#RIP Calibri

[river-taxbird]

I noticed recently the default font in Microsoft Office has changed to Aptos from Calibri. I decided to do a test and they seem to look pretty much the same in terms of design, but Aptos takes up more space. Either the person who developed it's eyes are going, or they want you to be able to do less when you get a "Write 3 pages" assignment.

I even found an article that Microsoft put out about the process of developing five new fonts and picking the best one for the new default. IDK why I am even sharing this. It is something that distracted me when preparing for my exams so now you have to hear about it too.

RIP Calibri, you served us well from the death of Times New Roman in the late 2000s to now.

[darkscaleswriter]

palinoia for the director's cut asks? 👀

(ask for a director’s cut on any of my fics!)

omg I haven't re-read Palinoia in years, when I opened my doc for it I got slapped in the face by times new roman bc this is from before i switched to writing in calibri instead lmfao. anyway time loop fic!! i had a lot of fun experimenting with style in this one, trying to capture the low-grade horror of being trapped in time and dying again and again and again. not sure i totally succeeded, but i liked writing it at least!! i'm especially proud of the bit that's a series of vignettes that descend into repeated "reset, reset, reset" lines, i think that part really conveyed what i wanted it to. it's still satisfying to read again after 6-ish years :D

(continued under the cut)

shadow link is so fun to write, he's a classic antagonist turned antihero type character and i love it. i also have a huge soft spot for him bc loz four swords was one of my first fandoms and is probably my oldest one at this point, so he's an og blorbo for me haha. (clenches fist) someday I will treat myself and get physical copies of the manga. someday…

at any rate, i'm re-reading palinoia and kind of laughing at myself about how the key to shadow breaking out of the timeloop was just. teamwork makes the dream work, lol. including using items from past Heroes bc i like the idea of items from previous games still hanging around odd corners of hyrule. i don't think i planned it that way but it's extremely in line with the themes i tend to write ^.^'

and zelda gets to join in! past me even left a helpful note on the doc explaining that zelda gets to be there bc instead of sending that dark cloud thing to take her like in the manga, ganon got distracted by vaati being vacuumed and wasn't able to stop the links from breaking her out. i am also now realizing that i never explained what happened to vaati beyond "vacuumed into a giant gust jar" and if i had plans for that, I didn't write them down. so… i guess he just lives there, now? maybe the links go back and smash the mirror after shadow's fully revived as his own being without being tied to it? maybe the jar was sealed away to become the next hero of courage's problem??

if I was going to rewrite this fic, i think it would be interesting to add a section where shadow gets desperate and tries to recruit vaati. maybe there would be 2 villain turned antihero characters surviving to the end…? or vaati is too power-hungry to go for it and betrays shadow at the last second, if he doesn't refuse and/or kill shadow outright for being a traitor. i think the last minute betrayal version would be a good loop to lead into a deleted scene where shadow straight up just hides in the dark mirror for a loop and refuses to engage, up until the links make it to the tower and are like "hey tf is this giant mirror and should we break it or something"

that deleted scene never got finished, i'm guessing bc it was leading up to shadow letting the links smash the mirror without ever revealing that he was inside (rip). based when where i was in life when i wrote this fic, i probably wasn't in a headspace to get quite that dark. i think there's a difference between considering your death an acceptable sacrifice in a fight to prevent a supervillain from taking over the kingdom and not caring about your death happening bc depression, y'know?

there's another deleted scene where shadow has a much more dramatic death that involves him fighting vaati in single combat himself, and ending the fight by chucking a bomb at the dark mirror to kill them both. i think that was vaguely what the final loop was supposed to be before the gust jar idea, and there was a whole bit with vio where vio is extra upset as shadow is dying in his arms bc shadow promised earlier not to kill vaati via the mirror. whoops, he lied! he went after vaati on purpose and planned that from the start! what a normal and mentally stable thing to do, shadow.

that ending was cut more because it ended up too close to canon, i'm pretty sure, and i wanted the final loop to be something more unique. shadow needed to do something different than his original ending to break out of the loop, so the full canon divergence had to happen.

shadow still died very briefly at the end of the final loop, when zelda had him throw a bomb full of triforce light at ganon, but at that point the goddesses were like "okay we'll call that having learned your lesson" and brought him back quickly enough that nobody realized he was gone. potentially including himself! i'm not sure that shadow ever consciously realized it was the goddesses farore, nayru, and din that put him in the time loop, but after it ended, he was just glad to be done with it and decided not to ask too many questions that could potentially make them change their minds haha.

re: the goddesses, i think the reason they took an interest in shadow to begin with (self-sacrificial death for the four sword heroes aside) is because shadow was created using the power of the triforce. he's one of theirs, sort of, at a sideways angle to how link and zelda and ganon are. close enough for them to meddle with, and idk maybe din was being extra salty at this incarnation of ganon for creating an entire sentient person and then treating him Like That. rip ganon for annoying his triforce piece's patron goddess, lol.

shadow was created from the dark mirror using the triforce of power as wielded by ganon, and my general headcanon is that shadow link literally did not exist until the events of the four swords manga when he is born from the dark mirror. he doesn't have link's memories, but he knows link's personality and remembers feelings/impressions/etc. and, since shadow was created with the triforce of power, he carries of sliver of it with him in a similar way to how each of the links carries pieces of the triforce of courage. part of the reason he's drawn to the links is because like calls to like. shadow was made in part from the triforce of power, but in the image of the bearer of the triforce of courage. the only part he's missing is wisdom, but at the end of his final loop, he does get caught in the blast of zelda's triforce power bomb, so… :3c

at the end of the fic, when shadow notes that he has the triforce on his hand, i left it deliberately vague about whether that was actually the full triforce or not. i don't remember if i had a clear answer in my head for this, but i suspect he shares pieces with the other links and zelda, bc i like the idea of them being all connected like that. regardless, what triforce piece(s) he has are what allowed him to sever his connection to the dark mirror and hang out in the sunlight without burning up like a vampire. he takes a lot of catnaps in sunbeams now that he doesn't have to worry about that haha.

anyway thank you so much for asking about Palinoia, it was really fun to go back and remember how much i enjoyed writing it. and i'm SUPER flattered that you read my fic to begin with!! i am so in love with your god of war time travel au, it lives rent-free in my head at any given moment.

thank you again!!! :D

[ladytauria]

1, 7, 19, and 32 for the ask game please! ❤️❤️

aaah i forgot i hadn't answered this! i thought i had, whoops ^^;

i'm pretty sure these are from the weird asks for writers 🤔 so hopefully im right, lmao

1: What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I use Crimson Pro; it's a free font I found on Google Fonts, lmao. However, I tend to cycle through fonts. One will capture my attention for a while and then I'll change it again. I do tend to prefer serif fonts at the moment, but I also had a phase where I wrote in nothing but Calibri!

That said, if I can't use my preferred font for whatever reason, I don't mind using either the default font or the closest one I can find in their offerings. The most important thing to me is generally paragraph spacing; I don't like trying to write with a wall of text, and I also don't like having to hit enter twice because I don't enjoy cleaning that up when I go to paste anywhere dfghjkl

7: What is your deepest joy about writing?

I looove when I come up with a satisfying turn of phrase or metaphor! Or just... playing with words in general; puzzling out how to describe things or how someone would phrase what I want them to say. This is also what I sometimes find the most difficult & exasperating too, though xD

19: Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

I've been writing since I was small. I remember using construction paper to make a picture book about a dog who---if I remember right?---became a superhero, lol. I also remember using a previous year's calendar to create a picture book as well; trying to find a narrative to string through the pictures they used for each month. (It was a horse calendar, if you're curious.)

I don't have either of those anymore, but.

However, I would say that my writing journey actually started when I was 10-11. My parents had set-up a family/kids computer in the living room, and I basically lived on it dfghjkl I started writing my first book. It wasn't great and the concept was ripped off from the Inheritance Cycle since I was obsessed with it at the time. The second was a little more original xD

Mm... And then a couple years later I was working on something different and decided to look for a place to post it. I found FanFiction.Net, which wasn't really the right place, but it DID get me started writing fic. And THEN after a few years of that I decided to seriously focus on original fiction again, because it's always been my dream to publish, lol.

Where am I now... I'm very happy with my writing voice. I can read over my stuff and only cringe at the occasional typo or wonky phrase, which is really nice. I'm still working toward getting published... in theory. I've been putting off revising/refining/rewriting my first draft, lmao.

32: What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

This is a hard one to answer 🤔 While I do tend to find phrases and such that I like, I don't know that I return to them specifically a lot. It's more a whole body of work dfghjk

Hmm...

Oh! Okay. So, I used to read a lot of fanfic for the anime Ghost Hunt. And there's this one fic, Beneath the Lilac Tree, which has a scene in it that I just ADORE. Two brothers, twins, are eating dinner together at a hotel and as they're conversing, they---switch plates? Offer the other food off their plate? It's been a while and I don't remember the specific action BUT it stuck with me? And I think about it all the time. It struck me as just this lovely moment of familiarity and intimacy, and I remember coming back to that fic and rereading it a lot, in part for that scene xD

Thank you so much for asking!!

[the-mjolnir-owner]

For the mun: What do u suppose was the font they used for thr "rip loki" tattoo lol. Idk why but Loki's name looked almost rune like. Idk or its just Calibri

It was totally Korg who tattooed Thor, so, the font is his bad handwriting. I think he tried and failed to make something aesthetically pleasing. Thor liked it anyway.

[tastycitrus]

dawn warrior after cygnus returns dropped

[transmasc-wizard]

AND IT WAS FUN

just finished making a whole ass presentation about the Titanic and presenting it to nico. it went so in depth that he is now educated in the dimensions of the life boats and the exact temperature of the water when it sank. 

[jmbringitonworld]

The Lost Child: Horrortale Sans

AO3 link for those who prefer to read there

This fic is part of a series, so if you've not read the other chapters, use the link above to find them.

It's been a while since I've posted something for this series, but life's been hectic since the last part, and I'm now juggling three separate fics, which sucks, I'm terrible at remaining motivated enough to update one fic, let alone three, what the hell is wrong with me?! Anyway, this next instalment in my Lost Child series is a bit angsty and feels-heavy, so sorry if you were hoping for fluff and shenanigans, re-reading parts of the Horrortale comic has filled me with too many feels, so you get to suffer with me.

Horrortale belongs to Sour Apple Studios

Elys and Arno belong to @shayromi

___________________________________________

Upon exiting their latest portal, the universe-hopping hybrid children found themselves in the familiar surroundings of Snowdin Forest, with its massive coniferous trees and heavy blanket of snow covering everything in sight. But something felt very wrong. The air was unnaturally stale, stagnant, and thick with the stench of death; the atmosphere felt... empty. Lifeless. It took a while to pinpoint the cause, but eventually Glitch Elys came to an alarming realisation.

“There’s no magic in the air,” her voice was barely above a whisper, trembling slightly from her growing dread. “I... I think we’re in a Horrortale ‘verse. While the monsters are still trapped Underground.”

A few of the children piped up with questions of what that meant, exactly, but Elys hesitated, unwilling to explain to her alternate selves and younger siblings the tragedy of this messed-up timeline. Even her parents had only spoken to her of this AU to warn her and her brother to never go to one, at least not while the Barrier was still in place. Error and Core’s grave expressions during their explanation of an Underground gone mad with hunger, monsters so desperate for food that they’d resorted to eating fallen humans , had effectively erased any curiosity she’d had for exploring this universe. And now she and her precious little brother, along with all of their alternate selves, were stuck in one such universe, until she’d recovered enough strength to open up another portal.

Elys instinctively hugged her younger brother close to her, the error glitches on her body becoming more numerous and chaotic, as she warily eyed their surroundings, looking for any signs of this world’s murderous residents. Around her, the other children sensed her mounting fear and grew increasingly uneasy, until eventually, unable to stand the rising tension, nor the feeling of wrongness rattling her bones, baby Calibri began whimpering, tears building in the corners of her eye sockets, before cascading down her skull in rivulets.

“Wanna go, wanna go!” she demanded, her voice a plaintive wail that echoed loudly in the stillness of the forest. Glitch Elys tried desperately to hush her, fearful of attracting unwanted attention, but Calibri was too distressed to care, her sobs rising in volume, and shaking her tiny body with their intensity, the rattling of her bones only adding to the noise. “Th-This a bad place! I’m s-scared! D-Don’t wanna be here, w-wanna go NOW! Waaaah!!”

So distracted were they by the crying of the youngest of their group, that none of the children noticed the quiet crunching of snow beneath the footsteps of the approaching monster.

“what the hell?”

All heads instantly shot towards the low, gruff voice, which came from an almost familiar-looking skeleton monster, whose single, red eyeball stared at them all in shock. Glitch Elys sucked in a sharp breath, before placing herself directly in front of the others, as if to shield them, while the rest of the children shrank back, unnerved at this frightening lookalike of their beloved father, with his blood-stained, ripped clothes, his large, bloodshot eye, the other eye socket a dark, empty void, and, above all, the massive, conspicuous hole in his skull. Glitch Elys gulped, as she tried to find her voice in the face of a monster her parents had repeatedly warned her was deranged and dangerous.

In a halting voice, the young girl forced out a brief explanation of who they were and why they were here, while Horrortale Sans continued to stare unblinkingly at her, his eye occasionally moving over the other children. That red eye fixed on Calibri for a few, tense seconds, the pupil shrinking, then dilating, as Sans gazed at the toddler, the only one of the kids in her monstrous, skeleton form, before returning to the eldest, monochromatic child, who held her breath at his considering look.

“i’ve never heard such a crazy story in my life, but... i believe ya, kid. dunno why, but i guess my soul just... knows ,” Elys released her breath at that, relieved that he wasn’t about to attack them. Sans gave the children a severe look. “so you kids need to get outta this hellhole right now. this underground ain’t no place for babybones, and i’m not sure if i’ll be able to keep all of ya safe, if any of the others find ya,” he told them, worry leaking into his voice. Glitch Elys bit her lip, her brows furrowing in frustration.

“I wish we could. But it takes a lotta energy and magic to open up interdimensional portals, and I’m still just a kid. I need more time!”

Sans grit his teeth. Looking away, he frowned to himself in thought.

“tch. guess i got no choice but to take you kids someplace safe,” he paused, then amended “well, safer than the middle of the woods, anyway. or the town. hmmm... ah! what about... yeah, that should do,” he turned towards the children, and beckoned them with a gesture. “c’mon, kiddos, follow me. and don’t make any noise,” he stared pointedly at Calibri at that last bit, who only pouted back at him, her eye sockets wide, her skull still stained with her tears. Glitch Elys quickly scooped her up into her arms, holding her close and patting her head comfortingly. Sans gazed at their interaction for a brief moment, his expression softening just a little bit, before hardening in determination, as he turned away and marched off through the trees. After some initial hesitation, the children all began following after him, though they kept some distance from his hulking form.

Sans led the group to a narrow area, with a cliff on one side and a high wall on the other. Eyeing the many large holes in the wall with trepidation, the young hybrids walked closer to the only adult amongst them, their fear of whatever may lurk in the darkness, overpowering their wariness of the disfigured monster. Sans cautiously surveyed the area, alert for any potential threats, but nevertheless kept up his pace.

“only gyftrot lives around here,” he quietly informed the children. “kids used to visit him to decorate his antlers, but ever since the core stopped workin’, well...” Sans trailed off, a grim expression on his skull. He refused to tell these innocent babybones about how starvation had claimed the lives of nearly all of the Underground’s children, their innate magic too weak to sustain them without a steady supply of magical food. At the youngsters’ expectant looks, Sans shook off his morbid thoughts. “anyway, don’t worry ‘bout him. that old grump knows better than to challenge me.”

At that, several of the children gave him sharp-toothed smiles.

“Hah! Our dad’s a badass no matter the universe!” one Elys pumped her fist in the air, her red eyes gleaming with pride. Another one immediately flicked her on the forehead, with a grumbled “watch your language around all our Baby Bros!”, her blues eyes glaring at her alternate self in disapproval, pink bandana almost seeming to flare up angrily with its owner.

Sans almost tripped at the words “dad” said in regards to him. His soul warmed at the thought of having children of his very own, tiny babybones to love and cherish, before he squashed that sentiment, knowing that a monster as demented and reprehensible as him didn’t deserve such a blessing. He had no business creating life, not after all the lives he’d taken; death was all he was capable of. Before he could descend any further into self-loathing, the group came upon the entrance to a cave, right by the cliff’s edge. Without a word, Sans led them inside.

The interior of the cave was dark and musty, the glowing flora having long since withered away. The group carefully followed the long and narrow hallway, until it opened up into a small chamber with a tall, wooden door set into the wall at the back. The door bore the Delta Rune, but was otherwise unremarkable. The children walked up to it, examining the door curiously and trying to open it, only to find it locked, before one of the Elyses knocked on it.

“Knock knock”

Sans gave her an amused grin.  

“who’s there?”  

“Wise.”  

“wise who?”  

“ Wise there a locked door here?”

Sans laughed loudly at her joke, his guffaws shaking his entire body and filling the room. He hadn’t felt such mirth in a long time, and so allowed himself to revel in the sincere joy of a bad pun. The children all joined in, their father’s laughter too infectious to ever resist, no matter the cause and no matter if this was a different version of him. When all laughter finally died down, Sans gave the kids a genuine smile, feeling lighter than he had in years.

“heh, dunno, bud,” he shrugged. “as much as i a- door a good mystery, i was never able to find a  skeleton key to unlock this door, and no one else i asked knows anythin’ about it, either. there used to be a monster livin’ in this cave, but they’ve... moved on. so i guess the door’s closed on this case, heheheh.”

The children chuckled at his truly terrible puns, except little Calibri, who resolutely stepped up to the mysterious door and gazed up at it with quiet focus. Her golden eyelights glowed brightly, magic swirling in her eye sockets, as she brought a tiny, skeletal hand up and placed it on the door’s surface. Her childish face scrunched up in concentration, until suddenly, a click was heard. Everyone turned to her in astonishment, but Calibri ignored them to push the door open just wide enough for her to squeeze through, instantly disappearing inside the secret room. At once, the others scrambled to follow after her, throwing the heavy door wide open and stepping inside without hesitation.

What they found was a small, square room, dark and deserted, with a thin layer of dust coating the entire place, evidence of this room having been left abandoned for several years. To their right, along the wall, was an old, frayed rope, then further back, a jigsaw puzzle lay scattered in pieces, and, at the far end of the room, a desk and broken computer were tucked in the corner. To their left was a pile of dog residue and, at the back, what appeared to be a discarded game case. At the very centre of the room, an old, worn, mouldy piece of fabric, covered in holes, was sprawled on the ground. It was to this fabric that Calibri immediately beelined, crawling underneath it, and sneezing several times from the dust she disturbed.

After looking around, the children deemed the room safe enough to explore, and so dispersed to poke and prod at everything in sight, hoping to uncover all of this room’s hidden mysteries. Sans glanced around cautiously, before making his way over to Calibri, still tucked under the old, musty fabric. Crouching down beside her, he gave her what he hoped was a gentle smile.

“heya, kiddo, how’d you manage to get the door unlocked?”

“Mama,” she stated simply, attempting to burrow deeper beneath the fabric, though she remained plainly visible through all the holes dotting the cloth. Sans raised his brow at her uninformative answer.

“your mama, huh? an’ how’d she do it?”

“The doggy told her,” was her response, as the infant finally crawled out from under the fabric, frowning as she looked around, then pouting as she failed to find what she was searching for. “But doggy’s not here. Doggy’s gone .”

By then, she’d changed into her human form, feeling safe within the confines of this mysterious room, though her displeasure was all the more evident on her fleshy features. Her round, chubby cheeks were puffed up and tinged pink, her frown more pronounced with actual eyebrows, and her lower lip was jutting out harshly in a childish pout. Her formerly golden eyes were now a sad light blue. Sensing he wasn’t going to get any, more helpful, answers out of her while she was in this state, Sans resigned himself to never knowing the truth about either the door or the room, and contented himself with his present company, and this little bit of peace they’d found in their temporary refuge.

Very hesitantly, he reached out a hand towards Calibri, wanting to comfort the sulking infant, but then he paused, his hand hovering above her head. What was he doing? Had he forgotten who he was, what he’d done ? What on earth made him believe, even for a moment, that he was worthy of touching this sweet, innocent babybones with his vile, blood-stained hands? He was nothing but a worthless lunatic, he knew that, beyond a shadow of a doubt; he had absolutely no right touching anything so precious.

Sans began retracting his hand, when another, much smaller and softer one latched onto it. Curling her little fingers around one of Sans’s, Calibri yanked his hand towards her, firmly placing it atop her head of long, white hair. She stared at him with a demanding expression, despite how the skeleton’s large hand easily dwarfed her tiny head, and, unable to deny her, Sans began stroking her hair, his movements as gentle as he could make them. Satisfied, Calibri leaned into the monster’s touch and began to hum a merry tune.

Being careful not to catch any strands of hair in between his phalanges, Sans marvelled at the soft, silky texture, the child’s hair flowing like water through his bony fingers. It was also a glossy white, the same colour as his bones, he noted. Considering the glitchy girl had said that they were all the children of different versions of him and Frisk, who had brown hair, Sans supposed that the kids must have inherited their unusual hair colour from him. And wasn’t that an odd thought? To see parts of yourself reflected in others. Some of the children even bore cyan eyes the exact same hue as his blue magic. He wondered if their eyes could also turn yellow, as well. Looking up to observe the other kids, Sans realised with a start that most also had his smile. It really hit home, just then, that in another world, he could’ve had children just like them. He could’ve had a loving wife, a happy family, freedom, hope .

But in this universe, he would never have any of those.

Filled with despair and bitterness that tore at his soul, he grimaced as he buried his skull in his hands, wanting to block out visions of a happiness he’d never know. However, before he could fully wallow in his misery, he was interrupted by several small hands patting his arms and back. Uncovering his skull, he looked up and was met with the concerned faces of all of the children, gathered around him.

“What’s wrong, Other Dad?” asked many little voices, and all he could do was stare at them. How to explain to these kids, uncorrupted by the darkness of the world, unharmed by its many evils, the true extent of what was wrong ?

“ everythin’ ,” was all he could say, and the kids’ faces fell at the hopelessness in his tone.

Then, one small boy stepped forward, taking something out of his inventory and holding it out to Sans. The skeleton’s eye sockets widened. It was a bag of cookies.

“Daddy gets sad too, sometimes, and Mummy always makes him snacks to make him feel better. I was saving these cookies for later, but you can have ‘em, Other Daddy.”

With that, Arno pushed the bag into Sans’s numb hands, his phalanges automatically tightening around the precious food. Arno offered him a bright smile.

“Mummy made those, so they’re super tasty! I know they’ll make your tummy happy, just like they do for me!”

At a loss for words, Sans looked down at the cookies, the first food he’d seen in years that wasn’t made from dead humans. And this child had just given them to him, as if it was nothing, as if it didn’t mean everything to Sans. And then another kid stepped forward, placing her hand on the boy’s shoulder and giving him a nod of approval, before turning towards Sans. She too offered him something. A bottle of ketchup.

“I didn’t want to say it before, but... our dad... he’s like you,” Elys revealed, and Sans thought his soul might shatter right then and there. “He doesn’t talk much about what it was like Underground, just says that they all had a really bad time, but everyone says that the monsters had no food down there. So our parents always make sure that we all have more than enough to eat, at all times. Dad’s always in the garden, growing the best fruit and veg, and Mum always cooks the best food, even better than Uncle Pap does! And if our dad can get his happy ending, then you can too, Other Dad!”

Sans couldn’t look away from her confident grin, so similar to how his used to be, before his world became a living hell. He struggled to wrap his mind around the fact that there was another version of him out there, not just another Sans, but another him , one who’d lived what he’d lived and suffered as he’d suffered, who’d made the same mistakes as he had, and yet who’d been given another, thoroughly undeserved, chance at a bright future.

“... how ...?” the question came out without him being able to stop it, his voice rough with emotion. Elys shrugged lightly, ruffling the back of her head.

“Not quite sure, but I’m guessing it has something to do with Aliza”

“who?” Sans frowned at the unfamiliar name.

“Aliza!” Arno bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly. “She’s like a big sis, or an auntie, to us! She’s so cool!”

“She’s the one who helped break the Barrier, after she fell into the Underground,” Elys added, more helpfully. “No one really knows how, it’s complicated apparently.”  

So, sometime in the future, another human would fall down, another anomaly most likely (and didn’t that thought open up old wounds), one who might hold the key to the monsters’ freedom. Technically, they all could’ve gotten out ages ago, if they’d bothered to save the souls of the many, many humans they’d killed, but Sans had told them not to, lying that it was the queen’s orders (he pushed away old regrets and shame, he had more important things to focus on right now). He was surprised that this other him had allowed this “Aliza” to free them. What could’ve made him change his mind after all these years?

“i don’t imagine the humans aboveground took too kindly to a bunch of insane, murderous monsters suddenly showin’ up on the surface,” Sans remarked, more to himself than anyone else, but Elys and Arno both shook their heads forcefully.

“That’s not true!” Elys firmly denied. “Seeing how much monsters had suffered, when it was humans who’d trapped them Underground in the first place, brought out humanity’s compassion! The whole world wanted to do something to help you guys, and it brought a lotta humans together for a good cause. Everyone can be a great person if they try, most just need a good reason to, and wanting to help those in need is the best reason of all!”

As Arno nodded in agreement with his sister’s words, Sans stared at them, his expression complicated as several different emotions warred in his soul. Above all, he felt disbelief. How could he believe that, despite everything he’d done and been through, he’d be able to get all the things that he’d long stopped wishing for, and more? How could he believe that someone like him, a monster in every sense of the word, could be granted freedom, love, happiness, forgiveness? After everything ?

But looking at the bright, eager faces of all these children, his children in a way, he felt something filling his soul that he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Hope. And so, with a sigh, he gave into that fragile, yet powerful emotion, letting himself believe that maybe, just maybe, things could get better. Maybe life wasn’t a waste, maybe they really were worth saving. Maybe he was worth saving.

Sans hadn’t realised he’d begun crying until the children crowded around him, all of them taking out whatever food items they had stashed in their inventories, and pressing them into his hands. More cookies, a bunch of condiments packets, primarily ketchup, lots of monster candy, a few cinnamon bunnies, a couple packets of popato chisps, several human sweets, and even half a bar of chocolate courtesy of Calibri. Sans felt overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity, more grateful than he could express at such selfless kindness. His tears falling harder than ever, he gathered all of the children into his arms as best as he could manage, and hugged them tightly to his ribs, surrendering himself to the fierce warmth that flowed from his soul to every bone in his body.

His was a harsh and cruel world he lived in, but even in the darkest of nights, there was light to be found, and Sans had just found many, little lights. Holding them all close to his soul, he vowed that, no matter what else the future threw at him, he would hang onto the hope they’d inspired in him.

________________________________________________

I’ve mentioned this in other fics, but I absolutely love the Horrortale comic, and canon Horror Sans in particular. Seriously, parts 121, 122 and 123 of the comic completely solidified my opinion that this is one of the best AUs in the entire fandom. There’s something incredibly gripping about seeing a beloved character fall so far, in a believable way, while knowing that he’s made mistakes and feeling guilty over them. It makes me want to see him rise back up and make up for his misdeeds, learning to love and forgive himself along the way. I always love a good redemption story.

I originally planned to include the parents’ section, but it wouldn’t have added much more than what’s already here, and would mostly repeat what the kids had already told Horror and what he’d learned from them, so I left it out. Besides, I think this ending is much more powerful.

I don't anticipate any future chapters being this serious and feels-heavy, since Horrortale is such a dark and depressing AU, so hopefully I can go back to more light-hearted chapters in the future (although they probably won't be as goofy as the previous one, Noot's just special).

[runawaymun]

1, 4, 13, 17 for the writing asks! 💙

writing ask meme

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I used to write exclusively in Calibri but now I prefer either Arial or Georgia. I find them easier to read. If I’m struggling with my work or editing I will change the font. Usually to comic sans.

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

ok so this isn’t one word but I am genuinely obsessed with combined words (i’m forgetting the literary term right now) from old (read: old english, icelandic, or ancient greek) poetry. Wine-dark. Whale-path. God-cursed. Mindgrief & bloodgrief. Treasure-child. Death-shadow. Sea-swirl. Hngggg g they make me go feral. 

Like??

Around their mask-helmets  golden boar-heads    beamed to the sun flashed a war-gleam       on fire-hardened steel signaled their weapons.       They walked strong-stepping crested the sea-wall       till they saw the glinting of that timber-strong hall     trimmed bright with gold tall horn-gables      towering in the sun high to the heavens     Hrothgar’s gift-house its light shone forth       over land and sea

Does this make you lose your mind or are you normal? 

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Emotionally, there isn’t a lot that bothers me tbh. I like the exploration. But in terms of things that I just sort of muddle my way through and feels like trudging through sludge: action sequences, politics/intrigue, and time jumps. I have such a hard time with these and they always take me forever to dissect and get through. 

I also struggle a lot with writing any kind of genderfluid, enby, or trans characters purely because while I’m bi-leaning-pan I’m very cis and I a) do not understand the experience from a personal level and b) am terrified of getting it wrong. This means I don’t have good representation in my work and that really bothers me. 

Slow-burn romance, trauma recovery, gothic horror, eldritch horror, and sci fi/fantasy worldbuilding descriptions come out of me like water though. Also character’s interior thoughts. I have to edit out a lot of naval-gazing.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

There’s a lot here that I could talk about but one thing i’M SO MAD that I didn’t remember to work in anywhere is Thalionel and Elrían’s relationship with animals. 

In their background experience, dogs are scary & will rip your face off and constantly were used as a weapon against them. Horses are off-limits unless specifically you’re sat on a horse. They do not actually know how to ride and wouldn’t think to ask, and also wouldn’t really feel comfortable with riding-- it would take some getting used to. There are a lot of ingrained mental blocks there because that’s not for them. That’s for real people. 

Dogs especially I wish I could explore more. Imladris fam are big on having dogs (Elrond’s hounds are descendants of Huan). So I know at some point the kids were introduced and had to become accustomed to having a dog around and having it be Fine. This is not Fine at first. There’s a lot of initial panic and fear there. The Eotheod hounds chase, hunt, and are socialized to be aggressive (especially with thralls).

So anyway I might have to go back and write a couple of oneshots because a) Elrond with animals makes me melt and b) i’m very mad that I didn’t find the time to explore this. It happened sometime during the first fic because I know that by the end of it the kids are pretty used to Elrond’s dogs being everywhere around the house. 

[fnafsbheadcanon]

Why this is funny is because customers assume calibri is a lost child, that is, until he calls el chip dad in front of them, then they just mind their own business. Oh, and also, el chip tried the hot sauce with Monty but that didn't end well

Rip Monty's mouth you live a good life.

[thequeenofthewinter]

1, 4, 10 and 14 for the writing asks! (I LOVE THIS ASK LIST SO MUCH)

THIS LIST IS SO GOOD! I wish I had thought of it myself. It's truly inspired.

1. This is actually hilarious, and you’re going to laugh at me. I hate TWO different fonts, but it doesn’t even make sense. It’s not like I have chapter headers in a different font than the body or whatever. Nope. I have two different fonts IN THE BODY OF MY WIP. I have no idea at what time it got like that? I started with the default and then something happened and it switched to Times New Roman. So, half is written in Calibri and the other half is TNR. My whole WIP is in one document. So, I do have nice, beautiful headers for each chapter (all default font), and they link to each chapter. (I don’t have time to scroll through 340 pages every time I open Word.)

4. Ohhhh boy. I think it really depends on the context. I am taking this to mean feral like I want to violently rip the word from the English language. Moist. Ugh. I know that is a typical one, but I see that, and I want to explode. Flaccid is also another one. Like…it’s just not a word I can take seriously, unless we’re using it satirically? I feel like it’s more like phrases which drive me up a wall though. It absolutely makes me lose it when I see “they could care less.” *screams internally*

10. Okay. So, if we are talking haunted in a good sense, like I still think about it and come back to it and it won't leave me alone? Mist by Miguel de Unamuno. If you’re into metafiction, I’d recommend it.

And if we are talking about my own writing, I actually still think about this one passage I wrote about Galmar hacking down bodies and how the ghosts of his past involvement in the Great War haunt him. I had to go to a pretty dark place when I was trying to write that. Perhaps that is the reason.

14. EAHFKLFDHSKJABFASFUHEKSAFHKESHAF. I USED to lend my books to people BUT THEY KEEP ON STEALING THEM. >:( Yes, I know where they are, and I know where at least ONE of these people lives. I will get those books back. I will get them, and then I will keep all of my books on one of those chains all the banks use to shackle their pens to the teller’s desks. 

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 65 and 66 Subbed (Finalized)

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

Hell Kaiser Ryou! Chimeratech Overdragon

Since his defeat to Ed in the Pro Leagues, the life in Kaiser Ryou has faded.  But at the invitation of a suspicious promoter, he participates in an underground duel--duels in which, crucially, one risks their life to treat their savage audience to a show.  As Acidic Last Machine Virus causes his Machine-Types like Cyber Dragon to rust, the Kaiser is not only cut off from summoning any Monsters, but it causes him to take damage.  With each drop in his LP, an electric current flows through his body, exciting the spectators...

Judai’s First Dream Duel!

Lost in the forest, Judai’s consciousness starts to fade from hunger, causing him to reminisce about his duels thus far--taking down Instructor Chronos’s Ancient Gear Golem with Flame Wingman during his Entrance Exam, battling the then-Blue elite Manjoume and his V-to-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon shortly after his enrollment, battling Misawa’s seventh deck with the right to represent the Academia on the line, and his first loss in the face of Kaiser Ryou’s Cyber End Dragon...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*crashes onto your TL months late with non-corporate coffee*

And these two are finally up and finalized! Sorry for the wait, if you were looking forward to ‘em--as I mentioned in my post on Sunday, they were pushed back a bit while I did one final lookover on 1-64′s scripts and hardsubs so I could actually call them “finalized.” I’d started to get them out of the way while waiting for some potential editing help, then just decided to finish it after scrapping the last little thing I hoped to work on (I planned to break briefly after 66 to do these re-finalizations anyway, but the timing happened to work out).  More details there.

But leaving that aside, here we have a pretty popular episode in Hell Kaiser Ryou’s debut, as he’s pushed to the brink by Mad Dog Inukai after Monkey Monkey Mountain Saruyama invites him to his first underground duel. They do a really good job of portraying Ryou as having lost his mojo post-Ed, showing a realistic view of what the big leagues in sports are like when that happens to you and you lose out on sponsorships/etc, and so when he gets cornered and Saruyama drills into him how he never once thought of winning since that duel, wanting to just stick with his respectful dueling, a spark lights up in him and... well, RIP Mad Dog. (Also, s/o to Takeshi Maeda for really selling Ryou’s shift in mindset by the end, and to his dub VA for sounding similarly good, imo.)

66 is probably less popular in comparison, treating us to our first clipshow of the series, though 66 episodes in isn’t a bad time (could be worse, VRAINS jk).  It’s endearing enough, though--kinda nice seeing SAL again; Judai’s hunger-induced visions give us Chronos, Misawa, and Manjoume making monkey noises; and the duels featured were important for Judai early on.  I also like the bit of new animation as vision!Ryou follows up with Judai about respecting his opponents; goes with what I’d noticed before about Judai adding his Fusion Undone/De-Fusion strategy to his own dueling after losing to him. (also Judai making a signpost sweatdrop from his aloofness pls)

Part of the initial delay with these were the footage fixes I wanted to work on, as well as a couple visual translations here/there which were fun to work on.  Really want to thank @paradoxi-kay for their great work as always in helping to translate the cover of the copy of Duel Magazine that Judai comes across early in 65, and starting the one on Shou’s copy that I finished up.  List of everything worked on below the cut, as usual, if you’re curious.

Enjoy, folks! I’ve gotten some work started on 67 already, and my plan is to try and work on some double releases to make up a bit of time, lol.  I’ll be posting these two on NAC in the next couple of days along with the re-finalized hardsubs and scripts/DVDRips; while I work on getting 67 and 68 done, I’ll also start some work on prepping softsub MKVs (also to go up on NAC) for everything I’ve fully finalized, since it’s been a while on that front.

Fixes/Edits! (65)

As Judai wanders in the forest early in the episode, he comes across a stack of old Duel Magazines; the front cover shows Ryou and is an issue from his winning streak days before his more recent loss to Ed.  Thanks to @paradoxi-kay​‘s great work in typesetting my translation onto the cover I blanked (which I detailed here), you’ll see it in English in the hardsub above.  The translation was first applied to the close-up of the cover that comes after #2 below, and then I took the translated cover and made it its own image that I put into the earlier shot as Judai approaches it while they’re all still tied up (detailed here).  The text reads, “Exclusive!! Kaiser Ryou Marufuji / Breaking down his Cyber Dragon deck!!! / In this issue: / -Duelists Du Jour / -Pro League Battle Data! / -Reader-Submitted Best Duels! / -Strategic Attack Decks by Type!” (Really appreciated Kay’s input on “Du Jour” because my original translation for that, “Duelists Who Are All the Rage,” wasn’t as catchy, lol.)

As Judai picks up one of the older Duel Magazines and flips it open, we see on the back cover an ad featuring the three Phantasms--it’s actually an in-show ad for Shadows of Infinity (since the episode aired around the time the pack came out in Japan); I detailed the process in blanking and translating it here (shared above).  The ad reads, "The Three Phantasms Descend!" featuring Uria and Raviel’s names on their images.

As we go to the Red dorm as Shou narrates about the Kaiser’s slump, we see a magazine page describing what happened to him since his loss to Ed; I covered my blanking/translating this in the link shared in #2.

We then see that it’s Shou reading the page from his own copy of Duel Magazine, this one more recent than Judai’s featuring Ed on the cover, though it features the same SOI/Phantasms ad on its back cover (now showing Hamon and its name as well).  Like with Judai’s issue, I used the Japanese cover and the dub’s edit as reference to just redraw Ed and Diamondguy enough to remove Ed’s name; Kay had started the translation placement and I finished it up.  For the SOI ad, like with #2, I added in the dub’s edit in pieces, tweaking it to match the original image more (since they again oddly edited the text out or redrew Uria/et al weirdly to do so).  We do now see more of the ad which shows that the trio’s names are on each of them, the English of which I added.

As Asuka snatches the magazine from Shou to work on cheering him up, to be consistent, I also worked in these cover translations to the magazine as she lifts then curls it up, using the dub’s blanked Phantasms edit as a base that I touched up a bit while adding back the Japanese cards.  Detailed more in #2′s link.  (We now also see that the ad reads on, “New! Shadow of Infinity - On Sale November 11th [2005]!”; the IRL booster pack came out in Japan on Nov. 17th, 2005, a few weeks before 65 aired.)

Asuka then lifts the curled-up magazine into view in a close-up, with the SOI/Phantasms ad visible which I also applied my translations above to as needed, using the dub’s blank edit as a base that I redrew parts of to touch up and match the Japanese image more.  Detailed more in #2′s link.

As Ryou meets Monkey Saruyama, he introduces himself by handing out his business card reading, "Saruyama Promotion - Representative Monkey Saruyama;" as detailed in #2′s link, I cleaned it up using Photoshop’s Clone Tool, then slapped the translation on using Calibri as the font.

As Ryou contemplates attacking Acid Slime with his Cyber Dragon and Mad Dog Inukai taunts him, as Mad Dog then slides in on a split-screen to “clear his doubts,” there’s a quick frame as Inukai takes over the screen where there’s a gap between his pecs and the split-screen edge.  I fixed it by just drawing in the rest of his chest in Photoshop to fill his side of the split-screen.

As Inukai starts his turn and activates his Contingency Fee Magic Card, there’s a frame where, as he’s sliding his hand with the card into the shot, the card itself slides ahead in his hand before his hand does; as a result, you can see a bit of the background just under the card before his hand catches up to the card in the next frame.  I fixed this by just duplicating the first frame here over it in Vegas.

Two here--first, after Ryou has his Proto Cyber Dragon attack Clone Slime, as Inukai begins to explain its effect, there’s a quick frame before the shot goes from a close-up to a slow zoom as he moves where his neck vanishes (new meme format go); I fixed this by just duplicating the previous frame in Vegas, while also correcting one of his looping lip-flap frames so that the scar on his chin is above the shading under his lip.  Then, as Inukai goes into Clone Slime’s effect and the shot slowly zooms out, we see Clone Slime on his Disk in Attack Mode when it’s in Defense Mode right now; fixed it by placing a proxy in Defense in AfterEffects for a frame, then re-keyframing that frame to the zoom-out in Vegas to put it in place.

After Acid Slime slips out of Inukai’s Cemetery as Clone Slime’s effect activates, Inukai moves to grab it before the two Slimes switch out, but Clone Slime’s still in Attack Mode on his Disk; fixed by placing the Defense-Mode proxy over it in AE, then moving it as he moves his Disk and applying a brief brightness increase as the light from Clone Slime being replaced with Acid Slime grazes it.

As Proto Cyber Dragon’s attack approaches Acid Slime in a quick shot, the card under it in Defense Mode is reversed (the name box should face to the left to match how it’s placed on his Disk); fixed by first applying the correctly-facing proxy in AfterEffects and moving it as the shot moves, then masking Acid Slime back in over it, along with the light coming from the attack as it starts to shine over its card.

As Ryou explains Overload Fusion’s effect, just before it starts to zoom out as he then chooses the six Monsters he’ll fuse, there are a few frames I noticed where Ryou’s whooshing hair throughout this shot suddenly stops whooshing; I fixed it by just masking in his whooshing hair from the previous frames for a few.

As Ryou taunts Inukai about how his Acidic Last Machine Virus will bother him no more, Inukai starts to slide in on a split-screen, but until his split-screen has fully slid in, there’s no border on its edge; I fixed it in Vegas by first masking out the border once it’s fully slid in, then moving it in another video layer with his split-screen for those nine frames.

As Ryou explains Chimeratech Overdragon’s multiple attacks, we see it reversed on his Disk; fixed by slapping on the correctly-facing proxy in AfterEffects, then re-keyframing it to the slow zoom in Vegas for the 94 frames it zooms out in (phew).

One error that I hoped to fix but scrapped happens as Chimeratech Overdragon’s first attack closes in on Inukai’s Multiple Slime, where we see a Defense-Mode card under it despite it being in Attack Mode the way Inukai summoned it (and since he then takes damage from the attack); couldn’t quite figure out how to light up the floor I’d redrawn under it with the ensuing explosion, and had sought a bit of help to get it right but ultimately that fell through. (Incidentally, not only did the dub not catch this as they dubified its card, but they reversed the card, at that, lol.)

Fixes/Edits! (66)

(Note: These are all flashback-related, and I detailed most of them [including a few new ones] in my post from Sunday that I linked just under the summaries; I went on to apply the fixes I’d applied in 66 to the respective episodes, so I’ll be brief here.  Reinserted fixes from a while back are in italics.)

(Episode 1 Flashback) I reinserted the fix I did to replace the blank Normal Monster on Judai’s Disk in Flame Wingman’s spot with its card as Antique Gear Golem crashes onto Chronos.  [Ep. 1 Flashback End]

(Episode 22 Flashback) As Misawa attacks with Litmus Death Swordsman to start his flashback, I reinserted the fix I did to detail the blank cards on his Disk with Diamond Dragon and Litmus Death.

As Misawa finishes explaining Wingbeat of Giant Dragon’s effect and it zooms out to Litmus Death, I reinserted my fix to his reversed card on Misawa’s Disk to flip it right-side-up.

Reinserted my fix to the repeat of #3 as Skyscraper fades.

Reinserted my fix to another repeat as Misawa explains Spirit Barrier’s effect.

R-R-Reinserted my fix to the r-r-repeat again as we see Misawa’s Disk while Judai explains Cyclone Boomerang’s effect (gotta love reused animation!) [Ep. 22 Flashback End]

(Episode 4 Flashback) As Judai prods Manjoume into choosing a card from his hand for A Hero Appears’s effect, I fixed Manjoume’s blazer looking semi-faded for a frame on his split-screen.

As Judai’s LP take a hit from V-to-Z destroying Burstlady, I fixed the four frames where the upper part of his Disk is missing the little bottom part that extends out a bit and Judai’s vanishing Disk wrist grip.

A bit complex, but I fixed Judai’s briefly-still-missing-then-vanishing-again wrist grip, the shading near his Cemetery slot, Judai’s arm becoming part of his Disk, and his wrist grip suddenly consuming his whole wrist. (Detailed in that Sunday post)

Reinserted my fix to the Attack-Mode Winged Kuriboh on Judai’s Disk to put it in Defense Mode as he discards two to activate Evolutionary/Transcendent Wings.

As Judai swings his arm around telling Winged Kuriboh LV10 to “send [V-to-Z’s] energy right back” at Manjoume, I reinserted my fix to put its Defense-Mode card in the spot on his Disk colored like the Monster Zone it’s on for a few frames.

A bit complex again recycling the Judai shot in #9, but I fixed his again-vanishing Disk wrist grip and half-Disk arm, his wrist grip suddenly consuming his whole wrist again, and his yet-again-vanished wrist grip, miscolored undershirt, and his half-Disk elbow while restoring some previous detail to his Disk. (Detailed in that Sunday post)

As Judai summons Featherman–to Shou and Chronos’s surprise–and has him lunge at Manjoume for the finisher, I reinserted my fix to keep the black faraway box that is Featherman on his Disk both as those two slide in on split-screens and as they slide back out. [Ep. 4 Flashback End]

(Episode 8 Flashback) I reinserted my fix to remove Featherman from Judai’s Disk as his LP drop from Cyber Dragon destroying it.

Reinserted my fix to a repeat of #14 as Judai’s excited about Ryou’s Time Capsule.

As Judai draws for his turn, I added a Fusion card over the dark-orange rectangle briefly in his hand as he draws it.

After Judai’s first hit on him, I fixed the error as Ryou Special-Summons another Cyber Dragon as a Monster in face-down Defense Mode on his second Monster Zone (detailed in that Sunday post).

Reinserted my fix adding Cyber Twin Dragon to Ryou’s Disk over a yellow rectangle.

As the screen zooms in on Judai after Ryou declares Cyber Twin’s attack, I added Thunder Giant to Judai’s third Monster Zone, then reinserted my previous fix adding it as it zooms back out while Judai uses A Hero Appears.

Reinserted my fix adding a few quick lip flaps to Judai as he says, “Partner,” out loud.

As Judai thinks about how Evolutionary Wings would evolve his Winged Kuriboh and we then see Bubbleman on his field, I added a missing Bubbleman card to his Disk.

Right after #21, I revised my previous fix to replace the Defense-Mode Mudballman on his Disk with an Attack-Mode Bubbleman, after I accidentally put it in Defense Mode before.

As Ryou grabs Power Bond from his hand before activating it, I reinserted my fix adding Ryou’s two missing Cyber Dragons to his Disk and then one over the blank Normal Monster card in his left hand.

As Ryou slips Power Bond into his Disk, I reinserted my fix adding those two missing Cyber Dragons onto his Disk.  [Ep. 8 Flashback End]

For the Ep. 67 preview, I added my translation of the notice left on the Red dorm by Napoleon which I’ll be using in the episode proper.

[kckenobi]

13, 15, and 16 for the fic writing questions!

13—Are there any things that might have happened in any of your stories, but you changed them at the last minute? (So-and-so dies, they don’t actually kiss, main character has long extended ballet-based dream sequence, etc.)

Answered here!

15—Does font matter to you when you’re writing a draft?

Yes!! I actually change the font depending on what draft I'm on lol—it helps me spot mistakes and see the story with new eyes. I usually start with Calibri for draft one, and after that I just pick something else I life for subsequent drafts! But it has the have the right ~vibes~

16—3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic.

Oh man. Hmmmhfhh this is SO HARD...

From @lynnpaper on The Thing About Falling:

whatever compelled you to write this, be it a silly little prompt or a fleeting thought or twelve hours of agonising over an idea, i can't help but feel that this comes from somewhere in your heart. nobody writes a fic like this, as poignant and layered as this, without going through something first. and maybe i'm wrong, but you really do have something special. can't deny it. i can't think straight. i don't know if i'm going overboard with this comment, but you've made me feel something tonight and i thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. absolutely fucking beautiful; thank you. ❤️

From anxiety_banana on Everything, In the Air:

It was so refreshing to see and read a fic that felt close to home in a bitter, but still soft way. It was like you were trying to tell me it's okay i promise others think like you it's okay and I hope you know that it made me really really happy to read, even if it ached a little.

From @katierosefun on A Million Little Times (back when we were still such new friends omg I remember just loving this comment bc I admired you so much and it meant the world to hear this :'))) and still does :')))

I had to re-read that passage over and over and over again because...oh my g o d??? The poetry of your words just...nO WORDS??? My head is full of too many thoughts but my heart is empty because?? Wow?? Those words just describe exactly how Anakin and Obi-Wan must feel, with both of them just tied and tangled in their own situations, and I'm just--oh my g o d you can feel how everything is just slowly ripping them apart and I'm--

And I know I was only allowed four but I HAVE to add @lightasthesun 's comments because litetally every single one makes me want to print it out and tape it to my wall. She picks out the lines she likes and says why she likes them, and it literally makes my LIFE every time. I couldn't even pick which one I liked best to list it here—they're all so special to me!!

So thank you all for these comments :')) they make writing especially wonderful!

fic asks

[thegeminisage]

Every time I think about broken road I get a little thrill, I’m so excited!!! I wanted to ask a few lighthearted writery questions— how often do you write? what word processor or site do you use? What font do you write in? For BR specifically, what’s your favorite (or easiest) POV to write in, and what’s the hardest/least fave?

ugh ty for this ask i love being asked stuff 🥺

1. i write every day or i try to write every day - i do most of my writing after midnight because it’s when everyone is asleep, so if i wind up having to go to bed early or if my after-midnight time gets taken up by something else, i usually can’t get any writing in that day, but i like to at least block out my next scene or do a little editing bc like, use it or lose it lol. i was doing pretty good on this project until about the middle of december when the holidays happened and i haven’t quite got back in the swing of it yet (december is my least favorite month and christmas isn’t ever officially over for me until after my mom’s birthday). originally i estimated it would take me 2-4 weeks to finish, and it’s been two and a half months, but the fact is i’ve actually only had 29 days of writing on it and i’m about 75% done, so i only undershot myself a little. 

^ behold the extremely official way i am keeping track of my wordcounts lol. when i sit down to work i can work but like...lately sitting down is the problem. these are not stellar wordcounts as far as my normal productivity level goes. when i really have the time and energy to dedicate to something i’m doing 2k a day minimum.

2 & 3. i’ve been using google docs so long that some of my docs have the “old” note system and are dated to the date when google started keeping track of edit dates, not when they were actually created or uploaded. google docs is my fav because it’s accessible from anywhere and also easy to collaborate in. hanging out in the same doc is how @callowyn and i became friends and wrote @cambionverse together!! there’s not a processing program in the world good enough to make me give up that collaborative element. you haven’t lived until someone is watching you write in real-time. it’s an excellent motivator. the other day @maulthots was hanging out in the broken road doc and i banged out almost 600 words in less than 15 minutes. u just don’t want to be boring when someone is watching you know? gotta type fast.

also, i use 11 calibri font and i keep my margins nonexistently small because i hate scrolling, i want as much on the page as possible.

...and sometimes i keep my page color dark when i have a headache. low contrast lyfe. tbh, i’d use a smaller font if i wasn’t so blind. for the chapter titles and title card - I LOVE DOING TITLE CARDS LIKE THIS it feels so fancy and showlike, i have been told it’s a bit of a Liz Thing specifically to do and yeah it’s in basically everything i have on ao3 - anyway for those obviously i like to pick out a different fancy font, even though no one but me will ever see it. this one is called rock salt, and my hand to god whoever made it ripped off the dean winchester handwriting font i made off of his suicide note back in 2010. they look so similar and “rock salt” is not a coincidence. i’m not mad but like between this and cambion being in a text book book can i get a little CREDIT please?? 

4. it’s only dean and john for broken road (there’s a third surprise pov near the end but i’m not saying who it is), and writing dean is the EASIEST thing in the world. after 327 episodes i’m very very VERY familiar with his voice and his cadence, and i figured out the hack to his dialogue ages back, which is to just write a normal sentence and then swap in as many winchesterisms as possible. dean speaks very casually so it actually works in my favor not to use a lot of fancy flowery poetic language (which i am bad at anyway lol my prose is......not great). w/ dean i can just be quick and plainspoken. me handshake emoji dean being uneducated hicks. 

on the other hand writing john pov is like eating glass, i hate it. i feel like i’m always either making him too sympathetic or not sympathetic enough. dean can be a bit of an unreliable narrator at times but at least i know what he is and isn’t self-aware about. john is 1000 times worse, his self-awareness is SUBZERO, and he’s just a big cryptic mystery, made more difficult by the fact that the writing team changed out so many times and his characterization ultimately wound up full of contradictions (john as described when he’s absent is actually kind of different from the john we see when jdm is actually onscreen). john is necessary for scenes where dean can’t be around, but i’m not happy about it!! ultimately though it was better than trying to balance pov time between a larger cast (there are 6 characters calling the bunker home rn). 

anyway ty for the ask <3 i love talking about what i’m doing, it’s a lot of fun esp when someone actually want to know lol

[kcabyap]

This is Calibri! She's 18 years old and she's pretty introverted, but she's a sweet girl c: she's blind in her left eye so most of the time she wears an eye patch because she's a bit insecure about it :c she has a twin sister named Callista who isn't albino like Calibri is, so she has brown hair and green eyes, and she's more extroverted by contrast lol. Also, unlike my other MCs, she has pre-existing magical abilities that she's been working on for the past few years before coming to the Devildom!

She likes to hang out in the library or in Satan's room because she likes books lol, her favorite genre is fantasy c: she also tries to be Mammon's voice of reason, but isn't always successful rip 😔 Solomon ends up becoming her mentor in like season 1, but she's always conveniently busy when he offers to cook for her jfgdgddhdd

She started off as one of many Undertale OCs I had a few years ago, and she used to be a skeleton girl, as evidenced by the fact that she's named after a font lol -🌼

Aww, she's adorable!! I do not blame her for being busy when Solomon-sensei wants to cook for her, she's probably doing herself a massive favour there 😂👏🏻

[the-writing-mobster]

⭐ :3

Eeeee, thank you for the ask!

I had to think long and hard about what I wanted to discuss; Chapter 8! Uuuggghhh. Part one is pretty underrated and there isn't a lot of feedback for it but it has MOST of my favorite moments. Mostly because of the foreshadowing and EXTREME sexual tension.

Also, I should mention: spoilers under the cut!

Papyrus was nowhere to be seen, but she froze when she caught Sans in the kitchen. He hadn’t noticed her presence yet, so she ducked away and hid behind the wall. 

He was mumbling to himself as he made coffee, clearly tired as hell. She poked her head out and noticed there was a list sitting on the kitchen island. Most likely for her.

“Sans! Let’s go!” shouted Papyrus as the front door slammed open. She flinched and jerked back into hiding as Sans groaned and stomped out of the kitchen. Frisk’s breath hitched as he marched past her. He grinned when he saw her.

“Good luck…” he purred...

I liked this chapter a lot. Frisk's first day on the job, getting to know her more, and of course Sans being just... Awful. Sans being awful was actually my favorite thing to write.

I also just... Really wanted to write a super domestic chapter. So chapter 8 is filled to the brim with cleaning and shit like that. It was supposed to be a break from all the action.

I've kind of always wanted to be good at housework (not for traditional reasons or anything, just for like... I hate being in a dirty environment but I suuuuck at cleaning and cooking and baking) so writing this was like a little bit of escapism. Weird that I'd find escapism in chores... 🤷‍♀️

(it would've only been made better if she'd had an actual french maid outfit... 😏)

Flowey eventually joined her after she took the nicely folded clothes upstairs. By then it was eight a.m. They worked together to dust. It was the dusting that started to drag on time.

I actually had to look up how long it would take to clean an entire house. I read like two articles on Maids and the hours they worked. One was on house maids... That's not what they're called I just— whatever. And the other was hotel maids. What I learned was that it took around five hours??? Yeah. Around five hours. And of course, it took longer than that for her because of Calibri.

As she stared into Calibri's silver eyes, she began to tear up at the beauty. 

Overcome by the unicorn's majesty, she began to sob and she stumbled back. It cocked its head in curiosity and studied her. Frisk's soul began to burn and glow from within her chest and those silver eyes almost seemed to be piercing right through her and studying the contents of her soul. Judging her for all she was worth. 

In myth, unicorns were said to come to young virgin girls and were only calm in their presence. It was the best way to trap and tame said magical horses. Obviously, Frisk is not a young virgin girl, but! Virginity is a construct and Calibri obviously loves her. Frisk doesn't feel worthy of being in his presence, but he judges the contents of her soul and... Well... Obviously she's pure of heart despite everything.

And also, there's a line in the Last Unicorn about Lady Amalthea that describes Frisk and the effect she has the monsters to a Tee.

“The Lady Amalthea beckoned, and the cat wriggled all over, like a dog, but he would not come near... She was offering her open palm to the crook-eared cat, but he stayed where he was, shivering with the desire to go to her"...[later, Molly asked the cat] "Why were you afraid to let her touch you? I saw you. You were afraid of her."

"If she had touched me," he said very softly, "I would have been hers and not my own...”

(I love this book) So obviously, Frisk is a unicorn to the monsters. Completely irresistible and once you go near her you belong to her forever. In the best way possible that is. I wanted to make this comparisons early on between her and a real unicorn.

"Merde!" She exclaimed as she shot out from the stable and sprinted to the shed to get the snow shovel. She slid on the ice of the driveway and almost fell onto her ass. She regained her balance and began to work at the pathway. 

Sans would've laughed his ass off at this. That is all.

As she looked through the catalogue of cookbooks that Papyrus owned, she noticed a common theme. Italian food. 

"Well isn't that ironic?" She murmured.

Frisk is so SICK of Italian food and she just can't seem to escape it!

"We arrested that Snowdrake Comedian today." The muffled voice of Papyrus alerted Frisk to his presence and she felt a spike of adrenaline enter her. Is this what cooking show contestants felt as the timer counted down?

"Why the fuck—what, Asgore can't handle some political satire?" She rushed about the kitchen to get the last remaining things she needed as she heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow.

Oh what's this? Foreshadowing??? The Angelicans aren't mentioned at all in Part One but their shadow is cast everywhere if you look close enough! Perhaps because everything was planned from the beginning. 😉

"Sans! Get your pathetic ass down here! Dinner is ready!" Barked Papyrus. Frisk heard a thump from upstairs and she flinched. Sans? I need to get out of here. 

Ahahaha! She hates him so much and I love it.

It was only until she was walking down the hall to her room when she heard a creak. She turned around and flinched when she saw Sans. He grinned at her, his plate of food in hand. His eyes rolled over her and she shrunk under his gaze. Never had she ever felt so uncomfortable around someone. The way his fanged grin leered at her, threatening to rip her to pieces. He was a shark and she was just a minnow. 

Now this part... This is my favorite part and the reason I chose chapter 8 to talk about.

He reached out to an in-table and knocked over a vase. She flinched as it thudded on the floor, and she slowly realized just what he was doing. She stared up at him with wide eyes as he leaned forward. 

"Pick it up," he demanded in a soft, menacing voice.

Ooooooof. Something about that is so awful but sooo... I don't know. I was literally grinning so hard when I wrote this. The spirit of Sans the Skeleton possessed me and I was just like "heh heh heh.... Get wrecked little girl."

Flowey glared up at Sans, but held his tongue for Frisk's sake. She looked down at the vase, and then back up at him with a scowl. She wanted to tell him no. Spit on him. Turn away. Slam her door. Flip him off. Stand up for herself… 

Alternative scene would be where she slaps him across the face and then he laughs at her and calls her interesting OR threatens her but that never happened so I never wrote it. 🤷‍♀️ Also she'd be actin strong but her hand would be STINGING because slapping hard bone would HURT.

 He was still grinning at her, and she swallowed her dignity. She didn't do any of those things. Slowly, she stooped down and grabbed the vase. She gathered the decorative feathers and stuffed them back inside as she replaced the vase on the table. That bastard. Does he really think he can just do this? … I guess he can. I'm basically their slave now. What a nightmare. Oh God… what am I going to do? 

Sans hummed in delight and gave her another lingering stare. Slowly, he nodded his head, a sort of smug satisfaction about himself as he turned away. She glared at him. 

I kinda laughed when I wrote this because I pictured him doing the most Smug McAsshole nod like he was so proud of himself for pulling that shit.

"Papyrus may act like he's in charge, but at the end of the day… I'm the guy that might just kill ya," he said as he got to his door. He winked at her before he slipped in and shut the door behind him. Left alone, she gasped for breath, as if there had been a pressure on her chest and the weight had finally been removed. She staggered and leaned against the wall for balance. 

The threat. The wink. The assholery. I love it. God. Writing this scene, I was so excited about it. I'd literally reread it over and over again. Also, this line he says comes back in a future chapter during a Part 3 torture scene. (Referencing past chapters is my favorite thing to do. It's like when a comedian references a joke in another joke in their set.)

Chapter 8 is definitely one of my favorites, but it's not the only one I want to talk about! Go ahead and send me stars (⭐) in my ask box if you want more "director" cuts for WDYW!

[mrsmunsons]

1, 4, 8, 12, 13, 21, 23!

1. how do you take your tea / coffee? -- Tea: 9/10 times, with cream and sugar (Equal, but sometimes I use raw sugar). I can go without cream, but never sugar. Coffee: Cream and Equal, regardless of it being hot or iced. If I'm buying iced coffee from someplace then I'll go for caramel or vanilla; Dunkin' swirls are my life.

4. what was your favourite tv show as a kid? -- Sailor Moon. I wanted a headpiece like hers. And her red boots!

8. how do you mark your spot in a book? -- I don't anymore, because I mostly read ebooks... buuuuuut I used bookmarks pretty frequently, growing up. If ever I lost or forgot it somewhere, I would dogear the page. It got to the point where I could remember page numbers without having to mark my spot, though. I used to be proud of that.

12. is your handwriting more print, cursive, or a mix? -- Depends. I struggled a lot with learning how to write as a kid, so as I got older I kinda just let my hand do whatever it feels like. If I have to write strictly in one form or another, I can do it. But if I'm just writing and not thinking about it, it's a mix. I got in trouble for that once.

13. what colour would your lightsaber be? -- I wouldn't wield a lightsaber if you paid me. But I want a red one. Because r e d.

21. the best ice cream flavour -- VANILLA BEAN. FIGHT ME.

23. default font when typing? -- It depends what and where I'm typing? Google Docs is Arial 10; AIM used to be Arial or Tahoma 8 (RIP); Word is Arial 10; work e-mails and IMs are Calibri 11; and Discord doesn't allow you to change settings, so I'm stuck with whatever their default is.