#I'll probably add the other set of bits to this post later too

[arcxnumvitae]

The dragons generally resemble normal humans, genitalia included, when in their fully "humanoid" forms. When appearing as fully human, their anatomy functions on the surface much the same. Since my dragons have a sliding scale of "more human" to "more dragon" and vice versa, their genitalia changes with their physical appearance. Were a fertile dragon to have unprotected sex in their humanoid form, any pregnancy would follow one as if the dragon were a human, featuring a nine-month pregnancy period and a live birth. The child will still be fully half or wholly dragon depending on if the other parent is a fellow dragon or not, and there would be no differences in a dragon baby born in this manner.

Of course, like the rest of their draconic features, these changes can come about unintentionally in moments of great distraction, emotions, etc. when their grip on their "humanoid" appearance slips and their true forms begin to emerge.

For dragons with a penis, the genitalia are held within a slit. A second penis will also appear and they both will grow in size larger than in their humanoid form. The second penis is fully functional and is capable of procreating in most cases.* While dragons do not have heats and mating seasons, the closest thing being during the comet, they tend to reproduce more often than not in the spring due to the warming weather's effects on their somewhat cold-blooded nature. However, since the comet lower inhibitions, it can be easy for accidents to happen and a pregnancy to occur.

When far enough along in their transformation for the second penis to emerge, at that point, the way that a pregnancy would occur would be via eggs. Each penis is capable of creating and fertilizing golf-ball-sized eggs.

Dragons without a penis also have a slit with an opening meant to receive eggs and sperm. A body is needed to host and nourish the egg while it grows, and it is while the egg is inside the second parent that it attaches and essentially "soaks up" the energy from its other parent, which is where it takes on traits from said second parent. After about three months, the egg, now the size of about a tennis ball, leaves the second parent and requires care the next three or so months before hatching.

Dragon eggs are actually rather hardy, and do not need specific temperatures or climates in order to thrive. Their shells similarly are not easy to break, which is another reason why they are considered so valuable. However, that does not mean they are wholly unbreakable, and so they still require care and attention.

A dragon can intentionally decide to try and impregnate their partner, but eggs are not in an unlimited quantity and not every egg will take. Sometimes, a pair will have to try multiple times before an egg/s becomes viable. Eggs that do not take will generally leave the recipient's body within the next few hours. Also, accidents and "slip ups" can always happen as well, not helped by the fact that the urge is harder to control when in that form. That's generally why dragons don't "whip it out" at every encounter.

*The Red Eyes' physical appearance were modeled after regular dragons, and thus their genitalia and anatomy as well. However, since they are infertile, all eggs and sperm from them are duds. Likewise, their bodies cannot host or nourish any eggs. Because of this, eggs from a Red Eye will always leave the recipient's body within a few hours of insertion.

Bit I couldn't quite find the place in the post to put

Dragon penises when in their half-and-half form also have "spikes" at the base meant to "hook" on to their partner and keep them in place to aid in reproduction. They're dull, however, and in a partner other than a dragon with kinda "incompatible" anatomy, a bit useless. I mean, aside from pleasure that is.

Dragons without penises will have shallow grooves just on the inside of their slits where said spikes are meant to fit into and "hook" onto.

[gumbootillustrations]

UGH I FUCKING FINALLY FINISHED THIS

so yeah, have the divine warriors of the second war of the magi!!

more deets n closeups under the cut :3

aph!! i like to think that although the incarnations of the divine warriors r generally pretty similar, they do have some minor differences. for example, whereas the matron of the first war of the magi (irene) had one of the sets of wings on her head covering her eyes, the matron of the second war (mcd!aphmau) has both of them held back. this is bc whereas irene had lost her humanity (and therefore the ability to connect with mortals), aph hasn't - and, therefore, her eyes are open to the struggles of humanity. additionally, i took a lot of inspiration from honkai impact 3rd for these designs - in aph's case, i was inspired by elysia's herrscher of human: ego battlesuit and how it looks like a wedding dress (which a lot of folks have interpreted as an expression of her love for humanity, which is smth i want to convey w aph).

i think my favourite part of aaron's destroyer form is his seal (the thingy behind his head like a halo). i wanted to rlly play into the whole destroyer/devourer aspect of his abilities and domains, and i thought a black hole would fit perfectly! it also sort of (unintentionally) plays into how i see the dynamic between the matron and the destroyer and how they're both mirrors of each other; whereas the destroyer, well, destroys (and his black hole devours everything in sight), the matron creates and nurtures (seen in how aph's seal is almost like a white hole). i also wanted his armour to look a lot like the armour that shadow knights wear, albeit without all the spikes and spines and whatnot given that he isn't a shadow knight himself (shad's destroyer form from the first war probably looks a lot more similar to traditional shadow knight armour).

i'm lowkey suuper proud of how travis's keeper form turned out (even if i had to go back right at the end n fix it bc i forgot to add his tail 😭). i wanted this form to sort of be a mix between a high mage and a rogue: whereas the keeper embodies knowledge and magick, travis himself is a prankster who relies on cunning and trickery to gain the upper hand on his opponents. as a result, he's the only one who doesn't automatically manifest a weapon when he shifts into this form - instead, i feel like he chooses to rely more on magicks and witchcraft during combat.

katelyn's design was lowkey the hardest to pin down. originally, i wanted to go for something that was suuuper inspired by roman armour and had a copper and teal/turquoise colour scheme, but it wound up feeling too magical girl-ish and i scrapped it. i've retained the roman inspirations, but i headcanon that her flames are so hot they burn blue, so i settled on a blue-and-white colour scheme w some purple elements. i think my favourite part is her gauntlets! i feel like she uses them as an extension of herself/another pair of hands to punch with. the blue elements also lean into menphia's association with the moon - in ashes, ashes, tu'la is based on the roman empire and, as a result, is where werewolves originate from, and with werewolves having such close ties to the moon.... yeah. i'll probably do a post on tu'la later on at some point.

my blorbo

garroth's design is probably the one that's changed the least, but i'll still need to update his ref sheet anyway. i don't know if i conveyed it very well but the sort-of wing-things on his back are slabs of earth that can be shaped into a shield - originally i had him holding a shield but i wanted him to look a bit more divine warrior-ish so i retooled his design.

the boy! i was tossing up between having vylad or dante fill the role of the wanderer, but i settled on dante as i feel like vylad fits better as a sort of weird guide sort of figure within the narrative. plus, i have a real soft spot for dante and wanted him to remain in the limelight a little bit - i love his dynamic with garroth and laurance and i wanted to explore that further. i sort of wanted to play into his whole red-and-blue colour scheme that we see in canon diaries, but bc kul'zak is a nature deity (specifically of the wilderness), i wanted to incorporate some greenery into his design. i hope i've done an okay-ish job here - overall i'm pretty happy tho, but i can't promise that there won't be any tweaks in the future.

this is a redhead laurance propaganda spreading blog and i Refuse to apologise for it. i'd like to think that laurance's original colour scheme is similar to his justiciar form - lots of beautiful reds and golds and oranges to match the flames of his father's forge - but after he comes back from the nether with a Severe fear of fire he switches to the greens and browns that he's known for in canon. eventually he slowly begins to reclaim his fire and returns to the golds and oranges that he's introduced with (haha colour symbolism go brrrrrr).

but yeah. the special interest is special interesting. let me know if u have any questions!

[tlbodine]

Stuck? Try junebugging.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but we're 5 days into nanowrimo so maybe this will be helpful.

Do you want the safety and surety of knowing what happens next in your story but can't stick to an outline? Does knowing in advance what will happen suck the joy out of discovery writing? Do you try to wing it through plots but get tangled in plot holes or have a story that runs out of steam because you can't figure out what went wrong? Are you at your most creative when you have a little bit of guidance? Do you tend to under-write? Do you get ideas in your head for random scenes and snippets that drop from the sky without context?

If any of these apply to you, junebugging a draft might be for you!

What Is Junebugging?

Since you're on Tumblr, you might already be familiar with the concept of junebugging as it relates to cleaning. If not -- I think the idea was first introduced to me by @jumpingjacktrash.

The basic idea is that you tackle cleaning by way of controlled chaos. You pick a specific area you want to focus on, like your kitchen sink, and then wander off to deal with other things as they occur to you, but always returning back to that area. You end up cleaning a little bit at a time in an order that may not make sense to an outsider but which keeps you from getting overwhelmed and discouraged.

How Does Junebugging Work in Writing?

OK, so that's great, but how does this work with writing? Well. In my case, the general idea is to jump between writing linearly, outlining, and writing out of order. It usually looks something like:

Start free-writing a scene, feeling my way through it and enjoying the discovery process.

Thinking, ok, now I have this scene, did anything need to happen to lead up to it? Do I need to go back and add some foreshadowing? Does this scene set anything up that needs to be paid off? And then jump forward/back to make those adjustments.

I'll usually have a bunch of disconnected ideas of ideas that have popped into my head, so I'll write those down in a list somewhere and then try to figure out what goes in between them and what order it goes in.

I'll write what I call "micro-scenes" which is where I'll just sketch out a few essential elements of what's going on without worrying too much about details, description, etc. -- just he did this, she said that, the setting was this, real bare-bones script. Then I can come back through and flesh out each of those microscenes into an actual scene later.

Got a story that has a complex structure? No problem. Write through each storyline one at a time and then chop them up and weave them together afterward. Write all the B plot scenes first then come back through to do A plot and C plot. Move the pieces around like legos. No one ever has to know.

This method works for me because I can't "decide" story elements in advance. I have never been able to just sit down and "figure out" what happens in a story beyond a couple steps ahead -- I have to discovery-write my way forward. But at the same time, that gets really daunting. So I zoom forward with micro-scenes, roughing out the beats in the most bare-bones way possible, then when I run out of clear vision for what happens next I backtrack, flesh out those scenes, build in connective tissue, etc. and by then I will probably find more inspiration to jump forward.

It's basically folding drafting, outlining, and revising all together into a single phase of writing, which is chaotic and goes against everything people teach you, but if it works? then it fuckin works.

Anyway, sorry for the jumbled-up post, I'm dashing this off quickly while I heat up a pizza and I'm about to dive back into my WIP -- but I hope this was a little helpful. If nothing else, take this as my blanket permission that it's 100% OK to jump around, write out of order, write messy, outline sometimes, pants sometimes, and do whatever else it takes just to get through the story. You've got this. Good luck.

[pascalsummers]

You Give Them a Magical Companion (Team Free Will x Male Reader)

A/N: So this idea of mine originally started as just stuffed animals given to them but I wanted to give it a more 'supernatural' vibe lol. I couldn't find an exact mythology for what I wanted to do so I took a bunch of inspiration and just made my own thing. I'll probably make another post later on fleshing this idea out because why not?

What you need to know for the sake of this post is that the reader can imbue an item (Usually Jewelry) with a magical creature influenced by the wearer. Anyway with that out of the way consider this my birthday gift to you all, and enjoy!

-

DEAN

When it came to Dean you decided that a bracelet would be the best option for him. Mostly because you remember Dean complaining about rings getting scratched up when opening beers and him getting hit in the teeth by necklaces. He will forever deny fanboying over the fact that his companion turned out to be a wolf but that doesn't stop him from subtly bragging about it once in a while. Dean's companion is mostly used during hunts to help track down monsters or sometimes help in battle if Dean really needs it. When not on a hunt Dean can be found hanging out in the Batcave with the wolf sitting close by.

SAM

For Sam, you decided that his item would be a ring. You didn't want to choose anything that stood out too much and a ring seemed like the perfect subtle piece of jewelry. Sam was a little worried that the world would decide to make his animal a moose but much to his relief, it turned out to be a simple owl. The owl became a kind of study buddy for Sam as he would ask his companion to find certain books for him while he focused on other tasks. In return, Sam would give the owl scratches which it would coo at, and eventually, he even made it a small nest in his room for it to rest on whenever it wanted.

CASTIEL

Figuring out what item to give Cas was a challenge since Cas didn't seem to have a big opinion on the matter. Eventually, though you decided that he would have a necklace. When Cas accepted the gift and saw that his companion was a cat he was confused but of course accepted it. Cas didn't know what to do with his new companion but after a bit of contemplation, he decided to get all the needed items for a cat owner and set them up in his room in the bunker. Though Cas's companion didn't require any food or water to live it did eat any food and drink any water that Cas gave it. Usually, the cat can be found perched on Cas's shoulder watching the people of the bunker.

CROWLEY

Thinking about how Crowley you knew that a brooch would be a good choice for him. You thought it was the perfect fit for someone whose closet seemed completely made of suits. When Crowley laid eyes on his tiger companion he thought that it was an apt creature to be paired with. Crowley is quick to befriend the companion and learn as much as he can about it. During meetings and interrogations, Crowley will sometimes let the tiger sit close to him as a way to add a little extra intimidation factor. When not busy with something Crowley will let his companion roam around especially when Crowley's with the Winchesters just to annoy them a little bit.

[iraprince]

TIME FOR A PROCESS POST let's talk abt getting from this (client sketch - which, btw, i know other artists have talked about this plenty, but i LOOOOOOVE a client sketch as early direction on a commission. LOVE it)

to this!

at first we didn't know if the title was going to go across the desk, or over the central figure (emara's) head against the back wall. so there was a 1st version where we were favoring a higher title, then we started favoring the desk so we scrapped the clutter + centered it more

i used clip studio's 3D models (particularly for the chair, guard, + weapon crates) and perspective rulers to help with laying everything out at this stage, tho i abandoned the 3D pretty early on bc it's a bit too clunky for me. maybe i'll find it quicker to use w more practice!

(the rest under the cut!)

once the basic layout was approved, i threw together a value study to explain how in the final image all the clutter of the bg detail would be unified and pushed back. lately i find myself thinking abt value earlier + earlier in the process; planning ahead saves me a lot of time!

i fiddled with starting to refine things digitally, but then i got A BRAND NEW LIGHTBOX delivered in the mail with perfect timing (lmao) so i just ended up printing off the digital sketch, finalizing in pencil, + scanning back in

then comes five billion different steps of locking in values, again. i did everything greyscale first, but i didn't worry abt getting things super polished at this stage bc i knew color would factor in a lot to later decisions

this is the point at which presenting these wips "step by step" is kind of misleading; i didn't do these stages one at a time, but rather had a BUNCH of different lighting/shading layers that i kept toggling on and off as i worked to make sure everything was coming along well.

(to get some of these caps i actually went into the main file again and turned a bunch of stuff on/off just for the sake of getting specific examples, because actually when i was actively working on it there was rarely a point where i was actually working on something with "all lighting turned off and just the shading on," or anything like that; but i AM interested in showing what effects different lighting/shading changes had on the base colors, even if i wasn't really making these changes in a rigid order.)

i.e., just for the sake of interest, here's how the flat colors look without those adjustments!! but i honestly never looked at it like this on its own for long...i had all the shading/lighting turned off so i could see what i was doing while flatting, but i was constantly checking back and forth.

then tones added on top (which were actually just two copies of the tone folders in the above posts, set to linear burn and overlay) -

which makes it get HORRIFYINGLY dark, but that's when we go in and add a bunch of lighting adjustments.

the most obvious lighting change above is the big burst of hot pink light from the corner, but there was also some masked overlay + burn layers to pop out the guard + emara and make sure they were pulled out from the bg. if this were a standalone illustration, i maybe would have let the bg (and all that painstakingly drawn detail..........) stand out a little more, but a cover functions differently, and i wanted to make sure the eye goes to the title first. that means sacrificing bg detail even if it looks sick lol

then final touches! a lot of my very last touches are things that are close to invisible; gradient maps on very low opacity, noise, a little bit of scribbling on upper layers. the typesetting was all by the client, except for the lettering for "emara king's," which i did myself!

finally, here's a comparison of ⬅where i left off one night close to the deadline thinking "it's probably done, but i'll sleep on it just in case," then all the adjustments i made the next day with fresh eyes.➡ and that's it!!! phew!!! that's how i make a cover!

[chainofclovers]

a life improver

As someone who works relatively long hours Monday - Friday and has traditional weekends off (and before I write another word in this post, I'll acknowledge that the drudgery of this is also a privilege, albeit a privilege that is wound tightly into the tangled web of late-stage capitalism)........anyway. As someone with weekends off and an intense M-F schedule, I hear a lot about the Sunday Scaries. I empathize, but I have ~~~~basically eradicated them from my psyche.

It's really simple. I avoid scheduling anything social from the dinner hour or later on Sunday, try to make sure all chores and house responsibilities are wrapped up by then too, and make sure I've got something very calm to look forward to on Sunday nights. My default is that I know I can smoke a little weed and do the Sunday crossword puzzle in bed with my wife. What a delight! It could be reading, it could be a phone date with a friend, it could be baking a treat, or doing yoga, or whatever. And sometimes it is those things. But I know that no matter what, a Sunday night will involve a smoke and a crossword, and I genuinely delight in it and anticipate it and look forward to it even as I'm trying to get as much joy out of the rest of the weekend as possible.

The other piece of the equation is Monday morning. I get up early before work to write most days, but Monday mornings are probably my most important writing time because I use it to kinda set the tone for the week. I don't need to dread my Monday alarm. My Monday alarm means "go feed the cats and drink coffee and write pornography about characters from Ted Lasso." Or "feed the cats and drink coffee and work on your novel." Or "feed the cats and drink coffee and do a random writing exercise." Having that buffer between the start of the week and the start of the workweek is key. My job is stressful but I often like it quite a bit, and making sure it isn't the first thing I'm confronted with on a Monday morning makes me resent it so much less than I otherwise would.

(I'll add that not having kids absolutely factors in here, in that I'm able to dictate my own use of my time with a lot more freedom than most parents have.)

I still have trouble sleeping on Sunday nights sometimes, but the reality of my workday is rarely as bad as anything I'm anticipating, and forcing myself to relax on Sunday nights and wake up early on Monday mornings to have time to myself has done sooooo much for just making me feel like it's my own fucking life, which I am the boss of. Work is an essential facet of my existence but it is merely one facet of many.

[sapshorelines]

PARTY TIME | LUCAS x M!reader

REQUESTED BY @lovekaikim (Tumblr was being wonky and it wouldnt let me reply to the inbox, sorry about that)

You have recently debuted in SM entertainment and Lucas was pretty much hyped for your debut. So he decides to be the best bro and throw a party for you.

(Platonic relationship, general fluff/crack, mentions of alcohol, kinda OOC,) (Not proof read | 1.2k words)

AUTHORS NOTE: Yes I can indeed write for Lucas! I am still going to add more stuff that I can write of. But yes, I am fine with writing Lucas!

!! NOTE !! None of my works represent any IRL people. These works are purely meant for entertainment purpose and shouldn't be taken seriously. Do not steal any of my works and reupload them to other medias

MINORS DNI

----

Today was finally the day. You were pretty much hyped for your debut as well as those who helped your works. Everything was on schedule and ready to be released.

You're currently in your dorm room on your laptop looking at the screen so intensely, waiting till the clock strikes the next hour. You sat there ass your leg starts to bounce in anxiety, you've come all this way to finally shine and show the world what you can do.

You must've blanked out for a few minutes in your own world of thoughts, because once you've regain reality back, the MV had been posted. Of course you've filmed a reaction of the final product before hand, which that will be released in a few days. But you mainly want to see what your fan's will say about this.

You smile in excitement as you would click on the video to watch the MV, you pretty much have a big ego at the moment. Who wouldn't?

As you were watching the MV, the people who are in charge of posting things to any socials are already posting your other works to other platforms to share.

Once you've finished watching the MV again, you decided to wait a bit before reading any feedback and such from fans. You closed the laptop and decided to make your way to the balcony of your dorm…

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The three knocks at the door scared the ever living shit out of you. You recognize those knocks, 'What could he possibly want?' you thought as you let out a small chuckle as you make your way to the front door of your dorm.

You then open the door to see Lucas, pretty much your best bro, both of your trained together as he was in NCT. He stood there with the biggest smile on his face, but you can tell he was out of breath, he probably ran over here.

"M/n, your music video… ITS SO GOOD!" He says as he brings you into a hug. You gotta admit, his hugs were amazing but sometimes he just hugs a bit to tight.

"You like it?" You chuckle sarcastically a you embrace the hug back.

"Yeah! It was amazing man!" You can probably tell he's already your number one fan.

You smile as you back away from his hug, "Well I am glad you like it."

"Say, do you wanna throw a party?" He suggested to you. You thought for a second, you never had any ideas of a party or anything. Lets say parties weren't a thing for you but you can at least tolerate them.

"Uhm, I guess? I wasn't planning on having a big one." You say awkwardly to him. He knows that you weren't a big fan of parties, but this is big news for you!

"It doesn't need to be a whole lot of people, It can just be me and you."

"You're not wrong." You agreed to his suggestion.

"Alright! Come to my dorm later today, we can throw a party there!"

"Sure thing." You smiled. "Well then, I best get ready to get things ready, I'll see you later bro!" He says as he gives you a head pat and runs off.

Hours passed and you were reading feedback from fans, most if not all were positive and everyone pretty much liked it. Of course there was the haters but that didn't really phase you too much, you shouldn't let a few comments let your day down.

You were sitting on your couch as you were on your laptop. Then, your phone dinged, you got a notification from Lucas. Looks like he was done with setting up for a party.

[LUCAS] [party is done dude!! come on over to my dorm!!]

You smile a bit as you closed your laptop and grabbed your necessary thing you needed. Of course you brushed your hair and all so you don't look like a producer who's been locked up in a studio for four days.

You then made your way to Lucas's dorm, it was a bit of a walk but you soon arrive, knocking on the door. You waited a few seconds for the door to open, which it was soon open by Lucas of course.

"M/n! You came!" He smiles, he then grabs your arm and drags you into his dorm. You took a moment to take in everything.

The place was decorated with your typical things you'd see at a birthday party, but this was just a debut party. But look! He also invited a few other idols over to celebrate that you also are friends with! (It can be anyone within SM!)

They greeted you and congratulated you for your debut. They were also liking the debut as well! The place was also filled with food and drinks, looks like Lucas really wants to celebrate your debut.

"You sure you're ok with us destroying the place?" You chuckled, "Yeah, Its not a big deal." He smiles. "Now, are we ready to celebrate?" He says to all of the people within the room, and everyone was ready.

As the hours passed within the party, everyone who was there had a blast. Everyone was pretty much agreed on doing different drinking games as well as eating food that was cooked by Lucas.

One of the games was a dance off and if you lose, you had to take a shot. The group danced to various songs in chaotic manners, sometimes freestyling it.

After hours of chaotic drinking games, the other idols left to head back to their dorms. Leaving just you and Lucas.

Both of you are drunk off your asses and decided to play one more game, rock paper scissors.

"You'll lose."

"Nuh uh." You say.

"Fuck do you mean 'nuh uh'?"

Both of you started to giggle, then saying rock paper scissors…

Lucas wins.

"Fuck!" You yelled, then filling up a shot glass as Lucas was laughing like a goof ball. You then take a shot, you're pretty much wasted at this point.

You both went on for a few more rounds, Lucas ended up winning. "M/nnnn~, I'm getting tireddd.." Lucas says, you can tell this man is drunk as well too.

"Sameee…" You pretty much agree to him as you collapsed on the couch, starting to feel sleepy as hell.

You started to drift asleep, but as you were you can feel Lucas putting a Pillow under your head and a blanket over you. "Goodnight M/n~…" he says as he gives you a drunk smooch on your forehead and pats you on the head.

Lucas would end up sleeping on the other couch because he was so wasted. Looks like both of you are gonna be going though the worst hangovers in the morning as well as a mess to clean up.

--- F I N ---

BONUS

Your eyes fluttered open as you were hit with the blinding lights of the sun. But before you can do anything you were hit with the most painful headache ever. You looked around and see that you were still in Lucas's dorm, having no memory of what happen last night. But you do remember a party happening.

You reached out for your phone and saw a bunch of notifications from the other idols that were there and they sent a bunch of videos and photos of the party. "bruh…"

Lets say things were wild as fuck last night.

I hope you've enjoyed my first ever fic! I am also to critique's so feel free to leave any suggestions on how I can improve!

[soul-controller]

Hey everyone, I hate to disappoint but I just wanted to share that there’s no way that the Halloween event can happen anymore this year.

My manager at my job initially promised me that I would be able to have a set schedule where I could have 4 days off a week so I could properly devote time to getting my writing done. Unfortunately, two people quit and my schedule for the next few weeks just came out and now I’m being forced to help cover their shifts until they hire new people (which will probably take a while since my job has a terrible reputation in town). Although I would have probably been able to find a way to make the event still happen given how excited I was about it, I’m still in the process of doing four relatively large story commissions so there’s no way that I can juggle both those and the Halloween event. Something had to give and obviously the event had to go as the commissions take priority.

To provide some context and be a bit vulnerable, things in my personal life have been a bit rough and hectic the past month or two, so I’m hoping things can eventually settle down soon enough. As previously mentioned my job is being a nuisance, but there’s other stuff going on like money issues on top of being in the process of getting a new doctor because my current one was refusing to take any of my concerns seriously. Beyond just him downplaying my anxiety and depression diagnoses when it comes to providing me effective medication, he also refused to try and help with the debilitating migraines I suffer through practically every other day.

Just to add a cherry on top of the shitty month that this has been, I just recently discovered that queuing on Tumblr has finally failed me. The story that was meant to come out this month never got posted and the concept of having to go through re-formatting everything and getting photos again was just too much of a depressing nuisance for me to deal with. Hell, I've been in such a stink recently that I didn't even do a celebration to celebrate the fact that my account had passed 4,000 followers! I guess doing it nearly three hundred followers later is a bit too late, but I suppose it's never too late to celebrate. I seriously appreciate all of the support I've received regardless of it was a like, a reblog, a follow, or a subscription to my Patreon. All of it means a lot to me... genuinely.

I suppose I just wanted to say that things feel a bit grim for me currently, but I remain hopeful that good days shall eventually come (especially since Halloween is my favorite time of year). To put a more positive spin on the increased hours at work, at least it means that I'll hopefully fix my money issues. Plus, I finally have a meeting with a new doctor this Thursday so I'm hoping I can get some results and find someone who actually cares and wants to help me.

In closing, I sincerely wanted to apologize again in case I disappointed anyone by canceling the Halloween event. Hopefully I can make it up to y’all though by releasing two stories here for October that I really enjoyed writing.

On top of that, I’m thinking I may give the concept of releasing long stories for purchase via Ko-Fi / itch.io a shot by having a trial run with a nearly 10k word Halloween-ish story involving misguided spells, twinkification, and age progression / weight gain between two best friends.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate all of your support and hopefully your understanding during this extremely trying time. 💙

[skzoologist]

Hi could u possibly do soft moments between Bae and the members that Stay maybe wouldn't see as they are more in private 😊

word count: ~4.7k words, around 500-700 word per member

warnings: just some tooth-rotting fluff ^-^

genre: fluff

a/n: Hey-ho anon, of course I can! I have gone a bit overboard with this to be quite honest, but I hope you like it! I'm very happy you requested something, especially because it is some diabetes-inducing fluff. Sorry, sorry, I'll wrap it up and let you read what I wrote, I am just so happy about my first request!

Please let me know if I left a warning or anything out, I will add it in! Reblogs, likes and feedback are greatly appreciated!

!I don't condone anyone stealing my work and posting it anywhere without my permission, or feeding it to AI!

!This is just fiction, my interpretation of Stray Kids. By no means is this how they are and how they behave in real life!

‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹

Bang Chan:

A soft knock echoed through the room, no answer to greet it back. But he anticipated it, opening the door anyway and slipping inside silently.

The busy form of his hyung greeted him as he entered the studio, back slightly hunched as he was leaning ever so slowly closer and closer to the screen, completely absorbed in his work of creating art. A gentle smile slipped onto Bae's lips, his eyes sweeping across the room.

He loved his hyung and the other members of 3racha, he really did, but he couldn't help the disappointed sigh that left his chest at the state of the place.

It was an absolute mess -although it was usually pretty clean, to be fair-. Blankets and hoodies were laying everywhere, the table was cluttered with empty takeout boxes.

Thus, he silently got to work; first he gathered up the trash, putting it all into a plastic bag he found -probably what the food had arrived in-. Then, he collected all the hoodies, folding and laying them onto the now clean table for the others to find easily later. And lastly, he grabbed the blankets and comfortably laid across the couch with them: one acted as a pillow, one blanketed him as intended.

Bae was bullied into taking a rest by the others, but since they themselves were all busy doing something else -what hypocrites-, he thought he would join Chan in the studio.

Bae never said it out loud, but he treasured quiet moments like these, where he could just lay around in the others' presence, comfortable silence draped across them like a safety blanket; just like now.

As he was watching a video on his phone -one ear plugged in with an earbud, the other left open in case Chan needed something-, the silence was broken.

"Hey Bae, could you please listen to this?" - Chan asked, as if Bae's presence was normal in the room.

And maybe it was, with the surprising amount of times he visited just to take care of his hyung or the other hard-working members.

The younger looked up at his hyung, craning his neck in the process from his comfortable lying position, a small smile gracing his lips as he nodded. Not even a second later a pair of headphones was passed into his hands; he gave a thumbs up to signal he was ready once he put them on.

Upbeat music filled his ears, the notes filling his head and dancing around in there. It felt like his pulse was matching the beat, the rhythm, and he could already imagine the theme, the props, the setting in front of his closed eyes.

But it was all over a bit too soon, the music fading away and leaving emptiness in its wake. Chan's awaiting face greeted him once he opened his eyes, and he already knew what the older wanted.

"The first third is good, but it needs a bit more power, maybe more bass. Around the middle is a weird sound, the different components of the music somehow not clicking well together." - it flowed out of him, Chan nodding along and drinking in his words as if they were water in a desert.

The elder went back to work, not even thanking him. But it wasn't needed, this exchange of theirs now a second nature to them. While Bae wasn’t as well-versed in the world of music as 3racha was, Chan always liked to ask for his opinion without an ounce of hesitation.

Besides, he could see the excited and grateful tinkle in Chan's eyes, how that smile widened with the dimples peeking out once he figured out a new part thanks to Bae's advice.

Lee Know:

He started towards the kitchen once he looked at the time; he knew his menace of a hyung would be there, utilising his wonderful cooking skills.

"Ah, our little otter has arrived. Came to steal some fish?" - said Minho, his voice light and teasing as he turned back towards the cutting board topped with varying vegetables.

Bae just lightly huffed, knowing that whatever he said back would only result in even more teasing. Besides, as much as it got on his nerves sometimes, he knew all the jabs and nicknames were only Minho's way of showing love.

The elder simply chuckled at his lack of verbal answer and put a gentle hand on the middle of his back to lead him towards another cutting board, descaled fish already washed and sitting on top of it.

With a sweep over all the ingredients neatly laid out on the countertop, Bae put together what food they would be eating for lunch and got to work, no instructions needed.

That was the thing with the duo; they worked so much around the kitchen together, they understood the other silently at that point, no words needed. Little glances, a nod of head, a single gesture of the hand or hip. It was like their own little secret language.

Just the thought alone put Bae in an elated mood, lips quirked up oh so slightly, but permanently as he added the sliced up fish into the lightly oiled pan, the meat sizzling in response. A hand appeared on his waist and he slightly stepped away to let the other dump his own chopped up ingredients into a different pan. Some onion, carrot -they were star-shaped, how cute-, green bean peeked out from the conglomerate of vegetables, but Bae was sure he couldn’t successfully identify every ingredient in the pan.

He poked and flipped the fish slices quickly, then stepped away to their rice cooker. The warmth that kept gradually sliding down on his hips left, a slight huff sounding from behind him somewhere.

That cheeky cat was at it again -well, still at it, to be more precise-, always on the hunt for skinship and butts.

Bae silently sighed and poured in the correct amount of rice and water into the machine. With the press of a few buttons it was already buzzing and on its way to make some fluffy rice.

Knowing he was done, Bae turned around and went back to the stove, hovering behind the male stirring the contents of the pan. He slightly leaned over Minho, noting how the fish was done and already taken off the heat, earning a little hum from his throat.

From the corner of his eyes he noticed the elder looking at him, that content warmth and fuzziness dancing around in those dark orbs, staying even after a slow blink, staring right into his very being. And maybe, maybe his eyes reflected the same look, maybe they took on that crescent shape he adored seeing.

He wouldn’t know, not even as he put his chin on Minho’s shoulder, not even as he helped get the table ready for food, all the while dodging advances on his buttocks. But he sure felt content as he glanced at the fully set table, steaming food sitting in bowls, ready to be eaten.

And that was his mistake, as he felt that firm grip and slap. “Yah! Lee Minho, get back here right this instant you little–”

Seo Changbin:

Bae found himself in a precarious situation.

You see, he was simply on his way to the kitchen to get some water, then immediately return back to his room and continue working. But the moment he stepped foot in the living room -something he had to do to get to the kitchen-, a certain dwaekki set his eyes on him and loudly protested when he tried to leave.

“Binnie, I have things to do, let me go–” “Nooooooo, stay with me, everyone else is busy, I’m lonelyyyyy.” “No, really, Binnie, please–”

But no matter what he said, Changbin only clinged stronger to him, strong arms encircling his waist and trapping him hostage.

After a minute of struggling and whining -from the dwaekki’s end-, Bae decided to take mercy on his own ears and with a heavy sigh, remained still in Changbin’s hold. The immediate joy that radiated from the man was absurd, you would have thought he had won the lottery or something.

But no, he just had a hold of his tallest hyung, turning him into a plushie as he flopped onto the couch and snuggled into his lax form. The satisfied sigh that left his chest was heavy, an indicator of just how comfortable the short male was.

Bae was already familiar with how cuddly and demanding Changbin could be, he knew it all too well. Thanks to his ‘wonderful’ bandmates, who all just showed him into the short male’s arms as a sacrifice most of the time, knowing full well it would be impossible to escape. Your only choice was to accept your fate and be manhandled around, like a lifeless doll, because god have mercy on you if moved and squirmed around.

Changbin was a loud man and he had no hesitation to remind anyone of that fact, no matter how close they were physically at that moment.

“Wanna continue the series we started last week?” - came the question Bae was dreading. “Binnie…” - but a single look at those shining chocolate orbs filled with hope and the stars was all it took, his will wavering and shattering completely.

The sound echoed in his ears, as if a pane of frozen ice was dropped onto the hard ground.

So he simply silently sighed and nodded, already reaching for the remote that laid on the coffee table, as he was laying closer towards it.

A few button presses and a bit of a scrolling later he found the show on netflix and hit play, placing back the remote onto the table to be out of the way. He focused back onto the screen after, the intro skipped and the characters already on-screen, getting thrown into the drama of the episode.

But just as he was getting absorbed into the story, the cuddling male wiggled around to find a new comfortable position. Once that was done, he directed his gaze back onto the screen, following the female lead as she–.

Changbin was doing it again.

And again, and again, until Bae realised what was wrong.

“You want snacks, but don’t want to let me go, don’t you, Binnie?” - the heavy silence was all the confirmation he needed, as he sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time. “Well I don’t want you to escape, Hyung…” Dear gods, he was pouting. “Alright, then hold onto me.” “Wait what–” But Bae didn’t wait around, simply held onto Changbin who clung onto his form like a koala to a tree and stood up carefully, not wishing to topple over and injure both of them.

He could get snacks like this and keep his little dwaekki happy, what a win-win situation.

Hwang Hyunjin:

It was one of those rare days, where he found himself gripping a pencil and his stashed away sketchbook.

Soft lines appeared on the white void, connecting and crossing paths in varying places. Some stained the paper greatly, leaving a strong presence behind, while the others barely appeared to be visible at all.

He wasn’t putting a lot of thought behind it, really, he just let his hands take the lead and doodle out whatever they wanted.

And soon the lines created shapes, the shapes piece by piece drawing out to be a face.

Oh.

Apparently he'd been drawing his artistic bandmate, but that wasn’t a big surprise to be quite honest. They had a photoshoot the previous day and everyone was in awe of Hyunjin’s beauty. The image still lived clearly in his head, the soft, colourful lights hitting the male’s features perfectly.

Maybe he should have started drawing on a bigger, professional paper instead, not his cheap little sketchbook.

But before he could stand up to do so, his door opened after a soft knock. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

“Hyung, wanna go and-...Hang on, are you drawing without me? Am I seeing things correctly?” - you could already hear the exasperation in Hyunjin’s voice, the fake hurt rearing its head. “Jin…” “How could you?? Hyung, I trusted you!” “No, Jinnie, look–” “Whenever I ask you to draw with me, you decline, saying you are busy, but then you do this behind my back??” “Hyunjin, please–” “How many times have you done this? How can I ever trust you again?” “I’ll draw with you.” “Have you been–...hang on. What did you just say?” “I’ll draw with you now.”

After the three full seconds it took the younger to process what'd happened, his face lit up and a delighted sound left his lips. Bae could only sigh, but there were no negative feelings behind it. He truly did enjoy their art sessions together, as rare as they were.

So, he let Hyunjin drag him around into the blonde’s room, all the while excitedly babbling. Once Hyunjin was excited and rambling, you had no choice but to let him tire himself out.

It was all very endearing, really.

Bae watched the other zoom around the strategically messy room, gathering supplies for both of them. Paint supplies for himself, a pencil set for Bae.

Having everything they needed, they both comfortably sat down facing the other and got to work.

It seemed like this time Hyunjin didn’t want to discuss what their subject or topic of art was going to be, but that was fine with Bae. He was just going to continue what he had started, but now on a professional canvas.

He did have a perfectly good reference right in front of him, after all.

That was how time went by, both of them immersed in their own work as soothing instrumental music filled in the silence. Their canvases not empty anymore, now filled with a myriad of colours and shapes.

Looking over his work one final time, subtly glancing back at his subject, Bae deemed the artwork done and put his pencil back in its place. Feeling stiff, he stood up quietly and stretched, satisfying pops ringing through the air.

And as if they planned it out, Hyunjin stood up as well to stretch, a smile painted over his lips when their gazes met. With a single flick of his hand he beckoned Bae over, the taller striding over towards his easel.

Pure shock and surprise sat upon his face, his wide eyes drinking in the colourful strokes that painted him.

“I caught a glimpse of your sketch earlier, Hyung. So in exchange, I did the same. How do you like it?”

But Bae could only stare at the painting in front of him, his cheeks dusted and blood ablaze fueled by adoration.

Han Jisung:

He only heard the faint sound of a footstep before he was tackled from behind, almost falling face-first into the floor, had he not grabbed onto the wall in reflex.

“What the fuck, Sungie, you could have injured yourself!” “But Bae hyuuuuuung, I missed youuuu.” “We literally saw each other 4 hours ago.” “Exactly, that’s 4 hours too long!”

Bae could only sigh at that, silently readjusting Jisung on his back so he wouldn't slip off and started walking back to the practice room -where he was originally going, without an added weight on his back-.

“That interview was so boring without you.” “Sungie… I don’t talk a lot, what do you mean?” “Sure, but you let me play with your fingers. Or your clothes. You’re just, just, there, you know? It’s really boring when you aren’t.” - it took the taller every drop of willpower to not accidentally misstep or let the younger slip down from his back. He was pleasantly surprised, heat slightly dusting his cheeks.

“But wasn’t Seungminnie with you?” “Yea, but that’s not the same.”

Bae simply hummed, still trying to fight off the heat from his cheeks as he stepped foot back into the practice room he had for himself for the day. He went towards his phone -that was connected to the audio system-, thinking which dance to practice.

But even after he had successfully decided, started the music and walked back to the middle of the room, Jisung did not budge at all. Not even when he let go of his legs, no. The brunette merely tightened his hold, arms and legs wound around Bae as if he would disappear any second.

A single glance at the mirrored wall they were facing was all it took to see the playful grin on Jisung’s face and cause Bae’s face to deadpan.

Well, two could play that game.

And with that, Bae simply got into position and was about to start dancing, when his little squirrel finally detached from his back in slight panic.

Before a word could leave Jisung’s mouth, Bae spun around and grinned widely, attacking brunette’s sides in a brutal tickle attack. The younger boy thrashed around, begging for mercy, even fighting for it, but to no avail.

His attacker didn’t let up, only after tears sprung out of Jisung’s eyes and air barely entered his lungs.

Satisfied with a job well done, Bae stood up and huffed, hands on his hips as he looked down at the absolutely dishevelled and dead-looking Jisung. Knowing he won’t move for a while, Bae simply grabbed both his legs and dragged him away, to not be in the way and accidentally get hurt.

Afterwards he went to reset the music -his playlist was going ever since-, then got back into position.

The beat of the music seeped into his being, his pulse picking up to match it. Careful of every step, the angle of his limbs, the flow of the moves, he practiced the dance ‘til perfection.

His chest heaved, droplets of sweat rolling down his skin as he glanced up and saw something in the mirror.

His eyes zeroed in on it as an ‘Oh no’ echoed through the room, the perpetrator already scrambling up from his seat and running towards the door.

“Han Jisung, come back here this instant and tell me why you started a live in my dance session, you–!”

Lee Felix:

The sky was blue, the grass was green and Felix was a stubborn man. All rules of life, things you had to accept and live with.

That was why when Felix grabbed Bae’s wrist the moment they got back to the dorms, he didn’t put up a fight. The older simply sighed as the others laughed at his misery and just followed the excited male into his room.

The moment the door was closed and the younger was sure his hyung would not be able to escape, he let his wrist go and excitedly started booting up his console.

“Come on Dal hyung, let’s play some Mario Kart!” - Bae was a weak man, his ability to say no to those sparkling eyes nonexistent.

So, he just nodded, accepting the controller offered to him and plopped onto the bed, his back propped up by the headboard and the sea of pillows Felix had. There were also plushies of all sorts laying around, the little skzoo plushies standing out as they were all neatly placed into comfortable positions.

His attention was stolen away when he felt the bed dip next to him, the younger crawling into his lap without a second to waste. Not like Bae minded it. He circled his arms around the younger and placed his chin on his smooth, blonde mop of hair.

“You can choose the map and all.” - Bae answered before Felix could even ask, receiving a hum in response.

They both chose their characters, and the game started.

Now, even though Bae wasn’t a professional gamer or even a casual one -especially compared to his bandmates-, he could still hold his ground. A dodge of a banana peel here, a timed speed booster there, and he was already climbing the ranks, getting closer and closer to the younger.

He could feel Felix becoming nervous, especially when he leaned away from his hold to concentrate better, leaving Bae empty handed on the bed.

But the elder expected this, having had this dance countless times before, already knowing how it would end as well.

And he was right, the same thing happened as it usually did, with Bae winning and Felix losing somehow.

“Agh, what the hell? How did that shell hit me, I wasn’t even in its line of fire! A rematch, gimme a rematch, Hyung!”

And so Bae did, giving the younger what he wanted one after the other.

But after the 10th one, the score in favour of Bae with 7-3, Felix got so frustrated he started sulking. He was turned away on the bed from Bae and all, with his hands crossed and lips probably pouty, controller long forgotten on the floor -where it was thrown at-.

The elder sighed, putting down his own controller and crawled towards the sulking little chicken, dragging him into his hold.

“How about we watch some Ghibli movies, hm? Maybe Totoro, or Kiki’s delivery?” - he whispered out, trying to hold the pouty male’s gaze that avoided him.

A few minutes of silence was all it took, dark orbs now looking back at him with a whisper of ‘Fine’. He smiled, his lips only curving up even more, once Felix’s expression mimicked his.

There was that smile he adored so much.

The freckled male made grabby hands, and Bae happily obliged as he placed him into his lap, arms caging the younger in their hold. Felix wiggled around and snuggled even more into his chest, as if there was any space left between them to conquer.

Kim Seungmin:

It was rare when the second youngest wasn’t insulting someone, causing any trouble or just generally being the ‘nuisance’ he usually was. It was all part of his charm though, no one would truly feel annoyed with him at the end of the day.

Bae knew this as well of course, never taking those playful insults to heart and only jabbing back at the younger a few times if he felt particularly mischievous at that moment.

He was pretty sure it was all part of his love language, just like how physical touch was part of Chan’s or Felix’s for instance, or how acts of service were part of Minho’s. Everyone worked differently, and that was how Seungmin did.

But under all that teasing and being savage, the younger hid away a softness he rarely let the others see. Something even Bae could seldom experience, but cherished nonetheless.

Like when he came back to the dorms after a long day of practice -maybe a bit too long, considering it was almost midnight-, his limbs aching and mind numb from listening to the same song over and over again, in order to perfect that one move he couldn’t quite get.

He didn’t expect anyone to be up -besides Chan of course, that workaholic- and was rightfully surprised, when a sleepy puppy greeted him by the door, taking his bag away and ushering him towards the sofa to sit.

Bae just confusedly looked at the other, but when he tried standing up he was met with the nastiest glare he had seen in a while, so he hurriedly sat back down and waited in silence for the younger to arrive back from the kitchen.

He heard some sounds, the occasional clinking of a utensil against something ceramic, the microwave going off for example. He could only blink at them, not knowing what Seungmin was doing and why he was still up.

But he didn’t have to wonder for long, the brunette appeared with a tray, a steaming bowl of instant ramyeon and a cup of juice sitting on top of it. It was gently pushed onto his lap, the younger boy sitting next to him on the couch, facing him with a pillow in his hold as comfort.

“Eat and rest, Dal hyung. You push yourself too hard sometimes.” - said the gentle voice beside Bae, and he had to let the words sink in to properly process them. “No, Hyung, eat that, or I will break your legs and force it down your throat.”

The elder could only gulp at that, nodding as a response and finally taking a look at his food. It really was instant ramyeon, as he initially thought, but there were extra ingredients added in: a boiled egg, some veggies, and a few slices of meat. Seungmin really took his precious time to make this for him instead of sleeping, even though you could see how tired the boy was.

His eyes that usually shined with mischief were dulled by sleep, his movements a bit sluggish. Sometimes his eyelids remained closed for just a second too long, the motion of opening them looking demanding on the boy’s part.

But even so, Seungmin fought sleep just to watch Bae eat that food, and who was he to deny that from the younger.

Every bite warmed his heart, and not only because it was scalding hot.

Yang Jeongin:

They were all together in the practice room, preparing for their next comeback and everything was going well.

Everyone was nailing the moves they were unsure about before, their bodies moving in sync as if they were gears in a machine, made to work together.

So when the music stopped, they all cheered together, some even dropping onto the floor in relief and exhaustion. Bae was one of them, but mostly because a very enthusiastic Hyunjin tackled him and he just couldn’t properly hold them up when he was so tired already.

“Alright, lunch break.” - Minho exclaimed and everyone bursted into loud cheering, springing up and flocking around Chan to see what they could order online.

It took a bit of nudging to get the blonde off of him, but Bae eventually succeeded and got up himself as well, sauntering over towards the group of very hungry idols. Looking over the available choices and what everyone had already ordered, he settled on getting the same thing as Felix and laid back down onto the ground to wait for the food.

Naturally, with these people as his bandmates, he couldn’t be left alone and enjoy some peace.

No, instead he was dragged around on the floor by Changbin and Jisung, both arguing about who could do it faster or something. Bae wasn’t really paying attention, too tired and hungry to be bothered with such things.

Eventually, the food arrived and he was free once again, but before he could grab his soda can, it was snagged by a certain maknae. The younger popped it open and handed it to him, but not before pinching his cheeks with a fox grin.

“Today, I’m gonna be the hyung, you’ll be the maknae.”

Bae was absolutely frozen and in shock, his eyes wide, one hand holding the box with his food, the other hovering in the air as he was in the middle of grabbing his drink.

That one sentence seemed to have grabbed everyone’s attention, chaos unfolding before Bae’s unblinking eyes.

“Wait, Innie, what do you mean?” “Hang on, hang on, do you mean Bae hyung should be the maknae for today? As in, being babied and stuff?” “Oh my god, you’re a genius!”

Those were a few sentences Bae could make out, before all heads turned towards him and a shiver ran down his spine.

They all flocked around him before he could even lift a finger and the next thing he knew, he was sitting on the ground in Chan’s lap with everyone else around him, being fed different types of food. His hair was an utter mess from all the aggressive headpatting, his cheeks already in pain from all the pinching.

All the while the one behind all this was enjoying the view with a grin, after having had his fair share of abusing the new maknae for the day.

Not being able to take it anymore, Bae somehow successfully wiggled out of Chan’s hold and stood up, huffing as he had to slightly catch his breath from all that.

“Going somewhere, Hyung? Sorry, you're the younger one now.” - came the sudden voice of Jeongin from behind him, scaring the living life out of Bae. “Let me take you there.” - before he could protest, he was picked up by the youngest menace, carried away from all the others who started protesting as they wanted to do the same.

“Innie, why must you hate me?” But Bae never got an answer, only a hearty laugh as he was carried away from the chasing members.

[morningstargirl666]

THE LITTLE WOLF UPDATE

It's here. The new improved chapters 1-3 have posted. Read The Big Bad Wolf's prequel from the beginning here. Chapters 4 & 5 should be posted a week from now, either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, depending on when I finish it.

Think of it as my little gift to you all - I hope you all have a Merry Christmas (or a Happy Hanukkah!). And for those who don't celebrate either, then Happy New Year!

If you want more details on all the changes I made to The Little Wolf, read below. It's not too spoil-ery but it's not exactly spoiler-free either, so by all means come back later to see if you found all the changes I made! Extra kudos to those who notices them all.

Over 20k+ of brand new content. This includes two new chapters (chapter 2 & 4 respectively) and around 20 or more new scenes to devour across the entirety of the fic.

Original scenes have been tweaked and expanded upon, with longer conversations or scenes between characters.

All punctuation, grammar and spelling has been proof read repeatedly. I won't say it's all perfect, because I've probably still missed bits, but its in a much better state than it was before. Dialogue grammar in particular has had a complete overhaul, which should make everything much easier to read.

Each chapter has song lyrics at the beginning, fitting the vibes or themes of the chapter. This is a part of a playlist that I will share in Running With Wolves after completing the editing to The Big Bad Wolf (which has it's own share of songs, compiled with a mix of the music I listen to while writing and music I feel embodies each chapter).

In a similar thread, new timestamps have been added whenever there is a time or location jump. Again, this is a change that will be happening to The Big Bad Wolf as well to make flashbacks clearer. Upon completion of TBBW's edit, a timeline will be added to Running With Wolves so you can see all of the events that take place in the series in chronological order.

Historical accuracy has been given a bigger focus. Obviously, there's still a need for suspension of disbelief (vikings never travelled that far south in America, horses weren't introduced to America until the 1500s etc) as I'm no history buff and I personally believe you can allow a little leeway for sake of creative freedom. However, that said, I've tried to right the most egregious wrongs by Julie Plec: the white washing of the native Americans, the almost European-Christian culture of the Mikaelsons' village (views on bastards, women like Rebekah not carrying arms and being all innocently feminine even though they were warrriors too in viking culture, lack of historical accuracy in settings/costumes/props etc) and of course, the complete lack of explanation behind how the vikings arrived in Southern America. Hopefully it should feel more alive, and I'll probably add even more in the final FINAL edit that will happen once I've finished TBBW.

The Little Wolf's main focus is Klaus' characterisation arc. However, in this rewrite, all the Mikaelson siblings get more screen time and you get their characterisation arcs in the background, as a treat.

Henrik is much more fleshed out as a character. He's mischievous and playful, a lot like Kol, with other attributes from the other siblings thrown in. He's also got more Youngest Sibling energy, just as the other siblings have Middle Child/Eldest Child energy, because in a fic about family, really that's the most important detail of them all.

I've delved deeper into Mikael and Esther's treatment of Klaus and how it wasn't much different to how they treated the other siblings after all. Don't get me wrong - in my mind Klaus was dealt the worst of Mikael's physical fury, but I don't believe 'he was singled out' is as black and white as the show would lead you to believe. That's not how abusive households work.

Talking about Klaus' characterisation, think of this fic as the death of Niklaus Mikaelson, leading to the birth of Klaus, The Original Hybrid. The Little Wolf leading the way for The Big, Bad Wolf. You'll get innocent baby boi Niklaus of course, but that same innocent kid has a feral side. When you become a vampire, it heightens who you already are and Klaus - he had that fury and violence in him all along, and it wasn't just because of the wolf.

In a lot of human-era Originals fics and the actual shows, when they're turned into vampires its all very planned out. Idk, like Esther and Mikael are evil villains twirling their moustaches? Turning their children into vampires, its all very pre-meditated, oh the horror and everything. And although there is elements of that in this rewrite (they ARE shitty, evil parents after all) I tried to do something a little original myself. In this fic, more focus is given to the family's grief and how Henrik's death becomes the shatterpoint for EVERYTHING. His death causes every bad decision made by the family from that moment on. It's less of "I planned to make my children the most powerful beings to ever walk this earth" and more of "I tried to save my children and didn't expect ANY of this so wtf do I do now, another bad decision? Yeah let's do that". You feel me? Hopefully that comes across anyways.

Okay what haven't I mentioned yet... WEREWOLF LORE. Yeah that's been expanded on and fleshed out some more. You get a glimpse into my take on how the werewolf gene is triggered, along with a coming of age ritual, general culture, outsider prejudice against werewolves etc...Klaus' views on them is much more explored, especially in relation to his heritage. Kinda playing with the idea that him being a bastard was never the problem to Mikael or Klaus - it was him being a werewolf.

Since I started re-writing this I watched way too many of Mike Flanagan's series'. So I kinda went all 'Midnight Mass' on the Mikaelson's village. Oopsies.

In a similar thread, the raven from the Fall of The House of Usher left a bigger impact on me than I like to admit. That's something so sexy about an omen of death okay leave me alone I NEED THE FORESHADOWING

There's probably more, I'm disclaiming that now, but I've forgotten. Go forth and devour my lovelies ✨

[vampireacademysims]

Well, I guess it's time to address the situation... or the lack of situation lol This is gonna be long, be warned. There's a TL;RD at the end if you wanna skip the wall of text. To start, thank you to the two anons who took the time to read the comic and prod me about it and the new people who started following this tumblr in spite of the Hiatus warning. Altho this place has been collecting dust for more than a year now, I'm still around, updating my side reblogs tumblr, so it's not like I dropped from the face of the earth.

The truth is, at this moment in time, I've feel out of love with making this comic. It was always a lot of work due to me being a perfectionist. I never used any extra rendering apps, all you've seen here is raw sims images and a lot of work on Photoshop, so much so it gave me a muscle contracture on my right shoulder (because I did all my work in bed with my laptop/drawing tablet in my lap. I never said I was a smart person lol) that still flares up from time to time because I learned nothing. Then the VA fandom was already quite small by the time I started doing this in 2015 and I never really advertised this in the fandom anyway. I always got the impression most of the fandom didn't like the OG comics as it was and most of the people that followed the comic were sims 2 fans because, well, it's made with the sims and the images were pretty (forever holding in my heart the people you said this <;3) The recent "Vampire Academy" TV series (it was just in names, honestly) was the final nail in the coffin of my motivation. After information had leaked I was already disappointed in it, but after actually watching it, yeah no. Only plus to it was the surprise to see it was partially filmed in my country, in places where I have been myself. And lastly, and probably most importantly, I struggle with motivation a lot. It happens to us all, I am sure. It's no secret that I hated to panel, if I'd start all over again I'd just post the big images like many of you telling stories are doing now, it'd be less of a stress for me, but alas, I can't change formats now. And I said many times I was doing it mostly for myself, because I did love the comics based on the books, but doing it for yourself only gets you so far until you get bored. And I got bored. I'm actually surprised my hyper-focus on it lasted for as long as it did. I haven't been to Photoshop for editing - I used to make photomanipulations and other kinds of editing - for way over a year, so it's not only the comic that stopped.

I still have 7 pages to end chapter 6 in various degrees of editing, Veninorchid and Esotheria-sims have seen them, so they exist lol I will eventually finish editing them - it's mostly a Romitri flashback - and post them. But after that, I will have to decide how to proceed. Spending less time editing would help, but lowering the quality of my pages, the only thing people like about it, really doesn't sit well with me, because yeah, perfectionist.

So at the very least the remaining pages will be posted in early 2024, I might go back to it slowly, a little bit everyday so I don't burn out or put stress on my shoulder. But after that, it's up in the air. It's not like I've been staring at the walls during this time, I had other things taking my goldfish-like attention. I got interested in home bookbinding, which made me dig out old unfinished stories I once started and I've been trying to finish them and later try to bind them, because why the fuck not lol And on my reblogs tumblr I had this set of pictures about a Regency little story that people really loved and I'd like to add to it, but then again, all the editing it'd need *cries* I feel tugged in so many directions I fear I'll end up doing nothing lol

So the TL;DR is, I got bored with the comic because it was too much work and resulted in physical pain, I lacked the motivation and other things got my attention meanwhile. Chapter 6 will be be finished eventually, but after that it's up in the air. Cross my fingers that I get my mojo back while editing those pages. Still, a thank you to all of followed and are still following, sorry these were not the good news you wanted to read just because I made a post. You support up until now was what kept me going in the past, I can't thank you all enough.

[cloudymilk04]

Story of a slumber party spook (+ Baldwin somehow)

Tagging @i-cant-sing because their Time Traveler fic indirectly became part of this story and this is probably too long to simply tell in an ask or something. Buckle up for the ride, I’ll also add screenshots at the end of my friend and I joking about this event, Baldwin’s in general, or that TT fic.

Let's set the scene. It was around a month ago when I had a big sleepover with my three best friends (+ my cat) as my family was going to be gone for the weekend. We'll call my best friends Anna, Rose, and Julie (not their real names, all random names they picked).

For some much needed background, Anna and I are big Baldwin IV fans. I'm the only one who has Tumblr and uses it actively so whenever I see something on here relating to him, I'll screenshot and send it to her. However, we both really like the Time Traveler fic by the previously tagged user so whenever there's a new part, I'll message her and read it while telling her what's going on (often feels like watching drama go down while texting your friend about it).

We have an inside joke that we're actually the best of buddies with Baldwin, (as a side note, she’s the one drawn with me and him in my last post) which is why when the time for the sleepover came up, I said something like, "Imagine if we're all partying down and we hear a knock on the door but when we open it, Baldwin comes waltzing in." and just joking about him coming to our slumber party.

Hours passed and time came for everyone to come over. We hung out for a little bit until night fell and we started to get hungry. We decided to get food and bring it back to the house but Rose (the driver) also needed to get something from her grandma's on the way there. Realizing that it would be a lot of trouble to load all four of us into the car, we chose for two of us to go and bring the stuff back and the other two to stay. I had referenced earlier about going to the basement to workout and Anna asked if she could come along too, so we agreed that Anna and I would be the ones to stay behind and wait for Rose and Julie.

I asked how we would be sure to know they had arrived if we were in the basement. Considering it was night time, I didn't want them waiting out there too long and with us being down there, I wasn't sure if we'd hear their knocking. Julie said that she'd call or text when they were getting close to my house so we could be back upstairs by the time they pulled up. We all agreed to the plan and went our separate ways. Rose and Julie leave while Anna and I go to the basement.

I showed her our equipment for a little bit and Anna came up with an idea to film ourselves working out but leave a space for us to edit in Baldwin afterwards to make it look like he's getting his gains with us (this detail comes up later). After this, a few minutes pass and we stop just to stand and chit chat about random stuff when we hear, clear as day, a knocking from upstairs.

It sounded like someone had knocked on the door. We both looked at each other confused and I said, "Is that them?"

She responded with, "I guess?" I didn't wanna leave them waiting so I asked Anna to turn off the lights behind us as we're going upstairs and commented that it's weird Julie didn't text or call. I walk upstairs and notice through the dining room window that it doesn't look like Rose's car is out there. I walk to the front door and there's no one there and so, in the most calm voice I can muster, I call out to Anna that they're not there (later she told me that her heart dropped when I said that).

It should be mentioned that my house doesn't have a back door, but instead, a side door. The side door leads out to a closed off porch. While you can get to the porch from the outside through a door, I knew it was locked so no one could even get to the side door, much less be on that porch.

Anyways, we're standing together and feeling nervous. I checked my phone and noticed I didn't get a Life360 notification either. I'm trying to make sense of it all so I asked if she heard the same thing I did, knocking coming from upstairs. She said yes and confirmed that it was very clear. I remembered how earlier I had joked about Baldwin knocking on the door and so, to lighten the mood, I started being like "Man, Baldwin just wanted to join the party" and "Did he have to show up in such a foreboding way??"

A couple minutes passed as I looked through the windows to see if I could see anyone. Anna and I go to stand in front of the couch when we hear a loud thump come from the side porch. It sounded almost like someone threw their body against it, so I pushed Anna away from the door and quickly said, "I think someone's out there." and had us stand behind the couch.

Right at the moment we heard the thump though, Julie called (very poor timing really). When Anna answered, Julie only said, "Be on the lookout." before hanging up. Which, I should add, was unknowingly the worst thing to have been told at that moment. We talk about how we gotta watch out for two separate things and we stay huddled together behind the couch frantically looking out the windows for either Rose's car or some person or ghost trying to break in.

About 30 seconds passed and we saw them pull up, so I told Anna to wait inside while I go check to see if the side porch door is open and to tell Rose and Julie about what's going on. I go outside and check only to see that the door still looked closed. I give the other two a quick run down and Rose, with a determined look, hands Julie the food, straightens her back, grabs her purse with her pepper spray, and starts speeding off towards the side of the house saying she's gonna check around the place. I quickly asked, "Do you need a weapon??"

She just goes "No" before skedaddling off. Julie and I bring the food in before explaining to Anna what Rose is doing. A minute or so passed before she came back in, saying that no one was out there and wanting more details on what happened. Anna and I explain further and we agree that there probably wouldn't have been enough time for someone to just completely run away and have no one see them.

She also goes to the side porch and checks it out while confirming that it was still locked. Everything's in order.

To get rid of the tension again, I started joking with Anna that it was actually Baldwin's ghost showing up to join the party and that when we go back to watch the workout basement video we took earlier, that we might see an orb floating in Baldwin's spot. I also say that the thump outside must’ve been him falling over since we left him standing out there for too long.

The rest of the night went smoothly and we all had fun, took Julie a bit to feel at ease though (she gets scared easily :( ). Also my cat is completely okay he’s a grumpy old guy so he was chilling in my room asleep

In the end, here's the screenshots of us talking tried to put them in some sort of conversational order, can only put ten pics though. Purple is me, red is “Anna”

[manonamora-if]

October Check-In

September passed wayyyy too fast again, and almost all my efforts went into completing the DOL-OS remaster. And finishing strong by catching the FLU :D /s

You know the drill... long post ahead:

Recap of last month's progress

Recap of last week's stuff

Other IF stuff done or in the works

Other IF events

Plan for October

- _ -

September progress

The plan for last month was to:

continue to play and review games ✅ (just a few tho...)

finish the DOL-OS remaster ✅✅✅ just in time! also needed one more week from the planned date to finish it properly

continue a WIP or fix another semi-completed game: 😐 (see this week's progress)

add another block to the SugarCube Guide: ❌ (was planning to, but the illness)

- _ -

Last Week's progress

I pulled myself to the finish line by the hair at the end buuuut...

DOL-OS - THE REMASTERED VERSION IS NOW OUT!

It's now beautiful, bug free (i hope), with new content, and translated into English! First completed in a month, remastered almost within a month too!

If you liked it, consider leaving a little rating? or a comment?

Even if you don't care to play it, at least open the game once to check out the loading page :P

Also I have:

redone the intro post (if you could share it around, that'd be lovely)

wrote the extensive dev log

updated the Projects Status page

added the OG Comp Version of the source code on my GitHub

uploaded the OG Comp Version on the IFArchive (processing)

Unless there are raised bugs, this game is also going into the SHELF!

As mentioned in last Sunday's check in, I've gotten the new draft from MelS. It's over 20k words...

So I'm back to editing the file, going through the text and leaving comments. I was about 1/4 through before the illness arrived.

And MelS is continuing making progress on the final chapter in the meantime.

We've also been discussing the future release(s) and potential need for rewrite of the first chapters. MelS style had changed a bit, and he is worried the first chapters are too drastically different from the later ones. We might even get a few beta readers before the final release...

In my plan for September, I mentioned La Petite Mort to be probably the next remaster project I tackle on, with a potential translation release for the EctoComp.

I checked with the rules: translations are considered new works. 🥳 So we are looking at an EctoComp deadline, which is in a month.

So this week, I've gone through the code and:

mapped out the new map of the game (which will include more rooms)

listed the characters/NPC (a few new ones)

listed the different mechanics to (re-)code (esp the inventory)

listed the endings available (currently about 7, 2 are early endings)

listed the beats and actions for each room (more animal petting!)

The plan is to, in order:

Correct the current French writing

Add the new content (in French - about double what there is rn)

Re-code the game (+ accessibility settings)

Upload the French Remaster

Translate the Game into English

Add the translation inside the code

Submit to the EctoComp (depending on how long this takes, maybe I can achieve the La Petite Mort category again :P)

I'll also need to:

update the itch page of the game (right now it's too bland)

update the intro post of the game

Unsure yet:

add sound effect and background music...

Most importantly, the game is rated PG and will stay PG. It has some horror-y element, but more of the Hocus Pocus/Terry Pratchett kind than say... Saw or any Halloween slasher.

I will be taking down the itch page of the game closer to the reupload to check everything is in order.

With the IFComp starting soon, expect review over at @manonamora-if-reviews. Last year I managed about 30 before I tapped out (and I had submitted something). Let's see how I do this year!

I would like to try to knock a InkJam + Bare-Boned Jam + EctoComp (mini) entry at the end of October, since the theme of the Ink Jam is revealed at the start of the jam (23rd). One stone, two three birds and all that. And maybe revisit a short story I wrote when I was younger as a base... 🤔

- _ -

IF Events!!

October is filled with IF events, so this will be quite a list:

the voting period of the IFComp starts on October 1st until mid November. I think there are expecting over 50 games? I recommend waiting one-two days before voting, as there are often 1st day bug fixes (speaking from experience).

the Bare-Bones Jam organised by @neointeractives starts on October 1st and runs until the end of the month! It is unranked.

the EctoComp, the spooky IF ranked jam, starts on October 1st and ends on the 28th. There are two categories, and you can also submit in French or Spanish!

the InkJam is a 3-day ranked jam at the end of October, with a theme!

You'll be able to vote for the Spooktober entries in a few hours.

SeedComp! has started again, see @seedcomp-if (we've updated/cleared up some rules)

- _ -

The PLAN tm for October

Play and review more IF games: this one is kinda done before it started because of the IFComp. Also, someone submitted a few games. And there are a bunch on my To Play list both on the IFDB, itch, and the MOIKI Social Club.

finish the La Petite Mort remaster: I think I should be ok? The original LPM was done in 4h (in chunks over a week or so). I plan to essentially double the content, and fix coding issue. I don't really have to worry about the UI at all with this one.

either continue a WIP or fix another semi-completed game: that will be a check mark if MelS and I can make some good progress on the editing.

maybe try to add another block to the SugarCube Guide? I still have a list I could check down... Same with a template. It will heavily depend on the time I have.

(and maybe do an extra French entry for the EctoComp)

Taking the list of August...

To-Do not require much of new stuff:

translate Escape Goncharov! into French. ✅

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (mayyyybe translate into French?)

fix the formatting of DOL-OS + translate into English ✅

update LPM with the missing content + translate into English ✅ (ongoing)

The rest of the To-Do pile:

Finish The Rye in the Dark City (and maybe translate?)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (and try to translate)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (translation unlikely, current gameplay too complex to port for French)

Add a chapter to CRWL + fix/reopen the blog

Re-working TTTT to its originally planned state (lol, not likety)

Re-working SPS Iron Hammer (samesies)

Coding TTATEH (MelS dependent - shooting for end of year)

Emptying my inboxes

(I am pretty sure the focus for the rest of the year will be to finish the first list. With the addition of a few more small jam entries.)

And that about covers it!

[m0ther-of-p3arl]

soooo i'm thinking of writing an au

just gonna throw that out there so yall won't be surprised if i randomly throw a fic or seven in your faces <3

FOR REFERENCE: this is gonna be a long post of me talking about shit i wanna write, it's mostly for my future self to look back and so i have all my thoughts in one place (i'm unorganized ok) and im publishing it so it's easier to find, but this is really mostly for my personal benefit in the future but if you all find it interesting yay thats great :)

anyhow

if i /do/ write an au, and that's a big if as my irl friends know about this acc and the teasing i could endure would be /endless/, it would be:

empires s1, with maybe some traffic characters thrown in- i don't feel like wc meshes very well with empires (else i would add it), unless the witchcraft witches were like at gem's academy or s2 shubble's witch school (OOOH that's an idea in and of itself lol

probably flower husbands based, or maybe mean gills, as they're slowly clawing up my mcyt ship tierlist... i'll have to think a bit on that one, but scott will most likely be the main character, cuz he was my very very first exposure to the wonderful world of empires and mcyt in general (found him through lauren, watched ep 1 of empires s2 and was hooked)

only very loosely based on canon events, i'd more be wanting to play around with the characters. therefore, out of the 3 ideas i have (more on that in a bit) i'd be more inclined to pick the more modern-day ones- though there would be fantasy elements of course like babe its empires

i have 3 main ideas that i feel like i could use- i'll put em in a poll if yall wanna vote, more info on each of them underneath

so yeah the first two are awfully similar- the main difference being that in the first option, the characters would be teachers, and in the second, students. imma go through all these a lil more in-depth, as i have ideas for all of them and i wanna see which one you all would rather read and i shall weigh that in on which one i'll (possibly) (ALLEGEDLY) write

teachers: scott is a teacher/the headmaster (i'll decide which later) at empires university (PLACEHOLDER NAME i swear i will come up with a better one) (probably) and jimmy is a new teacher who's just come onto the scene. he continually messes things up and scott is fed up with him and so they have a CHAT but obviously scott is traumatized by something in his past probably xornoth related or relating to one of the death games (life series) and jimmy is just CUTE but scott doesn't realize it and scott goes on being dumb about it and there is ANGST and such

students: basically the same general plot, but scott lives with horrible parents and jimmy becomes a reprieve and they become like best friends but they both have a secret crush on eachother (like in trust au omdsfksjdlkf go read it right now stop reading this rambling post and go read trust au SO GOOD SLDKFJ its by @/thetomorrowshow) and eventually scott is living at jimmy's house full time (jimmy has a cod tank in his room bc ofc) and then stuff happens heehhehehe no spoilers but again: ANGST

the main deal with these is there's ANGST (but also fluff because the two go hand in hand)

war: this is the main different one sooo it's set in the original empires world, but the cod empire and rivendell have been at war for decades and scott and jimmy hate each other but THEN they like meet one day and neither realizes who the other is until too late because they've never seen each other in real life and it's blasphemy and they like each other and all that yadayadayada ANGST

ummmmm anyway that's my fucking long rambling post done good graciousness this is the longest post i've ever done- anyway let me know (or don't, again, for my personal benefit) which one you would rather read and if any of them sound engaging at all- personally, i'm leaning towards students or war over teachers, i was full-in students but now i have so many great ideas for the war one- god i'm so messed up

that will be all

farewell

[queerbeanenjoyer]

some things I learned the hard way about vermicomposting

I wanted to write a big post specifically about the sorts of things I learned about composting over the years. I originally started out with a DIY layered bucket set-up and switched to a pre-made kit just a month or two ago.

This is probably non-exhaustive and will likely have more stuff added to it later. Also, I haven't harvested any compost from my new set-up yet so that's something to keep in mind.

Here's what I did right, actually.

Worm blanket

I used a few layers of dampened newsprint/packing paper to go over top of my compost. This was a good plan and kept heat/moisture in.

Bin drainage

I had a separate bin that caught the compost run-off. This was more necessary with my old set-up but I still recommend having some way of allowing excess moisture to drain off.

Location

I keep my bin in the garage. This is for two reasons: the temperature around the bin fluctuates less and there is no risk of getting direct sunlight. While this isn't possible for everyone, I'd still recommend keeping the bin in a similar location; try to keep it somewhere where the temperature won't change too drastically and it can stay out of direct sun. While there are compost builds for being 100% outdoors, I find a smaller bin like my set-up to be a little easier to manage, especially since I only compost for two people.

Now here's my errors and improvements.

Substrate

Okay so the first thing I've learned is that I made my substrate sort of subpar. I was using potting soil and shredded newspaper and then dampening that. This was OKAY but lacks good drainage to prevent the compost from getting too moist. When the compost is too moist, it becomes anaerobic and starts to smell. Smelly compost isn't just unpleasant to handle, it's also bad for the worms as they need a more oxygenated environment to thrive. The fix for this is adding some pumice or other little stones. I have a bag of perlite which also might be okay but I'm not 100% on that. My substrate was also missing some minerals. This came with my kit but can be ordered separately. So a little bit of that (about a tablespoon) should be added to a new substrate mix. My new substrate mix is as follows: ~a quart of shredded newsprint ~1.5 cups of little pumice stones ~tbsp of mineral mix a little bit of water a handful of compost from the bin or potting soil

Composting materials

Alright so the next thing I could have done better was be more open-minded about what to add to my compost bin. With my old bin, I primarily added food scraps once every week or two weeks and occasionally some shredded paper. As a result, my compost was always WAY too wet. Food scraps (green) and fiber/paper products (brown) were very unbalanced; they need to be about 50-50. In my current bin, I add food scraps, yes, but also coffee grounds (which count as brown) and some other non-dampened junk mail occasionally. Now, I think my moisture is a lot more balanced. I've also increased the frequency with which I add materials. Whereas before I would add a large amount of food scraps whenever I cooked something, now I tend to add a small amount of scraps and coffee grounds once every 1-3 days as well as larger amounts of scraps from cooking.

Compost storage

Previously, I had been manually sorting my compost, which resembled brownie batter, and placing globs of it on a compost screen to dry out. Then I'd store these little chips/chunks in a bucket. This was a very miserable task. When I checked my Worm Factory 360 manual, it actually suggested keeping your saved compost moist! So, moving forward, I'll harvest the compost according to the manual's instructions (post to come) and then store it in a bucket with its own dampened paper worm blanket. Hopefully the dried out chips can just be rehydrated along with the rest of whatever I store. As I understand it, the dried compost just makes the nutrients less bio-available. So it's better if it's damp.

Quality of life improvements

Counter top bin

Firstly, I got a little counter top compost bin to put next to the kitchen sink. While I do not actively compost anything in it, I do store scraps/coffee grounds for a day or so before I add it to our compost bin. This has really made it much, much easier to toss in scraps more often. Especially because I can dump vegetable trimmings and bananas peels directly into it instead of using a bowl to hold everything like I used to. It's got a lid so there's no smelling scraps or anything, too. Ours is made of silicone and can be completely inverted(!) to get everything out. I'd recommend something like that if you, like me, aren't great about taking stuff to your bin with frequency.

Big ol' bowl

What I've done next is use a massive metal bowl to mix up my substrate. I originally bought it for making tamales but I think this is ultimately a better use of it. As a bonus, I can also use it for making custom soil mixtures for my smaller house plants. It's really great for mixing up substrate since it's wide and shallow. So you don't have to dig around so much like if you'd used a big bucket.

Spray bottle

So I actually do have a spray bottle that I use for some of my indoor plants. However, I found it to be sort of a hassle to have to go back inside and bring to my bin only to have to take it back inside afterwards. Having a dedicated spray bottle next to my compost bin is much more convenient.

This is what I can think of for now. Like I said, I'll add more info if I can think of any. Hope this has helped!

[bayonettaboy111]

Stuff I've ordered from Victoria's Secret/PINK !

Okayy so basically, for whatever reason, I ended up getting a $100 PINK gift card from my mama cause I guess she didn't want it. Now obviously I'm not going to buy lingeries, since I'd really have no use for them, so I decided to look at the cosmetic stuff! So heres what I bought :3 I would add photos but its an odd number of them so it would look weird🙁

・┆✦Bond Repair Treatment Mask✦ ┆・ This was kind of a compulsive buy since it was on clearance but you know, nothing wrong with treating myself 🤷‍♂️ people were saying it made their hair shiny so I added it to my cart. Though I'm not sure if it'll work all that well for me since I was curly hair - like 2c - so we'll just have to see.

Okay so I had doubts about it when I first got it but it actually works really well!! The ends of my hair aren't as split looking and my natural curls have been holding a tad bit longer. My only warning would be that it's very liquid-y so you need to be really careful not for spill it if your in the shower. 9/10

・┆✦VS HIM Platinum Body Lotion✦ ┆・ I'm gonna be honest, I've never really used cologne before 🧚‍♂️...I've mostly ever used unisex stuff. But I've been wanting to try a cologne and this VS ones had good reviews on other websites. I was going to buy the duo set but it made me go over my giftcard limit so I just settled for the body lotion. Good enough

I haven't exactly been able to wear this as much yet, as I don't really have a perfume/spray that would fit with it, but I can say it smells really good! I'm sorry I can't give a full opinion on it ahhh... 8/10

・┆✦Natural Beauty Exfoliating Body Scrub (coco milk+rose)✦ ┆・

Don't really have much more context for this other than I've been needing a exfoliater since my skin has been so dry.

Tbh it good just be the way I'm using it, as I don't have a loofah or anything like that yet, I only used a wash cloth. But anyway what I mean is that I didn't really notice much exfoliation?? I don't know it could be because I've only used it a few time or because of the fact I haven't exactly shaved my legs but yeah 😭 I need to use it more though!! And the good thing is it's very think and smells + feels good. If I get better results later I'll update. 6/10

・┆✦Conditioning Coconut Body Serum✦ ┆・

This was from a newer line of the body products so I thought I'd try it out. It's vegan too, which I think is good.

I really like it! It's made my skin really soft, esp my hands which looked like they were through hell..so very good results! 10/10

・┆✦Love Spell Duo✦ ┆・

I'll have you know that I'm an absolutely D RIDER for Japanese cherry blossom sets. I have both the body sprays from Bath and Body Works and I reallyyy wish I could find a good cologne/perfume like it. I decided to get the duo cause if I don't really like VS's spray then I'll probably still use the lotion.

It does smell really nice, it smells like Japanese cherry blossom but a bit more peachy. I will say though that it hardly lasts at all..it fades after less than an hour unless you do the vaseline trick. I usually only wear it after showers or before bed because of that. As for the body lotion, it really just smells like peaches. Overall the smell is nice but the longevity is bad. (I probably will still be trying the others though) 5/10

The package comes in a few days so I'll make sure to review in about a week either by editing this post or making a new post!! See y'all later on that.

P.S, this post literally took so long to make for what omggg

Reviews made on 4/4/2024 <3