimes keeps pieces of it on no matter what's happening.

Now tends to linger nearby when you mention you're going to take a shower in the hopes you'll ask him to join you.

✦ Strife ✦

Strife actually sneaks in, the first time.

You've extended the invitation for him to bathe with you before, and he always joked you off; Mostly his own self doubt preventing him and all of his scars being so visible. Strife is all for fun and games until the mask actually has to come off. Both literally and figuratively.

He almost scares you out of your mind when he does; Strife can be surprisingly quiet when he wants to be. Especially out of his armor.

His normally spiky hair is instantly wet and flat. He steals a kiss before you can ever comment about it.

He's all jokes, what you'd usually expect from Strife. Likes to pick you up and pretend to almost drop you, pinch you, nip at you with his sharp teeth.

Since it's not the usual sort of romantic scenario, he gets a little more rambunctious than usual. You'll end up coming out of the shower clean, but also completely frazzled out of your wits.

✦ Fury ✦

After a quick lesson in which she learns that a shower is basically a waterfall with extra steps, Fury is on board. Until you joke about her hair being 'put out' like fire that is.

Showers go from 15 minutes to like two hours, whenever she's involved. Not that you're complaining, unless the water starts getting cold. And even then it's a struggle to get her to relent on anything.

Versus the others where you're the one with the idea to have sex, Fury is actually the one to take the initiative.

Hard not to be convinced when you feel her put her arms over your shoulders from behind and say something that would probably make an angel drop dead.

Fury knows what she's good at for sure, and it's hard to not instantly fall for her confidence. If you didn't already have it on the mind, well you do now.

Needless to say if her makeup wasn't already off, it's all over your face by the time you get out of the shower. You end up having to wash again just to get it off. Inconvenient waste of water, but well worth it. She finds it hilarious.

✦ Death ✦

For Death it's less so a fun romp, and more so intimate.

The stars have to all be aligned in order for him to join you, but when he does you know you're in for a rare treat. It's not often he lets his guard down, even with you.

One of his favorite moments in time with you is when you fist helped wash his hair, and he's had a fondness for similar things ever since.

There's a gentleness about it all; A vulnerability. Death feels selfish for wanting it but, he can't help being greedy. He likes the feeling of your hands tightening on his shoulders as he holds you, or presses you against the wall.

So unlike Strife where he's all jokes, Death takes this moment very seriously. It's almost, intimidating.

Also the lights are off. Every time. Death doesn't want you to see his facade cracking, so he bathes the room in pitch black. Don't worry, he'll never let you fall.

it also makes every feeling so much more intense, and Death enjoys the sounds of surprise you make whenever he touches you somewhere you weren't expecting.

[vexx-ation]

Account Update (mostly music project stuff)

Hi all! Just wanted to give a quick update on my music project (dw it's still going). I just started medical school, and while I love it, there's a lot less time to fool around and listen to albums than at my last job (alas.). Luckily I've backlogged everything until December 15th, so I'm not in danger of missing a day, but this does mean I likely won't be able to extend the project into next year while keeping the daily format. I do plan on reviewing every album sent to me, and eventually want to make it to 1000 albums, but after 2024 the reviews likely won't be posted daily anymore. That being said, because the backlog is so long and I'm so busy, please know that if you send in an album it'll likely be months before I actually post the review. Just wanted to say that I appreciate the recommendations more than I can say, and feel kinda bad it looks like I'm ignoring yall with how long it takes to post anything. Feel free to keep sending them-- there's no such thing as too many recs when I'm trying to get to 1000 albums!! Also, feel free to Truly send anything, the more niche the better. I've found some of my favorite albums that way :)

TLDR for this part: Daily album reviews for 2024, then switching to a looser schedule. Keep sending recs if you have them, I love what yall have sent so far! <3

In terms of other projects, especially daily ones, I do have another that I'm gearing up for 2025. I love taking photographs (landscapes almost exclusively), and plan on queueing up those to post daily starting in 2025. I'll also be posting reviews of things that I read, listen to, or watch, but those will be more sporadic and of varying quality

Final note: Thank you SO much to every single one of my followers and people who interact with my posts. I post some really niche concept and love to yap, so to know that people are reading it, finding new music, and sending in recs because they like my stuff means the world. I don't really browse tumblr much (I only really post) so if you have a project you want me to check out or promo on my more popular fandom blog (it literally has over 10x the follower count of this one lol) hmu!! I love seeing people's projects :)

Sorry for the wall of text-- I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

[riverotterlovessweets]

So I think @staff just banned me from their live I got booted and no matter how many times I reload I cannot rejoin. If they did the reason would probably be spam. And to a certain extent I understand I was spamming a question, but the cause was the fact that they were deliberately ignoring questions about site changes and policy. One person’s question about reblog chains (the “Staff got rid of prev tags” issue) was being ignored so he kept sending it... and it kept being ignored. So I copy pasted his question and others followed suit. Eventually it was anwered. The answer boiled down to “We’re experementing! uwu.” so basically they know people hate it and are goign to push forward anyways. That’s the gist of a lot of stuff from the live. LGBTQ+ Content being flasely flagged? Tell us about it so we can unban that one specific post instead of us making any changes on our end. Hate that nazis are out here with openly facist urls? Tell us and we’ll ban that specific nazi instead of making any changes to the way we moderate. Your blog got deleted for no just cause? Tell us and we’ll get to it.... we have a bit of a backlog though....  The aboslute lowlight however was an epileptic user bringing up that several tumblr ads trigger thier epilepsy and they were told “Buy ad free.” Accessibility should not be paywalled. Through the live, staff made several comments about how this site only exists becuse of it’s users. How it’s one of the queerest sites on the internet. How good of a place it is for disabled people but overall they didn’t show any of it in how they interacted with users or their legitimate concerns. To be Fair And Balanced ™ ©  ® there were questions that were adressed that cleared up confusion As of the most recent update image zooming has been fixed on mobile. Technically Tumblr Live is not banned in Europe for privacy and security reasons, it is simply that they have only rolled it out in the USA as of yet. (The questions “Would it be banned if it were launched in Europe in it’s currrent state?” and “Why are you hosting a Q&A using a service that only users form one country can see?” were both ignored) As of now unless a tumblr blog has been marked as private by the owner you can view it without being logged in. Granted you will have to take my word for it as there is no way to record tumblr lives and no one on staff had elected to record the session. Meaning that the 700ish people who were in the stream are the only people who will know what was actually said. At least until someone posts a screen recording, which, I should have recorded, but, I had assumed someone on staff would be recording something like this. I’ll try to blaze this. We’ll see how that goes. If it’s anything like how they answered questions, I’ll keep my expectaions low.

[smittywing]

Criminal Minds Post 5x01

For @fixomnia-scribble:

This doesn't actually have a title. I was writing it as a follow-up to the season 5 premiere, when Foyet attacks Hotch in his home but I think it became an AU too quickly? Anyway, have some Team below the cut!

Footsteps fell on the stairs behind her and Emily twisted around to see Rossi on his way up with Morgan behind him.  "Hey," he said.  "My office."  She let him pass and exchanged glances with Morgan, whose eyebrows were knit with concern.  She took a deep breath and followed them into Rossi's office, watching him close the door after them.

Rossi didn't sit down, so Emily and Morgan didn't either.  Instead, he put his hands on his hips, pushing his jacket back, and looked about as pissed off as Emily had ever seen him.  Which, in the past couple of days, was pretty damn pissed off.

"We're not working the Reaper case," he said.

"What?" Emily said, but Morgan thundered,

"The hell we're not!" over her.

"I just got out of a meeting with Strauss," Rossi said, starting to pace.  "She was pretty clear.  Foyet's going to another team."

"No," Morgan said, as Emily just let her mouth hang open.  "No way.  You go back in there and tell her that's bullshit."

Rossi's head snapped up and his eyes cut sharply to Morgan.  "Don't think I haven't already," he said.  "Another team's getting the case."

"They're not Hotch's team," Morgan said.

"Damn straight," Rossi said.  "This is what we're going to do.  Morgan, you're picking up Reid today, right?  Aren't you late?"

"Not - yeah, yeah I am," Morgan said. 

"Good," Rossi said.  "Get going.  And make sure you stop by Hotch's room.  We wouldn't want him to get bored."  He glanced at the wall separating his office from Hotch's.  "And find a few extra things to keep him busy.  There's a file box behind his desk.  Has some old stuff in it."

"Got it," Morgan said, and took off.  Emily could hear him rifling in Hotch's office next door.

"What can I do?" she asked.

"We're terribly backlogged on paperwork," Rossi told her in the same tone of voice he'd used with Morgan.  "Canada, Barton, the Reaper.  It could take us the rest of the week to catch up."

"We might not be able to do anything else until it's out of the way," Emily agreed, nodding.  She got it.  If she helped Rossi clear the backlog of paperwork in the next day or two, they could feign administrative duties while quietly investigating Foyet.

"Emily," Rossi said, more hesitantly, and without the false innocence of his previous words.  Emily tried to remember if he called everyone by their first name.  It seemed normal to hear his voice shaping the syllables of her's and she didn't think he did that for everyone.  "Strauss wanted to debrief you about yesterday."

Shit.  Emily sighed and rolled her eyes.  She knew she'd catch shit for leaving an investigation, for going to Hotch's house on her own, for every single one of her decisions since she left Barton's house.  She knew she'd done the right thing, and she knew the inquisition would ultimate determine that she'd done the right thing, that she'd made the decisions that needed to be made, but it was going to be painful and time-consuming, and most of all, it meant she was going to have to sit across from Erin Strauss for something like two hours and defend those decisions.  "That is so going to suck," she muttered.

"I know," he said.  "That's why I told her I'd be the one doing the debriefing.  She wants me to be Acting Unit Chief, she gets to deal with me handling my agents my way."

Emily felt a wash of relief.  Telling the story to Rossi, reliving the whole thing across the table from him, would be far better than doing it with Strauss.  He might ask some hard questions, he might give her some shit for not checking with him on some things, but she knew where she stood with him, and she already knew that he agreed with her actions.

"Thank you," she said, the relief more evident in her voice than she'd intended.  She tried to rein it in.  Compartmentalize.  Block away.  In a little box with the noises from yesterday.  She cleared her throat.  "I stand by my actions.  But it's always more...comfortable to review decisions made - "

"Emily," Rossi interrupted.  The corner of his mouth turned up.  "I'm not debriefing you now."  He turned to the stack of casefiles on his desk.  "Here, if you can get started on William Hightower, I'll take Barton.  We'll probably need Reid to finish that one up, but we can set him on that tomorrow.  I'll let you know when I'm done and we'll tackle the profile on the Turners together."

"Oh, okay," Emily said, taking the proffered files.  "No problem."

"Do you think you'll be able to stay late tonight?" he asked.

"I was planning on it," she said. 

"Good," he said, giving her that little half smile.  "We've got a lot of work to do."

[teecupangel]

I don't know if you know anything about ASOIAF, but I have a crossover idea with it and AC. Post Eye, Desmond ends up in the ASOIAF world, and ends up in one of the free cities and using his skills and eagle vision to get gold and have a place to stay while learning the language - when he sees two children glowing gold with importance. The boy is normal gold - but the girl is BLINDING. Its Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, and Viserys is selling his mother's crown (the moment the last joy went out of him and he fell to madness). Desmond sees this merchant taking advantage of these two starving children by buying the crown for way less then it's worth and interrupts and gives them money and has them keep the crown, and also takes them in. Desmond now has two kids/new assassin recruits, and Vis and Dany get a parental figure who won't betray them or die to assassin's sent by Robert Baratheon, the Usurper, and teaches Dany self defence and Viaerys not to be an insane abusive asshole.

So, full disclosures, it’s been years since I last watched GoT and even longer since I read the books so I only remembered the big parts. Also, it’s in my backlog but I haven’t watched HotD as well but since this is based on Dany and Viserys’ side of the plot, we’ll probably be fine.

The thing about GoT is that its different hues of grays kind of world than what Desmond is used to. Back in his world, it was a matter of chaos versus order type of situation where either side sees the other’s negative aspects. The Assassins believe in free will and abhor the Templars’ desire to snuff it out. The Templars believe in order and believe that the Assassins’ protection of free will only leads to chaos and anarchy.

Of course, there are some Templars and Assassins who can be considered outliers to their causes.

For example: the Borgias want power and prestige and, among them, Rodrigo was the only one who tried to push for order and even he had been more interested in his delusion of being the ‘chosen one’. On the side of the Assassins, we have Abbas whose tenure as mentor had led to the Levantine Brotherhood’s downfall, being nothing more than delusional thugs.

In many ways, the ruling class of the world of ASOIAF is much more complicated but, at the same time, much more… self-centered. Desmond would have a problem with that and, in many cases, he would more inclined to answer any problem he has with something he’s used to using: death.

Now, I don’t think they actually said where Viserys sold his mother’s crown but, considering they were hiding in Braavos during that time, it is highly possible that it was in Braavos that he had to be forced to sell the crown.

The same Braavos that houses the House of Black and White, the main headquarters of the Faceless Men. Now, this guild of assassins would be curious about Desmond but Desmond would be quite reluctant to join them because they’re assassins but not his Brotherhood. There’s not really enough information for Desmond to find them trustworthy and anyone who had been interested in him had wanted something from him so Braavos is where a man running away from a guild of assassins bumps into two children simply trying to survive.

Desmond had been using his Eagle Vision frequently simply to keep an eye for the assassins sent after him (whether to kill him or not, he wasn’t sure but that mix of red and blue on each of their form wasn’t really helping his paranoia, that was for damn sure).

But no matter what face they wore, they always appeared on his Eagle Vision as a mix of red and blue. It was because of his constant usage of the Eagle Vision that he managed to see two children glowing gold.

He hadn’t been meaning to interfere, simply observe, but then he saw how that merchant had given the two children not even a fourth of what that crown was truly worth and he could not stand by anymore. But he wouldn’t make a scene. That’s not how an Assassin does things…

Usually, anyway.

So he waits until the merchant is too busy, perhaps even creating the distraction himself by paying a few people to do as he asks and, during the commotion, he nicked both the crown and the merchant’s money pouch.

Oh! And a pair of sweet-looking daggers because Desmond is a bit of a magpie and their blades were so sharp they were shining.

When he gets to the children to return their crown and give them the money pouch he had ‘liberated’ from that asshole merchant, he comes just in time to stop a clumsy assassination attempt by someone who wasn’t even employed by Robert Baratheon but had been an opportunist who thought delivering their heads to Westeros would grant him a reward.

From there on, he couldn’t in good conscience just let the two of them alone, not after he hears their predicament.

And that was the day Desmond took in two orphans, promising only to train them enough that they can defend themselves… not realizing that he had just inadvertently changed a very specific prophecy connected to Daenerys Targaryen.

Unorganized Notes:

Viserys would be quite suspicious of Desmond for a while but he would agree to his protection and tutelage simply because he had no other option.

Viserys would still grow up arrogant but it would be more to the line of Altaïr’s arrogance as he sees himself as the best of Desmond’s acolytes. His Targaryan-ness is more or less contained to being overly protective (and possessive) of Daenerys and Desmond.

Desmond is pretty much the reason why Viserys and Daenerys don’t think they need to marry one another. Desmond had Borgia flashbacks and went ‘nope, not on my watch’. Unfortunately, the side effect of this is that Viserys thinks Daenerys should marry Desmond.

Desmond just thinks that this is Viserys’ version of that ‘when I grow up, I wanna marry you, papa’ kind of thing he heard about. Yup. Absolutely just going to not think too deeply about it. At. All.

Daenerys would be more confident and outspoken, being the only person to be able to rein in her brother (although, it’s mostly by saying ‘Desmond won’t like this’). Being trained as an Assassin also makes her believe that she has no right for the Iron Throne and that Viserys is simply deluding himself into believing that he still wishes for the throne when, in reality, what he truly desires is revenge and to watch the entirety of Westeros burn.

They still make their way to Illyrio but, by the time that Illyrio sees them, Viserys and Daenerys were already around the Soldier rank in terms of skills and training, having already assassinated targets that Desmond had picked for them.

Illyrio is definitely spying for Varys and tries to get close to Desmond as he is seen as the two’s protector and ‘master’. Desmond prefers to be called mentor and he knows Illyrio has an agenda of his own.

Desmond would be against Illyrio’s proposal to wed Daenerys in exchange for an army. Viserys agrees because 1 Desmond is against it, 2 Daenerys doesn’t need anybody else but him and Desmond, and 3 they have no need for an army. They’re enough to take down Westeros on their own.

But Illyrio’s proposal is enough to fuel Viserys to finally do something about Westeros and Robert Baratheon (who is still sending assassins).

Daenerys seriously believed that Viserys plans to pull an Ezio (which can be summarized as one person destroying all his enemies on his own) and she’s right. So she follows Viserys to try and… less stop him and more to keep him from dying and helping him out.

Desmond is left chasing after his two acolytes/adopted children.

… maybe there will be dragons. Maybe not. I think the dragons would complicate things a bit but, if there are going to be dragons, one dragon for each of them. Do not let Desmond name them because he’s dumb enough to name them either “Altaïr, Ezio, Ratonhnhaké:ton (nickname Connor since only Daenerys can say Ratonhnhaké:ton without any problem but Viserys is trying) ” or “Shaun, Rebecca, Clay”.

Desmond’s influence on the two makes them believe that royalty and being a ruler are just too much trouble for their worth. Dany just wants to be an Assassin that their father could be proud of and keep her brother safe. Viserys just wants to see everything burn to the ground then he’ll do whatever Dany and Desmond want afterward.

This isn’t exactly a good plan because destroying the ruling class without any plans afterward means the usual pillage and all that bad shit being done by soldiers and bandits. Viserys doesn’t actually care that much for what happens afterward. Dany does though.

The whole ‘stallion who mounts the world’ prophecy may or may not be about Desmond now that Dany is most probably not going to get pregnant because wherever Desmond goes, he dismantles the ruling class. Viserys got his idea of destroying the ruling class of Westeros from Desmond after all.

The prophecy of ‘a song of fire and ice’ may or may not still be about the Targaryans and the Starks, which, in this case, Viserys and Dany would get to Westeros just as the Starks’ lives go from bad to oh-my-fucking-god-they-killed-Sean-Bean-AGAIN.

I think Dany and Sansa should be friends in an ‘I hate you why are you like this’ kind of way while Arya becomes the tagalong kid that annoys Viserys a lot. Viserys would be the loose cannon to the Starks’ bid for independence. Dany is the more reasonable one but she’s… well… she’s gonna side with her brother though.

I am seriously not going to push for the White Walkers setting right now. Although, Bran’s warg abilities are definitely similar to the Layla Trilogy’s ‘Eagle Sight’.

Oh. Desmond is definitely going to be called R'hllor for some reason. It’s not funny and many think it’s blasphemous, making Desmond a target of the followers of R'hllor. Desmond hates it.

[dayntee]

Think I’m gonna start posting my Veilguard thoughts. I just finished my first run yesterday, but we can start with a backlog.

Let’s talk about my Lavellan tonight. Up to Act I Veilguard spoilers below, but we’re mostly gonna talk Inquisition and Trespasser.

Aliana Lavellan is a Rogue Inquisitor who specialized in Archery -> Assassin progression. She was a hunter for her clan before the conclave, and as a natural scout, it made the most sense to send her as a spy. In all honesty, she was excited about the opportunity. If anything, it would be thrilling to have new experiences outside her otherwise insulated world.

Clearly, she got way more than she asked for.

Aliana Lavellan: Dalish hunter, Herald of Andraste, Inquisitor, and "She who will hunt down he who is dumb of ass."

Inquisition Relationships:

Solavellan romance, but started out crushing on Cullen. Solas’ smooth talking is what did it, as I played her pretty flirty with everyone. The Egg just out-rizzed her and it was over from there.

Among friends, she counted Cassandra, Cole, Varric, and of course Solas. She was also fond of/friends with all her advisors. (This largely reflects whose companion quests I actually finished to completion.)

She didn’t actively have disdain for anyone else—up until the Blackwall betrayal. This is totally hypocritical of her in the long run, but it's part of what made Solas' duplicity hurt that much more.

She was buddies, but not besties, with Sera and Dorian. I really only got about halfway through both of their companion quests, and likely would have finished them if I had had more patience for the War Table. That's not their faults; this is 100% the person behind the Veil's fault, and had I more patience, she'd likely have made fast and dedicated friends of them both.

Vivienne remained an acquaintance at best. She could not deal with the Orlesian-ness of it all (though that spa day in Trespasser was an unexpected delight, and she could get used to that).

Bull betrayed her in Trespasser, as he remained loyal to the Qun. I didn't see it coming, and neither did she. She is still genuinely devastated by this fact to this day.

Leliana was steeled; Aliana appreciates a "greater good" attitude, and was not inherently opposed to less honorable measures taken.

Cass was made Divine. This directly influenced her desire to keep the Inquisition a peacekeeping force, especially knowing she would serve directly under the Divine (whom she trusted).

Disposition:

Aliana is unequivocally Dalish and driven by an intense desire to make Thedas better for the People. However, she was never satisfied with the way clans kept to themselves and hoarded their most precious knowledge amongst Keepers and Firsts. It struck her as no better than Magister and Circle behavior.

Additionally, city elves and their differences fascinate her, because at least they interact with the world in different ways. They have exposure to other cultures, and while the alienages are unjust, there is beauty in their found communities within. This interest is one of the reasons she volunteered to spy on the Conclave—she firmly believes she needed to leave her clan if she was ever going to bring them justice and peace.

She was always eager to learn more. This playthrough was my first and I went in blind, and I’m an unapologetic Dalish fangirl. I really did want to know every bit of kernel of info Solas could offer. One could say the romance was a… pleasant side benefit.

Initially, she didn't really trust the Templars or Mages. That said, after Redcliffe, she learned more empathy for their situation, seeing the Circle's oppression of mages no different than the shem's oppression of her people.

Initially, she was a terrible leader and would be the first to admit it. She was bad at The Game, forging alliances, and she often selfishly put the Dalish first. She actually might have empathized with, if not supported, Solas' plan had he revealed it to her sooner.

She really didn't step up to being a savior of anything until Solas broke off their involvement. While not a righteous reason to do so, that's when she threw herself into making better decisions because it was a distraction. She spent the remainder of Solas' time with the Inquisition angry and living well specifically to spite him. (Yes, she's petty, lol.)

She kept her vallaslin. Despite Solas' offer and insight, she cares about what it means to be Dalish now, not just what it meant to be Elvhen then. Without it, she doesn't feel she can make Thedas better for her people. Quietly, she enjoys the discomfort her visage causes nobility when she's at events or summits. Let them stare!

The two years to Trespasser changes her for the better. She was more involved in the Inquisitions' politics, and spent a lot of time with Josie "making up for her past failures." The straw that pushed her this direction was failing Clan Lavellan. Truly, it meant what remained of the Inquisition was all she had for a clan, and she threw herself at it wholeheartedly.

Buried beneath her bitterness and anger, she still loves that stupid egg. Her feelings come from a mix of mortification at feeling so thoroughly manipulated tempered by the hope that what they actually felt was real. She dreams of his kisses and touch, even when she's at the peak of embitterment. Somehow, this is both a frustration and a comfort to her.

Leading Up to Veilguard

The eight years that pass between DAI and DAV are spent thrown at the remains of the Inquisition. She works to pare down their reach and operate in a way Leliana found most appealing—as more of an infiltration and intelligence force than a major military power.

This eventually drives a wedge between her and Cullen, who leaves earlier than he might have after the events of Trespasser, as they do not see eye to eye on most decisions anymore.

She still sends letters to Josie whenever she can, often asking for advice that she wishes she'd learned from her earlier in her role as the Inquisitor. Josie humors her, but only in exchange for the occasional visit and well-to-do events that she knows Aliana only stomachs for her sake.

She keeps regular contact with Cass, given that she now effectively reports to her station of Divine. When they can, they steal away from the stiff trappings of their roles to exchange less formal information—like which issue of the Randy Dowager is the best, or to discuss the latest romance novel they've dug up.

She goes through a bout of depression after losing her arm, as she can't hold her bow anymore, and feels utterly at a loss. Dagna eventually fits her with the prosthesis she has in Veilguard, but by then, she's become terribly rusty, and her aim is never quite the same.

This is when she turns to study, especially that of her culture, emerging information from the Dread Wolf's activities, and study of the Elvhen language. She spends time creating ciphers for Leliana's agents, and keeping her wits sharp.

It takes her at least five years, but the anger and hurt Solas inflicted eventually fades to a dullness. Instead, she pushes to better understand his motives, desires, and intents. Arguably, it becomes an obsession, rooted in the need to know whether or not anything for her lingers in his heart.

Once Varric, Harding, and Rook have the lead on Solas, she starts to have a lot more trouble concentrating on her other duties. Eventually, she has to make an agreement with Leliana to exchange Dread Wolf cell information for the information she's still able to get by playing the Inquisitor role in court.

She absolutely, 100% gave an interview to the writer of that Randy Dowager piece and even provided editorial feedback. Cassandra and Varric may or may not have also been involved. She conscripts one of Leliana's spies to drop it in the lap of one of the Dread Wolf's spies they've identified, because fucking with him at this point is all she's got.

I think this covers most of my head canons for Aliana leading into Veilguard, which leaves me prime in a place to actually be able to write some content around her. So consider this my Aliana/Inky bible, and strap in - I'm gonna write some STUFF.

[whisperingrockandroll]

WR&R MYSTERY KIDS LORE & WORLDBUILD MASTER POST

Gear up, kids, because this will be a long one.

It's been a while since I posted a new comic. Pretty soon there'll be a bunch, because I've been sitting on a mountain of scripts and just started making progress on actually making them into comics. I wanna build up a nice little backlog that I can queue up and not worry about for a long while. In the meantime though, I have something I hope will tide you guys over.

There's been a problem with my comic from the very beginning I've never really thought to address for years, and until now, I never found a good place for it. That problem is "worldbuilding." Originally when this comic started out, it was just a Psychonauts comic. Then I got into Mystery Kids, and the MKs just showed up out of nowhere.

If you're still interested, click under the cut. If you already find this post boring and kind of long, just skip it.

We never got any information on how the Mystery Kids club started or how they all met. For the longest time, I kind of just defered to the collective fandom's various disorganized headcanons and ideas and stuff. But I think enough time has passed that those ideas have all changed, been forgotten about, or branched off into their own individual works.

So, it's finally time for me to fix that by giving this comic its own set of lore and backstory. In this post I'm going to explain how everything happened, how the kids came together and what order everything happened in. This is kind of written for my own personal amusement, but also as a guide to keep in mind when I'm writing new stories in this setting, to keep things consistent.

PART ONE: THE CANON HISTORY

The first step for this little exercise is to figure out when all the stuff in the original "canon" happened. This is where things get a little messy, because we have to figure out a proper order for everything so all the pieces can fit into place.

First, we have to come up with a system for naming the different eras and phases where things happen, so we can more easily compartmentalize the different events. So we'll call the first year the Mystery Kids are together "Year One." Anything before that we'll call Year -1 or -2.

Year -2 is where we'll put the events of Paranorman. They happen in Fall, around Halloween probably. Nearly the end of the year. It's important to set this part the furthest back for reasons we'll get into later.

Year -1 is where we'll put Coraline and Psychonauts. Dipper and Mabel are still in Pidemont. There are a few references in the comic to Raz still having a water problem due to "the curse." But in PN2 he conquers the curse. We'll chock that up to lingering after-effects and him trying to get past the mental block.

Near the end of Year -1, Aggie returns and reunites with Norman in events identical to how they played out in Ask-Norgatha. A lot of things that happen are very similar to that old blog, with the exception being Norman and Aggie don't get together. That comes later.

Year 1 is when Gravity Falls happens. Coraline and Norman are family friends (or cousins? I haven't decided, maybe not. Maybe 'honoary cousins'?) Anyway, so: things play out pretty much how they did in that fan episode people made. Doctor Loboto (during a villainous relapse, or a manic episode) comes to Gravity Falls, Raz and Lili chase after him, Coraline and Wybie come with Norman's family on a vacation to Gravity Falls. Aggie stays behind because Norman doesn't want her to get lost. At this point, her Poltergeist powers haven't kicked in yet and other people can't see her, meaning she'd have no way to get home.

So, during Loboto's shennanigans, the kids all come together to stop him. That's when we move into…

PART TWO: THE FANON HISTORY

Note: in this period, my comic has a lot of Holiday specials. We're operating on Peanuts rules here, where the time-scaling slides around to keep the characters from aging. But we'll say in the "real" canon, the stuff that happens on Holidays actually happen on regular days, for the most part. If things "have to" happen on a Holiday, they'll all happen on the same one, just at different times. We'll try not to think too hard about this, because it's just a cartoon. We're out to make a consistent world, but not to arbitrarily restrict ourselves. None of this stuff happened in the "real" world anyway.

Anyway, moving right along to the rest of "Year 1." This is for the comics I made while the show was still airing, so things all kind of click together.

This is where the first Mystery Kids Adventure happens. The kids are all united and save the day. All of this happens right in the middle of the events of Gravity Falls. From then on out, the kids have adventures together on and off, but its a little hard because they have to travel a pretty great distance to hang out together. They keep in touch on social media and stuff, occasionally finding ways to fake excuses to go out and travel together. But mostly, the group is pretty disorganized.

Dib is also a mindless fanboy of the group and wants to join, but everybody thinks he's weird and annoying, so they try their best to politely blow him off. Then he builds a teleporter that lets the kids get together easier, but the thing just barely works. Dib is made a "junior member" and just sort of hangs around.

The kids have a "clubhouse", but it's just a shanty shack built by Soos, half a mile away from the Mystery Shack.

At some point during this period, the Bedlam returns and the kids have to team up to stop her. Aggie helps somehow with her newly-emerging poltergiest powers. The Bedlam is defeated, and that's the last "real" adventure they have for a little while. They don't have a reliable way to meet up anymore, so they only get together for parties and stuff. This is where the Season 3 Finale happens, if you've read my archives.

PART THREE: THE CURRENT SITUATION

From Season 4 and onwards, everything that happens to the Mystery Kids happens in Year 2. That's where we are now.

It starts with Dib on one of his own little adventures. Somehow, he ends up stumbling on an abandoned treehouse that used to belong to the Kids Next Door. It hasn't been populated in years, but its full of still-functional tech that just got left behind. With it, Dib's able to power-up the teleporter technology and now the Mystery Kids can come together whenever they want. You need to stand perfectly still for like five minutes for the teleporter to work, so it isn't a "get out of danger free" plot device.

Seems like a REALLY important development to happen offscreen and go totally unmentioned, right? Well… I thought of it retroactively, so, whoops! But it's fine. We'll just have to make a flashback comic later where the kids find it.

So, from now on, everything that happens in the comic happens here, in Year 2.

If you've read this far, I'd like to thank you for humoring my nonsensical fanfiction ramblings for my silly mspaint webcomic. I hope you had fun and got as much out of that as I did. I'm really happy I was finally able to put it all together in one coherent place.

[flfverse]

i love promising things and not following up. it’s awesome. superrrrr cool. anyway, little life/fic update for you all. it’s 4am, please bear with me.

i wanted to wait to do this until i had more work done so i could drop snippets and have an actual date for the hiatus to end, but you know.

to be honest, the brain? is not great. where’s the halloween meme. mental is hocus. health not pocus. etc etc. and the thing is i have a support system of sorts, therapy, all that good stuff. i also have, like, four or five mental illnesses. and because of the logistics of College, none of my support system is actually physically nearby most of the time. so. that kinda sucks. <3 i miss people. horrified to discover i might actually be an extrovert and just anxious.

but you know, ups and downs. this week, or at least this weekend, we’re on an up, which is good. the shitty part is, this time last year i coped by writing so, so much fanfiction. truly, look at my ao3 september-december 2022. wild.

and i just. can’t really write these days, for whatever reason. not easily. and it sucks! because i love this story! i want to tell it so bad! but the initial hyperfixation has worn off and my motivation to do anything at all is a bit….how do you say….nonexistent. so like. halfhearted cheers. sorry.

the best timeline i can give right now is this: i have a fandom trumps hate auction due december 31st. it’s about half done. that is obvs first priority (after silly things like school and work) because there are actual material consequences if i don’t finish. i am also launching something original in january, if i can get myself together enough to do so. i think i will. i’m mostly ready (and hey, my main is in my pinned if queer fantasy pirates sounds up your alley?).

and also, there’s FLFverse. i would really like to get back to posting before the year is up, but :/ not sure. definitely want to by january. i’m not sure if i’ll be able to keep up with two chapters a month or if i’ll have to drop to one or something even more sporadic than that.

hey, be honest, would you rather wait longer for me to build a backlog for regular updates, or get the ball rolling sooner but with no schedule?

we have a poll now i guess. it’s seriously 4am and i’m about to go back to making paper mache bones on the floor, mkay. don’t ask me to be normal.

so anyway. that’s the update. i wish it was more positive. if you made it all the way to the end and want to toss an ask, a little prompt, a question, whatever, that would be very cool. i think i have a chill week coming up and i miss this ‘verse a ton, wouldn’t mind some dopamine.

[thereallivingded]

8 months

Nearly 8 months have passed since I blogged. Damn.

I apologize profusely if anyone was interested in my ramblings. I have zero excuses other than life got hard. Full time job. Which I hated profusely - not that I'm not going to be working full time again soon - tends to bring on crushing depression when I feel stuck in it. Which I did, and I was. When you are paid bi-weekly and you see that entire paycheck go to your cost of living.. well. It doesn't do good things to your psyche. Energy levels get low and all that extra you had energy for before gets used up with day to day survival. Getting out of bed. Getting to work. Feeding yourself. Cleaning your house. Squeezing in workout (a thing I do now).

It's not all bad I suppose. I've finally been able to interview for and obtain a position that will not only net me a raise but be closer to home. Hopefully, that should get me more free time to pursue the things I actually enjoy.

I'd like to say that in this time I've been able to tackle my backlog of Steam games. But. Well. BG3 happened. And I spent even more time in the game than I had in early access. It's maddening how much time I've sunk into Faerun. I have no regrets though.

The only thing really that's kept me from finishing my campaign - as I am in Act 3 - is my computer. I haven't upgraded the beast since 2020 or 2021-ish. And it's starting to show. My mobo is acting extraordinarily peculiar. Sometimes I'll walk away from my computer to come back a couple hours later and find it stuck in bios. Super fun. The connection to the mobo gets wiggled a little and everything pops back on. Super. However, anything heavy to run - like BG3 - tends to get very crash-y.

Again. Super.

T.T

AND. Due to my financial constraints because of the job I recently left, I was completely unable to fix this. I'm hoping with the advent of the new job, getting a few paychecks in to stabilize, I can rectify the problems. Hopefully.

I started a couple of fanfics for the first time ever. I am ridiculously shy about them. My writing skills have become so sodding rusty. The stories came to me while I was playing BG3 and I was compelled to write them down. Note now, that the frequency of updates directly reflects the time I have to invest in them. So keep that in mind.

Be gentle on me here lol!

I have been able to get some gaming done. I have ceased playing Back 4 Blood, as it became no longer supported by its dev team. A sad move really. The gaming industry as a whole has become this parasitic beast. Devs work on a game for an extremely limited amount of time and abandon it the moment it becomes less lucrative than their board of directors care for.

There is a trend towards monetization of minutiae and online play in inappropriate genres, that has become an insidious infection in the game industry. It robs us of good game development. There's this mentality of more, more, now that's just slow poison to the whole beast. It makes everything very same-y and boring.

Which is why I strive at this point in my life, to not give money to the companies which I feel are most guilty of this. The only way to make these corporations listen is to hit them in the $. As such I will probably be carefully curating any games I discuss or mention on this blog from here on. My next post will likely be discussing a visual novel I've spent some time in that I equal parts enjoyed and became frustrated with. So that's in the pipeline. Until then keep to the lights lovies. <3

[steppingstonesuniverseguide]

One More Step Out of the Pit: Chapter 13/26

Summary: It had been Tommy and Tubbo for practically forever. They clawed their way out of hell together. They discovered their superpowers together. They started working for the Superhero Guild together before even coming of age. Tommy probably owed Tubbo his life ten times over. So, when the three supervillains he'd been assigned to bring in managed to take Tubbo hostage, well, there was really only one thing to do.

He knew, of course, he was signing himself up for torture and death by offering that trade, but that was okay.

It'd have to be okay.

AO3 Link (See AO3 for Warnings.)

(This story is finished and has been posted on AO3 for a while, but I'm posting it on Tumblr so it's somewhere else too (considering the day AO3 was down a bit ago). The author notes will all be kept as well. If you are following the blog and don't want to see these posts, block the tag #backlog.)

“Technoblade,” a voice called, causing Techno to jerk awake from a deep sleep. His eyes landed on the figure hovering at the end of his bed. “Technoblade, hello,” he said, waving when he saw Techno was awake.

“Ugh. Do you have to watch me sleep?” Techno asked.

“I’m not watching you sleep,” Ghostbur said. “I’m waking you up.”

Techno sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Why?” he asked tiredly.

“You need to watch Tommy,” Ghostbur told him.

“Wilbur was going to watch Tommy,” Techno said with a stifled yawn.

“Yeah,” Ghostbur said, “but then he fell asleep.”

“So?” Techno asked. “You watch him then.”

“I can’t,” Ghostbur said with a frown. “I need to go do something.”

“Schlatt can wait one night. I’m sure he won’t fall back into alcoholism and make a deal with the devil that fast.”

“I’m not going to go see Schlatt.”

“Then what?” Techno asked. “All you do is talk to Schlatt and stare at me or Phil while we sleep.”

“Tommy asked me to check on his Tubbo?”

“…His what-o?” Technoblade asked.

“His Tubbo,” Ghostbur said, as though repeating the word clarified anything. Techno gave him a blank look and he started his ‘bouncing’ which was really just him hovering higher and then lower in a rhythm. “His friend! They’re really quite close, you know. Tommy’s worried he might be sad.”

“Tubbo,” Techno repeated. He was not quite awake enough for this conversation. Or for Ghostbur in general. “Tubbo is… the hero we kidnapped?” he guessed.

“Uh huh. I promised Tommy I’d check on him!”

Now, Technoblade’s brain was still in the process of waking up, but something in what Ghostbur had just said struck Techno as odd. “You know his friend’s name is Tubbo,” Techno said slowly. “And you somehow know where this Tubbo is to check on him.”

Ghostbur must have realized his mistake because the bouncing stopped abruptly until he was almost sitting on the bed and his glowing eyes went wide.

“Ghostbur,” Techno said patiently. “Have you been keeping secrets?”

“W-well you have to understand Technoblade,” he started to babble. “It really is Awakebur’s fault. He can be quite stubborn you know and kind of mean, and well, I did follow Tommy home from HQ the first time because Awakebur wanted to know more about him, but you see Techno he was really sad. And he is quite little, just a baby really. Did you know he’s only 16? And actually 16, 16 not like me or you at 16. Far too young to be doing hero work. I don’t know what they were thinking. And he lives in a little dirty apartment and doesn’t eat nearly enough. He and his Tubbo leave notes around for each other because the heroes were mean and don’t let them work at the same times, so they barely see each other and Tommy gets the bed all dirty because he’s always too tired to shower when he gets home, but Tubbo never says anything because he knows Dream is far too hard on him. And, and Alivebur would be mean, because he decided he doesn’t like him very much. You know how people who are alive can be oh so testy about things. It’s really silly, you know. So, I decided to forget about those things when I’m awake. He is tiny Technoblade.”

“…Will” Techno sighed, pinching his brow.

“And, and, you living people are so vulnerable when you’re sleeping. He’s awake right now, but what if he falls asleep and he’s alone. He can’t be alone. He’s too little. You have to watch him Technoblade. Please?”

Techno could tell Ghostbur was not in the mood to listen to reason. Even if Tommy was 16, that was definitely not too ‘little’ to sleep alone, especially when locked in a secure underground facility no one knew the location of. The ghost clearly did not see it that way, but to be fair, he had a hard time letting Phil sleep alone some nights. “Ugh, fine,” Techno groaned, resigning himself to his exhaustion. He reached over to flip on his lamp.

“Oh, thank you Technoblade!” Ghostbur cooed. “You are such a good little brother.”

Techno’s head whipped around to face him. “Don’t start that shit. We are not related! I have lived longer than you.” Probably. Ghostbur just gave him a mischievous smile. “You’re lucky I can’t smother you with a pillow again,” he grumbled.

Ghostbur just chuckled, sounding for a moment more like he did when he was awake. “Go babysit,” he requested as he faded out of sight.

“You stained my sheets blue!” Techno realized when he vanished. “Why do I even bother trying to have pink ones?”

After pulling on a green hoodie that was actually Phil’s and deciding contacts were definitely not worth it at this time of night and thus forgoing the mask in favor of glasses, Techno took the steps downstairs, grumbling all the way.

Tommy looked up from his place on the bed when Techno shoved open the door to the cell, seeming surprised. Techno had to pause at the sight of him. Ghostbur had apparently gone wild because blue stained his nose and forehead as well as his bedsheets. Apparently Ghostbur had taken it upon himself to decide the Will-please-not-the-face rule was not in place for Tommy because there was clear intent behind the kiss shaped mark above his eye. He might as well have written the word ‘mine’ across his forehead in permanent marker. Fucking, possessive bastard. That wouldn’t be coming off for days.

“What are you doing here?” the kid asked.

“Ghostbur said you were awake and that I should keep you company.”

“I don’t need company,” he grumbled.

“Too bad,” Techno said airily. He eyed Wilbur’s slumped over form leaning against the bed. Idiot. He’d complain all day if he woke with a kink in his neck from sleeping like that. With a shake of the head, Techno turned to the large pile of pillows and blankets Phil had panic gathered in fear Tommy might be cold and began spreading them all out in one corner of the room. He kicked the pile around until it looked comfortable enough and then walked over to where Wilbur sat. He carefully scooted the chair back from the bed, catching his body as it tried to fall forward. He made a confused sound in his sleep. “Hush you, it’s just me,” Techno told him. “Stay asleep.” He carefully slipped one arm under his knees and the other under his shoulder blades. Despite the bit of jostling maneuvering him so he was clutched to Techno’s chest caused, he headed Techno’s order to continue sleeping. He carried him over to the corner and laid him out on the pile of blankets, tossing one over him.

Tommy was staring at him when he turned back. Techno waited for whatever thing he wanted to say, but nothing came.

“What?” he finally asked, tired of the unplanned staring contest.

“You forgot your mask.”

“Didn’t forget,” Techno said. “Didn’t want to put my contacts in.”

“Don’t you have, like, a secret identity?”

Techno shrugged, unconcerned. He honestly wore the mask more for the aesthetic and Phil didn’t even wear one. The only one who really wandered around the city and could possibly be recognized was Will and that cat was out of the bag thanks to a certain ghost. The kid started gnawing on his lip again. “Stop that you’re going to bleed,” Techno scolded.

“Fuck you, I do what I want.”

“You want to bleed?”

“Is that a threat?” Tommy asked, bristling defensively to Techno’s confusion. “‘Cause I’m pretty sure Philza said you can’t hurt me right now, and he might be your dad or whatever, but you still shouldn’t piss him off.”

“It’s not a threat,” Techno told him, resisting rolling his eyes. “I’m not planning to hurt you. I was commenting on you hurting yourself.” The words seemed to sooth him a bit. “Also, Philza’s my friend, not my dad.”

Tommy tilted his head. “Ghostbur said Phil adopted you when you were six.” Fucking Ghostbur.

“Legally,” Techno said, “but we’re actually just friends.”

“You were six.”

“It’s complicated,” Techno said. “What else did he tell you?”

“Not much…” Tommy said. “Just stuff about how being a ghost works… and his name… and your name.”

“Of course.”

“Your supervillain names all suck, by the way,” Tommy informed him. “Having your name in the supervillain name doesn’t make sense. It’s supposed to be a secret identity. What is SBI all of your middle initials?”

“God, I wish.”

“What is it then?”

Techno looked at him. “No.”

“Aw, but what does it matter?”

“No.”

Tommy pushed his lower lip out. Techno stared at him, unimpressed. “…You look weird without the mask,” Tommy said.

“Mmm,” Techno replied, unconcerned. He walked back over to the bed.

“Seriously, no one’d be scared of you if they knew you looked like that under the mask.”

“Oh, trust me,” Techno said. “They would be.” Without warning, he flopped himself face first onto the free side of the double bed, ignoring how his glasses poked his face.

“Hey!” the kid said, sounding surprised. “This is my bed.”

“Ghostbur woke me up in the middle of a sleep cycle at, like, 2am,” he said into the pillow. “Shush.”

“Aren’t you, like, afraid I’ll murder you in your sleep and escape?”

“I’m not falling asleep,” Techno said, his eyes closed, “and no, not particularly.”

“I’m dangerous!”

“Mmm.”

“Bitch.” Techno felt him shuffle around a bit on the bed. He hissed when the movement jostled his injury and Techno opened his eyes and turned his head to look at him. “Your hair’s weird.” Techno was starting to think ‘blank is weird’ was just the way Tommy demanded attention.

“Okay.”

There was a pause. “It looks cool though when it’s all braided and you’re wearing the skull mask.”

“Thanks.”

“Why do you wear it so long though?” Tommy asked. Techno wasn’t getting out of conversation, was he? “I mean, it’s awesome and all, but your main thing is close combat.”

“Used to wear it short,” Techno admitted. “People used to shave it. Then, I’d cut it short with a knife so it wouldn’t get tangled. Phil taught me how to care for it a bit after I met him. I started to like it long when I knew how to take care of it, so now I just let it grow.”

“Well, it’s very pog man.”

Techno rolled his eyes. “Thanks,” he said again.

“Is it naturally pink?” he asked.

Techno snorted at the question. “No,” he said.

“Well, I don’t know,” Tommy said, affronted by his amusement. “Sometimes people with powers end up with weird shit like wings!” Which… was fair enough.

“It’s white naturally,” he said. “Not sure if it was when I was born or if it happened later. I’m due for a dye, see?” He tapped at his roots which he’d noticed the morning before were starting to peak through white.

Tommy leaned over to look, careful to keep his hand on his own pillow.

Techno sighed. “You can touch it.”

“Huh?” Tommy asked.

“My hair,” Techno said. “You can touch it.”

“Really?” he asked.

“It’s basically Wilbur and Phil’s favorite pastime, so it’s not like I’m not used to it.”

With the permission, he reached out a cautious hand to touch a few of the strands on the pillow, his head cocked in curiosity. “Wow,” he said, “how the hell do you get it like this?”

“Lots of time and lots of product.”

He grew a bit bolder, though he did not take near the amount of liberties Wilbur often did. He just basically pet it against the pillow so Techno could just barely feel it. His distraction gave Techno a chance to really look at him. He did look quite young especially now. Ghostbur had said he was 16 even though that made no sense. What was the Hero Guild doing if that was the case?

Sixteen, Techno contemplated. That was young, wasn’t it? Did Techno even know what it was like to be 16? He’d been 16 once, twice, and never.

Sixteen was a home made out of an old, abandoned train car and Phil always bringing back something extra when he went out for supplies, sometimes these things were functional, but often they were not, and he really did not understand. It was a white stuffed bear Techno never understood the significance of until an 8-year-old handed a much newer version of it to him years later saying he could have it. It was being on the verge of trusting after almost a year and a half, but not quite there yet.

Sixteen was also Will’s eighteenth birthday and Techno pinning him to the ground of the living room in the house upstairs, because he wouldn’t stop mocking Techno for still being a child when he was an adult even though Techno had been an adult first. It was Phil ignoring them to cut ice cream cake in the kitchen trusting Techno wouldn’t actually cut off his son’s oxygen with the pillow he’d placed over his head.

Sixteen was lost like water slipping through a drain never to be recovered. It was lost in blood and death: his own, his own, his own, until he managed to make it someone else’s. How could he possibly know when he’d existed for 16 years when for every stumbling two steps forward, he took one back? Did it pass in the blood-soaked arena or on the cold street or in a prison cell? There was no way to ever know.

What was sixteen for this boy? Techno had to wonder. He worried silently that with the gash on his stomach and the pallor to his cheeks, it might linger somewhere closer to the first or third than Techno was comfortable with.

“Why are you looking at me all funny?” Tommy asked.

“How am I looking at you?”

“Funny,” Tommy answered.

Techno rolled his eyes. “Helpful.” Tommy kicked him and Techno narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you want to sleep?” he asked.

“I apparently have had too much caffeine, so sleep is not an option right now.”

“Fantastic,” Techno said, shoving his face back into the pillow.

Tommy gave him about two seconds of silence. “Do you have a superpower?” he asked.

Techno sighed. “Yes.”

“I’ve never seen you use one,” Tommy said, “and we’ve fought a lot of times.”

Techno took his head off the pillow. “It’s not one I use often anymore.”

“Why not?” Tommy asked with a frown.

Techno turned to face him. “If you’d ever given me cause to use it, you wouldn’t be alive.”

He must have accidently done something with his voice because Tommy’s already pretty pale face went a bit paler.

Techno tilted his head. “It wasn’t a threat,” he said. “Just a fact.”

“I could kill you right now if I decided I wanted you dead isn’t a threat?” Tommy asked.

“No because I don’t have a reason to want you dead.”

“You don’t?” Tommy asked, seeming genuinely surprised.

Techno squinted at him. “Kid, what exactly do you think is going on here?”

The kid started biting his damned lip again, his hand clenching his pillow, but he didn’t say anything.

“You are aware we aren’t planning to kill you, aren’t you?” He just stared at Techno. “Shit kid, we’re not going to just murder some unarmed child in our basement. You’ll be ransomed back to the Guild eventually.” Well… at least, that had been the plan, he thought, looking at the blue marks adorning his face.

“But I’m your enemy,” he said with a frown.

“Being a general nuisance and kicking Wilbur in the face a couple of times isn’t quite enough for us to want your head on a spike.”

Tommy was looking at him all confused. Shit. How had Phil explained the fact that most people actually didn’t want to murder people indiscriminately? Technoblade was not equipped for this. Uh…

“Is that…” Tommy interrupted his thoughts.

“What?” Techno prompted when it was clear he wasn’t going to continue his sentence.

“Why didn’t you kill me that one time?” he asked quietly.

“When?” Techno asked.

“You know,” he said. “That one time I found you in the alley. We fought and you had me at sword point. I thought you were going to slit my throat then, but you just walked away. We were alone and I’d attacked you. I always wondered why you didn’t.”

“I thought that’d be obvious,” Technoblade said, but Tommy just frowned. “Did you forget the rest of that fight?” he asked. “You thought you’d snuck up on me and I didn’t notice until it was too late. You’d grabbed my sword and held me at sword point on the ground. You’d thought you’d won.”

“Yeah, but I hadn’t,” he grumbled.

“You hadn’t,” Techno agreed. “In fact, you didn’t even really find me. I lured you there on purpose.”

“Why?”

“It was a test. We’d fought a few times and I wanted to see if you were a threat.” He shrugged. “You weren’t.”

Tommy looked unhappy with that statement.

“It’s not an insult,” Techno said.

“It sure fucking sounds like one,” Tommy replied.

“It’s not,” Techno said. “It’s a compliment really. The first person I ever registered as not a threat was Phil and he’d actually just beaten me in combat. It has nothing to do with skill, though yes, obviously I could beat you in hand to hand considering I wrestled the sword away from you after.”

“I don’t get it.”

Techno hummed. “You asked me why I didn’t slit your throat. Well, why didn’t you slit mine?”

“Well… because I’m a hero,” Tommy said, “and I’d already won or thought I did, so I should just call it in to the Guild. That’s what I’m supposed to do.”

Techno snorted. “Funny joke kid. Most heroes would love to put a sword though my chest,” not that it would end, had ended, well for them, “especially with no one watching.”

“So, you didn’t kill me then because I didn’t try to kill you?”

“I give people back what they give to me,” Techno said. “It’s why Phil has my loyalty, why Wilbur has my protection, why many people are dead and buried, and it’s why you don’t need to fear dying at my hand.”

“Oh,” Tommy said. “That’s nice of you.” Like he’d just offered to give him a ride home on a rainy day. Like it was a favor he didn’t expect.

This kid was fucked up.

They were silent for a while and then Techno sat up with a sigh. He fished his phone out of the hoodie pocket. “Well, neither of us are sleeping. What types of movies do kids watch these days?”

Tommy blinked at him. “I don’t watch movies.”

“Right.” He fiddled with his phone for a bit and then handed it to Tommy. “I locked you out of everything but Netflix, so don’t even try it,” he said.

Tommy spent about 30 minutes just scrolling through Netflix, reading the titles, before he selected a horror movie seemingly at random.

He proceeded to refuse to back out for the entire 2 hours of the movie’s runtime despite the fact that he was clearly not built for horror movies. Hmm… maybe the R rating did mean something; he was only 16 after all. He ended up curling into a ball the best he could with a cow stuffed animal clutched to his chest and jumped at everything that happened on screen. Ah, so that’s what the stuffed animals in Wilbur’s room were about.

Techno tried not to laugh at the jumpy boy. He really did.

“Dickhead,” Tommy spat when the movie ended. “Stop laughing at me.”

“We could have backed out at any time.”

“No! I’m a man! A big man.”

“Sure, Tommy. Next time you’re watching a G rated movie. Animated animals only.”

“I do not like you.”

“Is that why you’re trying to cuddle me for comfort?”

“I am not. Shut up.” He pressed his forehead into Techno’s shoulder. “When is Ghostbur getting back? I like him better.”

“We could wake up Will.”

“No. Ew.”

Techno chuckled and Tommy sat up, still holding the cow stuffed animal.

“Hey, Technoblade,” he said, looking over at Wilbur’s sleeping form in the corner. “Do you have any shaving cream?”

Techno blinked at him. “What? Why?”

Tommy shrugged, his eyes cutting to Techno and then back to Wilbur and then back to Techno.

Oh, Techno thought. “You know what?” I have a better idea.”

“Technoblade, I’m going to be rather cross with you,” Ghostbur warned from the bed. He’d returned while Technoblade was sneaking up to the kitchen. He didn’t know what they’d discussed while he’d been gone, but it was likely about Tommy’s friend.

Despite his words of warning, Ghostbur didn’t move to stop Techno, likely because Tommy was full on giggling over his small bowl of chocolate ice cream topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

Technoblade shrugged. “Meh. Worth it.”

Author Note:

Ghostbur: Ah, but you see Technoblade. He is baby.

Techno: *rolls eyes*

**1 hour later**

Techno: Oh no. He is baby.

(This conversation was illustrated and you can find it here!)

[the-fiction-witch]

1. How are you able to post several stories literally everyday?! Like how can you create that often without writers block.

2. How do you have time to write so often?!

❤️

Hi! Such a lovely couple of questions!

I post one fic a day on here and I try to keep the same on my Wattpad and AO3 as well but sometimes they get a little more or a little less cause they are mostly just the longer series now. In terms of how I am able to keep up with this schedule, I actually write usually about 2/3 fics a day sometimes more, sometimes less, some days I don't write anything but what I then do is schedule them. So I will have a week where I write maybe two fics a day for seven days and then I have 14 fics which I then schedule for the next fourteen days. The schedule does get moved and changed sometimes but that's how I end up with this kinda huge backlog of fics that allows me to take my time.

My current schedule is unironicly I have a fic a day planned up until I think mid October.

When it comes to writer's block, I do struggle with it sometimes, personally I find because I write for so many characters and universes it's very easy to kinda hop from one to the other. So if I'm having writer's block on what to write for Ageon (HOTD) for example I might just kinda hop over and do some Jack (TAD) or maybe go do some Jerome (HOA) so I'll just kinda run through characters till my brain wants to work. And if all else fails... I go play stardew for a while, or sims, or BOTW, they always seem to make my brain work again.

How I have the time, well put very simply this is my job. I don't go to school, and this is my job. I make my living from commissions on my Etsy and I am planning to expand into physical character letters and I have been tempted to work on character candles and resin items which are already hobbies of mine. But yeah I have the time cause this is literally my job.

Thank you so much for your questions hope you have a lovely day!

[amusedunderclock]

Backlog: Talking About Movies - Sonic The Hedgehog (2020)

Originally I posted this somewhere else Dec 2022, but I'm trying to consolidate right now.

Okay. Sonic The Hedgehog 2020. Never particularly heard spoilers regarding this movie. Only heard the criticism that it’s really a kids movie and people don’t really find that aspect appealing.

I…agree. But oh well.

I don’t want to keep getting into that argument about kid media and nuance since people aren’t dumb and heard these arguments already for years. Some people agree we shouldn't dumb shit down for kids, others disagree. I lean towards the former. Either way, the first Sonic movie isn’t utterly braindead like some other recent kid media. Still, I just feel it’s lacking.

The issue is that on some level, the movie doesn’t wanna get bogged down in explanations. Same time, you usually repeat info to varying characters because people have different reactions to things, But this movie doesn’t have that and just wants to get to the next scene quickly.

Uh…..hard to make a long discussion about this one…what is there to say? The movie’s 90 minutes long and because of that, it’s inoffensive. Do I think that’s what people wanted out of a Sonic movie? Probably not. But it does decent things.

Idk, it’s a movie that is clearly aware of what other movies do. And has human characters that just go with the flow.

Chainsaw dude wasn’t funny. Don’t think I laughed at anything in the movie. Shame because I liked Jim Carrey in the past.

Sonic comes back to life because "friendship". Or maybe they were going for a “Video game character is revived/upgraded after completing all goals” thing. Either way, it was weird.

The final thing I could comment on is the visuals. Except for maybe the beginning, they're fine. Most likely came at the cost of crunch, and I don't feel that should be ignored. But I don't believe anyone's come forward with such claims so can't really say much until then. People want to constantly make it clear that the decision makers behind these movies thought that original Sonic design was perfectly acceptable and not some ploy to farm outrage. All I can really say is that either way, we give rich people too much power.

I think an issue is that usually in something like this, the evil villain would actually catch the hero, have some dialogue in his lair. And this movie just doesn't have that. Eggman doesn't even know what the rings ARE, I think. He's just chasing and not speculating.

Speaking of speculation, the only thing I had when the movie was announced was "They'll call him Robotnik, and he will turn into Eggman over the course of the movie." A pretty easy prediction so I'm not patting myself on the back over this basic shit.

In this 2024 update, I do wanna note that while by itself the movie is inoffensive, the Sonic Community is always in such a flux that the more kiddie aspects of this feel like a stain on the movie franchise and perhaps the seriousness of Sonic as a whole. But I'm not a part of the Sonic Community and it simply doesn't affect my opinion on these 2 movies. The issues with the state of Sonic are not rooted in a couple non canon movies.

I think it's easier to just answer a question.

"Would I watch it again?"

The answer is, I don't have much of an issue doing that. It's only 90 minutes. But I just feel if they took more time elaborating on stuff, make it even 110 minutes, I'd be more eager to rewatch.

I said most of these statements and then sometime later that week, watched Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022). While I get the feel of what the creatives were going for with these two movies, I also feel that Sonic 2 doesn't really make Sonic 1 all THAT more interesting. It is what it is though.

[honking-up-a-storm]

The other week I posted the backlogs of my work diary entries and I caught myself insinuating that the security guard who was creeping on me could have been a potential predator given he assumed I was 17. And it's like I know what people might think like "Oh don't flatter yourself, no one thinks that" but I'm in a work environment where people keep asking me what grade I am in high school on the daily so I legitimately don't know what I look like to people. All I know is I really don't like how it came off like he was somehow "restraining himself" until he found out I'm 22.

However, I know it's an awful thing to insinuate on anyone. I used to have this awful paranoia after having a legitimate one come after my friends. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, thankfully I didn't as the person I pointed a finger at was a complete stranger during a private conversation so they'll never know, but like that's actually harmful and a miserable way to see the world. I used to be really into true crime, dateline, that never gave me the balls to actually deal with anything, just the gall and audacity to point fingers at innocent people for having "red flags" (so yhea doing much better now that's been cut off cold turkey). Though I did yell at the actual mother fucker once behind the safety of an alt account, so still no real balls.

No matter what he thought my age was, his behavior was wrong and made me feel legitimately unsafe. Since people give me tips and sometimes nurses give me snacks, I didn't think anything of it when he brought me food too. I didn't realize he was trying to build trust. He knows he's in the wrong too since it's been two weeks now and he has not even come close to my area. He had me believing that it was part of his job to just walk by and see how things were. The closest he's been since is the parking lot across the helipad, which is a good distance. I can not express how much this dude was in my personal space. He was actively cornering me between my podium and the wall, looking down at me like a fucking meal. Not to mention he definitely knew it was wrong bc he was spouting some shit about some old guy in the ER making girls feel uncomfortable; kinda all like "Oh good thing I'm not like that right?" Even though he goes and does the same exact thing to me. I don't get it I really don't get it.

So anyways ACAB, fuck all cops because they're all awful people, especially in work environments. Dude's really fucking dumb too like I don't know how anything I said could've been interpreted as anything other than "I'm tolerating your presence because I have told you directly I don't like bootlickers, I don't think it's 'badass' to be a cop ready to hurt people."

[ajthinks]

Royal Road in Review

Ok, I've definitely learned some things during this month of posting Dungeons of Danrya to Royal Road.

Rapid posting gets your fiction seen by more eyes. This is kinda obvious.

Community engagement raises the rating on your fiction, which increases how many people see your fiction. Again, sorta obvious.

Review swaps are somewhat essential if you don't have a reader-base to pull from elsewhere.

Ok... 2 and 3 kinda go together. The more you hang out in a community, the more people will poke around your profile and see what you write. You can talk to people who read and write similar things and get some good readers that way. Obvious. But the biggest boost to Dungeons of Danrya ranking has been reviews.

And the quickest way to get reviews is to swap reviews: I review your fiction, you review mine. I've stuck to honest reviews so far, because I'm nice enough as is to sugarcoat shit. I don't want to promise 5 stars and then end up hating the story or characters or grammar. If I rave about your story it'll be because I actually love it and nothing less.

The good news is most people take the little niggling things you write in reviews and try to figure out what they can change to make it better. You can chat with other writers about how you write vs how they write, what works for their story and what doesn't, what's a personal taste and what's off. Which is really cool! It shows a willingness to learn and grow as writers, which makes for a healthier community overall (imho).

But (and you might have seen this twist coming a mile away) some people don't like when you give them less than 5 stars or mention the less-than-stellar qualities of their writing. And then they review your fiction and bomb it to high hell. Hmm, yes, very mature. It wouldn't bother me so much if such reviews actually had any usable criticism or the reviewer was open to clarifying what didn't work for them.

So, Royal Road's ranking & review swappery isn't a perfect system by any means, but it works decently well for what it needs to do, which is raise the likelihood that readers will find your fiction on Royal Road.

As far as community engagement goes, it's definitely not enough to throw up your story and sit back. Humans are social creatures. So you kinda have to do the social thing. But the RR forums are pretty chill, safe places to find readers and fellow writers. I found some new favorite stories knocking about too.

There's also the official RR discord server. I'll admit, I'm not as active on there as I probably should be. But at this point I have my favorite writing discords that I spend a lot more of my social time on. And they're specifically 18+, so I don't feel weird about others complaining about their teachers when I myself teach for a living. ^^; YMMV

Now, let's get into something more enjoyable: statistics!

This is the rating for Dungeons of Danrya, from first published chapter to present day. It's done pretty well so far, aside from a brief dip down.

And this is the current standing: ranking, rating, follower count, etc. I'm not gonna lie, I found it stupidly easy to obsess over this line this entire past month. Lesson learned, now I only let myself look on the weekends.

So, in summary, what have I learned that could be potentially passed on to some newbie just starting out on Royal Road?

Don't start posting until you have a backlog.

And when you do have a backlog, don't post it all at once. One chapter a day seems to be the ideal, but only if your backlog's big enough.

Keep up with your backlog. You want to aim for consistency more than anything else, which means you need to keep writing. For me, Arc 1 is complete, so I'm good there, but I'm actively working on Arc 2.

Engage with the community: Ask questions at the end of chapters for readers to answer and add interactive polls every now and then.

Community engagement: For writers, read others work. Participate in review swaps and celebrate others' successes. This'll make it more likely for them to read and celebrate you too.

I might do another month of rapid posting at some point. Maybe when I release Arc 2? That might be a nice "and here's the new book" kinda thing.

Well, bye for now!

[terror-of-life]

heres a post where i don't have to shut up about these fics and get the brainrot out of my system.

( @kadomoni if you ever feel like looking at some point, don't take me seriously, just with a grain of salt jfskdhj lmk if youd rather i chill out a bit lmaoooo )

-

the outside reader in me is like: ryou and masato would do well to trade hobbies with each other. karaoke. learn piano or guitar. live reactions to reading a book. watch favorite movies or new movies. learn new hobbies. there are youtube vids for everything! or take care of someone's pets while they're gone. some wholesome fun to distract from their huge backlog of internal struggles.

if i knew anything about omori i'd make a ryou for the "depressed" and "miserable" ones. poor dude.

... actually they'd both have those, huh.

AH YES this one part toward the end (ryou asking if masato was a dothacker) felt vaguely like a hyouka gif.

(skeith vc) Buy my silence for $10,000 a month.

(ryou, trying to find his debit card for irony)

(skeith vc) Nice try, but we share a bank account.

He took in a deep breath, trying to keep his emotions in check. When he was able to form words again, they came out a little smaller than he intended. “If you weren’t there, I might still be in that coma. And, since The World is over now, I might not even be alive right now. You helped save me.” They stood there, eyes locked, the soft breeze blowing between them. 

“I suppose I did.” It was then that it finally dawned on the both of them that there was really no choice in the matter. Their fates really had been inextricably intertwined since they involved themselves with The World. They hadn’t met until two years ago, but somehow, they had been connected by a thread of fate that weaved between years and circumstance, joy and sorrow, growth and pain. It felt especially surreal that they stood in front of one another, both alive and well.  Without the other, they both would most certainly be dead.

(i actually know nothing about hyouka either, just the mental image.)

there's probably more to shitpost but ive already forgotten it RIP i'll have to remember to comment on the other one too

WAIT before i forget.

i saw youd mentioned on 2nd one that youd started it as a oneshot collection? if you ever feel up to those, i'm sure a separate collection would work too? i know i'd rly RLY love to read more but i don't like pressuring people so like. ;o;