#and i just deleted the original post instead of editing it

[liquifiedfurby]

literally giggling and kicking my feet rn from researching birds.

[strawberry-nugget]

Katsuki does his own Calvin Klein ad and the comments you see all over TikTok make you jealous!

Pairing: Bakugo x fem!reader

Tags // Warnings: NSFW, MDNI, smut, top! reader, oral (m receiving), cumflation(?), jealousy, a little fighting, LOADS of comfort, Jungkook mentioned ig? All characters are 20+

You're mad.

Extremely mad.

Ac/dc’s TNT plays on repeat from the speaker of your phone, your laptop, your TV, the Main Street screen from the building across your apartment a few stories below. And truly, every single time a replay goes on and on, each screen unsynced, your anger grows even worse inside your already too tight chest.

The reason?

Your boyfriend’s Calvin Klein ad has actually broke the internet.

It’s fucking ridiculous—The whole thing is worse than what happened with Bad Bunny a few months ago.

The comments are all over the place. Messy. Too messy. Too thirsty. Too delirious. Too fucking disrespectful.

You've scrolled through way too many edits. No scratch that. You've only scrolled through edits. With millions of likes, hundreds thousands of comments—that you've spent hours reading to their entirety. The actual video from the official Calvin Klein account has thirty, no forty million likes. Almost as many saves and shares too.

You’re naturally jealous. You knew you were bound to be even if you were the one who practically begged him to say yes to the offer and you definitely knew your boyfriend was the cause of thirst for many people worldwide.

It’s never been a problem until now. You've usually encountered the occasional ‘congratulations to whoever is bouncing on it’ edit, hell you’ve even smiled like an idiot at it, but now? After digging through comments that explicitly say ‘his girlfriend aint even deserve all that’ and ‘damn Dynamight’s gf i said LET GO’ you want to scream. Yell. Get back at him.

You can’t even bear to witness the video anymore. Only because when looking at it out of context, you feel like you can forgive him because of how hot he just looks!

It’s all over your screen; Katsuki flexing his muscles, biceps, forearms, back, thighs, torso. Letting off explosions, pulling the waistband of his boxers down just enough to tease, stomping his hero boots before he kneels completely. All while being extremely sweaty.

Seriously, fuck him and that hero work durability underwear line.

You’ve now unliked the original post out of pure spite. Then re-liked it. Then unliked it again because it felt like you were feeding the beast that's unleashing negativity and pumps jealousy throughout your whole body

You’ve closed the app, deleted it, redownloaded it, and then ended up stalking your own boyfriend like you were a crazed fan girl and not the person who literally shares a bathroom with him, only to be met with the same ten posts on TikTok—yes the one where he does push ups with you on his back and the other edit he has posted of you, even the one and only repost he has that’s of your ‘somebody point me to the best ass eater’ TikTok, where he acted like a feral beast and actually tried to bend you over. 

And then his instagram, where there are only a few yearly hero chart posts that have him as a co creator and like, three actual posts that he made himself. One from his agency, one from a school reunion and one with you smiling next to him, both bloody and bruised after a villain attack with the caption ‘you should see the other guy’.

Back to TikTok now, you take one last look at the ad before you ultimately close it, yes, for real this time, fists clenched like you’re about to march straight to Calvin Klein Japan HQ and file a formal complaint about emotional damages.

Instead, you exhale sharp through your nose and storm into the kitchen like a woman on a mission.

Fine.

If the internet wants to thirst over your man like they’ve never seen shoulders before, then so be it. You’re not threatened.

Not really. Not even a little.

You’re the one he comes home to. You’re the one who knows the exact way he likes his coffee in the morning, the brand of muscle balm he’ll pretend he doesn’t need, the scar on his side he never talks about. 

They don’t know him.

But you do.

And tonight, you’re going to prove it. Prove that you’re the most perfect girlfriend for him, that you won’t let go because someone on the internet begs you to. 

You slam the fridge door shut with the kind of force that makes the condiments rattle. Chicken breast. Garlic. Thyme. That expensive parmesan he rolls his eyes at but always eats the fastest. You’ve got all the ingredients for the dumb TikTok “marry me chicken” and honestly, yeah—maybe it’s manipulative. Maybe it’s desperate.

You don’t care. You've made it before and he adores it.

If the competition is public thirst, then your counterattack is a home-cooked seduction plan followed by a bath with that weird overpriced salt soak that smells like cedarwood, cocoa and sex. Let them drool behind screens—you’re setting the mood with candles and your favorite playlist and maybe even the nice satin robe with nothing underneath if it’s clean.

And it almost works.

It almost makes you feel better. Like maybe you’ve got the upper hand again. Like maybe you’re not going insane over a stupid fucking ad where he literally flexes his thighs and kneels and sweats on purpose. And flexes again.

Until you start chopping the garlic and realize your hands are shaking.

You stop abruptly.

You stare down at the cutting board, knife hovering mid-air, and realize your throat’s a little tight. Your chest’s a little too hollow.

Because the truth is—deep down, like deep deep deep down, where all the ugliest thoughts live—you’re not mad.

You’re scared that you’re not enough. Insecure. Like youve got any right to when you've literally grown up with him. When he’s never even bat an eye to anyone but you.

But you feel like a high school girl again. Standing in the hallway outside your class, so mad and sick of jealousy that fangirls from year one are swamping your boyfriend that you drag him by the ear into the classroom and shove your tongue down his throat. 

And damn, was that punishment from Aizawa worth it when he caught you.

No, now, it’s even worse. It’s not just the girls at school. Not just Japan. It’s the whole world.

And you're so scared that the world seeing him like that is going to remind him of what he could have. Of what else is out there. Of how easily people fall to their knees for him—not in ad campaigns, but in real life.

And what are you?

Somebody who gets overwhelmed easily. Somebody who overthinks. Somebody who can’t even watch a thirty-second ad without spiraling into a meltdown that tastes like garlic seeped deeply into fingernails and salt and the distinct flavor of not enough.

What if ‘animemencracker22’ could cook better for him or what if ‘Dynamightsleftbicep’ could massage his head better when they run him a bath? If ‘gymratgirl4life’ wanted to go out with him more and if ‘corrrrruptedlvr’ wasn’t throwing jealousy fits?

You’re not the girl in the comments. You’re not the fantasy.

You’re just you.

And even when you’re holding the knife and planning the perfect welcome-home meal and pretending like the bath you’re running later isn’t strategic—you still wonder if that’s going to be enough to keep a man like Katsuki Bakugou.

Worse, you wonder if he knows you’re trying this hard, because of your overwhelming need to feel like you deserve someone like him. 

You let the knife drop and suddenly, you’re not hungry anymore. You were never even hungry to begin with. Your fucking eyes are welling up with stupid tears that you dont want to shed. 

You’re not even a jealous person. Save for two or three times, you don’t feel like this over him. And it’s not because you’ve taken him for granted, but it’s been years that you two are together that have worked you into not thinking Katsuki could want anyone else other than you. You don’t want anyone else other than him.

But what if he’s tired. What if he feels youre the same old song stuck on repeat when he could have anyone. 30 million people in the world and you included.

The silence in the kitchen hums louder than any song on loop, only broken by the sound of your choking as you’re trying not to violently sob. The garlic’s sharp sting still clings to your fingers. The oven’s preheat light blinks like a mocking little eye. Your playlist, the one reserved for special nights, is halfway into some sultry R&B Aaliyah track that now feels like a joke.

Your arms go slack at your sides.

This was supposed to feel empowering. Sexy. A big middle finger to the comment section and the edited thirst traps and the “she doesn’t even deserve him” discourse that’s been hijacking your feed all damn day.

Instead, you feel small. Stupid. Still so embarrassingly in love.

You rub your eyes with the backs of your hands like that’ll somehow push the thoughts back in. Like that’ll make you forget the way your chest aches with that special kind of loneliness that only shows up when you’re still physically close to someone but emotionally spiraling into the trenches of your own insecurity.

You glance at the clock. Patrol should end in twenty minutes. Thirty, tops. And you push your lips together, scrunching the corners of your mouth in, pursing your lips and squint your eyes. 

You’ll push through, because even if you’re so extremely jealous, Katsuki still deserves a nice home cooked meal and a hot bath, even more often than every other day, when you stay home to handle the agency paperwork, because of your latest injury after a villain attack.

He really hasn’t done anything wrong, you tell yourself, other than being extremely hot.

So you end up cooking, with tears in your eyes and the most pouty expression and by the time you finish, setting the pan on a part of the stove that isn't hot and curl down in front of the fridge, dropping to your knees to cry your heart out—The door clicks open.

Oh. Shit.

Weighty boots make contact with the floor first. The heavy stomp of post-patrol exhaustion. Then the groan of his back hitting the door frame. You hear the soft rustle of his gloves coming off, his keys clinking in the ceramic dish by the entry.

You freeze—You can’t let him see you like this. You can’t let him be the one who finds you curled on the tile like some lovesick idiot who lost a battle to TikTok.

“Heyy I’m home” you hear and you grunt to yourself, trying not to let it be known you sniffle right after.

“…Smells fuckin’ good,” his voice calls out—gruff, like he’s trying not to yawn. “You cookin’ somethin’?”

You grunt again.

He doesn’t see you right away. But his voice gets closer. Each step across the hardwood is loud and certain and distinctly him. The kind of sound that always used to make you feel safe.

Now it just makes your stomach twist.

You force yourself to stand, too fast, too suddenly, brushing your hands on your thighs then your apron and you try to act normal when your chest is about to cave in again.

Katsuki rounds the corner, still in uniform, gauntlets off, sweat clinging to his hairline, a little dirt smudged near his jaw, where some blond scruff is starting to grow. His eyes find you instantly—and narrow.

“Babe? You okay? Say hi back”

You hate how quick he notices. How easy it is for him to read you. You’ve never been good at hiding from him, especially not when it comes to shit like this.

“Oh—uh, hey. I was,” you say, eyes glued to the counter. “Got distracted.” Still, you force a smile “im fine”

“You don’t look fine.”

You flinch. “Can we—can we not do this right now?”

The silence stretches.

Katsuki exhales through his nose, tilting his head like a puppy, eyes big with inquiry boring in yours as if he’s debating whether to let it go or push. You know which one he’ll pick. He’s never, ever been the let it go type.

“You saw the ad.”

It’s not a question. It’s not even said with guilt or amusement or defensiveness. Just certainty.

You look away. Embarrassed. “Everyone and their mama saw the ad Katsuki.”

A pause. Then a sigh. Then he rubs a tired hand over his jaw.

He walks over, slow and careful like you’re a spooked animal, and you hate it. You hate that he’s being gentle when all you want is to yell at him and fall into his arms and scream into his chest all at once.

His hand lands on your waist. Warm. Familiar. Real.

“You mad at me?” he murmurs, lips pouty in the way you just love.

You shake your head up and down. A silent yes.

“I’m mad at me too tho.”

His brows furrow. “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

“I shouldn’t care this much,” you mumble. “I shouldn’t be jealous of a bunch of people who don’t even know you. I shouldn’t be chopping garlic like it’s a last-ditch attempt to prove I deserve you, but I—I just—”

Your voice cracks.

Katsuki’s eyes soften, his lips too.

“You think I’d wanna be with anybody else?” he asks, so blunt it hits like a punch.

You don’t answer. You can’t.

He lifts your chin with two fingers, thumb softly brushing lines across your bottom lip— he makes you look him in the eye.

“I did that ad ‘cause you told me to. ‘Cause you said I should. And I ain’t think it’d piss you off—but even if it did, I’d still be comin’ home to you.”

You swallow hard.

“They can watch,” he adds. “They can comment. They can make all the stupid fuckin’ edits they want. But you think I give a shit about any of ‘em when I’ve got you runnin’ me a bath?”

You blink. “…You knew I was running you a bath?”

“You only play that playlist when you’re tryna seduce me.” He snorts.

Your face burns, but your chest still burns hotter, tighter. Tight-est. You’re not ready to let go of this just yet. A hug and no kiss yet are already making your head spin back to that awful insecure state. You hate overthinking every little thing, but you can’t help getting caught up in it.

“Chicken smells good,” he adds casually. “Wanna feed it to me naked?”

You shove his chest gently. Though when you look up at him, you realise you're still greatly mad at him. “Shut up. No”

“C’mere,” he mutters, dragging you into his arms again. You go willingly, burying your face in his neck, nuzzling your nose too deep into his skin. “I love you,” he says into your hair. “All of them can choke.”

“They’re your fans, Katsuki”

“Yeah yeah. They can choke on my dick”

Oh that—that makes you snap.

“Im sure they’d love to” you hiss, lurching back away from him, too mad at how willingly his arms let you go. 

You want to jab, hurt him just a little. Make him jealous just a tad. Make yourself look like you've got better options than plain old ‘_narutoswife’ in his IG comment section.

He doesn’t deserve it. No, not at all. He just came back home from work and you want to catch a toxic attitude instead of communicating. You just want to make him a little mad over you too.

“Fyi, if you remember, Jungkook did say in an interview that im his type! He called me a strong female hero! Choi San also follows me on instagram” you say, crossing your arms, your eyes shut closed and lips pursed.

Unfortunately, you end up making him mad at you. That was so foul. Especially when he was about to sue Jeon freaking Jungkook for what he said in that interview. When the fuck did you become his type even? And why would he say that on national TV about some other man’s girlfriend?

His eye twitches. Just barely. But it definitely twitches. Great!

“…The fuck did you just say? You wanna start somethin’ now?” Katsuki says, voice low, sharp, practically growling, mouth pushed to the side of his face, one brow raised in desbelief,

Your arms are crossed like a petty little shield but it’s not enough to protect you from the instant shift in the air—his energy changing the moment those names leave your mouth. You can see it, feel it, in the sudden tension between his brows and the twitch of his jaw, in the way he takes one step back just so he can plant his hands on his hips and fully absorb the ridiculous thing you just said.

“Well I am his type,” you mutter, fake-casual, even adding a dramatic upward move of your chin for flair. “He literally said so. On record.”

You double down when you shouldn’t. Because now you’ve committed, and if you take it back, it’ll only make you look desperate. You tilt your head, faux-casual, all sugar and venom.

Katsuki blinks once—slow. Like he’s buffering. Like you’ve just spoken a dialect of petty he never expected to hear from your mouth.

“I��m sorry,” he says, voice quiet in that scary way, “are we talkin’ about Jeon fucking Jungkook right now?”

“I mean, he’s not the worst,” you say, airily. “He’s cute. Built. Has manners and a Calvin Klein ad too! Like you”

“You are not fuckin’ doin this with me—” His voice spikes as he takes a step forward, fingers flexing at his sides like he’s physically restraining himself from hurling the rice cooker across the room. “You’re mad at me for a promo gig and now you’re bringin’ up some K-pop bastard—?!”

You bite your lip to stop the smirk. It’s immature. Childish. And so, so satisfying—ah the sweet feeling of getting your lick back.

His hands fly up and immediately start doing that panicked, half-feral gesture thing he does when he’s so mad he doesn’t even know where to put his anger. “You think that’s cute? You think throwin’ other guys in my face is what’s gonna make this better? You want me to start listin’ all the bitches in my DMs right now? ‘Cause I will. I fuckin’ will—”

“Oh so now it’s bitches plural—”

“They don’t matter!” he barks. But you don’t seem like you believe him. “You’re just mad and you’re not telling me the actual reason”

Your face goes hot, tears rising again. “I’m mad because you don’t get it!”

“Then tell me! Tell me what I’m not gettin’!”

“I want you to care!” you explode. “I want you to see that this hurts! That I don’t feel good enough half the damn time, and now I’ve got people with 800k followers stitching your photos sayin’ how they’d treat you right while I’m in our kitchen  trying to figure out if I’m even the one you’d want anymore if you realise there’s someone better out th—”

“Don’t you fuckin’ finish that sentence.”

His voice goes deadly low.

You glare at him, eyes blazing. “Why not? Afraid I’m gonna be right?”

“No. Because you’re not.”

His chest is rising now, jaw clenched tight. You’ve both crossed the line, bleeding all over the tile floor with your words.

“None of them matter. Just like Jungkook doesn’t matter. I don’t care about anyone else on TikTok and I definitely don’t give a shit if he writes you a song and a marriage proposal and names his next album ‘Strong Female Hero I Wanna Wife’—you’re mine. You hear me?”

You’re stunned into silence. Half because of the outburst. Half because of the fact he just said you’re his with the kind of conviction that makes your skin burn and tingles run up your back.

“…You gonna tattoo that somewhere?” you murmur, trying to deflect your way out of being completely swept off your feet. 

He steps closer, wraps a hand around your waist, nose nearly brushing yours, eyes blazing. “Gonna put a ring on it. Don’t tempt me.”

You blink at him, wide-eyed. His palm feels hot, too quirk charged against your clothed skin “What if I’m not joking?”

He narrows his eyes. “You are.”

You shrug, then whisper just slightly. “…Maybe.”

Next thing you know, Katsuki’s scooping you up like a caveman—no warning, no prep, just two strong arms under your ass, your back colliding with his chest, and your feet dangling uselessly as he stalks toward the bathroom.

“Put me down! I haven’t even plated the chicken!”

“We’ll eat it later.”

“I— but—”

“You’re so mine, and I’m about to prove it.”

He kicks the door open like a man on a mission. Your bathwater is already perfectly hot and steamy, the playlist still humming from the speaker in the corner. You barely notice it because you’re too busy clinging to his shoulders like you’re about to be ravished.

“I can’t believe you got mad at me over a Calvin Klein ad,” he mutters against your neck, lips hot and dragging lower as he sets you down only to start untying your apron, aggressive and purposeful.

“It was a very public ad, and you were nearly naked” you argue, squirming, trying to twist out of his grasp—but he’s already unlooping the neck strap, already tossing the apron somewhere over his shoulder, not even watching where it lands on the bathroom floor “Katsuki, no—”

“Sex isn’t gonna fix everything, you know,” you say, breath hitching when his mouth finds that spot just below your jaw, the one he knows makes your knees buckle. He’s too fast to start pressing hot open mouthed kisses on your neck. 

“Then let’s talk about it” he says, calm as hell. He sinks onto the edge of the bathtub like a menace, eyes smoldering, hands still locked around your waist like you might run. “You said you don’t feel enough, why’s that? What part of us did I neglect that made you feel like this?”

You blink, thinking. Well he didn’t really do anything wrong, he just. Exists. And he’s gorgeous and amazing at everything he does.

Oh god? Do you resent him for being good at everything?

“You’re deranged.” You finally respond, pouting but refusing to look at him while you say it.

“I’m in love with you.”

Katsuki’s palms rub soothingly up and down your thighs, head tilted back to look up at you ever so slightly. He's trying to pull you in closer, get you loose, comfortable. He wants you to drop this ‘being difficult’ act you've got on right now.

You follow his lead, come in closer, until your knees scrape the edge of the bathtub and your thighs the inside of his.

“Yeah but,” you pause for a second, debating on whether this is the right thing to say. “why me”

Finally, you kneel between his legs. Your eyes are locked into his, trying to study him, his expression, trying to find a glimpse of hesitation behind his gaze, even if there’s none. 

Katsuki catches the insecurity in your head, with a simple bore of his eyes into yours. And it’s bad. How he can read you so well, like he isn't confused and insecure at times too.

“Is it cause we grew up together?”

“Well that’s why your dear to me, but no” 

“Then why?”

“Cause you’re you. Simply. You’re kind and fair. Too smart and you’re too pretty. You stand your ground and stand up for what’s right. I knew damn well who I hunched on my back and tried to set off with explosions at five years old”

He catches your chin between his thumb and forefinger, tips your face toward him until you’re locked in his orbit again.

You want to cry again. Be it the memory, or the fact that you've pushed him to say this much about why he’s in love with you. You've got no reason to get jealous over people on the internet. They don’t know Katsuki like you do. They never could. Fate chose you to be the one to grow up a few blocks away from him. All your shared memories together, no one on TikTok could live them out.

No matter any Vogue cover, any Calvin Klein ad, or late night show interview, you and Katsuki are two human beings who grew up together, beat the odds of death together. Fell in love with each other to top it. So many humans in history have had this storyline, they’ve shared their first time with each other the night before setting off to war, kissed for the first time behind the bleachers in middle school. 

“I was so scared back then” you sob. Just one violent sob after another “‘m sorry babe. I'm so sorry for how I acted right now. You're just so hot that I can’t handle it. Can you like, be that bratty little five year old again?”

Katsuki huffs a breath, mouth twitching like he wants to smirk but knows better. His hands stay firm around your waist, grounding you while leaning towards you.

“Well I can’t be five again,” he says, voice rough but fond, lips already pursing as his forehead sticks to yours “but I can give you a small brand new Bakugo”

You let out a choked, watery laugh, but he’s already shifting closer, his thighs spreading so you fit better between them. One of his hands, followed by his eyes, slides up to your chest, and with exaggerated slowness, he taps a finger just above your sternum.

Tap. Then a little higher. Tap.

Then again—until two fingers are softly “walking” their way up, up, up your chest like little boots. You blink at him.

“Katsukiiii”

Tap.

The pads of his fingers rest at the hollow of your throat for a beat before lifting to your chin, tipping your face toward him like you’re fragile glass he’s been carrying his whole life.

He’s pouting. You can see it clearly now—the petulant pull of his mouth, the faint crease between his brows, like he’s upset you made him feel things and doesn’t know how to ask for reassurance without being difficult.

“You sayin’ shit like that,” he mutters, eyes flickering down to your mouth, then back up, “makes me feel like I’m not doin’ enough. Like I ain’t sayin’ it right. And I already suck at this.”

You open your mouth to protest, say you didn’t really mean it when you said that you don’t feel enough, that it was a moment of weakness, just like when you tried to tell him you’ve got options, but he presses his thumb gently against your bottom lip, quieting you, you’ve already apologised. He hasn’t.

“Lemme show you instead,” he says.

His voice isn’t cocky. Not quite. It’s soft—almost shy. Like how it was when you asked him to walk you home a week into UA, like he knows now, sex won’t fix anything, for sure, but the humanity of it, the lack of personal space between you as you groan in each other's open mouths, will help, just a little to ease the pain of your words.

“You’re my soft spot,” he adds under his breath, kissing the corner of your mouth like he’s afraid you’ll vanish off to some hot idol that does fanservice for a living, before he finishes the sentence. “Always been. N’ I don’t want you forgettin’ it. I ain’t leaving you for no one”

His fingers trace the line of your jaw now, slow and reverent. The pout still hasn’t left. You’re not sure it ever will. But now it’s paired with heat, and a pull between your legs that starts low and deep as he finally—finally—brushes his mouth against yours.

Just a whisper of a kiss. All pout. All need. All Katsuki.

You wouldn’t really trade him for anyone, either.

You can feel how badly he wants to be touched back. He always wants to be physical and touchy after an argument. You know how grounded and real it makes him feel, how reassuring it is to him to know he is still loved enough to be touched, despite words that are meant to sting.

You make a move to peck him, only right as this was your fault, and he slowly moves his lips against your own, soft, smooth. Slipping between every hollow space until you can't pull away. Seems like the chapstick you got for him last week has done wonders to make his lips so soft and plump, when they’re usually so chapped; his mouth glides against yours with practiced ease.

“M sorry” he whispers, so faint against your lips, but you still catch it.

His voice stays in your skin long after it’s said, like steam caught between your ribs, not ready to evaporate just yet.

You don’t say anything at first—just lift your hand to cradle the back of his neck, drawing tiny circles at his nape with your thumb. His eyes flutter a little at the touch, and it’s so Katsuki the way he tries not to lean into it. Still pouting, still pretending he’s not craving softness like it’s the only thing that could save him, but you know him better.

You let your other hand wander, trailing along the hem of his work top, your fingertips skating just beneath the fabric—slow, just the way he likes it. And when your hands drift to the button of his pants, you catch that tiny hitch in his breath. Barely audible. But it’s there. His lashes drop, golden. Sun-kissed. His grip on your waist tightens, not to stop you, just to hold on.

“You said you’d show me,” you murmur, your voice dipping low, warm against the shell of his ear. “But maybe I show you first.”

He doesn’t answer. Just swallows hard. And you skip the rest of the sentence ‘how much better I am than those TikTok bitches who want you’.

The button of his work cargos clicks open beneath your fingers.

It’s intimate, the quiet that settles between you. Not awkward. Not even heated yet. Just close. Bathwater is still steaming behind him. The scent of your shared home in the air—sandalwood, white musk soap, the thick smell of chicken being cooked—him. 

His cologne, faded but still clinging to the collar of his shirt. The playlist hums something slow and familiar in the background—Hot like fire, because maybe Aaliyah wasn’t mocking you a while ago—like this moment has its own soundtrack and the world outside doesn’t exist.

Your fingers fiddle with his zipper, slow and smooth. He looks down at you—heavy-lidded, and all vermillion, lips slightly parted, like he’s already halfway gone from just being touched with intention for pleasure.

“You looked so confident in the ad” you whisper as your fingers brush just below his waistband, teasing. “But this is better. This right here. When you’re a little shy for me.”

He exhales shakily, like you cracked something open inside him. And you feel it—something primal and possessive bloom in your chest.

“No one gets to see you like this but me”

“You’re tryin’ to kill me” he mutters.

You smile up at him, biting your lower lip. “No, Katsuki. I’m just trying to blow you away with my insane head skills”

He laughs, a breathy little sound, as his hands move to take off his shirt, softly ungluing his eyes from yours for only a second. You lick your lips at the way his muscles flex, so thick and bulky and by all means yours.

Suddenly, the ad pops back into your head, every shot, every zoom in. You’re overtaken by lust driven jealousy again.

No one on fucking TikTok gets to see the way his abs flex when he cums. You do.

So you work to lower his pants in fast movements, pushing the heavy fabric down until it hits the floor in shuffling sounds. 

Your hands slide lower, palms flattening against his calves, then his hips as you stick your cheek to his thigh. He watches you like you’re a sunrise—warm and tender, grazing where his skin ends with where your skin begins, or running tender, teasing circles all over his tip through his boxers.

His fingers twitch against his thighs, unsure of where to go—if he should cup your cheek, fist your hair, or just hold on to the edge of the tub before he slides down into something desperate.

And when you look up at him from where you’re knelt, his breath catches. His hand finds the top of your head, like he needs the grounding contact, thumb brushing a gentle path through your hair, and his eyes are wide with something soft and so, so red and open.

“Yesssss” he says hoarsely, half-laughing, half-moan “im about to get the best head of my life”

You quirk your brow and pucker your lips as if it’s your turn to pout now, then, you jab “Was it bad before?”

He shakes his head, cheeks already pink. “It’s always damn perfect”

His breathing catches in his chest but by now, your lips catch onto the skin of his thigh, placing a kiss there while still looking at him. It makes him go completely red now, face ears and chest flustered.

You kiss higher on his inner thigh, barely missing where he’s straining against the fabric of his boxers. Katsuki’s knuckles press into the edge of the tub now, trying to keep himself grounded, but his hips twitch when your lips ghost just beneath the band of his boxers.

He looks like he might fall apart already. Lower lip caught between his teeth, lashes fluttering low, cheeks warm and pink in the bathroom light.

Your fingers tug at the elastic slowly—like a question. And he nods, fast, almost frantic.

You hum, and finally pull the waistband down, freeing him.

He’s already hard, tip flushed and leaking, twitching a little in the cool air. And the way he watches you—mouth parted, chest rising and falling quick—is nothing short of irrelevant. He looks at you with hunger, full blown everywhere on his face, like it burns just to feel it. His hand hovers near your cheek, and you guide it up into your hair with your own.

“Keep it here,” you murmur. “I want you to touch.”

Katsuki’s thumb brushes your scalp, tender, trembling.

His thumb twitches as it strokes your scalp.

You press your lips softly to the base of his cock. Not rushing. Just placing open mouthed kisses over his length. Letting the heat of your mouth register on every kiss before you move to the next one. Then again, higher this time. Then again—closer to the tip, where he shudders and grips your hair a little tighter. Your lips wrap tenderly around half of his tip, your tongue storming out for a circular lick before you give him a little suck.

His hips shift like he’s trying to stay still and failing. Then you kiss just beneath the tip, so close your breath makes him hiss.

“F-fuck,” he hisses, hips twitching once more. “You’re—baby, you’re—”

You wrap your hand around the base of him and drag your tongue along the underside, slow, teasing, drawing a whimper from him so small and raw that your thighs clench just hearing it.

“You gonna beg?” you ask softly, glancing up.

His head falls back against the tiled wall for a second, mouth parted, so red in the face. “Don’t make me—fuck—‘m already losin’ it.”

You take him into your mouth inch by inch, slow and careful, tongue flat underneath, eyes still locked on him. You feel his thighs shake.

He moans—a rough, broken sound—and his hand fists harder your hair. You pull back with a wet pop and stroke him slowly, thumb brushing over his leaking tip. “You’re so easy to ruin, Katsuki. One suck and you’re falling apart.”

“You—you're evil,” he pants, biting his knuckle. “You can’t say shit like that when your fuckin’ mouth is on me.”

You grin, licking your lips. “It’s on you again now.”

You take him deeper this time, hollowing your cheeks, letting your tongue drag in deliberate patterns. He groans, head tipping down again to watch, jaw slack. His voice is wrecked. Raw. Low in his throat.

“Katsuki–” you pause, you murmur, pulling off again, cupping him with both hands now. ogling your eyes into his “Tell me i'm the only one who’s ever gonna make you feel this good’

Every movement you make is intentional—little flicks of your tongue, your hand twisting at the base, your lips tight around him. You don’t let him cum yet. Every time you feel him start to twitch harder, you ease back, sucking gently on just the tip.

“Babe,’s all you—” he chokes out, voice ragged. “Never gonna be anyone else but you”

“Yeah?” you breathe. “No thirsty fangirl, no fantasy, no fuckin’ ad? Just me?”

His eyes lock on yours—glassy, wild. He nods hard. “Just you.”

You glance up again. His eyes are glassy, pupils blown. He looks desperate. Like he’s holding onto the last threads of sanity. But this moment is bathed in vulnerability, raw love that makes you want to claim again and again. Katsuki’s had his moments like this, way more than you. He lets you go through with it, he even likes how jealous you are right now, but this doesn’t mean he’s not utterly and completely ruined and under your spell right now.

You kiss his head again, so sweet, and finally wrap your mouth around him once more—this time faster, deeper, your hand working in tandem. He lets out a strangled cry, almost panicked with how hard he’s trying to hold on.

“You’re mine, Katsuki. You know that, right? Doesn’t matter how many people thirst over you online.” You press your lips around him again, drag your mouth up slow, just to the tip. “They don’t get this. They don’t get you like I do.”

He looks down at you again, eyes still glassy. So red. So wrecked.

You take him deeper, your cheeks hollowed, your tongue gliding in slow circles, teasing him at every sensitive spot. The veins on the underside of his cock, the base, as he hits the back of your throat. Katsuki moans, raw and shaky and his hips stutter forward before he forces himself still. The inside of your mouth is so slippery, so warm, he’s literally going crazy with each movement.

“Don’t even fuckin’ want anyone else.” He sounds destroyed now, ruined into a slurring mess as your hand is sliding along his thigh. 

“Let me—let me cum, shit—please, let me—”

His tip kisses the back of your throat, and you gag around him, just a little—just enough for him to choke on a moan that sounds like he’s dying.

You don’t let up. You feel the way he twitches, the way his thighs tense, the way his grip in your hair tightens. He’s close. So close. You hum against him, nodding just a little, eyes locked into his in such an intimate, tender way. You take him all the way in one last time, his tip hitting the back of your throat, eliciting just a small choking sound from you, letting him fall apart in your mouth, with every soft roll of his hips into you.

He grunts. Head lolling back again, so hard that is adam’s apple protrudes enough even for you to see. His hips stutter, and he tries to hold back—but his thighs are trembling, breath breaking. He snaps his head again, desperate to look at you and he swallows now, bites his lower lip in concentration before he clenches his legs, to buck his hips into your mouth.

His hands come to cradle your head, your cheeks, like he’s afraid to let go, like you’re the one keeping him from falling through the floor. And the way you keep eye contact with him while swallowing him down your pretty little throat–It’s a killer.

You back up, worrying his tip between your soft, plump lips and that's it–He shatters. Violently and way faster than he thought he would. Clawing at your face to make you take him in once again; he bottoms out, and you… you take him in easily, like a champ.

Katsuki falls apart in your mouth with a raw, choked moan, hips bucking just once as you hold him steady, taking every twitch, every pulse, every broken sound he makes as his cum spills in ropes down your throat. You try to swallow as much as you can, eyes tearing up at the amount of cum that’s making you choke– Katsuki’s favorite sounds when you’re giving him a blowjob. He’s only urged to spill more, but this time you back up a little, letting him fill your mouth until it spills down the sides of your lips.

“F-fuck. Baby. Fuck.” He gasps like you’ve already stolen the air from his lungs, and he spasms. His hips jerk forward once, like instinct takes over.

Your eyes well up again, tears beading on your lashes from the stretch, from the pressure, from the sheer force of him.

He groans again at the sight—his cock buried in your mouth, cum spilling out the corners of your lips, glistening. His hands cradle your cheeks like he’s trying to memorize the shape of your mouth, the feel of your skin under his thumbs.

You swallow again, letting him ride it out with one last soft suck, and he moans like he’s unraveling from the inside out. His knees almost buckle.

And still, you don’t stop touching him. Your hand strokes slow at his base as you pull back with the loudest pop, letting some of the mess trail down lower at your chin, your lips swollen and glistening as you tilt your head up.

“You came so much,” you murmur, licking a drop from your bottom lip. “Were you that needy for me, baby?”

He groans as he’s still recovering, hips twitching slightly as your breath ghosts over him. His hands finally leave your cheeks, fumbling around, still shaky, down to where his pants are.

“Where the fuck’s my phone?” he rasps, breath catching on the tail end.

You blink up at him, mock-innocent. “Why do you want it, hmm?”

His gaze drops back to you, pupils blown wide, chest heaving as he glares like you’ve just personally offended him by being too hot to handle yourself.

“First, I’m taking a fuckin’ photo of you like this,” he grits out, voice still rough and low, “with your mouth all messy, lookin’ proud of yourself like that.”

You smirk, tilting your head as cum still drips slowly down your chin, your fingers catching it just to suck them clean. “So you can jerk off to it later?”

“So I can frame it,” he mutters darkly, eyes dragging over every inch of your face. “And then you’re watchin’ the ad again. Every second of it.”

You blink slowly. “But it makes me mad”

He nods. “Yeah exactly. Youre watching it.‘Til you get so fuckin’ riled up you suck me off meaner than this.”

Your lips curl. “Meaner? Baby… I was being sweet to you.”

“Exactly,” he pants, reaching for your wrist to drag you up into his lap. “I wanna see you do it when you're pissed.”

You climb into his space, knees bracketing his thighs, grinning into his mouth as you kiss him—messy, deep, still tasting like him. “Careful what you wish for, Katsuki. I might make your dick fall off”

His voice is just a whisper now and wrecked against your lips.

“Fuck yes”

Yeah… maybe the Calvin Klein ad was a good idea.

______

The water’s somehow still warm, barely steaming, and smells like cocoa and the shea butter soap he always pretends he doesn’t use until you catch him stealing it.

You’re settled between his legs, your back against his chest, and he’s folded around you—arms over your middle, face buried in the crook of your neck, breath soft and steady against your skin. You sink into him, muscles loosening all at once.

The bathwater laps at your collarbones. His thumbs trace slow circles into your stomach. And for a while, the only sound is your breathing, synced. The occasional soft swish of water when one of you shifts. The playlist outside still hums faintly, muffled through the bathroom door. Just gentle vocals and low drums. Like the score to this quiet little world you’ve made.

“Sorry I was a dick,” he mutters. His voice remains unsure of what to say in a situation like this, yet muffled against your neck. “I just—y’know…”

“Yeah. Me too. I should not have mentioned Jungkook because people online are asking how I handle all of that” you chuckle, tenderly placing a kiss at the back of Katsuki’s hands when you lift it from the water.

He frowns, letting off a sound of annoyance “asshole, he can shove that seven song up his ass”

“Oop— you listening to him now?”

“No, it’s all over the radio though” Katsuki kisses your shoulder in response. Then again, higher this time. “But I don’t care about nobody. Just you. Always you.”

You tilt your head and press a kiss into his damp hair from the side, catching just a little bit of his ear in the process. “I know, baby. I know.”

And you do. Deep in your bones. The same way you know how his eyes soften and he whines when he’s sleepy, how his jaw ticks to the right when he’s embarrassed, how his voice drops an octave when he wants to be taken seriously. You know him. Not the whored out Calvin Klein version the world sees.

You curl your hands around his forearm and let yourself melt back into him completely, the bathwater swaying at the peak of your chest now. Safe. Soothed. Held.

He squeezes you a little tighter and rests his chin on your shoulder, finally quiet. And if you listen close, you can feel it: the rise and fall of him. The warmth of his skin. The steady thrum of his heartbeat under your back. 

“So” you murmur “wanna talk about that little mini Bakugo you mentioned earlier?”

Katsuki mumbles something under his breath, eyes closed against your skin. He’s mellowed out in the split of a second, but you’re riled up at the thought when your mind returns to it. 

“‘S no use.” He whines, finally, like he’s annoyed “Our kid’s gonna look like you”

“So you'll get a mini me all over again and I won’t get the same? Un-faiiiir! Booooooo” you groan, leaning your head back against his shoulder dramatically. The water sloshes with the motion, and he huffs a tired laugh into your neck, chest vibrating behind you.

“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters, lips brushing your skin. “Like I wouldn’t be fuckin’ obsessed with either version.”

You smile. Small. Soft. Let your thumb glide along the scar on his wrist and then you swallow. Blink a few times. Then nod once, slowly, before you speak.

“Wouldn’t be so bad, would it? A little baby with your temper and my sweet tooth?”

He lets out a real laugh now, low and gruff and warm against your back. “Fuckin’ menace. Our apartment wouldn’t survive.”

“Your PR team wouldn’t survive.”

“Shit, you’re right.”

You both laugh, muffled and close, and when it quiets again, you let your fingers lace through his under the water. His grip tightens like a reflex.

And then, just above a whisper:

“You really think about it sometimes?”

“…Yeah.”

“Me too.”

He kisses your shoulder again. No jokes this time. Just silence and warm water and cocoa steam. The both of you holding that dream quietly, like something sacred. 

In his arms, now, today, midst June, after feeling threatened that strangers online will ever do better than you when it comes to him, you think of you and him, back in his childhood room, watching Spirited Away as Mitsuki would fetch you cookies and milk before Katsuki would try to shove her away and she’d pretend to be knocked over.

“Hey…We’re still naming the baby Chihiro like we promised back then, right?”

He goes still behind you. Like, dead quiet. Like you’d short-circuited something in his brain.

You almost think he didn’t hear you until you feel the deep inhale against your spine, his arms tightening just a little more around you like he’s trying to fuse your body to his.

“…You remember that?” His voice is hoarse now, barely more than a breath.

You smile, eyes still half-lidded, watching the water ripple at the edges of the tub. “Of course I do. You made me pinky swear on it, when Mitsuki said we’d get married and have kids too!”

“Shut up,” he mutters, but it’s soft, affectionate—almost embarrassed. His nose nudges your jaw like he’s trying to hide the warmth in his face. “Was a fuckin’ loser.”

“No,” you say gently. “You were just sweet. Always were.”

There’s a beat. He swallows. You feel it in his throat against your shoulder.

“…Chihiro, huh?” he murmurs, finally. “Still want that? Even now?”

You nod, and his hand floats up from beneath the water, trailing along your stomach, resting just under your ribs. Protective. Hopeful. Like something unspoken is blooming there.

“I always loved that promise,” you whisper, throat a little tight. He doesn’t answer. At least not with words.

Katsuki grins against your neck, and the sound of it, the way he breathes in like he’s grounding himself in the smell of your skin—it’s everything. It’s homely. Warm water. Summer steam. A shared name from a shared childhood.

Take that ‘tojissecondworm222’, not only do you handle all that, but everything the world’s fantasy driven Dynamight has to offer, is yours. 

Always has been.

Always will be.

~All rights reserved: @/strawberry-nugget, 2025. Please do not copy, over write or steal my work.

Likes, reblogs and comments are all appreciated equally

Dividers by @/saradika-graphics

[halfadiamond]

You Think It’s Love- Part 5

Masterlist

No warnings since you know it’s angst, but plz read my ‼️Update Post‼️ esp. if you’re a minor/ ageless blog but if you’re not then it’s not necessary! (Edit: I deleted my post as I am trying out something else!)

Wanted to add that it somewhat deviates from the original idea but just a small bit; hopefully you guys aren’t bothered by it.

Love is very complex. To you, it’s like a rubrix cube where you constantly messing around with it until you get it all right. Sometimes you get frustrated and leave it be, but sometimes you decide to go back to it once you’re a bit calmer.

That’s what this felt like. You felt that you had tried your hardest to make the cube right and this persistence in making right was only because:

You really loved your boyfriends.

You didn’t know what they had experienced out there so you didn’t want to force them to act normal when it may seem impossible for them to do so.

The way they were acting now was how they acted before all this mess, but now you felt that you had checked out of this relationship.

You tried your hardest with this cube, you tried to make it all right but now you’re just wanting to leave it be. Maybe someone else out there would be willing to take the cube and do it right but you didn’t think you’d be the one to do it.

You talked about it with your friends and you made the decision it would be best to leave them. You would break up with them, and move into your friend’s place.

Luckily for you, your soon to be ex boyfriends were off on a quick work trip and wouldn’t be back for a week. It gave you plenty of time to pack up a majority of your stuff and take it over to your friends. And it would prevent the questions that would come from the men if they saw your stuff disappearing little by little.

Packing up is hard. Especially as you realized the memories that were made here with love:

Love was here when you and Kyle would cuddle on the couch while watching a movie.

Love was here when you and Johnny would sit out on the porch and talk about anything.

Love was here when Simon had you to himself and showed you how much he loved you in bed.

Love was here when John would come to the kitchen and help you cook, often he’d play some music and it lead to you two slow dancing in the kitchen.

But now? Love wasn’t here. And you didn’t want to stay in an area where love wasn’t present.

—

The men were anxious. They had noticed that they were often the ones calling and texting you during their trip. Before it would be even, sometimes you’d call and then sometimes they’d text you and vice versa, but now it was like you had forgotten about them.

Johnny would mope around the common room, wishing you’d send him your daily outfit of the day but it never came.

John would sit by his desk, tapping his pencil repeatedly on the desk, waiting for your call, he felt that he couldn’t do anything without hearing your voice.

Kyle would send you pictures during their trip but you wouldn’t respond like how you normally did; you’d have a conversation with him and yet now all you did was send basic sentences.

Simon would always be the last one to sleep while all his lovers slept beside him. He’d stay on his phone, just waiting for your good night text and yet now he found himself falling asleep before ever receiving one.

The men are just confused. They’d like to think that love was still here but now? They feel like you’re slipping away and they don’t understand why.

—

Everything was different now before you used to pick up your boyfriends from the airport if you weren’t busy with anything. However this time they didn’t ask and Simon let you know that they’d would just get a taxi instead.

It was odd.. but at the same time nice. You weren’t sure what to tell them if you had picked them up especially since today was the day; you were breaking up with them. You called it nice because you had this underlying fear that you would just blurt it out in the open instead of over dinner like you had planned. Maybe they already knew what was going on and didn’t want to cause a scene out in public or maybe they didn’t want to endure through your silence during the car ride home.

Whatever the case may be, you didn’t find yourself caring that much. All you were focused on was preparing the dinner and mentally preparing yourself for what was to come.

—

Eating with men was now awkward. Before it used to be filled with love as you, Kyle, and Johnny were the main ones filling the table with laughter and chatter. John and Simon would occasionally join in but they’d seem to prefer just watching you three talk about anything that’s on your mind. But now? It was awkward and quiet where dropping a feather could probably be heard because of how quiet it was. The men are quietly eating, not even discussing their trip and not even picking up their heads preferring to just eat, and you’re not asking them either about it, you find the food on your plate more enjoyable than conversing with them.

It’s when you guys are almost finished eating dinner that you gain the confidence to say what you need to say, you finally put your fork down and said what needed to be said.

“I think it’s best if I leave this relationship.”

That got their attention really quickly as the men all raised their heads up quickly and if you knew the men like you thought you did, you knew that the first one to speak would be—

“B-Bonnie. What do you mean ‘leave this relationship’? L-like you want to take a break?”

You couldn’t help but feel a little pity for Johnny, he’d genuinely looked like he wanted to cry. But it’s when you remember what led you up to this point that erases those thoughts away. They didn’t feel pity for you when they treated you like an outsider in your relationship. So why feel pity for them? If anything this was well deserved.

“No Johnny. I want to break up with you guys.”

You were calm and meticulous, taking the time to look at the other men’s reaction.

Kyle looked shocked at the news.

Simon was looking at you as if you told him that you had cheated on them. Full of betrayal.

And John looked calm but you could tell he was struggling with thinking of what to say. He wasn’t just the leader in their team; he was the leader in the relationship and if they never what to say, he always did. But now? He looked like he was a bit flustered, and quite frankly he looked like he was at a loss of what to say.

“I’m not understanding. Why do you want to break up? Is it because of something we did?”

Oh? Looks like Kyle was taking up the mantle. Maybe that’s why John used to tell you that Kyle had the future makings of a captain; wherever someone lacked, Kyle could make up for it. A true leader.

“If you guys don’t understand what you did then it’s more of a reason to break up,”

You got up calmly from the table.

“When you guys understand what you did and can tell me why you acted that way, we can talk but for now we’re done. I already have somewhere to go and I’ll give you guys the curtesy of letting you know when I get there safe but that’s it.”

And you walked away. You ignored the chatter of Kyle and Johnny telling Price to do something but you could hear Price stammering. You knew how it would go down, Kyle and Johnny would be upset and anxious at the news and Simon would be the one to comfort the two men while John would try to figure out how to fix the situation.

Old you would’ve comforted the men too, said that it’s just some distance and time apart, but current you knew that this was for the best.

As you headed out of the house and got into your friend’s car to go to your temporary home. You thought of this:

Love is here because sometimes love is better when you’re not together rather than being miserable together.

Guys I wanted to add that I’ve never dated anyone nor do I have any experience in love, so yeah 🤷🏻‍♀️ I think I write it unrealistically, but idk

Also if you haven’t already plz read my ‼️Update Post‼️ but it’s only necessary if you’re a minor/ ageless blog following me, if not then you’re completely fine! (Edit: I deleted my post as I am trying out something else!)

Taglist: @reni502

[skysiren41]

Having Jumba replace the role as the villain instead of Gantu and removing all the depth and nuance of his character is honestly one of the worst things ANY of these remakes have ever done (aside from completely ruining the whole message of the film)

Yes, Jumba was a mad scientist but he was anything BUT evil in original film. He was chaotic, egotistical, and at times completely insane yes but he also showed moments of humanity and genuine remorse like when Nani asked where Lilo was after she was captured. I'd even argue that him deciding to help Stitch in the climax so easily is actually pretty in character of him. He wasn't really an evil person, he was chaotic but had a good heart deep down

As the series went on he became more humble and even he and Pleakley became sort of father figures to both Stitch and Lilo. Hell in the second film, we see just how desperate he became when Stitch's begins malfunctioning to the point where his life is at risk. That moment in the end where they all think Stitch had died and Jumba takes him out of the chamber and he just hugs him is legit one of my favorite moments in the entire series. The whole second movie showed just how much Jumba truly cares for Stitch and considers him and the others as family. Also his and Pleakley's dynamic being one of the best parts of the original with how well they bounced off each other (we stan for the gay alien uncles here)

But in the remake it's genuinely uncomfortable and gross just how far it goes out of it's way to make Jumba as irredeemable as possible. I'm sorry but the Jumba we all know and love would NEVER intentionally burn the pictures of Lilo and Nani's parents, the only things they have left of their parents so happily, and he would NEVER treat Stitch so horribly to the point where he tries to stright up erase his empathy. Yes in the original film, he and Stitch's fight in Lilo's house caused it to blow up but that was completely by accident on BOTH of their parts, they weren't actively trying to blow it up on purpose. Even when he was trying to capture Stitch at no point did Jumba actively tried to hurt Lilo (aside from just gently pushing her away when she was hitting him with the broom during the fight) hell one of his most iconic lines "THIS IS LOW EVEN FOR YOU!" Is said when he realizes that Stitch is basically using Lilo as a shield

Also before someone says it yes, I'm well aware of the alternate deleted scene of Jumba attacking Lilo's house where he's a lot more violent and sociopathic. But 1. It was cut and re-edited so the original cut of the scene isn't really canon. And 2. The reason why it was removed was not only was it considered too violent, but it made both Stitch and ESPECIALLY Jumba too unlikeable and irredeemable. Jumba and Pleakley were always intended to help out in the climax, so having Jumba be redeemed despite how he was more than willing to straight-up shoot Lilo during the house attack didn't sit right. Jumba was NEVER intended to be as cruel as Gantu, but they decided to make him EVEN CRUELER than most modern Disney villains in this remake

Removing all of Jumba's nuances and making him a mustache-twirling bad guy so you can force him to take Gantu's place isn't just character assassination, it's complete character annihilation. It's easily up there as one of the worst examples of character assassination I've seen since Velma. Also I think it's REALLY suspicious that they removed an antagonist who was a bad cop and was fired for his repeated brutal methods and putting innocent people in danger, made the SCIENTIST the main villain to the point where they made him more of a monster then the cop

I'm sorry for the multiple posts on this film and if I come across as more angry then I usually do, but I'm just so appalled with how much they bastardised one of my favorite films of all time, as well as one of my favorite characters in said film. I'm at least glad that everyone seems to agree that this film is a pile of garbage

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Editing Part ????: Final Steps (That You'll Repeat)

HI THIS POST WAS SUPPOSED TO GO UP IN JANUARY. Uuuh things. Are happening. In the US. Alas.

ANYWAY, to wrap up our editing tips. Some of this you'll do on your own, some of it you'll need feedback on, a lot of it is going back and forth between various edits. It is a process.

Tone and Voice

In review, is your character's voice consistent? Do they remain solid as a character, or do they wildly change in how they speak and act in the middle of the book for no reason?

When it comes to tone, are you writing with a consistently used vocabulary and structure? I'm not talking about dialogue - does your story feel the same, no matter if it's in third person or first?

A tonal shift or word change might happen if you've been working a long time on a project, and that's just a matter of going back through the book to make sure things match up.

Tension and Pacing

Does the action rise and fall naturally? Are your characters given room to breathe when appropriate?

Have you resolved (or addressed) all your subplots? Did you leave any romance or relationships dangling? Are there any chunks of your book that feel like a side-quest that doesn't contribute to the rest of the plot?

How is your scene pacing? Like your book, your scenes can't be 100% tension - they need to rise and fall. Fights and action should build naturally. If you're dropping a character into a situation with no foreshadowing, or if they obtain some new nifty power without really earning it, you might be throwing the pacing off.

Again, this just takes going back over to see what little things you need to set up to make the pay-off worth it.

Line Edits

Hopefully you've saved this for last, I know you won't, I know I won't, but fiddling with the language is going to be better done at the very end. Look out for:

Overused Words and Phrases - I find with each project, I become overly fond of one particular word. It's useful and fantastic until it pops up a little too often, and then I need to work on changing it up. Same with phrases - if you're brain is like mind, it'll find a neat little turn of phrase and repeat that six or eight times when you only needed it once.

Hedging Words - Almost, nearly, not quite, seems, appears, etc - these words are perfectly fine in academic writing, but they weaken your descriptive work. Instead of saying "he almost hit me" for example, describe the motion and the character's reaction. If someone seems upset, how can you describe that through their body language?

Dialogue Tags - You can use fun dialogue tags, and you don't have to delete every -ly abverb attached to "said." However, as boring as it seems, keeping it simple with mostly using "said" and "replied" will do most of the job.

Re-Checking Sentence Structure - If all your sentences within a paragraph follow the same structure, your reader is likely to start to skim. Change things up with shorter sentences paired with longer ones. Chunk actions scenes with short, punchy sentences, make sure descriptive paragraphs don't have sentences that go on for way too long.

Feedback

There's no easy way to find a good critique partner. I wish there was. You can and should join writer's groups and offer exchanges, be they online or in person. Sometimes you can love someone's work, but you don't mess with them as a critique partner. It happens, keep trying.

When you do find a critique partner, it's always good to give them guidance on what you're looking for. Some good questions:

Pacing - When did they put the story down? Why?

Consistency - Was anything confusing? Did the character's choices make sense?

Plot - Where there any twists that were too obvious? Did the stakes feel important? Was the plot satisfying?

A Note on "Predictable" Plot

There is a consistent argument about predictive plots versus originality, but thinking too hard about it may lead you astray. Certain genres have expectations - cosy murders will be solved, romance will end with the leads getting together, etc. Readers often go into stories wanting some predictability, because it's the journey of the story that matters the most. Making sure the story is engaging to read is far more important than trying to be original.

That said, you'll find in your second and third drafts that you will be able to put your own design on familiar stories. Treading familiar ground in the first draft is common, but when taking another crack of it, you can raise the stakes and make that ending much more satisfying.

Good luck!

[theheroheart]

Quick GIF tutorial (Photoshop)

#holy shit this is perfection!!#i am so jealous of this set!#the coloring op THE COLORING!!! (original post)

alright @dontyouknowemma-itsyou and anyone interested, this was really easy to colour so I'm gonna give you a quick breakdown. (i didn't save the psd file?? so i'm redoing this i guess, but i did it on autopilot in the first place. i've been making gifs for over 15 years.)

GONNA INCLUDE A VIDEO AT THE END SHOWING OFF THE SETTINGS!!

General GIF stuff

This is in Photoshop CC. I extract a clip from a video as an MP4 file, which photoshop can open. (I use AviDemux for this, which is free, because it lets you save clips using 'copy' encoding for video output and still change from MKV to MP4 format - without losing any video quality, cause you're not re-encoding.)

Open that shit directly in photoshop as a video layer (just drag and drop), that lets you scan through it to check the colouring works overall. Convert the video layer to Smart Object, that lets you resize and edit it. (Do NOT open a full movie in Photoshop, it'll probably die and it has a max length anyway.)

Also all the colour adjustments are gonna be adjustment layers you can tweak and turn on/off whenever. There's a lil button at the bottom of the Layers window to add them quickly.

When we're done we're choosing a section of the video in the Timeline window and we're doing File->Export->Save For Web. 'Adaptive' (or selective) palette selection, 'pattern' style dithering.

Colouring

Curves layer to lighten. Just pull the curve up. Curves seem to give a much smoother lightening, since it mostly affects the middle, leaving the brights and the darks where they are.

Levels to make the darkest darks pure black, and the lightest lights pure white. Good for limiting GIF size. Don't overdo it though.

Colour balance!! My beloved, most important. So for the Shadows and Highlights, you're gonna move the sliders towards Cyan and Blue, but for the Midtones you're gonna do the opposite - towards Red and Yellow. This means you don't shift the overall colour of the picture, but trust me it does SO MUCH for the contrast and colour. I swear I do this for almost any edit, and also my art tbh. Also if the original clip is like very green or whatever, you can correct that here.

Selective colour. For this I did one thing. For 'Black' dropdown, I upped 'black' and 'yellow' sliders (the latter to counteract the blue in the darks). This in combination with:

Levels again. Bring in those darks, turn them pure black. Basically this does a couple things. It preserves GIF file size, by making sure the dark areas are static (file sizes mostly depends on pixels that are CHANGING). It ALSO makes the palette much more optimized, meaning you don't waste palette on the darks no one sees anyway, and instead uses them in the mid range colour variation, giving much smoother gradients. That's it!! That's all the colouring!!

EDIT: Uh I probably also had a Vibrance layer?? Idk. This just ups the saturation, but it's softer than upping Saturation. Makes the colours pop without overdoing it.

Other tips and tricks

Often I'll put a Smart Sharpen (50% amount, 0,5px radius) filter on the video layer, just to make it a bit crisper. Subtle but effective.

You can manually edit the palette when you save as a GIF, either to reduce file size, or because some colour areas look pixelly. See the video for how.

If your file size is huge but you don't want to shorten or resize, you can reduce the frame rate manually. To do this, FIRST save the GIF, then open the GIF you just saved. Go through in the Timeline window (which is now a Frame Animation rather than a Video Timeline), select every other frame, and delete them. When you do this, remember to select the rest of the frames and double their Frame Delay so you don't end up with a super speedy GIF. (You can also make a GIF slow-mo like this.)

Since the video is a smart object, I literally just resized it in between saving the different GIFs, to change composition between the different shots.

Selective Colour layer can be used for a lot of image tweaking. For example, if something is overly yellow or green, I may go to the Yellow and Green in dropdown and just reduce the yellow slider. (I usually then go to Red in dropdown and ADD some yellow to that, to balance out the reds to be less pink.) Or maybe the overall colours are nice but the blues are dull, so I'll just go to Blue/Cyan and tweak those specifically.

If you have a colouring you like that you want to use on lots of things, remember you can drag-and-drop layers between different images. You can also save a photoshop file with nothing but those layers, to use on later gifs and just tweak as needed. (You can also make Actions to automate stuff, but I won't go into that.)

How easy or hard something is to colour HUGELY depends on the original video, both lighting/colouring and video quality.

Finally the video showing settings!

This is like 5 minutes long and has no commentary or anything. This is mostly to show off where you find each individual thing, and what difference it makes in the colouring.

ANYWAY hope someone found this useful!!! ♥

[sychik]

TS2: Roman building kit

today, I bring you a whole building kit! kind of. it consists of 5 parts, see more under the cut. PICTURE HEAVY LONG POST!

Canonical Column: Romanized Default + Expanded

I changed the top part, partially remapped the column, and replaced the textures: instead of five wooden swatches, the column now comes in five default shades of plaster.

I used the crossover shade between 1 and 2 to make painted plaster versions.

there are also the following granite options:

BUT WAIT… THERE'S MORE! I also made these:

1 - half-column, 2 - inner corner, 3 - outer corner, 4 - end column

I did not make an offset version of the half column, because I honestly prefer to use quartertileplacement cheat to place in between wall segments.

my edits of the mesh are slaved to the original Canonical Column, so they will pick up whatever swatches it has.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Roman Molding

I. white/black borders + colourful panels

II. silver/golden/blue/black patterned borders (+ scenario black panels)

upper, middle and lower parts are separate. I am not sure if it was the best decision, but I prefer to have variability where I can. they all fit on a single wall-height mesh, so altering/deleting will be tricky if there are multiple pieces on the same wall. you can find molding overlays in Decorative - Miscellaneous.

DOWNLOAD MOLDING I HERE

DOWNLOAD MOLDING II HERE

Scenes of Life frescoes

these are wall overlays, like the molding. somewhat transparent to mix better with the wall. some are a part of a theme (leisure, trade/art, life events, hunting/fighting), some just feature sims (or a cat). most feature my sims, but for some I used @guessimate's pictures (thank you!)

I. 1 tile overlays

II. 2 tiles overlays

you can find them in Decorative - Miscellaneous as well.

DOWNLOAD 1 TILE HERE

DOWNLOAD 2 TILES HERE

Sceneries of Life walls

these are also murals/frescoes BUT actual walls, all are 4 walls wide. located in Poured category.

some serve as a nice background for wall overlays.

DOWNLOAD HERE

THE Roman walls

just in case you don't have your own two-colour walls that you see in almost every picture of a public Roman building. white, white + red, and red. you can combine the first two, and the red one is mainly for good measure: it CAN'T be used below the white + red (because I incorporated a white line at the bottom of the white+red wall to get rid of the red line between it and the white wall above... grrr). the texture is from Maxis "Southwestern Stucco".

DOWNLOAD FROM THE FOLDER HERE

P.S.

I want to express my gratitude to the people who made this possible. the credit for the wall overlay mesh goes to Numenor. I left the tribute in the mesh name, which I grabbed here (another thanks to BoilingOil and Pixelhate). my meshes are cloned and with their own GUIDs, so that they appear in the catalog separately; you don't need the original ones. in my edits, I've changed the TXMT according to Hat's SimPe tricks, and it does make a difference in how molding and frescoes look on the walls!

for the columns, I want to thank 71robert13. I did not mess with his Corinthian pilasters (which are a must have) nor did I clone them, but I used them to see what he did there to achieve the same effect. mainly, I just checked how they are positioned.

[yolkochan]

How @tigreblvnc Gains Engagement from Artists Without Proper Credit (19/2/25)

Helloo, it’s Yoko (@yolkochan), and I’m an artist in the bllkblr community. I believe in the importance of properly crediting creators, not just for ethical reasons but because artists deserve recognition for their work. 

Unfortunately, there are people who consistently repost artwork without giving artists proper credit, benefiting from the engagement while the original creators remain overlooked. This post highlights one such case—@tigreblvnc(Tetsuo/Suo)— who has repeatedly done this more times than I can count.

This problem has been recently brought to my attention by multiple people in this community. As a professional artist myself, I feel a responsibility to call out this pattern and raise awareness about why proper crediting matters. Despite knowing that I may lose some followers due to this post.

(20/2/25 Edit: @tigreblvnc has deleted his blog 5 hours after the release of this post. Sooo….)

I do not condone the harassment of anyone mentioned within this post.

@tigreblvnc is a well-known blogger in the Blue Lock Tumblr community, frequently analyzing characters like Michael Kaiser and reposting fanart. However, his repeated failure to properly credit artists has raised serious concerns. Instead of clearly naming artists in the captions, he relies on small, greyed-out “source” links that are easy to miss. As a result, he continues to gain thousands of likes and reblogs from art that isn’t his—without giving artists the recognition they deserve.

Below are multiple examples demonstrating this pattern.

Evidence of Improper Crediting

Examples of what someone would see when scrolling:

Link to post

Art by ogata69 on X

(underneath this post is literally another art repost lol) 2. Link to post

Art by asamashi288753 on X

Original posts: 1 2

3. Link to post

Art by asamashi288753 on X

Original posts: 1 2

4. Link to post

Art by ttioo14 on X

Original posts: 1 2 3

5. Link to post

Art by eppaya_okoge on X

The original posts of these artworks have been deleted.

This specific case is even more egregious since this artist doesn’t even allow reposts without permission.

In all of these screenshots, he posts their artwork without naming them in the caption.

The only credit is a small “source” text (greyed out as well) that is easy to miss when scrolling. (The link only goes to the profile, not the original post). This shows that this isn’t a one-time mistake but a repeated behavior over multiple posts, these are just a few examples from over 20+ similar instances. His top posts are almost all art reposts.

With at least 20+ instances, it’s hard to believe it’s purely accidental. 

Whether intentional or not, this kind of crediting prioritizes his own engagement over actually giving artists the recognition they deserve. If he genuinely didn’t realize, now he knows- and if he keeps doing it, that’s a choice.

Common concerns:

1. “He’s not making money off it, what’s the harm??”

Engagement is a form of profit. If his top posts are all art reposts, he’s gaining a following, likes, and influence off other people's work.

Engagement stays on his post, not the artist’s — when a repost gets thousands of likes while the original post goes unnoticed, the artist loses visibility and recognition.

2. “He did credit the artist, see? The source is right there!”

A hidden, greyed-out link isn’t real credit and  people won’t click the source - the link is small, greyed-out, and easy to miss while scrolling. If the artist’s name isn’t visible in the caption, many won’t bother checking. Proper credit means making the artist’s name visible and easily accessible. 

If people need to dig through tiny text to find the source, it’s not actual recognition—just plausible deniability.

On another note, he didn’t actually credit it himself, it was an automatic attachment by Tumblr which can be explained better here by @feathers-little-nest .

3.  “He’s just sharing art he likes! It’s not that deep.”

If he really liked and respected the art, he’d want people to find the artist.

Art reposting without proper credit is disrespectful because it reduces an artist’s work to engagement bait.

4. “Not everyone knows how to credit properly!”

Maybe once or twice, but after 20+ posts, he’s had plenty of time to learn.

5. “At least he’s not claiming the art as his own.”

That’s the bare minimum.

Also, multiple people have told me they thought that was his art due to the unclear credit, this can also be seen on the reblogs. And he doesn’t try to correct them.

Now you may be asking, how do I properly credit an artist then?

I will show you in the below examples, but on Tumblr (not cross-platform) I specifically encourage you to never repost someone’s work, just reblog the original post. Always check if the artists allow reposts in the first place in their bio and try to ask for permission before doing so.

Some basics are to mention the artist's name clearly in the caption and linking the original post.

Here’s 2 examples of how to properly credit an artist if you’re reposting them on a different platform.

1.

Art by @rokuii on Tumblr

(please support her!!💗💗)

2. Made by @sunriozz on (X/Tumblr)

also support her too! <3

End Note

This is not only a callout to him but also a callout to the many fanfic writers in this fandom who use fanart/fanedits in their fics (as a cover to grab attention, etc), and other art reposters in this fandom who use Pinterest without crediting the respective artists clearly in the post.

Suo’s repeated failure to credit artists properly is not just an oversight—it’s a pattern that prioritizes his own engagement over the visibility of the original creators. Whether intentional or not, this practice actively harms artists by preventing them from receiving the recognition and support they deserve. Please do not make the same mistakes as he did.

If he genuinely respects artists, he should:

Start clearly crediting artists in the captions, not just in hidden “source” links.

Retroactively update past posts with proper credit.

Refrain from reposting art unless he is willing to credit correctly or have permission from the artist.

There are other skeletons inside his closet and personal matters that I cannot publicly address, but they are worth considering. This post is also the reason why I haven’t been active in a while.

At the end of the day, artists deserve to be credited properly, not used for engagement. If you support artists, follow them directly, engage with their work, and avoid boosting repost accounts that don’t credit correctly.

[infiniteglitterfall]

friggin faux-Palestinian history, istg

I'm in the middle of writing a post about the difficulties of pinning down details and dates in Palestinian history. This one is just me stopping to vent for a sec.

I came across the Wikipedia page for GUPS, the General Union of Palestinian Students. This is an organization with groups at colleges all over the world. Ish. It's shrunk over the decades.

The page made a bold claim: that GUPS was officially founded in Cairo in 1959, but had really started in the 1920s.

I called bullshit. The only source cited was a dead link to the 2010 version of the SFSU GUPS page, which said the same thing -- no context, no source, and especially, no explanation of how Palestinian student organizing could have started before there were colleges or universities in Palestine.

There were two. They were tiny. And they both taught in Hebrew.

Certainly, there could have been Arab Palestinian students there, who learned Hebrew there, or already knew it.

But were there so many that they started a student group that apparently lasted 35+ years before getting a name??

I could not find one other source for this.

So I deleted it and called bullshit.

Within a day, someone who wasn't even logged in reverted my edit. They told me that I hadn't proven that it was wrong, I'd just said it was illogical.

I started looking up sources and putting together a more detailed edit. In the meantime, I started a topic on the totally empty talk page, politely calling bullshit.

I said that I hadn't been able to find any sources in English OR Arabic that confirmed this claim, and that I thought it was an error made on a dead page.

The same person, now logged in, replied:

"you still haven't refuted the claim. the claim is still on their web page."

BRUH.

IT'S AN ARCHIVE OF A DEAD PAGE. BY DEFINITION, IT DOESN'T CHANGE.

This is exactly how it feels to research any of this stuff.

Every single time, it turns out that people's unsourced online bullshit is absolutely wrong.

Every single time, people just respond by insisting on believing whatever claim some rando made on the internet.

The problem is not that Palestinian history doesn't exist, hasn't been written down, or hasn't been researched. Of fucking course it has!!

(I have literally seen people claiming the contrary in the most wild-ass fucking ways. Supposedly-pro-Palestinian people, acting like Palestinians are wooby powerless fuzzy babbies whose books were all stolen by the cruel Jews 80 years ago, who had no way to replace that historic knowledge, and who have just been standing around ever since. It is the most Western Paternalism shit ever, and it absolutely drives me up the wall.)

The problem is that this is a topic that a lot of people are passionate about. And unfortunately, a whole lot of people are unwilling to back down on literally anything that "feels" pro-Palestinian to them, whether it's true or not.

It's purely going on Vibes, but the Vibes themselves are based on how something compares to the Vibes they get from social media and stuff.

And those vibes are so extreme and vehement that any kind of pushback sounds like You Love Genocide And Kill Babies For Fun.

It's just a fucking vicious spiral.

It's like playing tennis against the tennis-ball-throwing machine. It's not a real game. Nobody is engaging with you. It's just the same shit over and over.

(I was trying to type "shot." But apparently I swear so much that instead of autocorrecting me to "ducking hell," my phone now INSISTS I meant to cuss.)

I ended up getting Google to give me the Arabic for GUPS, and then digging for sources about its actual origin.

It turns out Yasser Arafat formed the Palestinian Students League in Cairo in 1949, and that became GUPS in 1956. This is entirely fucking unsurprising in any way if you know anything at all about actual Palestinian history. Of fucking course he did. This also explains why the first search result I found about GUPS was from the PLO. Of fucking course it was.

[fictionaltrvlr]

AITA for trying to save my friends’ life?

I know the title might make this seem obvious, but apparently everyone is mad at me.

I (30M) have these two coworkers who have become friends, let’s call them L (26M) and J (26F). Anonymous post since I work for the government.

Anyway, I’ve worked with J and L for roughly six months. They’re pretty nerdy and awkward, so I thought I’d be nice and try to be friendly with them. I don’t understand most of what they say and they’re honestly really annoying, so this was a very charitable gesture on my part. Since they’re highly intelligent, the relationship does have certain benefits in the field.

On to the issue at hand. As I mentioned, I work for the government. So my SO (supervising officer) informed me of a covert operation that was of immediate importance and I was assigned to go undercover with J and L since their branch was under investigation.

At the end of the assignment we’re meant to cut ties completely, which I was prepared for. However, as it progressed it became evident that my SO expected me to terminate these agents. I’m trying to be vague as this is all highly sensitive, you understand.

But I’d become rather attached to J and L, they really are like awkward little lizards you keep around to add ambience, and I thought they could be valuable in the future. The idea of killing them was not appealing.

So, I made a very, in my opinion, logical choice to do what I could to save their lives. Instead of shooting them in the head as I was expected to do, I jettisoned them out of an airlock in a containment pod over the ocean.

I know that might sound bad, but as I mentioned they are incredibly intelligent and could plausibly find a way to escape (which, to be clear, they DID). I think this was an admirably ingenious decision, since I’d be clear with my SO as no regular person could have survived this, but also clear by J and L since I gave them a chance.

But now my SO is angry with me and insisting that I should have personally finished the job, plus I’ve heard through my contacts that J and L are “furious” with me and feel “betrayed?” Which seems very clearly irrational to me since I saved their lives.

So, AITA for saving my friends’ life and completing my assignment?

Edit: Yes, I suppose this could be construed as “attempted murder,” but the whole thing is that they SURVIVED as I knew they would.

Edit: Okay guys, stop attacking me. If you lack reading comprehension, just say that. I SAVED THEIR LIVES because they definitely would have died if I hadn’t done what I did. And I don’t know where some of you got this idea that I’m in Hydra, because I’m not. But even if I was, that doesn’t make me a Nazi. I swear, you’re all so dramatic. Like watch the news?? SHIELD were the terrorists, and Hydra was only briefly associated with Nazis in the 1940s. But this is all besides the point! I kept this anonymous for a reason. You know doxxing is a crime right?? Which I know because I’m a government agent, okay?? Do you understand the concept of a low profile? Obviously i can’t tell you what branch of government I’m in, but I’m not Hydra. Calm down.

Edit: Also! I was literally abused as a child, okay? So maybe I’m not great at forming friendships, but it’s not my fault. My brother gave me some profound trust issues and this is NOT helping. And I have, like, PTSD from all the incredibly confidential cases I’ve been involved in. You know you’re basically attacking a veteran, right? You should be thanking me for everything I’ve done for this country. It’s actually really ableist. And this is not a platform for all your Hydra conspiracy theories okay? You’re completely derailing my original post with irrelevant speculation.

Edit: You can stop now! I get it. You think I’m the asshole. Whatever. And I am not “crashing out,” okay? As if I care about the opinions of a bunch of teenagers on Reddit. And that’s what it is: and opinion!! That doesn’t make you right. I’m deleting this.

[reliablejoukido]

PSA: The digimon fandom homophobe guardiandua deleted and made a new account (guardiandua91) -- and they're still posting homophobic and transphobic rhetoric

I wasn't gonna make a callout post, since their blog is non-searchable, which makes it hard to find and block them (edit: their blog is searchable now). But they started posting general digimon analysis posts that DO show up in the digimon adventure and digimon tamers tags (they also followed me for some reason???). they also are known for tacking on comments to reblogs, which just makes them more visible. I'm just giving everyone a fair warning to check and make sure you're not reblogging from them, and to block if they follow you or reblog from you.

If you're not familiar with this person, they are incredibly homophobic and proud of it, while at the same time complaining that the Digimon fandom is "dead" (according to them). for some context, I will post a screenshot of their original post that blew up back in January under a cut.

in their new pinned post, they claim "don't like, don't interact" and that they don't care if people block them. but I worry there are still going to be people who don't know who they are when they see them in the tags. also if you don't want people you hate to interact with you, why bother deleting and then immediately remaking your blog with the same homophobic bullshit? that only serves to clear out all your blocks so you can irritate and stalk people who blocked you all over again. it's disrespectful to the people you supposedly don't want to engage with. it's giving "I need the people I hate to see that I hate them all over again while pretending I don't care".

I urge everyone to block them again and move on instead of engaging with them in any way (because they clearly DO want engagement). I already blocked them so they probably won't even see this.

also they have a friend named blade-liger-4ever who has the exact same views as them, just fyi

But yeah. the digimon fandom is queer and will always be queer. I'm queer and will always love digimon.

[flightyalrighty]

no offense but the fact that the first thing i ever saw you say about your own comic was that an ai wrote it has permanently turned me off of it even if you decided to go and edit that first post of yours to say it wasnt. like, wow. what a way to introduce a comic

Well, I made it clear for the sake of transparency that the original story was written alongside a character.ai bot, though it seems you missed the part where I said I don't use AI anymore -- And that, to quote my own FAQ;

"All of AI Shadow’s “additions” will be rewritten so he’s less stiff and more himself. Meaning everything in this comic was written by me. All of it."

You also seemed to miss the many times on my blog that I've advocated against ever using AI. Of course, I suppose I can't blame you. You did, after all, admit to me (on anon) that you basically just glanced at my comic, didn't pay attention to WHAT I was saying here:

And then jumped to the conclusion that you did. But I guess I shouldn't expect much from the "pissing on the poor" website. Allow me to clarify: Yes, the original story was written as an RP I did with a chatbot. I have admitted this for the sake of honesty. I didn't want to lie about this thing's origin, even if I regret having done so at all now.

At the time, being someone who used to mess around with chatbots as a kid way, way back in the late 2000s/early 2010s like Chomsky, I thought this website was just another one of those sorts of things. The chatbot itself, however, was bland garbage and I was basically tugging the thing around an entire elaborate story of my own creation while the thing just went "wow" and "oh no" at everything. The ENTIRE plot, EVERY line from EVERY character that wasn't Shadow was mine. Now, in its comic form, turning that plot I had rattling in my head into a script, and turning that script into a comic, obviously I'm much more involved in the one element of the story that was once, and is no longer, AI.

Shadow is written by me as well, just as I had once written literally everything else.

Use your eyes. You can see how much effort I put into this comic. Now use your head. Why would I cross out that section in the first page instead of deleting it outright if I actually wanted to hide it. I clearly value honesty and genuine quality in what I do. So when turning The Thing I Did For Fun into a REAL story to tell others, obviously I pushed away all the AI stuff because, beyond all of the other problems with AI, it's not of the high quality I want Infested to be.

Okay? Okay.

[simkoos]

as a cc creator you often look back at your old creations and think "yea i could've done that so much better lmao". that's kind of been my mindset for the last couple of months. so i decided to clean up and revive (yet again) some of my older cc collections!

meshes have been fixed (some objects didn't even have all lod's or shadowmaps smh) or moderately edited to conform to my current aesthetics

textures have been hugely improved along with better color palettes, neater normals and speculars

please delete all old files before adding these! they will replace in-game but you cannot have the old versions and the new versions installed at the same time. 

~~~

12pm includes 6 items just as the originals. the panda bank is now functional if you have ravasheen's 'in your safe piggy bank' mod installed.

fps includes 3 items. (you can find the originals here) both video game consoles require city living.

home includes 8 items, originally 6. both the shelves and desk have way more slots for extra storage!

liselotte includes 6 items. the original set is still available here if you prefer that instead. not a lot has been changed except for minor edits to the folded towels and a mesh replacement of the toothbrushes. also i've left out the bath robes since i personally don't have a use for them since that one bg recolor update lol.

plant mom includes 11 items. one of my all time fave sets, which can be found here, again if you prefer that.

study group includes 14 items now, 6 more than the originals.  i've added accessory backpacks for all ages except infant and toddler. and now the deco backpacks can be used as storage if you have ravasheen's 'hoarders simnonymous' mod installed.

switch includes 11 items. everything is basically the same as in the original post. only a few minor touches here and there. i added a thermostat, which requires seasons. and a newly added electrical outlet with safety plugs. all light switches are functional if you have the bathroom clutter kit and littledica's functional light switch override.

~~~

download (always free on patreon)

[crazylittlejester]

as a joke when i saw the update i said to my friend “that gojo edit but instead its war” and they were like “okay but do it” so now im here since i dont have a tiktok i post on but the GOOD template wouldn’t let me fucking save it so just know theres a better version on my phone 😔 (which included that old little doodle from jojo of him waving around the fire rod)

but yeah heres this shit, WARRIORS IS BACK

this is dumb as hell and i’ll probably delete it 😭

(original artwork belongs to @/linkeduniverse)

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 09/06

Anonymous asked: Now that you're so far in, I urge you to check out Ichellor's 3D Homestuck animations! They're super cool, though you may need to be cautious. They're mostly at and prior to cascade, but you can't be too careful.

(All of these were made after Homestuck finished, so many still contain spoilers. Their first video is definitely safe, though. -V)

It's an excellent piece of work, and a great taste of what's to come. I've also watched their Cascade animation - although, according to Vamp, it does contain some subtle spoilers that I missed.

I've been able to check out a lot of the earlier Ichellor videos, but I'm probably going to have to wait a while before I can see their full body of work. Looking forward to it, though.

@mrjocrafter asked: so in literally act 1 rose tries to prototype the tier-1 harlequinsprite with a box of betty crocker cake mix. like imagine if it actually went in. what a doomed timeline that would've been. there's a MSPFA called Nepetaquest 2022 that deals with exactly this. it's peak

That does sound peak. Is the implication that the Sprite would turn into some iteration of the Condesce? I think that's more than the kids could handle, unless Rose had already gone Grimdark.

@manorinthewoods submitted:

The Star Wars example is one that many people already know, but Discworld is also a great shout here. You can easily tell that Pratchett is a sci-fi nerd, through-and-through - and, despite their aesthetics, the Discworld novels have as much fantasy in them as your average Monty Python production.

@adorable-animus asked: just to nitpick, but in an earlier post you said that aradia and equius were together due to mind controlled aradiabot and- you are semi right? equius wanted to be FLUSHED, but the control chip was completely shattered, and aradia instead felt PITCH. i get where youre coming from, but i just wanted to point out that facet of the relationship.

I'm pretty sure they were both - or, at least, they were described as both in the infamous quadrant infodump. Granted, I don't know if this animation necessarily means that both parties are experiencing both quadrants, or if it just means that things are complicated.

And, oddly enough, I don't think Aradia stayed with Equius due to the mind-control chip. That was definitely his intention, but the chip was immediately destroyed, and she kissed him anyway - implying, I guess, that she did have a genuine thing for him, as unlikely as that seems.

...I don't even know, girls. This was a weird one, even for Hivebent.

@mrjocrafter asked: Not sure if you know or have been told this but the reason Kanaya wields a chainsaw Well, Google "why chainsaws were invented"

For a member of a species without mothers, Kanaya sure is drowning in motherhood symbolism, isn't she?

@walkerbehindyou asked: One day, may you be introduced to the fanwork that was Marchingstuck/Promstuck

Apparently, Promstuck still contains some spoilers, and I'd like to experience these two as a unit. Hopefully soon, though!

@count100 asked: I submitted an ask a while back and got a notification saying I was mentioned in an ask comp, but I didn't actually see my ask. In case it was lost: I never really considered just how much it took to make the trolls into monsters, I LOVE your analysis about that. Alongside the factors you discussed, It's possible that the "dreams of blood and carnage" that haunt the trolls originate from Gl'bgolyb, given it is a gift from Doc Scratch.

I'm pretty sure I remember that ask! Sorry it didn't get a response -and yes, it's honestly a little heartwarming to realize just how much the trolls resisted Scratch's corruption.

I could have sworn I answered it, actually, but I can't seem to find it anywhere in this year's ask compilations. It's possible I accidentally deleted it while editing the post, because deleted tags will actually still notify the blog in question when the draft is posted. Tumblr, eh?

@mrjocrafter asked: this is classic old homestuck fandom nonsense from 2011

I'm losing it at the implication that 'Vriska' is an allegory for some real-world political ideology which shares her name.

This is great, anyway. Can you imagine an analogous post being made about today's political climate?

@the-jaffster-official asked: On the subject of Dirk Gently, as someone who read the book and watched all of the show, they have almost nothing in common besides a character named Dirk Gently. However, the show still feels VERY Douglas Adams, especially in the first season. Worth a watch.

Noted. I have been looking for a new show to binge...

Anonymous asked: Damn, you do not trust Gamzee at all.

Well, no! Jesus, would you?

@pineapple-temporarily-moving asked: "ricky schrodinger" was terezi misremembering the name of ricky schroder! @likelyvampirical asked: Ricky Schrödinger is a pun on Ricky Shroder, child star in the 80s sitcom Silver Spoons, which Terezi used to make the gifs featured on pages 2779-2782. This is what Terezi is referencing during the coin incident on page 3097. @morganwick asked: I think "Ricky Schrodinger" was originally a pun on "Ricky Schroder", who was the star of the sitcom Silver Spoons, which Terezi used for some GIFs she sent to Dave. @sanctferum asked: Ricky Schrodinger is a reference to Ricky Schroder, a child actor from the 80s. Terezi defaced gifs of him during that conversation back in Act 4 I think? It's just his name combined with Erwin Schrödinger's name. As for Davesprite, he could already talk out loud on screen via Spritelogs Anonymous asked: Ricky Shcrodinger is a combination of presumably Ricky Schroder (I have no idea who that is, but I believe Dave mentioned him before) and Schrodinger's Cat. Anonymous asked: Ricky Schrödinger is a pun on Ricky Schroder @weltinator asked: Ricky Schrodinger is a reference to Erwin Schrodinger and Ricky Schroder. Former is known for possibly having a cat, latter is known for starring in Silver Spoons, which is the source of the gifs used in Dave and Terezi's MOTH3RFUCK1NG D4NC3 P4RTY.

Also featuring Alfonso Ribeiro (who was later Carlton in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) @semusepsu asked: If you are still wondering about the Ricky Schrodinger joke, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to Ricky Schroder, an American child star from the 70s who starred in a film called 'Little Lord Fauntleroy'. He looks more than a little like Dave in some pictures from that era.

Hell fucking yes.

This is the kind of reference humor that is quite hard to search for on the Collection. Ricky Schrodinger is a pun, not a real name, so it wouldn't have given me any connections to this dance party - and besides, they never actually said Schroder's name in that conversation, so even that wouldn't have worked.

To catch some of these references, you really do need helpful askers. Thank you for your service. o7

@herestoanotherweirdo asked: "ARADIA: i guess ive spent enough time here that i just dont see death as the terrible thing the living make it out to be" i've read this line as like. not just spending a bunch of time in the bubbles, but also having literally been dead herself for a not-insubstantial amount of time!

Oh, that's true, isn't it?

I don't think Ghostradia was ever in the Dream Bubbles herself, but it is true that her months as a wandering spirit would give her a different perspective on death.

Most obviously, it would show her that it's not actually the end of existence in this reality; despite what the living believe, death doesn't obliterate your soul, so it's really not as tragic as everyone thinks.

@liliflower137 asked: The more I reread the more i love karkat He's just such a spicy kitten type of guy. I wanna pick him up and give him a hug and tell him he's going to be safe But he'd definitely bite me and given how dangerous bites from humans can be I think I would probably get all kinds of infections He's just... really a sweet kid underneath it all. He's just scared, so he has to be angry instead. Reminds me a lot of Sanji from one piece :) At least, the parts of him I like haha

I actually think Karkat would fit in pretty well in the world of One Piece. He has exactly the right kind of personality to form and mobilize a crew, and I genuinely believe he has enough determination to manifest Haki.

@liliflower137 asked: I wonder if perhaps Hussie ever read one piece, because the way navigating the furthest ring sounds, it reminds me just a little of the grand line But then again its also just sort of a logical way for a place devoid of time and space to behave, I just really like one piece I wonder if you could get a hyper modified log pose to work out there...

Speaking of One Piece, I've really got to get back to it. I started the manga during the liveblog, and I'm currently most of the way through the Dressrosa arc.

I've been loving the series, but god damn, is it a serious marathon.

Anonymous asked: You're aware that the author for the locked tomb was a Homestuck fic writer, right?

Absolutely. The Serendipity Gospels is probably the fanfiction I'm most excited to actually read - that, and Sburb Glitch FAQ!

Anonymous asked: That scene when Gamzee tells Karkat to settle down is why they’re my favorite ♦️ ship Because in all the others we’ve seen it’s very onesided, with one party needing to placate the violent impulses of another But for them it’s like Karkat says! He stops gamzee from killing everybody and gamzee in return helps him calm down.

It is very funny to me that Gamzee's actually contributing to the moirallegence - for now, at least.

Slightly hypocritical, Makara, but you do you.

@drakethedeep asked: One of the benefits of the Homestuck quadrant system, arbitrary as it is, is that it allows for more platonic and romantic shipping. For example, Karkat<>Kanaya is a fairly decent morail ship, because a) the relationship of their ancestors makes it poetic cosmic symmetry, and b) both of them have a tendency of trying to be the responsible ones amidst their friend groups, and a lot of their interpersonal struggles are very similar.

Plus, one's a Blood Player, and one's a vampire, so we even have thematic synergy!

@liliflower137 asked: I think a lot about your assignment for Fedorafreak as a hope player It really really makes me smile, and I will hold onto it forever

He even references hope directly! Come on, Hussie, the guy deserves better than Piss.

Anonymous asked: so, your theory about karkat weaponizing teamwork and leadership- what do you think about his and gamzee's relationship in that light?

I suppose you could say that if Karkat is able to gain Sober!Gamzee's loyalty, then the group would gain a powerful ally - and consequently, Karkat's team would gain a powerful 'weapon'.

That said, I don't currently think it's possible for Karkat or anyone else to win Gamzee's loyalty. Right now, he's only loyal to Cal.

@duorogue asked: i just looked up your name in some DMs i have - it's with someone who's read homestuck, and I like to point out specific times you've made remarkably good or bad predictions, or figured something out really well, and just realized that the first time you were mentioned in those DMs was october 20th, 2022. five months off three years of following this, and yknow? time well spent

It was time well spent - for me, too. Here's to another three years, I say!

@liliflower137 asked: I've passed you in my personal reread and I keep getting to interesting conversations and lore dumps and going "oh Sally is going to LOVE this!!"

I hope you're right, and it's good to hear there are many loredumps in my future!

@morganwick asked: "#(also. does this mean mind ≈ choices/decisions? because seers 'know' their aspect and terezi can see people's possible decisions?) #(or does mind ≈ 'outcomes'‚ whatever that means?)" I think if you de-purple prose what Rose says it's not really inconsistent with what Terezi has said about her own aspect in the past, same with what Aradia says. Terezi has talked before, and in the confrontation with Vriska demonstrated, how she can trace the decisions people make and the thoughts they have inevitably lead to certain "outcomes". As for "knowing her aspect comprehensively", Terezi has talked about reality being something that people "4R3 M4K1NG 3V3RY MOM3NT W1TH 3V3RY THOUGHT", so at least to her, understanding people's minds means understanding reality, or at least one Aspect of it, and how to extrapolate from what's in people's Minds. (Also, does the link to "my own interpretation of her powers" go to the wrong place? I don't see anything in the linked post that relates to Rose's powers...)

I suppose Terezi's abilities could indeed be themed around sensing outcomes, rather than decisions, as I previously theorized - or, it could also represent some abstract 'Mind' idea with ties to both. With only one Mind Player to analyze, it's hard to say anything definitively.

Also - yeah, I fucked up that link. Will fix it once I get this comp out!

@relaxxattack asked: AAAAAAAAAA YOU FINALLY FIGURED OUT THE BLOOD THINGG!!!! karkat’s powers are quite literally the friends he made along the way… you can see the blood aspect appear in the panel where karkat befriends slick and adds him to their party! karkat’s powers have always been about whether or not he can forge meaningful connections between people to prevent tragedy… or at least, this has been the popular fan understanding now it might make more sense how the troll session might have “lacked blood” as that other ask theorized :)

They're literally blood brothers - and a handshake is also pretty decent shorthand for what I think Blood's all about.

Mind you, I'm not sure if the troll session did lack this interpretation of Blood. Hivebent seemed to imply that the trolls were, in fact, an extremely effective team, all thanks to Karkat's leadership - and the trolls have forged plenty of meaningful relationships across their group, too. If Blood represents strong relationships, then the trolls have Blood in spades, as well as hearts, clubs, and diamonds.

@baeddel asked: Your interpretation of blood definitely seems correct to me! I think blood and breath are a pair, where blood is leadership and bonds while breath is freedom and individuality

I was thinking that those two might be related, since they're both biological functions. Blood might also be in a dyad with Heart, since they're both aspects of the circulatory system.

After all, Nepeta's a shipper who loves relationships, and that seems adjacent to the 'teamwork/bonds' theming that characterizes Blood.

@manorinthewoods asked: I think Dave and Rose are an 'unbeatable combination' because Rose has a very powerful ability to navigate the present and future to ensure optimal outcomes, and Dave (being a time traveler) has a very powerful ability to actually enact what Rose needs done. Rose, after all, is a squishy wizard - and one wouldn't imagine Seers have any physical *or* magic damage. ~LOSS (22/5/25)

Good interpretation. I suppose Dave is technically one of the more 'durable' God Tiers around, since his time duplicates can't die in the Alpha Timeline until they've fulfilled all their loops.

Anonymous asked: I'm not familiar with Worm, so Contessa wasn't my first thought re: Rose's new power, but I did think of Sagume Kishin from Touhou, whose power is kind of similar to the Contessa example but in reverse: "When she speaks about a particular situation or event, that situation will eventually proceed to reverse itself, through whatever means possible. If she speaks about an attempt to achieve a goal, it will fail in some way. If she speaks about something bad occurring, it will be resolved in some way. [...] Note that it is the situation or the event she talks about that will be reversed in some manner; it is not that the opposite of what she says must occur."

I like this power a lot. Touhou seems to have a lot of really clever powers - which is weird, because I always thought it was a mostly plotless bullet-hell game. I guess there are tie-in materials?

I've really got to play Touhou sometime, but there are so many games, and I have no idea where to start.

@clueless-rarito asked: I remember I once come up with a characters with a power very similar to this "path of victory" stuff by pure coincidence. He was able to see "the realm of fortunes" a ethereal plane where one could discern the chance of success or the possible outcomes of any one actions. By completely shutting down his own mind and giving it to the "the will of fortune" his body would automatically lead him and carry any action needed to guaranteed the most favorable outcome for himself in any given scenario.

Nice. These abilities are sort of the ultimate expression of a 'luck-based' power - a power that guarantees the most optimal outcome possible. Now that Rose has a similar ability, she's finally thematically cohesive with Vriska!

@catofulthar000 asked: There are SO MANY classpect things (and other things) I desperately want to theory swap about with you because you are picking out SO MANY delicious classpecty details (and other things) but not always quite connecting them to classpects- BUT I am: A) not caught up with your live blog on account of being busy with doctorate degree stuff and trying to be responsible by not getting totally sucked into Homestuck stuff again (failing) so I have no idea if FWS (FUTUREwertSearch) actually HAS connected the dots (or some dots) already so I, PUC (PASTultharianCat), would just be saying redundant stuff to you B) not sure if pointing out things that you're pointing out are maybe or maybe not linked to things that might be solidified later even if they're being hinted at throughout- or might just be linked to wider collaborative aggregations of themes and patterns- would be too spoilery... [EXAMPLES THAT MAY OR MAY NOT REQUIRE REDACTION BY CAT (yours) OR BE REDUNDANT TO FWS] Like Time being strongly linked to the concept of Death and all time players having an affinity for it (archaeologist/necromancer Aradia, Dave's oft overlooked hobby of collecting preserved dead things (and less death related but his photography enjoyment could also be seen as him preserving moments in Time)) or [REDACTED] or [REDACTED] And basically that one thing you said about Sburb's Aspects maybe also being linked to authorial elements (or perhaps, I might nudge your thinking, metatextual narrative elements?) and oh my gosh I have SO MUCH I want to posit theorywise to you about that because you point out so much good stuff and just sdfalskjdfhakg;kskjfasdfhlkajsdfrrrraaugh! [END REDACTIONS MAYBE PROBABLY] (I'll say this much, both redactions above are meta interpretations of an aspect, but I'll give you an opportunity to come up with them yourself. -Vamp) Anyway there is just a lot I want to say, and a lot of idea threads you have made I want to tie into other thoughts, or perhaps cables you have laid that I want to plug in to other extension cords, and I have been trying to bite my tongue at least until I catch up but I have still added some replies to old posts of yours that I'm not sure you will ever see- tbh idk how popular you may have gotten or how many asks you get now or if you can even realistically reply to all of the ones that you get but I guess what I'm getting at is that you make me so excited about all of the really complex interwoven stuff in Homestuck and I really want to talk to you about it. Also you're very cool and smart and thank you for sharing this liveblog it is excellent. -PUC

If Time is death-themed, though, then where does that leave Doom? Because Sollux's arc was saturated with themes of death, and I've always assumed that was because of his Aspect.

Anyways, thank you for the kind words! I'm still doing my best to reply to the majority of asks, so if you do want to talk Homestuck, my ask box is always open - and as for your replies, I'll be checking out all the blog's replies at the end of the liveblog.

Anonymous asked: does john have the context to be making that joke on purpose, though? iirc, the only time it's come up for him, vriska opted Not to tell him what it Actually means, instead just saying All cleaning products are Vaguely Taboo. funny either way

There's no definitive answer - but personally, I think that John was at least able to pick up that buckets were an innuendo in troll culture.

When it comes to pranks, our boy's got a killer instinct - so I think his specific reference to the bucket's 'heartfelt payload' was just a very lucky shot.

@sanctferum asked: watch Karkat's mental breakdown again. Particularly the end of it. There might be a special little secret hidden in there to perchance click upon...

The inner mechanisms of Hussie's mind are an enigma.

@dopplesgryndthloggle submitted: Here u go

https://www.tumblr.com/aerofarce9/91930492500/got-bored-so-i-got-on-google-and-made-this?source=share (og post)

@wickedsick submitted: A handy rOWOse for whatever you may need it for

Hell yeah. I knew y'all would come through!

[apompkwrites]

Hello, I'm here to clear the air, not just for myself, but for some of my fellow crew members in the Twisted Wonderland Official Fandub.

To make it very clear, this post is not made to harass and does not encourage any harassment towards anyone involved. This is a defense of the facts behind the scenes that have been misconstrued in their official announcement post on YouTube. So, I will be redacting everyone’s names and profile pictures and will instead refer to people via their role titles within the project, just like they did in their post.

So, just as a preface for those who are either unaware of this project or have some misconceptions about it, this was not an official English dub from Disney. It was a fanmade, unpaid project put together for fans of TWST. For those of you who actively have followed the project, I am here to talk about what happened behind the scenes that led up to its cancellation.

Contrary to what the Production Team would lead you to believe, the project was not derailed due to "anger and envy." Nor was it derailed because some people were "displeased by the news that the project manager would not be handing the project over to them."

Rather, the shut down was due to the fact that some individuals, myself included, were unhappy with the way it was being run/put on an indefinite hold and how the Production Team became defensive upon being asked to give more permissions to the crew to help alleviate any pressure.

That was the main request we assistants and some leads had for the Production Team after around six months of radio silence. In their post, they mention a return following poor health. This was not made clear to anyone within the six months of radio silence, nor was any news in general. In fact, it was only shared within the week of the initial shut down. The admittance of personal issues was not needed, instead people were just hoping for some sort of announcement as the hiatus itself was not even announced. The project managers just stopped updating anyone on the status of the project.

Now, there was no wish to be completely in control of the project and that was said as much. While it was briefly mentioned in one message, the assistants leaned on the proposal of being allowed to have more permissions to do work without having to wait days or even weeks for a response from the project manager.

NOTE - This proposal discussion took place on March 25, 2025:

After an impromptu meeting with management on March 26, Assistant 2 felt it was not good to continue working with them, specifically after only being given an hour to make a decision.

Some of what happened in that meeting was then shared with a few others who worked on the project, namely a handful (specifically four) of Voice Actors and allowed them to make their own judgment on whether or not they wanted to continue working as well.

Following this and another incident that involved management and a VA, I removed my files within the project drive. I did not feel comfortable with letting the team use the work I did in their project and I was entirely within my right to do so, as I had not signed a contract granting the team ownership of them.

Side note, the way Google Drive works, it does not allow anyone to delete files that do not belong to them. Rather, the files are moved back to the original owners Drive and can still be accessed/moved.

In addition, we had seen evidence that Project Manager 1 was not afraid to use a person's hard work without crediting them. As of now, the credits for the latest videos posted on the channel (Kalim’s Birthday Vignettes) have not been posted despite them being written out by me personally and sent to the manager to edit into the description. 

One of the VA's who left alongside us chose to delete their files as they were also not comfortable with their voice being used within the project. Project Manager 1 then contacted them, saying that they would not be allowed to delete it nor would they stop using their voice for the project. They offered instead to use the files without crediting the VA at all.

This proposal was the last straw for the VA, causing them to block the manager and completely withdraw from the project. However, Project Manager 1 then chose to email them personally. This email had an alarming tone as the manager stated the VA was only thinking about themselves and their actions would be disappointing the hundreds of viewers waiting for the next update. Mind you, this was following an unannounced six month hiatus with no word on both socials and in either Discord server, as well as the false promises of getting back to work in December, January, and February of 2024 to 2025.

This particular VA was one of the few that did not have an understudy. If they did, the project could have continued without a hitch if the understudy also kept up with any deadlines. However, because of how much work the managers gave themselves behind the scenes, one of which being casting, they did not find an understudy they found suitable within the year the project had been in production. 

However, even if that was the case, there were little to no plans to use the understudies within the project. Only one of the VAs had been replaced with an understudy, but this was done before the first official video had been posted and instead during the cast introductions.

Because of this entire situation, myself and a handful of others were not comfortable with allowing them to use our work, especially given the passive aggressive way they treated us after sticking around for half a year without a word from them.

So, the files I deleted were files I personally worked on and owned, which the project was never entitled to as that was never agreed. The same goes for any fellow crew member who also chose to delete their files.

Finally, on March 27, Project Manager 1 officially announced the project’s shut down within the cast server.

NOTE - The full shut down announcement was sent on March 27, 2025:

They chose not to inform anyone else as stated in their announcement post on YouTube posted on May 27, claiming that it was to “not make an ordeal of [the situation]” despite comments asking for an update as they had replied to much older comments that the project was going to be re-launched in January, February, and occasionally March. 

A few other notes I would like to make about the cancellation of the project:

1. This project had been canceled for, at the time I started writing this (May 27, 2025), for two months. During this two month period, management made no attempt at announcing the project ending despite numerous comments, which have since been deleted, asking about the progress. The "two weeks away from a re-launch" was not an announced date either.

There were many comments I myself saw on the YouTube channel asking about updates. On the very same day this announcement was posted, one of the VAs personally stepped forward to confirm that the project did get shut down, the reason being "internal conflicts". This comment was deleted within thirty minutes of being posted, replaced with the official announcement post. Before that, there was no mention of the project being canceled.

NOTE - This comment was posted on May 27, 2025:

The two week time frame was requested by a VA I personally spoke to, and I subsequently asked during the last meeting with the project lead.

For reference, this meeting was agreed on amongst the Production Team and the individual team leads. The focus of it was to discuss what had happened in the production team server, the event being the proposal to give the crew more permissions to work on things behind the scenes, and to discuss what would come next.

For the record, this meeting did not have a set time until the day of. It was announced to us that the meeting would take place one hour later. However, almost ten minutes later, it was announced that it would take place right then and there. Because of this, only four out of the six initially planned members of the call were able to join it from the beginning.

Throughout the meeting, questions and proposals were raised to make the project run smoother in the future. During these agreements, the project manager decided that there was no set time for when videos would be released, as they were pivoting away from hard deadlines and instead moving to soft deadlines.

NOTE - This announcement was sent on March 26, 2025 by Project Manager 1:

As of now, I am not sure where they came up with that date of two weeks as we were nowhere near having some sort of re-launch. The only date specified within this same announcement was the end of April while the announcement itself was sent within the last week of March.

To summarize, this is the timeline of events starting from the initial proposal from Production Assistant 1 and ending at this month following the official shut down announcement on YouTube:

March 25, 2025: Assistant 1 proposing being given more permissions as a team to help get things going on project > Planning to schedule meeting with all of production members (including leads). March 26, 2025 (11:51AM PST): Meeting scheduled for 1:30PM PST March 26, 2025 (12:00PM PST): Meeting pushed ahead before other members could be prepared > Caused one assistant to be late and another lead to be unable to join before it ended. March 26, 2025 (7:43PM PST): Post meeting DM from Project Manager 1 > Asking about Assistant 2’s decision to stay in the project and given until that night to decide. March 26, 2025 (8:32PM PST): Second DM from Project Manager 1 > Marked Assistant 2 as stepping down from position despite being given less than an hour to decide. > Note: It was common knowledge that both assistants were close friends, so the meeting was difficult to come to terms with immediately. March 27, 2025 (3:15 PM PST): Official announcement of project shut down in private cast Discord server May 27, 2025: Official announcement of project shut down on YouTube posts and Reddit comment

2. The main reason more permissions were being asked for was because the assistants and leads were extremely aware of the heavy plate the Production Team had given themselves, namely the two Project Managers.

Both managers casted themselves as main characters, one being both Grim and Riddle Rosehearts, and the other being Lilia Vanrouge. On top of that, the manager who voiced Grim and Riddle (Project Manager 1) also casted themselves as minor roles in some of the event stories.

However, following the recording of Book 1, the Project Manager 1 completely stopped recording their lines. This would have been around the end of January to early February of 2024. They told the assistants that they follow their own schedule and do not need to be reminded/given strikes for missed deadlines.

For context, “strikes” were used when a VA missed a deadline for submitting lines. VAs were allotted 5 excused strikes and 10 unexcused strikes. The first type of strike was characterized as having communicated with Project Manager 1 and then given an extension to turn their lines in at a later date. The second type of strike was characterized by a VA missing a deadline without any communication.

Before I left, I counted up all of the submissions the manager had been missing. Before the extended hiatus even began, they were missing 491 scripts as Riddle, Grim, and all of their extra roles. These missing submissions include Book 2 submissions which were supposedly almost ready to be re-launched within two weeks. 

The understudies for both Riddle and Grim, however, were all caught up to Book 6 for recording. With the way the project was being run, these lines would have not been used because the project manager responsible for voicing these characters chose not to use the understudies. Despite there being a massive build up in work behind the scenes, the VAs who worked diligently to keep up with deadlines have been doing all of this work only for it to not be heard while the main VA was allowed to stock up all of these missing submissions behind the scenes.

The other manager also began missing submissions and we were given no extended deadline for him, of which the first project manager is the only one allowed to give extensions.

The following are all of the scripts Project Manager 1 was missing, starting way back in January 2024 all the way to the project’s shut down:

This, alongside the other jobs the managers had given themselves, prompted the assistants to ask for a few more permissions/responsibilities to help lighten their load and help push things forward in the project so as to not keep the cast, crew, and audience waiting for longer than they already have.

The assistants were allowed one more job before the initial proposal, this job being to help with listening to dialogue submissions and cutting out the best takes. This was planned when it was first announced to everyone within the cast and the audition server that Production was planning a re-launch in January 2025.

Three of the assistants were allowed to help cut dialogue for the audio team. However, the training occurred in February of 2025, despite the training initially being planned to occur in December 2024. And the only reason the training happened is because the Audio Lead fought to have the assistants trained in February. This was the only extended permission the assistants were given. And, subsequently, it was the only team, that being Audio with the help of the assistants, actually allowed to work during those months after the initial re-launch announcement.

Mainly, we assistants were hoping to be able to help out with managing the VAs. The only thing we were allowed to do was keep track of all of the dialogue submissions in the Drive and send any reminders of missing dialogue to them. However, any discussion beyond that was forbidden for myself and another one of my assistants. We were not allowed to DM the VAs personally and instead were told to report them to Project Manager 1 for them to DM. None of us assistants did trust this, as this same manager had a bad habit of forgetting to tell us whether or not the VA had replied.

The entire reporting process had to go through Project Manager 1 who had a problem with not reporting things back to us to keep track of, which was our main job as assistants.

All we wanted was to have more permissions to do work as we believed it would help lighten the load of the project managers and allow them to work on what they needed to do, as well as alleviating any restlessness within the cast and crew over the extended hiatus. Essentially, all we wanted to do was make things easier while also allowing everyone's hard work to come to fruition.

We did not expect to be given permissions that involved the channel and all other socials, as it was understood that they were connected to the Gmail account. What we were hoping to help with was the behind the scenes work, such as managing VAs and teams.

The Production Team took this proposal as us "wanting to take over the project." This was the narrative they decided to run with and spread amongst the rest of the project members, all of whom would have been unable to see the discussion that took place for themselves.

This is exactly why I have been MIA for so long. It initially started because I joined the team under Transcription and spent a good few hours a day typing up scripts for the project, which sucked out my time and energy to continue writing. However, as the year passed, it became eventually clear that this project was not being run efficiently, namely due to the months-long hiatus we were going through without any word from the manager.

Myself and others who were affected by the treatment we faced from the Production Team did not come forward with this information. And, obviously, neither did they. This announcement was made once a credited VA broke the silence themselves to provide all of you, the fans, with the information that the project was indeed being shut down.

Again, I want to reiterate that this post was not made to harass anyone on the team or anyone still associated with them. Instead, it was made to clear the air and set the record straight, especially with the initial announcement post specifically citing the assistants as the problem. What could have been prevented by proper communication months ago has instead spiraled into a mess that only continues to be misconstrued.