#Labor of love

[simmir99]

Welcome to The Stardust Restaurant and Lounge! Here we give those reservations only, no walk-ins welcome kind of vibes. We bougie y'all! Finally sharing this build with all of you and I hope you love it as much as I do. I was going for a dark, sexy, luxurious look.

Why does date night have to end with dinner? Well not at The Stardust! After dinner, grab a night cap while listening to some jazz or R&B, then top off the night off by dancing the night away to your favorite DJ and enjoy unobstructed views of the San Myshuno skyline with your boo. Not to mention a few little hideaways for some random woohoo. What is a night out without shenanigans?!

Now taking reservations! ;)

FREE for download on my Patreon and can be found HERE! Please tag me, would love to see your shenanigans

[beeb-oob]

~the deep below~

[restesdelune]

The Michonne Effect

Can’t think

Can’t dream

Can’t live

To be found against all odds

To see and touch her again

To be woken up from a nightmare

To be met in the middle

Together again

To be brought back

Love takes its roots

Michonne really is the one.

A human, hero, woman, warrior, lover, leader, mother, spy, wife and so much more...

Rick Grimes is the luckiest man ever, and he knows it now.

[cleomigadon]

Behold: my four day descent into fanfic madness, all because one author decided to break my mind. @mxmaneater this one’s for you!

Summary: Nimm and his crew stroll into Gortash’s coronation and of course, things immediately go off the rails. Nimm ends up surrendering, and what follows… oh, it’s nasty and depraved (which I absolutely support, because let’s be real, I’m depraved too🖤).

Gortash‘s control over him is terrifyingly well written.

If you enjoy that as well, do yourself a favor and read this fic:

[werewolfsister]

A Labour of Love Master Directory (Zora May 2024 Side Story)

Welcome to the comic directory! Looking for a specific chapter? Look no further! More details about the comic at the end of this page!

[STATUS: ONGOING]

Please, Enjoy!

MISCELLANEOUS [HERE!]

THE BEGINNING [HERE!]

2. THE COURTING SHELL [HERE!]

3. STORMY WEATHER [HERE!]

4. MOTHER KNOWS BEST [HERE!]

5. CONFESS [HERE!]

6. JOURNEY [HERE!]

7. SPECIAL DELIVERY [HERE!]

8. RESCUE [HERE!]

8a. RESCUE SIDE STORY: MECHANICAL MYSTERY [HERE!]

9. POLITICAL AFFAIRS [HERE!]

9.a. POLITICAL AFFAIRS SIDE STORY: DISTRESS CALL [HERE!]

10. STORY NOTES: BEHIND ENEMY LINES [HERE!]

11. TRAVEL [HERE!]

12. DENOUEMENT [HERE!]

13. EPILOGUE [HERE!] [JOIN THE EPILOGUE!]

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

ABOUT THE COMIC:

🐠 This is a completed Legend of Zelda fan comic that takes places after the events of the game Tears of the Kingdom, specifically after my main comic Shadow Out of Time (on hiatus). A Labour of Love focused on the good people of Zora's Domain and their struggles to coexist with other less-friendly Domains. The comic started as a romantic comedy and has since evolved into a sort of interactive political drama with romantic elements. It started at the beginning of May 2024 and finished near the end of November 2024!

🐟 Collaboration and interactivity were important features of the comic: fan OCs were regularly included, and major plot decisions have been influenced by readers.

🦀 During the Rescue chapter, I received rude messages, which I addressed here. Here's a post on online etiquette I find very helpful, and another that I think is even better!

........I was later accused of intellectual property theft, which I take very seriously. Here's a more comprehensive post with a log, timelines evidence, etc.

........Highlighting issues and drama is uncomfortable! But I believe being 100% transparent is the ethical thing to do. The point of the comic was for people to come together to work on something wonderful! So, exposing the ugly parts rather than hiding them is awkward, but necessary.

⭐️ Acknowledgement to Nintendo for copyright, ownership, etc. of The Legend of Zelda and all its assets

[gingermarshmallow]

[jokingluna]

Terribly sorry this one is so late.

[saynomorefic]

For Simon Month 2024 Day 22: Labor Day

Sara goes into labor, naturally, on Labor Day. Simon is about to be an uncle, and Wilhelm is Sara's distracting pediatric nurse.

Thanks to @youngroyals-events as always for hosting <3

Read on ao3 or below the cut

Sara looked pale when Simon rushed into the hospital room. He hastily threw his backpack on the nearest chair and went right to her side.

“I’m sorry it took me so long, the bus was delayed because of the parade,” he panted. “How are you?” 

“I need to get this fucking baby out of me, is how I am,” she exhaled sharply, wincing as another contraction hit. Simon squeezed her hand and circled the bed to hug Linda. 

“She’s certainly been a trooper. She even took the train from work to the hospital! Can you imagine?” Linda looked at her daughter with awe in her eyes. 

“I’m guessing Lukas is on his way?” Simon asked. 

“No, Simon, Lukas is not coming to witness the birth of his first child.” Simon rolled his eyes internally, but he was happy to bear the brunt of Sara’s pain if it meant getting them all through this. 

He had just been at the Labor Day parade with Ayub when he got the call. They had been getting signatures for a petition to increase the budget for Swedish language tutors in public schools, and things had been going really well. The moment he got the news, he rushed to the nearest bus stop and high-tailed it to the hospital. It wasn’t Sara’s first choice, or even second choice; she had a doula and a whole plan, but apparently when your water breaks over a week early, the best laid plans go flying out the window. 

There were three sharp knocks on the door, and two people dressed in blue scrubs walked in. “Sara Eriksson?” A middle aged woman greeted, walking over to the hospital bed. “My name is Katya, and this is Wilhelm. I’m your nurse midwife, and I'll be delivering your baby. Wilhelm here is your assigned pediatric nurse. His job is to monitor your and the baby’s vitals, and make sure everyone is healthy. Things are looking great so far,” she smiled. Sara looked skeptical, but nevertheless she nodded at them in greeting. 

The male nurse paced right towards Simon. “Sorry, if you don’t mind, I have to be here next to the screen.” He half-smiled at Simon, and he thought Wilhelm had quite a nice face. He wondered how common it was for male nurses to work in labor and delivery, and immediately chastised himself. Of course there were male nurses in every specialty. 

Brushing past Simon, Wilhelm looked down at his jean jacket. “I like your pins.” He smiled again, and for the briefest moment Simon swore he saw something flash in his eyes. Wilhelm was looking right at his enamel pride flag. One of Simon’s students had given it to him his first year teaching, and to this day it was one of his most prized possessions. 

“Thanks. Labor Day, you know.” Simon turned to show Wille his panel of other buttons. 

“Nice,” Wille nodded. “I’ve always wanted to go.” 

“You’ve never been? Is the medical profession void of any social causes to fight for?” He questioned teasingly.

“The medical profession doesn’t get national holidays. Babies get born every day of the year, you know.” He looked at Simon with matched sarcasm, and Simon’s stomach flipped instantly. Wilhelm turned towards the screen and started typing. Simon thought to himself on a scale of one to an extremely bad person, how awful it was to flirt with his sister’s nurse while she was actively having her baby. He landed somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Someone had to keep the group spirits up. 

Sara’s contractions were getting more and more intense, and the midwife informed Simon and Linda she should only have one person with her. Simon was more than relieved to be dismissed. He grabbed onto Sara’s hand and squeezed it. “You’re going to do great,” he reassured her. It wasn’t often she welcomed his physical comfort, but she had a vice grip on his hand and stared at him wide-eyed. 

“You’re not really leaving, are you?” She asked. 

“I’ll be right outside.” He squeezed her hand again. Wille turned and smiled as Simon left. 

– 

It was one of the hardest things Simon had ever not-witnessed. Sara was grunting and crying, obviously distressed, and he knew there wasn’t anything he could do to help. It didn’t get much better when Lukas got there, panting and sweaty and on the verge of the rest of his life. Simon had heard horror stories of parents being in labor for an entire day. His Mamá never let him forget that for his own birth, she didn’t have enough time to get an epidural and just had to grit her teeth and bear it. 

He felt selfish, but Simon’s mind kept wandering to Wille. As his palms sweat against his jeans, Simon kept thinking about how this man did this every day. He witnessed people endure the worst pain in their lives, had probably dealt with all kinds of situations and worst case scenarios, and did it all with a smile on his face and a sense of humor. And people said that teaching was a difficult job. 

Before long, Simon heard some of the worst crying subside, only to be replaced by a new kind of crying. It was high pitched, and much louder, and holy shit holy shit holy shit, he realized that was the moment. He was an uncle. Tears sprang to his eyes. It still felt surreal that Sara was starting a family of her own, and for the rest of his life he’d have her kids to take to Rosh’s games, or on playdates with Ayub’s two menaces, or even to take to Labor Day parades. 

All of a sudden the door slammed open and Wilhelm was standing in front of him purposefully. “You want to meet them?” He asked, beckoning his head back into the room. 

“Holy shit, yes,” Simon said, nearly tripping over his own feet. 

Sara held the baby on her chest, a sated and peaceful expression on her face. Lukas stood next to her, caressing the top of her head and cooing at the bundle in his wife's arms. Sara looked up at Simon and smiled, ever so slightly tilting the newborn in his direction. 

“Alma, meet Uncle Simon,” she breathed. 

“Hi, little Alma,” Simon said. She was covered in all kinds of fluids, her eyes screwed shut, but she was undeniably precious. He could see the beginnings of both of her parents features on her face. Sara’s mouth, Lukas’s nose, Linda’s hair. She was spectacular. 

He stepped back to let his Mamá come closer, coincidentally moving towards the nurse’s station. “She’s so calm,” Simon murmured to no one in particular. 

“It's the oxytocin. Some powerful stuff,” Wilhelm commented. He looked at Simon, eyes smiling. “This is always the best part. Right after, I mean.” 

“It’s pretty amazing,” Simon laughed wetly. He couldn’t be bothered to hide his tears. 

“Are you excited to be an uncle?” Wilhelm asked.

“It's crazy. My friends keep saying I'll be the cool Guncle.” Simon joked offhandedly. 

Wilhelm beamed back at him. “It is pretty cool, not going to lie.” Simon looked at him with a start. “My older brother has two kids. Also takes the responsibility off of us. Unless, of course, that’s something you want,” he finished. This was turning more personal than Simon suspected most of Wilhelm’s interactions with patients’ families went, but he couldn’t be bothered. 

Simon didn’t know what to say. He’d thought about kids, but it seemed so complicated. Surrogacy was banned in Sweden, and sure you could go abroad, but that was complicated, expensive, and potentially ethically unsound. Simon had thought about adoption, but it was just that. He figured once he met the right person, they would have that conversation, but until then it had only been a passing thought. It all seemed so real, with Sara cradling Alma in her arms, and Linda standing over them proudly. 

“At least ask me on a date before we start having the kids conversation,” Simon finally joked. Wilhelm startled, looking at him with wide eyes before bursting into laughter. 

“Is that a request?” He said quietly, glancing around the room. “I’m a professional.” 

They left the hospital early the next morning. Sara insisted on bringing the blanket they wrapped around Alma postpartum, the sheet of paper that had her heart signals and time of birth printed on it, and the basin they had washed her in. Simon, too, left with his own souvenir: a new contact and number in his phone, and a promise of a date.

[mlobsters]

the lady of the forest

acrylic on canvas 11x14" - painting video below

song: the threshold of desire by david buckley

it all started with these gifs of zendaya at the met gala 2024. her vibe reminded me a bit of thandwie newton's character in beloved, and i knew i wanted to paint her. as i looked at various pictures, i decided i wanted to put her in a real rain forest background - so i took various reference photos of the hoh rain forest and animals in the forest. i also took inspiration from the lady of the lake from the merlin miniseries - those fish! they live rent free in my mind. so things just kind of spiraled out from there.

reference and inspo: zendaya at the met gala 2024 (credits in alt) / beloved (1998) / merlin (1998)

in my mind, she's some sort of forest deity/goddess/creature. if it wasn't clear based on her having a whole ass stream on her body 😂 creativity isn't my strong suit but i continue to dip my toes in with pushing myself here and there

[dathomirdumpsterfire]

50k words/Pre-relationship/Complete/Media&Art

[The sequel to Desertification is now being posted on Ao3! Inundation is 100k+ expected length, updates on Tuesdays.]

Before he's aware of making the decision to do so, Obi-Wan has grabbed the monster from Theed and flipped them, shoving the menacing zabrak up against the wall and pinning him there.

The bastard looks delighted.

"Why," Obi-Wan says, just short of a snarl, "do you want dragon eggs?"

He'd like to know many other 'whys' as well -why is Maul alive, why is he laughing like that, why is this happening to him- but 'why does he want a bunch of unborn predators' is a good place to start.

↓ Click below for an Obi-Wan & Maul sass-fest↓

the sequel! ↓

Something is hunting Darth Maul across the stars. A presence he cannot touch, whispers that chase him from sleep. Answers seem to lay in a place he cannot go... at least, not alone. Before the jedi and the sith, before the Republic or the Empire, before the ancient je'daii even, there were force users building temples and communing with the cosmic energies.

Somehow, even back then, there was a rule of two.

For Ben Kenobi, getting up each day is difficult enough, nevermind facing the past. He has one singular goal left to him: to be a guardian. A very distant guardian. Between the echoing emptiness of his cave and the war-torn memories that haunt him, he really just wants to be left alone.

Too bad for him that sleep-deprived sith lords aren't likely to take no for an answer.

[dd-is-my-guiltypleasure]

The 2nd dozen :

(scrapbooking pages, each one for one character)

[feral-ferrule]

Look what I talked the husband into. I could use some good luck vibes my way to get this done by tomorrow.

[crepesuzette2023]

'We were all as one': Mike McCartney on playing with Wings on McGear (1974)

SDE: So, how did you get on with the sessions with Paul, what was the working practice because obviously you wrote a lot of songs together, did you come in with lyrics and ideas? MM: He said, “right, now, the Eastmans have said to do an album [after they listened to the single Leave It and liked it], have you got enough stuff for an album?” I said, I’ve been writing for years, quietly in the background with my own ideas. With the Woman album that got me going and I kept going, so I’ve got lots of ideas for songs, but I was going to work and do another Woman album at some stage, you know, when I could afford it. So I had lots of ideas that I was going to do in the future, but I just couldn’t afford to do them. So I said, yes, I’ve got loads of stuff, it’s not finished. He said, “well, that’s great because we’ll work on it together. So, I’ve got Denny and you’ve got your drummer and we’ve got another guitarist which I’m thinking of, so what we’ll do is go into … down here in London, Abbey Road, is too expensive, and so that place you recorded the Woman thing, Strawberry [Studios, in Stockport], sounds great. So we’ll just go to there from our houses” – which were only three quarters of an hour away in Heswall on the Wirral – “and we’ll see what comes out”. So, that’s what we did, I had all these ideas, I said, right, here’s the lyrics for this one, and here’s the song for this… and we just worked on them together, with Denny. So, these things started to magically come together, with Gerry Conway and then Jimmy [McCulloch]. It was a labour of love, it wasn’t like a nine-to-five. With our kid, his business was always with love, with his chums, and then going into Wings. You don’t do things for sessions, you do it for the love and the communicate and spread the love. So, to work in an environments like that is so much freer and far more productive. I listened to this after 40 years, this McGear album, and I suddenly realised how important it is in terms of music – how relaxed, how together, how professional, how joyous, how unique it was. SDE: Did you get on well with Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch, were they a nice group? MM: We were all as one. I was like a member; I was a member of Wings for a bit! Because, you were all there for the same reasons, you were all there for the love of music, and so that is a very strong powerful concoction, and that’s what produces these songs that have longevity. They transcend all of the other stuff I did, all The Scaffold stuff, if you listen to it, the majority of it – unless it’s things like ‘Liverpool Lou’ which was Wings [anyway] – but all the Scaffold stuff is all manufactured, all session people, and so there’s very little … I mean, one good one, again was [1971 single] ‘Do the Albert’, we did that with Mooney [Keith Moon] on drums. We did that in EMI [Abbey Road] in studio one, where we did ‘Lily the Pink’. Mooney was there early morning, and I remember him lining up his stuff, his drums, his side drums, his bottle of brandy [laughs] this was in the morning… absolute magic.

Mike McCartney interview on Super Deluxe Edition, McGear reissue, 2019

l-r: Mike, Jimmy McCulloch, Linda McCartney, Paul

[twincoooper]

Ehheh I’m still playing around with some stuff composition wise for the back but I think this is about 85% of how I want this to look. I wanted to corporate a nice blend of Tristamp/The 98’ Anime/And the the Manga. I’m thinking of adding a red geranium to the corners as the finishing touches.

I’m very excited to show the rest of the deck off for this project soon!

[kickeriki]

Yip-Yips ready to welcome teachers back to school. 97 complete, then I ran out of pink yarn and the store did too. We love their personalities.

[catspawcreates]

This is what 500+ SaMS pins look like 🙀They arrived ahead of schedule!

Sorting, assembling & getting them ready to go for pre-orders. Restock sets will be listed on my Etsy soon!

Looks like my manu sent a few extras so I’ll have a few random solo singles.

It’s quite the production here, but I’m excited!