#ah what is a consistent style anyways...

[gelatonic]

still can't stop thinking abt smoker!mean!luke and f!crybaby!reader.......

pls pls plsss i need smut for that i will die happily i swear omg js luke pounding into reader while smoking is SOSOSOSOSO hot like

also ur writing style MAKES ME SO HAPPY i love all the ":(" and stuff between paragraphs like it makes ur writing feel so real (if this makes sense) and i js love love love it

tysm in advance and take all the time u need and hope my req is ok !!

(one last thing i promise, could i be 🎙️anon ??)

ofc u can!!! also I've never had an anon before so like I think I get the concept ALSO sorry for being away for a long ass time I'm really bad at being consistent at anything ;( xox love ya!

smoker!mean!Luke smut. what the ask said!!!!

he's so all up in your guts when he's grabbing you by the cheeks, forcing your little mouth open so he can shotgun smoke straight down your throat.

"aw, poor baby can't even handle second-hand smoke, huh?" luke coos, a hand fisting and knotting in your hair when your cheeks go impossibly more pink and you start coughing between your moans.

"a-ah, fuck!" coming out all whiny as you sputter smoke, making him laugh as he lazily feels up your clit. with glassy, hazy eyes, either from the nicotine or the dick he's giving you (though its probably both), you whimper, crying n babbling bout how its all too much, parts of what you say incoherent, though it doesn't really matter as it goes in luke's ear and out the other.

"I know, I know, you're just a baby, aren't you?" he'd say, mimicking concern as he continues to rock his dick into you, "can't take dick and smoke at the same time, right? its okay, we've just gotta work on it baby," promising you how he's gonna get you so high n it'll feel sososo good, make the sex feel a thousand times better.

n of course you trust your boyfriend, n he's always saying that he knows best anyways, so you just nod against the pillows, opening up your drooling mouth paired up with teary eyes, ready to swallow down another load of smoke.

"gooddd girl," he mumbles, thumb invading your mouth and pressing against your spit-covered tongue. "just one more, kay?" said as he sucks on the cigarette, ready to fuck up your lungs and your pussy for the morning after.

[airenyah]

hello~ i was rewatching the THK trailer again and noticed something interesting: FadelStyle go from using formal/polite khun/pom pronouns -> informal/rude meung/guu later in the series.

In the trailer, I think I hear Fadel using them in the "I don't like being pursued" line and Style uses them when he says "Whenever I'm with you, you either make me feel so scared, or so damn safe".

I was wondering if you had any Thoughts about that? I was surprised they use rude pronouns when it looks like KantBison keep using khun/pom throughout. Do you think the rude pronouns a sign that FadelStyle are closer or more a feature of their personality/dynamics?

I'm still very confused about how any of the pronoun stuff works, so I apologies if this doesn't make any sense. ^^;;

ah, it's funny you should send me this ask because only last night before i went to sleep did i ramble in a group chat about the pronoun use in ep1 😂

disclaimer: i'm not a thai native speaker and i actually get kinda anxious talking about the thai language publicly out of fear of getting something embarrassing wrong lmao. calling fellow language nerd @visualtaehyun as well as Known Native Speakers™ @recentadultburnout and @happypotato48 for double checks and potential corrections in case i'm blabbering bullshit at any point <3

yeah, in the trailer it seemed to me that fadel and style were consistently using guu/mueng for each other except for when style was trying to flirt with fadel on purpose (as in, when he's flirting for kant and the car, not when he's saying flirty or romantic shit bc he genuinely likes fadel now. or at least that's what i thought was going on upon watching the trailer for the first time kfkdkfdkjkjfd)

so when i watched ep1 i was actually kinda surprised bc i hadn't expected them to consistently start out using phom/khun with each other at first! which probably also comes from the fact that i hadn't expected them to meet on their own before kant hires style to hit on fadel hahaha (like, i didn't think the "my nipples are sensitive" scene would happen before kant sets style onto fadel. i thought at that point he was already very purposefully flirting with fadel for the sake of the mission, but instead it's all style himself just to get on fadel's nerves 😂)

anyway, in ep1 fadel and style use pretty much only phom/khun with each other EXCEPT for style at three very specific points:

he uses "guu" to refer to himself at the very end of the scene of their first meeting when fadel drives off and style shouts something about fadel scolding him like a dad when fadel has left already. i'm like 90% sure i hear him say "guu" in that specific sentence

you probably caught him call fadel "nong" to be an extra little shit when he sat down and made fadel get him those beers

when fadel manoeuvers style out of the restaurant and style is raging he uses phom/khun until the very last sentence where the subs say "i'm gonna take you out!". unfortunately i can't understand the entire sentence that well but he starts the sentence with "guu" and i'm fairly sure i hear the words "เป็นแฟนกู" [bpen faen guu] which translate to "be my boyfriend" and so i'm guessing he's saying something along the lines of "i'll make you my boyfriend" or "you will be my boyfriend" (calling a native speaker to pls transcribe that sentence for me thank youuu 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻)

so we see that style uses the rude pronoun set guu/mueng when he's annoyed (no. 1) and when he's seriously pissed (no. 3). other than that he sticks to formal/polite pronouns throughout the first episode

however, we know that they're gonna be using guu/mueng for each other regularly at some point from the trailer and there's also that scene in the promo for next episode where fadel asks style who sent him: they're both using guu/mueng in the "who sent you?" "i like you" exchange

so now the question is when and why do they switch from polite to rude pronouns? personally i'm speculating that fadel is gonna start using guu/mueng with style once he's seriously fed up and annoyed by style. bc rude pronouns aren't just used to show closeness/intimacy but also when, you know, you're actively trying to be rude. and i could see fadel switch to the rude pronouns for the exact reason of being rude on purpose in order to emphasize his disdain for style and to give him a hint to fuck off. and i could see style going along with the pronoun switch bc he sure ain't intimidated by fadel and won't go away that easily hahaha

and if that really does happen then i could see them just sticking to the rude pronouns from that moment on, since these pronouns can be used in an informal way too and it does fit their dynamic

also, i just went and rewatched the trailer bc i wanted to see if there were any scenes in which fadel and style use phom/khun for each other that we haven't seen yet and yeah, all the scenes from the trailer in which they do use the polite pronouns are scenes that we in fact all got to see in ep1 already. then we have the "good morning krub" scene happening next episode, which i'm guessing is gonna happen before fadel corners style in the locker room. and i'm guessing at that point they (or at least style) will still be using phom/khun since that's what they've established as their pronouns they use to their face (note how in the above list, style is never standing right in front of fadel, yelling directly into fadel's face when he uses "guu", so fadel likely isn't even aware of it). and i'm also guessing that then when fadel is eventually seriously fed up and suspicious of style, he changes to guu/mueng in order to show his anger and to basically declare a war with style. and style switches to guu/mueng too in order to fight back bc he sure as hell won't let fadel intimidate him

idk what language you have as a first/native language, but mine is german and in german we also differentiate between formal and informal pronouns. although for us it's by far (by FAR) not as nuanced as thai pronouns since we differentiate only two pronouns for the 2nd person: formal "you" (Sie - pronounced "see") vs informal "you" (du - pronounced "doo"). and in german it is absolutely considered rude if you use "du" to address a person you should be using "Sie" for. and you can absolutely show your negative emotions (like anger, annoyance, etc) towards your conversational partner who you should be addressing with "Sie" by suddenly switching to "du", esp when you're trying to start a fight. and yeah i can see fadel switching to rude/informal pronounce in this way, to kind of start a fight with style so style will finally fuck off

and in german, usually once you're on a "du" level of addressing each other (esp if you do it regularly and it wasn't just a one-off sentence in an argument or something) then you usually wouldn't go back to using the formal "Sie" for each other. of course in thai everything is muuuuch more complicated and complex than in german when it comes to pronouns, so this is kinda like comparing apples with oranges. but yeah, i can totally see fadel and style sticking to the rude/informal pronouns since they've already crossed that line. since they've already established that they can use this level (register) of language with each other, so why bother going back to a more formal/polite register?

we'll have to wait and see if i'm right with my speculation about the pronoun switch, though. of course it could happen totally differently than what i think (who knows, maybe they'll hop between guu/mueng and khun/phom for a while depending on their moods, like, whether they're being civil to each other bc the given situation calls for it or whether style is actively hitting on fadel or whether they're annoyed/pissed at each other and basically challenging each other to a fight)

and i don't find it surprising that kant and bison would be using different pronouns for each other. they did meet under completely different circumstances and they have a completely different relationship to each other than fadel and style do

one thing thai and german pronouns have in common is that their usage depends heavily on who is talking to whom and also what situation/context the conversation is happening in. german speaking kids are taught that they have to address adults with the formal "Sie" pronoun unless they're given explicit permission by the adult to use the informal "du". german learners who take it up as a second language are taught that they need to use the formal "Sie" when talking to strangers. however, that doesn't reflect the reality at all. there are situation where you can immediately jump to the informal "du" without asking for permission first even when you don't know the person while if you met this very same person for the first time in a different situation you might have to call them "Sie" or else they'd be offended because using "du" would be very rude in this context

now if we look at bison and kant's first meeting... kant is trying to hit on bison. a rude pronoun that you'd use out of negative feelings or with peers/close friends seems a little inappropriate in this situation, don't you think? it would definitely have made the unsolicited advice sound even worse and more invasive, imo 😂

and also throughout the entire episode their goal is to be polite and friendly to the other person, since, you know, they're trying to get on the other person's good side in order to get something out of it. and even when (and after) they get to know each other, well, intimately, they don't really have a reason to be rude to each other or use more vulgar language, i feel like? UNLIKE fadel and style, who are actively trying to piss each other off

i'm not surprised that fadelstyle and kantbison use different sets of pronouns for each other since the couples have very different starting points with very different goals that require very different strategies in order to successfully get there

i hope i managed to explain it in a way that makes sense to you <3

[1driedpersimmon]

Do you have any advice for people who might want to get into making comics like yours? I'm always pleasantly surprised by how fast you pump them out and even have other little projects/doodles on the side. How do you keep the quality consistent?

(sorry if this sounds a lil cold (?) i rlly love your peppercakes they r so skrunkly)

First off - Thank you !! I'm honored you like my lil guys and comics hehe! (and no worries on the tone !! I didn't think it sounded cold at all!)

Alright secondly lets see...

Short answer: You really just gotta start and keep going!! Once you start you get the momentum and it gets much easier (like riding a bike, which people like to use as comparison often).

Long answer:

Alright I thought about how to answer for this for a bit and I think I'll break it down to the main aspects.

So timing ! Basically I'm drawing 24/7 (and I'm currently not working as it's an off time for me, but I shall in a week and you will see that my posting frequency will decrease substantially). Ok maybe not 24/7 but I essentially am drawing from the moment I wake up to when I sleep (minus eating, restroom, working out, some errands) and while I do not say this is the key to being better, I'm just realistically displaying how much time I'm spending on drawing. (... one of my new years resolution is to not in fact do that and go out more because I feel like I'm being cooped up in my room a lot haha). But minus the amount of time I spend itself a lot of it has to do with the importance I take in speed drawing. And when I say that I mean quite literally how fast I can draw. AND I think a large part of where that speed comes from is how I like to generalize designs and just my overall process of drawing. (Which, I will not go over now but if you'd like I could make a separate post on how I go about doing my usual sketch, lines, colors, etc) Like, I love ff and all of it's crazy designs but it's so complicated I simplify everything till it's juussstt recognizable, and that's something I feel like really adds to the speed of things.

Also that's sweet of you to say for the quality haha (I always am thinking stuff like ah man this aint it... not my finest work, and then just post anyways cuz who cares I already made it heh)! That being said my quality wasn't alwaysss consistent! Here's an example of my very first "comic" I made for my characters:

And here's the same 4 panels I redrew just about 2 years later:

So I've been basically drawing comics for this for just about 2 years now (will be 2 years officially in a few months) and I most certainly did not get here in one night. I think, as I've mentioned, it's really important to keep up with the comic making (or drawing in general) so that, yes, you can get better, but the way you get better is that it becomes familiar to you. So you can approach concepts and ideas with a more experience. And I think a large part of what holds alot of people back is the idea that "ah I can't do this idea I'm not good enough." So what !! Still do it, I most certainly did it a couple years ago when I barely scribbled my ideas. And then you can totally go back and redraw it ! no "Rule" saying you can't go back and revisit your ideas, like hell even professional artists go back and republish their works with their improved art styles ! (ex. Tokyo Ghoul... even though I don't care for the story, it's still pretty cool! I think he even added more scenes? Anyways..). I think there was that one post going around where it was something like do it scared and that's really REALLY what you gotta do.

And that leads to my final point. You gotta love doing it. I like to make comics because I LOVE my characters, their story, and actually the act of putting it all together into a story, drawn comic, visuals, etc. And, I found my method of loving them. For me, what held me back was the "structure" of comics. I mean you can p much see that the way I like to do things is def not the "traditional" manga/western comic book style right? I won't go as far to say that I "made up this way" of comic making where it's one panel at a time but it certainly worked for me. (I have no idea how many comic wips I have collecting dust in my folders from my earilier days of making this comic where I just gave up 20% of the way in because I really could not vibe with the formatting, but then I figured out I really like to "thumbnail" comics (a result of when I was studying storyboards alot imo) and I went on from there).

This is where I feel like alot of people get stuck too. Where they really do like their ideas, their character, their stories and such, but as soon as they try and go through the process of creating in a certain way... the wind is just instantly taken out of their sails. And while I do believe sometimes you just gotta push through and do it anyways, sometimes that's not the right method to go about it. So instead of brute forcing a method of creation and eventually forming a bad relationship with the process, find a method that works for you. And maybe it doesn't look all that great or good compared to others, but that comes in time and as long as you like doing it, that's what really matters at the end of the day.

Tl;dr: be a lil freak, and lil weird about what you do (this applies to everything, not only art :3)

Alright so I think that's all the points? idk if you still want to ask me stuff, feel free to anytime :) Always happy to share my thoughts!

[aquarius-cookie-jar]

Right. I'mma just dump these ref sheets I made here because I'll be making some drawings with these guys, and I am bad at staying consistent within the design lmao.

I was inspired by these amazing designs, go check them out.

X || X || X.

Ramble down here, where I try to explain the ""lore"" and my design choices:

So as mentioned above, the majority of the Dark Cacao kingdom is actually composed of kirins, mainly because Cacao was already a kirin in my older designs, and I wanted more of his citizens to match him. Maybe I'll draw the other Cacao NPCs mlp-ified and what I headcanon their species to be.

I ultimately decided to give Cacao a mane and replace his long hair with that. Ngl, I was always on the fence about Cacao and Choco's designs, but yeah, I think the mane works better than just getting rid of it. (Old design below).

Btw, I dunno if I wanna give Cacao an actual crown, or just keep the additional horn things the leader of the kirins kinda have.

Dark Choco hasn't changed much, just in a different art style. I do however wanna say that he shaved off his mane out of shame and guilt for coming across the cursed sword not long after his banishment. Maybe when he and Cacao reconcile, he'll start to grow it out again, or maybe he'll keep it that way as a reminder of the past.

I actually drew (more like edited a screenshot) Caramel Arrow before, and she was originally just a pegasus, but honestly, the concept of hybrids and what they entail really intrigued me. I thought it would be fun if she were a hybrid kirin/pegasus.

Also, her horn doesn't exactly function, mainly because there's this headcanon I once came across a post that says faux alicorns do exist in the mlp canon. If you wanna know my full headcanon for this, feel free to shoot an ask, but to keep it short, for faux alicorns, either their wings are under developed, or their horn can't control the frequencies of magic that well or at all. Such is the case for Caramel Arrow. Though she has fully developed wings, she can't control magic with her horn, and if she tries to, it may cause a headache. But besides that, she's all fine and dandy.

Crunchy Chip, hm, I'd say when he was a little filly, he was found in the woods, either by Cacao, or Choco, and his horn was already broken by the time they came across him. When asked, the little guy said he was protecting the cream wolf pups from a monster, but he can't remember what else happened before he fell unconscious. As he grew older, his broken horn didn't really bother him anymore. He's adapted well, and picked up a thing or two about survival from his cream wolf pack.

Also, sidenote, the kirins' scales are actually very hard to dent, meaning their backs are usually safe from attacks. Crunchy once encountered... something when he was out on patrol, and he was out of commission for a week (to his incredible dismay + annoyance) because of how rare serious injuries to the kirins' backs occur.

Ah, Affogato. Actually, I really do like him as a character, I just tend to focus my attention towards the Celestia and Luna coded father-son duo a bit more. Oops. But anyway, I decided to make him a hybrid just like Carrow too, mainly to add both contrast and similarities between them. They're not too different, but their ideals and beliefs clash and cause conflict with one another, I just thought it was fitting. Also decided to give him a more elegant and curved horn design as a nod to his unicorn heritage. Unicorns in the Cacao kingdom (and maybe the Golden Cheese kingdom) have a curved horn, mainly because the east asian coded unicorns in the mlp canon have curved horns too, and I thought they looked beautiful. Affo is someone so elegant and refined in a land that's chaotic and holds danger everywhere.

And that's my unhinged thoughts for now. I think I'll design Licorice and the others next time, but no promises.

Anyway, thank you for reading.

[fucksurass]

☆~MEET THE ARTIST~☆

Heyyyyy fellow Tumblr bloggers. My name is Ronnie but you can call me fucksurass. Not fuckasauras though... Many people read my username wrong or just taunt me with it. Pls get it right. Im fragile.

ஐ〰ฺ・:*:・✿ฺ ஐ〰ฺ・:*:・✿ฺ ஐ〰ฺ・:*:・✿ฺ ஐ〰ฺ・:*:・✿ฺ

Anyway, im a young(MINOR) black artist who first started showing my art to the internet people through tiktok. I like drawing for fun and post my art in hopes people like it. My posts consist of South Park, egthite(sp au(not mine) that I like), Azrielthedrawer, me an my wife, funny reblogs, ect.

*:;;;;;:*◈*:;;;;;:*◈*:;;;;;:*◈*:;;;;;:*◈*:;;;;;:*◈*:;;;;;:*◈

I have diagnosed anxiety and probably many other undiagnosed mental illnesses. I am not normal. I mean- Yes I am im so normal watch this

Does something normal

.｡.:✽・ﾟ＋.｡.:✽・ﾟ＋.｡.:✽・ﾟ＋.｡.:✽・ﾟ＋.｡.:✽・ﾟ＋

Anyway. I dont mean any harm! Im just here to be silly and post my silly art and make silly friends!

｡o♡o｡+｡o♡o｡+｡o♡o｡+｡o♡o｡+｡o♡o｡+

And art- I really like to draw. See look

✽・:..｡o￠o｡..:・✽・:..｡o￠o｡..:・✽・:..｡o￠o｡..:・

Anyway music is the soul so maybe if I put in my playlist people will know my soul and maybe theyll like me bc my soul is cool

❁.｡.:*:.｡.✽.｡.:*:.｡.❁.｡.:*:.｡.✽.｡.:*:.｡.❁.｡.

Ah yes cant forget the good ol DNI list

Dni real people if youre actually a real person then dont talk to me. I only talk to people who arent real

/jk I like people. Come be my friend

speaking on friends, heres a list of my tumblr buddies. If you wanna be my buddy too just let me know! If not then Ig thats okay... Heh... Guess I deserve i-

@azrielthedrawer @moon-swoons @sparkysunglasses @spookyteeth @rosebushstuff @rahneexd @haiihi @nottefierr @boobsl0v3er @kawaiibutters @th3r34l-k1ng0f-h3ll @spurkspaint @fennecfiree

Buddies!!

❁.｡.:*:.｡.✽.｡.:*:.｡.❁.｡.:*:.｡.✽.｡.:*:.｡.❁.｡.

I also have an au!! Two actually!

One is a wattpad story!

The other is not written its drawn! Its called DEAD? Park and its still heavily in the works but a couple parts are done in my old style! A new part is on its way so bear with me!!

☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆

Idk what else to add here... I think... I think im done!

BYE

[hell-drabbles]

Ra-on 1

Summary: Ra-on comes into your room to deliver some human essence for you to drink.

(If I'm going to be writing about Ra-on, I'm at least going to make him into a good-looking, if soggy, pretty boy. Just, looks like he's been left out in the rain. And is slightly oily. Pathetic style. And gross. I am not exaggerating when I say I made Ra-on real gross. It's fun for me.)

"This," you sloshed the full bottle around, "I have to drink, this?"

"Yes," Ra-on nodded and looked away, biting his dry lips, "It's, uh, it's Minhyeok's."

"…did you drink first?" You asked.

"Well, no but-"

You put the bottle on the floor and rolled it towards Ra-on with a light kick. "Then you drink first. I'm not drinking before you."

Ra-on is weaker than you are. More prone to collapsing faster than you. He'll need it more than you do, even though you are pretty sick yourself. That and you want to delay the inevitable for as long as possible.

"But-"

"Just drink first." You said in a tone that left no room for argument.

Ra-on gulped as he picked up the bottle. He swished it back and forth, as if fascinated by the thick consistency. He licked his lips. He popped off the cork and began to chug.

"Not in front of me," you groaned out, massaging your throbbing temples, "Out. Drink that elsewhere."

Why? Just, why? Is this another one of his kinks? Being looked at while chugging cum? He can have all the kinks in the world, but he shouldn't do them in front of you! You didn't agree to see!

You know what? You've known Ra-on for too long. He wasn't thinking, again. Probably being overly cautious because you're sick and very testy. Thought that because you didn't tell him to get out the first time, that he isn't allowed out.

Augh, that man needs more friends. His social skills are right down the gutter. Not these devils though. They don't count.

Ugh, it's so gross to think about. You care for Minhyeok, you won't deny that but to have to drink his cum? To survive? That's hell. Disgusting. And it was still warm too and you don't know if that's worse of better than if it was cold.

Ra-on choked and popped his lips off the bottle. He coughed, wiped his mouth and gurgled out, "Sorry. I'll-I'll go. I'll be back with more, okay?"

Ugh! Why? Well, you know why but… ah!

"Hey."

Ra-on went stiff and hesitantly turned around, like you're about to scold him. Look at him, he even has his eyes to the ground.

"…" Alright, you have to ask, "Do I have to drink the entire bottle to get better?"

Ra-on blinked and relaxed his thin shoulders, "Ah, well… yeah. It's better to be safe than sorry. If you drink too little, you'll collapse sooner."

…oh boy.

"Minhyeok's balls are gonna be raisins by the time we get back," you collapsed your head into your knees.

Poor man. He does not deserve this fate. But what a trooper, truly.

Ra-on was silent, then gasped after a delay. "…oh no. To have to provide for the both of us… on his own… Um, hey."

"What?" you asked, flatly, head enduring pain that can only be described as being sliced by wires.

You heard shuffling of clothing. "…I think it should work… if I give you some of mine-"

"No. I'm drinking that. And it wouldn't work anyways." It has to be essence from a human that isn't in Hell at the moment. You don't know if it's some purity shit, like somehow being in Hell taints you but whatever. Point being, Ra-on is not an option, and you will not tolerate him being an option.

You're already having trouble keeping yourself from throttling him at every moment. If you had to drink his jizz, you'd straight up let yourself die. You know he would find satisfaction in that. It would pop up later in his masturbation fantasies, you just know it.

…he's always been like that, always sexually charged no matter the time and place. You have no problem with that. His libido will act how it wants. The problem is…

The problem is how Ra-on deals with it. He indulges in it and yet refuses to seek anyone out to relieve it. Refuses to say anything about what he's into and what he wants, and yet jacks it no matter where or who is in the room.

…he didn't even have the decency to stop stroking his dick when you came into the room to borrow Minhyeok's computer. He even finished the minute he saw your face, like he wanted to be caught.

That face... You'll never forget that face of fear and bliss.

You kicked that damn chair out Minhyeok's room the minute Ra-on ran off.

…point being, you don't want anything to do with Ra-on's kinks or semen.

"Well, what if we tried?" Ra-on insisted, pale eyes rounding out in that infuriating puppy-dog like fashion, like that'll work on you the same way it works on Minhyeok.

Gross. Vile. Disgusting.

Your head pulsed and you growled, "No. Get out."

Ra-on clenched his jaw and practically skittered out the door. Good. If he lingered any longer, you would've thrown your shoes at him.

You fell back on the bed. Sleep. You need sleep so you can stop being so angry and snippy. And finally quiet down all the memories you don't want to remember. All so you can be a better person.

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

art by em year in review 2024!

i find myself surprised i drew much at all this year considering the circumstances (completing a bachelor's degree. concerts. international trip. starting a phd. general state of world.) however, for the fifth time i am happy to present my yearly retrospective.

as always, reflections under the cut.

jan: i feel like my weakest pieces always happen in january 😭 this was definitely one of those where concept > execution; some of this feels woefully flat and i wasn't too enthused about how herc looked. oh well. that was literally one of the only things i drew in january

feb: one of the developments that came about this year in my drawing was that of my cartoon/comic style, because i wanted to have a record of all the funny shit that happens in my music life. i've continually been surprised at the reception of it online haha. tita conductor is OUR internet microcelebrity now i guess

mar: ah, the douglas seventh wheels the hercolyn wedding fic i've been saying i'd write for almost two years. well, that actually got written and will go up later this week. but anyway, Hurt That Old Man!

apr: in which some professor of media studies with a slide whistle chose to examine a 160-year-old novel through the lens of an intergenerational relationship, and i took it personally. i was not drawing a lot during this time, so i was naturally falling back on my favorite subjects, namely. herc and linda. so much for branching out this year LMAO

may: a pen test for my graduation gift to tita conductor (finished version here, which she loved so much she couldn't stop talking about it when we next saw each other in september). someone once said to me 'it's weird that you can draw her from memory.' i replied 'looking at her is kind of part of the job description.'

jun: drawing theresa is probably one of the ways through which i measure my art progress, given that out of all the character designs i have (bar one, which i don't share on this blog for Reasons) hers is the one that has stuck around the most persistently. the grey is here to stay‼️

jul: i drew this one while having stomach problems in the philippines 😭 but something about the philippines (and like. being around people of my ethnic background on a daily basis) made me think a lot about my character designs for the soft-shoe-shuffle trio, so i wanted to do something with them a bit

aug: for all i talk about martin i sure never draw him, ever 😂 it's probably not obvious, but i was trying painting an base layer rather than an overlay (which i've been using pretty consistently since last year). in the future, i want to experiment more with coloring: i think i've not been eager to touch that part in my art and that needs to change. also pour one out for what i almost captioned it:

if i got onto a plane and i saw a twink in that mfing pilot seat i'm jumping off 😐🤚🏻‼️

sept: the piece that got the most attention this year i think. i'm not sure how well it came across that douglas is supposed to be ever so slightly horny in this one. oh well. it was funny.

oct: i think it was this piece that made me start to realize that i have kind of developed a problem with making everyone's faces super long. which. i don't really know how that happened. anyway this is really cute still. read the theresa-becomes-a-pilot fic.

nov: omg guys remember when i was obsessed with the theresa-maxi dynamic. well it came back for a blazing second of glory in november. maybe it'll come back to me again for good. we'll see

dec: again, familiar subjects during a tumultuous time. not much of note here, except i have noticed myself getting very lazy with lighting recently. also i wrote a fic about this.

overall: going into the new year, i think the whole 'making everyone's faces look super long' thing needs to be addressed; otherwise, as stated earlier, i really should start experimenting with coloring and base layers and shading and lighting.

thank you everyone! and a happy new year to all!

[ravangie]

Your style of characters is so beautiful!! How did you learn/develop/practice to draw like that?

Ah!!! Thank you!! 💗💗💗✨✨

Here comes a long rant, get ready

Talking about your own art style is kinda tricky, I feel like to artists it comes as second nature, so one doesn't really see it as a so-called separate "style". Rather they see it as a continuation of themselves in a drawn form (at least i do). But if i had to, i'd say that one's art style consists of two things:

1) What comes naturally.

I look at 5 year old kids drawing and see that each one of then has their own unique style. Already. Without even trying.

I've been drawing my whole life and I never tried to shape my drawing style into a box that I could call "my style". I just let the lines flow naturally and followed where they led me.

I started going to live-drawing sessions again recently and my friend told me that she could see "my style" of drawing that she sees in my digital works in those quick sketches that I make during these sessions. I think that's because when I work on digital illustrations, I don't think about how I should draw this or that. I just do it.

So, practise! With time, the ways you personally draw things will flow to you. When you draw one thing a 100 times you start to notice simularities in all of the 100 different examples, and then you systematize what you've learned and put it to use drawing your 101 drawing. After a while you won't even think about it before drawing them in the usual for you way.

I like to draw freely, not picking up a pencil from paper, with my lines just flowing naturally everywhere that I want them to. And I try to keep that same feeling in my finished drawings (where there is lineart still visible).

Here, found an example of a quick live sketch without any boobies for ya (just to be safe) and a linework for one on my more recent digital works. See how I try to keep the lines alive in the same way. And add highlights where I deem them necessary just for something interesting to the eye.

2) Your inspiration.

Everything that you see and like impacts your style, whether you mean it or not. My friend (other friend) watched Wolfwalkers the other night and immediately texted me saying she could see the inspiration that I've drawn from that movie. And she was right. I am a fan of the artstyle of the whole studio, so it's only natural that i, maybe even unconsciously, took something that i liked from their works and incorporated it into my own art style.

When I asked my friend what exact simularities she saw, she couldn't pinpoint them, she said it's just the vibe that she's getting. And i was content with that answer. Means i didn't copy and paste, but rather interpreted what i liked in my own way.

Also. Very important. You have to love what you draw. You're gonna wanna spend some extra time and add those extra couple of strokes that don't add anything in meaning, but are there to just be pretty. Sometimes those couple of strokes make the biggest difference. I think it's is very important to take time to just sit with your work and listen to what it needs to make it truly finished. A drawing can go from empty and unfinished to fantastic in just a couple of lines.

So. There it is. Sorry for the long answer. Or maybe you're welcome? Anyway hope it satisfies you!💖💖

[sweetest-honeybee]

I'm going to be starting my very first commissions soon! I am very excited but do you have any tips on what I should and shouldn't do?

Oh that’s very exciting! Hmm I have a post somewhere but I’ll just answer anyways 😂 This is gonna be insanely long

- Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a huge amount of people asking at first. It’s all about drawing people in and growing an audience! If you don’t have an audience yet, it’s always worth it to market and advertise pretty well. Multiple social medias, using common tags, promoting in say, is discord server if you’re in one or something, all that jazz

- Pricing is very difficult and it’ll fluctuate and change over time. You’re not gonna get it down first try, and they’ll change with your workflow and what you realize you can and can’t do/handle! Personally, I took the amount of time I take on each canvas and estimated some average times (I.e. a rendered bust takes me 1.5-2 hours) and multiplied that by ah, $30 I think at first? And then doubled my prices later down the road

- Additionally however, pricing in such a way that you make good money for your time is important but, and I can’t stress this enough, PLEASE consider the people you’re advertising your work to and who follows you, what communities you’re in, etc. For myself, I’ve recently began to aim for higher quality clients who can pay more all at once and so I can get more money with less commissions stacked in my queue. Thus why my lowest price is still quite high. If you want more frequent clients, most often it’s best to keep your prices relatively low but still good value for you. Again, it’s all about finding that balance and figuring out your workflow

- Speaking of workflow, there’s no one right way to do commissions. Your process is your own and from my experience, I’ve gone through a bunch of different processes with different people! Haha, I’ve even signed a contract once to really seal the deal on the terms and conditions. Make it your own! Be as professional as you feel the need to or not. Do whatever makes you comfortable as long as it’s not at the expense of the client, of course

- You may or may not be contacted by spam bots and other accounts about your work. Believe me, it’ll happen once or twice that you might be scammed if you’re not careful (it’s happened to me twice) but if I could say, it’s usually accounts with names that don’t match their icons, using little/terrible punctuation and very automated repsonses, requesting work that’s not what you do usually, requesting work of family members/pets, offering very large sums of money, whatever else. Just be safe!

- Hmmm what else….

- Make sure you have plenty of examples of your work and the style of art/coloring that you’re advertising. If you’re offering something new, just get like 3-4 examples in and have a consistent process before having people pay money for it. I love my current rendering style but I had to wait til I had a few to know how I wanted to go about offering it as a new coloring style and how it’s different from what I would typically do

- Some clients are definitely rude and pester. It’s okay to put your foot down and say you’re not comfortable working with them. Personally, I offer up other artists if that’s the case (within reason, I don’t send rude people generally but sometimes clients get frustrated with you because you’re not the kind of artists they’ll end up wanting to work with) or if I’m just not able to do a commission because it’s, for example, out of my skill level or something. Always good to send people to artists who are open for work

- I’m actually learning this myself but if you’re working with someone who’s well known (I.e. I worked with good ol Xisumavoid), having T&Cs is useful for those larger clients. Xisuma actually gave me his terms and conditions to fill out in the invoices so if the client has that as well, it works that way too! And again, if you have questions or you’re uncomfortable by someone else’s T&Cs, say that! Believe me, they’ll work with you if they truly intend to use your work (bless that man, he was so kind and transparent about the whole process)

- Of courses you are just starting out but you never know!

That’s pretty much he main stuff. Just make sure it’s seen and clear, you’re valued and understand your value, and that everything you’ll be doing is all up to you. If you have artists friends (or myself) that you’d ever need input from, give them (or me) a holler! This is all just me, other artists have more or different ways they’d suggest going about things so if you don’t agreed with anything I’ve said, that’s alright 😌

[ap41cu5]

The Rookie Detective: Joseph Oda x Fem! Reader (Chapter 3)

short synposis: a bit of a long, fluffy chapter where the reader was so caught up in her thoughts of joseph that she couldn't get a single ounce of sleep that night. when she comes into work, shes so exhausted that joseph offers to drive her back home to make sure she gets there safe and sound. meanwhile, joseph is also worried about sebastian who has been quickly descending into alcoholism. a/n: sorry if this chapter feels a bit rushed! i didn't want to make it too long but it ended up being super long anyway </3 word count: 4124

Your first day at work was amazing for the most part. While you felt horribly for your coworker, Sebastian Castellanos, you just couldn’t pry your mind away from Joseph. There was just something about him that drew you to him. He was just so gentle and sweet, not to mention incredibly easy on the eyes. The only downside to your little, well, huge crush on him, was that you were unable to get any sleep that night with your head filled with him and only him. Overflowing with so many silly fantasies about going on dates with him or somehow getting the chance to cuddle with him, what his lips would feel like when you kissed, or how his arms would feel wrapped around you in a warm embrace.

You quite literally couldn’t get a wink of sleep that night.

You were so giddy once you got home and you had no outlet for all that pent up energy that you ended up staying up all night, twisting and turning, praying to God that you would finally be able to fall asleep. But to no avail.

No matter how long you closed your eyes for, you were still wide awake. This went on until eventually you saw sunlight shining in through your blinds. Great. Just great.

You checked your alarm clock and there was 15 minutes until you were supposed to wake up.

Well, screw it! You thought to yourself, and just threw the covers off of yourself and got up to start getting ready. 

The KCPD had a surprisingly lenient dress code, as you could see by what Kidman had been wearing. Since you had extra time, you decided to wear something more your style. You pretty much wore the same top as yesterday, which consisted of a white button up shirt with a black vest (like Joseph or Sebastian’s) that you paired with a black tie with beige pleated pants. You decided to accessorize a bit and put on a pair of floral earrings and a matching necklace. You threw on some light makeup and put your hair up in a claw clip, letting two strands in the front hang down (and if you have bangs, you fixed your bangs as well). 

Looking in the mirror, you realized that no amount of makeup could cover up the insane eyebags you developed the night before. Wow. I look like shit, you thought to yourself.

You checked your kitchen cabinets to see if you had any coffee left, but thanks to your amazing luck, you just remembered that you ran out the night before.

You sighed and finally left your apartment.

Once you made it to the office, you practically threw your stuff down and sat down at your desk. You just wanted to get today over with and hastily finish up the police report you had to write for yesterday’s shoplifting incident.

Your head was resting in your fist as you clicked away at your computer, looking for the necessary document template to begin filing the report.

“You look like shit,” you hear from beside you.

“Gee, thanks. I hadn’t noticed,” you sarcastically remarked, looking to see where the voice came from.

It was Kidman, of course. You weren’t sure if this was just how she acted, or if she had some sort of weird issue with you. 

“There’s coffee in the lounge area. Just figured I’d let you know in case you wanted to grab a cup. You look like you need it,” she added, her voice sounding a bit softer than before.

“Ah, thank you. I appreciate it. I’ll probably go grab one once I’ve finished filing the first page of this report,” you shot her a small smile, feeling a bit fuzzy that she was actually being nice to you for once. Perhaps you were wrong about her, you thought.

As you briskly typed away at your computer, trying to get the first page done as quick as possible, you heard the door open as Joseph sat down at his desk in front of you. Your eyes practically lit up at the sight of him.

“Good morning, Joseph!” You said, almost a bit too excited.

“Good morning, (First Name). Are.. you alright? You look like you didn’t sleep at all last night,” Joseph replied as he looked up at you above your computer screen, that same concerned tone in his voice again.

“I didn’t!” You replied, part of you trying to play it off as a joke so he wouldn’t worry himself too much.

Joseph gave a concerned look and got up to leave the room. You were a bit upset he left, but tried to focus your attention on the document. While you still had intense feelings for him, you couldn’t let it hinder your work this badly. Struggling to keep your eyes open as you typed away at your keyboard, you heard Joseph approach you again.

“You look like you need this,” you hear Joseph say.

You turned to look at him, to which he held two cups of coffee. You were immediately touched by the gesture, your cheeks heating up as he carefully handed you one of the mugs.

“Careful, it’s hot,” he warned as you took the mug from him, mindful not to burn yourself.

“Thanks..” you replied, suddenly becoming shy.

Jesus, has it been that long since someone’s actually done something nice for me? You thought to yourself, wondering why you elicited such a reaction.

“Anytime, (First Name). Why don’t I help you file that report?” He suggested, placing his mug down at his desk before standing over your shoulder again.

“How much of it have you completed so far?” He asked, taking your mouse and scrolling on your computer.

This was like yesterday all over again, except this time the close proximity made you shiver. You were having a much more visceral reaction than before, the scent of his cologne sending you into a haze. Was it the lack of sleep? Why were you reacting so much more intensely this time than the last?

You felt him place one of his hands on your shoulder to steady himself, the contact making you jump a little.

“Sorry, just need to skim over everything you’ve written,” he mumbled, “alright, crime committed, shoplifting, number of suspects, three, right..” he continued to whisper under his breath.

The combination of the close proximity, his hand on your shoulder, his scent, and the sound of his voice all turned you into a blushing mess as you tried your best to sit still. Your heart rate was through the roof, your hands were becoming clammy, and you subconsciously pressed your thighs together as your eyes drifted to his hands.

You weren’t sure what it was, but something about his forearms being exposed and those leather gloves just did something to you. You were down absolutely horrendously and it was so incredibly embarrassing.

After what felt like ages, he stood back up again and began to make his way back to his desk in front of you.

“Alright, thank you. I should be able to do the rest from here. Just go ahead and email the document to me and I can do the rest. You already got a good portion of it done from what I can see,” Joseph sat down, taking a sip of his coffee. 

He hadn’t seemed to notice your beet red expression as you only nodded in response, your voice still caught in your throat as you copied the link to the document.

“W-what’s your uh, what’s your email address?” You asked, mentally cursing yourself for stuttering.

“Here, I’ll type it in for you.” You couldn’t even look at him as he made his way back to your seat. As he typed in his email, you noticed his profile picture for his email was a Japanese Kanji character.

“You’re Japanese?” You inquired, immediately growing curious.

“I am. But I only speak a little bit of Japanese. How’d you figure?” He asked, steadying himself by placing his hand on your shoulder again.

“W-well, ahem, I noticed that your profile picture for your email was some sort of Kanji character. I took a bit of Japanese back in high school,” you replied, the blood rushing back up to your face.

“Really? The Kanji in my profile picture is the Oda seal for my last name. How much Japanese do you still remember?” He asked, taking a seat in the desk beside you.

“Oof, barely any. I never learned many kanji characters so all I really remember is how to read Hiragana and Katakana.”

“Well if it makes you feel any better, I don’t know much more than that and I’m Japanese,” he chuckled.

You both laughed a bit,  and shared just a fraction of a moment where you two just sat and looked at each other.

“I should really finish filing that police report!” He remembered, quickly making his way back to his desk. 

You could just barely make out the blush that dusted his cheeks as he quickly turned his back and made his way back to his desk. 

You rested your head on your arms as you put your head down for what felt to be just a few minutes. A quick power nap couldn’t hurt, right? Sleep quickly enveloped you as you hoped to God you wouldn’t snore. 

As soon as you awoke, you ultimately felt even worse than you did before you took the nap. You felt even groggier than you did this morning, making it even harder to focus on your work. As you looked back up at your computer screen, you were pleasantly welcomed by the sight of Joseph’s focused expression just beside his monitor.

You couldn’t help but take a few glances at him now and then while he worked. He just had such a handsome face. You couldn’t help but notice how his brows would furrow when he was deeply focused, how he would rest his chin between his thumb and forefinger whenever he was skimming back over something he wrote…

“(First Name)?”

He was just so.. 

“(First Name)?”

attractive. In ways you yourself could hardly even describe.But you couldn’t let your feelings get the best of you. Especially if he didn’t feel the same way. Can you imagine how awkward that would be working alongside him the day after being rejected? “(First Name)!!”

At the third calling of your name, you were finally snapped back into reality. Your eyes widened as you looked back up at Joseph.

“..yes? Sorry, I must’ve spaced out. Was there something you needed?” You asked, your head feeling like it was about to float off your body with how sleepy you were.

“You’ve been staring at me for the past 5 minutes. Is there something on my face?” 

You swear your heart stopped for a moment.

“I.. I was?” Your voice quivered with sheer embarrassment. 

You could feel your heart rate begin to speed up again and your face become beet red.

“Uh.. yeah,” Joseph replied, his face turning a light shade of pink as well.

“You even fell asleep for.. well.. a few hours. But I didn’t want to wake you, you looked like you needed the sleep.”

“Oh, oh crap! Sorry, I– uh, sorry if I was distracting you. And I’m sorry for falling asleep as well! Shit, I slept for that long? I didn’t get much work done today at all. Is there anything else you need me to do? Any case files, anything?” You rubbed your eyes, still feeling groggy after just waking up.

“It’s alright, really! I was just a bit worried. You may want to take an early out if you’re not feeling too well. I was able to get almost everything we needed done. It’s alright, trust me,” Joseph reassured you.

“No, no I couldn’t do that. It’s only my second day here. I’ll stay the full time. But I do really appreciate your concern, Joseph,” you replied, bashfully tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. Stretching, your eyes quickly scanned the room. Everything looked normal, except for one thing. Sebastian never showed up. At least, you hadn’t seen him.

“Where’s Castellanos?” You asked, glancing at his empty desk.

“He never came into work today. I just hope he’s doing alright. He’s turned to some.. unhealthy habits as means to cope with the accident. To the point where he’s been calling in sick more often than not,” Joseph sighed, rubbing his temple.

“He hasn’t been doing drugs, has he!?” You hurriedly asked, your mind jumping to all sorts of conclusions.

“Shh! Try to keep your voice down!” Joseph whispered to you, “no, he hasn’t. Well, not exactly. He’s been drinking lately. Far more than he should.”

“I trust that you won’t tell anyone about this, (First Name). I’ve been contemplating whether or not to report him to Internal Affairs, but I really think I should. The last thing we want is for him to drink himself to death.”

You nodded, your lips pursing and your brows furrowing in discontent. 

“You know him much better than I do. I trust that you’re making the right decision,” you replied.

“I hope so. I don’t want to impede on his work. Something tells me that this is all that he has left and the last thing I would want to do is to take that away from him. So reporting him may be the only choice I have,” Joseph explained, his voice laced with worry.

“You’re very considerate, Joseph. He’s lucky to have a friend like you by his side,” you said to him, his eyes softening ever so slightly.

“Thank you, I try. I only want what’s best for him,” Joseph muttered, “I’m going to check up on him after work. Would you like to accompany me?” 

Your eyes lit up for a moment at the thought of spending more time with him, but quickly remembered that you weren’t sure if that would be the right decision to make, seeing as you’ve only just met Castellanos.

“Ah, well.. as much as I would like to, I’m not sure that it would be appropriate. I’ve only just met him, and.. well, as it stands I’m not sure he’s exactly fond of me,” you hated to reject the offer, but you didn’t want to be a bother to Sebastian.

Joseph seemed to contemplate the decision for a few seconds.

“I.. I suppose you’re right, how about I call you after?” Joseph offered, hardly even realizing what he had just asked of you at first.

Was he.. asking you for your number? Your face flushed at the realization as your eyes darted around the room.

“I– yeah! That sounds good. Why don’t I write my number down for you?” You weren’t sure where he found the courage, even for him that was profoundly bold.

Joseph hurriedly felt each of his pockets for where he kept his small notebook. His hands rapidly tapped each of his pockets trying to find it, until he quickly felt the familiar shape of the notepad in his back pocket. As he yanked the notebook out, he was in such a frenzy that it slipped out of his fingers and fell onto the floor.

“Ah– j-just a second!” His face was beet red at this point.

As he bent down to pick up the notebook, the moment he had it within his grasp he hurriedly flipped to a blank page. He practically shoved the notebook in your face, the black page overflowing with invitation as he quickly pulled out one of his pens for you to use. 

You found his eagerness and clumsiness to be both cute and incredibly charming. You couldn’t help the smile that graced your features as you carefully took the pen and wrote down your number and even drew a heart next to it. 

“There you go.”

“Th-thanks, I’ll.. I’ll be sure to call you after!” Joseph stuttered, his cheeks bright red. 

You nodded in response, “I’ll be waiting!”

As you stood up, you couldn’t help but stumble, still extremely groggy from the nap that you took. The room appeared to be spinning as you struggled to keep your balance.

Joseph immediately rushed to your aid and attempted to steady you by placing a hand on your shoulder and the other on your waist.

“Easy now, careful,” he muttered under his breath, the purr in his voice sending a chill down your spine.

“You’re in no condition to drive, (First Name). I’ll take you home since it’s already time to clock out anyway,” Joseph offered.

Well, he was more telling you what he was going to do rather than offering. But you were still charmed either way.

“Y-you really don’t have to, really. I’m sure I’ll be fine–” “I insist, (First Name).” You looked up at him, your chest swelling with butterflies at his generosity. He was such a gentleman and that alone did wonders to you.

“Thank you, Joseph. You’re so sweet,” you attempted to walk but ended up tripping on your own feet, stumbling into Joseph’s chest with a gentle ‘thud!’

“S-sorry!” You quickly apologized, attempting to steady yourself.

The scent of Joseph’s clothes mixed with his cologne was strangely relaxing. The feeling of his nimble yet strong arms cradling you and allowing you a chance to regain your balance so you could stand on your own ironically made your knees feel weaker.

“Come with me. My car isn’t parked too far from here,” Joseph kept one hand on your shoulder just in case you lost your balance again as you both left the office.

Joseph carefully helped you enter the front seat of his car, taking your bag from you and placing it down before he took your hand and helped you up. He paid careful attention to make sure you wouldn’t fall.

“Thank you,” you quickly thanked him before he gently shut the door behind you.

The moment you entered the car, his scent mixed with the air conditioner he used flooded your senses. It smelled just like him inside the car, the mix of his cologne as well as a mango scent being a surprisingly good combo.

He quickly entered the driver’s seat, pulling out his phone.

“Here, type in your address so I can take you home. I’ll drive you into the station in the morning so you can get your car as well,” he stated, placing his hand back on your shoulder.

“Thank you for this, again. This is more than I could’ve ever asked of you,” you remarked as you carefully typed your address into Google Maps.

“You’re not asking, I’m offering,” he replied, a slight smile on his face as you handed his phone back to him.

As he pulled out of the parking lot, the low hum of the engine and the sunset in the distance just made you feel so safe and comfortable. You both sat in comfortable silence as your eyelids slowly grew heavier and you felt your muscles loosen and feel lighter. Before you knew it, you slipped into the land of unconsciousness. 

Just moments later, you felt a hand lightly shaking your shoulder, gently trying to awake you from your slumber.

“(First Name),” you heard a whisper from beside you.

“It’s time to wake up, you’re home now,” the voice continued as you stirred.

Your eyelids fluttered open as you turned towards the voice, and you were met by the rather pleasant sight of Joseph’s gentle features.

“Oh, crap. I fell asleep again. I’m sorry,” you apologized, rubbing your eyes to try and get yourself to wake up more.

“Don’t worry about it. Here, let me help you out of the car,” Joseph said as he got out of the driver’s seat.

Opening up the car door, he took your bag and placed it on his shoulder as he took your hand and helped you up.

“Careful of the ledge,” he reminded you as he pulled you up.

“Which apartment is yours?” He asked, one arm around your waist to steady you.

The feeling of his arm around you and his hand lightly gripping your waist made you go weak.

“It’s.. uh… floor 6 apartment number 1,” you muttered, your head foggy and knees feeling like they were about to give out any moment now.

“Right, let's go,” he made sure to keep a strong yet gentle grip on you in case you lost your balance.

As the two of you walked, you couldn’t help but admire Joseph’s features under the golden sunlight. The way it shone into his eyes created a light brown, almost golden hue. The dewy residue on the grass left from yesterday’s rain seemed to make the grass behind him sparkle. If you hadn’t known any better, you would’ve thought you were still asleep, caught in a frivolous dream that you would’ve dreaded to ever awaken from. Has your mind been playing tricks on you? Or was the man that flooded your mind the night prior truly indulging you in an act of grace, carefully cradling your waist as if you were made of glass, just to make sure you got home safe?

You watched as Joseph clicked the button for the elevator, gently guiding you inside as your eyes still struggled to stay open. Come to think of it, for the past 48 hours you had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep. The night before your first day, you were so anxious that you couldn’t fall asleep until 4:00am, two hours before you had to wake up. And just the night prior, you couldn’t sleep at all. That little amount of sleep really did a number on you.

Once the elevator got to the sixth floor, Joseph walked with you until you got to your front door. 

“We’re here,” Joseph gently nudged you.

“Oh, already?” You looked up at your door, then to Joseph, “thank you, Joseph. You really didn’t have to go through all this trouble. I could have just called a taxi or something. But really, thank you. This was.. a very extravagant favor of you to do for me. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you did all of this,” you rambled, looking at the floor as your face burned red and your chest almost exploded with warmth and fuzziness. 

“Really, it’s no problem (First Name). I wanted to make sure you got home safe. I’m surprised you even came into work today with how exhausted you must be. Come on, let’s get you to bed,” Joseph added, motioning for you to unlock your door.

After fumbling around with your keys and finally finding the right one, you pushed your door open and quickly kicked off your shoes. Being the gentleman that he is, Joseph also made sure to remove his shoes before walking further into your apartment. 

You scurried over to your couch, not even bothering to make it to your bed. You sloppily flopped down onto your couch, the soft pillows making you lightly bounce up and down. The soft cushions felt like heaven to your muscles as you grabbed a pillow to rest your head on.

The corners of his mouth softly curved upwards into a small smile, admiring how peaceful you looked. After taking in the sight for a few seconds longer, he quickly looked around for a blanket to put over your sleeping form. 

After finding a soft plaid blanket that had been neatly folded atop one of your shelves, he gently placed the blanket on top of you, careful not to disturb your slumber. He carefully knelt down next to you, before carefully whispering, “I’m sorry I can’t stay longer, (First Name) but–” he stopped in his tracks when he realized you had already fallen asleep, a small chuckle escaping from his chest.

He sighed a bit before tucking a strand of your hair out of your face and behind your ear. As if on impulse, he planted a small kiss on your cheek before finally standing back up. As much as he wished he could stay with you for longer, he needed to check up on Sebastian. Who for all he knew, was drinking himself to death. 

Hastily ripping out a page in his notebook, he wrote down a small message for you when you awoke. Leaving it on your coffee table, he paid you one last glance before finally making his way back to your front door. Gently shutting the door behind him, he let out a breath that he hadn’t even known he was holding in.

“(First & Last Name), you’re going to be the death of me.”

and this marks the end of chapter 3!!! i hope this wasnt too boring </3 i promise the next chapter is going to be much much more entertaining than this one LOL quick silly little thing i did: i made the reader's apartment number floor 6 apartment number 1 because joseph's bday is 6/1!

CLICK HERE FOR CHAPTER 4:

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Had an idea for what happened to Disc after his fight with Vitality (feel free to ignore if you've already got plans for him), though for context I need to talk about what Leto and her minions have been up to.

See, in order for Stockman to actually be useful he needs a lab to do his mad scientist stuff, preferably somewhere the group can lay low, so they looked around and found an abandoned server styled as a laboratory that may or may not have been one of Worm's old hideouts, not that any of them have any idea about that of course. They've also managed to cobble together a technically functional body for him that mostly just consists of a big jar and some spindly metal limbs. Crude, but it'll work well enough for now.

Disc comes into the picture when a burning, mangled, vaguely humanoid mass of code stumbles through a portal into one of the server's common areas. Initially they see it as a security threat, but when he utterly fails to do anything but sit there and look like an on-fire corpse they calm down, and Leto notices the unusual mix of different codes and the fact that his soul is barely clinging to it (dude finally got his wish and Cheated Death, unfortunately for him), decides he's Interesting, and asks Stockman to see if he can make anything out of the mess.

And so Disc slowly comes to on a hard metal table in a strange room, still in pain but in a very...different way from before he passed out, "Wh...where?" his voice sounds foreign to him, though he can't put his finger on why.

"Ah, so there is still a mind in there. My condolences."

As you might expect, Disc is pretty damn shocked and confused about waking up in what looks like some kind of nightmare hospital staffed by a disembodied brain, and Stockman's explanation alleviates some of the confusion but not really any of the shock, especially when he finds out what Stockman had to do to him to make the death-cheating actually stick. Basically, he had to stitch together whatever was left of his original code and his Damien disguise's code into a functional vessel, somehow using the code of Vitality's firefox flames to thread the conflicting codes together and fill in the many, many gaps. The result is a hulking werecoyote/zombie/lava monster thing with Disc's mind and a terrible hollow feeling where his source code used to be.

"Not a pretty sight, I'm afraid."

Disc-or whoever he is now-simply shrugs, "Hey, anything's better than dying."

Stockman lets out a cross between a huff and a chuckle, "Oh, to still be so naive."

Disc eyes the brain in confusion.

"Take it from someone with experience; getting ripped from the jaws of death may seem like a blessing the first few times, but after a dozen or so the pieces left behind start to wear on you." he stares forlornly at lone of his jar's claws where a human hand should be, though it's a bit hard to tell given the single lidless eyeball.

Disc isn't sure how to take that, and so just looks over himself some more, doing his best to get used to his new body, "what am I supposed to be, anyway?"

"Well, where I'm from you'd likely be considered a mutant, though it somewhat depends on the continuity."

"Wait, you're that Stockman? Aren't you supposed to be a fly?"

"Again, depends on the continuity. I personally am one hundred percent human...well, genetically at least."

"Huh."

"...You know, there's... well, I'm not sure if it qualifies as a tradition or just a pattern, but mutated sapients in my franchise often take up pseudonyms when they turn. Not as much a thing in my version since our mutegen worked differently, but still. I've got some ideas if you're interested."

"...Sure, why not. It'll probably keep the Admins off my back at least."

----

And so Leto and Lumi are introduced to the newest member of their little team; Rahzar.

(yes I know TMNT '03 technically had a Rahzar in Turtles Forever but he only showed up in like two scenes as a random Foot Mook and I can't remember if he was even namedropped.)

(and yes, Disc is still too much of his usual dumbass self to realize that being bound to an unrecognizable lifeless shell of himself and owing his survival to a madman and the worst Program on the 'net is probably going to be a fate worse than death. Even when warned by said madman who's been dealing with nearly that exact fate for most of the show he's from.)

Yoo!! Love this. I really didn't have a good idea what I was going to do for him, so this is great!

[writtenatdawn]

Mistranslation

Word count: 482 words

I fixed my eyes on the painting in front of me. The confluence of colors makes up a picture of people gathering in a grand ballroom, beautifully framed in wood that has been intricately carved and lacquered gold. It doesn’t require an art degree to agree that the painting is breathtakingly stunning.

“It’s … people,” said a voice from my right, weak—just enough for me to hear. “But don’t get me wrong, the painting is clearly very great. I mean … turning blues and reds into a realistic painting of people? The painter must be madly talented.”

I chuckled, amused by Jaehyun’s commentary. “Exactly my thoughts, too.” He smiled upon hearing my remark.

“Right,” he then mumbled. “Sorry, I have my shortcomings with words.”

“No, no, that’s fine! I imagine I can’t even start to describe any of the artworks here for our report, not if I want to give them justice,” I quickly blurted. Jaehyun was going to burst into a fit of laughter, but decided to hold back.

“There goes our A, I guess.” Both of us giggled sneakily.

Him and I walked side-to-side to the next display. It consisted of two transparent guitar cases, one filled with cigarette butts and the other with capsules. The surface is covered with people singing and playing instruments—line art style. 

“It’s filled with cigarette butts,” Jaehyun elaborated matter-of-factly, unintentionally mimicking a news anchor reading their script. 

“And the other one is filled with capsules,” I chimed in. In an attempt to suppress my laughter, I settled for a smile.

I saw Jaehyun breaking into a smile himself, following in my footsteps. He raised his palm to put it on the back of his head. He fixed his eyes on the guitar cases in front of us, trying to decipher the meaning of the art.

“I’m quite sure it’s a critique on today’s music scene, but it’s hard for me to read beyond that,” Jaehyun sighed in defeat. “If you squint, I think it’s also an indirect barb at our campus’ band members who seemed to smoke all the time. Ah, whatever. What do I know anyway?”

“Don’t worry, your opinion is valid,” I assured him. While I meant every word, the manner in which I framed it was deceptive. Jaehyun laughed, most certainly due to his misinterpretation of what I said.

We continued our tour of the museum to look at numerous thought-provoking art pieces. Our brain is constantly aroused to contemplate and ponder in an effort to make sense of the art, but we constantly fall short. Perhaps the fault is in our limited vocabulary and understanding of all the finer things in life, or perhaps it’s the quiet talks of other visitors. However, my inner self suspected that Jaehyun’s disconcerting presence was to blame.

There’s only one thing that I know for sure. If it ever comes to it, I know I can attest to the last one.

[Republished to fit the updated blog post format]

[official-twistfateau]

Test - Figures (replaces shadows mode): The test consist in receiving a cest with the items and the room has holes with the shape of the items, you have 3 minutes to fill all holes with the correct item.

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

Alice Green: Belen! Good time, I need some headaches pills, the last test gave me the biggest headache ever! You can ask Jack, he wouldn't mind, last I saw him was in the Living Room.

Hint: Find Jack in the Living Room.

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

Belen looked at the cest of objects in her hand, around 10 items, then she looked at the room that was filled with holes of various shapes.

In the room, only the sleeping figure of Jack was present, he was on the sofa, covered by a blanket, his first aid kit next to him and no sign of his older brother in the room.

Somehow, it was scarier that way but, anyways, she began the test.

The test was finished and now, Belen needed to wake Jack up, Alice desperately needed a headache pill. Belen slowly approached the sleeping blonde man, she extended her hand to touch him and-

*SLAM*

A knife almost touched her hand, making her inmediatly take a few steps back.

In front of her, James Firewood stood glaring at her, eyes were so dark that she could see the blue of them only because the fireplace iluminated his face.

The older man leaned down, more threatening than ever.

James: Just what were ya doin', lil' runt?

His voice also was threatening, like venom was leaving his mouth.

Belen: I-I... I-I... I need s-s-some p-pills f-for a hea-headache...

She stuttered, completely terrified.

The older man continued the glare for a second before leaning down, opening his brother's kit and taking out three pills, he gave it to Belen and she quickly bowed a thanks before leaving in a hurry.

Two important things to remember; Always check twice for James' presence and be sure that Jack is awake when you need it.

Belen surely almost lost a hand that second.

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

Congratulations! You finished the task and didn't lose your hand in the process! Here is some freedom points and tokens.

Alice Green: Good, thank you! Ah... Yeah, I totally forgot about James. Well, he is one of the Saboteurs but Jack is his brother, he is... Protective, I guess.

Greetings! Here you have a little fun snippet in the style of the Panic Room's quests. And enjoy this art piece:

I fought with the background and lost, but the main thing was James and Belen (or Feather, if you want).

Edit: It may not be noticeable for some but I removed James' lip piercing. Wasn't accurate to his personality in this AU.

[pocketramblr]

that sailor moon au part one

Holy shit, a talking cat!

“Holy shit, a talking cat.” En breathed, squatting down to look at the animal that had broken in and taken his futon.

“Yes.” It said, amused and batting at his finger when he tried to poke it. “I am Midnight. I’ve been looking for you, En.”

“And it knows my name.” Why had it been looking for him? Was he on some sort of animal hit-list?

“I wanted to thank- oh, I use she/her pronouns actually.” The cat corrected.

En pinched himself. It hurt but maybe that didn’t mean anything. “The talking cat knows what pronouns are.”

“Of course I do; human gender- and sexuality- are so fascinating! Ah, but that doesn’t matter right now, don’t distract me! I wanted to say thank you for helping me out earlier this morning, even though it made you late to your class.”

En would have been late anyway.

“No problem.” He shrugged, fully accepting this was a dream.

“And, I want to give you something.” She spun around, and then held out a golden pin between her teeth.

En stared at it.

Midnight waved her face at him a bit, tail flicking.

“Where did you get that?” He asked, like an answer would make sense if he asked the question out loud, like a dream would have consistency other than just being confusing. “You don’t have any pockets, you’re naked.”

The cat dropped the pin on his futon.

“I’m nude, actually.” She corrected, again. “But take it and put it on, En!”

“So pushy.” He muttered. “You’re just like Nana-nee.” But he put it on anyway, fastening it to his jacket near the collar.

The silver crescent moon stood out against the red fabric, almost shining. It didn’t look bad, and it wasn’t his normal style, but for some reason he didn’t feel the desire to remove it. Probably the weird dream logic.

“Now, repeat after me! Moon Prism Power, One For All!” Midnight said.

“Moon prism power, one for all?” En repeated.

And then suddenly, he was glowing.

An energy raced through him, cold and electrifying, though it didn’t hurt. His heartbeat raced in his ear to a strange rhythm, and stars raced past his eyes.

When they faded, he felt taller.

He looked down to see he was wearing boots with a bit of a platform- oh, and completely different clothes.

In a blur, he darted from his room to the bathroom to look in the mirror.

He was wearing a jacket like his old high school gakuran, except in dark blue instead of black. He had matching blue shorts and high socks tucked into the almost-as-high boots. The buttons and buckles shone silver like the band sitting cool across his forehead, mostly hiding by his hair, which had a moon crescent in the center- it matched the pin Midnight gave him, and so did the earrings dangling from his ears.

Wait. Only one of his ears was pierced.

Dream, right.

It was getting harder to believe that…

“This isn’t a dream, is it?” he asked.

Midnight jumped up onto the bathroom counter and shook her head.

“No, En, it’s all real. And I need you to become the Moon Scout.”

“The moon what?”

“The pretty guardian of love and justice.”

“The what?”

Midnight didn’t get a chance to answer his question- instead all he could focus on was a sudden ringing in his ear- well, just under his ear.

“Help!” a voice echoed. “We’re at the jewelry store off Besupin and 8th, she’s- ah!”

“Shimura-san?” a different voice asked, tinny, through a phone, “Are you still there, Shimura-san?”

En heard Midnight’s voice, but not what she said- he was instead remembering earlier when he’d gotten home from class, heard Nana and Sorahiko talking in the kitchen as they microwaved lunch. Something about an outrageous sale going on, and Nana and her boyfriend heading there after their own classes.

En had asked if they’d been going out long enough for an engagement ring to be considered, and after laughing at how Nana had nailed him in the head with an empty takeout box, Sorahiko had gotten his own jab in: “Do you really want a discount engagement ring? That’s not really romantic is it?”

Nana had sniffed and declared that a wedding she could actually afford to feed herself and her husband afterwards was the most romantic one. Then En had fled before she could aim another throw at him for saying that he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be the one cooking and feeding her spouse.

But now, if Shimura-kun was at the store, and calling for help-

“Tell me how to get there.” He told Midnight, who nodded and leapt from the counter without a word.

En’s heart was racing the whole way, audible even over the pounding of his boots.

The store wasn’t far, but any minute delay-

Sirens, red lights.

The police surrounded the place, a crowd of people by them.

“Maam, stop!” One raised his voice. “You cannot go back in there!”

“My boyfriend is in there!” Nana- oh god that was his sister, she was fine- but Shimura-kun wasn’t.

En blew past the crowd, and the officers.

“Hey, wait!” Another tried to call after him.

“Is that the Deku Scout?” another asked.

En didn’t even turn around. He didn’t want Nana to see his face, because if she knew he was in there she wouldn’t let herself be held back anymore.

He pushed open the door, and almost collapsed against it, panting.

There were a group of people huddled against the back counter, and more strewn across the floor, unconscious or- he didn’t want to think about it.

In the middle of the store, a figured held up a person with one hand, the other glowing on their face.

“Let them go, now!” He demanded, straightening up and walking inside.

The figure turned to look over their shoulder at him- and then kept turning, the neck bending and contorting in ways it shouldn’t.

En’s stomach dropped.

The door shut behind him.

Suddenly he felt cold.

It was hard to swallow.

“Who are you?” The thing demanded, dropping their victim.

“I’m-“ En wasn’t sure what to say- “the Moon Scout.”

“The moon scout?” The thing repeated, and suddenly words were pulled from En’s dry throat.

“Yeah, the pretty guardian of love and justice, if you want to surrender now.”

“Love? Justice? Surrender?” The thing laughed more with each word, and as they laughed their body stretched and bulged, sharp and jagged. “I think not, little boy.”

Then they lunged, arm stretching to claw at him.

En threw himself to the side.

The ground he crashed into shook, and tile cracked under the thing’s claw.

That had almost been him.

“Moon Scout!” Midnight’s voice echoed from one of his earrings. “Fight back!”

“How do I do that?” He asked, racing behind a counter of jewelry as the thing got back up and growled at him.

“Repeat after me, Midnight Shroud!”

“Midnight Shroud!” En screamed, and suddenly dark smoke billowed from his uniform, filling the room in seconds.

He blinked, and realized he could still see the outline of things and people, if not much else.

En began to move, staying low, edging the length of the counter.

Something slammed into the glass where he’d been.

It shattered, some hitting against the back of his coat.

He froze.

“Not so brave are you now, moon boy?” The thing asked. “Come out, let me see where you are… I bet you have lots of energy and individuality my master would love to take.”

En… wasn’t even going to try and parse that. He looked back to where the hostages who were still awake sat. Maybe they could at least leave, under cover, but where was Shimura-kun?

“Midnight, I could use a little more help!” he hissed, and tried to crawl as silently as possible.

“I’m closeby, but my legs are shorter than even yours!” The cat answered. “I’ve called for more backup too, just hold on! And if you can get a clear shot, throw your tiara at the monster!”

As the realization of how bad an idea it had been to trust some random talking cat when she said she turned him into some kind of hero sunk in, the monster shattered another glass case. Eventually, it would find him, and he wanted to be on his feet when it did.

En grabbed a piece of glass and necklace of many hefty gems, and slowly stood up.

He crept around the monster’s back, then threw the necklace.

It hit the thing’s shoulder and snapped apart, and then the thing was turning on him, eyes aglow.

En leaned and slashed with the glass-

Sharp pain in his hand-

Then all over, thrown back. His back, crashing into a wall, out of breath.

The darkness was fading, light beginning to show at the windows, the door, and it cracked open.

Midnight stepped in.

En was looking at her when the monster moved again, and he was too slow to dodge.

“Moon Tiara Action!” The cat cried.

Then something hit the monster’s arm instead.

A rose glimmered in the low light.

“What the hell?” En asked, looking around for where it came from- and the monster did the same thing.

A figure in one window that wasn’t getting as light, a shadow cast.

“Who are you?” The monster demanded.

“Tuxedo Mask.” The figure answered- and yeah, En guessed he did have on a tuxedo. And a mask. The suit was fitted to a tall body, silhouetted sharper in the yellow lining of the cap he wore over it. The mask shaded his eyes, but didn’t hide the strong nose and smirk on his face. “Hey, Moon Scout, hiding and running won’t win this battle for you.”

En blinked. Seriously?

“It was doing a great job at keeping me alive.” He responded, and ‘Tuxedo Mask’ nodded once, as if giving him the point. It didn’t feel like much of a concession. “Anyway, where did you come from?”

“Moon Scout, don’t take your eyes off your opponent.” He said instead of answering.

“What do you-“ En looked at the monster, which was now lifting both arms, even with one bleeding at the rose stuck in it, waving them down towards En and to Tuxedo Mask.

En tugged the silver band off his head. What had Midnight said?

“Moon tiara action!” He said, flinging the circle forward.

It glowed bright as it spun, hitting the thing in their chest, which caved inward- and inward, and inward, their entire body crumbling to dust that barely hit the floor before it faded too.

“You did it!” Midnight cheered.

“Not bad for your first time.” Tuxedo Mask was still smiling as he lifted his cape and turned.

“Wait, are you really going to leave without saying goodbye?”

He left without saying goodbye.

Huh.

“Who was that?” Midnight asked, from near his ankle where she held his fallen tiara.

“I dunno but he’s hand- wait. You didn’t send him?”

She shook her head.

“I wish, he is easy on the eyes. Oh, right. Stellaris, cancel that emergency backup. Moon Scout is fine!”

“How many people are involved in what’s going on, exactly?” En asked, beginning to feel a bit dizzy. The cut on his hand where his attempt at using the glass had failed wasn’t big enough for it to be from bloodloss. Probably.

Unless he’d been bleeding out this whole time or something, everything from the talking cat onward a hallucination as his mind dealt with… he wasn’t sure, getting hit with a truck or something this morning.

But he was pretty sure isekais didn’t work this way, so…

“Let’s get home first, then I can answer your questions… and we need to get you a bandage.” She frowned, but then flicked her tail and went to the window Tuxedo Mask had made his entrance and exit from. “Hurry!”

He followed, shaking his head.

“We have to get back before your sister and her boyfriend do!” Midnight reminded him, and En went double time.

As it was, Nana still got back before En had finished cleaning up.

At least he was in his own clothes, Midnight having taught him how to un-moon-prism-power.

“Enkun, I’m home!” Nana called. “You wouldn’t believe what-“

“Are you ok?” He interrupted. “I, uh, saw the news and I was worried, since you went to that store, and-“

“I’m fine.” She said quickly.

“What about-“

“So is he.”

“I am indeed fine.” Shimura-kun’s voice joined Nana’s. “Just a really weird day. Passed out on the floor and missed the vigilante battle though, apparently.”

“Oh no, that’s too bad.” En tried to sound nonchalant, but the both just laughed.

“I was scared out of my mind, but it was alright in the- Engetsu-chan, what is that.” Nana stepped out of the kitchen and saw him attempting to bandage his own left hand.

“Um, well-“

“Are you bleeding, is that a cat, where- don’t sit on the couch like that you’ll get blood on it, here,” Nana moved in a flurry, tugging him off the back of the couch and pulling him to stand, focusing on his hand as she kept talking. “What happened?”

“Um…”

Midnight meowed.

“Um, there were some kids messing with this cat, and I stopped them.” En said, which was technically true.

“These aren’t from the cat, are they?”

“No, no! She’s fine. Sweet. Her name’s Midnight.”

“A good name for her.” Nana glanced at her. “But you have to be the one to buy cat food. And kitty litter!”

En had expected more pushback than that but was just glad he wasn’t hearing a ‘how dare you almost die so stupidly’ conversation instead.

Nana finished wrapping his hand. He realized hers were shaking.

“Are you okay, Nana-nee?” He asked.

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah. Just glad we’re all alright.”

He nodded. “We are. Hey, how about instead of us forcing Shimura-kun to cook dinner for us, you call Torino and he brings us something for us to eat in instead.”

“Instead of making me what?”

Nana’s smile got a little less even, and a little more true.

“Yeah, let’s do that. I’ll go text him. You start looking for cat things.”

“Got it.” He saluted, then returned to the back of the couch, pulling out his phone. “Hey, Midnight, what do talking cats eat?” he asked, a little quieter as she curled up next to him.

“Caviar.”

“Wet cat food, got it…”

“En!”

[baconcolacan]

Chaotic ask but Stay Tord and Regimen Tord swapping Tom’s for a week?

If they even manage to last that long together

I wanna do this with their 40 year old versions because its funnier in my head lmao. Idk what writing style this is, kinda weird kinda eh??? Anyway, Regimen Tom's side is a bit long bc that boy is sad.

Stay Tom: Stay Tom is an absolute nightmare for Regimen Tord, especially because he has so much knowledge on how RA operates, there's some differences but the base knowledge is basically the same. Not only that, but this Tom is so highly trained and can counter any of his attacks with ease, his countermeasures mirror his own, and he can only guess that this Tom's Tord actually personally trained him. He can see his cautiousness in him. It also really doesn't help that this Tom likes to call him 'Red Brat' He spends the majority of his time basically playing defense to ensure this Tom doesn't meet with any rebel groups, because he is 100% sure this Tom is ABSOLUTELY able to take him down with less time and effort, and more of a threat, than his own Thomas, because he's more experienced. Plus, ah, he apparently can turn into a giant....monster..... Tom manages to kick his ass in less than 2 days.

Regimen Tom:

It was really weird suddenly appearing in front of a kid. It was also really awkward when that kid started to wail and cry. Then it was extremely terrifying when fucking Tord Larsin suddenly came bursting into the room holding a gun and glaring at him. Then it was back to weird, because the kid screamed 'DADDY!!' and ran up to Tord Larsin as if he wasn't a threat at all. What the fuck??? Okay so, after some really awkward and stilted explanations, suddenly he's on the couch, the kid is staring at him, he's holding...hot chocolate?? Or, no, it tasted really familiar....

....Hot chocolate Baileys with peppermint schnapps. Exactly how he likes it. His go-to comfort drink when he's feeling particularly stressed. Again. What the fuck?

So apparently, universe jumping?? Wow yay, maybe he did have a huge mental breakdown and finally went insane, but thats what this Tord says (and wow he's really old), and the kid is still staring at him by the way, yet somehow it doesn't feel at all like it usually does. Cold, prickling, and suffocating. And...well, now that he's looking at him...even this Tord's staring didn't feel bad. Didn't feel...suffocating. It's muted, withdrawn, and guilty. Well....maybe this mental breakdown was a special one? Something...comforting before he... Next few days feel weird, and hazy, like he's walking through a barely coherent dream. Things seem brighter here, the colours more saturated, and yet unfocused, like he wasn't meant to see too much of it. He passes by a few photos, but chooses not to look when he first saw a face resembling his own, smiling so bright as if he was actually... ..happy.....

That kinda hurt, but oh well, it's his dying thoughts so whatever. The kid's name is Arthur, but he likes being called AK for some reason. AK has been consistently waking him up and walking around with him in this weird too bright little cabin for the past few days. He says he looks like his 'Papa'. Is it weird if he used to think that, if he had a son, he'd call him Arthur too? Old Tord, as he calls him in his head, avoided him for the first two days. Eventually though, he stopped disappearing every time Tom came into a room he was in, he'd tense up sure, but he stopped acting like his ass was on fire and Tom was the one who lit it. For some reason...he's really intrigued by him. So he stares at him, most times. Eventually, Old Tord kinda just shuffled towards him one day while he was seated at the breakfast bar and actually sat next to him. Tom stared at him from the corners of his eyes of course. Old Tord kinda just squirmed in his seat before he said: 'I hurt you....didn't I?'

Tom thought about it, and decided; 'No? Unless you 'jumped universe' or whatever.' Old Tord looked pained and shook his head. 'It's still me,' He said. 'A version of me at least...And I hurt you....' The way he said it made his heart do something funny. He placed his hand on the bar, palm side up and just looked down to the side. Tom was surprised that Old Tord knew how to ask for this, how to ask if he could hold his hand without saying anything, then again...if the pictures were any indication, of course he would. He puts his hand on top of Old Tord's own, and the other gives him a quick squeeze before letting his hand go lax. 'I'm sorry,' Old Tord said, and his voice was so constricted Tom thought he was going to suffocate for a moment. 'I am so so sorry, Tom....Everything that happened to you was never your fault.' Light squeeze. Let go. 'I don't know how much weight this has, but I am so so sorry....' Old Tord still didn't look at him, which was a huge relief. Because he really doesn't know what to do if he saw him crying. The kid- Arthur- appeared again. He was hugging him from behind. Old Tord just kept a loose grip on his hand, he had his hand over his eye, he was shaking. You know...for his dying thoughts, this wasn't so bad, he figures. At least...it's comforting.

[dojae-huh]

Speaking of SM.

Tak Youngjoon cameback to being a co-CEO this spring (he was co-CEO with Lee Sungsoo aka Chris Lee in 2020-2023). And even Yoo Youngjin is still affiliated with the company (he is registered under his real name as a consulting director). Maybe not voluntary (contract length), maybe he changed his mind afterall... And the news about Kakao selling SM shares was a rumour in the end... Welp, so much hype during media coverage, and then, when the dust settles, things fall into their original places.

These two are still at the wheel. And it's good.

Ah, yes, wanted to write about LSM, what was the problem. The post of the OP who digged the info is long, I will summarise and simplify, add a bit of my own. (source)

Up untill 2008 LSM was a registered employee of the company he formed, i.e. SM. He oficially resigned and formed another company Like Planning (LP). SM signed a contract with LP for producing artists.

I'm not completely sure, but it seems LP consisted of one person - LSM (mayhaps there were some accountants and additional personnele, noone who mattered anyway). It's just a name. In practice, LSM changed from a natural person to a juridical person. His salary was paid not to him directly as an employee, but to a company (LP). It allowed him to pay lower taxes, as in Korea natural persons pay more than juridical persons.

Secondly. The contract with LP listed a very long list of services. LP was supposed to do everything: casting, training, selecting members of a group, checking the videos of trainees, planning of albums, concepts, styling, planning of MVs, choreography and more. And yes, technically LSM had his nose in all of this, but not alone. He gave directions, staff in SM did the work. And yet, LP (i.e. LSM) was paid as if LP's employees (non-existant), and not SM's employees (real) provided those services.

Thirdly, there was a clause of LP (i.e. LSM) getting money from activities it directly had not participated in, like artist performances/concerts. This is were "LSM stole from its artists" came.

That tax evasion case of early 2024 was about the goverment telling SM it paid too much to LP, asking to prove the expenses, that LP really provided services that costed so much (SM couldn't), and demanding for more tax to be paid to the government (basically, SM said they are eligible for tax reduction because of LP being involved as a 3d party (who will pay taxes instead of them) and paid a smaller amount, the government came, checked, wasn't persuaded, and said "no" to tax reduction, pay the full sum).

To sum it up. LSM came up with a plan of how to stay as the main producer of everything, earn lots of money without being asked if his services really costed so much, and paying less taxes. And because he was the main shareholder of SM, had the last say and could fire anyone, no employee or CEO could go against him directly.

It lasted for some time (2010 - 2019) untill Align came, pointed at this situation and asked the rest of the shareholders if they were OK with not getting their dividents because too much money went into LSM's pocket (they got less income from their shares because SM as whole was less profitable, it paid too much to LP, the net income was lower than it could have been).

The contract with LP was cut because the rest of the shareholders said so, LSM stopped being the main producer. After it, LSM sold majority of his shares to Hybe and stopped being the main owner of the company as well.

Kakao bought SM to appeal to its own shareholders, and, as was promised, so far doesn't realy involve itself in SM's doings. Korean regulators approved the takeover this year, just made one condition

"South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) gave approval to the takeover, on the condition that Kakao’s Melon continue to distribute music from SM Entertainment’s rivals. It also ordered the creation of a monitoring body to ensure that Melon doesn’t engage in anti-competitive practices."

It seems, SM 3.0. was planned together with LSM. It's not a plan to come up with in an instant. His 3 years of forced absence on SK k-pop scene will end soon. Prepare for the new season of this drama...

P.S. Heh, when I look at the net income numbers, I'm reminded that, indeed, SM is a small company actually.