#I'm already pretty efficient with my space

[deoidesign]

we will recieve some glimpse in what Time And Time Again would have been if webtoon gave you enough time?

To be honest, at this point I don't think it would have been entirely different. It would have been More, I guess. Each part perhaps a little longer, development a bit slower, delving a bit deeper into their psyches, more time periods and mysteries...

The kinds of things I feel sad about missing are things like. I wanted to give Steve a cane. I wanted to touch more directly on Adam's PTSD. I wanted to get more into vampires, share some more of the worldbuilding I did, I wanted to send them to so many places, I have a list that's like an entire page of ideas! just... More! I still want to do these things, I'm trying to fit everything I can in... But yeah. Theres really only so much I can do with the limited time!

It's hard to explain, but when you rewrite everything to make it smaller, it's not necessarily different in very tangible ways. It's not quite like "this was the original ending but I had to change it" (for me, at least) it's more like... I planned a five course meal for my guests, but had to go with three. Everyone is still getting fed! And no one expected five courses anyways. The goal is that we're all full and happy.

I know this makes it confusing why I'm complaining about the situation, if it's no different tangibly what's the problem? Well the answer to that is it's extremely hard to condense things that, quite frankly, were already pretty dense. It's really hard! But it's work worth doing, to me...

So to answer your question, the glimpse into what it would have been is what I'm going to give you.

[dnfao3tags]

Finding Deleted Fics: A Multi-Method Guide

i feel like we are the fandom who needs this post the most any fandom has needed it ever.

all of these methods require you to know the title, author and/or link of the fic.

[disclaimer: the fic i am using as an example is not deleted, i just can't think of any other fics to use as an example right now.]

Method #1: Wayback Machine

this is my go to method that i always try first.

steps:

every fic on ao3 has a url of archiveofourown.org/[specific-numbers]. you're gonna need that url, doesn't matter if it doesn't work anymore.

eg.

2. now you're gonna go to archive.org and enter your url in the search bar.

3. something like this will come up. it probably won't be saved as many times though, just once or twice.

just click any of the links now, either the dates marked blue on the calendar or the earliest/latest date. that's it.

drawbacks:

often, a problem arises when searching for fics rated mature or explicit.

the site will have archived this page but not the actual fic. though, maybe lady luck is on your side and clicking proceed will lead you to a saved version of the actual fic. but usually not. and not all fics are saved here. in those cases, i have some more methods.

Method #2: Search Engine Cache

search engines like google and yandex often save a cached version of sites, though yandex is much more reliable than google. i'll give you a tutorial for both.

steps (yandex):

the link isn't completely necessary, just the title and author of the fic will suffice.

go to yandex.com and search for your fic by either entering the url or entering the title and author as such.

3. this will probably immediately come up.

just enter the captcha and it should let you in on the first go but there's a glitch i've encountered where you could be entering the captcha completely correct but for some reason the site still won't let you in. for that, you just have to keep trying again and again until eventually the site lets you in. might take more than 10 tries.

4. once you're in, search results will pop up. directly clicking them will only lead you to the not found page. what you're gonna do is hover over the box of the search result and you'll see 3 dots pop up on the right.

click those and a dropdown menu will appear. click the first option 'saved copy'.

and thats it! this is a much more efficient method especially for explicit or mature fics.

drawbacks:

for some reason, when i open yandex in google chrome, i can't see the 3 dots. i can in firefox though. don't really know what thats all about.

i'll show you how to do it with google too just in case yandex doesn't work.

steps (google):

in the url bar, type cache:[link of fic]. that's pretty much it. google doesn't have a lot of fics saved though so you'll probably get a 404 page.

Method #3: Reddit

there's a subreddit called r/DeletedFanfiction that can probably help you out. either search for the fic as it may have already been posted or req it and someone will probably get you a google drive link soon enough. u/throwthisaway11112 is my lord and savior.

afaik it's still up and running fine despite the reddit protest thing (which i recommend taking a minute to look into).

Method #4: Archive.org Database

okay, now you're gonna need a lot of memory on computer for this one. i'm not gonna even bother and try to explain it, i'll just link you to the original post. thank you once again to the anon who sent me this method!

Method #5: Fandom

if absolutely none of those methods work, you can still just send me an ask and maybe my followers or i will have a saved copy. same for any other fandom, i recommend asking around in popular fandom spaces, someone is bound to have it.

[nothorses]

So I'm thinking of going on low dose T, and ofc I'll get more feedback from doctors when I see them, but I know one of the changes is that you run warmer and have lower heat tolerance, and I'm already kind of heat sensitive (sweating is a sensory ick). Do you or your followers have any kind of coping strategies that have helped with that?

I ran warm before, too, and I'm definitely warmer now! I also have Raynaud's which kind of makes the whole experience a clusterfuck, but that's besides the point. lmao.

I live in a pretty cool/temperate area, so it isn't normally an issue except in the (increasingly horrible) summers, but I've found that the hardest time to stay cool has been at night. I share a bed with my partner who runs even warmer, and it's been 2.5 years of struggling to figure out how to be a comfortable temperature together.

The best advice I can give you is to just stay as far away from synthetic fibers as you can; "sweat wicking" and "cooling" and "athletic" stuff included. It's a lie. They're all plastic, and while they might feel cool to the touch at first, plastic doesn't breathe. It'll trap heat and moisture against your skin after enough time, especially in the form of blankets. (Fuck the Rest Evercool. Worst recommendation I've ever gotten.)

Look for 100% linen, or 100% cotton. I've heard wool also works well, but I haven't had luck with that personally. Woven fabrics are going to be cooler and more breathable than sateen, and waffle weave is like, the single most breathable weave afaik (it's more common in blankets, but some clothes are waffle).

Some of these things can be pretty scratchy at first, and I recommend a couple of washes on a high heat & some fabric softener before you start using them. We were able to break in our waffle blanket super quickly this way! (I know some folks recommend against softener for breathability reasons, but it's the only thing that actually worked for us, and it hasn't impacted breathability). After you break them in, though, cotton and linen fabrics are SUPER soft!

I also recommend staying away from leather. It's natural, but trust me: it's not breathable. It's coveted in outdoor rec spaces BECAUSE it's somewhat waterproof.

Outside of that, I'd really encourage you to lean towards multiple light layers that you can change/remove throughout the day to suit your needs (ex: light tee + fleece + wind/rain layer, maybe throw in a flannel somewhere), instead of one or two heavy ones (ex: shirt + big puffy cold weather jacket). It's a strategy common in the PNW that works great for regulating your temperature when you're dealing with humidity and somewhat unpredictable weather, and imo, it also really translates if you're just generally sensitive to heat and sweat.

Outside of that... depending on where you live, I really recommend having an AC/dehumidifier. Don't bother with trying to rig up a swamp cooler if you're sensitive to sweat- the increased humidity will make things worse. The general advice I heard when researching a good AC was that window units will always be more efficient than portable units (and a mini split is better than either), but if you have to go with a portable unit, go with a dual-hose. They'll be more efficient just because they don't create a vacuum that pulls in warm air from outside. This is the model we settled on- it was really highly recommended and cost effective for what it is, and it's been absolutely fantastic this summer.

Idk how you are about pits, but I wash mine with a benzoyl body wash and then use a deodorant with antiperspirant every day, and I virtually never smell or sweat. 🤷‍♂️ ymmv though

I'm sure folks will have things to add, so check the notes on this post- and good luck!

[sunflowersandsapphires]

Hi, can I request comfort fic with Frank? I just don't really like how my life looks right now... I don't like my job, but don't know what else I can do so I'm stuck here... and I feel really lonely recently and like I don't know what to do with my life... and reading fics are one of the few things that brings me joy...

So I thought about a fic where reader is sad and to cheer her up Frank planned a whole day for them to distract her from not kind thoughts?

And I'm sorry that I kinda dumpt it on you... I have trouble with expressing/describing my emotions and I think that was the first time I expressed those feelings to someone... Of course if you don't feel like writing this you can freely ignore this message, thank you 🫶🏻

Anon, I absolutely feel your pain. I’ve been dealing with my own work drama for months now and some days it feels like I’m going to have to completely start over to be happy. I hope I did your request justice, and if you ever need to rant to someone, my DMs are open :)

pairing: Frank Castle x fem!reader 

summary:  Frank helps you when work is breaking your spirit.

warnings: swearing, hints of smut but nothing graphic

w/c: 3k

Digging your jagged nails into the flesh of your palms, you forced yourself to tune out the overwhelming plethora of stimuli that was currently bombarding you on the subway. Screaming children, the heat of bodies crowding around you, the shrieking of wheels on metal tracks, some old guy coughing up a lung at the back of the car, the bright fluorescent lights beating down on the dozens of people crammed in here like sardines. Fuck, you hated the subway. 

It was especially unbearable on days where you were already overtired from work—which, recently, seemed to be every day. This job was supposed to be your ticket to a good life and a stable future, but instead it was a joyless, energy-sapping, waste of your fucking time. Your coworkers were catty, your boss far too demanding for the bottom of the barrel wages you received, and the work itself was dreary. Each day you sat in that cubicle, you could feel the light inside you flickering, just waiting for one more lackluster employee review to be completely snuffed out. 

Clearly, you weren’t the only one who felt this way about your place of employment, given that over a third of the staff at your level had quit in the last two months. Unfortunately for you, this meant longer hours and crankier conversations with your superiors, who were consistently disappointed in your performance despite you efficiently accomplishing everything that was asked of you. 

Not only did longer hours lead to you getting overstimulated on the subway, but it meant you’d been spending less time at home with your boyfriend. You’d barely seen Frank this month, between his trips out of town and your rigorous schedule, and it was driving you up a wall. All you wanted was to let him wrap himself around you, petting your hair as you cried and holding you tight when you eventually fell asleep. Though, with the way your days were going lately, most of the time you didn’t want to be touched. You just wanted to shove crap food in your mouth and pass out before you had to go back to that hellscape in the morning. 

Frank was the kindest, most thoughtful partner you’d ever had, so he gave you plenty of space on the days you came home in an emotion-filled silence. He could read your moods pretty well at this point, and always respected your wishes, even if it meant he’d be nursing a beer in the living room alone until he went to sleep. You’d hoped that today would grant you enough energy to enjoy some time with him, but the world wasn’t that charitable. 

Shuffling off the subway amongst the masses, you let your body droop slightly as you trudged back to your apartment. Practically crawling up the stairs, you eventually reached the door—shoving it open in frustration as tears pricked at the corners of your eyes. 

Instantly, you were greeted with the sound of soft music and the smell of onions and garlic cooking. Frank was in the kitchen, swaying almost imperceptibly to the song he was listening to, stirring a pot of what looked like tomatoes.  

“Hey, doll,” He greeted you softly, throwing you a smile over his shoulder but remaining planted at the stove, probably in an attempt to give you space.

“Hi.” Your voice was breathy and small, your stony face accented with glassy eyes. 

Frank knew better than to expect that everything would change in a day, but the sight of your crumpling face broke his heart. Stepping towards you with a furrowed brow, he tried for a small smile. “Another bad day?” 

You nodded, the force of the movement drawing two parallel tears down your cheeks. Sniffling, you didn’t respond, confident that your voice would crack if you did. 

“Do you want a hug?” Frank asked, hesitating a few feet from you as he waited for your answer. 

“I’m n-not sure, Frankie.” You admitted, more tears pooling as you did. “Not r-right now, I think.” 

Nodding in understanding, Frank crossed his arms, as if to keep himself from hugging you anyway. “Alright, sweet girl. Not a problem. Why don’t you go lay down while I finish dinner, hm?” 

Sighing, you nodded once, padding to the bedroom and collapsing into the blankets with a poorly stifled sob. Frank winced at the sound, his hands burning with an ache to hold you, to make everything better, but he couldn’t do that until you were ready. 

You’d only given him glimpses of the nightmare you were living. Whether you didn’t talk to him about it because you were worried it would scare him away, or because you didn’t trust him, he wasn’t sure—though the dark parts of his mind were convinced it was the latter. Regardless, Frank did his best to maintain a cozy home for you. It couldn’t be easy to have a mass-murderer-turned-government-hit-man as a partner, waiting around on your own for days while he worked odd jobs for Madani, but you’d never let it impact your love for him. 

You were thoughtful, sweet, and adorably shy—not to mention you balanced him out in ways he’d never expected. The pair of you brought out the best in each other, despite your peculiar relationship. You’d never made him feel distant or guilty for leaving, simply welcoming him back from his trips with open arms and eager eyes. Yet, the past few months your job had been eating at you, sapping the life from your beautiful eyes and leaving a listless husk of his girlfriend behind. 

He didn’t want to pry, far too afraid of snapping your already fragile composure and ruining the bond you shared. But every day you came home holding back tears, and it was going to kill him. He’d rip your office apart with his bare hands if it would end your misery, though he knew you’d never ask him to do that. 

So, instead, he did as much as he could—laying out his softest sweatshirt on your bed, playing quiet music, making a warm meal for the two of you to share—all in an effort to take something off of your plate, to remove an ounce of weight from your shoulders. After a week with no indication that any of this was helpful, he’d started scheming. 

Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too much begging to convince you to take an extra day off…

Stirring the tomato sauce one final time as he removed it from the heat, he tilted the pot over the cooked pasta, letting a ribbon of sauce drape over the noodles before giving it a quick stir. Scraping a dollop of sauce out of the pot with his finger, he popped the digit in his mouth, eyes closing in satisfaction at the array of flavors. 

Brushing his hands across his jeans, he plated two generous helpings of pasta, assuming you had worked through lunch once again, and set them in front of two chairs at your table. Steeling himself for the sight of your tear streaked face, he shuffled over to the bedroom and knocked softly. 

“Darlin’? You ready to eat?” Keeping his voice low, he gingerly opened the door. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light that managed to slip through your curtains, his heart squeezed at the sight of you sleeping, curled in fetal position. Your delicate hands clenched around your covers like they were your lifeline, your damp face squashed against his pillow. Biting his lip in thought, he returned to the main room to cover the pasta. 

Spending very little time tidying up, he wandered back into the bedroom, stripping out of his clothes in exchange for a pair of sweats and a worn Henley. Settling behind you with a book in hand, he slipped under the covers as unobtrusively as possible before his inner monologue made him pause. Would you even want him beside you? Was he crossing a line?

Thankfully, he didn’t have to worry about that for long as your sleeping form unconsciously wrapped around him, a small sigh falling from your lips as you nuzzled into his stomach. Smiling down at you, his free hand came up to stroke over your hair, his own grin widening when the soft touch made your lips twitch up in a sleepy smile. He thumbed through about a chapter of his book before you began to stir, shining lashes fluttering as your eyes opened. As the sleep disappeared from your eyes, Frank felt another wave of apprehension cresting in his chest, but the tide was quickly settled by your sweet gaze. Nestling into his side more deeply, you hummed in appreciation. “Hi, Frankie.” 

“Hi, sweet girl. Did you have a good nap?” A teasing mirth danced in his gaze, making you avert your eyes bashfully. 

“Mmm hmm. Sorry.” You murmured, rubbing your face against the fabric of his shirt. 

Clucking his tongue, Frank slid down to face you, tracing a thumb over your cheek. “No reason to be sorry, dollface. I’m glad you slept, you’ve been tired.” 

Sighing deeply, you traced the buttons on his shirt. “Work’s been a lot, recently.” 

“I figured as much, doll. Ya don’t gotta tell me anything, but I’m always here to listen, yah?” The tip of his thumb caressed your ear. 

Blinking back tears, you looked up at him apologetically, “I didn’t mean to keep you in the dark, Frank, it’s just so stupid and I—“

“Hey, hey, it ain’t stupid.” Frank tugged you impossibly closer, brushing tears off your face carefully. “If it bothers ya, it’s not.” 

“You just…” You drew in a ragged breath, the inhale catching on a sob. “You have so much to worry about already, and I don’t want to be a burden!” Bawling now, you felt your chest constricting at the thought of dumping more work onto Frank’s already overflowing to-do list. 

“You’re not a burden.” Frank spoke fiercely, looking deep into your eyes. “You have never been a burden, doll. Never.”

His words were a promise, you drank in his commitment with immense desperation, praying to forces you didn’t believe in that he was being truthful. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Frankie,” Your voice cracked on the admission. “I’m fine at my job, but nobody can see that, and I don’t feel satisfied by the work that I’m doing but it’s all I know! I can’t just quit, I don’t have any other plan, this is everything I’ve worked for and—“ Your ramble broke off into sobs, your breath hitching as Frank shushed you quietly. 

“I know, I know, doll. It sucks right now and I’m so sorry.” Rubbing a hand over your back, Frank encouraged you to breathe, waiting until your lungs could actually take in oxygen before continuing. “Sweetheart, if ya wanna quit, I’ll support ya. If ya wanna stick it out, I’ll support ya. Regardless of what you choose, I’ll be right here at the end of the day.” 

“I can’t quit, Frank, we need the money.” You whimpered. 

“Hey, we can figure it out if we need to. It ain’t a problem.” 

Nodding against his palm, you considered your options. “For now, I’ll stick it out. But, thank you.” 

“No need to thank me, honey. It’s my job to look out for ya, remember?” His sappy remark sparked a tiny smile from you. “You’re my girl, sweetheart. I’m always gonna take care of my girl.” 

Nuzzling into his chest, you stifled a yawn before abruptly looking up at him with wide eyes. “Shit, Frankie, what time is it? Did I miss dinner?” Wriggling out of his embrace, you wiped the lingering tears off your face before sitting up. Frank bit his tongue to keep from chuckling at your genuine concern. 

“Dinner is waiting for us, sweet girl. I’m in no rush.” Cradling your neck, Frank pressed a languid kiss to your lips, taking advantage of your distraction and flipping you on top of him. 

“Frank!” You squealed, beaming down at him with more happiness than he’d seen from you in weeks. 

“What?” He questioned innocently, gently leading your face back to his for another kiss. 

“What’s gotten into you?” You wondered aloud, returning the kiss but looking at him with feigned exasperation. 

“I ain’t allowed to love on you now?” Frank asked, raising an eyebrow at you. 

You rolled your eyes, shuffling off of him and out of the bed. “C’mon, you sap. Let’s eat the dinner you made before it’s ruined.” 

As the night sky populated with stars, Frank doted on you insistently. He’d reheated your dinner, turned on your favorite movie, even brought you a pint of your favorite ice cream for dessert. You’d gratefully accepted his comforts, yet he still seemed to be holding back. As he puttered around in the kitchen, doing the dishes alone (he’d staunchly refused your help), you could see the wheels turning in his brain. 

“Frank, is something wrong?” You asked, picking at a stray thread along the seam of the blanket he’d wrapped around your shoulders, gazing over at him as your heart rate pounded anxiously.

“Huh?” Your timid question snapped him out of his thoughts, his hands nearly flinging the soapy dish across the room as he spun towards you. “Oh, uh, no. Nothing’s wrong, sweetheart.” 

Unconvinced, you nodded, nibbling on a hangnail poking out from your thumb. In an attempt to self-soothe, you shifted your attention back to the tv, but Frank’s energy still seemed out of place. 

Placing the last plate in the dishrack, Frank dried his hands, ambling over to you with a hesitant smile. “I gotta ask ya something, doll.”

Nervousness spiking, you nodded, tilting your head in anticipation of his query.

“If I asked ya to call in sick tomorrow, what would ya say?” Frank’s jaw was tight as he asked, clearly expecting anger in response.

“I’d say absolutely, love. Why do you ask?” “I was hopin’ you’d wanna take an extra day, to escape those assholes and maybe do something fun?” If you didn’t know any better, you’d say Frank Castle looked nervous. His eyes flirted between your gaze and his lap, his trigger finger twitching. 

“Oh, Frank, I’d love that!” You gushed, throwing your arms around him. He grunted in surprise, his own hands coming up to hold you in place so you didn’t topple off the couch. “I’ve been hesitant to take sick days because everyone’s been so on edge lately, will you sit with me when I call in?” 

“Course I will. If anyone gives ya trouble, they’ll have me to answer to.” Frank assured you with a menacing glint in his eye. Kissing his nose, you stroked a knuckle over his stubbled cheek. 

“Thank you, handsome.” 

“Anything for my girl.” 

True to his word, Frank made sure you were seated comfortably in his lap when you called in sick, both so that he could rub reassuring circles along your waist, and so that he could hook his chin over your shoulder to listen for any flack you might be given. Fortunately for your boss, they grumbled an “ok” and hung up quickly. Anything ruder than that, and they might have been on The Punisher’s shit list. 

Sinking backwards into your boyfriend’s sturdy chest, you shuddered. “Glad that’s over with.” Breathing deeply, you took a moment to collect your anxious self before standing to get ready for the day. Or, trying to stand, at least. 

A set of strong hands caught your hips, yanking them backwards to hold you in Frank’s lap. 

“Frank!” A small fit of giggles burst out of you as his fingers pressed into your ticklish skin. 

“What’s the hurry, doll? We’ve got all day.” Planting heated kisses along your neck, you felt Frank smile when you mewled in response. “Attagirl, let me make ya feel good, hmm?” 

Whisking you back to the bedroom, Frank helped you forget all about your shitty job. 

Slightly breathless following your morning exercise, you hummed happily as Frank continued to press his lips to the exposed flesh of your body, taking care to show every piece of you as much love as possible. Boxing you in with his massive arms, he molded his beautifully crooked nose against yours, finishing his trail of kisses with a lengthy kiss to your lips. 

“So, what did you have planned for today?” You asked against his lips, threading a hand in his hair. 

“Nothin’ much. I was thinkin’ maybe nice coffee and a trip to that museum you’ve been talkin’ about?” A blush crept over his cheeks. “Sorry, doll, I, uh, I ain’t too good with this…” He gestured between the two of you. 

“Aw, Frankie,” You scolded gently, kissing him tenderly. “You’re plenty good at ‘this’.” You mirrored his gesture and he rolled his eyes. “I’m serious, honey. You’re the most romantic partner I’ve ever had. And that plan sounds lovely. Let me clean up and we can go for coffee.” 

As you curled into a seated position, Frank caught your wrist. “Hey! Where do you think you’re goin’?” 

“To wash up!” You giggled, striding back over to the bed where he slotted you between his legs. 

“Nah, you’re gonna sit right here while I draw you a bath. And I’m gonna run to the coffee place across the street and get ya one of those sugary drinks ya like so much. Then we can go out, if ya feel up to it.” His demanding tone made you smirk, his military tendencies tended to come out when he was concerned about you. 

“That sounds perfect, love.” You kissed his cheek, sitting on the bed as he headed to the bathroom. 

The rest of the day passed quickly, leaving you longing for more cozy time with Frank. Though he considered himself lacking in the romance department, he’d provided you nothing but pure love on your day off, indulging your every whim just to see you smile. 

And as you fell asleep at the end of the day, you clung tightly to him, trusting him to get you through whatever life threw your way.

[makeitastrength]

You said to bug you about your fics so can you pretty please share a sneak peak of one of them??

Hey anon, thanks so much for stopping by to bug me about this!! I'm sorry it took me so long to answer. I have multiple fics in progress, but the one that's pretty much done is my 5x04 rewrite. I'm headed out of town for the holiday weekend, but plan to start posting it once I'm back.

For now, here's a a sneak peek as requested 😊

If she closes her eyes and strains her ears, Lucy can just barely make out the noises emanating from above over the sound of the water. She tries to force herself to focus on that, on the reminders that everyone is working as efficiently and safely as possible to free her.

But despite her efforts to remain calm, she can feel her anxiety levels rising in parallel with the water. Already, it's up to her ankles and showing no signs of slowing down. And though there’s a few feet of space over her head, she knows now that it’s only a matter of time. Either they find a way to stop the flow, find a way to get her out of the tank, or this time it really will be her day of death.

Her hand rises to her left side, fingertips pressing against her ribs through the thin fabric of her shirt. Sometimes she can still feel the ghost of the numbers being etched into her skin, a phantom pain even though they’ve long since healed and she’s made peace with their presence.

Tim was right. It wasn’t her day of death. It was the first day of the rest of her life.

Tim.

He’s not working today, and Lucy wonders if anyone has told him what’s going on. Surely Angela would have contacted him by now? Despite the Las Vegas-sized rift between them, she's fairly certain he would still want to know, and she knows Angela knows that as well.

But then why isn’t he here?

If their positions were reversed, she would be the one sitting at the edge of the floor, unable to look away. She would be the one making sure he wasn’t alone and that he knew how hard everyone was working to save him.

She would be here because she couldn’t fathom being anywhere else.

Evidently, he doesn’t feel the same.

[parsnippety]

Brainstorming-

Mkay I have several ideas for alien/human posts so I'm putting them here before I forget. If this gets popular maybe I'll actually write some lol

Songs/singing : sounds being very powerful w/ other species; the most severe (?) sounds you'll find are soft clicks/rumbling and most languages developed through touch / what we'd call sign language. So these species are mesmerized by human singing cause they either can't do it / don't have enough control over the pitch of their voice or they "hear" by feeling vibrations and process tones differently.

This has endless possibilities- a human singing softly while working and causing some extreme reaction in the mechanics of the ship or their crewmates, humans taking over ships by accessing the intercom system, humans knowing the first thing to do if they're kidnapped is to yell at a really low pitch then a really high one cause chances are one of them will do something, videos of humans harmonizing becoming really popular (and being banned in several galaxies), two humans realizing they both know a song with a harmony and proceeding to sing it (causing everyone on the ship to stop what they're doing and just listen in awe), sign language becoming the main form of communication and ships having soundproof rooms so humans can talk to each other / themselves...

Species variation : most species didn't figure out efficient space travel for millions of years. Pair that with gene editing (to get rid of "imperfections"- usually this portion of the species' history is their "dark age"), and each individual looks pretty much identical. Most species have some sort of fetishized/slur word for individuals with any kind of abnormality, cause they're really really rare at this point. Think crocodiles; maybe some color variations but they've stayed more or less the same for millions of years. But humans? No two look the same- except maybe identical twins, but they could have different haircuts (don't even get me started on body modifications- other species do it, sure, but humans are already so different that it makes them a nightmare to teach about.) And in space the beauty standards are all over the place so if you want tattooed stripes you can get them- but wait, aren't there already some humans with stripes? And pointed ears? Dyed hair?

There's also the constant battle between human willpower and circumstance. When other species carefully figure out how to turn and move around an obstacle, humans are literally slingshotting themselves off of it. But for every death-defying feat, there are God knows how many feat-defying deaths. One human got an adrenaline rush and lifted an entire gnarflax. Another fainted 'cause they stood up too fast. Most species have clearly defined limits, so there's no pressure to push past them.

And mimicry : As if humans' vocal range isn't enough (what's that clicking? Sounds like a xhrhghfnl from my home planet- nope, it's John. Machinery malfunctioning? Alarms? Nope. F***ing John.), they can also make disguises and act. See, most species can manipulate the holograms or whatever but there's no way they'd be able to do convincing impressions in real time. Just going for it? Completely irrational.

One time, a human even convinced an entire rhusngi fleet that she was a rhusngi inspector "in disguise". (Honestly that line should've given it away but it walked and moved with the same mannerisms- the same- I don't even know. We were completely- what's that human expression?- shook.)

Not knowing what someone's going/been through unless they tell you is a completely novel concept. Imagine a human acting all violent when you take over their ship so you put 'em in the brig somehow, only to pull up the camera feed later and see them sobbing or completely frozen in a fetal position, or even worse- hurting themselves somehow. But the second you go down there, they're spitting curses at you and showing zero signs of weakness.

If anyone wants to write about these pls go right ahead. Sorry if they've already been done/overused (if they have, please lmk so I can go read them).

[neurasthnia]

so anki is the love of my life, and i'd like to discuss it re language learning.

spaced repetition systems in general

SRSs are helpful tools to prevent memory loss for specific facts. there's some criticism behind the specifics, but it's pretty safe to say that it's good to have a huge flashcard deck with relevant flashcards where you review the new-to-you stuff with relative immediacy and your already-reviewed stuff with relative distance.

flashcard model recommendations

go for a monolingual deck!!! if you absolutely can't, edit the flashcard to monolingual after you're vaguely familiar with the word!!! (i use wordreference - it's good but imperfect)

edited to add - a TL/NL vocab deck can be very efficient if languages are from the same family

i use a picture for the front unless the vocab word is too high concept, and using a picture would just be misleading/ineffectual.

i use soundclips about half the time - i pull clips from wiktionary, forvo, & the collins dictionary.

i use the fill-in-the-blank feature (cloze) pretty heavily with antonyms, and if i'm trying to remember specific usages of common words/phrases

i also use the fill-in-the-blank feature for chunking, altho i use this fairly rarely

i recommend 25 new words daily, or anything that'll set you for your regular pomodoro time for studying vocab (which is 25 mins for me).

i'm not at an advanced level yet for language learning, but this format is recommended for higher levels!

i lowkey recommend including example sentences on the backside, re chunking, but the utility really can depend on the vocab word

limitations

some limitations are a bit obvious - the quality of your study is 100% down to the quality of the flashcard (e.g. accuracy, relevancy, does it need more explanation for you to understand it)

it's also a hell of a time-suck to create these decks. i study 25 new cards a day, which means i have to create about two hundred flashcards every week. i make this quicker by having an ongoing list of words to add to my deck, instead of trying to look up vocab lists or whatever in the moment. i also do the whole week at once because i do get into the rhythm of dictionary-picture-audio searching while watching tv or whatever.

there are some fun add-ons (like for deadlines), and some complicated customization within anki itself. i usually just google if i have a question - a ton of people use anki, so there are tutorials for almost anything you want to do.

fluent forever

if you're unfamiliar, the fluent forever guy wrote a book about language learning which really hinges on a specific model of flashcard. he has tons of tutorial videos on his website, but basically he incorporates the phonetic alphabet, Google Images, and other relevant info for a vocab word (and grammar) in a flash card.

i think his flashcards take an unrealistic/unproductive amount of time, with a bunch of useless filler. however, i do recommend doing a quick read-through of his model and reasoning, as he might speak to something that you're struggling with. (for example, i've never struggled significantly with pronunciation so i think the IPA stuff is 100% useless.)

here's an integration to create the fluent forever flashcards much much faster. i don't use it but i've seen it recommended before.

outside of language learning!

i've used anki to learn for my work certification, for english vocab words from books i'm reading, and for titles of paintings that i want to remember forever. i wouldn't recommend shared decks for language learning, but i emphatically recommend them for other subjects!

[kradeelav]

so one of the technical bits i challenged myself with this gunter/corrin doujin was to:

(a) figure out an efficient process for professional multi-page artistic works in linux/true OSS programs - from ideation all the way to printer hand-off.

and

(b) a process that fit well with my brain and kept me from spinning my wheels endlessly redoing pages. it's a common problem with longer projects (aka why you see reboots of webcomics all the time, and also why i haven't been able to get "what greater sin" out for three years cuz i sucked at this lol).

why the focus on process though?

after mastering a certian degree of technical proficiency. it's what separates the hobbyist artists from the pros. not to toot my horn, but i'm quite good at project management process at work, and about two years ago it dawned on me to take some of that learned knowledge and actually apply it here if only to save eyestrain/wrist-strain time.

work lazier smarter, not harder etc.

before i get into the process outline, there's two programs that are doing the heavy lifting since i gave them a trial run with the last anthology and they worked great in tandem. (both cost no money and are available on all major OS's btw)

krita, my main drawing program. sketching/inking/speech bubbles/coloring/vector stuff can all be done here.

libreoffice writer - basically microsoft word for linux. i use it for arranging multiple pages, reordering, and exporting as .pdf to give to the printer (while amazing at rendering, krita can't export as pdf or show multi-pages)

so!

process wise, it occurred to me not too long ago that i needed to consolidate my multi-page creative projects into 3 major gates.

thumbnail sketches

proof of concept layout

"last 10" final

thumbnail sketches

thumbnails are a common concept in comics, but they're great for print front/back matter too. thumbnails ain't here to look pretty, their sole purpose to get the idea from your noggin to on the page.

here's a completely unaltered spread from my journal with a ton of thumbs and notes for this doujin.

so what's the kind of stuff i think about with thumbs?

how panels in a comic fit together with the major emotional beats + line of action. does the eye follow the pages naturally? do you "feel" the emotional impact?

does the compositions work with each other? negative/positive space, weight on top or bottom or diagonally, etc. do the pages feel claustrophobic or too empty? do they breathe?

decorative framing elements that reflect the tone you want + how they generally lead the eye across the page

random notes about overall tone or potential future pages

etcetc

at this point i import that digitally, and start drawing a proper sketch off of it.

fast forward from that sketch to:

"proof of concept" layout

i'm calling this proof of concept instead of a draft as they serve different purposes. a draft is a half-finished work you can just screenshot and show to anyone for feedback (like comms). proof of concept here is showing a certian level of completeness across draft pages to measure consistency.

lack of consistency is the mind killer killer of comics.

proof of concept is specifically meant to nip the 'fizzled out halfway' issues in the bud. it's to show you how cool it looks altogether already, but also shed a light on problem areas that are potentially popping up on the earlier side, so there's less time wasted.

this is a little premature in the process for a proof of concept screenshot, but you get the idea here in a later strip, shown here as screenshots imported into libreoffice writer:

another reason that made libreoffice writer essential is the accurate 2-page spread view. between that, being able to resize the page to whatever you need, and the very easy pdf exporter (with customizable compression), i don't know if i could do this kind of project here.

now, backing up - what kinds of consistency are we checking for here?

does the inking/coloring style change noticeably in a jarring way?

is there one comic strip that the pacing/paneling sucks in comparison to the others? or feels awkwardly added in tone and perhaps better saved for a different project?

is there one panel within a sequential series that's torturing you? what's the best way to throw it out and redo it even faster?

do the front/back matter support the meat of the inside in a clever, on-tone way?

did you accidentally change the font halfway through after you liked your new shiny toy? which one works better?

etc

keep in mind we're not just checking the consistency in one strip, it's for the book as a whole.

and then lastly,

"the last ten" final

"the last ten" is a mental concept i've used for the last ten years for single comic pages. it's especially tempting to noodle over endlessly making one comic page perfect, when you could have done ten reasonably good ones in the same time, and so i made this my last step making IC pages.

once when you approach a level of reasonably done, but kinda hate the page and are procrastinating on getting it out, stop, rest your eyes overnight, and list the last ten minor things you'd change.

once when you've changed those? out the door it goes.

i'm gonna switch to a different project but here's a good example of a "last ten" stage applied to illustrations when i did fallen!gunter's FEH mockups.

looks pretty complete, right? WRONG :D

i can't remember the exact last ten i used, but it was something like:

too much of one specific glowy purple on both, i wanted more contrast with the red glow + "water" texture

needed more effects on the first image to better match FEH's aesthetic

change Leigh's credits after they got a chance to see it and give the thumbs up

knee/shin on left looks unfinished painting wise, clean up

missing chest plate silver decorations on left, clean up

etc

this is the last hail mary check to hack your brain into being satisfied with the page. you've had your say, onwards to the next one.

now, you can also have an additional 'last ten' for the project as a whole. but it's especially critical for comic pages to help keep the momentum/tempo/pace going.

anyway!

we'll see how all of this actually works in practice depending on how fast i can get this doujin out. :)

[horizon-verizon]

I see that you have a lot of knowledge and I have a question. Why don't they end the blockade of KL by sending Vhagar to burn the fleet? Why was a naval intervention necessary? Especially once Meleys dies.Was that space between his death and the search for riders not big enough? What was Aemond doing that he couldn't take 5 minutes and go?

(I'll be honest, the timeline confuses me a little)

Well, first, it wouldn't be "five minutes and go":

And this was the Gullet of Blackwater Bay, where the Velaryons made their blockade:

These are the plans the blacks made at the first black council, after Rhaenyra is forced to birth the stillborn Visenya ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

Here Daemon makes it clear that it'd be dumb for any green and their dragon to approach their waters or anywhere close to their castle with all their dragons as it would be also dumb for the blacks to try to take KL when the greens are still there.

If you see the distance b/t KL and Harrenhal, you'll see that it's a little longer than that b/t the closest waters to Driftmark and KL. Which is pretty far even for a single dragon ride. Aemond took a little more than two weeks to get to Harrenhal while sticking close to the main part of his army ("Rhaenyra Triumphant"):

So I believe that if he hadn't decided to stick to the army's pace or hold Vhagar back to a pace he thought would cover that army's best speed while not being "too slow" (which could have been still slower than he could get), it would have taken Aemond at least a 5-7 days to reach Harrenhal on dragonback if he really decided to go alone. Again, that's what i am guessing.

There's already a big thing abt dragon vs raven speed, how it's possible ravens can get to a place faster than an approaching dragon in the fandom (and my answer to that is that it takes a while for the armies that these riders amass and wait for to be ready to set out, while a person who has observed these plans can ready an already destination-knowing raven can send said raven before the actual army arrives at the same place...like what happened with Aemond, Daemon, Harrenhal. If you look through Targs and their wars, the dragonriders almost nearly never leave their army behind to preemptively attack, or those dragons usually fought right after the 2 separate armies made contact and fought "normally" until the dragon v dragons came out and I'm talking about Maegor vs Aegon the Uncrowned. Dragons vs other dragons fought above the still fighting armies or if there were only dragons on one side, that dragon would be flaming the other side as their armies fought that side....thus why they are so efficient).

Why does all this matter? Since the distances SEEMS pretty similar b/t KL and Driftmark/Dragonstone vs KL & Harrenhal, I BELIEVE that Aemond didn't want to get into close range with the blacks' dragons who were all on Dragonstone and the blockade blocked the Blackwater Bay from the Narrow Sea. Such proximity where he was closer to them than he was to DrStone w/o being able to flee faster than they could get him.

Or/and Aemond couldn't or was pressed to not leave behind KL defenseless (as he later does and finds out just a few days after he takes Harrenhal w/Cole) if he were to attack the blockade, as he wouldn't make it back in time to block the blacks and their dragons. Yeah, there was Sunfyre, but still the greens had less battle-useable dragons and it's not advisable to send out your ruling king to fight. Plus, Helaena was no warrior/was the Queen Consort.

Another idea is that maybe the greens wished to preserve the fleet for future use for if/when they expected to win, but I doubt it since Otto orchestrated the Triarchy smashing through and trying to destroy the same fleet.

"Westeros" can be used to refer to the continent and a portion of the continent designated as the "Seven Kingdoms", btw. "The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros" = "the territories of this continent" nearly similar to the purpose of "The United States of America" being a part fo the Americas but also sometimes referred to as just "America". Thought this random nugget was appropriate here rather than another non-ask post.

[shelandsorcery]

Astronomics Game Art : Designing Mining Equipment!

Gonna talk this week about designing mining equipment for the sci-fi game Astronomics - demo on steam right now! - And I thought I'd start with a little conversation about research and process (...that doesn't really have on a much art in it but just stay with me) and maybe get to tap in a little bit into how someone like me who doesn't do a lot of technical design learned a lot about how to get excited about that whole field through the research stage of this game.

So when I say research I really do mean fairly old-school research — and this is probably gonna be a theme with a lot of the posts about this game in particular, because I don't think you can build sci-fi without some understanding of engineering systems and current scientific realities to then play with, you know?

As you may gather from the trailer, Astronomics is a game about asteroid mining, among other things. Which meant that we had a lot of need for legit industrial feeling props and tools for the player to use, things that felt functional and believable without feeling complicated or delicate. I really enjoy the challenge of adding appeal to something that maybe people don't always think about being appealing or fun or cute (this is never an absolute statement — there's always somebody already able to see more appeal in any given subject and I could ever imagine) so part of the research stage is going and looking for that appeal. So above you can see a sheet of loose rough sketches I did in clip studio paint from reference that I gathered with the rest of the team and by myself that seemed relevant to some of the designs we were pursuing.

If you've had the chance to play the demo, you'll know that it's not just surface mining but we are going to be letting you mind gases and liquids and underground mineral veins as well — these are all things that people do in the real world of course, so process one was taking a quick look at those actual industries and then figuring out how I could condense that activity down into a pretty simple and easy to understand machine.

So turned out what we needed was something that drilled and dug, something that pumped liquids, something that sucked air, and all of these things needed to then produce some sort of container to hold what they had collected.

In a videogame you really need to communicate to the player why each act they do is significant and different from the others, and as the art director it was my job to figure how to do that through visual design of the tools they're going to be using. So that meant that even though you could certainly store liquid and gas and solid resources in the same kind of box, I wanted to try and find ways to keep each thing feeling different. Best case scenario is that you're able to look at a prop we've designed and know in a split second which of these three states of matter it will be containing; in the research stage one of the things I'm looking for is any existing visual language that we have (in this Western English-speaking North American videogame audience culture) that already solves this problem.

The great thing about industrial design is that they indeed have very intentionally tackled this problem. Part of it is purely physics optimization that the field of engineering has been working towards for human history. For example, when you're storing liquid and you want to remove all of it from a container you probably don't want something with corners — that's how you end up with cylindrical liquid storage. When you're storing a gas you're likely keeping it under pressure, which means you need a shape that will withstand pressure evenly, which means you're looking for something with literally no corners or edges ideally — and that's how you end up with bubble-shaped gas storage like a propane canister. And then when you're storing something solid and you want to use the space most efficiently and be able to stack whatever it is that you have packed it into, you have a box.

Real good news is, a box and a cylinder and a sphere are all wonderfully visually distinct shapes in a fantastically strong place to start when it comes to solving the question of storage. So then we get into the challenge of the machines themselves — what distinguishes a drill from a pump from a vacuum?

So that's the beginning of some of the questions that you have to answer when you're designing props for a game — in the research stage is only one of bunch of different ways you start figuring out these answers. But I want to talk for just a second a little bit about how I personally wrangle my research, because I am definitely not telling you this is the only way to do it. It seems like it may be worth explaining what I get out of this process and see if anything here make sense for you!

One of the reasons that I have this huge page of sketches, big and detailed or tiny and loose, all laid out in one place for me to look at, is because I personally learn and remember things more strongly by taking notes. With my hand holding a pencil ideally. And when they're abstract concepts or verbal or numerical then I'll use writing and I won't have a problem with it, but my job at this stage was not to figure out abstract concepts or to find themes — my job was to solve visual problems. So my first order of business was visual research specifically. Now for me, that involves lots of things — I have a Pinterest board for any sort of subcategory of stuff I'm researching to just do enormous broad research with; then I probably bring most of those images into a huge working .PSD file and move them around to create groupings. And then I start drawing.

I really think that drawing is integral for me at this stage. I don't think I could do this without drawing as part of my research. There's so much that I just don't bother noticing if I'm not going to be drawing the thing that I'm looking at; even the worst, fastest, sketchy as drawing makes me pay infinitely more attention to something then I do when I am simply collecting information mentally. I'm phrasing this in a somewhat exaggerated, self-deprecating way, but I really can't exaggerate how much more I get out of things when I sit down and draw them. They talk about drawing is a way of seeing, and for me that's a practice I've intentionally pushed and explored in my life.

The other thing, though, is that visual problem that I need to solve. Sometimes solutions to the problem aren't obvious until they are visualized — it can be very easy to get distracted by things like surface details and miss the silhouette language, or vice versa, but when you are doing the drawing you have to wrestle with the silhouette and the details and make decisions about them. Visual trends appear way more clear when you are drawing something for the 10th time as opposed to simply seeing it for the 10th time. And all of the layers of cultural meaning and context that clutter up a photograph can be simply ignored as you transfer only what you need to a drawing, where you might discover something that everything else hid until then. Beyond that, one of the things you may notice about the sketches is that they are somewhat cartoony — I'm certainly trying to capture important details and be representational to a degree, but much like gesture drawing the human figure, researching this way lets me start finding out what the gestures are of these different sorts of subject matter. This is something that I knew about creature design, and about flora design, and one of the real joys of this game in particular was proving to myself that this gesture approach applied to industrial machines and technology as well.

I mean, I knew that there were cute trucks out there, but gosh.

I think if you are in need of something to reinvigorate a particular piece of subject matter for you — if you're designing something that you are just not that excited about, or if you don't feel challenged by the work in front of you — I really think sitting and sketching from reference can open up the complexities and help push you and your work farther. It certainly works for me and I know that the learning I did on this game is something I carry with me to future projects as well.

That seems like a pretty strong place to leave this post in particular, but I'll be back later this week with more breakdowns and screen caps of the actual design process of all of our adorable mining equipment!

I would really love to hear from folks if you also engage in similar research processes before going into full design mode — or if you have a completely different way to get your mind revved up and ready to go, I would really enjoy reading about it!

In the meantime, if you're curious about mining asteroids but it's cute please feel free to check out the Astronomics demo on steam, I made an awful lot of visdev art for this and handed it off to some incredible game creators who have done some really impressive stuff taking their ideas and my ideas and running to honestly some pretty new and exciting places with them.

[protocolseben]

(3 days before flight)

"Rocky, should I untether Mark from the pipes?"

"Don't even think about it Sebastian. I don't want to get into trouble !"

»»» 11th Day of Mission

Load LOG : // SL-21-20XX-28-12_01…

(alternate title : fuck characterisation, hello OOC. get OOC pain'd.)

###########

23:04:26:85 UTC +1 CET

Recording? Ok...so today-

("Talking into your diary again like a girl, love? ")

"Fucking…" clunk "It's my logging session. I'll throw something at you."

("Did you forget where you are?")

"Fick dich."

("…I hope that's German for 'I like you a lot?' ")

< clunk >

recording terminated due to lack of sound / voice activity.

###########

END LOG SL-21-20XX-28-12_01

// -----------------------------

Load LOG : // SL-21-20XX-28-12_02…

###########

23:11:33:02 UTC +1 CET

…Ok, the light is on, it is recording now.

This morning the Earth looked bluer than usual, and I really liked it, so I grabbed the camera and quickly snapped a picture. My photography skills are good enough!

NASA's Jackson called us the noisiest astronauts ever. Fair... But he did remark on how efficiently Mark and I get the work done around the station, given the state and the age of the machines. We would really just split the massive amount of maintenance into two and made sure we tied up any loose ends, and they were always impressed.

Today we had to do a pretty massive job of putting on the NOAX stuff on the many of the station panels. It was our second time doing a spacewalk in only eleven days, so that's a big thing. And it was…four hours outside, putting basically space caulk. Heat really gets to these big guys! The application was less than fantastic though, as we had to use spatulas to put them on…it was a really careful science experiment. There's Mark and me, stuck to only the metal railings of the station for our lives, putting state-of-the-art things with some ma's spatula. It's hot doing this the whole day, just mashing this stuff in! Sweating in space is not fun…

I looked up the stuff when I got back from the work. They use these things in Formula 1 cars…? Well you learn something new everyday and experience new things too, but I'm not sure how this caulk thing will benefit that much… probably only useful if Michael Schumacher goes 27 thousand kilometres per hour, sure…

Ok, I have been putting off talking about Mark.

The previous recordings already have them, but for memory's sake, I will just mention it here. I know, I know, I'm going to be 24 next year, and here I am, still feeling like i'm in middle school with how I'm acting.

We've been co-workers for two years now, and we've had our fair share of being at each other's necks. Horner didn't help either. The only thing he had to say to us before we left was that we were like an old married couple. And to get "our shit sorted by the end of the trip".

Well…

It really is hard to put it into words. It was pretty obvious to everyone, so I am the idiot here. Hah... I tried not to think much of it, especially during the suit up procedure for the spacewalks. it needed two people anyway.

Before we went back into the airlock, the bastard went to unhook my tether off the metal railing! Fucker!! Do you know how screwed we'll get if I wasn't anywhere with the EMU? He had the gall to laugh in his suit. I should have just beaten his face in just now.

("You didn't mention me holding your hands?")

clnk

("oh shoot--")

recording terminated due to lack of sound / voice activity.

###########

END LOG SL-21-20XX-28-12-2

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

[skylarmoon71]

Miguel O Hara (Across the Spider Verse)- Oneshot - Extra 3

Miguel wasn't surprised at how fast word spread of his relationship. He'd given it a week at most before people caught on and ultimately he would have to deal with that series of nuisances.

Surprisingly, it took about a month.

This morning was another display of that.

"Woah, nice (Y/N)." You high fived a fellow spider person as you walked in step with Miguel, sending them a wink.

"You know me, I aim high."

Two more walked by and they laughed, sending you encouraging waves as you accepted it graciously. He wasn't sure how it was possible that he'd become some kind of trophy. When you made it to his little office space, he just sent you an unimpressed look to which you shrugged.

"You're enjoying this a little too much."

"What, I'm just giving the people what they want. Now that you're my hubby I've become somewhat of a legend. Everyone wants to know how I bagged you. It's kind of flattering."

He should have known you would like the attention.

"So what's on the agenda?"

He pulled up a report from another universe.

"I have to go and check out some activity on earth 10. I'll be gone for a few days. I've already assigned you a mission. You should get the updates as soon as Lyla is done putting together the file. When you get to earth 65, be careful. Their technology is a little more advanced. Peter got hurt. He's an idiot most of the time, but he's very careful about steering away from danger. Don't let your guard down."

He looks a bit troubled and you realize that he must have intended to join you, but as it stands, he needs to check into another anomaly that could be just as dangerous to the universe.

"I'll be careful. I promise. If it makes you feel better I'll take Allen with me. " His frown deepens.

"Not Allen."

You tilt your head.

"Why not, he's pretty efficient. Very goal oriented."

"He's a shameless flirt." Miguel grumbles.

Your face scrunches up.

"What does that have to do with....Oh..."

You can't believe it. He's jealous.

He diverts his eyes.

"Nevermind, take Allen. Just make sure he keeps a five feet distance."

You can't stop yourself from smiling. You like that he shows you all these cute sides.

"We're not going to see each other for a while."

It's a little mutter and Miguel looks at you.

"It depends on how serious the problem is. As soon as I know more I'll be giving a briefing."

You giggle shyly, rubbing your arm.

"That's not really what I meant Miguel."

He doesn't truly get what you're trying to say.

"Ugh this is painful, she's gonna miss you dummy!"

Lyla's voice filters through and your blush darkens. She's gone in a blink and Miguel finally takes in the way you're now shifting awkwardly. His gaze becomes a bit soft. Stepping closer, he takes your hand, and you can't help the racing of your pulse when he leaves a kiss on your knuckles.

"I'm gonna miss you too."

How does he manage to go from stoic to sweet so quickly?

It's almost crazy.

"I'll be back before you know it."

He's very good at what he does, so you don't doubt it. He releases your hand, and he leans down. Your eyes close in anticipation as he leaves a soft kiss on your lips. You'll never get tired of this. His hands move to your hips, and you stumble a little when he backs you up. The back of your thigh knocks into a desk and he pulls back with a huff.

"Sorry.."

You shake your head, just as breathless.

"It's okay.." You assure softly.

You part to get a glimpse of his face and you're stunned at the red that is now prominent in his eyes.

It makes you a bit weak.

You aren't sure you'll survive more than a day without this maddening man.

~

The following week feels a bit bland. Miguel is busy on earth 10, scouting out the issues. You've long completed your assignment. The day you'd done so, you raced to tell Miguel, but he wasn't back.

Just Peter.

Yet you pressed on.

Peter was actually doing a pretty good job. Although you really wanted to see Miguel. He's been giving updates on his progress. Apparently there were a lot more anomalies than expected. Not that you're surprised.

It's too unpredictable.

"I've gotten a bit more help out here, we're going to stay for another week to ensure everything has balanced out. Jessica will be alternating with you Peter."

You knew the video call was just a way to make sure that Peter wasn't messing everything up.

"Is that a burger on my desk?"

Miguel looks displeased, and Peter laughs awkwardly.

"What, of course not! I would never defile your area like that."

You can't help but smile.

"I'll make sure he cleans up, don't worry boss."

You salute, and Miguel sighs as Peter moves over to the desk to grab a bottle for Mayday. You're lucky Miguel isn't able to see the rest of his space. The amount of stuffed animals was pretty hilarious.

"Hurry up and come back, I think the others are starting to miss your glaring angry face."

"I miss it."

That's what you'd like to say, but you don't want to seem nagging or clingy.

'"I think they'll survive." He responds.

You wear a little smile, and Miguel takes in the way it seems almost sad.

"(Y/N) are you-"

"MIGUEL THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!!"

The familiar yell of one of your fellow spidermen catches your attention, and you wave him off.

"Go and save the world, we'll be here."

Miguel hesitates, just for a moment, then nods.

He grabs his mask, sending one last look at the screen before he shuts it off.

You let out the soft breath, glancing over at Peter who's feeding a very content Mayday her bottle.

The days that follow feel a bit slow.

You haven't been given an assignment today, so you do your best to focus on your job. After you're done with paperwork, you retire to your home. It feels like the day has been dragging on. You just go through the motions. Dinner, a bath, and then bed. Laying there, you stare up at the wall. It's weird, the city seems so quiet. You should be happy that no supervillain is causing havoc. It just feels slow..or possibly just empty.

Your watch on the nightstand vibrates, and you turn a bit sleepily. You don't really register who it is, you just click the button.

"Spiderwoman speaking."

"(Y/N)."

You shoot upright.

"M-Miguel!"

"Did I wake you up?"

You shake your head, not that he can really see.

"N-No, I'm wide awake."

"That's good. I was just checking in cariño."

You appreciate that more than he knows. Miguel is busy, so the fact that he's taken the time to frequently assure that you're okay is sweet.

"When are you getting back? Peter's becoming a handful."

Another joke to play off your loneliness.

"I should be back very soon. I hope you've been careful. Jessica told me about the truck situation."

"In my defense that guy was driving really fast."

Even spider sense could only do so much, especially when it came to narrowly avoiding getting smacked by a truck.

"You're too careless."

"Hey, if anything I'm the most careful arachnid hero out here."

"I find that hard to believe."

You smile at the sound of his voice, playing with your bed sheets. This is nice, you've missed the banter.

"I miss you Miguel."

It's just above a whisper.

There's a bit of silence on the other side, and you grip the band of your watch. Maybe you should have kept that to yourself.

"How much."

You don't expect the response.

Swallowing, you fidget.

"How much do you miss me?"

He urges.

"So much..I wish you were here right now. I've been trying to pretend that it's fine but all I can think about is you. I-I've never had it this bad before."

He lets out a soft appreciative hum.

"I was going to wait until tomorrow. But I guess I have no choice."

His words confuse you. That is until you hear the shuffling on his side, there's a distinct sound of the portal opening. You don't think much of it, but when you hear that familiar whirring sound, and you see the spark of colors that now light up your once dark bedroom, you slowly drop the watch. Migulel walks right through, decked down in his spider suit.

The portal closes shortly after.

"We've neutralized the anomalies. The intention was to report back in tomorrow but I-"

You crash into his body and he takes a step back at the collision. You're holding on so tight. Miguel is still for a moment, but then he looks down, and his expression softens. Now he understands.

"Were you lonely cariño?"

You nod, pulling back just enough to see his face.

You've always been somewhat alone, so you've never had anyone to truly miss. When you joined the organization, life for you had gotten a little less lonely. You had comrades, friends.

Yet, this is the first time that you've had someone just for you and it's then that you finally realize what that means.

"So lonely.."

You admit.

Miguel leans down claiming your lips and you accept it greedily, letting out a sigh of relief. He smiles against your lips, sliding his hand into your hair. He understands how you feel, because he's been dealing with the same. It's easier to hide those things when he's trained himself to be strong. He's starting to realize that around you, he doesn't have to keep up that front. He parts.

"I was lonely too."

His confession makes your eyes water, and you hug him again, gripping at his suit. 

[tanuki-02]

Progress Report

For 09.16.23 to 07.08.24

I plan on doing these progress reports weekly. Perhaps with the occasional post in between if I feel like I have some huge improvement within that day.

But for this first progrep, I'll try to detail as much as possible my learning from the day I started until now as I write this post.

For a little more info, I'm a 2nd year university student who is already fluent in 2 languages. I'd say my strong point is memorization which is incredibly helpful.

‎

— GOAL

Initially, I wanted to learn Japanese because of manga. Yes, I know fanlations exist and I can go buy physical English copies. However, English versions are waaaay more expensive and a lot of the manga I read have very slow fanlations or they've stopped translating it completely.

This brings me to my next point; I wanted to learn how to READ Japanese first and foremost. I hardly cared about other skills (but now I do understand their importance to the holistic learning of it all).

‎

— September '23 to November '23

I went into this language learning journey blindly. I had no idea where to start. But all I knew was that: 1.) Du*lingo is not your best option, 2.) DON'T use romaji to learn, 3.) Start kanji as early as you can. Looking back on it, I feel like these 3 points are important and I still do believe them now.

So, I went ahead and learned hiragana and katakana in less than 2 days. It was quite easy (although, katakana still does make my head spin sometimes).

After that, I went ahead and started with vocabs and kanji. Basically, I searched up vocab & kanji lists for the N5 level. After I found some good practice/list PDFs, I printed them out and used them as my main study material.

What I would do is to memorize them on my own accord (reading over and over again then, checking if I remember—rinse and repeat). I would say this worked out well for the first couple of months. The N5 lists had around 800 vocabs and 60 kanji which were pretty easy to memorize. I had this down in about a month. The following N4 lists had around an additional 800 vocab and 120 kanji. This one took me 2 months, but I'd say the mastery isn't as great as the N5.

With that in mind and the additional 4000 vocabs and 300 kanji that N3 offered, I started to doubt my method. It was then that I really began to search the web of an efficient way to learn this language.

It was then I discovered TheMoeWay and Anki.

‎

— December '23 to June '24

Plenty of people recommended TheMoeWay, so I had to check it out. It has a guide for the first 30 days of learning, but I ignored that because I was way past 30 days at this point. I read everything else and learned about spaced repetition systems (SRS); that's basically what Anki is.

It recommends to start with the N5 Tango Deck first and I did that. I began on December 6, 2023 and finished it on March 28, 2023. To consider it finished, all cards should be matured.

‎

‎

This deck was VERY easy for me at this point because the prior months of inefficient reviewing that I did. If I'm not mistaken, I did about 100 cards per day which explains why I was so fast.

I had to move on to N4 Tango Deck once I ran out of "New" cards in the first deck. So, at some point, I was doing both decks simultaneously. I began this one on January 17, 2024 and finished it on June 15, 2024.

‎

‎

Admittedly, this deck was a lot tougher than the last one for me at the time. I had to lower the daily card count to 50 (which is still a lot). But I can say after finishing both tango decks—vocabulary, kanji retention, and grammar—all improve drastically. These two decks are super duper helpful in the beginning and I would totally recommend them.

After accomplishing both decks, TheMoeWay says for you to create a mining deck of your own. So, as I was about to go through the N4 Tango Deck, I was deliberating whether or not I'd go through with what is recommended or go for something else.

I think making a mining deck would boost your skill by a huge margin, but I opted for the Core 2k/6k Japanese Vocabulary Deck which I learned from Livakivi on YouTube.

‎

— Current; July '24

I decided to take on the Core 2k/6k while I was doing the N4 Tango (This also explains why I did fewer cards 'cuz I was trying to balance both). I started this one on January 14, 2024 and I'm still getting through it little by little. By that I mean I'm not even halfway done haha.

This is what my progress looks like so far:

‎

‎

I'm doing 20 new cards per day while it's still summer break from university. Although, I'll definitely have to lower it once the semester starts. Maybe I'll go back to 10 or something.

Anyway, I found that by doing this, my retention for words and how they are spelled in hiragana have improved so much. Sometimes I can easily read random sentences on Japanese websites or books. Moreover, after doing this for some time, I found that my reading got a lot better (duh, you know more words). I can easily pass the N5 and N4 tests on the official JLPT website. The N3 tests... not so much just yet.

This brings me to my next point: I am lacking in grammar and reading comprehension. To remedy this, I've tried immersing a bit through reading news on NHK or random stories on Tadoku Graded Readers (honestly, boring, but I have to). I tried reading manga, but I'd skip so many speech bubbles that it made no sense anyway.

At the moment, I'm doing an Anki deck related to grammar, another one based on Tae Kim's guide, and a third one for listening comprehension (because my listening skills are also doodoo).

‎

TL;DR

I'd say I'm around the higher N4 level or maybe a very low N3. For my level, I'd say I'm pretty good at reading... everything else not so much. I barely do output so writing and speaking are non-existent skills for me and listening is something I only started now.

[zhongrin]

swirl & crystallize

◇ characters ◇ (no romantic pairing) zhongli, xiao, kazuha, shinobu

◇ tags ◇ no pairing, tag game(-ish) but feel free to ignore the tag :3

◇ tagging ◇ @seelestia | @dawndelion-winery | @the-travelling-witch | @hiraya-rawr | @silkjade | @intothegenshinworld | @watatsumiis | @merzkihstuff | @astrxlis | @w4yf1nder | @thesparklingwriter | @kazuily + everyone in the taglist! (but to reiterate: no pressure!!)

◇ a/n ◇ happy new year! i'm starting a new tag game just because lol (any writers or artists welcome)

pick one (or more, if you want) of your existing teams and tell me all about them!

how are the dynamics between each character? do they work well as a team outside of battles? who is the mom friend and who is the dad friend? are they a friendly, tight-knit group, or are they hostile to each other? (optional) what would be their voice lines about each other as teammates?

ps. feel free to include your self-insert or oc in the team as the 'fifth character' if you want!

𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ⬙ 𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡

team: xiao, kazuha, zhongli, shinobu

✧— xiao ⇄ kazuha

xiao appreciates the way kazuha doesn't try to intrude his space and how he manages to sense whenever the yaksha wants to be left alone.

kazuha on the other hand is pretty neutral about xiao. mostly he appreciates the way the demon conqueror always protects the whole team, and so the ronin tries to include him in everything.

the team probably accidentally discovered that kazuha’s leaf-playing ability makes xiao relax, so the wandering samurai takes it upon himself to do it every now and then whenever things are calm and xiao is within the vicinity.

honestly, i think they get along very well despite not interacting that much on the surface.

xiao → “about kazuha“

“that wandeing samurai from inazuma? he’s… alright. polite. although the way he speaks took a while to get used to. the leaf flute? hmph…. i… suppose, it is quite relaxing.”

kazuha → “about xiao”

“a selfless protector blessed by the anemo archon himself. the winds around him are quite volatile, but i find that they would turn tranquil whenever a melodic tune dances in the air. as zhongli-sensei suggested, i’ve taken to the habit of playing the leaves more often as we wind down for the day.”

✧— xiao ⇄ zhongli

probably is the closest relationship within the team. calm grandpa and feral surrogate son

zhongli is generally caring towards everyone in the team but he has a special soft spot for xiao - always pulling him back whenever things look bad on the battlefield.

(omg can you imagine zhongli picking up xiao by his scruff like he's a feral cat and flinging him out of harm’s way lmao-)

xiao knows he doesn’t have to worry about zhongli on the battlefield too, so that’s a huge burden off his shoulders.

xiao → “about zhongli“

“what more is there to be said? i am just honored that i am able to fight alongside morax again.”

zhongli → “about xiao”

“i’m glad you invited the young adeptus to travel with you. many times i have tried to persuade him to take some rest for a change of pace, but he never listened. please, indulge my curiosity; how did you manage to convince him to come along?”

✧— xiao ⇄ shinobu

neutral. they’ve already met in the chasm before, so shinobu knows about xiao’s self-sacrificing tendencies.

since shinobu is also smart and attentive - she knows when to put her foot down but also to leave xiao to his own devices.

xiao sees her as a reliable teammate.

mutual respect plays a huge part in this relationship, and while they’re not particularly close, they’re both comfortable with how it is!

xiao → “about shinobu“

“the electro wielder? she’s okay. responsible. i respect her.”

shinobu → “about xiao”

“i wouldn’t say that we’re close. but i am thankful that we have someone who is experienced in dealing with and efficiently fighting off dangerous monsters. although… this might be a rude thing to say to an enlightened being, but how can he fight so recklessly without an ounce of care for his own safety? i don’t mind patching him up, of course - boss is just as reckless as he is - but sometimes i just wish he would snap out of that selfless mindset already.”

✧— kazuha ⇄ zhongli

kazuha is intrigued and curious because he can somehow sense that zhongli isn’t exactly… normal? surely no normal man can make the last yaksha in teyvat himself bow down to his knees or speak so respectfully?

zhongli is thankful to kazuha for keeping xiao company and appreciates the way he always attentively listens to his stories.

they bond over literature and share their experiences. very wholesome dynamics.

kazuha → “about zhongli“

“there’s something about zhongli-sensei that i can’t explain... you know who he actually is, don’t you? haha, don’t look so surprised. it really is quite obvious. the demon conqueror reveres him, the wind respects him, and the soil thrums in his presence. though i am not privy to the details, i can sense that he’s not just a ‘funeral parlor consultant from liyue’. don’t worry; you don’t have to tell me anything. everyone has their own secrets, and i can respect that.”

zhongli → “about kazuha”

“an interesting fellow, that child. very attuned to nature itself. after hearing the stories of his travels and hardships, it occurs to me that his vision truly suits him; a wandering bird flying from one branch to another. i’m also very grateful that he managed to befriend xiao.”

✧— kazuha ⇄ shinobu

they naturally bond with each other over time. since they’re both inazumans, that makes them feel inclined to start talking to each other.

actually, given some time, i can even see them becoming friends!

shinobu pulls kazuha out of potential troubles and kazuha watches over shinobu to make sure she doesn't overwork herself.

a sibling-like relationship. lovely.

kazuha → “about shinobu“

“of course, i’m happy to have a fellow countryman on our travels! shinobu knows a lot of things and is more than happy to tell me what happened while i was away from inazuma, and what has changed since then. she makes for a good drinking company too; our taste in sake seems to match!”

shinobu → “about kazuha”

“well, at least he’s a lot more manageable than boss. still, i really don’t understand how someone could be so… spontaneous and unbound. one moment he’s sitting on a tree branch watching the clouds, the next moment he’s using his anemo powers to climb some cliffs - goodness, did you know he almost broke a leg three days ago?”

✧— zhongli ⇄ shinobu

the “parents” of the group, really. do i even need to say more?

keeps everyone out of trouble, very level-headed people who just want the best for the whole team and know that they can trust each other in this endeavor.

there’s just this one little misunderstanding, though (if you could even call it that)…

zhongli → “about shinobu“

“ah, the young lady is a mature and kind individual. have you seen her fuss around kazuha and xiao? i find the sight quite endearing. she has even asked me if my joints were okay when we hiked the mountains in sumeru the other day…... hmmm. in hindsight, perhaps i should not have answered with ‘older than your parents' when she asked me about my ‘real age’....”

shinobu → “about zhongli”

“i understand that you needed someone experienced in life and all in this expedition, but you really shouldn’t have asked an elderly person to tag along in such dangerous activity. hm? why are you looking at me like that? didn’t you know? i mean, i would have never guessed it from his youthful appearance either. i have heard that liyueans tend to look younger than their actual age, but even now i can barely believe that zhongli-sensei is that old. honestly, i’m still surprised he could still be so agile in combat.”

© zhongrin | 2022 ◆ no repost. reblogs much appreciated. feel free to reach out to submit suggestions, feedback, comments, or if you just want to talk!

◇ taglist ◇ @thestarsofenkanomiya | @genshinparty | @abyssmal-skies | @hamdehlesmis | @depressivecomforts | @sophiethewitch1 | @why-am-i-here-someone-save-me | @sunnshineflxwer | @heartonthemoon | @yuutasbabe | @percyval-archives | @carbs-need-more-love | @rebeccka | @queen-belial | @stygianoir | @silentmoths | @niktwazny303 | @dustofthedailylife | @herdrops | @marina-and-the-memes | @angryhope | @mixed-kester | @shuangxo | @fiannee | @lordbugs | @anonymousficreader | @shizunxie | @ladylofspades | @sup-zfam | @ansy-tea

[takami-takami]

The bits about phone is why I can't picture Hawks as clingy person like Tiktok folks think. He's painfully distant on his approach regarding relationship, understandable considering his backstory. He left his sidekicks behind to deal with aftermath andd they seem already resigned to it. He outright rejected Jeanist's word of sympathy regarding his mother. Even toward Endeavor he just said "I used to watch your video" what a huge understatement about how much Endeavor means to Hawks. The closest person managed to reach Hawks and get the closest physical affection (a hug) seems to be Tokoyami, and that after he yelled at Hawks, watched his mentor just a hair breath from death for like the third time on the day, and wrestled with the The Demon Lord himself.

He's the type of person who looks chatty on outside but on the chat he just "K. Tysm. Gtg."

Yes and no!

Hawks is pretty distant but a lot of it is out of necessity— it's tied to his job.

Why did he leave his sidekicks behind? It's efficient for his job. Minimizes casualties, his sidekicks say.

Didn't answer his calls? He's probably busy, like when he threw his phone on the couch because he was doing investigative work on Twice.

When it comes to Endeavor, he cares about him a lot. Like a lot. Same with Tokoyami.

Hawks does show physical support and affection to Endeavor; his eyes wobble with empathy when he holds him up as he falls, speaking softly like one would a kid who got hurt. Like you can practically see his heart breaking when he looks at him after the nomu fight, and when he visits him in the hospital after that. When crowds throw trash at Endeavor, he puts his hand on the small of his back and walks with him. Hawks does communicate how he feels, and he does feel a lot for people, it's just pretty unconventional.

I can see what you're saying about Jeanist, but Hawks does open up to him about his innermost feelings and insecurities regarding his mother, trauma, and where he believes he failed, which is huge imo.

Idk, my assessment is that he's both always in work mode (unless he's at home) and also more of a lone wolf. But I don't think that means he is cold, or that he is irreparably distant. He just doesn't know who he is outside of his goals and job.

When he does express affection or emotion, at least in the anime, he makes googly eyes and is like, super cute about it. And he does open up to people. Which is good! Keigo deeply desires to lend his support, like he said about Endeavor, "to anyone trying to be better."

I'm not as caught up in the manga, though! So I'm missing a lot of information.

But yes, you're right, he is not a clingy person— he values alone time, allows himself space, would be willing to cut ties pretty simply if he clicks into habits (yeowch!), and is pretty unreachable as it stands. But my assessment is deep down he's a normal guy, and he craves to settle down. Even if it means he'll do it alone, but I personally think he'd benefit from a partner or friend who understands his needs and can work with him.

[mazuriri]

4.1 archon quest

I'm continuing my thread on Lyney x traveller as I'd promised to do another analysis if they interact together in the future (and I write here because I've run out of space to put photos in the other thread).

＊ Fontaine quest Act 4 : 

In this quest, they meet again ✨ Of course they were not ready to see each other especially in prison but it shocks more for the traveller since they will not understand why Lyney is here in the first place since they managed to defend him.

(Every time they meet , it's always ‘’awkward’’ but it makes it even more funny personally, like here, I laughed when they looked at each other with surprise as they weren't ready to see each other in prison lol.)

Lyney explains how they ended up in prison but the traveller knows that they are not here just because of that.. or more importantly : ‘Why are YOU doing here?’ They suspect that he is hiding something else but I don't think they are angry with him like last time at the trial. Lyney understands and decides to tell them everything, it’s pretty cute how he no longer wants to hide secrets from the traveller because he doesn’t want to hurt them again (so I suppose it affected him pretty much, poor guy…) but even if he says he will say everything, I still have the feeling that he will hide something from them at some point, still we all want to trust him and we know that he doesn’t have bad intentions, it’s already been ‘’proven’’.

★ Fun fact : Lyney JP VA even said that ''Lyney doesn't have the desire to betray or deceive the traveller''.

(He doesn’t want to hurt or make the traveller angry aww….)

This is where Lyney has a suggestion : he asks the traveller if they would like to team up with them. You will think that it is ‘normal’ he asks this so that it would be more efficient for their objective (Tartaglia + secrets) even if we can find it shady at first. However, there is another reason why he wants them to team up (I will explain later) but the traveller refuses because even if they have "reconciled" in Lyney's story quest, it doesn’t mean that they completely trust him. They want to trust him but they hesitate, preferring to remain on their guard. We already know that they work with Arlecchino and her goal is to capture the gnosis but we still don’t know what is her real goal. Again, don’t blame the traveller : their reaction and action are understandable, you should already understand until now. 

-> Imagine : you became friends with someone where you had a good time together even if it was just for a short time and you already trust him but right after, they lied to you as they were part of an ‘evil’ organisation that somehow traumatised you and where you had the most difficult times. Even if they don’t have bad intentions, they shouldn’t have deceived you, besides that doesn’t mean you can completely trust them after what happened even if you became friends again. 

So, Lyney thought about trying to find another way to convince them (he won’t force them if the traveller really doesn’t want to). You may think that he is trying to do this to advance in their research but there is another reason too. He is not wrong because it would be more effective if they cooperate to share information afterwards but more importantly : Lyney also wants to get closer to the traveller and try understand them a little better. 

(And I like how he ‘quickly’ changed the subject from Arlecchino to team up. He really wants to get closer to the them huh?)

Here, Lynette says ‘’See? I told you’’. Does that mean that Lyney had been ready to ask them this question for a while? Like he spent his whole day thinking about how he was going to approach them? He told Lynette about it but it turns out that she wasn’t sure that they would accept? Or, did Lyney feel that the traveller was going to refuse but still wanted to try, ignoring Lynette’s answer?

I love when Lynette ‘really’ makes us understand how Lyney feels towards the traveller, to the point that it makes him embarrassed (as he rubs his head and looking in all directions). She really decided to end this situation so that Lyney could stop thinking too much like an idiot lol. We already know that Lyney is always trying to reach an understanding with them and he can no longer hide his feelings when Lynette is here lolol. This guy was all confident in front of the traveller but when his sister tells us how he felt about them, he becomes all shy and embarrassed lmaoo

No one can change my mind that : LYNETTE SUPPORTS LYNEY X TRAVELLER 🫵 she even said that he should open up a little => he should express his feelings more openly if he wants to get closer to them. (Something like : ‘’Come on brother, don’t be a coward and tell them how you feel.’’)

Yeah, so basically he had the feeling and knew that the traveller was going to refuse but still tried lol, but hey it’s better to try than to do nothing. Plus, he was prepared so I was wondering what he might have been thinking to prepare for the worst. That is why he didn't really react when the traveller refused, which means he was ready for their answer but when they ‘’agreed’’ to cooperate with him, it rather surprised Lyney because he wasn’t really ready for them to accept ‘’so easily’’ because according to him, he thought he still had to think about how to convince them (it would take time). But look at him, we can notice that he knows the traveller remains vigilant but is still happy that they have agreed to work for them since basically, it was a bit part of his plan to get closer to them and he knows very well that they agreed to have more information on Tartaglia of course.

—————————————————————

A few days later, they meet again to give news on their investigation. 

We can see that they work well as a team and do their best to look for information about the place. I find that the traveller is starting to ‘’open up ‘’ to Lyney and are ready to communicate together as soon as they can. Anyway, before leaving on their own for a new mission, Lyney tells them to be very careful and that security always comes first but it is just after he realises that he used to talk like that to his siblings. I like it here because the options here are different and have different answers, this is where we have a cute little moment where the traveller asks if they were the big brother/sister instead? Basically: ‘’Would it change anything if I was older instead? Will you see me in the same way or otherwise?’’ 

I leave your imagination to this conversation but I find it kinda cute that Lyney thinks like that of them, it means that he already see them as his ‘family’ (he will confirm that later) 

—————————————————————

Once again, Lyney is grateful to the traveller for their help, he knows very well that the only problem in their relationship is their identity. The traveller helps the twins because they care and see them as a ‘friend’, as I already said : even if they’re still hesitant and vigilant towards them, it doesn’t mean they don’t care about them, in the contrary, the twins are already in the traveler’s heart in some way. I also think that’s where the traveller start to change their point of view towards them : their relationship is gradually starting to recover, knowing that they pretty much know that Lyney and the siblings care for them, which is sweet.

(‘’As long as it comes from you’’ - I love this sentence, Lyney really trusts the traveller when he doesn’t trust people easily normally.)

——————————————————

So later, Lynette and Freminet were captured by Wriothesley. Of course, it drives Lyney in rage as he is really worried about his siblings because he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to them. If you notice correctly, the traveller will have a lot of thoughts towards Lyney. They understand why he’s acting like this, that’s why they keep describing Lyney’s face and know what he’s thinking. If you still think that they don’t care about him and his siblings, then you’re wrong. In this quest, it will ‘’clarify’’ all the misunderstandings of what happened in the trial. The traveller will notice that Lyney cares a lot about his siblings as we can really see that he is sincere to save them. They will also notice that Lyney was ready to give himself to Wriothesley if only he releases Lynette, this is also where it touched the traveller in my opinion. 

They stopped Wriothesley to help Lyney who was very hesitating. I would like to make it clear : the traveller cares for the siblings and they want to save Lynette and Freminet. ‘’ Why would they want to save them? They don’t care about them at all.’’ I don’t know you tell me? Stop saying that the traveller doesn’t care about them at all. Move on, I will not repeat myself since I have already explained in my previous thread.

During the investigation, they got along well together and helped each other when they crossed paths (also because working as a team is pleasant.) However, it is true that the traveller wanted to work with them just to have more informations but they ended up enjoying the teamwork. Besides, they have talked about themselves during the investigation : the traveller will notice that the twins are sincere and do not look for the bad side of things (they will also see that the siblings really care for each other which the traveller can understand this feeling). All this will change the feelings of the traveller. They ended up ‘’trusting’’ them in this quest, they really ‘reconciled’ as this will lead to a new kind of friendship ✨

 Of course, I think the traveller will still remain on their guard but at least in this quest, it has clarified suspicions and misunderstandings they had in their relation (especially with Lyney) because now, after everything that happened between Wriothesley and Lyney, the traveller begins to « understand » Lyney as they ended up caring for him (and the others) for real and will not hesitate to work with them in the future, I guess they really enjoyed working with them.

Yeah the traveller doesn’t care about Lyney. So why do they ask him if he’s okay? Since all this time, they had a lot of thoughts describing Lyney’s face and everything? Of course everyone can do that but what I mean is: even by having thoughts about him, they really understand why he acts this way and make sure to take care of Lyney who was about to lose his mind. If the traveller didn’t care about him, then why do they often ask if he’s okay? Why have a lot of thought about him while observing him? They were even relieved that he was feeling better now after reuniting with his siblings. Yeah, they still don’t care about him at all~ 

After meeting Arlecchino, the traveller decides to tell the siblings about it. They remain suspicious of her but Lyney reassures them that ‘everything’ is fine that they should not worry. Even if at first, he was surprised because he didn’t think their 'Father' would be happy to work with the traveller. But I really like how happy and excited Lyney got when they told him that Arlecchino was looking forward to working with them in future. I mean I get it why he’s happy but why though lol? Sorry, i just found this funny and cute at the same time because it’s like : ‘’Wow Father approves them, that means I can spend time/work with them in the future!’’ 

I can’t help but find it cute because his goal was to get closer to them when he has the opportunity and when Arlecchino said she would be happy to work with the traveller, that allowed Lyney to have a chance with them lol. 

I love this: Lyney is someone who does not open up and trusts others easily. And here, for him to say that he considers the traveller as a family is really important for Lyney’s character. At first, I thought he friend zoned them but when I reread, I understood what he meant by that. For him, family has another meaning too : being part of his family means someone he desires to protect, it’s something that can give him the right to get closer to the traveller. I guess he meant that he has ‘special feelings’ and would protect them as he protects his own family.

( Tho, I also think that as a marriage proposal LMAO : Being part of the family = let’s get married 😂)

But also the fact that they spent little time together, Lyney always has an attachment to the traveller. It’s incredible how this magicien who tells lies and doesn't open up easily to the others, has opened up to he traveller, where they still ‘’barely’’ knew each other. Still, the traveller helped and defended them until the end so I can understand why Lyney began to ‘’open up’’ to them and same for the traveller thanks for 4.1 quest.