#and i had a hard time explaining and giving advice xD

[chubs-deuce]

Hi!! Love your artwork and your Charlastor AU with Dawn!!

I was wondering if you think Alastor would make any dawn-themed dad jokes and puns in your AU, and if he does, what would Dawn and Charlie think of them? I can’t really think of any off the top of my head right now, but I know ‘a brand new dawn’ is a phrase he could maybe use!

Again, love your art!!! If you don’t mind answering questions about it, do you have any advice for artists who want to improve their drawing or any practices that have helped you develop your skills? And are there any particular artists that really inspire you?

You’re one of my favorite artists and I don’t know how to explain it but your drawings have so much life in them!! 🌟

sdlksdflkj thank you so much omg!!!

I'm so glad you're enjoying them ;W;

And he would be insufferable with them lmfaoo, especially because I'm sure Charlie would hop in on a few of them and add to the pile as well xD

One more I can think of rn is "Oh, I was wondering where the sun went!" whenever Dawn enters a room, because the implied punchline is "but then it Dawned on me" or something? XD idk I'm not good with puns sadly

Now regarding the art advice!! This one got HELLA long so I'll hide it under a cut for everyone's comfort lmao

I know it sounds shallow and like worthless advice, but a huge huuuuge part of getting better at art is to just... make art! Practice makes perfect - it develops your motor skills, gives you somewhat of a muscle memory for certain basic shapes that are a necessity to have a good feel of for good foundation sketching.

Practice also develops your eye for compositing and for how color theory actually applies in practice, it basically helps you develop a more consistent grasp on art as a whole :D

There are some things I've learned over time that definitely helped speed things up though xD

here's some rough sketches I did just to demonstrate what my rougher drawings can look like - also a little diagram (on the right side of the image) of things I keep in mind for the average proportions of a human body!

I tend to sketch very loosely and try to capture the overall vibe and silhouette/rough shapes first before I even think about adding details - there's a certain flow, squish and stretch to everything that's just much easier for me to get a good feel for when I use quick, loose brush strokes and as few lines as possible to convey a concept.

Repeatedly sketching humanoid characters of various shapes, builds and sizes for years genuinely helped enormously in getting not only faster but also more consistent with it!

I'm fairly well practiced with hands and expressions especially at this point since I like to focus on those in my art often, so those come fairly easily to me as well now!

Something I learned along the way about keeping a certain liveliness to my artworks is that sometimes you have to forego anatomical correctness a bit if you want to fully express specific emotions - if you try too hard to keep everything perfectly proportional and realistic, it can make the outcome look stiffer than you might've aimed for - this is something I actually struggle with in my cleaner artworks :'D The ones I do proper lineart for, since a lot of the flow of the original sketch gets lost in the process haha

As for artists/artstyles that inspire me...

There's @/southpauz for example!

Her artstyle is unbelievably expressive and her eye for compositing and her use of shapes is SUBLIME - it inspired me to let loose more with my expressions, exaggerate features a bit more and to push the way I try to vary facial features :D

Then, back when I had that massive Rise of the TMNT phase, the artstyle of it has actually greatly influenced how I draw today!

It manages to be detailed and highly recognizable despite its deceivingly simple style - it exaggerates shapes and uses it to communicate personalities, emotions and action super effectively and taught me a lot about utilizing those more efficiently myself :D

And last but not least Ishida Sui - the mangaka behind Tokyo Ghoul (which used to be a highschool obsession of mine)

His striking use of colors, textures in abstract, yet symbolically heavy ways and his courage to be rough and expressive rather than looking polished, yet also having such a solid understanding of realism blew me the fuck away as a teen and still does now!!!

His art may have less of an influence on my style today than it used to back then, but I think in my more exagerrated, more horror-esque drawings you can kind of see it still :'D Either way I greatly admire him as both a writer and artist.

-----

I'm genuinely so so flattered that you enjoy what I do enough to give me such high praise, thank you so much for writing me such a wonderful ask <3 I'm glad I got to gush about some of my favorite artists/artstyles for a bit haha

If you have any more specific (digital) art related questions don't hesitate to reach out!! I love giving pointers about a subject I'm so passionate about, we don't gatekeep helpful information in this house!!! <3<3<3

[yarameijer]

Hi!

OMG are you the writer who wrote "Accidental Reverse"?!

If so, I'm a Huge fan!!!

Anyways... How are you?

If you accept headcannons or drabbles, what are your thoughts on Shindou and Tenma? How would you explain their relationship? Do you have any headcannons about them?

... I should probably stop here, so... Thank you so much for your AMAZING stories! I can't wait for what ideas you have in the future!

Take care and keep up the great work!!!

Heyhey! Yes, I am that writer! I’m good, super busy with exams and finishing my research tho, but hopefully I’ll get some more free time again eventually. Yes, I accept both headcanons or drabbles (as long as it works with my story universe), but I’m VERY bad at actually finishing drabbles haha…

Okay so I LOVE Tenma and Shindou’s dynamic, so thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to ramble about it XD

Shindou and Tenma’s relationship is, in one word, complex. As we all know, Shindou at the start of the anime doesn’t particularly like Tenma because of his behavior towards soccer, for two reasons: he thinks Tenma is very naive and his thoughtless actions will not only get himself in trouble, but also everyone else (and at this point, if Shindou has to choose between the team he’s been a part of for a year and a kid he’s met a day ago, it’s not even a choice).

The second reason is that he understands. Shindou loves soccer too. In a prestigious family where achievement is everything, soccer sometimes felt like the only thing he could just do for fun, not because he had to be good at it. And he was good at it.

But Fifth Sector ruined it for him, and the only reason he hasn’t left the club yet is because he feels a responsibility towards his teammates and because this is the only way he still gets to do what he loves, even if it’s twisted. So when he meets Tenma - cheerful, bright-eyed, hopeful Tenma - he hates him. He sees himself in him. And he can’t stand to see that spark in Tenma’s eyes fade like it did for him, so he tries to push Tenma away, get him to quit, before he has to see that happening. Beyond that Shindou is having a very hard time in general and using Tenma as a… well, a punching bag, in a way. At the same time you’ve got Tenma, who doesn’t know the meaning of backing down, and is also not the type of person to fight back against the type of treatment Shindou is giving him.

Of course, eventually this starts to change; Shindou gains hope that maybe, just maybe they can do something against Fifth Sector, and once he’s made up his mind about something he’ll go all in. With Shindou and Tenma now on the same side, the previous tension in their relationship fades and they have the chance to get to know each other. Tenma is (sort of ironically) very shy and very enthusiastic, and his optimism brings Shindou out of his own depressive slump. It’s contagious, really.

Once Shindou stops targeting Tenma all the time, Tenma gains a new appreciation for him as well. He’s already a fanboy of anything soccer and Shindou’s plans, the way his mind works, blows him away - Shindou is easily the smartest person Tenma’s ever met, and for him to look at Tenma and treat him as a teammate, as someone to be acknowledged… that means a lot. Just like that, their relationship becomes much more amicable, and they bond over their shared love of soccer and their goal of defeating Fifth Sector. They’re, maybe not friends, but at least on friendly terms.

Then there is another important factor that influences the way they interact - the captain switch.

Several people have actually expressed their surprise at the two of them. Tenma essentially ‘replaced’ Shindou as captain, after all, so outsiders would expect Tenma to reject Shindou’s advice - to prove himself as the ‘real’ captain, instead of listening to the old one. Similarly, Shindou was expected to hold a grudge since he was replaced by a first-year. Except that’s about as far from the truth as you can get.

Tenma respects Shindou very much first as captain and later as strategist, and holds his opinion in high regard. Even after all the years they’ve known each other, Shindou is still the one he’ll turn to first when a decision needs to be made and he wants a second opinion. Even if he doesn’t necessarily ask for it, he’ll always listen if Shindou has something to add. Furthermore, Tenma has never wanted to be captain - the role was thrust upon him due to circumstances, and he agrees because his team asked him to, but he’s never seen himself as any sort of leader and if he could, he’d shy away from the responsibility. He’s also of the opinion that Shindou is a great captain - why would he need to be replaced?

Except, of course, Shindou gets injured so there isn’t really a choice in that. What does happen, however, is the decision the team made to have Tenma stay on as captain even after Shindou recovered - which was suggested by Shindou himself.

Because Shindou doesn’t like being captain.

He’s pretty good at it, but it stresses him out a lot. He’s a strategist first and foremost and being captain interferes with that. Shindou wants to make plans, analyze the world around him, observe and gather information but if he’s acting as captain he can’t do that, can’t retreat into his own head like that. He’s got a responsibility to the rest of the team and he always feels the pressure to be aware of them, lift their spirits, lead them, and if he’s too busy with his plans he can’t do that. He also does not see himself as the most empathetic individual - gauging the team’s mood, figuring out what to say, isn’t really instinctive for him. He can do it if necessary but it takes effort and he often second-guesses himself, and with a team so diverse and intense as Raimon, empathy is a must.

So to Shindou, being captain is a burden. He took the position because the team wanted him to and he doesn’t regret it, but once Tenma shows a pretty instinctual talent for it and has a few weeks to polish that talent - once it becomes clear how easy it is for the team to follow him - well, Shindou sees his chance and takes it. He’s the one to voice the thought first, and once he tells the rest of the team, they don’t see any reason to disagree.

Which is exactly why Shindou has no resentment towards Tenma for taking his position. Shindou can do what he likes most - strategize - and aid his team, all the while knowing Raimon is in the best possible hands. And beyond that; Shindou didn’t give up any of his authority in the team. If a decision has to be made, Raimon decides together. Shindou and Tenma are a duo when it comes to leading the team - Shindou makes the plans, Tenma inspires them to do what’s right and encourages them.

Tenma, despite first floundering under the responsibility, handles it well and Shindou (nor the other senpai) refuses to let him shoulder it alone. Tenma’s still just a first-year, after all, and like mentioned before, Shindou sees himself in him. Now more than ever. They both know what it’s like to become captain in their first year, to have the responsibility thrust upon them, and Shindou refuses to let Tenma struggle with it alone. He acts like a listening ear, always willing to lend advice if the younger asks for it, and although at first Tenma is quite hesitant (with Shindou being his senpai), he’s also very earnest and open.

Over time, they get to talking more and more, outside of club-related things. Shindou is the dependable smart friend Tenma can always come to with his issues, while Tenma is cheerful and optimistic and doesn’t really expect anything from Shindou, not like the rest of the world. Doesn’t expect perfect grades or being the best, and while it takes Shindou a while to let go of the mask, eventually Tenma becomes one of the few friends he can just completely be himself around. Shindou is much more relaxed now that he’s no longer the captain and the tension in Raimon that was present under Fifth Sector’s reign is gone, and it shows in his friendship with Tenma. They act crazy, or lazy, and just do things for fun because they want to. They, together with Tsurugi, have been dubbed the new Raimon Trio, and it just works. Their skills complement each other and they settle into a comfortable friendship and shared leadership over the team after Tenma’s first year.

Sure, it takes them quite a while to get to that point, both because they have unspoken issues between them originating from the start of the year, and because they need to learn to understand each other. There's the boundaries caused by Tenma's insecurities and Shindou's expectations for himself. It takes a while for Tenma to learn to depend on other people and for Shindou to learn to be patient and listen, something that's been driven out of him by years of expectation and responsibility. But they get there. Maybe not immediately, but once they do, their friendship is unbeatable and something they both cherish dearly.

As for headcanons…

They tease each other all the time. Tsurugi plays a part in this too. The three of them just full on snark whenever they have the chance (Tsurugi and Shindou especially like making fun of Tenma for being the shortest, Tenma and Shindou like making fun of Tsurugi when he’s pretending to be all cool, and Tenma and Tsurugi will never let an opportunity to mention Shindou’s dramatic tendencies go).

Tenma loves listening to Shindou playing the piano and once Shindou figures that out, he offers to play something whenever Tenma comes over to his house, to Tenma’s absolute delight.

They often discuss team matters, sometimes over video or phone call, and always end up sharing ideas for hissatsu techniques and strategies (either for themselves or their teammates). It’s actually why they’re so in sync and can pull off improvised moves so well; they share their ideas so often they know pretty well how the other thinks/works, and that shows when they’re in the middle of a match. Super convenient when you know your best friend has been designing a new super shot for WEEKS and is itching to try it out.

In the year Shindou goes to high school while Tenma’s still in middle school, they end up calling each other quite a lot, and they like to get ramen or bubble tea or ice cream after school if they’ve both got the time, since they can’t hang out anymore as easily. Soon they drag anyone in the team along if they’ve got time, but it’s a habit that started with just the two of them.

They have a standing agreement to disagree on whether cats or dogs are better.

Tenma has been known to drag Shindou out very early in the morning during weekends if he’s got plans, whether that’s soccer practice or for a walk or whatever they’ve planned this time. Shindou is NOT a morning person but it’s very hard to say no to Tenma.

That’s it for now, I hope you enjoyed it! ^.^

[katyspersonal]

Sort of continuation of a previous post about SOTE stuff from today gnghvb

1) I really liked it when I've spotted an owl with horns in Abyssal Forest :^)

Horned animals in Shadows Realm drop the horns explaining how here Crucible is stronger and that's why some animals here grow horns even if that doesn't fit their species!

2) Like I said, I asked @jarognieva 's help to defeat Midra and then accidentally defeated him myself while she just needed like 3 minutes to help me 🤡 So instead, I asked her help to defeat that awful Knight in the purple flowers place that from my knowledge was keeping me from finally meeting Trina! But she kept being summoned by random people (🤡🤡🤡) so I FINALLY helped to solve the problem by recommending a set shared password for summons XD Thank you @fantomette22 for this idea, it is always helpful

3) Jara also shared with me that this knight was weak to Holy! I still needed a rebirth after having to change my built for Midra earlier, so I decided to make it Faith instead of Intelligence! I swear every other DLC boss has me figure out how to cleverly change my character.

So I forgot to screenshot our epic encounter (🤡🤡🤡) gghyhgj And we went straight to get our asses kicked XD She also gave me useful advice on eating turtle necks for stamina (that I legit always forget to do) and to alter my Cracked Tear mix! It helped! Then she asked to not attack until she joins (that was with a delay due to arena specifics)... and that ALSO helped! Then she reminded me to use anti-frost items. And she was RIGHT about Holy damage hitting like a tank!

4) It was really hard though, and I was about to give up and drop it again but she told me to shut up and that we got it gfhghhh Bit by bit, our attemps got better, but eventually...

YEEEEES THE BITCH DIED!! It was basically the very last moment too!!!!! I was out of EVERYTHING AAAAA

5) Honestly though, as much as I dread this boss and never want to fight him again, these items are cool:

6) Basically every single advice Jara gives is super useful, girl never underestimate yourself gfhtfhg And separate thanks for encouraging me to not give up xD

7) Like I said, Midra exhausted the culmination for today so I decided to not go meet Trina yet and instead pick remaining items I missed today! I went back to Darklight Catacombs first! Hey remember how I was surprised that it didn't have a Knight of Death, after all? Well,

It actually DID! There is a nook where you can loot the full set from a corpse!! It is on the second "floor" of this place! Remember that odd ladder you saw and strangely a rooftop down in the pit? That area has a tiny crack in the perils on the side where you go to activate the light! Here is ( x ) just the video how to get this set!

So basically, they are like this because they refused to turn on Godwyn just because he died a little and had a bit of rebranding from Electric Knights to Death Knights 😔 Really bittersweet

8) And the next item I've missed was this torch!

They are ACTUALLY committing to making a torch for every type of fire here! I bet there will be one for Messmer's fire too!

This torch became accessible after the lever to move the bookshelf was pulled, as now you can jump ON that bookshelf and access the platform above!

9) It is also actually picked from a distinct corpse of Nanaya herself!!

Someone also placed a note RIGHT on her, so I had to go offline just to take the screenshots 🙄 She has black hair, and suuuuch detailed clothes..

10) Remember the note revealing that Aging Untoucheable CAN, in fact, be touched? It is all to get this item:

And that was a ROYAL PAIN to get

Okay so like... Basically I am SO bad at Soulsborne games that the journalist who couldn't complete the Cuphead tutorial would probably laugh at me -_- That includes the fact that until this day, I honestly had NO idea how TO parry in Elden Ring! This whole time I assumed that parrying just meant attacking right after blocking! After about five minutes of back and forth screaming at @val-of-the-north over how nothing seemed to work we deduced that the shield itself needed to have 'Parry' as it's skill!

So I've learned about a gameplay mechanic crucial for close combat 2 years later after the game got released (🤡), but that wasn't all. It was very, very, VERY hard to catch the window to deflect that enemy's attack! In like 20 attempts only one was successful, but the critical hit that followed didn't KILL it! I complained to VA about it... and learned that I could actually have attacked it for a few more seconds after critical hit! So........ like other 30 attempts followed (🤡)

I basically had to muscle-memorize every single step and move, but I did it as you can see!! No reason in particular, just completionism, but I actually start to love how this DLC makes me overcome my natural weaknesses as a player! It is designed to not let anyone win with the level alone x)

11) Directly you say? :p

How many things that plague the Lands Between originally come from here? Formless Mother, those red Kindred of Rot I've seen earlier probably hint that God of Rot comes from here, now this?

____________

Okay I think the next time I'll go meet Trina and explore other paths which Shadow Keep leads to! At least half of the locations is done by now *cries knowing all my friends already beat or almost-beat the whole DLC days ago*

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 4x06 Starship Down thoughts (I’m re-watching, so beware spoilers for future episodes!)

[29 June '23]

Dax and Kira both rolling their eyes at Worf's "this is unacceptable" grumbles - same, ladies

"I'm fasting." Oh, interesting! Love an unexpected tidbit of Bajoran culture

"It's the anniversary of the Emissary's arrival." Oh

"Benjamin's never been one for ceremonies..." you don't say XD

Dax and Kira working side by side so much :3

"I made the mistake of letting my brother Rom execute these contracts." Rom is always the scapegoat, oh Quark. At least you're consistent XD

OH, THIS IS THE ONE WHERE THEY HAVE TO DISPOSE A BOMB!

"You cheated me, Quark, and you haven't even have the courage to admit it." Nice, I like this guy

I remember very little of this, actually! It's always fun to come into an episode not remembering much

"How long?" "Twenty minutes." "You've got ten." O'Brien's sigh... he sure does Have A Job

Julian pushing doors open like he's strong or something :P

Ohhhh, Sisko will think Dax and Bashir are dead 💔

"She did it." Oh, Kira's complete strickenness is heartbreaking

Quark's still trying to scheme... Of course

I can never see Quark's pink blue and white suit as anything but his trans pride suit XD

The fact Kira's eyes are still wet and Sisko is still so quiet and cut off. My heart.

"Something tells me they may be closer than you think." Good instincts! Only a little too late!

"Save your breath. I don't think there's anybody left alive up there." Gosh, this episode is hitting everyone hard.

I keep remembering what happens incrementally - now Kira's gonna keep Sisko alive by talking, right?

"It's very important that you listen to me, because there's gonna be a test later." Oh dear, Kira, you're doing your best and I love that this is your best <3

"Remind me to hold my breath next time." XD

"Is there anything else I should know?" "We only have a few hours of breathable air." "Thanks, anyway." XD Oh dear

"A year ago if you'd have done something like this, I would've thought you were just trying to be a hero." "And now?" "Now that I know you better I realise it was just a really stupid thing to do." I love these two so muchhhh. Her joke and his chuckle <3 <3 <3

Is Quark actually going to convince this guy to be more ferengi-like?

"They are not laid out properly." WORFFFFFFF. This is an emergency, things don't have to be perfect, just functional!!

Miles' uneasy look of I hope he doesn't say anything too bad that completely pisses off and disrespects my engineers

"What am I doing?" Oh, Kira <3

"Nerys?" !! I haven't got this far in my spreadsheet-data, but this is possibly the first time Sisko calls her by name??

And she responds "Yes, sir?" Going more formal the more informal he is!

The Federation mindset had so rubbed off on Quark - "It's up to us." Of course this is partly distrust that anyone will come and save them - but I think he's been influenced by hero-mindedness too

"If you don't mind my saying, Julian, that's a very strange fantasy." XD

Jadzia Julian friendship is the world to me tbh

Okay, I wasn't expecting Worf to actually take Miles' advice on board. Good for him!

"This can't happen. You can't die!" Oh, Kira. 

"I'm going to pray because I don't know what else to do." oh kira. Oh, Kira. This moment is so precious to me, I can't explain why. 

Oh boy, how is there SO MUCH going on in this episode that I had completely forgotten the Quark disabling a torpedo thing??

"I thought you said you never sold substandard merchandise. THis was supposed to explode on impact, wasn't it?" "Maybe I should offer them a refund." XD XD incredible

Their hysterical laughter to avoid thinking about their fear

"You just have to reach in.... and pick one!" JEEEEEZ QUARK WOW I KNEW IT WANT GONNA BLOW BUT STILL THAT WAS TERRIFYING

"Come on, Hanok. What do you say? You want to keep playing?" That was so flirty of you, Quark

The engineer's startlement at the bomb XD

"Just because one loses a bet, doesn't mean one gives up the game." Again, this was kinda flirty, no?

Odos pleased hm at Quark losing XD

What is wrong with Julian? "It's been nice.. talking... to you." That was not a human way of speaking 😅

"Thank you for rescuing me." "Now we're even." The second he takes to process that and then his outraged face! 

"Proceed at your discretion, Mr Stevens." Okay, this is nice :3 Worf gets character growth!

"Oh, you can do it in twelve." O'Brien dishing out the treatment he usually gets XD

SISKO'S GONNA ASK KIRA TO A BASEBALL GAME

AAAAH HIS HAPPY SMILE

HER HAPPY SMILE

THIS IS THE CUTEST

"NERYS" AGAIN!

I LOVE THAT HE JUST HAS SPARE HATS IN HIS OFFICE

FFFFFF SO CUTE SO CUTE I CANNOT

Okay, how on EARTH had I forgotten that episode so much??? It's incredible!!!!

[jaggedwolf]

pll rewatch 2x09

Aria has Ezra-Jason sex dreams while Emily and Hanna play lookout for Spencer snooping in the morgue. This hospital has the worst security, typical competency you can expect from Rosewood professionals

Hanna is okay with her stolen $100 cream giving her huge muscles but not with it giving her back acne or chin hair

I am instead distracted by the photos on the table next to Hanna. Is that a photo of her, Caleb and Emily together? Cute

Emily is suspicious of even her food this episode

“We all know you love to fix things” - Emily to Aria.

New Liar categorization has dropped. Fixers: Aria, Emily. Breakers: Hanna, Spencer. 😂

Emily is the worst friend to tell about a sex dream. I can’t even tell if she’s judgy because Aria is in a relationship or because Jason is Spencer’s top suspect.

Sometimes the other liars forget that Emily is the Most Puritan of them and get surprised by her being judgy about their choices

Hanna would’ve loved to hear about this sex dream. Aria really letting a friend down  by not telling her. But I suppose Aria was looking for a shut down, not enabling.

Aria knows zero biology. Doesn’t know what a cornea is this episode, last episode had Spencer explaining to her what the cranium is and her giving an ulcer patient coffee

“Well, for one, she will be able to aim a gun” - Spencer on Jenna regaining sight

These girls continue to be publicly so deranged about a blind girl. There’s one Rosewood High student out there who hears all these comments and is going what the fuck is wrong with these girls

I like this shot of Spencer sneaking in the greenery, even though she is being the world’s least camouflaged detective

Not the last time we’ll see random animals on Spencer’s sweaters

Calling her a detective made me imagine her as a washed up detective in Disco Elysium a la Harry Du Bois and well, sometimes they have similar amounts of tact so who can say how ridiculous a comparison this is (obviously Emily is Kim, because the homosexual underground conversation happens exactly the same way)

Samara shows up, jumpscaring my friends, because one of them forgot she existed and the other forgot she and Emily were actually dating.

Ashley shows up in time to be an #Ally. Like mother like daughter

It is a sweet scene for Emily. Her parents worked through their reaction to her sexuality, Pam much slower than Wayne, and are OK now, but I’m glad she has an adult who wouldn’t even think of blinking and is going out of her way to make it clear

Back in S1, Ella clearly did not know Pam wasn’t okay with the gay thing, even though Aria and the other liars were always in the loop about the Fields’ reactions to Emily coming out. It’s not the sort of thing Aria and Spencer would mention to their parents.

It is, I think, the sort of thing Hanna mentions to her mom. In the midst of other ramblings about school or gossip, Hanna throws in a “Emily’s mom is being a real jerk about Emily being gay” (which is also how Ashley even learns that Emily’s gay XD) 

I like the above as background for Ashley’s response in this scene

Veronica is completely undisturbed by Peter burning the hockey stick and goes yeah I would do the same, while Spencer once more loses her damn mind all across the living room. 

Bet Spencer thought she could have a normal time in her house after Ian died. Nope!

Time for lesbian poker night! This’ll be the most at-least-implied-to-be-queer characters we’ll see in one room for a while. 

They are playing with real money??? This tracks for Samara’s prep school coterie but Emily Fields, tsk tsk, somewhere in Texas Pam is frowning very hard

She is apparently very good at poker, which I have trouble buying and am convinced that Samara’s friends are throwing to Samara’s new girlfriend who goes to public school lolololol

TBF Emily wouldn’t be stressed about lying over shit she doesn’t care about, like poker

Emily calls Aria for advice on the blackmail text. Doylistically, this is because this is an Emaria episode for liar pairings in the first half, since Hanna is occupied by Caleb and Spencer is occupied by mystery. Watsonianally...IDK? How would Emily decide who to call when getting blackmailed by A, I don’t know

Aria gives no useful advice to Emily, which is what Emily deserves for being so judgy about a sex dream

Caleb is really fucked up about the mom revelation. We get our first scene with Haleb on the swings. I like that set for them, and at some point during this scene there’s a very pretty shot of them with the light in the background

I make fun of Byron all the damn time but the scene where he realizes what’s going on with Mike is sobering, as his little conversation with Ella after

Having a brother that killed himself while he was a teenager would probably want to make you want to be a helicopter parent. 

Ella immediately shuts down the idea of Mike being depressed, huh. 

Mike's behavior here makes his previous comment of “I wanted a gun so I could get out of here.” scary in a different way

Emily's mannerisms while Samara breaks up with her...it's almost like she's gone numb from the whole A torment? She doesn't even really try to fight for Samara, she's like well....I guess this is happening :/ I've had thoughts on Emily's instincts moving from freeze to fight as a reflex, but she is all freeze here

I love that while Hanna is watching the Katy Perry concert at home alone, Emily and Spencer are off breaking into Jason’s shed

I really like Haleb these past couple of eps. They’re so solid and good to each other. Caleb's voice is so torn up when he says his mom said he sounds just like his dad, aw buddy.

I think this is our first Hanna -> Caleb ILU

Jason is gross for confessing to and then kissing a high schooler, but my second thought about the kiss was “I wonder how far down he had to bend to do that kiss”

[blackjackkent]

Hector, obv.

Maple leaf / See-no-evil / Masks

And then Rakha, which I know is harder!

Green heart / Shooting star / Crayon

(OC Emoji Asks)

Wheeeee :D

Hector

🍁 MAPLE LEAF - what is their favourite season? why?

I think Hector is a fan of spring. I suspect that winters in the monastery were probably a cold, depressing slog and that, especially when he was younger, it was always a huge relief to come out of it and see plants blooming again. (He's not super outdoorsy - or wasn't before the game adventures at least - but the monastery had a beautiful garden maintained by some of the monks that would blossom into a whole rainbow of colors in the spring.)

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

This feels like something of a standard answer for Hector at this point but he really doesn't like showing when he is scared - which is a lot of the time once he's out in the real world. He was raised for stoic self-discipline and self-sacrifice and is pretty hard on himself for the (numerous) times that the terrible shit he goes through in-game overwhelms that.

He's also not entirely proud of his late-game tendency to steal all the valuables from jerks in the city and wouldn't necessarily want that on his tombstone even if he Robin-hoods most of the money. XD

🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

To a certain degree this ties into the previous question - Hec definitely feels more comfortable admitting his fears and lapses in emotional control with people he grows more comfortable with. He can also, frankly, be pretty scary to people who manage to properly piss him off (ref. his intimidation checks on people like Arfur and the lady at the kennels, off the top of my head), but it takes a lot to get him to that point.

The most obvious answer tho is that he shows a lot of himself (emotionally, though also physically I suppose) to Karlach that he doesn't show to anyone else. With her he feels safe in the full range of his emotions - fear, yes, but also a goofy humor and deeply romantic streak that really only comes out with her. <3

Rakha

💚 GREEN HEART - what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

Wyll! XD

More generally speaking, Rakha is comforted by answers. She is almost always running at an informational deficit and it almost always makes her uncomfortable and frustrated, so anything that helps build up her picture of the situation around her will help ease that anxiety and make her feel calmer. And ultimately this is how she first started connecting with Wyll, because he is made it clear right from the beginning that he would answer any questions she had and help explain things that confused her.

And at this point now he doesn't even have to say anything bc deep down she feels comforted just knowing he's there.

🌠 SHOOTING STAR - if they could make any wish with no repercussions, what wish would they make?

This is another one that might change as I get deeper into the game. But as of right now - the thing that compels her most (besides answers and violence) is the internal tranquility that she's experienced in fleeting doses from the guardian and Spaw and channeling the Weave with Gale. She's pretty much made it clear that that feels like a drug to her and the possibility of getting it influences her decisions tremendously. So I think her wish would be to have that all the time somehow.

🖍️ CRAYON - what advice would you give to them?

XD Whether Rakha would listen to me about anything is a tossup. But I would probably say something like - "You're not defined by your past. You can choose who you want to be now. Don't let go of your friends; they have qualities worth emulating."

At which point I think Rakha would just grunt and mutter "I know." And she does, really, but deep down she would appreciate being reminded. XD

[pageofheartdj]

Wowie, that sounds like quite the self discovery journey, it sucks that so many people struggle so much. I wish you were allowed to just be you without feeling those pressures when you were figuring things out. Hopefully you're doing okay now?

For me and my aroace journey was a ton more simple. I just, never figured out at what age I was supposed to develop a crush or whatever. The only time I ever questioned myself was if someone told me they had a crush on me, and that was more because I felt hurt that people would pretend to be my friend just because they had a crush on me and didn't actually like me. If I told them I didn't like them like that I'd lose my only current friend(s) which always sucked :/

(I had no friends in school really, so that probably impacts me more. I gave up trying to get along with peeps because I just dont understand their social cues or why neurotypical conversations can be boring at times. Why talk about what someone did if you could talk about dinosaurs or how there's enough different types of apples that you could eat a unique one every day for a year and not eat all the types of apples?)

So really I never realized I should have those feelings so I never questioned why I didn't. I did sometimes judge other people for having them because I didn't understand that it wasn't a choice. Sometimes in high school someone would ask me for relationship advice because I gave them a logical answer, and I was really really confused why people would act or do dumb-ish things just because of how someone looked?? Idk tbh

Gender wise my parents gave up caring, and everyone thought I was gay growing up so they thought I was just being gay?? I guess?? My parents were also neglectful though so it was also that they didn't bother explaining gender roles and let me do whatever as long as I was alone.

Similar to being aroace I never realized I was supposed to feel connected to gender. Eventually I came out after puberty and I say I'm trans masc people my gender (or really, lack of gender) doesn't make sense to people. Gender wise I'm not a girl and until puberty when the definition of girl changed for me, I never cared what people called me.

Being (maybe??) autistic probably really feuls this because I struggle picking up and learning social cues, so when people tried to teach me societal things I was too busy doing other things or didn't realize I should be internalizing it. Like i never thought about being in a relationship and even now that i now am an adult technically i still dont care. I like collecting funfacts more than that stuff, so it never registered as a thing to think about lol

Anyways thanks for explaining it from your experiences, it's really interesting learning what it's like for other people!! Have a lovely day!

Thank you! And yeah I am mostly content now. I know who I am and what I need. It's not perfect. We are never done changing and figuring ourself out. I still struggle a bit with society's set that you can be happy only if you have someone, you must be good at socialising otherwise you are a failed human. While every piece in me goes against it. I don't want any relationship, I don't want family, I don't want children. I struggle at making and keeping friends because my brain works in a way that makes it too hard. So it's hard to remember that I am not a failure just because I am not as connected with people and this is not a measure of my worth. I don't own the world to be a factory toy, the same as everyone else.

Ugh yeah this sucks!! I know people can't help their feelings, but still it doesn't feel nice to have these expectations! (also double yes! why should i care what someone did or their little life stories? this is boooring, do people really care about this stuff? i put an effort to care for a friend, but everyone dumps their stories on me! i can be interested talking about specific topics or work. but when its just. life. why is it my business??)

Also 🤝 for giving love advices xD We are not clouded by feelings so we can analyse this stuff from the side while never being in the relationship in the first place xD And it's hard to understand how people can be irrational because of their feelings!(even though it makes sense. it's like how anxiety can make us irrational. but still feels weird cause these are bad things in bad condition. while they have this bad thing in something good xD)

I am sorry your parents were neglectful! But at least you weren't pressured into roles, so at least there is some saving grace?

I thought I might be agender because I never cared about gender. I like being a bit femminine in a light pretty way, but also neutral/male style also worked for me. But then I was told that not caring for your gender is a cis thing?? I don't know, I feel like I am more like gnc in a passive 'I don't actually care and I wish it didn't exist' way xD

I've read somewhere that if you are queer there is a high chance of being ND and vice versa. Maybe it's not true, but it certantly feels that way xD Maybe because of hetero/allo normativeness of the society, that our brain from the start tells us 'we dont get social norms and we wont' XD

Your experience was also interesting to read! I love talking all about it!! Have a nice day too!❤

[joycew-blog]

I posted 11,876 times in 2022

That's 576 more posts than 2021!

17 posts created (0%)

11,859 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ manjerblog

@ raskies456

@ rukafais

@ septemberlikestea

@ saxophonechihuahua

I tagged 3,989 of my posts in 2022

#rick and morty - 1,393 posts

#rick sanchez - 1,043 posts

#pokemon - 481 posts

#morty smith - 325 posts

#hollow knight - 240 posts

#animation - 226 posts

#rick and morty season 6 spoilers - 205 posts

#deltarune - 191 posts

#encanto - 188 posts

#birdperson - 183 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#or i put conscious effort in it but during the process i had to 'eff it! it's ugly now but let's just keep going. finished not perfect!'

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Jeez this episode was....dark! Really dark! I don’t feel too good about what happened to Morty in here man...

Not to say that this episode wasn’t good, it really was! I just didn’t expect to feel dreadful for the whole episode.

I really hope this whole story bit comes back later and hopefully bites in Rick’s ass hard! Taking away the one part of Morty that thinks and stands up for himself, I just feel bad for him... But at the same time it was Morty’s own choice...maybe he was sick of second-guessing Rick all the time and wanted to get things back to more simple stuff?

Seeing how they did an after credits scene with the Roy machine tho, I’m hopeful that they’ll come back to it. Whenever that maybe

Also Summer was badass and fun. Just straight up messing with these dudes and kicking ass

122 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

#4

Something I didn’t expected was how much Weird Rick (tho I guess we call him Murder Rick now?) was so much of a troll!

I honestly really love that! He really seemed very no nonsense and serious in the scenes we got of him before this, but he cares even less than our Rick does. He’s shown so much personality even tho he wasn’t even around!

184 notes - Posted September 5, 2022

#3

he was really moving around like a cat this episode XD

218 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

#2

So Rick got the ‘You’ll make a new friend’ cookie from the box of random cookies he was chewing in the new episode. And that one came true!

But there are many more he chewed and there’s some interesting ones in there

‘Your crush with call you’

And it shuffles around a bit but there’s also one that says ‘Pursue your dreams with love’

Does that mean Birdperson will call Rick?! And he might have a chance?!

Tho it would be kinda meh that he only succeeds getting together with Birdperson because of a fortune cookie.

406 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I’ve been reading around a bit on the Rick and Morty reddit and actually found an interesting explanation of what Rick was doing with the wine bottle at the end of this episode

They explained it as Rick literally locking away the alcohol from Beth, to make sure that she doesn’t become an alcoholic like he is. And I honestly really like it, he’s really looking out for her more and more. And it compliments with his other actions in this episode where he doesn’t judge her and gives her advice of how to deal with the situation she got herself in.

It also shows great growth in him too. He doesn’t run and drink his problems away anymore, he’s willing to talk about them.

510 notes - Posted September 19, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[you-owe-me-two-iron-lukas]

MC:SM Mafia Round I

Okay so the very first round of my mcsm mafia on discord is over! And it wasn’t even that much of a chaos than I first thought, haha. Indeed, it was very fun!

If you’re interested in joining or watching the game live, hop onto https://discord.gg/d4Qgyr8 :3

The log:

It was a stormy thunder night, you were lost and zombies were groaning after your flesh. All you asked for was to have a roof over your head and a torch and maybe some food. And then you just saw this big, old mansion... it didn't even look as spooky from the outside. Maybe the soak and smell of rotten flesh distorted your view a little.

Anyway, in a situation like this, most people would find it a reasonable decision to go inside and stay for the night, right? Or was it?

Well, at least those other guests won't blame you.

They all went inside, just like you did. And they all got a white pumpkin put over their head by an invisible hand – a trap. For some reason, you couldn't even pull it off... probably a binding curse.

So now you're trapped, because going outside was no option, unless you wanted to become zombie food. And since the rain and the thunder didn't seem to go away soon... torches remained your only source of light.

But all the torches in the mansion couldn't light up the mystery that was hidden in this mansion. You weren't exactly sure why, but someone among the guests was... different. Like, weird. Unpredictable.

It was only a matter of time that you found a dead body in front of your door in the room you were sleeping in so soundly.

Innocent guests, it is time.

To find.

CASSIE ROSE!

*thunder roll*

More under the cut~

THE GUESTS:

Punkin, as Xara, SURVIVED

Batgurl, as Harper, DIED

Chuck, as Radar, DIED

Sea, as Ellegaard, SURVIVED

lowercase, as Petra, SURVIVED

Sparks, as Gill, SURVIVED

Angelic, as Jesse, DIED

Techfish, as Cassie, DIED

Jacque, as Jack, SURVIVED

Topaz, as Stella, SURVIVED

Night #1

Punkin stayed in the entrance hall and kept on watch the whole night. Batgurl chose to go to the library and investigate the room for traps. They were sucessful, and so the trap didn't kill them. Good job! Chuck went to the living room and lay down, waiting for their near-death-experience. And... they died. They got hit by a trap! Daaang! Sea chose to go to the attic and hit the hay, praying that no one will murder them in their sleep. And they remained alive. Lucky! Lowercase too went to the attic to sleep in pure safety. Sparks went for the bed champer... *again.* And he was alone. *AGAIN*. Dé­jà-vu! Knowing that they're stuck in a time loop, they flew to the attic. And they survived. Seems like they're writing a new story now. Angelic decided to just hit the hay in the attic. Techfish sneaked into the kitchen and set off a trap in the library, the living room and the gallery each, grinning evilly. Jacque followd the crowd to the attic and caught some good sleep. Topaz... did basically what everyone else did. Up to the attic and sleep. Good decision.

Death: 1 (Chuck)

Day #2

Punkin voluntared to detain Sparks and Jacque.

Night #2

Sparks and Jacque agreed in peace to let themself get detained by Punkin so they could proove their innocence. Punkin poked them all night and thus prevented them from falling asleep. Batgurl went hiding in the attic so that they could get some rest. Sea sneaked to the bed champer, hoping that no one will kill them tonight in their sleep. Lowercase stayed in the attic to sleep. Angelic's curiosity lured her to the library. They chose to stay awake and see who the murderer might be. While they were staring into the flames of the chimney to try and keep their eyes open, suddenly, the ground under them disappeared, leading them to fall deep and die. Darn! Techfish sent Winslow to lurk to the attic and see who's are hiding up there. They then went to the living room, entered the secret passage way and set off traps in the library, kitchen and the dining room. Topaz went to the dining room, but got uneasy and decided to flee back to the attic and sleep, leading Cassie's trap to fail! Hurray.

Death: 1 (Angelic)

Day #3

No votes were being made.

However, the deads seem to have gotten bored and disturbed the peace we totally had. Moving cups and one object whispered out loud "Deez nuts". And a lamp shaked in disapprove. Yeah, we ain't gonna forget that. It was very spooky.

Night #3

Punkin, being mega tired, dragged themself to the attic to finally get some rest. Jacque convinced Batgurl to follow them to the dining room, promising they'd protect them in their sleep. But as soon as Batgurl closed their eyes and drifted away in the land of sleep, Jacque sneaked to the dining table and pressed the button towards Butgurl, activating a trap and killing them! Damn, what a betrayal at a sleepover! Sea chose to stay in the bed chamber as it seemed safe. This night they stayed up late though, to keep out an eye for traps – and sucessfully avoiding being killed by Cassie tonight. You can never be too careful! Lowercase stayed in the attic and slept again. Pff. Sparks first couldn't bring themself to move as the pillows were so comfortable, but then later the worries won and they decided to spent the rest of the night in the attic, taking the disbenefit of having to sleep on the hard, cold floor. Techfish sent Winslow to the bed chamber while bringing themself to the library to set off traps in the bed chamber, the kitchen and the gallery. Topaz convinced Lluna to try and steal Punkin's weapon; theyself went to sleep in the attic. Sadly, Punkin didn't have any weapons on themself.

Death: 1 (Batgurl)

Day #4

Punkin decided to detain Techfish and they could do nothing against it. Also, Punkin had a very strong feeling that Techfish was the murderer. Damn, telephatic skills, obviously. Jacque tried to convince the group that Batgurl must have died in the dining room, and that they should try to find out about their roommate. Nobody seemed to suspect anything, despite their odd behaviour. *Really?*

Night #4

Punkin detained Techfish and tried to make them uncomfortable so they couldn't sleep. However, Techfish didn't seem to mind the staring contest and slept soundly. Sea wanted to team up with Sparks to avoid anything bad happening in the bed chamber tonight, but then decided to sleep anyway. Lowercase decided that it was finally time to get out of the dusty attic and sleep in the kitchen. Sparks went for the bed chamber again, but eventually became uncalm and ran to the attic to be safe for sleep. Jacque dragged themself to the attic to immediately fall asleep. Topaz didn't know what to do, so they stayed in the entrance hall and did nothing but sit in the corner and ignore the groanting of the zombies outside.

Day #5

Sea waited for someone to volunteer to detain Techfish, but no one was offering, so they took the job themself.

Night #5

Punkin slept in the attic. What else to do. Sea dragged Techfish to the closet and locked it up paranoidal three times, but was chill to let them sleep. Lowercase thought that staying in the kitchen and sleep another night was a good idea. Sparks attended the sleep session in the attic. Is the time for comfortable beds over for good? Jacque thought it was a nice night to *not* kill someone and went to sleep in the attic. And so did Topaz.

The Last Day

Since nobody got hurt during the two nights Techfish was locked up, Sea suggested to throw them out. Sparks, Jacqe and lowercase went right with him; only Topaz said it might be a risk. As soon as nightfall came, Sea, Sparks, Jacque and lowercase worked together to apprehend Techfish. They chased them through all the rooms, but eventually managed to surround them in the bed chamber, which was still Spark's favourite place. With combined power, they grabbed Techfish by arms and foot and dragged them to the front door in the entrance hall, giving them no chance to fight back. Arrived there, they built up momentum and throwed them out for good. Techfish wishpered "You got me, Y a y" sarcastically as they see the zombies approaching, and eventually, they became dinner to the endless masses of zombies.

This night, everybody slept very well.

They were woken up by the first few beams of the sun they hadn't seen for 6 days. The thunderstorm has finally stopped, and so all the zombies were grilled in the light of day. What a beautiful morning. And so they decided to escape the mansion- wait. One more thing. How would they get these damn ugly pumpkins off?! ... Okay. Welp, NOTHING was alright! What a terrible stroke of fate! On the bright side though, at least there were enough pumpkins left to make pie. Mhmm.

~ THE END ~

[gffa]

Do you have any advice about how to get better at the social side of fandom? I try to reblog art and posts that interest me with nice comments and post original content I think is fun and cool, but I can’t seem to make an impression on anyone. I’ve tried joining Discords, but I just end up getting overwhelmed and lurking like a weirdo. Overall, I just can’t seem to find my crowd, and I just feel discouraged and lonely while everyone else in fandom seems to have incredible friends.

Hi! This is a hard one because so many of us struggle with it, even people you think might not be, still feel the same way you do.  It’s even harder because you’re doing all the things I would immediately suggest as a place to start, to leave comments and tags, to create your own original content in the tags, to join Discord (I get overwhelmed by Discord a lot, too), so my best advice is that it just takes time. I know it feels like you’re the only lonely one, but I promise you that you’re not.  Yeah, you get some amazing extroverts in fandom (whom I love and admire deeply, even sometimes am envious of you guys! XD), but the majority of us are in the exact same boat.  It took me years to develop friendships with people, it took me years to get going on tumblr even to the point I’ve gotten to.  When I started, I posted so much--SO MUCH!!--and there were a lot of crickets until I’d been around awhile and had discussions with people. The best advice I can give you is to do your best to relax and know that you’re not the only one who feels this way and that it often is just a matter of time.  That the friends you make may not be the ones you’re expecting, that a lot of social interactions aren’t going to feel very satisfying and it has nothing to do with you, people are busy a lot, they’re depressed a lot, they’re shy a lot, fandom is often contentious and some of us don’t know who’s going to get mad at us because we like the Jedi, so we tend to hold our cards close to the vest.  Or sometimes we’re introverts as well and just don’t have a lot of social skills. You have to remember that, as much as it seems like people are out there with all these incredible friends, the vast majority of fandom is actually a bunch of socially anxious nerds who have trouble with interactions, even if it seems like they don’t.  It’s usually just a matter of time and letting the right friendships come to you, rather than seeking them out. It’s hard to give more explicit advice without knowing your specific circumstances--which I understand why you may feel shy about explaining more!--I don’t know what kind of original content you create, I don’t know which corners of fandom you’re interested in, like if you’re a fan of a particular ship or a specific character, or even what kind of friends you’re looking for, like do you want fandom friends or ones that you would give your full name and address? because those can be two very different things!  And sometimes it’s hard to tell which strengths of yours should be played to, like my strength is yelling about my feelings about Star Wars, partly because I’m good at it and partly because it’s the thing I genuinely most want to do in fandom, but someone else’s strength might be writing fic or drawing art, neither of which I’m very good at, your strength might be writing fic or making headcanon posts instead, and my advice on that would be different from if you just wanted friends to hang out with and speculate about a given series with casual friends versus friends who are intensely into the lore. Really, though, when it comes down to it, I suspect a lot of it is that it’s just a matter of time.  Ignore the overnight prodigies of social interaction fandom who seem like they found their friends immediately (I say with love, I promise XD) and remember that the vast majority of us took years to find our places and it can be disheartening to keep trying to put yourself out there, but it will happen eventually.

[interact-if]

Day 5 of the interviews! let’s give it up for Ligia! :chinhands:

Ligia, author of Love the Guard, Be the King

Latino Heritage Month Featured Author

Mathias' heart has been bleeding since his father, the former King, decided to punish you for his mistakes. As the youngest child of a lesser bourgeois, you were raised in the castle, between the King’s cruelty, the Queen’s friendship, and  Mathias’s kindness (or supposed kindness?).

Now, more than twenty Carnivals since your arrival, the King is dead and the Queen’s sickness  worsens each day. As the azure taint spreads in the kingdom and the Opalean Wars come to an end, it’s Mathias’s time to sit on the throne.

Will the docile Prince become a kind King, a violent Monarch, or a ruthless Tyrant? Will you have any say in it? And how much will your relationship change?

Love the Guard, Be the King Demo | Author’s Kofi | Read more [here]

Tags: historical, romance

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT)

Q1: So, tell us a little bit about the projects you’re working on!

With pleasure! Right now, I’m working on three main projects. My personal Visual Novel project, “Love the Guard, Be the King,” a second Visual Novel I’ve been secretly working on with a good friend for the past 10 months or so, and I also have an ongoing book series about hot, quirky supervillains—but I’ll focus only on the first two cause that’s what we’re here for, right? Hahaha.

LtGBtK is a really intimist experience, focused more on the MC’s and RO’s character arcs and how we can change depending on our experiences and how we feel about them. The entire plot happens in only four days, but it takes into account almost 30 years of history—basically Mathias’s (the only RO) entire life!

“Crystal Library” has mystery, romance, magic, 6 ROs, and a ton of memorable scenes already. I’m working on the graphics and the programming for this one, while Coco Nichole (@dreamybard), one of my favorite writers ever, is the brilliant mind behind the plot and all of CL’s characters! I can’t wait to share this one with you all. Romance is optional in both. :)

Q2: What excites you most about using interactive fiction? What are some of the biggest challenges?

What I LOVE and FEAR about all types of interactive fiction is how it invites players to, on a much deeper level, be part of the narrative. When reading books, we all work hard to translate beautiful sentences and scenes into images in your head. We interact with it, yes, but when playing IFs, we also explore the narrative in a different way; we have so much more agency over what happens! We sometimes have different paths to choose from, beautiful illustrations to unlock, or character traits that change depending on our choices… it’s amazing, and, IMO, it’s a very unique way to experience narratives.

But it’s also very complex, very demanding, and it can easily get out of hand if you give the players too many options/branches to follow, mainly when working with small teams or, in my case for LtGBtK, alone. *takes a deep breath* I just hope I’m doing a good job. .-.

Q3: What has been something in your project you’ve had to do a weird amount of research for?

Besides programming lol basically everything. For LtGBtK, I’m trying to create this weird fantasy with a modern-medieval society (?), so I’m constantly researching medieval customs, traditions, tools, and weirdly specific stuff like socks. Did people wear socks in the medieval era? What were their playing cards made of? When was ice cream invented? How did they shave? How did kids become knights? What were their perfumes made of? And soaps? What did they eat? How different was their wine? And what kind of materials or slang or fabrics can I use, and what can I change without completely breaking immersion?

 And then I shove all that into a pot and adapt it to a world where Mathias can literally put the world on fire with a wave of his hands. ♥

Q4: Which of your characters is most like you? How?

I think I’m a mix of them all, but mainly Mandra and Rafa (one of my main characters in my supervillain books). They have wildly different personalities and stories, but those two have clear views of the kind of person they want to be, they’re not afraid of their soft sides, and they are ready to work hard to become good at what they love. Rafa has a specially strong connection to her brother, like my siblings and I, and Mand is often locked in an eternal state of wanting to be alone and wanting to be surrounded by family/loved ones, so I guess we meet there too!

Q5: Does your heritage influence your characters as you create them? (How? Why or why not?)

Yes! There are the very basic ways, like habits, names, food, family dynamics, settings (mainly in my books, which are all very Brazilian), and Holidays. And then there’s a more personal way that I’m not entirely sure I can explain because I lived in Brazil for 28 years, and I’m not sure I can put that into words. The classics of our literature are different, Art, architecture, and music developed differently, my country was violently colonized and still faces the results of that violence (including but not limited to structural racism, classism, misogyny etc), I learned some Capoeira in my physical education class at school, we call non-Brazilians “gringos,” and so on. This is my normal, and this is what my characters would see as normal too, because I don’t know any different.

At the very core, all my characters are influenced by my country’s history, by our relationship with other countries, and by the values my parents taught me, passed down to them by my Indigeous-Spanish-Portuguese-German foremothers/fathers. :P

The main, more palpable way my heritage influences my characters, though, is through humor and theme. I think Brazilians have a very specific, sharp, and often very smart kind of humor that, IMO, stems from the type of history our country has, and the way we look at life, sometimes translating pain into humor. As for themes, I usually write about what makes me angry... and there’s a lot in Brazil’s history and modern society that causes me that. :)

But all I know for sure is that I want to show the world Brazilians are much more than samba and soccer.

 Q6: What is something you love to see in interactive fiction?

Other people! In the same way I add my history and worldview to my creations, I always approach stories thinking that there’s a whole, well, history behind them. And I love that! Also, I adore choices that feel impactful + good friendships and family relationships + soft romances with mutual respect. ♥

Q7: Any advice to give?

Hmm. Be proud and celebrate who you are and where you’re from. Learning and understanding the world inside us is a life-long process, so it’s always a victory to discover new pieces of ourselves. :) Also, if you can, talk to people that come from different cultures than yours to expand your worldview, don’t be afraid to be soft (the world needs more kindness), and please study personal finance. Seriously. XD

[thewriterowl]

this will be long

Miss Owl I agree with everything you said about the last episode but I have a question about what you said about Anakin.

You said that in some ways what happened to Anakin was also his fault.

I agreed with this theory for a long time but then I thought about one thing:

but was it really? let me explain

Anakin has always been an emotionally unstable person, and we can't deny that, so I wonder was it really his fault?

I mean , he did not choose to be like this, he was born like this I don't think he became like this over time because even before he officially got engaged with Padme he was like this.

The council gave him some sort of solution, you have to be able to let go of the past and the pain and it's great advice, even in therapy they tell you, you will never forget what happened to you but you have to move on, you have to leave it to go.

Anakin had the solution to his pain and his anger in his hands.

And then I thought about something my therapist told me, which is that sometimes some people have the solution, but they can't put it into practice, Anakin was aware of his problem, "I'm not the Jedi I should be" he said it several times, but unfortunately it is not his fault, Anakin is unable to apply his solution no matter how hard he tries, this is a common trait of many personality disorders, and we all agree that Anakin is affected from some disorder (some say borderline disorder, some say histrionic disorder).

The point is, this is the real tragedy of him.

Anakin is not a villain who chooses to be a villain, Anakin has found himself a victim of his own mind and this is not a thing you choose, his tragedy is to be able to go down the right path but end up on the wrong one, once on the wrong one for Anakin to give in to pain was simple he chose but he did not choose at the same time, the course of events in his life led him to that point, the inability to implement the solution, the inability to take the right path.

If Anakin had gone into therapy this probably never would have happened XD

I am eager to hear your opinion miss owl and excuse my english ♡

Anakin suffered. He suffered so, so much. He was groomed. He deserves sympathy and a hug and so much therapy.

But he 100% made choices that led him to the point of his fall.

He was a young man when he did this, the two people who cared about him the most and he cared about the most right back, were trying to communicate with him and letting him know what was best for themselves. Anakin was greedy and scared and possessive and tried to take that choice away. And he did so by freely killing thousands.

Anakin 100% had reasons, but he was not excused and he must be held accountable for things he did as well. Because the thing is, Anakin knew he was doing the wrong thing. Lucas discussed this before and even Anakin was going, "what have I done" and even "what am I doing" over the course of the early stages of during and after his fall. But he talked himself out of stepping away not just from his grooming (which always must be taken into consideration) but from his own scared, selfish self too.

He made a terrible mistake and once he started to realize it was not the best choice, he tried to bury it like a scared child. he was never able to face it. He even blamed Obi-Wan and Padme for what happened. Never himself.

Choices he made, that were influenced by others, for sure aspects of this. He can easily be read as mentally ill, he is groomed, and he grew up abused...but these are never, usually, excuses for adults to hurt others, for adults to hurt children, which he did.

Cause we also can't forget, Anakin didn't do this because he felt it best for the Republic (though he said he wanted to take over and fix it) he did it because he wanted to keep Padme and his children alive. He did all of this not for the greater good of others, but for himself.

There was good to him. There was noble and good intent, of course. And, yes, it cannot be stressed enough, he did not take all of these actions alone...but he still had moments where he knew he was doing wrong and still went forward with it, to terrified to look back and really absorb the damage he did.

So, he has to take some blame for the suffering he caused for others and himself on some level.

[loopy777]

Do you think Zuko ever talked to Aang about how it appeared that he spent more time with tenzin, compared to his other 2 children? I just feel like Zuko might have noticed because of his upbringing

Well, this gets a little complicated because we don't really know what Aang's parenting was like. We know what Bumi and Kya thought, but I've always wondered how much of their perspective comes from any of Aang's actual bad choices or failings. Did he actually favor Tenzin and/or spend unequal time with him? Or were Bumi and Kya getting their perspectives warped by external forces like the Air Acolytes?

(And, to be fair to Bumi and Kya, the original Air Acolytes were deluded kids with a fetish for the Air Nomad culture. It wouldn't surprise me if they grew into the worst kind of fanatics. Aang should have dismissed those people from the start, rather than embracing them like the comics show. If it was their discrimination at the root of what Bumi and Kya thought they experienced, that's on Aang.)

So it's hard to say what Zuko might have witnessed. We don't even know that Bumi and Kya always felt this way. They might not have had a rosy view of being part of one of the most important families in the entire world, but it might not have fully blossomed into feeling that they were being ignored for not sharing their dad's culture. If it was just a general unhappiness, then I'm not sure Zuko would have had much advice. To him, being unhappy with family legacy is perfectly normal; if Izumi was perfectly content as a child, he might have wondered what's wrong with her. XD

So to answer your question: yes, if Zuko saw Aang favoring one child over the others and causing discord, I think he would have said something. But I have doubts just how much there was to see, and if Zuko would have had the opportunity to witness it.

But what if he rarely saw the family all together?

What if, considering that Tenzin could never remember how much of the family was even present for the trips he went on with his dad, the whole group was rarely together and only formed random inconsistent groupings?

This is why I developed my patented, fan-angering "Kataang Divorce Theory." Based on the super-weird gaps in what we know of the family dynamics, combined with the visible lack of Katara's influence on anything related to Republic City (beyond the general Bloodbending-ban, which I assume was also instituted in some form across most of the world), I posit that Aang and Katara divorced shortly after Tenzin's birth, and their disintegrating marriage likely influenced the family dynamics in the years before that. Upon the divorce, Katara went to live in the South Pole, while Aang stayed in Republic City.

I hate the very idea of Kataang breaking up like that, but it explains so much. Katara stepped back from any kind of leadership role anywhere in the world so as to avoid interacting with Aang, and having her hero tarnished for her like that sapped a lot of her spirit, hence why she still sits back during the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe into the South even after Aang is dead. Bumi joined the military as soon as he could in order to get away from a broken home and create a surrogate family for himself. Kya went to live with her mother in the South Pole in order to embrace her Water Tribe heritage and find a sense of identity amidst a broken household, and despite her resentment at having to stay put and take care of her mother, the idea of giving up what little identity and stability she had was too daunting.

Tenzin has no idea who went on his vacations with Aang because the family was always grouping oddly on trips- sometimes it was just him and Aang, sometimes it was all the kids and Katara, sometimes it was Aang and Katara going to visit Zuko together because they're both needed for something and only taking the older kids because they weren't able to parent a toddler together, sometimes it was the boys and Aang because Kya didn't want to miss some Water Tribe event, sometimes it was Katara and Tenzin and Kya hanging out at the South Pole because Tenzin really wanted to be a Waterbender and never got over it, etc.

It's a horrible, elegant solution for all the weirdness we see in LoK.

And I can absolutely see Zuko not wanting to say anything to anyone about any family weirdness he sees because he doesn't want to take sides in the divorce. He loves both Aang and Katara, and finds it so awkward that they can't interact with each other anymore.

All we know for sure is that I am the worst possible person to ask about this. XD

[limitlessgojo]

Blood Bound: Blackened Bond (Ch 14)

Warnings: Action, Coarse Language, Fighting, Descriptions of Blood

Previous SFW Chapter: Home Sweet Home

Previous Chapter NSFW!: The More You Know

Next Chapter: Shadows Fall

Tags: Soulmates AU, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Fem!Reader

Taglist: @lessie-oxj @rizzo-nero @whoreuc @fkngkumiko @isl3t @gojoussunglasses @onepotatostand-blog @s-t-f-u-b-i-t-c-h @sunaswife @lordguameow @track5enthusiast

Notes: If you want to be tagged for every update, and specify if you're okay with NSFW posts or not, please mention it in the comments below ty ❤

Extra Notes: This is my favorite chapter by far in this book, I've been wanting to drop this for weeks! I hope you enjoy reading. Part 2 of the story starts from here on until the end. Feel free to scream in the comments as usual XD

Chapter 14: Big White Lies

As the days passed by, the seasons changed. You started class in Spring. Summer has long passed and it is now the beginning of Winter. Noritoshi, as usual, was really busy so you didn’t see him as often. But you let it go.

You wanted to do something nice for him, so you had the idea to surprise Noritoshi. Having some cupcakes in a small bag and a fresh cup of coffee in your other hand, you were outside his door, hiding your presence and cursed energy to mask your identity.

As you raised your hand to knock on his door, you heard a second male voice.

"I'm glad to hear that you've been getting along with your soulmate son." His father's voice was heard over a speaker. Oh he was on call with his dad!

Yikes, not the best time to interrupt. It is impolite to listen into the conversation, but you were too excited to surprise him that you decided to wait for the call to end.

"Is Y/N really deeply in love with you? Make sure to not let her go. That will surely help our clan's reputation rise above with her skills being integrated into ours. She can definitely bear strong heirs for our clan. For centuries it was the Zenins that harnessed various types of jujutsu shi with strong techniques. It's time we continuously expanded ours as well. Starting with her." The Kamo clan head sternly ordered his son.

'Huh?'

"Yes of course father. Don't worry. She has already confessed her love to me so there's nothing to worry about. I'll do my best to make this clan proud and powerful. I definitely won’t let you down." Noritoshi replied.

The smile on your face slowly faded as your face turned to stone. Ah. Was that it?

Is that what you amounted to only? A tool for their use. A stepping stone for the Kamo clan to get stronger. You started to feel nauseous. Is this the so-called secret he didn’t want to tell you about…

You stood quietly as you continued eavesdropping.

"Excellent. Heh, looks like you can actually be a womaniser if you wanted to. Women are way too easy. As I told you before, give her sweet touches, use pet names, give her lots of encouragement and make promises here and there and they'll be by your side before you know it." His father snorted.

"Yes, I've taken your advice into consideration and did as you said." Noritoshi spoke firmly. Your heart was breaking with every word spoken.

"If you don't like her or how she looks, you can have several concubines and wives anyways. Have your pick. Remember Homura chan? Now she's a stunner. Didn’t you also say you found her cute?"

‘What on earth is this? Who is Homura? Why?’ Your hands start shaking badly, pulse thundering in your ears.

You felt light headed from the brutish words the Kamo clan head was saying, and silently retreated, not wanting to hear Noritoshi's response to his father. Keeping your presence and cursed energy hidden and as minuscule as possible while you walked back to your dorm room.

Because you had left you didn't hear the remainder of the conversation.

"Father, I respect that the older clan heads had several wives and concubines. And I’ve told you time and time again that I’m not interested in Homura san. But I've decided to be loyal to my one true soulmate. I think I am falling in love with her as well, and can't bear to see her hurt. I won't be taking in any concubines." Noritoshi politely replied.

It was the first time he had spoken about his true feelings out loud and he felt vulnerable. He braced himself for any harsh words from his father but none came.

His father only raised an eyebrow. "Suit yourself. The fact is, even if she doesn't give birth to an heir with the inherited Blood Manipulation, she is more than enough of an additional asset to our clan. And it ties us together with the Abe/Tsuchimikado clan as you know."

Clan politics. Noritoshi is getting more and more sick of it every day, but he just silently nodded. As long as he has you and his mother by his side, nothing else matters. "Yes I understand father."

Noritoshi hated talking about his family with you, because of this exact reason. He didn’t want you to be disgusted by this side of their family and get pulled into their family problems. The worst thing would be for you to have a terrible first impression of the Kamo clan.

He understood that you already had a lot on your plate as your missions grew harder and harder. You were often assigned to grade 1 missions alone already. The worst case was for you to get roped into doing messy tasks to please the clan elders.

◇◇◇

You paced around your room, staring at the cupcakes and coffee on your desk. They were getting cold.

Cold. That's how you felt inside and out. You had to confront him. Or else your relationship will just drag you down. You definitely didn't want him to have any concubines. Didn’t want to have a partner who didn’t love you after all.

You were so lost in your emotions that you didn’t realize you were jumping to several conclusions on your own without considering Noritoshi's feelings for you properly.

'But it was starting to make sense' Your mind was screaming at yourself. 'He never explicitly confessed his feelings. He does indeed give me mixed signals from time to time. He shuts me out of private matters to him. He could be using me.’

The one question that was breaking you apart now is: "Was everything a lie? How much of his actions were sincere? He could lie about anything. To get power, that's something the big 3 clans are capable of doing. Satoru told me of some of the horrors already…"

The doubt and feelings of betrayal piled up, until you came to one conclusion: You’ve had enough.

◇◇◇

The next day, you suppressed all your emotions and distracted yourself. You tried your best to act normal around Noritoshi, smiling brightly at him.

It wasn't too effective. Everytime he called you his angel, instead of the delight you usually feel, you felt hurt thinking he was forcing himself to do this.

This can't go on forever. And eventually Noritoshi could start to feel the pain in your heart on his end as well. He hurried to you one afternoon after class, dragging you out to the plum tree away from the buildings.

You looked up at Noritoshi. As handsome as ever. Gentle and concerned (lies), with a strong hand reaching to cup your face (lies lies), speaking so carefully, "My angel, how are you? Why are you troubled? Have I done something to offend you?" (Lies, it was all lies).

He must be lying. Must have been since day 1. The way your brain just jumped to the most terrible scenarios in which he never liked you. There's no other reason. Your breathing quickened.

Both of you were still in the first stage of the soulmate bonding; therefore, you couldn’t share all emotions yet. Just urgent and strong random flashes of it, especially negative emotions. This is why both of you weren’t able to feel the love the other has through the bond yet.

You stopped smiling.

"I overheard your conversation with your father. I'm sorry for eavesdropping, but I had a present for you that I wanted to give you yesterday, so I waited outside your room. But that doesn't really matter anymore." You said, cooly shrugging off the hand on your face.

He stiffened, whole body tensing. 'No it was going so well with you, this can't be happening.' He thought to himself.

"Y/n I can explain-"

"Did you even feel anything for me? Besides our red string of Fate appearing?"

The marks on your wrists flowed in warning, searing hot pain flashed across both of you. But you ignored it. The devil on your shoulder pushing you to break things with him.

"Tell me the words you and your father spoke about yesterday were a lie." You begged him.

He couldn't say it was, because the conversation yesterday was only filled with truths. He was so confused, so he stayed silent.

You laughed at him without any real meaning or humor. The light had gone out of your eyes. Noritoshi felt himself shiver at the sound of it.

"So it was all true. Did you like me for me? Or because I'm your so-called soulmate whom you forced yourself to “love”- pshhh not even love, probably to tolerate, for the sake of power?"

Noritoshi’s head felt unfocused and his palms were sweating.

“I’m just a fucking game to you huh Kamo?!” You were freely crying now. He winced at the use of his family name.

Noritoshi found that he couldn’t breathe properly, much less reply to you. He had never seen you like this. What’s worse is your intense fear, sorrow, and disgust towards him was radiating so strongly through your bond.

“No you’re not.” He could hardly get the words out with how hard he’s breathing. It actually felt like the red strings were tying themselves around his neck. You scoffed at him unbelievingly.

He trembled as he lifted both hands to cup your face, but you stepped out of his reach. His hands dropped.

"You liar. I don't want this. If you just want to use me for my body, and to use me for your gain and for your family's benefit only to toss me aside for other women, then I don't want it." You spoke hoarsely. Your entire body was stiff, hands cold and voice quivering.

Your bond was hanging by a thread. The emotions of pain and betrayal bleeding over and muddling the delicate bond.

"I'm out. Go find some other bitch to breed for your sake of your precious heirs. I don't care if we are a fated pair. If you don't wanna put even an ounce of trust and honesty into our relationship then just fuck off." You turned around and walked away.

"Wait, no I-" Noritoshi gasped out as he snapped out of his shock, but you didn't turn back. You walked faster trying to ignore the voice you loved hearing so much.

Even if it hurts to break apart from him now, it is better than to have your heart broken again and again by staying with him.

"Y/n I do care about you. I do think of you everyday. You’re not a game to me. Didn't you hear what I said yesterday?" He called out desperately, stepping forward.

You ignored him, digging your nails into the palms of your hands at the pain from your soulbond falling apart. 'I won't be fooled any longer'.

Your bond was screaming at you to turn around and believe him. To believe that everything you've felt with him these past few weeks were real. That he truly loved you.

"Listen to me!" Noritoshi cried out.

You halted in your tracks. "I'm nothing to you. If you want to have other women as your concubines, go ahead. I know you can pick up as many women as you want with your standing. You clearly don’t need me. So I don't need you." Your last 4 words are a harsh slap to his face.

Snap. And your bond was left barely hanging with the smallest red thread that stubbornly refused to let go. But the damage was done. He couldn't feel your emotions anymore as his head filled with white noise.

Panic overcame Noritoshi like never before. This wasn’t like his normal self. He didn’t let himself think about anything else, but to run and pull you back in his arms.

Until he was physically stopped by an invisible barrier. Your solid air barrier that blocks all sound and forms of matter on the other side, keeping him away from you.

“No, no, no, no. Y/n Come back! I’m sorry! Speak to me!” He cried, furiously pounding at the invisible wall between the both of you. But you couldn’t hear him, much less know how he is feeling. After all, you’ve ended it with him already.

After you left, he remained rooted to his spot. His forehead leaning against the barrier, tears streaming down his face, as he stared at the place where he saw your figure disappear. It wasn't long ago that he had just fallen in love with you.

Your warmth, your laughter, the touches you give to him. Now everything felt so cold. "But I need you." He whispered out, sounding so broken.

The last few wilted leaves of the plum tree fell, leaving it bare to the cold winter. He remembered the words in the soulmate records of the Gojo Clan. “A soulbond can be rejected.”

Maybe he should have told you everything from the beginning and not hold back any secrets. He was terrified that your opinion of him would change, if you found out about his background and his mother. So he wanted to slowly ease you into the Kamo clan.

This was the worst.

As the sky grew dark, he went back into his room and for the first time, didn't bother studying. Just went straight to sleep.

What he wouldn't give to feel anything from your end. Even if it was anger or hatred, it would be better than this empty feeling.

Author's Notes: This chapter was the first chapter I've written before all others and is how Blood Bound came to be. You could say this is the core of the story, since it's the origin. Just had an angsty afternoon one day and chose violence🥰🤧

Blood Bound: Table of Contents

[queenofhearts7378]

Constellations Ch. 2

(Yes it finally has a title. Yes this is ending up multi chaptered. Yes there’s another part I’m writing. Yes I already have an outline for a vague plot....Yes I’m still blaming @ladylynse for this XD)

Prev. Chapter  -  Next Chapter

Danny was very much unprepared and underdressed for the time when some wizards fell out of his fireplace.

He paused in the doorway, spoon still in his mouth and cheeks full of cereal, as his brother stood up and brushed the soot off him with a displeased nose scrunch.

Danny swallowed. "And you couldn't just use the door?"

Honestly they're lucky his parents had left to chase down the Box Ghost earlier. Otherwise they'd be covered in a lot more than soot and ash.

Danny couldn't help the snort that escaped at the mental picture of Draco covered in ectoplasm and boiling in rage. 

Draco narrowed his eyes, seeming to pick up that Danny was making fun of him. "Using the Floo was quicker."

"....quicker than walking through the door."

"It's a wizard thing you wouldn't understand." Draco snapped back, his go to response whenever he couldn't argue against Danny's logic at the moment. 

"Uh huh. Anyways what are you doing here?" Danny asked, "You aren't supposed to be here for another two weeks."

Which was time previously planned for Draco to prepare for his summer in America while Danny finished school. Spend the two weeks after Hogwarts let out recuperating and making public appearances with his parents, then spend the rest of the summer with the Fentons.

Actually now that Danny was looking, it seemed Draco had come straight from school. His hair was lacking half its gel, he was still wearing his green tie, and his robes were a very boring black as opposed to the various greys and blues he flaunted around in the previous summer.

“Denebola, pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.” Drawled the man standing behind Draco.

“Hello creepy man that I have never met before,” Danny said, echoing his tone.

Draco choked on air as the discount Kylo Ren sneered at him.

“This is Professor Snape Danny.” A familiar please-don’t-say-anything-that-will-get-us-in-trouble tone coloring Draco’s words. “My godfather.”

Oh the potion guy. Danny remembers Draco talking about him now. He was friends with Draco’s parents, which didn’t really impress Danny that much as all of the Malfoy’s friends seemed to be really rich snobs or really racist. Mostly both.

But he was Draco’s godfather, the reason he got into potions, his favorite professor and someone Draco would willingly go to get advice from. So, Danny decided to reserve judgement till he met him. Well….he met him.

Danny looked Draco dead in the eyes, “My apologies.”

Draco closed his eyes in mortification, which made Danny grin internally. They were really getting the hang of the whole ‘speaking without talking to each other twin thing’. 

Professor Snape just scowled at him. “Where are the….muggles?" Disdain dripped off his words, instantly making Danny defensive. He had heard enough at Malfoy Manor about disgraceful, savage muggles from Lucius. Even Draco had echoed his father till Danny dragged him kicking and screaming into being a slightly decent person.

"My parents," Danny said, stressing the word, "Are working right now."

Okay maybe they were just being their usual trigger happy selves and running after Boxy, but there was no way he was telling Professor Snape that without it leading to an hour long discussion about ghosts. And Danny did not have time for that. He shoved a giant spoonful of cereal in his mouth as he met Professor Snape's eyes and-huh.

Draco never told Danny his godfather could read minds. He could feel the light brushes of a foreign mind attempting to gleam information from his surface thoughts. Danny didn't know if it was his wizard ancestry or halfa weirdness that made him sensitive to this kind of stuff. Either way, it was useful in keeping his secrets in his head from privacy invading school teachers.

Danny glowered at Snape and immediately thought of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up music video.

The two of them stared at each other for a minute, making Draco more and more anxious as no one said anything.

Finally Snape broke contact, "Where should his things go?"

Danny tried very hard not to smirk after winning that staring contest, "You can just leave them here, we'll get them later."

With one last displeased sneer, Snape turned to Draco. "I'm needed back at Hogwarts. I trust you are in good hands."

Draco nodded, still looking tense and anxious as hell.

Snape walked back to the fireplace. He paused next to Draco, "Take care of yourself Draco."

Draco softened under his glare, "I will Professor. Thank you."

Snape nodded and shot one more glare at Danny, who still had Rick Astley echoing in his head, before vanishing into the fireplace in a swirl of green fire.

Draco turned back to Danny and said, "You stress me out."

Danny snorted before walking back into the kitchen to put his bowl in the sink. Draco followed after him, looking at all the kitchen appliances with a barely hidden curious look.

"Something else we have in common."

"What are you wearing?" He asked with a nose scrunched in displeasure.

Danny shot him a look, "My pajamas, cause I just woke up. I haven't finished getting ready for school. You should probably change too."

"Why?"

Danny started for the stairs, Draco still following at his heels. "You can't wear robes to public school. I think you can fit in my jeans."

"What?!" Draco screeched, halting at the bottom of the stairs, "I'm not going to muggle school with you!"

"It's either that or stay here by yourself for hours." Danny said as he paused outside his room. Draco scrambled up after him. "Cause my parents won't be home for a couple more hours, after which you'll be alone with them till I get home."

Danny smirked at him, "My parents are going to be thrilled to see you, can you really handle their enthusiasm all by yourself?"

Draco could barely stand Danny showing various forms of physical affection, as proven last summer when Danny would throw an arm around Draco's shoulders and almost get hexed. And Ancients forbid Danny try to hug him. Draco might actually lose the wand and just punch him. Danny had spent most of their correspondence over the school year prepping Draco for the Fenton welcome wagon so he wouldn't hiss like a cat when he gets hugged. Okay, and maybe Danny just wanted to see his overdramatic brother's face as he is subjected to his parent's bear hugs. 

Draco scowled at him, "Fine. But I'm not wearing any jeans."

Draco stomped into Danny's room and slammed the door in his face. He heard the lock click as it was shut.

"Hey! I still gotta get dressed!" Danny banged on the door, "C'mon Drake it's still my room!"

Danny groaned before walking over to the bathroom. He phased through the wall and landed on the fire escape. It took a few minutes, but he eventually maneuvered to his window and slipped in.

Draco had dug into Danny's closet and pulled out the most dressy tux Danny owned and was in the middle of putting it on. 

"You are not wearing that."

Draco scowled at him, "It’s bad enough I'm lowering myself by going with you-”

“Lowering yourself?”

“-But,” he said loudly, “I absolutely refuse to wear common muggle wear. If I’m going to this school, I will not look anything less than my absolute best.”

Danny stared at him. “Drake you will be thrown into the dumpster if you wear that to my school. Let me just-”

Danny jumped on him, trying to remove the suit jacket from a struggling Draco. Draco shouted and tried to twist away, only for Danny to pull it over his head. Once Draco was out of sight, and swearing loudly at him, Danny subtly used his intangibility to yank it off him. And if he happened to remove all of Draco’s hair gel that he used to keep his hair slicked back….well, that would have gotten him thrown in a dumpster as well.

Danny tried not to laugh as Draco glared at him, his hair fluffed up and looking vaguely like an angry kitten. 

"Do you know how long it takes me to fix my hair? I have to completely redo it now! And how'd you get that off me?" He pointed at the jacket Danny was throwing back in his closet.

Danny grinned at him, "Magic."

Draco gave him a flat look.

"Anyway we've got to go, otherwise I'm gonna be late again, and get detention again, and you'll be forced to either walk home by yourself or stay at school with me."

Somehow Danny had managed to get dressed and drag Draco out the door with him, texting Sam and Tucker his plans to walk so they could meet up on the way.

"What is that?" Draco leaned over to squint at the phone in Danny's hand.

"My phone. I told you about it last summer."

Draco hummed, "I thought it was broken?"

"Yeah, cause your magic blew it up. My parents fixed it." Danny shoved his phone back in his pocket like Draco was about to blow it up again. "Now what happened?"

Draco shot him a glance, before letting his eyes flicker around them. "I did try to tell you muggle 'technology' and magic doesn't always go together."

"Drake, you know that's not what I mean." He said softly.

Draco was silent, his jaw clenched and his hands shaking before he shoved them in his pockets.

They walked in silence for a while.

"You'll get hurt."

Danny looked at him.

"I…." Draco sighed, "I've never…."

Danny waited silently for him to get the words out on his own, knowing that pushing him will only make him clam up.

"You aren't like us. And I don't mean that in any bad way!" He said quickly when he saw Danny's face. "But you know what my parents are like, and their friends are so much worse, and you're the first person I've ever had to worry about. I just want you to be safe."

Oh Ancients, that was a lot to unpack there. 

Danny had known something had happened during school. The two of them spent the school year exchanging letters, both of them wanting to stay in contact. Danny would tell him about his school, and his parents' antics, and explain random muggle technology to get Draco prepared for his summer with the Fentons.

Meanwhile, Draco had complained at length about Potter and a tournament and Potter being insufferable about a tournament. There was a furious letter about being turned into a ferret and how Potter and his friends keep bringing it up. Draco sent him about three feet of parchment around Christmas just making fun of Potter at a dance and how horrible he was. There was a lot about some famous Quidditch guy and then a lot about Potter’s friend stealing the famous Quidditch guy.

Draco complained about Potter a lot, okay?

But Draco never sent him a letter about the tournament results or if Potter got eaten by a bog witch or whatever it was he was hoping for the last task. He just showed up, two weeks early and clearly shaken about whatever it was that happened.

That isn’t a good sign at all. And Danny had eavesdropped enough last summer to get a decent idea as to what was going on.

“This is….this is about him isn’t it?”

Draco flinched, which was enough answer for him. Danny let out a breath.

“We can-we can talk about this later. I care about you too Drake, and I know your family is neck deep in this mess.” Danny bumped his shoulder, “You’re safe here, that’s why Narcissa sent you here right?”

Draco leaned against his brother’s shoulder, eyes still flitting across the street and his jaw clenched. “Yeah. We’re safe here.”

[meadow-roses]

Hi! I hope you're doing well! I've been meaning to reach out to you for a while but I'm always so nervous! I wanted to tell you that I'm always so impressed by your animations and I wanted to ask if you had any advice? I would like to learn but I have no idea how to begin. How do you go about it and how did you start learning this process? Thank you very much and I hope all is well!

Hello!!! First off I want to apologize for it taking so long to respond to you- we had a lot of autumnal food storing to do and I was short on time. Animation is something I'm very passionate about and I wanted to give you a thorough answer because I would absolutely LOVE to help you get started in animating!! If there's anything I don't cover, or if you have a more specific question, feel free to send another ask and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. :)

I didn't really do much to get started, I just kinda jumped in with photoshop cs5 (I DON'T recommend doing that LOL 😂) I wanted to make an animated series with my brother so I just started working on the trailer which is like 30 seconds pffft. Since then I've just been learning as I go picking up stuff from watching movies closely. I've still got a lot of basics to figure out like thumbnailing a sequence before you try to animate it, and timing charts (which is what I'm trying to work on now hehe)

My biggest piece of advice for you would be to just jump into it! I think there is no advice that can get anyone started better than to just start doing it. I know that can sound daunting, but there is no better way to get better at any form of art (drawing, writing, singing, etc.) than to just start. You'll learn the best by learning from your own mistakes, as hard as that can be. XD

You can start with some simple exercises to get the hang of moving something, like animate a ball bouncing or a hamster doing a backflip- just whatever sounds most do-able to you. (Do yourself a favor and don't start with a walk/run cycle though. They seem simple but are actually one of the hardest things to animate lol Be smarter than me. XDD) Just start small and work up from there. Go from animating a ball to animating a blink, then animate something turning it's head, saying something, waving, flapping wings. The more animating the more you'll catch the hang of it and drawing the motions will become intuitive. In general, just don't be afraid to try- and if it doesn't look right, don't give up! :D

Richard Williams book, "The Animator's Survival Kit" is a wonderful resource for getting started animating. He walks the reader through the very basics, and then the fundamentals of animation and how to apply it, like squash and stretch and takes. I was able to find a copy at my library and then later bought one off Abebooks for around $12. I haven't finished the book but I did peek ahead and see lip syncing and walk cycles and other wider motions.

I've found a lot of art programs come with an animation system built in. I don't know what program you're using, but I personally love the one for Krita. I find the entire program intuitive and easy to use (that's also my drawing program XD), and the animation window is seconded only by ToonBoom (the current industry standard software which is also EXCELLENT just pricey. You can get a one month free trial for each of the three versions if you want to test it out. Unlike Krita, ToonBoom can make 2d puppets and do "flash" animation.) If you are having trouble with digital animation you can still practice with traditional sketches, I made a tutorial thing for a friend on that here. Flipbooks are something I've heard of working? Like animating on a pad of sticky notes, but I haven't been able to get that to work well for me but you could try it!

If you have any more specific questions I'd love to help you however I am able! Here are some of the resources I've found useful:

Again, I can't recommend enough Richard Williams' book "The Animator's Survival Guide" (an animator trained by Milt Kahl) if you want to understand the basics and are still confused where to start. Also Frances Glebas' (a renowned director) storyboarding book "Directing the Story". Both of those books have been immensely helpful and I can't wait for the free time to read them more and put to action the lessons! XD

Here's a link to James Baxter's (my animator hero lol) youtube account, where you can study snippets of a master animator's work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt2iDOfRW1WWu5SxgJJpP1g

I've also found following accounts of animators on instagram has been a help, they'll often post "breakdowns" of shots explaining why they chose what shapes and how they decided to pace motions and stuff like that. jakeleeanimation this dude posts a lot of studies of disney animations kenduncan9 director of the studio that animated Tarzan and Hercules, among others pumbaaguy animator of Kronk and Pumba! framebyframe_animation this helpful account slows animations down and really walks you through the forms and pacing johnpomeroyart worked on Pocahontas and Atlantis, likes teaching people animation! theanimationart explanatory username lol XD AND OF COURSE aaronblaiseart who has retired from animating to TEACH animation and was also trained by the original disney pioneer animators. He does have a website where you can buy a course, and while it is pricey it does often go on sale. I haven't caught the chance to watch through all the episodes yet but I was able to purchase the series for $10 last year.

Also I seriously mean it, if you have any other questions feel free to ask. XD There's so much info I'm not sure where to start or what would be most helpful for you to get you started. :,)