#Oddities: 22 Stories

[seenoversundown]

For Death Or Glory Masterpost

Jake Kiszka x Charlotte (Female OC) Completed

Workplace Romance | Friends With Benefits to Lovers | He Falls First

Summary: Jake has always been a hopeless romantic, heavy on the hopeless. He’s gone out with plenty of girls, but they never last. Tired of being told he’s “too sweet”, he tapped out on dating once he bought the bar. Just waiting for the right one to walk into the bar and steal his heart.

*This is an AU Series*

Warnings: Fluff, (eventual) Smut, Anxious Themes, Mentions of Death, Smoking, Drinking (a lot of the story will take place surrounding the bar) Teasing, Yearning, Eventual Smut, Romance, Silly Goofy Boys.

(Warnings will be updated along with the series & More Detailed Warnings will be listed at the beginning of each chapter)

Word Count: 132.2k

Chapters:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | Epilogue

One Shots:

Affirmation ⁂ - Jake x Charlotte (Fem OC) find themselves in an oddities shop where Charlotte has her tarot cards read, whether she believes in it or not.

White Christmas ☠ - Jake x Charlotte (Fem OC) have a million and one things to do on Christmas Day and Charlotte is already stressed by 6 am. Thankfully, Jake knows exactly how to calm her down.

Siren ⁂ ☠️ - Jake x Charlotte (Fem OC) get stuck at the bar on Valentine’s Day, but Jake makes sure to make it up to her after the bar closes.

Allure : Part 1 ⁂ | Part 2 ☠️ - Jake x Charlotte (Fem OC) Family Lake Day! Starts off with Charlotte longingly watching her sweet motherly boyfriend take care of everyone all day but ends with him making it up to her in the sweetest way.

You're My Wishlist ⁂ ☠️ - Jake x Charlotte (Fem OC) Christmas has come and Charlotte has a special present for Jake waiting at home.

Playlist:

Taglist Currently:

@gvfsstardust, @myleftsock , @mindastreamofcolours, @dont-go-home-without-me @literal-dead-leaf @lizzys-sunflower @mackalah @edgingthedarkness @writingcold @i-love-gvf @takenbythemadness @threadofstars, @earthgrlsreasy , @peaceloveunitygvf @musicspeaks , @gretavanfan @jazzyfigz @smoking-jakelane @anythingforjtk @woyayaofdreams @demonrat444 @hollyco @josh-iamyour-mama @wrldabomination @broken0mens @whereiskeara @gvf-luna @katuschka @ourlovesdesire @chloeshell1219 @becinabubblegvf @sanguinebats

reply or fill out this form to be added!

The Caravel Tavern Masterpost | Masterlist (One Shots / Other Fics)

[maaikeatthefullmoon]

This week I have mostly been reading...

May 13-19th, 2024

New idea I've had, and hopefully something I'll have time to do once a week on a Sunday. Over the past seven days, I have devoured the following Good Omens fanfics, and I recommend these most heartily to you:

Completed works I've read this week:

Boyfriend Debut by snae_b Rated E - A & C are both porn actors. It sounds seedy. It's not. Holy Hell, it's not. It's one of the hottest things I've ever read, but also so, so sweet and delightful.

They Drink Tea At The End by @knifeforkspooncup Rated T - After a year spent in Heaven, A returns to C in the bookshop completely and utterly overstimulated in every sensory capacity. A wonderful, sweet story of them truly knowing each other and an excellent example of how the fandom relates to GO in so many beautiful ways.

Pay Per View by IneffableToreshi Rated E - A lovely story set in Canada, full of our so frequently seen miscommunication between A & C. And, as the author says: "Also, why the fuck is Aziraphale watching porn in their hotel room?! And taking notes?!"

Cranking Up The Heat by @vavoom-sorted-art Rated E - Well, the title says it all, really. And the fic's description: "The equivalent of that hot wings challenge, but with porn." Don't really want to say much more, as you've gotta see it to enjoy it.

On The Same Page by Chekhov Rated E - A fake marriage fic with Only One Bed. A & C are both authors, but two very different ones. Excellently written with very vividly described mental struggles with internal homophobia & self loathing.

A Model Guardian by Fuuma_san Rated E - As a former model, I found this fic really interesting. I'd genuinely love to know what the author's tie/experience in the industry is. C is a model, A is their bodyguard. An interesting tale which involves some great discussion on gender.

In The Room Where You Sleep by @mrghostrat Rated E - Another banger by ghostrat, posted in its entirety this week. In a reversal to many other fics I've seen, A is a vampire and C is a vampire hunter. *Homer Simpson voice* With sexy results. ;)

WIPs which have updated this week (which I devour as soon as I get the update!)

There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out by @phoen1xr0se Rated M - A is a researcher (puffins!), C is a lighthouse keeper on the island where A has run away to to escape his problems and do his research. The author has recently spent a week studying puffins - which is the ultimate dedication, if you ask me. Ch 9/26 posted this week

Find The Light by @klikandtuna Rated E - Headmaster A and Rockstar C. The story teases out a fraught history between them whilst keeping a tension between them in the modern day. Ch 4/? posted this week.

Terminus by @emotional-support-demon-crowley Rated T - Astronaut A is guided back to Earth by controller C after 92 years in space. There are many difficulties both of them have to face and they develop an amazing rapport. Ch 15/17 posted this week.

Oddity by @tsyvia48 Rated E - Actor C is contracted by (useless) Gabriel to guest curate an exhibition at the museum where A works. After getting off on the wrong foot, can they work together to pull off this show? Ch 22/24 posted this week.

Under The Summer Stars by @pannotbread Rated E - This wonderful fic has taught me more about physics than school ever did (mostly because I never did any physics, but...well). A & C have to share their time at an observatory because there is Only One Telescope. Not only will you learn about astrophysics, astrobiology, and astroecology, you'll also read some of the most poetically, beautifully written masturbation scenes I've ever seen. *ahem* Ch 6/13 posted this week.

Free by well, me: imposterssyndrome Rated E - A & C meet (again?) in an acute mental health ward after both having had mental health crises. A runs a bookshop but is very much under his parents' control. C has been homeless since childhood and has struggled his entire life. They do not trust each other when they first meet, but feel strangely drawn to one another all the same. Where will this lead them? This is a passion piece for me. There is a lot of lived experience in it, and extensive research from both professionals and peers. It has been a real journey for me to write it, and as I'm coming closer to the end it's becoming very emotional for me. Ch 43/? posted this week

[questions-within-questions]

I spent the noughties complaining that 22 episodes being too long for a semi episodic TV series, and I spent the new 20s complaining that 10 episodes is too short for a semi episodic TV series.

I honestly think the sweet spot is 14 to 16 episodes. It allows you an opening two parter to establish the season's status quo for the main cast, a second two parter to lock them in to the season's primary conflict, a third to act as the narrative midpoint and reveal the true scale of the conflict and it's effect on the main characters and the setting, and then a two part finale that lets the characters conclude their season arcs, topple the season's conflict, and be ushered into the next season's status quo.

But importantly thateaves you 6 to 8 empty episode slots to spend. You have time for two or three self contained episodes between each of these two parters. These episode serve to show who the characters are currently outside of conflict, what the setting looks like outside of the main plot, and to give characters time to reflect on what they went through in the plot heavy episodes, by experiencing a lower stakes problem that feeds into that reflection. These can also function as focus episodes of each of your main cast in turn.

Some times the opening two parter will be two self contained episodes, the first establishing the protagonists in the new status quo, reflecting on the previous season finale and the between season timeskip, and the second establishing the villains to the new status quo, without cluing in the protagonists to who they really are, but it takes up the same amount of space. Even though the season's central conflict hasn't been introduced to the main cast yet, you'll still need a couple filler episodes following this to fully explore the new status quo and how the characters emotionally fit in it.

It's difficult to scale this down because cutting down on the plot heavy episodes leaves you with too little time to tell a fully fleshed out story while also reintroducing the audience to the main plot four times.

Meanwhile cutting down the filler episodes means your characters won't be able to reflect on anything that happens and if there's too few filler episodes they become an oddity who just distract from the main plot rather than enrich it.

But conversely it's difficult to scale this model up because adding more narrative episodes stretches them beyond what one head writer and director can feasibly achieve themselves, which can sabotage the coherency of the season's narrative, and adding more filler episodes is difficult because it's hard for the plot episodes to establish enough of a change in status quo to justify that many episodes looking at how the characters are dealing with it.

Maybe I've watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer too many times which was trying to perfect this formula from seasons 2 to 6, but always struggled with more stand alone episodes than it knew what to do with.

[skyward-floored]

Here’s a list I made today of all my Incredibles au fics put in chronological order so it’s slightly easier to figure out what the heck is going on at any given moment!

Fics with numbers at the beginning are chapters from What does anyone in this family know about “normal?!” (which is a oneshot collection), and bolder fics are separate multichaps. You can also find the ao3 collection with all of these fics here.

...

52. Warriors gets his nickname

69. Time receives a card

1. Time, Sky, and Warriors bonding

Lost Time

51. Warriors catches up

34. Sky gets sick

37. Warriors and Artemis fight a villain

4. Malon’s powers

16. The first time Twilight turned into a wolf

66. Twilight plays a joke (and Warriors is skeptical)

55: Sky and Warriors explain

24. Time and Twilight play a song

48. Twilight kisses it better (and chases his tail)

20. The first time Legend turned invisible

50. Twilight doesn’t look both ways

18. Legend has a tantrum

31. Legend tries to fly

43. The first time Wind caused a breeze

Let us catch you

14. Wild finds himself very lost

28. Wind’s announcement

41. Wild has a nightmare

38. Legend gets his hair done

32. Baby Four

15. Wind testing out his powers

33. Wild and Legend argue

49. Legend gets a splinter

53. Hyrule makes some plans

2. Hyrule backstory

Let us find you

30. Hyrule’s scars

7. Hyrule adjusting

71. Sky babysits (and Wind hates peas)

70. Hyrule reads a book, and Four escapes a nap

46. Hyrule breaks a cup

47. Twilight reads a story

29. Aryll

5. Wolfie, Bunny Legend, and Hyrule shenanigans

11. Roadtrip

60. Wild and Hyrule get tucked in

68. Legend gets a fever

12. Oddities of Four

13. Wind and Warriors cause some chaos

35. Four and Sky make a house

23. Sky and Wind go for a fly

26. Talon and the grandkids

36. Four has some mood swings

61. Four has a nightmare

65. Time and Malon get a moment to themselves

8. Runaway

17. Wind quietly saves a civilian

6. Wolfie shenanigans

58. Warriors pushes himself too far

3. Movie night

27. Despair over Sky

9. Memories of Sky

[Movie events here]

59. Sky survives

Plane and simple

44. Split Four

10. Ravio & Legend

39. Marin

62. Glasses

63. Malon and the glasses

54. Time stops a theft

40. Spirit

56: Four stays split a little too long

42. No capes!

25. Warriors loses control

57. Legend sneaks out

22. Forced to fight Twilight

64. Four and Wind eat some fries

67. Dot gives Four a hand

45. Blades of the Yiga

19. Future Wild

72. Four and the triplets

21. Wild loses an arm

[madphantom]

The entire way my vampire movie has come to be is honestly a movie in itself. I had a dream about the undead horror actor main character in '22, in which I talked to him and he told me that I'll find happiness in a place where I wouldn't expect it. This dream persuaded me to study in my hometown, which led to me meeting the Film Factory gang.

At the time I had written a script about an actor and a director getting into a relationship in university and then drifting apart over the years, but because ultimately, parts of this script became uncomfortably close to reality, I chose not to make it public.

In the following months I carved out a little story for the undead actor character. I fleshed it out and repurposed parts of the script and frankensteined a whole thing together, but despite looking, I couldn't find anybody who fit the character. Somebody who was just enough of an arrogant bastard to still be likable. Somebody with a certain physical presence. Somebody who matched all the little quirks and oddities that I'd imagined the character to have.

Enter my boyfriend. Never acted a day in his life, not particularly fond of being filmed, not very confident in his ability to pull off an important role, but in love enough to say he's gonna try. And he went and at the table read he killed it. I've never seen such a close match to one of my characters.

And now we're shooting. And, in a way, this thing is gonna be my masterpiece, but also it's kind of a goodbye to my former worldviews, because first and foremost this movie is against destroying yourself in an attempt to be exceptional. That's not where the story started, but that's where my personal life and my relationship have taken me.

[spaceoddityhsr]

Hey there, it’s always nice to meet somebody new!

I’ve always been ready to help and entertain people, and at this point it’s become second nature!

…that’s my job as an Emanator of Harmony after all.

(Art on Second panel by @King_Rule on Twitter) Shelley, a native from the same planet as Kafka, and a Emanator of Harmony. She chose to travel alongside Stelle, so that she could help out more people, and combat the rising Stellaron threat.

(And perhaps, find some rare time to talk with her adoptive sister, Kafka…)

Name: Shelley Marie

Species: Pterugean

Age: 22

Pronouns: She/her

Sexuality: Pansexual

Location: Anywhere the Astral Express is~

Path: Harmony

Type: Fire

Voice lines: Here!

Character stories:[classified]

SPECIAL NOTE: Due to exposure to high levels of Stellaron energy, Shelley also has a split personality, Fran. Only time will tell how their relationship develops, and how Fran will show herself.

Notes From The Mod:

Guidelines:

NSFW is ok.

You may send links, but tell me what they are for

please don't be rude, if you have nothing nice to say please don't say it at all

No racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, ageism, and transphobia please, if any of this is given in a comment above, you will be blocked.

Shipping’s fine.

Anons are most welcome and appreciated.

Dialogue Key: " " ~ Dialogue

Red colored text ~ Actions and Thoughts

( )~ Mod Speaking

Colored and not red text~ Fran, Shelley’s alter

Tags:

#sis!🕷️ Interactions with Kafka.

#New Crewmates🚂 Interactions with any Astral Express member.

#Star Child✨ Interactions with Stelle.

#You guys?❓Interactions with Stellaron Hunters (Not Kafka)

#My mirror 🕊️ Interactions with Sunday.

#Nice to meet you😊 Interactions with anybody else.

#A bit like me🤝 Interactions with OCs.

#day in the life🎶 Shelley talking about herself.

#Kermie speaks This is me, the mod speaking.

If you want to see the fanfic that inspired this all:

This blog is also the official blog of Space Oddity, a Honkai: Star Rail fanfic, where Shelley’s story (along with the Astral Express) is currently being told. currently on hiatus tho.

I’ll be using this blog to answer any questions you guys might have about the fanfic, and post what I want about Shelley. If I make another quest, this blog will be for that too.

Starter Call is here.

Mod name, and username on Sufficient Velocity is Kermie.

Thanks for reading!

(Format taken from @aventurine-official with permission.)

(Main blog at @most-sane-hoyo-player)

[paradoxbeta]

for the iterator asks,,

1, 7, 22 and 24 for bfiwr

1 and 24 for nata and rfis as well :3

(feel free to veto any of these, this is kind of a lot)

absolutely not a problem anon i love getting tons of questions! putting this under a cut so it doesn't get too long

BFIWR 1. Does your iterator's name mean anything? In their lore or symbolically? If so, what?

Blooming Flowers in Winding Roads doesn't actually mean anything, but i named him that because his placeholder name was originally “blue.” he's blue as hell..

normally im more on top of name symbolism but this time around it escaped me X) if it counts, the antagonist of the story (blind eyes see in rage) does have a symbolic name. he's harmless ("blind"), but when chaos happens he takes advantage of people's vulnerable mental states instead of being decent. more on him another day, there is a Lot going on with that motherfucker 

7. Does your iterator have any specific quirks or niches unlike "typical" iterators? Special jobs, equipment, etc.? If so, what?

surprisingly, no! in fact, it's an oddity for my iterators to be anything other than a standard iterator. rfis is an exception to this because he's gigantic

22. Where does your iterator live? Describe the region.

bfiwr’s surrounding region changes dramatically over the course of his plot timeline because oops, iterator warfare. at first it's a friendly, unremarkable region similar to outskirts, but ends up a toxic wasteland almost completely devoid of wildlife

24. What do your iterators overseers look like?

NATA + RFIS

1. Does your iterator's name mean anything? In their lore or symbolically? If so, what?

Natural Ambition Tells All’s name means so little it's actually funny, her placeholder name was “natalya” and i got so attached to that i made up her acronym for the name. seriously, you don't know how many acronym sites i was on scrambling to cobble together a name for artfight. she is an ambitious individual though!

River Flows in Spring was named before his story was established. his entire design arc is less of a hot mess and more like a boiling scalding garbage pile that somehow resulted in a decent character but i digress the name rfis is a remnant from when he was completely different both design and personality wise: it's pretty much the only thing that makes him the same character he was when he was first created. i think i came up with the name in an olive garden. 

wait i half take that back, the metropolis city plan from rfis’s original concept still exists, but im still working stuff out with city layouts so it might end up getting moved to eoc and ill make a new city for rfis. regardless of if the metropolis design stays with rfis or not it, will likely still exist in some capacity

24. What do your iterators overseers look like?

[dinelskede]

𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 !

1. eyes stinging frm crying

2. forgetting to blink

3. unprofessional busdrivers

4. love

5. franz kafka

6. pink (color)

7. the smell of nail polish

8. hipbones

9. friedrich nietzsche

10. collarbones

11. cemetaries

12. late night walks

13. rain

14. bunnies

15. visual novels

16. fog

17. bats

18. nighttime

19. norwegian (language)

20. metamorphosis (book)

21. dexter (series)

22. my ex

23. epa raggare

24. honduran white bat

25. italy

26. samoyed

27. summer

28. when nietzsche wept (book)

29. millipedes / centipedes

30. baking

31. age regression

32. friendship

33. my little pony (series)

34. liverleaf (movie)

35. birthdays

36. unit 731

37. my melody

38. goodnight pun pun (manga)

39. having crushes

40. parties

41. getting drunk

42. pastries

43. cutting myself

44. being skinny

45. foxes

46. babies

47. lifelover (band)

48. another (anime)

49. skins uk (series)

50. katie jane garside (artist)

51. funeral (band)

52. french countryside

53. egirls

54. tumblr

55. clothes

56. being someones girlfriend

57. devotion

58. borderline psychosis

59. imagination

60. notion

61. angie

62. patricia

63. mathilda

64. my dad

65. my mother

66. my brothers

67. white (color)

68. the thought of being a kindergarten teacher

69. sexting

70. milk

71. purity

72. innocence

73. hearing someones heartbeat

74. angels

75. catholicism

76. true crime

77. jodi arias

78. seals

79. rice

80. hairdye

81. long hair

82. hair masks

83. rituals sakura collection

84. warm showers

85. winter

86. snow

87. nostalgia

88. being loved

89. cats

90. bella (my dog)

91. rifles

92. guns

93. ribbons

94. morute

95. softette

96. morbidette

97. mochette

98. blood

99. lace

100. hearts

101. kaomojis

102. paws

103. butterflies

104. insects

105. lakes

106. hair locks

107. keys

108. rosaries

109. crosses

110. cabriolets

111. angel numbers

112. traditions

113. knives

114. books

115. andrea dworkin

116. i believe in unicorns (movie)

117. porcelain dolls

118. sadako from the ring

119. heisei gal (style)

120. j-fashion

121. teeth

122. skeleton

123. patterns

124. sewing

125. figurines

126. the godfather trilogy

127. al pacino

128. peculiar (word)

129. weirdness

130. oddities

131. pie

132. pudding

133. homemade things

134. my heart

135. complimenting others

136. nicotine

137. girly hair ties

138. makeup

139. darkness

140. travelling

141. lotion

142. feeling clean

143. chocolate milk

144. orange juice

145. rice pudding

146. caramel pudding

147. amadeus (movie)

148. bojack horseman (series)

149. writing

150. trust

151. black cats

152. jeans shorts

153. tights

154. bandaids

155. being cared for

156. biting

157. bruises

158. stuffed animals

159. polar bears

160. warm baths

161. boat rides

162. taking off my socks before sleeping

163. lambs

164. bedtime stories

165. being treated like a little baby

166. crying

167. alone time

168. being comforted

169. not being scared of things being temporary

170. small text

171. cute fonts

172. coding

173. organizing

174. making discord servers

175. making carrds

176. making rentries

177. making strawpages

178. starving

179. watching movies

180. being complimented

181. making lists

182. scandinavia

183. mustaches

184. being sick

185. typing quirks

186. @ieatdishsoap (i nvr talk 2 her anymre but i lov her)

187. pinterest

188. neocities

189. laughing

190. feeling included

191. meeting others like me

192. cotton

193. silk

194. older ppl

195. calling him daddy

196. angel wings

197. disabled ppl

198. isolating myself

199. dividers

200. dark eyebrows and eyes w light hair

[omegansamurai]

An Avatar: The Last Airbender/One Piece Crossover Story.

Chapter 22: Captives

Rated: T

Summary:

Katara, Toph, Suki, and Sokka are with Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and Franky in a metal cell. They meet up with something rather peculiar...after they escape, they come up to a room full of giant-sized children. Some fights and a rescue mission occur.

Meanwhile, Luffy, Aang, Zuko, and the others all encounter more oddities...

And Brook and Momo...wished they could've stayed on the ship.

Ships: Taang, Zutara, and Sukka.

---

Update! :D Please give me a review and tell me how I did! :) I promise it will get interesting from here on in! ;)

[uranniumgirls]

DID I HEAR SOMEONE SAY CBS GHOST OC LORE?!

sorry I’m a bit deranged over Jonell and Hugh.

I’m gonna start with Jonell first since she’s my fav (sorry Hugh)

BIG TRIGGER WARNING!!

Cw: Abuse, child neglect, murders.

✉︎ -

✉︎ -

Jonell Manio, born in 1917, was the daughter to a notorious mob boss in Long Island, New York. She had 3 older siblings and was treated like she couldn’t take care of herself.

Her dad kept her in the house for a majority of her life, often making the maids and butlers watch her despite most of them having their own tasks to take care of. She never knew her mother in her life as a chuld and often looked to the maids as her mother.

She was a quiet child and stuck around the gardens and lake side of their manor. She played with insects and frogs until her dad scolded her and threatened to beat her with his belt if she acted like that again.

Jonell often hid in her room under her sheets after an argument broke out between her father and siblings. It was because he’d always take his anger out on her.

Her left forearm’s slightly crooked due to the fact she fell out of her third story window and landed on her arm. She was out there for a good thirty minutes before one of the butlers and maids found her and rushed her to the hospital. It’s honestly a surprise she hadn’t died from any kind of elemental poisoning.

Eventually at the ripe age of 22, her dad basically sold her off to some other New Money family. She got an arranged marriage and married Richard Holtz, the cover boy of a modeling company.

Her relationship was full of love bombing, neglect, physical abuse, and restriction. He often had someone watching her and noting what she’s doing while she’s cleaning the house and making him dinner.

Eventually after her first child, she had found out Richard was cheating on her. She ran away and eventually found safe haven on Woodstone Mansion’s large woodsy property after a week of running.

She eventually was found by Richard and was murdered by stab wounds and suffocation when he buried her alive.

Jonell was in the dirt for almost 70 years but she spent 50 of those years with Hugh, their hands intertwined for those 50 years.

✉︎ -

✉︎ -

NOW ONTO HUGH!!

Hugh Martin Daniels was a wealthy British boy near London. He grew up with a tight, warming family that appreciated some oddities and out-of-the-ordinaries. He had three siblings, one older and two younger. He was close with both his mother and father but more in tune with his father due to the fact of their love of puzzles and hunting.

He and his older brother, Lewis, were closer than anyone. It was mainly due to Lewis’s eccentric personality and behavior that managed to get Hugh out of his stoic shell as a teenager. That was until Lewis had died. The Coroner ruled it as an accident but Hugh knew it was murder. After months of investigation, he managed to solve his brother’s murder at the age of 16

He became a success after his breakthrough and became a detective for London’s police force once he was old enough.

Hugh, after many years of detective work and in the spotlight, stepped out for a while to relax in the Hudson Valley in New York. He had always heard America was beautiful, and they were right. He visited his family’s friends, the Farnsbys, and stayed a couple nights there.

After his last dinner, he went out to the back to smoke a cigar. He got hit over the head, drugged with chloroform, and woke up in a casket beneath the ground. He eventually died of suffocation.

Hugh always had a negative view point of the world but it became somewhat neutral when he met Jonell Manio almost 100 years after his death. She was cheerful and kind despite being stuck in the dirt. He had basically memorized how her hands felt during their 50 years together in the dirt.

Once they got out of the dirt, he was immediately flashed by her ankles. They spent nearly 50 years bickering back and forth and now he was actually seeing her and gods WAS SHE BEAUTIFUL.

anyways heres a drawing of them getting married :3

[thisworldisablackhole]

Top 25 Albums of 2024

2024 has been a wonderful year for new music. I feel like I developed a deeper relationship with music this year than ever before. I started writing full reviews and actually consistently posting on this blog. The year has been challenging, but this dumb act of trying to structure my thoughts on a subject has given me a place to escape to while simultaneously strengthening the relationship between my brain, fingers, and ears. Read on for my favourite records of the year.

25. fantasy of a broken heart - Feats of Engineering

SOUNDS LIKE: SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS AND SWEET CEREAL MILK / LISTEN

Something about fantasy of a broken heart’s music feels nostalgic, like watching Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of fruit loops. Synthesizers and electric guitars swirl around funky drum and bass rhythms to create fun melodies in colourful matrimony, and the disposition between the vocalist Al Nardo’s cutesy swoons and Bailey Wollowitz’s lower register narrations gives everything a kind of goofy and lighthearted Adventure Time appeal. There is a bit of an adolescent charm to the music that just makes me smile, but this is some of the most fun and forward thinking pop music I’ve heard in ages.

24. Elias Rønnenfelt - Heavy Glory

SOUNDS LIKE: GRITTY AND ORCHESTRAL ACOUSTIC BALLADS / LISTEN

Elias Rønnenfelt’s debut solo album might struggle to draw over casual Iceage listeners, but if you liked Rønnenfelt’s other band Marching Church, and can get down with a heavy dose of melodramatic embellishment, then you’re in for a real treat. Heavy Glory finds Rønnenfelt reaching for the acoustic guitar to focus more on grounded story telling as he strings together a collection of moody ballads that are ornamented by a collection of chamber instruments like double bass, violin, cello, and piano, amongst other oddities. The album is a bit of a mixed bag of production and songwriting techniques, but the atmosphere is fairly consistent throughout, and Elias sounds like he has found his sonic palace.

23. Christopher Owens - I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair

SOUNDS LIKE: DEPRESSING DREAM POP & SURF ROCK / LISTEN

Christopher Owens has returned with his first solo album in nine years, and in that span of time, life has thrown a lot of shit in Owens’ face. I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair find Owens writing some of his most depressing lyrics ever as he ponders life, death, and heaven as his backing band lays down some surprisingly bright and jangly grooves with all the surf and psych sensibilities that made Girls sophomore album so light and catchy. It’s a beautiful return to form for Owens, and I couldn’t be happier.

22. Inter Arma - New Heaven

SOUNDS LIKE: DISSONANT DEATH METAL AND GOTHIC BLUES / LISTEN

This was my first exposure to Inter Arma, and the turn this album took was so unexpected and fascinating to me. New Heaven starts off with a dissonant, blackened death pummel fest that lasts for the first three songs before transitioning to the dark side of the moon with an epic instrumental passage of soulful leads and plodding, funeral-esque drums. Then the second half begins to get really experimental with it’s blend of gothic blues, post metal and neo-folk. Guitars are sharp like razor wire, vocals are low and evil, and the whole thing just thunders with an atmospheric, dark energy. It’s truly a journey of an album for those who appreciate some genre diversity in their metal.

21. One Step Closer - All You Embrace

SOUNDS LIKE: MELODIC HARDCORE WITH GIGANTIC FUZZY HOOKS / LISTEN

Ever since One Step Closer's EP Songs for the Willow swept me off my feet in early 2023, I had been on the edge of my seat waiting for a full length. That EP showed a distinct shift toward more melodic inclinations, and the result was three of their most structurally interesting and emotionally fulfilling songs to date. This new album marks a further push into melodic pop-punk territory while still retaining the grit of their hardcore past, and while the song structures might be a tad less adventurous, it's still absolutely oozing in heart and brimming with memorable hooks and chunky nostalgic riffs that feel like the morning glow dissolving into your bed.

20. Porter Robinson - SMILE! :D

SOUNDS LIKE: SYNTH POP, INDIETRONICA, DISSOLVING SUGAR / LISTEN

I didn't want to love this album, but it hugged me tight and didn't let go. This one is for all the kids who grew up listening to shit like Owl City, Hellogoodbye, and maybe even a bit of The Postal Service. Gigantic synthesizers, catchy pop melodies, dance breaks, and bittersweet vocals. It’s a brand of nostalgia that makes me feel like a spoonful of sugar dissolving in rice krispies. I think Porter shot himself in the foot by frontloading this album with bangers, because the drop in energy almost deterred me from continuing to listen. But that opening sequence kept dragging me back in, and the mellow indietronica vibes of the second half grew on me big time, in big part due to Porter's self aware lyrics and sugary vocal melodies. This album is like that teddy bear from your childhood that you just can't let go of.

19. The Requiem - A Cure To Poison The World

SOUNDS LIKE: MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE REVIVAL / LISTEN

A Cure To Poison The World is an unadulterated love letter to the MySpace era of post-hardcore and emo that brings us straight back in time with a familiar sense of desperation and dramatic flair drawn from the school of My Chemical Romance and The Used. Despite it's derivative nature, this is still a highly competent release from a band that is genuinely just trying to recapture the glory days of raw and emotive rock music. No, they aren't doing anything new, but what they are doing is executed with such a high standard of quality and reverence for their predecessors that it doesn't even matter. I'm always impressed by how engaging this record is when I return to it.

18. Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey - Compassion

SOUNDS LIKE: HIGHLY EVOCATIVE PIANO, BASS AND DRUM JAZZ / LISTEN

When I signed up for Sputnik's "review a random album" game and was assigned this one, I was pretty excited about the opportunity to indulge myself in a genre that I don’t fully understand. Thankfully, you don’t have to be particularly smart or have a degree in music theory to enjoy this album. Vijay Iyer speaks directly to the soul with his piano playing, and together with Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey, they have created a beautiful exploration of the human experience that covers a lot of emotional ground. There are some small bits of intensity and chaos sprinkled here and there, but the majority of the record is quite easygoing, and the ebb and wide range of moods on display keeps it incredibly engaging. If you listen to ONE jazz album this year, let it be this one. Shout out MiloRuggles!

17. Straw Man Army - Earthworks

SOUNDS LIKE: MELODIC PUNK WITH DEEP ANARCHO ROOTS / LISTEN

Without an ounce of hyperbole, Straw Man Army are simply one of those once-in-a-generation punk bands that are truly pushing the envelope of what punk can be. Not by reinventing the wheel, but by casting aside the self-perpetuating constraints the genre imposes upon itself, and grasping for influences that fall outside the fault line. At the end of the day, Straw Man Army are just doing what everyone else does: combining different aspects of the wheel into something that hopefully displays a shred of novelty, but it’s the way that they do so while still remaining arguably more punk than any other band in the scene that is so damn impressive. Earthworks is one of the most original and thought provoking punk albums ever made, and will probably remain so for quite some time.

16. Balance And Composure - with you in spirit

SOUNDS LIKE: POST-HARDCORE, A CALL FROM AN OLD FRIEND / LISTEN

I never cared much for Balance And Composure's post-Separation albums, but when they dropped two singles in 2023, I was ecstatic to hear a familiar (albeit matured) version of the same band that courted me through so many of my big teenage feelings. I think we were all on the edge of our seats hoping those singles would lead to an LP, and my gosh, when with you in spirit was announced, it felt like the band personally gave my younger self a paternal pat on the shoulder. Unfortunately, this album isn't perfect, it has some glaring flaws that kept me from binging it like I expected to, but it still holds up as one of my favourites of the year, and one of the most symbolically important comebacks ever.

15. Stand Still - Steps Ascending

SOUNDS LIKE: MELODIC HARDCORE, POP PUNK / LISTEN

A lot of my most treasured albums in the world are ones that initially confused me and forced me to drop my expectations. The first track I listened to from this album threw me off balance big time. I wasn’t prepared for Stand Still’s angle on hardcore to be so bold, unapologetically catchy, and with a singer that still has some grit, no less. They effortlessly blend punchy melodic hardcore and pop punk into 10 anthems of self determination and gratitude. Embracing positivity seems like one of the most defiant things you can do these days, especially within the realm of hardcore, and that's a big part of what makes this record so special. Don't get it twisted though, these riffs still pack a punch that could set a room on fire.

14. Interpersonal - The Long Bright Dark

SOUNDS LIKE: NOSTALGIC POST-HARDCORE AND POP PUNK / LISTEN

Interpersonal came out of nowhere and blew me away. When I clicked on sputnik user LucretiaMyReflection's list promoting his bands album, I never expected I would find something so polished and engaging. This little-known band from Missouri deserves to be huge, and I think they will be one day if they maintain this quality of production and songwriting. The Long Bright Dark morphs in a few different directions during it’s run-time from emo to post-hardcore and pop-punk, but all of its ideas are executed to near perfection, and they maintain a surprising sense of cohesion considering the diverse range of genre aptitudes that are displayed here in bright shiny cases. It all adds up to a package that is slick, memorable, and endlessly replayable. One of the best post-hardcore albums of the year, hands down. Interpersonal has a Long Bright future ahead of them.

13. Tenue - Arcos, b​ó​vedas, p​ó​rticos

SOUNDS LIKE: A MONOLITH OF CRUSHING RIFFS / LISTEN

Atmospheric, crushing, epic—all words that could easily be applied to this release. Tenue blends screamo with atmospheric post rock, black metal, and crusty hardcore in a way that feels truly powerful. The songs on this album average at over seven minutes long, but they are brimming with jaw dropping dynamic shifts that keep every corner and bend feeling exciting and fresh. The Spanish vocals are raw and emotive, the riffs are punishing, and the tightly polished production job makes the atmospheric post-rock sections feel like columns of light breaking through the storm clouds. It's beautiful, it's crushing, it's intense. This will easily go down as the most underrated album of the year for screamo enjoyers, don’t fuck up!

12. drive your plow over the bones of the dead - tragedy as catharsis

SOUNDS LIKE: DARK & CHAOTIC EMOVIOENCE / LISTEN

drive your plow over the bones of the dead might have the best screamo band names ever, but their riffs and songwriting chops are even better, trust me. drive your plow effortlessly balance chaos and melody into a maelstrom of octave chords and fretboard mashing, but each song still retains unique properties and subtle hooks that really reward attentive and repeated listens. I highly suggest keeping the tracklist open for this one, because the songs fly by so fast and are connected by strings of feedback in a way that makes each song flow into the next like you’re really watching a live performance. Not only is this one of the best emoviolence records of the year, it stands up against the classics that defined the genre.

11. Clairo - Charm

SOUNDS LIKE: ANALOG POP & FOLK WITH A SLIGHT PSYCH EDGE / LISTEN

Clario's third full length came as a big surprise to me. The rollout was quick, with only two of its eleven songs released as singed, so it was really hard to set expectations for, and that was probably a good thing. Clairo went in a more soulful direction this time around, channeling 70s analog pop and folk music with a light psychedelic edge. Charm pulls from the same lush arrangement of instruments that accompanied her on Sling, but there's just a little more snap and groove from the rhythm section, and the record is just a little more upbeat and less forlorn than Sling, both in it's vibe and lyrical themes. It took me a while to get used to as someone who played Sling to death, but it grew on me fast. It's infectious once you get it's quirks.

10. Dora Jar - No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire

SOUNDS LIKE: ALICE IN WONDERLAND TYPE POP & FOLK / LISTEN

Pop music can be so fun and fresh in the right hands. I had never heard of Dora Jar before this album released (shoutout sputnik user verdant for putting her on my radar), but No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire swept me off my feet faster than I could react. The palette of sounds here is just so diverse and full of life, Jar mixes all the best and weirdest aspects of pop and folk music and puts them in a blender. There are some moments on here that almost remind me of a cross between MGMT and Kate Bush, it's wild. She seamlessly reinvents her sound with almost every song, but the album still comes out feeling incredibly cohesive even if some of the styles she experiments with don't land as well as others. I have a feeling her sophomore album will be a HUGE success.

9. Foreign Hands - What's Left Unsaid

SOUNDS LIKE: OG METALCORE, POISON THE WELL, HOPESFALL, 7A7P / LISTEN

Among the current crop of early metalcore revival bands, these guys always stood out to me as having a bit of an extra edge, for lack of a better word. The bitter reality of their industrial hometown just seemed to resonate through every chord and scream like billows of smoke that only Delaware and Pennsylvania could produce. Foreign Hands just bring a hardcore ethos to everything they do—even in the studio, they chose to leave fancy production tricks behind to craft an album that feels like the portrayal of a band who never stopped playing in the garage. Guitars were plugged into amps, riffs were served straight to the dome, amen. The stripped down aesthetic of their sound can perhaps initially come off as plain in comparison to other current bands in the scene, but just pull your hood over your eyes, crank the volume, and let the agony consume you.

8. julie - my anti-aircraft friend

SOUNDS LIKE: 90s INDIE ROCK & SHOEGAZE / LISTEN

I never needed a reason to restore my faith in Gen Z. As a cusper myself, I always thought highly of their sense of humour and artistic creativity. Julie is just one more reason for me to believe that the kids are, in fact, alright. The members of this band are all currently in their early 20s, but they have managed to pin down the sound of 90s shoegaze and indie rock as if they were time travelers. I’ve never heard a modern record that sounds so close to Swirlies’ “Blonder Tongue Audio Baton”, not only in the way the guitar riffs and vocals are written and performed, but the production too. If you put a blindfold on me, I would swear this album was from '93. I don’t want to act like this album doesn’t have any merit outside of it’s ability to evoke nostalgia though. These songs are incredible in their own right and really put julie into a class of their own as contemporary songwriters. Do not sleep on this band.

7. Poppy - Negative Spaces

SOUNDS LIKE: POPPY GOES METALCORE / LISTEN

This album ended up being way more diverse than I could have ever expected. While I enjoyed the first few singles for this album, I was a little worried that FIFTEEN tracks of metalcore Poppy would get stale super fast. Thankfully, Negative Spaces retains a significant amount of Poppy's signature synth-pop weirdness, and ends up sounding more like a proper follow-up to 2020's I Disagree. The difference is that this time around, Poppy's metal influence is given ample room to blossom into fully formed ideas instead of being restrained to a collection of rock opera mashups. The track list ebbs and flows between moments of blistering aggression and dancefloor bangers that coalesce into a theme park ride that never gets boring, despite it's moments of derivative indulgence. If you look closely, it's pretty easy to see which tracks are just imitations other bands (BMTH, Knocked Loose, Loathe, Evanescence), but Poppy brings everything together with her unique personality into a package that is just so much god damn fun, and that's all that matters.

6. Crack Cloud - Red Mile

SOUNDS LIKE: ART SCHOOL PUNKS MAKE A PROG RECORD / LISTEN

Crack Cloud pulls a lot of inspiration from the era of 70s and 80s art punk, post punk, and new wave, but where the group really excels is with their plodding and methodic use of negative space. Red Mile is an exercise in minimalist song structures with maximal intent—gracefully shifting to make space for new layers of ideas and orchestral instruments without any trace of busyness or clutter. This is the punk kid's take on progressive rock, and it works so damn well. This album also just speaks to me on a personal level, being from the same city this band has spent a lot of time living in. There are lots of familiar themes regarding addiction, social class, dejection, and the scene itself that are all too relatable, but it approached these topics with a cryptic sense of poetry that is a ton of fun to sift through and find meaning in, it feels foolish to think I truly understand it at all. This actually might end up being one of my favourite albums of all time, no cap.

5. nothing,nowhere. - Hell Or Highwater

SOUNDS LIKE: EMO GONE COUNTRY / LISTEN

nothing,nowhere. has been one of my favourite artists since I discovered him through last year's VOID ETERNAL, which funnily enough shares the exact same #5 spot on my 2023 list. I swear I didn't plan that. It's safe to say I'm much more into the rock and metal oriented side of Mulherin's music than his emo-rap side, but while Hell Or Highwater still retains that influence, it's blended to a very well enjoyable degree here. Mulherin has been on a roll with switching things up with each release and incorporating disparate genres into his core sound, and the country direction he took here worked so well for him. It really allowed his knack for writing hook-centric emotional rock anthems to shine in a new light. This completely delivered on everything I could have wanted in another post-VOID ETERNAL album and cemented nothing,nowhere. as one of my all-time favourite current artists.

4. Touché Amoré - Spiral In A Straight Line

SOUNDS LIKE: IT SOUNDS LIKE TOUCHE AMORE DUH / LISTEN

Another band that has been important to me for over a decade. My dad once came home from work early and walked in on me practicing vocals in the living room to PTSBBAM blasted on the stereo. I was probably 16. The fact that they even found enough longevity as a melodic hardcore band to be putting out new music 17 years into their career is testament to their impact on people. Spiral In A Straight Line sounds like Touché Amoré finally shaking off the cobwebs and finding joy in making music again after the band being a heavy vessel of grief since 2016, it's such a breath of fresh air. I won't pretend I wasn't skeptical when the first single for this record dropped, but the simplistic and pure sense of melody that the band managed to imbue into their trademark aggression really won me over and quickly slotted this album into not only one of my favourite albums of the year, and also into my top 3 TA releases along with PTSBBAM and Is Survived By...

3. Like Moths To Flames - The Cycles Of Trying To Cope

SOUNDS LIKE: METALCORE, 2010s RISECORE ALL GROWN UP / LISTEN

Like Moths To Flames has been one of my favourite metalcore bands since I re-discovered them a few years ago. They've been consistently solid, albeit a tad generic risecore sounding since their first EP in 2010, but they have only grown a stronger sense of identity and a wealth of musical talent over the years, in large part thanks to the addition of Zach Pishney on guitars in 2016. It's actually quite rare for a metalcore band from the 2010's to still be improving and putting out some of their best material after 6 LP's. One of my favourite things about this band, and why I believe they've managed to be so consistent over the years, is that they aren't afraid to wax and wane in their evolution without ever losing sight of their DNA, thanks to Chris Roetter's steadfast vision. Over their career they have released albums that have gone back and forth from heavy metalcore to a more hook centric alt-metal sound, but it's always been good and it's always sounded like the same band. The Cycles Of Trying To Cope truly feels like their magnum opus, everything they've been chipping away at finally coming together in it's most cohesive and pristine form. Not only some of their most aggressive material to date, but their catchiest as well. Bravo.

2. Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood

SOUNDS LIKE: AMERICANA, FOLK ROCK / LISTEN

Waxahatchee's discography is one of those rare collections of music I can say I feel like I've grown up beside. Katie Crutchfield's music is like an old friend that drifts in and out of your life, but reconnecting always feels an exchange of tangential life experiences and mutual growth. American Weekend was there for me at 17 when I was naïve and confused about who I wanted to be in this world, in the same way that Tigers Blood is here for me at 29; settled into myself, a thousand times more emotionally aware, and dealing with much bigger problems. The Americana sound that Crutchfield has been growing into over the past few years suits her voice so well, and her songwriting and lyricism has reached a whole new level of subtle intricacy on this album. Seeing her perform this live in a beautiful theater only made my appreciation grow tenfold. She sounds even better live than on record, it's insane. It's just amazing to watch her evolve from lo-fi recordings in the bathtub into one of the most powerful singer-songwriters on Earth. Easy 5/5

1. SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Coup De Grâce

SOUNDS LIKE: METALCORE! AT THE DISCO / LISTEN

SeeYouSpaceCowboy was the band that really got me back into metalcore a few years ago when The Romance of Affliction came out. I fully drifted away from the genre around 2014, but metalcore was basically my first love as an angry, confused kid. It's the genre that inspired me to pursue playing music in the first place, and the discovery of SYSC not only reignited that love, it cascaded into a deeper reconnection with myself and the qualities of music that actually bring me joy. Heavy riffs, heavy screams, catchy, passionate hooks. So simple, but it gets me every damn time. Coup De Grâce is by far the bands best work to date, and one of the most unique takes on metalcore I've heard. They incorporated some really interesting dance punk and P!ATD cabaret influences into this record and tied it all together with such a stunning sense of identity and conceptual clarity. Coup De Grace isn't just my album of the year, it's a modern metalcore classic.

[eyebawll]

𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄 - 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 [𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖]

This is a preview of my Creepypasta fanfiction 𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄 on Quotev! If this piques your interest, you can check out the full story here. :)

Y/N was a sharp and resolute woman. She stood tall in her field of work. Ever since she was a little girl, she'd wanted to be a police officer. She always wondered what went on into criminals minds and what drove them to commit such violent crimes. Blood, death, and violence were her key interests as a child. It often scared others away from her, but it never tore her down. And as she grew, she found herself in the exact position she'd dreamt of.

Her new house stood as a symbol of fresh beginnings, a sanctuary she had recently moved into. Weeks had passed since she settled into the quiet neighborhood. She was quite happy with it. Everything was as normal and plain as plain can be. That was up until oddities began appearing. Strange sightings began to be whispered about. Then, disappearances, followed by brutal murders that shook everyone to their core.

The atmosphere became charged with tension, both among the residents and the law enforcement tasked with solving the heinous crimes. Y/N was taken by surprise just as much as everyone else had been. The chief was on her tail, as he was on everyone else's to figure out who was doing all of this. She could feel the weight of responsibility pressing down on her shoulders, the burden of unraveling the mysteries that unfolded before them. Throughout her career, she had faced a myriad of criminals, from petty thieves to rapists and rebellious teenagers. However, the presence of a murderer, especially a serial killer, was a rarity that sent chills down her spine.

Y/N found herself on edge, just like the rest of the community. She yearned to understand what was going on. Over time, more victims were discovered, each murder somehow, some way more violent than the last. One woman; Amybeth Merritt, a 37-year-old. She was discovered in her own bedroom, half naked and suspended on the wall with her hands nailed to the surface, her own intestines twisted around her neck like a noose. Her stomach appeared to be sliced open, her body adorned with countless lacerations. Her death was no doubt agonizing, not to mention untimely as her family continues to mourn.

And another, poor 22 year old Makayla Addams, found naked on her bed with nothing but a silk crimson blanket covering her body. It had been bitten into in various places; her neck, her hip, her thigh--even her most delicate areas. It's believed she had participated in consensual sexual activity prior to her death.

There have been no leads, nor any suspects. Whoever is doing this is clever and they likely won't be stopping any time soon.

Y/N found solace within the walls of her home office. Bathed in the soft glow of lamplight, the room emanated an air of security. The hushed whispers of the wind danced through the trees outside, a soothing melody that complemented the rhythmic scribbling of her pen on paper.

The office, her sanctuary, embraced her with its warmth and familiarity. The shelves, adorned with a vast collection of books, whispered tales of knowledge and wisdom. The dark oakwood desk, worn with time, bore witness to countless hours of dedication and determination. Its expansive surface was adorned with stacks of paperwork, neatly organized into boxes at the corners of the room, alongside other important items. As Y/N delved into the sea of documents, her focus unwavering, a sense of purpose filled the room. Each stroke of her pen carried weight, each decision made with meticulous care. The night seemed to envelop her, embracing the solitude and serenity that only the late hours could offer.

Outside her window, the moon cast a gentle glow, casting long shadows that danced across the floor. The wind rustled the leaves, a gentle reminder of the world beyond her office walls. In this stillness, Y/N's mind was clear, her thoughts sharp, as she navigated the complexities of her work.

Amidst the calmness of the night, Y/N's dedication burned bright. The night sky bore witness to her unwavering commitment to the pursuit of justice. And as she continued to toil into the early hours, the quietude of the night became a testament to her unwavering resolve. Despite all that had been unfolding outside, she felt safe and happy.

Suddenly, Y/N's head snapped forward at the abrupt sound of the doorbell. The pen she held in her hand found its place on the desk, carefully set down as she rose from her chair. With a swift motion, she pushed the chair back, causing it to spin momentarily before colliding with the edge of the desk. Curiosity tinged with a hint of caution danced in her eyes as she exited her office, her steps starting off awfully slow as she felt this feeling of foreboding wash over her for no real reason. One step after the other, she hurried over to the door. Each footfall echoed through the hallway, the silence broken by the soft shuffle of her shoes on the floor. Questions swirled in her mind, wondering who could be at her doorstep at such a late hour.

The hallway led her closer to the front door, anticipation building with each passing moment. She couldn't help but wonder about the possibilities that awaited her on the other side.

As Y/N reached the entrance, her hand reached out for the doorknob. She hesitated for a brief moment, her mind contemplating the potential risks of opening that door. She couldn't figure out why, but something was urging her to back away and stay inside. Alas, she didn't listen.

With a steady breath, Y/N turned the doorknob and swung open the door, the night air seeping into the threshold. Her eyes scanned the darkness, eventually moving down to the concrete step below her feet. There she was greeted with a large package. A plain light-brown box adorned with tape at the creases.

Her curiosity piqued, her warm eyes fixated on the unassuming box. Simple and worn, it held an untold secret within. With a mix of caution and anticipation, she picked it up, feeling its weight—light yet heavy with an unknown power.

Bringing the box inside her cozy home, a dimly lit foyer and a light presence welcomed her. Time seemed suspended, caught between suspense and the hunger for answers. Y/N placed the box on an aged wooden table, its surface bearing stories of the past. Quickly, she ventures off into the kitchen, fetching a pair of cooking scissors. She rushed back, pulling the box closer to her. With a calculated force, she drove the scissors into the top of the box, puncturing the tape and creating a starting point. Sensing the resistance give way, she swiftly withdrew her hand, allowing the tape to peel back and form a neat, precise slit. She drops the tool and uses her hands to tear the two cardboard folds apart, revealing a collection of mysterious jewel cases inside.

The detective couldn't help but furrow her brows, her gaze unable to pull away from the handful of DVDs. Beginning to wonder if she had opened someone else's package, she starts to feel almost regretful. There was no return address, or even a name on the box. But yet, she still felt as if something was terribly wrong.

Reluctantly, she reaches inside, wrapping her fingers around one of the clear cases. She squeezed it, pulling it back from the box. As the light reflected off of the surface, large words in what appeared to be black marker read; TAPE 1.

Y/N's curiosity compelled her to set the box aside momentarily and return to her office. With a purposeful stride, she crossed the threshold and made her way back to her desk. The familiar creak of the chair greeted her as she settled back down, pulling herself closer to the expansive dark oakwood desk. The jewel case rests in her hand, its contents beckoning with an air of mystery.

Taking a deep breath, Y/N's shaky hand tightened on the jewel case, her fingertips tracing the smooth surface. With a deft motion, she released the clasp and lifted the lid, revealing the gleaming CD nestled inside. Its mirrored surface caught the dim light of her office, adding an ethereal glimmer to the room.

Her eyes flicked to the small side button on the CD player built into her computer. Without hesitation, she pressed the button, hearing a satisfying click as the tray slid open. Gently, she placed the CD onto the tray, the metallic surface fitting perfectly within the grooves. With a soft push, the tray glided back into place, securing the CD within the confines of the computer.

As the CD player whirred to life, anticipation coursed through Y/N's veins. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

The video player on her computer screen flickered to life, a small loading icon spinning in the center. Her heart raced with as she leaned forward, tapping her finger nervously on the desk all while she rested her free hand at the bottom of her jaw. The tension hung in the air, as palpable as the tension that gripped her.

Time seemed to stretch as the loading process dragged on, the progress bar advancing sluggishly. Y/N's impatience grew, her finger tapping faster on the desk. The video player appeared to stutter, almost glitching at times, adding to her mounting frustration.

Unable to bear the slow progress any longer, Y/N pushed herself up from her chair and made her way to the kitchen. She needed a momentary distraction to ease her restlessness. Quietly, she filled the kettle with water and set it on the stove. As the water over time came to a boil, Y/N prepared a cup of tea, carefully selecting her favorite blend. The fragrant steam wafted upwards, enveloping her senses. With the cup cradled in her hands, she took a moment to collect herself, savoring the warmth and aroma.

Even as she sipped her tea, Y/N's mind remained fixated on the video waiting to be watched. The lure of the unknown beckoned her back to her office, hoping that it must be loaded up on the screen by now.

Balancing the cup of tea in her hands, Y/N made her way back to her office, the warm ceramic radiating comfort against her palms. She carefully sat down in her chair, setting the cup on a coaster beside her. Heaving a sigh of hope, she directed her attention back to the computer screen.

To her relief, the video loaded, a peculiar thumbnail appeared, its image distorted and unclear. Excitement washed over her, before replacing itself with a sense of confusion. Y/N squinted, trying to make out the details, but it seemed intentionally messy, like a sepia-filtered photograph with streaks of red liquid cascading along the bottom. The sight puzzled her, the abstract pattern and intensity of saturation leaving her with more questions than answers.

Curiosity mingled with a touch of unease as she questioned the nature of the video she was about to watch. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was making a serious mistake. She began having second thoughts as she rested her hand over the mouse, biting her lip. Perhaps she should put the CD back in the box? Bring it to her team? So many ideas, so many queer thoughts. The image teased at her senses, its cryptic appearance fueling her further.

Unable to take the mental torture any longer, she gives in.

"Ah, what the hell—"

[solocien]

i can’t sleep and don’t want to bother my friends anymore so i’m just going to ramble into the abyss

so fun fact about me: i dilligently collect coins

i’ve been collecting coins since i was a kid and keep them all in a wooden box that has the word “COIN” on the front of it. it’s not something i often tell people, and not because i think it’s embarrassing, but because its pretty mundane comparatively

like, when someone thinks of me, i highly doubt the first thing that comes to mind is that i have a wooden box full of loose coins

but regardless, i am immensely proud of my coin collection. i often think about how, if i was faced with a situation where i had to give up all of my belongings, i would grieve the most over my coin collection. because there is so much substance and wonder inside this little box in my little room, and its wonder that isnt shared by anyone else in my family

just a few days ago, i was with some family assisting with a move, and a family member found some coins and set them aside for me. i was gazing at them in my hands (really close to my face because im blind as a bat even with glasses) and was told that i was “very strange”

and yeah, maybe i am strange. maybe i am an oddity of a 22 year old easily marveled by a piece of round metal. but i don’t care, because i have a 2 pound wooden box in my room filled with metal that is precious to me

and by now you might be wondering “just what kind of coins do you even have?” that is an amazing question, my love. i have so many strange coins and each one tells a unique story. each one fills me with amazement and images of the life it might have lived before ending up in my possession

some of the coins i picked up off the street because they were extra shiny. some coins i kept because they got so corroded that you can’t even make out what it is anymore

a penny that was flattened by a local train, one of many that my cousins and i laid out on the tracks and ran as the train approached in fear that one of the pennies would shoot out from under the wheels. none of them did, and as the train passed and the passengers gazed at us through the windows, we excitedly retrieved our scorching hot, flattened pennies and ran to show our parents. those cousins i havent seen in many, many years now, but i still have that penny, and the vivid memory of that day

i have a coin commemorating the 100th anniversary of Sears, a company that is barely holding on by a thread anymore, but one that my father fondly remembers getting monthly catalogues for as a child in the 60s

pennies run through gimmicky machine presses at amusement parks, ones that i would beg my parents to let me put my pennies through, chosing to hold onto the physical memory of the trip instead of a piece of candy or stuffed toy

my all-time favorites of my collection, however, are the coins i have from all over the world

i have pennies and quarters from Canada, easily mixed up with American currency at small tourist attractions or in vending machines and laundromats, especially where i am in New England

but i also have coins from across the oceans and thousands of miles south of me towards Central and South America. Austria, Spain, Japan, Germany, Russia, Ireland, England, Panama, Coasta Rica, Aruba, France, Sweden, Poland, Mexico to name a few… all from completely different times and cultures

The 1942 German reichsmark… what kind of stories could it tell through its caked on grime? perhaps it was left in a car, or accidentally stepped on, or given from one child to another

or the Panaman centesimo balboa from 1968. perhaps it was once carried in a student’s pocket, or exchanged for some food

what about the 1892 Swedish öre? maybe it was once used to attend a sports club, or saved in a jar for something special

these are just some of the coins in my collection that render me speechless in awe, even the coins from my own country and state, as plain and simple as they might seem, hold so much inherent sentimental value. the decades, and sometimes even centuries, that these coins have lived through, the events they must have seen and hands they must have touched. call coins disgusting all you want, but these coins are my treasures. they’re my look into the vast world around me that i’ve yet to really explore myself

someday soon i will be able to travel across the globe to places i’ve only dreamed about. someday i’ll be able to afford to leave my tiny subrural town in this tiny state and fly across oceans and experience new adventures and find even more coins to tell me stories of people just like me living lives as different and yet as similar to my own

these coins are a bridge to amazing things, and i truly do love each and every one of them with my whole heart

now is the time where i would apologize to my friends for being annoying, so i’ll just apologize to the void. sorry for rambling and good night <3

[evermorehqs]

CATCHING MY BREATH, STARING OUT AN OPEN WINDOW

Fletcher Poecilia is based on Flounder from The Little Mermaid. He is a 22 years old shapeshifter, Repurposed Dreams employee, and uses he/they pronouns. He has the power of shapeshifting. Fletcher is portrayed by Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen and they are open.

CATCHING MY DEATH, AND I COULDN’T BE SURE

Ever since he was a guppy, Fletcher has always had Ariel. All he remembers from the time before her is that his family had come upon a strong current whilst traveling to a nearby reef, and Fletcher swam too close and before he knew it he was dragged away. They were pulled miles and miles away from their school, and once they finally came out the other end, they realized they were lost. It wasn’t long after that he met Ariel, who he had at first mistaken for a large fish attempting to eat him, but upon realizing she wanted to help him— it wasn’t long until they were two pearls in a clam. Fletcher grew up alongside Ariel, often getting dragged on adventures they didn’t have half the spine for. They were a bit of a scaredy-catfish, and Ariel would often tease him for being such a guppy when the pair were faced with any sort of danger, even if it was something as small as poking their heads above the surface to watch the ships on the water. Fletcher didn’t necessarily agree with all of Ariel’s rebellious hobbies, constantly trying to remind her how upset her father would be if he knew what she was doing, but Fletcher always ended up coming to her defense and going along on her adventures anyways. Some of the other fish said it was because Fletcher had a crush on her, which the angelfish constantly denied. No way! They loved Ariel but… not like that! Gross. Then one day, Ariel did something Fletcher couldn’t bring himself to tag along with… she saved a HUMAN from drowning. When Ariel returned to Fletcher, proclaiming she was in love, rambling on and on about how she would do anything — anything at all — to go to the surface to find him... Fletcher downright dismissed this idea, begging with her not to do anything that would put her life in danger, especially not for a human! However, when Ariel mysteriously vanished, Fletcher knew in their gut that something was wrong. Taking a literal leap of faith, they swam as close to the shore as they could and launched themselves onto the sand. Not his brightest idea but, what other option did he have? To his surprise, once he was just about dried out, he opened his eyes and he was… human. Enlisting the help of a familiar seagull, Fletcher was guided to the town of Evermore, and once he was there… well, there was no turning back. Ariel had to be here, he just knew it - he could feel it in his fins. Fletcher got hired at a pawn shop, hoping that maybe his friend would come in seeking lost treasures, and did his best to be the bravest he could for the sake of Ariel… at least there were no sharks in Evermore, and all he had to do was avoid getting wet.

I HAD A FEELING SO PECULIAR

❀ Flynn Rider: Flynn is Fletcher’s boss at Repurposed Dreams, and though the man terrified him at first, he’s really come to appreciate him. Fletcher always enjoys hearing his stories and wishes he could be half as brave. ❀ Jack Parr: They’re one of the coolest people Fletcher has ever met, even though Fletcher hasn’t met many humans. There’s something off about them that makes Fletcher feel right at home with his own oddities. ❀ Angel Jookiba: Angel scares the daylights out of Fletcher, as if her beautiful appearance alone wasn’t enough to intimidate him. Fletcher can’t help but want to get on her good side, half wanting to stay out of harms way, half wanting to make the pretty girl like him.

THAT THIS PAIN WOULD BE FOR EVERMORE

[lokiwaffles]

Here is a longer synopsis for one of my main four Marvel OCs!

Name: Iris Rivers

Birthday: May 6th, 1990 (she is 22 in 2012)

Faction: HYDRA

Current Occupation: Double agent in SHIELD; her job is gathering intel for HYDRA to use.

Likes: Golden Retrievers, comic books, video games, combat, beating up bad guys, her bf, and smoking.

Dislikes: Feeling like her privacy is invaded, being talked down to, being humiliated. Also Holly.

Powers: The ability to shield her mind from mind readers, particularly Holly, and make herself seem mentally shallow and trustworthy. She is unaware of this ability.

Languages: English, ASL

Friends: Holly (ex-friend), her boyfriend Gray, and Ava (Gray's handler).

Belief: She is the protagonist, the hero of the story. She will always win, no matter what.

Achilles Heel: Her narcissism and carelessness pertaining to others. Sure, she cares for Holly in the beginning, but only in a superficial way.

Here is a drawing by RJ Pierce on the left! This is a very old design, however. Her newer design is on the right!

Iris Rivers is an idealistic young woman, powerfully self-driven. Her parents were both SHIELD agents, as was her late grandmother, and the weight of their expectations leads her to carry on the mantle and join SHIELD as well. However, Jasper Sitwell notices her very early on in her training and invites her to join HYDRA. Partly due to ignorance, and partly due to the desire to "stick it to her parents', she agrees, assuming that just like SHIELD, HYDRA is there to better mankind. She functions as a very low-level intelligence agent, doing more palatable work, and it is a few weeks after graduating from accelerated training for both SHIELD and HYDRA that she meets Holly Legrand. HYDRA immediately pinpoints her as a person of interest, and Iris befriends her in order to gain more information and keep tabs on her. Iris does like Holly well enough at first, but soon becomes a little fed up with Holly's various little oddities and trauma. The last straw is when Holly reveals that she can mind read, and Iris is horrified and disgusted with the thought of Holly poking around in her head. She doesn’t believe Holly when she says that she thought Iris was a good person. Instead, Iris believes that Holly knows of her true faction, and is actively taunting her. Iris reports to her superiors that Holly is now a threat, and that is where Gray comes in! (Working on a post for him soon!) (In shorthand, Gray is an assassin raised in the less idealistic and more brutal side of HYDRA. Gray meets Iris on a relay mission pertaining to some top-secret information, and they head out for drinks. They quickly become a couple. He also never learns the name of his victims due to personal preference, which is why he never recognizes who exactly Holly is) Gray is assigned to eliminate Holly, as she is (purportedly) aware of some possibly incriminating secrets for HYDRA. Fortunately for Holly, when she goes missing at the NASA facility during Loki's break-in, he loses track of her. He then goes to Iris in order to have a partner for his investigation, and she agrees to come with him on the grounds that she cannot be the one to kill Holly. She perceives herself to be the hero after all, and of course, heroes don’t kill. They track Holly with the help of some of HYDRA's facilities and eventually make their way to Stuttgart, Germany. Unfortunately, Gray collapses, due to the significant toll that his work has been taking on him for the past few days, and Iris is forced to confront Holly alone. When she finds Holly in the museum, with the dying guard, she is instantly repulsed. How disgusting of Holly to kill someone. How positively villainous. This cements the belief in her head that Holly essentially equates to her rival. She also absolutely cannot find the nerve to kill her. Iris leaves just before SHIELD arrives, and justifies her actions with the fact that she is sure Holly will get the death sentence for murdering the man. in fact, even if she doesn’t, Gray can still kill Holly later. She picks up the somewhat bleary Gray, and they make their way back to New York, where Iris lives. When they wake up at Iris's place, the battle of New York is in full session. Iris and Gray somewhat reluctantly help fight the aliens, defending the city block, and Iris runs into Holly again. Annoyed, she kind of just leaves Holly to get killed by a pack of aliens (of course that doesn’t happen). Later, at the end of the battle, she gets a text message from a mysterious number telling her not to kill Holly, as she is actually Gray's sister. Iris remains unconvinced until a document is sent alongside the message with the exact details pertaining to their relationship. And that ends it for now! Still trying to condense a 100,000+ word work into a short(ish) synopsis, so I will be back with more lore later!

[grumpygreenwitch]

Machina Ex Machina 18-18.5

For the record, as of tonight the actual story is up to chapter uh.... thirty-something. The problem is that between 24 and 25 I have an oddity of a chapter, and I'm not entirely sure how to link it. I guess I better figure something out, 'cuz my queue's getting short.

As always, if you enjoy the writing, please like and reblog. There's no algorithms here; my publicity is you. And if you'd like to buy me a Ko-fi, I certainly won't complain.

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EIGHTEEN

Adas stared at the flat line in her faceplate. The communication hadn’t just failed, the frequency couldn’t even be found when she searched for active lines of any kind.

Time differential. Both MAR and her User had mentioned that. Was it something that could be corrected repeatedly, or had she squandered the only words she would ever exchange with her User in a moment of frantic panic? She hadn’t even thought to do a proper priority assessment beforehand!

She closed the faceplate and buried her face in her hands before straightening up sternly. Her priorities were as straight as they were going to get. If she could never again speak to her User, so be it; she had said what was important, what mattered to the survival of the Grid.

Everyone’s been warned, Adas.

She could ask for nothing else. Besides, MAR made it sound like he chatted up his User at every opportunity. Surely she’d get another chance.

MAR and Vidi found her sitting on the rim of a fountain. “I always thought they were gone,” she said quietly. “Relics. Extinct. Real, once, but not anymore.”

“That’s fair, I suppose.” MAR crouched easily before her. “Vidi tells me Users don’t talk to the programs in the cities at all. I never realized my relationship with Robert was so unique. I’m sorry to have blurted out such things. I never thought it’d be such a shock to you.”

“Were… were they nice?” Vidi sat on Adas’ side.

“I think so.” Adas looked up at her and tried for a wan little smile. “She was trying to help. MAR, can I… Can I talk to her again? From my end?”

“That’s a little tricky,” he admitted. “Unless you have a dedicated communication uplink, it’s always easier when the User initiates contact.”

“Like the ones at the Spires?” He nodded, and she thought on that for a moment. “But her, she can talk to me again?”

“Oh, yes. Once every three millicycles, give or take,” he assured her, and then smiled wryly. “Sometimes the trick is to get them to shut up.” He spread his hands. “In any case, before the conversation got lost into such deep and dark forests, I was coming to ask if you wanted to be there when your Sentry friend wakes up. It should be any moment now.”

Both his guests sprang up at once. MAR led them back into the mansion, through the exquisite inner chambers, vast and interconnected like a three-dimensional maze.

“You’ve got so much stuff,” Vidi commented, her hair looking every which way.

“I do!” MAR admitted readily. “From my very inception, both I and my User have been very clear that my purpose is art.” He spun slowly, arms spread to encompass every piece of statuary and colorful canvas. “Gathering it, curating it, collating it, preserving it and, mostly importantly, sharing it. At first it was just music, but, you know.” He snapped his fingers, and music filled the space, Mozart’s 13th Serenade. “One learns, one grows.”

“Does it all come from the Users?” Adas asked.

“What? No! No, no, no. Didn’t you see my trees?” He gestured to the floors they’d left behind.

“Your what?” The both of them turned around to look at the spiral staircase they’d just descended.

“The trees! The, the, uh, the fractals outside, and on the slopes! That is art.” He beamed at Vidi. “That’s what happens when you describe a User concept to a Gridborn artist who’s never seen its like.”

They passed part of an immense library, the shelves as tall as five programs. Another stairwell took them past a garage, several lightcycle models sedately at rest in tidy rows.

“We must be halfway down the mountain,” Vidi murmured.

“A third, more or less,” MAR replied distractedly. “The place grows as it needs to.” He trotted down a broad, spiraling ramp and snapped his fingers again.

A Navi’s path appeared on the ground at their feet. It ended at a broad double-door which the Navi opened for them. Beyond it, a circular room with warm green ground lights welcomed them. At the center of it stood a healing sarcophagi. On it, sitting up, head down, was GAM. Hovering just above him was a Bit which was stellating sedately.

“GAM!” they both cried out. The Bit hastily backed away.

“Do be careful, he’s -”

Both programs slammed into GAM, nearly bowling the Sentry over, but still he managed to wrap an arm around each of them.

“- fragile right now,” MAR finished.

“Oh, sorry!” Adas pulled back at once.

“I’ve never,” GAM croaked, “been fragile.” Without his armor, with only the basic outfit of a mid-gen, he looked no less muscular but infinitely more approachable. Much more a program than the faceless, implacable Sentry. He squeezed them tightly for a long moment before he let go and leaned back “Are you two alright?”

“Ugh!” Vidi shoved him, which accomplished absolutely nothing. “You are just the worst, WallSec.”

“That’d be a yes,” he slid off the sarcophagi and onto his feet, though he had to lean on both of them to stay upright. “The program, the SysAdmin -”

“Oh, I administer nothing around here, except myself,” MAR declared cheerfully and stepped forward, offering a hand. “A pleasure to meet you under better circumstances, Sentry. I’m MAR.”

GAM shook the program’s hand, found a grip that matched his own, an exceptionally self-contained wavelength that belied the data density of the program before him. “The virus?”

“That’s an excellent question. I would have thought it would be testing the antiviral defenses of Parnassus, but it hasn’t touched them since its rather abrupt departure. I’ve no idea what it’s doing.”

GAM closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his expression was hard. “Then we are likely in trouble.”

“My mountain is exceptionally well-defended, Sentry,” MAR protested mildly.

“I know that, you know that, and it knows that. But the only reason for it to not be testing those defenses is because it already did, and it knows it’s got nothing that can get through. The next logical course of action is to go further into the Outlands and find something that can.”

MAR blinked. “Your predictive protocols are something else, Sentry. And when you put it that way, you make me worry that you’re right. So I’m going to ask you all that you make yourselves at home while I go see what I can learn about this virus.”

“What are you going to do?” Vidi asked.

“I’m going to talk to my User, of course.”

Adas and Vidi both felt GAM go rigid. “Your… your User?”

18.5

Robert, may I have a word?

MAR. Have you been harmed? Has Parnassus been harmed?

No, thank you for your concern. Your warning and the antiviral update got here just in time. But my guests have brought up a very worrisome possibility.

No guests are authorized to enter Parnassus.

And yet here they are. The Halcyonite Sentry, in particular, has brought up a very worrisome concern. A very reasonable one, too, unfortunately. It’s very likely we’ve not seen any more attacks from the virus because it’s out there marshalling new forces, gathering new weaponry. Have you learned anything new about it?

…

I cannot answer your question, MAR.

What?! Robert, you always answer my questions.

I cannot answer your question, MAR.

Ask him what it is.

Sentry, it’s very obviously -

Ask him.

Robert, it is a virus, isn’t it?

No.

Ah. My apologies. What can you tell me about this program?

I cannot answer your question, MAR.

Is it a User, then?

I cannot answer your question, MAR.

Well, there must be something you can tell me about it!

Yes. You must leave Parnassus. It will, eventually, break through the mountain’s defenses. It will, eventually, break through the temple’s defenses. It will, eventually, break through all defenses. You must leave Parnassus.

What?! What about the libraries? What about the music, the art, what about -? The collection has been safeguarded. You must leave Parnassus.

We can’t.

You must leave Parnassus. Give me a moment, Robert, please. Sentry, why can’t we leave?

Because right now all its attention is on us. We are the target. If we leave, we don’t know what it will target next. Halcyon is right up the road. Flow’s a straight line across the Outlands and the Sea. If there’s anything left in Ilo, there won’t be unless its attention stays focused on us.

…

…

MAR.

Yes, Robert? Defense preparations in other cities are ongoing. You must leave Parnassus, but your departure must be perfectly scheduled.

You’ve read my mind, Robert. Where should we go?

I cannot answer your question at this time, MAR.

I suppose we will wait until it becomes too risky to do so. Robert, I’m sorry I cannot be a better guardian to all that you have given me. I’m sorry it must be abandoned. MAR.

Yes, Robert.

You have not failed me. I have failed you. MAR. Oh, Robert…

I’m sorry.