#also some very poor quality pictures of my art <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[theressomanyfandomsineedtojoin]

Thought I'd do another doodle dump. These are some ocs (kinda. Two are characters from books that I've warped beyond recognition_ but kept the names and world soooo idk) and some random characters I've doodled in my sketchbook. Here's the individual pictures.

This is that apocalyptic future Sophie from kotlc I mentioned here

She's actually kinda happy here so good for her.

This is a random oc I thought of randomly. I kind of pictured it in the rangers apprentice world (just to give me an idea, there's literally nothing linking it to those series I just needed a world).

Anyway, the thing here is that he was part of a group of people (hired by the ruler of the area) to clear a forest of these (haven't nailed down a name for them yet) magical creatures. The ruler doesn't like them despite them only fighting back when attacked, and they've been trying for years to clear the forest of them, so the whole population of them is pissed. They're also very earth connected, as is kind of shown eight the crystal-like horns they have, and that relates to their powers in a way I have not figured out yet. Anyway, kid gets bitten or whatever but the point is, he slowly starts transforming into one of them. This isn't expected bc as far as most people know, those who enter and are caught just disappear. He can still look human, and can switch between his forms, but the conflict is with him and his team.and you get the point. Trying not to hurt either side, panic that he's a monster, the whole shebang.

Fun fact the creatures were originally evil, but making him struggle with knowing they're not is more fun 😈

This lady is the least developed, mainly bc I've done one drawing of her before this and then never touched it again.

This was the old drawing and I almost like it a bit more. Anyway, I'm picturing her to be an oracle/telekinesis type magic user in a world I have no information about.

The other two I wasn't really thrilled with, and their both from that one weird rangers apprentice au I mentioned here.

The first one, I hadn't figured out how to do highlights with my markers, and the second, the white pen I was using for.said highlights kept turning pink, which bugged me, and I kept going over it until it just looked bad. :( quit while you're ahead ig.

If someone's randomly curious about them I'm happy to randomly come up with more info/head cannons on them

[sundown-briyota]

Explanation for poor card quality

Tldr: Its VERY rushed, it's my fault for that, I didn't even want to make a product, and also I think me shrinking the pictures of the cards made the print quality bad. I'm remaking the cards because its bad quality.

I have a few reasons for this.

The cards were printed and cut on the same day they were supposed to be sold, obviously a very bad thing for any product ever having to make the product in a time limit. And the quality was just so bad, I think its because of me resizing the card to be smaller, and it caused some weird JPEG like artifacting.

I had to make a product for my class, I assumed it was needed for a grade so I just made one even though I really didn't want to, like seriously it's not even part of my field of study. Yes, I could've picked a different product to sell and it would've been more profitable, but I didn't want to make another business plan. Also I thought that having to make a game would be more engaging for me than just cooking food, it actually was!

And finally, the very big reason of why it's bad. I tried to make a game in 1 week. This meant making the art, designs, gameplay, and product itself in 1 week. Very bad idea, never do this unless its for a game jam, I'm surprised I even managed to make everything I did within that week.

Development was started like a month or 2 earlier, but those versions were scrapped and the only things that carried over were the basic idea of clans, a few designs, the idea of mana, and the basic concept of movement and a field. They were scrapped because I realized I wouldn't be able to properly balance numbers in the triple digits, so I had to remake the mechanics too.

This is why it works on a 2HP system, to have gameplay with less numbers to keep track of. This is why revival exists, the cards were going to be sold for 1 day and only 1 day so I had to compensate by building in the ability to reuse your cards. This is why each card has a maximum of 3 built in numbers to keep track of excluding any other numbers from the field like the mana limit or the effects, to make it easier on me to at least try to balance the game, and keep true to the core idea of it being a resource management game.

I want to keep going on this game idea though, I think it can go far. I'm remaking the original cards first because it's bad and has poor design, like seriously, mostly the design and names though, then maybe the gameplay. 

[celeluwhenfics]

Oooooh this is such an interesting subject, about which I've been thinking for a long time! I love the Old English names you found for the moves!

Let me take the occasion to show you two videos that are part of my Firefoot/Fýrfot faceclaim! (maneclaim?)

Alright. If it's distracting to you, ignore the costumes, the feathers, the poor video quality, the music (it's not period accuraaaaate, says the musicologist), the commentary in French if you don't understand it. This horse is how I picture a kingly horse to be. THIS is my Firefoot. Philippe Karl is an outstanding horseman, and Odin (I think it's him?) might be one of the sexiest stallions ever.

Yes, I HC the Rohan war horses to look like Andalusian or Lusitanian breeds, as they are described as being predominantly grey, and this type is particularly suited for dressage, haute école and battle skills.

The skills demonstrated there are some of what I imagine the young officers of the Mark practicing with their war horses.

My HC is that they would train on schoolmasters in their teens, and receive a foal that they would train to become their first main war mount between age 12-14, so that this horse would be in his prime during their twenties. The horse would be fit to me mounted from age 4 or 5 (when the rider is at least 16 and has LOTS of experience already), then spend a solid 3-4 years learning basse école (dressage without the jumps), before graduating to actual haute école, jumps and fighting skills.

For example, Firefoot could be about 14 at the time of the War of the Ring, in his very prime, and Éomer could have at least two more horses at different stages of training and ready to replace him in case of an injury. With excellent care and luck, that kind of horse could stay in service until 20 or 25 years of age.

Remember two great principles of horse training:

Give an old horse to a young rider, and a young horse only to an "old" (or experienced) rider

The more you take your time in training a horse, the longer its career may be! (If you push a baby you'll get injuries and young retirees 😣)

Now let's look at some basse école. Yes, most of the time when we talk about dressage nowadays, what you see at the olympics, what your classmate with a rich dad did, is basse école dressage, which is an art in itself, but also must be mastered before haute école. I love this video of Juan Manuel Muños Diaz and Fuego XII for the sheer swag of it.

The whole kur (aka a show of dressage with music) has a magical aura of brilliance and pride, which I find fitting for a young Éomer parading his skill on a gorgeous horse, but especially, the lead changes at 6:07, with the rider letting go of one hand and being carried by the crowd, is so unbearably showoff that it's almost painful, and I can't stop watching. That is the move I think of in the little scene I'm about to show...

Riding in Rohan

So after watching the behind the scenes clip about the Capriole performed in Rings of Power, I got thinking about Rohan and their horses, and the moves they might be taught to execute on them.

I went and googled the “Airs Above Ground” movements in classical dressage, and I looked at the meaning of their names and the actual movement, in order to come up with Old English names for them, to be used for our Rohan Gang.

Here’s what I got. 

Pesade-

the horse raises its forehand off the ground and tucks the forelegs evenly, carrying all weight on the hindquarters, to form a 45-degree angle with the ground.

Reren (Middle English) or  Ræran (Old English) for ��Rear” or “raise”

Levade

asking the horse to hold a position approximately 30–35 degrees from the ground. 

From the French word “to raise” 

Ārīsan (Old English) for “Arise” of Lyft (Old English) for “lift”

Capriole-

the horse jumps from a raised position of the forehand straight up into the air, kicks out with the hind legs, and lands more or less on all four legs at the same time.

Playful leap- Caper

Literal translation: Leap of a goat;

gāt (Old English) for “goat”

hlēapan (Old English) to “leap or run”

We can put these together and make a new word;  Gāthlēapan 

Courbette

the horse raises its forehand off the ground, tucks up forelegs evenly, and then jumps forward, never allowing the forelegs to touch down, in a series of "hops".

Hoppian (Old English) for “hop” 

@konartiste @from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras @celeluwhenfics and all the Rohan gang, if we ever want to write a fic about young Eomer and Eowyn learning to put their horses through their drills, here's maybe a bit of a starting point.

[qmoniqs]

10 Tips to create better Java Applications

Here are some practical tips to make your Java application more maintainable. Always remember, maintenance cost is much higher than development cost and it's easy to give a solution but it's equally difficult to give a maintainable solution i.e. something which can withstand the test of time.

Before going to explain these 10 tips which can make your Java application more maintainable and easy to support, let me tell you that I have personally made a lot of these mistakes myself. It requires a great deal of discipline, hard work, and vigilance in writing quality code.

Sometimes you have to push back even to your team lead or managers bringing the points like support, which is often overlooked.

1. Don't swallow exceptions

Please avoid swallowing the exceptions. The stack trace is the most valuable troubleshooting information. In the production system where the priority is to bring the system up and then find the root cause, these exceptions are gold, without them, you will never be able to find what happened with your application at that moment.

On the other hand, please don’t print the stack trace multiple times. Printing a stack trace is a resource-intensive process and should be controlled i.e. you print more information while running on DEBUG or INFO mode and only print essential information while running in PRODUCTION mode. This is an example of swallowing exception in Java:

try{// do something}catch(FileNotFoundException fe){ // do nothing}

This is also known as an empty try-catch block and many static code analysis tools like Fortify will catch these in the early stage of development. This also highlights the importance of static code analysis in Java development. Make sure, you integrate the static code analysis tool as part of your build process.

If you are still not convinced about static analysis, then please read my post on why static code analysis is important, which will give you more reasons to use it in your project.

3. Avoid excessive logging

This tip is closely related to the first one and at first, it may look contradictory but in reality, it's not, in fact, they both complement each other. When you run the Java application in your development environment (PC), nobody cares what logging level you have. Go ‘DEBUG’ or ‘ALL’ if you please. But when it goes to production (or other higher environments e.g. QA or UAT), limit your logging to ‘INFO’ or ‘ERROR’. Excessive logging has 3 major impacts:

1. It puts an unnecessary load on the Application. I’ve seen the throughput of the application reduced to half due to excessive logging.

2. It can fill up the file system very quickly and that can create issues for your application and other applications hosted on the same server. This is a serious problem especially if you are co-hosted with some other application. Do you know what will happen when the root directory of certain flavors of Unix systems fills up? - that’s right. No one can log in to the host.

3. Troubleshooting will be painful, like looking for a needle in a haystack (if the poor support guy can ever get the log file to open).

In short, you have to keep the balance between excessive logging and not enough logging, and to be honest that is also an art, which requires a good knowledge of both the application and domain.

This is also where experience comes into the picture, involving support guys from the UAT itself, they will give you valuable tips on logging and supporting the application. Remember, life is all about keeping the right balance. See here for more logging tips for Java developers.

4. Don't Forget to Close Database Connections

This is one of the most common reasons for production issues in the last decade, but thankfully with modern frameworks and libraries, this issue is actually slowly disappearing (as the framework takes care of opening/closing connections).

However, make sure you always ‘close’ the database connection so that it is released back to the pool. This is also one of the JDBC best practices, I have shared with you in my earlier post 10 Essential JDBC best practices for Java programmers. If you haven't read it yet, make sure you read it in 2017.

A common mistake is not closing the connection in the ‘finally’ block of a ‘try catch’. If there is a connection pool leak, your connection pool with be exhausted soon and your user will experience immediate slowness.

The same rules go for closing sockets and streams if you don't close them you will run out of resources pretty soon. Sometimes, Java developers think that they have closed the connection but in reality, they were not closed, hence you must know the right way to close streams in Java.

This is part of general resource management best practices. Not to discourage you but I have personally found that C++ developers excel over Java developers when it comes to resource management. They are more vigilant about closing the connection and releasing resources, something Java developers can learn from C++ programmers.

5. Don't underestimate the production load

If you are an experienced Java developer you would have noticed that most of the issues are exposed in the production environment rather than in UAT or QA environment, especially concurrency-related issues. Do you know why? because of production load.

You might have heard the developer talking to support personnel that ‘It works fine in my development environment. But when it went to production, it crashed’.

Yes, it is the job of the load testing team to test your application with the production like a load. But that does not mean that as a developer you write code that does not scale well. For example, it works fine for 1 user, but what happens when there are 500 users online simultaneously?

The issue is brutally exposed while writing concurrent code because the probability of race conditions is much higher in production than in any other environment. So, always keep the production load in mind and code.

You should also read my post about essential multi-threading and concurrency best practices for Java programmers if haven't read it already. That will help you to envision some of the things which you might not think otherwise.

6. Avoid loading large result sets from the Database

This is one of the common mistakes made by beginners and intermediate Java programmers who don't know about paging or pagination. You simply cannot load every record e.g. order or trade from the database in one call. In some cases, obviously, you will run out of memory and it is also a waste of network bandwidth, CPU, and memory as the user might not need all of those data.

Secondly, you just cannot keep the data in your application forever because it may become stale hence you need to load it again.

So, instead of loading all records in one go, implement some sort of ‘pagination’ and/or ‘lazy loading’ so that you don’t have to load everything in the beginning.

This is where ORM and caching framework like Hibernate helps a lot. They simply free up Java developers from worrying about lazy loading and pagination. If you want to learn more about how lazy loading works in Hibernate, I suggest reading Java Persistence with Hibernate or High-Performance Java Persistence by Vlad Mihalcea both are great books that every Java developer using Hibernate should read.

7. Avoid hard coding Configuration Parameters

You might have heard this tip several times but you would be surprised if you look at the code written by many professional software engineers and programmers. There is hardly a code where something is not hard-coded but hard-coding configuration values like URLs, directory locations, username/passwords, cache sizes, log levels, etc in the code result in hard-to-maintain Java applications.

Instead of hard-coding configuration parameters, you must externalize them in a property file. It seems simple enough but I have seen it over and over again that somehow some hard-coded value sneaks in and breaks when it goes to production. In one word, managing configuration information within the code is a nightmare. Never do that.

There is a flip side as well, where many programmers just create too many property files with the hope to generalize everything. It does make sense to keep related properties in one place e.g. if a couple of configuration parameters is shared by multiple application then externalize them in one property file like. database and middleware URLs, username, password, etc and let other application import that file, but if you do it over a limit then it becomes a maintenance nightmare.

You should also never mix environment-related configuration parameters e.g. URL, directories, username/password with application-related parameters e.g. config parameters to enable or disable some functionalities.

It's better to keep separate properties files for application properties and environment properties. This way, you would have one application property across the environment which is essential for testing and production release.

8. Don't write Platform-specific Code

Many Java programmers just don't give a shit to writing platform-specific code, thinking that Java is platform-independent. Even though Java is platform-independent if you are not careful you will end up making your Java application platform-dependent. Java programmers should not code anything that is related to the local operating system. For example, executing a Linux command (example: uname -a) from java and handling the output.

This will not work whenever your company decides to move to Windows from Unix and it will be painful to refactor hundreds of lines of code containing such code. This is again the case where static code analysis can help you a lot. Make sure you integrate tools like Sonar or Fortify in your build process to regularly scan code for such code smells.

9. Consider Clustering

This is one area where even many experienced Java programmer also fails. Since every application doesn't run in the cluster it's possible to not think about clustering at the start but if you ever decide to run your application in a cluster in the later stage of development, it would be really hard to refactor your application.

For example, if you have a scheduled job within the code, what will happen to it if you run multiple instances of the same application? Wouldn’t it run multiple times? What are the side effects of this?

It's best to think about clusters at the start of development and avoid scheduling jobs from Java code directly, think about using more useful tools like Autosys for Job scheduling and monitoring.

10. Avoid packing multiple versions of the same JAR files

Packaging utility jar files in several places, especially various versions of the same utility jar in various locations is the cause of many production issues.

You must have a clean build and versioning processing, especially for internal applications. Consider using Maven for dependency management, it makes life a lot easier than keeping versioned JAR files in the lib folder.

The infamous ‘Class Cast Exception’ or ‘No Class Def Found Exception’ is most of the time due to the version mismatch of third-party jar files. Make sure you only pack one copy of the jar file and that your build is consistent across environments like Dev, QA, UAT, etc.

It's also a good practice to keep configuration separate from binaries so that you can release the same binaries across the environment e.g. promoting the same binary from UAT to Production after testing successfully.

That's all about some practical tips on how you can make your Java application easy to support and maintain. These small things can make big difference when it comes to developing and maintaining a real-world Java application. If you are aspiring to become a solution architect or Java architect, paying attention to these details will help you put your case forward more strongly. A good Java architect will ensure that the application is both easy to maintain and support.

You can also do good if you include various stakeholders early in the development stage e.g. support team, testing team, middleware guys, Unix and infra guys, networking people, and business guys. Though don't overwhelm with a lot of details coming from every direction, just keep calm and drive.

[alienturnipp]

Xẩm singing - Folk Songs of the Blind Wanderers

"A human heart is like a deep murky lake,

Noone knows how deep

Noone knows how deep, and how deep their thinking to fathom

You would have to sympathize, to know how it is

I am so mad, I would want to be free to express myself

I'd rather be bad, and push things my way."

- "Like a fern petal in the angry stream", translated by Phan Gia Anh Thư & Ngô Thanh Nhàn

Audio version performed by People's Artist Hà Thị Cầu (1928 - 2013)

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This was supposed to be a response to a @thedasincolor Saturday Prompt, though it actually ended up part of an AU thing where I draw Dragon Age character wearing Vietnamese clothes and doing Vietnamese stuffs. But I'll be taking advantage of this occasion nonetheless! Here to me using the Hawke babies to share with you something from my culture.

(Description is written by yours truly and I'm no scholar pls be gentle...)

Xẩm is a genre of folk music traditionally performed by the poor and especially blind people (hence the name "xẩm" meaning "dark" in vietnamese) in common places to make a living (marketplaces, temples, trams, etc.) Nowadays it's performed by passionate artists from all backgrounds, with the spirit of preserving and developing the art form in modern times.

Xẩm songs take from popular stories and everyday life, usually talking about the tragedies and struggle of poverty through a humorous lens, or just the general flows of life or folk stories collected by the artists.

If that description interests you, more details are under the cut!

For a short introduction video in English, Recording Earth made a ~7min interview of Xẩm (though regarding the end of the video I'd say there are definitely more than 4 xẩm artists in VN).

For the French-speaking folks, I have a very interesting 1998 documentary about Xẩm and Hà Thị Cầu - the last Xẩm artist of the 20th century. She was funny and witty and kind, and absolutely a joy to watch.

There is also an excerpt of the 2016 documentary Xẩm Đỏ (Red Xẩm) directed by Lương Đình Dũng, featuring Hà Thị Cầu as well.

Now onto the refs! The Hawke kids make a standard ensemble of 3, with Bethany as the singer.

Bethany is using đàn nhị (two-stringed fiddle).

(Artist Mai Tuyết Hoa in "Tứ vị Hà Thành" (it's a new song they wrote! you might catch the Obama reference there), performed by Xẩm Hà Thành Club)

Carver is in charge of the percussion, including trống mảnh (drums) and sênh sứa (clapper, top of the picture)

(Photo from vietnamplus.vn)

My Hawke Cirilla is not much of a performer, but she chimed in a little with phách (claves)

(Photo also from vietnamplus.vn)

Now if you want to listen to more Xẩm songs, here are some of my personal favorites:

A compilation of songs performed by artist Hà Thị Cầu

An excerpt of the movie "Đời Xẩm" (Life of Xẩm), an example of the subgenre of xẩm where the artists perform in trams.

"Hát Xẩm - Folk music from Vietnam" recorded by Recording Earth, a series of songs performed by artist Đào Bạch Linh (I love the camera quality and staging in this)

This "Quyết chí tu thân" (The Will to Better Oneself, title roughly translated by me...) recording from Sơn "xẩm" (Bùi Công Sơn)

Temple University also made an online research article about Xẩm, this is where I got the English Translation for "Dạt nước cánh bèo" at the top of the post.

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And also, since I made the AU for the primary reason of designing clothes, I can't help but mention some references here!

Normally I draw the Hawke babies in Revival Lê dynasty clothes, but given the context of Xẩm which is, nowadays, more commonly associated with more modern clothing, I decided to go with the contemporary imagery for this one picture.

Carver and Cirilla are both wearing the typical commoner garment. The shirts should've been in brown, typically (hence the name áo nâu, lit. brown shirts), but I draw them an off-white here for art reasons...

(Photo by photographer Đồng Văn Hùng, of his grandmother!)

Bethany is wearing áo tứ thân (four-panel robe) on top of yếm (bodice), and váy đụp (skirt). This one is a popular daily outfit of the women - mostly commoner - from the North. For commoners the robe would also be usually in brown or darker mute colors, but again I used the off-white here to make the trio stand out more.

Edit: Oh and I forgot! The headwear is something we call khăn mỏ quạ (crow's beak headscarf):

Which is on top of the khăn lươn (eel towel).

That's it for now folks!

[spiderlilyserendipity]

omg violet you write so well!! if you can, could you write a taehyung nsfw of while on vacation, tae's girlfriend wakes him up early with kisses and promises to do "whatever he wants" if he gets up with her and explores the city and tae holds her to that promise when they get back to their hotel starting with some steamy (private) hot tub sex?

Anon, you are awesome but you have ruined my brain. I got so carried away writing this fic, it is double the size I thought it would be. Many thoughts, head full typa situation. Thank you. This one is titled Only One. Enjoy <3

WC: 4475

Genres: Smut, fluff, angst

Tags: established relationship, anniversary dinners, tae x oc take a trip to Paris

Warnings: dom/sub relationship, dom!taehyung, sub!reader, sir kink, punishment, praise kink, use of the word slut once, colour system as a safeword, insecurity, possessiveness, possessive sex, aftercare, taehyung is very 🥵🥵🥵 in this one y’all

(*Cis female reader*)

“Y/N, Y/N, should we take a picture over there?” Taehyung asks, batting his eyes cutely.

You smile but roll your eyes at Taehyung’s enthusiasm.

Not to be mistaken, if there’s anyone who loves their boyfriend, it’s you. You would live and die for Kim Taehyung, but there’s a special reason for your eyeroll today.

It has been only two weeks since Taehyung got off tour, and at that a world tour. You know Taehyung must be very tired from constantly travelling, hence why you let your boyfriend get his full rest the first week. But the thing is you haven’t seen your lover in a year, and you want to make some memories with him. 

You know he will get too busy once the post-tour lull passes over everyone at the company and everything goes back to regular schedule. Then, Taehyung will get sucked away by album preparations, promotions once it’s out, and inevitably: another tour.

You love that Taehyung gets to do what he loves for a living. You also love how cool he looks on stage. But most of all you like getting to spend time with him. 

To be honest, you were going to go see Taehyung in Paris during the European leg of the tour. It had been your anniversary, and the two of you had plans to get dinner together and enjoy the city. But then life happened and your plans came crashing down, preventing you from seeing Taehyung until the tour ended months later.

But past you had thought quickly, knowing the day Taehyung would return home and shifted your ticket instead of cancelling. So a week after Taehyung got home, you presented him with a second plane ticket to Paris, France that you bought last minute just for him.

You thought Taehyung would agree with making up for your missed anniversary, but Taehyung had frowned instead. “Babe, I seriously don’t want to go anywhere for a while. I’m sick of hotels and planes.”

“But I’ve never been there, baby. It would be so romantic!” You convinced him eventually, your pout winning him over. Taehyung had sighed, then called his manager to let him know.

So excited from Taehyung agreeing, you had leapt up into his arms and kissed him like crazy. “Ahhh! I’m so excited!”

Taehyung had held back a grin. “Okay. But no touristy stuff.”

You pout. “But that’s the most fun part!” When Taehyung pouts back, you try to convince him again. “Baby, I promise I’ll seriously do anything you say if you do all the embarrassing touristy stuff with me.”

“Anything?” Taehyung asked you, arching a brow. 

You took his hand, nodding eagerly. “Anything. Let’s just have fun!”

Taehyung grinned at you. “You better keep your word.”

You had kissed him, grinning at him. He watched you with a fond smile, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “You bet I will.” You vow.

It isn’t until you actually land in Paris that you realize what anything Taehyung is imagining.

For all his great qualities, Taehyung is not subtle about what he wants. Especially when he wants you.

The first three days, Taehyung lets you drag him around under the condition that you both wear disguises to avoid being noticed. You comply, picking odd hours of the day for activities that would be very busy at other times of day. You hit all the touristy spots in early mornings before the crowd, hide away in small tucked away cafes and restaurants with Taehyung during lunch hour, then spend the day browsing vintage stores for jewellery and clothes. 

It’s all fun and games except for the teasing that Taehyung will not stop. It’s hard for you to name a time of day where Taehyung’s big hands hadn’t been resting on your waist or his lips idly pressing a kiss to your cheek in passing. You know very well the game Taehyung is playing. He is slowly working you up, getting you used to his constant touches. Then, he will withdraw them, leaving you needy. 

Despite Taehyung’s teasing, the two of you still have a great time. You buy souvenirs for your friends and things for yourself. Taehyung also buys you clothes and jewellery, loving to spoil you. But what you love the most are the small establishments he brings you to, full of tasty food and where no one knows his name. You know the game Taehyung is playing, but you let him guide you to an isolated table towards the back and feed you food off his own utensils. You let him wipe the corner of your mouth for some smeared sauce, let him lick it off his thumb. Sometimes, you even get a little on your face on purpose. Taehyung notices when you do that, and lets you get away with it. After all, this isn’t a favour he’s doing you. This is your anniversary trip. He can’t be the only one getting away with teasing.

The following three days, the two of you hit the museums. Taehyung shows you around, explaining things he had seen on previous trips to Paris. You listen to him, happier to see him happy than to really look at the art. You take pictures of your boyfriend inside the museum and really anywhere it won’t catch too much attention.

Over those three days, Taehyung’s touches decrease. He reduces it little by little, but you know him well by now. Taehyung isn’t trying to be subtle, rather the opposite. He wants you to notice, to get riled up when his touch is gone. 

You tell yourself you don’t mind it, but both of you know it’s a lie. You ignore the smirk on Taehyung’s face every time you intertwine your hands or wrap an arm around his waist to guide him through the back roads. You will get back at him at dinner tonight.

After lunch on the final day, you tell Taehyung to head back to the hotel on his own. You say you are going to buy a new dress for your dinner date tonight, and that you want it to be a surprise for him. Chuckling, Taehyung just passes you his blackcard and tells you to have fun.

You buy a dark green coloured gown, Taehyung’s favourite colour, and a matching necklace and earrings set of emeralds. You smile at the sight of your ass being cupped by the silky material. This is sure to drive Taehyung mad. After all, tonight is the final night. Both of you know exactly how tonight will end.

You catch a cab to the five star Taehyung made a reservation at. You pay the taxi driver excitedly, getting out in your all new outfit, new heels, and even a new purse! You were sure to impress Taehyung.

You walk into the restaurant, telling the waiter who you’re here with. He lets you in, guiding you upstairs to your table.

You frown as you see your table. From this angle, you can’t see who, but Taehyung is talking to a woman. You approach quietly, catching neither of their attention. Luckily (or unluckily) for you, they’re talking loudly. You don’t speak much French but you don’t need it to deal with this woman. You hear her mention the word “model” and a woman’s clothing brand. You hear her repeat “model” a second time as she blatantly roams her eyes down Taehyung’s figure, then up at him. That’s the part that makes your blood boil. You know she is aware of your presence. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what kind of relationship you and Taehyung have.

But she still challenges you anyway, openly eyeing your man in public. If you could speak more French than basic small talk you would rip her a new one. 

Fuck it. You think, making your way across the room. Who needs to know the language?

“Oh, baby.” You say in a sweet voice. They both look over at you. The woman looks visibly irritated, pursing her perfect lips in annoyance. What a shame you like to flirt with other women’s men. You think, slightly in awe at her beauty. I’d like you in any other situation. “Is this a friend?” You ask.

You see a hint of a smile before Taehyung bites it back. “No, Y/N. We just met tonight.”

You smile pointedly at the woman. She frowns at you. “Ah, I see. Well, it was nice meeting you. We haven’t had dinner yet, so.” You say, pretending to be apologetic for cutting the conversation short. All three of you know you’re not, but it’s the thought that counts. Or doesn’t. You couldn’t care less.

“Colour.” Taehyung asks the minute you’re back in the hotel room. 

“Green.” 

“Poor baby. Got so angry that I took my eyes off you, huh?” Taehyung teases, hooking his fingers in the band of your underwear. He pulls back, making it snap against your hips. You whimper. “What’s that? Are you trying to say something?” Taehyung taunts you.

He cranes his head to look at you. He cups your face and makes you look at him. He makes a fake-worried face. “That’s odd, you were talking perfectly fine a few hours ago. Was it something in the food that’s making you feel sick or are you just embarrassed from being a possessive little slut in front of sir?”

His words make you shiver. He grins as he feels it against his own abdomen. “It seems like you’re really sick, Y/N. I guess we'll just have to go to bed.”

He begins to unwind his arms from around your waist, but you grab them, holding them against your skin. “S-Sir.” You whisper.

“There’s my girl.” Taehyung says proudly, rewarding you with a kiss to your temple. “Let’s talk about what you did wrong tonight, shall we?”

“I-I was possessive. I got jealous because you were talking to that model.”

Taehyung’s eyes flicker at the last word. “Oh, you heard?” He snaps the band of underwear against your skin again. You wriggle, but he refuses to let you go. “What a bad girl. Eavesdropping on sir’s conversations. What if she had been a potential colleague and you ruined everything? But you didn’t think of any of that, only your. own. feelings.” He emphasizes each of the three words with another smack. “You’re just an ungrateful little slut, aren’t you? I bet you would open your legs for any man that offered you this kind of treatment, huh?” He growls in your ear.

“I-I’m sorry.” You whisper, voice cracking.

Taehyung stops. “Colour.” He says, thumbs gently stroking at your sides.

“Green.” 

“Y/N.” He repeats more firmly. You sniffle. A tear rolls down your cheek. Taehyung thumbs it away immediately. “We don’t have to. I’m sorry. Do you want to take a bath together? We can cuddle after. Anything you’re comfortable with baby.”

You shake your head, looking away from him. “I’m really okay. I...I want my punishment.”

Taehyung turns you to look at him. He watches your face, looking for any unwillingness. He cups your face and makes you look at him. He smiles finally when he sees the familiar, hazy look in your eyes. You are already slipping into subspace.

“Follow me.” Taehyung says.

You walk behind him, still naked except for your panties. Taehyung is still entirely clothed in his suit and tie. He leads you to the fancy living room of the suite, and closes the curtains. You wait until he sits down to approach him. You observe his spread legs and the stern look in his eye. The air in the living room is freezing cold, but it only adds to it. This is one of the many things you love about Taehyung. How incredibly sexy he looks when he is in control.

Without being asked, you get on the sofa on your hands and knees. You drape your body over Taehyung’s lap, ass up in his lap. You fold your arms over the sofa’s armrest, turning your head to look at Taehyung. 

Taehyung’s warm hand caresses your ass. He kneads at the flesh roughly without breaking eye contact with you. On the outside, he looks indifferent, dark eyes sultry. He makes it look like he couldn't care less if it was you or another sub being bent to his will. But you know it’s part of the scene, that he’s watching you this intensely for your reaction and it is only your reaction he ever wants in a setting like this.

“You can safeword out if you need to.” He reminds you. You nod, putting your head against the armrest. “Count.” He tells you, before the first smack comes down.

You flinch on instinct, but his arm pins the backs of your thighs down. “One.”

Another smack but to the other cheek. You hiss under your breath. “Two.”

Taehyung gives the next three in succession. “F-Five.”

“Colour?” Taehyung re-checks. You reply green again. He delivers two more. “Six, ah, seven.”

The next two smacks are harsher. “Eight, nine一!” As you’re counting, Taehyung gives the final one. This one is the hardest of all, making the two of you sink a little lower into the sofa. “T-Ten.”

You are crying now, falling deeper into your subspace. Taehyung’s warm hands smooth over the places they hit. His voice murmurs sweet nothings in your ear, reassuring you.

“S-Sorry.” You continue to cry. “I didn’t mean to be like that.”

“I know.” Taehyung reassures you. He helps you up into a sitting position. It burns to sit on your still painful ass, but you do so anyway because it’s Taehyung who asks you to do it. “You took my punishment very well, Y/N, just like a good girl.”

You shake your head, sniffling. “I don’t wanna be ‘a good girl’, I wanna be your good girl.” You say. Taehyung frowns slightly as he wonders what that means, then looks shocked when he realizes what you’re saying.

“You are my good girl, baby.” He says softly, wiping away your tears. “No one but you.”

“But i-it was our a-anniversary dinner and you were letting her flirt with you. You just一just let her do it. And when I called you baby at the restaurant, you only called me Y/N.” You confess, giving up your fake confident act. The truth is that despite your anger in the moment, you had felt very insecure. It wasn’t like you could blame the woman for finding your boyfriend hot, anyone would. But the fact that Taehyung never said anything back and just put up with it instead of correcting her bothered you. Was it embarrassing to admit he was dating you in front of a woman who was so obviously his equal in elegance? This thought bothered you throughout the whole dinner. 

You didn’t plan on telling Taehyung about it, since he didn’t know you sometimes felt this way. One of the reasons you insisted on travelling to make up for your missed anniversary was this doubt. Maybe if you showed him around this fancy city and you made good memories with him, he might appreciate it. Maybe then it would ease your doubt of if you were worthy enough to be his.

You had never admitted this aloud to anyone, but you actually wondered If Taehyung had women in other countries that he went on dates with during tour. You know Taehyung is a good person but after all, he is a young man with sexual needs. And at that, a very attractive man who could get with just about any woman he wanted. So yes, seeing him talk to the very attractive woman had angered you, but it also made you feel like your worst fears might be true. 

“Y/N, talk to me, baby.” Taehyung pleads you, his worried brown eyes searching your face for any answers.

“...Can I ask you a question?” 

“Of course, my love.” Taehyung responds. “Ask me anything you want, baby.’

You sniffle. You play with his suit blazer. “Can you promise to not get mad at me?”

Taehyung looks like he might cry when you ask that. “I promise.”

“When you go away for tour...is there anyone else?” You watch your own tears fall onto Taehyung’s dress shirt. Taehyung looks shaken. “It might seem random but I’ve always wondered. I promise I’m not just acting up because of tonight.”

Taehyung continues to watch you, looking worried and at a loss for words. You put on a fake smile. “Sorry, it’s probably nothing. Let’s just go to bed.” 

Taehyung holds you by the waist, stopping you from getting up. “Y/N.”

“I said it’s fine. It’s okay. Really, even if you had another woman. I can’t control what you do when you’re not with me. A year is too long for a couple to spend apart anyway, it’s only natural that your feelings would change. It’s okay. Anyway,” You breathe shakily. “Anyway I’m still yours. As long as you like, of course.”

“Of course I like it.” Taehyung insists, tears glistening in his eyes. “I love you. Tell me how long you’ve felt like this.”

You hesitate. “Y/N.” There it is again, that firm tone that you hate outside of scenes. 

You look down at your hands. “Maybe two years?”

Taehyung is crying now, and he cups your face in his hands. “You’ve been thinking like this for two years? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“...I didn’t want to burden you. You’re really busy on tour.”

Taehyung purses his lips. “Can I show you there’s no one else?”

You nod. Taehyung lifts you up, and you wrap your legs around his waist. He holds you by the backs of your thighs instead of your ass, careful not to hurt you. “The bed?” He asks. You consider the feeling of the rough sheets against your sore ass. 

You shake your head. “C-Can we use the hot tub?”

Taehyung kisses your forehead. “Anything for you.”

Taehyung sets up the hot tub for both of you. He takes your panties off for you, sliding them down your legs. He kisses you deeply, sweetly. You whimper into the kiss, his tongue completely in control of your mouth. When you part, a strand of saliva comes loose. When you part far enough, the saliva ends up on your chin. Taehyung wipes it with his thumb. A darkness has entered his eyes again. “Get in. Let me show you how much I love you.”

You get in the hot tub, relishing the feeling of the hot water. It stings a bit, but it’s easier to sit then the bed would have been. You sit with your legs spread slightly, calves tucked under you and feet beneath your ass. Neat and pretty. Just the way sir likes it.

Taehyung strips quickly once you’re in the water. Your eyes roam over his beautiful body, at the hard muscle of his chest, his bulging biceps, his caramel thighs, and his rigid cock. “Come here.” Taehyung orders as he gets in the water. You do so, climbing up into his lap. He kisses you hungrily, like this is the first time all night. You are surprised at the intensity of this kiss. You cannot recall a time Taehyung has ever kissed you so passionately in your years together, even in your roughest scenes. 

“So pretty.” Taehyung growls when you two part again. He wraps one arm around your waist to press your chest against his, then attacks your neck. You gasp as he makes love bites, all the way down your neck. He has never made this many before in total, yet he makes them everywhere tonight. He litters your collarbone and the top of your chest with them, making them bloom red at first but you know they will be a deep purple shade tomorrow. “How can you not know what you mean to me, when you’re this fucking beautiful? You drove me crazy in your dress tonight, no, you drive me crazy every fucking time I see you. Maybe even since the first time I met you.”

“S-Sir.” You moan at the praise, face heating up. Taehyung pushes you back against the wall of the hot tub. You tilt your head back against the tiles as he touches you everywhere. He uses his hands to tease at your nipples, making them harden. Even as he does it, he is grinding down on you. You can feel yourself getting wetter by the second. 

“You fucking know I am.” Taehyung snaps, losing the careful composure he wears during scenes. “You’re my one and my only. Look at yourself, so fucking lewd, all worked up by my touch. You have me wrapped around your finger and you still think I’d have another woman.” He continues, cursing in between his sentences at your sweet sounds.

“S-Sorry.”

“Don’t ever be sorry.” Taehyung cuts you off. You let out moans as he starts rubbing at your clit, hard and fast. You grind against his hand. In his dom persona, Taehyung would never tolerate you doing this, but both of you are too far gone tonight to follow the rules to a T. “I will clear this misunderstanding tonight. On your knees, princess.” 

You lean on top of the towel Taehyung placed for you on the tiles. Taehyung places his own knees outside of yours, and you feel his hard cock against your ass. Taehyung eases two fingers into you, wet from your arousal that it’s an easy fit. “Nnn, sir.” You plead, grinding down on him. 

“You won’t get more until you say what I want to hear.” Taehyung says next to your ear. He presses his chest into your back, pinning you to the edge of the hot tub. “Who do you belong to?”

“Sir! I belong to sir!” You cry out, and Taehyung picks up the pace.

“So fucking pretty.” Taehyung praises, kissing the marks he left on your neck. “Only you get treated like this, understand? No woman could ever be loved like this by me. Every time you forget I will bend you over my lap and make you come on my cock over and over until you get it in your head.”

You let out a particularly loud moan at that, making Taehyung smirk. “Does my princess like that, hmm? You want to get bent over and take my cock all the time? Want me to fill you up with my come, plug you with a pretty little toy, and make you go about your day?” Taehyung inserts another finger and the stretch has you whining. “Answer me.” He demands.

“I do. Ah, fuck, Taehyung. Please. I do.” You plead, tilting your head to the side. Taehyung meets you immediately in a passionate kiss. It’s all tongue and teeth, completely different from Taehyung’s usual style. Is this really what he can do when he lets go? You wonder, getting drunk on his kisses alone. You thought Taehyung had been rough before, but it’s nothing compared to tonight.

“Turn around.” Taehyung says, withdrawing his fingers. 

He takes in your needy expression, leaning in to kiss you again like he can’t get enough of you. “Can I come in you, baby? Have you been taking your pill regularly?” 

“Yes. Yes.” You chant. Taehyung laughs breathlessly, grabbing a fistful of your hip in one hand and lining himself up to your entrance.

When he enters, both of you moan. “So good. Whose are you, princess?”

“Yours, only yours.” You answer breathlessly. Taehyung grips your thighs and lifts you slightly, allowing him to enter you more deeply. 

Taehyung abruptly picks up the pace of his thrusts. You grip at his shoulders for support, unable to stop the noises that fall from your lips constantly. Not only is Taehyung going fast, he is also going incredibly deep, rubbing right over your G-spot. 

“C-Can I come, sir?” You beg.

Taehyung nods, and you move one hand between your legs to rub at your clit. As you tip your head back, Taehyung holds himself deep inside you. Both of you come at the same time, you clench hard around him and Taehyung pumps his seed inside you. He kisses at the marks on your neck as he comes, and you dig your nails into his back. 

You move your hand to his hair once you finish, stroking it gently. Taehyung pulls back from the wall, his hand smoothing down your back to ease any discomfort you felt being pressed against it. You don’t even notice until the postcoital bliss dies down that your ass was now more sore than before. But Taehyung does. 

“Let’s take a shower.” He tells you, helping you up. You both get out of the hot tub. Taehyung runs a small handcloth under the tap. He comes over and wipes your vagina down first, then cleaning himself. 

The two of you get in the shower together. You let Taehyung wash your body down, scrubbing gently and avoiding touching your ass. You grab his shampoo off the ledge and put a good amount in your palms. “What are you doing?” Taehyung asks, surprised that you turned around while he was washing your back.

“Taking care of you.” You mumble, washing Taehyung hair for him. You grab the detachable showerhead from the side. You shield his eyes with a hand as you rinse the soap out.

Taehyung smiles fondly at how concentrated you look. “Baby, a dom is supposed to look after their sub following a scene. Not the other way.”

You shrug. You probably heard that somewhere. Your brain is too foggy right now to think. “But I want to.”

“Oh yeah?” 

“Yes.” You answer, smiling at how nice Taehyung’s hair looks now that it’s clean. “Because I belong to you.”

Taehyung lightly pecks your forehead. “And I’m yours.”

Later, when the haze of your subspace wears off, you two are laying in bed together. You’re wearing one of Taehyung’s shirts and a pair of panties. Taehyung is shirtless and in a pair of boxers. Taehyung has just finished putting lotion on your sore bottom to ease the ache for tomorrow. 

You lay on top of Taehyung’s chest, and Taehyung tucks the blankets tucked in around you. You snuggle up against his chest, content in his strong arms.

“Y/N, I know I already proved my point, but you really are my only one.” Taehyung tells you. You don’t reply so he cranes his head to look at you. Taehyung smiles fondly to notice you’re already asleep. He kisses the top of your head. “No problem. I guess I have the rest of my life to prove it to you.” He mutters to himself.

You smile to yourself with your eyes closed.

Requests are open (✿◡‿◡)

[likeadog]

@yugiohz

so i started this when i was in like, 10th grade right so if i ever were to seriously pick it back up id have to overhaul most of it because it was story wise just like a beat for beat retelling although i had to cut down the cast size by a lot since at the time the adult:student ratio was insane and then there was other shit like what had been revealed at the time etc etc anyways. most of this is in sketchbooks so bear with me for poor image quality.

here are some digital bits and bobs from my senior year flash drive: goldenstar(nana) and lionpaw(all might), hawkwing (ignore that i wrote hawktalon on there) (hawks), swiftrunner/swiftpaw (iida), and skyfeather/skypaw (uraraka). those two were me wanting to practice with more "realistic" vs more simple designs. anyway

i have a full allegiances list but i wont share that bc its five pages long. the clans were MightClan (led by Lionstar/All Might), WillClan (led by Redstar/Vlad King), HeartClan (led by Wolfstar/Best Jeanist) and IronClan (led by Darkstar/All for One). I like remade the lore system entirely to explain the names but dw abt all that. i started writing a fic thats out there somewhere

anyways. this consumed my soul forrrrr the better part of 2? 3 years? so incoming for images i guess. i went and hunted down my sketchbooks to get some quality pics and theres more than i even remember. some from earlier this year even. some of the characters ive drawn also arent in it necessarily just bc i like doing cat designs of characters. also the cat dabis look so jank because trying to figure him out was hell. it still is. one day, one day maybe ill do it

the very oldest piece of art if i recall correctly is what birthed the concept and its this picture of izuku (bravepaw) and all might (lionstar)

also it turns out i have more than tumblr will allow so eek picking and choosing um

some bravepaws over the years! The third one is the most recent, but the last one I still really like a lot, especially with having Softshadow (Inko) Lionstar and Cleartongue (Tsukauchi)

and then of course, how could we forget Bakugo, who I find surprisingly easy to draw as a cat. moreso than as a person for sure. and from there we have the most recent thing; a doodled out little conflict between him, shinsou, and monoma, who are both ex-kittypets. Monoma goes back and forth on how much trouble he gives me, for sure.

some assorted monomas, although far from all of them. the first one is the oldest, but I like it so much I try to get the same vibe...

and then we have some of the rest of the peanut gallery: Ravenpaw (Tokoyami) and dark shadow, Skypaw (Uraraka), Softshadow (Inko), Rockpaw (Kirishima), Roundmask (Fatgum), Thornpaw (Ibara) and Shimmerpaw (Hagakure) (the two below them arent bnha related), Maplepaw (Kendou), Redstar (Vlad King), some of the ladies : Nightpelt (midnight), Rabbithop (Mirko), Blossomnose (Makoto tsukauchi), Snowdapple (Fuyumi), some doodles from my hs math notes ft Shadowstep (Aizawa) and some more maplepaw, rockpaw, thistlepaw, bravepaw, redstar/weaselpaw/violetpaw (Shinsou), and Lionstar (All Might) x Cleartongue (Det. Tsukauchi)

From there, we have some Todoroki Family stuff; Flamestripe (Endeavor), Frostfall (Rei), Spottedblizzard (Natsuo), Snowdapple (Fuyumi), and Maggotflesh (Dabi) (Formerly Brightpaw). also some oc's that were meant to be the grandparents? Idk. Second page is Frostfall after retiring early to the elder's den and being cared for by Silverflower (Recovery Girl) and Streamrunner (Gran Torino)

And now, Villains! First thing is a small scene practice with the Shie Hassaikai and Eri. Bottom row is League (And some others). Toga's I still love. Shigaraki had a form of noncontagious mange, hence his hairlessness. Kurogiri.... His initial art was bad he looks way better in some of the pages up higher. Again, Dabi was a nightmare for me.

Shigaraki's name was Icepaw; he's still an apprentice despite being way too old, since AFO is his mentor and holding back on making him a full grown warrior. Toga's warrior name would be Fuzzclaw.

Instead of Nomu, their gimmick was that Darkstar knew how to talk to dogs.

And for fun, Ojiro and Shoji, who didn't actually feature in the story but I liked to draw:

maybe ill let people request characters to draw as cats again, i always have fun designing them

every time i start verging on a psychiatric breakdown i start getting the urge to draw bnha cats again. anyway does anyone want to hear about my old bnha warriors au. ihave pitchrs

[gogglor]

Cap-Ironman RecWeek: What-If Wednesday

Time for another installment of @cap-ironman rec week! Today’s theme: AU’s.

I know AU’s in different settings are half the reason most people read fanfics, but they’re not really my thing on the whole. AU’s where different choices are made, or different events transpire? Absolutely. Coffee shops? Not my cup of... you know.

So, here’s my AU recommendations for mostly “turn left” scenarios. This time with an under-the-cut break so I don’t take over everyone’s timelines (sorry about that last post). Also with some summaries truncated for length.

Alone Like This

Author: GotTheSilver

Word Count: 7,452

Summary: Steve, post waking up, runs away from SHIELD, and Tony's the one who tracks him down.

Why You Should Read It:

First off, GotTheSilver’s been consistently and regularly putting out solid Stony since 2012 and not only are they not stopping, they’re only getting better. This writer doesn’t get nearly the fanfare I’d expect in Stony circles for someone who puts out this much good stuff, and here’s hoping this post can be a part of changing that.

While I am always a sucker for enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, there’s something to be said for stories where Steve and Tony hit it off right away. And watching these two very different people look at each other and see the same sense of being lost, then finding each other again is... excuse me, there’s something in my eye, ignore me.

Second Chance Lives

Author: raeldaza

Word Count: 43,872

Summary: Tony's gonna die of palladium poisoning anyway, why not join a pointless expedition to recover Captain America’s body? And after, well, why not dedicate his last few months to making sure an American hero settles into his new life? What else is he going to do, get drunk at parties?

Why You Should Read It:

This writer doesn’t write a lot for the MCU but when they do, dang.

“Tony is the one helping Steve acclimate to the new century before Avengers 2012″ is a whole genre of Stony fanfics that scratch an itch I didn’t even know I had before I started reading fanfiction, and this is one of the best ones out there. It’s got it all - Steve poorly coping with his PTSD, Tony poorly coping with his immanent mortality, some breathtakingly poor communication between the two most emotionally stunted men in the MCU, and a cat named Roomba. What’s not to love?

Should You Choose to Accept It

Author: elwenyere (look, you’re gonna be seeing a lot of them this week, sorry-not-sorry)

Word Count: 27,106

Summary: After a terrorist attack and a field operation gone wrong, the Avengers realize that Nick Fury's secrets are just the start of a much bigger mystery. Steve and Tony try to keep some things from each other as well, but that can't possibly affect the mission — right? Mission Fic + Getting Together (or Mission: Getting Together) that mashes up elements from Iron Man 3, CA: Winter Soldier, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season one, and Mission Impossible 3.

Why You Should Read It:

You can see my post yesterday for singing El’s praises, but what I really liked about this fic was how how damn creative it is. The CAWS/IM3/AOS mashup is everything I wished the actual MCU gave us and more, with well-developed characters and an exciting story to put them in. And because it’s El, you know the banter’s gonna be on point, the way the characters care for each other is gonna be emotionally constipated but touching, and the pacing’s gonna be exciting enough to draw you in and keep you there. Also, this fic doesn’t have nearly enough kudos so please go read it and fix that or I’m gonna have to try to hack AO3 and that’ll just be embarrassing for all parties involved.

What Happens In Vegas

Author: sabremc

Word Count: 161,951

Summary: “What the hell, Tony?” Rhodey demanded brusquely.  Tony winced and drew the phone away from his ear.  “You’ve got cops and Feds all over the hotel.  I’m watching you perp walk out of the police station on repeat on CNN.  They’re saying you tried to bribe Stern?  Fox News has you selling weapons on the black market, and God that picture they’re using is the one from Bali in ’09.   You look like shit.  They wheeled Stern out and put him in an ambulance, by the way.  Got some paparazzi swearing you decked the guy.  Now they’ve got ‘copters following it like he’s OJ.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Sourpatch, I’ve got it covered.   Uh, though, I should probably tell you that, purely in the interests of national security and the greater good, I kind of had to fake marry that stripper-gram  you sent.  Thanks for that, by the way,” Tony added quickly.

Why You Should Read It:

If you’re deep enough into Stony to see posts like this on Tumblr, you probably know sabre’s what we in the business call a “big name author.” They’re prolific, they’re popular, and most importantly, they write words good (technical term). Seriously, sabre just keeps cranking out high quality stuff over and over again, raising the bar for the rest of us like a jerk (not really. I’m not bitter they write stuff so good I wish I’d thought of it first. Not at all.)

I never read stripper!Steve or stripper!Tony as a rule, but this came so widely recommended that I broke that rule and boy am I glad that I did. This is also the only fic on this list that’s a true-AU, with Steve being a non-powered vet from Afghanistan who left his army career to help Bucky and is stripping in Vegas to raise money for a prosthetic arm. He’s booked to do a private show for Tony, shenanigans ensue, and now they’re fake-married. This fic’s got some top-of-the-line banter and character development, but I particularly love it for its rich setting. Sabre paints a Vegas not just with strip clubs and blackjack tables, but KISS-themed minigolf, romantic dinners on the Eiffel tower, gaudy hotel lobbies, and making out on giant ferris wheels. It’s such a richly developed playground for the characters to play on, and through it, Steve manages to find a life for himself he’d given up on, and Tony finds multiple ways to show his kindness and depth of feeling for Steve. I know the word count’s long for this one but trust me, you’ve gotta read this fic.

Wait & Sea

Author: Lenalena

Word Count: 53,244

Summary: In which Tony and Steve get sent on an undercover mission aboard a cruise ship to make contact with Hydra. In this AU the military has kept the discovery and defrosting of Captain America a secret, so Steve and Tony have never met before. Yet they are to pose as newlyweds....

Why You Should Read It:

This one’s old and popular enough to be considered one of the “classic” Stony fics, and for good reason. Lenalena doesn’t write too often and not as much as they used to, but the fics they have up there are an absolute delight.

This is another fic that I skipped a bunch of times for being outside my comfort zone, but when I finally read it I saw why everyone’s so wild about it. In this story, Steve’s defrosted a bit earlier and not revealed as Captain America. He and Tony are sent undercover to sniff out Hydra shenanigans on a cruise and, because it’s fanfiction, they’ve got to pretend to be a married couple while onboard. There’s tons to love about this fic, but the things that bring me back to reading it over and over is first, Tony’s kindness and the way he’s attuned to Steve’s feelings, which... God, just inject “kind, observant Tony” straight into my veins, please and thank you. This is also another really rich setting for a story, and Lena knows how to fold the the hokeyness of the cruise into the seriousness of the mission and the depth of feelings Steve and Tony are finding for each other in a really beautiful, layered way. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, it’s steamy, it’s gripping... why are you still reading this here? Go check it out for yourself!

Ashes to Ashes

Author: dirigibleplumbing

Word Count: 51,582

Summary: After regrouping following some surprise time travel, the world's heroes and sorcerers come up with a plan to protect the Mind and Time Stones by taking them into space in opposite directions. The result involves a lot more time loops than Steve would like, but at least they're getting a second chance to stop Thanos. (As well as a third, and a fourth...) And if Steve takes the opportunity to try to reconcile with Tony, too—well, they have the time, and Steve's going to make the most of it.

Why You Should Read It:

Dirigibleplumbing’s another name in Stony fanfics that does not get nearly as much fanfare as they deserve. They’re consistently a really creative voice in Stony fanfics and I always look forward to their stories showing me something new. Go read all their fics, I need more people to geek out with me over them.

I tend to limit myself on Steve-and-Tony-mend-things-after-Civil-War fics not because they’re not good, but because they’re so heavy, and also the Sokovia Accords have five hundred layers of crap in them that no good fic could possibly hash out well. This one, though? When you add in the Infinity War/End Game fixit? Poetry. Art. Music to my ears. DP wrote a really engaging, twisty story where it’s hard to predict what’s coming next, in spite of it literally being a pseudo-Groundhog day scenario. The characterizations are great, the story is engaging, and the feelings are big and sad and eventually happy. Go read it, you’ll love it.

I have tons of other recs for this category but this seems like a good place to stop for today. Tomorrow’s Alternative Media Thursday, and I’ve got some real gems I’ve been saving for that day (aaaaand possibly a self-rec or two ;)

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

first of all i want to say i absolutely love i'm looking thorugh you and i'm excited for the next chapter. now on an unrelated note i want to ask have you seen sarah z's new video on fanfiction? if you have, what do you think?

Hi anon, thank you so much!!! My exams are starting in 10 days and in 5 days I'll be seeing my sister for the first time in one and a half years, so I'm gonna really try to find space to finish up Chapter 8 very soon (perhaps today [not including editing time, but everything currently written has been gone through once already]) so that I can justifiably step away from it again to focus on my exams and spending time with her, before returning to it. (which probably won't be before September)

I hadn't seen it and haven't watched any of her videos in a while, but I did upon seeing this ask. (I find her long-winded and generally she doesn't say much I haven't thought of myself; watched it on double speed lmao)

I agree with her on most points, I think. Fanfic is clearly art, I think that's honestly a stupid thing to even debate about. Also, it's first and foremost a medium with intrinsic qualities that can be either used to the story's advantage or disadvantage.

While there's value in original fiction having to rise up to the challenge of building characters and setting from scratch, a narrative meant to be understood with foreknowledge of "canon" can actually inherently tell a different type of story. Like, it's kind of one of the points I'm trying to make with I'm Looking Through You; demonstrating how the story both parallels and diverges from what actually happened, which would be difficult to do in a satisfying and engaging way if I had to establish the first "timeline" within the story as well, if that makes sense.

That being said, I think Beatles RPF (the kind that doesn't take place in AUs) is sort of interesting in that respect: if you're writing fic for a book series or a movie franchise or what have you, in most cases you can expect the reader to have come across the entire canon (say with the exception of monster franchises like Discworld or the Star Wars EU). But in the case of a story based on a real history, which draws from many books and accounts as well as pictures and film, it's kind of difficult for me as an author to suss out what I can reasonably expect my readers to be aware of. Usually, when I tie in some recollection of a real event (example off the top of my head: I mention Paul getting Dot Rhone pregnant in chapter 3) I try to formulate it in a way that if someone wasn't previously privy to that particular fact it would still be understandable to the extent it's relevant to the story. The only thing I in general assume to be known is their discography. So in a way, the concept of fanfic not requiring any skills in establishing anything isn't quite accurate. I'm also kind of a big show don't tell truther, so I kind of think if you follow that principle perfectly (not saying I do btw, it's pretty difficult) with your characters, you're more or less doing the same thing whether the characters are known to the audience already or not.

I think the main thing about fanfic and the perceived poor quality of it is due to, as mentioned in the video, there being zero barriers of entry but also to the fact that constructive criticism is just not really welcome on fanfic sharing platforms. For better or for worse, in 90% of the cases, people are only gonna comment on a fic to praise it. I think that's fine in the sense that most people aren't aspiring professional writers, but it doesn't make for the best environment to improve and grow as a writer more than simply practicing the art would help anyways. If you're lucky, someone will specify the reasons they enjoy the story, but just like we can't expect everyone to write perfectly, we can even less expect all readers to spend half an hour writing a carefully worded review. I kind of wish there was a setting on ao3 where you could mark a fic as "open to criticism", so people who are just writing for themselves can just keep doing their thing unbothered, but people interested in honing their craft could get more nuanced feedback than "OHHHH MY GOOOOOD I LOVE THIS".

The kind of funny thing for me is that all original fiction I've written or attempted to write up until now was very much based around my own personal experiences, so writing from the perspective of men in the 60s who had insanely different lives from mine actually really forced me out of my comfort zone in a way? And the work I put into the historical research is considerable, so I just think that really doesn't match up with what fanfic-haters imagine the genre to be?

Of course, a bunch of stories do match up with antis' expectations of it, but alas that's not fanfiction as a medium's fault and there's nothing inherently wrong with stories written with their main purpose being escapism. I mostly think people should be aware that that's what they're consuming and if that's the only thing they consume, they might be missing out on more challenging ideas.

[blackberry-gingham]

The love language concept sounds interesting! I’d say George’s love language/the way he shows love is physical touch, Paul’s is receiving gifts, Ringo’s is positive affirmation mixed with quality time, and tbh I’m not to sure for John. maybe acts or service or quality time for him?

Mwahaha, you've fallen into my trap! The truth is I wanted to do this topic more or less for myself, but felt bad bc I still have a few requests left to do. So thank you for sending in a "request" for me so that I can do one out of order real quick >:3

Lol but really tho, thank you for humoring me and these are good! I could honestly see all of these, but for John I'd say acts of service with you, bc the "To Do" stuff just sounds like his character tbh, but maybe also I feel like there's some physical touch too???

Ik I've heard that John kind of actually didn't like being touched, but I mean... If you look at literally any picture of him with Yoko, he's always at least holding her hand, if not just totally draped all over her lol, so I'm assuming for an S/O it's totally different!

But anyway, here's some headcannons real quick and then back to requests. Thanks everyone!

---

George

Honestly? I feel like George would just not be able to keep his hands off you

Like, not necissarily in a sexual way (although that too, if you're in the mood lol), it's just that he loves to let you and everyone else know you're his

He's not all too shy about it either lol

I mean obviously he saves the more lovey dovey stuff for private places, but in public he still has a lot to offer

Everytime he sees you he kisses you either on the cheek, forehead, or mouth and then pulls you in for a hug

Always

Then the rest of the time, as long as he doesn't have to be working, he likes to hold your hand and play with your hair

And if he's feeling a little risqué, he likes to let you sit on his lap and cuddle against him

In private tho...

Oh, he is all over you!!!

You are his sanctuary and safe haven away from the public eye and the daily grind that comes with being a Beatle

I've seen quite a few quotes from geo lamenting the fact that he and the others had literally no private life thanks to their stardom

So yeah, believe me when I say he could live a thousand years and still never feel like he could repay you for giving him the rest and love he needs

He'd be like a long, giant cat. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, if he has an opportunity to snuggle up to you, he takes it

And if he's not exhausted, and if you let him !! he likes to just touch and kiss your body and face

Having that closeness and intimacy is so important to him, he wants to let you know how deeply he loves you

All of you

And of course, the best way you can return his love language back to him is by returning the intimacy he does for you!

When in Rome, after all

Honestly, just by accepting his offers when he initiates a request to hold your hand or hug or cuddle, he already appreciates that!

But if you initiate any of those things, he's definitely feeling the love!!

Although, one thing you like to do a bit different is giving massages

Of course George would certainly give you one if you asked!

But since he's usually tired, either mentally or physically, from always being on the go, you like to do him a favor lol

And he loves it

Seriously, you've never seen a man more blissed out then George gets over something as simple as a back or scalp massage

Assuming he doesn't fall asleep under the spell of your skillful fingers, he repays you with kisses or cuddles after :)

John

Ok idk if I'm like projecting, or reaching, or SOMETHING along those lines, but I feel like of all the boys, John is probably the one most looking for a true partner, as in like his other half

Paul is very close behind with his relationship with Linda, but for John it always came off as a need for him, more then like a want or nice thing to have

So anyway, all this to say that as far as acts of service goes, I think he gets a lot of security out of receiving this!

Like, whenever John's feeling particularly stressed or overwhelmed having you there to approach the issues with an objective mindset is a HUGE relief

Really, like I cannot stress this enough

Phrases like, "What can I do to take some pressure off for you?"

Or, "Well what if we just focus on x for now, and then we can take care of y and z tomorrow?"

All give him such a powerful sense of relief

And of course, the way that you, you know, actually follow up on your word, makes him fall even deeper in love with you then he thought possible

Now on the other hand, is physical touch

While this is a part of his love language cocktail, John likes to express this one a bit more then he likes to receive it

You see, unlike George, John is a little more reserved with his PDA

He will kiss you and hold your hand of course! But unfortunately his anxiety is a thing, so as much as he hates it, he has to reserve his physical affection for more private settings

But when you two are alone, he's like puddy in your hands!

He likes to just hold you a lot

It doesn't matter if you're preoccupied with something else, like a book or the telly, he just wants to have physical contact with you

And if you can do any of those things cuddled up on his lap or against his chest, even better!

But also, John definitely loves to get that energy back

He likes it when you give him cute little kisses and pet his head

I think he'd also like it if you rubbed his temples or the bridge of his nose/third eye lol

Wearing glasses all day can get uncomfortable you know!!

I think if you can establish that trust and physical closeness, that's when you'd also get a return on his acts of service

Really, if you've bonded this deeply with John he'd do literally anything for you

Whatever you need, whatever you want, if he can do it he will and if he can't he'll find a way to do it anyway!

He'd be loyal to a fault and love you forever after

Paul

Please tell me why I could see Paul being your sugar daddy on the low 😭😭

Really, like he just likes to spoil you!

Honestly if someone showed me proof that the real actual, 78 year old, 2021 Paul McCartney uses stacks of hundred dollar bills as tinder for his fireplace, I literally wouldn't even blink

Like even back in the day, he's got that Beatles' money baby !!! and he.... Kinda doesn't care for it, actually

I personally don't think any of the boys come across as like money hungry or something like that, but I could see Paul especially figuring that he might as well use all this dumb money to buy you things you like!

It may feel overwhelming to be on the receiving end of so many random, but expensive gifts tbh

You might even tell him to stop or that he doesn't have to do all that!!

I think he'd be able to understand that overwhelming you with nice things kinda has the opposite effect of what he's intending, but....

He just gets a little carried away sometimes lol

I mean growing up he didn't have all that much, and even now, like obviously nice things are nice, but meh

What he really wants to do is make sure you're enjoying the high life too!

I could see him doing more of writing you songs and music instead so that he can still fulfil his desire to give, should you feel uncomfortable with the fancy gifts

But yeah, if you're uncomfortable he totally would get that and dial back the materialism, but if you don't mind, then he doesn't either!!

Now you might be wondering how you, a delightfully average person, could impress Paul McCartney with a gift giving love language...

I mean, what do you give the man who has everything?

Well I'd tell you this... It's simple!

You could bring him literally anything that you find meaningful and be like "This made me think of you!" or "I just thought you'd like this!" and he'll love it!

He would definitely run up some organized collections of the little things you've given him

He has some dedicated display boxes for all the random, shiny rocks and pebbles you've found

A little filing drawer of all the notes you've ever wrote him

And if you like art or photography, he'd decorate his personal spaces with your work!

Of course he'd appreciate traditional gifts too tho

Like a watch or bass strings or a new tie ect ect

But the thing for you to not get caught up on is the price!

That doesn't matter to him :)

He likes your gifts bc they came from you!

Ringo

Ok, positive affirmation is definitely a big thing for Ringo

He gets roasted a lot by the boys and even the media, and all in good fun I suppose, but after a while enough is enough you know?

Not to mention, he just feels a bit... Lesser then?? Compared to the others and their musical talent

So the poor guy really needs a break!

Literally, even just little one word sentences of encouragement mean sooo much to him

"I'm so proud of you Ritchie!"

"That sounded wonderful!"

"You've done a great job today at the studio, good work!"

Stuff like that makes him melt

Of course he also appreciates the more conventional things like "I love you" and when you call him handsome!

And as for the spending quality time, that comes easily!

Ringo looooves to take you out on dates!

Now yes, there's your typical movie date, dinner, dancing, all that

But his favorite things to do is go on little adventures!

He takes you to the park, the beach, out to explore thrift and consignment stores, and anywhere else you want to check out!

However, not everyone wants to run around outside 24/7

So in the house, he likes doing things that you two can do together!

Painting is a big one, seeing as it's his other hobby, but it could honestly be anything, like puzzles, board games, or just watching TV!

I'm trying to think of how he'd return the words words of affirmation side of his love language, but I think it would be a little harder for him to do then expressing quality time tbh

You just make him so darn shy!

What with all your good looks and kindness, he just feels a little overwhelmed

Have you ever seen a work of art, or architecture, or even a landscape so breathtaking that you don't really know where to start when describing it to someone?

Yeah, it's like that

He definitely wants to try tho!

I think he'd stick to simple things like complimenting your outfits and praising your work or personal projects you show him!

He's worried that that comes across as just common decency tho, so he says "I love you" a lot and tries to make up for his bad way with words with quality time

[frostsinth]

A Line in the Sand - Pt. 3

Intro - Part 1|2 - MasterList - Art - Art

Ok, so this is kind of a conclusion chapter, but I left it open ended in case I want to revisit these two later. However, for now I have no plan to continue writing them. Perhaps some quick one-shots in the future, of various little snipits in their life. I just wanted to feel like this was more closed so I can continue with some other projects.

This is of course for the always lovely and patient @ivymemnoch​ of her Monster Match character Devaraj the reptilian monster (I prefer Nessiim, since I couldn’t decide between lizardman and dragonborn and he��s somewhere between the two). I hope everyone enjoys this soft fluffy fluff.

Like what you see? Check out my MasterList above for more babbles and stories. Please consider BuyMeACoffee while you are there. I’m open for art commissions, so please DM me if you are interested, but no writing commissions right now. As always, drop me an Ask if you have any thoughts or questions, I love to hear from everyone!

How had I gotten myself into this exactly? I wondered to myself for the hundredth time as I dropped like a sack of flour to the stone ground. Narrowly avoiding the projectiles of rocks lobbed at me from the other side of the deep cave. They clattered loudly when they landed, snapping and cracking in a way that almost distracted me from the cave’s resident. Almost.

It, or rather, ‘he’ as Deveraj insisted, did not seem in any way to be a mere spirit. Not how I would have pictured one. If I had to think of a word to describe it, I would have said… ‘tree’. But it needed more words than the one. Big tree. MOVING tree. A tree with branches that bent and wriggled and swayed like vines. Also, ‘wet tree’ would have been accurate, for while the texture of the creature was distinctly bark-like, it slithered and slapped about as it moved. Dripping what I hoped was water and sloshing about as it did. It had no head to speak of, or at least, no face. There was definitely a top to its weird mass of vines and branches that spun out from an almost humanoid torso. But I saw no eyes, no mouth.

Devaraj tucked and rolled neatly, coming to my side. A grin I took as wry was twisting his long mouth, and I would have scowled had I not currently been so preoccupied. Before the Nessiim could say anything though, we both had to dodge to opposite sides as a slapping limb cracked on the floor between us.

I noticed, as the spirit’s attention turned on me, that it seemed to keep its numerous branches and vines in limb-like shape. Two thick long columns where one might expect legs. Two long, extending protrusions where one would expect arms. Occasionally, the branches and vines diverged, but they always twisted back into the shape once more. This became more obvious as the creature advanced on me. Reaching out with snapping, rolling boughs.

I squealed, but couldn’t dodge quickly enough this time. And its arm-like appendages slowly started to wrap around me. They were wet. And I decided based upon the gooey quality it was probably not water as I had initially hoped. I also came to the realization that I had been wrong before; it did have a mouth. Which revealed itself to me as the spirit slowly dropped open its gaping maw, stepping in slowly as it entwined its branches around me. Flashing sharp white fangs amid a cavernous darkness. My heart ricocheted around my chest and throat in a rising panic to escape my breast.

“Yes! Excellent! Keep him there!” Devaraj exclaimed excitedly. “He seems to like you!”

I wriggled, sweat breaking across my brow as I struggled to keep the creature from wrapping its arms any further around me. “The feeling is not mutual!”

“It’s alright, Sera!” He called. “He is just frightened! I can feel it!”

The reptilian man stealthed closer, his booted feet moving with surprising quiet across the stone cave. And despite the panic threatening to choke me… I realized the spirit’s movements had slowed to an almost standstill. Its branches still slowly weaved around me, smearing me with thick slimy goo as they did. But it advanced forward carefully now. It still had no eyes to speak of, but that gaping maw seemed to be panting as it approached. A bit of drool dripped in a long strand from the corner of it, and I winced and grimaced as it leaned in closer.

I turned my head to the side as the spirit brought its ‘face’ to mine, and I could feel its hot, wet breath against my jaw. I don’t like this. I thought to myself, my heartbeat so fast it was just a thrum beneath my skin. I don’t like this, I don’t like this, I don’t like this.

Devaraj’s deep voice reached me suddenly, murmuring in a strange, hissing tongue that seemed to form in his chest and move through his body without ever passing through his lips. The spirit appeared to pause at the sound of his voice, and I saw it start to turn back to look at him over his shoulder from the corner of my eye. Though I decided the word “look” was in liberal use now, as it still had no eyes to speak of. Still, it continued to curl tighter and tighter around me. Enveloping me in its slimy limbs, rubbing the rough bark against my skin. I was too busy struggling against its strong grip to shake in fear, but I could taste it plainly on my tongue.

As my employer stepped closer, I saw him lift up one palm, then gently place it on the creature’s shoulder. Those startling yellow eyes of his closed, and a soft hum seemed to fill the air. Curling tendrils stopped, and the spirit paused. Its head tilting to the side. As if it were hearing something I could not.

“There you are.” Came Devaraj’s thick voice. And at it, the spirit seemed to relax.

The tight branches wound about me suddenly came loose, and I dropped heavily back to the floor. I gave a soft gasp of pain as my bottom hit the stone, but was distracted by the soft glow now emanating from the chest of the spirit before me. Its limbs shrunk and twisted, its outline changed. My eyes went wide as a face began to form around the toothy mouth, which was shrinking itself. Into soft lips, and a delicate shape. The remaining branches tightened together, smoothing into one, and away purled the bark-like texture, leaving behind skin. Glowing blue-white skin, but definitely skin. And a distinctly human form.

He looked like he was formed of light. His eyes blinked (he had eyes now!), and he glanced over at Devaraj. I could still see his irises through his lids when he closed them. His whole body was mostly see through, but still had the distinctness of solidity. It was confusing, but also… strangely beautiful.

The spirit opened his mouth, and a soft breathy sound escaped it. It made a shiver slip down my spine and goosebumps run across my skin. I couldn’t hear words in the voice. But I saw his lips move in a poor imitation, as if he was forming something in his mouth.

Devaraj nodded. “Yes, friend. You are in the craigs beyond the town.” He replied, answering some question I had not heard. The spirit turned to face him more. “Do you remember how you got here?”

A slow head cock, a quizzical look pinching his brows. Again, that soft, breathy sound. It was almost like a whisper, breathed in and out through the lungs, but with no definition or shape to it. Nothing I could distinguish anyways. My employer did not seem to have the same issue.

“Ah, yes, I see. But she is not here.” The Nessiim gestured to me, and I stiffened as the spirit’s eyes turned back to me. “This is Sera, not your wife. Do you see her clearly now?”

I met those strange, glowing eyes nervously. Trying not to visibly shake where I still sat on the floor. Then suddenly, I felt a dull ache in my chest. A longing, a sadness. I was taken aback by it, and as I looked at the spirit, I could almost see those emotions blinking across his face.

“I’m sorry.” I told him, the words coming to my lips as instinctively as the air came to my lungs. 

Again the spirit seemed to tilt his head from side to side, and that whispering breathing speech came out after a long pause. His hand came up, and I stiffened as those glowing fingers wisped across the edge of my jaw. Tracing its shape down to my chin.

Devaraj chuckled, and I nervously glanced over the spirit’s shoulder at him. “He says you are very kind, Sera, and almost as beautiful as his wife.” The reptilian man explained, a mischievous glint in his sharp yellow eyes. “He is glad you came to help him.”

I blinked stupidly, then looked back at the spirit. He stared at me quietly for another long moment, and I felt a few beads of nervous sweat prick the back of my neck. Finally, he straightened, and spoke again. Devaraj did not answer at first, nodding along with what I imagined might be taken for a thoughtful expression on his face. At the end of his strange, whispering words, the glowing shape turned back to my employer, who bowed to him slightly.

“It would be my honor, good sir.” He assured him. “Consider it done.”

Relief flooded through me, rising from someplace deep in my heart. But I could not quite place where it had come from. Only I knew it was not mine, despite its strange familiarity. I watched as the spirit considered me one last time, then took a step back, fading into a soft, wispy twist of blue smoke. And then, just like that... he was gone.

“Come.” Devaraj intoned, turning towards the back of the cave we had entered not one hour before. I spent a few more moments blinking at the spot where the spirit had just been, not fully hearing him until he called my name from the far wall.

“W-what are you doing?” I asked, scrambling numbly to my feet and darting over. Glancing about anxiously as I shlucked the last of the goo from my arms in case the strange phenomenon I had just experienced would have a repeat performance at any moment. I decided it was probably be best to be near the larger man if that was a possibility.

He kneeled down, sweeping his hand delicately over a pile of what appeared to be rubble to me. “Fulfilling his final wish.” He replied, and his long, claw tipped finger hooked around his prize.

As he lifted the glittering necklace from amid the stones, his elongated mouth curled up. Twisting into that strange smile. Once a frightening smile, but now I couldn’t help but feel a mirror of it curl upon my own lips as his intense eyes met mine.

“What is it?” I breathed, a little surprised to be nearly as excited as he was. 

My heart thudded a few of its previously missed beats out of rhythm as Devaraj stood and the movement brought him precariously close to me. I swallowed hard to find the shape of my tongue in my mouth again as I had to drop my head back to look up at him. His scaly lips peeled back lightly to reveal his sharp white teeth, and his eyes seemed to sparkle with delight at my question. I didn’t even notice his big hand come around and clap lightly onto my shoulder.

“This, Sera, is the necklace of his wife.” He slowly brought it down, and nodded encouragingly as my hands hesitated to reach for it. “He asked that we return it to their shared grave. It seems some errant fools disturbed their final resting place, and he was wont to unrest until it was returned.”

I delicately cupped the ancient looking pendant in my hands, tracing one thumb over it. It felt warm, as though it had only just previously been removed from its seat at someone’s collarbone for my inspection. As my thumb traced the gem, a corresponding warmth pulsed in my chest, and I felt my smile soften.

“They must have been very fond of it.” I exclaimed softly, entranced by the way the dim light of the shallow cave caught the metal.

A rumbling sound came from my companion’s chest, agreeable and soothing. “I would agree. Such sentiment carries long after death. But come,” He squeezed my shoulder lightly, “Let us return it, so that they may once more be at peace.”

“Why was he all the way out here with it?” I asked, following behind him obediently with barely a side glance as we exited the cave. It felt different as we left. Less hostile and menacing. Now it was just… hollow. Lifeless stone, silent amid the small patch of trees.

“It seems the theft left him so enraged, he had quite forgotten his original purpose for rising.” Devaraj mused, lifting a low branch to allow me to pass with more ease. “He followed the would-be thief here, then was tethered to the place. Unable to travel far from it once the robber abandoned his prize and fled for his life. Unfortunately, this is a common story.”

I kept both hands clasped around the necklace, holding it close to my heart. It made me feel better, for some reason, and I didn’t bother to question it. “But how do we make sure no one tries to take it again?”

The corners of his lips twitched, and I saw his thin pupils flick to me out the corners of his eyes. “... Would you endeavor to take it, Sera?” He returned. “I am certain it must be quite valuable.”

I didn’t hesitate, shaking my head quickly. “N-no… Not this…” I paused, my step faltering, and slowly brought the pendant away from my heart to peer down at it. “It… it is too special…”

“I thought as much.” He sounded pleased, and my head jerked as I looked up at him in surprise. He bared his teeth at me, and his long tongue flicked out. “You have a particularly powerful dushrasha, Sera. I noticed the moment I met you.” I opened my mouth to respond, but he had already turned and was making his way between the trees to the open plains beyond once more. “As to your question, I shall make sure it is properly interred and warded against such things for the future. That should ensure the husband and his wife might rest in eternal peace together.”

“W-wait!” I stammered, clutching the necklace to my chest once more and sprinting after him. “What did you mean? What you said before, about my… um…”

“Your dushrasha.” He offered, but didn’t slow his long stride. Now that we had left the small copse of trees behind, I was finding it difficult to keep up with him on the beveled plain. “It is as I said, Sera.”

“You said… but…” I darted around to stand in front of him, blocking his path. “Wait!”

Devaraj stopped, the ridges of his brow raising slightly. I saw his tongue skitter out once more, and he tilted his great horned head to the side. “What troubles you, Sera?”

“You said you noticed the moment you met me.” I craned my neck back again to look up at him. “What do you mean? What did you notice?”

“It is as I said,” He sounded slightly puzzled, “Your dushrasha is particularly powerful. Especially for a human. I have not seen one its like since I first came to your lands.”

“... You can see it?”

He hummed softly at this, nodding slightly as if the reasoning behind my words was suddenly clear to him. “Yes, in a sense. I am a master prizrasha, after all.”

I waited, but when there seemed to be no further explanation forthcoming, I sighed heavily. I spared a glance about, hesitating, then looked down at the pendant still tightly clasped in my palms. It didn’t matter. I told myself. I was planning on leaving soon anyways. I didn’t need him to explain anything, I didn’t need to know... I should just be happy to be safe again. It seemed the longer I stayed with this strange man the more hazardous my life became… still, my chest burned with questions.

“... You are unsatisfied with this answer?” Devaraj suggested.

Again, I hesitated, then managed to find a bit of courage to look up at him. “I just.. I don’t understand…”

He nodded. “That is not a crime, Sera. You can not be expected to know everything there is to know.” He cocked his head to the opposite side. “Would you like to understand?”

I swallowed nervously again, shifting from foot to foot. “... I-if you think I can.”

The reptilian man scoffed, and his fat tail twitched. “Of course! I am happy to explain.” I jumped slightly as his big hand scooped into the crook of my elbow. “Come, Nur is not far from here. I can tell you more on the way.”

“I-I don’t mean to be a bother-”

“I can sense dushrasha,” He continued, interrupting me as if he hadn’t heard me speak at all, his hand still gently tucked into the bend of my arm, “In the way you might see light sparkling out of falling water, or in the mists.” He gave me a soft tug, prompting me to pick up my pace to match his stride, which he thoughtfully shortened to accommodate me. “Most I cannot ‘see’, so to speak, without some effort on my part. A… what is this word… meditation, perhaps, or a spell. Though these are still not the right words.” His tail twitched, brushing against the long grass with a soft rustling as we passed. “But yours… I can see it… no, I do not like this word either…” He fell silent, his long tongue flicking out as he debated it for a moment. “I can feel it.” Fierce eyes fixed on me, peering down over his scaled cheeks. “It is warm. I like how it feels.”

My pace slowed as I processed this, and again, he slowed to match. I hadn’t even noticed he had left his hand cupped around my arm. He turned me slowly to face him as I chewed it over, my thumbs absentmindedly running over the pendant clasped between them.

“... Does it mean something?” I asked, surprised with my own timid voice. “To… have a… um…”

His long tongue snaked out again, and his scaled brows raised as his lips pursed out slightly. Thoughtful, I decided, cataloging the shape his foreign features took in application of this. Every moment that passed, I realized I was finding him easier and easier to read. I shifted from foot to foot nervously.

“For the Nessiim, it is a blessing.” He began, seeming to pick his words as he went. “For us, warmth is… is everything. And so a warm dushrasha… Well, it is very near divine.”

“Divine?” I echoed, a little flabbergasted, already shaking my head. “I-I’m certainly not-”

“I know this is not your belief, Sera.” he told me, and I felt his hand slowly slide down my arm. Gently pulling one of my hands free from the pendant to cup in his. “But I would still like to keep you with me… If you would be willing.” He ran his clawed thumb out, pushing my fingers apart gently to run its pad over my palm.

I felt a hot flush rise to my face, and my breath stuttered in my throat. “O-oh, I-I mean…” My thoughts raced about a mile a minute, and I couldn’t quite seem to keep my heart in my chest where it belonged. I slowly pulled my hand out of his, and started to back away. “I don’t… I don’t know if…”

“Apologies, Sera,” He interjected quickly as I struggled to speak, “I am certain that came off as far too forward. I did not mean it to sound quite so… ah, what is word…” His big horned head cocked to the side. “I mean to say only that I enjoy your company. Your warmth.” Sharp teeth flashed out, and his elongated mouth curled up. Yellow eyes glinting. Comforting. Reassuring. I documented it, blinking at him slowly. “I would like to continue our relationship. And explore it further.”

“E-explore?” I mumbled, taking another step back. My heart skipping.

He nodded. “Yes! You are an excellent assistant!” His forked tongue appeared ever so briefly before disappearing back between his lips. The thoughtful look returned. “I am not sure if a human can become a prizrasha, but I would be willing to teach you, if you would like.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Oh.”

His gaze flicked over me. “You are surprised?”

I swallowed hard. “I-I thought you… umm…” I flushed an even deeper shade of red. “N-no, nevermind.” I suddenly remembered the pendant in my hand, and looked down at it. Thinking and chewing over everything he had just told me. “... You want me to be your apprentice?”

“Is this the word?” Devaraj replied, his voice curious. “Apprentice? I like it. It has a pleasant hiss at the end. Assistant has one at the beginning, but it is less satisfying. I cannot linger on it.” He nodded again. “You have a natural talent, I think, Sera. You might enjoy this work.”

I glanced over his shoulder at the craigs where we had encountered the spirit. “I don’t know…”

I jumped as the large lizard man closed the space between us with a single stride, and boldly took up my free hand again. I had to crane my neck back to look up at him, and his tongue flicked at the tip of my nose as I did.

“It is up to you, Sera, of course. I sense you are… restless with me still.” He ran his thumb over my knuckles, his chin angled down slightly. “Perhaps you wish to leave.”

I choked on my next breath. Had I really been so obvious? Or was that talent of being a prizrasha? A stab of guilt hit me solidly, and I thought to pull my hand out of his again. His fingers tightened around it as it twitched in his grasp. Gentle, cool to the touch, but firm. As if to tell me that it didn’t matter; he didn’t mind. It didn’t hurt him to know I had such plans. I felt my heart skip erratically at his touch, yet I didn’t fight his grip further. I was surprised to find myself… strangely comforted by it.

“I’m… I just…”

“I like you, Sera.” He told me as I dropped off again. “I like your wit, and your warmth. I like your curiosity, and your good heart. Much as you try to hide it.” I glanced up at him, and he curled his lips upward more softly. Fondness, I decided. A warmth of its own… I cataloged that expression in a special place beside my throbbing heart. “If you want to leave, I understand, and I won’t stop you… But I would like very much if you would stay with me.”

“You don’t know anything about me.” I half whispered, distracted by the way the fading sunlight glinted in his eyes.

He cocked his head back to the side. “Do I need to?” I twitched as his tongue flicked the tip of my nose again. “I don’t need to know your history to like who you are. I am certain you would share it with me in time, or that you do not wish me to know. Either way, it does not matter to me.”

“You don’t even know my name!” I argued.

His smile returned. “You are Sera. You have the warmth of the sun in your dushrasha.” One brow raised slightly. “... That’s what ‘Sera’ means, you know.” He nodded, and I decided this expression of his was smug. “It means ‘fiery one’, and we use it in greeting to the sun.”

I stared at him, slack jawed. “... You named me after the sun?”

His expression changed again, softer around the edges. I could see the subtle movements of the muscles beneath his scales. “... Yes. It seemed most fitting… and… I would court you better, if I knew how.”

I jerked as if he had slapped me. “C-court me??”

Another nod, but shallow. Timid. He was avoiding my eyes now. “Yes, Sera. I find you… fascinating. I like to be near you. I like the smell of you. But I do not know how humans approach this matter.” He shifted in place, still looking off to the side. “And I thought perhaps you would not find appeal in a Nessiim like me…”

I laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of that, bewildered and shocked. Did the man not know how handsome he was?? I stopped short as his eyes jumped to me, and felt my face flush hot as the realization hit me as well. Those fierce eyes shifted to the side again, and he seemed to curl back from me. He began to pull his hand away, and I felt my fingers suddenly tighten around his. Devaraj paused, looking at me with his scaly brows raised and his eyes wide.

“I-I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh… I was just surprised.” I told him quickly. “I was… um… I didn’t think you meant to… ah…”

“I did not, at first.” He assured me softly, and I noticed him take a tiny step closer to me. A bit of his confidence restored as my fingers remained around his. “But… I have been thinking about it since we first met yesterday. It seems like masiimir, no? That of all the doors you could have opened, it was mine you walked through.”

“Masiimir?” I echoed, still flushed and my tongue feeling far too large for my mouth.

He shifted his jaw, obviously trying to find the proper translation and working his tongue around his mouth while he did. “Masiimir… ah, as if planned, yes? As if some higher being or power or such thing made it so we should meet. As if it was already written for history to remember that way.”

I shifted, glancing down at our hands. “Fate.” I told him softly.

His strong fingers squeezed mine gently. “I am a stranger to these lands. Yet in you I feel a piece of my home.” I peeked up at him through my lashes, and noticed him curl his thick neck down, his muzzle coming closer to my temple. “You were looking for a place to hide… and I offer you a place to belong.” He gave a deep, hissing sigh. “Perhaps I look into this too much, but… It is custom for Nessiim to begin courtship when they meet a potential partner. We are not ones for wasting energy on uncertainties.”

I hesitated again, looking back down at my hand which looked so tiny in his. I thought back over the last two days, and felt my heart flip a few times in my chest. I tried to press back the overwhelming thoughts and emotions that assaulted me. Tried to pull some sort of cohesiveness from their midst. It all seemed to crash into me at that moment. Everything that had happened. The strange draw I felt, the reluctance to leave.

“... Would you be alright with this, Sera?” He asked me quietly, and I realized we had been standing in silence for more than a few moments. “May I court you? It will likely be a fair bit experimental at first. I am uncertain how human courtship differs from Nessiim, but I am eager to explore it.” He cleared his throat, glancing off to the side. “But I will only pursue this if you are… erm… interested, I believe is the correct word.”

I swallowed, my head beginning to throb. “Oh… well…” I closed my hand tighter around the pendant still clutched in my other palm. Then glanced at our clasped hands again. I couldn’t hear anything beyond the thrum of my own heart, and I struggled to keep myself from quivering. “I… well…” My cheeks were so red, I was surprised they didn’t catch fire. I glanced at him out the corner of my eye again, and saw him watching me carefully with those intense eyes of his. I cleared my own throat. “I would… I-I would be interested...” I stammered out finally. “In you… ah, in you courting me, I mean.”

I jumped slightly as his nose nudged against my cheek gently, and I felt his tongue flick out to skip against my jaw. He dropped my hand, and skimmed his fingertips along my wrist and up to my arm.

“... For my people, it would be customary next to ask you to sun bathe with me.” He told me. “That we might share our warmth, and learn more about each other’s bodies.”

I nearly squeaked, but looked up at him. “Ah… W-would that require clothes?” 

He chuckled, a deep and rolling sound. “Humans are more reserved with their skins, yes? If it makes you more comfortable, it is the company kept that is important.” When I didn’t pull away from his touch, he snaked his hand around my waist, stepping closer so I had to crane my head back to look up at him. “But I would be pleased to once again share warmth with you, Sera.” He nudged me with his nose again, and I turned slightly to look at him out the corner of my eye. His fierce yellow eyes looked somehow soft in the afternoon sunlight. “Nessiim bond through touch... How do humans bond with their partners?”

I felt my pulse throb beneath my cheeks, and laughed nervously. “W-well… we uh… spend time together… we talk…” He nodded along with my words, and goosebumps raced across my skin as his tongue flicked against my collarbone again. “... We kiss…”

“Kiss?” He echoed, and my ears burned. “What does it mean? I like this word, the sound is most pleasant on my tongue.”

I shifted the pendant in my grip, looking down at it as I became flustered. “Oh… I-it’s… it’s hard to describe…” I peeked at him again, and felt my lips tingle as I did. A powerful urge came over me, and I swallowed hard. “Maybe… I should show you?”

He nodded eagerly. “I would like to see.”

I hesitated, feeling my heart thrum in my chest, beating recklessly against my ribs. I swallowed again, slowly slipping my hand from his. Again, I paused, belying a breath that skipped from my throat with a wispy quality, then gently rested my palm against his broad cheek. Then I debated how best to go about it, as his mouth protruded a fair bit from his face, and I realized it might not work the same. Could he even feel my skin against his scales? He did have lips, of course, but were they as… dexterous as mine? I gently used my hand on his cheek to tilt him into position, hesitating again. He watched me quietly, curiously. Finally, I leaned forward, and pressed my lips against the cool scales at the point of his snout.

Beneath my kiss, I felt the scales move, felt his mouth part slightly. I drew back after half a moment, flushing dark and uncertain. But suddenly, his arm hooked the rest of the way around my waist, and he tugged me closer to his body. Tucking me into the curve of his chest and craning his thick neck to nudge me gently with his nose.

“... I like this thing.” He purred, and I shivered to feel it move beneath my palm and through his chest pressed against me. “This… ‘Kiss’...” He nuzzled against me again. “... Is there a daily limit on ‘kiss’? Or can we do it more? I would like to try.” His long tongue flicked out, brushing across my lips.

I laughed shyly, tilting my head down to hide the bright scarlet color filling my cheeks. “No, there’s not a limit-”

“Good.” He interrupted, and I snuck a glance back up at him, my hand at his jaw coming down to rest against the broad scales on his chest. Devaraj’s mouth split, revealing his sharp teeth. “We must return the pendant first… but then I would like to explore your ‘kiss’ more, if you are willing.” His tongue came out again, skimming over my lips once more. I shivered with excitement at the touch. “And perhaps then I can show you what Nessiim do with their mouths...”

To be continued?

[cas-fulleditmode]

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle - Review

if you follow my blog or have seen one of my posts before, you probably know that i’m very outspoken about how much i dislike the direction TS4 has been taking for the last few years. today i’m going to talk about my first impressions playing the dreaded new pack.

1. Create-A-Sim

as expected, lots of hits and misses, but overall, forgettable to say the least. versatility is not the strong suit of a lot of these items and i’m afraid that the majority of them will end up being useless clutter in my catalogue. additionally, there are clashes of texture quality amongst hairstyles in particular and a handful of the items seem very rushed. an example would be the space buns above, where the bangs have horrible weighting issues and look odd on almost every face no matter how much you deform it. 

there’s also a lot of stylistic repeats from previous packs and an overall a lack of good color combos and variants, as some items have a range of 5-8 swatches, which i find to be too little (with the lack of a color wheel). i love a handful of the items in this pack, but they’re not enough to justify the rest. (someone tell the art team to stop making quilted fabric a thing.) (3.5/10)

2. Build / Buy Mode

build and buy mode come with a cute assortment of industrial, wooden furniture pieces and i also quite like the container home items that came with this pack as well, but there is still a few issues. i had a hard time finding matching swatches for certain items and especially while building a container home, there was numerous obstacles i had to face, such as windows only matching certain swatches of the wallpaper, certain windows and doors lacking swatches that others had, etc.

the consistency of some of these sets was questionable at times, the bathroom set did not come with a shower but with a bathtub, which find odd in the setting of eco-friendly living. with the exception of the new toddler bed, i also absolutely hated the beds we got.

the items in the picture above i adore on the other hand, and same goes to the new shelves we got. but in general, most of the furniture we received is aesthetically similar to things out of tiny living and doesn’t have enough wood swatches to make it versetaile anywhere near mediocre. (5/10)

3. Live Mode

the gameplay... or lack there of. choices were made. neverclean harbour, as i like to call the world offers a whole lot of nothing. with the 10 sims max that walk around, the town feels dead and lifeless.

as of now, i only managed to vote for one neighborhood action plan, since the cooldown is about 5 days, which i find to be very long for being one of the key gameplay features. like, it definitely makes sense, but there’s barely anything i can fill those 5 days with, apart from making fizzy juice and craft candles. the one action plan that got voted on didn’t even have the promised effect in the end.

the new skills and skill-related objects were also a pain to use. the bug house used a total of three animations or so and it became stale and repetetive to look at, same goes for the candle making station, it just felt empty and i can’t believe we got a whole skill dedicated to that. the crafting objects don’t serve much of a purpose for me, you’ll end up trying to sell them on the sales table which is just a direct rip-off from city living.

the off-the-grid gameplay is also obnoxious, as power and water usage are communicated via notifications. those clogged up my wall because one of them would appear everytime there was a surplus and everytime that surplus has been used up. poor design, could’ve been indicated in a much better way. but in general, i enjoy the concept and i think it could actually be quite fun if it were tweaked a bit.

the traits we got are overly specific and solely tied to the new gameplay we got, the aspiration i chose was a fucking disaster. not only did it have 3 stages instead of 4, one goal was to join a career and the next one was to reach level 10 of said career, while all the other goals were just one-off objectives.

the gameplay in this pack gave me a headache. (1.5/10)

on a closing note, i want to say that the pack itself obviously suffers a lot under the preconditions of the base game. the base game lacks in engagement with the player, you’re not met with impactful goals and objectives, you don’t get rewarded for playing a certain way and just end up feeling lost and easily bored of the entire experience, especially if you haven’t set any goals yourself.

you’re obviously going to have a more joyful time playing the game if you go into it with a checklist, a plan and enough to do to fill the time it takes to make one bottle of fizzy juice. when you obtain this pack, you’ll be greeted with the tools just scattered on the floor, waiting for you to be picked up, and if you have no idea what to use these tools for, you’re going to be heavily disappointed with this pack.

but as i said, that’s an issue with the sims 4 in general, this pack doesn’t do anything to fill in the gaping chasm that is the game in my opinion. there is still things i have yet to uncover in this pack, but i have no interest in doing so.

eco lifestyle is what it says on the tin, recycled trash. i give it a 3 out of 10. spend those 40 bucks on something else. 

[saeyoungs-sunflower]

(HC) RFA + MC in Quarantine

Listen lads, this is just a silly I wrote this the other day (I may have been a little but tipsy but shh) and I thought I might as well share it. I hope this cheers some of you up during such a scary time <3

***

Yoosung:

★ okay this is gonna sound obvious

★ but bare with

★ G A M E S

★ but!!! not just LOLOL!! oh no no!

★ i’m talking board games, PC games, active games like tag and hide and seek

★ you guys basically act like children how are you surviving on your own

★ you guys also do LOADS of cooking

★ like so much

★ you’re baking like one cake a day pls slow down

★ ngl you guys are thriving staying home all the time lol

★ if Yoosung has online classes, you set up a study club!

★ he does his college work whilst you do whatever work you gotta do boo love that tEAMWORK

★ honestly you guys have never been so productive oop

Zen:

❤︎ oh boy

❤︎ be prepared to be SMOTHERED in love

❤︎ zen i love you too but pls i have stuff to do

❤︎ m o v i e  n i g h t s

❤︎ f a c e  m a s k s

❤︎ there are so many movies/tv series that you guys have been waiting to watch together but haven't had time to bc of zen’s work

❤︎ big sad :(

❤︎ BUT GUESS WHAT FAM

❤︎ WORK IS CANCELLED TIME TO SNUGGLE DOWN AND WATCH SOME DAMN CINEMA

❤︎ it usually turns into make out sessions but shh nobody has to know

❤︎ Zen kinda discovered that you guys c a n n o t cook

❤︎ so!!! you learn!!!

❤︎ it’s MESSY y’all

❤︎ “aw mc you look so cute with flour on your nose” throws flour at your face “zen i sWeaR tO GoD I just wanna make b r e ad leave me ALONE”

 ❤︎ quality couple time <3

Jaehee:

☞  lets get down to business

☞ to defeat

☞ THE H A N

☞ lol JK

☞ seriously the house has never been cleaner

☞ obvs your cafe isn't open so y’all have some time on your hands

☞ one day Jaehee suggests gardening

☞ oh man

☞ it escalated

☞ gardening has now become an OBSESSION

☞ honestly you couldn't find a prettier garden on pinterest swear down

☞ you also decided to renovate the house you’ve been meaning to do it but have never had the time

☞ your house is now a work of art wow proud of you guys <333

☞ tbh, Jaehee actually has a small fear of getting sick/you getting sick so you guys are only leaving the house if it is a b s o l u t e l y necessary

Jumin:

♚ nobody talk about the bad ending

♚ i said don’t…

♚ he’s be waiting for this moment who needs a cage when you have a national lockdown

♚ all jokes aside though this man still has to work from home

♚ poor bby

♚ let us all shed a tear for Jumin Han

♚ you love to bring him tea and homemade baked goods whilst he works and guess what??? so does he lol

♚ it is time

♚ to D A N C E

♚ this man is so extra oml

♚ insists on taking online ballroom dance lessons bc why not MC hmmm???

♚ he is actually a very good dancer

♚ once you guys get good enough it turns into spontaneous ballroom dancing in the kitchen whilst you clean up after dinner

♚ wine??? wine did you say??? W I N E???

♚ oh b o y

♚ you've seen each other tipsy before, and lemme tell ya it takes a lot to get this man drunk

♚ his tolerance is so high from all the w i n e

♚ but one night you two get absolutely HAMMERED like oh my God guys calm down pls

♚ rip your liver lmao

♚ it makes for a v e r y funny evening though you guys have literal tears in your eyes and its so nice to see the mighty Jumin Han loosen up a little aw bless

Saeyoung:

☀︎ okay

☀︎ listen

☀︎ this man is absolutely out of control i can’t

☀︎ you thought he was a prankster before???? oh man i am so sorry

☀︎ “saeyoung why is there a balloon above saeran’s door” “don’t worry bout it babe” “i am WORRYING SAEYOUNG”

☀︎ on a serious note though being stuck in the house does sometimes bring back some bad memories for him

☀︎ there are some bad days where he just n e e d s to get out

☀︎ so you sometimes go out for a quick drive in some desert place ya know let’s be sensible

☀︎ you guys have also made a habit of climbing to the roof and watching the stars aw

☀︎ you’ve also both fallen a sleep there a few times oopsy daisy

☀︎ the memes are the only thing getting you guys through at this point it’s a problem

☀︎ but you are loving the quality time with your choi boys so it’s not all bad <3

☀︎ family snuggles are a must

☀︎ a M U S T

☀︎ the desired s n u g g l e position is you sat on Saeyoung’s lap, your legs draped over Saeran’s lap and Saeran’s head resting on Saeyoung’s shoulder AW

☀︎ sometimes you hold Saeran’s hand whilst he’s asleep bc your edgy boi needs love but wont ask for it ever

V:

❁ first of all

❁ a w

❁ this man is the sweetest peach

❁ he makes so many cute things for you whilst you guys are in lockdown

❁ i mean he’s writing letters, knitting you scarves, painting you pictures the whole shebang

❁ he even made you a pyjamas

❁ he’s sewing guys he’s out of control

❁ if your working/reading/just having a quiet moment he will sketch you

❁ you wouldn't know it though bc he’s a s n e a k y bastard

❁ he’s never filled a sketchbook so fast and it’s his most treasured possession

❁ a book!!! filled with YOU!!!!! amazing!!!!!!

❁ wait, did you hear that????

❁ oh yeah

❁ ITS ARTS AND CRAFTS TIME

❁ actual children

❁ even if what you make is terrible its just so fun because you're doing it together

❁ brb just crying my eyes out i love this man so much

❁ you guys also make care packages and do the grocery shopping for the elderly/at risk people in your area and deliver it for them AND sewing scrubs/masks for doctors

❁ “I don’t want to stay inside doing nothing all the time when there are people who need help” THIS MAN IS TOO MUCH

Saeran:

☽ i hope you're ready for this grumpy motherfucker

☽ he never went outside anyway but now that he cant go out it sounds like the best thing in the world saeran pls

☽ ah yes it is time to wake up

☽ oh it’s 4pm?????

☽ HA who needs a sleep schedule anyway

☽ also Saeyoung is not the only twin with the Mischief Gene™

☽ oh no no no

☽ you two team up and absolutely destroy him

☽ i am so sorry Saeyoung but you had this coming

☽ when Saeran says that he wants to learn an instrument you are GOBSMACKED

☽ HELL Y E S

☽ he orders a keyboard and omg he’s such a fast learner

☽ probs from all the years of hacking ouch

☽ do i smell??? A FAMILY BAND?????

☽ you and Saeyoung play kazoo

☽ Saeran has left the chat

☽ seriously though his piano playing is so pretty and it calms him down so much ughhh PRECIOUS TOMATO BOI

***

This is so chaotic hahahah I hope you enjoyed though. If people liked it I’ll do some more silly things like this. It was a nice break from...the other stuff I’m writing...hint hint watch this space ;)

Masterlist

[the-space-lady]

I think it is time to say Goodbye.

Hello! Mod here, Tataia. I’ve come to make an announcement about the-space-lady and edgy-frenchman.

From this day on, I will not be updating these blogs anymore. I will be closing the inbox and delete all unanswered asks.

Don’t worry! They will still be up, you can come back to look through everything as many times as you’d like, but don’t expect any new posts in either blogs.

Now, we all know already that these blogs have been on an never ending hiatus, and it showed no signs of updating regularly like back in the day. So, let’s have a little (okay, kind of long) chat, about how this blog came to life, and how I am happy and thankful with everything that came from it.

Feel free to not read this at all, because it is kind of a long read.

If you have any questions, please send an ask to my main blog, @tataiafurquim​, and follow my twitter where I’m the most active, also going by the same username.

Three years ago, 2017, for the first time in the Brawlhalla history, there was a new legend leak! It was a picture taken with a phone of a monitor screen which showed the character selection screen in Brawlhalla, of the next legend in the default pose (the one that every legend has before getting their signature poses once they’re released); that was the first time everyone saw Artemis. BMG didn’t even announce her on dev streams by that point. The picture was shared in the r/Brawlhalla discord server, and, Calamari-Pop herself had tagged me to see it in one of the text channels, saying, ‘look! female Orion!’. Since I started playing the game, I’ve always been an Orion main, and once I saw Artemis for the first time, I felt like it was love at first sight.

I was instantly hyped for the character, while most people were complaining that ‘BMG had run out of ideas for new legends’, I couldn’t wait for her release, she was so beautiful, I never felt so hyped for something like I did for Artemis. I was probably the first person to make fanart for her and post it on r/Brawlhalla. People’s opinions on Artemis were very 50/50. People didn’t like her because ‘it’s just female Orion’, others genuinely liked her, and were excited to play with the next scythe legend.

I didn’t have many friends at the time who were into Brawlhalla, so for me the hype was kept mainly to myself, and of course, through my art. The picture we had of Artemis was very poor quality, so a lot of early art was missing a lot of details, but I didn’t care; I just kept drawing the only thing that was bringing me happiness.

I was a 14 year old when all of this happened, school was being very rough on me, back in the day I used to struggle so much to study, it was a pain to focus and learn, I’d always give up and go back to video games and art. My grades were horrible, I felt like my personal friendships were kind of faling apart, and so with my family. The only light at the end of the tunnel I had at the time, was the idea of making an ask blog for Artemis.

At first, I was skeptical. What if it flops? The Brawlhalla community wasn’t very active in other social medias, it was small, but everyone was close and if something big was announced, the word would spread fast. I mean, it was worth a short. Worse comes to worse, I delete the blog and move on. Ask blogs weren’t as popular as they were either.

I had claimed the URL even before Artemis was announced in a dev stream, so the blog was ready to go. I remember waiting a little more than a month when the patch of her release was finally online, and I did my move of announcing the blog in every social media I could, and so I waited for the community to show up.

And they didn’t stop coming! It was ask after ask, I was so happy, this little blog was my escape from the real world. Answering people as Artemis was honestly the most fun I was having during that year. And I could also draw her as much as I’d like! The blog was growing, and so was my audience of people who was genuinely following me for my regular art. Even when I was grounded because I did bad on a test, I still answered people with drawings made on paper.

Needless to say, this blog was definitely, a start for me in the Brawlhalla community. “Are you the person who draws a lot of Artemis?” “Yep! That’s me!” It was great, I felt like I was finally becoming someone somewhat important in a community like I always wished to, drawing what I loved, and people loved it. I even met my soon-to-be boyfriend through it!

But of course, that didn’t stop what was happening outside of the computer screen. Things were going even more downhill the more I focused on the internet and forgot about real life. It was helpless; there was no way I was passing that school year, I’d have to repeat it. My parents had decided that maybe one of the issues was that, my old school, was one of those schools that go really hard on the students, and that was not my place. So, the next year, 2018, I changed schools for the first time.

I’ve always had really bad anxiety. On the first day in the new school, you know what I did? I drew Artemis. What a surprise to nobody, but for me, this was my moment of realization, that this space lady from a fighting game, was my comfort character. This possibly canonically evil woman who wants to kill my main because of some fucked up shit he did in the past, was my comfort character. I was depressed? I drew Artemis. I was happy? I drew Artemis. I was extremely pissed off?? You guessed it! I drew Artemis! It is likely that a lot of pieces I made of her that I’ve posted online, were created from strong emotions I had while I drew it. There’s a lot that I didn’t even post either.

In 2018 I was still updating the blog, but I was also focusing a lot more on school. I was managing to get good grades, I made new friends, had new experiences, and my relationship with my family was getting better. Of course every year has its ups and downs, but overall, the important part, was finally being taken care of; I passed the school year, and then I passed again, and I passed again! I have just one more year to go, and hopefully, in 2021 I’ll be done.

Setting that aside, as the blog grew, my audience online did so too. My art improved, I’ve become, for the lack of a better word, an important member in the community. A lot of people have seen my art, and some of them probably don’t even follow me!

Today, I am a Brawlhalla Partner, I have a wonderful boyfriend, incredible friends, an amazing relationship with my family, and I am now hoping for a bright future of work ahead of me, and it was all thanks to this ask blog of a fictional character who I deeply loved. I would have never made it where I am today without Artemis, without Brawlhalla, without all of you. I could ever be thankful, and all I can give you all is more fanart of this amazing game that has completely changed my life, and with how Brawlhalla has been growing? Keep an eye on this one, it’s gonna get big.

Thank you so much everyone who has supported me over the years, and followed me more than just Artemis content. The updates on the blog have stopped because I’ve been focusing on other things. trying out new stuff and focusing on myself to become a better person and artist, creating my own stories with original characters, which I’m excited to share with all of you.

Anyway, take care, whoever read this far <3 Hopefully 2021 will be a better year for everyone.

[thegoodomensdumpster]

Finally !!! The raffle I promised months ago is here. As you can see above, there are three prizes. Each of them has a theme : Roccoco, 20’s and 60’s. Together, the three themes are supposed to show an evolution of Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship through dancing, as well as portraying my headcanons regarding their gender identities and abilities to shapeshift. More about that on the individual pieces ( links in reblog ). Also, I can promise you that every image is actually better irl, it’s just that... I have poor lighting and disgusting photo quality on my phone lol. Under the cut, you may find more informations about each prize, as well as all the rules I’ve set for this raffle (it’s quite long but exhaustive, if you’re serious about participating, please read them first). The most important to know are these: - to participate, you only need to follow my blog ( @thegoodomensdumpster​ ) and like this post - reblogs won’t count as participation but are appreciated - if you’re a minor, ask your parents about participating first please - the participations will only be counted from the moment this post is online up until Sunday 1st of March 2020, 8 pm GMT. After that, it’ll be too late to participate. 

- The Roccoco prize contains :

. one original sketch of the Roccoco picture ( pencil ), A4 . one original inked drawing of the Roccoco picture ( India ink and golden paint ), A4 . one print of the Roccoco picture, digital drawing, color, A5 . one print of the 20’s picture, digital drawing, color, A5 . one print of the 60’s picture, digital drawing, color, A5

- The 20’s prize contains :

. one original sketch of the 20’s picture ( pencil ), A4 . one original inked drawing of the 20’s picture ( India ink and golden paint ), A4 . one print of the Roccoco picture, digital drawing, color, A5 . one print of the 20’s picture, digital drawing, color, A5 . one print of the 60’s picture, digital drawing, color, A5

- The 60’s prize contains :

. one original sketch of the 60’s picture ( pencil ), A4 . one original inked drawing of the 60’s picture ( India ink and golden paint ), A4 . one print of the Roccoco picture, digital drawing, color, A5 . one print of the 20’s picture, digital drawing, color, A5 . one print of the 60’s picture, digital drawing, color, A5

- There will be three winners. They will be chosen as follow : . Like this post, and be a follower of @thegoodomensdumpster. These are the only conditions to enter the raffle. Really. . ( Reblogs are appreciated to spread the word to people who might be interested, but won’t be counted as entries for the raffle. ) . ( This is not a condition I can check on, but I’m asking you not to enter the raffle if you don’t actually like my art and just want free stuff. That would be quite ridiculous and a bit sad. For me. ) . Three winners will be randomly chosen. . Winner 1 : The first person drawn as a winner will have the right to pick their favorite prize between the Roccoco prize, the 20’s prize and the 60’s prize, as well as a bonus print that shall remain a surprise for now :) . Winner 2 : The second person drawn as a winner will get to pick between the two remaining prizes. . Winner 3 : The third person drawn as a winner will win the last remaing prize.

. I will announce when the winners have been drawn, but will contact you in private to discuss your prize with you and get authorization to say publicly that you were the winner. .Make sure your PMs ( ask box or the chat options ) are available in your settings, these will be my only ways to contact you, and if I can’t do it fast enough… Well. You won’t be counted as a winner anymore. .From the moment I’ve first tried to contact you, you’ll have two days to give me an answer before being considered a forfait. . As a follow up : if, for whatever reason, I can’t keep one of the winners as a winner, another name will be drawn to replace them and the previous winners will get to be one rank higher. For instance, let’s say Winner 1 forfaits. Winner 2 becomes Winner 1, Winner 3 becomes Winner 2, and the newly drawn person becomes Winner 3. - About the shipping of the prizes : . Unless there is a terrible terrible surprise with the cost of the shipping – which I’m already expecting to be rather high -  I am willing to ship worldwide. . If there is, unfortunately, a problem with the shipping cost, I will contact the winner and we will try to find an arrangement. They will, at the very least, get a high ref JPG / PDF version of all the pics ready to be printed so as to not be empty handed. If shipping proves impossible for one destination, another winner will be drawn to get a chance to grab the prize. ( Previous winners will get asked if they would exchange their prizes first. ) . All winners will actually get those high ref files in case the delivery gets lost during transport. If such a thing was to happen, I will very likely not be able to ship anything else again, as this is going to get too expensive otherwise. . Because, yes, everything will come out of my own pocket. Which is one of the reasons I’m really asking people to only take part in this raffle if they genuinely like my art. I am willing to cover some shipping costs myself if I know my drawings will make the person who receives them happy, but it will be very sour to put so much time, energy and money to get them to someone who doesn’t really care.

- How long will the raffle last ? From the moment this post is made public to the following date :Sunday 1rst of March 2020, 8 pm GMT. Any likes given after that won’t count. - By entering this raffle, you are ok submitting to me informations such as : . your mail address . your email address . your name, or a way to identify you correctly on the shipping parcel . your age - If you are a minor, ask your parents about entering the raffle first. I am not going to go check in depth whether or not you are a minor or an adult, but I don’t wan’t minors getting in trouble receiving a strange package their parents weren’t aware of, or giving away their mail and email addresses to strangers on the internet. Granted you will get some info about me in return, but still. Take care, kids. - As you can see, the pictures represent overtly queer characters, so please, make sure you can receive these items in an LGBT friendly environnement.

- That being said : this raffle is 100 % SFW.

This raffle is very much a one time only thing !!! I think you can say from the load of text above that this was not light organization, and it’s actually costing me money, so I’m not going to be able to do that everytime I would actually like to. But Good Omens has made me very happy, and I wanted to share some of the happiness it brought me with you guys. This raffle has been a project I’ve had for quite a while, so I hope you’ll like it as well :) You can search #yihaGOraffle to make sure you are not missing any post regarding the raffle.

I think that’s all there is to know about the rules and everything. Let the raffle begin !

[ja-khajay]

2020-2021 Animation Watch(ed)list

I haven’t posted about animation in a while that I remember, and I know a lot of my followers are into it as much as me so I decided to make a list of the animated movies and series I watched on the past year or so, coupled with my short, spoilerless take on them. Enjoy!

Organized by

Things I saw for the first time

Things I rewatched

Under a cut for the sake of your dashboards! PS: I have not added any images yet. If you are interested in knowing more about the visuals of these movies, I might make an old fashion ask-prompted imageset list.

Part One: Things I saw for the first time

The Bear’s Famous Invasion of Sicily

Movie, 2019, Italian/French

9/10, a delightful little movie with amazing visuals. It feels like an animated picture book.

One of those “plot is in the title” media! I had never heard of this before but was heavily recommended it by my family members, who all loved it! It’s a sweet story, nothing groundbreaking but the unique colorful visual style alone makes it worth it.

The Castle of Cagliostro

Movie, 1979, Japanese

10/10. Reminded me of all the books i loved reading as a child

I assume its because it’s so old and the art style and themes are so different that it gets little to no love compared to other Ghibli movies, which is a shame! It’s fun with an endearing cast and as always, great animation and music

Mushishi

Series, 2006, Japanese

10/10 three episodes in I knew it was going to be my favorite series ever

One of the few things I’ve seen I’ll describe as life-changing. It’s absolutely lovely but never toots its own horn about it. Humble, calming, emotional and surprisingly mature. It’s pretty impossible to binge due to how intense the experience is. I just want to walk in the forest now...

FMA: Brotherhood

Series, 2009, Japanese

6/10 Dissapointing adaptation of a classic story

I read the manga for this when I was in middle school and remembered loving it. The animated version does an ok job of presenting the characters and worldbuilding and has some nice action scenes but overall looks really damn cheap and just. Not very good. Seeing I already knew most of the plot I did not have the element of discovery that made me marvel so much reading the original. It’s still a nice series but I really recommend reading it instead.

Code Lyoko (s1+2)

Series, 2003, french

3/10. 1.5 being for the opening song alone

This show sucks ass if I hadn’t been watching this with my bestie I would have dropped it two episodes in. The art style is ugly the stories are always the same and the first season has a (later removed thank fucking god) LITERAL “erase any consequences” button as a plot device in every episode. If you watch it for one thing let it be the nostalgia factor of early 00s Vidya Game Plot

The Legend of Hei

Movie, 2019, Chinese

7/10. Impressive visuals and a poor story

I finally watched this, peer pressured by the load of gifsets on my dashboard! It’s a sweet movie with really impressive animation, sometimes a bit too flashy for my taste (the action sequences go so ham they become not very readable...) but the story was just ok? The setting is barely explained and you are instead bombarded with vague epicspeech about powers and stuff that made me fondly remember Kingdom Hearts lol but that asides it’s a really good time! I need to watch more Chinese movies the few I know are just delightfully off the shits in how they approach action and I love that

Hunter x Hunter

Series, 1999, Japanese

9/10. Superior to the recent one!

I first got introduced to the series via the 2011 one. Comparatively, the 99 series focuses way less on action and way more on the characters, which I love because that fits my personal preferences! Despite mediocre filler episodes and some weird slight pointless plot changes, what it changes from the original manga doesn’t have much of an impact on the characters. The animation quality isn’t always consistent including a huge art style change for an arc (???) but it’s overall pretty nice. The series really shines in the last arc it adapts.

Oban Star-racers

Series, 2006, Japanese/french

9/10 a lovely surprise

This series is completly obscure despite having been created by people famous for their other series (Cowboy Bebop, Code Lyoko that i can name) and it’s a crime! It’s a kids show but without being stupid about it who tells the story of an inter-planetary race. If you liked that one scene in the star wars prequels you know what I mean. It’s got surprisingly nice animation for a TV series, and some truly great character design. The art style is a bit unique in a not for everyone sense, but I didn’t mind it much. It’s also THE most offensively 2000s series i’ve seen in terms of visuals. y2k kids assemble

The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon

Movie, 1963, japanese

8/10. Classic fairytale format with incredible visuals

Watched this for the art style because I know it inspired Samurai Jack, and it delievered! I dont’ have much to say about this one, it’s a very simply film but it’s sweet. For my pirates out there if you want to find it in good quality with english subtitles it’s VERY hard to find. If you just want to see the looks of it, it’s on Youtube with portugese subs.

We now enter the Gobelins Shorts Zone....!

My Friend Who Glows In The Dark

10/10 makes me cry each time

Pure delight...great animation writing everything. A little short about death and friendship but not in the way you imagine!

Colza

9/10

Visual treat...homely and nice :) not far from a 10 but a 9 because nothing about it is that groundbreaking

Sundown

9/10

If you’ve ever been ten minutes from failing a group project because of a single dude you will REALLY enjoy this. Loved the colors and personality

T’as vendu mes rollers?

10/10

It’s SUCH a sweet little short I loved that one so much

Dix-huit kilomètres trois

10/10

Surprisingly well written dialog. Visuals are great but the humanity of the characters carries this to another level

Un diable dans la poche

9/10

Amazing visuals and the most tense/creepy of Gobelin shorts i’ve ever seen. Chilling

La bestia

8/10

I had some issues with the pacing. Interesting story and visuals choices but I was not fond of the art style

Goodbye Robin

5/10

Confusing but predictable. Both at once??? Yes!

Le retour des vagues

6/10

Cool animation stuff but felt pretty pointless

                                                                ***

Part Two: Things I rewatched

Ruben Brandt: Collector

Movie, 2018, Hungarian

10/10. Underrated as hell

Watched this fully blind for the first time in an animated festival and rewatched it with friends. It’s a crime I never see anyone talking about it given the amount of whining I see about the lack of both adult animation and 2D movies? This film is a unique love letter to art in the form of a weird mix of charming crime story and psychological horror with amazing visuals. I recommend watching it blind and also buying it to show appreciation for how nice it is!!! WATCH THIS MOVIE...

Mononoke

Series, 2007, Japanese

10/10 Visual/storytelling masterpiece in the weird shit departement

If you can stomach intense stuff watch this. The visuals are incredibly unique and beautiful and under the jewel tones and art direction high takes it’s a really cool horror series. My only obstacle to enjoying it the first time I saw it was how dense it is - simply put, it’s so...culturally Japanese it’s not very accessible to me who doesn’t know anything about the culture? Watching it for the second time helped understanding the stories more! 

Corto Maltese in Siberia

Movie, 2002, french

9/10 but really close to ten. A great adaptation!

I’m a huge fan of the original comic so I entered this a biiiittttt suspicious it would suck but it was a really pleasant surprise! It has all the wonder and charm of the original and the animation was surprisingly good for the little budget. If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s a sort of geopolitical action/adventure movie but with it’s own really poetic vibe to it. It’s almost impossible to find online but happens to be fully on YouTube so go ham I guess?

Redline

Movie, 2009, Japanese

10/10 cinema was invented for this, actually

Every review of this movie i’ve seen gives it five stars and starts by talking about how immensly stupid it is. I’m no different. It’s a masterpiece of escalating energy with the depth of a puddle and it fucking rules. It’s free on YouTube too so there really is no excuse to not watch it. Watched it for the first time on a huge cinema screen and despite this my second rewatch on my small laptop was as/even more enjoyable. If you watch this stoned with friends you might travel to another dimension

Spirited Away

Movie, 2001, Japan

10/10 deserves the love it gets

I watched this a single time as a kid and had little memory of it! I mean it’s Ghibli you know it’s going to be good as hell but this one rly shines in how colorful and detailed it is and in it’s world! It made me remember I had a huge crush on the dragonboy as a kid. I’m gay now

Kung-fu Panda (1&2)

Movie, Usa

10/10. KFP fucking rules

Honestly my favorite franchise of the whole disney/dreamworks/pixar hydra. It’s fun as hell, doesn’t skip a single beat and has amazing animation and character designs. If something is a good time I will not care if it’s deep or not and boy I fucking love these movies

Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas

Movie, 2003, Usa

5/10 Some great some really bad and overall generic

I tend to hate american cinema and this includes that era of animation I have no nostalgia for. Sinbad is in a weird place because I love adventure stories and the visuals of the movie absolutely deliver but it’s very predictable and TANKED by the addition of the female character, pushed in your face as “look we have woman!!!” despite her writing being misogynistic as hell lol. The evil goddess rules tho. This movie would have been a solid 9 if instead of the girl the two dudes had kissed