#all i do is copy and paste and mimic the line before just changing the end of the url and name

[neverbeforeandneversince]

i think i have to get a new tagging system and re-tag all my stuff help 😭

can someone help me figure out why my navigation links don’t work when i tag it tour: red and url is /tagged/tour:+red

[wander-wren]

*holds up shield* don’t throw things at me but i have actually developed nuanced opinions on AI over the past couple of months. imagine that. but this isn’t a post about those nuanced opinions! i can get into them later

this is a post where i reluctantly went to chatgpt to perform An Experiment, because if there’s one thing i love it’s writing-related data and making fun of bad writing guilt-free. and now that i’m not ideologically opposed with every atom of my body to AI i can do that!

i chose to give ai one of my older fics (from 2022), both because it was short enough for the text box and because, given all the scraping drama, ai probably already has it anyway. i was very tempted to put in something original, but i haven’t yet.

then i asked it, first, to write something mimicking that style, to….horrible results. i also asked it to write a sequel to the fic, because i had written a sequel myself. i got….interesting results from that. i have some thoughts on how ai writes, what it could be used for, and what it should almost definitely not be used for.

let’s get into it!

so, to start off, i used my raven cycle fic hostage situation. it’s not my best, being both old and written in like an hour for whumptober, but it’s not the worst.

when i asked chatgpt to mimic the style, i expected it to create something similar (this was a kidnapping with torture h/c fic, so something like that) and to do its very best to write something that sounded like a thing i would write. you know, like the ai art that puts in specific artists’ names to get something like their style.

i did not get that. maybe i would have if i had given it a more specific prompt, like, write a story about X in the style of this story, but i didn’t and i don’t really want to go back to chatgpt again, so just…shh. this was still a useful exercise, i promise!

let’s start by looking at the openings of each piece.

first of all, it chose to change the names and some more specific details, but literally nothing else. also love how it switches from ronnie (ronan?) to theo (gansey) almost immediately and there is cassie (noah) and cassie (adam).

also they made my gay fic hetero. alright.

also, this introduces a theme that we see throughout this endeavor. the ai has little to no idea what trc is or who the characters are (actually it has no idea what anything is, i shouldn’t anthropomorphize, but it doesnt have enough data to pick up on patterns like it might with, say, MCU fic). therefore, it ruins one of my favorite things about writing fic, especially for trc, and that is making dozens of subtle references that probably most other fans would even miss.

for example, right here we have references to ronan’s never-ending battle with his phone, his father’s death, and, if you squint, that One Line that goes “jesus,” gansey said, “christ.” which i have heard talked about a few times and lives in my head rent free. i’m sure no one else thinks about it that much, but it’s a very specific inflection and i love it.

the one (1) thing i will say is that “theo’s breath catches” is totally something i would write, and the ai didn’t copy it from this fic. i mean, it’s still pretty generic, but it kinda feels house style-y to me. hm.

continuing on! let’s see what the video is

so basically it stripped out all the fun description. incredibly rude, this was my favorite part to write. again, i’m wondering if there’s something significant about changing “guy who had to be rescued” to a girl.

there’s also a lot of confusion on like, what’s happening and why on the ai’s side. it’s copying my words, but cutting a lot, so there’s no reason for, say, the villain commenting in her mental faculties—she didn’t seem disoriented before, and she hasn’t done anything now to prompt the remark. also, we “see” cassie and then the newspaper gets pulled away to “reveal” her. it’s very messy. we also don’t get cassie telling theo not to come for her, something that is pretty important in adam’s case, mr. self-sacrifice, lover of ronan.

what happens when boyfriend comes to the rescue?

sorry i’m laughing because theo is still gansey in my head and him having like, full tattoo sleeves is Sending Me.

once again, cutting out the good description and making it all generic. this part makes sense, at least, but it’s less interesting. the best parts are the dialogue and THE DIALOGUE IS MINE. verbatim.

the line “time blurs since the video, her only link to theo gone” is grammatically incorrect or at the very least clunky. idk why that got changed.

changed the lastname-firstname switch that is so very important to pynch. kay.

obviously theo isnt ronan and this technically isnt fanfic so we lose the kavinsky/matthew reference, even though that adds depth to the scene when you remember that almost exactly this thing has happened to ronan with someone he loves before, so this has to be very fraught for him.

let’s finish up with the ending!

so this part doesn’t make any sense in the EXTREMELY limited context of the ai’s story. at the very beginning, it said that one of the three has the ability to manipulate illusions (which in itself is a bit odd—shouldn’t it be create illusions? or can you only manipulate illusions that are already there? that’s not very useful), but that doesn’t have anything to do with violence. is the implication that our dear friends [checks notes] ronnie and cassie2 did this??

the implication in the original fic is that ronan used dream creatures or something similar; it’s his subconscious, not technically his own work depending on how you look at it. i don’t believe ronan would commit violence like this where adam could see (hence why he wanted adam not to look) because of adam’s history of abuse, but ronan also has a lot of anger and a lot of monsters in his head and a lot of love for adam. so.

because this is fanfic, i don’t have to spell any of that out. it just is. but in the ai’s story it doesn’t know why or how that part exists, it just copies it.

and then basic ending where the ai says the quiet/implied part out loud. boring.

it should also be noted that chatgpt generated stories only clock in at around 600 words. the three screenshots here are almost all of that generation, while my fic is almost twice as long.

so my main takeaway here, aside from “chatgpt is bad at my favorite part of fanfic” as i said, is that chatgpt can’t really effectively mimic a writing style that isn’t generic or very close to it, because of the whole “most likely word” thing. and if your style is very generic than other human people already write a lot like you and/or could mimic you very easily.

i don’t have an outside perspective on what makes my fics recognizably mine (tell me?), but i’ve had a lot of people comment on the way i describe emotions. which is cool, because i love doing that. i like implying things with body language (especially focusing on where someone is/isn’t looking) even more than directly describing what people are feeling. the ai’s style is very much about stating directly what characters feel, often to the point of redundancy, a huge pet peeve of mine.

so yeah, not uber useful for fanfic writing. tumblr photo limits prevent me from continuing with the second experiment (writing a sequel to this fic), but i’ll be back in a hot second to write that one.

[autumnslance]

(@driftward) Let's see. Let's Get ((REAL)) fic writer asks, for.. ✨, 💫,🎀,🎀,🎀,💌

*screeches*

Someday I am making a prompt list and there'll be no numbers or letters or symbols, just the questions so folks who aren't menaces have to put the full text in the Ask.

Anyroad. Scheduling maintenance on our local bot later. For now:

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

Fics like "When Everything Changes" and "Where the Skies Are Safe" are works I'm quite fond of, but are hard to sell to fandom readers either here or on Ao3; they're from the perspective of my OCs as small children, and very few people want to read kid fic.

But a chunk of my literature studies were in YA and Kid Lit, as I originally was dual-majoring an Education degree, and I've always found getting into a child's (or pet's) mindsets and perspectives to be an interesting exercise as a writer, and finding what new info it can reveal that an adult POV won't notice or would see differently.

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

Any and all of them, but incoherent screeching is always fun, as are rambles about what someone liked, maybe even the why if they can articulate it (if not, that's cool, just copy-pastes of favorite lines with keysmash responses are great too).

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

x3?!

FINE.

-I am a decent mimic; I can copy a style and voice patterns pretty well, enough to make what I'm writing read or "sound" like the style I'm playing in. The attempt in many of my works to feel like quest text or the official stories on the Lodestone is intentional, and I feel good when I get comments on it cuz that's the goal.

-I can drop some evocative, pithy lines to make one giggle and/or break one's heart.

-My constant replaying and revisiting the text, and talking to/reading about others' canon-centric takes on characters and situations, means my NPC characterizations tend to be good. Which is good practice for making my own OCs distinct people that fit into the world well.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

(Again, with the caveat I've been in a bit of a slump break since BSotP, here's a bit of more the Thancred in the First fic I don't...think? I've shared? If I have, what of it! Below the cut cuz someone asked multiple questions so this got long.)

“So can you build it?” Thancred asked.

The blacksmith looked over his crude drawings and the schematics pulled from the Tower’s archives, as well as the detailed descriptions Thancred had painstakingly written with Gridick’s aid. “I think so; enough to get a prototype working, and then we can go from there.”

Thancred nodded. “Do let me know,” he said, offering his coins for the initial deposit.

It had been several months since that first disastrous patrol. Thancred had been on a few other patrols since, as well as forays into the forest on his own. The more common wildlife wasn’t much of a problem, but the sin eaters, when stumbled across, left him feeling as if his simple blades were no longer adequate.

So he had delved into the Tower’s archives, seeking out weapon schematics. The Exarch couldn’t say which time period the Tower had come from when summoned to the First, but Thancred figured it had to be later than his own, since the Tower was still in Mor Dhona from his perspective.

Days of searching had found not only equivalent Allagan plans, but also a few Garlean and even proper Bozjan examples for the sort of gunblade he wanted. The weapon would still allow him his speed and dexterity, but also was far more defensive, for himself and others.

The only trouble was going to be the cartridges, as Thancred could not imbue them himself. That was a bridge to cross later; for now, he would see if the Mean’s artisans could even create a workable gunblade.

He made his way across the Crystarium toward the markets before returning to his apartment. He wanted to stop by the city’s single barber.

Thancred still wasn’t the best at shaving daily; his schedule was still too easily thrown off, he was often in the field, and frankly it wasn’t much of a concern. His hair was getting far too long and ragged, though, enough that something had to be done.

In another moon, he would count a year on the First, though the mirror still showed only a day had passed on the Source, which was the smallest of comforts. He helped the Exarch search the Tower’s archives as the man tried various spells and counter-effects to send Thancred’s soul back to his body, but to no avail.

[oatmealgoat]

🦊COMMISSION PRICES🐠

Money is always needed since don't work that often and am homeless so I’ll will open Commissions here too! I also figured I should move my prices and examples to a more...organised format lol.

Table of Contents

This is just for people who want to skip to certain things. Be warned that skipping anything does not mean you don't have to follow certain rules. Sorry this is so long. Just gotta make sure everything is here.

✨️Will/Won't Draw

✨️Fees

✨️Methods of Contacting Me

✨️Extra Info (Including TOS & Wait Time)

✨️Style Options

✨️Prices (With Examples! Note that Dakimakura are at the bottom. )

🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️

Will/Won't Draw

You can find the full list and a few more rules about what we're willing to do here

Do note: JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T READ THIS LIST AND THE RULES ACCOMPANYING IT, IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE IMMUNE.

🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️

Fees:

☆ Extra Characters - $43 per character

☆Alts - Depending on what you're getting an alt of, it starts at $8.

☆Complex OC Fee - Starts at x1.2. Can increase.

☆Rush Fee - +$32

☆"Do not post, EVER." Fee - x1.3 to FINAL price. (Does not apply if we can post after a certain date. Like valentine's gifts you don't want spoiled.)

🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️

Where To Contact:

When ordering a commission you can pm me... (in order of preference)

𖤐On my Main blog (online more here. @oatmealkitty)

𖤐Discord: BerryFox#5608 / OatmealKitty

𖤐Telegram: @OatmealKitty

𖤐Twitter: OatmeaiKitty or Soggyvappy (Might not respond. I dont get notifications)

𖤐Here(though you may be waiting forever for a response as this is a secondary account and I dont get notifications)

𖤐Furaffinity: OatmealFoxy or Oatmealgoat (Only if you have NO other option. Messaging system SUCKS there. )

Just to note, I use Stripe, Cashapp, and PayPal for payments. Methods are in the preferred order. You do not need an account for stripe, just an email and a card.

🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️

EXTRA INFO

🦊TOS

You can find the TOS here! It's just a place with more rules and stuff not listed here. Sorry if some of the rules are a bit...odd. Past experiences have caused us to be more...specific with the rules.

🐠Wait Times

You can find all info on wait times and scheduling here.

🐠Full Portfolio

If you'd like more examples, you can find them all here. This drive folder contains all of our finished work (including commissions) up to this date. Though examples will be provided below.

🦊Sketches

☆We do not offer single sketches. However, Sketch Pages can be purchased instead. Prices start at $228, which gives you one colored sketch along with 4 uncoloured ones.

🐠Comics

𖤐6 panels per page, just to avoid clutter. It will be better in the end, we kow from experience. Text will be bigger and therefore readable, images in panels will be less squished up and therefore look like they actually had effort put into them, stuff like that.

𖤐If you have a written story that you wish for us to turn into a comic, we will charge $10 per page conversion. This is because it takes a LOT of time to read portions of story several times over so we know how to separate the text into pages. This charge will be given even if you decide not to go through with the comic, again, because it takes time away from other works. So make sure that you are certain that you want to do the comic before hand.

🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️

STYLE OPTIONS

Default Style A is the style you'll get if you don't ask for style mimic or Style B. It is much more sharp. We use this style more when doing personal art and the Duotale comic.... and Undertale Goats because people find them cuter this way lol

Style B is much more fluffy. Most furries pick this option because..well.. fur lol. This is the style we do for most of the art on the account as well as PCBTF.

Style Mimic is when we literally copy another style to a T(The line art itself will not change unless requested, just the way characters and scenes are drawn.) Usually, this costs extra as it requires practice. It starts at $11.

✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️🌟✨️

PRICES

🦊FLAT COLOR

Extra Characters: $43 USD each

Fullbody - $86

Single color/Pattern/No BG

Scene Art - $117+

Obviously in a specific location, area, or room.

Simple/No BG Comic: $166+

Single color, pattern, or no background. Maybe even a simple single/dual color room with minimal clutter.

Detailed/Complex BG Comic: $207+ USD

Detailed forests or other complex settings, lots of items scattered around, tons of background activity.

🐠SHADED

Fully rendered art. Same fees as Flat Color.

Fullbody - $114

Scene Art - $155

Simple/No BG Comic: $220+ USD

Detailed/Complex BG Comic: $261+ USD

REF SHEETS: $225+

All ref sheets have 2 Fullbodies (front and back), two cheebs, and a color palette/font of your choice by default, along with close ups of details if needed. Extra stuff will raise the price.

BODY PILLOWS

These can be front and back. They will always have items on the background unless requested otherwise. They can also be NSFW as every other commission for x2 the price.

Front Only: $120 USD

Front+Back: $240 USD

Physical Cover: +$43 USD (Includes shipping)

[kravchikfreak]

I think your lunter art is very neat. Do you think you could share your art process sometime?

awww thank you kind (maybe) stranger!

about the question tho… i'm an impostor and i don't know wtf i'm doing actually, and i'm not sure what exactly you're expecting, so combine it all and you'll get: i'll answear as i understood the task and you just send another ask if it's not what you meant

so here we go. art process:

1 turn pc on and open sai

2 stare at the white sheet for half an our

3 play genshin impact for six hours

4 turn pc off

5 turn it on the next day

6 (optional) get inspired by lil' kids / braindead antis / just your regular hatefull dumbdumbs' comments under your previously posted art (for OMG ships)

7 scroll through pinterest to find a pose that doesn't look too boring for you to try to draw

good thing you're smart enough to save them for the future just to nevere actually ever draw any of them

8 toss the picked pose into your beloved white sheet and idk maybe trace it? just to understand wtf is going on and how to mimic it

9 move your trac… kheM KHEM construction tip to the side and while looking at it and at the ref try your best to copy the pose as believable as you can

(make sure to do it on millioms or at least couple of layers just cause you're insecure indecisive baby who has no idea wtf he's doing and wants an option to make some changes without completely fucking up everything more than he already did by opening sai in the first place)

10 clean the lines the best you can

(bonus task - do it on duplicated layers of your sketch, cause, remember, you're scared baby)

11 color it as lazy as you can, just so you can always excuse your not knowing wft you're doing by "oh yeah it was just a low effort confident fast shit and not me being as unskilled as it possible for human being haha"

12 oh shit you almost forgot to draken your so called lineartm didn't you?? well at least you didn't forget to color luz's arm or hunter face this time. i call it a win! (also you didn't forget to color on at least 3 separate layer too just for safty, did you?)

13 nice job! go post it before 2 minutes past you hate the shit out of your newborn masterpie… oh well, it's been 3 minutes already. go post this ugly shit anyway. at least you won't be the only one cursed to see it

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK BTW that was fun

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket, Se03, ep10 (part 1)

“ What to do? & how to do it? the answer & the method are so simple, so simple but difficult as hell. it was hard for me to get them, & that’s exactly why I treasure them/ makes them valuable”. kyo~ This is my favorite quote in all anime.

How many times a domestic abuse victim was told just leave this abusive partner? report them? easy. just make a call. Report your abusive parents? tell someone. easy. Just speak up. It is true. It is easy but difficult as hell. To believe it is your right to fight. No, to believe you deserve to fight. to Live. This abuse is not a punishment you must endure. Hope is not dead. How simple yet so difficult to do that. ugh! my heart!

- Seeing Death vs Facing Death: ( The abuser who was stopped):

Abuse is a form of slow death. An actual intentional murder of an innocent soul. Abusers suck the life out of their victims & kyo’s biological dad is the poster monster for that. His appearance:

thin deathly demeanor, lack of nourishment, excessive drinking, lack of desire get out of the abyss, wide eyes, tiny pupils, manic laughter. shaky body movement. pathetic outlook at things.

heavy breathing, lack of logic & distorted facts, blurry speech, bizarre mentality, toxic behavior, tendency to hurt, injure, both physically & verbally.

inability to grasp reality, desire for inflecting pain on others, finding joy in that as it justifies his entire toxic mentality.

Fear of being hurt like he hurt others & being paranoid since he KNOWS he should receive punishment.

Kyo stood watching this man spit, rage, shake, scream. The man from his past, the authoritative figure in his early tender years, the person who must always be right: a parent. Facing his dad, Kyo’s entire gradual change was fantastic:

Kyo went from feeling utter fear from this man, hatred towards him, grief at the loss of a father & a mother, to force himself to stand his ground & not leave” easy but difficult as hell“ , to talk ” easy but difficult as hell“ , to announce that isnt gonna die ” easy but difficult as hell“ to say I’m loved & I want to to be with someone ” easy but difficult as hell”

to then realize the source of his mom’s misery isnt him after all, but this jerk! & not crumble at this realization ” easy but difficult as hell“ to grief over his mom’s tragic life & still announce again that he’s anit throwing his life away ” easy but difficult as hell“ to still look at his dad with pity rather than immense hate & anger ” easy but difficult as hell“ to remove his hand & leave him behind in the past while he moves forward ” easy but difficult as hell“ to say “ i’ll come visit again, cuz I anit afraid of you anymore, I’m not running, but I’ll try to extend a hand if you wanna do the same one day. It is your choice to be the abuser who must be stopped or the one who is atoned! you can choose, dad! We heard his choice as kyo was leaving, didn’t we? locking himself in an eternal cage that he made for himself. After all, he is the monster in his own story by his own choice.

-Seeing death (1): Kyo watching his mom’s suicide is a traumatic experience especially considering she chose such a graphic way to exist this world. Kyo once said to tohru “ mom went flying”, he now said“ mom threw her life away” very graphic ways to explain her death both literally & figuratively. This alone coupled with his father accusing him, resulted in a 4 year old screaming” I’mma yuki & kill myself, this would make you happy, dad”. This explains kyo’s 2 meetings with yuki as kids“ I hate you” at the sohma estate, the 2nd meeting “ I hate you” at the street. Mimicking the toxic behavior of the dad. Why didn’t kyo mimic kazuma? cuz trauma doesn't work like that. Kids can live safely for time then one traumatic experience shatter their self-worth into an endless cycle of self-hurt, low self worth & anger issues or withdrawal. The writing that set kyo/yuki against each other is perfect.

-Seeing death (2): Kyo watching kyoko’s death hammers all the insecurities of child kyo deep down into teenage kyo. Kyoko too, went flying, blood everywhere. too much pain happening again, crashing hope & killing his fighting spirit over & over. Be with tohru? why? to kill her, too?

-Seeing death (3): Kyo watching tohru’s injured body. Yup. You caused this. not by pushing her or failing to catch her. No. but by hurting her with harsh words. by forcing her away from you.

-Facing death (1): Kyo facing his dad, the symbol of deadly-abuse. To stand & announce to live is huge. -Facing death (2): refuse death: being caged till death, -Facing death (3): To say, I wanna be loved & love someone, life is not just being outside, heck! kyo was outside for 17 years! life is abt being with those who give it meaning! -Facing death (4): To not demand others to die as a punishment. Walking away from his dad without igniting the cycle of revenge & hate. ahhhhhhhhhh~~~  Chef’s kiss!

-Seeing eye to eye: ( I don’t need to be you, but I appreciate you):

Kyo & yuki toxic relationship has been ongoing since their birth. The moment kyo’s dad was dismayed that he got the cat of all zodiac & the moment yuki’s mom was delighted she got the rat of all zodiacs. From that moment it became: look how lucky the rat parents? You shamed me? Look how pitiful that cat? eww! stay away from his filth. The explosive nature of kyo’s tragic fate tainted him with the blood of his mom & the daggers of his father’s hateful words, while the nature of yuki’s sheltered & locked fate tainted him with fear & isolation. They meet & both carry out the feelings of rejection & hate all while envying the other. The toxic nature of their relationship consist of fights & condensing words. Tohru connected both. Through her, they became civil. Even talking abt perverted shigure. Now that she is hurt, they are lost without her. Their lives are empty.

Yuki’s “ kyo has his own pain & reasons”  (to not see tohru) is my fave line! even better than all the epic lines after they confess their feelings. cuz this like happened before they connect. it shows that, I see his pain, I get he has his reasons. But whatever issues he have shouldn’t hurt tohru. this is when yuki interferes in kyo’s choices. For tohru. This is also when kyo really allows him to. For tohru. Had tohru nor be part of the fight, kyo wouldn’t even engage in it & yuki wouldn’t initiate it.

-“I wanted to be you!” : Kyo said it first. I loved this so much! Cuz kyo said I hate you first! it is so fulfilling that the truth is now out. From kyo first. Cuz really... that hate was all toxic inheritance from a toxic father & a toxic system.

- “Why do you have to say it firs!” Yuki was mad, cuz he was struggling with it for the longest time. to be kyo. He even mused on how kyo interacted with ppl in school, got himself his own mini kyo. lol. studied how kyo filled tohru’s world just by existing. yuki can't do that for tohru. he looked for someone whom he could do that for! yuki/machi scene at her house paralleled kyo/tohru scene at her room when she was sick (se01, e023) & when they eating the somen together (se02, e02), yuki/machi chalk scene paralleled kyo/tohru scene at the beach where he coaxed tohru to tell her mom’s story (se02, e07). Yuki really was having a hard time finding his true self & accepting it without needing to learn from kyo. It is hard to say “ i admired you” after being rejected by you! so kyo saying it first helped yuki say his after. Also, both boys were hella shocked they admire each other. Like both were deeply shocked! stupid boys! XD

Side Notes:

Kyo’s confrontation with his dad is furuba’s most powerful scene & most well-written one! From the fear of facing him, to talking to him with low voice, to physically stopping him, to the exposed last piece of locked memory abt the mother, to the freedom gained by walking forward! Heck, even how it was weaved psychologically to perfectly mimic children’s self-defense mechanisms & children copying their parents theme. The realistic depiction of abusers both in their most powerfully menacing moment & in their weakest cowardly moment. Top-tier writing! Hands down my fave furuba scene! Can’t ask for better! Can’t even imagine better! genius- writing Takaya-san!

The boys had a necessary fight & confrontation & the yuki’s entire speech was valid & perfect speech. However, as usual, I’m not a fan of how violence is depicted in furuba. I was actually “warned/ ordered” by an anon to not “ sh*t” on the boys fight scene. I don’t know why someone who’d read my reviews would think i’d have anything but love for both boys. I criticize the writing not the characters. Also, furuba fans have always been good to me, I state my opinion frankly & they talk to me! “ talk!”. You don’t have to throw virtual fists over different perspectives on fiction. Talking kindly does magic, also having different opinions is natural & normal for humans.

I love yuki so much, he’s one of my top faves in furuba & I get why the boys would quarrel & throw fists. I get the history between them, the current state of mind, their emotions & mentality & I get it’s fiction & drama that needs its “ OMG” moment. However, I cringe when I see violence used as a bonding moment in fiction in general. That’s just me. I wish the fight was done in a more artistic style without showing that scene where yuki corned kyo & punched him in full view of the screen. (again not hating on yuki nor the fact that they needed to fight). I’m jus saying I didn't need to see a one-sided beat up from a character I love to another one I love. That’s just me again~ feel free to enjoy this moment to its fullest. It’s fiction & I’m not judging anyone at all, nor hating anyone from real life or fiction <3<3<3.

Yuki’s last piece of character development is in my part 2 review! Along with machi. Also, yuki’s Japanese VA was awesome!!

Also, let yuki have deep various facial expressions!!!! ugh! In the fight scene they did yuki so dirty with his hair covering his eyes all the time! then followed by low quality shots of him breathing! Why?! The voice acting sold the entire excellent emotional rage more than the animation! Yuki can look pretty even when mad, heck! screw looking pretty! just give him deep facial expressions to mach his feelings! boy was hella mad like he never was his entire life! always forced to wear a mask or be diplomatic! now he’s screaming his lungs out, you hide his face??? really?? Sigh~ the anime always do this wit yuki, replace facial expressions with hair on eyes or having his eyes without light. I wanna see them expressive eyebrows so bad!!!

Another powerful VA performance was both kyo’s dad VAs! both the Japanese (with his excessive breathing) & the English VA (with his range). They sold the mad abusive character! they gave me chills!

Also, I sound like a broken record, but kyo’s both VAs did phenomenon in the dad’s scene & tohru’s scene. Honestly, I only watch the dub to hear Jerry! I learned his name & would watch the dub for him!

Akito, Arisa, Kureno in part 2 of my review as well.

Shigure/yuki returning home scene is call back to ep1. Ok, everybody loves a call back scene & the full circle thingy. but C’mon! you dont have to copy everything! the walk, the scenery, its purpose, dialogue & all! The anime really took advantage of kyo being missing. XD

Tohru’s dress/top color matches the color of kyo’s old hat (The hat). symbolic of him finding her? As if he did find her when they were children? cool. I love this detail. But i do NOT love this color on tohru at all !! lol. it is so dull on her. The dress style/ design mimics her same dress in se01, ep26 as she was talking to kazuma & kyo fought him. Their first intimate moment after nearly loosing the other. Heck! tohru was even hurt on her hand as well. but the color was a nice pastel yellow. It suited tohru. The hat’s bluish-greenish color matches tohru’s own pajama at home!!!! & kureno’s hospital pajama! T_T... why couldn't the hat be red!!!! a color that both represent kyo & yuki! both were compared to red before~ oh well~~ minor issue~

[dipperdogrpg]

Cloud and Aerith theories/facts and not canon pairing essay

Ended up writing way more then intended lol and thought to share what’s  happening in the FF7 story between Cloud and Aerith. This is a response text I did on my youtube channel where I do commentary as a Cloti supporter. Instead I decided to move it here.

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Wahh lol I got carried away! I enjoyed but also felt bad for Cloud having to dance at the Honey Bee thanks to Aerith and her plans. Gosh darn it though Cloud dancing was great and I squealed along with Aerith, but a tinge of guilt hits when I see his troubled face haha. The thing people confuses here is that Cloud pushes himself to do it for Tifa because he was ready to walk away. Instead of busting through the mansion he sucked it up to ensure Tifa’s safety and chose to sneak inside as a woman.

Yes, I’m also very curious how Sephiroth's schemes will develop and how Aerith will try to stop him in Remake. She's much more focused on Sephiroth and stopping him compared in OG. In the other game Aerith originally joined to understand her Cetra abilities, but it feels pretty evident she has new mysterious powers as a Cetra in Remake and her relationship with Sephiroth is more personal. Also, I think Sephiroth and Aerith’s ancestry will have a bigger role and focus on Jenova and the Cetra's relationship/History. I plan to do an Aerith Theory and a character analysis in the future because she is, as the developers describe her, mysterious. 

It's obvious Sephiroth is harassing Cloud mentally then later physically through his clones. He is scheming something big and I look forward how Aerith will try to counter it because she is probably the only one capable to do it as a Cetra. One of the big schemes was removing the Arbiters of fate, but I think they both wanted that. Both Sephiroth and Aerith want to change something that doesn’t fit with the planet’s “destined” agenda.

In Max's commentary he mentioned Sephiroth was intentional with stalling Cloud running into Aerith, which caused a butterfly effect to ruin the events the planet has planned. While it tries to fix itself, the party are becoming aware of the Arbiters of Fate existence and sees it as a problem. At the end the team removes it when Sephiroth had some control in manipulating it. Its been mentioned the three figures you fight are a representation of the three sephiroth remnants from AC, Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo. So maybe we are getting hints of Sephiroth's abilities with the clones and the lifestream which could lead to some complicated trouble. We also get evidence Aerith is already more powerful than her Og counterpart by creating the portal to fight the Arbitors. When the heck did she learn that? 

My theory about removing the arbitors of fate are so the creators can have wiggle room for slight variation in scenes they've considered fixing in the past to improve a more consistent story and of course a new way for Sephiroth to exercise his goal along with Aerith because definitely getting hints those two know more then they should. My theory, they are from the future and traveled to the past using the Life stream and I’m using the OTWTS Novel as evidence when Aerith and Sephiroth talk about their time in the Life Stream. In there they gained new powers. Evidence- Sephiroth talks about it at the temple of ancients and that he gained new knowledge from there, so why not Aerith too. Either way the party will stop him at the end with Aerith's help because her role in the story is to save the world while Tifa's role is to save Cloud. That is a canon statement by one of the developers btw. Aerith and Tifa have their roles to play in FF7 that lead to its success.

Fun fact, but Cloud is not himself with Aerith. The developers did say Cloud truly is himself with Tifa. Why? because love. Now, the cool thing in Remake we are witnessing is Cloud learning how to make friends. A poor social skill set that may have contributed with his insecurity when he was a child. Wanting to join tifa and her friends but instead stayed away. To make himself feel better he makes up a story that he chose not to play with the other kids because he is special. In FF7 we get to witness Cloud learning these relationship skills, which helps develop his character to grow up until we get to the Lifestream sequence. It's after that he can stop pretending to be what he think is the ideal cool grown up version of himself and instead work on his real self with the new bonds of friendship he made who stuck around Cloud regardless of him pretending to act as someone else during their adventure. Cloud is still Cloud. Even with the messed up memories he had. He is not Zack. He is like a little boy picking up traits he likes from other people and mimic them. Very confused why people think he is Zack. He’s not. He is Cloud trying to be cool and does it poorly. That’s a canon thing.

Soldier Cloud is a facade, an illusion of himself he truly believed in until he sorted out his memories and realized "oh I'm not being myself and just mimicking what would Zack do. A friend I look up to"  It's been pointed out Cloud isn't actually grown up mentally and is still a child with insecurity about himself along with 5 years of trauma thanks to Hojo. Poor BABY! This whole copy/mimic theme gets reflected with the kids in sector 8 that mimic Cloud in remake over time during the side quests. Cloud is doing the same thing with Zack. Even Biggs hints that Cloud and the kids have a lot in common. I'm not crazy about Sector 8 but it shows best what Biggs told Cloud before the plate falls. And one more thing I want to add lol. When Cloud gets his red drink from Tifa there's a pause of him looking up and down at the drink and Tifa, before he says beautiful. That moment of pause he thinks to himself what he should do here and then came up with what he believes a confident person/Zack would do. Zack doesn't hesitate when giving a compliment. Confident people don't normally hesitate when they talk. It's why we get moments of Cloud saying some awkward lines when he doesn't give himself time to think and its one of the best moments to watch lol cuz I think that's when real cloud slips out trying to act cool or is at a lost for words. It's canon by the developers that Cloud isn't cool but tries to act it.

Another Fun fact. Most party members and NPCs in Remake mention and hint in game they see past the facade Cloud puts up. Tifa, Barret, Wedge, Biggs, Marle, Jessie and Aerith are some of the characters that see past it and either go along with it, poke fun at his attempt or tell him to his face they know he's pretending to be someone he's not. Basically seeing past the character he pretends to be and can see he has a good heart over the course they spend time with him. Even though Cloud tries to convince others and himself he could care less about them and is only in it for the money.

Now OG is really awkward with the romance honestly from my playthroughs so far. (Follow me on Youtube Dipperdog15 if you want to catch my FF7 commentary when I go live playing OG and Intergrade.) But with Remake it's very clear they are building up Aerith's love story with Zack so we can cry hard later. All of Zack scenes so far is related to Aerith. In Remake and OG Aerith display some of Zack's mannerisms too because people copy/mimic what they do to feel closer to them when in love. She continues to wear the bow Zack gave her and the pink dress in memory of Zack. She's said "gotta move forward not back" in remake and/or that Zack probably moved on with another girl in Og but what if what she said is a lie. We have Cloud as the unreliable narrator so why can't it also happen with Aerith who is likely lying to convince herself to move on to protect her heart. In fact a lot of characters in FF7 lie to themselves and we get character development when they stop and face the truth. It's one of the many themes in FF7 which I think I’ll deep dive into on my podcast channel in the future.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Zack is risking it all to make it to Midgar to see Aerith while risking Cloud's life on this mission, because he promised her. Promise is a big important theme in FF7. Cloud and Tifa are the canon couple and Zack and Aerith are the canon couple in FF7 because these pairings promised each other. I won't disagree about Cloud not caring about Aerith, but he cares for all his friends as said in AC. Also why make it possible the idea to bring Zack back? To create a love square? No. It’s have us the players focus instead the reunion of Aerith and Zack. That’s more attention grabbing because we never got to see it before and I’ll cry when they cry finally getting to be together. If they don’t I’ll cry some more. The developers are pushing for Zerith and their development in Remake/Intergrade. 

Another thing to notice, there are a lot of similarities between Jessie and Aerith's relationship when they are around Cloud. This directive choice, I believe, isn't a coincidence in order to water down scenes that are suppose to be special. It is instead not a “one of kind’ scene. They both get carried bridal style. They both tell cloud My Hero. They both invited Cloud over for dinner. They both ask about who Tifa is. They both got a pikachu face from Cloud when jessie optionally kissed Cloud on the cheek and Aerith wearing the optional red dress. They both have strong personalities that overwhelms Cloud and that is a developer canon statement. They both worked hard to befriend Cloud so he can open up and be nicer to them. Cloud treats them both the same.

Aerith’s relationship with Cloud in Remake is directing us to friendship. In the novel it mentioned she loves Cloud, in what way we don’t know. But we can say for a fact Cloud was living a lie in OG and his real self loves Tifa. In fact his other self loved Tifa too, you just have to catch the moment. Example, Barret teasing Cloud if he is eager to see his baby when you first see Tifa in OG. It happens when you run to the bar, but only if you catch Tifa on the porch before she goes inside. That’s means in both remake and OG, Barret knew something was up with those two. Another moment is the interest Cloud has with what Tifa almost said in the gondola. It was obviously sounding like some kind of confession from Tifa at Gold Saucer. When you get this date the story is more fluid when you arrive at the northern crater and Cloud says “only your opinion matters” to Tifa. Huge RED FLAG Cloud considers Tifa important to him. Meanwhile Aerith and Cloud’s relationship was open for interpretation that it may have been love in OG, but the scenes that helped implied it were removed in Remake. The point system was just for fun because it was a popular thing in the 90s. Plus the points for Tifa, Aerith, Barret and Yuffie’s are their feelings for Cloud not Cloud’s feelings towards them. Then you get rewarded learning a little about the character, but that’s it. FF7 remake/intergrade is not an otome game. Cloud ends with Tifa no matter what. Even if Aerith was to stay alive the Life Stream sequence will always be Cloud and Tifa’s moment to learn about their feelings for each other. The developers have said it is one of their favorite scenes, so they won’t change it. ok now back to Remake. 

Aerith in her resolution tells him not to love her and it’s not real. A deliberate choice of words I think she picked to shoo away the thought they could be a thing for both their sakes and us the players lol. Doing that made it weird now because Cloud doesn’t want to ruin what ever progress he has with Tifa in Remake. Plus Cloud only known her for a few days and if his actions are making her think there’s this growing romance between them he’s not going to encourage it. Those lines raised his awareness to watch himself I bet, so Tifa doesn’t get the wrong idea and you can see the distance he put between himself and Aerith later in game. Meanwhile in Intermission we see Cloud continues to make quick glances at Tifa whenever he can. We get it Cloud. You can’t keep your eyes off her. Ok getting off track. So Cloud and Aerith are instead just friends. Doing this allows Tifa to pick up the role to be there for Aerith. Which will help develop their friendship to be stronger as the two girls encourage each other. because I didn’t pick up on the two being best friends in OG but in Remake it’s very clear. He already looked uncomfortable when Aerith grabbed his arm back at the ghost station in front of Tifa. To include Cloud with this idea of him falling in love with another woman in front of Tifa would leave a poor taste in our mouths after spending several hours watching him develop several intimate moments with Tifa. That freaking hug scene and train roll you guys screamed sexual tension and love. Cloud is not that kind of guy who easily falls in love. His whole hero’s journey is because of Tifa and he makes sure to be nice to her while trying to get her attention. With anyone else he is quite hostile with new people and slowly learns to tolerate them before liking them.  Cloud treats Tifa differently in a special way. He’s been pinning for Tifa since they were kids and even imagined scenarios of Tifa noticing him. That’s right, not all of Cloud’s visions may be accurate. We may see more scenes of kid Cloud imagining moments with Tifa to confuse our perspective they are childhood friends. Again, Cloud is the unreliable narrator thanks to Jenova and 5 years of trauma.  Now back to Aerith. Their relationship definitely felt different when Cloud, Tifa and Barret rescued Aerith. In fact Aerith’s relationship with everyone is different in a better way. The relationship between Tifa and Barret are better fleshed out compared to OG Aerith and I’m for it. Very happy they removed the jail scene. It was upsetting watching Aerith flirt with Cloud while Tifa was stuck in the cell forced to listen and Aerith owing Cloud a date. Which changed also in Remake. Taking Aerith home and spending time her was the date as mentioned in game by Aerith herself. 

When I play through Chapter 8 and 9 I get this feeling Meta Aerith looks uncomfortable sticking to the OG lines of herself but does it anyways so the Arbiters of fate won’t come for her because she wants to hold on to her memories. Something she believes can help her friends I’m guessing. This is if my theory is right lol. What we have now is an Aerith that’s more mysterious than she was in OG. If this is OG Aerith making a return in Remake then I believe she was acting a lot, but then we see hiccups of her mentioning Cloud being a mercenary when he never mentioned it or acting like she knows Tifa for like forever before she actually met her in Remake. And then there was her knowing the plate would fall in sector 7. I’m betting the burden of knowing it was so hard to hide that Tifa picked up that she might be hiding something. 

We are near the end! 

Aerith’s resolution explored further. The resolution helps proves my theory this is OG Aerith that travel back to the past using the Lifestream to help her comrades in the fight against Sephiroth in Remake who also returned to the past. What’s also interesting about her resolution are the things she said are something you want to tell someone before you disappear. It was so sudden in OG that it sounds like Aerith wants to make up for it and also doesn’t want Cloud to suffer in guilt as he did in AC. Cherish the moment. Every one dies. 

Aerith knows the truth with Cloud and Tifa’s relationship hence her stopping herself interfering. Now maybe Aerith did fall in love with Cloud, and maybe while Cloud pretended to be someone else was loving the idea, which is a stretch cuz there are plenty debunking the idea which I can go over later. They both may have been using each other to fill the hurt in their heart not having their true loves instead. Zack and Tifa. In her resolution, Aerith has declared she will not pursue Cloud as she did in OG and we have evidence of that when they rescue her. there were so many opportunities for Cloud to be Aerith’s hero. Instead those moments were replaced with Tifa consoling her and rescuing her.

The Arbitors of Fate are gone, so I believe Aerith’s normal clips of her flirting with Cloud will get removed or changed as many have already. This allows the directors to remove lines that painted Aerith poorly some moments and better her relationship with the team too. Aerith will still have flaws like everyone does. No one is perfect and I’m perfectly fine with that.

Crap if I keep going this will turn into a podcast in writing I think lol. Anywho, yes the arbiters of fate were eliminated, who knows if it's permanent, but as the developers have repeated, FF7 story will remain the same at heart. Iconic moments will remain. If it is not then that's a risky move to say to fans. Aerith will die to protect her loved ones and the planet and will reunite at the church in spirit with Zack perhaps. She can’t escape her role as the last living Cetra. That is her truth which she denied when she was little as shown in a flashback with kid Aerith. The other theme in FF7 is trying to move forward after a loss. Which extends to Advent Children which some of the team members has to deal with survival guilt. Some fans are getting their hopes up that Aerith will live. The developers are using Biggs and Jessie’s possible surviving scenes to prove lives lost can live in Remake. I think they may die later though if that is their fate, but we never actually saw them die in OG either. It was just implied. This is a set up so Aerith’s death scene can be impactful again in Remake, so we can cry again.

This was a lot and little bit everywhere, but I hope you enjoyed it. You can follow me on youtube in the link below where I invite other FF7 fans to talk about the story and Cloud and Tifa’s relationship Or me doing my own Cloud and Tifa commentary and Remake talk while I play the game. Thanks for reading! Hope you check out my channel and sub to check out my videos when convenient for you. Thank you!

https://www.youtube.com/c/Dipperdog15/featured

[votederpycausemufins]

alright, i took a break of about 20 hours (less if you don’t count me sleeping) but hey, it was a break at least!

@petrichormeraki

The trip back to the portal left Mumbo shaken up. Dream didn’t follow them which seemed like the last thing he would do. Mumbo was somehow able to get parrot Grian to turn everyone back to normal which was fine. That was just his Watcher powers. Nothing to do with any Vault God powers he may or may not have. And he didn’t have any.

Eventually the portal was back up and running and Mumbo chose to believe that was just because Dream was lying, or again it was just Grian’s Watcher powers. Or maybe even that he was a hermit and the portal had hermit origins.

The smp members tried to question Mumbo, asking what they would do now. Dream was still on the loose and had more power than they realized. Not everyone was willing to go to Hermitcraft and leave everything behind. Right now, Mumbo was really the only person who might have answers, but he just felt bombarded by their words until he finally snapped.

“Look, I have no clue what to do. I didn’t even really want to be here in the first place. Right now Grian, the person I am closest to is stuck like this even though all of you are fine and I just want to help him before I deal with all of this!”

Mumbo winced when he saw the look on Tommy’s face. “So what, just going to abandon us all then? He’s my brother, bitch!”

“I know that and I am sick of having that thrown in my face! It was bad enough when we didn’t know the two of you were related. I wouldn’t have minded if you never showed up so we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place!”

Tommy froze, only moving to take a step back in shock. Mumbo looked equally horrified at his own words, and not knowing what else to do, he ran through the portal and went back home.

Mumbo hoped that he could just get some peace by going home, but instead, moments after he returned his communicator started buzzing wildly with messages. With shaking hands he tried to turn it off, but instead managed to drop it and didn’t care enough to pick it back up. He grabbed the rockets from his inventory and equipped his elytra to fly back to his base. 

He just got into the sky when another hermit flew past him, likely to greet him. He tried not to curse as they changed their direction to fly after him, and even though he knew it would hardly do anything, Mumbo started spamming rocket after rocket to get away as fast as he could.

He collapsed onto his bed, finally letting go of Grian who started hopping around. He watched the parrot for a while before pressing the palms of his hands against his eyes in an attempt to keep from crying in frustration. Why did they even have a useless spoon of a hermit in this world?

Grian had completely lost track of how long he had been in this infinite white expanse, but other than the lack of everyone he knew and the occasional having to relive horrific nightmares of memories, it wasn’t all that bad. He had started feeling a little more tired, but he assumed that was more from boredom than anything serious. It was okay since one perk of this place was getting to rewatch the dreams he had just had. 

Not having anyone around was making him feel lonely, so Grian had started to watch the same memories over and over. He memorized his own lines so that way he could talk to his friends and they responded back.

“I still don’t understand why you put Mumbo faces everywhere.” Mumbo seemed to be holding in a laugh.

“It’s a house for you, I had to make it right! Mustaches everywhere!”

“Well I certainly noticed them. Now how about you open the door?” Mumbo gestured to a lever. Grian ignored the tingling feeling that came with intersecting his memory copy as he pulled the lever.

“Oh, well that’s pretty cool.” He echoed as he and his coppy watched the piston door open and he walked in. “But you’ve tainted it with redstone everywhere, look at this! You didn’t even bother covering it up!”

“Wasn’t sure how to go about it and make it look good. Besides, I’m a fan of exposed redstone.”

“Well, we can work on your building skills. What’s this over here?” Grian walked over to the closet and waited for his copy to open it. “AHH! Oh! Oooh. Hah… haha…”

Mumbo started laughing, nearly falling over as his legs became weak from laughing so hard. It no longer scared Grian after watching it so many times, so he just laughed along with Mumbo. “H-How about you go to the study n-next. I-It’s awesome!”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure it is.” Grian tried to stop laughing as he spoke. They reached a sign which he read aloud. “Super Hollywood film set. Oh you’ve redone the whole area, what is this?” Grian watched as he and Mumbo walked around the room. “Super editing suite, activate moving set part two. Part two?”

“There’s more than one, I just labeled them with numbers.”

Grian flicked the lever and watched as cobblestone in front of a bike started to move to imitate a moving foreground. “Oh that’s so cool. That’s so cool!” He flipped the lever for the background. “Oh! It’s for the motor bike!” The copy hopped on the bike and Grian himself found an empty area on the back of the bike to sit. He started making motor noises as the two of them rode the bike, Mumbo flipping another lever nearby. 

Lights came on and Mumbo moved the camera to point at him. “Oh, using your filming knowledge properly I see. Three point lighting system?”

Mumbo nodded, then turned everything off for them to continue. “Let’s continue shall we?”

“Oh, what’s all this?” Grian asked as they came to an area filled with dispensers.

“Well, if you’re going to be filming, you’ll need some costumes.” Mumbo helped Grian into one of the spots and suddenly the builder was covered in gold armor.

“Oh that’s nice. I like that.” As Mumbo tried to go on, Grian doubled back and hit all the buttons, putting all the armor in his inventory. “I’ll just keep that for later. What’s next?”

“Over here. Secret room under the stairs.” Mumbo pulled a lever. The stairs pulled down and Grian was briefly reminded of the shenanigans of the secret base bros. He let himself get distracted by thoughts about that, turning his attention away from the scene. He tried not to listen to his panicked shouts as Mumbo tricked him by closing the entrance behind him.

“Grian, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize that would scare you! Mumbo let the copy of Grian out and the real Grian could see how he almost moved for a comforting hug, something he never noticed when this had all first happened.

“I-it’s fine. Just bad memories. C-Can we continue with the house?”

Grian forced himself to stop thinking of the memory, making the white void return. Being with Mumbo that first time was a good memory. Sure there was that one bad part, but for Grian, that was good too. It showed how Mumbo cared for him all the way back then and how they’d learned more about each other over time.

After calming himself down, he started it up again.  “C-Can we continue with the house?”

“Right, let’s go in here next.”

“Wha- MY KITCHEN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY KITCHEN?!” Mumbo started laughing again.

‘Anyone could do this. Anyone! Xisuma or Scar or Iskall or anyone else.’ Mumbo thought to himself as he was looking over Grian. ‘I’m just better at this because Grian and I are linked or whatever. That’s all. Nothing to do with this being done by a Vault God and me also being one. Because I’m not.’

Multiple hermits had tried to visit Mumbo, but he had shooed them all off. Stress was the one to stay longest, having arrived with the bots who were complaining about not seeing their dads for a while. Mumbo tried to ask them to leave a few times before he snapped at them. He tried to push the hurt expression that was on Jrumbot’s face out of his mind.

He just had a rough few days. He wasn’t sleeping much and was barely keeping himself from starving. But right now Grian was important. More important than him. He might have had this done sooner, but he was being extremely careful, used to dealing with non-organic things most of the time. 

He’s just wondering if he should look up puzzle boxes, wondering if those would be easy enough to rest his mind with, but also not get too off topic when he thinks he’s done it. “G… Grian?”

“Guh Grian?”

“Do you know who I am?”

“Do know who am. Know who I am.”

Mumbo started crying in joy. “Oh thank goodness! I was so scared you were stuck like this forever!”

“Tommy...” Grian mimicked his copy, though he was more happy while the copy was more stunned. “How do you know that?”

“What? Blood for the Blood God? My brother says it all the time.” Tommy thought he read Grian’s face well enough. “I’m sorry, I can stop saying it. I know my brother is a bit vio-”

“Techno or Wilbur?”

Tommy paused, he didn’t think he had told Grian their names. “Uh, Techno obviously. I would think if you knew their names you would know he said it. Um, something wrong Big G?”

Grian smiled, his copy continuing to cry. “Tommy… Tommy Tommy… th-they’re my brothers. Oh gods I’m the blood god… that’s what I always called myself. They hated it because I always started causing trouble.”

Tommy looked confused. “What are you talking about? I would think I’d know I had a brother named Grian.”

Grian started to open his mouth, ready to mimic his memory, telling Tommy a name he hadn’t used in ages. But instead he suddenly felt like he was falling. Grian let out a yelp in surprise. When he landed the white expanse was gone, but he realized that was from his eyes being closed. Nervously, Grian opened them and saw Mumbo staring at him, seeming quite large.

“G…” He seemed stunned. “Grian?”

Grian let out a little chirp, realizing that apparently his parrot voice box was the one working right now. “Guh Grian?”

“Do you know who I am?” Of course Grian knew Mumbo. Had he not before? Was that why Mumbo looked so worried.

“Do know who am. Know who I am.” Grian used Mumbo’s words to let the redstoner know that he could remember. He then had to hop back as Mumbo started to cry.

“Oh thank goodness! I was so scared you were stuck like this forever!” Stuck like wha- Grian started to wonder before it hit him. Oh, he couldn’t talk right and Mumbo looked so large because he was currently a parrot. Had something gone wrong when Philza was trying to teach him? Honestly, Grian couldn’t remember what the last thing to happen to him was before he ended up in the white infinity room. He had been in there so long and re-experiencing other memories that the one for when this started was sort of… gone.

Mumbo had apparently spoken a little with Philza because he was able to help Grian back to his humanoid self. The builder held Mumbo’s hands to steady himself as though he didn’t remember it, his muscle memory seemed to have gotten used to being a parrot.

“Well, while I’m sure being a bird has wonderful perks.” Grian paused, giving a yawn, still feeling tired. “I don’t think I really want to do that again for an extremely long time if I can get stuck like that.”

“Grian, how much do you remember?” Mumbo asked and Grian shrugged.

“Only thing I’m sure of is that I recently went to see the other Watchers. Something was going on, but that was a while ago and since then I’ve been stuck in an infinity room.” He looked at the worried expression on Mumbo’s face. “Mumbo, what happened?”

“So, the admin from Tommy’s world was a Vault God.” Grian’s wings puffed up at Mumbo’s words. “He ended up messing with your Watcher powers and got everyone back to their world and sort of wiped everyone’s memories. I’ve been here trying to fix whatever he did to you so I haven’t really been paying attention to everything that’s been going on since I got us back. Last I checked they all had their memories back… but Dream might have done something more.”

Grian jumped up. “I have to tell the other Watchers about this. A bad admin is one thing, but a Vault God admin that messes with Watchers is worse!”

“He may also be a sort of exiled Vault God based on what he said.” Mumbo added on and Grian seemed to get even angrier.

“Yep, definitely talking to the other Watchers now. I can’t believe he was right under Gxrgeous’ nose!” A portal opened up behind Grian and Mumbo tried not to look at Grian’s multiple purple eyes. “I’ll be right back. And Mumbo?” Mumbo looked up. “Take a shower. While I like that you spent all your time looking for me, I don’t think I even need enhanced senses to tell you need a shower.

Mumbo laughed sheepishly and then got up to do that. Grian chuckled in return then walked through. “Hellooo? Pixlriffs? Zloy? Gxrgeous? Any of you around?”

“Oh my god, Grian you’re alive!” Grian was suddenly tackled from behind.

“Noah! Ugh, get off my literal back!” Grian flapped his wings pushing the Evo Watcher off. “I’m looking for the hermit Watchers and Gxrgeous. You seen them?”

“Yeah, they’re busy freaking out about Gxrgeous’ world. You and Mumbo went through and then they lost connection to it completely. What happened?”

Grian shrugged. “I thought they would know better than me.” He lightly knocked the side of his head. “No memory of what was going on. Mumbo says the admin from there was a Vault God the whole time. I can’t believe I didn’t see it from the start.”

“You mean Dream? He’s a Vault Go- ohhhhhh. Dream… Dreamon. Why didn’t we realize that at the start?”

“Yeah well, something that should really be talked about with Watchers other than you since at this point I really want to connect the worlds so he can’t do anything more to my family.”

“Right, Pretty sure they’re this way.”

The talk had gone well and Grian was surprised to see the Vault Gods so willing to work with them on this. Grian supposed it was because of Dream’s status, but it was still odd to experience.

Zloy had given him a new communicator because his old one had ended up broken somewhere in the mix of things. The moment he was back out of the portal, he started to send a message.

<Grian> Based on what Mumbo said, they’re not here sooooo <Grian> Where are my children! <GoodtimewithScar> GRIAN!!! <Stressmonster> They’re with me. Are you doing okay? <Zedaph> Since he’s not here, I’ll do it for him <Zedaph> *fortnight dances* <ZombieCleo> He would NOT! <Grian> Speaking of, where is Tommy? <TangoTek> No clue, he didn’t come back with you and Mumbo. <Impulse> Don’t text and fly Tango <TangoTek> He knows what he did <Zedaph> welp, bye! *default dances away* <TangoTek> ZED!

Grian chuckled at the messages before sighing and flying to where the infinity portal was. He was glad to see it still sitting there and what looked like someone’s pet cat nearby. The avian was surprised when he landed and heard said cat speak.

“Hey! Can you get my friends? Dey went in there and haven’t come back and Sprinklez said I can’t go through.”

“Sure, I’m going in to get some people myself. Who are you after?”

“Tommy and Tubbox. Dey wanted ta be my friends and we had fun until a big bird thing attacked us!”

Grian winced, realizing that most likely was him. “Yeah, sure I was after Tommy anyway.”

Crumb nodded, but then thought of something. “Wait, Sprinklez said I couldn’t go alone, but but but, he didn’t say I couldn’t go with someone else!”

Grian smiled a mischievous smile and then pulled out his communicator. He asked Crumb’s name and then sent a message.

<Grian> Hey, I’m going with Crumb to pick up some people. Be back soon! <CaptainSparklez> What? Where? <Crumbl> Tommmu ans Tubboc

Before Grian could look at whatever was sent back, he gave out a mischievous cackle and picked up Crumb, taking them through the portal.

[generallybrontidefeelings]

He Smells like Petrichor

Pairing: Din Djarin/female reader

Summary: The Mandalorian gets protective when you burn your hands.

Warnings: T, talks of burns (blisters, nothing gory), swearing, fluff, hand bandaging, hand holding-ish

“Listen,” you tell the kid after scooping him up maybe the tenth time that day, “either you stay with me and play with your ball and your bath only lasts five minutes-” he cocks his big ears at you “-or I let you soak in a pot until you’re stew.”

He gives you an annoyed gurgle and sinks a little in his robes. He’s got mud halfway up his body from running through grime, but he’ll sleep great tonight. And better yet, as soon as he’s plopped in a cooking pot with some warm water and a handful of pollywogs you’d found in a nearby stream, he forgets how upset he was and splashes happily. You settle on the ground with the cook pot full of baby between your outstretched legs.

You’re going to sleep great too tonight. Before the kid was awake, you took the afternoon to repair bad paneling and poorly functioning machinery in the Razor Crest. The planet you’re on is humid, icky. The Mandalorian’s cast off gloves you’d found under the cockpit dashboard hadn’t been any help while welding, so you’d risked handling the metal bare and ended up with first degree burns and a dozen blisters.

You lift your shiny hands out of the water to inspect the burns running down the edges of your palms. “Your dad is going to be so annoyed,” you tell the kid. He’s busy and ignores you.

You blow air out your mouth in exasperation and the baby mimics the sound. You set your hands back in the water and watch him try to catch the wriggling critters.

Putting the paneling back up had been tenderly done. Even holding the child was irritating your hands after a few minutes of respite, which wasn’t good, because...that’s your whole job. Hold the kid. Technically you didn’t have to do any paneling work or write a ship schematic or cook. You do that because the baby sleeps twelve hours a day and hyperspace is boring, and Mando doesn’t talk to you that much except when he has too.

It’s really talking at you .

“You’re much better company,” you tell the kid. He really does not care about you right now, so you take the chance to cup some water in your hands and run it down the back of his head. He grumbles unhappily when some runs down into his eyes, but quickly rubs it out. His bath water is cooling rapidly but you’re reluctant to dump it out, especially when it’s the first time in hours your hands haven’t ached.

There’s a soft contentment in your chest watching the kid float on his back and chew on a pollywog. Normally you’d be terrified to be out in the bush alone, but the Razor Crest stands guard behind you, and Mando is the scariest thing in the woods right now, so you’re happy to let the baby play a while longer and just listen to the dusk noises of this planet. Water noises from the stream you’d gathered the pollywogs from bubble along peacefully. A bird that looks similar to a double-horned heron from your homeworld sits in a tree nearby and makes a grating sound in its throat, the vibrations pass through your body. You keep your ears open and blaster nearby in case that bird decides it is a predator. You aren’t a bit surprised when it takes off suddenly, and Mando appears on the other side of the clearing. He’s got his bounty trailing behind him sullenly. Probably one of the few resigned to their icy fate.

“Time to go, kid,” you say and gently pull him out of the steel pot and swaddle him snugly. You try to keep him secure with your fingertips instead of your whole hand. You kick the pot over to dump it out and follow Mando up the ramp to get ready for flight. You squeeze past him to the hatch ladder, and try to cover up the sound of hiss that escapes you climbing the ladder rungs one handed, and injured. Baby in your lap, you start the flight check and set the navigation. The engines turn over gleefully as you urge them to take off.

He’ll take a couple hours to clean up and go over his weapons.

Maybe he just won’t notice.

It’s fine.

.....

“What’s wrong with you?” he asks. You choke on your caf, but manage to swallow it down before spitting all over the controls.

It’s been quiet for hours and you were happily snuggling the baby against you as he slept curled in the v-shape you’ve created.

Peeking over your shoulder, sure enough, Mando is there. Taking up the whole doorway.

“Nothing.” You take your feet off the dashboard and sit up straighter. Go away, you will.

“Yeah?” he asks. You let out a yelp when he snatches one of your wrists and turns your palm over to inspect it. “ What is this ?” You swallow hard. He almost sounds mad.

You purse your lips and meet his gaze through the slit in his visor. Slowly, you try to rescue your wrist but his grip only gets tighter. “It is a first degree burn from a welding gun.”

With a sigh he says “stay here.” He drops your wrist and disappears down the hatch. You look at your hand. It isn’t really that bad. You’ve had worse from heating lines and power grids keeping the greenhouses warm back home. A scar from a live wire graces your thigh. These won’t be your last burns. It's a lifelong hazard when you work with electronics.

He comes back at last with a medkit and the cradle, and takes the baby from you.

“Show me your hands,” he orders. Sheepishly you swivel in the pilot chair and present them to him. He sighs audibly.

“You know where I’m from we call this ‘sign of a job well done’,” you try to joke. The helmet shakes a little as he sets your hands on his knees palms up and starts applying bacta directly to the abrasions.

“I call it ‘inability to mind your surroundings,’” he says back. You almost snort at the sarcasm in his voice. “How did you get these?” He presses a thumb into one scarlet mark and you snatch your hand back hissing sharply. He waits patiently for you to return it.

“I was opening some panels on the outer hull, then welding them back on. The sun heated up the metal, my hands were slipping…” you trail off.

“A blueprint isn’t worth burning your hands over,” he answers. “As much as I appreciate you trying, I’d prefer if you stayed uninjured.”

Your lip turns up in a half-smile. He holds gauze against your palms and the heels of your hands. One of your thumbs has the worst singe mark, near blistering, and he spends extra time padding it with cotton before wrapping it in medical tape. The engines rumble softly as they sling you sub-light through the system's gravity well.

“We’ll land in the next system in a few hours. I’m changing these before I go,” he tells you.

“I could do it myself, you know?” He tilts his helmet up but keeps applying the tape to your left hand.

“You won’t. Then you’ll blister, then I’ll have to listen to you be in pain for weeks.” He releases your left hand and moves to your right. “This way I know it gets done.”

You aren’t sure what to say. You nod in affirmation and let him finish what he started.

.....

“This moon is dangerous,” he says while sandwiching your hands between his and around a cooling pack. “Don’t open the hull for anything.”

You yawn into your shoulder but nod.

Mando woke you up with a shake on your ankle to shower and get dressed so he could change your bandages before he left for a quarry. You stand bleary eyed and in need of caf in your soft clothes while he has a full munition belt and rifle strapped to his back.

You’d set down on the moon of a dry gas giant less than an hour ago, and already he was ready to move. You were the only thing keeping him from going, and now you see why perhaps he’d like to stop injuring yourself.

“How long will you be out there?” you ask. He releases your hands and takes the cool pack away, and quickly pads your palms with clean gauze.

“The fumes outside are toxic. An oxygen pack should keep me going for one day.” He motions for your other hand and repeats his ministrations. “When I leave the hull will depressurize and I only have the one O-two pack. You’ll have to stay in the cockpit until we can set down one moon over and pressurize with cleaner air.”

“What about you?” you ask. “You’ll need clean air if it takes long.”

“It won’t.” He says it like it’s obvious. This bounty isn’t even worth giving a thought of his safety over. The surety sends a jolt down your spine.

“Copy that,” you say. Probably a little too quietly to give the impression of listening.

.....

He’s back in six hours flat. The quarry is slung over his shoulders like a sack of rocks.

The baby is overly excited at his return and taps the glass of the viewport. The moon’s surface is gusty and Mando probably can’t hear the child over the howling wind and his O-two pack.

You’re already ready to fly by the time the hull closes and the comm beeps at you.

“I’m here,” you say.

“ Fly to the third innermost moon.” He says it without preamble.

“Copy.”

You set down near a lake, or really surrounded by lakes. This moon is covered in water, a huge contrast to its dusty cousin. You hear the hull clunk open and you scoop the kid up-mindful of your hands-to go visit his dad. When you open the cockpit hatch you almost vomit.

“What the hell is that smell?” you yell down. Even the kid wrinkles his little nose. “Is that you or the outside air?” There’s no way in this good universe you’re going down there now.

He appears, looking up into the cockpit hatch. Instead of reaching for him, the baby shrinks back into your chest.

“It’s me,” he says simply. “That moon is covered in sulfur deposits.”

“Maybe you should, I dunno, shower? This place is safe right? We can set down for a while?” You’re rambling but good maker you refuse to take off with him smelling like that. “You fucking reek, Mando.”

His shoulders rise dramatically. “What the hell,” he says tiredly. You hand the baby down to Mando who holds the poor kid away from his body in the tight space as you clamor down the ladder, trying to use the less-blistered hand. He cocks his helmet at you knowingly.

“I need to change those bandages-” he starts and you snatch the kid before he can finish.

“ No. Shower first. Bandages later. You’re not touching me like that,” you say and start down the ramp before turning around. “In fact,” you whip around. You swear the metal mask shifts slightly to his moods because he looks exasperated. “Throw your flight suit and clothes out. I’m soaking them.”

“Not a ch-”

“Mando the scent has sunk into your clothes. It all has to be cleaned,” you reason. Glancing at the water surrounding the Razor Crest, there’s plenty of soft pebbles and spring water to scrub the sulfur out. “Keep the armor, just toss the soft stuff out.”

He doesn’t move for a few breaths. A breeze floats across your face. Finally, he lets his head hang back and you think grumbles out “fine” before turning away from you and starts undoing the complicated holds on the beskar.

Moss covers the ground everywhere you look, so delicate you wonder if stepping on it would suffocate it. Delicate pink foliage and yellow-green plants poke out of the hundreds of water pools. You haven't’ seen any life forms yet, but the baby seems happy just to walk around the Crest and explore. There are no forests as far as you can see, only grasslands and springs. You could walk barefoot for miles.

Every world you stop on is incredible. Pamarthe is home, and it always will be, but traveling with Mando and the kid, getting to make progressive adjustments and have a real project to work on, running your hand on the sleek side of the Razor Crest and seeing the wind ripple the wild flora is home too.

Back at the hatch a pile of dark clothes sit balled together, you pick them up just as you hear the fresher door snap shut. Mando only has two flight suits, so that means-

-you blush furiously and take the clothes to the nearest pool of water and start soaking the wretched smell out of them.

He spends what feels like three showers worth of time in the fresher before you rap against the door.

“What?” he calls out. His voice sounds different without the filter, and you’d never bother him right now except-

“Pass me a bar of soap.”

The door cracks open and the end of a soap bar wiggles out at your eye level. “Scat,” you hear him say, and you grab the soap and run away before your fingers are crushed.

The kid is napping in his cradle. You’ve scrubbed the flight suit, flak vest, and other garments as best you could and have them laid on the ramp drying in the star’s light.

“My armor will need to be sanitized. I can do it once we’re in hyperspace,” he says behind you. You can tell he has his helmet back on. His voice is raspier through the high pass filter.

“Do you want to leave now?” you say. You’re still staring at the endless mossy plains, the glassy waters. The fresh water had felt so good on your heated hands. You just held them under the surface for a while and breathed.

“Once these are dry,” he says nudging his clothes. He’s got his boots on, and when you glance up at him, he’s in a clean flight suit but without any armor. You really had thought his broadness was all due to the armor, but looking up at him, you can tell it’s him. He’d be broad without pauldrons. You tap his thigh with the soap bar and he takes it from you with a gloveless hand.

“Stay here,” he says. You nod and wait. He’s clunking back down the ramp with a medkit and sits down next to you. He’s already so quiet in the armor, you hope this armor-less phase doesn’t last, otherwise you’ll never be able to predict him. Not that you have so far. But it’s the principle.

You set your left hand on his knee without prompting. His hands are warmer than you expected. He just got out of the shower, hot water, dummy. He applies the bacta and new gauze, helmet down, concentrating.

“No infection,” he declares and gestures for the right hand. You give it up easily. He keeps working, checking between your fingers for anything he missed.

“It’s relaxing,” he says suddenly, so quiet you almost don’t hear it. You stare at the side of his helmet. “I’ve been caring for the kid for months. It’s...settling, after a hunt,” he explains. His voice sounds almost...regretful. He misses it.

Leaning over a fraction you bump his shoulder with yours.

“Thank you,” you say.

He doesn’t respond. But he takes extra care padding the carmine blisters pearling like asteroid’s down your thumb.

chapter 1 chapter 3

[fandom-------queen]

Kurt x reader

Warnings: Sparring

Notes: your mutation is the ability to read people's fears and traumatic memories. You can also produce illusions for everyone to see or put an illusion only in one person's head. These illusions can be based on their fears or memories. Also since it's based off of Wanda and more of the mind stone your power will be yellow and your eyes will glow yellow.

*Also I'm so sorry this took so long I just had so many papers I had to write last week that it was hard for me too write once I finished them. Also I had to rewrite it a few times when I forgot to hit save. Do again I am very sorry for the delay.

*Not proofread

You awoke to the obnoxious blaring of your alarm. You turned away from the noise to bury your face into your pillow but found yourself face to chest with Kurt. You grinned as you remembered how you fell asleep in Kurt's arms last night. Kurt groaned and reached over you to shut the alarm off then pulled you closer to him and started to drift back off. You lifted your head up and mumbled "Ah ah ah love, as much as I would love to lie here all day we have classes and training." Into Kurt's neck. He gave a groan in response and blinked one eye open giving a toothy smile as you lifted your head from his neck and sit up a bit to smile down at him.

"Oh liebe you are most definetly the best site to wake up to"he said his voice gravelly with sleep.

"Oh Kurt" you mimiced a sly grin covering your face and mischief gleaming in your eyes 'your my favorite pillow to wake up on."

You didn't think it was possible for Kurt to grin even bigger and he was so adorable with his purple tinted cheeks. This was most definetly the best way to wake up, giving Kurt all your love and seeing the look of absolute adoration on his face. The giddy feeling you got from moments like these were better then anything else in the world.

"I have to go to my room and change, but I vill see you for breakfast in a few minutes" he kissed you on the forehead and walked to the door giving you one last smile before leaving your dorm. The need to see Kurt again had you changing in recorded breaking time.

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

You met up with Kurt, Peter, Jean and Scott after grabbing some food. You sat at the table And all had a lovely discussion if who had done the home work this time. Let's be honest you and your fellow mutant friends had a schedule of who would do the homework for each class then at breakfast you would all trade the homework. It was actually really nice to sit there and chat with your friends while copying down important dates for mutants throughout history. And before you knew it all the homework was done and you and your friends where on your way to professor Xavier's literature class. You and all your friends could hardly pay attention because in a few hours after lunch the rest of the afternoon would be simulation training.

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

You, Jean, Kurt, Scott and Peter had just finished scarfing down lunch and were grinning excitedly as you grabbed your training clothes. After changing you all raced to the training room to meet up with Charles and Mystique, Peter obviously won, but you and Kurt came in second when he saw Peter speed ahead and decided to grab you and *BAMF* to the training room.

Charles and Mystique were getting the simulation set up with the help of Hank as the other filled in behind you Peter and Kurt. Everyone loved simulation training it was good to excersize your powers almost like stretching muscles. The rest of the week you would spend doing hand to hand and minor excersize but this was how you put it all to the test and everyone loved it, especially since you would get out of your last class of the day in order to have time to get ready for the simulation.

"Alrighty then" Charles grinned as he wheeled over to you all. "You will be working through the sentinel simulation again" this was most definetly one of the harder stimulations since in the sentinels could mic your powers. You all moved into the simulation room excited to display your powers and impress your teachers. You lined up in the middle of the room and heard Hank's voice through the speakers

"Are you all ready" you all gave a thumbs up for them to see from the window at the top of the wall. The tiles in the room began to change as the images were projected on them and it looked like you were all in a dilapatated town that had been destroyed by sentinels. You looked around not seeing any signs of them besides the damage they had left when all of a sudden you heard a stomp and felt the ground tremble slightly beneath you. Your heads snapped in the direction if the sound and watched as the sentinels walked towards you. There were five of them there, one for each of you. Sentinels were hard for you to fight since they didn't have a mind for you to manipulate, however they couldn't tell the difference from reality and your illusions, which made you to work on them. This was honestly good since projecting so much and so far was definetly harder so the more practice the better.

The sentinels started towards each of you and you all split up, weaving past crumbling buildings and down deserted roads. You took cover behind a smashed car and watched as the sentinel looked around for you. Just as the sentinel recognized you your hands lit up with yellow energy and multiple mutants appeared, each with different abilities. Some were shooting fire, other ice and water, one was flying above. The sentinel looked around constantly being distracted by the other mutants while your illusions gif you, which gave you the opportunity to look for shrapnel you could use to jam into the sentinel. You noticed a metal beam on the other side of the sentinel that had been crushed into pieces with sharpened ends. You rushed over to grab it and in your moment of excitement your illusion no longer hid you.

You were half way to the beam when the sentinel raised it's hand and smacked you into a building, despite the fact that all of this was a simulation it still felt real and in your disorientation your illusion fell and the sentinel was no longer distracted by the other mutants.

Your vision swam for a few moments but you didn't let that stop you from scrambling up and looking around for a place to take cover while you created a new illusion. You were boxed in with no where to go so you did the only thing you could, you cast an illusion. This time you had roots crawling up its feet as mud cemented it all together. Your eyes were glowing this time as you had to concentrate harder and use more energy. You darted past the sentinel, barely missing the sentinels hand attempting to grab you. You kept on sprinting towards the shrapnel when you heard the ripping if roots from the ground. You glanced behind you and watched as the sentinel freed itself and started towards you. Desperate for more time and thoughts impaired you watched as a giant wall if ice formed it was thick enough to give you enough time to run to the shrapnel. You sprinted over to the shrapnel and as you reached it you felt a slight burst of warmth on the back of your neck. You whipped around to watch as the sentinel finished burning through the ice and walked towards you, you only needed a little bit of time so you altered the illusion to push the sentinel back to the other end of the street. It was taking longer to pull the metal out since you had to focus on pushing the sentinel back. It was close to being all the way pulled out do you pushed the sentinel back one last time before dropping the illusion and yanking the metal out all the way. You turned toward the sentinel gripping the shrapnel you created the last part of your plan by setting up another block of ice and watching as the metal lifted to expose the heat from underneath. You started to climb a fire escape that was still attached to a semi intact wall.

You reached a decent height and waited as the sentinel broke free. You jumped down from the fire escape into the sentinel, your suit protecting you from getting burned by the still hot metal on the sentinel. Your idea would potentially toast you but this was the only way you could jam the metal through. You cast a mutant with the ability of ice again. The sentinel immediately turned on the heat again and as the metal lifted you took the shrapnel and shoved it between. You felt the sentinel jerk as the metal cut through the sentinel. The sentinel started to fall and you clung to it having completely forgotten to come up with a way down. The fall wasn't as bad as you had anticipated only jarring you a little.

You jumped up and raced down roads to find the others. You heard the signature *BAMF* and raced towards it. You smiled as you saw Kurt teleporting around the sentinel and wrapping rope around the sentinel. He then *BAMFED* out of the way of the sentinel as if crashed to the ground, Kurt was looking around to find something to finish the sentinel off with as the sentinel's eyes to fire a lazer at Kurt. Desperately you called out Kurt's name and cast an illusion of multiple Kurt's he caught on to what was happening and *BAMFED* next to you.

"Thanks liebe" Kurt said with a light kiss to your cheek.

"Anytime" you smirked. Kurt grinned when he saw the yellow in your eyes and around your hands as you kept the multiple Kurt's to confuse the sentinel.

You watched as Peter sped next to you.

"How do we disable these things" he panted annoyance displayed across his features.

An idea occured to you, "Keep away from the the sentinels" you warned. "I will distract them but I need you two to make a small square around the sentinels. " Kurt *BAMFED* off and was all of a sudden back and handed the rope to Peter who quickley created the rope ring. You changed the illusion to creating a cage right outside of the rope ring. You added random mutants crawling all over the two sentinels as they tried to kill the non-existent mutants and ended up beating each other up. In addition they were tripping over the rope, until one of the mutants destroyed the other. With only one left Kurt took a page out of your book and *BAMFED*. He came back and noted how tired you were.

"Move out of the way liebe, I don't want you hurt even if it is just a simulation." You nodded in agreement not only due to exhaustion but also because you wanted to make sure that Peter and Kurt got an opportunity to display their powers and impress your teachers. Peter began to speed around as the sentinel prepared to lazer him(same way that Scott does, through the eyes). At that moment Kurt *BAMFED* onto the Sentinels head and shoved the shrapnel through his eyes.

He *BAMFED* next to you and you watched as the simulation ended meaning all sentinels had been destroyed. You looked over and saw Kurt and Jean walking towards you covered in sweat but grinning none the less. The doors opened to let you all out of the simulation room and you met your teachers. Charles came forward grinning.

"That was brilliant, all of you did spectacular" you all gave tired grins. "Now you have the rest of the weekend to rest and of course finish you papers for my class." He added before a collective groan resounded between the five of you. "Now go shower you all reek" he gave you one last smile before wheeling away with the rest of the teachers.

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

You had showered and changed into much comfier clothes. Before bounding to Kurt's room where he answered your door with a grin and a "Hey liebe" before grabbing you and diving beneath the covers of his bed. You chuckled as you hugged him tight to you. "You did so good today sveetheart"he mumbled as he nuzzles his head into your neck, his muscles relaxing fully.

"Well handsome you too were fantastic, I was exhausted after the first sentinel so there was no way I would have stood a chance without your brilliant idea of using rope "

"Always the perfect team liebe"

"Always the perfect team Kurt"

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

*I thought the metal was okay to disable the sentinel since they weren't made out of metal to prevent mutants like Magneto from controlling them.

[rochey1010]

Just a quick post cause i gotta say this:

I now see exactly where the Lola/Maya/Eliott/Lucas plot is going and it's not what the fans were convinced it was at all, aka context and lack there of.

So there has been foreshadowing of what's about to go down. Let's unpack it:

Lola and Eliott's friendship based on self identification. A mirror of each other. Him male and out of the darkness. Her female and going through it. His insta being the northern brightest star POLARIS. A guiding light. Her's being beta hydri/hydra the star all the way down in the south. The line between the 2 being representative of the journey they are on in life. Focus on where they both are in their life and how one (POLARIS) can guide the other.

Eliott a mentor for lola and her being guided by him (star symbolism). Her seeing him as a positive influence and copying that influence to heal e.g. her Vendredi Daphne movie chat being a direct mimic of Eliott's playbook of helping Lola in the video club Mardi 'The Kid' clip.

Her saying to Daphne that when she wanted to self destruct, she thought of Eliott, the video club, and their chats. And it stopped her. He created a safe space and she is using it. He really is guiding her.

Him now being set up as a buffer to drugs (rock bottom)

The movie with him, and it being a focus and a sense of direction for Lola to be distracted....for the moment. His art is positive and about love and connection. Her art is negative and about breakage and destruction. The movie is again him mentoring her, through art this time and the expression of it and how you can use it to see the world.

Maya in love with Lola, Lola in love with Maya. Maya scared to get involved because of her past with alcohol. Lola wanting Maya to be her Luquette and relying on her right now as a reason to change.

Char being in the picture. Lola meeting her. Maya not hiding her (upcoming theory) preventing a consummation of love.

Lucas encouraging Lola to take part in the movie and giving his consent. But grappling with creeping abandonment issues, and not really comfortable with it.

Lucas talking of Eliott and telling Lola he's afraid their mirroring friendship will result in one dragging the other down. Him also admitting that he felt insecure over the friendship.

This is the one that worries me the most. Eliott obsessed with mental illness in his love with Lucas. "He's just worried about me. I have bipolar disorder. Do you know what that it?" Him hiding stuff rooted in those fears being mentally ill and toxic can have on your love. Not wanting to be a burden and keeping lucas from leaving him. Focussing over and over again on not wanting to stress or strain lucas (S3, S4, S6)

Him saying "And i have Lucas. I can't lose this" a declaration of hinging his mental health on his need and love for Lucas.

Him talking of suicide and attempting it 3 times in the past. Poss during depressive episodes. Him saying he still has thoughts and he suspects they won't ever go away but it's better now. Again the focus on what he has with Lucas as the above quote comes directly after this.

Him telling Lola to find her Luquette. Creating a freakin term for his love with Lucas.

Finally Eliott going out on a limb for Lola to physically help her. Protecting her feelings and keeping her secrets. (E5)

Prediction time: Char is gone after tonight. Maya won't tell Lola immediately. Lola will still think she's in the picture and will be jealous, bitter and hurt. Eliott and her are shooting 'Lux and Obscurus' Lamifex are helping and are there that night. In the pic you see Max holding the camera and beside him someone that looks like Maya with her jacket. I'll assume Jo and Sekou are out of shot too. Not sure if that scene is scripted. The spoiler says though that it is and Lucas says no and Eliott goes ahead. But Let's say for a minute scripted/unscripted it happens. So Lola is gonna pull a stunt she did at the funeral. She's gonna blow up her tentative support network she's built (Eliott, Maya, La mif) in one go. She is gonna use the scene scripted/unscripted and rile and get a reaction out of Maya, she's going to hurt her and she's going use Eliott to do it.

The fallout of that night is going to be distance from La mif, Maya hurt and getting the wrong idea, and Eliott falling out with Lucas, who like Maya gets the wrong idea. It's going to cause Lola to lose her mentor/friend/buffer in Eliott at that moment, as he is going to a dark place if he thinks he'll lose Lucas. And the foreshadowing is complete. Lola drags them both down and hits rock bottom to drug town. Eliott feels he's lost Lucas and his mental health takes a dive (depressive- please don't say poss suicidal mood) and Lola has to fix her mess and help the ones that once helped her, especially Eliott.

I don't know if Eliott reacts in a way we haven't seen before though. Maxence said we're going to see his darker phases. But what if it's not just depression or something worse. What if he snaps at Lola because of what's happened with Lucas (possibly leaves Eliott ) like what we know of Eliott is that he is a very caring individual. Doesn't judge and tries to be empathetic to his world and the people in it. He doesn't push or pressure anyone. He unconditionally supports, and he'll put himself out there to help others. We see all this in so many ways since he turned up on screen. He's simply a very compassionate character. I honestly don't see him holding what Lola does against her. She's confided in him about Maya. He knows what it is to feel that the one you want most is someone you can't have. And he knows the pain involved because of that.

BUT Lucas is a different situation all together. We've seen Eliott in his pursuit to have Lucas. He gave zero fucks and his dark side came out with both Chloe and Lucille. He's hinged his mental health and well being on his love. He is deeply in love with him, and it's been said by both Lucille (his freakin ex) and Arthur that Lucas is the one and is special. He can't lose him. If he thinks he has. His mental health takes a dive. And then so does his mood. He even snapped at his beloved Lucas in a depressive crash. Depression doesn't care about your compassion and love for others. So we may see something ugly with Lola from Eliott. Like he may be really angry with her. He may sever the friendship in that moment leading her to lose her buffer. And causing her to slip finally to rock bottom. I'm unsure though, as it can go both ways with Eliott. Compassionate and forgiving or angry and depressive. Maybe both. 🤝

Guys i'm scared. I don't think i want to see Eliott's rock bottom. It was heartbreaking the first time. And he's such a positive and warm presence that even the audience feels good when he's happy and smiling. I think they are going there. With Lola i've adapted, we've seen several benders and she's a depressive character and doesn't bring sunshine on the screen. So when she slips it's sad but more of the same. With Eliott it is a swinging extreme of light and dark. A sunshine puppy happiness to crying, black despair. 😭

Ok if it's going that way. All signs point to 😔 brace yourselves. 💜

[chiscribbs]

Any tips or words of advice for new artists?

Oh, gosh, uhhh... xD

Honestly, I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t been said a hundred times before; “keep practicing, don’t compare yourself to other artists, use references, experiment with all types of media,” etc. etc. 

Those are all important things, and you should definitely take them into account (just not at face value, because there are helpful and non-helpful ways to do all of these things. You can easily look up videos with instructions on how to do them in a helpful manner.)

The thing is - I still don’t consider myself a “professional artist,” even though I’ve gotten to the point now where I’m occasionally getting paid for my work. I’m still learning, still improving, still getting the hang of things on a daily basis. And truthfully (though this might be a little presumptuous of me to say), I think that’s the case for most artists? There is no point at which we become “pro artists,” it’s a constant effort to improve, one area of our work at a time. It doesn’t matter what school you go to or what company you work for, your art doesn’t suddenly become better the moment someone sets a price to it. 

I guess if I had to give any advice that’s been helpful to me, personally, it’d be this: 

Don’t go into it thinking there’s one specific correct way to be an artist.

Different people will tell you different things, based on what’s worked for them in the past, but what works for them will not necessarily work for everyone. There is no hard-and-fast rule in art. If there was, all art would look very similar and not particularly unique.

I think getting caught up in pin-pointing the “right way” to draw or create only serves to stunt your growth in the long-run.  Try things out, experiment, learn what works best for you. And once you’ve learned that, don’t just stick to it all the time either! Keep trying other things! The more skills you have under your belt, the better!

Too often people get hung up on finding their “niche” or “style.” And those are all good things to have, but you can’t force them. Art is like food; the best way, I believe, to figure out what you like is to first try your hand at all different things.

For example: I’ve always preferred sketching over painting. I took a class on painting, but could never wrap my mind around the technique, it didn’t hold my interest. So when I was given the option, I would choose the medium I was most comfortable in, every time. You can look back at my old art and see just how...well, monotone and sketchy it is. xD However, learning to mimic the TTS style has sort of forced me to become more familiar with line-less art techniques. And the more I’ve practiced with it, the more comfortable with it I’ve become. It’s gotten to the point now where painting comes a lot more naturally to me, and I can even say that I sometimes enjoy it!

This is a preview of a painting I’m working on now (left), compared to one I did about 2 years ago (right):

(The most recent one, I was able to do without the use of a sketch layer - which is something I never thought would be possible for me, since I’ve been so reliant on them in the past!)

Learning this style has also taught me a lot about silhouetting, color palettes, backgrounds, dynamic lighting and shape exaggeration. And that’s not only applicable to Tangled (though it’s definitely been one of the strongest influences for me, as of late.) There have been other styles that I’ve tried to mimic which have helped my art to grow in completely different ways, as well. When I was little, I used to pause our Lion King VHS/DVD and try to copy down what I saw on the screen. For the longest time after that, TLK was my go-to style.

It’s good to learn from other artists whose work you admire, it helps you get a feel for what sort of styles and imagery are most appealing to you. 

***Note: That doesn't mean you should just adopt someone else’s style that you like as your own and draw that way from then on out. That won’t help you in the long-run, nobody is going prefer a copycat style over the original, when given the choice. But, learning how to copy other styles can absolutely be an extremely beneficial skill! Especially in animation!***

------

This is getting lengthy as heck, so I’m gonna bottom-line it:

When it comes to art, the best advice I can offer is: don’t just follow one or two people’s “How-to-Art” Guidebook and assume it will give you all the answers. 

I can almost guarantee you, no artist that you love got to where they are by doing that. They were almost definitely influenced and inspired by many different sources, and learned how to incorporate elements that they loved about those into their own work. 

Tips are great, don’t get me wrong! They can be very eye-opening and help you grow exponentially as an artist. But they’re only there as trail markers that are meant to point you in the right direction, not a yellow brick road that will lead you to where you want to be. Ultimately - what makes your art your art...is you.

Just - try things out! Test your limits! Step outside your comfort zone on more than one occasion so that you can adapt and learn new techniques! Art is an ever-growing skill. And you, as an artist, are ever-growing and changing right along with it. There is no finish line you need to reach, so just focus on honing one specific skill at a time, and as long as you’re making an effort to improve, then you will.

------

Oh, and one more additional note: it’s a good idea go back and look at your old art from time-to-time. Sometimes we aren’t able to see how far we’ve come until we look back and remember where we started.

[gothfoxx]

It’s 3 am time for ideas 💡

A real f-u to Alya would be giving Nora a miraculous (I see her as a bee or turtle but for extra salt she could be the fox)

More quirkless izuku fics should have him and Hitoshi’s friendship be based on toshi hearing someone dis on ‘Deku’ and punching that someone (even if he doesn’t know izuku yet) cause come on this kid is probably one of like few people (including Shiggy) that get it

More ml salt where Mari takes the low road but with a twist! She makes her own blog (anonymously) and does that thing where people can submit rumors and gossip about people at school also anonymously. But like that one post it’s not really anonly and after a week of everyone getting shat on (There’s a lot of Mari hate) she reveals who was submitting everything! Lila sent a lot and everyone has to see her true colors but also their own, no one ever finds out Marinette made the blog

Mari starts giving trusted adults(the firefighters, some kind people in her day to day life) miraculi and not only do they do a better job and don’t have time limits BUT they also see firsthand how Chat crosses the line into harassment with LB. They step in and more of the public sees that LadyNoir is not some “lol cute” ship but real people who can choose for themselves, lb chooses no!

Chloé redemption where she falls into Bunnx’s burrow (right after she loses the bee comb) and sees herself siding with Hawkmoth. She’s so disappointed and disgusted that she decides (lol so many big d words) and changes her ways. Since Lila comes back like right after(? I think) and Mari loses faith in her friends Chloé steps up and now there is a new Fox. Time changes but Bunnx sees it’s a better version so she leaves it be.

BNHA au where OFA is actually a thing like a miraculous but it’s still like itself where it changes for each holder. Basically the first holder/AFO’s brother has the pass-down quirk but instead of stalkpile being the added one it’s a quirk that makes inner strength become a physical thing. As it’s passed on it becomes stronger and because dna it has a bit of left over powers from each holder. When Izuku gets it from All Might (it’s a belt for AM) it becomes a pen. At first he’s like “huh?” but then he accidentally uses it for notes and suddenly Izuku can copy the power he was writing about! He doesn’t blow off his limbs but he did still gain muscle from the hell training, so now he can access any quirk he writes about AND he can just punch somebody’s lights out. (Instead of the past users talking in dreams or trancelike states they ghost write to Izuku in his journal but only he can see it! (Oop that got long)

One day Gorilla/Simon stumbles onto Gabriel and Natalie talking villain talk and uses his ex-spy skills to take the miraculous from them. He makes a champion to talk to LB. LB is like ⊙︿⊙ but takes the chance and follows the champion to where Simon hid the peacock. He has mad respect for hero’s and is happy to help them but Simon also heard that this was all because Emilie so he makes another champion to heal her and all people who might have been hurt by corrupt miraculi before he gives back the butterfly along with evidence of who HM was. The name Phalène/Atlas Moth is celebrated for his saving of Paris even if he was never seen, Emilie and Simon marry after she fully recovers from learning what her husband did.

The three trouble makers of Camp Camp are attacked by a mutant/nercromanced bear but then a different monster saves them and eats the bear. They get found by David who when told about the creature thinks it’s the deadly  Algonquian cannibal spirit. He proceeds to research and take precautions to protect the campers. No one sees the thing for weeks so David thinks it worked until Max falls off a short cliff and into deep water. Suddenly the thing leaps to save the drowning kid, it doesn’t sizzle in the sun or try to eat the camper who is dangling by his hood from its jaw. Turns out it’s not the cannibal spirit but a creature that feeds off dark magic that mimics the Algonquian spirit like a king snake does a coral snake. Does it stay does it go? Heck if I know but the real question is where did the necro-bear come from?

More Camp Camp! David bumps his head and loses his memory so he relies on Gwen and the kids to help him figure out who he is. We get to see how each person see David, styles are even different because everyone perceives reality differently! David gets his memory back just as the last kid/Max is going to take his turn. Max is outwardly miffed about not being able to “convince David to be cooler” but we ‘shift’ to his view and it’s startlingly almost like the show’s version but David has a soft glow and he has a name tag that we can’t make out until just before credits. It says Dad.

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Light Novel Review - Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka Vol. 1

*Contains minor spoilers for Bloom Into You*

I have always said that Bloom Into You is a little bit too popular and awarded more praise than the typical and trope-filled story deserves. However, fame and success have their benefits, and thanks to the series’ popularity, we are gifted with the phenomenal light novel spin-off Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka. This wondrous collaboration between the original creator, Nio Nakatani, and famed Yuri author Iruma Hitoma (Adachi and Shimamura) takes the very best elements of Bloom Into You, namely side character Sayaka and her experiences with LGBT identity and life and puts them front and center. The result is a beautiful and important coming of age story about a young woman discovering her sexuality. A story that not only escapes the common traps of the Yuri genre but utilizes and subverts them with flawless execution.

The first volume in the Regarding Saeki Sayaka light novel trilogy revolves around the titular character before the events of the main series. The entire book is narrated from Sayaka’s first-person perspective and told in the past tense, with Sayaka occasionally giving brief retrospective insights to contextualize her experiences. This presentation excellently frames the story, giving valuable analysis to its events, heck, Sayaka can probably do my job better than I could. The ex post facto storytelling also pairs nicely with the dramatic irony present in the story, provided that the reader has read the manga or seen the anime. On that point, while the light novel effectively stands on its own legs, reading it as a companion piece and prologue to Bloom Into You will significantly increase the book’s impact.

The first of the volume’s two parts, Year 5 Group 3, paints a portrait of childhood Sayaka. She is serious and mature for her age, often pushing herself to be the best in every area, both academic and extracurricular. However, she has apparent social deficiencies, remaining distant at best, and hostile at worst to others. She is surprised, annoyed, and challenged when a student in her swim class attempts to bond with her. The girl displays a strong affinity for Sayaka and, although at their age describing their connection as romantic or sexual feels inaccurate, she clearly yearns for a bond beyond friendship.

Frustrated by the girl’s advances and erratic personality, Sayaka angrily tells her to be more serious. Determined to win Sayaka’s affection, the girl attempts to mimic Sayaka’s mature demeanor. This act subconsciously implants the idea in Sayaka’s head that people must change themselves to suit the ones they desire, a lesson which later proves dangerous for her. Soon after, Sayaka begins experiencing strange feelings for the girl, which further her frustration. The confused Sayaka attempts to explain away her emotions, “I mean, the person next to me was a girl, and so was I.” However, after a sexually charged moment in the pool, the fearful Sayaka runs away and quits her swimming class.

This first chapter effectively lays the foundation for Sayaka’s sexual awakening and foreshadows some of the situations in which she will later find herself. Although Iruma’s prose, and Jan Cash and Vincent Castaneda’s translation’ is expressive and beautiful, capturing Sayaka’s inner voice superbly, there are a few flaws. The service described, including details about the locker room and the girls’ swimsuits, is incredibly awkward, especially considering the elementary school-aged characters. The climactic moment between the two, while appropriately dramatic, is undercut by this exploitation and its inherently ridiculous nature. Thankfully the second half of the book, Class 2-C, Tomosumi Girls’ Academy, lacks the off-putting elements of the first and perfectly sets Sayaka up as the character we know and love from the original series.

As Sayaka enters middle school, she becomes slightly less rigid and strict than she was as an elementary schooler. Instead, she is an excellent reflection of the girl seen in the original series, a serious and driven person but reliably kindhearted. She joins the choir club, where she meets Yuzuki Chie, referred to almost exclusively as “Senpai.” Followers of the original will quickly come to recognize this character as Sayaka’s ex-girlfriend, briefly seen in the manga and anime. Yuzuki confesses her love for Sayaka, leaving the latter to ponder the implications of dating her.

The sequence which follows this confession is nothing short of masterful. A once again conflicted Sayaka struggles to comprehend the possibility of dating Yuzuki. She thinks of the potential relationship as both one between two individuals and as a romance between two people who are both women. In the end, she decides that, although she does not yet love her senpai, she wants to try dating. Their relationship is full of adolescent naivetés and fluttering emotions.

Sayaka lacks a reference to healthy love and relationships, so, just as the girl from her swimming class did, she changes to become a figure that Yuzuki can love, telling her what she wants to hear and doing what will make her happy. For example, although Sayaka does not enjoy novels, she visits a bookstore, which turns out to be the Koito family’s, to buy and read one of Yuzuki’s favorite books. Eventually, their relationship escalates, and Sayaka admits that she has fallen in love with her partner. However, after moving up to high school, Yuzuki begins to pull away from Sayaka.

Their ultimate showdown and break up is reminiscent of Class S literary themes, with Yuzuki claiming the relationship was play, acting out, and mimicking fiction’s prevailing narrative of romance. However, now that they are nearly adults, and as they are both women, the “play” is no longer appropriate. Sayaka, however, does not feel the same way, and herein lies Regarding Saeki Sayaka’s pure brilliance. Iruma subtly and expertly hides small lines and hints to this difference throughout the book. Yuzuki speaks mostly in romantic clichés as if imitating romance movies or books, “Senpai often speaks like she’s in a story.” However, Sayaka shows genuine commitment and devotion to her partner, working (foolishly) to change herself for Yuzuki and occasionally thinking of their future together, once wondering if they would be together when they were old ladies.

Their actions contradict each other’s so much because Sayaka, the girl who strived to be mature and act like an adult from an early age, does not see the relationship between two girls as immature or a game. To her, it was a very genuine experience that helped lead her to her ultimate revelation and the light novel’s amazing final lines, “I accepted it. It wasn’t understanding or resignation, just acceptance. Of myself, and of the fact that I could only love girls.” Here both the author and the character have openly rejected the S era ideas that love between women is fleeting and childish, Sayaka comes to see herself as a gay woman (although she sadly does not employ this specific terminology). Here the book elevates itself past the original series and embraces the more modern and queerer era of Yuri.

Iruma Hitoma has done the impossible, taking a good Yuri story and transforming it into a great one, rewarding readers with a thoughtful and nuanced experience detailing a young woman’s confusion and strife as she discovers her identity. It is by no means perfect, as all the side characters are thin and underdeveloped, yet they do not need to be. This story is exclusively Sayaka’s, and the others exist only to serve the amazing development and growth gracefully communicated in this stunning light novel.

However, as I wrap up this review, I cannot help but think of how much easier Sayaka’s experience would have been, how much clarity she may have had, and the pain she could have avoided, had she learned about LGBTQ identities and experiences before her tribulations. It is so essential for the young to see positive representation of all peoples in both fiction and reality as they grow up, and perhaps ironically, Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka Volume 1 has joined the elite ranks of titles which can positively impact the lives of its readers. It contains a wonderful, authentic, and grounded story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality. This light novel is an absolute must-read, even if you are not a fan of the original series, and I cannot wait for its continuation, especially as the upcoming third volume hints at a tale about a happy Sayaka and her girlfriend.

Ratings: Story – 10 Characters – 9 LGBTQ – 9 Sexual Content – 4 Final – 9

Order Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka here: https://amzn.to/31QgIaR

Review copy provided by Seven Seas Entertainment @sevenseasentertainment​

[stardusttrashed]

Extra G.D

Summary: Grayson ‘Extra’ Dolan decides to finally tell the fans he’s dating Y/n

Word Count: 2K+

Y/n looked in the mirror, repositioning the strand of hair that didn’t quite want to comply like the others. Her fingers toyed with the strand for what felt like the hundredth time in the past minute. And of course, it still wouldn’t fall in line with the others. Her nerves were getting the best of her despite all of Grayson’s encouraging words from the past week. Every attempt to busy herself to push her mind elsewhere wouldn’t avail the situation.

“It looks perfect princess,” Grayson whispered with a kiss to the shell of her ear- his arms securing their place around her waist. “You look absolutely- .” She hadn’t even noticed him walk up behind her, too engrossed in trying to make sure she looked picture perfect.

“Gorgeous,” Y/n finished his sentence in a defeated voice. “You tell me that everyday Gray. Even when I look like death,” she chuckled dryly. Her eyes shifted to meet his adoring gaze in the mirror.

Grayson laughed quietly, pulling her flush against him, “well I mean it. Every time. You take my breath away every day Y/n. There isn’t a single day that goes by that I don’t think you look like an angel- scratch that, a goddess.” His lips curled up into a smile as he watched her roll her eyes and fight the blushy smile begging to come out. “And that’s exactly why I wanted to do this.”

“Are you sure it’s not just ‘cause your that ‘I invented being extra’ headass boyfriend?” Y/n cut in again, loving the small blush that’d bless his cheeks whenever she’d tease him. She squirmed in his grasp as he squeezed her side while glaring at her playfully- causing an awkward giggle mingled with a squeal to escape her lips. “I’m Grayson Bailey Dolan and regular selfies with my girl are too basic for me,” she continued, dropping her voice a few octaves to mimic his.

“You’re damn right they are. Especially when I plan on finally telling the fans you’re so much more than my friend. So, yes, I will be that extra boyfriend until the day you finally marry me.” He left a trail of kisses up from her shoulder to her neck, his plump lips gliding across her skin from one kiss to the next. “And then I’ll be your extra husband,” he added with a cheeky grin that made his whiskey eyes seem more like honey.

Y/n twisted around in his arms quickly before landing her hand on his chest with a quiet smack. Her embarrassed laughter only made his smile grow wider- the melodious tone filling the bathroom quickly.

“Okay okay! I can go ask E to take the pictures if that makes you feel better.” Grayson rubbed circles into the small of her back as his eyes searched hers for an answer- the way they softened notifying him of her approval before her lips relayed the message.

“As long as he’s not using a phone again,” she smiled as she reached up to cup his stubbly jaw- something she had to spend nearly a week trying to convince him to keep. “ ‘Cause last time we asked half of the pictures were of him.”

“You liked those and you know it,” Ethan cut in, leaning in the doorway of the bathroom. “Why am I being brought up again?”

“Gray wants to know if you’ll take pictures for us. He hired a photographer but- .”

“Wait. You were for real about that,” Ethan exclaimed, a dorky smile forming on his lips. “I thought you were joking when you told me about it. Can’t you just post old pictures and let the fans know.” Ethan looked over at Grayson’s deadpanned face, unsure whether his teasing or his suggestion was the cause of it. “Fine, I’ll go change,” Ethan grumbled, “ but only because I like Y/n so much.” He walked off before quickly dipping his head back into the bathroom, interrupting the two leaning in for what he assumed was another round of kisses. “Do I get a matching outfit too?”

Y/n gasped with excitement, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as she looked up a Grayson with big pleading eyes. “That’d be super cute! Have us all matching for at least one picture- oh or for next Tuesday’s video!”

“I was totally joking, but now we have to. Are you seeing how excited she is?”

“Yeah Grayson Extra Dolan, please.”

Grayson looked back and forth between his smug brother and childishly excited girlfriend, weighing both possible answers in his mind before nodding reluctantly.

“We could wear the Dolan merch since I’m pretty sure that the only matching outfits we have. Unless you want to just pick a color.”

“Color,” Ethan exclaimed without a second thought. “I can’t have you two lovebirds messin’ up my style.” He ignored Y/n’s blatant eye roll and hushed ‘whatever’.

Y/n looked up at Grayson once again, waiting for his input on the idea. Her fingers lazily toyed with the hair at the nape of his neck, gently running her fingers through the short strands. The sudden tension in his shoulders due to Ethan’s harmless poking hadn’t gone unnoticed. His internal struggle between giving in and wanting to stand against him was crystal clear. And she tried every way she could think of to let him know she noticed without outright saying it. Grayson smiled tenderly, appreciating her quiet attempts to soothe him.

Just as Y/n opened her mouth to suggest not going through with all three of them matching Grayson finally spoke up, hooking his fingers with her own. “Red? I like the way my girl looks in red.” He smirked down at Y/n for a moment before looking over at Ethan just in time to catch him rolling his eyes. He puffed his chest up proudly before swooping her up into his arms, guiding her legs to wrap around his waist.

“Hey, leave the sickening cute stuff for later when we take pictures,” Ethan grumbled as he dragged his feet off to his room.

“Trust me we’ve got more than enough.”

Y/n nuzzled her face into his neck- the soft skin of her nose grazing his neck in ways that made it hard for Grayson to do anything other than have a content smile plastered on his face. She nipped on his neck, “You’re wearing your crop top.” Grayson’s chest rumbled with laughter at her quiet demanding voice.

“Is that so?”

“Mhmm. I like it a lot,” she hummed. He could feel her lips curling into a smile and he absolutely adored it.

***

Ethan chuckled quietly to himself, completely drowned out by Y/n and Grayson belching lyrics at each other. When he agreed to take photos of them he figured Gray would drive. But no. Instead, Grayson had his limbs entangled with Y/n’s while they sat in the back like Ethan was a chauffeur. He sighed as he slowed to a stop in traffic. Suddenly it hit him. The best addition to Grayson’s post, at least for the two obnoxious lovebirds. Anytime he couldn’t take pictures he’d record them- making a mental note to edit it later. He fumbled around in the bag sitting in the passenger seat before pulling out the camcorder and setting it on the dashboard. He quickly adjusted the small device until it was focused on the pair.

***

The burning sand dipped under their weight as Ethan searched for the ‘Goldilocks’ part of the beach as he kept referring to it. Groups of people thinned out to one or two people strolling aimlessly- the blazing sun only energizing their smiles.

“This is it,” Y/n whispered to Grayson with a quiet chuckle. She slipped her hand under his shirt, resting on the small of his back- her small thumbs in comparison rubbing circles into his warm skin. “Ethan’s finally going to leave us in the middle of nowhere so he can have some peace and quiet back home.”

Grayson let out a throaty chuckle at her comment and shook his head. As much as he and his brother loved each other her playful comment seemed completely probable. Between him and Y/n being practically linked at the hip and the way he’d have her laughing or moaning endlessly every chance he could just because the noises she makes were pieces of heaven. It wasn’t hard to see how Ethan could get annoyed to the point of ditching them.

Ethan stopped in his tracks, breaking Grayson’s train of thought with a proud smile. “Alright lovebirds, how about here?”

Y/n took in the secluded area- the clear sound of crashing waves mingling with Tame Impala streaming from the speaker in Ethan’s backpack. Scattered rocks and boulders a short distance away led to a towering cliff. The same cliff Grayson had finally convinced her to jump from on their third date. The low sun left the area in a picturesque glow, creating halos around each thing the light graced.

Y/n looked up at Grayson, biting back her gracious smile before turning back to Ethan. She nodded her head eagerly, “it’s perfect E. Right bub?”

“Maybe I should’ve just asked you in the first place,” Grayson chuckled as he finally let go of Y/n- still keeping her within arms distance.

“What can I say I’m pretty great.” Ethan flipped his imaginary hair over his shoulder with an eye roll. “Now say, cheese dorks,” he instructed as he pulled his phone out- circling around the pair as he searched for the best angle.

Y/n stepped further away from Grayson, copying his casual pose- resting her weight on one hip and stuffing her hand in the opposite pocket. It was hard for her to keep a straight cool face, his playful glare melting her where she stood.

She let out a quiet squeak as Grayson stuffed his hand in her back pocket furthest from him. Effortlessly he curled his arm, sending her tumbling back into his hold. “Is that how we’re playing tonight?” His gruff voice was quiet, just barely above a whisper- his soft growl making his words seem louder than in reality.

“What a girl can’t pose for a picture,” Y/n teased with a knowing smirk. She smoothed over the wrinkled fabric over his chest before resting right above his heartbeat. Despite the relaxing setting Grayson’s heart was hammering in his chest. Pounding against her hand in a rhythm that matched her own heart. “Everything okay bub?”

“Just soaking in my princess’s otherworldliness.” He craned his neck down until his lips met with her forehead. “I love you to bits.” Using his free hand he lifted her unto the tip of her toes so their nose would touch. He rubbed his own against the tip of her nose, laughing at the adorable way her’s would scrunch up.

“Stop,” Y/n whined in a giggle. She was hoping Ethan would chalk this all up to them being extra for the pictures. The last thing she wanted was to give him more fuel to his teasing.

“Not until you say it back,” Grayson breathed against her lips. He kissed her tenderly, lengthening the kiss with each word. “Say. it.” She shook her head defiantly, attempting to ignore the way his kiss left her legs weak. “Y/n,” he whined as he scooped her into his arms.

Y/n rolled her eyes at the small pout Grayson gave her. “Really Bailey?” She searched his whiskey eyes, hoping for him to budge, before letting out a sigh. “I love you too,” Y/n grumbled as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She cupped his cheek, his stubble tickling her palms. “I love you tons. You’re my best friend and the best boyfriend I could ever ask for. And most of all,” she paused for dramatic effect- taking the time to plant a kiss on his lips. “You’re a pain in my ass. E can we take group pictures now?” Her body stiffened for a second as Grayson sneakily squeezed her butt once again, huffing in disappointment.  “We still have a few more hours of good light plus I’d love to get my best friend in here.” Y/n hopped down from Grayson’s grasp as she tried to convince Ethan. He maintained his uncertain gaze. Or maybe it was just him trying to say he didn’t want to do it anymore.

“Fine,” he caved, breaking into a smile. He couldn’t bring himself to turn down the girl childishly poking his side and tugging on his shirt. “Only if you pick me up,” he joked as he set up the camera stand.

“It’d be my honor.”

***

Taking pictures together was a total blast. Y/n and Grayson were determined to prevent Ethan from feeling like a third wheel the entire time the three of them goofed off in front of the camera. Which unsurprisingly resulted in an amplification of jokes and teasing. It was like any time they’d invite Y/n to be in one of the videos- with more dorky poses thrown in just because. So much so that it wasn’t until the sun had completely disappeared that they decided to pack up the cameras. Calling an end to the little makeshift photo shoot. And even then their laughter echoed through the beach, rivaling the sound of the more aggressive waves.

Y/n stifled a yawn, dragging her now bare feet through the still warm sand. “Thanks, Bub for making me go through with this.” The cropped top hanging on Grayson made it easy for her to tiredly wrap her arms around his waist- relishing in the warmth. “And thanks E for dealing with us- today and every day. You’re the best,” she mumbled the last few words as the Jeep came into view. A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over her at the sight of Ethan’s Jeep waiting for them.

“What can I say, as annoying as you are together you’ve grown on me.” Ethan turned around in time to catch Grayson plant a lingering kiss on the crown of her head. He couldn’t deny the happiness that radiated off of Grayson whenever she was around. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t bring himself to truly complain other than when they interfered with his sleep. It was clear Grayson was utterly smitten by her and most days the only time he’d get to show that side was at home. He didn’t blame Grayson for trying to keep his relationship with her hidden for so long- there were so many things that could go wrong. But there was only so much hiding one person could do.

“Hey bro,” Grayson called out quietly once they finished loading everything into the car including a half-awake Y/n. “Thank you. I really owe you.”

Ethan shrugged as they both climbed into the Jeep- the little sliver of the sun providing just enough light for them to clearly see each other still. “Just keep it quiet for at least two weeks and we’ll call it even.” He looked over at Grayson’s shocked and displeased face. “Fine one week, and a heads up. As much as you like hearing her moan that’s not- .”

“Deal.” Grayson chuckled as he wrapped his arm around her, allowing her to snuggle into his side as sleep her eyes fluttered sleepily. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep with her cheek pressed to his chest and an arm slung over him. “She’s gonna hate me for this,” he thought aloud as he pulled his phone out. As stealthily as possible, he opened Snapchat and angled the camera towards her, capturing her content expression. He looked over the photo, unable to resist the urge to swoon over her. His thumbs moved across the screen, typing out ‘best feeling in the world’ followed by multiple hearts as fast as he could before posting it onto his story.

“I swear if you really just posted any kind of hint that you two are dating I’m going to kill you,” Ethan warned. “You could’ve done that earlier without dragging me out here. Or had me post a video of you two.”

“True, but now I can also say we have cheesy couple pics that we can post. Plus I could never have too many pictures of her.”

“Okay Grayson Extra Dolan, but now you definitely owe me two weeks.”

“A week and a half tops. That’s all you’re getting. And I can’t promise those noises won’t be replaced with her laughter.”

“I can handle that.”

[shadowamongfireworks]

UPDATED (Rewritten) THEORY

Deceit may have mind control-like powers that can make a Side more Honest

Deceit is known to have many abilities. He can shapeshift and Almost perfectly mimic any Side (potentially to the point of copying the theme music that comes with each of their individual appearances), he can keep a Side from talking about something, he has the power to let unknown Sides leave the subconscious, and it’s been shown that he can intercept the summoning of a given Side to take their place without them even knowing. He may have other abilities as well. He may also be able to make them tell the truth/the truth about how they feel. This power, which I will refer to as “Truth Control”, is displayed in the video clip above from Selfishness Vs. Selflessness.

Patton shows a variety of behavioral changes before and after Deceit’s butterfingers bowl trick.

After the trick is performed, Patton sounds and appears strangely relaxed, mellow even when he delivers his “I hope so too” line. This contrasts with Patton’s behavior during the trick. He gasps as the bowl is pulled from his ear, which may indicate he was experiencing discomfort and possibly some pain in that moment, and then as the trick ends he continues to stare at the bowl, seemingly in surprise. In the next shot we see him, he has suddenly switched to the behavior he displays when he says the “I hope so too” line. His vocal intonations when he delivers the line sound accurate for the English language at first, but in actuality, when an English speaker normally says “I hope so too”, their intonation would continue to descend on the last word rather than ascend like Patton’s voice did. Along with that, Patton’s intonation pattern in that moment is quite reserved compared Patton’s usual, more dynamic intonation patterns. It is also possible that Patton’s voice is slightly lower than usual as well, further reinforcing the unusually relaxed behavior. (To be frank, with all of these things being a contributing factor, in that moment, he sounds like he’s high, which was what made me realize something was wrong)

Patton says “I hope so too” in response to Deceit making the comment “Hopefully he’s better at defending than he is at existing”. Both of these lines can have multiple meanings depending on what words and context you focus on. Given that Patton is Thomas’ Defense attorney, it’s very likely that the “he” that Deceit is talking about is Patton. It is clear that Deceit’s comment is meant to be an insult, as he says “Hopefully [Patton is] better at defending [Thomas] than he is at existing”. Focusing on the “defending” part of the Deceit’s line, Patton’s response can be interpreted as him expressing the fear that he cannot successfully defend Thomas in the court case. Patton confesses twice later on in the video that he doesn’t know what he’s doing as a lawyer, first to Thomas himself, and later, during the self-cross-examination, as Lawyer Patton to Witness Patton. Focusing on the “existing” part of Deceit’s line, Patton’s becomes able to be interpreted as a self-deprecating response. It is known that Patton hides his negative feelings from the others. It was addressed in Moving On parts one and two, but seeing as how Patton wasn’t able to get a genuine understanding of what repression is and that he’d been doing it until Intrusive Thoughts, I doubt he ever actually did actually talk to the others about his insecurities and personal problems. In fact, there may be a specific reason he refrained from ever talking to them about his problems: his past.

There may be a more insidious meaning to the word “existing” that Deceit is using. “Existing” may be in reference to Patton’s role as Thomas’ Morality and Feelings. These roles are literally Patton’s reason for existing in the first place, and based on the Intrusive Thoughts episode, we may have reason to believe that he did some things we might view as ethically questionable as Morality. It was implied in the episode that Patton caused Roman and Remus, who were once one individual Creative Side, to separate into who they currently are, and put Remus, the manifestation of the ideas that Patton saw as bad and was trying to filter out, in the Subconscious while letting Roman, who represented ideas that Patton saw as positive, stay. There are also theories here on Tumblr that Patton’s filtering may have also resulted in Virgil’s existence, and it’s possible that Patton may have even filtered out parts of himself that he viewed as negative, potentially causing a Side that represents that side of Patton to be created. Patton thought what he was doing was right at that time, but later realized that he messed up really, really badly, and he has been regretting what he did and hiding the fact that he ever took those actions in the first place ever since. He feels like he has messed up his job and affected Thomas negatively in the process in a way that cannot be fixed, and he is scared of what the other Sides will think of him. Deceit may be secretly referencing Patton’s hidden past similarly to how he more openly called out the other Sides on their lies. He may be secretly threatening Patton with idea of his lies being revealed by him with the intention of psyching him out and compelling him to tell them about his past actions himself rather than letting the Dark Sides tell them, just like what both Deceit and Remus did with Virgil, but specifically without the others realizing. However, this interpretation of Deceit’s line most likely wouldn’t be realized by Patton until after the Truth Control fully wears off.

Following Patton’s line, he hits a last butterfinger from his ear, after which his expression changes from the unusually calm happiness (?) we saw when he delivered his line into this:

This expression may just be the Truth Control wearing off, but it also can be interpreted as a variety of negative emotions. My interpretation is that’s it’s an expression of fear related to what he experienced while under the Truth Control. There are a multiple possible options: A) He experienced a small but sudden gap in memory following Deceit’s butterfinger bowl trick and realized that that was the case as the Truth Control wore off, B) He realized that something, but he doesn’t know what, slipped through his filter and that he did not have control of it in that moment, or C) He was aware of what he said and that he didn’t have control over it, and he still remembers what essentially happened under the Truth Control after it wore off. This may also have also been accompanied by the realization of Deceit’s subtle reference to Patton’s past.

After this Patton appears to return to normal. Although, he does talk very fast when he’s explaining to Thomas what Deceit is trying to do with the court case, which may be a sign that he’s trying to hide what just happened to him. None of the other Sides or Thomas appear to notice this entire interaction, Virgil included. There are no shots that indicating anyone reacting to it at all. This may indicate that Truth Control is an entirely new power that Deceit learned after Virgil joined the Core Sides.

The exact moment Deceit most likely used this power was when he and Patton made eye contact just as Deceit did the butterfingers bowl trick. We can see in the footage that Patton’s eyes do not immediately rise to meet Deceit’s. As his gaze moves to Deceit’s, his eyes start out looking in the opposite direction of where Deceit is standing, then they move down towards the table, almost stopping at this point, and then he completes the eye movement and moves his eyes up to make eye contact with Deceit. Another thing is that his eyes stay wide open. Both of these details are important, because usually a person would blink during the movement and the movement itself would be faster and more direct, a straight-ish line rather than the downward arching Patton’s eyes take. (Watching the footage at normal speed, your brain processes that the eye movement when his eyes are nearly paused and looking towards the table.) This tells me that Thomas is drawing attention to Patton’s eyes, and making us subconsciously think about where he’s looking. The next shot answers that question for us: at Deceit, who is staring intently at Patton’s eyes. This moment is when Deceit finishes saying the word “defending”, a word which he puts emphasis on by drawing out each syllable with slightly more diction than the rest of the sentence, then continues the line, speeding up for “than he is at”, and then pauses for a second before saying “existing” in a more relaxed tone that almost sounds like relief. This sense of relief may indicate that he finished setting up the Truth Control on Patton. During the time the Truth control was being activated, Patton was still able to process what Deceit was saying; No interpretation of Patton’s line would make sense if he hadn’t been able to process the last section of Deceit’s sentence. This shows that Deceit (or maybe someone in general) must ask the controlled Side a question right before the control kicks in, so the Sides train of thought can start moving and be verbalized.

The briefness of the Patton’s behavioral changes in the butterfingers bowl trick section leads me to believe that this instance of it being used was either a test run of sorts, or again, as a way to psych out Patton. It is likely that Deceit will use this power again later on, although exactly how is uncertain. He could potentially use it to make the three remaining Core Sides tell their respective truths in one episode, or go one by one, most likely with Patton being last due to how important his past would be to the series as a whole. The reason Deceit is doing this is to get Thomas to be honest with himself, and he will stop at nothing to achieve that goal.

Does anyone have thoughts on this/the clip itself? Please give them if you do