#I’ll share more prep stuff when the actual comic comes out

[b-a-l-a-n-c-3]

Miscellaneous doodles as I’m boarding the first Act of the comic

[keyheartsia-dorm]

The Dorm Leaders with a S/O who Burned themselves making Microwave Food

(This is definitely not something that just happened to me like 10 minutes ago but you should definitely like and subscribe and don’t forget to hit the Bell icon Cause seriously some parts of my hand Hurt like a B...Not that I burned myself or anything)

Riddle Rosehearts

• So Your feeling a Gosh dang HUNGER

• You’re too hungry to wait For Trey to bake anything So

• So Kennel Corn it is!

• In your HUNGER daze you threw the popcorn in carelessly and forget to Press the Popcorn Button and just pressed the 4 Button instead of the 3 Button like you meant to even though 3 PROBABLY would’ve Ruined Your Popcorn anyway

• You text Riddle to see if he’d wanna Share some Popcorn He said he would bring some Tarts he had just put in the oven So you waited...Thinking about Food...not noticing the disaster you were Setting into place

• Anyway you Open the Microwave Full of Hope like a Doe being born on a beautiful spring day then as soon as the black Popcorn started shooting out of your Microwave in Ramshackle you then had the same disappointment as a spring Doe who was just forced to watch Fox and the Hound Like Holy Heck that Movie gives me the Hecko Deppreso

• One Burning Kernel Hit your Cheek Just as you Wince Riddle Comes into your Kitchen With Wide eyes

• He Drags you out Picnic Basket with Tarts in Hand and Takes you to the Nurse’s Office and Asks for...whatever Burned people Need As He Patches you up you 2 Share a ~Moment~

“Riddle Honestly it’s not THAT big of a deal” You Chuckle Anxiously “Don’t be Ridiculous Y/N!” he keeps Patching you up “It Must Seriously Hurt..” He looks a little Sad and while looking sadly into your eyes he kisses your cheek where the Burn was you wince as He Quickly Spits an Apology you Chuckle “You can Kiss it better if you want~” he Looks away bright Red as you 2 Sit in the Nurse’s Office Sharing Tarts

Leona King Scholar

• “I can’t Hecking Cook!!!” you found yourself Exclaiming in the Savannaclaw Kitchen Ruffling your hair

• You see Poor F-Ing Ruggie Needs a Break that’s not a secret to anyone (# Please Stop Hyena Abuse # Please Edit A Garfield Comic Where Leona is Garfield and Ruggie is John) so you said you’d make Leona his Lunch

• why the Heck you said you’d do this you Adorable stupid Hecking Idiot you but hey you did dumb dumb

• So here you are looking in the Freezer and BINGO Big ole Meat Chunk!

• So you being A fanfic protagonist Put a giant mystery meat chunk in the microwave pressed some Buttons and said..”Eh Good enough” Guess your sex god heart throb Boyfriend Is rubbing off on you ok I see how it is Y/N OK I SEE HOW IT IS

• Anyway besides my needless aggression with my words You started to look for some utensils you found A Bento Box and a Spoon thank goodness but you figured you might Need some mittens Lunch was soon and The meat was long done but no mittens

• You take it out..and HOLY MOTHER GOD WHY DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA YOUR PALMS MIGHT AS WELL BE ON FIRE

• Leona Nonchalantly Enters The scene cause Ruggie Told him you’d be making his Lunch and Lunch started like 15 Minutes ago

• He looks at the Scene before him and sighs and takes your hands like the sex god heartthrob he is and looks at your red palms almost Deadpanning

Your face a light red “Yeah...I know I massively Screwed up with your Lunch But I really wanted t-“ “I know And I appreciate it even though you are a massive screw up..But you keep trying I appreciate that about you” He starts to lick your Palms and your face Erupts into a Blush “What the Heck!?!” he looks up at you “It’s to cool your hands down but you ARE gonna go get me Food from the vending machine afterwards”

Azul Ashengrotto

• you slam your Hands Dramaticly on your Kitchen Table “I CANNOT ACCEPT ANYMORE FREEBIES FROM THE MONSTRO LOUNGE” You were sure Azul Would start making you pay if not Azul Jade for sure

• So time to start making Food for yourself!! You Quickly Head to a Convience store where a Certain Chaotic Neutral Eel Notices you Buying like 10 Frozen...PIECES OF FOOD

• You Dump like all off them on your Counter and Choose to make some Weird fish

• You Slap that Sorry Sucker in the Microwave and like the other Sorry Suckers in this Scenario you will Burn yourself and beautiful Bishounen Shenanigans will ensue but we’re not there yet

• You literally just bought a piece of not even normal looking fish Of course it didn’t come with a Time Recommendation So you while staring at it for like 10 minutes (Letting it thaw quite a bit but you didn’t notice) You threw it in for 7 And figured “eh 7’s a lucky number this’ll work” Didn’t you read Leona’s Scenario? What happened when THEY said Eh

• You Dumby You Dating a Merman Boughta Eat a fish Dumbo what do you have? Ears?

• Anyway Floyd and And Azul are Chatting well it’s more like Floyd is talking At Azul while he does paper work Yeah I totally Saw them Buying a bunch a Random Frozen Weird Massively Weird Right? Anyway So Apparently They Let you Mix ALL THE slushie is Flavors”

• Azul hearing this After finishing up some more Paperwork Decides to go Visit You and to his Shock he finds you Trying to hold a Basically at this point Charcoal Fish and when you drop It on your leg Leaving a SEXY weird fish shaped burn he’s Immediately on that

He puts a Hand to his Temple and sighs For a Moment before sweeping you off your feet before you could say a word..the you did say a word a few in fact “I’m Sorry Azul I know you can’t give me freebies forever but I’m a terrible cook” He Kisses your forehead and gives you a reassuring look “You’re my Beloved you can rely on me as much as you want I’ll get you some bandages when we’re back at the monstro lounge and Jade will make you something not made of Charcoal” and you bet he carried you all the way

Kalim Al Asim

• you both wanted to cook Something for Jamil...Okay this’ll go south fast.

• the road to Heck Is often Paved with Good intentions

• You Were tasked with picking out food and Kalim for Kitchen Prep

• Anyway Let’s get this poor Wreck Jamil’s gonna have to fix over with

• “I Picked out some Tofu! Smart people like tofu right?

• Kalim Tossed that And all sortsa Stuff Into the Microwave and Waved off all your concerns figuring it’ll be fine! come on Y/N you coward Your a fanfic Protag you don’t have to think Silly goose no thoughts head empty

• like 15 minutes later you 2 Hear Smoke while trying to make Pulpless Handsqueezed Orange Juice cause HECK PULP

• He Opened The Microwave and the only thing that Looked even Remotely salvageable was the tofu and because you 2 are the cutest most head empty Couple Apparently you didn’t Put a plate underneath so you braving all the danger reached into the Microwave...

“Ouch!” You teared up a little And were about to Put your finger in your mouth as you do Before Kalim put your finger in his Mouth You looked at him shell shocked after a couple seconds he started pressing light kisses on them “I’m so sorry! I should’ve thought this through more! I’ll nurse you back to health!” And For the rest of the day he essentially treated you like you were crippled he carried you he fed you everything don’t worry you slipped away for a little to clean up the mess in the kitchen before Jamil got back Kalim Babysitting is always an Experience to be Had for sure

Vil Schoenheit

• “Vil! I wanna Eat Carbs Heck you!!”

• if that’s not how Every story I do With Vil Starts I’ll be Gosh Danged

• “FINE EAT YOUR MAC AND CHEESE YOU’LL RUE THE DAY-“

• anyway after you stopped listening to him you looked him DEAD in the eyes and Shoved that frozen Mac and Cheese in the Microwave and slammed...Some Numbers In wow what a power move

• He Gasped and Power walked away

• You Laughing Manically Triumphantly

• But after awhile you felt kinda bad and decided to make some Carb free food for Vil as an Apology for Deliberatly and spitefully trying to make him Mad

• But that was the final nail in your microwaved coffin When you took out your Luckily not entirely burned Mac and Cheesies it was real hot like

• You were trying To get it to a plate Quickly And Spilled some on your Wrist Luckily Your Sexy mean Boyfriend was Here To save the day and wow he’s holding something”

“Sweet Potato?” He peeked through the Door and saw you Holding your Wrists in Pain he immediately walked in And Held them tenderly “I’m Sorry Sweet Potato things got heated I did get you a..Low Carb Meal at Olive Garden I Hope this Makes things up to you I know I can’t Control your life it’s just kinda my nature” You Smiled at him through the pain “It’s Fine Vil I got WAY too Mad I’m sorry I made you a salad” you both Enjoyed your food him feeding you yours then later he put some lotion on your Wrists

YES ITS BEST BOY-

Idia Shroud

• Omg it’s the best boy 🥺

• I mean I am not Partial to any character Do not worry I do not want to be in a Poly relationship with both Malleus and Idia

• So you wanted To Hang Out with your Boyfriend today he said sure but that he would be Busy doing raids with his Online friends you agreed and even said you’d bring snacks which you did

• Including Instant Ramen! My-I mean YOUR favorite

• you decided to show how reliable in the Kitchen you are to your boyfriend by making such a Delicacy for him while he doesn’t have the time to himself at the moment

• This is will work out Well

• You decide to do it in your kitchen and bring to him

• this will work out well

• You..ACTUALLY MAKE IT PERFECTLY

• You also Make it mostly towards his room before divine intervention Intervines and says That’s not the point of this fanfic idiot

• It probably mostly worked out for you cause you have the best taste tho so-

• Ortho Hears a Mighty Loud Catwerwhail (here’s hoping I spelled that right) and Comes to check whose outside the door

• “Big Sister/Brother?” He Quickly Runs some Water on your Shoulder and Bandages you Up And Leads you in Idia’s Room With the snacks in tow meanwhile he’s wondering if your Ok or not

“Idia Senpai!” You Sit next to him And he notices your Bandages “What Happened?” You look away a little Blushing a bit “I Spilled hot Instant Ramen on my shoulder Ortho parched me up though but! I brought the rest of the snacks though sor-“ Before you can apologize he Puts his Jacket on your shoulders “No I’m sorry for not noticing I would’ve...Tried to help” His sad expression turns into one of his Competitve smirks “I’ll Finish this Raid Boss so Quicker then you even Burned Yourself!” And He did cause he’s the best Gamer boy then you played Monoply With Him and Ortho cause he’s the best boy you have the best taste RAMEN TASTES SO GOOD-

Malleus Draconia

• My Second Love I mean nothing Let’s finish this I’ve been here since like 4 it’s 7 rn

• You invited Malleus to dinner And you wanted a Good Blanced Dinner!

• Chicken From Panda Express

• McDonald’s Chocolate Milk

• Some Patties from Burger King

• Oh Yeah Veggies!

• Wait! Everything’s Closed now!!! Y/N I KEPT TELLING YOU TO STOP BEING DUM-

• Oh you have some frozen Vegetables? Okay Touch��

• You Toss them in the Microwave for 6 Minutes and get ready

• You dress as Nicely as Possible in 10 Minutes cause you plan Things Horribly apparently...not that I relete having been here for like at least 2 hours

• He’s Here~ him being Also the best boy is already setting the table with Magic cause he’s just nice like that and even Enchanted the food to be set on the table and the milk in the Glasses

• But you INSISTED to present The Vegetables

• “Child of Man I really don’t min-“ “No! I got this really!!”

• Let’s see how well that turned out for you

You got the Vegetables Outta the Microwave in such a Haste you didn’t even notice how hot it was and dumped it on the plate it wasn’t horribly burnt but was Horribly Hot Malleus was Amazed though “So Man’s Growing Vegetables in Bags now?..” he Reached to touch but you smacked his hand away so fast your hand touched the food and burned you “Ouch! I’m sorry Mal But it’s really hot” He immediately Understood and Summoned some Magical Water as he do and your burn was gone “I love you Child of man even though us Fae Can’t burn you tried to shield me anyway my sweet gentle Child of man”...Did you know that I ain’t know that?

I have a Masterlist it has all my X reader fics And my Oc Stuff I will be Adding this in like a day or 2 probably now if you’ll excuse me I never Wanna Look at another word again except also I’m literally probably gonna go read fanfic

[meruz]

Aforementioned long ask post please excuse me while i try to figure out tumblr's new text editor. I’ll get into the art meme questions first and then the rest at the end.

Ok first of all thank you all for sending in questions! Giving me an excuse to talk hehe. I’ll address these in number order. Here’s a link to the ask meme for reference but also I’ll restate the question for ease of reading.

1. When did you get into art?

Super cliche answer but I don’t remember a time where I WASN’T the weird art kid! I started keeping a dedicated sketchbook when I was about 12? But here’s a page from my kindergarten journal about what I want to be when I grow up.

2. What art-related sites have you ever signed up for? 

LOL this is a weird question. Not sure why so many people want to know. Anyways I definitely had a dA. more than one dA account. I used to browse oekakis when I was a kid but I think I was only signed up to some small ones that internet friends owned. What else...? Mangabullet,Tegakie, Paintberri, iscribble back when that was a thing, instagram if that COUNTs, I used to post art on livejournal and dreamwidth too. Patreon, I guess. Gumroad, inprnt, bigcartel, storenvy all for selling stuff.

In terms of resources.. I have a schoolism account that I’m sharing with friends. Used to take classes on coursera for free. I signed up to textures.com for work recently haha. I can’t remember if I ever had an account on posemaniacs. Did they have accounts...? I definitely used to visit all the time.

3. Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

Alright here’s me actually logging into my old deviantart account. These are from September 2008 So I was 13 years old. I don’t have a deviantart account from before then because 13 was the required age for having an account and I didn’t want to lie about my age because I wanted people to be impressed by how young yet clearly incredible at art I was LOL.

4. What defines your artistic style?

You guys are probably more equipped to answer this than me but uh... I wanna say... Focus on colors. And... a slightly heavy hand? Like confident... not always well-considered mark making HAH...

Also I think I have a pretty healthy mix of american comics/manga influences. I feel like people who are into american comics always think my art is too manga and people who are into anime/manga always think my art is too american. And I’m taking that as a good sign.

5. Do you practice other styles/have you tried other styles in the past?

I like to think I switch it up a bunch! I mean, these are pretty different, right?

I think I’ve mentioned this before but one thing I really took away from art school is that, for an illustrator at least, art style shouldn’t be consistent. Your greatest weapon is changing the aspects of your style based on the task, the emotions and message you want to illustrate etc. So depending on the project I’m working on, the fandom I’m drawing for, whether I want something to be funny or serious or dramatic, I’ll change things about my style all the time.

One thing I don’t rly post on here is really tight polished work and that’s because I do that for my day job haha. If you’re not paying me... I’m probably not gonna color in the lines.

6. What levels of artistic education have you had?

I have a whole ass diploma LOL. Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. from the Rhode Island School of Design. And I had a great college experience tbh. Besides the student loans. If any of you guys are thinking about art school feel free to e-mail or message me questions or concerns, I’ll be happy to help. Be as honest as I can be.

7. Show us at least one picture you drew or sketched recently that you did not put on a public site.

heres the wandavision kids. Uhh what else do I have...I feel like I’m rummaging for loose change here...

assorted valentines prep doodles

8. What is your favourite piece that you have done?

Well, obviously this is gonna change all the time and generally it’s gonna be my most recent piece LOL. So yeah, why the hell not. I’ll say it’s this one. I have a pretty short memory which I count as a blessing for an artist. I don’t dwell that long on older work and it keeps me moving forward.

10. What do you like most about your art?

I like that it’s something that only I would make! I had this thought fairly recently and I wrote it down in my sketchbook, it’s pretty cheesy and rambling but it felt revolutionary at the time:

So yeah. I like my art best when it’s the most me and for me. And I like it least when it feels like I’m just making something for social media or for other people’s expectations or whatever.

14. What do you like drawing the most?

Kids in baggy clothing are like my go-to LOL idk if that’s obvious. but also I like being challenged so lately I’ve really loved drawing multi-character compositions, environments, weird angles, etc.

oh i LOVE drawing the underside of shoes lol. And bandages. People that are kinda beat up.. I think it comes from getting a bunch of cuts all the time. I’m always patching myself up and I want to patch characters up too.

15. What do you like drawing the least?

mmm I try to find something to like in every drawing but lets see... I don’t like doing commissions of people’s dogs. Just because it’s normally like... a family friend and my mom volunteered me without my consent and I don’t even really know what they’re expecting me to draw and I don’t even get to meet the dog. Also I’m not that great at dog anatomy. Trying to learn though.

18. What is your purpose for drawing?

This could have a million answers! Uhhh to GIT GOOD??? But also to express myself... and also to make money... I mean it depends on what the drawing IS. I draw fanart mostly to connect to people in the fandom so if you ever see me drawing fanart please take it as like an open invitation to talk to me about the character haha. 

20. How would you rank your art? (poor, mediocre, good, etc.)

Good!!! I have a lot of self-confidence primarily born out of ignorance and a short attention span. If I don’t think too hard about how many other artists are mindblowingly unfathombly good... its easy to think I’m good too! LOL

In all seriousness though, I think the opinion a person has of their art is like a crazy balancing act, right? Like you have to think you suck enough to want to get better but also you have to think you’re good enough to not want to give up. I think we’re all walking that line, I know I am! But also I’m a glass half-full type of person so. Most of the time I feel good about it.

22. List at least one of your “artspirations.”

This is a good question because I’ve been trying and failing to put together one of those “influence map” memes for like a full month now. What’s giving me a hard time is I feel like none of these are actually really obvious “““influences”““ in my art? Like it’s hard to see a lot of them in the work I make...? But idk maybe you guys’ll see what I can’t.

And these are just a couple! God there’s so many more. I could talk about other artists for ages, from all different genres of art. Daumier, Rockwell like every illustrator out there, Dana Gibson, Alex Toth, Hiroshi Yoshida, a lot of the Brandywine School. Lots of current working artists too, Karl Kerschl, frikkin Masashi Kishimoto lol, Jake Wyatt, Richie Pope, Edouard Caplain, Matt Cook, Sachin Teng, - lots of big internet artists, Sophie Li, Freddy Carrasco, Milliofish, Angela Sung... like all my friends from art school too. I could just keep going but I’ll stop for now lol.

24. Do you have a shameful art past? (recolour sprite comics, tracing art, etc.)

I mean if that’s how we’re defining shameful?? sure LOL. It’s not sprite comics but I used to do pokemon sprite recolors all the time. And I used to trace manga panels and color them... Granted this was all when I was like under 12 yrs old so it’s not even embarrassing. Can you really call it shameful when a 7 year old wets the bed or whatever? Not really. In fact some of these are cool as fuck. Look

25. Draw a picture!

Man I’m so tired now but here.

I used to get a lot of compliments for drawing people smiling lol but I don’t think I’ve drawn a lot of smiling lately.. here’s proof I’ve still got it.

OK MEME DONE. onto the rest.

I read this ask first thing when i opened my computer in the morning and it made me really emotional.. I’m so glad my sketches could help you!!

I think a lot of artists on social media talk about the struggle of making art but imo not enough people talk about the joy! Like I know it’s corny but. I really meant what I said at the beginning of that sketchbook about re-contextualizing art around process and progress > product and perfection. I think its super important..! The strength of messy, unfinished, and energetic art! For the feeling of it, for the love it!

That's crazy!!! I hope you like 'em. The whole line of x-books is really good rn imo.

Hi! I totally have the answer for digital stuff on my faq lol. But in terms of drawing on paper.. it varies! I tend to use sketchbooking and any on-paper doodling I do as a way to loosen up/warm-up or experiment. But right now my go-to aresenal is:

from top > bottom

- kuretake no.55 doublesided brush pen

- tombow fudenosuke

- muji 0.38 ballpoint

- medium size poscas

- grey tombow double brush pens

- good ol bic mechanical pencil

not EXACTly sure which inking you referring to from my sketchbook but if I had to take a guess it'd probably be the kuretake no55. That's been my main inker, lately. Great for sketching with the thin end too.

You can print out and eat my art if you like. Just please don't mass produce or re-sell. <3

Thanks! I've come to accept that my art is always gonna be sort of gestural and painty naturally. It's getting it to tighten up enough to be legible that's hard lol...

uh yeah lol I agree actually. I think yolei is great.

I assume these asks are related? LOL

1) Yeah totally true. I love David.

2) I don’t take requests, sorry! But if you want to commission me to draw Legion i would be MORE than happy to. Just e-mail me at isellhotdogs@gmail.com.

<33333333333333333333333333

[electrictoes]

Closer Than We Are

For @dailysvu's Amanda Rollins Week

Day 4:  Cuddling Characters: Amanda Rollins, Sonny Carisi, Jesse Rollins. Guest Appearances: Olivia Benson, Kat Tamin, Billie Rollins, Noah Porter Benson Relationship: Amanda Rollins / Sonny Carisi Warnings: None

Read on AO3

The first time that Amanda found herself cuddled up with Sonny it was almost 4am, and they were both exhausted.

Jesse had been teething and Amanda had barely slept all week, so when Sonny had offered to come over and cook dinner she’d gratefully accepted - just the thought of someone else being in the apartment with her was enough, the fact that he was also going to provide food that didn’t come from a packet was an added bonus.

They’d had a few late nights at work that week - Sonny and Fin had born the brunt, covering for Amanda so that she could spend time with Jesse, however little rest that actually gave her - so he was tired too, but when Jesse had started screaming after dinner Sonny had told Amanda to stay where she was sitting half asleep on the couch.

She watched bleary eyed as he brought Jesse out of her bedroom and into the living room, her screams subsiding briefly as she mouthed at the knuckle of his index finger; he was holding Jesse against his chest with his left hand while she chewed on his right and Amanda watched as he paced the room with her, trying to keep her calm and soothe her back to sleep. Amanda was grateful for his help; she was doing better than she herself would've predicted at this mom thing, but having another pair of hands never hurt. Jesse eventually settled against him and he carefully carried her back to her crib before joining Amanda on the couch.

They talked a little, but mostly they sat in a companionable silence, watching sitcom reruns from opposite ends of the couch. Jesse was back up an hour later, and when Amanda eventually settled her again and came back to the living room Sonny’s eyes were closed; his head tilted back against the couch cushions. “Carisi, you don’t have to stay.”

“Nah,” he said, opening his eyes again, “It’s fine, I think you’re in for a rough night, I wanna help.”

Amanda sighed, “You don’t have to.”

“She’s my goddaughter,” he said, as though spending his Friday night listening to Jesse’s cries was part of the job description.

Amanda didn’t know how many times they had been up and down with Jesse by the time the clock ticked over to 2am, but she had begun to move past exhaustion. Sonny was back to pacing the room, Jesse drooling over his shoulder as she cried, Sonny rubbing gentle circles on her back, singing off-key lullabies. “Rollins, I’ve got her - go to bed.”

“I’m fine,” Amanda protested; he shook his head but he didn’t argue.

When Jesse drifted off against his chest, he carefully sat down on the couch again, his hand on the back of her little head as she slept fitfully; Amanda watched Jesse move with the rise and fall of his chest, and she reached out to stroke Jesse’s cheek, to rest her fingertips on her daughter’s back.

The next thing she knew, Jesse was wailing again; Amanda blinked open her eyes and found her arms had wound around Sonny as well as Jesse; he was awake too - no one in a five block radius was sleeping through Jesse’s howls - but he didn’t pull away from her; he just smiled a tired smile over the top of Jesse’s head. Amanda didn’t move away either; she didn’t have the energy.

Sonny gently shushed Jesse, whispering to her; he lifted her carefully, moving her so that she was facing Amanda, and they sat there in the dim light of the TV, Amanda’s eyes on her baby girl, one arm still slung along Sonny’s torso, her head resting on his shoulder as Jesse reached out, touching a tiny hand to Amanda’s face, her whimpers dying down as exhaustion took her again.

Dinner and bad TV had kind of become a weekly tradition - sometimes Sonny would cook for them, and some nights, when they were both worn down by a difficult week at work, they would order pizza and the three of would them flop down onto the couch, Jesse between Amanda and Sonny, and they would watch cartoons or kids' movies until Jesse dropped off, her head leaning against her godfather’s side, her feet digging into Amanda’s legs.

One of them - usually Sonny - would scoop Jesse up eventually and tuck her into bed with a kiss goodnight. The TV volume would get turned down a little lower, the cartoons switched over, and they’d watch something - anything - that they didn’t have to care about.

It was comfortable, that time with Sonny - the groove they’d gotten into over the past couple of years. Jesse had spent her whole life having weekly dinners with Uncle Sonny, and Amanda had found a friend she would never have predicted when he walked into the squad room three years ago. They laughed together - a lot - and he never judged her about the big stuff (the small stuff, sure, how many times had he bemoaned her lack of decent cookware?); she didn’t feel like she had to stand on ceremony with him; he didn’t complain about the dishes in the sink, the laundry hanging up about the place - and he told her things about himself, normal, everyday things, and she found herself opening up to him too. Not about everything, but she shared things about her past, about her family, that she had always held back from other people.

Tonight, they were tired, and if her head dropped onto his shoulder while they were talking, it didn’t mean anything more than that. He’d put a documentary on and she wasn’t even too sure what it was about - so she closed her eyes for just a second, or at least she had meant for it to be just a second.

When she woke up her head was still on his shoulder, and her arm was across his chest; he was leaning into her too, one of his hands resting just above her hip, and she was so comfortable, she felt so safe, that she just closed her eyes again, sinking back into sleep without thinking about it too much.

When they woke again hours later, still intertwined, they shared a brief, slightly awkward smile as they pulled apart. Amanda wasn’t about it admit it, but she felt better rested than she had in a long time.

Sonny wasn’t at his desk when Amanda got to work, and he was usually there before her unless they made plans to meet for coffee or breakfast beforehand. She hadn’t seen him the night before, didn’t know what his plans had been, but for some reason his absence bothered her. She sat down at her desk and kept an eye on the door waiting for him to come in - an hour passed and there was still no sign of him, so she sent him a text - just a quick “you ok?” - she glanced at her phone periodically but the message status never changed to Read. The morning was quiet - both Liv and Fin were meeting with Stone for trial prep first thing, and Amanda was working her way through a backlog of reports in between checking her phone.

Two hours after she got to work, around two hours and ten minutes after Sonny would usually have put in an appearance, Liv walked in and approached Amanda’s desk. “Carisi’s out sick today,” she said, “Can you meet Fin at Mercy? We’ve just had a call.”

Amanda frowned. “Sick? Carisi? He’s like fifty percent hand sanitiser.”

“Yeah, I think it’s the flu, he didn't sound great on the phone.”

For the rest of the day Amanda’s mind was on Sonny; she’d sent a couple more texts but he hadn’t even read them, and it was so rare for him to get sick - she wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she was worried. When she got out of work she text her nanny to say she needed to make a stop on her way home, and she drove over to Sonny’s apartment with cold medicine and Gatorade.

When Amanda knocked on Sonny’s apartment door there was no answer; she called his phone but she could hear it ringing unanswered inside the apartment, which only served to increase her worry. Eventually she pulled out her keys, scrambling to find the key he'd given her for emergencies; she knocked twice more before opening the door, calling out his name as she entered the apartment.

She didn’t visit his apartment often; could count the number of times she’d been here on one hand, in fact - she wasn’t exactly comfortable in this space like he was in hers, and she felt like an intruder as she walked down the hallway, still calling out to him. When she reached his living room she saw him. He was lying on the couch, his feet hanging off the end in a way that would be comical if he didn’t look so utterly wrecked; his eyes were glazed over, his breathing unsteady, and it took him a second to notice her.

“Rollins?” he said when he spotted her - his voice coming out croaky and weak. “Why are you…”

“I was worried,” she told him, crossing the room and putting the back of her hand to his forehead - he was burning up. “You weren’t answering my messages.”

“M’fine,” he mumbled, “Just restin’.”

“I don’t think you are fine, Dominick,” she brushed his hair back from his forehead and he let out a noise somewhere between a whimper and a moan.

“S’nice,” he said, leaning into her touch.

“Where’s your thermometer?” she asked, “I know you’ve got one.”

“Somewhere,” he says unhelpfully. She moved away and he sighed, lifting a hand to reach out to her, “Don’t go.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Amanda still felt like she was intruding as she went into the bathroom, opening his medicine cabinet and making a point of not looking too closely at the contents - she found a thermometer easily enough and headed back out to the living room. She’d been gone barely two minutes, but he smiled like it had been a decade since he last saw her.

His temperature was 103, and she told him so. He frowned. “No, m’cold,” he said, disbelief in his tone.

“I’m sure,” Amanda said soothingly. It took several attempts to coax him into sitting up, and to find out that he hadn’t taken any medication yet, and another five minutes to persuade him to swallow the cold medicine.

She sat beside him on the couch, slotting in to the space he left when he sat up, taking a sip from the bottle of Gatorade she’d handed him. He dropped back against her a moment later, leaning into her, barely able to support his own weight. She swept her hand through his hair again as his head lolled on her shoulder.

“You should go,” he murmured into her neck.

“I’m staying until the medicine kicks in,” Amanda told him him, her fingers still in his hair.

“But the girls-”

“They’re fine,”she assured him, “they’re with the sitter.”

“I’ll get you sick,” he said; he sounded so miserable there was no way she’d leave him alone right now.

“So then you can return the favour,” she countered, and he gave in, letting his eyes drop closed, one arm coming to rest across her stomach as he drifted off to sleep.

It was a choice to curl up next to him on New Year’s Eve - there was still a lot that had been left unsaid between them, and this was one of those things - that closeness; just a little too intimate to be platonic, but skirting the edges of admitting anything further. She had a blanket draped over herself, and he had one arm on the back of the couch; she fit perfectly into the crook of his arm, her hands pillowed between her head and his chest. The TV was on, but they weren’t paying too much attention to it; she was content resting against him as she listened to the stories of his Christmas celebrations with his family; he already knew how her Christmas was, had heard it all in great detail from Jesse when he had face-timed them the day after Christmas; the noise and clamour of the Carisi family in the background, but his attention solely on the Rollins girls.

They were comfortable together, her and Sonny. They had been for a while. It wasn’t something Amanda had ever had before - not like this, and they were on the precipice, resting between friendship and something more, but she embraced moments like this, where they could be in their own bubble - whatever happened between them in the future, she wanted to keep having moments like this. That had been what she was thinking about when she’d drifted off, midnight still hours away.

If the Amber alert hadn’t woken her, things might have ended a little differently, but there was no awkwardness when she did wake up burrowed into him. She moved only enough to reach her phone, reading the alert, sitting up only when she knew she’d have to go into work - to leave the warm comfort they’d found here and go out into the real world.

He looked as disappointed as she felt - and she wanted to drop back down against him, ignore the darkness of the world they lived in - but that wasn’t an option, and she knew there would be other nights like this, other nights they would fall asleep together, still not quite giving in to whatever kept compelling them back to this spot, this thin line they were living on.

Now, when they’re cuddled up together on the couch, Amanda never needs to pretend it’s anything different - it’s not because they’re tired, and it isn’t because one of them is sick, and she doesn’t have to analyse every movement of his body against hers - this is just who they are now, this is just what they do.

It’s movie night again - but not just the two of them - Amanda’s calling it ‘family night’, after weeks of late shifts and early starts, no one getting to spend much time with their children or the people they loved - Fin had declined the invitation, told them he’d had a better offer - but Liv and Kat are here. Jesse, Noah and Billie are on the floor in front of the TV; Sonny had set them up with cushions and snacks and with the amount of sugar they’ve already consumed Amanda’s sure they’re going to crash halfway through the movie.

Amanda glances over at Liv and Kat as she slips into the space Sonny has made for her on the couch, his arm coming around her as soon as she’s settled. Liv smiles in their direction, but says nothing. Kat raises an eyebrow - but it’s playful; she’s happy for them too, Amanda knows.

She can rest her head on Sonny’s chest these days, smile to herself as he presses a kiss into her hair; she can wind her arms across him freely. She’s always felt safe like this - been able to fall asleep knowing he’s right there with her - but now she can admit things she’s held back - now she can admit that she doesn’t just feel safe in his arms; it feels like coming home - whether it’s on a couch surrounded by their makeshift family, or it’s in their bed in the early hours of the morning, or his arm around her shoulder while the girls play on the swings - it’s somewhere she always wants to be.

[spaceorphan18]

What are all the projects you’re working on?

All the Projects, Nonny, lol 

Okay, well since you asked... 

The Fic Writing: 

There are two that I’m primarily focused on... 

1. 99 Perspectives on a Single Love Story -- which I’ve decided to parcel out a little at a time.  It’s a big project, that I could easily burn out on.  

2. Chasing Pavements - which is almost coming up on a year.  I need to buckle down and just finish it.  I have all the chapters outline, it’s just a matter of focus.  I also feel really bad I haven’t updated in a while, especially since it’s currently on a cliffhanger. 

There’s one I’m writing writing as well as these two, but am not posting until it’s finished.  However, since it’s just in my head, I’ve been kinda picking away at it, too.  It’s called Head Over Feet, and it’s a reunion fic set in the future when Klaine are in their mid-30s.  And it might be my favorite thing I’ve ever been writing. 

There are also a few projects I’d like to get back to when these are done -- One being The Spaces In-Between, which is Kurt’s story in canon and two, the fic based on my Final Season sketch that I wrote a few years ago.  I wrote the first couple of chapters, and really like it -- I think I’ll wait until that’s finished before posting as well.  

And, I have numerous one-shots and smaller ideas written down just in case I ever feel like writing those.  We’ll see!  

The Fic Blog: 

The Author Spotlights are still going on - on TDBfic, and those take some time to put together.  

Plus, I’m trying to figure out ways to help keep it active, as well as getting ready to set up a Summer Exchange for people to participate in (and am hoping to get some help in running that).  

Meta: 

You guys ask a lot of questions, which I love! But I don’t always get to.  Some of them take some time to answer, I have a few very old ones that I haven’t replied to yet, just because I know they’re going to take some time.  I also have to set up my queue, which sometimes means digging into old posts and seeking things out to fill the space.  And, there are things in my likes that need responses, and I’m always behind on that -- like, posts that I want to make replies to, or memes people have tagged me in.  

Meanwhile...  There are the Rankings 2.0.  I know I sometimes pause for days on end, and I’ve been griping a lot, but I’m not kidding when I say watching the show this way has been incredibly fascinating.  I now have a real understanding of things that bug me about the show.  In about ten episodes, we’ll be getting to episodes I like more than I don’t, and the tenor of discussion will change.  I’m looking forward to being positive about it again, lol  

There are also two projects that I haven’t posted about, but I’m working on... 

1. The Grey Project - which is a deeper analysis of ATOG’s sequel Grey.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years, and it’s a follow up to the analysis we did on the TDB Podcast.  (As an aside -- I think I want to visit the older fics on my master fic rec list, because I haven’t read any of that in years.)  

2. Glee Music Retrospective -- where I look at all the music in the show.  I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, too, so I’m finally doing it.  

The Book Blog and Marvel Movie Night: 

Most of this is non-Glee related stuff.

The Book Blog is just a way for me to keep track of things I’m reading, and share with you guys new recommendations for published works.  I’m also rereading all of the Agatha Christie novels (because I love them) and working through X-Men comics (which I’ve been wanting to do, and tried starting a handful of times).  All of this is a labor of love.  

And then there’s the Marvel Movie Nights -- where I watch a Marvel movie... all of them... including non-MCU ones.  I kind of wanted to see everything, even the terrible ones, just because.  I’m about half way through the list, and just getting into the MCU, which of course is my favorite.  

Other (mostly boring adult stuff): 

Of course, real life things are a constant.  There’s work (and now that I’m a manager(ish) I have more obligations there; cleaning my house - a never ending project; prepping meals; making sure I’m working out; doing needed errands, etc, all that fun stuff that takes up time.  As well as making sure I’m doing some kind of socialization and doing things just for fun -- like watching TV shows or playing video games.  

And of course, there’s my dearly beloved, neglected child - my original novel.  It’s called The Legend of Melaynia; it’s a fantasy, and I’ve been working on the world building for twenty years.  I am no Tolkien, but it’s been my love, and at some point, I would like to actually focus on it.  

Because I love organizing, I bought a white board that helps me keep everything straight -- and today, I think I came up with a schedule that will help me not feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I’m working on.  

[courtpheasent]

uhm hey so this for the ask game you reblogged 2 days ago? ik this is a lot of questions i just find your writing mesmerizing

A: How did you come up with the title to Hagelochus’s Weasel?

C: What member do you identify with most?

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate?

OKAY FIRST OFF THANK YOU BESTIE THIS IS SO SWEET OMG 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Anyway!!! Question time!!! I hope you guys are ready for a doozy cuz I love the sound of my voice and do not know how much info is to much info!!! :D

How did you come up for the title to Hegelochus’s Weasel?

I’m sure it’s obvious to anyone who’s scrolled through my Ao3 that I LIVE for obscure references and obnoxiously long titles. When deciding a title for a fic, there’s a lot of research involved. I have a tendency to root through the internet in an attempt to find historical events or people or famous body of works in order to make a proper Allusion.

However, Hegelochus came easier to me than that.

I was watching a YouTube video, and it mentioned this Guy named Hegelochus. He was an Athenian Actor in Ancient Greece who is only remembered today because of how badly he messed up.

He was is the play Orestes and he was supposed to say this one line “After the storm I see again a calm sea” (Euripides 1.1.279.) But he got the pronunciation wrong and instead said, and I quote, “After the storm I see again a weasel.” After that stunt he was so ridiculed that he never acted again.

So after doing a little research, I concluded that this was indeed a true story and also perfect for the fic that I was writing at the time. I mean after all, the fic is about a man who says the wrong thing and the wrong time and it p much wrecks his life 🤷

What member do you identify the most with?

This is. A very hard question to answer actually. I’m assuming this is asking what creator I identify most with??? I think @squarefriend would have to be the answer to that, because we’ve shared a lot of similar experiences!!! Though honestly, I would also have to say that I identify a lot with you to my dude!!! I’ve never really met someone who also uses it/its pronouns before, so I can real identify with that UwU

If we’re talking about character tho, That’s gonna have to be Alphys or Papyrus from Undertale. I project a little to much onto those two :P

Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out in order?

PREP WORKS FOR PUSSIES.

Jkjk. I tend to just pick a starting place and just. Go. Not the best way because I usually don’t even have the ending planned out before I dive in, but oh well. Some of my most popular fics were only written in like. Thirty minutes. Not exactly something I’m proud of, but what else can you do :/

Also like all of my fics are based off mini comics I doodle in the margins of my notes, so there’s that :D

What Fandom troops can you just not resist?

OHHOHI BOY THAT IS A LONG LIST.

I ADORE hurt/comfort more than life itself. Also when someone is hurt and they try and hide it??? That shit is the bomb. I have never loved anything more in my life.

OH. And when someone is holding a glass or something like that, and it shatters as their grip closes around it. No spoilers, but I injected that into Alexander full heartedly. You’ll see what I mean later ;)

What Fandom tropes can you not stand?

My god, whenever a character messes something up and the entire group is mad at them, it just. Gets my goat. Like not the big group break up (that’s fine!) but like when everybody’s mad at somebody for something stupid they did. I can’t think of any examples right now, but you guys know what I’m talking about, right? I have really bad second hand embarrassment so it really wigs me out lmaooo

If you like this trope tho, then more power to you!!! It’s not bad by any means, just not something I really enjoy ^^

Major character death- something you would read/write? Any character that is off limits?

To be completely honest, it kinda depends??? Like, it it’s well written, I’ll read it. Heck. I’ve even considered WRITTING stuff that involves major character death. So yeah. Case by case 🤷

No characters are really off limits. I don’t really like reading about bad stuff happening to little kids, but when it comes to consuming as much Toriel angst as I possibly can, it just kinda becomes unavoidable.

Woof this got long!!! Sorry about that my dudes, just got a little carried away. Anyway, Imma include some sources for the whole Hegelochus thing and also the link to my Ao3 account. Thanks for reading, and Have a nice night!!! ^^

@applygenderonchild

https://archiveofourown.org/users/TownFowl

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sannyrion

[despair-tummy]

some chub Mika.n and Gund.am for a trade

[[MORE]]

Mikan was more than relieved when her shift at the hospital ended, she was terrified of running into someone she knew back from Hope’s Peak whenever she worked. It especially didn’t help that she tended to work when the hospital was at its busiest. It was her worst nightmare she would stumble into Hiyoko again after all these years, the dancer would surely subject her to an all too familiar round of bullying.

It wasn’t like Mikan intended for it to happen! She blamed all the budget cuts towards the hospital, which meant fewer staff, leading to herself and the others have to take on extra duties. Mikan originally wouldn’t have minded, she loved her job! She liked taking blood samples, x-rays, doing ultrasounds, CTs, and many other duties that came along with her job. Seeing as she was an ultimate she was a bit of a jack of all trades in her medical field, so it only seemed right she takes on the bulk of the duties (that and she was a pushover) to help through these hard times.

However, spending so much time on her feet and working long hours left little time for meal prep. She was simply too sore and tired to cook, so she often ate out or relied on frozen dinners... not to mention Mikan developed a habit of snacking on candy while at home. It was just easier to than preparing an actual meal! Not to mention the her coworkers and grateful patients would often bring in pizza and baked goods for the hospital staff. And with not knowing if you have enough time to microwave some leftovers because you could have to treat the victims of a car accident, you learned to eat when you can and fast.

But of course, the long term effects of a poor diet eventually started to show. Mikan had no idea how the other hospital staff managed to stay so skinny! Meanwhile, she had ballooned out like crazy. Oh, the world must hate her so for giving her such an awful metabolism! She was on her feet all day constantly running samples to the lab, shouldn’t that had burned off all the cupcakes and pizza she had at work?

Judging by her plump figure with a pair of thunder thighs that rubbed together uncontrollably with each step she took (hence why she started wearing leggings to avoid the infamous chub rub), a taut little tummy that especially liked to make its presence known after a big meal or junk food binge in the break room, and had resulted in a few ‘when are you due?’ from her coworkers and patients. The sleeves of her uniform felt so tight from how chunky her arms were, Mikan absolutely hated the idea of having to get a bigger uniform but they felt so uncomfortable. Then there was her face, that second chin was developing steadily and her cheeks had rounded out, making her resemble a hamster with cheeks stuffed to the brim with sunflower seeds.

“Oh, come on.” Mikan groaned, attempting and failing miserably at hailing down a taxi to return home. Of all the days she had to forget her bus pass it was when the weather forecast called for rain! “O-oh, excuse me! Over-“ she was cut off when the taxi she was trying to get zoomed passed her and straight through a puddle, drenching her in dirty rainwater. “here...” she finished all too late.

Her heart raced anxiously as she shivered, how was she going to get home? It was her day off tomorrow and she originally wanted to curl up in bed and take it easy. Mikan sniffled, blinking back tears. What she wouldn’t give for a hot bath right now, or better yet, be magically transported to a warmer place with a comfortable bed with plenty of fluffy blankets. But unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen, she was stuck in the cold rain trying to desperately get a taxi to notice her.

“Ah, wait!” Mikan cried out, deciding to run towards the car despite seeing one of the passenger doors shut, signalling it was occupied. “C-could we please share? I’m sorry I smell like a wet dog, bu-but I just want to go home! I-I’ll pay for both our fares and-“ She stopped, eyes wide as the passenger window rolled down. Oh no...

It wasn’t the infamous Hiyoko like Mikan feared she would run into one day, but that was only a step below the worst-case scenario, the passenger was still someone she went to school with. She could recognize that scarf and scar tattoo anywhere, it was the ultimate breeder, Gundam Tanaka.

“My, my, Mikan Tsumiki... the ultimate cleric of healing,” he spoke, his gaze locked onto her. “You wish to partake in a journey with me through these unforgiving realms?”

“I-if it’s not too much trouble.” Mikan twirled a choppy lock of hair around her finger anxiously. Sure Mikan always feared running into someone she knew since her weight gain, but staying out in the rain wasn’t an ideal either. And Gundam was never one of her bullies, so surely he wouldn’t point out what a blob she had become.

“Heh, but of course not! It is always an honour to travel with someone of your capabilities.” he grinned. “Now, enter this gateway through this cursed realm!”

Mikan nodded and immediately yanked the taxi door open so hard she nearly fell backwards. She wasted not a single second getting into the cab and out of the cold rain. It wasn’t until she shut the car door and buckled up did she finally get a good look at Gundam after all these years.

At first, his scarf concealed it, but the breeder was sporting a full-on double chin. But that wasn’t all, he took up a big chunk of the cab, leaving barely enough room for the portly nurse. Mikan was practically a twig compared to him. The cab driver up front had his seat as close to the wheel as possible to make room for just how large Gundam was. His gut sat comfortably on top of his pillar-like thighs, nearly obscuring them completely from her view. He was as wide as he was tall, wider even! An absolute blob of a man! Could he even walk?

“It’s been quite a few years, oh great healer,” Gundam said.

“Y-yeah, indeed it has.” Mikan tried not to stare.

“What quests have you been undertaking since our departure from the realm of knowledge?”

“I...been working at the hospital.”

“Working at such an advance castle! You must be quite proud of the healing abilities you possess, I must admit I am rather envious.”

A smile touched her face, even after all these years, she could still understand Gundam and his eccentric manner of speech enough to know he was praising her! Her insides became all warm and fuzzy at his words, it’s been so long since someone actually complimented her abilities as a nurse! Being in the medical field she felt often overworked and under-appreciated.

“Thank- ACHOO!” Mikan sneezed directly into her elbow.

“Hmph, it would appear the storm gods decided to curse you.” Gundam’s thin lips straighten as he unravelled his scarf and offered it to Mikan.

“I couldn’t possibly-“

“There is no need to fear, this garment will not hurt powerful beings such as you and I.” he reassured.

Mikan hesitated for a moment but in the end, accepted the scarf and wrapped it around her. Wow! She didn’t expect it to be so warm and soft!

“We must remove this curse immediately,” Gundam spoke, crossing his fat arms. “Gatekeeper of the realms, take us to the sanctuary immediately!” he ordered at the taxi driver, who remained completely unfazed by his orders. Mikan guessed Gundam took taxis a lot so he must be a known regular.

The drive wasn’t a long one, she guessed ten minutes at the most. The taxi parked in front of what looked like a restaurant establishment.

“Oh... I don’t have enough money on me to eat out and pay for a ride,” she confessed, originally she intended to do up some instant ramen when she got home. “ I’m so SO sorry!”

“I assure you, I have more than enough wealth,” he said, opening the door.

They both unbuckled and exited the car... well one of them did.

“Gundam, are you...” she trailed off, averting her eyes awkwardly.

“This but a mere part of my journey, nothing to dwell over.”

Mikan would beg to differ, but she kept her mouth shut as she tried not to watch Gundam struggle to get out of the taxi, his blubbery body kept him stuck tightly within the car door frame.

“Do...do you need any help?” she asked, feeling her cheeks turn red at the sight.

“Your concern is thoughtful but unneeded, I have faced this trial many times!” Gundam reassured with such confidence for someone who was trying to squirm their way out of a car.

Mikan just stood there and twiddled her thumbs awkwardly as Gundam struggled, she tried not to stare but she always found her eyes would end up lingering on him with every jiggle and bounce of his fatty frame. It was almost comical when he managed to finally get out, Mikan could have sworn she heard an almost cartoony pop, but she didn’t know if that was in real life or in her mind.

“Now, onward!” Gundam commanded and waddled on ahead with Mikan following from behind, trying her hardest not to stare at his massive rump that sagged behind him.

The inside of the building revealed it was an all-day breakfast buffet. Mikan’s mouth watered instantly at the sight of waffles, bacon, sausages, breakfast pastries, eggs and countless fruit varieties.

“Well, I accept all forms of power sources, this one I find I tend to desire the most,” Gundam said as they got a table to set their stuff down. “And it burns deeply with enough dragon fire to help you fully recover from your curse.”

“It is rather to-toasty in here.” Mikan took off Gundam’s scarf, carefully folding it and set it aside.

“Now, let us engage in supply our forms with the healing prophecies from this sanctuary of recovery!” Gundam announced, squeezing himself out of the booth and shuffling to the array of food.

The combination of sweet and savoury smells was hypnotic to Mikan, she lost interest in watching Gundam and wasted no time grabbing a plate and getting her food. Two fluffy blueberry pancakes, six rashers of crispy bacon, four juicy pork sausages and a bowl of fruit.

The irony was not lost on her, Mikan was a nurse. And when most people thought of doctors and nurses they were normally under the impression that they ate extremely healthy. But that was the furthermost from the truth, incredibly their diet consisted of takeout and instant meals. But Mikan supposed the only difference between her and them was an awful metabolism.

After getting a tall glass of orange juice, she returned to the booth. Hopefully, Gundam wouldn’t think she was gross for eating so much, but she had such a long day and-

Her eyes went wide as Gundam set not one, not two, but three plates on the table. One piled high with fried ham, sausages and bacon, another with a stack of buttermilk pancakes that towered high, and the last one dangerously close to overflowing with fried eggs. He drenched everything in a thick layer of butter and drowned it all in enough maple syrup to fill the ocean.

“Now,” he began as he unfolded the napkin to tie around his thick neck. “let the healing ritual begin!”

They both tucked into their meals, the food tasted just as good as it smelled, better even! It immediately warmed Mikan up both inside and out and have it not been for the sound of the downpour outside, she would have completely forgotten about the rain.

“So, um... what have you been up too after graduating?” Mikan asked as she chewed on a chunk of juicy honeydew. Figuring she should try and start a conversation with him.

“I have been expanding my empire of course!” he answered, licking the runny yolk off his lips. “With so many wild and dangerous beasts in the world, my job is far from over and will probably be eternal for as long as I am in this vessel.”

“Ah, glad to know you’re still t-taking good care of animals.” Mikan smiled. “I’ve known how much you care for them.” she nibbled on a piece of bacon. “M-maybe I should get a pet... it gets kinda lonely in my apartment.”

“Be warned, beast ownership is no small task!” he warned sternly.

“O-of course!” she stuttered. “I know it’s not a decision to take lightly! I uh, promise to really think about it and-“

“Please, crease your worrying.” Gundam interrupted. “I must apologize, tis a bit of a curse I have yet to control. I have seen many attempts the quest of taming these creatures but failed and I had to carry on their failed attempt. It is no easy task and required so much of my time and energy. I need to remember you are no mere mortal considering your ability.”

“A...apology accepted.” she gave a small smile.

“Speaking of your abilities, how is your life in this realm?” he asked through a mouthful of sticky syrup covered pancakes.

“I work at the hospital not too far from here,” she said. “we’re rather understaffed at the moment, so I’ve been busy. I don’t mind... kinda.” Mikan sipped her drink. “Umm... it’s just it doesn’t leave much time for anything else if I’m completely honest. I just go straight home after a shift.”

“Ha, I too understand your endless suffering,” he spoke. “We’re in Nemean lion season, I have been summoned to offer my power and influence to try and get through this challenge.”

Nemean lion? Weren’t those some kind of mythical creature? It took a moment to figure out what he was going on about, then it clicked. Gundam was taking about kitten season. The time when most kittens were born to unsprayed cats whether they were outdoor cats (which was a big no according to Gundam) or feral cats. Naturally, this meant a lot more resources being needed from shelters and whatnot.

“You must be busy too, I haven’t been able to cook in awhile unless it’s instant,” she spoke, idly dragging the chunk of blueberry pancakes she speared with her fork through a puddle of syrup. “Probably why I’ve gained weight.”

She said it without even thinking, at first she felt guilty. Gundam has gained so much more than her, would it make him self conscious? But when he chuckled she internally let out a sigh of relief.

“I too understand the circumstances your form is going through,” Gundam said. “I have found myself in a similar position as you.”

“Oh... I hardly notice.” Mikan lied.

“Mikan, you are many things,” he began. “a skilled healer, a dear companion who I regretfully lost contact with, but you were never a good liar.”

“Sorry!” she instinctively blurted out.

“Do not dwell on it, there is nothing worthy of begging for my forgiveness currently,” Gundam reassured. “I am content with my current form, you don’t need to fret so much.”

“Ah... thank you!” Mikan spoke. “Umm, if it means anything. I think you carry it well.”

Eep! Was it weird to say that?! Did it sound too forced? It was true though! Gundam just reminded her of one of those giant stuffed teddy bears at toy stores. He looked so soft just like one, and not to mention he probably felt like one too.

“You as well,” Gundam replied.

Her cheeks flushed a soft pink as she immediately shifted her gaze from Gundam to her plate. Did Gundam see her as one of those giant teddy bears too? She only hoped her blush would eventually fade. All these years and she still wasn’t used to compliments.

As soon as they are their fill and made a few trips back to the buffet, they were comfortably full. And not only that, the rain had stopped.

“It would appear the gods had let their grip on this realm go at long last,” Gundam spoke as they exited the restaurant.

“Yeah, it’s ni-nice and warm,” Mikan said, taking a moment to soak up the warm sunshine.

“Shall we find a gatekeeper and travel back to our kingdoms together?”

“Actually... my place isn’t too far from here.” Mikan began. “It’s not you! I promise! I-I just want to enjoy the sun after all this ra-“

“You don’t need to justify enjoying this enchanted moment if I had a sufficient amount of mana I would have too.” he smiled. “However, I lost contact with you once and I rather not have this be the last time fate has us cross paths. May I offer you a way to summon me?”

“You’re phone number? Sure... I... I would love to see you again.” she smiled as Gundam scribbled his phone number on a scrap of paper.

“I think you are worthy enough to see the newest descendants from the four dark devas of destruction’s family line,” he said.

“I would love to see them.”

“Indeed, perhaps you are worthy enough to take on the quest of owning one?”

Mikan’s eyes lit up. “You...you want to give me one of them?”

“Only if I and the latest generations of the four dark devas think so!” Gundam stated. “It would involve a long series of riddles and gazing into the deepest depths of your mind to see if you are truly ready for such a task.”

“I’m free tomorrow if that works?”

“And the stars perfectly aline.” he grinned, handing her a scrap of paper with his number written down.

“May-maybe we could grab a coffee and work out the details?”

“Very well then, I accept your offer!” Gundam grinned before finally managing to get a taxi. “I look forward to it and any other future endeavours!” he called as the car drove off.

Mikan couldn’t help but smile as she looked down at the paper in her pudgy fingers. She got a number, she actually got a number and something to do on her day off! Her grin grew as she began the walk to her apartment, basking in the warm sunlight.

[viostormcaller]

Ego Headcanons: Jackieboy Man

I meant to do this yesterday night but I had schoolwork and then I had a headache and was burnt out, so whoops! But I'm doing it now! Just like the others it's probably gonna be long so ya know. Here goes:

Jackie has adored superheroes since he was little. The superhero persona he is seen as is actually just a silly character he made up when he was younger, but he kept the name because of the sentimental value behind it. It took the city a long time to take him seriously, and even then not everyone does

Jackieboy Man is transgender! He was born female, and over time saved up to get top surgery. He wasn't able to get bottom surgery because he had to start focusing his money into upgrades for his suit and equipment, which he figured was much more important

This is also the reason why his hero name is Jackieboy Man. When he created the character as a kid he was adamant about being seen as a boy. The name meant a lot to him, so he refused to change it when he became a superhero

Jackie's real name actually is Jackie -- it was the name he was born with. Because he sees it as a gender-neutral name, he didn't feel the need to change it after his transition

Jackie went to a fancy prep school in high school. It was around then that he got his powers. He still doesn't know how it happened. He had been trying to get his phone that slid underneath a parked car, and for whatever reason his brain told him to lift it. He did, and found the car weighed virtually nothing. He almost dropped it on himself in surprise.

He became a student by day, crime fighter by night. This made his studies difficult, but he managed through it. Once he graduated, he got a job at a comic book store and used any extra money he had to try and design a suit for himself. For the time being he wore a red hoodie fitted with shoulder and chest pads, he wore kneepads over a pair of leggings, and he wore gloves and boots as well as his signature mask.

Jackie is insanely intelligent. Like, insanely. He's an absolute master at puzzle solving and is extremely well versed in technology. He invents things often and is an impressive coder.

Once he saved up enough to make his first armored suit, he started taking on more difficult enemies rather than just fighting robbers and criminals. However, because the police saw him regularly turning in these people, they grew to trust Jackie and eventually partnered up with him. He began earning money through the city and was able to quit his day job before long

On the side, while Jackie was hunting down the supervillains that lived in the area, he was also on a secret mission to hunt down people on the Deep Web. He was forced to give up the case after he had been kidnapped, his captors not quite realizing who they were dealing with

He met Marvin when a powerful villain attacked a theater. At the time, this villain's skills were about on par with Jackie's, so taking them down prover to be tough. When Marvin revealed he knew real magic, they teamed up to take the villain out

Jackie, figuring a partner was just what he needed, offered to meet up with Marvin that next weekend to get to know him better. Marvin accepted and they went out for pizza and talked everything over

After a while of teaming up and growing close, the pair moved in together.

They may not be brothers or related by blood in any sense of the word, but they might as well have been. They were rarely seen without each other. They never fought, and their interests overlapped so they always had something to talk about

They made it a habit of theirs to always cook something for every meal. Marvin was an exceptional cook, while Jackie was still learning. Marvin taught him some things that he knew, and on mornings and at night they both cooked together. Every meal was home cooked, no matter how simple it was

They were both usually home during the day; since they both earned money from the city, they didn't have any obligations. They both dedicated this time to research and studying, and they would spar occasionally

Jackie and Marvin both suffer from gender dysphoria. On a day that it was particularly bad, Jackie revealed to Marvin that he was transgender. After Marvin revealed he was genderfluid and he understood where Jackie was coming from, Marvin offered to use transformation magic to finish off Jackie's transition. Jackie agreed, and while he swore he had never been in so much pain in his entirel life, he still feels eternally indebted to Marvin because he did that for him.

They met Schneep on a night Jackie was gravely injured. The three felt a connection between each other and stayed in touch after Jackie and Marvin both recovered, and refused to see any other doctor after a while. They moved in with him once Schneep bought a house.

Jackie, like Schneep, is also pansexual. Unlike Schneep, however, he hasn't been in many relationships because he was too afraid he'll put his future partner in danger by being in a relationship with him. Moreover, he's constantly busy doing hero-related stuff, so he doubted he would have the time.

Schneep once made Jackie a picture of him in a comic-book style. Jackie had it framed and hung it up in his room, right over his bed. When Schneep found out Jackie did that, he teared up

Jackie is up the earliest out of all the Egos. He spends the mornings doing research, and then cooks with Marvin once he gets up. He goes on patrols at night

Jackie's powers include super strength, super speed, the power of flight, the ability to envelop his fists in green flames, and a sonic clap (which he only uses if he absolutely must; it's extremely dangerous and destructive). He excels in melee combat which compliments Marvin's ranged combat

When Jackie's using his powers, his eyes will glow a bright green, and if he's under a lot of strain his veins will glow faintly green as well. When this happens he knows he's reaching a limit

Jackie is the most optimistic. He's also the most silly (with Chase coming in close second). Chase and Jackie share a lot of jokes together, which is how they grew closer. Jackie often uses his optimism to cheer Chase up when he's feeling low.

Jackie can actually be one of the most serious Egos when he needs to be (though Schneep will always hold first place on that front). He knows when to joke and when to be focused, and is often seen as the leader of the household because of his commanding presence when he's serious

Jackie and Jameson often work out together. Jameson is almost as physically fit as Jackie is, because in his time he did all his own stunts. He may not do them anymore, but he didn't want to stop exercising regularly, and knowing Jackie often worked out he went to him for advice on keeping a good regimen.

During the day, when he's not researching, Jackie is more often than not checking in on Schneep and making sure he's doing alright. He feels the need to he Schneep's protector, just as Marvin does with Chase. Especially after his kidnapping, Jackie wants to keep Schneep safe. He's usually there to ground him during flashbacks and panic attacks. The two are rather close and spend quite a bit of time with each other talking about work or venting general frustrations. Jackie's optimism and general bubbliness counteracts Schneep's serious attitude, and while Schneep reminds Jackie when to be serious, Jackie reminds Schneep when to loosen up.

Jackie loves movies, but sadly doesn't have a whole lot of time to watch them. He also adores retro video games, but agrees the modern ones are super cool, too. His favorite game is easily guessed.

Jackie's favorite superhero, like Jack's, is Spiderman. He sees a lot of himself in Spiderman, and on the days he doesn't go on patrols or research he's often seen playing the most recent Spiderman game on the PS4. He wants to 100% complete it.

Jackie doesn't rely on coffee as nearly as much as Schneep does, but he does drink a cup to help wake himself up in the mornings. He drinks his with a bit of cream, that's it.

Jackie can easily lift the others. Sometimes he'll sneak up on someone and lift them up, carrying them in his arms and spinning them around while laughing.

Jackie is a HUGE cuddler, and has a very tight hold. He's also a heavy sleeper, so if he falls asleep, good luck getting back up! He's always the big spoon

Most of his research is dedicated to tracking down Antisepticeye. He has Marvin help with this, since Marvin has more knowledge on demons than he does. However, Schneep, Chase, and Jameson also all have had direct contact with Antisepticeye and offer up any information they gathered. They all work together as a team to gather knowledge and keep track of common traits, symptoms, and telltale signs that Anti is active. Jackie also relies on the community and Jack's channel for information, since the community finds things first. This information is given through Chase. Jameson has only been in contact with Anti once, but his knowledge that he gained in his experience is also helpful to Jackie and isn't overlooked.

Jackie doesn't get sick often, but when he does he gets hit hard. Schneep is the one who takes care of everyone when they get sick, so every time Jackie comes down with something he gets all sappy and thanks Schneep for being a doctor and helping them. When he's sick, he's an emotional mess, but he does mean everything he says.

Jackie never makes a promise he can't keep, but he also never breaks his promises either. He's probably the most dependable out of everyone

I think that's everything for Jackie! The headache hasn't gone away so if I felt I missed something I'll probably add it in a seperate post. Same with any of the Egos, actually. If I need to add something I'll just make a continuation post and add it there. In any case, there's one more Ego to go! After that I'll clean out my inbox, though because I'm currently feeling shitty and moody I may not open prompts for a little bit, like a few days or so. But yeah, that's Jackie's list done!

[softmoxymuffin]

Hot Cocoa and Surprise Hugs

part 4 of the check please series. this one took a little longer to write. been so busy with school. tomorrow i’ve got a pta meeting with my pupil’s parents and i should have been prepping but i just felt the need to get this out before i could do any work (excuses.. excuses)

any way the rest of the series is down below

Chapter 1: Check Please

Chapter 2: Airplanes and Automobiles

Chapter 3: Tellin’ the Folks

Chapter 4: Hot Cocoa and Surprise Hugs

Chapter 5: Breakfast Sandwiches

Chapter 6: Learning Experience

Chapter 7: Keeping up Defenses

Chapter 8: Confessions in the Bitter Cold

still have no idea where this fic is going.. but it definitely is going. got some ideas where and how. just about finding the time to write it up. i hope you can be patient and bear with me

as always (realized i hadn’t written this disclaimer on any of my ambrollins stuff). kindly do not take the fanfiction too seriously. it’s just a fantasy between us fans. it means nothing and it’s not made to judge or attack the people who inspired the story... just enjoy it for what it is... just a fun read (if you like it.. if not then hope you find a better one.. there’s tons of them out there)

anyway... rambling.. enjoy the fic

Seth shot up sitting on his bed. How his feet dangled on the edge reminded him exactly where he was; in his too small childhood bed, in his childhood room, in his childhood home. He leaned back on his elbows breathing hard. His heart beating a little too fast in his chest. Not really knowing why. He lied back down and closed his eyes. He tried to reach back into his mind for what exactly he had dreamt of that made him go into a cold sweat in the middle of the Iowa winter.

He was with Dean at that restaurant again. They had their meal and a couple of drinks. They had walked back to their hotel room opting to take the time to rest the night before driving all the way to the next state for the show. They made way to their shared room. They took off their jackets, then shirts, and then the rest of their clothing. It started with soft touches and a kiss at the nape of Seth’s neck. Broad warmth across his back made him hot all over. The shared touches turned to gropes, kisses on necks moved to lips. Their casual talk turned to moans it was right as Dean had pushed him back onto their hotel bed when he had been rudely awaken from his dream.

Another loud sound coming from the outside his room had finally made him get up and out of his bed. He walked down the hall and made his way towards the voices coming from their kitchen. He could hear his mom and his stepdad’s joint laughter, one always coming along with the other. His brother Brandon’s slight wheeze of a laugh, and his sister Dd’s light giggle. Laughter that seemed to only get louder after the a familiar rumble of a voice spoke animatedly something about ‘a wild elephant that seemed to have gotten lose in the middle of the Vegas strip.’ Seth couldn’t help but smile knowing the people he loved the most were happy and all in one spot.

He turned the corner to confirmed his suspicions. At the sink was his mom who was putting a stack of dishes in the sink. His stepdad at the stove was flipping his nth pancake. His brother Brandon was leaning against the counter top as he sipped his coffee. Dd was still seated at the dining room and was leaning a pretty close to the newly arrived Dean.

“Good morning sleeping beauty!” the more than a little road worn man greeted with a huge smile on his face. “How’d you sleep?”

“Better than you I’m sure.” Seth teased as he made his way towards his best friend for a their usual friendly handshake, but Seth was a little surprised when the other man had actually stood up and opened his arms for to give a big hug.

Seth really shouldn’t be so surprised. For a man so private and guarded as Dean could be, he was always very tactile and touchy. What he didn’t always said in words he’d say with action; a hug for a warm hello, a playful smack on the ass for encouragement in the middle of a match, and maybe if you’re unlucky a hard punch when he didn’t particularly like you. Dean was a hugger, but something about this seemed a tiny bit off. Maybe it was how dean leaned his head a little more on his shoulder, or how his arms stayed around his waist longer than a couple of seconds, or maybe Seth was just overthinking again.

“You stink.” He teased the dirty blonde as he pulled back a tiny bit.

“Give me a break,” he said in mock defense. “I had to drive like 12 hours to get here.”

‘So why did you?’ Seth was so tempted to ask but knew it was neither the time nor the place for it.

“Well you definitely smell like it.” Seth teased even further, not really knowing why but it seemed like teasing the other man this way seemed effective for Seth to forget exactly what he had been thinking about only a couple of minutes ago. “Aren’t you dead tired by now? Take a shower and get some shut eye will ya.” He urged his friend to get some rest.

“Can’t. I’m still jacked up from all the Redbull I drank.” He said as he took another sip from his mug.

“And you’re drinking coffee?!” Seth exclaimed as he reached for his friend’s drink.

“Relax princess,” Dean said as he pulled the mug away from the brunette’s grabby hands. “It ain’t coffee… It’s actually your mom’s special cocoa.” The blonde smiled cheekily as he took another sip of it..

“Wait…” Seth paused and made a comically slow turn towards his mom with accusing eyes. “You’re special cocoa? The one you only make on Christmas morning?”

Holly only smiled and shrugged. “He looked like needed it.” She answered simply then went back to washing the dishes.

Seth goes back to looking at his best friend with utter disbelief.

Without missing a beat, Dean looked at Seth squarely in the eye and silently mouthed ‘your mom loves me’ then gave the him a smug smile.

The Armenian stood there utterly annoyed by the other man but the fact that his siblings were trying their best, and failing to suppress a laugh, was enough to make him break and chuckle himself.

He knew exactly how Dean was on a nearly daily basis at work, how could he ever have thought he’d be any different now. The blonde was full of charisma, all 6’4 of him. He could charm the pants off just about anyone. Seth smiles to himself, which quickly turned sour, how that little flutter under his ribs reminded him of how his dream at went.

Seth busied himself by grabbing a mug of coffee for himself, but only after he discreetly tried to check if his mom had made more cocoa, but was disappointed to realize that she was already cleaning up. She had only made cocoa for Dean. Seth didn’t know he could feel both jealous and inexplicably happy all that the same time.

“So, Dean,” Holly spoke as she put away the last of the dishes. “How long will you be staying with us?” she asked with complete sincerity in her voice.

Seth could tell she meant nothing bad about it, only to know how much she should adjust and prepare for their guest. But for a split second, Seth noticed an embarrassed look on his best friend’s face. Doubt anyone else could have noticed it, but Seth definitely did but again said nothing and kept his mouth busy by taking a sip of his coffee.

“Uhhhmm, well-” Dean seemed to stall, finding the right words “I’m not really sure actually… Family is not expecting me. Mom and Dad are enjoying themselves with their respective others… and my sister and her family is spending time with her in-laws in Jersey…” it was one of the rare occasions Seth saw the other man sort of lost for words.

Before he could save him, God bless his mother had done it first. “Well then, their lost…” she said a welcoming smile. “You’re welcomed here for as long as you want.” Then subconsciously turned to Hector who only nodded in silent agreement.

Seth looked around the room and saw his whole family more than willing, but actually happy to welcome his friend into their home. Brandon and Dd too, with the former muttering a ‘welcome to the chaos’ and the latter smiled a little too warmly with her hand brushing against the older man’s knee.

The Armenian didn’t really know how to process that, so he decided to chuck it off and grab his friend off. “Come on Dean… before you pass out in my mother’s kitchen.” He teased, but seriously did pull him away from his sisters grabby hands.

The dirty blonde gave a yawn after finishing off the cocoa and motioning to go and rinse it himself, but was cut off by Dd who gently grabbed it and said that she could take care of it for him. It made Seth glare at her, before leading the other wrestler deeper into their home.

They first picked up Dean’s things, which was mainly his bag’s from before just by their front door. Seth took the one bag and Dean the other, as they walked through the house rather quickly as the younger of the two pointing where everything was.

They finally got to the guest bedroom where Seth left Dean with his things as he went to retrieve a couple of toiletries the assumed the man needed. He walked back to the guest room seeing the other man now sleepy eyed and sitting on the edge of his bed.

“Come on big guy,” he urged. “You should take a hot shower for a bit, it’ll make you feel better, it’ll help you take your beauty rest.”

“Think you’re mom’s cocoa already did that. What did she put in that thing, Ambien?” he joked, while trying and failing to stop another yawn.

“Nope, just lots of love… which could also be Ambien.” He joined in the teasing, before he grabbed the taller man by the hands and pulled him upright. “Now, come on. I’ll get the shower heated for you.”

Seth went to the guest bathroom and turned the shower on, adjusting the knobs to get the temperature just right for Dean. Once he got that and steam started to form on the mirror, Seth came back out.

The younger man stopped right outside the bathroom door. Whatever he was supposed to say now totally gone as he couldn’t stop but stare at the sight in front of him. While he was gone, Dean had gotten comfortable and took his boots, socks, and hoodie off. He was just about to take his signature tank off when he stopped to look at the other man curiously.

“What?”  he asked, his voice gruffer from the exhaustion.

“Huh?” Seth snapped out of it. “Nothing man, just saying the shower is ready.” He felt like he gulped down his own tongue.

The older man seemed too tired to even notice anything weird about his friend. He only shrugged and continued to take his tank off.

Seth embarrassed turned to look away, which absolutely made no sense to him why he felt the need to. This was Dean, a man he had been working with for almost a 10 years now. He’d even fought with and against the same man in the exact amount of undress he was in right now. When the hell did Seth develop an embarrassment over it?

Seth mentally asking questions he couldn’t answer, as he gathered together the toiletries he had gotten for the said man. Seth was just about to leave it right by the bathroom door and leave the other man in peace.

“Wait, Seth.” he called out to him.

Seth turned as he was ready to leave, his hand so close to reaching the doorknob. He stood there, a little to tensely, willing his body to function normally for God sake. He had no idea why he was so damn nervous to be alone in a bedroom with a half-naked Dean Ambrose. Reviewing the situation, it should have been painfully obvious why.

“I just… I wanna…” Dean started, but again seemed to have trouble finding the right words.

Seth would have understood the shyness with his family, but couldn’t place to why he seemed to act the same with him right now.

Dean walked closer, and dropped his voice to a low whisper as if he were about to tell the other man a secret. “I… I want to say thank you.. for this. I know it’s pretty weird.”

“You’re pretty weird.” Seth said reflexively out of nowhere, and regretted for a second.

It did make the older man smile, but Seth noticed it was not a real smile. It was a little sad, before recovering by replying “That I am… and thanks.. for understanding that. I know you must wanna ask me some things, and I wanna tell you somethings.. but.. not right now.”

“That’s ok.” Seth reassured. “You don’t have to explain anything.”

“But I want to,” the other man admitted in weak voice. “I want to.. just… you know..”

“Not now,” he nodded in understanding.

“Yeah,” he gave a tight, closed-lip smile.

“Like my mom said,” Seth replied. “You can stay here as long as you want.”

Dean smiled, a real one this time. It was small, but Seth knew it was real.

Dean looked like he was just about to thank him again, but Seth cut him off only to add “No, thanks needed man… I’m here for you.”

Dean smiled a little more now, before he again surprised the younger man with a hug. Seth felt Dean’s warm skin against his forearms. The other man’s bear chest a little stickily against the shirt print of his old Shawn Michaels t-shirt. Surprisingly of all, the taller man’s face lowered to lean down against Seth’s shoulder. His sleep heavy weight feeling somewhat comforting on the younger man.

Seth wrapped his arms around him back. Whatever Dean was going through, Seth was more than happy to be here for him for as long as he needed him to be.

[peachyteabuck]

chef’s knives, part ii

summary: you’re finally used to your job at the avenger’s personal chef. the next thing to tackle is your pesky crush on one james Buchanan barnes

pairing: bucky barnes x reader

words: 1722

trigger warnings: same as before. this time with a date tho!!

notes/other: idk how this is like just over half the word count as part 1 but I promise it’s still good

ask box / masterlist / commission info / ko-fi

READ PART I HERE

Back in the kitchen, you and Natasha turned back to your previous conversation.

It’s insane. Bucky seems to like your food, always leaving notes on your stack of cookbooks in the kitchen on what he wants to eat.

But for some reason, he never wants to spend time with you.

Natasha, Sam, and Steve are the only ones who ever come grocery shopping with you for ingredients, even though you offer to take Bucky every week.

It had begun to take a toll on you, emotionally. Were you not good enough for him? Why doesn’t he like you? Is he just taking pity on you when he eats the food you make him? Does he secretly hate you? Is he trying to convince Tony to fire you?

Nastasha sees it all; both sides of the pining. It’s disgusting, really disgusting.

She sees Bucky’s longful stare. They way he cleans dishes after you’re done cooking. Sometimes asks to help you prep meals.

She also sees the way you always feed him first (with the exception of that pizza a few months ago) and ask him how it is with hungry eyes. You always make what he requests, it doesn’t matter what it is or when he asks for it.

Correction: it’s absolutely and totally disgusting

She had found you, just about to start the brownies.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked, trying to remain sweet in her interruption. Don’t get her wrong, she really wants to have a heart-to-heart friend-to-friend girl-to-girl conversation with you, but she also wants some of your amazing brownies. Priorities.

You hummed in lieu of an actual response.

“You need to talk to Bucky. He’s dying, honey. Absolutely dying.”

You stand up and shrug, trying to remain coy. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Of course you know! You know he’s practically in love with you and it’s killing him because he thinks you don’t like him back!”

You had tried to remain calm at the revelation, attempting to squander the middle schoolgirl in you.

No, you told yourself. You can’t go chasing men. Remember what you told you told yourself when you got accepted into culinary school. Education, then career. Nothing else.

Natasha had sighed deeply. “C’mon. He’s been crying to Steve since you first got here. America’s sweetheart just got fed up with it and told me to talk to you.”

You were starting to get frustrated. “Well, tell Steve to tell Bucky that if he really likes me, he can speak to me himself and ask me on a date like a real man. I’m not twelve anymore, Natasha, I refuse to be dragged around some kind of fangirl.”

You thought that would make her leave you alone, but no. She stuck near you like glue until you fed her baked goods.

Then Bucky had come down, and she gave you a look. Not a regular look, a look. You both knew what it meant, but neither said anything out loud.

It was frustrating! You just wanted him to ask you out.

Was he intimidated by you? Wanting you to make the first move? God, you hate men.

After the debrief ends and you feed them lunch, you’re sitting on your bed, reading.

A soft knock on the door almost gets drowned out by the climax of your book’s plot, but luckily you catch it.

“Come in!” You call, not wanting to get up from your cozy spot. You’ve changed into sweatpants and a loose t-shirt. Perfect for disconnecting from the rest of the crazy outside world via novel.

You’re a little taken aback when Bucky opens the door, looking as tired as you.

He steps right into the doorway and you immediately stand up to meet him.

“Hey, you say. It’s soft, breathless. Like you just ran a marathon. “What’s up?”

Bucky looks like he’s about to speak, but he closes his mouth before words can escape.

When he open sit again, all he can get out is “Do you wanna….” before he sighs. He just can never seem to find the right words with you.

You bite your lip, begging him to say something.

He clears his throat and starts again.

“Do you wanna go on a date with me?” His accent seeps through, making the words thick and sweet like syrup.

“Yes, of course,” you say, still breathless.

Bucky wasn’t counting on you saying yes. He expected you to turn him down, and he had a whole game plan for that. Sulk back to his room and eat something made of chocolate...which you made.

Wow, for someone who plans dangerous missions for a living, he’s very bad at this.

“How about tonight, seven pm. Meet me up at the roof?”

You nod. “Yeah, sounds perfect.”

The second Bucky’s out the door, you text in your “Women who deal with too much bullshit” groupchat.

Wanda texts back first.

OMG I’LL BE AT YOUR ROOM IN LIKE FIVE MINUTES

Maria texts second.

Have you decided what ur gonna wear??

Natasha is last, about five minutes later.

I’m bringing you red wine while we outfit plan!!!

For an assassin, Natasha Romanoff really likes giving dating advice.

When they’re finally all together, you commence the mini-mental breakdown you’d been saving for when they all were laying on your bed while you pace around...surrounded by various items of clothing.

“What do I wear? It’s gonna be cold, but I don’t wanna seem like I don’t care, you know? God, what if he thinks I’m trying too hard!”

They all roll their eyes in unison. It’s almost comical. Almost.

“God,” Maria says. “Do you know how much shit I’ve heard about you while Bucky thinks he’s just talking to Steve over comms? I can tell you for a fact that if you were into pet play, he’d be down.”

You and Wanda both cringe, but Natasha perks up.

“Really? That’s far…Wait how does he know what pet play is?” she shakes her head and turns to you. “He really likes you. You’ll be fine!”

You groan. “Knowing Bucky is sexually adventurous is very valuable information. Thank you, Hill,”

She tilts her glass to you as if you say “I gotchu, bud” while you take a deep breath.

“But I still have no idea what to wear!”

Wanda scoffs. “It’s not gonna be windy, just a little chilly. Wear those tall suede chunky heels and that cute pink dress with the deep neckline and the shoulders exposed.”

You crinkle your nose. “But won’t I be cold?”

“Yes,” Wanda says. “But then he’ll give you his jacket.”

“Ahhh” you, Natasha, and Maria all say in unison.

“You’re a genius!” you cry.

“I know,” she replies knowingly.

When 6:55 rolls around, you shoo them off of you.

Your hair and makeup looks flawless, but not too flawless. Like a casual flawless. A flawless that doesn’t try too hard. A flawless that comes naturally. One could say you woke up like this.

You make your way up to the roof, and you almost melt.

It’s a scene out of a 4.5 star romcom: little fairy lights make your pathway to a picnic with your favorite foods. It’s...breathtaking. You barely have time to take it all in before Bucky comes up behind you, encircling his flesh arm around his waist while the metal one holds a bottle of red wine in front of you.

It’s the good stuff, too. The nice stuff. The “I really like you so I’m going to get you tipsy” stuff. The “I stole this from Stark please don’t tell on me I just really like you” stuff.

You gasp and take it in your hands while Bucky guides you to the spot where your food lays.

Once you two sit down and you have a chance to admire the effort he put into the date, you lock eyes.

He seems nervous.

“Do you like it?” he asks.

You take another look around and run your fingers over the soft blanket. “Oh God, how could I not...it looks so pretty out here…”

“Good,” he says, opening the wine. “Don’t want to mess up our first date.”

You smile even wider as he pours you some wine and hands the glass to you.

You hold the glass up. “What should be toast to?’

Bucky places his finger on his chin and taps, mockingly thinking. “How about good health?”

You laugh lightly. “That’s so cliche! What about we toast for each other?”

Bucky smiles. “Sounds good.”

After you toast, the cold night air makes you shiver a little. Bucky immediately places his thick flannel over you, and you make a note to thank Wanda for her good service. Not only did you just get your crush to give up his jacket, but now you also get to see him in a beautiful black t-shirt that leaves little to the imagination.

You two talk the night away. You talk about being in food service, he talks about being an Avenger. You share equally hilarious stories about your jobs, even if Bucky’s seem a little more...dangerous.

It’s hours later when you find yourself falling asleep on Bucky’s chest, his arm draped protectively over you.

He’s still asleep, snoring softly, when you wake up. You wiggle your way so that your face is right next to him and just watch him. He’s so beautiful, so fucking beautiful. You peck him on the cheek before snuggling back into his warm chest to fall asleep again.

In the dark, you don’t see Steve slip Natasha twenty dollars in various types of bills.

“I told you they’d fall asleep on each other,” Natasha chides, counting her bounty.

Steve sighs. “I know, I should have expected this. Now I’m down twenty bucks and I owe Sam another ten for Bucky actually cooking food.”

Natasha tsks. “He can be a real sap when he wants to be. For someone who’s known him since forever, you’re really bad at predicting his future behavior.”

“It’s the love,” Steve says. “Ma says it always changes a man when he’s in love.”

Natasha watches you two cuddles for another moment before responding. “Yeah, especially when that man knows he’s about to get some goodass food out of it.

//

taglist: @projectxhappiness  @nerdyandproud9​

[kenzicorinne]

Hi! I’m Kenzi Corinne

And I have a lot of art and stories I want to share with you!

That's a big reason why I want to start making weekly journals. Starting today, I’ll be posting a weekly recap of everything I’m working on and plan to work on. This includes the status of my web comic Folk Knight, my visual novel MuseStruck, and all the work I’m doing for upcoming conventions (I hope to see some of you there!)

After this week, the blog entries will be a lot more digestible. But I feel, for this first one, I just need to lay everything out. 

So, before the break, I just want to say my asks are open! Feel free to shoot me a question/comment about anything. (Fav ice cream, Hogwarts house, w/e!)

Later!

-Kenzi

Kenzi Blog: Week of 4/2/18

Oh, hey! I’m surprised you clicked “Keep reading.” I mean, I’m glad you did! Makes me feel less like I’m just shouting this to the void... heh ^_^;

Conventions:

Anyway, let’s just dive right in with the most time sensitive item I’ve been working on, convention prep. I’ve got three cons coming up in the next two months *sweats profusely* . This may not sound like a lot for you (or maybe it sounds like an insane “con crud” induced death wish haha) but I am equal parts super excited and super nervous about this! Upcoming cons are:

RavenCon, April 20-22 Williamsburg, VA

Tidewater Comicon, May 11-12 Virginia Beach

Animazement, May 25-27 Raleigh, NC

So I do my printing on my own printer. To save money this time, I’ve decided to try out a Refillable Ink Cartridge system. Which involves...... lots of syringes I guess? Haha, I think I accidentally ordered too many or something so now I just have an abundance of large needle syringes 0_0 (also note they’re a special kind for ink. not the pokey skin kind :P). Syringe Wolverine cosplay?

Anyway, if any of you have tried out RIC or CISS in the past, I’d love to know how it did or didn’t work for you!

MuseStruck:

Okay, so before I talk about my current project, Folk Knight, I think I need to talk about MuseStruck (my other baby). So a couple years ago I suddenly got the urge to make a Visual Novel (gee, wonder where I got that idea... *side glances at Steam catalog* >_>). This VN had inspiration pulled from a lot of my favorite things including fantasy, mythology, classic literature, art, and anime.

Then a year ago, @cornpickerart and I started working on it... and quickly saw the project balloon to a size we weren’t ready for. We thought about cutting back ideas, some trimming was to the story’s benefit really. But then there were aspects that we couldn’t let go. Things that I felt were integral to the story or game experience that we wanted to make.

So. Here’s the thing. We just realized we needed to try smaller things first and work up to the type of gameplay we want to have in MuseStruck. Baby steps. That being said. MuseStruck isn’t dead. Far from it. 

I draw characters from MuseStruck still all the time. Though I’ve told myself to not dedicate so much time to writing stories for it and instead put that time and energy into bettering my skills in both art and programming. Now I can say that when I do get back to MuseStruck (which I do have a plan for when that will happen, but I’ll save that for another journal) I know I’ll be more confident and prepared to tackle it! \(^o^)/

(some sketches of MuseStruck characters that I’ve never posted... I have lots of files like this ^_^;)

Folk Knight:

And finally there is Folk Knight. If you made it this far then... wow. I think I might love you. Anyway, this is my current project that I am working on. I would say probably my time is split 50/50 with this and con stuff right now.

Originally I wanted it to be a web comic. Why a web comic? Well... it’s something I’ve done before. @cornpickerart and I ran a web comic back in high school that we stopped once we went of to different states and different colleges.

I wanted to tell a story that takes place in the MuseStruck universe but with a lot less overhead work and a shorter story altogether. So, Folk Knight was born! Well, so it was supposed be but then I realized something... I don’t want to do a web comic. Le gasp!!!

I actually read a ton of webcomics and enjoy the weekly experience and appreciate all the hard work that goes into keeping them up. Seriously! It’s tough stuff! But after a few updates I realized that making the comic was taking a lot of time... and I wasn’t feeling it. Gosh that sounds whiny doesn’t it? I guess what I’m trying to say is, I figured out if I was going to put that much work into something, I want it to be something I want to do. And what I want to do is make a stinkin’ Visual Novel danggummit!

So that’s what brings us to the Folk Knight of now... a serial Visual Novel!

So it’s kinda a combination of both. Baby steps remember? To keep the game making doable for me, I’ll be releasing the Folk Knight VN in chapters. Every chapter will be released free to play, just like the web comic would have been free to read.

I’ve already begun the conversion of my Chapter 1 script into the Visual Novel format and am working with a few beta readers/players to help me work out the story flow and gameplay.

I’m hoping to get a Chapter 1 demo done by the end of April and Chapter 1 completed and released officially by May! I know it’s a tight deadline but I’m seriously pouring all my blood, sweat, and time into this now!

Next Week:

Ooooookay! We finally come to the end of it! What I plan to do this coming week. Well, let’s see... maybe I should just list it? I hope to...

Post some Folk Knight character designs  (get y’all introduced)

Finish two fantasy/horror paintings I’ve been working on

I have a backlog of BNHA fan art I should finish too...

Test out the new print system!

Aaand I think I should keep it at that. Don’t want to overdo it. If anyone’s still reading this, like I said, not every journal entry is gonna be a monster like this. I just... had a lot to get off my chest to get this journal thing rolling ^_^;

You are amazing and I wish you the best in all your creative endeavors!(seriously, you got something you’re working on you want to share, hit me up! I love hearing others stories or finding new comics to read, games to play!)

-Kenzi

[miikkasakari]

1

I watched the first Infinity War trailer. I watched the second one. And I took a breath, composed myself, and started up Iron Man.

It went from glorious spectacle to a muted introductory scene and a very simple text proclaiming the film’s title. No flash, just a little bit of style. Here’s the movie. Hope you enjoy.

Ten years ago, I definitely wasn’t into comics. Had absolutely no reason to be. I was downstairs one day, in my computer room, where I had a small TV next to me; grade 11, IB exams time was really when I was getting into older series, but I’d often have background noise on, or at the very least, a little too intricate knowledge of a rerun schedule.

A TV spot for Iron Man came on. I’m pretty sure I had no idea it was a comics character. But it was a very good TV spot, and it piqued my interest - something movie TV spots almost never do. I’m not a big movie fan. I prefer getting to know characters outside of a limited two-hour window. But this, this was an excellent TV spot, and I wanted to see it.

I asked my dad if he was interested. A little over a month after the movie came out - June 7, I found my old journal entry on it - I was in a packed theatre, still with absolutely no comics knowledge, with no reasonable expectation that I’d watch it a couple of times since then and again almost 10 years later.

Not too long after that I dragged my dad’s giant boxes of old Marvel comics out from the shed and into my computer room. When I was on the third one he was like, “What are you doing?”

“I found your old Marvel comics, I’m taking them.”

And then, deathly serious: a threat that I’d best keep them in pristine condition, or else.

There were so many and I didn’t really know where to start so I eventually fell off a bit, but I had a favourite superhero by that point, and it was Iron Man. I’d only ever really thought of the “core three” kind of before. Superman was boring. Batman was, too. Spider-man was interesting but not quite enough for me to delve into the lore.

But the first Iron Man movie was so well constructed from top to bottom that I was there for it. And it nailed a couple of things I might have had problems with before: a great performance by a main character I wanted to get to know more of, and a promise that that would be possible down the line.

I went from knowing these oh so many characters, having gone to more Marvel movies than anything else over the past 10 years in all likelihood, and with a steadying breath went back to just one, a selfish ass who brought his own demise on himself and a movie all too eager to exploit the irony of it all.

Marvel has seen a very strong uptick in their latest movies and it’s not a coincidence they’ve been extremely political in nature. It’s not a coincidence that their foundation movie was extremely political and extremely popular. It wasn’t just a superhero movie, it didn’t just have a perfectly portrayed, empathetic main character: it was, still is, highly culturally relevant and added that much more resonance to it. Yeah it’s fiction. Yeah there’s some white saviour stuff going on. But it’s still pretty real, and it attacks war profiteering pretty head on. Obadiah is an afterthought; he’s not a bad villain or anything, but the scenes that really stick out over the years are Tony and Yinsen in the cave, and Tony in Gulmira. (I’m pretty sure the latter’s inclusion in the TV spot is what made me want to see it, and where would I be without that?)

Tony is forced to confront the reality of his fortunes head on and what we see is a man who comes out of hell with a stronger will than he ever thought he possessed. The tables were turned and once he was a victim and put in a situation in which he was forced to empathize he took it to the next level. What’s great here is we get to see the buildup of it: the comedic element of him trying to build a new suit notwithstanding, and the common sense that putting something that fantastically impossible together would take time, but that his resolve was kept so strong and firmly in place long after he was rescued and got out of there. And he willingly went back. Because he saw who he was killing and had to make it right.

Yinsen telling Tony not to waste it is the first tear-worthy moment across this entire damn franchise, which is really going to be saying quite a lot in the end.

I can’t fully remember everything that comes after - Phase 1 was such a while ago and I never felt the need to prep for the first Avengers movie like now - but absolutely everything about Tony Stark in the first movie made me fall in love with him. Shunning formality, hiding genuine emotion behind sarcasm, but underneath everything, including the arc reactor, just being a genuinely good person - albeit with very heavy flaws. It’s a movie of growth. He grows up as the run time increases, and the pacing is so perfectly executed that you’re with him every step of the way, that makes him so easy to root for, even when he’s treating random women or the people who genuinely loves like trash. Defence mechanisms are irrational, eh?

Rhodey probably carries most of their “but how are they even friends to begin with” arc (Tony and Pepper are pretty equal honestly) but Rhodey reuniting with him after he escapes the cave is such a muted, genuine moment - a reminder that this guy is very much human before he goes back to sarcasm. It was in a pretty immediate aftermath so there’s no real energy to hide vulnerability; contrast that to Tony recognizing Obadiah knows about his arc reactor and him trying to get the conversation over with as cleanly and quickly as possible without a hint of emotion.

He also shares his vulnerability with Pepper in asking her to help him - both with replacing the arc reactor and stealing the files, which he never even ends up needing himself - and it really just highlights how alone he is.

Which is extra ironic considering absolutely everything that follows in the next 17 movies or so.

That’s one other thing about Iron Man: it was a fantastic movie 10 years ago as a standalone. That the chords it struck travelled 10 years and 17 movies into the future is another accomplishment all together, and really points at how strong a starting point this one was.

A superhero movie that tried to be something a little more, a character piece and a political piece, more than costumed good guy fights costumed bad guy, not really here for any commentaries on the human condition or moral quandaries but a simple message: this is real, this is wrong, our hero is going to do his part to fix it, but eventually he will need help.

And then an end to just push the whole thing forward: because secret identities are boring and make little sense at this stage. They’re stagnant. Let’s keep it going. There’s a lot more story to be told here, and Tony’s humanity is going to give it the push forward it needs.

I haven’t even attempted to critically analyze media in, shit, maybe 10 years actually? But it’s where I got my technical blogging start, probably. Here’s a jumble of thoughts. I just watched Iron Man for the first time in years and I had a lot of them. Hopefully I’ll have 17 more.

[invertedfate]

Yo, I know this comic is awesome, and there's a lotta great and original stuff here :) I was just wondering... could you share some scrapped ideas which you thought about, but ended up not using?

Golly, let me think. Scrapped ideas, scrapped ideas...I think originally, Asgore was gonna give Frisk an advanced MTT brand phone (which he would’ve gotten as a gift from Napstablook). It would’ve had a lot of features under a child safety lock, and either Papyrus or Mettaton would’ve fixed it later and/or Mettaton would’ve upgraded Frisk’s phone. I forget why I scrapped this, tbh. I think because I didn’t wanna over complicate part 2?At one point, I had actually toyed with giving Monster Kid a larger role, with them trying to impress Sans and Papyrus by being brave and cool and engaging in battle with the “scary” human... except it would’ve been more like goofy play fighting.This was ultimately scrapped, as I felt it didn’t realy contribute to the overall plot, whereas the Canine Unit fights helped to establish that the Royal Guard is more competent in this universe and to streamline Snowdin’s progression, as I wanted to focus on Frisk’s bond with the skelebros as well as set up for future arcs with the Snowman scene as well as other little details. Also, Dohj was originally supposed to appear here as part of the canine unit, just more closely based on the beta Doge character, since this was before Undermyth was a thing. I just didn’t have any concrete ideas for her at the time and wouldn’t until Fort Aquarius became a thing.Yes, even that silly fight with Jerry is gonna mean something later. :PSnowdrake/Chilldrake/Ice Cap WERE gonna be minibosses at one point, though! But it was suggested to make it a fake out a) to have better pacing and b) to not have too many minibosses in Snowdin. With the two Canine Unit fights already planned, plus Jerry, plus Papyrus’ tutorial fight, things were getting kinda full. Plus, it gave a great opportunity to have Flowey reveal himself to Papyrus (he would’ve done so regardless, but this just made things more seamless AND contributed to the news segment later).One scrapped idea I remember was having Undyne incognito when Frisk snuck into Snowdin after their failed resets, but I felt as though that would’ve been too in your face, and she knew better than to muscle in on Sans’ turf.I can’t recall much being cut from Waterfall so much as expanded upon.Before Fort Aquarius was part of the plan, I did intend to have RG 01/02 fought in the dump for... some reason? I later decided that Bratty and Catty would be more appropriate for contributing to Alphys’ arc. Honestly, though, Waterfall was a huge grey area for me until Chaos proposed Fort Aquarius and from there I finally got some much-needed direction for the arc, and everything just sort of fell into place.

I vaguely recall this idea to have a recurring Temmie dressed as your stereotypical explorer popping up and getting into weird antics. This was scrapped because it was just kinda fluff. I may give this Tem a cameo if I ever get around to Tem Village, however.

Hotland... Honestly, the biggest change won’t even come into effect until the CORE, but last summer (as in 2016) I reworked the entire outcome for the Undyne boss battle as well as a bit of the setup. It was a pivotal moment as it influences a bunch of events I can’t talk about at this time. You’ll know it when you see it.One scrapped idea involves the ending, so I can’t talk about it YET. But I will say that my ending plans have changed a bit since I originally hashed things out.Also, Chaos jokingly suggested having Frisk and Alphys play a fighting game with Mew Mew Kissy Cutie characters. I considered this, but decided it was too much work, especially with all the prep I’m doing for Hotland.If I can think of anything else, I’ll follow up on it later. It’s been a long time, after all!

[sunlitroom]

Gotham, s4e01 – Pax Penguina

As I watched it, and some random observations here and there.

Previously on Gotham.

the Tetch virus was released - enabling lots of people to be ooc all at once.  We had general bedlam.  We had Ra’s.  Bruce killed Alfred. Oswald forgot all his own backstory and talked about the one time love weakened him.  Ed got iced. Bruce was an ass to Selina for no good reason except to enable her to turn to Tabitha.  We are reminded of that poor, poor Crane boy.  Bruce decides to find himself, and finds himself mostly brooding on building ledges

As always, long post will be long - monstrously long.  There are likely to be rambling digressions. Gobblepot will appear – because the Gods have chosen to bless us this week (although I welcome all shippers and non-shippers alike :)). There will be naked favouritism and naked not-favouritism.  Broader comments at the end on plotlines and parallels and general direction.

We open with more moody ledge standing from Bruce, staring down at the city.

Now – seriously: Is there some reason all these well-off couples in Gotham insist on wandering down the fucking dodgiest alleys ever seen?

Bruce spots their inevitable mugging taking place, and leaps into action - complete with an experimental gravelly voice.  Maybe it's be less recognisable if he went for an accent instead of hiding the actual tone.  Southern Batman.  French Batman. Dutch Batman.

Fighting happens. Bruce is wearing a beautifully tailored coat.  Bruce bests them.  The mugger says he had a license for misconduct, which Bruce takes from him.  Bruce strolls off in his expensive clothes, and Ra’s watches from a shadowy doorway in his expensive clothes

I have tailoring envy

The show just rickrolled us. We are at a wedding reception in full flow.  Masked men walk in

They look ill-groomed. They begin to rob everyone – until halted by a whistle. Turning – they see that a relaxed Victor is sitting watching proceedings.  He tells them crime now needs a license.  They don’t like the idea of Oswald-issued licenses, and call him ‘a little creep’.  Victor doesn’t like that.

Proving that they’re cataclysmically dumb as well as probably bad-smelling, they try to intimidate Victor, who promptly shoots the ringleader’s finger off.  He reiterates:

No license; no crime

He tells them to drop the loot and blow.  The bride tries to thanks him – but he tells her not to bother, since the gang that’s just arriving does have a license.  He slings a ‘seriously?’ at the groom for what’s presumably a shabby engagement ring – and then grins.

Best wedding ever!

Oswald in the mayor’s office.  The police commissioner is also there.  They’re telling him they appreciate what he’s done for the city.  Oswald smiles – looking just the tiniest bit manic round the edges – and asks if they really do.

(An aside – Oswald is touchy as hell about gratitude.  It’s possibly one of the reasons he responds reasonably well to Bruce later)

Apparently – Oswald promised to halve crime in the three months since the virus and has done so – bringing the underworld to heel.  

(An aside – it’s kind of frustrating that we hear of all the stuff Oswald achieves in terms of control between seasons – but then see him inevitably crumble in some way.  How many times now has managed to take control of the whole underworld despite his own setbacks?)

They try to interject, and Oswald lunges forward.  Temper, temper.  This is why he gets on so well with Jim.

He tells the mayor he doesn’t envy him, and asks him what he thinks happened to the criminals who used to be on the street.  The mayor points put that he is suggesting professional, unionised crime -which will earn him a profit.  Oswald smiles

God bless America

He tells them they can have calm prosperity, or a return to the bad old days.

The commissioner and mayor say they’ll go along with it – but deny everything to the press.  They agree that the police won’t arrest license holders.

(Doesn’t the mayor just run the city, though?  Isn’t there a difference between ‘normal’ crime and federal crime in the States? Like – isn’t some stuff automatically handled at a higher level?  Or this is what TV and film has taught me, at least)

The mayor and commissioner haggle for their cut.  Everything agreed, Oswald excuses himself and leaves – he has to prepare for the grand opening of his club.  As he leaves, he tells them to smile – it’s a new day.

 A bar being robbed. Jim walks in.  Apparently, Jim gets his morning coffee from a bar.  It’s a licensed robbery – but this is essentially catnip to Jim, who gets to arrest someone, break something that looks suspiciously like a rule, and guarantee himself a nice charged meeting with Oswald later.  And all before breakfast.

Jim brings the guy into GCPD, where the other officers eye him balefully.  In his office, Harvey is talking to a bureaucratic looking guy about how the licenses will work.  He particularly mentions that Mr Cobblepot worries about Detective Gordon – he has a history. 

(Oswald, of course, knows first-hand Jim won’t go along with this - it’s what he gambled on way back when Jim had a gun to his head on the pier.)

The man sniffs haughtily at Jim, leaving as Jim enters the office.  Harvey and Jim talk briefly.  Harvey says that Oswald did help get the city back on its feet by exerting control over the underworld.  Jim says that every day the citizens look to Oswald for protection, they slip further away from GCPD.  Harvey leaves, and Jim has a nice glower to himself.

 At Wayne Manor, Bruce wonders how to turn Oswald's scheme against him.  Alfred tells him he’s supposed to be prepping for Ra’s.  Bruce feels guilty that the city got into such a state in the first place, though – because he was instrumental in the release of the virus.  Alfred warns him against mission creep – but Bruce thinks he can work towards both goals.

Oh no.  Arkham.  I hate this place so much.  I get that it’s a stylised comic book universe, but why must they do this horrible depiction?   

The foul unkempt gang has shown up. One used to be a warden, and remembered Jonathan talking about the fear serum.  That could help them in their vendetta against Oswald.

The deeply repulsive new director, who is virtually a lizard, allows them access. Jonathan is essentially constantly haunted and terrified – which he uses to control him.  He allows them to take the cowering boy away, in queasily paternal tones. I want this guy to die too, please.

(An aside - see - this is one of the things with Gotham. Every other character will view Oswald as the big bad and work towards his downfall - but we see that this doctor, and this gang are infinitely worse and more contemptible.)

At the former Dr Crane’s home, Jonathan is pulling up boards to hand over his father’s fucked up chemistry set.  He insists he can’t be there after dark – but they don’t care.  They’ve brought a scarecrow (the figure he fears most) as a means to control him.  He screams and begs – to no avail.

(See - I'd happily let Oswald kill these guys)

 A bank – where a robbery is carried out by the contemptible bastard gang.  When GCPD arrive – staff are ranting about fiery demons.  Jim and Harvey don’t think that this was a licensed crime – but a deliberate message to defy Oswald.  Harvey says that he hopes Victor comes by to kill them.  Jim decides he’s going to catch them first. Harvey is incredulous that he’d essentially race Victor just to thumb his nose at Oswald.  Harvey is apparently suffering from severe amnesia regarding the last three years.  

Jim says he suspects the fear serum – and points out that they should look for Jonathan.

 At Arkham, Jim and Harvey are interviewing the very vile doctor.  He says that Jonathan’s condition is fragile, and is generally slippery and evasive.  As we enter his office, we see a table with straps and random surgical instruments lying on it.  I want this guy dead so much

Harvey deliberately uses Oswald’s and Zsasz's names.  He tells the doctor that Zsasz is likely to visit soon.  He asks Jim how he’d describe Zsasz – who replies that he has a body that won’t quit is a homicidal maniac and sadist

Of the highest professional standards

The doctor caves

Jim and Harvey go to find the gang but are ambushed – with Jim getting a nasty kick to the ribs. They go on about the license system and call themselves ‘outlaws’.  Jim is kicked in the ribs again and again (please stop that) – I don’t think he’d have been able to spring up quite so quickly as that.

In what turns out to have been a training session, Selina beats up 5 guys in an alley.  Tabitha comes in and takes the last one out – and they go to get pizza.

Back at their apartment, Victor arrives and reminds them about the license system.  He says they’re understandably hard to find – given their shabby apartment, and asks Tabitha if she didn’t used to be rich. Tabitha claims that Oswald took her club.  Victor points out that Tabitha murdered Oswald’s mother and tried to kill him – so she should call it even.  Yes.  Thank-you, Victor.

(An aside – are we to believe that Selina was selectively deaf here?  We know her moral code is a bit different – but I’d like to think she’d draw the line at Gertrud’s murder)

Victor says that Oswald is willing to let bygones be bygones if they come to the club and show that they’re deferential.  He also asks hopefully if that pizza is pepperoni – but Selina closes the lid. Why will no-one let Victor share their food? I’ll commit crimes and order pizza if Victor will come visit me.

Selina is willing to go to Oswald – but Tabitha refuses to ‘work for him’.

(An aside -  I’m really not getting where Tabitha’s high horse is coming from here.  Tabitha is still pretty much the lowest of the low, for me.  She got her jollies listening to Gertrud cry and beg while she was locked up, before eventually stabbing her in the back. She’s never demonstrated any remorse, or ‘well – that’s business’ attitude.  There’s not the complication of mental illness or trauma that you get with Barbara or Ed, either.  If anything, the implication with Tabitha is always that she’s a straightforward sadist. I find it incredibly hard to remotely root for her or care about her.)

Bruce visits Jim at work. A tired and presumably sore Jim is now drinking while he broods, blood on his collar.  The smell of blood is gross – go change that, Jim.  

Bruce tries to find out what’s being done about the license situation, and nudges Jim in the direction of finding the probable master-list of crime and criminals. Jim says that the license system has the official OK – and going after the list would set off too many alarms.  Oswald will catch the gang, and it will reinforce the idea that GCPD is not needed.  Jim’s not happy about the situation - but his hands are effectively tied.  

Bruce suggests using Oswald to lead Jim to the gang.  Jim looks thoughtful.

Before he leaves – Bruce tells Jim to come to dinner sometime.  Jim actually seems vaguely happy at this idea – which is nice to see. He suggests getting something now – but as he turns, Bruce has slipped away.

 Os is promoting his club to the press.

Exclusive but welcoming, urbane but edgy

He’s super confident. He’s asked if he got the club from Barbara and where she might be – but bats the question away.  Ivy watches, smiling and seemingly amiable – which is worth noting, because I think her actions later seemed very out of the blue.

Oswald is asked about the license system.  He waxes lyrical about the Pax Romana.  When criminals start drawing Roman Empire parallels, they’re sort of asking for a hubris smackdown. it’s some kind of dramatic law of the universe. 

He changes the subject back to the club – and has Ivy dramatically light up the Edcicle.  He’s concocted a story about Ed having an incurable brain disease, asking to be cryogenically frozen, and then let him be out among the people.  It was the least Oswald could do to comply with his wishes.

Did he know he was being frozen?

Jim strolls in. Oswald snaps that he has affadavits from Ed’s doctor – if Jim wants to see them.  He walks quickly to Jim – and turns sharply to stop the press following him, because Jim and Oswald like a little privacy when they’re about to invade each other’s personal space.

He tells Jim he’s a little busy – what exactly does he want?  Jim’s here to deliberately provoke a response from him, of course – to get to the gang – and goes about it with some relish.

I’m here to tell you you're a fraud

He tells Oswald the gang have the fear toxin.  They’re not afraid of him, and soon others won’t be either.  

You’ve had a nice run, Oswald, but it’s over.

Oswald grabs Jim and hauls him close.  There’s an initial snarl – and then he switches to his sort of ardent tone for these encounters.

Oh Jim.

For his part, Jim looks like he’s just realised being the grabee is as much fun as being the grabber. This opens a whole new world of possibilities.  Now they can role play Big Bad Gangster and Innocent Detective as well as the usual Stern Cop and Flirtatious Gangster.

Oswald tells Jim it’s so hard to admit irrelevance – but he will find the gang and crush them, because he keeps Gotham safe now.  

Jim smiles at him before walking out.  Oswald calls after him that it’s always good to see his old friend, with an oddly shiny-eyed smile.

That was the most elaborate foreplay ever.

 Meanwhile, at a horrid flat, the gang listen to a statement Oswald made for TV, furious at the insults levelled at them.  Jonathan’s made the serum – but they refuse to get rid of the scarecrow, despite his begging) and shut him in the cupboard with it.

Oswald is monologuing at the Edcicle.  He’s going on about Ed’s accusation of being a slave to emotions (Ed, of course, being a paragon of self-control who strangled his girlfriend).  Oswald says he’s banished those feelings now…..

(Hey, Oswald - remember the last scene?  And then the ones before it?  And pretty much the whole episode?  You’ve banished precisely nothing.  In fact, you’ve seemed extra emotional)

ivy approaches as he continues to monologue.

….but at what cost?  Which of us is truly frozen?

That’s a godawful clunky and pompous line that even the most self-indulgent fanficcer would have hastily edited out – which means Ivy’s interruption works particularly well.

Him - like totally frozen

Oswald is not happy at his overly-dramatic posing being interrupted and tells her to go somewhere else. She does – but she’s pissed about it. It looks a lot like a big brother, little sister dynamic.

GCPD, where Jim is planning their strike at the club.  The other cops seem reluctant, and Harvey has to chivvy them.  Harvey clearly thinks Jim’s plan is reckless – deliberately provoking Oswald (who, let us not forget, is the master of his emotions now), who in turn provoked the gang.   He doesn’t blame the cops for being pissed.  Jim pulls a face and leaves to get the gas masks

(An aside – we seem to have looped back to something resembling season one Jim.  His fellow officers dislike him, and Harvey is going along with his plans under protest.  GCPD is happy with its relationship with the underworld, but Jim refuses to tolerate it.

Again reminiscent of s1 – there’s ambiguity around this refusal.  Jim talks about wanting the law to be in charge – but we know from promos that he’s going to go get help from Falcone, so the talk of law and order and public trust is kind of – you know…. bullshit, if your actual actions involve going to mafia dons for favours.  The whiff of moral hypocrisy here is familiar.  Also – lone wolf behaviour, and bucking against authority – that’s just essentially s1 Jim.)

Poor, poor Jonathan is still cowering in that fucking cupboard.  Why will no-one hug this child and make him tea?

The scarecrow starts talking to him – or at least Jonathan hallucinates this – and things get much worse.

 In the GCPD locker room, four cops corner Jim.  They like the current system – why does he have to rock the boat?  Jim can tell there’s no getting out of this.

Alright then - who wants it first?

He tries to throw some punches – but two of them hold his arms while the others beat him.  It’s quick but still horrible – I hate scenes like that.

 At the Iceberg Club – Oswald greets Bruce, who puts on an avuncular performance.  Alfred prods about whether Ed is still alive in there. Oswald says they’ll never know – but then scrambles to correct himself when Bruce reminds him that a cure might be developed for his ‘brain disease’.  Ha!

Bruce wants to personally thank Oswald for everything he’s done for the city.  It seems sincere – and Oswald seems genuinely grateful.  It’s worth remembering that Bruce – from what we’ve seen – at least tries to be compassionate and understanding with everyone he encounters, even the criminals.  Part of Oswald does genuinely believe that he has acted in the city’s best interests. Bruce is insightful and empathetic enough to recognise and acknowledge that – while still retaining his determination to put an end to his scheme.

He asks about the license. Oswald seems disbelieving that he’d be open to licensed crime – but Bruce points out that if his scheme had existed three years ago , then his parents would still be alive.

Oswald nods – wide-eyed -

Exactly so!

We’re reminded of a parallel between these characters - Oswald and Bruce both lost their parents within the last three years, and in traumatic circumstances. Those losses shaped them both.   Again – it’s an effective moment.  Bruce doesn’t believe in the licenses – his comment about his parents is just a statement of fact – but there’s an openness to the comment: he doesn’t draw the ‘us and them’ line that Jim does.

Oswald tells Bruce he comes up with guidelines, but the nervous bureaucrat – Mr Pen – handles everything else – before leaving to mingle.  Alfred congratulates Bruce on finding out who is likely to have the list.

 Selina is also at the club. Victor approaches with Ivy in tow – and asks where Tabitha is, aren’t they a package deal?  Selina says Oswald has her – and that should be enough, but Tabitha arrives.

We're both in

Victor eyes her.

I should pat you down for weapons

Tabitha tells him he’d lose a hand.  What’s with this show and cutting off hands?

Ivy tries to say hi, but Tabitha rather meanly gets rid of her.  Selina is happy that Tabitha was worried about her.  Glancing round, though, she sees Bruce and Alfred, scowls, and walks away.

 At GCPD, Jim stares at his bloody nose in the mirror.  Jim’s still very upright for what looked to be a horrendous beating – what the hell? Harvey enters.  Jim tells him sullenly that they have no back up. Harvey suggests it was healthy for the cops to let off steam this way – which doesn’t go down well with Jim.

 At the club, the gang is hiding in kitchen, deciding to hit Oswald and Victor first.  Oswald strolls in with Victor, and asks them whether they think gas or a bullet would be faster?

Oswald knew they would be there, and is seemingly amused by Jim's ham-fisted attempt at manipulation. He’ll need to practice his role-play skills.  Possibly with a uniform and handcuffs - Oswald hasn’t decided yet.

Oswald has a special plan for these guys – and smilingly tells them so.

(Jesus - just let him do it: they're vile.)

Bruce has followed Selina to the roof.  She asks what he wants.  He says she knew he’d follow her.  She loses her smile and tells him he doesn’t know anything about her – a call-back to the hospital – for which Bruce promptly apologises.  She forgives him quickly, and tells him to get on the ledge if he wants to talk, which he does – to her pleased surprise.

He apologises again, and she tells him he was a jerk.  Bruce comments on her relationship with Tabitha, and says she’s not a good mentor. Selina says his opinion means absolutely nothing to her.  She’s a bit wobbly in her heels.  Turning – she dangles one foot off the edge, and asks if he wants to say something. He tells her that’s a lovely dress, and she smiles.

Alfred appears, and asks why they can’t just go to the cinema like normal teenagers.  He also tells Bruce they have a situation, and he runs off.  Alfred leaves Selina with a Miss Kyle – and she smiles.

Oswald is making a speech in front of the bound gang – about how he is ensuring peace for the future, and how - without him – this fear and chaos is what you get, the old days.

(An aside – you know – aside from Oswald’s sincerity that what he is doing is actually beneficial, that crime is inevitable, so why not control it – his behaviour is psychologically understandable.  No wonder Oswald is obsessive about control, after his experiences in Arkham, with his ‘family’, during his time as mayor.  He’s also going to have a professional horror of free agents like Ed and Barbara – who brought about complete chaos in the underworld, and who – as he pointed out – wouldn’t have even got to sit at the same table as Fish and Maroni and Falcone.)

Ivy watches, looking disgruntled.  I'm not getting why Ivy is suddenly dubious here, to be honest.

Oswald concludes by saying he keeps the city safe - not GCPD –adding a sarcastic, you're welcome!

Bruce tells Alfred his stuff is in the car. Alfred shakes his head.  Bruce tells Alfred that Oswald will kill those men.  Alfred says there’s a time for As-Yet-Unnamed-Mask-Man, and there’s a time for Bruce.

Bruce steps forward and loudly asks Oswald what will happen.  Oswald says he need not concern himself.  Bruce asks if they will be handed over to the police.

Oswald walks closer.  He says Bruce thanked him earlier – but how did he think this all happened?  He’s willing to do the dirty work required.

Again, Bruce’s response is important

I understand

There’s sincerity there.  He does understand Oswald’s reasoning.  He just can’t go along with it.  He tries again.

I'm asking you not to kill those men

Oswald’s mouth trembles (master of his emotions, everyone), and he looks him straight in the eye

You're young.  You have a good heart

Bruce and Alfred looks taken aback by this response.

Oswald is resolved, though.

No.

 Ivy wanders into the kitchen and switches off the power. This makes not a blind bit of sense – sorry. I can buy that Oswald’s snappishness has been progressively pissing her off. I can buy that they’re in a squabbly sibling dynamic.  But it just seemed to go from 0 to wtf way too quickly.  She’s been around Oswald for just over three months now.  She knew of him earlier than that – in fact, saw very similar attention-grabby behaviour at the opening of Sirens.  I get that she’s childish – and doesn’t really think things through before acting – but the idea that she’s suddenly not OK with that to this extent just feels too convenient.

As the club is plunged into darkness, Jim and Harvey come barrelling in, the gang break free, and Oswald is sprayed with fear serum.  He drops to the floor, screaming, and sees a monstrous, demonic Ed which – given Ed mentally tortured him by digging up his father’s corpse, makes sense.  It’s also interesting that Ed is looming over Oswald – slightly reminiscent of their first prolonged encounter – in which Ed drugged him to keep him docile and captive.

Zsasz and Alfred nearly shoot each other in the confusion, but give each other impressed little smiles.  Someone somewhere just started a side-blog.  Think of all the snacks Alfred could make him.

When the lights go back on, Jim punches the ringleader, who was laughing and gloating over a still yelling Oswald, and arrests him.

Oswald is still terrified and begging for help – but zeroes on Jim’s voice, grabbing on to him to clamber up from the floor, and then clutches at him, hiding his face against him and begging for help.

Jim has his disgruntled ‘I’m not a hugging person’ face on – but doesn’t push him off, and manages to shift his grip to move his hand from grabbing Oswald’s shoulder to press against the back of his head instead.

(An aside – yes, it’s played for some comic relief.  However, the fact remains that after everything, and despite all the bluster on both sides - Oswald still seeks Jim out for safety, and Jim doesn’t shove him away, but holds on instead. In a crappy dark universe, I’ll take what sweetness I can get.)

Harvey drops a newspaper on Jim’s desk – which is running what is surely now many Gobblepotters’ desktop image as their front-page picture.  Harvey shakes his head.

Penguin won't be too happy about that

Well – not publicly, Harvey – but I’m willing to bet that it’s made it into a secret scrapbook.

Jim shrugs

Screw him

(The fanficcers are on it Jim, thanks for helping)

 Mr Pen’s office.  Bruce is waiting at the door.  He manages to easily swipe the list, while Mr Pen ineffectually protests.

(Honestly?  This seems dumb.  Yes – Oswald would avoid seeing the list himself, but he’d have third party muscle guarding it.)

Bruce is on a rooftop, watching a licensed burglary through a glass sectioned ceiling.  Leaning on the glass, he falls through, lands awkwardly, removes his mask in apparent panic – and is only saved by the arrival of GCPD.  Ooops. Maybe he’ll get one of those cool mugshots, though?  David Bowie’s is the best.

One of the loathsome gang returns to the apartment for a more serum.  He opens the cupboard to find Jonathan wearing the scarecrow suit.

Jonathan Crane isn't here anymore.  Just the scarecrow

He sprays him with the serum and – again – fuck these guys, so good.

 General observations

Hard to find an overarching theme here – we’re more checking in to see where everyone is.

 The licensed crime thing doesn’t really work, logic-wise – but Gotham’s not really big on that. What you can take from it that’s interesting is Oswald’s view of crime versus, say…Jerome’s.  

Crime, for Oswald, is business.  It’s what he does.  He’s a gangster and belongs, in that sense, to the world inhabited by Fish, Maroni and Falcone – even given his ‘freakishness’.  From what we see of Gotham – it’s pretty entrenched in terms of rich, poor, etc.  For Oswald – second generation immigrant, wrong side of the tracks, with a mother who needed support herself, and with something to prove – organised crime probably seemed a pretty obvious option.

It does fulfil certain psychological needs for him: power, respect, and the venting of rage when he kills – but they’re sort of by-products of what he does.  Barring when he completely loses his temper, he will tend to kill/assault for business reasons.  An enemy had to be disposed of.  An informant had to be taught a lesson.  Even revenge serves a business purpose as well as acting as an outlet for anger: this is what you will get if you wrong me.

That’s a world with a rulebook and its own logic.  But it doesn’t really work for those who want to break the rules for the sake of breaking the rules.  Oswald’s rule would pretty much be the same to them as the rule of law.  Jerome’s furious at every authority figure he sees – it doesn’t matter who it is.  He needs to lash out at them, exert power.  Equally – it doesn’t really work for people whose murders are driven by psychological compulsion and/or a need to prove that they’re ‘better’ than the law.

Jim and Oswald.  Oh my.  Oswald’s still feeling a little stung – it seems, given his pointed comment to Jim about keeping people safe, but presumably the bulk of the blame has been assigned to the Tetch virus, since Jim is still hale and hearty.  They’re back to business as usual: inappropriate body space, inappropriate baiting, inappropriate grabbing, inappropriate staring, inappropriate clutching – general inappropriateness.

Oswald and Bruce’s interaction is interesting.  We know, from Oswald’s backstory, and his interlude after Arkham, that Oswald does have the capacity to be a good person.  It’s just been knocked out of him so often that he’s learned that it doesn’t get him anywhere.  But he still recognises and values goodness in other people.  It’s one of the major factors in his relationship with Jim (morally ambiguous though Jim may be).  And - like the reasoning behind his crime licenses – this acknowledgement of goodness is something that differentiates him from many of the other ‘villains’.  There’s arguably much more of a sense of ‘might-have-been’ about him, which is what makes him so relatable and sympathetic.

Jim – as mentioned earlier – has looped back to a version of s1 Jim.  I’m curious to see what makes him desperate enough to seek out Falcone.  It’ll need to be something significant, otherwise he’s just going to start to bring back elements of Unappealing Season 2 Jim, who was a massive hypocrite.

Sundries

Victor is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Jim being the object of derision in GCPD is oddly familiar and comforting.

Poor Jonathan.  

[jlmckee13]

Busy bees all around and running out of gas

Holy moly rounding out the rest of the week at #MommySchool was a peek into the challenges ahead.  Working from home was introduced during the latter part of the week in addition to the need to homeschool/occupy and I found myself running out of gas.

Before I give you a glimpse into how Thursday and Friday went for our institution of higher learning and inspiration, I have decided to give you some ideas on how to keep yourself- the adult in the household- busy.

Merriam-Webster breaks down the definition of “busy” into multiple perspectives, I, however, will focus plainly on: 

1.) adj. engaged in action: occupied

I found myself diving into the whole teacher school-thing and thinking to myself while he was working... “Hey! What about me!?! What should I do?” (I also have the added hiccup of a visitation to his father’s house this weekend. My nerves are all around so staying “occupied” was essential). 

SO why not fully dive into landscaping to pass the time?!? Completely straighten the playroom and organize all matchbox cars appropriately. (Am I going insane already?!)

Here are some takeaways from MY Week #1

**Disclaimer- This is in NO WAY the right thing to do to occupy yourself. I just found this naturally occurring**

O- ORDER-- “Let’s see what Amazon can help with.” “Hmmm... Target delivers groceries?!?” “I really don’t want to leave the house.” “We are supposed to be trying to keep the economy clicking right?” “OMG He read that book so fast!” “Gonna need another one.” “RIGHT?!?”

C- CLEAN-- “No better time than now to make sure all our condiments haven’t expired in the fridge.” “Hhmmm... looks like there was a spill on the one shelf.” “You know what... time to disassemble and disinfect the entire thing.” “HOW’S YOUR MATH COMING?!?”

C- COOK-- Survival mode at it’s fullest. “If I made homemade waffles, I can freeze the leftovers...” “Soups are your friend.” “Carbs make everyone happy.” “Oh god, gym class needs to step it up a notch with those cookies we just made.”

U- UNITE-- One of the best moments of my week was when we touched base with the outside world. Zoom is a miracle worker. ClassTag is keeping the kids together. Oh and that life saving thing called FaceTime will keep the world sane. I had a co-worker “happy hour” which was THE MOST therapeutic adult activity I could have ever had. I had two work related calls which just made me feel normal again for a few hours- which also led to more things to keep me “occupied” - WIN! And when all else failed with #MommySchool we Facetimed with our friends... you know... heard actual voices... saw actual faces- a wonder drug!

P- PREP-- Everything from more #mommyschool ideas, listing how to possibly start throwing work into the mix next week, food for the next meal, writing out what type of items should be my top ten to get through this. I fell into these rabbit holes... DON’T DO IT if you can’t handle the sheer thoughts.... Click at your own risk. ... Are you sure?!  and I’m Sorry!

I- INSPIRE-- So, I kid around a lot. I am a bit of a sarcastic mess but at the end of the day my heart is big. I don’t toot my own horn- ever- I just try and do what I do and move on. That being said, even writing this portion is hard for me... but I think it is important to try and inspire others around you- some how. No matter how big or small- don’t gloat and try and one up, but just do what you do and be proud of it. A big part of this- what you are reading- is my way of trying to keep us all hopeful and get out of this- together. Inspire with ideas, suggestions, actions and words of wisdom. We all have them and it’s time for us all to shine.

E- EDUCATE-- I think one of my more current... or past-life... concerns for myself has been my inability to learn something new- Well no better time than the present. Pick up a book. Download a book. Read or listen to the news (I can not promise this will make you feel smarter). Find a Podcast of your choice and simply try to just get better at being you.    

D- DDDRRRRRRIII....... You know, you guys- NO! That was not what I was going to say! DRIVE was my last word....:::sigh:::... geez. I think this is all a very sobering time for all of us no matter what we do. With that, trying to stay driven- keep motivated and understand the bigger picture in all of this is essential. Often this week, despite my lofty goals to be this force for my son that kept him in line and on task I wanted to sleep in. I wanted to say- ehhh it is definitely gloomy out we should just stay in- I stopped and remembered what my driving force was. Week 2 is quickly approaching. I have a million things to get better at this upcoming week and the only thing that will allow me to do that is managing myself and my will to get through this stronger. I thought this was a good list to start with to help develop a motivation strategy. I think we can all agree the end goal is to get through this without losing our minds, but you may have other personal goals you want to succeed at while you have the time and focus- so I thought I would share.

SOOO How did the week end out at #MommySchool...?

DAY #4

Not my finest moments. I was definitely tired and had some work phone calls bring this deserted island back to reality for a bit.  Luckily, my son is a rockstar and gave me the time I needed to get my things done and we had the added bonus of some video touch bases from his class to brighten the day up. This was very much a Wingin it Thursday.  Yoga from the day before was a hit so it stayed apart of our day- and today’s project was to start his own comic book series. Pot of Lentils for the win! Got some scooter action in when we were able to get outside.

GYM CLASS: The kid wanted to run. So we ran parking spots. Jogs, sprints. Forward. Backward. Not sure it will be requested again.

DAY #5

FINAL PUSH for the week!

I found out the day before that we would not be receiving assignments from the teacher for this day because it was a previously scheduled Pro. Dev. Day. So - can you believe it... I had to figure out the entire day with no help! I know!!

SO I made a final push. This day would be dubbed Fiesta/Fitness/Freaky Friday. (It evolved from a single focus fluidly). This was the hardest day yet emotionally but we regrouped after lunch. (Is it possible to do too much? Yup!)

The day had a ton of Latino/Fiesta Music playing all day.  Lunch was Mexican related- quesadillas and chips and salsa. We made a pinata out of a box and glue and construction paper. Nothing fancy- but fun. We made a luchador mask, as my son loves the movie Nacho Libre. 

Freaky-related: It was super foggy when we woke up so we rushed out of the house to walk the neighborhood in it.  Then my son wanted to wear his stuff backwards on our real walk to school after breakfast.

Fitness-related: We had some Gym class videos to catch up on for the week. Man it got sweaty! (It was also a weird 75 degrees outside). Yoga, PE videos and then he created a new game outside. “Kickball 2″.

Kickball 2 Needs: One soccer ball, one baseball tee (or something to prop ball on) try and kick ball to or over the fence. Hits the fence= 1 point, over the fence = anywhere from 3points and up depending on how impressed he is.  Goal is to be the first person to 10 points ( or more if you like).

Just for the record... I do always try to make these short and sweet. I’ll work on that for next week.  Good luck and stay healthy and OCCUPIED out there! 😉

[attract-mode-collective]

It’s Still (Pixelated) Hot Dog Legs Season

Fall should officially be in full swing by now, yet here in NYC (and many other parts of the US), it still feels like summer. Which I’m not thrilled about, though at the very least, I don’t feel so bad for sharing the above (by Robert Penney) so late into September.

On that note, time for a way overdue game culture round up! It’s been a while, and a LOT been going on. And not to be a downer, but the chaotic weather has been in the news, obviously.

Here’s a pic from Gamer Geek Nation on Facebook, who shared the aftermath of the Hurricane Harvey, along with: “… This is a time when we collectors need to remind ourselves that ultimately, this is just stuff, and our lives are more important. And make sure your collection is insured properly.”

Elsewhere in the world, the Tokyo Game Show just wrapped up, and not to repeat the obvious, but yes… the biggest, most exciting news was the Sonic X Hooters collab…

Though the one between Hello Kitty and Game Center CX is far, far better (photo courtesy of Kotaku)…

You also have this comically large Rockman doll, which apparently was available on Amazon but is now out of stock…

Though I mostly wished I had been there to pick up some primo looking attire, like this Mega Drive track jacket that miki800 gave the heads up on before show time (there was also a Dreamcast hoodie that I personally don’t think looks as nice, hence why I’m skipping it)…

I also really like this Pac-Man shirt…

This Galaga shirt as well…

Also taking place in Japan was an exhibition held by the JARGA (Japan Retro Game Association); miki800 was there and captured some interesting bits of hardware, with the highlight being (IMHO) this Mega Drive clone that resembles a perfect mix of the model 1 MD and the original Wondermega…

There’s no preview of the music yet, though may as well share the recently unveiled cover to the third (and final) installment of 8 BIT MUSIC POWER…

Meanwhile, according to Original Sound Version, Mitch Murder has released yet another soundtrack to another game that never existed. In this it didn’t come out for the Mega CD and doesn’t involve mecha…

Remember that Jet Set Radio figure I showed a while ago? Well, it's finally available for pre-order! Alas, it's not cheap, at least over at Big Bad Toy Store...

BTW, videogamesdensetsu shares with us what Beat looks like, sans-cel shading…

Sticking with VCD for a tad bit; here’s what Pulseman looked originally looked like, and he sure was cute!

Whereas NiGHTS looked goofier… as well as more menacing….

Am confident most people will not give a rat’s ass about seeing hand drawn Virtua Racing track designs, but as a massive fan of the series, oh man, oh man, oh man...

Two never before seen Saturn prototypes that must be: “[taken] with a grain of salt!”

Apparently Looney Tunes X The Matrix was actually a thing? Somehow this does not surprise me…

The work of Hideaki Kodama was recently highlighted, which was also recently auctioned; I wonder how much this painting of various PC Engine hardware went for?

Yet another Kickstarter mention? Yup. And this one is Jed Henry's third crowdfunding campaign: this particular variant of the Ukiyo-e Heroes concentrates on boss battles, with perhaps my fave piece being his depiction from The Breath of the Wild...

Am particularly fond of this image from the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary art book that grease-howard spotted, of old Chun Li chumming it up with her younger self...

Any and all BoJack Horseman fans out there may want to pick up this piece by Jude Buffum...

legendofnes reminds of that time Batman visited New Donk City…

It's just a bunch of cyber kids, all just hanging around, by sanigo...

Speaking of the gang, here we have the kids from Persona 5, by @aranciart…

Apparently, if Jedah (from Darkstalkers) ran a juice stand, it wouldn’t be the best, according to dreaminerryday…

The individual who runs SPLENDID LAND describes SLN-003 Gacha Man as a: "vendor robot who dispenses toys. even he doesn’t know what’s inside the capsules, so he always gets excited to find out"...

Meanwhile, here’s official artwork of Mario and Peach, courtesy of the thevideogameartarchive’s catalogue of the Mario Golf N64 manual; am pretty sure I’ve seen images of Mario looking distressed, though never to this degree…

The above is something Super Mario Broth would normally deliver, and speaking of, may as well share some recent faves on that end! Like these photos from a promotional campaign with a Japanese sports drink when promoting Mario Sports Superstars…

Instructions found on the arcade cabinet for Vs. Super Mario Bros (which I remember so distinctly, and fondly)…

From some Japanese video guide for the same game (am assuming the home Famicom version this time)…

A greeting card (am assuming a Valentine’s)...

Mario without his hat, as he appears in a Game Boy controller test cart that Nintendo service reps used to calibrate buttons on a the handheld…

And he we have a shortcut in SMB3 that I had no idea existed, and it’s a safe bet that most don’t either: “In Super Mario Bros. 3, the rock between the path to the first fortress in World 4 and the Spade Panel can be destroyed with a Hammer item, allowing the player to bypass the fortress. There is no obvious indication that this rock is destructible, as it is surrounded by decorative rocks. In fact, many guides for Super Mario Bros. 3 do not mention this shortcut.”

As for Super Mario Broth’s counterpart, Sonic the Hedgeblog has seen plenty of action as well… largely pinpointing all the obscure references found in Sonic Mania, So head over for that if that sounds like fun to you! Otherwise, there’s also the Mario Bros having a Sonic Panic…

A reminder of how Sonic looked at one point as he was being prepped for the Dreamcast; it would appear that at a certain point, in Sonic Adventure, he was going to look a lot more realistic…

And this issue with EGM featuring a sneak preview of Sonic 2 is the very first video game magazine that I ever picked up!

Meanwhile, oldgamemags recently posted a page from an issue of GamePro, circa 2000, on a peripheral that allowed the Game Boy to play mp3s. Am sharing it cuz I really want a GB-looking mp3 player…

So someone on Twitter (who has since protected his account, so I’ll have to refer to nintendolife they snagged the pic before it was locked down) cracked open a electrocardiogram measurement instrument and found... a GBA? It’s theorized: “perhaps earlier revisions of the unit had different screens, and once the supply chain dried up MiE was forced to source the next best thing?”

vice-s-assistant sez: "OK Guys, I’m ready to hack."

According to bunney: "i was working at a convention arcade this weekend and some guy cosplaying ryu was playing street fighter with a blunt in his mouth"...

Can anyone tell what's being played here? At the very least, it's a nice shot (via rekall)...

Much like Arcade Crusade, I have no idea what’s going on, and I agree that whatever it is, it looks intense...

If you’ve ever wanted an artist’s rendering of the Raspberry Pi, then look no further than the work of retronator…

rasec-wizzlbang states: “those square cross sections of the human skin layers you always see in biology books but as like, a minecraft block”…

Courtesy of Arcade Crusade once again comes a very tender moment…

Is it just me or does this promo image for Food Fight sure does look like a Norman Rockwell painting? As seen on thedoteaters...

Here we have a flyer for a really old SNK arcade game (we’re talking really old; almost a decade before the Neo Geo was a thing) that looks like it was made with today’s sensibilities, doesn’t it?

Also via obscurevideogames is a moment of pathos from Hacchake Ayayo-san 4 - Sexy Olympics - Ayayo’s Live Affection. It’s… pretty obscure alright…

Yup, that's Hieronymus Bosch-styled Tetris all right (via freeindiega.me)...

crashcarnival presents: "true facts of the Ice Age"...

Hey, it’s the Ninja Turtles playing Pong (via rewind01)…

Behold, Fighters Megamix version 2017 (via lonelyfrontier)…

Yup, that is definitely a Chu Chu Rocket skirt  (via radicalhelmet)...

For those who have ever wondered what their Sonic character’s political leanings are, in relation to the rest of the crew (and can’t be bothered to sift through DeviantArt; via erratticusfinch)…

Face to face (via futureisfailed)…

It’s been out for a while, though it’s not too late to pick up this Xenogears tribute zine, right?

Just a friendly reminder of how bat-sh*t insane Sin & Punishment is (via n64thstreet)...

Zimmerit.moe has everything you need to know about a game by Square involving mecha that you’ve probably never heard of. And no, am not talking about Thexder; it’s even more obscure than that (am talking about Cruise Chaser Blassty BTW/FYI)...

Meanwhile, Michael “Kayin” O’Reilly discusses the “Barrel Distortion” look that emulators use to recreate the look of playing something on a CRT display and why it’s total crap…

And… that’s  it! You’ve made it to the end! Enjoy a cool, refreshing drink with Pac-Man (on the behalf of arcade-crusade)...

Don’t forget: Attract Mode is now on Medium! There you can subscribe to keep up to date, as well as enjoy some “best of” content you might have missed the first time around, plus be spared of the technical issues that’s starting to overtake Tumblr.