#YAY i didn't think I would finish that wip

[scoutwolf]

Looks like fun!

<checks my wip(s)> Oh, oops, not a sunny situation.

All of these are from one wip (which I might. . . never. . . finish, oops; I've got so many wips that will probably never see the light of day or be completed) because I thought that would be a fun challenge. Nobody who replies to this has to follow that same challenge; they can be from multiple wips, even multiple different fandom wips— whatever makes you happy. No pressure to respond to this at all, either.

For lovely @theonewithallthefixations and @blupeeblep and anyone else who wishes to join, your random word is <flicks a fidget spinner and whichever limb? lands in the blue sticky note area has the word you're gonna get> Academy!

Also, I didn't realize it was such a challenge to find sentences that begin with 'u' in my fics. Another note, trigger warning for gore and violence (I think; it's very light for both) under the cut.

I hope you guys enjoy! Good luck! >:]

S- Sky was used to Fi warning him about the whereabouts of his brothers in battle, so when he startled and slashed at the flash of steel at the edge of his vision, and when Fi bit into flesh, bashed bone, and emerged dripping red instead of black, Sky breathed a sigh of relief that at least one of the monsters was easy enough to take down.

U- Unfortunately, he had been the one to harm him and all he could do was pray there was a healing potion or fairy somewhere in the pack he was tearing through.

N- “No, sailor, stay with me!” Sky said, feeling a hysterical sob building in his chest as he pressed his hands against Wind's.

N- “No, really,” Wind insisted, pausing to wipe blood away from his mouth with his sleeve, “I'm just an average nobody."

Y- "You've got this."

Yay for ending on a happier note, I guess. Though you'll never know who's encouraging whomever else to do whatever unless you ask, haha. So maybe not a happier note. >:]

Word Ask Game

Rules: You are given a word - share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that starts with each letter of that word!

Thank you @mistresslrigtar for tagging me 😊 (I love tag games! They're an outlet my tendency to ramble endlessly about things I really love). My word is SWORD! All sentences from the current WIP chapter of On My Honor.

S - Sliding silently inside, he quickly locked the door behind him.

W - "Where are you going so fast?" A hand grabbed Link's shoulder, jerking him to a halt.

O - "Only one way to know for sure," Link said.

R - "Right." They never would, though, Link already knew.

D - Distantly, the clock in the center of town chimed the late hour, and a surge of panic told him he needed to leave, and he needed to leave now, but his feet were fixed to the floor.

As for tagging others, I'm not sure who has already played, but I would love to hear from @poposusz, @silvrash-797, @amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet, or @fan-girls-r-us with the word LOVE (in honor of my love ❤️ for you all!)

[swati-art]

Here he comes

[s1llydr3amscape]

Maybe it was the friends we made along the way!

My security breach cast re-imagined when we first got the posters and merch leaks!!! I changed them into ocs because after seeing their in game designs I fell in love <33333

Another reason why Vanny is my fave is because I don't have to design her clothes /j

Extras and ramblings under the cut :

Zoomed in because I drew them on the same canvas like a goober :

Many reasons why I chose to make the way it is are cause hehehehe

-I didn't like Roxy at first because off that funko leak being a reused model of Foxy. So I made her a hyena recolor using his model because I think they're cool, yet I still kept the fact she's the shortest because of Foxy in fnaf 1 being the shortest!!! And it did sorta happen with her being his replacement 😭She has short hair because I think one of her main appeals would be she would change up her hair every other week.

-Freddy is a moon bear because I miss Lefty. Also cuz I thought Fazbear Ent developed enough technology so that they could change colors during the night/dark like in the posters making them blacklight/neon. Also once again I miss Lefty and Also Nightmare. He had blue eyes freaky like that because I think FazEnt was developing new technologies to recognize guests by having their main stars test them out. And it did happen in the game so yay!!!

-I genuinely didn't think Bonnie would show up because off the leaks but at the time everyone designed their own version off him and so did I!!! I made him white and brown as a homage to Vannys help wanted mask. The blue streaks in his hair also relates to my Vanessa design. Reasons for this is because with how advanced the AI it was to trick them into thinking they were eachother friends. Why because the heartbreak would've been catastrophic.

-Chica didn't change much but I added brown because I love the color brown it is my top 1 color with purple following behind. Also because I love gradients I fucking love gradients you bet your ass if I add gradients I could <333 She has feather hair like that because off Big Bird I saw in a short fnaf sesame street horror yt video and that scared and gave me nightmares because of this one scene of a lady giving birth to his kid??? Idk it scared me alot. She's my favorite tho <3333

-Monty didn't change except he had circular glasses because I wanted him to match with Roxy as the newest additions to the Fazbear brand!!! Also man I wish one of them was a drummer but I couldn't decide between if Roxy or Monty would get it. I also didn't know Roxanne would be racing and gave her rock climbing. Reasons cause imagining her chasing you being able to climb walls would be scary. My only wish Is that I made his snout longer I want you to be able to hold it like a weapon

-They all have eyelashes because I think that is epic!!!

-Freddy is the tallest. Bonnie and Chica are the same height and Roxanne is the shortest

Might redraw them in my oc world version (if anyone would be interested it's basically also a robot story with my old fnaf oc's now turned rivals to Fazbear Entertainment) and not simplified but my other wips need me they are calling for me they are telling me to finish them and I must!!! Probably

And here's my older art after we got to see the game and the designs are wack oughhh :

They would've fought with my pink yellow blue Vanny design!!! Which is the only one I redesigned because I love Vanny to much... You can see her pre-design here and oughh Pink Vanny <3333

-If you look closely Vanny has a Dino looking tail!!! And that's because I thought hey imagine each time we defeated an animatronic she'd sew a piece off their body onto her suit! So when we killed Monty she'd scavenged and get his tail!!! With Chica she got her chicken feet!! And with Roxanne she gets her teeth!!!

-Why because I associate her with Pinkamena cupcakes so much. Also to add onto my previous statement with Bonnie looking like her old mask. She changed her suit in the final act to solidify herself as the bad guy (final boss) who had been using the animatronics for his own gain.

-Man I never draw Chica with her head bow now that I think abt it same with Vanny's whiskers god what was I thinking!!!

Also sorry they're oddly cropped I watermark my stuff to remember what year I made them in and my old username is bad ���

[sonicboomrevisited]

THE WEEKLY CHECK-IN

Issue 2 Updates:

6/22 Pages have been fully inked

Page 7 is still in the sketching process, but I hope to have the inks started today!

I am technically ahead of schedule on inking pages! Yay!

Issue 1 Page 13 WIPS:

You guys voted last week on what you'd like to see from this blog between now and issue 2s release. WIPs from issue 1 won! Every week, I'll showcase a page. This week I've chosen page 13!

The Initial Sketch: When I first start working on a comic page, I always focus on getting the general layout of the page done first. This means understanding how the panels fit together and jotting down a general sense of the action. You may notice that some of these initial plans changed in the final version. I wasn't originally going to have Amy hit Sonic with her Piko Piko hammer and panel 4 was going to have Sonic kicking Amy again rather than vaulting over her. I wish I had saved more of the in-between sketches to show you guys how these evolved overtime, but I just didn't think to do it during the process. I'm saving a lot of the sketches during Issue 2, though to make up for it!

Final Ink: A page without color! You can see how some of the sizing on the boxes changed, Sonic's surprised face was turned around to better fit with his new vaulting pose and what I originally intended to be a fully in-shadow panel was turned into just having Knuckles in Shadow. This is one of the prettier inks in my opinion. It's the first page that I felt completely happy with the art once it was finished. Looking back now there are things I would do differently, but I can still be proud of it.

Color: And here's the final product, without text, in all it's glory! Coloring is not my strongest suit. In fact, every time I draw something complicated I think about how much trouble its going to be to color later. I'm always up for the challenge, though. If I were to go back and color this page again, however, I probably wouldn't use so many gradients on the background.

Let me know what WIPS from Issue 1 you'd like to see next or if you have any questions about page 13!

[abyssalzones]

art summary for 2024 ^_^ just used a template I pulled off deviantart this time, maybe next year I'll feel up to making something a little fancier. (more talking below)

overall I'm very happy with all I've managed to accomplish this year (ignoring the college-shaped gap in the middle) but I'm really looking forward to getting more done in terms of my large-scale projects in 2025... for a while I thought I was going to leave art as a side hobby while becoming invested in a different career but realizing that was going to make me miserable for the rest of my life has really re-ignited my passion for art. I could potentially be someone other than an artist and a storyteller, but I don't want to be.

with that in mind I plan on expanding things irt my online presence because I've never been very good at.. "marketing" myself... and I don't know how much that will change since I enjoy having a little authentic place here on tumblr to post art and blog at the same time, but I do have plans to open a patreon soon and maybe start selling prints. patreon would mostly be a place where I put short "bonus" comics, I still want my comics to be largely accessible to the public but sometimes I draw stuff and think "nah I don't think the public should get this one for free." it'd also be a good way to give people glimpses of WIPs as I work on projects that take a lot of time.

speaking of WIPs, I really really really want to finish this big d&d&md comic some time in the next few months since I started it all the way back last summer and it's been waylaid by... my starting irl college. ironically.

it's one of my favorite comics I've made so far and I think it'd be a huge loss if I just let it languish or didn't bother to fully finish it the way I'd been intending to. it also has a cool wizard battle in it. so, that's neat I think.

finally I really want to work on escape velocity, particularly making it more accessible to people. I always find myself in this awkward position where I'm never really sure how to talk about something I've been working on for seven (eight??) years without giving away too much, or without sacrificing the time I'm spending on writing and eventually Drawing it to make promotional stuff that gets people interested. I'm still working on a solution for that but in the meantime I plan on finishing up the basic plot outlines for the first act, then once that's done and I've written up dialogue for the first chapter I can get to work on DRAWING. yay!!!!!

anyway, thank you to anyone who has supported me and enjoyed my art this year :] expect more to come... soon...

[caliburn-not-calculator]

1, 21, and 26 for the writer asks :3

1: What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

Well, in terms of new… There’s probably a few things, but the biggest and most obvious that comes to mind is my attempts at writing smut for the first time lol. It’s… fine? It’s a process to say the least, love hate relationship there. I’ll probably do it again but not with any regularity.

Just an occasional treat to throw to the heathens /aff /silly

21: Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Oh wow this is… hard to pick. I used to hate dialogue but now I love it, there’s quite a few exchanges I’m really proud of but if I have to pick one…

This is from a wip that may or may not ever happen, and I am going to drop this whole exchange cause I think it hits best with the whole context. 4.5 with the VR-LA and Maxim break up but… messier (Added the initials for clarity)

V: And how would you propose I change? What would you propose I do instead?"

M: Forget, leave it, move on with your life and away from... this— this goal that has already seen your family broken and hurt. What worth is there is continuing to chase it?

V: ... I did forget Maxim. Didn't work. Have some tack and do not ask me to do so again.

M: I am sorry, but the point stands—

V: What point? That I should have left my family to rot? Left them to die? Allowed my captain's death to be in vain? What good, what justice, would that have served? You say evil will always balance out what good we do, well then, shouldn't our good also balance the evil done to us? Should your universal order not work in my favour to?

M: I... VR-LA you could no know they were even alive. It could have been suicide.

V: I had faith.

M: Faith is for fools, do not make yourself one.

V: Faith gives us hope. Don't you dare tell me my hope is a mistake, I have fought too hard and lost too much in the fight to regain it, for it to be insulted by you.

26: If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Uh… oh, oh no my memory isn’t good enough for this… probably any time I finished and posted something, like, the hit of happy fuzzies I get is wonderful. And any time when I wake up to a couple of comments on some this is always such a nice start to a day like seriously <3

I can’t think of a singular moment tho… just, generally yay :D

[voidwelt]

tumblr user voidwelt do you have any more freaky voidwelt flirting tactics you cooked my friend and. I am hungry 🙏😔

hello my friend... i do have some WIPs in my documents but those are a long way from being finished and might not be completed for a long long time (only 500 words in :ouch:) generally i think.. dynamic wise... in general... i like the idea that welt is """normal""" only in direct comparison to the weird company he surrounds himself with (common knowledge). except for when he's with the void archives. upon which the 1st herrscher and the 1st divine key make a weird set together. they're cracking jokes over the cold reality of the wider universe and commenting on each others' mortality in jest. weird enough that any onlooker would listen in and just be like..... huhh. is this flirting? (somehow, it is.) ... and then the void archives leaves and welt sobers up a little. and he makes a big deal about how he can't stand hearing that same terrible humour parroted back by that robot. even though a little of it is definitely his. send tweet. (i like to think shush has a few jokes that welt thought of. and every time theyre recounted. he sighs and averts his gaze self consciously) i think it's important that he even surprises himself a little when he matches their freak. ... one of the few people who the void archives even bothers to speak to on a peer to peer basis. lets have homoerotic mind games <3 yay <3 do you think they used to play trailblaze chess together and that's why welt still does it habitually. (i have a fever dream of welt yang forgiving the void archives post-return to express. and theyre just not sure how to deal with that. it makes me think of his spiel about choosing kindness in alien space. the void archives should be BAFFLED when said ideology is turned on them. made speechless! yeah you damn cube.. you are also worthy of human kindness. explodes you)

oya~. since you asked really niceys. here's a snippet of that fic i said i was writing at the start of this ask. :3 hey i didn't mean to talk so much... Oops

[skitskatdacat63]

Hello I've woken up and people seem to like the card post, yay! It's just funny bcs before I even was thinking about writing that post, @suzuki-ecstar and I were joking about Fernando becoming a Las Vegas magician post-F1. So here are some silly WIPs that I will hopefully finish at some point

Of course Seb as his sexy Magician's assisstant whom he cuts in half, also he would be so these posts

And his magician name would of course be: "✨️Magic Alonso✨️" Also I saw someone in the tags be like "oh so that's[the magic tricks] is where he got that nickname!" Honestly, I had the same realization, I'm so embarrassed 😭 I saw that it said Magic Alonso in the corner of the one vid and I was like WAIT THIS IS WHERE THAT COMES FROM!!?!?!? I didn't realize it existed for so long....

Anyways gonna go drown myself in coursework :)

[justlightlysedated]

So update, I have NOT finished the fic BUT since I did say maybe today, I decided to post an update! Here is the last 1/3 of Part Two, which is also known as "The Divorce Era" it is also WIP WEDNESDAY! So yay for me 😊

December 2019

Isobel is just walking through the front entrance of the hospital when her phone blares, sudden and loud. She tugs it out of her pocket and to her ear.

"What?"

"When you get here don't do any Jedi mind tricks," Kyle says without a hello. "I have to talk to you before anything else. Where are you?"

"In the front entrance," she responds and hangs up.

She has to stop herself from stomping forward and demanding to be told what is happening with Michael Guerin. But she trusts Kyle enough to wait.

She still doesn't understand how this happened.

They had been practicing with their powers more than usual, but it didn't make any sense for Michael to drop out of nowhere, publicly enough that the emergency services were called before anyone could do anything about it.

Kyle had recognized his description from the EMTs and had immediately called Isobel, telling her he'd do what he could to avoid exposure.

She spots Kyle coming out of the elevator and heading her way, walking fast. He grabs on to her elbow and begins tugging her forward. Isobel lets this go on until they're in the elevator and then she pushes him away.

"Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?" she demands. "And where is Michael?"

Kyle reaches forward and presses the button to stop the elevator before turning to face her.

"Has Michael ever told you anything about being married?"

Isobel snorts, wanting to laugh, but settling for shaking her head. "He's made comments about a husband before, but it's impossible that he actually got married without Max and I there."

Kyle exhales roughly, "Well either he was telling the truth or it's too late to do anything to keep Michael off the government radar."

Isobel clenches her hands together, resisting the urge to tear into Kyle's brain and find out the information that he has faster. The elevator creaks alarmingly.

"Okay," Kyle says, holding his hands out in front of him like he's trying to placate her. "I'm just the messenger here, okay?"

"Kyle," Isobel snaps. "I need a full and concise explanation in the next thirty seconds or else-"

"I can't access any of his records," Kyle says, cutting her off. "Everything from the stats taken at the scene to the oxygen mask put on his face have been put under lock and classified key. The chief of staff says that there was a military code on his file that puts all of his information on a highly classified need to know basis."

Isobel thinks that over quickly, "So what you're saying is that either they already know and there is nothing that we can do or Michael is married to someone high up in the military."

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, Isobel wants to smack herself on the forehead.

"I stand corrected," she says before Kyle can confirm or deny her previous statement. "There is someone that he could be married to without telling either of us."

Kyle gives her a look, and she raises an eyebrow back at him thinking, Alex Manes really loudly, and somehow it seems to work.

Kyle's eyes flash from realization to surprise to surprisingly, guilt.

Isobel would ask, but she pulls her phone out again instead. 

To Alex's credit he answers the phone almost immediately, "This is not a good time."

"Okay, when would be a better time for you to tell me that you're married to my brother?" Isobel asks as sickeningly sweet as she can manage.

Alex just sighs, "Good. You're here. I need to leave in ten minutes if I want to make it to my meeting in time."

Which meant that Alex was here in the hospital, when he was supposed to be halfway across the country chasing down Project Shepherd leads. Interesting.

"I'm signing all the paperwork, and once Michael wakes up they'll discharge him immediately, no tests or anything," Alex had continued speaking while Isobel wasn't paying attention.

"Alex," Isobel almost shouts, interrupting his flow. "You're married. To Michael."

"Yes," Alex says, sounding annoyed, like he doesn't understand why this needs to be a conversation that they need to have. "Technically separated. Fortunately he didn't actually file for divorce earlier this year so all of the precautions I took are still legible."

"Technically separated," Isobel repeats in a mocking tone.

She can feel the eye roll through the phone.

"Just get out of the elevator, and come over here," he says. "We're in room C118."

He hangs up before Isobel can say anything else.

She scoffs and pulls up Michael's information, but then decides she can berate him better in person.

"He said they're in room C118."

Kyle nods his head once, and presses two buttons, one to start the elevator again, and the other to get to the correct floor.

"So they really are married then?" He asks, sounding both like he wants to know the answer, but also like he doesn't.

"Apparently it's so obvious that Mr. Manes gets annoyed if you ask too many questions," she pauses for a second thinking it over. "Or is it Mr. Guerin as well?"

Kyle just groans and leans back against the wall.

"What's wrong with you?" Isobel asks.

Kyle is saved by answering when the doors open, but Isoebl stops him as they get out, pushing him into a secluded corner. 

"Are you secretly in love with Alex as well or what?"

Kyle splutters, shaking his head, "No. I mean, not that Alex isn't a great guy, and anyone would be lucky to be secretly in love with him-"

"Thanks for saying that Kyle," Alex's highly amused voice comes from somewhere to their right.

They both turn to look at him.

Usually, Isobel has nothing bad to say about Alex's wardrobe. But today it looks like he pulled clothes randomly out of Michael's closet. As a matter of fact, Isobel is sure that the dirty gray shirt he's wearing tucked beneath Michael's jean jacket is the same shirt that Michael had been wearing when she'd seen him last.

"What are you wearing?" Isobel asks, wrinkling her nose.

"My husband's clothes," Alex responds, like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

He grins while she gapes at him, momentarily speechless.

"Alex I'm so sorry," Kyle blurts out like he can't stop himself.

"For what?" Alex asks, giving Kyle a slightly suspicious look.

"You remember when you were in that accident a couple of days before you were kidnapped by your brother?"

Alex nods his head slowly, while Isobel furrows her brow. She had never heard about Alex being involved in an accident.

"Well, I forgot to tell you with everything else that happened, but I  kind of threwGuerinoutofthehospitalforclaimingtobeyourhusband."

He throws the words out as fast as he can, and then looks away, wincing when he catches Isobel’s eye. Isobel has half in mind to set him on fire, but she also didn't believe Michael when he told her that she was married. In her defense, she had thought she had all of the pieces of information. It wasn't until she talked to Max, a couple of years before Liz Ortecho stormed back into their lives, that she realized that there was one big blind spot in her reasoning.

Alex takes a second to get what Kyle was trying to say, and once he does he gives Kyle a look bordering on angry, but still amused.

"You could've just checked my file. He's listed as my next of kin."

And once again, Alex says the words in a way that sounds annoyed that he has to point out something so obvious.

Kyle winces at Alex's tone. And Isobel rolls her eyes.

"I'm sorry, " Kyle says again.

Alex just nods, "It's not me you owe an apology to."

He turns to face Isobel, "Everything is squared away. He's awake and just waiting for the paperwork. You guys can leave once the nurse hands you the paperwork, and a USB drive."

His eyebrows telegraph the importance of the USB.

Isobel just nods her head slowly, "So technically separated."

Alex sighs, "In the last eleven years, we've spent more time apart than together. This marriage has never been about our relationship."

Isobel opens her mouth to argue, but Alex just shakes his head.

"It's a safety net," he says, and Isobel stops speaking, eyes widening a little. "It means no matter what I'll be there for him."

"So it has nothing to do with the fact that you're in love with him or anything?" Isobel questions sarcastically because someone has to say it.

Alex rolls his eyes, "Your brother had ample time to file for divorce any time in the last year, and he failed to do so."

"I have to go," he continues before Isobel can ask another question. "Take care of him."

And he's gone before Isobel can tell him that she doesn't need him to tell her that.

---

Alex doesn't know why he expected that taking a meeting near Roswell would come with no consequences. He hadn't told anyone he was going to be around. He hadn't been planning on making a big deal out of it, which is probably why it's the day that Michael Guerin decides to stop being reliable and lands himself in the hospital.

Alex is only two minutes late to his meeting, and it sets the tone for the rest of the day. 

Alex is tired when he heads back to the house. He intends to sleep for a couple of hours and then pack up a few more necessities and leave.

So of course, when he gets out of the bathroom he hears a knock on the front door.

Alex closes his eyes and breathes in deeply. There is only one person that could be. Well conceivably there are five people that could be. But it's narrowed down to one since there is only one person who wouldn't wait for Alex to open the door before opening it himself.

Alex ignores the new person in the house and drops his dirty clothes inside of the washer and puts it to wash. Luckily the machine is loud enough that it'll remind Alex to put the clothes to dry before he falls asleep.

He walks out of his bedroom, and finds Michael sitting on the edge of the couch, elbows resting on his knees as he hunches over, looking down to the floor. He's still wearing Alex's shirt, that they'd switched at the hospital, after Alex had seen that there were spots of blood on his. They wouldn't take his shirt, but better safe than sorry.

Alex spots the thick folded stack of paper on top of the table and tries, very, very hard not to sigh.

"Tag you're it," Michael says, straightening up and looking at Alex.

He looks tired, but better than he did when he was lying back in a hospital bed. Alex had never wanted to see Michael in one. 

"You lied to me," Alex says, instead of grabbing the divorce papers and shoving them into the paper shredder in his office.

Michael shrugs, "I didn't lie exactly. I just let you believe what you wanted to believe."

Alex doesn't stop the sigh that falls out of his mouth this time.

Alex really only has himself to blame here.

"I don't understand why you couldn't just file them," Alex says, maybe a bit plaintive. He gave the papers to Michael for a reason.

Michael shrugs and leans back on the couch, "My reasons for marrying you haven't changed."

Alex makes a face at his own words being used against him. Especially since they were now, somehow, on opposite sides of this fight, once again.

"But your dad is dead now," he continues, trying to look nonchalant, but Alex can see right through him. "So all of your reasons are void. So you shouldn't have any more issues."

Alex walks away from him, heading towards the kitchen. He cannot have this conversation sober.

Michael walks into the kitchen when Alex is done pouring some bourbon into two glasses.

Alex grabs his glass and downs his drink, thinking about pouring himself another when Michael pushes his glass closer to Alex with just a flick of his fingers.

Alex grabs the glass and downs the drink before he can second guess himself.

Alex sets the glass down and turns to face Michael, who leans back against the island counter facing Alex.

"Why did you lie to me?" Alex asks before Michael can say anything.

Michael sighs, "There just never seemed to be a time to go do it, and if I'm being honest, there was never a reason important enough to do it."

Alex doesn't say that Michael just spent months in a serious relationship with someone else.

"And also I wanted to see if you would come when I called if you thought I wasn't your husband," he says, grinning at Alex as though it's a joke.

Alex wraps his fingers around the bottle of bourbon, tempted to pour himself another glass.

Michael reaches out and wraps his hand around Alex's, stopping him from moving.

"Michael," Alex says, because he doesn't know what else to say.

"Alex," Michael responds in the same tone.

They stare at each other in silence for too long minutes. Alex's hand tingles where it's trapped beneath Michael's, and his eyes drop to Michael's lips, that part as he stares as though Alex's gaze is a physical touch.

Alex vividly remembers the last time that he kissed Michael and he wishes he didn't.

"You were in the hospital today," Alex says, slipping his hand out from beneath Michael's and taking a step back.

"Extenuating circumstances," Michael says immediately, leaning heavily against the counter.

"Still, the only reason that you’re not playing lab rat is because of the special privileges granted to you by our marriage."

Michael opens his mouth, a familiar teasing look on his face, but Alex cuts him off before he can say anything.

"Don't."

Michael just lifts his hands in the air in mock surrender, pushing away from the counter.

Michael stuffs his hands into the pocket of his jeans, rocking back on his heels.

"So," he starts stretching out the o sound.

"So," Alex repeats shortly. "It seems like we're at an impasse."

They stare at each other in silence once again, but Alex is unwilling to break it this time. Because he might just cross the space between them and kiss him.

Luckily, Michael speaks before too long, "I know you're going to leave again."

Alex inhales sharply.

"But I know you're coming back," Michael continues, taking a step closer to Alex, who remains frozen, staring at Michael like he's prey in the eyes of a predator. "And maybe you'll go on dates with someone else, and maybe you'll fall in love."

Michael looks away at that, and only then does Alex feel like he is breathing again.

"But whether you file those papers or not, once you've figured out exactly what it is that you want, I'll be here."

He turns back to face him at those last three words, and Alex finds himself trapped all over again.

"And this time we won't have the excuse of not being able to communicate," he continues, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket and placing it on top of the counter. "You can reach me anytime."

"You expect me to believe that you actually got a phone that you're actually going to use as intended and not as a paperweight?"

Michael rolls his eyes, "Answering the phone might be difficult sometimes, but if you text me, I'll always answer back."

Alex scoffs at that. 

If Michael doesn't answer the phone immediately, he can be counted on to call back anywhere between five to nine business days, if he doesn't by then, he'll never do it. And texting is definitely out of the question when it takes him ten whole minutes to type out a single sentence. Alex has seen it happen, and has seen the frustration on Michael's face.

"It's a phone better suited for texting," Michael says, grinning when Alex's eyes dart up to his surprise. "Izzy came with me when I got it."

Alex shakes his head, but he reaches out for the piece of paper anyway.

Michael's smile gets a little wider, "So, call me or text me, whenever you want. And maybe, we can be friends?"

Alex gives him a look at that.

"To start with," he continued, smile turning sly. "And eventually, I'll ask you to either renew our vows one more time, or to marry me again."

Alex stutters out a disbelieving laugh, feeling warmth flicker in his chest in spite of himself. "Oh is that how it's going to be?"

"Yeah," Michael says, easily. "And when that happens, I'm never giving you the chance to file for divorce again, so you should probably do it while you still have the chance.

"But while we're still here," he continues, moving in too close, too fast and pressing a kiss to Alex's cheek. "Happy Anniversary, Mr. Guerin."

Alex gasps, heart thundering in his throat, as Michael leans away and smiles at him.

And because he absolutely needs to have the last word always, he rocks backwards and away, "See you later, Private."

He waves as he goes, smiling all the way, entirely too sweet. He walks down the hall and out the front door, humming a familiar melody that sends Alex's heart tripping all over itself.

Alex barely resists the urge to follow him out and press him down against the side of his truck.

Alex would like to bristle at the implication that no matter what he decides to do he's gonna end up married to Michael, but he'd be lying to himself if he didn't feel happy about the thought.

Alex shakes his head and glances at the bottle of bourbon.

The alarm for the washing machine goes off, signaling that it's done.

Alex takes it as a sign that he's not supposed to drink any more, and sets about to clean up the kitchen, washing the glasses and putting the bourbon away.

March 2020

Forrest really likes Alex. 

If he didn't, he wouldn't have waited almost a full year for him to return back to Roswell so they could actually give this dating thing a try. 

Forrest is not naive, and he hadn't wanted to start something with Alex when he was just coming to terms with being more open with his sexuality. Not to mention the fact, still very obviously getting over his previous relationship. So he'd told Alex that they'd talk when he got back, and had kept communication open the entire year. And he'd felt like they had gotten closer, and that Alex was ready to actually be in a relationship with him.

That was until he realized how stuck to his phone Alex still was. How it seemed like he was keeping secrets. Secrets that involve Michael, who Forrest has been reliably informed by multiple sources, is the first love of Alex's life.

It's not that Forrest actually has a problem with Michael or Michael and Alex being friends. His only issue is all of the secrecy. Everything he's learned about Alex's past relationship with Michael has been by accident.

And sometimes he wished that Alex was more open about it.

He followed Alex home after their date, that wasn't a date since Alex spent half of it frowning at his phone like it had personally offended him and the other half playfully bantering with Isobel and teasing Kyle when they'd dragged their table over after they'd gotten sat down.

Forrest wasn't mad at the impromptu company for dinner. But there was an important conversation he had wanted to have with Alex, something that really couldn't wait since he was leaving tomorrow and had yet to pack anything. Which was the main reason he'd followed Alex home.

Alex gets out of his car, and inclines his head towards the house. Forrest almost scrambles out of his car going after him.

Alex stops before opening the front door, picking up a package from where it was on top of a stool that was just to the left of the front door.

Alex doesn't say much, asking him if he wants something to drink as he lets them both into the house, which Forrest accepts since it means that Alex doesn't expect him to leave.

At least that's what he thinks until Alex pulls out a glass jug filled halfway with lemon and cucumber slices floating in water.

Forrest stares in silence as Alex fills two glasses, and then sighs as he sets the jug down and pulls his phone out of his pocket. 

"We need to talk," Forrest blurts out.

Alex takes a moment to look away from his phone, brow furrowed, before he seems to understand what Forrest said.

His face clears and he sets his phone down. Forrest's eyes drop to it, and he sees the dark screen light up with a new message, the notification totalling to 8 new messages.

Forrest's eyes darted away from the screen and to the package that was resting on the counter. The box looked old, and it was tapped together haphazardly, and instead of a shipping label, there were letters and numbers scrawled on the side: cat:mg:work22.

He looks back to Alex who is once again frowning at his phone.

"Have you thought about what I told you?"

Alex looks away from his phone and frowns at Forrest instead, finally giving him an emotion other than pleasantly passive.

"Which part are you talking about?" Alex asks, like he's confused.

Forrest thinks back to this moment as the moment that he actually realized that he and Alex weren't going to last much longer. But he also thinks that the signs were there from the very beginning.

"It's only one thing, Alex," he replies, putting a hand on the counter and leaning closer. 

Alex just looks at him like he's still confused about what Forrest is trying to say. 

His phone rings then, and Forrest barely sees the blurry contact picture as Alex snatches the phone up. But he'd recognize that cowboy hat anywhere. 

Alex doesn't answer the call immediately, even though it's obvious that's what he wants to do.

"Can you just give me a second?"

Forrest usually would, but he's leaving tomorrow, and Alex seems less than concerned.

"Don't you think answering your boyfriend's question is more important than answering a random phone call?"

Alex's face shuts down in a way that catches Forrest by surprise.

"Okay," he says nodding once, holding his phone tightly in his hands. 

"First of all, you know enough to know that any random phone call could be an emergency."

And really, Forrest should've stopped him there and apologized or something, but Alex just kept talking before he could think of anything else to say.

"Second of all," Alex continued, holding up two fingers. "We're not boyfriends, we went on a couple of dates. Boyfriends is something that we'd have to talk about and what would be the point of doing that when you're leaving tomorrow."

The pointed barb paired with that pointed look is what finally makes Forrest speak.

"So, I guess that's your decision then," he says, feeling upset, but not as much as he'd thought he'd be. "You're not coming with me."

Alex's face cracks a little, and he gives Forrest a complicated look, "I'm letting Deep Sky recruit me."

The words were both surprising and not.

"I'm sorry," Alex says before Forrest can process what he's saying. "But I really have to take this call."

He's making a hasty exit out of his kitchen before Forrest can stop him.

"Is this a life or death situation?" Alex asks as he answers the call, and Forrest doesn't hear a door opening or closing, so he doesn't feel guilty about leaning against the island counter and listening to the conversation.

"I'm listening," he says, and Forrest can see him, leaning back against his closed door, face tilted, eyes closed.

Forrest turns back into the kitchen, eyes darting around everywhere looking for a distraction, and he finds another box sat upon another stool that matches the one that was by the front door. This one was labeled cat:ag:pers33.

Resting on top was an unlabeled folder with several sheets of paper poking out of the top.

He's debating whether or not to go snooping, when Alex laughs, at whatever whoever is on the other side of this, important could-be-an-emergency phone call was saying.

He finds himself opening the folder before he can tell himself that it's a bad idea.

And if he'd thought things between them were over, this was definitely the final nail in the coffin.

It takes him a second to realize what exactly he's reading, even though the words, Dissolution of Marriage don't leave much to interpretation.

Forrest stares at the name Alexander Guerin for so long that he startles when he hears Alex speaking from behind him.

"Sorry about that, what were we talking about?"

Forrest barely hears what he's actually saying, "You were married to Michael?"

"Still married," Alex corrects absently. And it's the casual way that he says the words that has Forrest whipping around to face him.

Alex isn't even looking at him. He's staring at his phone reading a message that was probably from Michael after spending the entire evening being distracted by messages, probably from Michael, who was also probably the same person who he just finished talking to on the phone.

Michael. Who is apparently Alex's husband.

"Still married?" Forrest repeats, and Alex looks up then.

His eyes drop to the folder still in Forrest's hands and an exasperated look comes over his face.

"Have you ever heard of the word privacy?"

"Have you ever heard of not answering a question with a question?" Forrest parries back, almost desperately.

Alex rolls his eyes and stuffs his phone in his pocket.

"Yes," Alex says. "I am married to Michael. Technically separated. But it doesn't matter."

"You think it doesn't matter that you're married while dating someone else?" Forrest asks, feeling not for the first time that he has no idea who Alex really is.

"Yes," Alex says like it should be obvious, walking forward and holding his hands out for the folder.

Forrest doesn't want to give them to him, but he also doesn't want to keep holding them.

He passes the folder over while Alex keeps speaking.

"If our relationship had become more serious I would've said something, but there's no point now."

He stands at attention, folder closed and set aside, and Forrest didn't even realize just how open Alex's body language had been towards him, until this very moment, when he saw how closed off he was.

"Because you're not coming with me," Forrest says, just to get a direct clarification.

Alex just inclines his head without speaking.

"Because of your husband?" Forrest questions, needing to be sure.

Alex sighs, "Yes, but not in the way that you're thinking. And not in any way that I have to justify to you. Not anymore."

Forrest shakes his head, feeling both wrong footed and like he should've seen this coming a mile away.

"So that's it then," he says, trying not to sound as hurt as he feels and most likely failing by the look on Alex's face. "We're done."

"I am sorry," Alex says, sounding sincere. "I really wanted this to work."

"Did you really?" Forrest finds himself asking before he can stop himself. "Or were you just stringing me along until your husband decides to take you back?"

Alex scoffs at that, lifting an eyebrow and shaking his head, "That's not fair."

"Isn't it?" Forrest demands taking a step towards Alex. "You string me along for a year, and then once you're finally home, and we can start making things work, you're too distracted by your phone to pay attention. And I really don't have to guess to know that it's your husband on the other end."

"Stop calling him that," Alex snaps. "Michael and I don't have a conventional relationship. We've never even really lived together. Our marriage is on paper only. For reasons that once again, aren't any of your concern.

"And it doesn't matter anyway," he continues. "Even if you hadn't found the papers, this would've still been over. Because you're leaving, and I'm staying."

Forrest scoffs, "And is that the same sentiment you gave Michael when you left when you were eighteen?"

He knows it's a mistake even before he says the words, and instead of provoking Alex, all it does is make him shut down entirely.

"Okay, I think you should leave," he says, moving so that he's not standing in Forrest's way, but also not turning his back to him.

Forrest wants to stay and he wants to fight. He wants to beg Alex to give him an actual chance. But Alex doesn't look back at him, and he knows that whatever small chance he had at making this work died long before tonight.

He exhales harshly, "Goodbye Alex. I hope you have a great life."

He walks away before he can say anything else, and the sound of deafening silence follows him out of the house.

[comesitintheclover]

Six Sentence Sunday Monday 📚📜🖊️

Thank you so much for the tag @bookish-bogwitch! your chart is awesome!

I will remember to try that/ a similar thing if I keep having issues with this fic I'm writing (but I should at least try to slog through a first draft of my trouble chapters first - i just get so anxious that I will fuck up the funny-conflict and make it miserable or something when it's 'perfect' (but vague af) in my brain and has been that way for 4 years...).

And thank you everyone who has tagged me in the last months/year <3 @nausikaaa, @ileadacharmedlife, @monbons, @supercutedinosaurs, @brendughh, @rimeswithpurple, and anyone else if I missed you because my tumblr notifs won't go that far back 😭💗💞💖 I love you all! Thank you for including me in the community even when I haven't been writing for a while! It's been so inspiring seeing what you all have been up to and I've finally started writing again so yay!

My goal is to finish this fic I've been writing for four years (i've written what I'm estimating is 50k words freehand and am transcribing and editing them onto my laptop and I still need to write the other half ... hahahaha 😅. But I love it. ) called *The Long Summer*, within a month (the first draft at least, I'll come back and edit it at a later date. I want to post it on ao3 over a summer so hopefully I will be ready next summer! I need to write it while I still love it!), and then I want to write the first draft of an original story for a month or so/NaNoWriMo, and then I will pick one of my Carry On WIPs to work on (hopefully just in time to celebrate snowbaz's anniversary!)

(The Carry On WIPs in question: I'm thinking I will probably pick my soulmate au fic called Meet the Parents/When You're an Adult You'll Understand, or a trans au called Fraternity house, orrrrr this magical Agony-Aunt fic called Basilton Grimm-Pitch’s 10 Step Plan for Getting Over*(letting himself be in love with) Simon Snow ).

And I'm planning to interact more with wip-wednesdays and six-sentence-sundays from now on to keep me motivated and accountable! (hopefully this works, battling my motivation is like trying to wrestle a fish or something... i'm constantly at a loss with my brain - oh why won't I do things that I love and have time to do??)

....Oh and I want to make some Carry On animations.... (this is probably why I don't do things... Too ideas many and hard to pick. I tried to make a schedule last night that included everything I wanted to do in a day and it was 35 hours long... oops).

*The Long Summer* is a harry potter fic, and since I know all of you lovely people from Carry On, and I know lots of people avoid hp stuff for obvious reasons (JKR is wrong! Trans liberation now!), I will keep the rest of this under the cut <3

here are the first six sentences from my 💗beloved fic💗:

Ron Weasley wasn't an introspective soul. By the time something actually rolled around to happening he would probably have had twelve chances to predict it, if he was Hermione. He presumed something like this would never have happened to Hermione. Summers were probably a lot more quiet in the Muggle world, as an only child, with parents who weren’t - well Hermione was so smart she probably already knew, no there was really no reason to write to her. And Harry - well he didn't want to write to Harry about it either.  Honestly, it would probably be better if he never found out.

(I wrote these when I was 16 and they may need editing but that's for future me to worry about - rn I'm trying to push out a first draft as fast as possible...)

Thank you to anyone who read this far!

Hi!'s, tags, and hand-hearts to everybody 🫶 @stitchy-queerista, @umdiasujo, @carpeosculum, and open tag to anyone who wants to be tagged! <3

[nattikay]

fursuit making update: both ears are now complete and attached to the head! I've decided I'm not going to post any more WIP pics because at this point she's close enough to done for it to feel like "spoilers" for the finished thing lol

I leave for AWU just one week from today and have made a list of all the tasks I need to get done to finish the suit. There are 14 tasks in total (sounds like a lot but most of them are relatively small/quick things). Eight of them are absolutely mandatory to have a finished wearable costume, the rest are things would be ideal to have but aren't strictly necessary/it won't be the end of the world if I don't have time to get to them (mostly small internal things that no one will actually see when I'm wearing it, like bias tape on the edges of the handpaws or around the neck hole, inside lining for the back of the head (right now only the front is lined), stuff like that).

Of the 14 total, I've deemed seven of them to be minor/simple enough that I could theoretically do them in the hotel the night before the con if I need to. Obviously trying to do all seven of them there would probably be a little much, but if I reach the day I have to leave and there's still one or two, maybe three of them that I didn't get to at home, it should be fine.

So yeah, I think I'm pretty confident now that I can finish this thing in time to wear her at the con! Yay!

Right now the only thing I'm a little unsure about is the eyes—not about whether or not I can do them, but about which material I'll be able to use.

See (no pun intended lol), I was originally planning to use the same method I'd used for 2.5's eyes, namely making a digital iris design and printing it out on cotton buckram (with just my regular home printer). I thought I had some buckram left over from the last time I made fursuit heads, but even after digging through all my craft supplies I couldn't find it, so I had to order some more. Unfortunately the place I usually order from was out of stock, so I had to find some elsewhere.

While looking for somewhere else to get the buckram (this was two weeks ago now), I saw an Etsy listing that said they could print custom fursuit eyes on a plastic mesh with the fancy dye sublimation printing, which caught my attention because hey, that could be even better; I'd still get to use the iris art I made but on the fancy vibrant waterproof mesh. So I decided to give it a shot...the problem is I don't know if they'll arrive before I have to leave 😅

I found and ordered some regular buckram too, as a backup, but I'm really hoping the fancy dye sublimation irises get here in time. The seller said they'd print and ship them on Saturday (last Saturday, not this coming Saturday) but I haven't gotten any kind of shipping confirmation so I don't know if they actually did or not.

Luckily installing the eyes doesn't take very long, so I'm gonna give the fancy irises until Wednesday to show up. If they're not here by then, I'm just gonna have to cut my losses and go back to the regular printer on cotton buckram like I was originally planning. Which, hey, not the end of the world, that method worked perfectly fine for 2.5...just a mild letdown after getting excited about the fancy option 😅

[bi-bats]

timkon exes to lovers? 👀👀

(also, hi!!! how’s it going?)

Hello!!!!! Yes I am SO stoked about that one honestly because I have literally like. 17k words of it or something cause it's one of my older fics! Here's a snippet:

“Hey,” Kon said, and the room was too heavy, too thick for him to be sarcastic the way Tim knew he wanted to be.  “Hey.” It was barely a whisper out of Tim’s throat, and for a moment he wanted to lean forward and wrap his arms around Kon.  Then he remembered to be angry. It had been so long since he’d been in his room that he barely remembered how he’d left it, but he knew somewhere in his head that it shouldn’t have been so clean. Everything was tidy except for his bed, which wasn’t made, and that wasn’t quite right. He knew he’d made it before leaving, the last time. He wanted to smell his sheets to be certain, but he was pretty sure Kon had slept in his bed.  No, Tim. Bad Tim. Creepy Tim.  There was an easier way to find out, anyways.  “Did you sleep in my bed?” he asked, and he hadn’t quite remembered to leak the anger into his voice. It came out soft, too soft, the way being around Kon always made him.  Kon’s face flushed, but he didn’t drop his gaze. “Didn’t seem like you were going to be using it,” he mumbled, shrugging, and that was the spark Tim needed to remember he was mad.  “Well, I wasn’t, to be honest.” His voice finally found that icy tone he knew Kon would recognize, saw the moment his posture stiffened as he recognized exactly which Tim he was talking to.  “I was just planning on stopping in here to breathe for a moment, because that party is starting to get a little too drunk for my liking, so imagine my surprise when-” “Why didn’t you leave?” Kon interrupted him, his gaze burning into him.

jadkjfak I LOVE that fic so much 💚 would love to finish it one day lmaooo

send me an ask about one of my WIPs!

I'm going to answer how I am under a read more because that is sort of a complicated answer, and I'll be talking about health stuff so consider that my health CW/TW for it

Hi!!! Thanks for asking!! I have been wanting to give a little update on how I'm doing because the answer is... not great, honestly.

I got put on medical leave for two months and got diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in my spine (which is something that doctors keep telling me I'm very young to have), and I'm doing 6 weeks of physical therapy for that. Honestly, I've had chronic back pain for 8 years, and I really haven't had time to process that information with all the rest of the stuff I have going on. I'm waiting for an MRI to see what's causing the degeneration.

I've also been having heart palpitations and lightheadedness and chest pain that were mostly addressed when we figured out that I have anemia (not the traditional kind, though, and it seems to be being caused by something else). That said, I wore a heart monitor for a week before addressing the anemia, and the results on that were very reassuring, so my heart looks okay. I've still been having some symptoms, but much less.

However, I've also been having really horrible GI issues that I'm waiting for a bunch of tests to see if I need any procedures or surgeries done to fix, or if it's a problem that can be solved more easily. I have severe nausea, acid reflux, problems actually digesting food, and I've lost like... 12-13 pounds in the last month I think? I get hungry and then I eat and then food makes me feel awful, but if I don't eat, I also feel awful. My body is flat out refusing to digest certain foods and I do not know why. There are other symptoms that I just don't want to share. It's been really frustrating. I feel horrible all the time. I wasn't staying at home for almost a month because I just didn't feel safe staying by myself. I actually answered some of these asks tonight while sitting on the bathroom floor because I wasn't sure that I wasn't going to throw up (I didn't though! yay!).

But basically, just about all of my energy is going into figuring out what's wrong with me right now. And when it isn't going into that, it's going into spending time with my friends and loved ones in an attempt to get through some of the pain/stress.

So yeah, things are rough. It's why I haven't been super active on here or ao3 this year. I am having a really difficult time focusing on writing, and that sucks, because I love writing. It's my #1 outlet and like. I fully can't focus on it.

Anyways. I don't really know where to end this, but that's what's going on with me. I might post a little update later on next week if I get any answers. I have a CT scan and an upper gi scan next week to see if they can see anything wrong just from that, and then more tests after that too.

Thanks for asking, though! I appreciate everyone's asks, this was a fun little distraction from all the stuff I just talked about💖

Also want to add for anyone reading this: I have many doctors trying to figure this out right now and they are running every test we can all think of. Please, please do not tell me what thing you think may be causing this in a reply or a tag, because it'll send me down a medical anxiety rabbit hole and then all I'll be doing for the rest of the night is panicking. I know the goal of any kind of comment like that would not be to make me panic, but that is what it would result in. So please, anyone can feel free to reply, but please don't reply with any sort of diagnosis or suggestion of what you think the problem might be. Thank you for understanding 💚

[wawamouse]

Hello, I would love to hear anything on "In the Course of Destiny" or "In The Blink of an Eye" but if you don't want to give commentary on those: ⭐star⭐ Any commentary on any of your fics would be pretty cool! If you don't want to do this anymore please ignore. Thank you

Heeeeheeee "In the Course of Destiny" (-_- God, why'd I give it such a long title)! I'm actually working on this wip again after getting a bunch of other fics out of the way, so yay! Hopefully there'll be a chapter update before a year has passed lmao. So close to finishing, yet so far! I've mentioned before I'm pretty sure, but I started this fic completely intending to just write a quick crack fic to palate cleanse coming off writing the "Something Deranged" series. UMMMMM… Yeah, first of all, aside from Miguel crawling through a dryer to escape into another world, it's not really crack at all LOL. (But I guess the dryer portal is very strange if you stop to think about it).

Also, as I've mentioned (whined) before in a wip wednesday post as well as in the author's notes, when I initially conceived of the idea of Miguel hopping to a parallel universe, I was just going to have him hop over, hang out with Carmy for a bit—literally just follow him around after he gets off work—have a yaoi moment, and hop back (+some mild spoilers for ch.6). This seemed a bit too random to me, and because I love plot, I decided to add a robbery element to it last minute. Here is literally the moment I was deciding how to end ch.1, from a DM to a friend who hasn't seen the show lol:

I actually like that I went with the adventure plot, although it forced me to nix some stuff that I'd originally planned to write. In an earlier version, Alonzo works at the pawn shop with Carmy. Their relationship is interesting to me in this series; I think Chico and Torquemada don't think very much of each other in Miguel's original universe and hardly interact, but on the Other Side, Carmy and Alonzo are friends of sorts. I jokingly (to myself up to this point I am sharing it with you all) refer to the Other Side as the Gayer Side also bc one of the things I headcanon (without really writing it that way) is that Carmy—compared to Chico—is more attracted to men (still bi tho). When Miguel shows up out of nowhere, Carmy really just humors him because he's hot.

“This is going to sound crazy,” he says, “But I know you, Chico.” There’s a beat, and then Chico licks his lips, briefly glancing past Miguel like he’s checking for anyone else before he crosses his arms and shifts his weight back on one foot—This shit oughta be good. “Oh, you do?” he says, playful. “‘Cause as far as I’m concerned, you were hiding in the merchandise for the last two hours, and I’ve never seen you in my life. But you know me, huh, chico?”

^ Carmy at this point thought he was being hit on by a hot weirdo.

Also (I don't mention it outright but) the Consuela in this fic is a lesbian, hence Carmy being like "??? She's my what??"

Other tidbits... I talk about it here but I had to physically storyboard the scene where Miguel meets Alonzo because I am so bad at imagining spaces and I was really struggling with keeping that moment in his POV, description wise.

Mentioned this elsewhere as well, but originally, I was going to have Carmy either just go by Carmen on the Other Side or go by Melo (from Carmelo). But that felt somewhat too removed, plus then there'd be two M names to deal with.

Oh, one of the very specific-to-this-fic writing choices I made was to include Miguel's thoughts in parentheticals throughout his chapters. I did this to represent moments he's more lost in his own anguish—maybe you noticed, maybe you didn't, but there's a lot less of those parenthetical interruptions near the end of his day on the Other Side, and at the beginning of chapter 4, when he's completely at ease. To that end, ch.5, which will be from Carmy's POV, will have no parentheticals. Another thing that I wanted to do throughout Miguel's POV was still flash back to the primary universe, having the stuff that happened there still affect him and torment him lol. I actually really enjoyed writing the angst of all the flashback scenes (writing the Other Side is actually really hard lol).

I think this fic's Miguel is the most tortured post-canon version I've ever written? Mostly because he's so lonely at that point. He's misses Chico a lot and feels more vulnerable to Torquemada while also being incredibly disgusted with himself for exchanging sexual favors for D-tabs (in other fics, I kind of hand wave it and think Torquemada doesn't actually want to get involved / his whole thing is keeping a distance, but in this fic, that's not the case). This fic is also, I think, the most negatively I've written Torquemada? At least from Miguel's POV. He straight up hates him and is creeped out by him, which creates to him the greater contrast of Alonzo, on the Other Side, who is just kind of offbeat but overall friendlier and doesn't cross boundaries.

It's basically thinking about Chico that pulls Miguel into the Other Side, and thinking about Chico that takes him back (not to be gross LOL but I made sure to make the rules of that magic such that the portal opens and takes Miguel if he is in contact with Chico fluids while thinking about escape) (yup, that's the logic) (the blood stain in the concrete counts). He experiences roughly 12 hours on the Other side while several days have passed in the main universe.

Hm, I think Destiny's gotten so big at this point that I don't really know where else to commentate. I'll probably post some more deleted scenes or other tidbits in the future when I've finished it!

But that's a bit of the inside scoop for now!

[manonamora-if]

September Check-In

WoW another month has passed already... Is time getting faster or my sense of impending end is just getting stronger...

ANYWAY, existential dread aside... August kinda felt like a mix bad. I did do things, but many days I felt like I didn't do enough (prob that dread again - also injury yay). So let's get into it!

Long post ahead again:

Recap of last month's progress

Recap of last week's stuff

Other IF stuff done

Other IF events

Plan for September

- _ -

The plan for the past month was to:

play more IF: ✅, see reviews in @manonamora-if-reviews

whip out something for the Single Choice Jam: ✅ The Dinner*

fix the website: ✅, new and improved*

write for a WIP: 😐not for a WIP but Goncharov Escapes! was remastered (shelved!), and currently working on DOL-OS.

add to the SG guide: ❌, I have a list though

code TTATEH: ❌, MelS isn't done with the edits (long shot).

*still kind of a WIP

I did kind of predict I wouldn't be able to write much in new content...

- _ -

So what about this week:

DOL-OS has been the main think I've been working on this week. And quite a bit of effort has been dumped in there. Since last week progress update:

the translation has been fully completed, and added to the game files (not all is properly coded)

I added some keyboard QoL for the starting puzzle

the UI re-design 75% complete (like coded complete) <- this is taking so freaking long, but it's worth it

I corrected some bugs (padlock, links)

I've been thinking in more details how the added content would look like (text mainly) and how much writing would be needed (a few thousands, I'd wager).

Obviously, I am not done with the project, but I am getting closer. The current hurdle is the finishing the UI-redesign: I really want things to be pristine in terms of visual quality and that requires a lot of testing and detail change. I have a few minor block of passages left and the booting screen to fix, before I can focus on the final beat of the game (not much UI-wise, more regular coding).

This final part will take quite a bit of time as well, because it too requires a bunch of testing (and there's a few accessibility concerns I need to take care of...). I'm confident it won't be too difficult, just... tedious.

But I really want to do a good job with this remaster, adding all the stuff I couldn't the first time before of time constraint (fun fact: DOL-OS was completed in a month...) and coding capabilities (I learned a ton since). I know people really enjoyed it the first time around, but I know it can be even better. Like it should really have that first-place vibe it deserves :P

I am hoping to be done by next weekend, but depending on how polish I can make it, I might need an extra week on top of it. (This would track: 4-ish weeks to make the OG version, 4-ish weeks to remaster it...).

In the meantime, I might post a few screenshots of the redesign and show it in comparison to the current version.

Some of you have noticed the blog has kinda disappeared. It's not gone, just... password locked. The notifications have been run over a bit by bots, the inbox received a few impatient guests, and it's in need of a good cleaning anyway.

I still want to work on the project (I have so many plans), but since writing anything for it has seemed impossible for the past months, I needed a cleaner break from it.

This project is not over, or abandoned. I kind of see it as my magnum opus (because of the sheer size it should have at the end). But because of this, I've realised I need to plan and re-plan things around the project more carefully. And that includes the blog and its content (original or reblogged). I probably should have made a post, huh... but then again, I always to things on a whim :P

Until things have calmed down, it will stay locked. The game, however, is still available to play.

MelS has been doing his best with progress, but lots of IRL work ahead of him, so he's been pacing himself and write when he can. He's kind of sad our hope to wrap up the game by Halloween probably won't happen, but he's trying his best to finish it as soon as possible!

Slightly related: one ending of the game has been written :P (MelS got tired of writing variation, so to do something new he wrote a bit on the last chapter).

Over at @manonamora-if-reviews, I finished reviewing all Single Choice entries. It was loads of fun to see how people interpreted the restrictions. The Jam was even mentioned on Emily Short's blog (patron saint of IF)!

Also in the reviewing department, I'm taking a crack at the Goncharov jam. I had reviewed a few already, but I thought this might be a good time to tackle on the rest! I think I am about half with them. It's nice to get back into the Gonch meme, especially after the remaster

The upload time will be sporadic, like is was the past month.

After that, I think I'll play from French games...

- _ -

Some IF Stuff:

Today is the last day to submit your list of best IF to the TOP 50 list.

Have an IF ghost in your project drawer? Come share and submit it to the Bring Our Your Ghost Jam. Deadline is September 15th!

The IFComp intent deadline has passed, but if you plan on voting for the entries, you can still create an account!

Similarly, if you are planing on reviewing the IFComp entries, you can get your account settled on the IFDB (many peeps create one at the same time during the voting period, and the system sometimes flags it as spam, and hide ratings/reviews).

September is usually a pretty quiet time... unless you are submitting something to the IFComp... But also, I've been trying reeeeaaaaallllyyyyy hard not to look at the Jam tab on itch, so not to be tempted to do a new thing. I've already put out more games this year than last year (counting the tiny ones).

- _ -

The PLAN tm for September

It will essentially be very similar to August...

continue to play and review games (that front page spot is getting closer...). It gives me an opportunity for a break, and I get to think more about game design or writing, or where I could improve. And I get to give the authors some (hopefully) thoughtful words about their games.

finish the DOL-OS remaster. By mid-September, I think I could swing that. Then it will be another shelved game!

either continue a WIP or fix another semi-completed game. I might try to get La Petite Mort in proper shape and translated for the EctoComp? (I need to check if they accept translation, since it was submitted last year)

maybe try to add another block to the SugarCube Guide? I have a few ideas on what to include, but it is mainly a matter of sitting down and doing it. Though I have another template I've been toying with... maybe that might happen first.

That would be neat if I could manage that :P I need to fix the loading screens of Twine games too...

Taking the list of last month...

To-Do not require much of new stuff:

translate Escape Goncharov! into French. ✅

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (mayyyybe translate into French?)

fix the formatting of DOL-OS + translate into English ✅ (ongoing)

update LPM with the missing content + translate into English

The rest of the To-Do pile:

Finish The Rye in the Dark City (and maybe translate?)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (and try to translate)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (translation unlikely, current gameplay too complex to port for French)

Add a chapter to CRWL + fix the blog

Re-working TTTT to its originally planned state (lol, not likety)

Re-working SPS Iron Hammer (samesies)

Coding TTATEH (MelS dependent)

Emptying my inboxes

(I am pretty sure the focus for the rest of the year will be to finish the first list. With the addition maybe of a small jam entry or two.)

[citrus-cactus]

Howdy, all! I can't post my art summary quite yet because it contains part of someone's Secret Santa gift, so I thought I would fill out the fic summary template created by @reliablejoukido (see her original post here!). Even though I didn't publish (or finish!) much, I did start writing again this year, and that feels like a huge accomplishment, so it seemed like it would be fun to look back and talk a little bit about what I have in the works.

First, the finished fic!

My er... grand return to writing (I wouldn't call it that, but I did have a lot of fun writing and drawing for it, even if it took 6+ months from start to finish ^^;). I love these three characters as a trio so much. It was really hard to pull out a quote I liked and have it make sense in context, so I put the summary in there... but since I brought it up in another post, I thought I'd share what one of my editing drafts looks like:

(ok, so maybe not the tiniest font imaginable, but sometimes there are cross-outs to the cross-outs and sometimes I DO run out of room near troublesome paragraphs and in the margins!)

Now, onto WIPs!

Hmm, well! That sure is a title, isn't it? ;) I wanted to write Junzumi and came up with this idea late last year, and finally started trying to figure it out. It's meant to be fun and flirty and a bit awkward, but the ultimate goal is to be kind to JP, because he (and his body) are given so little love overall. And even though JP and Zoe are not actually hooking up in this fic, it is meant to show the relationship between the two of them in college, and how they could start going from friendship to dating. There IS nudity, but it's meant to be tasteful and respectful, I promise!

Oof. I haven't forgotten this fic, I swear (even though I published Chapter 4 three years ago!). I got really excited to work on it earlier this year (flush with success from actually publishing something, rotfl!) and then let it continue to languish (orz). Upon reflection, the reason it's been stalled is I was having a hard time figuring out the flow of action, but after re-outlining it in September I think I know now what Maki needs to be doing in order to experience the emotions I always meant her to be feeling in this chapter. And yes, she and Meiko meet (yay!).

Chapter 6 has been done for YEARS, and Chapter 7's probably pretty close to done as well, so it really is just this chapter being the hold-up.

AKA, Garg Fic #1. Been mulling over ideas for fic for this fandom all summer, and finally decided to write one based on some minor characters from the SLG comics (that I didn't even read, and can't read now because they're out of print). But I AM reading the new Dark Ages comics, and I'm proving to be a really good guesser about certain details, so actually, I feel INCREDIBLY validated about my original vision and characterization, ahaha.

As you may be able to tell from the quote selection, this is not a happy story. But I believe it's a story worth telling. It's about preserving customs in the face of tragedy, and mourning, and extinction, and love.

AKA, the thing that pulled me away from writing Garg Fic #1. I was possessed. I was writing something in my head about Macbeth's relationship with Demona this summer, and suddenly (VERY suddenly) it morphed into this. Dang, but they're fun to think about. This fic is weird, it will contain one MAJOR narrative trope/cliche, and it's definitely going to be NSFW if I end up getting that far. But I reeeeeeally like this paragraph I wrote for it XD

Thanks for the template Zuz, and thanks to everyone else for letting me ramble about writing! See you again for the art roundup!

[trueliarose]

20 questions for fic writers!

Thanks for the tag @givereadersahug (x)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I currently have 5 works, but there's a few drafts ready to be posted and a few works anonymous because of fests. Yay!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

136k - wow, that is a lot. I didn't even realise I crossed the 100k mark on my long WIP.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling 

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Finding (a way) Home (Snape&Harry Mentor, 100k, WIP!, rated M)

(secret fest-fic)

Of Kittens and Serpents (Poppy/Minerva, 6k, rated T)

Gaining Sight (Severus&Harry, drabble, rated T)

Silent Tears (Severus&Sirius, 1k, rated T)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do, eventhough most of the times I am too emotional to write a long response. I'm so, so humbled whenever someone takes the time to leave me a comment!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm not sure, probably Silent Tears (Severus&Sirius, 1k) but could also be Gaining Sight (Severus&Harry, 300 words)... but there are more in my drafts, so this will probably change soon.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Of Kittens and Serpents (Poppyscotch, fluff, 6k) definetely!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

So far I don't and I hope it will stay this way. I will never understand why people feel the need to hate on things (especially free stories on the internet... why?)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I am - I didn' think I would, but then it somehow happened and in the future I'll try to do it more often.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don't (so far) but there are so many ideas in my head it might only be a matter of time.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Luckily no.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. It would be an honour, and I did even get asked once, but as I don't feel comfortable seeing my work outside of AO3 it didn't work out.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven't and I don't know if I would be any good at it. It could go one of two ways: either it works out very well or I annoy the person I'm working with so much that they quit.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

This depends so much on my current state of mind (and which fandom I am reading at the moment). I love to explore characters and ships in different fandoms, I will never be able to answer this.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

As I only have one WIP on which I am working I hope I will finish it. (but to be honest my updates on Finding (a way) Home are slower than I'd like because I participate in too many fests)

16. What are your writing strengths?

Depicting emotions (especially dark ones), maybe also describing them in a way that pulls the readerin (especially ones linked to trauma)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

SPAG, writing fluff without adding a little dark/sad/angsty moment, keeping my works short if I don't have a set limit

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Why not? I have done it, but as a reader I appreciate if the author provides a translation because google can be a little off sometimes and it is sad if you lose depth/meaning because of that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Twilight (so, so many years ago and luckily no longer available anywhere on the internet)

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

right now: Fae Blessings (Lovegood family fluff, 1.5k)

Tagging (no pressure): @serenaew @sanctuary-angel