#[REDACTED] and [REDACTED] are the two I have the most planned for. They're the two I *really* want to get right the most.

[crowroboros]

The moment my laptop gets fixed is the moment I'm going to pop off.

There are so many ideas I have brewing and developing in my head. Am I biting off more than I can chew? Maybe. Am I letting my ambition go further than what I'm capable of? Possibly.

But what's the point if I don't try anyway? If I fuck up or if it isn't to the standard that I want it to be then I'll get better and try again.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

sebek and his big ol' heart

Y’all thought I would be writing an extensive analysis on [REDACTED] or Skully but JOKE’S ON YOU, I love my lame idiot child Sebek 😭

When I tell you I actually CRIED MULTIPLE TIMES reading his Nightmare Suit vignettes… because all the pieces fit together SO well…

Before reading this (long) post, I’d like to ask that you also take your time to read this analysis and this analysis. They will help you understand some of the points I made later regarding Sebek and his internalized racism + how he expresses himself.

Have your recommended reading done? Great, then let’s hop to it!

***Spoilers for Sebek's Nightmare Suit vignettes, book 7, and various other Sebek and Silver card vignettes.***

Sebek is one of those characters that lives in infamy for how much time he takes to get warmed up to. He presents himself as loud and brazen, with these traits often earning him the ire of both in-universe peers and irl fans alike. Worst case scenario, Sebek can be seen as someone who is outright hateful. He’s rude to most people (including Silver, his childhood friend, sometimes), denounces humans, acts like Malleus can do nothing wrong, and doesn’t seem to respect his own father.

Well, I’m here today to tell you those claims are false and that Sebek is actually capable of so, so much love. All you need to really do is look at his Nightmare Suit vignettes—and how well they connect with the rest of his lore—to understand what I mean.

The vignettes start with Jack Skellington finishing a bento that Sally made for him. Sebek tells Jack that he should now return the basket that the bento was delivered in to her and to let her know what he thinks of her meals, but Jack says he can’t because he’s busy with Halloween preparations. Jack asks Sebek and Azul to return the basket in his stead, which they do. They aren't allowed to see Sally because Dr. Finkelstein has locked her up for misbehaving, so they leave the basket. Azul advises that they also pass along Jack's comments (he had called Sally smart, thoughtful, and kind; he often forgets to have meals when he's absorbed with his work, so it's generous for her to prepare a delicious meal like this for him). Sebek loudly refuses, as he believes that hearing these grateful words from Jack himself would be much more meaningful to Sally.

He later confronts Sally at Town Hall and asks to speak with her privately (in an ALLEYWAY lol). There, Sebek flat-out tells Sally that such roundabout tactics will never help her feelings reach Jack because he's way too dense. Of course, she reacts with denial which sends Sebek into a passionate speech about the lengths Sally will go to for love (short of actually speaking about it). She literally threw herself out of a window and put herself in bodily harm to get to Jack when Dr. Finkelstein locked her in her room. She deliberately disobeyed her guardian and brainstormed a way to get out when theoretically she should not have been able to move around freely. If that's not motivated by love, then what is? Sebek declares that it's really annoying to watch Sally dance around the issue and to see her devotion go to waste. IT'S LIKE HE'S WATCHING/READING A ROMCOM AND THE TWO MAIN CHARACTERS KEEP PLAYING THE "WILL THEY, WON'T THEY" CARD... She admits that she can't share her feelings because Sally thinks she's not worthy of someone as impressive as Jack... They're not compatible. And you know how Sebek responds??? BY TELLING SALLY ABOUT WHAT IS BASICALLY TWISTED ROMEO AND JULIET... Sebek reading tragic romance confirmed 😭 He describes the story as one of two lovers whose families do not approve of their union. In desperation, the lovers try to elope--but their plan fails and they return to their warring families. Instead of committing dying like in the original tale, the lovers live the rest of their lives lamenting the outcome and how they can no longer see the person they love most. Sebek shares his own interpretation of the story and its moral: because the lovers gave up hope that they could get their families to accept one another... because they never tried to get their families to get along... because they could not properly articulate their feelings to their families... the lovers could not be together. He is convinced that if they had communicated better, the story would have a happier ending. Sebek is of the firm belief that a story itself cannot come to be without the author wanting to share their own thoughts or feelings; he even suggests that maybe the author of Romeo and Juliet experienced something similar--a regret that resulted from neglecting to express deep-seated feelings. It's not just this book either, Sebek claims to have many stories with a similar theme or miscommunication leading to conflict.

Above all, Sebek stresses to Sally that she must believe in herself and take swift, decisive action. And why does Sebek whole-heartedly throw himself into this belief? Because his own family is living proof that a happy ending is possible if you try hard for it.

If you've paid attention to Sebek lore prior to this, you'll know that he has a human father and a fae mother. Their marriage faced opposition and scrutiny in Briar Valley, a country which is isolated from the rest of the world and suffered greatly from human invaders pilfering the fae lands for resources. One of these sources of opposition and scrutiny is Sebek's own grandfather and his mother's father, Baur. Apparently, Mrs. Zigvolt married Mr. Zigvolt against the wishes of her dad.

Sebek shares even more details with Sally in his Nightmare Suit vignettes. To this day, Baur does NOT approve of his daughter's marriage--but Mrs. Zigvolt doesn't let that get her down! No, she does everything in her power to prove to her father that she made the right choice and she's perfectly content with her life. She'll send letters enclosed with photographs of her family, take her children to visit Baur's home, and invites him to join family dinners. Sebek adds that he's sure his mom made other efforts too--all to try and get Baur to acknowledge her marriage. More recently, Baur seems to have lightened up a little... as in, he always used to turn Mr. Zigvolt away at the door, but now lets him in about once a year (though Baur still avoids eye contact with him and continues to frown). Mrs. Zigvolt stubbornly believes that if she keeps this up, her dad will one day change and bless her marriage with the man she truly loves. Sally commends Sebek and his mother's ability to speak their minds loudly and proudly, but then disparages herself again by saying she can't do the same. Sebek then confesses that he can relate to Sally's frustrations. He related her feelings to his own inadequacy in serving Malleus, the powerful and noble king-to-be of his country. That feeling... Sebek describes it as akin to heartache. But instead of wallowing in that heartache, he pushes himself to close that distance between himself and his idol. If he keeps hesitating, then there is absolutely no way he can catch up to where Malleus is! Sebek must dedicate himself to becoming someone worthy of serving him. He encourages Sally to do the same through both her words and her actions! At that moment, Jack walks in and Sally makes good on Sebek's advice. (This part isn't important to the analysis on Sebek's character, so I'm glossing over it.) The vignettes end with Epel complaining about Sebek being loud as per usual. Sally doesn't take issue with his volume though. She simply giggles and informs Epel that Sebek speaks so loudly and clearly so that his words can resonate with others--like how his words gave her courage.

We have learned new lore about Sebek's grandfather and mother. What does this tell us about Sebek? A lot, actually--if you slate it with all the other lore we have on hand.

We see just how strong of a woman his mother is. I suspect this is where Sebek picked up a lot of his hard-headedness, as well as the tendency to express himself very overtly, from. However, it also speaks to the loving environment he grew up in.

His mother seemingly never questioned her own life choices and never gave up fighting to prove her happiness to a father--and likely an entire community--that rejected her marriage, her husband, and maybe even her children. She fiercely loves and defends her family and the life they have made for themselves. Sebek states that he looks up to her for her magical strength, but that he also admires her principles and strong convictions. Indeed, it was her who ardently pursued Mr. Zigvolt and did not allow naysaying to deter her.

Then there is Mr. Zigvolt. In Sebek's Birthday Boy vignettes, he describes his father as "a strange man" who is "magically deficient" and "never lets his smile fade, no matter what I say to him [...] he defies comprehension." Though Sebek doesn't seem to hold the same amount of respect he has for his mother for his father, we don't hear Sebek openly insulting his dad, just expressing confusion about him. When asked about it, Sebek denies depending on his father--but it's clear there is a fondness there that he's not addressing. Mr. Zigvolt is impressed whenever his children use magic, buys them snacks they never asked for, and talks with them for long periods of time in a calm, patient manner. His father, too, has given Sebek so much compassion and understanding.

We don't know a lot about Sebek's siblings, but they seem to get along fine! He has mentioned going to parks with them. They've also gone fishing together and witnessed magic competitions, which they were all amazed by. The Zigvolts in general (or at least the parents) seem to be accepting too, as they volunteer to take Silver in whenever Lilia is unable to take care of him.

And you'd think that's where it ends, but NO. Baur ALSO has a lot of love to give. Despite not approving of his daughter's marriage, he doesn't actively despise his grandchildren. Quite the opposite, in fact! Though he's rough around the edges and looks scary, Baur doesn't fault any of his grandchildren for being born half fae and half human. He actually makes it a point to bond with them, and especially with Sebek. It was Baur who taught Sebek the language of nocturnal fae and instilled in Sebek his love for reading (as he bought many books for him and tells many stories himself). He also personally reached out to Lilia to train Sebek, as the young boy (at around age 7) expressed an interest in martial arts. Sebek has a love for salmon carpaccio because he and his siblings would fish at Baur's house and then prepare the dish for him--Baur was so happy about it. Additionally, Baur values getting a good education and was proud when Sebek shared with him that he was invited to attend Night Raven College.

Sebek grew up in a country that dislikes humans, but he was raised in an household where he was loved unconditionally and provided with all the resources he could need to get a good education and become someone who is physically strong. So of course he becomes frustrated when he sees Sally, who is so nervous to act on her feelings. What would have happened if Sebek’s mother had been like Sally? Sebek, as the youngest of three, might not event exist. His parents may not still be together… or maybe they wouldn’t have gotten together in the first place. It’s exactly because Sebek knows what love is supposed to be like--courtesy of his own family—that he can see it so well in others, and wants them to act on it. His very existence is proof that love is possible, and it transcends arbitrary labels like race that serve to divide people into categories.

One quirk of Sebek's is how he's always dishing out back-handed compliments or making comments that come off as rude but aren't at their core. He can't seem to help but say a good thing that sounds like something bad. His Diasomnia classmates, usually Silver, have to translate these Sebek-isms for others, who misunderstand him or interpret his words in the worst possible way. For example, from one of Silver’s Fairy Gala lines; “Sebek said to me that no self-respecting disciple of Lilia’s would dare get a single stain on this clothing. That's his way of encouraging me.” In Silver's Dorm Uniform vignettes, Sebek tries to reassure his friend and tell him to not let other people's opinions hurt him--but he phrases it as, "Hmph, ridiculous! I see no reason for you to heed a few random comments from some humans." The duo is also shown to be competitive with one another in training; it's never malicious, they both want to prove themselves as the superior knight, and the other serves as motivation to improve and/or a means of measuring one's own growth against a fellow disciple. When the mostly elderly population of Harveston is in need of physical labor, Sebek comments "[...] the humans in Harveston are woefully out of shape," yet he insists he "still [has] energy to burn" (as if to volunteer himself to do more work) and call such tasks "simple" (as if to point out how easy it is for him to do, so don't worry about troubling him). He hauls apples and helps the villagers with whatever they need, declaring that they should "be grateful"--but if he truly did not care, he could have stopped at any time or settled for just making fun of them. But Sebek doesn't, because he DOES care deep down. This aspect of Sebek is made even more obvious in Fairy Gala: What If. He appears at Ramshackle and opens by declaring, "NO! I am by no means worried about anyone! [...] Don't mistake my intentions. I am NOT here to help! If your mission doesn't succeed, the repercussions will definitely affect Malleus and Lilia. Hence... I shall lend you uneducated humans my aid! [...] You're welcome to weep with joy at my magnanimity..." Time and time again, we see Sebek demonstrating a lot of kindness, but deflecting or not being totally transparent with his intentions due to pride or embarrassment. This behavior is very reminiscent of Baur, the grandfather that Sebek loves dearly and spent so much time with. Baur, too, can be very passionate and loving, but struggles to speak of those feelings openly. Just look at how the man deals with Mr. Zigvolt. The behaviors of the family, then, imprint on Sebek and influence his behaviors--and being that Sebek is from such a loving group, it follows that Sebek puts out a lot of love into the world too.

A lot of times when the fandom discusses Sebek's attitude, I feel it's from the context of him being hateful towards humans. I'm not going to deny that Sebek has said some pretty nasty things about half of his own identity. The point I would like to make here is that Sebek can love just as strongly.

The most obvious thing that supports the claim that Sebek is capable of strong love is how he views Malleus. It's no great secret that Sebek practically worships the ground his dorm leader walks on. That's essentially Sebek's key defining character trait. What I'll ask you to consider instead is the nature of Sebek's love--not the obsessiveness of it, but rather the unconditional nature of it.

In Lost in the Book with Nightmare Before Christmas, Skully laments that Sebek has not been disappointed by his idol, Malleus. Sebek actually corrects him by saying that love isn't imposing your own views on your idol, it means preparing to accept them, flaws and all. He says the same of Malleus; should the time ever come where Sebek's expectations of Malleus falter or their paths have to diverge, then he will still embrace his young master, never once turning his back on him. And where does Sebek gets this from? His parents. The father who loves his children no matter how critical Sebek may be of him. The mother who remained so strong in the face of her friends and family being against her life choices.

A common fandom sentiment regarding Sebek is that he blindly follows Malleus--but when speaking about his idol to Skully, Sebek says that agreeing with someone and continuing to love them are different things. You can disagree with someone's actions and still continue to love them and accept them. This follows what Sebek does in book 7; though he is betrayed and hurt by Malleus turning his powers against the world, Sebek does not let up on the hope that he can bring his young master back. He even sillily calls the yet-to-be-hatched Malleus tamago/egg-sama, showing even an infant form of Malleus great respect after witnessing his OB. Skully took the opposite path that Sebek did; when he realized that his own idol, Jack Skellington, was not as he imagined him to be, Skully became enraged and lashed out over it. Sebek points out Skully's inadequacies as well, which ties back to how he spoke of his own drive to improve in his Nightmare Suit vignettes. Skully confesses to trying desperately to emulate Jack--so much so that he breaks down when Sebek's UM destroys his iconic shades. He wallows in his current state and doesn't make efforts to change or to be better; the past and his own vision is where he's comfortable. It's a strong contrast to Sebek, who has made it clear he will continue to train and work hard to prove his merits and to be someone worthy of protecting the great Malleus Draconia.

It is Sebek's passion and boundless love that makes him a hero both in Lost in the Book with Nightmare Before Christmas AND in the main story's book 7. He serves as a foil to Skully in the former and actively saves Silver when he's on the brink of despair in the latter. After learning that his biological father is the man responsible for killing Malleus's mother and leading the Silver Owls' onslaught on Briar Valley, Silver despairs and comes to the conclusion that his father must loathe him. "He could never love the son of the man he despised! He has to hate me! He has to!" Sebek rushes to Silver's side using Living Bolt, a UM he has yet to master (thus causing residual damage to him when he casts it), to correct him:

"You have this much strength... and you dare to say you weren't loved?! That you were hated?! [...] If [Lilia] hated you, he didn't have to give or teach you anything. He could've just raised you into a dimwitted coward and made you a servant. But he didn't--and look at you now. Even alone and helpless, you stood firm. You spoke up, unfaltering in the face of our liege's madness. Even trapped in the darkest despair, you kept on fighting! Who raised you to be so strong? LILIA DID! Why don't you see? Why do you doubt? You should have understood years ago! What can you call your strength, if not the direct result of Lilia's love?!"

WHETHER SEBEK REALIZES IT OR NOT, A LOT OF WHAT HE TELLS SILVER HITS HOME FOR HIM TOO... Like, thinking about it... Sebek must have faced a lot of prejudice from his community because of who his father is. He might have grown up thinking he, too, was hated, had he not been protected by his loving mother, father, and, yes, even grandfather, who is still struggling to accept the human in their family. Baur must have been feeling very complicated emotions upon meeting his half human grandchildren for the first time... but even though he dislikes humans, he could never find it in himself to dislike his grandkids. If he had hated Sebek, he wouldn't have wanted him to get a good education. Baur wouldn't be happy that he got into NRC. He wouldn't personally ask Lilia to train the grandson who expressed an interest in combat. He wouldn't buy so many books for Sebek or read with him or tell him stories or teach him his language. But Baur DID do all of these things, because deep down he loves Sebek no matter what he is. If it was anything less than love he felt for his grandson, if he decided to neglect his grandkids, then Sebek would have grown up as some "dimwitted coward". IT'S ALL CONNECTED.

And now here Sebek stands, able to tell others that they are loved and should be cognizant of that love. He reminds Silver that Lilia loves him. He advises Skully to reevaluate how he sees his idol. He tells Sally to speak honestly about her feelings, because it was his own mother speaking honestly about hers that led to Sebek and his entire family being as happy as they are now. He shouts at people to act and to speak their minds because he doesn't want them to live with regrets, because he doesn't want to see them be weak and timid--a version of himself that could have resulted if he hadn't been loved so strongly.

You can say many things about Sebek: that he's loud, that he's rude, that he's a fanboy, that he has big muscles. But of all those muscles, Sebek has a very big heart too. And what made him so strong? All the love he received from his family, despite growing up an environment that surely invited hatred for humans.

[hammerhead-jpg]

Okay okay okay imma talk about something

Redacted ramble number 45 go!!!!!

The potential argument as to why shipping Asher and David is bad could be "yes, Asher and David have shown to be very close in a way regular friendships aren't, literally being "more than a promise " and "two sides of the same coin" and all the other other stuff we've been told, but why can't that be platonic? Why can't we assume that even in a world where they don't already have their own mates that kinda thing couldn't possibly be platonic ? As a society we always assume that if two people that aren't related become closer than your average friendship it automatically means that it has to be romantic, that they then have to start dating, move in together, get married and have children. But Asher and David very well could have all that closeness and still be just best friends."

And to that I would usually say that well, shipping is done for fun. There doesn't have to be rhyme or reason to it. Most people who ship them (at least I think) are able to comprehend the idea that Asher and David could be that close and still consider themselves best friends and not lovers because that is the reality of the series.

But then I thought no- I - uh -NO!!

Because hhejjsjesjsuj EVERY single interaction that implies closeness IS FUCKIN FULL of sextual tension like no joke with the scene in the wedding where David fixes Asher's tie I was actually wondering if they were gonna start making out or somth

I can't fuckin say that their relationship is inherently romantic cuz that would be a lie but LIKE hdkdndmdhjfjj their relationship is so much closer to romance than your average very VERY close friendship

To paint you a picture Milo is also a person that is very very close to David and Asher

Sure, maybe not as much to them as they are to each other, Milo met them later in life, he was never their roommate or David's main support while he was grieving his father's death but they're still very close

Yesterday I read a fic about all three of them as a polycule and it's just felt...wrong

I guess if there are any wolf boys polycule lovers rn I'm sorry but having Milo in there felt wrong in a way I cannot describe

And the imperium AU.....the IMPERIUM AU

The existence of the imperium au inherently implies that if Asher and David didn't meet their mates they would be together romantically. THERE IS A NON CANON YET OFFICIAL AU WHERE THEY WERE LOVERS FOR LIFE SO CLOSE THAT WHEN DAVID DIED NOT ONLY DID IT PERMANENTLY CHANGE ASHER BUT LITERALLY A PART OF HIS MAGIC DIED WITH DAVID.

There is nothing in the story that really needed Asher and David to be mates, so much so that in the original Imperium AU episode Erik had no plans for them to have been lovers until he made the cataclysm sequel it's literally just because Erik wanted to

SO IF the implication is that if they didn't meet their mates they would've have been lovers then you CANNOT judge people for imagining that scenario where it's not in an imperialistic world where one of them ends up dying

Also I can't even say that it's because they didn't meet their mates because although David obviously didn't meet Angel because they were engaged(?) to the king imperial Asher I'm pretty sure meets Baabe around the same time that he meets them in the prime universe so like?????

In conclusion If Erik ships them then you cannot blame me for doing the same thing!!

[anincompletelist]

2024 wips! :D

hi all! taking a page out of @inexplicablymine 's playbook and compiling a list of my current and (hopefully) future wips for this year since I haven't revisited this list in a few months!

also, please feel free to consider this an open tag if it's something you'd like to do as well! I think it's a wonderful way to get organized and to share some excitement!

[and before we start, here are all of the fics posted in 2023!]

Something Borrowed, Something Blue (aka bridesmaids!) is posting now and currently has three out of thirteen parts posted. it will be fully published by the end of the month! you can read here:

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

When June gets engaged, Alex, her brother, and Henry, her best friend, are asked to be the official Guys Of Honor. There’s a month to plan the whole thing, which would be near impossible anyway, only made worse by the fact that being around each other the last several years has only ever led to petty fights and useless competition. Unfortunately, as the two most important men in her life - aside from her fiancé - they don’t really have much of a choice. Alex has a lot of feelings about this. As it turns out, Henry does too.

[the following works have at least half or more of their goal word count completed and will likely be posted sometime in february if all goes to plan]

dom!alex part two to this fic [5k]

soft dom!henry [10k]

five times henry doms alex on accident and one time he does it on purpose [4k]

angsty alex 5 + 1 / 'sticks & stones' [2k]

[redacted] 'verse prequel

[wips that have significant word counts or have been fully outlined but still have a ways to go before they're finished]

poetry au / 'speak easy' [23k]

canon divergent anonymous server fic [5k]

vamp!henry + vamp hunter!alex [2k]

hitman!alex au [15k]

diabetic!alex au [6k]

a/b/o au set in canon verse [20k]

truman show au [1k]

boxer!alex au [1k]

escort alex / private club au [2k]

cha cha real smooth inspired au

canon divergent thriller inspired by 1984 / knives out / nine perfect strangers / the menu / the hunt

Jeff (Bottoms) x Shane (Minx)

professional gift giver non-famous alex au

mary and george inspired one shot

[ideas and snippets I have written down but don't have a significant word count yet]

quantum of solace inspired one shot (bond)

google au

drunk dial canon divergence

happiest season au

rival wineries au

alex is medusa, henry is midas

museum guide henry + substitute teacher alex

one shot about henry's antidepressants side effects

severance au

a/b/o au #2

+

please feel free to come and yell at me (kindly) about any of these or to send requests! this list changes constantly but I tried to round up everything I could think of for right now :)

xx

[thethirdromana]

7th of May:

The curtains and upholstery of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of my bed are of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are centuries old, though in excellent order. I saw something like them in Hampton Court, but there they were worn and frayed and moth-eaten.

15th of May:

One or two small rooms near the hall were open, but there was nothing to see in them except old furniture, dusty with age and moth-eaten.

Why does one part of Dracula's castle have remarkably preserved ancient fabrics, and in another part they're damaged and moth-eaten? Some theories:

Bram Stoker wasn't really paying attention to the inconsistency. (The boring answer).

Jonathan Harker doesn't know much about fabric, as a middle-class Victorian man, so his descriptions aren't always accurate.

Dracula has carefully prepared the guest rooms but not the parts of the castle that he didn't plan on Jonathan visiting.

Dracula turns into a bat and eats all the moths in his wing of the castle, but [redacted] are either unable to turn into bats or dislike the taste of moths.

In the Great Mouse Detective version of Dracula that happens simultaneously, Dracula is a bat and eats moths. However, he is also very small, so he doesn't get as far as the other wing of the castle.

Dracula controls all the moths in his castle and steers them away from the guest suite, but he actually kind of likes the spooky moth-eaten look sometimes.

The moths are xenophobic and don't like to be in the parts of the castle where there's an Englishman.

Dracula is a keen chemical engineer and the bed hangings in Jonathan's room are undamaged because they are in fact very early synthetic fabrics that Dracula developed while bored some time in the 16th century.

The guest rooms are under some kind of Sleeping Beauty enchantment; the rest of the castle is not. Given everything else going on, Jonathan doesn't notice the enchantment, though it does affect his sleep patterns from the moment he arrives.

Fabric in Dracula's castle operates under storytelling rules, like the toons in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where it becomes more or less damaged depending on what's spookier in any given moment.

[Update! Courtesy of @animate-mush you can now vote on your preferred interpretation here]

[valdaycare-au]

How come exactly all of them got hired or found the job? (Like for example how did Sasha, who is literally from the russian tundra, found a babysitter job to be fitting, and how did all of them got to be in the exact same workplace???)

Heya! Iris here, in charge of most of the writing (the post text and even some of the in-character responses for the ask submissions) and lore alongside Domi who was in charge of the beautiful, crispy, amazing art you guys are being served with our blog! Now yes, there is lore, there is a story to be told about all of these and we actually planned to do a weekly post about the backstory of how the daycare came to be and how all of the sitters ended up in Little Wonders but both Domi and I are college students and alongside with the submissions, we got dumped so none of the lore tidbits we initially planned are done.

I do, however, have written very juicy notes about that so we'll give you a little preview of the sitter's backstories.

Please take note that this is written within the convenience that all of the agents are living in the same country (or in this case, are immigrants and/or have been born in said undisclosed country) and that the tale of their residence in that country isn't within the scope of this AU. After all, it is quite realistic for other ethnicities to move in and live in other countries for their own reasons.

So, let's begin! (I apologize in advance for the poor verb tenses [i made sure to beta read it, of course] and the google translated spanish. I should really get a hold of my past duolingo lessons 😔)

Sage - Ling Ying Wei

So she is the one that started it all. Little Wonders was quite the old daycare center and as an immigrant in a foreign country, it was quite hard to land a job because of racism and other horrible human things that weren't really inherently helpful. She landed the job at Little Wonders who was owned by an unknown individual who wanted to build a daycare. But the economical inflation caused prices to skyrocket, and the expenses in the daycare had grown demanding—Ying Wei ended up being alone after the owner and everyone else left due to the lack of budget and the loss of their clients because it has gotten unaffordable. (In short, you know those games like Lily's Garden? Yeah, she's Lily and the daycare is her garden.) Ying Wei felt lost, so she decided to vent it out to a friend and this friend decided to help out.

Skye - Kirra Foster

Kirra was the friend to the rescue. Having met in a forum online years (if not decades) ago, Ying Wei and Kirra are tight-knit and are like two peas in a pod that were separated from each other and had been joined again. She is, to put it simply, one of those dedicated online friends that you have. (Except that she actually managed to meet Ying Wei a couple of times and unlike most of us.)

In any case, Kirra heard that Ying Wei was suffering and told her everything. She flew to the country to console her, talk, and eventually offered to help her restore the daycare in its former glory for the reason that it held a special place in her friend's heart. She thought that it was quite absurd—why would Ying Wei, a normal employee, be left with this bankrupt daycare when it's supposed to be the owner's responsibility to rebuild it again? But nonetheless, she stayed and told Ying Wei that she'll only stick around once the repairs and the recuperation is done but like her internet bestie, she grew fond and excited for the daycare's great comeback.

We'll get through this, Ying Wei, you and I. You're the bloody rightful owner of this daycare, 'n we'll make it prosper again, yeah? [redacted] isn't going to get a single penny from when you finally make this work, hear me?

Kirra, I legally do not own the daycare nor do I hold the title. They're still going to get a cent.

Eh, fuck that! I'm telling ya, Ying, if they do come back, we're going to demand full ownership of this place, yeah? Cheer up, mate.

Sova - Sasha Novikov

He was a man destined for greatness—until some tragedy happened that had completely scraped his dream and his career down the drain. Immigrating to a different country, Sasha worked as a salaryman with a discouraged outlook in life. Despite being discouraged, he worked hard and diligently and earned promotions and raises to accompany his loyalty and services. But sometimes life grows bleaker and Sasha thought that his journey as a salaryman was now coming to a close. He decided that he wanted to do something meaningful and thought of jobs that would make him feel fulfilled—finding the hiring poster for Little Wonders flying right to his face (literally). He thought he wouldn't be accepted considering his experiences as a sitter was lacking, but he did. He immediately proved himself to Ying Wei and Kirra and became a formidable member of Little Wonders.

Wh-what the—? A hiring poster for a daycare?

Chamber - Vincent Fabron

Being a Frenchman born in a life of nobility and privilege; Vincent found himself enjoying life in another country after moving in with his parents after graduating with latin honors in Mechanical Engineering in France. It's not like his parents told him to get a job anyway and there's a vast new world to explore; so explore he did. Unfortunately, Vincent got carried away and ended up spending more and more until he was reprimanded by parents who didn't exactly care but felt like they should hold him off anyway.

He was forced to get a job. And getting a job wasn't exactly easy even with connections. If it were in France, he would've landed a job easy but this is a different country. He was forced to grovel. 5 months had passed, and he still wasn't able to find a job. In a moment of desperation, he found the job listing as a babysitter and for some miraculous reason, he was accepted. Maybe it was his strong demeanor, maybe it's his suave and silver tongue, but Vincent who only knew how to take care of dogs ended up as pretty problematic babysitter who tolerates children more than caring for them. Due to the lack of manpower, Ying Wei couldn't bring herself to fire him. He did and still does try to do his job properly and has resorted into doing administrative work more than actual babysitting for the daycare. (But with the presence of new competition, he finds himself working with the kids once more as he now sees his job being compromised.)

Madame Ling, I finally caught them like you requested.

VINCENT WHY ARE YOU HOLDING THOSE KIDS BY THEIR SHIRTS?! ARE YOU INSANE?!

Gekko - Mateo Armendáriz de la Fuente

Wanting to create money for himself and get a working experience from all those seminars his mother (practically) forced him to attend, young and bright Mateo applied for the job recently as a part-timer for the daycare under the recommendation of his family friend and considered aunt, Zyanya Mondragon (who has connections with Miss Ling but that will be elaborated in the future, hopefully?)

As a bubbly and cheerful young man with hopes and dreams (which the other sitters envy), he drew the attention of the children with extreme ease and was regarded as the rising rookie within the staff as he easily befriended the children and played with them. While Vincent saw and has since labelled the college student as a threat (just a little bitter), Sasha and Ying Wei found him as a great addition to the team and had considered hiring him as a full-time babysitter once he graduated college. Mateo is currently majoring in Architecture.

Tienes esto, pequeño. You underwent training, you even got a certification for babysitting specifically. You said you want to earn a little more money so you don't burden your mother, don't you?

L-lo sé, lo sé... I'm just worried that the kids I'll take care of won't like me... you know. They're kinda brutal, mi reina.

Ay, you're a nice kid, Mateo. Cree más en ti mismo, ¿por favor? You're going to do just fine.

Okay, okay, okay.

____________________________

In any case, these can still change overtime until it can be finalized. In the meantime, we both just want to have fun for now and enjoy writing how the sitters react to people wanting to date them. Would there be a dating sim revolving the mommies and daddies—I mean, the sitters in the future? No. JK. Unless? 🤨

We're glad that you're also having fun with this silly little AU that we have! (Hopefully you guys stick around us because we seriously have so much in store. We haven't even introduced the parents yet, but make your guesses!!) All the best and thank you so much for 100 followers here on Tumblr!!

We also created a Twitter/X Account too, yes this is an actual link and not a sentence I wanted to underline for emphasis (because we both thought that Domi might want to separate some non-AU art from her account, but we both love the reach it gives her). Please give us a follow! We love you!

-Iris and Domi

[whentvsfly]

S.E.E.S, but Pokemon. (Kudos to those who can tell who's who without the readmore)

More info after the cut!

Tried to make everyone look like themselves without adding clothing/accessories. More difficult than expected, but a nice challenge!

I imagine either only persona users can use their moves (at all, or effectively, not entirely sure which) or when they use their personas (personamon?) they appear as an altered version of their fully evolved forms. Kinda like the second one better, as a way to use more powerful attacks and keep in theme with Persona games

Tried to keep them with their elemental affinities:

Mitsuru Kirijo: Sneasel. It just had the right vibe for her, and I curled the tail (feathers?) to make it look like her hair (although Akihiko is standing in front of most of them).

Akihiko Sanada: Pawmo. I needed electric type, and with his affinity for boxing and being fit, I figured an electric/fighting type would work well for him! Didn't want to do Pawmi because it wasn't yet fighting type (maybe he evolves sometime after The Fire) and didn't want to do Pawmot because no one else is evolved, so having him be max evolution would feel *weird*.

Shinjiro Arakgaki: Scraggy. A solely phys skill user HAS to be fighting type. There were several choices for him - Mankey was one, I believe - though something about Scraggy's appearance made me go with it.

Minato Arisato / Makoto Yuki: Castform (Sunny). I like to make the wild cards pokemon with several forms, or the ability to transform in some way. His 'base' form in Tartarus is Sunny, since Orpheus has fire attacks, but he shifts with whatever element he's using.

Yukari: Ducklett (Shiny). She was just going to be normal ducklett, but then I remembered the shiny was pink, and it makes her more 'special' and talk of the school, so I decided that's fine haha. Flying is the wind equivalent, here, so it was hard to Not make her some sort of bird. It works though, I think!

Junpei Iori: Charcadet. Needed a fire type, and charcadet seemed spunky enough to be him, out of the ones available. After Chidori [redacted], his personamon changes from an Armarouge-equivalent to a Ceruledge-equivalent.

Fuuka Yamagishi: Psy attacks don't exist in p3, though they do in p5, who I also already pokemoned, but Psychic still fits both psy attacks and navi abilities, so I'll let them overlap. She was able to avoid being killed in Tartarus for 10 hours, so she would have been using teleport to keep herself safe, as well as other psychic moves to detect where shadows lurked. Wanted a pokemon not usually known for attacking, to fit more with the navi role.

Aigis: Iron Valiant. Another phys-heavy user, so I wanted fighting type, and Iron Valiant happened to be just that. Looks like Gallade/Gardevoir (*is* Gallade/Gardevoir but in the future/ an alternate dimension?) but is also distinctly Robotic. Luckily most people pin the oddness about her as 'why is she fully evolved and in highschool' rather than 'hey, that's not a pokemon I know, what the hell'.

Koromaru: Houndour (Albino). There are not too many fire/dark pokemon, to go along with Koro's fire/curse attacks, and one of them just Happened to be a dog. I had to. I also made up an 'albino' coloration, based off of real albino dogs. If shiny, as a genetic mutation exists, then others can as well!

Ken Amada: Dedenne. Very similar to Koro, there are exactly two (2) pokemon that are electric/fairy, as I equate bless to fairy type, and one of those was a legendary. So Ken is Dedenne. It oddly works out, since he looks up to Akihiko, and they're both small, rodent pokemon (who happen to be their pkmn generation's equivalent of pikachu :P)

I have Many more thoughts on this crossover, if anyone wants to talk about it! I have a few more P3 characters planned out (Strega, pharos, ryoji, nyx avatar), P4's Investigation team, and P5's Phantom Thieves, though I need to actually Draw them all.

[leathfaic]

gaz and ghost's relationship is super interesting, we don't really get anything on it except for the fact that they seem to know each other (there are cutscenes they're both in in warzone and gaz pulls ghost up as they escape the prison).

and i think in the beginning that's about it. ghost being ghost he knows the man, works with him and isn't super pissed off because kyle is a competent sergeant. like most his relationships with lower rank.

gaz probably thinks the lieutenant a little eccentric with the whole mask and redacted everything bit he has going on but in the end the results of his work are what matters and they are frighteningly good.

he probably tells soap the little he knows about ghost before they get sent out to al mazrah, tells him the man is cold, scarily efficient and a bit weird but values good work. maybe even tells soap that he's not sure if the friendly approach is the best here, just keep it tactical and professional.

that alone is enough to make soap double down on it of course.

but when ghost and soap get together that's when things start to go sour between them. both have their reasons both rational and emotional. gaz is worried for his best friend, doesn't want him to get hurt in a relationship with someone as emotionally stunted as he thinks ghost is. he doesn't really think ghost deserves someone like his brilliant loving friend. and frankly free time at base is limited and he used to spend all of it joined at the hip with soap who is now dedicating a meaningful portion of that time to ghost too. especially in the early days of the relationship it takes a toll on him.

ghost for his part notices the animosity, is scared for that new and wonderful thing he has with soap because he knows gaz has a significant influence on soap. and especially at the beginning he really craves all of johnny's attention and affection. doesn't like the way soap is physically affectionate towards gaz as well and insists on spending time with him alone sometimes. he has yet to learn to trust in this new relationship. and trust really is an issue with him.

and soap? soap is probably just done with them both.

sits them down together and explains that he loves both of them and refuses to lose out on either relationship because they both decided to be idiots about it.

they don't have to like each other but he demands them to at least keep acting professional for his sake. but also if they both want more time with him they'll have to suck it up and spend time with each other too.

in a rare moment of agreeing with each other both gaz and ghost find that they'd both much rather brawl it out, but johnny is not having that, it would get so much worse if one thought they'd "won" this whole thing. so he gently reminds them that he's a human being not a toy being fought over and neither of them can really say something because rationally they know they are being assholes right then.

soap's dictated peace starts of super tense, two men tolerating each other like two big cats that are forced to close. and in the middle soap who acts like nothing is wrong, who's the sole reason that they are both so tense and at the same time keep grinning and bearing it.

in the field its worse, because that's where rank really comes into play which is not healthy in their dynamic. especially once gaz starts dating price and they get into a weird rank deadlock. but neither of them is willing to escalate. because that would make soap sad and that's the one thing they can agree on not to let happen.

so they keep tolerating each other. keep working together. keep helping each other in the field thinking "fucking hell can't look soap in the eyes if something happened to this idiot."

eventually it shifts from not making soap sad to making soap happy. ghost brings takeout from a quick trip outside base and brings some for gaz too because hanging out with him makes soap happy. gaz plans something fun for the weekend and to make soap happy makes sure it's something ghost can also come to without feeling too uncomfortable.

and soap loves it so much both his beat friend and his partner can't help but share his happiness. it's infectious.

so they get to know each other and slowly come round realise that the only threat to their relationship with soap is their relationship with each other. thus it progresses back to its neutral starting point and then steadily becomes more. they spend too much time with each other not to become friends. not that they would admit it. yet they laugh at each others jokes and sometimes even find themselves accidentally hanging out without soap.

both of them are so offended when they find themselves realising it, how the fuck could that even happen? and then soap waltzes in. who's been even happier ever since they started behaving themselves normal around each other again. soap who's love is too strong for them to stay enemies about it so instead they just accept that they never really had a chance to do anything about it but become friends.

some manly huffing noises are made and then they get on with it because soap decided its movie night.

price adamantly keeps out of it, even once things with gaz start happening. won't even talk about it except with soap when they both need to blow off some steam. i could probably (and might) write an equally long piece how that affects them all.

[tank-of-hocotate31]

Finally Introducing my Baldi's Basics OCs!!

My minor obsession over baldi's basics got so bad i made 2 whole ocs (i don't have plans to make a third one rn but who knows) but here's some minor info on my two ocs, Gorjin and Mother Depth.

Lets start off with the low poly boy himself! Gorjin! 🎺

⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙

♪● Gorjin does not have a full name, hes just Gorjin.

♪● Gorjin is theorized to be about 5'6, similar in height to Dr Reflex.

♪● Gorjin actually has a music note necklace and a propeller tail, evidence photos below :

♪● Gorjin's tail actually spins when he either gets excited or when he plays his trumpet.

♪● Gorjin's limbs float, they cannot bend by any circumstance, his limbs just move as 1 piece, not 3 pieces connected.

♪● Gorjin wasn't exactly born, he just "spawned" into existence.

♪● Gorjin actually has a "mother" but they're a faded memory then upon remembering, it makes Gorjin uneasy.

♪● Gorjin has a weird way of speaking, a quick listen to his text-to-speech voice and see for yourself -

♪● Gorjin's the only music teacher in the school, usually being able to be heard from the music room, he's an excellent trumpet player.

♪● Gorjin's a bit of a scardy cat-like shy guy, even bringing his trumpet everywhere for emotional support, anxiety is wacky at best.

♪● Gorjin's actually agender, meaning bro got no gender nor care for the absence of it.

♪● Gorjin's also a gay asexual adult, even though Gorjin has no confirmed age, he doesn't even know himself, and even the lack of a birthday is baffling, him going by He/Him is also head-scratching.

♪● Gorjin loves his personal space but he does have minor separation anxiety.

♪● Gorjin can accidentally burst your ear drums with his trumpet out of fear if you come up to him a bit too rapidly, so be best careful to slow down when you pass near him.

⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙☆⩙

Alright! now onto Mother Depth! 📎

ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ

◈ Mother Depth is a heavily advanced robot modeled after a female physics teacher who was a revolutionary member of the math ingenuity throughout the 80's.

◈ She goes by She/Her, since she was programmed to know she's female, even though she's technically agender.

◈ She was built to be 7'8, a request from the female physicist she was modeled after.

◈ She has no age, but it's theorized that her development in construction and programming took 6-8 years.

◈ The metal pigtails she has on her welled-on metal hair actually can sorta coil around, they do twitch sometimes, kind of like an animal's ears. they don't go down when she's sad, she's in fact emotionless due to her programming, she's a machine, not a human.

◈ Her mouth does not move, its stuck as a smile, in fact, her mouth is just a speaker mesh that hides her voice box, here is an example of her voice -

◈ The woman Mother Depth was modeled after was named "Abigale R Schnauzer", and was built by 6 different engineers and programmed by 4 different coders/scientists.

◈ Mother Depth does have horns actually, they're are more like sharpened horns that come out of her hair when she detects a threat, it's more like when someone raises their voice a little too angrily, example photos down here -

◈ By some unknown bug in her program, she has a bit of a motherly nick in her interactions with her "favorite acquaintances"

◈ Surprisingly, Mother Depth is able to mimic voices or sounds when you ignore her, she uses this as a taunting tactic,

◈ Mother Depth loves attention, but when you ignore her, that's when she uses her sound-mimicking abilities.

◈ She's a bit of a sadistic one, but does not really harm you physically, just mentally, its most possibly another of her multiple bugs in her old system.

◈ The symbol on her choker is supposed to be a circle with a X. (but being honest i couldn't find that shit on Roblox for the life of me ;-;)

◈ She was scrapped for 2 years, just collecting dust once [REDACTED] found her and fixed her up to sell her somewhere.

◈ However, there is a way to actually stun her, a simple BSODA can at least stun here for a good amount of time, like a whole minute.

ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ◆ェ

Ok that's the two of them! gosh, this post took almost 3 days to make... thanks for at least reading all this! and know if you ever wanna draw one of them you are fully allowed to! even your own headcannons! i love when people give my ocs headcannons its so funny! but yeah that's all guys! love yall!! ❤

[coldswarkids]

attended a group event with the volleyball people finally. results:

multiple guys talked to me. when they found i have a boyfriend, literally 7/8 lost interest and wandered away. sir you've known me for a year and a half. you could have shot your shot but you didn't

man 1/8 is the only valid amongst them

tried to talk to the girls but was ignored by most of them and literally shouldered out of the girl-talking-circle multiple times

caught a moment to talk to the priest that was there. he tried to start an indoor section of the group.

i volunteered to help, along with one girl i really dislike because she talks and talks and talks and talks and

she asks her questions of the priest, gets her answers

i ask the priest, since viking was baptized catholic, do i have to write to the archbishop for permission to marry him or is it already sacramental, even though he's not practicing and hasn't received first communion or confession

no. YAY. to quote the biebs, thank you God and also Jesus.

Annoying Girl interjects excitedly about her and her bf and how they're struggling too (?????) and how she relates to my struggle (??????????????????). they have been dating for so long and marriage is just not in sight yet but she is confident that it will be soon. so she understands why i am upset

i am dumfounded. no we are fine girl. i am not in the least upset. we plan to be [redacted] by [redacted]

her: aww!!!!!!!!! (continues to grill me with questions about my relationship. i give her very stone wall non-answers that are bland and placating. she immediately relates every single answer to mean that i am OMG GIRLLLL in the same situation as her and her boyfriend

priest sends me over the pre-cana and pre-marriage retreat information as distributed by his parish. this is very helpful thank you father

he does not send it to her

she begins to talk excitedly about catholicism and her faith and expound upon the glories of her relationship with God, at greatttttttt length

me: mmmm, thats so cool

priest: ..................beautiful

priest excuses himself "I'm going to go see if everyone outside needs anything"

me: you son of a bitch dont you fucking leave me here

im stuck in the room with her for another 15 minutes uninterrupted before i can finally be like hey want to go outside and get a burger

priest is sitting outside with other people. because of course he is

i try to make conversation with others

instead, as ALWAYS in these situations, i am accosted by the multiple small children who find me an excellent person to talk to

i talk to the children for the rest of the night, while their parents are freed to socialize instead

at the end of the night, end up trying to sit by the two girls who i actually want to be friends with

within the next 2 minutes they get up and leave

as i am leaving, accosted by dude who asks since i am musical, if i want to come to a jam session. (???) sure???

not a very successful evening as a whole thblkgknekljkjs

[scimitar-and-longsword]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged by @cactusdragon517 almost a month ago lol, I'm slow to get these done.

How many works do you have on ao3? 21

What's your total ao3 word count? 202,835

What fandoms do you write for? Currently? Call of Duty and I'm still hanging around the TOG fandom. But I've hardly posted anything in years lol. Someday when my toddler is a little older I'll get back into posting more.

Top five fics by kudos:

Share Your Address - Fencer!Joe/TA!Nicky College AU - Insta-love. So much texting. Everybody wants to punch Keane.

It Feels Like Flying - Joe/Pilot!Nicky AU - This is porn. Enjoy.

Brothers Fight - Joe & Booker working through their issues post movie.

Everything I Did to Get to You - Sequel to Share Your Address (my top fic by Kudos) - AU - A few years later Joe and Nicky spend the holidays with friends and family.

Collapsing Walls - Book of Nile!!!!! - Established Booker/Nile - Booker and Nile get caught in a building while trying to assist during an earthquake.

Do you respond to comments? Yes!! I try to respond to all comments for at least a few days after I post something.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't write a lot of angsty ENDINGS. I'll Never Love Another (Prince!Joe/Knight!Nicky) has a fuck ton of angst in it, and I know some people thought the ending was bitter sweet bordering on sad.... but idk (spoilers?) no one died and they're together sooooo that's a happy ending in my book lol.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Gees, idk lol Share Your Address?? It's so sweet you'll get cavities.

Do you get hate on fics? I never have. *knock on wood*

Do you write smut? Hardly ever. I mean I HAVE, and actually the most recent thing I posted was like straight up porn lol. But mostly if there is sex it is only hinted at/fade to black. Or buried in a 60k fic so you have to work for it!

Craziest crossover: Probably Book of Nile + Princess Bride (it's a WIP that I haven't touched in like 3 years *sweats nervously* I swear I will finish all my WIPs EVENTUALLY)

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of???

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes!! A one shot I did was translated onto a Japanese website that I forget the name of lol. I've also had a podfic made of one of my one shots if that counts.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Ashley and I tried at one point lol it was a modern AU DinLuke fic.... it kind of fizzled out eventually. @ashleyrguillory we should look at that again someday lol

All time favorite ship? Obligatory "Just one??!!" ok but idk Charlie/Claire (LOST), Korra/Asami (Legend of Korra) and Derek/Stiles (Teen Wolf) are the most important to me??? I read the most fic for Ghost/Soap, [redacted controversial ship that you could not pay me to reveal #1], and [redacted controversial ship that you could not pay me to reveal #2] lol

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I refuse to give up on any of my WIPS!!! I have 4, and all of them are planned/outlined to the end... I even have multiple completed chapters for two of them. I'm not a quitter... I do take my time though lol

What are your writing strengths? Oh gees... idk someone else who has read my stuff needs to tell me this... I think I've gotten a lot of comments complimenting me on keeping characters true to canon?? idk guys! someone else answer this!

What are your writing weaknesses? I really struggle with action and sex scenes. Where are they? I, the person writing this fic, certainly don't know. (come to think of it this might be part of the reason that I don't write a lot of smut)

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? Whatever floats the author's boat.

But I personally have done it a few ways. My favorite to both write and read is just to write what they say and then identify what language is being used if the POV character can understand the language. something like: "Oh no," he shouted in Italian.

OR if the POV character doesn't understand the language I would write something like: Nicky shouted something in what Joe thought was Italian. OR Nicky said something in a language Joe couldn't quite place.

First fandom you wrote in? Supernatural lol

Favorite fic you've written? One????? You're getting 2!

I'll Never Love Another - Prince!Joe/Knight!Nicky AU - SO MUCH LETTER WRITING - This was my Big Bang in 2021, and I love the FUCK out of it. It's my favorite fic I've ever written and I reread it kind of often because of how much I enjoy it lol

Impelled by the Persuasion of Love - Canon verse Joe/Nicky and Andy/Quynh - Takes place in France during the 100 years war. I have an obsession with courtly love/chivalry and figured I should shove it onto our favorite immortals <3 - I wrote this for a TOG zine that came out in early 2021

=== Truly, IDK if I've got 20 people to tag but I'll give it a go!!

@innerslumber, @alloutofgoddesses, @ashleyrguillory, @stevethehairington, @sindirimba, @disregardandfelicity and anybody else who wants to do this, consider this your tag!!!

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @ciellajess  |  AO3: CiellaJess

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Interview with CiellaJess

CiellaJess and Dema talk Good Clean Solavellan Fun, favorite romances, and Veilguard plans

Dema: You're my first artist interview, and I am excited to talk shop. What inspires you to make art of Dragon Age?

CiellaJess: I just love the world and the characters. It's one of those things that just gets in my head and I can't let go of it. Every now and then I pull out a game, and get sucked back in all over again.

Dema: When you first played, did you start making DA art right away? Or did it percolate for a while?

CiellaJess: So I started DAO and DA2 multiple times back when they came out. I'm a giant RPG nerd and have a lifelong dragon obsession, but for some reason they didn't grab me and I always moved on to something else. But for some reason, when I tried Inquisition, it was just the right time or place I guess and I was hooked. I started art for that right away. Then I went back and plowed through the other games, no problem. I still mostly do Inquisition art, but I also love drawing my Warden too. Plus all the great companions.

Dema: Would you say you're primarily a character-artist?

CiellaJess: Completely. I wish I were better at landscapes and architecture, the ones in the game are fantastic, but it's never been my strong suit.

Dema: Mmmm yes. I deeply feel that, lol. The eternal struggle 😅What was your first piece of Inquisition art?

CiellaJess: A little two panel comic. I'd just beaten Vinsomer, shortly after the breakup scene with Solas. Dorian and Bull had gone down and it was just my Rogue Inquisitor and Solas managed to eke out a win. I had this little vision in my head of them happy and triumphant and looking at each other. The remembering that they were broken up. I had planned a whole comic, but only got around to the two panels. Them ecstatic and them remembering.

Dema: OOF

CiellaJess: Still probably the formative story for my whole Solavellan romance 😂

Dema: Solavellans sure know how to have fun! I'm trying to think how many times Solas has broken up with my characters....

CiellaJess: It's fun to have your heart broken over and over again, right??

Dema: Like, here I am again, crying into my popcorn. Do you have more than one OC for Inquisition, or are you fully devoted to the Saddest Elf?

CiellaJess: I've started a bunch. I keep trying to do an 'evil' playthrough, with a Trevelyan warrior that wanted to be a Templar. He even features in a fic I'm working on. But usually, some time after I get to Skyhold, I always  wanna go back to my Lavellan. I'm definitely a lil polyamorous when it comes to DA, but I have my favs for sure.

Dema: What are your top 5 romances?

CiellaJess: Solas, Zevran, Alistair, Isabela, Fenris. And Adoribull for bonus points. I've also been playing with the idea of [REDACTED], which is why I'm excited for the fic I got 😁

Dema: I am gunna redact that, but YEAH!!!!! I am excited for you! Related to collaboration: have you done a Big Bang before?

CiellaJess: Nope, this is my first one!

Dema: Welcome! What made you decide to join?

CiellaJess: I've done a few DA fic exchanges and they're always a blast. With DAV coming out, I was on the lookout for something like that. This seemed perfect!

Dema: We have gotten so lucky with the timing. Are you watching all the DAV news closely or are you enforcing some boundaries, haha? I'm personally vacillating back and forth between not wanting to see anything and going absolutely batshit over the tiniest crumb of a detail.

CiellaJess: Constant vigilance! 

Dema: Hahaha! What part has you most excited?

CiellaJess: I love the factions. Especially since it seems like they'll actually be addressed by the companions. Trying to figure out which I'm gonna try first has been hard.

Dema: Are you feeling equally split between them or are you between two or 3?

CiellaJess: Right now I'm leaning towards Shadow Dragons. My initial thought was Veil Jumper, but I tend to do elven rogue, and that felt like doing another version of Bellara. Then I read an interview that mentioned that Solas sees himself in Rook, and now I think that a former elven  slave that's working with the Shadow Dragons to try and rebel against Tevinter felt very much like young Solas. I'm really feeling that dynamic. Of course, that could all go out the window as soon as I get my hands on the game.

Dema: Haha, yeah, but it is so fun to think about!

CiellaJess: Definitely!! And I don't wanna miss out on the others either. Helpfully, my husband will probably go Mortalitassi, so I can watch him play that 😂

Dema: Brilliant strategy. Divide and Conquer. Thank you so much for your time today, it has been great interviewing you! I am excited to see your piece in a few months!CiellaJess: Yay! I'm so excited! Good luck with the rest of them!

[streetsofsecrets]

A Long List of Paternal Headcanons About Pietro

Although Pietro has looked perpetually miserable in most stories, this is actually the happiest he has ever been in his life. And honestly? In regards to being at work? Pietro is cold as hell, he's far more warm amongst his family.

His children (and Rosaria) are his weak spot. Pietro is similar to his father, in the sense that he has 'older sensibilities' in regards to his expectations for the way his children should conduct themselves and behave. Yet, he's never risen his hand with them. He seldom even yells - his kids know when he's displeased through his glances or how low his voice becomes. He's the master of giving a fatherly face of disapproval.

He often finds himself on the line between wanting modern American sensibilities with his parenting while also honoring traditional Sicilian customs without having the more problematic aspects of his culture. Rosaria always succeeds in balancing him out in perspective.

MORE UNDERCUT

Having Carlo changed him, but having the twins changed him more. This is because they were his first daughters, and the emotions he felt seeing two small girl infants was somehow stronger than what he felt at the sight of his son. He and Sal had a good chat in the hospital that morning, with Sal noting that Pietro was gonna be willing to murder someone for these little girls, he was gonna be a slave for them and their happiness. Pietro believed him.

Everything Pietro thinks and considers about the future, he does so with his children in mind. Carlo made him want to [REDACTED]. The twins made him want to go legitimate. Pietro feels that as a parent involved in the underworld it's so important to have things in order. Plans, a will, incase you suddenly get a bullet in your brain. But upon obtaining fame and large heaps of money from various legitimate sources, Pietro realizes that this isn't the way he wants to live: he wants to enjoy small things in life with his children without looking over his shoulder. He got in the life, now he wants to get out of the life.

NSFW. Currently in Sink or Swim, Pietro believed he was attracted to slim woman, model shaped. Turns out he actually prefers Rosaria's weight gain, he thinks she looks more lively and beautiful. Plus, you know, her weight reminds him of how they started a family.

He finds himself using phrases, stories and songs that his mother use to tell him. He's very good at telling stories, which is something he never expected to be good at.

He's always felt extra tender towards Angela because she was a shy, clingy toddler whereas Antonella prided herself in being extroverted and spontaneous. Angela use to latch onto him and crawl into bed at night afraid of the dark whereas Antonella use to yank at his beard and put M&Ms in his ear when she was a toddler. However, Angela becomes his biggest fear because he sees so much of himself in her sneakiness and occasional lies.

He absolutely refuses to let any of his children, nieces, or nephews get into the entertainment industry or modeling industry while they're minors. This firm stance impacts Antonella the most because she would love to be on TV.

Watches a mixture of old and new things with his kids. Movie nights are commonplace. Pietro's the sort of dad who'll turn on episodes of I Love Lucy or the Caroll Burnett Show for the girls to watch [which does prompt Antonella's interest in female comedians across decades] but he'll watch the latest Disney movie too. However, he doesn't think too highly of the storytelling and characterizations in the latest films.

Angela and Antonella came out of the theatre with him after viewing Wish. Antonella felt the star was cute and that was it, whereas Angela had a moment of silence before saying, "I don't think I like Disney movies anymore…" to which Antonella said, "me neither." Pietro was proud they were able to feel this way, but he also felt like an end of an era was upon them.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio makes him depressed because he sees too much of his father in the portrayal of Geppeto's coldness. He thought the movie Luca was lovely though. Sometimes he definitely watches animated movies redubbed in Italian for nostalgia and to get the kids in-tune with their heritage.

Usually watches the girls play Dreamlight Valley, and once while they were at camp he and Rosaria had the honorable duty of watering the girl's Pumpkin Patch.

[aestariiwilderness]

Bad Batch Season 3, Episode I Don't Even Know And Honestly Will Not Be Keeping Track * SPOILERS * (solely because Mina Nunyabiz *REAL NAME REDACTED* has gone on so many diatribes about this inexcusable social faux pas on Tumblr known as failing to accurately and comprehensively tag your posts for pieces of media which some people haven't gotten to watching yet and this means that if they wish to be on Tumblr without getting unwanted foreknowledge they have to undergo some vast and imprecise tribulation known as filtering by tag)

I have come to two, nay, three, EIGHT whole conclusions: a. Tech hacked the Star Wars Internet. b. Tech was the Star Wars Internet. c. Pabu does not have Star Wars Internet. d. The Batch cannot function without their Internet. e. The Batch has lost its sole functioning strategic brain cell. Hemlock caught it when Tech fell. The muscle and the face are kind of just winging it now; the auxiliary brain cell said "haha see you later, losers, I need to be Rex's chauffeur"; and the attitude's first and only plan is, as always, just "KILL". f. These men are adorable and also utter morons. g. Crosshair has no experience with women. Ever. He doesn't even know how to talk to them. They're a different species to him even when they aren't literally a different species. His two methods of social interaction just recently expanded to three (murder, snark, and now mother hen) and still none of them have anything to do with proper behavior towards adult females. Let alone one who doesn't share his genes. You can tell by the way he wildly swung from default "PICK FIGHT/KILL" to "offer genteel non-sarcastic hand up to my ship without sarcasm after you almost got my Stockholm syndroming sister killed by a giant turtle because if I can't kill you I literally am at a loss for how to behave towards you". h. Tech was the only member of the squad who ever bothered to get a newspaper and check to see who they were actually fighting.

Omega IS unsettling. Well noticed Venti

Hunter, continuing to be the king of asking the specific follow-up questions that the audience feels is relevant and the askee absolutely cannot answer without losing their mysterious vibes (see: season 1 finale -- "WHEN did you have your chip removed, exactly" "Does it matter?" "YES")

Hunter, continuing to be the king of not getting an answer to his very reasonable specific follow-up question

For special ops commandos in a war they were literally created to fight, these guys do not seem to have much of a concept of "stranger danger"

"ASKING FOR A FRIEND" omigosh Omega. I have never been so ashamed of you. The big fascist experiment-happy regime is after you. WHY CAN YOU STILL NOT LIE

Why is Omega just. In charge now

And still the most unbelievable thing about this episode was like half a minute in with Crosshair willingly helping a random Pabuan AND not mercing them when they dared to smile, thank him, and use his name

HOWEVER MANY EPISODES IN AND WE JUST GOT TO THE ANSWER THAT EVERYBODY ALREADY KNEW ABOUT M-COUNTS

WAY TOO MANY EPISODES IN AND WE STILL DIDN'T GET A STRAIGHT-UP ANSWER ABOUT OMEGA'S

Qui-gon had a blood test! With a little litmus stick and everything! The crazy weed-addicted space monk had a scientific stick he jabbed baby Anakin with and HEY PRESTO M-COUNT SPREADSHEET. WHERE IS THAT HANDY BIT OF TECHNOLOGY HUH

[fastcardotmp3]

tagged by my adored alex @gothbat99 to do a little self-love moment 🥹💛

rules: post five of your favorite fics that you've written and talk about why you love them. tag some mutuals so they can do the same and we can all spread some positivity about our writing ❤️

✨someone else's favorite song - 120k | rated E - I swing wildly on the pendulum between loving this fic for all that it is and wanting desperately to Fix It, but lately I've felt a lot of pride in this thing, warts and all. I went into this one thinking I was the extent of the audience for it and let the stream of consciousness muscle pull it out of me without much forethought, but ended up finding so much connection to the people reading it who felt seen or understood in some way in their own grieving processes. No matter where I am on the pendulum of feelings about this story, I am never not grateful that my own little catharsis has been able to create a sort of 'not aloneness' every time someone is kind and courageous enough to share their own stories with me in the comments 💛

✨that's just wasteland, baby! - 19k | rated E - I started writing this entirely because at the time I couldn't find any fics that really dived into what an apocalyptic Hawkins setting might look like and I wanted to READ it more than anything. It's so slice-of-life in that world and I had really so much fun building up the rules of the world and the dynamics between characters still in the fight but settled to an extent within a new normal to the point where even Steve can't even remember how long they've been doing it. 'the world ended but we're still going' is one of my favorite premises of all time and this universe is one I'm genuinely SO proud of without any equivocation about it UGH

✨how the light gets in - 29k (wip series) | rated T-E - if there are going to be one million and one versions of kas!Eddie (including my own) there HAS to be a kas!Chrissy and by god if I have to do it myself I WILL. Wheelingham is one of those things that just smacked me in the face one day when I realized the unending potential of taking a fridged girl, bringing her back to life, and making her kiss the final girl, like... COME ON. This series is a labor of love and it's truly such a joy to do a proper character study on two girls who have so much untapped potential built into their psyches. they're my babies I am holding them gently in my hands and never letting go :(((

✨METAMORPHOSES - 160k | rated E - I think of everything I've written for ST, this might be the thing that's most structurally sound writing-wise, like it's long enough that there are definitely spots it could use smoothing, but I am genuinely so proud of how it turned out and how it told the exact story I set out to tell. I love these characters, I love their little house in Indy, I love the ways they grow and regress in tandem, I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOR. Never has a vision I had at the start ended up feeling So Right to this extent and I will never stop screaming about this fic just you try to stop me 💚🐍

✨The Hawk - 10k (wip series) | rated T - "The Bear" AU that no one asked for but which I am wholly and completely enamored with only 2 'episodes' in. Another chance at a Nancy-centric story with the added bonus of getting to write so many POVs of a larger ensemble? Incoming Ronance and Lumax and Steddie and Jargyle?? Wheeler sibling dynamic exploration?? it's my DREAM tbh and it's surprisingly simple to slot our ST characters into this wildly different world because you know what! At the end of the day it's all just about family isn't it!!! UGH. Once I'm done with writing (redacted) trust that I will be launching myself back into this one full-force, I've got so many plans and I can't wait to show you all more of this world

(if you've already been tagged apologies but also) tagging! @kkpwnall @fragilecapric0rnn @judasofsuburbia @gideoncharov @figthefruitfaeth @cheatghost @stargyles @capriciouslyterminal @sharpbutsoft @hellsfireclub

[river-muse]

First up, thanks so much for the tag! That was such a nice surprise!

Second up, in the spirit of the ask game, wanna maybe talk a bit about "To Break Not Once, But Twice"? The title absolutely piqued my interest 👀

Wish you a good one <3

Ooooo you picked one of the hefty ones to ask about owo The document for this is past 26k words.

Fun fact about "To Break Not Once, But Twice" before I start talking about it: this is actually one of the very first DMC fics I started writing last year before I started making NASNAH! I plan to return to it at some point even if I never post it. I just got caught up with my current works and definitely want to revise a few parts of it in the future before continuing it.

I was partially inspired by a few songs. Most notably this cover of Alice since the song has just a really bittersweet feeling to it overall.

This is gonna be lengthy so I'll hide it under a cut. <3

This fic was a "what if" that took the series back to even before the DMC3 manga, following Vergil as he meets my version of Nero's mother, him leaving, returning by chance, and choosing to stay not out of love but out of something he can't quite name. However it wouldn't last forever because Vergil would be even more desperate to seek protection for his newfound peace and family. That would lead to him still working with Arkham to break the seals so they can raise the Temen-Ni-Gru. When they're broken and Vergil returns to Fortuna to guide them somewhere safe to lie low- he's met with a very familiar and heartbreaking sight of a house on fire and blood covering the path leading up to it. His motivation to raise the Temen-Ni-Gru changes after that night as he's certain that they'd met the same fate as his mother.

I have scenes ranging quite a ways through the timeline for this one, but that's the main gist of where the title for the fic comes from.

I'll share a few excerpts with you, too! These are all heavily unedited and before I got back into the swing of writing after a long break so I can't promise any level of quality. I hope you enjoy them all the same. (I will be redacting the name I use for Nero's mother because I'm still on the fence about sharing it though.)

“Or burned at the stake, based on their beliefs. I’d rather-“ Vergil stifles a yawn “-on my own terms.” “I feel the same.” She says. Then, she’s leaning over in front of Vergil to look him in the eyes. She plucks the cards from his hands “But I think for now it’s time for me to put you to bed, instead. I had no clue that just two cups could get you like this. Come on- up you go.” She grabs Vergil’s arms to guide him up, and Vergil grabs her arms back to keep from swaying as he stands. He snaps up Yamato from where it was resting beside his seat and almost stumbles over. “It’s not right- for a Son of-“ Vergil mumbles without finishing his sentence at all. He allows her to guide him down the hallway to a bed, but won’t let her set the Yamato aside. He holds onto it in his hand and snarls when she tries to pry it from his grasp. “Very well. Sleep with it.” Her gentle tone curbs the knife of desperation that tears through Vergil’s body. She manages to get him out of his coat and pulls a blanket up over his shoulders. Vergil doesn’t know when he falls asleep. Just that the crickets outside and the snoring that starts up behind him is enough to tell him that he’s safe.

-

“It doesn’t have to go down like this, Vergil!” Dante shouts, avoiding a Judgement Cut and stabbing forward with Rebellion. “You know nothing.” Vergil spits “You haven’t lost anything!” “Is that the game we’re gonna play then?” Dante taunts “What’s worth opening the gates to hell for? You trash my shop, wreck the city-“ “They’re dead, Dante!” Vergil’s voice cracks as he raises it, bringing Force Edge off of his back and meeting Dante’s strike in the middle. His eyes are filling up with tears and blurring his vision. It’s too painful. It’s too raw. He transforms because the embrace of his own demonic power is just enough to keep him sane. His wings fan out in an attempt to intimidate. Force Edge comes down with each of his thoughts that emerge through his distorted voice “It’s gone! All of it! My home, my peace, my son, his mother-“ Dante falters at the initial outburst and recovers enough to meet Vergil’s flurry of blows. He braces himself on one knee because Vergil’s fighting style has never been sheer exertion in an attempt to overpower. Then there’s a break in the swings and Dante stabs Rebellion forward through Vergil’s chest- spilling blood over them both. Vergil’s transformation shatters apart in blue embers. He falls and Dante catches him. Vergil coughs up blood while Dante supports him from collapsing entirely. “Whatever you’re thinking- it’s not going to bring them back. Trust me.” Dante’s voice falls quiet as he eases Rebellion out of Vergil’s chest.

-

Vergil may not have noticed in the haze of pain and on the brink of death, but V understands all too well. The child that was harboring Yamato is no doubt of Sparda descent. In Fortuna. If Vergil had truly caused such harm- No. V shakes his head to clear his thoughts. “You okay there, Shakespeare?” Griffon asks, tone concerned for once “You spaced out pretty hard.” “Merely contemplating something that’s of no real concern right now.” V says “Ah, so the kid.” Griffon says, swooping in front of V and landing on a nearby lamp post “You know it’s never too late to send a card and some flowers. Something along the lines of "sorry for taking your arm because I was dying but I’m your old man and want to get to know you ‘cause I thought you were dead." Maybe twenty bucks in the envelope to be safe.” “I doubt that would fix anything.” “Okay, so thirty bucks. Got it. What’s that courier ad we saw a block back-“ “Griffon.” V hisses “Enough.” Shadow leaps down from V’s tattoos and weaves around his legs. He rests a hand on its head. “Go easy on him? I promised I’d stop calling him princess so I’m not treating him like one anymore neither!” Griffon ruffles his feathers “What’s done is done, and we’ve gotta take care of that big bastard that took Yamato with him before he brings hell to Earth!”

Thank you for asking about it! I hope you have a great day!! <3 <3 <3