#That tag is full of old art probably. It's fine .. .. .....

[ranvwoop]

👁️🎂🌙🙈 🏊 🎭 💧❤️ 💚for Serena please.

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK :D. This is okay this makes sense. They have the same name pretty much </33 They are a fork of the same mnecraft skin, nearly, except Sea transcended mnecraft and became real and Seren did not. He also became emo. And, uh, I guess on principle transed their gender.

👁️ EYE - what colour are their eyes? do people notice their eyes? is there anything special about them (shows emotion easily, literally magical...)?

Seren has brown eyes because I think they’re pretty. I have too many brown eyed ocs but like… brown eyes. (Serena, in fact, has green eyes, because I thought they were pretty when I made her. They were both at one point self representations. My eyes are blue . the grass is always greener. etc.) (Neither are sonas anymore but when they were just mnecraft skins o7).

🎂 BIRTHDAY CAKE - when is their birthday? do they like celebrating it?

I’ve not given him one!! I do not think he likes celebrating it anymore because they are a sad sad man. Birthdays are a social activity and he doesn’t have many friends.

🌙 MOON - what is your oc's greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?

They want their kid/sibling/CVwoop back :(. Far enough for what he believes is necromancy and then obsessive guardianship to the point that it drives it away again, but, well, he’s sort of at a loss now! In general they are very driven. Pre-Incidents (™), he wanted nothing more than studying modded phenomenon and getting his hands on powerful magic artifacts :D. He also sort of wants the power that comes with this, I have a few like, concepts w/ mods and stuff, but….. You know, a normal amount of powerhungry.

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

He does NOT have control of the situation. He has never had control of the situation. He was absolutely winging it when he was an explorer and he’s winging it now. He is not admitting this. He’s a bit of a conman these days, which relies on having all of the cards, anyways. Everything is under control (“this is fine” dog meme).

🏊 SWIMMING - can they swim? or are they afraid of water? how well do they swim? how do they feel about swimming in the ocean?

They can! I think he’s okay at swimming. Nothing special. He would take Vwoop (water type) swimming, probably. He doesn’t like ocean expeditions. Ocean creatures are scary, actually. 

🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

He’s pretty straightforward, aside from working (Unethical Customer Service Voice). He views individual people in different ways but not necessarily as, like, a class of people. I think he is more pleasant around strangers though. He wants the lasting impression to be that he is, at least, Pretty Cool and Impressive.

💧 DROPLET - random angst headcanon

Hmmmm . He is kind of an angstfest as is because he is the inciting incident for another character and really just refuses to heal from these incidents. He’s still trying to peddle the prototypes for recreating his once-again-lost kid figure in a lab (marketed as Exotic Pets, mostly under the guise of “animal! But Ender! Rare! Wow.”. Most of them are dangerous. They require a waiver to be signed. He is truly the unethical breeder that one has warned you about). That’s kind of depressing.

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?

HMM. Unsure. He is not really in contact with a lot of people for long </3. Acts of service, probably.

💚 GREEN HEART - what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

He likes the outdoors. It’s comforting to just be around outside, especially in the outskirts of servers where there is nothing except terrain and the occasional structure. They just want to go on little adventures. Tender moment by a campfire type of guy, probably.

[auckie]

I think the things that offend me most nowadays in like, smaller interpersonal interactions rather than grand, sweeping trends in culture, are when people chose to not partake in a wide set of things. Like musical close mindedness, or refusal to try different foods from different cultures. Not watching an entire subset of films bc they’re ‘french’. Avoiding reading bc you say you have adhd and it’s too hard. Like dude I get it, I’m busy. I can be picky. Everyone can. But the willful ignorance of closing yourself off to those VAST portions of the human experience, and not having curiosity and a lust to learn and explore art that was made by someone worlds apart from you either in terms of their culture, era, whatever. I dunno man it just pisses me off so bad. I think it’s arrogant. Like oh you’re comfortable in your safe little bubble huh? And you’re enforcing its barriers with the excuse that you’re autistic and have sensory issues. With music made by black people?? lol okay. It is pretty presumptuous for me to assume malicious intent but I think those prejudices are borne from either the comfort of being someone who’s wealthy and probably white not feeling the need to learn past what they think is enough, or it’s a reflection of a society that’s taught you to prioritize what it shills— popular, current (white, depending where you live ig) artists who are making streamlined, easy to digest content. Often when I meet people with these issues they’ll have one particular ‘niche’, and it tends to be like. 70s music. Victorian literature. Anime and Japanese games. But they’re still not really investing beyond the media presented. Like there’s so much more to Japanese culture than liking some cartoons put out between 2010-2020. You don’t gotta become some sorta Einstein who learns the background of every little freak in FGO yeah. But don’t you wanna aim higher? Aren’t you interested in any of the historical figures? And nothings wrong with hopping onto a trend. You read Dracula bc of that Dracula daily thing. Cool! Read more. Some people will say they’re chronically ill or disabled and can’t get outside. That’s okay. The internet is full of things you can read other than fanfiction, YouTube has a shit ton of free music. There’s Wikipedia and free articles online if you have questions about things. Yeah nobody is spending four hours a day looking at the national archives website and studying art history but it’s imbued in the things around you, and youll absorb it ambiently as you go along. you dont have to be a jack of all trades and cover every major genre of every major medium, but it never hurts to try! I really love seeing ppl ask too. Bc it can be kind of humiliating to admit to what seems like some jackass hipster that you’ve never delved into, idk, Serbian films (lol not that one). And hopefully if whoever you’re asking will give you honest good recommendations and not berate you. I’m kind of berate a straw man rn I guess. The hostile tone def doesn’t lend to an atmosphere of sharing but I cannot tell you how many times I’ve rbed anything involving specifically jazz only to see someone rb and add the stupidest comment on the post, or in the tags, or go into my inbox to be like waaah I don’t like jazz bc it’s boring and old and for pretentious hypocrites who hate neurodivergent people! Like what are you TALKING about. Fine if you don’t like it but don’t try and rationalize that as a moral standing you shit lark. And just as they’re allowed to dislike jazz I’m allowed to not really enjoy people who don’t like jazz. Or country. Nautical knots. Knit wear. Watching urbex YouTubers get their shit rocked by squatters. Korean food. Pachuco fashion and stupid ugly low riders. Bollywood films. and they don’t want to try any of those things either yknow? The next thing I’m getting into is circuit bending.

[cadmusfly]

Tag Yourself: Unabridged Shitty Drawing Marshal of the Empire Edition

Yes All 26 Of Them + Bonus 2

drawn and compiled by yours truly, initial and probably inaccurate research assisted by Chet Jean-Paul Tee, additional research from Napoleon and his Marshals by A G MacDonnell, Swords Around A Throne by John R Elting and a bunch of other books and Wikipedia pages

captions under images

mike (Michel Ney)

- full of every emotion

- always has ur back

joe (Joachim Murat)

- it's called fashion sweetheart

- will not stop flirting

lens (Jean Lannes)

- bestie who will call u out on ur shit

- does not like their photo taken

bessie (Jean-Baptiste Bessieres)

- actually nice under the ice

- was born in the wrong generation

dave (Louis-Nicolas Davout)

- overachiever

- 20 year old boomer

salt (Jean-de-Dieu Soult)

- people think ur up to no good

- doesn’t cope with sudden changes 2 plans

andrew (Andre Massena)

- actually up to no good

- sleepy until special interest is activated

bertie (Louis-Alexandre Berthier)

- carries the group project

- voted most likely to make a stalker shrine

auggie (Pierre Augereau)

- shady past full of batshit stories

- will not stop swearing in the christian minecraft server

lefrank (François Joseph Lefebvre)

- dad friend

- in my day we walked to school uphill both ways

big mac (Étienne Macdonald)

- brutally honest

- won't let you borrow their charger even if they have 100%

gill (Guillaume Brune)

- love-hate relationship with group chats

- pretends not to care, checks social media every 2 minutes

ouchie (Nicholas Oudinot)

- needs to buy bandages in bulk

- a little aggro

pony (Józef Antoni Poniatowski)

- can't swim

- tries 2 hard to fit in, everyone secretly loves them anyway

grumpy (Emmanuel de Grouchy)

- can't find them when u need them

- complains about the music, never suggests alternatives

bernie (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte)

- always talks about their other friendship group

- most successful, nobody knows how

monty (Auguste de Marmont)

- does not save u a seat

- causes drama and then lurks in the background

monch (Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey)

- last to leave the party

- dependable

morty (Édouard Mortier)

- everyone looks up 2 them literally and figuratively

- golden retriever friend

jordan (Jean-Baptiste Jourdan)

- volunteers other people for things

- has 20+ alarms but still oversleeps

kelly (François Christophe de Kellermann)

- old as balls but still got it

- waiting in the wings

gov (Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr)

- infuriatingly modest about their art skills

- thinks too much before they speak

perry (Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon)

- low-key rich, only buys things on sale

- “let’s order pizza” solution to everything

sachet (Louis-Gabriel Suchet)

- dependable friend who always brings snacks

- lowkey keeps the group together

cereal (Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier)

- unnervingly methodical and precise about fun

- will delete your social media after u die

vic (Claude Victor-Perrin)

- loves spicy food but can’t handle it

- says they're fine, not actually fine

Bonus!

june (Jean Andoche Junot)

- chaotic disaster bisexual

- will kill a man 4 their bestie

the rock (Géraud Duroc)

- keeps a tidy house

- mom friend with snacks

[doubledeadstudio]

Hello! Welcome to the official Double Dead Studio Tumblr, the solodev behind Reanimated Heart, Another Rose in His Garden, and Pygmalion's Folly.

Reanimated Heart is a character-driven horror romance visual novel about finding love in a mysterious small town. There are three monstrous love interests with their own unique personalities and storylines.

Another Rose in His Garden is an 18+ erotic Omegaverse BL visual novel. Abel Valencia is an Omega who's hidden his secondary sex his entire life. Life's alright, until he meets the wealthy tycoon, Mars Rosales, and the two get embroiled in a sexual affair that changes his life forever.

Pygmalion's Folly is a survival murdersim where you play as Roxham Police Department's star detective, hellbent on finding your sister's killer... until he finds you. 

Content Warning: All my games are 18+! They contains dark subject matter such as violence and sexual content. Player discretion is advised.

This blog is ran by Jack, the creator.

Itch | Link Tree | Patreon | Twitter

Guidelines

My policy for fanwork is that anything goes in fiction, but respect my authority and copyright outside it. This means normal fan activity like taking screencaps, posting playthroughs, and making fanart/fanfiction is completely allowed, but selling this game or its assets isn't allowed (selling fanwork of it is fine, though). You are also not allowed to feed any of my assets to AI bots, period, even if it's free.

Do not use my stuff for illegal or hateful content.

Also, I expect everyone to respect the Content Warnings on the page. I'm old and do not tolerate fandom wank.

F.A.Q.

Who are the main Love Interests in Reanimated Heart?

Read their character profiles here!!

Who's the team?

Jack (creator, writer, artist), mostly. I closely work with Exodus (main programmer) and Claira (music composer). My husband edits the drafts.

For Reanimated Heart, my friend Bonny makes art assets. I've also gotten help from outsiders like Sleepy (prologue music + vfx) and my friend Gumjamin (main menu heart animation).

For Reanimated Heart's VOs, Alex Ross voices Crux, Devin McLaughlin voices Vincenzo, Christian Cruz voices Black, Maganda Marie voices Grete, and Zoe D. Lee voices Missy.

Basically, it's mostly just me & outsourcing stuff to my friends and professionals.

How can I support Double Dead Studio productions?

You can pay for the game, or join our monthly Patreon! If you don't have any money, just giving it a nice rating and recommending it to a friend is already good enough. :)

Where do the funds go to?

Almost 100% gets poured back into the game. More voice acting, more music, more trailers, more art, etc. I also like to give my programmer a monthly tip for helping me.

This game is really my insane passion project, and I want to make it better with community support.

I live in the Philippines and the purchasing power of php is not high, especially since many of the people I outsource to prefer USD. (One time I spent P10k of my own money in one month just to get things.) I'll probably still do that, even if no money comes in, until I'm in danger of getting kicked out the street… but maybe even then? (jk)

What platforms will Reanimated Heart be released in?

Itch and then Steam when it's fully finished. Still looking into other options, as I hear both are getting bad.

Will Reanimated Heart be free?

Chapter 1 will be free. The rest will be updated on Patreon exclusively until full release.

Are you doing a mobile version?

Yeah. Just Android for now, but it's in the works.

Where can I listen to Reanimated Heart's OST?

It is currently up on YouTube, Spotify, and Bandcamp!

Why didn't you answer my ask?

A number of things! Two big ones that keep coming up are Spoilers (as in, you asked something that will be put in an update) or it's already been asked. If you're really dying to know, check the character tags or the meta commentary. You might find what you're looking for there. :)

Will there be a sequel to Pygmalion's Folly?

It's not my first concern right now, but I am planning on it.

Tag List for Navigation

Just click the tags to get to where you wanna go!

[borninwinter81]

William Blake and Good Omens - an intertextual analysis

Please note: I did another version of this and posted it, but it was quite hurried, way too short, and was incorrect in a number of ways so I deleted it. However it had already been reblogged by the time i did so. If you happen to see another version of this meta that's not the right one, this is the version I'm happy with!

After my previous post re William Blake and Good Omens did so well, and so many people showed an interest I've decided to do a more in depth piece. This is focused upon the TV version of Good Omens, not the book.

Please don't tag Neil in this - although it's mostly textual analysis I do a very small amount of S3 theorising, and I know he doesn't want to see that.

I am in no way suggesting that Neil and Terry specifically wrote Good Omens with Blake in mind, I honestly just wanted an excuse to write more about Blake because I love his work so much, and I thought it would be interesting to try and apply some intertexuality since the works will contain similar themes, both being about God, religion, humanity, and angels and demons.

I also should stress that I am not an expert on Blake, there are people far more qualified to comment on him than I. I'm just a former literature student who loves his work.

There have been many different interpretations of Blake's work over the years, so it's completely fine to disagree with someone else's ideas about it, as with any work of art or literature. And although this piece is likely to be long, I'll barely be able to scratch the surface of all the possible meanings that could be ascribed to it.

Much like the old adage that if someone claims to understand quantum physics they're lying, I'm not sure anyone can truly fathom the full meaning of Blake's philosophy (especially in his later prophetic works, fuuuuuuck those beasts....), so if you're confused by him don't be discouraged, that's perfectly normal!

That being said, I wish to discuss the parallels between Good Omens and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, my personal favourite and probably the most accessible of his longer works.

"Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell."

This excerpt is from near the opening and sets out the central idea of the work - that there is an essential duality to humanity, and each person is a combination of extremes. These extremes are not at war with each other, but rather are equally necessary, hence the "marriage" of the title. "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" is a metaphor for the human experience.

Consistently throughout The Marriage... Blake refers to the two extremes as Reason and Energy. These terms could be construed in a number of different ways: thought versus emotion, mental versus physical, restraint versus desire, temperance versus excess, caution versus impulsiveness, and following the rules versus free will.

Blake's use of the word "Reason" in this context may be somewhat confusing, however he likely chose it because of his negative feelings towards science and the Age of Enlightenment. Blake saw literal visions of angels and prophets and the divinity of all creation, and hated that science reduced everything to formulas, calculations, and materialism, leaving the world bereft of wonder. "Art is the Tree of Life. Science is the Tree of Death" as he put it.

His ideas about "reason" are best expressed by his painting "Newton". Though inspired by the scientist, it is not a portrait - instead it depicts a figure deeply engrossed in scientific drawings and calculations, totally ignoring the beauty all around him - see below.

In the context of The Marriage... Reason is "passive" because it involves thought, caution, self-restraint, and doing what you are told, all states which block action. Energy is "active" because it is physical, emotional, impulsive and allows you to act based on your own choices and desires. It's quite clear that Blake feels "energy" is the preferable state - he tells us as much in the next section:

"The Voice of the Devil

All Bibles or sacred codes, have been the causes of the following Errors. 1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul. 2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul. 3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies. But the following Contraries to these are True. 1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. 2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy. 3. Energy is Eternal Delight."

So the body is an aspect of the soul, not separate from it, Energy comes from the body, it is Reason which places limits upon Energy, but Energy is eternal delight. Physicality, desire, impulsiveness, emotion, sensual pleasure and free will are not wrong or evil, they are aspects of the human soul and it is from them that we derive our enjoyment of life.

This does not necessarily mean that Reason is always bad. After all, Blake tells us that both are necessary for human existence. Sometimes temperance, caution and thought before action are required. But Reason becomes negative when it "usurps its place and governs the unwilling", i.e. when it completely supplants Energy and becomes the sole guiding factor, forcing passivity.

The Angels of The Marriage... are governed by "systematic reasoning", therefore they are wholly creatures of Reason. They are also "all religious" meaning they believe the "errors" stated above. His Devils by contrast "hate religion" meaning they believe the "contraries", which are the true statements according to Blake. It does not necessarily follow that they are wholly governed by Energy, merely that they believe Energy is "eternal delight".

It is worth noting at this point that Blake saw God and religion as totally separate. For Blake, "God" is that connection with divine wonder which was integral to his life; he tells us plainly that "all deities reside in the human breast" and that "the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God". In other words all humans have a direct and intuitive link with God and don't require the church, Priests, or a religious framework and adherence to a set of rules in order to reach moral decisions. These rules exist only to "enslave the vulgar".

The importance of this ability to make one's own choices about a moral course of action is shown by one of the "Memorable Fancy" sections of The Marriage...

Blake relates how a Devil is able to use an Angel's "systematic reasoning" against them:

"if Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath, and so mock the sabbaths God? Murder those who were murder'd because of him? Turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery? Steal the labor of others to support him? Bear false witness when he omitted making a defence before Pilate? Covet when he pray'd for his disciples, and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments; Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules."

The Angel has no way to refute the "reasoning" that Jesus was governed by Energy and "impulse", i.e. his own morality, the "voice of righteous indignation", not reasoning and the rules laid down by Heaven. And because Jesus is the Messiah he must be virtuous, therefore Energy is virtuous. The Angel immediately allows himself to be consumed by fire and is resurrected as a Devil.

How can these concepts apply to the world of Good Omens?  This was where my first draft was totally incorrect, as I tried to transfer Blake's ideas about Angels and Demons and Heaven and Hell wholesale, applying "reason" to Aziraphale and Heaven and "energy" to Crowley and Hell.  In fact the divide is slightly different in the GO-verse: Crowley and Aziraphale *both* represent Energy, and it is Heaven and Hell that act according to Reason.

At first glance Aziraphale may appear to toe the line - he needs creative application of the rules to make him comfortable with trying to avert the apocalypse, and when he doesn't like the way matters are being handled by the Archangels he seeks a higher authority and goes straight to God. He'd clearly prefer someone to be confirming the rightness of his actions for him. However this doesn't mean that he won't act on his own.

Immediately upon his introduction to the story he has given away his flaming sword, an action that he took impulsively because he felt it was right, not because someone told him to. It bothers him, but he does it anyway.

In the Job storyline, though he initially looks for some loophole within the rules that will allow him to save Job's children, in the end he directly goes against Heaven to do it, even though he believes he is going to Fall and become a Demon for having done so.

Though he resists it and exhausts all other possible avenues first, he eventually does take an active role in averting the apocalypse in S1.

He hides Jim at great personal risk to himself and against the will of both Heaven and Hell, again because he feels it is the right thing to do.

He is therefore perfectly capable of independent action from a position of "righteous indignation".

On a more basic level, he enjoys worldly pleasures, which all come from "energy" according to Blake's philosophy. Food and drink most obviously, but also books, music, dancing, theatre, art and so on.

Crowley is more easy to place as acting from Energy - in spite of the obvious aesthetic differences between them, he also loves worldly pleasures. Alcohol and coffee, snazzy clothing, driving his car with Queen blaring on the stereo, going to lunch with Aziraphale, Shakespearean comedies. All things he isn't supposed to want or need, and which baffle other Demons, in the same way that Aziraphale's desire for food baffles the Angels.

And he's absolutely willing to act according to his own moral impulses when they conflict with Hell's orders (or Heaven's), be it saving Job's children, ensuring that Elspeth doesn't die by suicide, or averting the apocalypse. Yes, he'll try to hide his "good" actions in order to avoid punishment by Hell, but he's firmly "on his own side".

Conversely, Heaven and Hell are both part of the structure of religion in this story, are strictly adherent to a set of rules, and their inhabitants appear to have no real desires of their own, other than possible advancement within the systems they uphold. They are "passive" in that their functions allow the status quo to continue and the "great plan" to unfold as they believe it is meant to, even though each side expects a different outcome.

Again, applying Blake's philosophy, I would say the reason for this is that "energy is from the body". Crowley and Aziraphale have both been given bodies in order that they can exist on earth, and *have* existed on earth for 6000 years, therefore "energy" - physical pleasures and free thinking - have become a part of who they are.

On a more fundamental level, possession of a body can be equated to humanity, and humanity has been shown as the most powerful force of all in this story, its influence having led to Adam becoming "human incarnate", and thus acting according to what he feels is right, instead of fulfilling the function he was destined for.

Heaven and Hell contain no material objects, and the Angels and Demons are spiritual beings, having no bodies, so they are not open to energy, and therefore are wholly governed by Reason, and the preservation of the religious structures within which they exist. Structures which, as for Blake, may not actually have anything to do with God herself. In S1 she is a distant observer, clearly aware through her narration of all that is going on, but not interceding in any way. In S2 she is barely present save for her voice being heard briefly in Job, and overlaid with Gabriel's on two occasions.

Bearing all this in mind, what predictions can we make regarding S3 by applying Blake's philosophy?

"The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.

For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at [the] tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite and corrupt.

This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment."

The parallels of the cherub with his flaming sword, and the passage of 6000 years should be obvious to anyone reading this - they have of course been lifted directly from the Bible as they are in GO.

I have read some metas which speculated that Aziraphale's bookshop, or perhaps Earth itself, is a metaphorical stand-in for Eden or The Tree of Life. Aziraphale has been commanded to leave his "Eden" and will now be instrumental in causing the whole of creation to become infinite and holy, but Blake tells us this will be done by an improvement of sensual enjoyment, which arises from Energy not Reason.

Sensual enjoyment is something which is intrinsic to Aziraphale's character, and this could make his placement in Heaven very important.

Putting aside all the "final fifteen" theories and taking matters at face value, Aziraphale tells us that if he's in charge he can make a difference - he needs to subvert the system from the inside out. The most subversive thing of all could be that a sensualist who acts according to "the voice of moral indignation" and "Energy" has become the supreme Archangel. We have seen in Blake how a realisation that Energy could be virtuous was enough to convert an Angel into a Devil (incidentally, does the image of an Angel being consumed by fire and emerging as a Devil seem familiar at all...)

We may have seen the beginnings of this already. Gabriel and Beelzebub became open to Energy from such little things as visiting earth, spending time in one another's company, and their mutual enjoyment of a song, which has given them wants and desires beyond those dictated by Heaven and Hell. This is enough to make them wish to leave their roles behind.

It's possible that the same may happen with Muriel. They haven't yet imbibed food or drink, but they have shown an enjoyment of books, which are an earthly pleasure, and open the reader up to new ideas and ways of thinking.

Of course, this would lead to questions regarding the Metatron's statement that he has "ingested things", and whether this means he is acting from reason or energy. Of course the simplest explanation is that it is a manipulation tactic, and he is lying about having done so, but if true that statement has some interesting implications. However, this is now super-long and I'm out of juice, so will leave others to speculate. I may return to this in the future!

There we go, hope you enjoyed. I doubt this will reach nearly as many people as my first Blake post, but if a few find it of interest then my work is done!

[keganexe]

Setting Up a Zine Layout for Print (with Affinity Publisher)

Listen up shits spoons

Heyo back with another guide for folks new to art and layout! In this one I'm gonna talk about setting up your zine for print with a commercial printer (Like Mixam). If you wanna look at my other guides you can see them here (as of the time of this one I've done one other guide, but I enjoy doing these so I'll probably do more as time permits)

I'm specifically gonna be talking about using Affinity Publisher 2 because its what I do all my professional work in, but the ideas should hold solid for other programs like Adobe InDesign, Publisher 1, or others! I'm also gonna talk specifically with Mixam measurements since they're my printer of choice.

I'm going to get real into the basics of this one, so if you've done a good bit of layout already this is probably all old hat for you. I'm specifically skipping around the topic of Color Management, but I talk about it a LITTLE.

This is a lot of text, so if folks would like I can probably record the setup some time in the future if that would generally be helpful? Lemme know what we want haha

Okay lets dive in though

So lets start at the very beginning which is choosing a page size. I'm going to assume we are working with Letter sized paper because that's what most folks in the US do, which means we want to set the pages up to be half letter. This is gonna give us a zine that folds like this just for clarity.

So lets hit File->New... up top, and you'll get a screen that looks like this. We are going to change our measurements to be Page Width 5.5 and Page Height 8.5 which is our measurements all folded and whatnot. We want to set our DPI to 300 so the printer has plenty to work with and we don't end up with pixely shit on the pages.

Under the Pages tabs things should default correctly, but we want Facing Pages to make layout a little easier, and we want to start on the Right with a single page. This tab should look like this

Next we are gonna hop on over to the Color Tag the long of the short of this is we want to work in CMYK/8. I'm specifically working with the color space used by Mixam within CMYK/8, but your computers default should be fine here, so just set your Color Format to CMYK8, and let it choose the default for Color Profile.

I don't personally set Transparent Backgrounds because I think they're a fucking eyesore, but that's dealer's choice and if you prefer them what's wrong with you good for you.

Color Management is really a pretty complex topic I'm not really good at talking about because I don't have the knowledge I should on it (I've largely worked in Black and White!), but here is a really solid primer on why we want to work in CMYK over RGB, and why that's so important for printing.

Hopping over to the Margins and Bleed tags, we are gonna do some minor changes to the default. If you're laying out something over say 60 pages I'd look at editing the inner margins here a bit.

I'm gonna go off the Mixam Full Bleed Print guidelines, and give myself some extra space for safety, but if your printer has other thoughts you should follow those instead. I've found that generally these guidelines work for most projects so you're usually safe to follow this bit as is. If you don't know what Margins or bleed are, I'd just read through the full bleed print guidelines linked above because it's a great primer. If you don't care or already know, keep reading.

For Margins we are gonna include margins and set our inner margins to 1 inch, and our outer/top/bottom margins to .5 inches

For Bleed we are gonna set everything to .25 inches for safety, Mixam only needs .125 inches.

Finally, so we don't have to go through this every single time, we are going to save this setup by clicking the button up top (next to where it says Letter* on my screen). I'm calling mine Mixam Half Letter Zine so I can remember it next time.

FINALLY you can click Create at the bottom right of the popup, and if you've done it right you should be greeted with a screen that looks somewhat like this

Now we're gonna set up some Master pages, font and paragraph styles, baseline grids, and guides to get the best looking zine possible.

At the top of the screen we wanna go to View->Preview mode, and make sure its unselected. This is gonna make sure we can see all the setup we are doing now, you can unselect it at any time (by hitting the toggle or Ctrl+shift+w) to see what the zine looks like without our guidelines on once we get them setup. Also on the view menu we want to turn on basically everything except Grid in the top bit. Here's what your menu should look like, and what your page will look like if things are setup right!

Okay so lets start with Masters! Setting up a good flexible master page or two is a great way to make sure your Zine keeps a consistent look throughout, and it carries your setup across pages! Look to the top left of the working space, and lets go work on Master A by double clicking on it.

I'm going to setup a quick set of guides just so I can lay things out a bit easier! While on Master A hit View->Guides and under Column Guides we are gonna add in 2 Columns and 3 Rows with a Gutter of .125 inches. The margins should be correct, and we want the Spread to be at x:0 y:0 which it should by default. In a lot of circles you will hear this called The Grid, but my friend Clayton did a great guide on this already so I'm linking that here. I also like to set some Horizontal and Vertical guides just so I know where the exact center of the working area is, so I'm going to make 2 Vertical Guides at 2.5 and 8.5, and a Horizontal Guide at 4.25 inches. The long of the short here is this gives us a lot of room to snap things to in the future. I set my Column Guide to pink to make it stand out a little more, but when you export this it'll disappear so just set it to whatever color works best for you.

With the master set, click back over to Page 1, and you should see it now has a series of guidelines based on this master. Hell yeah.

Lets move on to text styles now! These are going to save you a lot of hassle in the future with making sure everything matches, and works how you like. Double check that you're off the Master, and then lets make a text box using the Frame Text Tool, and lets get ourselves a text box somewhere on this page. The placement doesn't SUPER matter here because we are just going to erase it at the end.

Toss a few lines of text into this box, I usually use Title, Header, Body Text, and then 3 lines of Bullet Text

Now we are gonna hop into the Text Styles menu. I keep mine pinned on screen, but if it isn't visible, you can find it under Windows->Text->Text Styles

Now highlight each of these lines of text, and double click the appropriate text style from this menu (ie we are gonna set Title to Header 1, Header to Header 2, etc). It'll look something like this when you're done

Now we're gonna change each of these lines of text to look how we want! For the example I'm making my titles and headers in Bellybeans FG, and setting the rest of the text to Open Dyslexic and resizing them so they look good.

My page looks like this now

Now's a great time to mention that there is a difference between Rich and True black, and it's confusing and it fucks a lot of folks up. The link up above (the primer on CMYK above RGB) talks some about your blacks, and links to a follow up article about them! You can skip reading any of that for now (but like you should), because the tldr here is going to be make SURE that if you are using Black you have the color set to c:0 y:0 m:0 k:100 if you don't wanna have issues later!

Now we want to update our font styles to match! To do this we are going to go back and individually highlight each line of text, and then right click the matching Text Style, and hit Update. The screens should look like this.

Next we are gonna set up a baseline grid! This makes it so that text on one side of a spread is gonna line up correctly with text on the opposite side of the page, and just helps with making pages look good and even! We want to set the grid Relative to the Top Margin, and then set the spacing to whatever you feel is correct in your heart of hearts. These are the settings I've used, but do whatever looks good here, there are probably some hard and fast rules for how to do this well, but I do not know them.

On my specific example you can see my Bullets are really spread out, and I don't like that, but the Body Text lays out much nicer. Lets deal with some spacing issues!

We are gonna hop on over to the Paragraph tab now, for me this is another tab on the Text Styles Window, but if you don't have it visible Windows->Text->Paragraph should bring it up.

So for me personally I want all my bullets to be on the following line, and not skip a whole line between them. I'm going to highlight all my text, and in this menu I'm going to go to Spacing > Space After Paragraph and set the amount to 0 pts.

You can also go further into this tab to change some more rules about what your bullets look like (things like how big your tabstops are, what the bullets look like, etc) but I'm not getting into that here!

After all this I'm gonna hop back into text styles, highlight each line of bullets, and Right Click->Update style on each of them (Just like we did previously!)

It's really tempting to skip this section of setting up your zine, but it enables a lot that can really help you out a ton in the long run. Having standardized Headers allows easy updating of headers and titles across the document, easy setup of Table of Contents for folks using them, and also on export is going to auto-bookmark the pdf for folks using PDF formats. It really pays to take time and set things like this up correctly the first time. After you're happy that this all looks good, you can go ahead and erase this text box.

Now we can break into zine layout proper, but if you just wanted basics you can stop here! Whatever you do from here is gonna print pretty decently.

If you'd like to stick around I'm going to set up some slightly nicer master pages, talk about why I use multiple masters, set up page numbers, and get us a table of contents!

So from hereon I'm just gonna work on laying out a basic Zine. So let's hop back into our Master Pages, and start setting up some flexible masters. I know I want at least two masters, one where I have text on both pages, and one where I only have text on the rightmost page. For right now we are going to just work on the spread with text on both pages, so I'm going to create a text box on both pages within the spread that fills the entirety of that guide we set up earlier. On the leftmost page, I'm going to right click the text box with the Frame Text Tool selected, and I'm going to choose to Insert Filler Text so I can see how everything looks.

Make sure this text is in your Body Text Style, and then click the little triangle on the text box

I'm now gonna select the textbox on the rightmost of the spread. If you did it properly, your page should look somewhat like this.

After I'm happy with this page, I'm going to erase the text in both boxes. I wanna add in some page numbers now. They aren't going to fit in the boxes here, but if you remember correctly I left myself a little bit of wiggle room when I set up the margins! Mixam needs .25 in clear, but my boxes are all .5 inches from the edges of the page. To make sure I don't egress the space too badly here, I'm going to set up a new horizontal guide from the View->Guides page we used previously, and I'm going to set this guide at 8.25 in which is the true bottom edge of our workable space.

I'm going to create new text boxes for our page numbers that line up with the outer edges of our guides, and the new true-bottom line I just set up.

It looks like this, but there's an eye icon which means no text in this box is going to be visible!

No worries this is because our baseline grid isn't playing nicely here, we are gonna break it in a moment, but for the mean time lets right click this text box, and select Insert Fields->Page Number

On the left page I'm also going to Bold and Left Align this box, but otherwise keep it in my Body Text Style. With the text all highlighted, I'm going to hop into the Paragraph window again, and scroll down to Baseline Grid->Align to Baseline Grid, and turn that option off.

My page now correctly shows a single # in the spot I'd want my page numbers to be. When this master is used, that number will automatically update to be correct! I'm going to duplicate this text box, and drag it onto the right page of the spread, and set the alignment to Right. I'm going to refill the textboxes with Filler Text for a moment, and turn Preview Mode on so I can make sure I like the page. For me this master now looks like this

I'm going to duplicate this master now, and on the left page of the spread I'm going to remove both text boxes. I like to name my masters so I know what they are at a quick glance. This is going to leave me a second master that looks like this.

You can get really involved on your master pages generally! I'm not doing anything fancy with this one, but previous projects have that heavily used masters might have pages that look more intense and include things like photo boxes, more complicated sets of text boxes, and even some text to use as a guide as I go.

Lets hop back to Page 1 of our doc, and leave the masters behind

Page 1 is going to be the title page for the book, but it likely now has a bunch of details now that you don't particularly need. If you have a master you don't want on a page, you can right click the page, and click Clear Masters.

I'm almost out of images on this post so I am gonna go mostly imageless from hereout. I'm gonna toss some text on pages, and then make a table of contents, and get my page numbers fixed up since most people don't actually want to count the Cover as Page 1 as far as page numbering goes.

With the project laid out, and the pages where I want them, the actual "Page 1" is going to start on Page 5 for me. Looking at the pages on the left side, I'm going to right click Page 5, and click Start New Section. On this new section I'm going to fill it out so the new section starts on page 5, and restarts the numbering at 1. Here's what it looks like for me.

On page 3 I want to include a Table of contents so if the ToC window isn't visible I'm gonna hit Window->References->Table of Contents, and then in this window I'm going to hit the insert button. You can really dial in a lot of settings here, but as long as you've been using those Text Styles I mentioned previously, it should be pretty easy! Since I've been using only Heading 2 to start chapters, I'm going to unselect Heading 1 since it is effectively only being used on the ToC page and the cover, and I don't think folks need help finding those. This ToC feature rocks and as long as your page numbers are correct, and you use your text styles it should auto-update! If it doesn't there's a refresh ToC button on this window as well. Regardless (and perfectly using my 30th image) this is what it looks like for me now.

You'll also note I updated the text styles here as well! Anyway this is a real overview of zine layout for print, there's probably more things I should cover, but I'm out of images and tired so I'm leaving it here. If this was helpful I'm gonna put this template up on my itch after I clean it up some down the line.

I'm gonna have to come back with a Part 2 that talks about exporting and whatnot, but this is all I can realistically fit in a post for now.

If you get any use out of this and wanna throw a few bucks my way you can do that here

and if you have any questions I'll answer what I can! Just shoot me an ask on here, or like annoy me on my discord (its in my pinned post)

okay thanks bye

[wordywarriorwrites]

Pedro Scout Status

I've decided to keep a master post of my Scout activities for @pedroscouts!

Check out my status updates below the cut!

Took the Pledge: Took the pledge and became a Pedro Scout!

Joel Miller: I read @undercoverpena-fics Midnight Bedsheets. I gasped. I swooned. I experienced THE FEELS!

Fluff + Smut: For a story I wrote called Assignation.

Blocked a Porn Bot: I know we all have done had to do this...

I Set Sail on the Friendship: I asked @atinylittlepain for a go-to Pedro gif, and their choice did NOT disappoint. 🤣

Enemies to Lovers: So, I'm not sure if this is breaking the rules, but I'm going old school with @frannyzooey Listen fic, because DAY-UM. 🥵🥵

Played a Tag Game: I have played MANY tag games on Tumblr. Hahah

Friends to Lovers: I Like The Way You... by @undercoverpena is a damn fine example of this trope. Absolutely loved it from start to finish. 🥰🥰

Ezra Fic: I've been reading Adversity by @the-ginger-hedge-witch. Can't wait to see what happens next on their adventure!

Hurt/Comfort: Walls of Glass by @sixhours. So beautifully written. An emotional rollercoaster that you feel with every word.

Frankie Morales: Of course, we've got @frannyzooey out here, showing us how it's done with Drive-In. Oh, lawd!!

Giflet: The entire giflet masterlist by @morallyinept is epic, but I particularly enjoyed The Wolf & The Lamb.

AskNado: Completed!

One Bed: This isn't a "traditional" one-bed trope, but Squirming by @frannyzooey definitely has the same vibe because of the whole "share one sleeping bag" thing it has going on.

Jack "Whiskey" Daniels: Omg, I've read Palomino so many times. @fuckyeahdindjarin wrote such an epic romance that I just... ::: sigh:::

Fan Art: I've for sure loved and shared a lot of great fan art.

Slow Burn: I read Death and An Angel by @littlemisspascal and was hooked from chapter one. Binge-read the entire thing in one sitting, and was completely invested from start to finish. Such a beautiful and creative love story!

Crack/Dieter: I got a hilarious two-for-the-price-of-one with Low Hanging Gruit by @covetyou. This was another recommendation that definitely made me laugh out loud. Googled a Term: I can't tell you how often I've had to Google something fic-related. I'm old. I can't keep up with the "cool kids" anymore...

Got Silly in the Tags: It is rare for me to get really silly in the tags. I like to use my tags for organizing (type A much?) and I mostly get silly in the reblog with comments/gifs.

Marcus Moreno: Throwing it back to @frannyzooey and The Secret series, which was my fic intro to Marcus. Deliciously written. Chefs kiss (per usual).

Song Fic: It's not a "traditional" song fic, but I Hear a Symphony by @projectionistwrites is all centered around Joel's rediscovering his love for music.

Coffee Shop AU: Again, it's not 100% traditional, but Hot Coffee by @omgreally was a treat of a one-shot that gave me the jitters!

Rom-Com: Grays by @fuckyeahdindjarin made me laugh from the get-go. By fan-fic standards, it's probably considered an "oldie," but it's definitely a goodie.

Awakened a Kink: I have no children. I also have no desire to have children. But breeding kink fics sometimes makes my brain go "brrr." Especially if it's mixed with competency and the reader is taken care of/protected.

Forced Proximity: @goodwithcheese recently penned Girl Next Door and when I say I am UNWORTHY... I mean... Jesus H. Christ...

Dark Fic & Max Phillips: Blood & Tinsel by @morallyinept is a dark(ish), spicy, smutty mix that pulls you in from the first sentence!

Javi G: Care for a Little Golden Hour by @all-the-way-down-here is a Javi G. x Male Reader fic full of spice and care.

Sent a Horny Anon: I've sent them anon and not anon. LOL

Whump: Omg... Tonight You Belong To Me by @intheorangebedroom is the whumpiest-whump that ever whumped. If you're into angst and being all up in your feels, this is a fic for you!

Din Djarin: An oldie, but a goodie from @charnelhouse called In the Dark. It's the "we almost died" smut story we all know and love.

Soulmate: Again, Death and An Angel by @littlemisspascal was an amazing fic. A totally different take on the soulmate trope that had me hooked from chapter one. I absolutely loved it!

Fluff: Let Me by @polaroidpascal is a very gentle fic about taking care of your partner and giving them a bit of extra love - especially when they need it most.

Bookshop AU: The Book of Love by @undercoverpena is still one of my favorite Bookshop AU fics to read. Full of all the feels and fluff and flirting.

Mortifying Typo: I think we've all done this before. LOL

Marcus Pike: All the Time in the World by @whataperfectwasteoftime was a beautiful one-shot about a couple's first time together. Very romantic and full of emotion and so very, very gentle. I loved it!

Angst: Emergency Contact by @javiscigarette definitely hit me right in the feels. So much emotion packed into a one-shot!

Western: There are two that stick out in my head: Palomino and Adversity. Both are so amazing!

Dave York: Just read Second Sight by @goodwithcheese and literally had to dig my own grave because I perished. PERISHED, I tell you.

Booped: Oh, you know I booped. I booped my way to the top. lmfao

Oberyn Martell: Dancing Phantoms on the Terrace by @janaispunk didn't have to come for my throat like it did... :::ugly crying:::

[theriu]

River Reads Midnight Sun

Well met, traveler! This is the starting post for my experiment, wherein I, who have never read the Twilight books or seen the movies, read Midnight Sun (basically Twilight from Edward's perspective) and commentate for (hopefully) your entertainment! I decided it would be easiest to do this a chapter at a time, and my commentary will essentially be a summary of each chapter so people equally unfamiliar with the story can follow along. You can follow or block this experiment with the tag #river reads midnight sun.

I think that should do it! Let's get started with:

Chapter 1: First Sight

In which Edward finds high schoolers very Boring and Inane, and also nearly goes bonkers over a potential snack.

First things first: Can we talk about how gross pomegranates look? Is the cover art SUPPOSED to resemble an optical illusion between a halved pomegranate and a bleeding heart? Either way, EW.

Right, on to business!

Edward is bored, you guys. He is SO BORED. High school is so boring. Purgatory is mentioned, as well as “tedium” and “monotonous.” He really wants us to know how bored he is, even though the word “boredom” is not used until the sixth paragraph. But trust me, he’s very bored. One begins to wonder why the immortal 100+-year-old vampire is choosing to hang out daily in such a boring place, but I’m sure it will be explained.

Now we learn about his mindreading powers! This is also very boring because most of the minds he has to read are petty high school minds. By the way, the inane sheeple chatter in the school mindscape today is all about the new girl! I wonder who she could be! Ed sure doesn’t care! He can see every angle of her face via peoples’ thoughts, and he is NOT impressed. Half the “sheep-like males” are crushing on her. Edward’s disdain for them is palpable, almost as if it's not totally normal and fine for human teenagers to find new things like a new student exciting. We may be witnessing a smidge of superiority complex, which is shocking, no doubt.

Mind-reading as a way to introduce other relevant characters is handy, I will grant the author that! Of course, Ed tries not to mindread his fellow vampires out of courtesy, but he KNOWS what they are probably thinking, and boy is he ready to tell us!

Rosalie: Is either actually super hot or super thinks she is, and apparently this debate encompasses her every waking moment. She only compares herself to VAMPIRES, of course, because humans could never be comparably hot. Related to a stagnant pool. Wow, Ed.

Emmett: Hyper competitive guy who has no new thoughts because he says EVERYTHING he thinks. Compared to a glass-clear lake. I suppose that means Ed maybe thinks he has depth? Maybe? We'll err on the side of optimism.

Jasper: Suffering. That’s literally the entire description.

Alice (who can see the future) introduces herself by beaming thoughts at Ed asking how Jasper is doing. Jasper is not doing well. Apparently he is so ready to eat people that he has forgotten how to Human and is sitting in a corpse-like rigor, because it seems when you become a vampire you lose quirks like restless leg syndrome and blinking? This feels full of potential hilarity to me, but I fear such hilarity will not be realized in this Very Serious Book.

Anyway, back to Jasper, who is SUFFERING. Alice asks if there is any danger. Edward signals no. Half a page later, his exposition about Jasper's problem adds, “Jasper was very dangerous right now." Okay, so which is it?! PICK A LANE, ED

(On a genuine note, I already like Alice; she counters Jasper’s fantasies about eating a girl by telling him her name and a few personal facts in a way that shows Alice makes an effort to know her classmates as more than just The Humans. Yay empathy!)

Btw, Ed’s internal monologue indicates they’re hanging out at this school to build their strength and endurance by being around humans and not eating them, and to that I say REALLY??? You chose high school for that?! The one where you’re SUPER BORED?? GO HANG OUT AT A COFFEE SHOP OR SOMETHING

Ope, plot progression! Bella has entered the chat lunchroom. Literally everyone is thinking about Bella, including Jessica, no doubt the requisite catty high school rival who crushed on Edward previously. She has many disgruntled thoughts about Bella, Bella noticing the Cullens, everyone noticing Bella, etc. Ed, who has been doing a great job keeping us up to date on the general thought processes of the student body, takes this moment to assure us once again how much he finds all of this chatter inane AND petty AND trivial, and he’s definitely going to try harder to block them out (again).

Wait, oh my word, was that a line of HUMOROUS BANTER between the Cullens just now?! I have renewed hope for this Very Serious Book!

So Edward is the vampires' mental scout who checks for people suspecting he and his family are inhumanly weird (as opposed to acceptably weird), and naturally he does a brain scan on Bella. Oooo but he’s not hearing anything! And now they have locked eyes! Her eyes are very odd, because of the DEPTH of them! Already, Bella is very Frail and immune to mindreading and somehow has “deeper” eyes than I guess any other human Edward has met in his 100+ years? Ed, I think you need to make eye contact more.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled torrent of inane high schooler thoughts! Amazingly, they are all still focused on Bella and being attracted to or jealous of her, because of course real high schoolers are all Inane and Tedious. (The one exception is Angela, who is busy thinking about homework. I like her, she seems normal.) Jessica is being catty again, and what’s this?! Ed suddenly has this STRANGE URGE to SHIELD Bella from this nasty girl! How very odd and unusual! Especially from a guy who very clearly finds all human teenagers Inane/Petty/Trivial! Bella must be special, except she is also “very unexceptional." Also, Ed is highly frustrated that he can’t read this girl’s mind, despite him constantly reading her like a book and her having “deceptively communicative” eyes.

Rosalie breaks Ed out of his frustration-driven contradictory spiral, and they all go to class, Ed casually mentioning his two medical degrees in an internal dig at his biology teacher (again, why are you hanging out at high school???) Naturally, Bella shows up and the only seat available is the one next to Edward, because Plot everyone is subliminally terrified of him. Ed has a moment of panic wondering if not hearing one girl’s thoughts means he has a vampire disease and is gonna lose all his mindreading, and then he has another moment of empathy for Bella having to sit next to the Scary Vampire.

Then she walks in front of an air duct, and Edward is suddenly overcome with INTENSE BLOODLUST THE LIKES OF WHICH HE HAS NEVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE!!! He wants to eat her SO BAD, you guys! He spends roughly EIGHT PAGES brooding on how badly he wants to eat her, noticing how delicious she smells, crushing the underside of a desk with his intense self-control grip (but having the presence of mind to “destroy the evidence” by rounding out the finger-shaped hole he just made), analyzing the logistics of eliminating a roomful of witnesses and whether to do so before or after eating her, seeing his monstrous reflection in her eyeballs, angsting over how bad he will feel when he murders a bunch of people, plotting ways of murdering her that WON’T result in collateral damage, questioning Bella’s sanity for daring to SHAKE HER HAIR IN HIS VICINITY, angsting about how disappointed his wonderful adoptive dad Carlisle will be (aww, that’s actually sweet), stubbornly deciding “she can’t make me,” hating Bella with the fury of a thousand suns for daring to smell so delicious, and shutting off his breathing so he has at least some self-control, which does sound uncomfortable but I applaud the effort.

Then class finally ends (for him and for us), and he goes and hides in his car. Which, honestly, relatable.

The car timeout helps restore his sanity, and he determines he does in fact not need to kill her and that hating her guts for smelling like an eight-course dinner probably isn’t fair! He just needs to avoid her as much as possible. Bless your heart for your optimism, Male Lead of a Paranormal Romance Novel.

The solution he comes up with is to charm the poor secretary (who keeps having to remind herself mentally that he’s too young for her, which, augh) into switching him to a different sixth-period course. Bella chooses this opportune moment to walk in, which he doesn’t notice until her DELICIOUS SMELL is blown over him (I question why someone with such advanced senses can only notice powerful smells when he is downwind of them). Edward’s Amazing Vampire Vision kicks in, allowing him to once again see his Monstrous Face in the reflection of her eyes, despite her being over against the wall. He briefly contemplates double homicide, then . . . uh . . . gives up on changing classes so he can walk away. This doesn’t feel like a long-term solution, Ed, but Kudos for the self-control.

The chapter wraps up with him jumping into his car (it’s the end of the day, so the others are waiting for him) and breaking the speed limit out of the parking lot. Alice uses Future Sight (it’s super effective!) to see that Ed is either going to book it out of Forks (the town) or go and murder Bella in her house. I once again have reason to like Alice, who orders him not to do it, adding that it would metaphorically kill Bella’s dad. He drops them off and races away again, not yet sure if he’s going to tell Dad Carlisle that he’s leaving or going to go eat the delicious new girl. And Scene!

Well, that wasn’t as painful as I feared, so huzzah! I kind of appreciate the internal look at his thoughts and how his mindreading lets us see other characters even when they can’t talk. Got a bit long at times, especially with how Inane and Petty and Trivial high schoolers are to Edward! LOTS OF DETAIL about how badly he wanted to eat Bella and possibly murder all bystanders, which I guess does go to show how bad the bloodlust is, because dang! (But why do none of the others have this reaction to her yet? Maybe they just don’t have classes with her. You must be this close to the Bella to ride the maniac vampire train!)

And with that, I have earned a much-deserved break before delving into CHAPTER TWO: OPEN BOOK! I’m sure Edward will totally succeed in his plan to skedaddle out of Forks and never see Bella again! Stay positive, Ed! =Dd

Chapter 2->

[echoghost1]

InvisoBang 2023 - Dawn Of Influence - Chapter 1

Oh my gosh it's finally time that I can share what I've been working on for months! 🎉

Title: Dawn Of Influence Chapter 1 title: Growing Pains? Summary: Danny is in his senior year of high school. His life, even with his still secret half-ghost nonsense, has settled down to a new, but manageable normal. That is until one day he starts to notice something is off. He doesn't feel right, so he tries to find out what’s going on. His ghost form is changing but he has no idea what it’s changing into or why. Characters: Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Jazz Fenton, Clockwork, Pandora, Frostbite Total Word Count: 17,010 Trigger Warnings & relevant tags: Mystery, Horror, Body Horror, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Ghost King Danny Fenton

And of course you can see some super awesome art for this fic on AO3 or here on tumblr by Nimhrodell !!!

You can find my fic on ao3 and read chapter 1 down below the cut!

[you’re here] | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12

Danny groaned in annoyance as his alarm clock interrupted his sleep.

Why did it always seem to go off earlier than he wanted it to? Even when he went to bed on time it always went off too early. 

"Whoever decided to make school start before noon was pure evil," Danny mumbled into his pillow. 

He sighed and reached for his alarm to turn it off despite how much he didn’t want to move.

He felt a twinge in his side as he moved but he ignored it. There was always something that was sore nowadays. 

He was way too young to feel this old.

"Hey Danno, you better come down if you want any breakfast!" His dad called up the stairs. 

"Yeah, yeah," he replied, nowhere near loud enough to be heard.

He rolled over and felt a similar twinge on his opposite side.

"What gives?" He didn't remember getting shish kabob-ed recently. 

He felt the area but didn't find anything. "Whatever." 

He floated out of bed and stared at his closet. Today seemed like an oversized hoodie day. If anyone asks he can always say that it’s because he’s cold, it’s not like he was lying. 

He’s always cold. Stupid ice powers.

Once he was dressed he grabbed his backpack and made his way downstairs.

“There you are, I was just about to go get you.” his mom said with a smile, “I got some more of that green juice you like in the fridge.”

“Mmhm, juice,” he mumbled as he beelined to the fridge. Sam had introduced him and Tucker to it a few months ago. Tucker hated it because it was full of vegetables, but Danny liked it a lot.

It did taste a little different when he had it at home, but he kind of liked it more that way.

It was probably contaminated with ectoplasm, but it’s fine. 

Probably.

It hadn’t done anything to him yet.

He poured himself a glass for now and filled a thermos (not Fenton branded) for lunch later.

“Oh Sweetie, make sure you eat something before you go, I’ll pack you a lunch, okay?”

“Thanks Mom,” Danny said before he got himself some cereal.

Once he was finished with his breakfast he gathered his things and headed off to school. 

It was a bit of a bummer not to be able to get a ride with Jazz since she graduated last year, but it’s not like he had to take the bus. 

He slipped into the back alley and shifted into his ghost form.

He felt a twinge in his sides again, but after a moment it passed.

"Weird." He readjusted his backpack straps and took off for school.

He really hoped that would go away soon.

He probably just slept wrong.

The school was in sight before he knew it. 

For a second he thought about just flying right past and finding a nice place to nap. 

"If I can't sleep right in my own bed, a tree isn't going to help," Danny muttered to himself before slipping into invisibility and finding a good spot to shift back without being noticed.

He changed back with a yawn and went to his locker knowing his friends would be there waiting for him.

“Hey man, what’s up?” Tucker greeted with far more enthusiasm than Danny could return.

“Tired,” Danny said simply before twirling the lock on his locker a few times to give the illusion that he even knew his combination.

“And here I was thinking I wasn’t a morning person,” Sam teased as she leaned against the locker next to Danny’s.

Danny gave a non-committal hum in response and slipped his fingers intangibly through the locker to flip the opening from the inside, once it clicked he opened it and shoved his backpack inside.

Danny stared into his locker for a full thirty seconds before he spoke. “Do we need anything for first period?” he asked.

“Was there a problem last night that you didn’t call us for?” Sam asked. When she said problem like that, she meant something ghost-related.

“No, that’s what makes this more annoying.” Danny lamented.

“There, there,” Tucker said while patting Danny’s shoulder, “do you need a hug?”

Danny turned around and immediately took Tucker up on the offer. He didn’t care if Tucker was probably joking.

“You sure you’re just tired?” Tucker asked as he returned the hug.

“Yeah,” Danny didn’t think mentioning being sore this morning was worth it. Besides Tucker’s hug meant that he had his nice warm arms wrapped around him in just the right place. It felt so nice he wanted to melt.

“Enjoying the warmth?” Sam said. Even if he couldn’t see her smirk from his blissful position, he certainly heard it.

He smiled and hummed in agreement.

“Poor little snowman.” Tucker teased.

Danny thought about sticking his icy hands up the back of Tucker’s shirt in revenge but that would just end the hug. So he just pouted instead. “I don’t wanna be a snowman.”

“I still don’t even get why you got stuck with that anyway. I mean electricity or even metal would make more sense.” Tucker mused.

“Maybe I got it as a cruel cosmic joke. Clearly, the boy who hates winter should have power over ice.”

“Maybe it’s personality based?” Sam suggested.

Danny pointedly looked away from Sam. How dare she suggest he was a cold person.

In the non-literal sense.

Then he heard her snicker.

He just huffed in annoyance. He was not going to give her the satisfaction of a response.

“You know you’re kind of proving my point,” Sam said with a slightly repressed giggle.

Okay, that got his attention. He turned and just glared until she explained herself.

“You just gave me the cold shoulder. And now you’re giving me a pretty icy glare,” she said with a smirk.

Danny looked up at Tucker, “I can’t believe she just used puns against me like that.”

“I know. So cruel.” Tucker said, giving him a sympathetic pat on his shoulder. “But I believe in you. You can recover from this.”

Danny snuggled against him, “I knew you’d understand.”

“Would you two stop flirting already? We’re gonna be late.” Sam said as she closed Danny’s locker.

“Wait, I didn’t get my stuff,” Danny said only half leaving the hug to reach towards his now-closed locker.

“Don’t worry, I already got it,” Sam said with a quick wiggle of his notebook and textbook.

Danny finally stopped hugging Tucker to grab his stuff. “Thanks. You’re the best.”

“Well someone sure changed their opinion of me pretty quick.”

“You know I can’t stay mad at you.” 

“Shut up,” she muttered.

He may be notoriously clueless, but he didn’t miss the slight blush on her cheeks as she looked away.

It’s why he said it.

They were halfway to class when he realized he didn’t have anything to write with.

“Aw, crap. I didn’t get my pencil.”

“I got you,” Sam said before she turned on her heel and did the very precise art of moving quickly enough to be faster than walking, but not so fast that she would get in trouble for running. 

Danny knew far too well that if he tried that, he’d get in trouble. That or he’d trip.

He was kind of hoping that once he got used to his powers he’d stop being so clumsy but apparently not.

Sam made it back just as he and Tucker were crossing the threshold of the classroom. Instead of just handing him the pencil like a normal person, she slipped it into his pocket as she walked passed. It was like reverse pick-pocketing.

He gave her a questioning look when he got to his seat and she just shrugged.

He shook his head with a smile. Leave it to Sam to find the most unique way to do something just because she could.

He was glad he didn’t just skip today. Not just because of the residual warmth from Tucker’s hug earlier was still clinging to his hoodie, but just being with his friends made him feel better.

It didn’t matter if classes got boring, or if the other kids in their class thought he was a weirdo. His friends were there for him no matter what.

[patchworkgargoyle]

🩸 A Steddie Big Bang Fic 🌙

Chapter 1

story by: @patchworkgargoyle || art to come by: @mcdadarts || playlist to come by: @steves-strapcollection Rating: E || Words: 3.9k || CW: graphic depictions of violence, blood drinking || Full tag list on ao3! || Posting: weekly Fic title from Wolf Like Me - TV On The Radio AAAAA HERE WE GO, FOLKS!! Chapters 1 & 2 are here!!

Steve could hear it already, the pop music blasting too loud to be healthy for anyone’s ears, let alone his and Robin’s. He let out a contained sigh.

“Yeah, yeah. C’mon, you grump, you know we should,” Robin said, unbuckling her seatbelt. “Into the fray?” She raised her eyebrows expectantly.

Jaw muscles clenching and relaxing, he rolled his eyes and said, “Fine.”

The Bimmer’s doors shut behind them with finality as they walked up the long driveway of Penny Brady’s house, a group of teens spilling out of the front door and laughing loud enough to make Steve wince. He felt a bit of petty jealousy that Robin could handle it all just fine, the overwhelmed senses. It had been a year since Billy’s attack and he still struggled to tune them out, so this was part of Robin and Dustin’s plan: exposure therapy. Sounded like a shit plan if you asked him, which, of course, they didn’t. Steve was sure it was only going to expose him to a migraine but they wouldn’t relent until he agreed to go to Penny’s Halloween party, so, here they were. At least Robin agreed Dustin couldn’t come. The little twerp would draw too much attention, his pen and notepad out and pestering Steve with questions all night.

Robin led the way into the house, not even pausing, forcing Steve to keep up for appearance’s sake. The music, the people, everything felt like a viscous wall of sound as soon as he passed the threshold, clinging to and muddling his hearing. His shoulders rose as if to block it out. A few people greeted him, only the familiarity of his own name cutting through, and all Steve could manage was a thin smile and a nod, following the bobbing, scraggly white wig Robin wore to complete her Doc Brown costume. Finally she stopped in the kitchen, the door closing behind them and blocking out only some of the racket. Some couples dispersed as they entered, but another group stuck around, chatting to themselves in a corner.

Robin bumped him with her elbow. “You look like you ate a whole lemon.”

“I’d rather do that than be here,” he complained quietly, reaching for a solo cup and grabbing a generous ladle-worth of the spiked punch. He probably would have smelled the vodka even before this, and Steve hoped the strong fumes would distract him from the music at least. When Robin wiggled a cup at him, he filled it for her too.

“It’s not gonna get better unless you get used to it, Steve,” she said, at the same volume, leaning into his space. 

“I know,” he grumbled. And he did. She’d gone through all of this already, years ago and way too young, and as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. She was his self-appointed Werewolf Mentor, as much as the title made him roll his eyes. At least he had someone to help him through all this werewolf shit.

Transforming into a wolf-human hybrid for the full moon as well as the day before and after, drastically intensified senses, heightened strength and speed even in human form, an increased diet of meat, and a seemingly endless well of energy; Steve had known all of this from a young age too, younger than Robin, even, but from a different perspective. Being born into one of the longest, most respected, and traditional hunter lineages, Steve Harrington had known all about werewolves and everything else that went bump in the night since he was old enough to read. His parents had trained him to hunt the supernatural, keeping it controlled and away from unknowing civilians. He was the heir to the Harrington line. And as of last year, he was also a werewolf.

It sorta put a kink in the whole hunter thing – though the heightened senses and strength did help – but while Robin taught him her werewolf ways he taught her how to avoid and fight hunters off, and went about hunts with a lot more compassion than he’d had before. Hunter code required them to only “exterminate” targets who were a danger, and Steve was already too soft-hearted by most hunters’ standards, so he stopped giving a fuck and did what he felt right instead. Steve put himself between the humans of Hawkins and its population of supernaturals, trying his best to keep a balance instead of burning and salting the earth.

Unlike the Carvers, whose son just barged into the kitchen. Jason plastered on an obviously fake smile as soon as he caught sight of Steve and Robin huddled together and Steve felt Robin stiffen beside him.

“Hey Harrington. Haven’t seen you around in a while,” Jason said, holding his hand out. Steve shook it once.

“Carver.”

“We were beginning to worry about you, if it weren’t for the stories I’ve heard around town I would’ve thought you’d skipped town.” Crossing his arms, Jason leaned on the counter closest to the door, effectively blocking their exit. Steve stifled an irritated huff. He didn’t miss this stupid posturing. The Carvers weren’t worried about him, he could guarantee that. It was more likely that they wanted the title of the only hunters in Hawkins, since Steve’s parents were gone on consultations all the time.

“Yeah, well, I’m still kicking,” Steve said with practised nonchalance.

“Good to hear!” Jason clapped Steve on the shoulder just this side of too hard, gave Robin an assessing look, and left the kitchen with a, “see you around.”

“‘See you around,’” Robin mocked, and Steve hummed, agreeing. “Was he always this much of a douche?”

“Oh yeah. A total kiss-ass too. Followed me around during hunter and basketball practice begging for attention.” Steve was glad that his fall from Hawkins High royalty had stopped Jason’s off-putting hero worship of him; he'd been tired of it since their parents forced them to socialise as kids.

Robin snorted. “That’s not surprising.”

They stood and drank their pungent drinks, trading gossip idly, until Robin asked, “Ready to brave the living room?”

Instead of answering, Steve downed the last of his punch, braced himself for the noise, and joined the party proper. Waiting in the kitchen while his senses adjusted had made a difference, he only felt like his head was being smashed by a rubber mallet instead of a sledgehammer, so he let Robin push him into the living room where most people mingled and danced.

“Alright. Tip one: distractions,” Robin whispered. “Focus on my voice, not anyone else’s, not the music.” She began to ramble, picking out costumes she recognized, or thought looked bad or lazy, occasionally picking out a girl she thought was cute for Steve to either agree or disagree, drawing him into telling embarrassing stories about the popular kids he used to hang around with. Listening to her voice was simple, easy, and before he realised it the noise faded a little more into the background.

When a guy walked by reeking of body spray Steve dug his nails into his palms to keep from recoiling, nose wrinkling, and he tried to swallow past the affront to his sinuses. Robin also winced. “Tip two: breathe through your mouth. Though I doubt that’ll help much against that.”

“Pretty sure I’d choke. That’s chemical warfare. One spray is enough, for christ’s sake,” he complained, giving the guy a nasty glare.

“We should tell him he’s violating the Geneva Convention.”

They watched from their patch of wall as he stepped up to a group of girls, trying to chat them up with a smarmy grin. When the girls each made similar queasy expressions and dispersed, Steve and Robin snickered a little meanly.

Crossing his arms with a smirk, Steve asked, “Anything else?”

Robin shrugged. “If all else fails, go outside or find a quiet room. Just don’t use it as an excuse to smoke or anything, I’ll know.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved an unconcerned hand at her and she glared harder. He held up three fingers and said, flatly, “Scout’s honour.”

“You weren’t a Boy Scout, you ass. Now, go, spread your wolfy wings and fly from the nest like a very strange bird.”

Confused by the bizarre analogy, he let Robin shoo him into the crowd so he could mingle. Mostly, he let people come to him; old classmates, customers, kids whose parents knew his own (exclusively outside of hunter circles), still drawn in by his old reputation. Penny herself came up to talk to Steve at one point, asking how he was and what he’d been up to. Like Robin instructed, he focused on her voice instead of everything else.

The attention was nice. His dry spell had lasted longer than he wanted to admit, and he’d given up trying to pick up customers at Family Video when he struck out every time. She was pretty, he thought, with long, straight dark hair and hazel eyes, wearing some kind of subtle vanilla perfume, and when Robin waggled her eyebrows at him across the room he brushed her off with a smile that was only a little bit smug. Leaning into her space a little, Steve could hear Penny’s heart rate pick up over the bright poppy music, saw the slight pink blush in her cheeks and let himself feel just a bit accomplished. He’s still got it, he thought. But then something crashed upstairs, and Penny had to race off with panicked apologies.

Damn. He stood in the room by himself for a moment and watched, hands in his pockets, until he caught Robin’s eye and jerked his head towards the back door. When she waved him off he waded through the thinning crowd and escaped into the much calmer backyard. Skunky smoke wafted through the air, but that was something Steve could handle. He dug out his secret stash of cigarettes and lit up as he leaned over the railing of the small deck, exhaling with a heavy sigh.

The small backyard was enclosed by the forest of thin trees that surrounded half of Hawkins. Most had lost their leaves by now, littering the ground instead, and the lawn was meticulously cleared of them. A shed sat closer to the house, and a small fire pit burned a few feet away, crackling and watched over by drunken teens.

By the shed, though, two figures caught Steve's eye. A girl with a high, bouncy, blonde ponytail and Carver's letterman – Chrissy Cunningham. He often wondered why such a sweet girl was with Jason, she was always friendly with the basketball team and managed Jason's mood swings with ease, not that she should've had to. But beside her, half hidden in shadow, stood her total opposite.

Eddie Munson flicked the ash from his joint and laughed at something Chrissy said while he leaned against the metal shed with her. The distant fire caught, just barely, on the shine of his dark eyes and the curls of his hair. Steve wondered how he wasn't cold. Chrissy clutched her jacket close while Eddie's leather jacket and denim vest fell open to the cold autumn air, revealing some tee for a band Steve didn't know. He hadn't seen Eddie around since midway through his own senior year, Eddie's second attempt. But he hadn't come back to school after winter break.

The rumour mill churned out every kind of story about it – that he'd dropped out or gotten sick, or he'd died, or he stole a car and ran to the coast (whichever one seemed more dramatic). Seeing him here at Penny's party was surprising, either way. Must be back to dealing.

Steve's gaze lingered. He looked pale, but… good, smiling fondly at Chrissy as she kept speaking, something about the newest cheerleader. He had a dimple in his left cheek when he grinned, just above some intense scarring on his jaw Steve didn’t remember from school, but there was something with his teeth– 

Eddie's eyes flicked up, and met Steve's instantly. Something swooped low in his gut, he couldn't name it but it made his heart kick up a couple beats faster. Adrenaline? No. All the warmth in Eddie's face faded as soon as he saw Steve staring, chased away by a hard, emotionless expression. Catching on quickly, Chrissy glanced back at Steve, then to Eddie again, leaning in to whisper. Eddie kept staring back at Steve, who couldn't look away. He felt pinned, his cigarette turning to ash, and Steve thought that maybe he shouldn't look away, like this was some kind of battle of wills. Robin would mock him for trying to be macho, but he couldn't help it. Didn't want to.

Maybe it had something to do with his heart beating faster, tricking his body into fight or flight, but Steve could feel his senses honing in on the pair. The music from the house was still too loud to hear what Chrissy was saying, but Steve could still smell something. Beyond the weed, fire, and cigarettes, the beer and sweat, cologne and perfume, there was a familiar warm, metallic tang. It was subtle, woven between and underneath the rest, and Steve had to resist sniffing at the air like a bloodhound to suss it out. Before he could place it, though, Chrissy took Eddie’s ringed hand and began to pull him away.

The muscles in Eddie's jaw jumped and his chest rose and fell with a slow, deliberate breath before, finally, he tore his magnetic gaze away and released Steve from whatever that was. Steve swallowed. He tracked Eddie and Chrissy while they walked to the side of the house. Chrissy cast one last look at Steve, giving him a small, hesitant smile before following Eddie's dark figure out of sight. Refusing to parse out whether he was disappointed or relieved, Steve stubbed out the cigarette butt and tossed it into the short bushes that bordered the deck with a quick mental apology to Penny’s parents.

That was… weird, right? He thought about what had happened, still hunched over the railing, absently digging his thumbnail into the wood grain. It was also a little strange to see Chrissy with Eddie, since he and Jason had been at each other's throats in school more often than not, and as far as Steve knew he and Chrissy were still an item. Sure looked it, since she wore his members only jacket.

Robin found him still standing there some time later, staring into the middle distance until she kicked his calf. “Ow, what the hell?” he said, glaring.

“That’s what you get for hiding out here.” She scowled. “Also you stink of smoke. I told you not to, I thought you’d quit anyway.”

“You know I didn’t.” He tried. It didn’t last, clearly.

“Yeah, well, I was waiting for you to admit that, you coward.”

Steve scoffed. “You can smell it, Rob. Figured that was enough to clue you in.”

“Still a coward,” she said loftily. “Anyway, I’m bored, drive me home.”

“Right away, your majesty.” Rolling his eyes and stifling a smile, Steve pushed off from the railing and followed Robin back through the house, only a little disappointed that he didn’t see Penny again before getting to the door. Steve did, however, fill Robin in on who he’d spotted in the backyard once they stepped outside.

“Oh wow, Jason must hate that friendship,” Robin said.

“Right?” he replied with some satisfaction, “I’m no fan of Munson’s but I’ll get behind anything that ticks Carver off.”

Robin looked thoughtful for a moment as they walked down the dark street. The Bimmer sat parked under a streetlight, burgundy paint faintly sparkling. Somehow, after all the hunts and mishaps Steve had taken her on, she was still pristine. Eventually, Robin said, “As long as he doesn’t get the shit kicked out of him, though.”

Steve shrugged at first, but an image of Eddie’s face covered in blood and bruises similar to the ones Jonathan and Billy had given him flashed through his mind’s eye and he winced internally. Yeah, he wouldn’t really wish that on someone who didn’t deserve it. “He’s survived this long, he’ll probably be fine,” he said instead.

“Maybe, but-” she cut herself off, head tilting towards the car. “Steve? You hear that?”

He did. A faint voice, crackling over the walkie Dustin gave him that he’d stuffed under the passenger seat. “Shit.” 

They jogged to the car, Steve fumbling with his keys and whipping the door open, diving for the walkie under the seat as he heard Dustin loudly announcing, “Code red! Steve, goddamnit, where are you!? Code red!”

“Dustin! What’s wrong?”

“Werewolf! In the woods! It’s dead, over!”

Steve met Robin’s shocked expression, her blue eyes wide with worry. “Where are you?”

“We’re behind Forest Hills. And you have to say over, Steve! Over!”

Groaning, Steve resisted the urge to smack his head against the car door. Instead, he reached over to unlock Robin’s door so she could get in. “Why the fuck are you in the woods at night, Dustin? Over.” He emphasised the last word with every bit of frustration he felt at the moment.

“Just. Get. Here. Over!”

“Fine! Jesus christ, over and out,” Steve snapped, slammed his door shut and started the car, peeling away from the curb.

They got to the trailer park in record time, despite Steve ranting at Robin about how the brats shouldn’t even be out this late at night while Robin kept reminding him to please concentrate on the road and save the chewing-out for the kids themselves. He parked at the end of the road, which was barely more than cracked asphalt and a toppled over concrete divider, the Street Ends sign long since stolen. The dark trees loomed tall and slender, a sparse barrier at the end of the small field that was only half lit by a flickering yellow street light, but Steve could already tell that’s where the kids had gone. He could smell them in the air and saw the trampled spots where they’d walked their bikes through the tall grass. A dog barked in the distance, agitated. He nodded at their trail and looked at Robin, said, “Let’s go,” and took off.

Robin kept pace with him easily as they loped through the trees. Even with the moon almost new they could see their way without difficulty, lacking most colour but seeing every detail; each scuff in the dirt from a tire and their muddy footprints standing out in the quiet forest. Their scents grew stronger too, and alongside it, something else. Something Steve had smelled earlier. He ran faster.

Voices began to filter through the woods. The kids were, unsurprisingly, arguing. By the time Steve and Robin crashed through the underbrush and ran into the Party, who screamed.

“Holy shi– be quiet! It’s us!” Steve shouted. While the kids did shut up – thank god – they all glared at him.

“What did you think would happen, Steve?” Dustin yelled back, arms flailing, “Warn us next time! That’s what the walkie is for!”

“I forgot it in the car since you idiots told me you were in the woods with a dead werewolf. How do you even know they’re a werewolf anyway, they–” Words caught in his throat as Robin choked back a scream. Finally, Steve turned his attention to the body on the ground behind the row of kids. “They’re human when they’re dead.”

They were supposed to be, at least. Steve hadn’t killed a werewolf before, hadn’t had to. Even when Billy went feral he refused to do it. They were still people and it was the one line Steve refused to cross as a hunter. He knew, though, that when a werewolf is killed in wolf form, they shift back into a human. So why was this one still a werewolf?

The body looked like every other werewolf Steve had seen when shifted: elongated limbs tipped in blunted claws, distinctive feet, brown fur everywhere, a clear mix of human and wolf. A ripped white shirt and torn blue jeans still clung to the body in spots, like they didn’t have time to get them off before they shifted. The only difference was the head. Or lack of one.

Steve shoved the nearest kid behind him – Lucas, who he could feel was shaking slightly – and stepped forward, unable to take his eyes off the stump of a neck. Dark blood, almost dried to blackish-brown, spilled down the werewolf’s chest, worsened by gashes left by, Steve guessed, the werewolf’s own claws, which were bloodied too. The cut was disturbingly clean. Level. Whatever weapon had done this was sharp. Bile rose in Steve’s throat.

“Turn around,” he said, somehow managing to not sound sick, looking back at the Party. Lucas and Will already had, the latter standing with his arms wrapped tight around his chest, but Mike was still half-turned, like he couldn’t take his eyes off it, and Dustin stared at the body with an analytical gleam that would unsettle Steve if he didn’t already know what these kids had gone through. Still. “Dustin, turn around.”

“We’ve been looking at it for ten minutes, Steve, it’s fine,” Dustin retorted, but Steve grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to face a very pale Robin, who still had her hands over her mouth.

“You shouldn’t have seen it in the first place! What the hell were you thinking, coming out here at night?”

Mike spoke up this time, sounding like he’d swallowed something disgusting. “We were patrolling.”

With a sigh that felt much too heavy for his age, Steve dragged a hand down his face. “You’re children. You don’t patrol.”

“We’re fifteen! You were partying! We couldn’t leave the town unprotected–”

“I was at a party because you told me to go to,” he interrupted Dustin sharply, “and I told you to stay home.” These kids were going to drive him into an early grave through stress alone. When Dustin opened his mouth again to argue back, Steve hissed, “Zip it! You’re in the wrong here.” The kid crossed his arms and scowled at Steve, but gave in.

Now that they were silent, Steve cast his gaze around the scene. He couldn’t see any sign of the missing head. There were signs of a struggle, though. Claw marks scored into tree bark to the left, large paw prints and faint shoe treads that could have looked like a dance. Next to the body, though, Steve saw scraps of fabric and bent down.

They were soft and black. Nothing like what the werewolf wore. A flash of a logo, some kind of yellow-and-red lettering, stood out on the corner of a larger scrap. Steve heard Dustin whisper, “Shit.”

Steve's head whipped around. “What?”

“Nothing!” He answered too quickly, too high-pitched. Steve could hear the skip in his heart, and though that wasn’t a reliable tell it wasn’t nothing.

“Dustin, you have to tell him,” Lucas said.

“Tell me what?”

The Party didn’t speak. Eyes flitting between them, Steve caught sight of Dustin’s clenched fist stuck deep into his pocket. He raised an expectant eyebrow.

“It’s Eddie’s. Eddie’s shirt.” Will’s voice was quiet and empty.

That’s when it hit Steve. The smell. He’d known it was blood when he and Robin had run into the kids, saw the corpse. But now he knew he’d smelled it earlier – at the party. From Eddie and Chrissy.

Read chapter 2 now on ao3!!

[vulpisnocturna]

About this blog

Hi, you can call me El, this is my Tumblr blog for anything that has to do with my AO3 fics, my artwork and prompts/requests.

I am a 23yr old who is passionate about art and writing, I study full time and work part-time. I am based in the UK. I have ADHD, an autoimmune disease and I am partially blind in one eye. Because I’m not from the UK, I cannot access disability support here. I have a Ko-fi account where you can send donations my way to help me with bills and rent if you like my writing and my art. Any donation is appreciated, it would make a huge difference.

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★ INTRO POST ★

(Last Updated: 11/11/24)

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ーー 🎃 Misc Info

☆ Inbox asks can be about anything— sharing headcanons, asking ab au's, general QnA nonsense, or just for ghits and shiggles. ☆ Ask spam is okay as long as it's got a reason behind it [like multiple separate questions, etc] instead of just aimless spam. ☆ My art can be used for pfps, layouts, wallpapers, edits, heavy referencing, and design usage w/ credit. I do not want my art REPOSTED anywhere off Tumblr if it's not by me but REBLOGS are completely fine, go wild. ☆ I adore reading the tags you guys leave, I highly encourage them /silly ☆ Please do not DM me sporadically!! If we're friends or you've asked then it's okay but I don't really like to talk to people one-on-one unless I've known them for a while.

ーー 📍Taggings List (May Update)

★ #my art -- Pretty much any and all of my art, usually includes rendered pieces and non-rendered ones. ★ #my wips -- Self explanatory ★ #my writing -- Also self explanatory! ★ #foster doodles -- My whiteboard or other doodles that I wouldn't consider full art ★ #foster animates -- My animations/animatics ★ #fosters ocs -- Self explanatory - ★ #foster talks, #yapping -- Posts where I yap a bit, sometimes I put them on inbox answers or art posts. ★ #foster answers -- Answering Asks ★ #foster reblogs -- Stuff I reblog ★ #moots my beloved -- Tag for whenever I interact with my mutuals/friends ★ #fav -- Posts I reblog that I love ★ #thugging it out (failed) -- vent/ranting tag ★ #autism is stored in the balls -- It's... It's my tag for pure autism brain hours. I used it once and it stuck I apologize - ★ #cursed tulsa au, #cursed tulsa - Tags for The Outsiders Cursed AU ★ CURSED TULSA MASTERLIST

ーー

🦔 Art Related Info

☆ Art requests open from time to time, I'll either post about them opening or it'll be displayed on the ask button. I do have the right to not draw what you ask for, so fair warning on that. ☆ Art Trades are semi-open, this is mostly for mutuals and I probably won't do them too often. ☆ I do commissions!! The carrd is currently in the works but I do have some old sheets lmao. The art is pretty outdated, prices are negotiable. My rules are pretty simple based on wise; no nsfw for minors, no mecha, nothing problematic. Things such as reference sheets and heavily detailed backgrounds vary as well. Just let me know what you’re interested in and we can discuss!! My discord is @/akafoster

[m4ds-ba1ley]

“ Show me your hands ! “

Hi Tumblr!!!! Oh my gosh, Steph told me to get this app, and I am SO excited!!! Okay, what did she said I should start with..? OH! Right, the intro!!

My name is Madison!! Most people just call me Mads or Maddie, but really anything works ^^! I’m seventeen years old, and I go to Hatchetfield High! I’m bisexual, and I use she/they pronouns :) My older brother is a police officer at the Hatchetfield Police Department, and I volunteer there!! Sometimes as a cop, sometimes as a detective.. either way, it’s super fun!! You guys probably know my brother as Officer Bailey!! I’m SUPER into police stuff. I love true crime, and my dream since I was eight is to be a cop!! Although, I do really like the dance classes I take.. and Dance Moms. Me and Steph love watching that together!! Anywayssss I hope I can make lots of friends on here :) I was also told to answer questions? So if you have any, send them my way!!! I’m glad to talk ^^

OOC ;

HI!!!! Um, soo……. this is my oc!! Full name is Madison Bailey! IM SUPER EXCITED FOR THIS ROLEPLAY BLOG SHJASG PLEASE INTERACT I BEG 🙏🗣️ My main is @royall-ass in case you wanna know more about ME (i also post a lot of art on there and it would mean a lot if you interacted and reblogged…….)

When it comes to stuff I will and will not do, I’m practically up for anything! Unless it’s any of these ⬇️

Incest

Pedophilia

NSFT (I am a MINOR!!!)

If you do want to do a ship roleplay, I’m fine with kissing and stuff if that’s what you wanna do!!! However, I am not doing full on roleplay sex 😭

I’m up for shipping!!! Although, again, if it’s under any of this stuff, it’s automatic no

If you have any au’s you wanna do, please dm me or comment underneath any post with information!!! It makes it a lot easier than just jumping into it lol

There will be differences from interactions that are on Tumblr, over text/call, and in person!

Tumblr ; Just regular text!

Text/Call ; ‘ like this!! ‘

In person ; actions will be in plain italics, “and speaking in person will be in quotation marks” ^^

I will put my ooc comments in the tags!!

Other than that, stay safe, and have fun on this blog!!

dividers from @saradika-graphics

[vsnotresponding]

oc profile tag

thanks for the tag @seastarblue :]

Rules: Answer the prompts for an OC

picking arion because it's arion season !!!!!

Full name: Aríon (Arion) and two surnames i still haven't come up with. probably Roig and some other one

Age: 7

Pronouns: he/him

Species: human able to see the Beyond

Appearance:

he's just a little guy. arion has deathly pale skin and a round face. his hair is a reddish auburn, messily cut, it often stands up in spikes. his eyes are red but appear vibrant dark brown to humans that can't see beyond. he wears chunky square glasses and has many freckles.

Family Members:

Parents: yes! they are researchers (unamed as of now because he calls them mom and dad) they are often busy but make a point to be there for him and support his research endeavors

Siblings: Chimera, his 15 year old adopted brother

Pet: Àrtemis the house cat with whom he has a fraught relationship (he often tried to take her with him on adventures and she wasn't having it)

Best Friends:

Chimera. He's a bit of a grumpy teenager but he doesn't hesitate to join Arion on his games and adventures.

Lluna, the ghost haunting his new house. They like reading stories together.

Other relationships:

The village Arion's family just moved in is a small dying one. Arion's excitement about the folk history of the place soon endears him to the elders residing there who don't hesitate to gift him and Chimera sweets and treats when they visit.

Older students in school tend to bully him due to his weirdness but he doesn't care much for it. he has difficulties making friends his age because he tends to scare them with his stories too. most creatures from the Beyond like him tho so he's fine.

What does their bedroom look like:

Arion picked to sleep in the old attic when they moved. The roof is slanted, creating a cozy corner where his bed is (Chimera often bumps his head on the ceiling when putting him to bed). he has fall and ghost themed sheets, as well as plain ones and a quilted blanket Chimera made him with different forest creatures on each square. he has his closet at the foot of the bed. next to it, he has a night table where he keeps his favorite books and a flashlight. he also has a rug that resembles moss that Àrtemis likes to sleep in. On the other side of the room he has a small bookshelf and a desk and a box where he keeps his art supplies.

Way of speaking:

warm and excited about everything and anything, but if you catch him talking about some of the experiences he's had with beings from beyond he can come out as creepy

Describe their bag:

Arion carries the same fox themed bag everywhere. it always has a kinetic flashlight and his "scientific journal", as well as his favorite crayons and colored pencils and a pencil case.

Hobbies:

exploring the forest for creatures from the Beyond with Chimera

interviewing creatures form the Beyond for his journal

drawing in general and also illustrating his journal

solving the 200 year old murder of his friend Lluna

Fears:

not being able to find a way to help Lluna move onto death

clowns

failing his next test

Faults:

he can get a bit bratty

has trouble sharing sometimes

Qualities:

unending wonder for the world around him

fearless of the unknown

deep sense of empathy for everyone, specially monsters

What they want more than anything else:

solving Lluna's murder

finding out what happened to Chimera before he was found

complete his journal

tagging @my-cursed-prince @walkman-cat @writingamongther0ses and @albatris as well as open tag !

[second-wife-playbook]

"O-oh! How do you do?"

"Ahh...introductions, introductions-"

"Um. Welcome! My name is Coronis, of the Ars Goetia. Er...you're probably not here for me though, my older brother Andrealphus isn't here I'm afraid. Wait...no? Um. Stella then? I hope she hasn't crossed you or anything-....oh not her either?"

"Wait...m-me?! S-seriously?"

"...ahh..ahaha! O-okay! Well, if you have a question of any sort, please, ask away! I'll try my best to answer to the best of my ability. Er...please! Take a seat, make yourself at home. Can I fix you a drink?"

"...I...I'm just going to make something for myself. E-excuse me."

Rules and Guidelines And Character Introduction Below:

Name: Coronis Sex: Female Age: 32 (at time of marriage) Birthday: October 1st (Libra) Sexuality: Bisexual (panromantic) Demon Class: Goetia (Black Cuckoo Dove) Location: The Royal Circle (Pride Ring)

Summary: The sister of Andrealphus and Stella, Coronis is regarded as the "black crow" of the family due to her social anxieties and overall unimportance to the family. Recklessly neglected and mistreated, Coronis is very much a recluse and lives at the bottom of her social circle. However, she still holds out hope that someday she might live a free, happy life with friends and a family of her choosing.

Special AUS;

(Art by trissschmidt!)

Welcome! If you're new here and haven't read the Second Wife Playbook, essentially this is an RP blog of my own personal interpretation and depiction of the Protagonist from my fanfiction. I was encouraged primarily by @helluvaoutlaw to make this RP blog as a fun way to interact with her character in between writing chapters for both the Second Wife Playbook and my more recent publication, Heaven is Empty (Was it Ever Full?)

-First things first, Coronis is an Original Character above all. It is not required to read the Second Wife Playbook to interact with her, nor is it required to insert her to the fanfic to enjoy it more. If you appreciate Coronis as an insertable character, by all means do so. But this is mostly me being an RP-monster who just loves playing with original characters. -As Coronis is an OC, the events of the Second Wife Playbook are NOT going to be considered as "canon" to her storyline. I will most certainly offer them up to RP partners who wish to play out the story their own way, but for the most part it is optional. As it stands, there is no obligation to follow the story as I write it. -To fans of the Second Wife Playbook, this is also an opportunity for them to ask questions for Coronis to answer IN CHARACTER. That means that a fanfic specific question will be answer to the best of her ability. And since she's not a fortune teller, she can't spoil the future chapters either :p -Please do not waste anyone's time here with hate mail or negativity or uncivilized behavior aimed to harm. If I see an anon message I deem as toxic or otherwise unwanted, I will delete it. If you want to plan and plot out an RP together, that's fine, but if we can't come to an agreement, please remember to be understanding if I can't cater to your every need. -I am okay with RPing most things, however, I will not be roleplaying nsfw things with minors, as expected. Please remember that if you ARE a minor and are actively reading the Second Wife Playbook or interacting with this blog that there are mature themes and contents. Read at your own discretion. -My primary goal on this blog is to have fun. If you think Coronis is a cutie-pie, feel free to flirt! But Coronis is also totes shy and socially awkward, so don't expect an easy conquest. Also if you want to plot angst or adventure or horror, talk it over with me. I am open to all sorts of avenues for writing. -Coronis is presently suffering from alcoholism and severe social anxiety. If you are sensitive to these topics, I cannot say whether or not this blog will be right for you. -I am open to RPing smut, however, we should definitely talk that out before moving forward.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding! I hope you enjoy and if you're interested, check out the Second Wife Playbook on Archive of Our Own!

All artwork and face claims for Coronis are by @trissschmidt! You can find them on Discord, Twitter (X), and Tumblr!

[dragoncxv360]

NOTICE: Hey, I would appreciate it if only 16+ people followed me because the stuff I post can be very suggestive, and just in general, my stories aren't meant for kids. I'm not gonna like rigorously go through my followers and check for ages, but like, if I spot a 13 year old following me, I'm gonna block 'cause it's just not comfortable

I’m Ellery, I mostly draw fanart and write fanfics atm, but I do occasionally make stuff for my ocs

I make both general dca art/fics and tsams art/fics so please don't get them mixed up, all tsams stuff will be tagged as such so please check the og tags on the post before assuming it's tsams. I mainly just mention this because outside of tsams I ship Sun x Moon (I shipped them well before ever getting into tsams) and I'd really prefer people keep them seperate. Also I ship a lotta stuff for tsams in aus so if tsams ships aren't your thing, you probably won't enjoy following me (which is ok, everybody likes what they like and not everybody has to like the same things).

Other fandoms you'll see me reblog stuff for and maybe make art for are Invader Zim, Shane Acker's movie 9 (the full film from 2009, not the short film from 2005). There's others but I don't feel like listing them all

I occasionally post art of pregnant characters but it’s tagged with #pregnancy and #cw pregnancy so you can avoid it

Nsfw stuff is on a side blog (with the exception being my ao3 which has both sfw and nsfw fics), suggestive stuff is on here but it’s tagged with either #nsfw and/or #suggestive #cw suggestive #tw suggestive

Commissions are closed atm

Drawing requests are closed unless otherwise specified

You can find my art on here under the tags #my art or #ellery's art, and you can find my writing under #my writing or #ellery’s writing

Asks are welcome, please keep some things in mind though. No nsfw, no gore, no venting or triggering topics such as self harm, suicide, or abuse. Also please no flashing images/gifs

Asks are currently off because of the spam bots, same with dms, these rules will apply if/when I turn them back on though

Currently looking for different options for making/selling stickers

You can support me on kofi

My fics are on ao3

Info post on my Security Sun Au

Info post on You’re Everything I’m Not (my oc story)

Things you can and can't do with my art and writing and stuff under the cut

Things you can do with my art, aus, and ocs:

- use my art as a phone/tablet/computer wallpaper (you don’t need to ask first)

- ASK to use my art as a profile picture or header/banner (the only exception to having to ask first is if I made the art for you)

- make fanart of my ocs and aus/fics, it makes me very happy to see people enjoying my stuff :D (please no gore, light blood is fine though. Please do not draw anything related to self harm or suicide, even for my fics that include such topics. Drawing Eclipse from my organic/recovery au with his canon self harm scars is fine, drawing said scars as actual wounds is not)

Things you can not do with my art, aus, ocs, or writing:

- you can’t repost, trace, copy, or edit my art (regardless of whether or not credit is given)

- you can’t repost my writing

- you can’t dub/voiceover/narrate my art or writing

- you can’t use my art or writing in AI generators or use my characters or writing in AI chatbots

- you can’t claim my art, writing, aus, ocs, or anything else I create as yours

- you can’t sell any of my stuff or otherwise use it to make a profit

- you can’t use my art for your ocs or dnd characters

- you can’t roleplay my aus or ocs

Ask first beforehand:

- ask before making nsfw fanart, and obviously minors are not allowed to do this ever

- ask first before making gift fics as there may be some things I wouldn't find comfortable

- ask first before taking heavy inspiration from my ocs/aus/fics. Things like making a genderfluid Sun too or even having a fic where Sun dies and Moon deals with the grief of that loss like in my fic Blood and Oil don't count imo, I mean stuff where it's like copying lots of things or copying hyperspecific details