#Maybe at the end of June or beginning of July the first chapter of the Au will come out

[juststupid882]

THE WITCH

Coming soon: Fantasy AU REMAKE

[endemise]

long ramble, progress update, & potential release timeframe below:

hii! i got a lot of coding done and i think im finally satisfied with how the game looks (for now…)

here are some screenshots of what some of it will look like on mobile!

the friendship and romance levels shown in the relationship menu are just random as is the blurb for Aesop’s thoughts, they’re just for the example! (also characters thoughts are hidden by default, you click to reveal, then hide, them)

the stat bars were giving me hell but i finally figured them out with the the help of some forums and tumblr posts

i liked how in when twilight strikes by evertidings, the menu buttons (i.e. profile, stats, relationships) are listed at the top of the page so i took inspiration from that! and the many IFs that have a splash (?) screen at the beginning with the title

compared to when i started using twine (i think august 2023 was the first time i gave it a try), i’ve learned so much and there’s still so much to learn as well, i think coding has become my favorite part (making things looks pretty hehe)(with the help of amazing templates & ppl smarter than me, they do the heavy lifting fr)

with all the coding done (appearance wise) it’s lock in time for the revised prologue and chapter 1

the prologue has undergone a fair bit of change with the help of feedback & i’ve (hopefully) better established the setting and story.

some things that have changed besides wording and sentence structure, etc.: being able to choose what you did as a job (ex. working at the family inn) and meeting a new character (more like an old friend?)(no spoilers:))

some things i’ve been considering (SLIGHT SPOILER FOR CH.1 MAYBE): merging the revised prologue and chapter 1 into just the prologue bc chapter 1 differs a bit from the other chapters, but then the prologue would maybe be too strange timeframe wise? it’s a time skip after the events of the prologue (is that considered a spoiler, i don’t think so but???) that connects to the next chapters so maybe it’d just be better as its own chapter? or dropping the revised prologue by itself along with the updated ui/appearance then chapter 1 sometime after, or dropping the revised prologue and chapter 1 together, idk these are all just ideas i’ve been thinking about maybe i’ll do a poll

if you have anything you’d like to see, for example a specific job your MC worked, certain personality traits, or something like that, feel free to let me know & i’ll take them into consideration! i think now is the best time to add things bc it’s early development days & it’ll be easier to do so now than later

i’ve also decided to lean a little more into the supernatural aspect which i’m excited for (one specific thing really, i can’t wait to get to it🤭) the story’s world itself is fairly grounded in reality (as in the supernatural is unknown to most) but i’m looking forward to exploring it more

what you’re probably reading this for: depending on how i end up going about the prologue-chapter 1 merge decision & whether anything is added from requests/feedback, i’m aiming for a june release, july at the latest (fingers crossed). now that the appearance and function coding is complete (besides stat/choice tracking & other story related things), finishing the writing and coding it in is all that’s left

my schedule has done a 180 & some things are less than ideal at moment but it should all (hopefully) go smoothly from here! should anything change, i’ll let you all know

anyways, that’s all i have to say for now! ty for being patient & for reading this mess, i appreciate you all :)

[honeytama]

Make Your Move - Chapter 1

Noah Sebastian x Reader x Matt Dierkes

Fic Masterlist

A/N: Very excited to begin my first long fic! Enjoy <3 I'd love to know what you think. I have an idea of how long it will be, but maybe I’ll have more ideas as we go on.

Fic Summary: Having known Matt for a year already, he knows your talents and hires you as his assistant for Bad Omens' upcoming tour. You’ve had a crush on Matt, your friend, and now boss. However, his good friend and your celebrity crush, Noah, takes a liking to you the second you step through the door. What happens when your feelings develop? What happens when they find out? You only hope your heart doesn’t break trying to care for two others.

Content and Warnings for Ch. 1: Fluff, mention of sex toys/masturbation, all of my works are 18+ only

Word Count: 2.7k

Matt called the other day.

“Y/N, do you happen to have plans from June 3rd to July 7th?” He asked.

You remember him asking you, but at that moment you didn’t even process what he had said before responding, “Whatever you need, I’m all yours!”.

You rolled your eyes at yourself. He was cocky, overly flirtatious, and arrogant some of the time, but he had an effect on you that didn’t waver.

You wanted every moment to be around him and didn’t consider the amount of responsibility he would put on you in the upcoming months.

It’s the beginning of April and you agreed to be Matt’s assistant tour manager on Bad Omen’s summer tour. Their full tour route has already been posted online and fans could begin buying tickets by the end of the week.

Today, you have to meet with Matt and the band for the first time to discuss tour logistics. Tour production, mixing, and lighting were nothing new to you, but you'd never gone on the road before, let alone with a band you'd never met… in person, at least. You're a Bad Omens fan– big time.

Matt and you have known each other for a year having met while you were on a walk. His dog, Zeus, had got off-leash and sauntered on toward you. It was fate the way the world brought him to you. He thanked you for grabbing Zeus’ collar before noticing your Bad Omens merch.

“I like your shirt,” he nodded at your chest with a smirk.

“You're their tour manager,” you said with wide eyes.

“Among other things,” he smiled.

The man had you wrapped around his finger starting that day.

You two exchanged numbers and have been hanging out and talking ever since. It was your favorite to go on walks with him and his dogs when he was home from tour. He flirted with you and with every hand touch and compliment it made your affection for him grow. However, you knew he was a ladies' man and decided to keep your feelings secret early on.

Now, he’s your boss.

—

The walk from your car to the door of the studio felt a mile long. The beat of your heart thumped in your ears as you thought about how your first meeting would go.

Would they like you? Would you do well or make a fool of yourself? Would they notice you had a crush on Matt? Will they just think you're his puppy to play with on tour?

These thoughts made your stomach lurch and nearly convinced you to dial Matt to call in sick.

Nevertheless, you wanted to prove yourself to them, so you put on your best smile and turned the door knob.

You were immediately met with a packed room and heads turning to meet you.

“There she is!” Matt exclaims while leaning against the long mixing console. “Everyone, this is Y/N. My new assistant.”

“Hell knows you needed one,” Folio gets up from the couch on the side of the room and goes to shake your hand.

“I’m Nick,” he points to another guy in the corner in a rolly chair, “he’s Nick, too. So, it’s ok for you to call me Folio.”

Nick, Nicholas Ruffilo as you know him, gives you a smile and a small wave before returning to his laptop screen.

“That’s Jolly,” Folio points to a rugged man sitting on the rug on the floor next to the coffee table.

“Nice to meet you, Y/N,” he smiles.

“And this is Noah,” Folio walks over to Noah and pats his shoulder.

“Hey,” he waves.

How can he be even hotter in person? You thought.

Being a fan of the band already, you had already attached their names to their faces, and Noah’s was your favorite. You thought he was attractive and started to develop a bit of a celebrity crush on him when you discovered the band, but once Matt came into the picture you thought it best to ogle over someone tangible. Now, Noah is really in front of you and you hope your fan feelings won’t make things complicated.

“Nice to meet you guys. I’m such a fan,” you say, professionally.

“Oh! You’re a fan! Matt, you picked a good one,” Folio grins.

You make your way across the room toward Matt to hug him. You couldn’t help feeling eyes on you from the direction of the couch, but your conscience convinces you to ignore it.

Matt embraces you before telling you to take a seat in the rolly chair beside him.

“Alright, my friends,” he claps. “Now that we’re all here, we have a lot to do. Y/N, I sent you our to-do list, mind getting that out for me?” Matt nods toward the laptop in your tote bag.

“You’re already giving orders? It’s day zero,” Nick whines.

“Treat her like an equal, man,” Noah is lighthearted, but his face says “Don’t do this right now”.

“Guys, I’m kidding,” Matt groans and pulls out his phone. “Ok, so we need to source crew, talk to management about who else is on the bill, create video wall graphics, arrange a setlist, mix intros for each track in the setlist… plus lots and lots of other shit.”

You smile across the room to Noah and mouth, “Thank you”.

He winks at you before looking down at his notebook and beginning to take note of Matt’s list.

Matt continues, “Noah, do you want to finalize the setlist? We can work on some other stuff while you get that done.”

“Actually,” he raises his head from his notebook to make eye contact with you, “I would love to have Y/N’s opinion on what I have so far.” He faces Matt, “She’s a fan and it would be nice to have some insight from someone else who enjoys our music.”

“I like that idea,” Matt agrees.

“Yeah, that sounds fun,” you say excitedly. Time to prove yourself, you thought.

“Sweet,” Noah says. He gets up from the couch with his notebook and pen in hand. “We can go out to the patio,” he nods his head at the back door of the studio.

You grab your tote and fix your outfit before following Noah to the door that he so chivalrously holds open for you.

“After you,” he smiles. “Let’s take a seat on the bench.”

The atmosphere completely changes as you can hear birds chirping and cars driving down the nearby highway. The back patio is covered with a finished, wooden awning and it faces a small yard with deep green grass and vines that trail up the fence surrounding the studio. Being here with Noah, alone, it felt like a dream.

You take a seat next to Noah with around two feet in between you. Your heart flutters watching him flip through the pages of his notebook as his hair falls into his eyes.

“There it is,” he announces as he tucks his hair behind his ear, only for it to fall again to his temple.

Noah hands you his notebook and on the open page is a list of songs. Some of them are scratched out and then rewritten, while others have question marks next to them.

“I hope you can read my handwriting,” he says sheepishly.

“I like your handwriting,” you smile, hoping to ease him. Why was he nervous? You thought.

You read aloud,

“Artificial Suicide,

Nowhere to Go,

V.A.N,

Glass Houses,

The Grey,

Never Know,

Limits,

IDWT$,

Like a Villain,

Just Pretend,

The Death of Piece of Mind,

Concrete Jungle,

and Dethrone.”

“This is perfect,” you gush. “The fans will love this show. I know I will.”

Your praise earns you a toothy smile from him. “Are you sure there is nothing you would change? You can be critical. I can take it,” he leans in urging you to say anything.

“You–,” you blush, “you forgot to add my favorite song.”

“What’s your favorite?” He’s still so close to you, yearning to hang onto every word you say.

You reach across his lap to pull the pen out of his hand. His gaze follows your hand to his notebook. The pen is brought to the page of setlist ideas and at the very bottom, you scribble If I’m There.

Noah laughs and rubs the tops of his thighs. “Really?”

Taken aback by his reaction, “‘Yes! What do you mean, ‘really’?”

“Hey,” he smiles with his hands up, “it’s a great song. I know the fans love it…” He holds up his forefinger, “But, one, we haven’t played it live in forever.” He holds two fingers to you and laughs, “Two, you put it as the third encore after Dethrone.”

You laugh along with him. “Fine, no If I’m There for the fans I guess,” you tease. “I just was thinking about when you and Jolly did an acoustic live stream during quarantine and played it. The song means a lot to me and your voice sounds amazing in it, of course,” you admit.

Noah bites his lip and fixes a steady gaze on your eyes. “Thank you, that means a lot. Maybe you’ll share with me what it means to you sometime?”

“Sure,” you nod.

“How about, when we’re on the road and you’re feeling down,” he looks off to the yard, “you say the word and I’ll play the song for you.”

“Just for me?”

“Just for you.”

“Why?”

“I want to sing it again; the song means a lot to me, too,” he looks to you.

–

“Matt,” you call out, “am I going to be feeling down when we're on the road?”

It was now almost two months later and the first show of the summer is in two days. This morning, Matt is over at your apartment helping you pack for your first tour trip. You have to leave to meet everyone at the tour bus to pack everything up and head out by noon.

“Feeling down,” he pauses, “like, sad? Where’d you hear that?” He comes out of your restroom with your travel bottles and extra toiletries in his arms.

“It was a passing comment that Noah made when we first met. I’ve been thinking about it ever since,” you look down at your suitcase on the bed.

“I’m sure he didn't mean to freak you out. But,” he opens up your mini bag to set everything inside, “yeah, it can get lonely.”

“Aw, you get lonely?” you tease. “Then, I’m glad I’ll have my best friend on the road with me,” you smile at him.

“Yeah, me too,” he smiles back at you, “Noah and I are going to be hanging out a lot.”

“Fuck off”, you flick the brim of his hat. Letting out a sigh, you ask, “Do you think I have everything I need?”

“Lemme see…” He hunches over your suitcase and rummages through the piles of clothes. It’s a minute later that you realize that he’s probably putting his hands all over your underwear. “Y/N.”

“What?” You ask. He’s still hunched over, unwavering. “Matt, what is it?” You repeat urgently.

“What are– Why do you have these?” He turns around to you holding your palm-sized vibrator in his left hand and your pink, five-inch dildo in his right.

“Matt!” You reach forward trying to grab them, but he pulls back. “Oh, my God!”

“You can’t bring these!” He yells waving around your personal items.

“I can do whatever I want! Give them back!” Your cheeks feel red hot as you try to reach for your things being held above his head.

He looks down at you with fire in his maple eyes. “You’re going to be staying on the bus with us. When did you think you were going to use these?” He laughs, and you hate it when he’s right. Honestly, you questioned why you even bothered to pack them, too.

“None of your business, Matt,” you huff letting your arms down, defeated. “I just thought, like, what if we got hotel rooms at some point during the tour and I could blow off some steam.”

“And, you thought that you’d get a room to yourself?” Matt laughs, annoyingly. He hands you the toys and you throw them into the bag in frustration.

“I have to room with you boys the entire month?” You whine. “How am I supposed to change my clothes?”

“You’ll have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” he shrugs his shoulders. “I don't mind if you change in front of me,” Matt smirks.

“You would like that, huh?” You jab.

“Y/N, watching you change would be my favorite show; better than any Bad Omens set, and I’m great at my job,” he taunts.

“You’re gross,” you scoff.

“You love me,” Matt relaxes on your bed.

He’s right, you think.

–

The sun was out again outside of the studio. You reminisce about spending time with Noah on the patio two months ago, and there were only a couple of days you spent alone time with him since then. Each time, you try to brush off the sense of guilt you have when Noah looks at you with his almond eyes; Matt is still unaware of the celebrity crush you had on his friend. Even though Matt isn't yours, you still liked and knew him first and it made it feel wrong to give Noah the attention you did.

Though, there’s no time to focus on that now. Today is your first official day of being Matt’s assistant and assistant tour manager for Bad Omens.

You met everyone: crew, the other touring band, Bad Omens, and Matt outside of the studio where the tour trailers and buses were parked. With your suitcase by your side, you kept track of everything on your iPad. You instructed where everyone was meant to be by the first show day and took inventory of all gear kept in the trailers.

And then after forty-five minutes of organization, everyone was ready to load onto the buses.

“Alright,” Matt calls out, “crew and our other band, you'll be in the first bus. My guys and Y/N, we’ll be in the second. Decide on your sleeping arrangements. Let’s go.”

“You ready?” Folio comes to your side.

“Yeah, I’m excited,” you answer.

With that, you load onto the second bus, and you’re astonished at the sight before you.

The bus is long. There’s a kitchenette with cabinets as you enter and a TV hanging above the entrance of the bus. After the kitchenette, the bus is lined with smooth, black leather couches and one small table for dining. There's a sliding door that separates the bunks from the rest of the bus; six beds total, two sides of the bus set with three bunks on top of each other. After the bunks, there is another sliding door that can block off a room with a leather couch that lines the walls of the bus. The back is decorated with pillows and twinkly lights from which you can see.

“Y/N, take your pick of bunk. I’ll sleep near wherever you choose.” Matt suggests.

You choose the second bunk on the right side of the bus. Matt chooses to sleep above you and Folio follows suit below you. As everyone is settling in, Noah trails in last.

He’s left with the second bunk on the left side of the bus, right across from you.

“Hey, neighbor,” he smiles as he puts his backpack in his bunk.

“Noah,” you blush while unpacking your blanket, pillow, and plushies onto the bed.

Matt finishes unpacking his sleeping gear and leans against the wall to address all of you, “Now that we’re back, I just need to remind everyone about the rules of the bus.”

Nick groans from his bunk near the floor.

“Well, actually, y'all know there’s only one rule,” Matt maintains eye contact with you. “No pleasuring oneself or another on the bus.”

Oh, my God, you think.

"I hate you", you silently mouth to Matt.

Beside you, Noah chuckles and crosses his arms. Turning to look at him, his cheeks are pink.

Did Matt fucking tell him something? You thought.

Matt raises his eyebrows at you. “Driver! Let’s roll.”

[originalaccountname]

(sane person voice) if in Dark Era Ango was 22 while Dazai was 18 (4 years difference), but now Ango is 25 and Dazai is 22 (3 years difference), then that means we can triangulate the date of when Ango is introduced by keeping in mind their respective birthdays

On a calendar, that means:

which I add to my post about how BSD does not, in fact, begin on Atsushi's birthday in May (at 18 he is still considered a minor by law), and to my post about trying to figure out when Oda died (probably January)

I also add 55 Minutes that, uncharacteristically, does mention it is summer, and which Asagiri said takes place "sometime after the 10th volume" (ends chapter 42, with Ace and Fyodor, or right between the Guild arc and the Cannibalism arc).

Therefore, the manga should have begun sometime after Dazai's birthday in June, and the first few arcs (Port Mafia, Guild, Dead Apple, 55 Minutes) happen during June-July-August, maybe September with a slight stretch.

(as a bonus, on top of some time passing while we're not looking, the Decay of Angels arc begins "one month after the Cannibalism incident", with Fukuzawa accepting the award for the ADA, and the DoA arc lasted approximately 2 weeks in total)

[swagdaikons]

I’ve seen people debate on how long the TBHK story has been happening, and when certain events should’ve happened, so I’ve decided to make my own (unofficial) TBHK timeline!!!

This is gonna be a timeline of the main story, so things that happened before Nene entered the picture wont be included (for now at least!) Let me know if I made any mistakes or if there’s any additional information that I didn’t include in this post, I simply re-read the whole manga for maybe like the 15th time?? and tried to gather any and all hints from dialogue and backgrounds/calendars.

I don’t have an exact date to when the main story began, but it must’ve been late spring or so, due to the warm weather. Nene talked about how she picked up “feminine” hobbies such as gardening, sewing and cooking after the guy she started liking in middle school said he’s into feminine girls. She seemingly confessed to him right after starting her 1st year in high school as she said it took her 3 years to master these newfound hobbies and confess her love. Nene stated that it’d happened a month ago so it’s probably May. typically in Japan the new school year starts around April 5th, and as Nene confessed right at the beginning of the new year she met Hanako around ~May 5th if it was exactly one month ago when she got rejected.

In their next appearance, Nene said it had been a week since the two met. So it should be around ~May 12th if I’m correct.

Within the next month, Nene gets to Meet characters like Kou, Tsuchigomori, Yako and the broadcasting club, and also gets to see Hanakos more vulnerable side for the first time!

It should be early June by now, the fact that we see Sousuke taking pictures of Morning glories, which bloom between early Summer and Fall, solidifies this for me.

After chapters 18-20, it gets a little blurry though. No specific dates are really mentioned, and Nene stops commenting on how longs it’s been since she met Hanako, so the best I can do is make hardcore guesses in between the next time we get a confirmed date, July 7th when Hanako took Nene and Kou to the Tanabata Star festival.

Between these chapters, we got a proper introduction to the broadcasting club, got to meet the clock keepers + learn about Nenes lifespan, and witness Mitsuba take on the role of a school mystery number 3.

Nene mentioned it’d been three days since she encountered Mitsuba in the hell of mirrors, and invited Kou to the summer festival the next day. Hanako decided to take them to the Tanabata star festival instead, (Insert image I couldn’t fit in) July 7th which I’m assuming would’ve been the very next day, in which case the Hell of mirrors arc took place at around July 2nd. That’d still leave a whole month between For the clock keepers and tea party arc, (insert ANOTHER image I couldn’t fit in) so I can’t exactly pin down any specific dates or even weeks..

It gets even messier after picture perfect! Mitsuba’s welcoming party likely happened around a week after being taken in by the broadcasting club, so it’s early to mid July at this point.

Interestingly enough, it seemed time moved slower in the painting Nene and Kou were stuck in, as all of a sudden Finals came up! From what I’ve understood, finals usually come at the middle or end of July, lasting 3 days.

I’m gonna be going off the average Japanese schools standards when it comes to dates, since we don’t know much about Kamone academy. So if we’re going off by the average estimate, The school sleepover should’ve happened at the beginning of August.

Being just around Obon.

Weirdly enough, despite Nene and Hanako spending a night with Sumire, by the time the severance happened barely any time had passed in the real world. (Insert another damn imagine I wasn’t able to squeeze in.)

Teru takes Nene and Akane on a little outing after summer vacation properly began, calling it his first real day off in a while. So this could’ve been very well been a day or two right after the severance.

The day after, Nene and Kou meet Sousukes mother, who’s visiting her sons grave for Obon, which should’ve been celebrated between August 13-16th, as the main story for TBHK is set in 2015.

I’m guessing the entirety of the severance/rescue arc happens during Obon, as it’d make sense why Aoi was able to be saved despite having “died” according to Hanako, and why the supernaturals were able to return to the near shore so quickly, as the near and far shores were so blurred.

The second trimester begins at the start of September, so there were still about 2 weeks in between the Fireworks party-Night life chapters before school started again!

This is the present, with the preparations for the festival beginning immediately and the event lasting 2 days, we should be in the first week of September at the moment, both in the old and new timeline.

So some key points are;

• It’s been ~5 Months since Nene met Hanako.

• Nene has MAX 7 Months left to live, probably closer to 1-4.

• Mitsuba is ~3 months old!

• maybe we get to see everyone in winter uniforms!! that’d be cute. Not really important I just thought that sounded fun.

Aaannd that’s a wrap for now. I don’t plan on updating the timeline unless new information about dates comes up or if there’s any inconsistencies that I made, but thank you for reading my first Tumblr post!!! I plan on making more ramblings and personal analogies on here, repost some art too or shitpost in general. Feel free to mention any errors I made or ask questions in my inbox, I’m going to BED!!!!

[tolnas-vault]

Announcing The Wroot of Romance Fic Collab.

Sign up on the Tolna's Vault Discord Server.

Show Your Love For Barcus Wroot By Participating In This Collaborative Fanfiction Series of Barcus Wroot Ships.

The Premise

The idea is that Barcus is going to go through the game timeline and meet a lot of different people. Some of these encounters will cause some canon divergence, but the game timeline will be mostly kept. There will be smut, fluff, friendship - whatever you want to write! Each chapter will focus on a single partnering, with a title relating to it in the format “The Wroot of _____” in which the blank relates to the partner or the relationship between them. Writers signing up can volunteer for a listed character or add a new character to the list that they want to write about, and after the sign up period we will check the assignments and decide an order together.

How To Sign Up

Join the Tolna's Vault Discord Server (invite link above) and follow the link to the sign up spreadsheet featured in the Wroot of Romance event description, and pinned in the #the-wroot-of-romance-collab channel.

You will also need to have an AO3 account and share your username with us - there is a second tab in the spreadsheet with a table to add your aliases!

The table should be pretty simple to use. If there’s a character not on the list that you’d like to add, put them in a new row! You can also add title suggestions if you think of something fun, and we’ll all agree on the final titles that fit best when the event starts. There’s a column to volunteer to write a character, and you’re welcome to add your name here as long as you don’t remove anyone else’s without their permission - for now keep it to your Discord username from Tolna’s so we know who you are! We will add a column for AO3 names and other aliases later.

Each character will get one chapter written by one writer (unless two or more agree to collab on a single chapter together), and if several people have interest in the same character we can work it out in the server together.

Event Timeline

Sign ups will end on the 1st May to allow us a day or so to ensure we have the writers set up with their pairing(s). Then we will work together on an order/structure together so we know the chronological story - and release - order of everyone’s works!  The next deadline is the 10th May - by this date you will need a bullet point summary of your fic plan. That way, you can coordinate with the writers before and after you to ensure we have a cohesive story structure. We might also be able to reference - or even add foreshadowing! - from each others ideas so we can even have some real character development for Barcus as he goes on a very sexy adventure across the sword coast.

The first batches of submissions will be due in by the end of May, and the release schedule will be one chapter every few days through June/maybe July to stagger them for readers but also keep a nice steady flow until we reach the end.

It’s best to publish these as a Series on AO3 with each chapter as a new work (so your “chapter” can have multiple chapters if you need to, particularly if it runs long or you feel it needs a split in the middle to be more reader-friendly). This also means each person’s submission will have its own tags on it, and will be easier to find for those just looking for each individual pairing they like.

The Concept So Far

A chance encounter with Abdirak in act 1 will kickstart this fic series, as this crack ship sparked the idea. Abdirak (in his own unique way) will encourage Barcus to open himself up to new possibilities. And thus we begin Barcus' journey of self discovery and relationship building. Some of his encounters will be romantic, some platonic, some simply smutty. You get to write what you feel is best for the ship you choose.

The Rules

The main thing is to follow all the rules listed in Tolna’s server, make sure your works are tagged appropriately, but otherwise follow your hearts and dreams! Want to go full Dead Dove? Do it! As long as it fits the event, it’s fine. You can also go pure SFW fluff if you want, you don’t have to make it smutty at all unless you want to.

Do be mindful of the people following you directly in the series. You should be able to summarize the "important events" in your fic with as few triggers as possible so people can follow up from your story even if your content isn't to their taste. If you can summarize all your Dead Dove elements with "they had a wild night." you are free to write anything you'd like happening that night in the fic proper. Please try to stick close to the deadlines, but if you are struggling let someone know ASAP and we can work something out! Otherwise? Have fun!

[bigfrozenfan-fanfics]

Behind the scenes of „The Broken Bridge“

Warning: this is going to be a very long text, starting with a little personal analysis of Frozen II, but I want you to understand what ultimately motivated me to write "The Broken Bridge" and what was actually behind it.

If the following is too long for you, you can skip straight to the end, to a special invitation for my most loyal readers. But if you want to read on ... who knows, maybe I can give you some motivation to write your own fanfic, or I can give you some inspiration to keep writing and never give up. Let's start now ...

When I published my very first idea about a sequel to Frozen II on my main blog as a ficlet or prologue on May 24th 2020, I had no intention of writing this fanfic myself at first. Instead, I asked the fandom who of the experienced writers would like to do it and later wrote additional thoughts about it. Below is a list of links to my main blog and the beginnings:

Link 1 , Link 2 , Link 3 , Link 4 , Link 5 , Link 6 , Link 7 Link 8 , Link 9 , Link 10

At that time I didn't have a title for it either and simply called it "Frozen III plot / fanfic" or "frozen au". But none of the fanfic writers jumped at it, despite 67 likes including many comments. A few days later I had a discussion with one of my favourite writers on Tumblr, telling him that I was hesitant to continue writing because I just thought I was a bad writer at the time and also because of doubts about my English skills. I received lots of tips and words of encouragement from him and the writing duo.

Nevertheless, I was on the verge of giving up after publishing only 2 chapters. It wasn't until June 2nd that I put my third chapter online, but still as an F3 plot idea and without a title. However, once I found my beta reader (he had contacted me anonymously on Tumblr), I continued until chapter 11 for the time being, until the end of July 2020, when I stopped publishing on my main blog due to a lack of comments and likes. At that point, I was disappointed with the response and was about to give up.

It's no easy feat to convincingly and believably expand the world of Disney's Frozen II in such a way that you're drawn in from the very beginning — just like in the film — and can literally immerse yourself in an epic storyline that keeps you gripped until the very end. But not to the point where you drown in it (pun intended), of course, but that takes a lot of work and ingenuity.Frozen II had many wonderful highlights, but also its flaws, which ultimately divided the fan community — literally! However, one thing fascinated me from the start and that was the introduction of a completely new world in the Frozen universe, which is the main part of my plot in the novel. It's about the Northuldra (inspired by the real Sámi people) who live in an enchanted forest, along with the four nature spirits who are part of a greater whole: the deity Ahtohallan, guardian of all memories and source of Elsa's ice magic.

But this is precisely where the film's weaknesses lie, because unfortunately these remarkable people were given far too little time on the big screen, when they deserved so much more and an incredibly multi-layered potential would have opened up for Disney. As everyone knows, the team had negotiated with the Sámi Parliament in advance and received authorisation — on the condition that the Sámi were portrayed respectfully.

Apparently, however, much of this was too complicated for Disney to realise, especially when it came to customs, beliefs and myths. Ahtohallan in the film, for example, was something that was originally planned quite differently and — as far as I could tell from the concept art book "The Art of Frozen II" and the D+ documentary — was originally linked to Sámi shamanism, specifically their Noaidi.

The deleted scene of the originally planned prologue, for example, showed us a shapeshifter with reindeer antlers. This was presumably an old Sámi myth and the saga of a figure called Myandash. You can read this story online.

(Note: In my novel, Myandash was the model for Kolgrimr's father and I called the human Northuldra wife of the shapeshifter Gyda and made her the evil Noaidi).

What remained

The fact is that the Northuldra and their great role model, the Sámi, were very well received in the Frozen fandom, as can be seen from the countless fanart images, fanfictions, discussions and even the Elsamaren Ship (Elsa + Honeymaren). And not only there, the Sámi themselves also took a liking to Frozen II.

All of this and the actual, ultimately somewhat disappointing realisation in the film was hardly surprising to me, as this is, after all, a Disney film with a target audience that ranges from young children to the age of puberty, but at most to teenagers under the age of 18. What can you expect in terms of an in-depth plot?

This applies not only to the style, with sidekicks such as Olaf, Sven, Bruni and Gale, but above all to the plot and duration of the feature film. Many in fandom later said that Frozen II was told far too hastily and left far too many questions unanswered, especially about the main aspect, Elsa's powers. However, the entire Frozen franchise is all about Elsa's magic — right from the start. At its core, this is what has always fascinated fans about it and, of course, the characters of the royal sisters themselves.

It's a great pity that Disney didn't appreciate the older cinema audience — especially the Frozen fans among them — when producing the second part, but instead behaved as if it were a completely new audience of children. In the meantime, ten years have passed since the first instalment, six of them after the first, so there were already many loyal fans in their twenties who expected more and hoped for answers — something that Disney has unfortunately failed to give us to this day. Admittedly, a completely different approach was originally planned — as you can see from the deleted scenes and from the documentary on Disney Plus — far darker, more serious and actually aimed at older fans, just as Jennifer Lee had once promised to us. But in the end, everything was decided at Disney from the highest level, over the heads of the filmmakers, and thrown overboard. The logic, seriousness and complexity of the plot fell by the wayside in favour of a very young audience, who — as you could hear in the documentary on D+ — were not old enough to understand the movie. No wonder, when you show the test screening to five to twelve-year-old children and expect them to leave the theatre enthusiastic and completely satisfied without any further questions. The original plan was probably just too demanding.

How often has it happened that even adults didn't immediately understand a film and instead pondered it for weeks afterwards? That's what makes a good film. But to reset everything to zero immediately after the first screening test, to completely discard the originally planned plot and to put the entire film team in a difficult position to just make the deadline for an extensive and elaborate production within just a few months? For a film that normally takes three years to produce? No! This makes no sense at all and is only due to the greed to earn as much as possible at the cinema box office. Never mind the plot, the main thing is to make it family-friendly! What a pity!

In addition, the vision of the film makers was ignored. Ultimately, it hurt everyone involved, especially Jennifer Lee, who shortly afterwards was no longer a director and is now only available in an advisory capacity for the planned sequels. Honestly, I would have thrown in the towel myself after such treatment, which, at least judging by her presence on Twitter, she actually did. Presumably mainly because of the hate speech from toxic circles of the fan community that she was constantly confronted with there because of the end of Frozen II. None of us fans know the real reasons though — one day her account there was simply deleted.

But enough with my opinion on the film.

My vision

We have now arrived at the reason why I wrote "The Broken Bridge" primarily for older Frozen fans, the novel is even partly aimed at an adult readership from 18 years upwards. There are scenes with explicit language, violence and sex scenes, simply because the plot required a realistic, logical approach. But each chapter is specially labelled, at least in the chapter overview, and the most violent LBGT scene is even linked to a separate 18+ blog. So no one gets to read that unless the reader specifically follows the link.

Of course you can't please everyone, as one reader in particular showed me with his behaviour, who had commented on every chapter so far, but suddenly stopped from the part with "18+ content" onwards, presumably for reasons of age. I'm really sorry about that! On the other hand, I received statements on various platforms from readers who made it clear to me that I had not only hit the mark, but that their tastes had been fully satisfied and that they were simply delighted (for data protection reasons, I won't mention any names below).

Reader statements

On Discord: "Oh...that Frozen 3, the broken bridge novel right? I've read it all and it was EPIC. Well done." On Twitter/X: "I've been following your Frozen 3 Fanfiction since the beginning, and I love that the story is really believable and totally follows the universe of the two films, and that it could very well work as a 3rd film...I can't wait to read the next part !!" (Note: this was at the end of the third part of the story, after my hiatus in the fandom) On reddit, as a recommendation to other fans: "Greetings, I started reading an amazing story about Queen Anna and her sister Elsa some months ago. It's a long but terrific story. Tbh, This level of work and details in the narration is worth to be considered a sequel to Frozen2." On Tumblr to chapter 81: "This is a beautiful, genuinely remarkable closing for such a novel. ..... I truly enjoyed reading about Anna's wedding. It was like watching a short that Disney Animation should have given it to the fans years ago!" On Tumblr to chapter 66: "Goodness...what a chapter! In my mind I was thrown back and forth between Star Wars vs Robin Hood style fights! Yeahhh Elsa off to the monoliths? Get her power back! Go girl!Brave Anna! And what a loss for the Arendelle side. War is always such an unnecessary way.... but then... they fought for justice! Well done!" On Tumblr to chapter 43: "I love how you connect your stories with few official books, love to see 'A Perfect Night' from Elsa's pov, it looks like an official frozen book"

...and many more great comments from you readers, which have really motivated me immensely and encouraged me to keep writing. Some days I just couldn't stop!

Admittedly, I love the concept of cliffhangers, something that many other fanfic writers avoid in order not to keep their readers in suspense. So: sorry, my dear readers, you couldn't wait for the story to continue next week. But it turned out that I was able to maintain and even increase the suspense from chapter to chapter in this way.

Speaking of plot ... in my novel there are up to ten different storylines that intertwine, making the story very complex and exciting, and there is something for every reader that he/she particularly likes or has looked for in vain elsewhere in the Frozen universe. But ultimately, there's no accounting for taste.

Some people seem to have only picked out specific chapters. Unfortunately, this means that the coherent overall picture of the story falls by the wayside and my vision of a sequel to Frozen II escapes them completely in this way. But it's hard to tell who of the many followers on my fanfic blog has even read all the chapters if I don't get any likes or comments on them. I can only guess.

However, I have to admit that the novel wasn't completely planned out. They say there are two different types of writers, those who meticulously plan every detail from start to finish (plotters) and those who just start writing and only have a rough idea of the plot (pantsers). I count myself among the latter and write from the gut. However, I imagine every scene as if I were watching it in the cinema — with all kinds of details and make lots of notes on new ideas. So there was some rough planning. Sometimes it was the case that my characters themselves dictated the plot, I just had to follow them.You may remember that I write in my native language, German, and only translate everything later. I use DeepL online for this and my English-speaking beta reader HeinrichVSA corrects it afterwards where necessary. But what you probably don't know is that I wrote every single chapter on my smartphone during long train journeys. Until I was completely satisfied, I read through what I'd written again and again in the days that followed, adding scenes, rephrasing phrases and correcting anything I didn't like.

A large part of the story also required a lot of research on the internet, about everything I don't know much or anything about. I wanted to describe everything as realistically as possible and get the facts right.

This was especially true when it came to the Sámi people in the 19th century: their customs and traditions, their shamanism and beliefs, burial rituals and folk beliefs, clothing, crafts and dwellings, everything about reindeer herding, bear hunting and also about skalastet, or stick fighting. Incidentally, the idea of fighting with the Rope-Dart for Honeymaren comes from Asia, so it was added by me, and works exactly as described. I know everything about traditional archery from my own experience and also a little about bow making and crossbows.

I also had to do a lot of research on sailing ships of the 18th and 19th centuries. It's a tricky subject to portray properly and convey a credible feeling for it. For me, the topics were not only ship types and rigging from this era, but also the hierarchy and crew types. Basically everything about sailing itself on board such large ships, changing of watch, typical speeds and distances that could be travelled per day and which terms and commands were usually given on deck and by whom.

Warfare eventually became a topic for me as well, something not mentioned anywhere in the Frozen universe so far. HeinrichVSA was able to help me enormously with his profound historical knowledge and I had to find out what of my ideas worked and what did not. In these chapters I used methods from different eras and settings, including Asia and Ancient Europe. Even topics such as illnesses and healing methods from this period were important for a coherent description and so much more, right up to Norwegian wedding customs and also about signs of pregnancy in the middle of the 19th century, when there were no tests.

So what started out as a small idea has developed over the years into an enormously complex project with huge challenges, and more and more characters have been added.

My OC’s (my own characters)

Various roles had to be filled in the course of the story and since — apart from in comics — hardly any characters are mentioned who fulfil important tasks in the castle or accompany "the gang" on their adventures, I had to invent them. The more relevant a character became, the more important it was to research a suitable name for them ... and there were more and more. Depending on whether it was for someone in the city or among the Northuldra, I drew inspiration from Norse or Sámi names. Often I even researched the deeper meaning of the name, which matched the character's nature as closely as possible.

Of course, I also used almost all the well-known characters from the Frozen books and comics that were more or less relevant for the interaction with the main characters or who enriched the ambience.

The places in the story

Arendelle or the Northuldra camp were not enough, as I quickly realised the deeper I delved into the story. For some areas there was no description in the Frozen universe and the available official maps didn't give much information either. I therefore analysed the movies again and again and also consulted the many comics to get an idea of where the action takes place and what it looks like, feels like or how difficult the terrain was. I made up the rest with the help of logic and real places. Unfortunately, Disney has never told us which real country Weselton, Corona, Vakretta, Snoob and the many others correspond to. But as soon as I was relatively sure of an approximate position on the world map, I was able to research the real conditions of this country.

Small statistics on “The Broken Bridge”

My image edits: 40 plus 5 poster, 2 letters, 2 newspaper articles, 1 self-made map Fanart: 4 (1 unpublished) Storyline: Prologue, 81 chapters in 5 parts, epilogue and acknowledgements totalling almost 437,000 words (excluding acknowledgements) (about 1000 pages)

Very first novel title: "The Only Star", inspired by a sentence Anna sang during "The Next Right Thing": "The only star that guided me was you." Of course, I had her close connection to Elsa in mind. I later discussed final title ideas for my novel with HeinrichVSA, and in the end we had 43 different titles to choose from, with the subtitle "A post Frozen II Novel". As far as I remember, @annaofthenorthernlights confirmed our previous favourite title 'The Broken Bridge', in reference to the 5th Spirit and the bridge that connected Anna in Arendelle and Elsa in the Enchanted Forest. That was the final start for the publication on my fanfic blog.

Commissioned fanart images by HARU (@xlayers): 19 (12 unpublished), all with the maximum image width of 800 pixels. Title ideas for the chapters: mostly HeinrichVSA came up with them while correcting the texts, but of course a few were also my own ideas. It was always difficult to find a good title because the storylines in the chapters often overlapped.

Characters: 16 original characters 15 characters from Frozen books and comics 38 OC's (own characters) 23 locations

Plot period: for the main part (without flashbacks): over a month, followed at the end by 2x three months in chapter 81 and a few more weeks in the epilogue Embedded YouTube music titles: 287 Reboot of the novel with final title (June 25, 2021) as an epic dark AU novel on the fanfic blog: June 19, 2021. originally planned for 1 year with 52+ chapters.

In the last two months since the Acknowledgements were published, I have been working on the preparations for AO3. I had to rewrite the first chapter (prologue) a bit to make it fit the following plot, corrected and formatted everything in detail again, made changes here and there in the chapters and wrote down the links for the pictures — plus prepared comments. I very much hope that in the end everything will be as I imagine and hope it will be!

~~~

Invitation

I would like to invite my most loyal readers, who regularly left me their wonderful comments on every chapter, to discuss with us — my beta reader HeinrichVSA and me — on my newly founded Discord server, ask questions, share ideas and much more. As you know, I wrote a question mark after the words "The End" at the end of the novel. Maybe you would like to participate in a possible sequel? Who knows ...

Just send me a short message as a DM on my fanfic blog and I'll reply with a Discord invite link for you.

Thank you so much again for sticking with me until the end!

Your Bigfrozenfan

[sherlockianscholar]

part 2 (1991-1995): the saga of jeremy brett through the scuttlebutt archives

go here for part one!

since 1971, sherlockian and baker st irregular, peter blau has published a small "gossip" sheet for all sherlock holmes news under publication of the "Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press." after the advent of computers, peter started digitizing all his sheets from 1985 onward.

we are now officially in the later stage of granada's sherlock holmes. production was driven by the desire to make large profits. thus, the quality of the show took a significant dip. our only remaining constants were jeremy and edward. but their acting stood strong even through significant trials and tribulations. by 1991, jeremy's health (mentally and physically) would continue to worsen dramatically, which ultimately led to his death in 1995.

March 1991: mmmm, not sure he's joking there

October 1991: jeremy finally commits to doing all of the stories

January 1992: first of all, Y I K E S. this is so messed up and homophobic to sherlock holmes. why, because of his usual celibacy?and "to the relief of fans who have wondered about his bachelor lifestyle." what the fuck.

this might be reading too much into it, but i think it might've been a jab at jeremy's sexuality. He had (at least) two long-term homosexual relationships: gary bond (1969-1976) and paul shenar (~1973-1978). while jeremy never publicly came out as bisexual, his relationship with gary bond was considered "one of the first relatively out" couples in the acting world. at least in the industry, it was common knowledge.

now i'm going to wildly speculate, so here goes. jeremy and joan married in 1976, which is also when jeremy and gary bond broke up. it's unknown how long jeremy and joan dated prior to their wedding. reportedly, jeremy dated paul shenar from 1973-1978 (and they remained close friends until paul died of aids in 1989), which overlaps with jeremy and joan's marriage. jeremy and joan spent a lot of time apart, with her in the usa and him in manchester. now, i don't think jeremy would EVER cheat on joan. but, i wonder if they had an open relationship (or maybe some form of polyamory). mind you, i have nothing to back that up, but it's something i've wondered about before.

circa 1993: this is the earliest article i've been able to find on jeremy's mental illness, which still makes me wonder when his difficulties became public. the details of his psychotic break in this article are heartbreaking to read.

as stated prior, linda pritchard (the interviewee) was jeremy's companion/probable girlfriend for the last seven years of his life. they met backstage during the secret of sherlock holmes. linda approached jeremy for help raising money for cancer research, which he naturally supported with a passion. she nursed and took care of him. she provided life-saving mental support and no matter how painful or how much jeremy's bipolar lashed out, she made sure he felt safe and loved. she's kind of controversial because she's written a lot of books about jeremy. firstly, she doesn't actually profit off them at all--she just wants to share jeremy's story. and at the end of the day, who cares? that woman loved and protected jeremy during the most vulnerable chapter of his life. she was there till the end. she will always have my respect.

March 1993: okay, sean day-lewis, you have no idea what you're talking about and your views are bad.

June 1993: we have 1 hour episodes back! but it's too little, too late.

July 1993: happy birthday, young michael! according to the sherlock holmes society of st. charles, "jeremy became very fond of the young boy by his side and they corresponded for many years. his father was one of the leaders of the chester baskerville society and editor of the devonshire chronicle."

on a heavier note, this is the beginning of the end. jeremy's health began slipping faster and faster. as did the the future of granada's sherlock holmes. once again, what could've been if jeremy hadn't gotten ill?

September 1993: okay, so there's a lot to unpack here.

firstly, they label jeremy as "a heavy drinker." this is the only thing/quote i know of that could approach that statement:

"i started drinking champagne as a kind of celebration to lift my spirits. it started with just a glass in my bath, and grew until i needed a whole bottle to put me to sleep at nights. well, that was getting entirely out of hand, and it had to stop." -jeremy brett during the beginning of granada

but i don't think that really spells out "heavy drinker" or "alcoholic."

secondly, jeremy's physical illness has become extremely noticeable and is officially out of the bag. but not the specifics. "jeremy brett has been struck down by a crippling illness." he "was taking medication for most of the day and at one stage had an oxygen mask to help him breathe." jeremy is now "suffering from pleurisy," which a granada spokesperson "confirmed" was true. but they were only the symptoms of a far greater problem--jeremy's heart disease and the lithium poisoning/complications that led to it.

November 1993 #1: and now we're calling it an "asthma attack." again, stating a symptom, but failing to understand how that piece fits into the big picture.

November 1993 #2: the big picture is revealed (except for the key piece of info--that this was because of the lithium). granada's june wyndham-davies (and presumably the rest of the major staff) remained publicly optimistic.

December 1993

February 1994

Spring 1994: JEREMY BRETT BREAKS HIS CONTRACT WITH GRANADA

March 1994: another psych ward stay. although it says that jeremy had a "nervous breakdown" in 1986, it's highly probable that it was actually a psychotic break. i believe the quote below is about the article cited above, but i'm not certain b/c i don't have an exact date for this quote nor do i have the article in question:

"i went there to pick him up, and two tabloid newspaper men, from the sun, had actually been clever enough to use his real name at the door, which is jeremy huggins. they went up to his bedroom where he was waiting for me, burst in with a camera, and said, 'we have come to see if you have got aids.' he kicked them out." -june wyndham-davies

April 1994: "i have bounced back like bambi," said brett. "i'm as fit as a fiddle, though still a little fragile." if only...

his second psych ward stay in a month. jeremy's lithium poisoning becomes public. (i'm on lithium! which literally saved my life. when i was first prescribed it, a nurse actually sat me down to make sure i knew how serious potential complications could be if i didn't adhere to exactly what the doctors told me. that never happened with any other medication.)

when the very last episode of jeremy brett's sherlock holmes premiered: "after completing 'the cardboard box', jeremy brett was back in the hospital--a mental hospital. in his own self-effacing way he called it 'the nuthouse.' when the memoirs was screened in britain, the man who was sherlock holmes failed to see his own last series because he was in a ward where the other patients preferred to watch another station. jeremy brett deferred to their choice of viewing." -david stuart davies from bending the willow

June 1994: jeremy continues to remain optimistic

December 1994: even though jeremy was incredibly ill, he decided to try and continue acting as best he could. "after mad dogs and englishmen, he had to renounce the fine projects proposed to him: the role of ebenezer scrooge at the national theater with a script by john mortimer, a season in chichester and the role of professor higgins in a new version of my fair lady. he hoped to at least to be the voice of a deer or an elephant in a future disney cartoon, but even this modest ambition proved impossible." (ACD encyclopedia)

can you even imagine how delightful jeremy would've been as a disney character? that would've been priceless.

January 1995: at this point, i believe jeremy began to realize he was dying

February 1995: jeremy is "on the mend"

July 1995: jeremy is forcibly retired from acting

September between 3rd-11th 1995: jeremy's doctor told him that he needed a heart transplant. jeremy's reply, “that's too dramatic, darling, even for me.”

September 12, 1995: peter jeremy huggins dies at the age of 61

“bless your darling hearts. much love, keep warm and dry and if you see him whisking around the corner – you know who, SH – then wave, because that’s all you’ll see of him. bless his darling heart, isn’t he wonderful, streets ahead of us – still.” -jeremy brett, 1995

and bless your darling heart, jeremy. thank you for everything.

[kurtsascot]

chapter 8 of treading water posted!

surprise!!!

sorry this took so long. happy weekend <3 enjoy another sam scene and more domestic stupidity from kurt, who is clearly NOT in love (hes so stupid)

chapter snippet:

As June ended and July’s warmth coated Kurt’s apartment, days off quickly became something that Kurt could only pretend to fully remember. The luxury of relaxation and time away from work was something Kurt found himself reminiscing over, yet, simultaneously, finding the feeling so far removed from his reality that it was a real, honest thought that maybe that time of his life was never his life at all. Maybe the memory of it was some blissful mirage his brain was fabricating to help him cope with life’s mundanity and the suffocating pressure of professional development. 

playlist

work summary: start from beginning

Kurt doesn’t do relationships. He had a terrible first boyfriend and the last thing he needs to do is to repeat history. Work is stressful and he just needs to get laid. Simple.

Then, he meets Blaine, and suddenly it's not simple because Kurt can’t seem to stop seeing him.

It doesn't make sense. Kurt shouldn’t be this attached. It’s not like they are dating.

At least, Kurt doesn’t think they are dating.

[joelswritingmistress]

My Boss: Chapter 2

Chapter Summary: After a slow day at work, Joel returns to help you drag the kayaks out of the rain at the day's end. Despite feeling guilt you devise a plan with a white lie to draw him to your cabin after hours.

Reader x Joel Miller

Joel eventually made his way up to the arts and crafts tent, making his rounds more heavily to the indoor stations on, what turned into, a rainy afternoon. You felt his absence when he had gone, though you knew he was throwing you a bone in giving you the lake station on a rainy day.

You toyed on your phone a bit, browsing Instagram and Tumblr. You put your phone into private mode and cyber stalked Joel, smirking to yourself when his professional photo popped up. He was as cute as ever with a neat, navy blue polo on in his head shot. Facial hair was trim and hair combed perfectly above a beaming smile.

The rain picked up again, creating a steady rhythm on the metal roof of the shed. You tucked your feet in farther, careful not to get your white Nikes soaked in the downpour that made every attempt to get into your dry space.

Next to you, the empty chair made you sigh. It was selfish. You knew it. Joel wasn't yours to keep to yourself all day, though you wished one day maybe there was some snowball's chance in hell he could be.

You rested your chin in your palm and stared out at the water. It was calming amidst your fiery thoughts. Plus, every day in recent memory had been sunny. A rainy day was inevitable.

One o'clock passed, then two, and then three. Somewhere in there you took your lunch break, though the whole day felt like one giant break. Still, you didn't feel too guilty because you had been working around the clock since early June. It was fun work, but by late July you didn't mind a light day at "the office".

When five o'clock rolled around and the rain remained, you threw up the hood on the light zip up sweatshirt you wore over jean shorts and hurried toward the little beach.

Rain seemed to come at you from all sides. Up, down sideways. You yanked the first canoe away from the lake's edge and dragged it back into the shed. And then you did the same with the second before beginning on the first kayak.

"Hey!" Joel's voice cut through the rain's elegant putter-patter and you whipped your head in his direction as he appeared out of nowhere from the path. A strand of wet hair stuck to your cheek with the sudden turn of your head.

"Hey!" You waved with a smile, suddenly not caring how wet you were.

"I'm sorry," he shouted, joining you immediately to help with the last two. "You could've waited for me. I would've helped."

You shrugged and began carrying the kayak with him. "I didn't do all that much today. I can handle it."

"Now all you need is a pina colada."

"What?" You asked with a laugh.

"The song, you know? If you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain." Joel grinned wide and then shook his head as you both entered the little shack. "Sorry, bad dad joke I guess."

You laughed out loud. He was so cute. You loved his dad joke, and now that he explained, it was funny. "No, that was funny." You continued to grin at him and then the two of you sighed at the same time, eying the remaining kayak.

You made a move to run out to retrieve it but he stopped you. "I got it." Joel hurried out before you could protest and it didn't take long for him to return, dragging it in to the lone dry area.

And there he was again with his saturated t-shirt and baseball hat. Your eyes drank him in and you could tell he sensed it that time.

"Arts and crafts crowded?" You asked looking down toward the purple kayak by your feet.

"Yeah." He nodded. "We're going to postpone tonight's outdoor movie until tomorrow. Frank volunteered to deejay a dance party in the dining hall instead."

"That sounds fun." You smirked. "Do you need anyone to work it? Because-"

"Take the night off," Joel cut you off. "You've earned it. You've done a lot of extra hours here when you should've been doing.. whatever."

"Are you working it?" You but your lip when your eyes met and looked away from him just after.

Joel tapped the walkie-talkie that was attached to the waist of his cargo shorts. "On call. If something goes wrong I'll head over but otherwise, no. I'm just going to check in a few times."

"Well hopefully you can enjoy a quiet night in for a change, too."

"Yeah." Joel held your gaze and nodded.

"Yeah." You smirked again at him, wanting him so badly to invite you to his cabin. You knew he wouldn't, but you hoped he would anyway. A part of you wondered if he was thinking about it. Was it even remotely possible that Joel had even in the slightest interest in you?

Don't give yourself false hope, you warned your heart. On the same note, your mind searched for a reason to get him to your cabin.

A stray drop of water fell onto your forehead from the ceiling and you both glanced up. Right there, an idea was born. Was it a sign?

You made a little noise of disapproval. "I bet that one spot in my ceiling is leaking again." A lie. You felt bad but maybe, just maybe, it would draw him over.

"What spot in your ceiling?" His eyebrows pressed together with concern and you thought about coming clean. Lying wasn't something you liked to do, nor were you good at it. Still, what was the harm in a little white lie?

"The first week, I just got a little drip like this." You motioned to the ceiling as another drop bombarded you from above. "Nothing major. Just annoying." You used your fingertips to wipe the stay bead of rain away.

"I can take a look at it. It's only a quick fix but I have some of that spray that seals leaks, from that old infomercial. It works surprisingly well for a temporary fix."

"Are you sure?" Fuck, you felt bad but you were equally excited. Now you had to stage a leak.

Joel nodded. He seemed to be studying your expression. "Why don't you head back, get yourself dry and I'll be over in an hour. I just have to make sure Frank's all set for the dance and the chaperones are there on time. Set up some limbo games and whatever else."

Your heart was pounding. An hour. It would be the most anticipated hour of your life.

"Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome." Joel held your gaze and you finally looked away when you couldn't take it anymore.

"Go home," he echoed. "I'll lock up and I'll see ya in a bit."

"Okay. Are you sure?"

Joel nodded and shooed you with his hand, making you grin. You grabbed the drawstring bag you'd brought down and hurried through the rain back to your cabin.

When you got inside you could've shrieked with excitement but you held it together and told yourself to act like an adult. Twenty-two was a funny age. You weren't a kid but you also hadn't been around the block as much as someone like Joel had. That you were sure of, in every way imaginable.

Luck was on your side again. There actually was a small leak by the back door. You couldn't help but think the stars were aligning to some degree. Seeing that the leak had taken care of itself, you placed a small spaghetti pot beneath it on the floor and focused on getting yourself looking as cute as possible after a nice, warm shower.

[whoblewboobear]

The entire time I’ve been writing wiiimdy it kinda kept up with real irl time (which I didn’t intend at all, fully a side effect of writing this beast from the middle and building out in both directions.)

So when Jace’s fictional birthday passes, the chapter covers that will be posted in time with it. (Again unintentionally, I think I just write kinda slow lmao) Chapter 6 happens in the beginning of July, it went up in July. A while ago I asked what sign Jace would be and I forget who but someone said Leo suits him (it does it soooo does) so in wiiimdfy his birthday is end of August bc Jace doesn’t celebrate his birthday much typically but it corresponds with the school year starting so he likes to bring in cupcakes for his classes to celebrate with them instead. They watch movies the entire day and sometimes his upperclassmen bring him a gift.

During sophomore year they all pitched in and got him a purple stainless steel bottle and decorated it with stickers for him. It’s been his favorite ever since. He wasn’t shatter star’d yet, but when he was, using that water bottle grounded him a bit between all the chaos.

One time he saw Porter drink from it and he did almost kill him 💖 he never did it again but he did rmr that it’s Jace’s favorite.

I think the rest of wiiimdfy won’t correspond with real time after this bc of the timeline but from June-August it did and I think that’s fun. Idk maybe I’m extra sentimental about this fic bc it is the first fanfic I’ve written since I was 14 and it dragged me out of my creative rut (which is a credit to the ship more than it is the fic itself but ya know.)

Once it’s done it’ll be a little bitter sweet. Once chapter 7 is up, it’ll be the halfway point. It’ll go a lot faster too bc the second half is mostly written already. Fashion model au comes next and I’m mentally prepping for that by drooling over all the cute clothes Jace can wear and I do like that Jace and who he’ll be but wiiimdfy Jace? That’s my special little guy. And wiiimdfy Porter my pirate librarian man that gave me the chance to figure Porter’s character out more has been 💖 it’s mostly canon compliant so now there are fic truths that are now so synonymous with their characters in general to me and I just 🤧 bc we knew so little about them both before and now it’s like mhm mhm now they have history and lives. Like Jace’s sister is an original character but she’s so real to me and I adore her to pieces. Jace’s entire family means a lot to me actually. And Porter’s too 💖 they haven’t showed up in the story at all and idk if they will but Porter’s daughter and ex wife 💖💖💖 he loves them and he fucked up doing evil on the side but he’ll make it right bc he wants Jace to meet his daughter some day. And he will and Jace will love her like she’s his own and 🤧🤧🤧 it’ll take a sequel fic that is so self indulgent to even get to that point but it’s real in my stupid little heart.

This fic started simply as: Jace gets an emotional support dog. And now it’s something so- not far removed but MORE than that. Also his dog was almost named Vanilla (Extract) bc she’s the same color of it and I like baking. Milkshake was gonna be a place holder but it was also a lot less convoluted and very cute. It suits her 💖

[askblog-cvesocs]

General OC Information…

Mostly about names

Today, I’ve been figuring out my character’s last names. I often, instead of writing, work more on my characters. I would love to write, but I just like.. don’t for some reason.

I have PLENTY of OCs, and background for almost all of them.

One I wanna talk about (the first topic before my sidetrack starts) is Aiden. The last name I gave him is Barkesly (It’s pronounced “barks-lee”). His name is Aiden Barkesly. At school, ya know when you have a sub and there’s always someone whose name gets butchered? Often times more than one person? Aiden is one of those people.

The ways his last name gets pronounced are like

-(“Bark-eh-sly”)

-(“Bar-kez-lee”)

There’s also Anque, (her name is pronounced “on-kay”). Some people say:

-(“Ann-kyoo”)

-(“Ann-keh”)

-something like those and other ways that people might pronounce it wrong

A few of my OCs have pretty unique names.

Some names I made up myself were

[Pyrus], [Vaunne], [Hille] (literally just hill with an e at the end), [Anque] (as I said, pronounced “on-kay”), [Vydd] (pronounced “vid”. Everyone calls her Vee. Some people don’t even know her real name is Vydd), and [Jack]. [Jack]’s nickname is [Gheej], Hille calls him that sometimes, only family and close friends call him “Gheej” (pronounced like the nickname “deej”, but with a “g” instead of a “d”).

Hille’s last name, Wyvernn, I came up with when I first made him.

(I made most of my OCs in like.. beginning or middle-ish of 2023? like around June or July maybe. ((note from like 10 minutes after writing this: actually only a few, including: Reed, Auggie, Hille and Vee)) Though, Reed, Auggie, and Hille were all kind of.. established? might be the word? in September of 2022. I know that because the draft I wrote that insipired literally their whole story—even though it was not even a chapter long and was only like five or six paragraphs long—was written or last saved in September 2022. I was looking through the few drafts I had on Wattpad, this was around June or July in 2023, I found the draft with the start of their story, and immediately I was like “OH MY GOD I was GOING somewhere with this!!!” I was extremely happy. THAT was when I started to kick writer’s block in the ass. Writer’s block is now not even existent to me. It’s both awesome and somewhat not awesome at the same time.)

For a bit, last year, I wanted to know where the heck I got “Wyvernn” from. Then someday I logged back onto Discord for The First Time In Forever™, and on the loading screen, for a BRIEF second, I saw it said (something like) “Discord used to be called Wyvern at some point. Not too proud of that one”. So I was like “OHH”.

I don’t know where the hell I got “Anque” “Pyrus” “Vaunne” and “Gheej” from, but I’m pretty proud that I made ‘em up myself. (for some reason, very proud).

that concludes this post. ★

[inahc3]

I was hoping it would take me about a month to recover from moving, this time - as opposed to the three months it took last year. In a way, I was not entirely wrong - my body had recovered enough before the end of May that simply standing up didn't make my legs try to cramp. And yet, here I am in late June, finally admitting to myself that the odds of writing before July are slim, and yet not being entirely sure how I got here.

At first, it was the chores. Things postponed until after moving, like address changes that couldn't be scheduled in advance. Things related to the new place, like learning to use the appliances. Minor surprise issues, like having to buy shower curtain rods.

Then the urgent chores were handled, and I did my best to space out the others - I'd much prefer to hyperfocus on getting all the house things done, but that way lies burnout and frustration (ok I did actually have a burnout week too, that sucked), and besides, I'm sure new house things will pop up on a regular basis now that we don't have a landlord to call about them.

My RL social life took off too, and that was a fun kind of exhaustion. While that was going on, I decided I'd rather fill my head with appliance manuals during the week, figure out their quirks (like how the dishwasher delay function gets weird if you open the door), and *then* dump all that knowledge into my reminder app before filling my head with WIPs and plot instead.

I think I procrastinated a little after that was done - or maybe I had too many appointments. my memory is foggy and my notes are cryptic. I did at least have some stuff fizzing in the back of my head still, and one sleepless night I figured out a solution to my biggest plot hole.

The weekend after our housewarming party, I was determined to get back on that horse. I got all my notes out, flung some documents onto the shiny new TV, and filled my brain with plot again. Sorted out all the things that needed deciding about the plot of part 1, how the plot hole solution affected them, which scenes were most urgent to write in case they jumped the tracks and changed things - I was all set to spend Sunday Actually Fucking Writing, with my notes all around me to help get back into things.

Then Sunday came with an opportunity to do things I'm normally not well enough to do, and I decided that was worth postponing the writing just a little bit. Surely I could do it in the afternoon. Or on Monday, at worst. I even brought my laptop along in the hopes that I'd have writing time while I was out.

I ended up doing pain management instead of writing, and then being so exhausted I made the very stupid decision to read Just One Chapter of a fic someone had recommended. It was a good fic (dustverse), and I can never have just one, and then it was 6am and I was deep into both spoon debt *and* sleep deprivation. 🤦 So I resigned myself to a few days of recovery. I recovered, made plans to pick up the writing again on the weekend - and promptly got sick instead. 🤦 Ugh. I can't write while sick even when I have something to continue, let alone when I haven't touched my fic in so long anxiety thinks writing is an existential threat. 🤪

So here I am, beginning to recover - the good news is I think I'll be well enough to travel for an important medical appointment, the bad news is I need to save all my spoons for that and not take risks, plus my brain is full of Things To Pack (which I have not properly written down, FML) with no room for Things To Write. And I know I won't write shit while I'm away, and there'll be a pile of postponed chores waiting for me when I get back.

I'm gonna need a solid day of Only Writing to push through the anxiety, and it's gonna suck so much, and I don't actually think I'll have room in my schedule until July. 😭 And I can't even afford to have strong feelings about it right now - gotta stay relaxed and give my immune system all the spoons that aren't spent on packing.

NGL, it's times like these that make it tempting to throw in the towel and leave the writing to people who don't have to fight their own brain over every goddamn word. But this story really, really wants to be written. So I think I'll keep trying. At least until part 1 is complete and I get the ineffable idiots talking again.

I got a really nice comment on it a while back, too, so my beta readers and I aren't the only people looking forward to more chapters. :) :) although at this point, I think it makes more sense to sketch out the remaining scenes and have several mostly-written chapters to edit, to be sure all the plot threads come together well enough, instead of going mostly chapter by chapter like I have before. So even once I get writing again, posting could take a while. Slow and steady wins the race, I guess?

[dragonmuse]

WIP Posted: How Do You Measure a Year in the Life?

Chapter 1: rise up singin'. July-October. The year of 2040-2041.

A year ago from this posting, I put up the first chapter of Kiss My Lipstick on. There was no way I could've imagined it becoming this sprawling universe that I would rejoice in, that would literally change my brain chemistry. It only happened because of you, dear reader. You have given me such joy and kindness over this year and fed my creative furnace.

This story is not the end of Leda Verse. I have prompts left to fill, aus of the aus (to begin and finish) and maybe even some mainverse stories left to write. It is though, the end of the timeline for mainverse. I made a promise that no one in Leda Verse would ever die and I stick firm to that. There is a major medical episode or two in this story, but everyone is alive from start to finish. Where it ends though, is the end of the line. The story after June 2041 is a gentle mist, a sea spray, spreading over the camera lens and obscuring our vision.

Dear reader, if you'll have it, I give you a gentle kiss on the forehead for making it all this way with me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[homemoviess]

Post #23 - Fawn's Cover

♫ - What I’m currently listening to.

The month of June has passed and don't I just feel exhausted. I scheduled way more traveling than I could realistically handle, so lesson learned. Now that I'm back home, it's time to get to work. I want July to be a month of art—yes! A month to put this first chapter to rest, and who knows, maybe I'll decide to just make this a comic and screw the fanfic portion altogether.

I'm just a bit burned out from writing at the moment.

That said, this cover is very much inspired by flash punky, emotional, heavy-feels types of art. Now is Fawn gonna be any of that? Shit, I don't know, but I had a ton of fun drawing it so here we are.

I decided to end Chapter 1 on the previous post so the story doesn't feel rushed. That means we begin drawing the final drafts today, so yay! I get to find a consistent art style that I'll be forced to stick with. I will also be editing some of the text in order to better weave a coherent narrative as the enormous gaps of time between some posts have made it difficult to follow exactly what the heck is going on. The updated pages will be in chunks of five to make readability more seamless, and once we get up to page 20, we'll do the long scrolling format.

If this comic didn't revolve around pedophilia I would consider just uploading to Webtoons, but alas, it'd quickly get the boot.

[nayialovecat]

Summary 2023

Much to my surprise, this year was not as bad as I thought. Every month, even in November, when I had a bit of a creative breakdown, I found at least one piece of art that I could call successful or that I was proud of! As you can see, CotL drawings dominated, so much so that at one point I even thought that maybe my break from SATIM had lasted over a year - but no. Nevertheless... mainly Lamb, Cats, Frogs and most of all: the bugs pair were what kept me creating (and sane).

First things first. I will present now all the artworks and why I consider them my favourites.

January - There is no doubt in my mind that the last page of the Brotherhood comic is what I am the most proud of. One: that I finished the comic and it turned out great. Two: that it's a really visually nice page (I like the tiny animal skulls on the sides of Lamb).

February - this month I mainly created answers to questions on tumblr, but I am most proud of this work. We (all three of us: me, my husband and our child) love making pictures with ironing beads.

March - I had a dilemma here. Also a lot of questions on tumblr, human versions of CotL animals, but what I liked the most - was drawing character from my original novel Empire of the Sun and Moon (which I'm still writing) while trying out metallic markers. But I also really liked the art-trade I had with DarkTentacles0666. I had a free hand as to what would be on it. I like having a free hand.

April - Lots of answers to questions again, but also a birthday sketch for the second chapter of BATIM. But my favourite is the last SATIM strip before the break - 'cause it's just adorable.

May - This month I discovered the existence of a new wonderful game with a new wonderful villain, i.e. Billie Bust Up. The drawing you see here has not been published anywhere - a sketch of its piece was only posted on Tumblr. But I like it anyway. I literally didn't post anything on deviantArt this month.

June - I also had a dilemma here, 'cause there was a lot of creating. First of all - drawings for Pride Month. But also a birthday drawing (very belated) for DarkTentacles. However, my favourite is this shot of the answer to the Tumblr question. Heket, my love <3

July - Our holiday trip. I drew mainly on sand and I consider this drawing to be the most successful.

August - This is the beginning of my Ink Demonth pictures - but before that there was CotL birthday week. And of all the birthday pictures - I'm so damn proud of Shrumy (Greed). As a character, I don't particularly like him. But he's brilliantly to be drawn for me.

September - Lots and lots of drawings from Ink Demonth. I had trouble choosing my favourites - but in the end I chose these two: a crossover with Samurai Jack and The Addams Family. I love both of these universes and I consider these two arts to be among the most successful.

October - After Ink Demonth, a little drawing burnout again, but two works that I really liked: a Halloween sketch and a moving gif for Friday the 13th. In the end, the gif won because it's a cat. Overall, this month I wrote more than I drew.

November - The least art-fertile month of this year. Neither drawing nor writing. Until I got new markers at work - and I drew the first picture in almost a month. Ta-dah. Not very good, but it was funny, so I like it.

December - I only drew 2 pictures this month (mainly because I caught Covid and literally spent half the month sleeping, the other half I was trying to clean my place), but I'm undoubtedly proud of the announcement of SATIM's return.

It turned out really well and I even feel a little excited about the comeback, but we'll see how it turns out.

If someone also wants to do a summary, here is a blank form. Please, just give me credit.