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roosterforme · 11 months

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The Younger Kind Part 36 | Rooster x Reader

Summary: Bradley is finally happy, and he knows it's because of you. The way you want to try new things with him in bed makes him feel wild. And the way you love his son makes him feel calm. But when you read a piece of mail before he's ready for you to see it, your reaction has him feeling something new.

Warnings: Swearing, fluff, smut, anal sex, butt plug, and age gap (18+)

Length: 4800 words

Pairing: Single dad!Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x babysitter!female reader

Check out my masterlist for more! The Younger Kind masterlist.

Bradley anxiously awaited for his appointment with Tracy to begin. He wasn't sure if it was a good sign or a bad sign that she asked him to stop by on his way home from work, but he was here now. And he had his checkbook with him.

"I owe you some money," he said when she finally called him back.

"Sure, but we have other things to talk about," she said, ushering him over to her conference table while she opened up a Red Bull.

His stomach lurched. "It is about Meredith? Is it bad?" He was finally starting to be able to enjoy every day he spent with you and Noah. He didn't have to worry about things constantly, because you were happy to help him with his son and his house. When he got home with Noah the other day, you were changing that lightbulb on the front porch that he'd been meaning to get to. And you kept trying to help him pay his mortgage.

"Yes, it's about Meredith. Just have a seat."

Bradley sat and looked at her expectantly. "Has she been released or something? Do I need to call my girl?"

"No, no," she said, waving him off as she took a sip. "She's been sentenced."

Now Bradley's heart was really pounding. Tracy had told him that Meredith would most likely get five to fifteen years for the fraud charges. Five would be devastating, simply because Noah would still be a minor when she was released. Fifteen would be ideal. Noah would be over eighteen and a legal adult. A fight for custody or money would be a moot point. And well, if Bradley had another child with you, that would have nothing legally to do with his ex at all.

"Please tell me this is good, Tracy. I just want to solidify my life right now exactly as it is. No more messing around with protective orders and broken windows. My kid is happy, and I am happy."

She smiled and said, "You're about to get even happier. Fifteen years."

Bradley was out of his seat with his fist in the air immediately. "Hell yes! Any chance at parole?" he asked.

"There's always a chance. We'll keep an eye on things."

She and he talked for a bit after that, and he felt his body ease back comfortably in the seat. Bradley wrote out a check and left it with Tracy, and then she handed him a folder full of information on adopting a stepchild in California. And a second folder with a preliminary copy of his updated will.

When he got home with his checkbook in his hand, he found you and Noah in the kitchen, and both of you were wearing more peanut butter than the carrots on the cutting board in front of you were. But you were laughing, and so was he, and the house smelled like dinner was cooking.

"I'm home," Bradley said from the kitchen doorway, and you spun in surprise.

"Hi, Daddy," you said as you rushed for him with your messy hands held out at your sides. "You're already done with Tracy?"

"Mmhmm," Bradley hummed, leaning down to kiss you as Noah brought him ants on a log. "Fifteen years," he murmured, and you leaned in for another kiss with a soft, pleased laugh.

"Really?"

"We can talk more later," he said, keeping one arm around your waist as he lifted Noah up and opened his mouth for the messy carrot stick. He kissed Noah while he chewed and then said, "Thanks, Bub. Did you have a good day?"

"Yeah. We did a puppet show," he said before squirming out of Bradley's arm to go make a bigger mess. And that left Bradley holding you and his checkbook.

"Casey asked me to say hi to you when I picked Noah up," you whispered with a little grin on your face as you reached for the checkbook. "I told her I would if my mouth wasn't otherwise engaged this evening."

Bradley snorted. "You didn't."

"I did," you confirmed, waving his checkbook in the air between two fingers before tossing it onto the counter. "Who are you writing checks to, old man? I already told you, everyone uses payment apps."

"Tracy," he said. "I'm pretty sure she's older than me."

"Nobody is older than you, Daddy," you whispered, and Bradley took your wrists and guided both of your hands to his mouth. He watched your lips part silently as he licked the healed scar on your palm before sucking your thumb into his mouth. You squeaked as he cleaned the peanut butter from each of your fingers individually as you stepped a little closer to him.

"Who you calling old?" he asked before kissing your palm and squeezing your hip. He made a show of switching to the other hand as you rubbed your core against the front of his pants. Your eyes rolled back as you moaned for him. "Shh," he scolded. "Behave."

But you were only wearing thin scrub pants, and Bradley didn't actually want you to behave. One glance at Noah proved that he was absorbed with emptying a large canister of raisins onto the counter, so Bradley finished with your hand and then palmed both of your butt cheeks at the same time. He squeezed, really enjoying the feel of you as he whispered, "Are you wearing it?"

"No," you gasped. "I just got home from work!"

Bradley shrugged. "You've been wearing it around the past few days. Here and there."

You glanced at Noah over your shoulder before you whispered, "It makes me horny. I can't wear it to work! I'll get fired!"

Bradley chuckled and then he tightened his grip on your ass and said, "Go put it in."

Your teeth immediately sank into your lip. "Now?"

"Yeah," he replied softly. "Like my good girl."

You scampered off to the bedroom, saying, "Take the casserole out of the oven," as you went.

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

You knew to take your time with your silicone plug now. Use lots of lube and relax. As soon as you finished inserting it, you were practically moaning for Bradley to put his cock in your pussy. You were kind of addicted to the way it felt when he and the toy were both inside you at the same time. With a few deep breaths, you eased your underwear and your scrub pants back up your legs and made your way back to the kitchen.

Bradley and Noah were sitting at the table with the casserole dish, and when you met your boyfriend's eyes, he was grinning. "Well?" he asked, reaching for your hand.

"You know it, Daddy," you replied, and even though you weren't trying to, your voice took on a needy edge.

He grunted softly, his eyes half lidded now as he patted the chair next to him. Noah was already eating his dinner, and thankfully he didn't seem to notice the way Bradley was looking at you like you were for dessert. You eased yourself onto the seat and whimpered softly as Bradley leaned in and pressed the softest, sweetest kiss to your lips.

"I love you, Baby," he murmured before brushing your cheek with his nose. "I can't wait to take you to the lake house next weekend. We'll pack your little toy."

He started kissing along your neck, and you didn't think you'd make it through dinner at this rate. Your nipples were hard, and he was barely even touching you. Desperate for a distraction, you tried to reach for the casserole without rolling your hips too much.

"Daddy?" Noah asked. "Can we get a dog?"

"A dog?" Bradley asked, his attention shifting slightly from you to his son. "I already got you a Mommy, isn't that enough?" You snorted with laughter, but Noah was undeterred.

"I want a dog."

"Noah, if we get a dog, somehow it will end up being my responsibility. Maybe when you're older," Bradley said. But he was pouting, and he looked like he was going to cry.

"Daddy," you whined softly with a little grin. "I always wanted a dog, too."

Now Bradley was looking back and forth between you and Noah, before settling on you. "Are you really going to do this to me right now? You could probably get away with murder at the moment, Princess."

"Isn't that always the case?" you asked sweetly as you shifted a bit in your seat and served yourself some dinner.

Bradley groaned and held his forehead in his hand. "Can we talk about this later?" he begged, glancing at you between his fingers. But you were busy smiling at his son.

"We'll work on it, okay sweet Noah?" you whispered.

"Okay," Noah agreed softly before he started eating again.

But teasing Bradley about the dog definitely backfired on you later on the couch. Noah wanted to watch a Disney movie, so Bradley sat in the middle of the couch with your head resting on one thigh and Noah's on the other. The Princess and the Frog was playing, because Bradley insisted you deserved a princess movie. And everything was perfect. His hand was heavy on your side, stroking you through your clothing in the most delicious way.

When the movie was nearly finished, Bradley murmured, "Noah's asleep," as his hand skimmed along your hip. Then inch by inch, his fingers worked their way along your butt until he was cupping you with one big hand. Then you felt him prod you through your clothing, running one long finger across the base of your toy.

"Fuck," he grunted as he very gently pressed it further into you. Full. You were so full. After days of wearing it for an hour here and there, you thought maybe you were ready for more.

You looked up at Bradley over your shoulder and wiggled against his hand. The way he slowly shook his head and licked his lips made you feel like you were in control of this. But you supposed you always were. Then he eased his hand up to your lower back and teased at the waistband of your pants and underwear before dipping it inside.

Rough skin on yours had your eyes fluttering closed. "Look at me, Baby," he whispered, and you clenched for him. "Look at me while I touch you."

You did as you were told, but he subtly let you know you were still in charge. His brown eyes were sincere and open as he cupped your rear end, moving the plug incrementally. Pushing, pulling, tugging and teasing. When you whimpered, he pushed his fingers forward to your pussy.

"Daddy," you gasped as he pushed his rough fingers through your folds.

He spanked your pussy lightly until you were afraid you'd start getting loud. "Go get yourself in bed," he instructed. Then he withdrew his fingers and licked them clean. When you rolled onto your belly, your cheek and hand rubbed against his cock in his pants. "I'll come take care of you in a minute."

"Yes, Daddy." You kissed Noah's cheek and then leaned down to taste yourself on Bradley's lips. Then you ran into the bedroom and tossed all of your clothing into the hamper, replacing all of it with a new matching bra and thong you paid for with his credit card. "Damn it," you whined. The toy was making you squirm for release, and you were half tempted to touch yourself. You were nervous, but only slightly, because you knew Bradley would do whatever you told him to. So you grabbed the lube from your drawer and settled onto your beautiful, new bed.

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Shit. You were already touching yourself when Bradley walked into the bedroom. Black lingerie, your purple plug peeking out, and you on your back with your fingers in your pussy. "Jesus Christ," he groaned, ripping his shirt off and tossing it on the floor. You looked so young and innocent, even with your ass full of that toy. Bradley couldn't believe the words he was about to speak out loud. "Will you let me fuck you in the ass?"

Wide eyed and writhing around on your back on the bed, you nodded at him. "Yes." He was determined to do this just right. He never wanted to hurt you. He always wanted you to feel good when you were with him. Carefully he removed his jeans and joined you on the bed with his cock hard in his briefs.

"You've been teasing me with that toy all night," he whispered, pressing a feather light kiss to your lips and pulling away so you'd chase him for more. "Time to see if you can handle something a little bigger."

You whined for him as he kissed down your body. "You're a lot bigger," you gasped when he nibbled on you through your bra. "You'll go slow?"

Bradley hummed against your skin, stretching up to kiss your neck. "I'll do whatever you want. Anything you want. And if you tell me to stop, I'll stop."

"Okay," you whispered. "Just go slow."

He could hear the slight edge of apprehension in your voice, so he took your face in his hand and kissed your cheek. He wanted to be sure this was a good type of nervous, not a bad one. "You are under no obligation to do this, Princess. You already give me more than enough."

"I know," you replied, meeting his lips with yours.

But he pulled back and forced you to look him in the eye. "Tell me one more time that this is what you want. And tell me that you trust me."

You nibbled on your lip before you said, "I always trust you. And I want to try this. Now make me feel good."

Bradley was grinning as he slipped his hand down your belly and tucked it inside your black underwear. The swirl of his fingers on your clit had you gasping, and soon he pulled your underwear off. You were already wet when he put his mouth on you, and then Bradley thought about edging you to make you squirt for him. But your fingers were rough in his hair, and he knew he would be too far gone to be as gentle as possible if he did that. So he took his time, burying his nose and mouth in your sweet pussy, and licking you everywhere until you came for him. Then he licked all around that plug and admired the tight pucker of your hole wrapped around it.

"Fuck," he gasped, placing a kiss to your inner thigh. He was going to find out just how tight you were. As you rode the little jolts of pleasure still going through your body, Bradley carefully wrapped his arms around your back and got you onto all fours. "Try it like this?" he asked, caging your body in beneath his.

Your words were a little incoherent as you bucked back against him, and he could feel the base of your toy against his cock through his underwear. Oh hell, he needed to pull himself together. He needed something familiar to calm himself down. Bradley unclasped your bra and pressed his chest to your back, watching the strap slide down your arm. Your hips were rocking back, and he moved in unison with you, planting his left hand on the bed and rubbing your tits with his right.

He kissed along your spine and moaned, "You'll put me in an early grave, I swear it." Your soft giggle had him dragging his lips along your shoulder until he was kissing your neck. "I love you, Baby."

"I love you too, Daddy," you whispered, and it was the sweetest thing. So Bradley stood on his knees behind you, admiring the way you and that toy looked as he spread your legs wide. When he slid his underwear down, his cock bounced up to tap you, nudging the plug and making you groan. He didn't know how this was going to work as he pumped his hand along his girth before slipping himself into your pussy. And that was the familiar thing he needed, clearing his mind as you whined, "I feel so full. My toy and my Daddy."

Bradley smirked and rubbed himself against the base as held your hips. "Just wait," he warned playfully. The pretty curve of your back had him running his hand up and everywhere along your silky skin. Your hair smelled like wildflowers when he kissed your back. And then you were begging him to do it.

He reached for the lube and drizzled it all over you before coating his cock liberally. Then he fucked your pussy with steady strokes as he carefully eased the toy out of you as you gasped. Your perfect hole gripped along the plug, and Bradley had to count to ten to calm himself down. "Baby," he groaned, tossing the toy aside. "You ready?"

"Yes."

His cock was shiny and slick, resting on his palm, and then he was pressing himself to your asshole, convinced you were going to tell him to stop. You were so tight, he had to bite down on his lip as he pushed. And then you were whining, "More. More," as you squeezed the tip of him so much, he was afraid he'd black out.

"Princess," he growled, head tipped back as he pushed slowly. So slowly. He was dizzy from it, the slow pace driving him to the edge. "So tight. Holy hell." And then you turned to look at him over your shoulder. Your eyes were glazed over with need, and your lips were parted softly.

"Feels good," you gasped, and he reached out to run his thumb along your lip. You kissed him. You were perfect. He pushed himself a little deeper, and you kissed his thumb again. He looked down to see himself buried inside you as you licked his thumb.

"God damn it," he cursed, and you squeezed him a little tighter. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." He dipped his thumb into your mouth and whispered, "I can't last like this. Too fucking good. So tight." He was shaking his head, but you were nodding and swirling your tongue along his thumb. He withdrew an inch and thrust, and you started keening.

If Bradley managed even ten strokes inside your ass, it was a miracle. He went slowly, but it was too much. And you were loud, spurring him on with his thumb tucked between your lips and pressed to your tongue.

Every time you tightened around him, he knew he was going to cum. He was just biding his time for a few more seconds, and then it was too much. He tried to keep his movements steady and fluid as he came inside you, but they were a little jerky. He was grunting your name over and over, trying to get himself under control. "Are you okay?" he asked, voice rough as he slipped his thumb out of your mouth.

"Mmm, yes," you moaned. "It only hurt a little, and then it felt good."

Bradley brought both hands to your hips and stroked you as he started to gently withdraw from your body. And then his jaw went slack as you were puckered around his tip. It was going to look so pretty, he just knew it.

"Baby," he whined when he pulled himself free. His white cum was at your opening, and he watched that first droplet as it slid down to your pussy and dripped onto the bed. You were oozing with his finish, and he was transfixed.

You said his name and made to roll over, but Bradley kept you still with his big hands on your thighs. "Shh," he coaxed as another long drop fell to the bed. And then he licked you clean as you mewled and whimpered. He lapped up every bit of his cum as it leaked out of you, and he cleaned up your pussy as well.

"Bradley," you whispered as he gently rolled you to your back. You wrapped your arms around his neck as he settled on top of you, careful to keep his full body weight from hurting you. The fucked out, exhausted expression on your face made him smile.

"You did so good, Baby."

"I know," you agreed. "I liked it."

His lips were ghosting over yours as he asked, "Do you need anything? Want me to get a shower ready for us?"

"In a couple minutes," you replied easily. And then Bradley rolled you both to your sides and snuggled you against him with one big hand on your ass.

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You were just trying to get through your day at work on Thursday. You just needed to make it to Friday morning when the three of you would be driving up to the lake house to meet Mav, Penny and Amelia. But two of your coworkers were out sick, and you had to pick up all the slack. You even had to text Bradley and let him know you wouldn't be able to pick Noah up or start dinner.

Bradley Daddy Bradshaw: Take your time. I'll make sandwiches for dinner. See you at home.

Once you had all of the exam rooms cleaned and disinfected, Dr. Kelly found you and said, "Go home. Enjoy your long weekend with your family. That little Noah is the cutest thing."

You laughed and nodded. "Oh, he knows he's adorable. It's getting to be a problem. See you next week."

Then you made your way to your car and thought about how you and Noah were most definitely going to wear Bradley down, and soon enough you'd have a dog at home. You'd even been working on a shortlist of names for when that fateful day arrived. You picked up a few pet themed coloring books on your lunch break, and when you pulled into the driveway, you took the bag from the front seat.

The mail truck was just pulling up to your house; he must have been having a late day, too. You walked to the curb to meet him, and he handed everything to you with a wave. As you walked up to the porch, you picked your envelopes out of the stack and left Bradley's separate. Great, your student loan statement was here. You couldn't wait to see how your last payment barely put a dent in things.

"Hi," you called out as you walked through the living room. "Sorry, I'm so late." But when you looked into the kitchen, Bradley was still in his uniform, calmly making a turkey and cheese sandwich and cutting it into little triangles while Noah colored.

"Nothing to be sorry about," Bradley rasped, and you kissed his shoulder through his shirt. "I'll make your sandwich next." But you'd already moved on to Noah, smothering him in kisses while he laughed.

"Check out this dog themed coloring book," you said loudly, earning a glare from Bradley as you set it down in front of Noah. "Isn't this little brown puppy on the cover just adorable?"

"I want a dog," Noah whined as he opened the cover and got to work. You were betting you'd have a dog by next month.

"Relentless," Bradley groaned, and you wrapped your arms around him from behind. "Did you have a good day?" he asked. "Ready for the lake?"

"Yes. And definitely." He tried to hand you a sandwich on a plate, but you said, "Let me go through my mail first before I forget. I want to make sure I log in and make my student loan payment tonight before we leave in the morning." You took the sandwich from him and noticed that he looked a little timid now. "What's wrong?"

"Well. Nothing's wrong," he said quietly as you bit into the sandwich and then set it down again to open up your envelope. But he had you distracted, and you realized too late that you had opened a piece of his mail from Tracy by mistake. You skimmed along the page and you gasped as tears welled up in your eyes.

I, Bradley Bradshaw, a legal adult of sound mind and competency, do hereby declare this to be my last will and testament (hereinafter, “Last Will & Testament”) and do hereby revoke any and all wills and codicils heretofore made jointly or severally by me.

In the event I shall die as the sole parent of minor child(ren), then I appoint as guardian over minor child(ren)

You stopped when you read your name and dropped the papers to the floor as you burst into tears. "Bradley," you gasped, and he looked up from where he was putting mayonnaise on a slice of bread. You bent to pick up the papers, but you were so emotional, you could barely see, so you just sat on the floor next to them and looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, kneeling down and cupping your face in his hands. "Princess, tell me what's wrong."

You swiped at your tears with your hands and whispered, "You trust me that much?"

"What are you talking about, Baby?" he asked, and then he reached for one of the papers on the floor. "Your student loans?"

He was about to realize what you had read, so you quickly said, "I didn't mean to open it, I tore into the wrong envelope. I thought it was my student-"

Bradley silenced your sentence with a kiss as you sobbed. When he released your lips, you could still feel his nose on your cheek as you tried to get your breathing under control. "Yes. I trust you that much. If something happens to me, I know you'll take care of Noah."

You threw your arms around his neck and pushed him back onto his butt and climbed into his lap. "I would. I really would."

He held you close and softly said, "I was planning on telling you this weekend. The paperwork isn't finalized yet, but I can call Tracy's office and have it completed at any time."

You kissed him and said, "Call first thing tomorrow morning."

"Okay. I'll call first thing tomorrow morning." He was smiling as you let your forehead rest against his.

"Why are you on the floor?" Noah asked, leaning over the table to look at you both.

Bradley scooped you up as he stood and set you down on your feet, but you kept your arms around him. "Mommy was just being silly, Bub. How about you put the crayons down and eat your sandwich." Then he kissed your hair and said, "You better eat your sandwich, too."

You took your plate and the mail to the table and sat down across from Noah. You watched him sip his milk through a straw cup and then eat all of the cheese out of the sandwich first. He was perfect. And you'd never have to be without him. Bradley trusted you with his child more than anyone else. And you knew he wanted to have another one.

As he sat down next to you with his own sandwich and a beer, you opened your student loan envelope and started to read. But you could feel his eyes on you as he sipped his Heineken.

"You okay, Daddy?" you asked softly, wiping at at stray tear.

"Just read your mail," he replied. When you looked back down at the paper in your hands, you saw that instead of nearly ten thousand dollars, your balance due for nursing school was zero.

"What did you do?" you gasped, looking him in the eye.

He just shrugged and bit into his own sandwich, smiling as he chewed. "Paid off your loans. Your interest rate was so high, you'd still be paying on them by the time you're my age. Which is dumb when I have the money to take care of it now."

"Bradley!" Your eyes were welling with tears again as you said, "You didn't have to do that!"

His voice was stern as you crawled into his lap again. "I trust you with Noah, one hundred percent. The money doesn't matter as much as that."

You let your head rest on his shoulder as you straddled his thigh, and his big hand was rubbing your back. "You still didn't have to," you whispered. "But thank you. And now I can help you with your mortgage and bills instead."

"You just save your money, and we'll figure it out later."

But you already knew you'd talk him into letting you pay for something. And the rest could go into a savings account for school for Noah. And anything leftover could be used to plan for the exciting future you were going to experience with the two of them.

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Daddy keeps on winning now. And Princess doesn't have to worry about the things that shouldn't matter. Next up, the lake house. Thanks to @mak-32 and @beyondthesefourwalls

PART 37

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nctinkverse · 9 months

Text

Promissa Redux

Pairing: jaehyun x f. reader

Genre: mature, smut, angst, fluff, minors dni.

Preview and plot warnings (I will update as I go): dad Jaehyun, pregnancy, MC is a mom, mature, slow burn, excessive angst, abundant plot, and probably way too much dialogue, exes to lovers, Jaehyun 's family is in this (at least as I imagine they might be), a lot of intimacy, explicit content, swearing, alcohol consumption, mention of exes, heavy make-out session and annoying co-workers.

WC Preview: 1000

WC Total: Not sure, probably it will be 5.000 - 10.000?

Chapter 1 - Shattered promises & Broken vows. Chapter 2 - Valentines Day.

Chapter 3 - One call away is not close enough.

SYNOPSIS: Most of the fairy tales and romance novels, it all seems perfect after the happily ever after. But what if some stories started at the end?

Well not the end per se, nobody was dying.

But you always questioned, do princess get a divorce?

Do female main characters give up the man they fought to love after so many chapters?

At 32 years of age, divorced, mom to an incredible 5-year-old girl who was the greatest thing you and the love of your life ever did, you thought again about the same questions you had when you were 14 and your parents got divorced.

Jung was your last name for 2 years, Mrs. Jung was your title and you loved it, he was sweet, loving, an amazing father and so good to you in bed that you never forgot truly what it felt like to be loved by him.

Your story stated way past the end, the not so happily ever after.

It didn’t have many twists and turns like a superhero movie that keeps you hanging at the edge of your seat for the next plot twist.

In your mind, life was already full of uncertainties, hard decisions, mistakes and paying the price for choosing paths.

Life itself was already hard enough without the responsibilities of superpowers.

So how you ended up thinking about all that again at 32 years old, while holding an engagement ring box you found on your lover’s pocket while picking it up of the floor, it was something you will have to find the answers, probably soon.

------------------------Preview----------------------------------------

You were fast asleep when the phone rang. The name on the screen making you jump, why is he calling at this hour? This can’t be a good thing.

Immediately you laid your back on the headboard and answered the call.

"Hi."

"Jaehyun, is something wrong?"

"Oh, no…" You let out a relieved breath, being half asleep making you grumpy.

"Good lord, Jaehyun, it's 4 a.m!" You said, raising your voice a little.

"Oh shoot… um sorry… I didn’t check for the time zones. I should have called another –

You interrupted his rambling. He’s not usually someone to call, he could just spill so you can go back to sleep.

"Jae, spill, what’s the gossip, huh?"

He let out a little laugh since the gossip joke was an old one between you two.

"No gossip, but I do have something."

"Clearly, it's something good or you wouldn’t be calling on impulse, spill, Jaehyun."

"Yeah right…" He hesitated a bit, his telltale sign usually being him coughing even though there was nothing wrong with his voice. "I got sent this script for this movie, they want me as the main male character..." He hesitated again, which made you ask.

"Jaehyun, what did you do?"

"I sent a copy of the script to your mailbox."

You could feel your sleepiness going away as you scolded him.

"Jaehyun, are you nuts? You can’t ship stuff like this in the mail! What if it gets –"

"It got delivered today." He interrupted, making you stop your thinking.

Scrambling for a thought since he didn’t elaborate, you asked.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with it?! I’m not a male actor, Jung."

"Read, dummy, read."

"And do what?"

"Tell me if you want it."

You opened your mouth to be obnoxious, pointing out the obvious, but Jaehyun must have listened to your 'I’m about to give you an earful' breath and went first.

"Listen, it’s an amazing script, just like the ones you used to want to work on. There’s an opening for a cinematographer, and I know you’re a hell of a good one, so if you want, it’s yours." He said in one breath, probably afraid you would interrupt again.

But from all he said, this part really got you confused.

"What do you mean it’s mine?"

"I showed the director your profile and portfolio, and he said yes."

"Fuck, Jaehyun." You didn’t know what to say since he was never one to interfere in your personal life since the D word.

"You’re sleepy, and I know how grumpy you can be at this hour, so… I still have to tell you two more things, the job is in the states, probably 3-4 months of filming, and I am supposed to give an answer on the male character in 48 hours. We would have to work together, and we would probably have to strike a deal with my parents since we can’t pull Junnie out of school, so…"

You understood what he said, but you needed at least a cup of coffee to process it. But before you could say anything, he went off again.

"I can give it up if you want." He said almost like a whisper.

"Give what up?"

"The character."

"You didn’t like it?"

"No, but –

You interrupted again.

"So, if you do like it, why would you give it up?" It made no sense to you.

"For you –"

It still didn’t make sense why he would give it up.

"Give it up for ME?"

"I like it, Y/N, but this script has you written all over it… and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable by being there."

Now you got him, yet he was about the last person in this world who could make you uncomfortable.

"Yuno…" You said in a softer tone.

You heard his breath and a soft "yeah?"

"I don’t hate you." You stated in your most soft yet firm tone, it was one of the things he must not forget about you two.

"I know, Y/N, I know."

"I am going to read it and think about what you said, ok? Don’t do anything hasty."

"Ok, I will let you go back to sleep."

"I’m not sleeping after all this, you know right?" You said, letting out a small huff.

"I know."

"What I am about to do is getting up, making some coffee and grabbing the script out of my mailbox, does it sound good to you?" You were being just a bit playful.

"It does, love."

That word made you warm like butter melting on a frying pan. Still, that wasn’t something out of the ordinary for him to call you. So, you let it slide.

"Well, for sure it’s better than staying in bed tossing and turning."

He let out a small giggle, he knew you were one of those to fight a lot with your bed at night.

"Good morning, love."

"Good afternoon to you?" You didn’t know what timezone he was on, so you tried.

"Try again." He said with a smiling voice.

"Good night!" You said like you had guessed the lottery numbers.

He let out a giggle sound and said, "Give little Nari 1000 kisses from me, will you?

"Why just a thousand?" You said with a little pout. You could hear his playful tone.

"Don’t you know our daughter? She might ask for in real life a thousand kisses; since you are the closest parent, you might fall victim to it, so I think that’s a great number for kisses."

You both giggled, Jung Nari, the lily to our garden, was at that phase where hyperboles would be a tough concept for her to grasp.

"Ok, fine." You agreed still giggling.

"I will call… stay safe."

"You too, Jaehyun."

"Bye."

And the line went silent.

#nct #kpop smut #nct series #nct smut #nct 127 smut #jaehyun smut #jung jaehyun smut #jeong jaehyun #nct x reader #nct scenarios #fic:promissa redux

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ofliterarynature · 6 months

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FEBRUARY 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok nope dnf (reread) book club*]

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years �� The Memory Librarian • Pixels of You* • Arch-Enemies • Moby Dyke • Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures • A Sinister Revenge • Lud in the Mist • Crying in H Mart • Something Close to Magic • Hula • (Renegades) • The Divorce Colony • Foundryside • Earthlings • A Far Wilder Magic

total: 13 books (12 audiobook, 1 print)

Not as many books this month! And not just because February has fewer days, I was really in a funk this month and struggling to pay attention to my audiobooks (and enjoy them). You wouldn't think there's such a thing as too many books, but I think the overtime hours at work are hitting their peak mental health destruction. Here's to hoping things improve in March!

The Divorce Colony (4.5 stars) - genuinely can't believe this was my 3rd nonfic of the year already! I picked a print copy of this up at a library sale in December after hearing about divorce colonies in the early 20th century on a recent episode of the 99% Invisible podcast. Turns out this book was actually about the beginning of the moment that took place in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the 1800's. Western states had shorter residency periods and less strict divorce laws, so women (and the occasional man) would travel west and live there for several months in order to obtain a divorce. This book tracks the movement through the stories of 4 of the more infamous cases to make the papers, and does an incredible job of weaving in the surrounding political and religious discussions. Would recommend, and has a great cover to boot!

Renegades (3 stars) - a reread, and for some reason it was torture. I originally read this back in 2018 and loved it, and wanted to tackle it again and actually finish the rest of the series. But I kept getting worked up and frustrated this time around! It kept trying to take itself seriously while also being very YA and kind of superhero-camp, and I was absolutely overthinking it lol. I found the strength to press on into book two, Archenemies (3.5 stars). I liked it a bit more! Something about it being new, the story being a bit more settled and maybe getting a better grasp on its message/politics, the characters growing more, me figuring out that I shouldn't listen to the audiobook for more than an hour or so at a time, lmao. Not great, but fun, and possibly worth reading? I'll keep y'all updated when I finish book 3.

Hula (5 stars) - incredible. Part generational family story, part history, part discussion of what it means to be Hawaiian, culturally and legally. Not always the easiest of reads, but it was so so worth it. It was also doing something very interesting with parts of the narration voiced by a collective "we" (culture/community?) that I would love to get a look at in print. Highly recommend, I'll definitely be getting myself a copy.

Something Close to Magic (4.5 stars) - an absolute delight! The Gail Carson Levine comp on this one is not entirely unearned, anyone who's a fan of fairy tale type fantasies will enjoy this, I had a great time! Very interestingly, it has characters who are in their mid to late teens, but is written in a way where they're still allowed to be young, to the point I'm surprised it didn't get shoehorned into MG instead of YA. If the author writes any more of these I'd be happy to read them.

Crying in H Mart (3.5 stars) - nonfic number 4! I'm sure everyone's heard of this one by now, which is why I finally picked it up. It's fine (which is why it got an extra .5 star), but on the scale of take it or leave it, I'd leave it. It just wasn't for me and I kind of wish I'd dnf'd it. A great cover though.

Lud-in-the-Mist (3.5 stars) - this one seems to be considered a sort of early precursor to fantasy and fairy tale type stories from the early 20th century, and I was eager to try it! While I definitely don't think it would feel out of place amongst it's more recent fellows (think the Last Unicorn, Robin McKinley, DWJ, etc), I absolutely could not get into it. Probably the chief recipient of "my brain doesn't want to cooperate, sorry," so maybe I'll give it another shot someday.

A Sinister Revenge (4 stars) - enjoyable as always! Not to hide this deep in my reviews or anything, but have the Emily Wilde people tried Veronica Speedwell yet?

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (3 stars) - This one's been sitting unread on my shelf for a while, and since I was on a bit of a Maggie Stiefvater run, I figured it was perfect! Well. Unless you are like 7, this was so bad. Not good. Having previously read and not liked a book by Maggie's co-author Jackson Pearce, I think it would not be unreasonable for me to assume she did most of the writing while Maggie did the illustrations - if the audiobook had been any longer than 4 hours I'd have absolutely DNF'd it, and I have no intention of continuing the series.

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in the Country (4.5 stars) - part of me was wondering what I was doing trying this lol, not being someone who drinks or goes to bars, OR, as previously mentioned, is not the biggest fan of memoirs. It was not, as I hoped, also part research project, but it is a travelogue, and as a consequence has a strong narrative thread. It also has a lot of discussions about issues in the LGBTQ+ community, and overall I really liked it once I figured out what it was doing!

Pixels of You (3.5 stars) - a very short sapphic rivals-to friends-to lovers graphic novel about a human-form AI and a human with an android eye competing for a photography internship at an art gallery. The creators clearly put SO much thought into their characters and worldbuilding, but sadly there is nowhere near enough length here to do it all justice, and a number of elements felt very odd or under explored. The relationship parts are great! I just think this needed to be twice as long to really given everything its due, or maybe explored in prose instead.

The Memory Librarian (3.5 stars) - to start, I know nothing about the musical album this is related to, so I don't know how much that might have affected my reading. Overall I wasn't super impressed - when I discovered that the first story was cowritten by Alaya Dawn Johnson - no shade to her - I almost dropped it then, I just really didn't like her writing style in the one book I've read. But I stuck through it. Of the five stories, only one really stuck in my mind - Nevermind, cowritten by Danny Lore, which I could have read an entire novel about. I wish I could recommend it on its own, but overall I just don't quite understand the world Monae has created.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years (3.5 stars) - I probably should say more about the book, it was fine, I was surprised to find that it's set in relatively current day, I found myself a lot more interested in the second narrative about the house's history, which did make me cry a bit. Mostly though, I really just want to let you know how MUCH of a non-entity the djinn was in this story, I have no idea why it was there and why it was included in the title of the book. All the author had to do was make the house a little more sentient and haunted and it would be fine, idk. Read it if you want, but it's not one I would rec.

DNF'S

Foundryside - I was so ready. I had the first two audiobooks checked out, I had the third one on hold. I started this but oh, the writing. bleh. I was looking thought reviews and someone referred to it as something like "21st century internet speak." In a high fantasy novel. I noped out at just 10%.

Earthlings - I've considered the author's other book before but haven't read it, but thought maybe a sci-fic book would work better for me? The beginning was odd but not uninteresting, and I might have continued if it had stayed that way. But then the main character was in school(?) and her teacher started getting handsy after class and I wasn't invested enough to stick it out.

A Far Wilder Magic - the success of Something Close to Magic made me a little too hopeful I think, bc while I'm still a little leery around YA, I know people have liked this. And it sounded interesting, truly, and I love the cover. But first it was the religion stuff. And I didn't really like the characters. Then it's like, oh, this is the same plot as The Scorpio Races, but nowhere near it's quality in any shape or form. I decided to stop while I was ahead, before I started to actually dislike it. (anyway here's your PSA to go read The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, I recommend doing it in October if you can).

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fromtenthousandfeet · 26 days

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HYBE Financials and Media Play Part 2

Dang it! Why did so much have to happen with HYBE before I had a chance to write this installment? At least I have plenty of material to continue this series.

Let's start where I left off, with some examples of actual media play with stories and tweets hyping up HYBE's 2nd quarter revenue while completely ignoring the always falling net income.

Start here if you're interested in this ongoing thread:

Here's a post from Kpop Charts celebrating HYBE's incredible second quarter. Notice there's no mention of the $12 million net profit or of their ever-dropping profit margin to 2.28%. This post had over 600,000 views.

There were loads of posts and articles just like the one above on the day HYBE released their 2Q24 financials. It's worth noting these media outlets get a press release from HYBE and just regurgitate the information rather than vetting it. This is how the company continues to fool the general public.

I found one article that actually mentioned the declining net income, but it's still reads like a press release from the company. Check it out to see the excuses they make for low net income despite the record-breaking revenue.

When it comes to media play and outright lies, nothing comes close to how HYBE has pinned all their problems on Min Hee Jin. The last 48 hours have been media play on steroids, but let's focus on the message HYBE has been broadcasting for months now. Article after article has blamed HYBE's falling stock price on their difficulties with MHJ. It's really quite smart strategy to pin their falling stock price on her rather than facing the fact that K-pop isn't the long-term cash cow the company claims it to be. The reality is, financial analysts have been sounding the alarm for months that the K-pop industry is a financial house of cards. They rely too heavily on record sales (we've all seen the stacks of CDs abandoned on the street). I guess the Chinese government has cracked down on mass buying, which hurts the K-pop industry, but so does the inflation that's hitting so many across the globe hard. When fans are given the choice between buying tons of the same album or paying rent, I'm pretty sure most would choose food and shelter over 100 copies of the latest Seventeen album.

Blaming MHJ for the falling stock sends the message to investors that all of HYBE's problems will be fixed once they get rid of that pesky woman, when in reality, she and her label are good for HYBE's bottom line. They can (and I guess did) fire her, but that won't change the waning interest in K-pop on a global scale.

All the K-pop music labels are seeing huge drops in their stock prices. Do they also have a Min Hee Jin problem???

Year to date, these stock prices are down approximately -

JYP -50%

YG -28%

SM -32%

It's almost like there's a problem in the industry, right?!

I'm going to go into the HYBE?MHJ situation more deeply in my next post, but I want to end this post with another example of how HYBE manipulates public perception. This article is from CNBC, a major US media outlet, and it's straight lies.

Originally, the article claimed MHJ resigned as CEO, but we now know that was a falsehood coming directly from HYBE. The article was updated a day later to clear up that whopper. But the huge lie staring everyone in the face is the gains in the market cap/increase in stock price. The article completely fails to mention that on the same day HYBE canned MHJ, they also quietly announced a stock buy back worth 26.6 billion won with the express purpose of boosting the stock price.

The company is buying up common stock and converting it to restricted stock. Once the common stock is converted to restricted stock, the fewer shares of common stock will mean the EPS increases (earnings per share). Earnings per share is calculated by dividing net income (see previous post) by the number of outstanding common stock shares. I can talk about this more if anyone is interested. But suffice it to say, this is a way to make the company's share price increase while making the company appear more financially sound.

A restricted stock unit (RSU) is stock-based compensation issued by an employer. A vesting period exists before the RSU converts to actual common stock. Until then, it has no monetary worth. Once the RSU converts to stock, the stockholder may pay taxes on its value.

The stock price increase had absolutely nothing to do with MHJ "resigning" and had everything to do with the buy back. If anything, giving the boot to the executive whose business line contributes 14% to the bottom line should scare the shit out of investors. Those sneaky bastards!

Whatever you think about Min Hee Jin or NewJeans, please keep in mind that the members of BTS seem to be stuck in that crappy, poorly run corporation. It seems Bang Si Hyuk and his goons have no problem destroying reputations and careers of individuals who commit the sin of being successful. Does that sound familiar?

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eschergirls · 8 months

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February 2024 Update & Patron Thank You!

Hi everybody!

It's a new month, so it's time for an update and, of course, thank all our wonderful Patreon subscribers. :3

For I fixed up a LOT of posts across the DC Comics tag, though because it's so big, I still have a lot that aren't formatted correctly or have images without alt-text, but I'm slowly working my way through it. Many of the broken or lost images or images deleted by Tumblr due to mistaken algorithmic flagging should be fixed though.

One of the big restoration projects was fixing up the posts that stemmed from that infamous Catwoman vol. 4 #0 cover image that led to a ton of redraws and also to DC actually changing the cover before it came out. A lot of the redraws didn't get imported when we moved the site from Tumblr, but I've managed to find them again and restore the posts (as well as adding alt-text and fixing formatting, etc).

Here's a list of the redraws, some serious, some humorous:

Catwoman as an assemblage boobs and butt by Josh Rodgers

Catwoman in a true cat pose by @rosalarian

What Catwoman would look like from the side by Cameron Stewart

Catwoman before and after animated gif redraw by @miracleisyou

As well as that post, I've also restored this post featuring Pagan from Batman #479 looking terrifying in two different poses, and a pretty good redraw of the cover by Glitchy.

There's also another Catwoman picture (from Batman: Arkham Unhinged) inspired people to do a lot of humorous takes on it, such as Kainu's take on how she looks from various angles and this animated gif joke by le-mec which is very good. I fixed up all 3 posts, found the broken pictures, and added alt-text to everything.

And finally, two other DC posts that I found images for when they broke and reformatted & added full transcription for screen readers:

this page of Artemis from Artemis: Requiem #3 offering some... interesting ideas of gender & what Y chromosomes do

this post about All-Star Batman & Robin & it's depiction of Vicki Vale as well as the infamous script notes from Frank Miller to Jim Lee (the script notes are fully transcribed by me for screen readers too)

I've restored a lot of other posts too, but those are the main ones I wanted to highlight for those who haven't seen them before (or weren't able to see them before) and would be interested in!

And as usual, I've been working my way through the Tumblr inbox backlog (which means that like very old submissions might start to show up too... I developed a huge backlog over the years and because Tumblr's inbox works from most recent to least, it means that older stuff becomes more difficult to reach as I get more submissions). I've also been working my way through contesting all the mistaken flagging Tumblr's algorithm keeps doing (such as flagging any solid colour piece of clothing as nudity).

For those who want to follow us without using Tumblr, we have an RSS feed. (For newbies, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is basically a feed you can read using an RSS reader. Simply copy and paste https://eschergirls.com/rss.xml into an RSS reader and it will keep you up to date on Escher Girls!)

Tumblr's occasional changes of policies and its random algorithmic flagging of posts and sudden removal of posts are reasons why I decided to self-host and why I am so appreciative of people helping me to keep the site up and pay for hosting, domain registration, and general site upkeep and improvements. :)

Anyway, now I want to thank everybody who supported Escher Girls on Patreon in January!

Thank you so so much to:

Cat Mara CheerfulOptimistic Chris McKenzie Em Bardon First Time Trek Greg Sepelak Ian Cameron Ken Trosaurus Kevin Carson Kim Wincen Kristoffer Illern Holmén Leak Manuel Dalton Mary Kuhner Max Schwarz Michael Mazur Miriam Pody Morgan McEvoy randomisedmongoose Rebecca Breu Ringoko Ryan Gerber Sam Mikes Sean Sea SpecialRandomCast Thomas

And thank you to everybody for reading, submitting, and just generally commenting and engaging with Escher Girls. It makes running the site so worth it, and your comments always make me smile.

Thank you all so much,

Ami

If you have any issues with the site or suggestions to improve it, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know!

If you wish to support Escher Girls, you can subscribe to our Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ami_angelwings or donate through Ko-Fi at: https://ko-fi.com/amiangelwings.

#patreon #update #note

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monstersandmaw · 2 years

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Male werewolf x female character (Gabe & Odessa) - Part Nineteen (nsfw)

Disclaimer which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

___

Thank you so much if you commented or reblogged with tags on the last one! This Christmas Day update is for you specifically :). It’s a bit of an ‘in-between’ chapter, and things are going to start wrapping up soon. I’ve now finished writing it all, and each chapter now just needs an edit before uploading. There are three more after this one, and as ever, I look forward to your feedback and reactions. Thank you for beta-reading it for me, as it were!

Content: The full moon is still looming, Gabe & Odessa spend their last few days in and around Pinewatch, and Odessa learns a little about what it’s like for Gabe on the full moon. Wordcount: 4832

Catch up here:

Part One (sfw), Part Two (sfw), Part Three (sfw), Part Four (sfw), Part Five (sfw), Part Six (sfw) Part Seven (sfw), Part Eight (sfw), Part Nine (sfw), Part Ten (sfw), Part Eleven (nsfw), Part Twelve (sfw), Part Thirteen (sfw), Part Fourteen (nsfw), Part Fifteen (nsfw), Part Sixteen (nsfw), Part Seventeen (sfw), Part Eighteen (v. light nsfw),

Odessa’s last few days in Pinewatch passed in a blur.

When it wasn’t raining, they took the wolf-dogs for walks from Gabe’s house, visiting the meadow by the river from one of their earlier walks a couple of times since the dogs seemed to enjoy it almost as much as Odessa did.

There was something about the way the meadow opened up once they crossed the stepping stones over the stream that sparked an aching in Odessa’s chest, especially on that last time as she stood with her hand in Gabe’s and the dogs snuffling through the meadow and following the scents left behind like the ghosts of the rabbits and deer and foxes that had nosed through the grasses in the night. All around her, the wide, broad sweep of grass had been leached of summer colour to leave faded strands of pale gold dotted with rattling seed heads and prickling teasels, and beyond the boundary of the clearing, tall pine trees stood sentinel.

“There’s a hawk over there, watching us,” Gabe whispered in her ear and she jumped at the sound of his voice after so long in stillness.

“Where? I can’t see anything but trees…”

He smiled and took his time pointing it out while Thunder loped over to the trees to investigate. The movement disturbed it, and the bird took flight in an affronted flap of coffee coloured wings before wheeling away westwards over the forest and out of sight.

Odessa turned and laid her cheek against his chest. He was wearing a light, woollen jumper, and the humble warmth of him in the cold autumn day was wonderful against her body. “If you’d asked me a year ago, I never would have imagined myself saying this,” she said, “But I would honestly love to live somewhere like this now.” She was thinking of his cosy house, nestled in the shelter of the pine trees a few miles away down the valley.

Gabe’s answering smile was accompanied by a flash of gold and a laugh. He hugged her and tipped backwards a little, arching his spine so that her feet left the floor and she whooped a laugh and clung to him, and when he set her down, she found Mia boinging up and down on the spot and snapping her jaws in her own way of laughing.

“I knew you’d warm up to me eventually, princess,” Odessa grinned at the dog, who immediately sneezed and trotted off with her tail held high. Axel looked from Mia to Odessa as if to apologise for his haughty sister, and then slunk off into the brambles around the edge of the open meadow to find Thunder.

They watched the dogs for a while, but when the clouds started to drift in, they headed back home and curled up to read together on the sofa in his living room, tangled up beneath a simple, cream coloured, knitted blanket.

When rain put pay to their walks on those last remaining days, Gabe drove them into town instead.

They drank coffee together, with their fingers interlaced on the tabletop, and Odessa mapped and learned all the little nicks and scars on his tanned hands from his work outdoors and from running as a wolf through the woods. They ate blackberry cupcakes from Marco’s until they thought they might burst and even Gabe said he’d had enough, all the while chatting and filling in the incidental details of their lives that hadn’t yet come up, while rain made wavering silver bars on the cafe windows. Laughing, they darted from shop to shop, jostling together under the shelter of Gabe’s old jacket, and despite the wet weather, the frizzing hair, the damp clothes, the chilly feet, and the looming knowledge of her imminent departure, Odessa felt happy to her core for the first time in months.

She shrieked and squirmed when an errant raindrop plopped down the back of her neck, and the pair of them drew scowling looks of censorious disapproval from elderly Mrs. MacFarlane up the street when Gabe suddenly snatched Odessa around the middle and pulled her into an empty doorway just to kiss her silly.

He smiled between kisses as he pressed her up against the cold brickwork and she gasped when he rolled his hips once against hers before drawing back, only to return a second later to mouth and bite deliciously at her neck behind the curtain of her dark curls. “I love you,” he whispered, the words barely audible above the rain.

She kissed him back, and she watched his eyes roll closed with a deep, private groan. “What?” she asked.

He nosed at her temple and inhaled deeply, and his fingers tightened where they’d dropped to her hips. “I love the smell of you in the rain,” he rasped against her skin and Odessa blushed. “Can’t get enough of you.”

Joy suffused her expression and she laughed quietly, and it only doubled when she caught sight of Mrs. MacFarlane’s continued shock at their behaviour over Gabe’s shoulder. “I think we’re about to be reported for antisocial behaviour, Gabe,” she giggled in his ear, biting his earlobe and drawing a spontaneous, growling moan from him. That close up, he sounded like a motorbike when his inner wolf growled at her, and she adored it.

He did step back though, and when he turned around and spotted what Odessa was referring to, he laughed and waved jovially at the old woman, as though they hadn’t just been caught rutting against each other in a doorway like teenagers behind the bike sheds.

Mrs. MacFarlane pouted and shook her head as she trundled off in the opposite direction, and when Gabe turned back to Odessa she watched his eyes flare playfully from hazel to gold for a few seconds. “You know, I used to be a respectable member of this community til you came along?” he smirked.

“Corrupting the sweet woodland boy with my evil city ways,” she crooned. “Come on. Take me back home and you can have your way with me there instead.”

He held her hand as they trotted back to his truck through the rain, and he didn’t stop smiling the whole way home.

Appropriately enough, on her very last full day in Pinewatch, they awoke to rain sheeting out of the sky in torrents. After a morning feeling tense and caged and trapped in the house, feeling like they were just waiting for the hours to tick by until the sun set on her final day, Gabe suggested a distraction in town once more, and she practically leapt at it.

Gabe took her to a cute arts and crafts shop that had been closed until then, and in the back corner, she found an oil painting which drew her up short.

“Look,” she breathed, staring at the painting in her hands, and Gabe turned from where he’d been idly browsing some autumnal decorations a few feet away.

A slow-dawning, thousand-watt smile spread across his face when he saw the painting’s subject, and he came over to stand beside her. He kissed her temple and splayed his fingers across the small of her back in a private display of affection.

“It’s the rock where I first met Wolf,” she whispered, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Isn’t it? The one on the path behind the cabin?”

Gabe nodded.

Odessa didn’t think twice about it. She bought the painting.

It was only small, perhaps eight inches across, including the width of the dark, chunky, antiqued frame, but that only made it more magical and more intimate. The rounded boulder sat in a soft wash of warm sunlight, and the grass around it seemed to move and sway if she didn't look directly at it. It felt like looking into a camera obscura and glimpsing a moment in the past.

Sitting in the passenger seat of Gabe’s truck after a late lunch at Marco’s, while the rain still pounded relentlessly on the roof like a drum, she stared unseeing at the protective brown paper wrapping which was now spotted with raindrops. She ran her hands idly around the edges of the parcel, feeling the contours and details of the frame beneath her fingertips, and sighed expansively.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Gabe asked after climbing in and shutting the door with a gentle click. She got the impression he’d been looking at her for longer than she’d realised.

“Hmm?”

He smiled and her eye was caught by the soft, glinting light off the water droplets in his hair. It had gone curly in the rain, though not as wild as hers had. “I said, a penny for your thoughts?” he smiled.

“Oh.” Her gaze dropped back to the parcel and she sighed a second time. “I was just… I mean… looking at this is a bit like reliving the moment I found out about you,” she said. “About what you are, I mean. It’s… It’s like replaying the magic of it all over again.”

“Magic?” he said with a little snort of fond laughter. “You didn’t seem to think it was very magical at the time. The way I remember it, I scared the living shit out of you in the dark, and you nearly cracked your head open falling into the river.”

She had to laugh at that, but it petered out quickly. “No,” she said when she stopped. “You’re right, but… I didn’t mean it like that.”

Gabe sobered a little and asked a question with the tiniest shift in his eyes.

Odessa smiled at him again. “I just… I don’t really know how to explain it properly,” she huffed. “When I saw this painting, it reminded me of the moment I realised I’d found what I’ve been looking for my whole life, without even realising it — without… knowing what was even missing to start with, you know?”

You.

Gabe swallowed thickly and nodded. “Yeah,” he rasped and took her hand in his and squeezed. “I know.”

The short drive back to his house passed in silence; Odessa lost in thought as she cradled her new painting in her lap, and Gabe concentrating on the road while the rain thrashed down. “Hope this clears before you go back tomorrow,” he commented. “I don’t like the chances of your little VW on the roads round here.”

“I’ll be careful,” she said.

“I know.”

They raced inside but still ended up drenched, and Odessa left the painting on the dining table while Gabe went to run her a bath to warm her up. She draped her damp clothes over a radiator to dry them off and stepped into the steam of the bathroom a while later. Despite the gorgeously hot water though, she felt a lingering cold in her bones that had nothing to do with the grim weather of advancing autumn.

Gabe was still downstairs when she emerged from his en suite, and she began to dress herself mechanically, feeling oddly detached and stressed at the thought of leaving in the morning. Gabe came upstairs a few minutes later and found her sitting on the bed in just her jeans and her bra, staring listlessly at the floorboards with her t-shirt held limply in her hands.

Her crossed to her and when she looked dolefully up at him, he knelt between her legs and ran his hands up her thighs. “I know,” he said. “We’ll figure it out.”

She let her fingers rake through his wavy, salt and pepper hair, nails scraping deliciously over his scalp while he knelt with his head in her lap and his arms hugging her hips. The action calmed her a little, but her heart still thudded in her chest.

“You want me to shift?” he asked without looking up.

She paused. She did, but instead she just said, “Only if you want to.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he shook his head. “Not this close to a full moon shift, if I don’t have to.”

“Then don’t. This is more than enough.” And it was.

He kissed her thighs through her jeans and finally sat back on his heels. When he looked up at her, his eyes were gold. She motioned with her head for him to come and join her on the bed, and he slid his arm around her middle and tugged her down to lie on the covers with her back pressed against his stomach while he curled around her.

“Can I ask you about the full moon?” she ventured after a moment of just lying there in his arms while he breathed in the scent of her hair.

“Of course.”

Embarrassed, she prefaced her question with a quick huff of laughter. “Bear in mind I’ve only got movies and stuff to go on…”

Patient as ever, he just nodded.

“Does the full moon mean you have to shift? Does it affect you differently?”

He nodded a little, the movement brushing his nose through her curls. He drew her hair aside and kissed the nape of her neck before answering. “Yeah. We don’t shift uncontrollably, though,” he amended. “We can still remain human if we need to, but it’s right there — always a hair-trigger away. We’d have been wiped out a long time ago by hunters if we couldn’t stay hidden once every month if we really had to, and the wolves who live in the city would have a really hard time of it, but it’s just there,” he said again, and he curled the fingers of his left hand into a fist and flexed them again, like he was working stiffness out of his knuckle joints. “It makes us ache and itch and we don’t feel like we fit into our skin anymore. We become a lot more like our wolf selves too, mentally, even if we don’t shift.”

Odessa tried to hide a smile at that, but when he saw it over her shoulder, he hummed curiously and she let the smile become a giggle. “I’m not sure I can handle Human-Wolf-Gabe. You’ll just be too adorable.”

“I’ll be all over you like a rash,” he growled, and he didn’t sound exactly pleased about it. His usually sweet expression turned sour and he sighed. She turned onto her back and his hand traced the movement to land on her stomach instead. “I’ll be… not ‘possessive’ of you exactly, but I’ll want to touch you. A lot,” he said and he circled his palm absently over her stomach even as he said it. “And I won’t like it if someone comes near you if you’re not comfortable with it.”

“I’d hope you wouldn’t like that anyway,” she remarked dryly, remembering how he’d dealt with Jake that night when she’d felt threatened.

He tilted his head in a ‘point taken’ kind of way, and exhaled heavily. “I’ve kind of forgotten what it’s actually like to be around a wolf at the full moon though,” he muttered. “I usually shift once the sun sets, and spend the night in the woods, if I’m honest.”

“What about the dogs?”

“They stay here. They normally like running with me when I shift, but I’m not able to look out for them in the same way on the full moon. I’m not fully aware of everything in the same way.”

“When exactly is the full moon?”

“It’s… tomorrow night,” he said. His eyes were still bright gold and she wondered if he even realised.

Odessa glanced out of the window, where the dark pines around the edge of the clearing in front of his house danced and waved in the late afternoon rain that was still hurling itself from the flat, silver-grey sky. “Will you be ok?” she asked in a whisper. “I mean, I know you don’t lose control or anything, but…”

“I’m not going to run all the way to the city to find you,” he said with a wry smile at the corner of his lips and a kiss on her forehead. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”

She wasn’t about to admit that it had been.

“And you’re not going to wake up to a monstrous wolf at your door and animal control on the way.”

“Just checking,” she said, cheeks heating. “I guess I could stay? If it would be easier?”

Gabe seemed to give it serious thought, but eventually he shook his head. “No. I think it’s probably best if… if you’re not here this time. If that’s alright?”

“Of course it is,” she said, though she couldn’t help the slight sting of disappointment. Still, she’d experienced a lot of his wolf side in the two weeks she’d been with him, and he’d opened up a lot to a stranger already. “You’re the werewolf… it’s your call.”

He smiled and kissed her forehead. “You warmed up a bit now?”

She nodded. “Snuggling definitely helped.”

“Snuggling always helps,” he grinned, and yanked her right up against his body again. He started to scent her once more, and let out a long, low hum of satisfaction.

A few minutes later, Gabe’s ancient, indestructible Nokia buzzed to life on the bedside table behind him, the little blue brick of Stone Age technology vibrating obnoxiously, and both of them jumped and laughed. He rolled away with a reluctant grunt and read the message.

“Everything ok?”

“Mmm. Tala messaged,” he said. “Asking if we wanted to join a few people at the Boar and Hart tonight for dinner since it’s your last night.”

She swallowed and then nodded. It all felt terribly final again. “You’ll have to take me back to the cabin to change first,” she said. “These clothes are all crumpled after getting wet.”

“You look fine, but we can leave early and go via there.”

They still had hours until then, and what had started as tender, chaste affection soon stoked to a slow but white-hot passion. It began with Gabe running his hands up and down her torso, skimming the soft rolls around her belly and caressing her breasts over the soft, black fabric of her very ordinary bra, to him kneeling on the bed between her parted legs and kissing her inner thighs through her jeans while Odessa scraped her nails gently over the nape of his neck again. When Gabe undid the button of her jeans with careful precision, and drew down her underwear enough for him to kiss the dark hair right above her clit, he moaned and she lifted her hips.

He drew off her jeans and her underwear and she lay back again. Still kneeling, Gabe slid his palms under her thighs, cupping them and squeezing the muscle until she gasped and parted her legs even further for him. He laved his tongue over her and groaned as he tasted her. His nose nudged her clit as he slipped his tongue inside her, and when she gasped and tipped her head back into the pillows, he focused his tongue on her clit again and closed his lips around it in a way that had her crying out and shuddering.

After a while, Gabe sat back and drew off his grey t-shirt and ditched it on the floor, and Odessa drank in the sight of him; of his lean, lithe, outdoor body with its lingering tan lines from the summer and the sprinkling of greying hair across his chest; of the way he moved with all his wolfish focus still on her, as if his own body was merely an afterthought. He was fully hard when he returned to the bed beside her, but instead of letting him have his way with her, Odessa decided to enjoy him first.

She shook her head and smiled, turning her head towards the pillows beside her to get him to lie down next to her. Werewolves, she had quickly come to realise, were creatures that spoke as much with physical gesture as they did vocal language, and he understood immediately.

Lying on his back, with his hands quietly at his sides and his legs slightly parted, cock hard and already starting to weep clear pre-come onto his lower abs, Gabe lay there and stared golden-eyed at her, waiting to find out her will.

She ran her hands up his legs, feeling the way they shivered minutely under her touch, as though every cell in his body was attuned to her, and she let her thumbs trace the jutting outline of his hips. She cupped his balls in her warm palm and gripped the base of his cock briefly before working the shaft in her hand and groaning at just how hard he was for her. He thrust his head back into the pillows and let out an inhuman growl that filled the room and vibrated through her whole body, all the tendons in his neck and the muscles in his shoulders standing proud as he tensed and shivered and exhaled roughly.

“Love that sound, Gabe,” she whispered and it grew louder. “Yes, like that. Don’t hold it back. I want to hear you, Gabe.”

“Odessa,” he hissed between panting gasps.

“My wolf…”

His spine arched and one leg bent and drew up at the knee before he straightened it again, heel driving into the sheets and rucking up the duvet. He desperately wanted more but seemed just content enough for the time being to lie there and let her enjoy him. She loved him all the more for that just then.

Before she made him come from her hand alone, she leaned down over his torso and pressed her naked body flush against his, her breasts resting against his chest, her wet, burning core sliding along the hard length of him. Gabe’s self-control fractured just a little more and he grabbed her hips and kneaded the softness of her arse hard enough that it almost hurt, grinding her down against his hard cock for a little relief.

She kissed his collarbones and his pecs, and then brought both hands to the base of his skull and scrunched his hair, pulling it with unyielding slowness until he let out another sound that was halfway between a moan and a howl. He rutted his pelvis upwards, his hard cock sliding through her wetness, and he gasped her name again, pulling her as close to him as he could without actually being inside her yet.

They moved slowly, savouring the intensity of every motion, and before too long they were both out of breath.

“Oh God, Odessa,” he whimpered, showing thick canines as the shift started to creep over him. “I need you, please…”

“You have me,” she smiled, kissing him full on the mouth. Then she used his shoulders to push herself upright, and after one final, slick roll along the length of his cock, she sank down onto him.

The sound he made as he slid slowly into her tight heat struck her to the core and he curled his torso slowly up towards her, abs clenching, lost in how good she felt, eyes rolling back. “You’re perfect,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “God, Odessa, you’re everything. I can’t — I —”

She rose up before he could slide all the way inside her, and when she sank down again, he all but sobbed.

Taking her time, Odessa watched him unravel beneath her.

Sometimes his spine arched right off the bed, head pressing back into the pillows, while other times he curled upwards towards her, his hands caressing her breasts and then guiding her the motion of her hips until he fell back again, rendered weak and gasping as she tensed her muscles around him and rocked in a certain way that made his eyes flare brighter.

When he began to shake and snarl uncontrollably, she picked up her pace, leaning forward a little to brace one hand on his solid shoulder while she rocked and raised her hips. She felt the sharp prick of claws at her hips and on her thighs and looked up to find his lips drawn back to reveal thick canines. His silver-brown hairline crept a little further forward over his temples and his beard reached a little higher up his cheeks, and he swore.

Heaving growls filled the room, reverberating through her ribs.

“Odessa,” he said in a much deeper and rougher voice than usual. It felt almost primal as he growled, “I’m so close. Please, come with me… I —” He cut off, and his body bucked and shuddered again as pleasure and the need to shift warred inside him.

She realised he couldn’t properly touch her body without hurting her, his claws preventing him from making her come with his hands, and it was that which was driving him wild with frustration. A fond smile grew across her lips and she paused to lean down and kiss his forehead. He snarled at her, but it was mostly laughter, and she apologised for breaking the rhythm by clenching her muscles around him again and sinking as far down onto his cock as she could, grinding her hips in a decadent circle that made both of them gasp.

“Oh God, Odessa, please,” he begged, breathless and desperate.

“Take over for me?” she said, going still and bringing her fingertips to her aching, swollen clit while bracing up on her thighs to give him room to move beneath her. At the slick relief of her fingertips against her core, she moaned and Gabe immediately started to drive his hips up into her in a frantic rhythm.

He caught her just so with every upward thrust, and the snarling, animal, inhuman growls that poured out of him and filled the room only intensified her pleasure. Dizzy with how good it felt to be this close to him, she began to moan and cry out, her left hand still gripping his shoulder for balance and stability while he drove himself repeatedly upwards into her. “I’m going to come, Gabe,” she gasped, head bowing forwards, dark hair forming a curtain of curls over one shoulder. With a little effort, she pushed herself back on her hips to drive him deeper still.

“Close too,” he growled around a mouthful of fangs. “God you feel so good. You’re perfect. I love you, Odessa. I’m yours. I love you, I love you—” he chanted it over and over and then with a rictus snarl he drove up into her one last time and spilled with a muffled grunt.

She could feel his cock spurting and emptying inside her while his body rocked with the force of his orgasm, and with a final couple of nudges against her own clit, she spasmed around him with a broken yell that must have left his ears ringing.

Still coming, Gabe held her close, pulling her hips down onto his cock as if to keep her as near as physically possible for as long as he could. His jaw was clenched, his chest and neck flushed, and his forehead came up to meet her neck while he rocked and growled through his ongoing orgasm. His dark claws pricked into her flesh, only adding to the searing pleasure coursing through her whole body.

Odessa came so hard her vision whited out, but when she finally stopped twitching and moaning, she slumped down onto his chest and listened to his pounding heartbeat for a long time. His cock still occasionally pulsed inside her but his claws retreated and he began to run his fingertips up her sides and across her back, heedless of the sweat that stippled her spine and the little, skittering spasms that shivered through her.

When the wolf had retreated completely from his eyes, he opened them and gazed at her. “You alright?” he croaked.

“Mmmph,” she mumbled and kissed his neck.

A broken moan left him at the press of her lips against his hammering pulse and he resumed his quiet admiration of her body with gentle hands until he eventually began to soften, and she worried about making a mess on the relatively clean sheets. He tried to protest that it didn't matter, but she was having none of it, and eventually he let her get up.

Odessa — very deliberately — only cleaned up as much as necessary to be comfortable before she dressed again, and when she came back into the room and caught the way his nose lifted just a fraction while he sat on the edge of the bed, she smiled with calculated innocence.

He shook his head and smirked at her.

She crossed to him and stood between his parted knees, and held his face in her hands. His short beard was soft against her palms and she experienced an almost overwhelming wave of affection for him as he stared up at her and smiled.

“I love you too, Gabe,” she whispered, and then she kissed him.

Next Chapter -->

I wish you a joyous festive season, and if you don’t celebrate, I hope you have a warm and cosy day all the same. Thanks for reading this far in their story, and I hope that you’ll consider reblogging this as well as leaving a like if you enjoyed it.

Take care, and I hope you have a lovely day/night wherever you are, and whenever you read this.

Masterlist | Ko-fi (tip jar)

#gabe & odessa #werewolf #male werewolf #male werewolf x female character #werewolf boyfriend #exophilia #monster boyfriend #werewolf romance #shifter romance

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theemarsrover · 2 years

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Important announcement regarding the fansite.

Erlande (@kingpattillo) and I have made the extremely difficult decision to archive the site. You can read more about it in our final update. If you don’t see it right away please be sure you clear your browser’s cache. Otherwise, I’ll be copying the text into a read more for those of you who are on mobile.

We said it in the post but thank you to everyone who supported us in making this. We’re so proud of the work we did and so happy that it was such an amazing resource for so many people. While this situation sucks, it’s been heartwarming that our sense of community hasn’t gone away.

Thanks again <3

The Final Update

Yeah, this shouldn't be surprising, considering that a lot has happened over the weekend.

First, on October 14th, Matt Bragg made this tweet explaining that his position at Achievement Hunter had been dissolved. If you weren't around for it, this news was met with an outpour of support from the community and fellow RT/AH employees. Matt's stream the following day blew his sub goals out of the water, ending with over 15,000 Twitch subs. While the community focused on showering Matt with love, there were also questions about why Rooster Teeth dissolved the position of one of their beloved talents. Kdin Jenzen then made this tweet shortly after the community started to talk about Matt's leave, and how upset they were about it.

Kdin's account of the transphobia, wage theft, and workplace abuse she suffered while working at RT was extremely heartbreaking to read. Apologies from Michael, Gavin, and Geoff came out soon after. While Michael's tweet was met with this reply from Kdin saying she forgave him, and Gavin's got no interaction from Kdin at all. Most notably, her reply to Geoff was a direct call to action. Here is a link to that interaction.

Soon, Twitter was flooded with ex-employees, contractors, and former friends of Rooster Teeth, who all had similar things to say. Many of them talk about crunchtime, overtime that was never compensated, pay that was laughably low when compared to the industry standard, and an HR department that seemed pretty keen on keeping a lawsuit from happening, rather than helping their employees.

We won't be linking any specific threads here on the fansite because there are just so many of them. A quick search of "Rooster Teeth" on Twitter will pull up a lot, as well as Tumblr. The Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter subreddits have a lot of information, too.

The two of us started this project on March 30th, 2022 because of our mutual love for Achievement Hunter. Initially, we saw a need for a site like this, a place where general information about Achievement Hunter could be found. Our main goal was that we wanted this to be a place where the community could come and check out what's new, see any announcements they missed, and have a comprehensive list of series and descriptions. We had so many plans for this website that will now never come to fruition.

We cannot in good faith continue to produce fan content for a company that treats their employees the way Rooster Teeth does. We fully condemn their actions and stand firmly with the victims and the people who have suffered underneath them. Over the years, it has become clear that the company, despite the trials and tribulations of so many former (and current) employees, refuses to change for the better. They have cultivated a toxic culture that has come to a head this weekend, and because of that, we've made the heavy decision to archive the website.

The site will remain up, and the features of it all active, but besides some minor maintenance, we will no longer be making updates to it. We put a lot of hard work and effort into this site to just see it gone, so it will remain up as a resource, like it was always meant to be. We really wish it didn't have to end like this. It would have been nice to at least see this site turn one year old, but the people who have suffered under Rooster Teeth mean more to us, and we will always stand by them.

Finally, we want to say thank you to everyone who has visited the fansite, as well as those who have sent us words of encouragement on our personal Tumblr accounts. The fansite couldn't have gone over as well as it did without your guys' help and support. Despite everything, we're glad we can still come together as a community.

We love you, Erlande and Mars ♡

#achievement hunter #rooster teeth #main tagging this because i know a lot of people use this who don't follow us

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steviewashere · 11 months

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We Share This Life by steviewashere on AO3

Back in August of this year, I purchased a copy of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. (It's a beautiful read so far and I highly recommend it.) To say the words move me, would be an understatement. But they found a way to highly influence some of my newer writing, including a new fic I'm putting out into the world.

This multi-chapter fic follows Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Nancy Wheeler, and Robin Buckley threw the throes of life and everyday normal. They start out living in the same apartment complex, the story unfolds from there. I wanted to really center around the fact that all these characters would be highly traumatized, and most likely have nerve damage or migraines or chronic pain, things that make living a little tougher. (As someone with both chronic pain and migraines, I can confirm this.) The chapters will release when each section is written (each section dedicated to a new year or time-skip), but I'm hoping all is well worth it. The summary is below, tags will be updated as chapters are released. Happy reading <3 (Please Heed All Tags Before Reading, It May Sound and Look Terrifying; I Assure That There is Comfort There Too.)

After Vecna is defeated, Steve Harrington and Eddie Munson and Nancy Wheeler and Robin Buckley all choose to try normal day to day life again. In it, they discover the secrets each one keeps. As well as the true love they hold for one Steve Harrington. A slice of life story with time skips, community college, minimum wage jobs, shared dinners, and gentle care. Inspired by "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara (not a necessary read at all, but just know some of the subject matter is similar).

—

"On Saturdays, the older gentleman at the restaurant's counter would welcome the same group. Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley and Eddie Munson and Nancy Wheeler—special occasions also brought Jonathan Byers and his stoned out friend, Argyle. But it was always the similar rotation and their pale faces with deep-set eye-bags and rough chuckles and darting eyes. Them and their various states of drunk or stoned or half-asleep, half-awake or grim or jittery. Preppy polo and bomber jacket and blue denim vest and floral skirt. The same, while also being drastically different. It's Nancy that orders and Steve who pays and Robin who rambles and Eddie whose laugh seems to jostle the plastic covered table."

#stranger things #steddie #ronance #fanfiction #ao3 #angst #hurt/comfort #roommates

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kvalenagle · 11 months

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It's a chaotic week, and there's no better way to greet a grumpy Wednesday than with this @merteazy Blinky art <3 It's a week of doctor visits and medical tests, which always leaves me grumpy because I can't always get any editing done. Pridelord is mostly through line edits, which are going fairly fast, but I needed to take a break to add in a new Whisper scene. I'll avoid spoilers, but there was a subplot I considered taking on to Saberbeak before finishing it, and when I was doing my line edits, I realized that I had the perfect moment to pay it off right then. It just required a few nudges. Most books don't get scenes added in the line edit phase, but the large ones like Ashen Weald or Crackling Sea had the same thing come up. If you're new to book creation, everyone is a little different, but my novels usually go through the following phases. Story-related ones are slow, the rest can be as fast as a single day or two. 1. I write the book. This is actually the first and second draft. Before I start writing for the day, I read and edit what I wrote yesterday. That helps keep it fresh in my mind. I ran a test early on when it took me an hour to write a thousand words, and I found that if I had just read/edited the last thousand words I wrote, it took about 30 minutes, and the writing went twice as fast. So this turned out to be a 'free' second edit as I went along. 2. I read through it in Scrivener (the most common novelist word processor) and make changes. My goal here is to fix story issues, foreshadowing, etc. 3. I read through it out loud with my spouse. My brain will often leap from A to D, and his brain needs B and C to be there. If I'm reading it out loud, he can tell me what he needs to make sure the logic flows, and I can usually find a way of saying it that works perfectly for me, too. And reading aloud catches some errors that I wouldn't normally find. 4. I hand it off to my developmental editor, Dustin Porta, and my beta readers. These steps used to be separate, but there's a lot of redundancy here. It's also a case where sometimes Dustin has a feeling but we need data from how fans think. A lot of Foultner and Henders scenes get saved here. I'll go through his feedback (~500+ fixes, some bigger than others), and go through beta feedback. Beta reader probably deserves its own post, but the biggest problem with editing isn't finding problems... it's the author editing out the good parts. Beta readers are flagging their favorite bits first, before the mistakes, so I don't delete, say, Cherine from the novel. 5. I print it out and do a line edit myself. This fixes prose, pacing, language, imagery, and echoes. This is about making sure the language compliments the story and doesn't detract from it. 6. It goes off to Tim Marquitz, my copy editor. This is spelling/grammar/etc. He catches the grammar things that're invisible to me. 7. I do a final printed read-through with a green pen (things I want to fix but probably shouldn't so I don't introduce new errors) and red pen (things that if I saw in someone else's book, I'd consider an error, and must fix.) There's usually a proofreader in here, too. You expect to catch 95% errors from each pass. This is often when the Patreon supporters get their ebook version =] Though it gets updated with the release version if typos are found after here. 8. The audiobook narrator, James Scott Spaid, begins recording the book. He'll always catch some things that got past everyone else by virtue of saying them out loud and doing the sound engineering. Once he finishes, I listen through, suggest changes if any come up, and an audio proofreader comes in. Usually once I've listened, Patreons get the audiobook. And during this phase, the final formatting and printed proofs are happening since the page count is finalized even if a typo or two gets fixed. And that's it =] Eight big steps from start to finish. The first steps are by far the slowest because they involve story changes.

#gryphins #gryphon insurrection #creature fantasy #fantasy #epic fantasy #animal fiction #xenofiction #fantasy writing #gryphons #griffins #gryfons #griffons #owl gryphons #pridelord

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 1 year

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Welcome To The Show

Summary:

Scenario 1: Introduction Description: Kill one living thing before the time runs out! Time limit: 10 minutes Penalty for lack of completion: Death Reward: 1000 Coins per kill

(ORV Maribat au)

Adrien had spent many hours reading online. It was better than laying there, in the dead of night. Wondering if his father really loved him if he kept him locked up in this house. Wondering whether his mother’s disappearance was as sudden as his father claimed. Wondering why, if both him and his father were at home as often as they were, Adrien never seemed to see him.

Was it him? What did he do? Could he fix it? Please, tell him how –.

No, he would much rather peruse the internet for content.

This was how he found the story. Three ways to survive the apocalypse. Or Ways of Survival, for short.

It was a work created by an online novelist, who dropped thousands of words weekly. They were, perhaps, a little wordy, a little too concerned with sidestories and lore and fleshed out too many side characters and all the like, but… Adrien couldn’t help but be enchanted. His heart practically jumped out of his chest every time his email got a notification that the work had been updated. There was something about the writer’s specific style that kept him coming back, over and over again, week in and week out. Kept him commenting on what he liked and what his theories were every chapter.

He was the only one reading. Had been since practically the start. After about fifty updates, people started to dwindle… and, by the hundredth, he was the only one. Adrien understood, most people had lives, but he didn’t. Not outside of this story, at least.

That would have discouraged many writers, and yet his writer kept going. After a while, it started feeling like the writer was specifically writing for him.

It felt like a love letter made for him, personally. And he was happy to respond in kind, professing his own love in the comments and in occasional donations when he thought his father wouldn’t notice the chunk taken out of his bank account.

And now it was done. The final update. 3049 updates later. After years and years and years…

Here it was.

But the ending was… strange. Sudden. He never truly got to know just what the Ways of Survival were.

Just that, apparently, he would survive having read this story.

Funny, tongue and cheek. But still strange.

He frowned to himself. Maybe he had missed something? Maybe the author wasn’t all that good at endings? Maybe the Ways of Survival were supposed to be implied?

Well, he could always reread it later, for now he would write out a quick comment:

OmniscientReadersViewpoint: I’m sure it’s a huge weight off of your chest to get this thing done with. I can’t wait to reread it all over and over again!

And, for the first time, he got a response.

TSL123: Thank you for always reading my work. Can I have your email address? I’d like to send you something to thank you.

His heart pounded in his chest as he, slowly, letter by letter, typed out his email address. He looked it over multiple times, making sure that he had spelled it right.

And then he hit send.

It didn’t take much longer than a minute for his email to get a notification.

[email protected]: My story has won a contest, and must subsequently be taken down. I would like to give you this copy for safekeeping.

Adrien’s eyes widened as he quickly opened the attachment, and found the story there, as promised. Had the author been refraining from publishing for his sake? And now giving him a free copy so he wouldn’t have to pay for the actual thing?

He smiled. He would have paid millions for the copy, if asked, but he appreciated the gesture. He hugged his phone to his chest, falling back in bed and staring at the ceiling.

And it was then that he was hit with one, very important question:

What now?

He probably should move on at some point. Read something new. But how could anything else compare?

A new hobby, perhaps? But were there a lot of things he could do without leaving his room? Maybe he could get into the fencing classes or modeling his father made him do, but he doubted it, if he hadn't found a passion in it after all these years then he probably wouldn't start now…

He was pulled from his musings by a brilliant purple light. He groaned and peeked one open, half expecting Nathalie to be shining a flashlight into his face to see if he was alive without touching him, only to find something similar to a screen hovering in front of his face.

For a second, his eyes couldn’t really focus on the words. Instead, they slid off, to the strange shape of the screen. It was shaped… like a butterfly?

His eyes snapped back to the white text.

Scenario 1: Introduction Description: Kill one living thing before the time runs out! Time limit: 10 minutes Penalty for lack of completion: Death Reward: 1000 Coins per kill

This… had to be a joke, right? The same format, the same words… it was all reminiscent of the first chapter of Ways of Survival. Someone had to be messing with him. But how could it be a prank? He slowly reached out to poke the screen in front of him, expecting his hand to go right through it, because it had to be the product of a nearby projector or something, but instead he hit something that was very similar in texture to glass.

He gripped the sides of the butterfly, dragging it down to inspect it, looking for a string that might hold it up, and yet… there was nothing.

And, as the shockingly sharp glass began to split the skin of his palms, making blood spill over the sides, staining the otherwise pretty purple, he realized that it couldn't be a dream, either, because his hands hurt.

He tossed the glass to the side, but it didn’t even give him the relief of shattering on the ground, instead disappearing the second it was out of his hands.

But whatever. He was on a time limit.

Stuffing his phone in his pocket, more on instinct than anything, he rushed out of his bedroom.

Okay. Okay. Okay. He knew that the doors and windows to get out would be locked.

A butterfly of purple light fluttered by:

Gabriel Agreste has completed the mission! +1000 Coins!

+1000 Coins for a First Kill Bonus!

Already? Thought Adrien.

He swallowed thickly. His dad had probably noticed the same thing he had.

The rules said to kill a living thing, not necessarily a person.

He swung a hand out, trying to swat the little butterfly, but it had dissipated into thin air before he’d even gotten near it.

Yeah, that would have been too easy.

The ladder to the attic rattled loudly in the otherwise silent house, he didn’t even let the thing fully click into place before he clambered up it, eyes flickering around desperately in search of any kind of movement among the dust.

But he couldn’t find anything. Just a chair, some boxes, and old pictures of his mother that had been left to gather dust.

Why was it that the one time he actually wanted to see a spider, there weren't any around?

The ladder creaked again, and Adrien whipped around.

Nathalie.

He was almost relieved to see her alive. It meant that his dad hadn’t murdered her without hesitation. It meant that his dad had likely found a bug to squash. It meant that, maybe, his dad might have been innocent in his mom’s disappearance.

Almost relieved.

For Nathalie had a knife clutched in trembling hands and tears spilling down her cheeks.

It didn’t take a genius to see what was going on.

“Miss Nathalie…” Adrien began carefully, holding up his empty hands placatingly, backing up slowly, until he couldn’t anymore, blocked by boxes and the damned chair. “I’m going to find bugs for us to kill, we don’t have to do this…”

Nathalie shook her head. “Time is running out,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“So am I.”

She lunged for him.

Adrien hit her with the wooden chair.

The chair shattered upon impact. Her body was flung to the side, glasses skidding across the ground, her thin form splayed across a pile of boxes. The knife clattered to the floor. Blood spilled from the wound.

The last piece of the chair slipped from his fingers.

He couldn’t seem to stop staring at her glasses. Laying on the wood, one of the lenses cracked. Blood beginning to spill down a nearby box to puddle at the feet of the glasses frames.

Purple light curled itself by his arm.

Special skill (4th wall) activated.

Nathalie started to lift her head, groaning.

Adrien knelt to pick up the knife.

He… should have felt worse about it.

He didn’t feel much of anything.

It didn’t even, really, feel like him. It felt more like he was reading about two characters. Distantly, he might be a little sad, but overall it was… fine. He was assured in the fact that it wasn’t really real, and that the person he was reading about was messed up because they were written to be that way not because of him, and that he could always just close the book for the night and go home.

Adrien Agreste has completed the mission! +1000 Coins!

Scenario over!

A few Kwamis are interested in you.

Kaalki has sponsored you +500 Coins!

He dismissed the screens with a lazy wave of his hand. For half a second, his eyes caught on the red staining his skin.

Oh. He had been bleeding earlier. It probably wasn’t good that he’d also gotten Nathalie’s blood on his hands.

He grimaced and cut the end of his shirt up to make two thin strips of cloth to wrap his hands in. It now looked like his tee was a crop top, but he didn’t particularly care as he tied off his hands.

Someone popped into view. It was a tiny person, no larger than the palm of Adrien’s hand, old and probably the type to hobble around with a cane if it were not for the fact that it was a mystical being and could fly.

“Hello! My name is Fu!” He said, coming to hover by his face. “Congratulations on completing the first Scenario! And thank you for not being annoying about how it had to be fake and all that like everyone else, the Kwami get upset when I kill too many potential Incarnations, but sometimes it’s necessary to prove a point. You get me, right?”

Adrien nodded, only half listening, his gaze flitting around in search of anything that might be of use.

Well, the boxes were all clothes and random trinkets his mom had left behind, and the photographs… well, he supposed he could shatter them for glass shards, those could be weapons, but it seemed redundant when he had a knife.

“Ah, I knew you’d understand! If only you’d tell my bosses that! Ha! Now, before your next task, I’d like you to – you’re not listening, are you?” The being pouted.

He scooped up Nathalie’s glasses and then turned to face him, sending a smile worthy of the model he was. “I’m listening. Second Scenario soon. I need to choose a Kwami to sponsor me.”

“I… never got to the sponsorship part,” Fu said, backing up just slightly, seeming confused.

“Context clues,” Adrien sighed, looking up at him. “How do I pick?”

Another butterfly popped into being, and he looked over the list of names that meant little to anyone besides him and, possibly, depending on which Reincarnation he was on, the Batman.

It was longer than expected, but likely nothing compared to the one that Batman would be seeing.

Kaalki

Probably because he was rich. Kaalki was known for liking upper-class people. Choosing them would not give him a leg up over anyone in Bristol.Plagg

Powerful, but dwindles your sanity every time you call upon their power.

Trixx

A good power, almost too good, to the point where it had had to be nerfed by making their Incarnation’s teeth just a little too sharp. Which, of course, would put everyone on guard once they realized what Trixx’s holders could do.

Longg

He didn’t know why they were interested in him, but he didn’t think he could live up to their standards.

Plotter

Adrien stared at that name for quite a while. It was different than the others, missing the five-letter naming scheme, and he didn’t recognize it in the slightest. He hesitated for just a moment, almost tempted to click on it just to see what he would get, but decided against it just as quickly.

He stared at the options he did know for quite a while before selecting Plagg. He had a few theories about his Fourth Wall ability, and he would love to know whether it would counter Plagg’s drawbacks at all.

It wasn’t like he was going to last long, anyways. He wasn’t delusional. It was the apocalypse, and he wasn’t a main character, he didn’t have the same kind of plot armor that Batman did. Chances were, his death was imminent.

So, he really wouldn’t have to worry about his sanity for long.

Besides…

“So, do I head out for the second Scenario now, or…?”

Fu looked at him for a long moment. A purple screen of his own, though infinitesimally smaller, appeared by Fu’s head, and he scrutinized it for a moment. The screen disappeared, then rematerialized, then dematerialized, then he checked again…

He looked at Adrien.

“Why is there no information on you?”

“Why would I know?” Adrien lied. It was almost definitely because he wasn’t an actual character, and therefore no profile should exist for him. “You’re the one with all the fancy stuff.”

Fu frowned at him for just a moment more, before dismissing both him and the screen with a wave of his hand.

“Sure. Head outside, the next Scenario will be starting soon.”

Adrien shoved Nathalie’s glasses and his knife into his pockets as roughly as he dared, and then made his way out of the house.

A few other people were poking their heads out.

Adrien hesitated in the doorway. He glanced back, listening for anyone in the house. But his father was nowhere to be seen.

Not unusual, but… he had hoped that, maybe, his father would have come out and, now that they had both lived through a life and death situation, realize just how precious Adrien was to him. Like in the movies.

But, unfortunately for Adrien, this was very real.

Scenario 2: Get to Gotham! Description: The bubble surrounding the Gotham-Bristol-Burnside area is shrinking by the second! Get to a safe zone in Gotham before time runs out! Time limit: 1 hour Penalty for lack of completion: ???? Reward: 1000 coins

He sighed.

It really was just like the book.

Kaalki’s teleportation would have been good right now. But it was doable, Batman had completed this stretch many-a-times, and had only chosen Kaalki once, on his first Reincarnation.

Besides, Adrien had Coins, and knew how the Store worked.

He pulled up the Store, and started investing in his Stats. His base score was… well, about expected. He did fencing, but only once a week, and he spent the rest of his time reading.

There was a Sanity score, too, which… was a little foreboding, even when at 100.

500 Coins into endurance, definitely, and another 250 coins into speed just to make sure…

Speed: 7 -> 8 Strength: 6 Endurance: 3 -> 5 Sanity levels: 100

He scrolled through some lower-level items, and then opted for a rebreather for 100 Coins.

There. And he still had 650 Coins left!

Yeah, that should be enough. Hopefully.

He glance back inside his house. Still nothing to indicate Gabriel Agreste was even alive, though Adrien knew he had to be.

He shook his head. No use stalling any longer. He started jogging. The bridge on its own was a 30-minute walk, and it wasn’t a nice stroll to the bridge itself, either. Making it in an hour would be difficult.

A couple of people passed him, running at top speed, but he would catch up soon enough. Rich people weren’t known for being extremely athletic, and endurance would be a problem in this Scenario…

His eyes found their way to a young boy who had popped into thin air next to him. The boy was small, probably six or so if Adrien had to guess. He wore a set of pajamas adorned with tiny Spongebobs and Patricks. This clashed terribly with the blood caked underneath his fingernails and the hefty lead pipe he held over his shoulder like a baseball bat. He panted heavily, sweat making his black hair fall in limp ringlets around his face.

Was that…

Character profile: opened.

Character profile?

Tim Drake, 8 Speed: 3 Strength: 4 Endurance: 2 Kwami: Kaalki Special skill: Picture Perfect (Unlocked) Other skill(s): none at the moment

Oh, that was helpful.

More importantly.

He was right! That was –!

Your understanding of this character is high. Would you like to make a bookmark?

Shut up, cryptic but also somehow helpful screen, he’s busy.

Holy crap. That was Tim Drake.

Adrien fought the urge to squeal.

He neared him, blood-covered hands behind his back. Everyone alive now would be murderers, for the most part, but he didn’t know whether Tim had come to that realization yet, and he didn’t want to risk scaring him.

More than necessary.

“Hey, are you good?”

The kid swung at him.

Adrien dodged easily, having been more than ready for that. “You have to up your Endurance in the Store, if you want to use your power more,” he repeated the words he knew would work, for they had worked thousands of times for Batman.

He found himself quietly wondering which Reincarnation Batman was on. Obviously, if Adrien could help it, this would be the last, but he hoped for the first as well. Less trauma, more idealistic, less likely to kill himself after any one thing went even slightly wrong… yes, that Reincarnation would be the easiest for Adrien to help with his expansive knowledge of the world he had found himself suddenly thrust into.

But, for now, he would help Tim.

Tim, who was eyeing him warily. “Store?”

“Mhmm. It should appear at your fingertips if you ask it to.”

Tim glanced at him, and then at his hand, and then back at him. And then, hesitantly, his other hand still holding his pipe in a vice grip, he lifted a hand and said “Store, please.”

It wasn’t necessary to say it aloud, but Adrien didn’t correct him. God, this scene was even cuter in person.

The 4th wall is shaking.

…

The 4th wall is restored.

Adrien glanced at the screen out of the corner of his eyes. Hm.

Nevermind that for now.

Tim hesitantly used all of his Coins to up his Endurance to a 6, and instantly relief washed over him, the tension in his shoulders lessening visibly. He smiled at him. “Thank you. How’d you find that out?”

“Well,” said Adrien. “Once you hit sixteen, you get this magical ability to know everything.”

Tim squinted at him for a minute. “Dad does say teens are know-it-alls…”

“Exactly,” Adrien said, fighting off a laugh. “Once you’re my age, you can know-it-all, too.”

“Like curse words?” Tim said, his eyes gleaming.

“Especially curse words,” Adrien said solemnly.

Some Kwamis have taken a liking to your new friendship.

Tikki has sponsored you +500 Coins.

Secretive Plotter has sponsored you +100 Coins.

There it was, the true way to get Coins. Scenarios were good and all, but could last several days. No, what you needed to do was get Kwamis to watch you, and get them to root for you.

Plagg urges you to hurry along.

And the Kwami you choose as your Sponsor has the most weight on your decisions. Money was great, and could buy you either good items or stats, but when you were an Incarnation then you would have to abide by the rules of your specific Kwami, because they were the only one that could give you a buff. And a buff could be the difference between life and death.

“Are we on a gameshow?” Tim asked, eyeing a screen of his own, though Adrien couldn’t see it. “They’re cheering for me.”

“Something like that,” Adrien said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “If they’re cheering for you, then you’re doing good. If they’re not, then you need to do something good.”

Tim nodded diligently. “You sure are smart, Mister!”

“Adrien is fine, and thanks, but I’m just well-read,” Adrien said, his lips twitching into a kind of grin. “Can I know your name?”

“Oh! Tim! Tim Drake!” he stopped walking to stick a hand out.

Adrien took his small hand in his, and then tugged his arm, forcing him to walk again. “We can do formalities when we get to a safe zone, yeah?”

Tim looked at their interlocked hands for just a moment before breaking into a wide smile.

“Okay, Mist – Adrien!”

The Kwamis are cooing over you.

Tikki has sponsored you +500 coins.

Adrien and Tim shared smiles as they stepped onto the bridge with thirty-five minutes to go.

No wonder Batman kept choosing Tim. The kid really did pick up things fast.

Speaking of Batman choosing Tim…

“Who are you?”

They both whipped around.

“Tim!” Tim squeaked.

The man’s eyes lingered on Tim for a moment, then trailed to their interlocked hands, then found its way to Adrien’s face.

“I don’t know you.”

“Adrien Agreste. Now you do.”

Batman didn’t seem particularly amused by the joke. He stalked towards Adrien, only to stop when Tim held out his pipe, stepping between Adrien and Batman oh god.

Adrien placed his hands on Tim’s shoulders. “Hey, hey, no, we’re not threatening the very scary man, okay?”

Tim frowned up at him for a moment.

“I’ll be fine. Head across the bridge, okay?”

Tim looked skeptical for just a moment. He glanced at Batman, then Adrien. There was a… very visible strength difference.

Adrien pulled out his knife. “There. I’ll be alright. Head over, okay?”

Wayzz has sponsored you +1000 Coins.

Plagg is calling you a self-sacrificing idiot.

Tim sent him one last, wary look before teleporting halfway down the bridge.

Adrien dismissed the screens with a wave of his free hand, stuffing his knife into his pocket once again, and then looked at Batman.

“Why are you here? Nothing I did up to this point should have caused any changes.”

Adrien shrugged. “No clue.”

You are under the scrutiny of a Lie Detection skill.

You have passed.

Adrien smiled. “Glad we’ve cleared that up, can I go now? Time’s a-ticking, y’know.”

Batman raised an eyebrow. “No, because you brushed past the words ‘Nothing I did up to this point should have caused any changes’ without blinking. How do you know about my Reincarnations?”

“I –,” Adrien said, backing up a step. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I just didn’t want to make things awkward by asking!”

You are under the scrutiny of a Lie Detection skill.

Whoops.

You have failed.

Adrien swallowed thickly. It suddenly dawned on him just how intimidating Batman was. Well over six feet tall and approximately 200 pounds of pure muscle. Dark hair throwing his eyes into shadow. And advancing on him very quickly.

He had to fight an instinctive urge to test out the power Plagg had given him. Because, chances were, the spell would bounce off of the man’s plot armor, and if it didn’t then he would experience hell in the next Reincarnation. If he would even be there for it.

And… a hand gripped his shirt, and Adrien might have squealed over the man being so close to him and real, but knuckles pressed against his windpipe, and he was far more concerned with trying to keep his feet on the ground. His hands scrabbled at the one on his collar, desperate to loosen his grip. Fruitless in his attempts.

He should have invested some money into Strength.

The 4th wall is shaking.

Great, thanks. Just what he needed.

His mouth went dry.

Step by step, Adrien was forced closer to the edge.

“WAITwaitwait, I know the future!” Adrien screamed, desperate as his heels passed over the edge.

Batman paused.

His eyebrows knit together.

You are under the scrutiny of a Lie Detection skill.

You have passed.

“A prophet,” Batman mused aloud.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” Adrien said.

Batman stared him down for just a moment.

“Oh, really? You say you know the future?”

His grip shifted to hug Adrien’s throat, and he lifted Adrien straight off of the bridge, letting him dangle.

The water really was oh-so-far away.

“Then prove it. Will I let go, or not?”

Adrien, shakily, removed one of the hands that had been scrabbling at Batman’s.

He flipped him off. “Just drop me already.”

For just a moment, Batman, the man known for caring about nothing other than his goal, Vengeance personified, Bruce Wayne… smiled at him.

“Perhaps you are a prophet, after all.”

He let go.

~~~~~~~~~

#ttt #tag team tournament #maribat #rare flair #bruce & adrien #ig #how dare you guys inspireme

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krampusandthewitch · 10 months

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Krampus & the Witch Update #6

Merry Krampusnacht everyone! It has been quite the year for Krampus & the Witch. The series is currently sitting at roughly 2 and a half chapters so far. Both Chapters 3 and 4 are being worked on diligently by the artists simultaneously. More details on that soon to come.

This year, I’ve dipped my toes into the world of conventions and flea markets, vending at a whopping total of 4 events. This coming week, I will be doing a 5th event, another punk flea market. That’s not me complaining, I think that was about all I can handle so far. Interacting with people and getting to tell them all about my comic while making a bit of cash is a fun way to spend a weekend. I’ve definitely learned a lot from experiencing these events and hope to carry that experience into 2024.

For those of you who don’t know, today, December 5th, is Krampusnacht. According to nationaltoday.com: “Throughout the night on December 5, men dress up as the Krampus, drink alcohol, and celebrate on the streets.” The character is theorized to predate Christianity, but “Such a pagan entity may have been absorbed into the seasonal traditions to become part of the celebrations leading up to Christmas.” What’s interesting to me is that in post-Christian Alpine narratives, Krampus and Saint Nicholas are not opponents, but partners. Saint Nick would give the good children gifts, and instead of coal like us soft Americans get, the naughty kids would get a swat with a stick from Krampus, some legends saying Krampus kidnaps the naughty children.

Obviously there is only so much one could glean about a character from the first two chapters of a story, but just to state the obvious, I am taking substantial creative liberties with the K&tW version of Krampus. However, I want to make sure I pay respect to certain ideas and traditions that are inextricably linked to the character. I believe that’s why I was drawn to the character conceptually. This idea of a character tied to a holiday tradition that punishes others intrigued me, but I found myself asking many questions, such as:

“Does he enjoy it? Take glee in it?”

“Does Krampus actively choose who is going after, or is he bound by Saint Nicholas somehow?”

“What if Krampus wasn’t doing this because he wanted to, but he was being forced to through some sort of coercion?”

“Is Krampus good, evil, or something more complicated than that?”

As far as those who have read the comic on webtoon, globalcomix, bought a physical copy of chapters 1 or 2, bought a shirt, or hell even liked my posts on Instagram… anything that you have done to support this project. I have to say is thank you. You are the reason this is happening. Krampus & the Witch as a series is still just getting started. I need all the support I can get so that the series can continue to a satisfactory conclusion.

Until then, have a merry Krampusnacht and once more, thank you for reading!

Eric Lee Parker, December 5, 2023

#comics #krampusnacht #krampus&thewitch #webcomic #witch

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amandacanwrite · 10 months

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So, I'm Rewriting Something I Just Published

This post has two acts. First, a confession of sorts. Then, an update, a little peer behind the veil, please pay attention to the woman behind the curtain.

So, here’s the confession.

I was going to just secretly, quietly, unnoticed-ly re-release a recent short story I published in the form of a tiny book on amazon. I was just going to finish rewriting it and update the original file I uploaded and pretend that nothing ever changed. Do the ole-one-two-switcheroo.

But then I remembered that I’ve just been wanting to be overall more transparent and honest in my newsletters. And that I actually want to tell you guys about the process of writing it and what I’m learning in the process.

So here I am, telling you about how impulsive and goofy I am. I hope you enjoy it.

Here’s the thing. My idea in publishing it on a whim was to claim my amazon author profile so that I could start promoting it, encouraging people to follow it, so that when my debut novel comes out next year people actually get notified about it. Seems like a clever idea, right? Or at least it did to me. Honestly, marketing is at best a hobby I do poorly at this point, but I’m trying to figure it out.

I figured I would just put something out that I was decently confident about and focus on just linking to the profile itself and forgetting about the specific work.

The problem being I actually really like the story and have wanted to expand it for months. After receiving a proof copy of the physical book and reading it, I found myself stuck on the potential it had and I shifted my focus to writing more of the story.

In classic “me” fashion, what started as the intention to add maybe two thousand words to flesh it out a bit more has now evolved into a narrative that will probably require another ten or eleven thousand words. It’s becoming a novella. Because I have approximately zero chill.

(By the way, this is not new, The Hallowed Wilds was only supposed to be forty-thousand words and now with another twenty-thousand to go it’s already clocking in at a whopping sixty-thousand words. So yes, I routinely have to double the size of my projects because they take off without me.)

And also due to my inability to harness any chill, I also just want to scream at you guys about the whole thing. I wanna talk about the drafting, the editing, the visuals, the inspirations. I want to just gab about all of it.

So that’s the backstory, let me get into the stuff that I actually want to tell you about now, a little peer behind the curtain for my simultaneous WIP mixed with an already published novlette called A Waltz with the Bone King.

This idea came to be years ago, collaboratively, with my best friend Eden, who I have mentioned before in this newsletter. We are big fans of text-based role playing, and before you get awkward, it’s not the sexy thing. It’s the nerdy thing.

This was a story we came up with together about a woman obsessed with the macabre literally being courted by death. It was one I always loved and, with her blessing, I’ve been playing with writing it as a narrative for a while now—several times over the last year, honestly. The idea first came to us after seeing this lovely image by Illustrator Abigail Larson.

The story follows a sickly, frail woman named Lorelai Hunt. She’s the sole daughter of a wealthy widower that lives in the country, away from society. He purchased his estate there after his wife, Lorelai’s mother, fell ill and they have lived there ever since.

Oddly enough, this looks almost exactly how I envision her.

Lorelai’s mother, Hanne, died when Lorelai was only six or seven and it shook her deeply.

Not long after her mother’s death, Lorelai started to be visited by spirits. She was doted upon by ghostly nannies while her father processed his grief, in many ways she was reared by these paranormal experiences until she started to get too old to peer past the veil quite so easily.

She found comfort in reading about theories on what happens after death, reading dark poetry, and as she aged, even reading about what happens to the body after a soul had left it.

As a result, many people thought she was odd and, at the time of the story, tend to avoid her and ridicule her behind their gloved hands. Much to her father’s dismay, she has had no gentleman callers or prospective suitors, but Lorelai herself isn’t bothered. She would rather die a spinster than consign herself to a life with a husband who doesn’t understand her, especially with the example her parents set as a perfect love match.

But matters get complicated when Westley Harper, a young man from the city, takes a curious interest in her despite his clear distaste for the things she is interested in. Honestly, one of my favorite parts to write was Lorelai and Westley’s first conversation and I hope you enjoy it as well:

“Do you like history, Mr. Harper?” I asked. “Please, Westley is fine,” he said. “And of course, a young man must be well versed on such subjects.” “I’ve been reading about the French Revolution and Marie Antoinette,” I said. “It really is a tragedy what happened to them, don’t you think? Coming to power when they were no more than children—only to fall in love and have their romance cut short by their untimely deaths.” “I suppose it would take a tender heart such as yours to extend such compassion to monarchs who were so unliked,” he said. “I heard that Marie Antoinette collapsed in the courtroom when the bells tolled signaling King Louis’s death—” I said before adding as an aside. “Did you know that some doctors theorize that the head continues perceiving up to several minutes after being removed from the body?” Westley’s face tightened, only slightly with how well he managed his own reactions, but I saw it nonetheless. “Don’t you think that’s fascinating?” I pressed on. “What do you suppose he thought of in those final moments?” “I imagine he thought only of pain,” he responded. “Why ever would he think on pain when he was no longer connected to any of the anatomy that could cause the sensation of it?” I challenged. “Maybe he marveled at the fact that he was still thinking at all—” “Is that what you would do? Think ‘Ah, I’m still sentient. Fascinating,’ and then die?” Westley sighed and smoothed a hand through his perfect hair again, his irritation apparent and growing. “I imagine that I would be thinking of vengeance against those who had wronged me.” Finally, an honest answer! “I see—” I said, tapping my lace fan to my lacquered lips. “So, you’d continue to the next phase of existence as a vengeful spirit.”

I hope this gives you an idea of why Lorelai is so fun to write. She’s strange and a little hard headed. I love the dichotomy of her stubborn qualities offset by her openness to the unexplained; her intelligence paired with her oddness and superstitions.

By no surprise, shortly after this meeting Lorelai meets The Bone King during one of her visits to the graveyard and that’s where our story really starts to unfold.

“Who are you?” I asked him. “Well, you already know exactly who I am, don’t you?” he asked me as he carefully picked up the shattered teacup, the crimson liquid staining his satin gloves like blood. “Or you at least have an inkling.” His tone wasn’t the same condescending indulgence that Westley had used with me when I’d attended that social with Papa. It was conversational, light, and a little playful. If he’d had any flesh on the bones of his face, I could almost see the little dimpled smile he’d have when he said it. “So…you’re…the king of death?” I finally made myself say. “I am,” he said. “I’ve had many names over the millennia—Hades, The Grim Reaper, The Angel of Death, Thanatos, Hel… the list continues, and the faces and genders change based on region.” “What do you call yourself?” I asked. “I do not call myself anything,” he stated as he finished picking up the last of the teacup and vanishing it before my eyes, along with the red stains on his gloves. “I simply am.” “That’s a very enigmatic thing to say,” I said, a little put out. “What should I call you?” “Call me whatever you like, Little Flower,” he said.

And this is basically where I’m left off in the drafting process.

The story right now sits at about 13,000 words and I anticipate it finishing up around 20,000 words. I’m writing it as quickly as my brain will let me after finishing my daily freelancing writing, and I’m hoping to have it finished in the next couple of weeks. However, if you’d like to read the current iteration, it’s available on Kindle Unlimited or for just a dollar for the e-book version.

It isn’t bad in its current form, but it definitely will benefit from being fleshed out, I think you’ll see that.

In the meanwhile, I’m going to try to keep you guys in the loop on the whole process and the lead up to an Actual Proper Launch TM.

In the meanwhile, do you guys like updates like this? Or is this too much of an info dump? Comment below and let me know!

#writing community #writers on tumblr #writing #authors #my writing #writeblr #romantasy #book quotes #historical fantasy #A Waltz with the Bone King #Bone King

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