#also i know the colors are technically backwards

[romanceddawn]

Puzzleshipping: "Be careful of my heart..."

❕ Please do not repost to any other sites ❕

[torturedtypewritersdept]

blue eyes + bruises - part eight

✯ pairing:

doctor!rafe cameron x fem!reader

✯ summary:

a tragic car accident looks like it'll be the end for you, but dr. cameron is here to make sure that doesn't happen.

✯ warnings:

mature themes, mentions of anxiety, nostalgia, and fear, car accident, death of a spouse (not rafe or y/n), major surgery, injuries, hurt/comfort, angst, fluff, etc.

✯ a/n:

nothing!! please don't engage if you have a hard time with any of these topics <3 this was origianlly posted on my old blog @/illicitfixations, @/lovelornanonymity back in 2021/2022 and i have rewritten + reshared it here :)

m.list

Your fingers danced across the black leather bound table that you laid on, the pitter patter of your fingernails could be heard from the hallway, that much you were sure of. Hannah, your favorite physical therapist and friend, worked diligently, massaging your hips and working her way down to your knee repeating the same actions. This was the warm up for every appointment, stimulating the muscles and helping them loosen up. 

“Where’s Rafe today?” 

She asked, bringing you out of your relaxed bliss. 

“He’s in surgery, some kind of ligament repair.” 

You responded, not pretending to know the technical jargon he had spat out earlier in the morning. She nodded in response. 

“How’s this feeling?” 

She questioned, pressing her fingertips a little deeper into the skin around your kneecap as she worked tirelessly to massage the muscles. 

“It hurts a little.” 

You replied through clenched teeth. She stopped her actions, removing the gloves from her hands and helping you sit up, legs hanging off the table. 

“Let’s try to do your standing balance exercises, three times on each leg for thirty seconds.” 

You nodded, gently sliding off the table and moving to stand on your good leg. You balanced for the allotted thirty seconds, doing your best not to grip the table that you stood parallel to. Once the timer went off, you switched legs and restarted it, the seconds counting down once again. At the twenty second mark, your kneecap went backwards, the stress of your weight causing it to buckle underneath you. It was quick – so quick in fact, that you hadn’t even realized what happened until you were on the ground clutching your knee to your chest. Hannah was beside you on the floor in less than a minute. You watched as she tucked her shoulder length chestnut colored hair behind her ears and called another therapist over to help lift you back on to the table. 

“y/n, are you alright?” 

The tears in your eyes clearly told her that you weren’t and she was worried. 

“What hurts, sweetheart?” 

She asked, laying her hand on your forehead to get your attention, but also to let you know she was here for you. Your eyes opened only slightly and you tried to turn toward her, a wince dancing across your features. 

“Just hurts, Hannah.” 

“Where’s it hurt, y/n?” 

She questioned with intent, needing to know the source of the problem before she alerted Rafe that something was wrong. 

“My knee.” 

You croaked out, your throat fought against the words as they came out, creating an assault on your vocal cords. You sounded much like a bullfrog. ‘Shit’, she thought, grabbing the walkie-talkie from her pants where it was clipped onto her belt loop and speaking into it. 

“Can someone give me the whereabouts of Dr. Cameron?” 

A voice you recognized as Jenni spoke back. 

“He’s in OR 2, finishing up on a compound femur fracture with an ACL repair.”

Hannah nodded, holding her breath before she spoke again, thanking the nurse before putting the walkie down and calling the operating room Rafe was in. It rang three times before Jenni, who was Rafe’s scrub nurse, picked up the phone. 

“Jenni, how long is he going to be?” 

She asked the nurse on the other end of the phone. 

“He just finished up. What’s wrong? Do you need to talk to him?” 

“Yes – it’s y/n.” 

“Dr. Cameron, Hannah down in pt needs to speak to you about your girl.” 

Rafe stood in the scrub room, delicately coating his fingers with soap and scrubbing them as he was taught to so many years ago. It had become second nature in the same way that loving you had. As his brain registered the words of his scrub nurse, the hair on the back of his neck stood – something was wrong. He finished washing his hands quickly and he walked at a fast pace, his long legs approaching the wall the phone hung on and taking it from the nurse, giving her a forced smile. 

“Hannah? What’s the matter? Is my sweet girl okay?” 

His tone was coated with urgency, a call he got in an operating room the day Molly died at the forefront of his brain. Him knowing that you weren’t her, this time, simply wasn’t enough and he could hear his heartbeat quicken as he waited for her reply; the beating of his chest like drums pounding against his ears. 

“Don’t freak out, just yet. I need your doctor skills, not your boyfriend ones. She fell doing some balance exercises and she’s complaining of knee pain at a seven on the scale. Do you want me to send her to get images before you come up?” 

A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he waited to hear the news of your fate. A knee injury he could fix, but your heart not beating he couldn’t and he knew that. 

“If she’s saying seven, she means nine — How did she fall?” 

He finally responded with a simple question, but Hannah knew that for an orthopedic surgeon that question was everything, that question told a story. 

“I had her do the standing balance exercises where she stands on each leg for thirty seconds and when she stood on her surgery leg it collapsed underneath her.” 

Rafe sucked in a deep breath, remembering the torn ACL behind your kneecap that still needed surgery. He hated the idea of stripping you of the little bit of independence you had gained almost as much as you did, but he knew eventually it would have to be done. 

“Yeah, have Jenni take her for imaging; mri and x-ray; possibly a ct if those don’t show anything – but use that as a last resort. She had a torn acl from the accident that hasn’t been repaired. The physical therapy has helped her gain mobility in her hips but I'm sure it’s made the knee angry. Do me a favor and don’t spook her with it yet, let me look over all the imaging before we talk to her about it. I want to make sure surgery is even necessary before we scare her half to death.” 

“Okay, will do, doc.” 

She responded. 

“One more thing before you go – will you facetime me off of her phone. I just need to see her for a moment.” 

His heavy exhale let her know that he did indeed need to see you, if only for a brief minute. His anxiety was likely making him spiral, it was likely making him think about Molly; placing you in the same position she was in, yet again or placing his mind in a distant memory of her – a time when he couldn’t be there, just like he was unable to in this current moment. 

“She’s okay, Rafe. You got it, give me just a minute, alright?” 

“Yeah, no worries. Take your time.” 

He said as he hung up the phone, swallowing thickly and wiping away the tiny tears from the corners of his eyes. He paced in the scrub room, back and forth in front of the sink, his thoughts overcoming him. He began to think back to the day just a few short months ago – the first time he saw you; bruised, beaten, and bloody, more bones broken than not. He thought about you laying there, unable to breathe on your own as he kissed your hands in the same way he kissed hers when she was in the same position. Rafe stood with his hands against the sink, leaning over it, realizing that you were like her in more ways than he was comfortable with and the only thing that set you apart from her was the fact that you were alive and she wasn’t. Rafe halted his pace, leaning over the sink with his hands against the metal and after a brief moment, he ripped the scrub cap he was wearing off of his head, chucking it at the wall. He took out his cell phone from the back pocket of his pale blue scrubs and scrolled until he found her contact – a photo of his arms wrapped around her from behind at a party from when they were sixteen. He remembered that night vividly; it was the night they kissed for the first time and though he was a world away from backwards caps and college plans, he still smiled at seeing her like that, happy and carefree and in love. Her blonde hair had made its home against her face from the wind of the water and as Rafe closed his eyes and held his phone to his chest he could still see her, just like that. He wished for a moment that she was still here and that he didn’t have to remember her in only fractures of broken memories, he wished for a moment that she was you. He quickly pushed his thoughts aside, dialing Molly’s number. Oftentimes, when things had become too much after her passing on from this life into the next, Rafe called her with no other expectation other than listening to the sound of her sweet voice on the other end of the line. Today, however, was different. He needed to tell her about you, even though he was ninety-percent sure she was the one who brought the two of you together, he needed to be the one to tell her that he wasn’t hopeless anymore and he wasn’t alone and that he was okay and he needed to tell her that he loved her. The line rang and rang until he got her voicemail – “hey this is Molly, sorry I missed you but I'm probably doing something fun! Leave me some words if ya can and i’ll get back to you soon.” Her sing-song voice penetrated his ears and suddenly he was no longer twenty-eight. Instead, he was nineteen watching her sing bon jovi at the top of her lungs in a college town, hole in the wall, bar. He was smiling at her and for a brief moment he forgot that she was gone. Rafe hung up, dialing it again and again and again four times before he decided to speak into her voicemail box. His cheeks were soaked with tears, his lips trembling and at the sound of the beep, he spoke. 

“Moll – baby, shit. I fucking miss you. If you were here, things would be so different. But you’re not and I can feel myself pulling away from your memory, from our marriage – Moll, I met someone and she’s good and she’s pure and she’s perfect and she’s so much like you and yet, so different. Sarah set us up, can you believe that? I know if you were here you’d be friends.” 

For a brief moment, Rafe breathed into the phone, somehow expecting her to pick up, to breathe back, to tell him it was okay. Yet, somehow without the confirmation of her words, he knew it was, he felt her telling him that it was even a world apart.

“Moll – I don't want to ruin this thing with her, baby. So, this will be my last call. I just wanted to tell you that I love you and that I’m sorry. I should’ve done so many things differently. But, I’m happy, Molly. For the first time since you left, I’m happy and I think I gotta hold onto that, isn’t that what you always told me, sweetheart?”

A beep infiltrated Rafe’s ears and he pulled the phone down, glancing at the screen – incoming facetime sweet girl – displayed across it. He wiped his eyes and straightened his shoulders as he dragged his fingers across the screen and your sweet face appeared in front of him. 

“Hey, sweetheart. Hannah said you were feeling pretty bad?” 

His eyes softened as he took in your form, one of the many t-shirts of his that he had given you draped over your chest and your eyes were bloodshot; you had been crying. 

“I’m okay, Rafe, baby, don’t worry.” 

You choked out the words. 

“You’re gonna have to get better at trying to fool me, baby girl. I can tell you’ve been crying.” 

You swallowed thickly, looking up at Jenni as she pushed you toward the x-ray room in a wheelchair. Your leg was propped up and laid out straight in front of you with a bag of ice on top of it. 

“I’m just worried this means more surgery.” 

You responded and it was like Rafe could see the wheels spinning in your brain, which he needed to put a stop too. He wasn’t about to let you spiral the way that he had only moments ago. 

“Don’t get ahead of yourself yet, baby. We’ll look over the tests once they’re done and figure out what’s wrong.” 

You felt numb, a feeling of dread looming over you. Rafe felt it too. 

“I guess it pays to have a doctor boyfriend, huh?” 

You chuckled lightly as the words left your mouth. 

“It does indeed, pretty girl.” 

He replied, a boyish grin displayed heavily on his lips. The only thing you could do was stare at him in all his glory and admire how beautifully and perfectly sculpted he was. 

“Okay, Rafe, she’s gotta go, we're in the radiography department.” 

Jenni’s words brought the both of you out of the bliss of each other’s company. 

“Okay, pretty girl, it’s time to go. I’ll see you soon, alright?” 

“Okay, Rafe.” 

He watched your shoulders droop and he could almost feel the anxiety through the phone as it rattled through your chest and your eyes met your hands. 

“Hey, baby girl – look at me.” 

You obliged, your eyes flicking up to meet his blue ones. 

“You’re okay, baby. Everything’s okay. You trust me don’t you?” 

“Of course, I do, Rafe.” 

“You trust that I'll take care of you like I always have, don’t you?” 

“Of course, I do, Rafe.” 

“Okay, then there’s nothing to worry about. No matter what it is, baby. I’ll get you through it.” 

You nodded, pursuing your lips into a forced smile. 

“None of that, baby. Give me a real smile.” 

You giggled at how well he knew you and how well he could read your expressions. He paid attention – you’d give him that. 

“There she is.” 

He cooed. 

“I love you, Rafferty.” 

You softly spoke, your voice sending shivers down his spine. 

“And I love you, sweet girl. I’ll see you in a little while.” 

He smiled – the Rafe Cameron smile – and kissed two of his fingers before placing them against the camera and watched as you repeated his actions before hanging up the phone. 

-

Rafe’s worst fears had been confirmed – you needed another surgery. He sat at the nurse's station, studying the images of the inside of your knee over and over again, racking his brain for any other solution, but he couldn’t find one. You had a complete tear of your ACL and MPFL which could only be fixed with surgery and he wanted more than anything in this moment not to be the bearer of bad news, not to be the doctor; for once, just to be the concerned boyfriend. He made his way into your room, taking in your sleeping form, your top half still draped in his clothes and your hair a mess, stuck against your face through the sweat that your sleep had brought on. He smiled to himself because he loved seeing you like that and he’d love it even more if it was in the bed next to him, not in a hospital. He moved towards you, kicking his tennis shoes off and scooting your body slightly as he nuzzled his into yours. You quietly stirred, blinking rapidly trying to gain your bearings,  chasing the warmth that your body was draped in. You looked up at Rafe and smiled sleepily, like a newborn baby seeing it’s fist glimpse of the world. 

“Hey, pretty girl.” 

He whispered, moving your sweat drenched hair from in front of your face. 

“Hi” 

You croaked back to him. He pulled you in, laying his head against yours and draping his arms around your back, hugging you like your existence, put all his broken pieces back together and it did in a way. 

“What’s the matter, baby?” 

You asked him, he was sad and you could tell. But, you weren’t sure what was plaguing him. 

“I just looked at your test results, sweet girl, and it’s not good news.” 

The look on his face was somber and you knew what it meant. 

“I need surgery, don’t I?” 

He gingerly nodded his head and you no longer contained the dread and the anxiety within you as the dam broke and your tears began to soak his scrubs. 

“I know, baby, I know.” 

He whispered into your hairline as he laid kisses upon it and rubbed the back of your head. You held onto him for dear life, clutching to his biceps with more force than he thought possible. 

“I-I can’t do it again, I won’t.” 

You breathed out amidst stutters and his blood ran cold. He pushed you forward so he could look in your eyes and confusion laced his features as he took you in, tear stained cheeks and all. 

“What do you mean, baby? We need to do this, okay?” 

“No, Rafe!” 

You snapped. This is what he was afraid of; he couldn’t force you, not really. But, he needed to take care of you in a way that he couldn’t take care of her. 

“What do you mean no?” 

He pushed with a hardened look in his eyes. His features were still gentle, the anger and frustration that bubbled beneath him dancing subtly against his skin. 

“You — You don’t get it, okay?” 

Your voice came out broken and frustrated and for a brief moment he almost smiled. 

Sweet girl, I get it in more ways than you understand. You don’t understand why I need to take care of you and that’s okay. 

“Why don’t you tell me what I don’t get, baby.” 

He spoke softly, bringing his fingertips to your cheek and brushing them gently against your skin. 

“You don’t understand — you don’t get that I just got my independence back and you want to take it away again!” 

You raised your voice and Rafe was shell shocked but he also knew it was because you didn’t feel heard. Molly only yelled when she felt misunderstood and she had yelled at him the day of her accident because he wasn’t listening to her point of view. Suddenly it at all made sense, the parallels of the accident were indeed a second chance. He sat up straight and vowed to change things, to make you feel heard in a way that he couldn’t do for her. 

“Baby, I’m sorry for not listening to you. I don’t want to take your independence away, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. You’ve torn some ligaments in your knee, sweet girl, and without surgery it’ll cause lifelong problems, you won’t be able to stand long enough to teach, baby. I only want to help. I didn’t mean to make you think otherwise.” 

You swallowed the weight of his words and they felt thick against your throat. 

“Rafe, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.” 

He moved quickly pulling you back to his chest and kissing your forehead. 

“Can I tell you something, sweet girl?” 

He asked, cradling your head in his hands as you cried into his chest. You simply nodded in response, as your cries turned to sniffles and you clutched tighter to his chest. 

“My wife, Molly, died in an accident very similar to yours and I've struggled for a long time with being unable to save her, to take care of her the way that I've taken care of you. So, I just need you to let me, yeah?” 

You nodded your head in response before laying it against his pectoral muscle once more. 

“Rafe, were you working when she was brought in?” 

You looked up at him, thinking surely he wasn’t. 

“Yeah, baby. They called me while I was in the operating room. She and I had a fight, a massive one and she had left to go be with her parents. She never made it out of the city, her train crashed ten minutes after it left.” 

“I’m sorry, Rafferty.” 

You couldn’t do anything other than cry for him and with him and clutch to him like your life depended on it, because it very well did and maybe so did his. 

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[ashlynniis-bracketeers]

E.G.OBLAST 5: E.G.OBUSTERS! {Darebuster - Blindbuster - Judgebuster - Nightbuster - Beakbuster - Screwbuster - Capobuster - Capotebuster}

So... This is a lot. A lot of E.G.OBLAST! >8}

I decided to go ahead and draw all of them out first before posting them all together. All of the Bossbusters, each with a LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O and Limbus E.G.O. In order: Life For a Daredevil Brawlbuster, Blind Obsession Brawlbuster, Justitia Tallbuster, Christmas Nightmare Tallbuster, Beak Smallbuster, Screwloose Wallop Smallbuster, Da Capo Maulbuster, and Capote Maulbuster.

If you want to read more about them, either go into the DA links or look under the cut. This post is already getting hugenormous with just the images alone rofl.

I hope you like it!

Brawlbuster

For his LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O, I gave him Life For a Daredevil (Crumbling Armor).

I originally wanted to give him Heaven (Burrowing Heaven) for his LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O because of his whole "all eyes on me" Pride thing, but somebody on Reddit suggested Life For a Daredevil and that makes more sense. I also learned that, yet again, I HATE DRAWING ARMOR >8{. The flames (and eye colors) are meant to resemble the flame colors of the Crumbling Armor's E.G.O gift, Courage (Inspired Bravery is blue, Reckless Foolishness 2 is orange, and Reckless Foolishness 3 is red).

So, E.G.O quotes (yes, the Awakening is a Red vs Blue reference >83) :

Awakening - Swish-swish-stab... Shing!

Corrosion - ...

For his Limbus E.G.O, I gave him Blind Obsession (Dream-Devouring Siltcurrent).

It was kind of a hard pick. My main two choices were either Blind Obsession or Fell Bullet due to both sharing big damage and Pride affinity (as Brawlbuster's Sin is listed as Pride), but he doesn't really fit for Der Fluchschütze's themes, so Blind Obsession it is. He's punching with fluorescent lamps, wearing his captain coat tied around his waist, and I turned his little weather vane hat into a pirate's tricorn, meant to resemble a classic pirate ship's bow with a figurehead of his own smiling face (because he Pride for a reason).

E.G.O quotes:

Awakening - Wassa' matter? Wanna go back to the kiddie pool?

Corrosion - GET. ON. MY. LEVEEEEELLLL!

Tallbuster

For his LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O, I chose Justitia (Judgement Bird).

They're both long, lanky motherfuckers lmao. And looking at the Judgement Bird's story where, after somebody brings up the possibility of its scales ever not tipping to one side or the other, it deliberately loads its scales to always tip to one side as to avoid that, brings to mind "Sloth". Not wanting to think/make hard choices feels rather "Slothful" to me (as Tallbuster's sin is listed as Sloth).

The outfit is technically me trying to "work backwards" from the design used in the Floor Realization of the Floor of Philosophy. The outfit/weapons used there, a messy mix of all of the Birds' E.G.Os, are all technically Twilight/Though the Dark Twilight, associated with Apocalypse Bird. So I had to decipher which parts of the Floor Realization outfit belonged to which bird lmao.

E.G.O quotes:

Awakening - Always the same... Heh, you already know how this'll go, right?

Corrosion - You're all sinners, aren't you?

For his Limbus E.G.O, I gave him Christmas Nightmare (Cozy Bed).

Not much to say about this particular pairing choice. Both are associated with the Sloth sin, and the Abno is the "monster under the bed" while Tallbuster can literally fall asleep if you idle at the start of the fight for long enough (which you can get an achievement for). Sleepy guy gets the bed... and turns into the bed (in this case, a sleeping bag) in the Corrosion's case.

Ishmael gets tentacles, Gregor gets "misc. bug parts", so I gave Tallbuster bomb fuses. Lit bomb fuses. Because his thing is throwing bombs at you, and he's bound to have a short fuse if you keep waking him up lmao.

E.G.O quotes:

Awakening - Quit with all that racket! Scarin' away a monster? What monster? You'll see a real monster if you won't. LET. ME. SLEEP!

Corrosion - Such inconsideration! How rude! Look at what you've done! Light, on-or-off, fire, cacophony, won't ever save you!

Smallbuster

I felt that Beak (Punishing Bird) would fit for her LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O.

Tiny creature capable of big fuckhuge violence. PB's LobCorp E.G.O weapon is also a gun. It was a given. Honestly also fits with Small's Envy Sin affinity, as it is often associated with retaliation (and in the case of the Middle, incredible overkill). Tiny creature, BIG damage.

Similarly to Justitia Tallbuster, I had to kind of "work backwards" from the Philosophy Floor Realization outfit. That outfit is primarily Justitia, so I kind of flew by the seat of my pants. And the big fucking meat-blood gun is entirely original lmao. Fires... think "Brimstone" from the Binding of Isaac, "blood laser barrage". The claws in the gun are based off of the Punishing Bird's hidden maw. I also gave the Corrosion's maw a mechanical tinge to fit with Small's technological lean.

E.G.O quotes:

Awakening - How about you pick on somebody your own size?

Corrosion - EVIL! PURE EVIL! PUNISHMENT FOR YOU! PUN-ISH-MENT!!!

Screwloose Wallop (Have You Become Strong) felt like a given for her Limbus E.G.O.

Both are associated with the Envy sin and compensating for perceived (physical) flaws with technology. Made her version a little mini walker mech with a spring-loaded (and key-wound) fist.

E.G.O quotes:

Awakening - Hmmm... Winding up... a big one! UUOOOOOAAAH!

Corrosion - Hah... Haaah... Don't wind me up too much, I'll pop your head clean off!

Maulbuster

I picked Da Capo (The Silent Orchestra) for her LobCorp/Ruina E.G.O.

Another given. They're both performers that attack you with their performances. The Silent Orchestra attacks with its sound and orchestration, while Maulbuster attacks you with her performers and swearing at you lmao. I wanted to keep her hat and horns, so I made them resemble a beamed pair of eighth notes making a visor.

E.G.O quotes (yes, the Awakening quote is a reference to... a specific Limbus Canto 7 song 83) :

Awakening - Follow my lead... One, two... One, two, three, four!

Corrosion - Come one, come all! WELCOME TO THE SYMPHONY OF THE END OF THE WORLD!

Finishing it off with her Limbus E.G.O, Capote (Brazen Bull).

It was a bit difficult to figure out what Limbus Abno to pair with her, trying to figure out something to work with her performance theming and Wrath sin, before I recalled the outfits used for the Capote E.G.O. The outfits are based off of matadores, the premiere performers of bullfighting, which is based around dealing with an enraged bull. The E.G.O is also Wrath-affinity. So, it fits.

I designed the Corrosion to align much more with the Brazen Bull itself compared to the Corrosions into it we've seen so far. To an extent, during her fight, she's playing the role of the bull to Anton's matador, deliberately trying to enrage her until she messes up and you can finally get a hit off on her. I also wanted to play around with the idea of "who is the audience really here for" as a bullfighting thing. Are they here for the matador or the bull itself?

E.G.O quotes:

Awakening - Look right here. Come on, right at me! Right here!

Corrosion - No! NO! I'M THE MAIN ATTRACTION, I'M THE REASON YOU'RE ALL HERE. NOT... NOT... AAAGGHHH!

[amazingmsme]

Easy Target

AN: sorry I haven’t posted for a few days, I’ve been busy with Halloween activities! But I’ve had this fic ready to go for a while, so here it is! It’s technically a sequel to Appetite for Trouble & makes more sense if you’ve read that one first, but it can also stand on its own. Asterios is my baby & he’s so much fun to write! Definitely lmk if y’all wanna see more of him or Leander! Hope y’all enjoy day 27, we’re closing in on the last few days!

& yes I DO ship my oc with Elpenor, what of it?

Asterios honestly wasn't sure what to expect after the crew's attack. He supposed he was expecting for them to mock him relentlessly, to strike at any given opportunity. After all, it's what he probably would've done.

Instead, the lighthearted teasing and jokes made at his expense were kept to a minimum. The Gods must be looking out for him.

What was perhaps even more surprising, was the fact that no one had tried anything since then. They would still tussle amongst themselves, and he was, for the most part, ignored. Although, if asked if he wanted to join in on someone else's torture, he wasn't so inclined to say no. Especially if offered a chance for revenge. But other than that, they let him be.

Not that he was complaining! Don't you fucking dare let that thought enter your head. He was just... confused is all. Confused and fairly paranoid, not jealous, thank you very much. They had seemingly had so much fun tearing his sanity to shreds with nothing but their bare hands, it was sure to happen again. They had certainly made him think it would. Yet, the most anyone ever did was a poke to his ribs here, a squeeze to his sides there. Just to make him jump with an embarrassing yelp.

He was grateful they hadn't tried anything else, he told himself. It was childish, overwhelming, stupid, and... kinda fun. But he was above it. And yet, when he hears frantic laughter echoing across the ship, he can't help but smile.

Leander was the only one who didn't seem to let it go. His roommate has since decided that the best way to wake him up is to body slam his sleeping form, and tickle him until he was fully conscious. Thank the Gods he had his pillow to muffle the sound.

He didn't stop there. He also liked to sneak up behind Asterios whenever he was busy and tickle wherever he could reach. So really, who else would be scratching behind his wings?

He scrunched his neck as a smile broke out across his face and the wing twitched away from the touch.

"What?" he asked, not bothering to turn around.

The hand returned, causing the feathers to bristle and his wing slapped the hand away. "Damnit what do you want?" he snapped, spinning around to confront his friend. The playful annoyance was replaced with shock as the color drained from his face.

"You're not Leander."

Elpenor's smile only grew as he looked the demigod in the eye. "No, I'm not."

Asterios felt his whole body go tense, and he was leaning as far against the rail as he could. "So... can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was just curious," Elpenor explained, taking a step forward. Asterios arched a skeptical brow.

"About?"

Elpenor flashed a dangerous grin and lunged forward, grabbing his wings and stretching them out on either side of his head. "Just how ticklish are these things?" he asked, feigning innocence. Asterios shrieked and instinctively flailed away- backwards.

He felt himself start to tip over the railing and he was screaming for an entirely different reason. A hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him forward until he found his footing. All while laughing in his face.

Typical.

Asterios shoved him away angrily, "What the hell Elpenor, you tryna kill me?"

"I didn't know you'd freak out like that! I barely even touched them!" he cheered, already trying to grab them again, only for Asterios to smack him away.

"Try it again and see what happens," he growled threateningly.

"Okay!" Elpenor chirped, immediately reaching for his wings once more. Asterios panicked and stumbled back, snatching his wrist in the air. Elpenor's other hand swiped at the other side, and he caught that one too.

"Wha- don't actually try it again! Don't you know anything?"

"I know your wings are like, crazy ticklish," he goaded. Asterios balked, unable to find the words as a blush quickly spread across his face.

"I'd shut up if I were you," he threatened.

"Yeah, well, you're not, sooo-" Elpenor trailed off as he twisted his hands free. Asterios didn't have time to react before he felt blunt nails scratching beneath downy feathers.

His eyes flew wide open, and he stumbled over his own two feet as he tried to escape. He doubled over, gripping the railing for support as he did his best to prevent any unwanted laughter from escaping. He clamped his mouth shut, lips trembling as the urge to smile continued to grow, but helpless giggles forced their way out when he hit a particularly sensitive spot. He shook his head frantically, wings twitching, but Elpenor was nothing if not persistent.

"Ehehehelpenor, I'm seheherious!" he squealed, shaking his head back and forth while his wings flapped uselessly.

"Really? You don't sound like it," he taunted as his other hand joined the fray. Asterios shrieked when the other side was attacked, a bright blush spreading across his cheeks. Breathless snickers forced their way past his lips, and he was faced with a dreadful choice: either fight him off and probably lose, or focus his efforts on keeping those humiliating sounds inside his chest. He clamped a hand over his mouth, biting down on his palm as hard as he could to prevent anymore noises from escaping.

"Booooo," Elpenor complained when bright laughter became muffled. "You know I already heard you laugh, so what's the point in trying to hide it? I mean, you really aren't fooling anyone," he taunted, earning a frustrated growl that dissolved into choked off giggles.

Fuck this, fuck him, he needs to leave NOW.

"What? But we just got started!"

And FUCK this stupid bullshit power of his.

Asterios managed to slip free and made a break for it, shoving anyone and anything out of his way. He didn't even know where he was going, he just knew he had to stay away from Elpenor for as long as possible. As he ran, his feet began moving faster and faster, and the distance between them grew. If he could just make it below deck, he could figure it out from there.

He was halfway down the stairs, looking back over his shoulder to make sure he was still in the clear, when Polites cried out, "Whoa, whoa, stop!"

He came to a grinding halt, stopping just short of running into Polites and Odysseus. "Move!" he yelled, but neither so much as budged.

Asterios looked uncharacteristically giddy; wide eyed with a nervous smirk, cheeks flushed a faint pink, and his hair was falling out of a loose bun. The pair shared a knowing look, and Odysseus crossed his arms, casually blocking the stairway.

"Where're you off to in such a hurry?" Odysseus asked, sporting a smug smile. Asterios rolled his eyes and tried to shove past them, but Odysseus stood his ground, his shit eating grin growing wider.

"I don't know, just move!"

"Why? What's the rush?" Polites caught on quickly, blocking the way when Asterios tried to squeeze past them.

"He's right behind me!" he yelled, desperately trying to push them aside as he looked behind him anxiously.

"Who?" they asked in unison, and Asterios swore they were just doing it to waste time.

"Oh good, you caught him!" Elpenor called out from the top of the stairs. Fuck.

"Elpenor! I should've known it was you," Odysseus mused aloud. "So what'd he do this time?"

Asterios scoffed and shoved at his chest, "Nothing, asshole!"

Elpenor chuckled as he walked down the stairs slowly, "He's right, I just couldn't help myself."

"Well in that case, have fun!" Polites laughed, clapping Asterios on the back. He brushed his hand off harshly, absolutely seething.

"What the hell did I ever do to you?" he hissed through clenched teeth. Polites merely shrugged, "What? You could use a laugh."

Asterios scoffed, looking between the three of them. "Captain, you're just gonna let this happen?" he asked incredulously, fending off Elpenor with one hand while he tried to force his way behind the pair.

Odysseus thought it over for a moment. "I don't know. You're on your break right now, right?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"If you weren't busy, I don't see what the problem is."

"How can you not see the fucking problem?" he spat angrily. Odysseus arched a brow at the feisty tone, and just like that, his fate was sealed.

"Is that how you speak to your captain?" he asked.

"You're way too moody, we're practically doing you a favor."  Polites decided, flashing a teasing smile.

"Like hell you are!"  Asterios scoffed, lunging at them.

"Oh lighten up," Odysseus rolled his eyes and pushed him away, straight into Elpenor's clutches. He hooked his arms beneath the demigod's and started dragging him back up the stairs.

"Bastards, all of you! I won't forget this!" he screamed, kicking out and fighting every step of the way.

"Oh, and Elpenor? While you're at it, make sure you fix his attitude. Don't stop until he stops cussing," the captain ordered, shooting them both a wink.

"What the fuck? That's not fair!"

"With pleasure!" he adjusted his grip and saluted, carrying Asterios up the rest of the way. Before he could make another run for it, Elpenor kicked his legs out from under him, catching him just before he hit the ground.

Odysseus and Polites squeezed past as they finally made their way to the upper deck. He called out one last time, his last chance for salvation. Because if Polites didn't feel sorry for him, no one would.

"Plehease, he's gonna kihihill me!" Asterios couldn't believe he had resorted to begging, but desperate times and all that.

"Don't worry, it'll only feel like you're dying!" Polites assured, laughing at the look that came over his face. Odysseus was laughing too as he threw an arm around his shoulders, shaking his head fondly.

"That was mean, even for him," the captain praised, reaching up to ruffle his friend's hair before they rounded the corner and Asterios lost sight of them.

Even for him? What the fuck, he wasn't THAT bad... Was he? No, he didn't fucking deserve this. He was still glaring over his shoulder when Elpenor thumped his forehead to get attention.

"Hey, I'm right here!"

Asterios redirected his burning glare to the proper target. "How could I forget?" he deadpanned, trying to keep his racing heart in check. Elpenor had sought him out, had chased him down just because he was bored, and now, his head was resting in his lap. Oh, how he'd dreamed for something like this to happen...

Under different circumstances!

"Well then, let me remind you," Elpenor taunted, reaching behind his wings to scratch at the base. Asterios burst into bright, bubbly giggles as he squirmed around in his lap, unable to reach Elpenor's hands from the way he had his arms held back. He could barely even reach his face to hide behind his hands or muffle his laughter. He was left with nowhere to hide, and the only view he had to look at was Elpenor's beautiful grinning face staring down at him. It didn't help that he kept taunting him and telling him how cute he was.

He was many things, but cute sure as hell wasn't one of 'em.

Elpenor gasped loudly, and Asterios flinched at the sudden noise, looking around to see what caused it. He saw nothing.

"What-"

"Take that back!"

Asterios furrowed his brows in confusion as he took the opportunity to catch his breath.

"I didn't say anything, dumbass."

"Hey, remember what the captain said!" he warned playfully. Asterios rolled his eyes, yelping when he gently pinched his wings. He bit down on his lip, squeezing his eyes shut as he struggled to maintain his composure.

Elpenor began rubbing the velvety soft wings in between his fingers, and Asterios broke out in helpless shrieks and squeals.

"So if you're not cute, what are you?" he asked, cocking his head as he stared down at him. He wore a proud grin as he watched a dark blush spread across the demigod’s cheeks.

"NOTHING!" Asterios growled in frustration, snorting when he hit a bad spot near the edge of his wings.

"Really? Wow Asterios, I knew your self esteem was low, but give yourself some credit!" Elpenor teased, chuckling along at his own stupid joke.

"Oho put ahaha sock in ihit!"

"Why don't you? You're the one who won't shut up," he mocked, kneading at the base and sending him into shrill hysterics.

"Thehehen LET mehe shut up!" he whined, shaking his head back and forth. Elpenor readjusted his grip so that he couldn't even do that. "Ohoho COME OOOON!" he yelled in frustration.

Elpenor seemed to think it over before answering, "Hmm... I don't know, maybe if you admit how cute you are, I'll stop." Maybe- is he trying to trick him? Does he think he's stupid or something?

"No way, are you out of your damn mind?"

"Again with the swearing? Guess you just want to be tickled all day," he taunted smugly. Asterios tensed up, a hot blush spreading across his face.

"Shut the hell up right now if you know what's good for you!" he growled, reaching up to slap weakly and tug his hair. Anything to try and escape. Elpenor laughed as he easily brushed him off.

"No no, I get it! There are worse ways to get out of work!"

"I wasn't! You just attacked me for no reason!"

"Do I really need a reason?" Elpenor asked, grinning down at him. Asterios felt his own lips tug into a shy, giddy smile and he immediately looked away.

"Yes!" he insisted.

"Maybe I tickled you because you're always so grumpy. Ever think of that?"

"Why would I think of that," he snarked before he thought better of it. He wasn't about to admit to the fact that he had indeed given it some thought.

"I don't know, you tell me," he teased, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Asterios blushed, and his wings instinctively tugged against their hold in an attempt to hide his face. They could barely twitch.

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You're a real piece of fuckin' work, you know that?"

"And you're a ticklish asshole who keeps asking for it," Elpenor said matter of factly. That sure got his attention.

"I am not!" he denied, feeling the heat in his cheeks burn hotter.

"Really? Could've fooled me," he taunted with a smug grin.

"What do you want from me?" he whined, allowing himself to go completely limp in his hold.

This is useless, and silly, and... the most fun he's had since the last time Leander did this to him.

"I just wanna hear you laugh for once, is that a crime?" Elpenor asked, and he sounded surprisingly sincere. It sent a warm, hopeful flutter through his chest that he had to smother. He needed to deflect.

Asterios threw his head back and let out a loud, hearty, obviously fake laugh. "HA HA HA! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?" he yelled in his face, his words practically dripping with sarcasm.

"Overjoyed," Elpenor practically purred, grabbing his wings and folding them gently so that the tips of the feathers stroked over his ears and neck. He squeaked and shut his eyes tight, his breath coming out in short bursts through his nose as he did everything he could not to laugh. It wasn't really working. 

He doesn't mean it, he's just fucking with you, don't get your hopes up. He's just teasing, he's not actually having that much fun-

"Oh I'm having a blast," Elpenor taunted, smirking at the horrified look that washed over him.

Asterios stared up at him in shock, lurching forward to escape, only to remain trapped in Elpenor's arms. Not... the worst place to be trapped, if he were being honest.

"Gehehet out of my head!" he growled through helpless giggles as his own fucking feathers reduced him to nothing but breathless laughter and embarrassing snorts.

"Dude, you're the one projecting your thoughts in my head," he pointed out, barely holding back his own laughter.

"Ihihi can't hehehelp it!"

"Awww I know, isn't it great?"

Asterios didn't even want to know what shade of red he was. "Nohoho!" How he managed to sound sarcastic even now, Elpenor would never know.

"But it's the only time you're really honest with us!"

"It ihihis not!" he adamantly denied.

"Eh, agree to disagree," he shrugged, dragging the wings along his neck. Asterios squealed and shook his head back and forth, his laughter taking on a desperate pitch. His nose was scrunched adorably and his mouth hung open in a wide smile as shrill giggles and squeals continued to erupt from him. His rarely seen dimples were on full display across his rosy cheeks. It was a priceless sight to behold.

Elpenor couldn't help himself. "You know, my offer still stands. I can let you go if you just admit how downright precious you are!" he cooed in the most patronizing tone Asterios has ever heard. To make matters worse, he hugged him closer to his chest so he could nuzzle against his neck.

"Nohoho, plehehease!" Asterios couldn't even think straight; every nerve in his body set on fire while his heart felt like it skipped a hundred beats. He thrashed as much as he could, his shrieking cackles interrupted by the occasional snort.

"Alright, how 'bout you just tell me where you're most ticklish instead?" Asterios gawked at him and fervently shook his head.

"I think I'd rather die!"

"Wow, that's a bit much, even for you."

"Ehehelpenor, plehease! Just lehehet me gooo!"

"Pick your poison, tough guy," he taunted directly in his ear, sending goosebumps racing across his skin. At least now he could hide behind his wings, but that offered little solace as Elpenor rubbed what little scruff he had against his neck. In the past, Asterios had mocked him for not being able to grow a full beard, but it was just enough to be pure torture.

"Just kihihill mehe alreaDYYYY!" he broke off into a giggly shriek, flailing helplessly.

"Fine, have it your way. Death by tickles it is. Not a very heroic way to go, if you ask me," he mused smugly.

Gods save him, this is downright cruel! Fucking fine! Let the bastard win, his sanity is worth more than his shattered dignity at this point.

"Ohohokahahay, you wihihin!" he caved, and Elpenor pulled away with a smug grin. Asterios gasped for breath in between residual giggles, eyes closed and still smiling.

"I believe there's something you wanted to say?" he prompted.

His lips twitched into a forced scowl, "Yeah, you're a dick." Elpenor gasped at the insult and went back to scribbling at the base of his wings, causing him to crumble immediately.

"Okay okahay, I'm sorry!"

"That's what I thought." It took all the willpower he had not to mock him. When Asterios realized that he hadn't stopped staring at him, he let out a frustrated huff.

"By the Gods, alright already! I guess I'm… maybe, kinda, a little bit... cute," he said the word as if it left a bitter taste on his tongue. He felt like he needed to rinse his mouth out with sea water.

Elpenor arched a brow in amusement. "Is that the best you can do?"

"It's the best you're gonna get."

"Fair enough," he finally relented, letting Asterios go. He let himself go completely limp on the stairs, not bothering to move his head from Elpenor's lap.

"You better sleep with one eye open tonight," he threatened, but the wide grin on his face diminished the threat.

"Yeah yeah," he waved him off dismissively.

"I mean it!" he insisted when it seemed he wasn't being taken seriously.

"Sure you do," Elpenor nodded along. Asterios rolled his eyes and sat up straight, turning away from him with a huff. One last thing wouldn't hurt...

He leaned forward and blew against his wings, eliciting one last squeal from his friend. He whipped around to fix him with a glare, but it was blatantly obvious that he was holding back a shy, playful grin.

"Try that again and see what happens."

[3liza]

the other thing about the anti-intellectual defenses of "I can misspell or eggcorn whatever I want it's my dialect" is like yeah that's technically true in some cases (although appeals to anti-classism in these posts is questionable coming from posters from the majority socioeconomic bracket and dominant ethnic/national background on this website, ie, me) you can also do math wrong and not be great at differentiating green-blue color swatches etc no one is saying you're a bad person or have to stop doing something. the grammar and spelling goblins on this site are just pointing out that there is an agreed-upon, formal and correct usage that is extensively documented. you don't have to use it. but there is one, and you should be aware of it. "well I don't care and will spell however I want" that's valid but it's also not what we're talking about.

me personally I love finding out I'm wrong about something. I did not used to, it used to scare the shit out of me, maybe as a holdover from formal school environments and childhood where being wrong equated to punishment. as an adult I have started to really love finding bugs in my code that I can actually fix. a completely inconsequential example is that i was writing the ampersand variant that looks like a cross between a 3 and a $ incorrectly and backwards for like 30 years. what a relief it was to find out something I didn't know I was doing wrong had been identified so I could fix it

[kitzatara]

My full Zatanna Bring Down The House Review!

(spoiler filled, you have been warned!)

First of all I really enjoyed it, it is a very good characterization of Zatanna. We see her heroism and her innate desire to help people, even strangers, and people she doesn’t trust. Helping the magic users, and seeing her desire to do what’s right. She was determined and doesn’t hesitate to help, just like the hero she is.

She had a dry sense of humor, a showman personality and love of performing, her stubborn will and her temper as well. These are all traits that I have seen and consider to be consistent in Zee over the years. So seeing them be core to her in this book was very much appreciated.

I do have a couple narrative nitpicks, 1) she’s never killed anyone, ever. So the decision to have her accidentally kill a kid in the story was a shame to me. I don’t like the breaking of that 60 year record. My only comfort is that it technically isn’t canon. So technically her record is still intact.

2) is the casters doing logomancy. I think that should be something only Zataras can do. It’s such a unique style of spellcasting, and having other magic users be able to do it sort’ve undermines this unique concept. The original reason the Zataras spoke backwards was because they were descendants of Da Vinci. So others should find it extremely difficult to do if they can do it at all.

I’ve mixed opinions about the casters & bunnies in general. They remind me of the Homo Magi, And I couldn’t help but feel that making Zatara part of a secret magic group was just taking from Sindella’s origin. Which has already happened by making Zatara a Homo Magi, I think the casters easily could’ve been swapped for the Homo Magi. But they were interesting, warring factions of magic is always a fun concept.

One problem I have, that isn’t exclusive to this book, was having her not use magic much until the end. It’s very common for magic users to have this trope of powerlessness. Especially at the start of a hero’s journey. So, I recognize the story format but I’m tired of seeing it.

We’ve now have had 6 stories follow a similar route (7 soldiers, come together, Mystik U, Jewel of gravesend, mystery of the meanest teacher) also absolute power, and technically both JLD runs also begin similarly. Seeing Zatanna constantly at square one no longer serves her character, her story, and discards her history. We should move past stories centered on her not using magic and start moving on to stories of her being a fully realized sorceress.

My final big problem with the story is constantine’s inclusion. I’ve made posts on other platforms about how poorly he treats her and will eventually post one here. But in Bring Down The House he is once again made a part of her origin and revealed to be manipulating things behind the scenes, keeping secrets from her, and even lying to her because he knows better and is trying to “keep her safe.” It’s just an example of sexist tropes like him manipulating and infantilizing her. Which I am also sick of seeing.

That all being said the conclusion is the crown jewel of the story. It’s immensely satisfying. We got to see her transfiguring an army of demons easily. A powerful ability in her tool kit that I feel isn’t utilized as much as it used to be. The bunnies as allies was also fun, and having magical bunnies as allies and a part of her show is a fun and whimsical addition to her lore that I’ve wanted to see.

It was dare I say almost worth the typical and repetitive hero’s journey. While the decision to make Zatara the villain of this story was interesting, albeit not one I would have made. His defeat was wonderful and spectacular. It was emotional, impactful and bad ass. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally, it must be said and cannot be understated how beautiful the art was. It was colorful, whimsical, and just perfect for her story. It wove with the narrative seamlessly. I loved the artwork in this book. Truly blew me away.

So even though I have my criticisms and nitpicks, it was still a really fun and beautiful read, with a perfect ending. I wish the series was an ongoing, or led to a solo title for her because reading this showed how fun her story could be. All in all to me it was a 4/5.

Thank you for reading

Eht dne!

[it-happened-one-fic]

Hours in the Moonlight: Somnolent Gloaming - 10. Befitting a Knight

Summary: You still didn’t know much about Malleus’s rank, even though you were starting to put together the puzzle pieces on that front, but now you knew he at least had someone who resembled a knight-like figure. Albeit, a loud one.

Series Type: Gender-neutral reader/ Vampire AU/ series/ romantic/ angst/ angst with comfort/ fluff/ sfw/ platonic interactions too!

Trigger Warning: Vampire

Word Count: 1513

Hours in the Moonlight Master-List

I didn’t make it very far in my walk after Lilia’s disappearance before I ran into another character from the Diasomnia clan. Though this one wasn’t strange so much as he was generally unpleasant and rather menacing.

In reality, I really should have been prepared to have a less than pleasant encounter with a vampire considering the way they had stared at me and Silver earlier this evening. But, almost predictably, I was startled when I found my way blocked by a tall young man with pinkish hair. 

A small, strange part of me wondered if the color choice for his hair dye was inspired by Lilia’s presence in the clan.

I blinked up at the man as he grinned down at me, fangs clearly on display as he spoke, “Don’t you have a guard with you today?”

The frown that appeared on my face was immediate even as I stepped backwards, away from both him and his gloating tone, “Your clan leader said I could walk around as I pleased.”

He chuckled at my words, eyes narrowing as he leaned towards me, “Maybe he did, but maybe doing so isn’t the wisest thing for someone quite so… appetizing.”

It was like déjà vu. This man reminded me of the vampires I’d met in the past and was the reason I’d been so wary of Vil to start with. Because vampires like this man seemed to revel in the fear they caused in others. And, frankly speaking, it was disgusting.

I almost grimaced at him, but instead I merely crossed my arms. Showing fear or disgust was seldom a good idea with vampires like this man. Even Rook had told me that it usually just seemed to excite them. It was like they took it as a challenge or something.

It was true that I’d also learned that standing your ground could excite them, but that honestly seemed like the better option. Especially since I was here in my capacity as the local vampire hunter.

Appearing frightened might not be the best look considering my current profession. And while disgust might fit the bill, I really didn’t want to deal with getting in a fight.

But, with that said, I also wasn’t going to just let this guy threaten me.

“It also might not be wise to bother the guest of your clan’s leader,” I let my eyebrows lift as I spoke. But it was true. I technically was Malleus’s guest since he had agreed to let me use the Diasomnia library for research.

Still, even as I played brave, I let myself retreat when the man stepped forward, his eyes alight with an uncomfortably familiar expression as he all but breathed his response, “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

I had been hoping that the man would back off when I mentioned Malleus. After all, Malleus himself had implied that a lot of people feared him.

But then I did have to question this man’s good sense. It was hardly the brightest idea to attack a vampire hunter working for your district’s head-vampire in the middle of your clan’s headquarters.

Even if Crowley and I didn’t have the best working relationship, I somehow doubted he would ignore someone outright killing me should I fail to defend myself. After all, ignoring something like that would make him look weak. And I didn’t know much about vampire politics, but I doubted that was the sort of rumor Crowley would want going around.

But then, relying on Crowley’s name hardly seemed wise either. It hadn’t exactly stopped anyone before now after all.

I took another step back, my hand sliding down to the zipper on my bag only for the man in front of me to get stopped by a hand wrapping firmly around his arm and pulling him to an abrupt halt.

His eyebrows furrowed, and he turned, looking behind him even as I stared at Sebek in genuine surprise.

At odds with my wide-eyed surprise, there was a deep frown on the young man’s face as he spoke, “And what does Lord Malleus not know?”

And it was strange. Because normally Sebek’s voice was a booming yell, or at least louder than what would be the norm, but right now it was lower and filled with a sort of unspoken threat that had me wondering exactly what Sebek’s relationship to Malleus was.

He behaved like something akin to a guard or potentially a crazed fan, but so far as I knew, none of the other clan leaders had anything like a guard.

But then, Malleus did seem far more grandiose than many of the others. And he had apparently once had a castle. Perhaps he was some form of ancient vampire nobility?

The vampire stood still for a moment longer, his teeth grinding together before he yanked his arm out of Sebek’s grasp, biting out an annoyed, “Nothing.”

He turned, walking past me, his eyes flicking my way and a smile curving across his face as my eyes followed him warily, “Until next time, Mortal.”

His eyes flashed slightly before he was completely past me and moving on down the hallway. Leaving me alone with Sebek.

I looked back towards Sebek to see him staring in the direction the other vampire had disappeared, and I relaxed. Letting my hand slip away from my bag as I shifted awkwardly, “Thank you… That was fixing to get-”

“You should be more careful,” Sebek interrupted, his gaze darting my way before halting on my person. Almost like he expected his stare alone to be able to root me in place as I blinked at him in quiet surprise.

He only crossed his arms though, his gaze turning more annoyed as he stared pointedly at me, “A human such as yourself should know better than to be caught alone with someone of his ilk.”

I let out a sigh, shaking my head in slight annoyance while also doing my best to not lose my temper. I imagined that Sebek meant well even if his words were rather demeaning.

“I can’t exactly go around with a bodyguard either, though. And I can handle myself,” I met his gaze and was surprised to see that he only seemed more frustrated by my words.

He strode over, his walk purposeful and causing me to stumble back slightly before he abruptly stopped directly in front of me, “You are like Silver, which means that even if you are the Hunter, you are at risk simply due to your assuredly intoxicating scent.”

His words were bitten out and were rising in volume. He would no doubt be yelling in a few moments, but I found myself half stammering out my response as I all but gaped at him in shock, “In-Intoxicating??”

My scent had been mentioned by other vampires, and I was reasonably certain that it was what attracted them, but it had never been quite so bluntly described. Much less as intoxicating.

His left eye twitched, and his next words were practically growled, “It appears that you don’t realize the gravity of your situation.”

I stared at him in perfect shock as he somehow managed to straighten even despite his already perfect posture, and I felt my confusion only swell as a smug smile appeared on his face, at odds with what I’d expected.

But nothing could have prepared me for his booming words: “THEN IT SHALL FALL TO ME THEN TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY!”

I blinked in raw surprise at both his volume and his declaration before slowly shaking my head, “Oh, no, Sebek. That’s very kind, but-”

“NO! It is a duty befitting a knight, and you are Lord Malleus’s guest. Seeing you injured would shame him and thus CANNOT OCCUR!” I almost flinched at his bellowed words, and I could quite literally hear murmurs from rooms that branched off from the hallway.

At odds with my slight mortification at this turn of events, Sebek seemed to have gained new energy and was looking at me with bright eyes that had me wondering if he really was young. He certainly did look and seem young in this instant….

“Where are you headed to, human? I SHALL ESCORT YOU!” I smiled awkwardly, feeling oddly like I’d been steamrollered into my current position, but also finding I wasn’t that upset.

Somehow, there was an awkward kindness to Sebek that I hadn’t noticed until now. It was like he wanted to ensure my safety and hadn’t been able to figure out how to until now. In fact, I’d thought that Sebek didn’t trust me.

A small part of me wondered if Lilia had spoken to him or something, especially since the short man had just expressed his wishes for me to get along with Sebek, so….

“I was just heading back to the library after my break,” I gave way, defeated but not upset as I smiled at the young man next to me.

 Sebek nodded quickly before turning on his heel and taking the lead, “VERY WELL THEN! This way!”

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[fipindustries]

working on animation this last few months i notice there is an unexpected aspect of the process i never realized i really enjoyed. is hard to descrive, specially if you dont know my workflow, but the best way i can label it is as "maintenance and clerical duties".

just so you get an idea of what im talking about, when i am deep in the sauce my workplace can end up looking like this:

each layer there has a purpose, every folder and subfolder i creae there is important and i have to keep track of all the hierarchies,what layer is on top of what layer, how i am resolving overlapping animation, what is covering what, what is wrapped around what else, what are the color layers, how to solve the transparency affecting some layers and not others, wether i should moove a given loop a few frames forwards or backwards, how to sync the movement of one character to the movement of another character and so on.

none of this involves actually animating (that is to say, drawing or illustrating a character doing something) at any point. is all about moving layers, and frames and fiddling with organizational hierarchies in folders and etc.

and actually really enjoy doing most of it, surprisingly enough.

is a nice break from the tedium of drawing the same character over and over, plus its so incredibly fast. compared with animation, where i can spend two hours drawing five frames, when it comes to clerical duties i can entirely reshape the timing and feeling of the whole animation just fiddling around with the UI for a few minutes.

also it engages completly different parts of my brain. is no longer about the technical rigors of artistic illustration, about asking myself whether an image looks proportioned or balanced or on model. is a engineer kind of problem solving, is almost like a little puzzle i get to complete as a break from making art. also it tends to involve a much more mechanical and mindless kind of labor when i have to go frame by frame correcting some problem with formating so i can just unplug my brain, listen to my podcasts and let my hands do the work for me.

is a nice change of pace

[duckapus]

Game Idea: Mario & Sonic Party

(Part 2 so you don't have to scroll all the way to the bottom if you've read this already) (3 as well)

Story: Bowser and Eggman team up and use a machine to combine their two worlds so they can use the resulting chaos to take over. To stop them, the heroes of both worlds team up to collect Emerald Stars (Power Stars that have been infused with Chaos Energy due to the dimensions colliding) that are appearing in seven different locations, so that they can summon the Chaos Emeralds and use their power to fix everything.

Each Board is a combination of a Mario Series location and a Sonic Series location (or a location from one series and level theme from another, or themes from both), and their Emerald Stars are the same color as the Chaos Emerald that gets collected on that board in Story Mode. Also, each board has a Mario Series Host and a Sonic Series Host. Bowser and Eggman are physically on the Board to cause trouble, either through Board Events or interfering with star collection in some way, and Kamek and Sage are the ones manning the Bowser and Eggman spaces.

We're also bringing back the function of the DK spaces from the Gamecube era, particularly the MP5 version with an Event Roulette, but using Rosalina and Silver.

Coins and Rings are separate currencies because I couldn't find a good way to combine them. For boards with standard roaming Star Spaces, Stars can be bought for either 20 Coins, 20 Rings, or 15 of each. Blue and Red Spaces can give and take either 3 Coins or 3 Rings based on a coin flip, but on the last 5 turns give and take 6 Coins and 6 Rings.

Mario-Related facilities, items and events affect the Coin count, while Sonic-based ones affect the Ring count. Because of that, there's two each of the usual passing spaces:

The Item Shops are run by Toadette and Charmy

There's the Koopa Bank and the Orbank (run by Orbot of course)

Cubot is the Sonic equivalent to Boo. (in terms of how their space works. I am aware that the Sonic Series has their own version of Boos, I just wanted to use Cubot).

I'm also bringing back Team Match, complete with team names for each combination, partly because forcing Omega and Metal Sonic to work together in a casual party game amuses me. And character-specific taunts.

CPUs can be set to Easy, Normal, Hard, Master, and the unlockable Super Difficulty. Super is unlocked by completing a match on every Board in Party Mode at least once. This includes the secret eighth Board you unlock by beating Story Mode, so that's technically also a requirement.

Playable Characters

Mario Luigi Peach Yoshi Wario Donkey Kong Daisy Waluigi Birdo Bowser Jr. (Not selectable in Story Mode due to being an enemy CPU) Ashley (Unlocked by completing Story Mode. Not selectable in Story Mode because she's an important NPC in it) Petey Piranha (Unlocked by putting 100 Stars in the Star Bank. Playable in Story Mode)

Sonic Tails Amy Knuckles Shadow Vector Cream & Cheese (Cheese does not affect gameplay) Espio Rouge Metal Sonic (Not selectable in Story Mode due to being an enemy CPU) Blaze (Unlocked by completing Story Mode. Not selectable in Story Mode because she's an important NPC in it) Omega (Unlocked by putting 100 Stars in the Star Bank. Playable in Story Mode)

Boards

Goomba Hill Zone Hosts: Captain Toad and Vanilla Emerald Star Color: Green A combination of the standard first level grassland theme from both games. Hills with eyes and loops, brick blocks and palm trees, Goombas and Badniks, you know the drill. A linear board with a stationary Star Space at the end. There are Board Events that can affect the price of the star, how many stars can be bought at a time, and move Players forward or backward along the path.

Labyrinth Bay Hosts: Marine and Captain Syrup Emerald Star Color: Blue Labyrinth Zone got dumped into a 2D Mario water level and now everyone can breathe down there just fine and the place is full of aquatic Mario enemies. Lots and lots of branching paths.

Soleanna-Delfino Crossing Hosts: Elise and the Hotel Manager Emerald Star Color: Cyan The Kingdom of Soleanna and Isle Delfino got merged, and the board takes place in the canals and winding streets of their mixed-up capital cities.

Diamond Casino Hosts: Mona and Gemerl Emerald Star Color: Purple One of those Zones made up of giant pinball table elements and gambling machines appeared in Diamond City and Wario saw a moneymaking opportunity, so now it's all WarioWare Themed and Rigged as Hell. There are no Star Spaces, instead you earn Stars by gambling in the Board Events.

Shrine Jungle Hosts: Diddy Kong and Tikal. Emerald Star Color: Red Angel Island and DK Isle got combined and Cranky Can and Will complain about it. Goes in a rough figure 8 around DK's Treehouse and the Master Emerald Shrine, with a permanent Star Space directly in front of each landmark. Diddy's Star Space only accepts Coins, while Tikal's only accepts Rings.

PaperCraft Camelot Hosts: Merlon and Merlina Emerald Star Color: White The version of Camelot from Sonic and the Black Knight got put into the Paper Mario Universe's book, and is now available in Pop-Up form in Peach's Library.

BowsEgg Battle Cruiser Hosts: Bowser and Eggman Emerald Star Color: Yellow A Warship that combines elements from the Koopa Troop's Airships and the Egg Carrier. Nearly every Event on this Board has a negative effect.

Dimensional Collision Zone (Unlocked by completing Story Mode) Hosts: Polari and Yacker Uses special Vortex Stars instead of Emerald Stars. This is purely cosmetic and only there for story reasons. Consists of the Comet Observatory and debris from the Death Egg floating in a swirling vortex between the two worlds, with the Death Egg itself visible in the background with a big chunk blown out of it. Created when Bowser and Eggman overloaded their machine while trying to keep the heroes from stopping it.

Story Mode

Since I've already explained what the story is, I'll just stick to the mechanics.

This time, Story Mode allows up to two players, who will be on a team together. The Player team must pick one Mario Character and one Sonic Character, while the Enemy team is always Bowser Jr. and Metal Sonic. They play a standard 20 Turn Team Match on modified versions of each board, and if they beat the Villain team they play a Boss Minigame related to the board's modification to earn that Board's Chaos Emerald. Or just to beat Bowser and Eggman, in the case of the final Board. Goomba Hill Zone is always the first Board, BowsEgg Battle Cruiser the penultimate, and Dimensional Collision Zone the final, while the other five are played in a random order.

Also, BowsEgg Battle Cruiser doesn't get modified because it's already enemy territory, and Dimensional Collision Zone doesn't get modified because it's designed for story mode already.

Spaces

Landing Space

Blue: Gives 3 Coins or 3 Rings. On the last 5 Turns, gives 6 Coins and 6 Rings.

Red: Takes 3 Coins or 3 Rings. On the last 5 Turns, takes 6 Coins and 6 Rings.

Happening: Causes context-specific events depending on where it is. Randomizes Space Color during Minigame Category Selection.

Item: Initiates an Item Minigame. Every Board has two unique Item Minigames, each run by one of the Board Hosts. Randomizes Space Color during Minigame Selection.

Chance Time: Initiates the Chance Time Event. It works exactly how it does in Mario Party Superstars, except now there's Rings added into the mix. Counts as a Blue Space for Minigame Selection.

Duel: The landing Player is asked by a Shy Guy riding a Motobug to choose which of the other three Players to duel (random is an option, declining is not), and then hits a Roulette Block to decide whether they’ll be dueling for Coins, Rings, both, or Stars, as well as the amount of Coins and/or Rings (Players can only play for one Star each). If both Players have no Stars, Stars cannot be selected on the Roulette. If one player has no Stars they must bet: >40 Coins >40 Rings >20 Coins and 20 Rings >20 of one currency plus however many are needed to compensate for the other (so if they have 30 Coins and 17 Rings they have to bet all their Rings and 23 Coins) >All their Coins and Rings depending on what they can afford. If they have 40 or more of both currency, it's decided at random which of the two gets used. Then the Duel Minigame is initiated. Randomizes Space Color during Minigame Category Selection.

Coin Battle: The Mario Series Board Host collects coins from all Players, with the amount determined by the landing player hitting a Roulette Block, and initiates a Battle Minigame. Randomizes Space Color during Minigame Selection.

Ring Battle: Same as the above, but run by the Sonic Host and uses rings instead of coins. Also, Battle Minigames can randomly take the place of 4-Player minigames during normal Minigame Category Selection, and when that happens it's random whether they're for Coins, Rings, or both. The end-of-turn Battle Minigames can be turned off when setting the parameters of the Party.

Bowser: Kamek appears and chooses a Bowser Event from a Roulette, usually with negative effects for whoever landed there. Any currency-based events only affect Coins. In Story Mode, he instead steals 20 Coins from the Player team or gives 20 coins to the Villain team if one of them lands there. Counts as a Red Space for Minigame Selection.

Eggman: The same as above, but using Sage, Eggman Events, and Rings.

Rosalina: Rosalina appears and chooses a Rosalina Event from a Roulette, usually with positive effects for whoever landed there. Currency-related Events only affect Coins. In Story Mode, she gives 20 Coins to the Player team or takes 20 Coins from the Villain team, depending on who lands there. Counts as a Blue Space for Minigame Selection.

Silver: Same as above, but using Silver, Silver Events, and Rings.

Thrown Item: Modified versions of Blue and Red Spaces created when a Player chooses to put a Throwable Item there. The Space will now initiate the effect of whichever Item was thrown, in addition to its original properties. Depending on the nature of the Thrown Item, the Space will either return to normal after the effect is initiated or will be permanently altered until overwritten with another Thrown Item.

Chaos Control: Shuffles the positions of all Players. Counts as a Red Space during Minigame Selection.

Lucky: Initiates a Roulette that can give a set number of Coins or Rings, a useful item, or a Board-specific perk that makes getting the Player's next star easier. Counts as a Blue Space for Minigame Selection.

Koopa Bank: Every player who passes the Space gives 5 Coins to the Koopa Troopa, and whoever lands on the Space gets all the Coins the bank has accumulated. Randomizes Space Color for Minigame Selection.

Orbank: Same as above, but Orbot runs it and only accepts Rings.

Passing Space These can't be landed on and don't count towards number of Spaces walked, but still require some sort of interaction.

Star Space: Any player who passes has the option to buy an Emerald Star (Vortex Star on Dimensional Collision Zone) from one of the Board Hosts for 20 Coins, 20 Rings, or 15 of each, after which the Star will move to another of several specific spaces, replacing a Blue Space. The Hosts alternate every time a Star is sold, with the Mario Host going first. Star Spaces work differently on Goomba Hill Zone and Shrine Jungle (explained in the Boards section), and don't exist at all on Diamond Casino. Some Boards have Events that affect the price of Stars, number of Stars that can be bought at a time, or number of active Star Spaces.

Toadette's Shop: Allows the Player to purchase one of the three displayed Items. Which Items are available and what price they are is somewhat random, but strongly influenced by both which turn it is and where the Player currently is in the rankings. Toadette only carries Dice Blocks and Mario Series Items, and only accepts Coins.

Charmy's Shop: Same as above, but Charmy only carries Dice Blocks and Sonic Series Items and only accepts Rings.

Item Dispenser: Gives the Player one random item when they pass over it, assuming they have space in their inventory.

Boo: Any Player who passes has the chance to have Boo steal either Coins or a Star from another Player, with Random as an option. Stealing Coins is free and the targeted Player can mash "A" to struggle, with Boo able to steal a maximum of 30 Coins. Stealing a Star costs 30 Coins.

Cubot: Same as above, but for Rings instead of Coins.

Junction: Requires the Player to choose which branching path to follow. The shortest path to a Star Space is always chosen by default. Some Junctions may have a path blocked off until certain conditions are met.

Event Arrow: Context-sensitive, just like Happening Spaces.

Rocky Wrench and Egg Pawn's Shops: Exclusive to BowsEgg Battle Cruiser, and replace the real shops for a maximum of three turns as the result of a Board Event. Forces the Player to buy a special item with a negative effect (which I haven't come up with yet) for 15 Coins at Rocky Wrench's and 15 Rings at Egg Pawn's.

Bowser Events

Disappearing Coin Trick: Kamek steals 10, 20, or 30 Coins from the Player based on a Roulette.

Incredible Disappearing Coins!: Same as above, but affects all Players.

Bowser Minigame: Initiates one of the three Bowser Minigames.

Bowser Revolution!: Splits all Players' Coins equally.

Get 100 Gems!: The Player is given 100 Gems...which have absolutely no purpose in gameplay, effectively meaning that no event has occurred. Rouge and Wario have positive reactions to this event despite functionally getting nothing.

Head to the Star!: Kamek uses his magic to send the Player one Space after the Star Space. On Shrine Jungle, this places them one Space after Diddy Kong.

Star Donation: Kamek steals a star from the Player. If they have no Stars, he gives them 10 Coins instead.

Go Away!: Kamek teleports the Player to the Eggman Space.

If the Player has no Coins when they land on the Bowser Space, Kamek will give them 15 Coins out of pity. He will not do this during Story Mode.

Eggman Events

All of them are functionally identical to the Bowser events, but with different names and aesthetics that fit Sage's personality and abilities, and currency-related events involve Rings instead of Coins.

Ring Retrieval

Ring Retrieve: All

Eggman Minigame

Economic Balance

Receive 100 Egg-Credits: Unlike Kamek's version, no-one has a funny reaction to this. (Edit: Actually no, I've decided that Yoshi and Amy have positive reactions to getting Egg-Credits. For Some Reason)

Tele. To: Star Space: On Shrine Jungle, this places the Player one Spece after Tikal.

Star Retrieval

Leave This Place

If the Player has no Rings when they land on the Eggman Space, Sage will give them 15 Coins and wish them luck. She will not do this during Story Mode.

Rosalina Events

Cosmic Bonus: Gives the Player 10, 20, or 30 Coins, based on a Roulette.

Rosalina Minigame: The Player hits a special Dice Block to determine if Star Bits will be worth 1, 3, or 5 Coins, then initiates one of the three Rosalina Minigames.

Cosmic Gift: The Player may open one of three Question Mark Blocks, which contain a Triple Dice, 15 Coins, and a Star.

Launch Star: Sends the Player one Space before the Star Space. On Shrine Jungle, this sends the Player one Space before Diddy Kong.

Silver Events

Like with Kamek and Sage, these are identical to Rosalina's Events, but use Rings instead of Coins and are modified aesthetically to fit Silver.

Temporal Bonus

Silver Minigame: Uses Time Gears instead of Star Bits.

Temporal Gift: Uses Monitors instead of Question Mark Blocks.

Psycho Boost: On Shrine Jungle, this sends the Player one space before Tikal.

Bonus Stars

At the end of each Party, three of these are randomly selected to be given to the Players. This feature can be turned off when setting the Party parameters.

Happening Star: Awarded to the Player who landed on the most Happening Spaces.

Spender Star: Awarded to the Player who spent the most Coins and Rings on Items.

Running Star: Awarded to the Player who moved the most Spaces.

Slow Star: Awarded to the Player who moved the fewest Spaces.

Minigame Star: Awarded to the Player who won the most Minigames.

Item Star: Awarded to the Player who used and/or Threw the most Items.

Hero Star: Awarded to the Player who landed on the Rosalina and Silver Spaces most often.

Villain Star: Awarded to the Player who landed on the Bowser and Eggman Spaces most often.

Chaos Star: Awarded to the Player who landed on the Chaos Control Space most often.

Lucky Star: Awarded to the Player who landed on the Lucky Space most often.

And that's enough for this post. Part 2 will be about Minigame Mode, and will come out when I feel like having it come out.

(Edit: I lied. Not on purpose but I lied. Anyway Part 2 here.) (And 3 here. this one does have minigame mode)

[chaeul]

I was tagged by my lovely friends @lilmaemae, @jez-bez and @ella-norah to share a few things about myself

It was fun getting to know more abut you ♥ My turn now :shy:

Do you tidy your bed? Yes. I didn't always but as I've gotten older and life became more hectic, I've started to appreciate the sense of peace and calm a tidy, neat looking room can give. Also if I didn't make my bed I'd be sleeping in cat hair :D No amount of trying to get rid of it will get rid of it all. With my bed made, at least the hair stays on my blanket as opposed to underneath it

What's your favorite number? Even numbers are must. There are many that I like but the most important ones are 4 (can't explain this one and 22 (back in elementary school each kid had a number associated with them; mine was 22 and it stuck. I also enjoy that it's the same backwards and forwards

What is your job? I wfh doing administrative tasks for a physiotherapist's office and I'm one of two official caretakers for my grandparents (not technically a job but it does count towards my state pension)

If you could go back to school, would you? I mostly enjoyed school. So much so that my plan was to become a teacher, actually. Uni on the other hand wasn't for me. I wonder if it would've been different if my mental and physical health hadn't plummeted back then. Considering I'm not doing much better rn, I would not go back to uni, no.

Can you parallel park? Technically yes, but I do have performance anxiety about it and I'd rather not (and I won't on busy streets). I much prefer parking in a parking lot with cars to my left and right instead of in front and behind me.

A job you had that would surprise people? I don't think there is one

Do you think aliens are real? I'm sure there's life out there somewhere. Or that there was or will be at some point in the future. Do I believe that life to be similar to us humans? No, not really.

Can you drive a manual car? I learned and got my license on a manual car but we've ever only owned automatic ones so I that's what I've been driving ever since I got my license. A few months of manual vs 16+years of automatic... I don't trust myself to be able to still drive manual

What's your guilty pleasure? I think I've reached a point in my life where I don't really feel guilty or ashamed about anything I find pleasure in tbh. At least not that I can think of rn.

Tattoos? None

Favorite color? aqua, lavender, a deep rich red and a warm orange

Favorite type of music? there are barely any genres I actively dislike and maaaaaaaaany that I enjoy but there can be too much of a good thing, so variety is important (in the grand scheme of things! because I enjoy listening to the same song on loop for hours, sometimes even days too) and it's hard to pick a favorite. But I certainly do love musical soundtracks as well as quite a bit of everything kpop has to offer

Do you like puzzles? depends on the difficulty. if it's too hard or I can't even come up with a possible way to solve them I lose interest

Any phobias? wasps and dentists

Favorite childhood sport? I'm not sure if there's a difference in definition of the word 'sport' between German and English or if it's a diifference between the world and me but to me, a sport is any sort of activity that requires a certain amount of physical effort. I know many don't consider dancing a sport but it is to me. Many different types of dance were my favorite sport in childhood and they're still important to me now

Do you talk to yourself? I talk to my cat when I'm at home and sometimes I narrate things to her. That's pretty much the same thing isn't it? Other than that I don't talk to myself out loud but I do it in my head sometiimes

What movie(s) do you adore? there are simply too many to choose from and I'm not that into movies. I much prefer tv shows. But I've seen you all mentioning Tangled and that certainly is my favorite Disney movie among the ones that came out since I became an adult. Plus I did enjoy the mcu movies before everything went downhhill

Coffee or tea? neither iced tea

First thing you wanted to be growing up? I don't remember the very first thing exactly but I had dreams of being a teacher, a vet, a musical theatre performer... the list goes on

I you're seeing this, consider yourself tagged! ♥

[jack-kellys]

west end question: i obviously love my brooklyn girls and would die for them all, but is it bad that it’s taken away the sprace dynamic for me? like i’m still 100% on board with a nowhere near canon ship and it shouldn’t affect me they’ve decided to have spot be a girl, but it lowkey has? and i feel kinda guilty about it? idk i love my proshot boys. but i am 100% here for all the uk newsies cast they are amazing and so talented and it’s definitely my favourite production by far!! idk if i’m making sense

ok part of me feels a litle baited actually because like. i feel like... im vocal abt mlm musical sprace not being a big vibe for me in the first place. so im a funny person to ask if you were looking for relief lmao. anyway here's my thesis below.

wait also if ur a white newsie fan a read-thru+rb of this would be much appreciated thank youuu (also yall have been eating up my character analyses anyway sooooo!)

TL;DR THESIS: if you're feeling genuinely let down that your ship did not see the light of day and a black girlsie spot conlon got to instead, then yes, you should reevaluate that.

followers, if you've been with me long enough, you know that i have quite strong opinions about how this show gets treated when it comes to interpretations and fandom/fanon. mostly, this is because i literally work in theater, and it's extremely backwards in my brain personally when shows get treated more like a movie or tv show than a performance piece.

im also one of the only ppl in this fandom that ever seems to dare speak on race (not the damn character smh). and anon, buddy, kiddo, this does have to do with race, gender, and sexuality.

firstly, what i think needs to be understood about newsies, is that it is theater, which means it is meant to be mutable. there is no one way. there should never be one way. it does not exist. secondly, theater does not exist in a fandom vacuum. its live every night, conceptually. theater is a live performance art.

interpretations change- it's the nature of theater. so i think asks like these really do illuminate the difference between fans of the show's content or fans of... i guess the show's culture's content.

this is a culture content ask.

one thing i really, truly, deeply need you all to understand: from an objective, script- and staging-based perspective, proshot sprace does not exist. they do not speak. they barely see each other. race does not even volunteer to go to brooklyn. the ship originates from the 1992 movie, where they do actually interact, which is why the ship has prevailed through the 90s to today. they're from the movie, not the musical.

of course, this doesn't bash the ship- it has history, and naturally fans want to create new history when they get a new source material (the musical). it's true for like every newsie ship lowkey (but also not lowkey because all the manhattan newsies do interact and sprace literally does not but thats a different post!!), which is something i do admire about the fandom- we do a lot of our own legwork here, we invent relationships and backgrounds from one-liners that could be given to tbh any frickin newsie. i respect the 30 years we have invented ships.

however.

when a huge, publicized, consistently sold out production comes along with spot conlon as not only a woman, but a woman of color (specifically black rn!) as the leader of the most feared group on stage, there becomes something much more important than a "sprace dynamic", which does not canonically exist in the musical anyway bro. you can't miss something that isn't there imo. often the story and casting within a story comes first, and goddamn if this isn't one of those times. lillie-pearl's spot brings bravado, swagger, confidence, and intimidation that is literally....fine maybe i'm being personal but it is slash gen incredible to see in technically a period piece! a black woman in leadership with that kind of assuredness! in such a popular musical! how is that not– automatically surpassing an often obsessed-over (yes i am. hinting at something here, straight girl fans) mlm ship?

and while i'm on the topic of the over-obsessiveness of mlm musical sprace, let me talk about uksies sprace. because what's also wack abt this ask is that sprace is not a hopeless case in this production- it literally has about as much 'evidence' as the proshot imo!!!!!

i got to hop over to 2nd row brooklyn seating for act 2 so i saw once and for all really close up, right. there's a moment when race is upstage letting the newsies in/down from the stairs. spot comes down and she does, in fact, share a look with him. race gives spot a nod and she keeps moving.

and like im gonna see the show again (every day i am counting my mf blessings fr), so if i'm wrong or they don't do it every time i'll correct myself, but that's what i saw with my own dang eyes on saturday. they do acknowledge each other in uksies.

and since they do, i really like. i have to ask. what is bothersome/unpopular abt uksies sprace, other than oh idk.... its not white/white mlm with a twink/manly bf trope? why can't race still love who spot is as a character, this strong and fearless ruler of brooklyn, in uksies? because tbh josh's racer...nahhhh because. this is such a side note now but they'd be so good together oh jesus am i gonna ship uk sprace. and it's not like they're 'taking away' from a queer ship because a) you can headcanon spot as a queer girl and race being trans is consistently popular and b) newsies has ten billion gayass ships bro we've been eatin for literal decades.

anon, i'm sure you didn't mean harm by this ask. i'm sure, honestly, that a lot of fans are feeling the same way as you and weren't quite sure how to put it in words. but, i'm also not surprised you sent an ask like this on anonymous specifically.

should you feel guilty about it? i don't think guilt is the right word. but i believe you should think more about how newsies is not.....static. it does not exist in one form, and it never will. if you're feeling genuinely let down that your ship did not see the light of day and a black girlsie spot conlon got to instead, then yes, you should reevaluate that. in theater, you should always question why something impacted you the way it did- a major point of theater is to discuss and think about it when you leave! i know this because ive spent three years literally studying it, to back up my thesis credentials.

thank you for reading this, newsies fandom. i do honestly say all this with love, and i hope it made u think !! ♥️

[chaifootsteps]

Hey, swearing anon (as I've been so dubbed) here

I was looking through a bunch of the leaked storyboards and I noticed something: the action scenes have gotten a LOT worse and I think that's because the boards focus more on static shots (why are there like 3 panels with no directions OR dialogue nearly identical to each other that's just blitz's face?). Could be completely wrong on that one, though.

What I am completely sure in saying is that it's incredibly hard to follow action now. Most recent example is in Oops when Striker pulls Fizz and Blitz in through the window. The camera's shaking all over the goddamn place and everything moves too fast to the point I had to rewind it. This was NOT a problem in season 1, with the best example of good action animation for Spindlehorse being in the DHORKs (I miss them.) episode. It wasn't PERFECT but it was given time to breathe and none of the characters fade into the background. There's also no shaky cam.

Shaky cam looks bad in million dollar action movies and it looks even worse in animation. It doesn't make anything feel more 'real' or 'intense', it just makes me kind of nauseous because of motion sickness. Also they just said 'fuck the colorblind', I guess? If I'm having trouble with characters melding with the scenery, I can't imagine someone who has a harder time differentiating color is having a better time of it.

These are BASIC THINGS! I don't know how they fucked it up so badly when they made one season that was pretty competent on at least the technical animation level.

Also I miss the DHORKs :( They reminded me of Dirk and Roxy Homestuck

It's bizarre because a lot of the time first seasons are the ones where they work out all the kinks and then season two comes along and the show really hits its stride. Helluva Boss just went backwards in literally every regard.

[blaiddfailcam]

OH HELL YA I was tagged by @lovthievs for this particular tag game thingamajig! This one looks fun lol

When did you last cry? I feel like I always want to, but it takes a lot to actually get the tears jorkin. Def when I lost my health insurance and had a panic attack that offset my anxiety for like 6 months after tho lol

Do you have kids? In THIS economy? No and I don't really have any desire to, but I don't mind hanging out with my friends' kids and making sure they're up to speed on good music and movies lmao. I am soon to be an uncle which slightly terrifies me but it is exciting nonetheless!!

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Absolutely not, sarcasm is the mark of the devil

What sports do you play? Cornhole

What's the first thing you notice about people? The Vibes. And I do that weird thing where I try to match them so I can attempt to better communicate but the mask slips and I reveal I'm a fukon weirdo

What's your eye color? "Hazel," but I still don't know if that's true. They just look like, green to me.

Scary movies or happy endings? Scary movies, but I also love to hate them lol

Special talents? I'm weirdly good at memorizing geography and navigating. I like overanalyzing art (particularly movies and video games) to the point I tend to crack open The Lore in ways that sometimes makes headlines, which is either cool or way too dorky depending who you ask..

Where were you born? Same place that I'm still trying to get out of 🥲 There are Amish,

What are your hobbies? Video james, drawing/painting, worldbuilding, pretending to be a screenwriter, discussing fiction with others like we're trapped in a monastery together and we only have a day to converse before the next year of silence, primatology, setting up fundraisers for animal conservation, going to concerts

Do you have pets? Our cat Evie, her son Grayby, our fox hound Passion (we didn't name her), and our jack russell, Pebbles!! Evie's the eldest but most spry, Grayby's technically an old man but perpetually a baby, Pash is getting older, and Pebbles ages backwards

How tall are you? 5'8" (5'9" if I didn't have scoliosis!)

Favorite subject in school? Art, literature, then randomly biology

Dream job? Always wanted to work in film, whether screenwriting, cinematography, DoP. I Can Be Your Gaffer. But not with the way that industry's headed lmaoooo

I TAG..... uh. Shit. @amygobrrr @blugoos-corner @fairygodbomber @leftyllama fuck it up!!!!! if any of you feel up to it haha i'm not a cop

[trashgoblin-ooak]

Do not put the legs on backwards.

Do not put the legs on backwards.

Do not put the legs on backwa-

Are you kidding me!? 😤

It's fine, everything's fine. My heat gun tried to set it's self on fire and died, but it's fine.

But like, it actually is fine. I don't know what happened, maybe it overheated but it works again now so 🤷‍♀️ 😂

All jokes aside, I was really stressed about reassembling the body cause I didn't want to scratch the paint. The only real damage was a bit to the knees (which I evidently didn't photograph) that id anticipated and that one largeish scratch on the butt. I ended up just using my hairdryer to heat the plastic when reattaching the limbs, which works fine, it just takes longer.

Before I popped the legs back in I did take my craft knife to the inside of the hips to take off the paint a bit. I've noticed that the most egregious scraping happens when paint rubs against paint, so in areas that you won't even see I preemptively scraped it off.

If I were to do it again, I'd take a little more off and make sure to hit it with the alcohol marker before attaching the legs. I ended up spending a good couple hours very carefully shaving off more of the plastic inside the hip joint after the legs were back on, just to prevent as much contact from happening as I could. Only downside is I can't get the tip of the marker in there now to really color it without hitting the painted legs. Which obviously leaves a dot of marker on the exposed skin (shh it's a freckle now.) but to be honest I don't think I'm going to be looking at or photographing the doll from that low of an angle with nothing covering her that it's going to be seen.

I don't have anything to show for the couple hours of work I did scraping away ~wafer-thin bits of plastic to ensure no paint scraping, so you'll just have to take my word for it for now. I really should have recorded a video or something, but every time I do that I never end up doing anything with the videos. Damn me and my desire to be helpful but also my inability to actually be helpful.

I also realized the other day that to some this might seem like an excessive amount of extra caution being put into what are typically a set-it-and-forget-it piece of art. For me what I really enjoyed about having my first goblin-self doll was that I could take her off the shelf and pose her with things and take mini photoshoots. I made a couple Christmas outfits, the Halloween one I shared as well, and 2 different dollscale versions of my own hoodies. (Well technically one is the hubs, but you know.)

The last thing I want is to go and pose my doll for something and have an obvious gash in the paint take your eye away from the scene. Sure I could probably cleverly pose around it, or even edit the mark away in the photos. But I'd much rather it just not happen in the first place, and if it takes a few extra hours and some clever thinking in the beginning stages to not have to worry about it in the end, I think that's worth it. By no means do I think these little tricks would hold up to like, playing with her as a doll, but I think they should at the very least stand up to multiple movements and outfit changes over the years!

That's all I've got for you folks today! Might be a bit before the next update as I'm trying to put together a Victorian-era elf dressed in 16th century plague doctor garb for a Renaissance Faire in uhh... 24 days 😂

Wish me luck!

And as always, much love 💚

[annakie]

Fixing The House Chapter 6: You Will Leave Some Paint

Part One: I Do Not, In Fact, Have the Power

Part Two: Let’s Spend Lots of Money!

Part Three: All These Things That I’ve Done

Part Four: I Really Want to Stay At My House

A little interlude.

Part Five: Power Down

Part Six: You Will Leave Some Paint (YOU ARE HERE)

Part Seven: Backwards to go Forwards

Part Eight: Master of Bathrooms

Part Nine: Within a Room, Somewhere

Part Ten: Rooms With No View

Part Eleven: Big Bang Room Part A and also Part B!

Part Twelve: We Can Make It On the Outside

Part Thirteen: Mauve Haze Symphony

Part Fourteen (A) - In the Kitchen

Part Fourteen (B) - Copper Green

Look, if I don't start really working on telling this, I may never finish. So I'm just going to start, and whatever comes out, comes out.

Doing this room by room probably would be smarter, but oh well. There's still NO room that's 100% done. I'd say at this point that there's still a good 5 - 7 full days of work ahead of Arturo and that's probably 2 - 3 actual weeks at this rate.

But things are definitely progressing. So let's go back to where we left off... kind of the end of the power getting fixed.

Uh yeah if I don't put a cut here, someone will cut me.

Part One: Living Color

As you can see in the pic above, and in a pic or two from the last post, a thing that had to happen on any wall on the edges of the house is that they had to cut into the drywall near the ceiling to be able to run the wire down to the outlet to fix it. So naturally that drywall had to be patched when the work was done, and then repainted. Just a part of the process. Cool. Up there is the guest bedroom and down below is the master bedroom with the patching done but not painted.

I had very smartly saved either paint chips or lids or even whole cans of the paints I'd used originally. I was able to figure out exactly who made and the name/tone of every color in the house except for one, which we didn't need anyway.

Remember guys, saving stupid stuff for 21 years sometimes IS helpful!

So Arturo went and got the paint for all the rooms, cool. He said now would be a good time to decide if I wanted to repaint any rooms but I was like nope! I like my colors! He got just quart sizes of most of the colors because that's all we needed.

...so anyway it turns out after 21 years (or even just 11 for a couple of the walls) paint changes colors so the new paint is definitely visible against the old paint.

At that point, we'd need to buy a lot more paint and repaint every room probably. The compromise was to paint just the full wall where the patching happened so the other walls would be slightly different.

There were also things like this:

Where that patching happened was just a very visible drywall line that had bothered me for 21 years. Arturo fixed it.

There were a couple of rooms that, tbh, just really needed new paint, and there were cracks in some walls that needed fixing. It started to just make sense at that point to just... maybe do full repaints of rooms. Arturo gave me a very reasonable price for that. Honestly, I think too little after seeing everything it took and how I made it harder.

I was super annoying at first though, and decided to keep some of the same colors, especially out here in the Office (which, remember, is the room most people would use as their living room) and the dining room, which were technically one big room except for one Thing, which we'll get to later.

So Arturo's crew repainted the office that dusty rose color that I loved. They also repainted the hallway, which really needed it, the same Silver Trophy you see above, which was also on the one wall that connected the office and dining rooms.

Um... hey... did you guys know that if you leave a massive framed Star Wars poster hanging in the same spot for like 21 years you can totally tell once you finally take it down?

Honestly I had no idea that wall was that dirty. It was just normally so damn dark in my house, tbh. Remember, I JUST got lights put in a week or two before this pic!

So yeah, that wall got a repaint, too.

I did decide around that time that the living room needed a repaint, partially because I didn't have a blue room in my house, and I felt like I wanted a room that was blue, and also just wanted my LR to be real damn cozy.

As a comparison... here was the before.

Some notes about this room lol... this is the room I camped out in during The Great Freeze, and starting then I nailed a blanket over the window and never took it down because I liked it dark in the room and also until the fence went up, that window looked right into my neighbors bathroom. Looked bad, but it kept the glare off the TV.

There was a big patch of drywall rubbed through from leaning my chair back and scraping the wall back when this smaller bedroom was the office. There was a big crack in a wall. There was also a recliner in there that turns out was made with the cheapest fake leather known to man that was constantly flaking off, very grossly. It was very crowded in there, and the recliner needed to go but I couldn't get it out myself.

So actually the day I spent working in the LR I asked Arturo to please get the recliner out, and they did.

Arturo ended up with a gallon of paint for the original color of this room (pictured) we didn't use because they mistakenly made that instead of the gallon for the hallway at first, but that was at least their fault.

It was around this time I was just like... fuckit, we're going to repaint the whole house. But at first, I thought, keeping most of my same colors.

My mind began to change, especially after the new color went on the wall in the living room. But I can't show you that yet.

Part Two: Cierra la puerta, por favor

I'd mentioned last post that there was a reason the sliding glass door from bedroom door to the patio got left open a lot.

That's because it was a really old, shitty door, and unless you knew how to close it just right it was likely to come off the track, and then it was really annoying to put back on the track. Also it was really freaking noisy every time you opened it. Like my neighbor on that side had complained about it before noisy.

It wasn't worth it for the workers to keep trying to close it every time they went in and out.

Also, the glass was so old that even with cleaning, it was never actually clear anymore. It was one of many, many things that were original to the house. Built in 1963.

So one of the earliest "Hey Arturo, can we...."s was "replace the sliding glass door?"

The price was reasonable, and the relief at knowing it would get done was surprising to me.

I think Arturo was almost as happy as me to get it replaced.

That's not Arturo, I think it's Antonio, removing the static plate of the door, I didn't catch them fast enough to see them removing the door itself.

And honestly I wish I'd taken a recording of the sound of opening that door before they removed it, though it will live in my brain forever.

The only picture I'll ever have of NO DOOR AT ALL. I was giddy at this point.

The first pic of... NEW DOOR. Oh my GOSH, so beautiful. I wanted to cry. You can see the pane of glass from the old door leaning against the pole out there.

Arturo brought me to see it the first time and was like "OPEN IT!" and I grabbed the handle and pulled, and NOTHING, lol. He was like "Is it stuck?" and then I pulled again and it moved and I said "IT'S SO HEAVY!" Arturo laughed and was like "Yeah, it's got twice as much glass, it's double pane!"

Like, look, I know, double pained (sp?) glass is the norm these days but my brain didn't even conceive that I could have double panes in my house until then. Oh, energy efficient double panes? WTF? In this house?!? Seemed sus.

I quickly got used to the new amount of force it took to open the door and marveled at how quiet it was after I opened and closed it a few times.

All the workers expressed their happiness that it was fixed, too, lol.

And later that night, it was still around 100 degrees outside, I was alone in the house and I just went and stood by the window and realized... it wasn't significantly hotter by the door than a few feet away from it? It was like, the same temperature? Like truly insulating, energy efficient? Is this the real life?

The new door is slightly (like 3") shorter than the old one so they did have to add a little padding at the top, they just don't make doors the same size anymore, but honestly they did such a great job finishing it, I wouldn't have even known if I hadn't seen it go in.

I loved that new door so much, so fast, that it really got me thinking... if I could have a new door, double panes, energy efficient... could it be possible for... other new... energy efficient things? We'll get back to that.

Part Three: Sea Salt

Just realized looking at the above pic that another change was visible...

I had started interacting with what would become my new best friend for the next couple of weeks, the Sherwin-Williams Color palate... what do you call it? Swatch book? My friend is still here with me, and I'm going to be sad when Arturo finally takes him away. We have spent many hours together the last month or so, I am very well familiar with all of his options and can pull up many precise colors in just a few seconds at this point.

A day or two before the door went in, Sherwin and I made our first choice together, the colors of the patio.

The ceiling would be painted Sea Salt, a beautiful, beach-inspired light green. I also decided to have Arturo paint my patio furniture the same color.

So early on, the ceiling got caulked. They also filled in the shitty job bits that Jose had done over where the roof met the house, it looked great, actually. And a day or two later, the ceiling was painted.

Hey, that's the OLD sliding glass door there!

OK so for the first day, NGL, I didn't love it? And I later realized it was because of that green paper you see there that they put up to protect the house. The paper made it look like the ceiling was just... white. I did not want just white.

Arturo said to give it a couple of days to think on it if I really wanted it a different color, he'd have to charge me for the new paint and labor, which is totally fair.

I realized when the paper was gone and you could see it against the white bits of the house, it was gorgeous.

OK even in that bottom pic, it's hard to really see the color, but trust me, you can tell it is not white.

Also, quick note, yes, the patio has looked like that OR WORSE every day since they started. The patio is the main work and stuff storage area. It's just... constantly in disarray, with good reason. Luckily Tuesday is Trash Day so Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning all the trash gets move to the curb and it's less chaotic, for a few days, lol.

A week or so later, the fan went up! Hey, this is a much better way to see the color!

The fan has to be on the same circuit as the other light on the porch, which is slightly annoying, you can't have one without the other, but it's fine! The fan is very pretty, and uh, look, I hadn't ever bought a ceiling fan myself, and especially not recently, and I didn't realize they were mostly remote controlled now? So it's got a remote next to the door to control it with. Neat!

That Ceiling Fan is the thing that started... the rest of this by the way. If it hadn't been for Joel suggesting we put a ceiling fan on the patio.. maybe the rest of this wouldn't have happened. Or maybe it would have, since the fuse box was dying anyway, but still, Arturo and I have joked about the consequences of that ONE FAN.

Anyway! Literally just today the patio furniture got painted! As you can a little bit see in that pic above and others, it was stained redwood stain, because that matched the wood on the old patio. Now...

Pic taken just hours ago!

OK it still doesn't look that green against the greenish color of the drywall it's sitting on, but it looks great, OK? I also bought grey cushions which will look good with them. The patio cement is obviously not painted yet, that'll be probably the very last thing Arturo does for me, for now. The color is picked out. When you see pics of that... it'll be done.

Part Four: I'm a Fan of this Fan

When that fan went up, Arturo and I had been discussing the dining room lighting situation, especially as it is the same room as the office, which had gotten the new recessed lighting.

Arturo was like "You know, the other fans in your house are very old. Especially the ones in your dining room and guest room. We can replace them, when we put in the recessed lights in the dining room. I have a ceiling fan that doesn't have lights that would look good in the dining room, I'll throw that in for free if you also buy a fan for the guest bedroom and we install that."

Friends, I just spent like 30 minutes scrolling through six or seven years worth of pictures and I could not for the life of me find a single picture of my dining room ceiling fan. I don't have many pics taken in my dining room at all but most of those that are, are like, specific things on the table, or in a china cabinet.

I was planning on posting "lol look at these 2003 pictures" when I started discussing individual rooms with big changes, but tbh, I'm just going to post a couple of those pics here.

These were taken in 2003 with a 2003 digital camera, so sorry that they're tiny and ugly.

So that's the best picture I can find of the ceiling fan... see? It is old and ugly and it was there another 21 years!

Oh, um, don't mind that Thing in the foreground of the first pic and background of the second.

We will discuss that Thing. Just not now. Now we're talking about ceiling fans.

I also invite you to scroll all the way back up to the top of this post (sorry) for a pic of the guest room with the ceiling fan mostly visible.

We'll get back to the dining room ceiling fan in another dining room focused post. Amazon Prime days were a key buying weekend for me, and during those I ended up buying this ceiling fan for the guest room. And then I liked it so much that it was still on sale a couple of days later, so I bought two more and put them in my Living Room and Master Bedroom.

Ceiling fans with remotes are amazing. These also have day mode and night mode for the lights so with one button you can go from bright blueish light to dimmer warmer light for night/early morning. Can also program them to shut off after 2 hours, 7 speeds of fan (though 1 is fast enough tyvm) etc. Absolutely love taking the remote to bed to shut off when I want without getting out of bed. It's a small thing, but important to those rooms.

Arturo said that all of the fans in my house were real old but the dining room one was especially old... he said it was one that was like, oil-based and very very heavy, lol.

There it is, sitting on a heap of trash... where it belongs.

Part Five: See a Little Light

Will leave this with one quick other thing.

Both sides of the house were real dark at night. There's a streetlight in the alley that shines right into my yard, which is great, it's otherwise really bright back there. But not the sides.

So I bought a 12-pack of these little solar lights. They got installed.

They work great!

There's something else happening in that last picture, but we'll get to that next time, I think. This is ridiculously long enough.

Annnnd we're just getting started.

[an-unraveling-unknown]

I'm interested in Deimos, in general, care to ellaborate on them?

(what's their taste favorite food?)

YES ABSOLUTELY (bit of a long one again, sorry!)

Deimos, as previously stated, is the Embodiment of Human Fear - human fear specifically, being a result of rather than a wielder (as all the embodiments are really) and only coming into existence once homo sapiens became a thing (twice), but he is the fear by all accounts. Some miscellaneous stuff: 1. Essentially retired by this point in terms of his title. The Embodiments as a whole used to be a lot more 'around' per se, but the lot of them all kind of split off and humans do all the fear-mongering for him now, which is both fascinating and sad.

2. Bit of a bastard (/aff), likes to poke fun in his own eloquent way but knows when to back off. Maybe backs off a little too often, he prefers to avoid conflict when the option is available. Can and will read anyone like a picture book made for five y/o's and is a huge Shakespeare nerd (which probably has something to do with a chance encounter in London circa. 1592) 3. He's gone by countless names and forms, and the very notion of sticking to binary gender is laughable, (though he/him is the latest preference,) but 'Deimos' kind of became the default after Locke threw it at him as a nickname and it stuck 4. He's fond of referencing pop culture, (something of which Locke has no hope of ever understanding,) but it's either pop culture thats slightly too old for the current age or slightly too new. Slightly too old is self-explanatory, but what I mean by slightly too new is that since its naturally ingrained in him to pick up on the social patterns of humans, he will slightly nudge something forward in the public consciousness attuning to those patterns that will inevitably pick up in popularity because he finds it incredibly amusing. 5. Alas, he can't take credit for TikTok trends 6. Literally radiates terror to anything in a five mile radius that isn't dead. When he and Locke used to meet up in various points in history, they'd meet at around midnight to early morning as to not alert the local population, which unfortunately had the additional consequence of freaking out the local wildlife. Locke had to reason with the outraged birds that they could sing at dusk instead, saying that its just like morning but backwards. It took much convincing every time. and a hefty bribe of seeds. 7. Found the Woods a little while after he and Locke split up for the last time. To his knowledge, this vast stretch of wooded area somehow exists in several places simultaneously all over the globe while also not technically existing at all, looking at a decent map. Those that enter with good intentions exit, and those who enter without seem to blip off the face of the earth. It's usually pretty silent. And theres a big hecking house plop in the middle of it in pristine condition, looking wildly different in appearance depending on who's looking at it - so naturally he sets up camp in it and stays there for the next 300-something years 8. HAVE SOME CONCEPT ART, he does little things with his appearance every now and then for fun (colorful markings, scales, runic symbols, that sort of thing) but generally keeps up the base appearance of not quite fitting in seamlessly with reality, like a memory blurred around the edges.

the odd cross where his face should be is to remind myself where the heck he's looking lmao (he likes dressing casual-fancy because it makes him feel sophisticated) 9. He was close with another embodiment of fear early on in his existence - Phobos was moreso the reaction to fear and wasn't restricted to just humans for Some Reason. The two of them haven't spoken in ages though, for good cause. 10. He was debating reaching out to Locke for a while before they ended up in the woods themselves- despite his own interests, he's always preferred to let them do what they wish, especially given the extenuating circumstances 11. However, these extenuating circumstances say nothing on a plethora of curious children dragging the android in to stay a while (12. he doesn't really need to eat, and he has to fashion a whole digestive system for that, but Deimos does have a fondness for sweets - pastry items, chocolate, you name it. He'd also never admit it in front of the children ever)