#and we've been together for a few years so he's familiar with the concept of I'm going to cry for up to an hour after an adrenaline surge

[peachydinosaur]

had an upsetting and disturbing interaction in the Walmart parking lot today that triggered a pretty bad adrenaline surge (i have POTS so they can be very intense and hard to recover from) (long story short someone was driving like an asshole and blocking me/menacing me/yelling at me, i flipped him off, he tried to hit my car with his car) but I'm feeling better and better about it bc... that's an insane reaction to have. 'oh someone flipped me off, a valid reaction to this is to try to hit their car with mine'

also feeling better thinking of the look on his face after he did it. he *had* been laughing, feeling like a big man, but he did that and i just started fucking screaming and pointing and whatever fucking hand gestures, and the pedestriansvwere just looking at him like 'what the actual fuck' and a few of them scurried away, he looked startled and THEN he reversed to give me room to leave. guess he wanted me to start sniveling and apologizing? like 'nooooo I'm sooooo sorry PLEASE don't hit my poor little car with your big manly car 😭' but instead i had the entirely reasonable reaction of anger and screaming at him. i don't think I've yelled that loud in years.

like what in the actual fuck? what kind of reaction is that? 'you're doing what I've indicated that i want you to do and trying to drive away, but you flipped me off. let me just. crank my steering wheel towards you and accelerate towards your vehicle at a speed that's unsafe for parking lots and then slam on the brakes a foot away from hitting you' like his truck moved at least half a car length in no fucking time and if i hadn't ALSO slammed on my brakes he would've hit me. that is NOT in any realm a normal or reasonable thing to choose to do

i was backing out of my fucking parking spot. at the point where you've pulled out of the spot and now you're kind of in the middle of the lane, i had my wheels turned all the way and was going forward to get into my lane. dude zooms up, pulls up on the right so that I can't pull into the lane like normal, and when i give him the 'what are you doing?' hand gesture/look he starts pointing at me to go around him. and that's literally not how parking lots work what the fuck do you mean dude why are you are on the wrong side of the road just let me leave. so, confused, i point and gesture for him to go to the left of me like a normal fucking person. I'm just going 'what the hell am i supposed to do' because i don't WANT to be driving on the wrong side of the road in a busy parking lot, but there's cars behind me too so i can't back up. I'm sitting like that for maybe five seconds. apparently he is very unhappy that i pointed for him to go through the parking lot like a normal person and very unhappy that i didn't immediately and happily drive onto the wrong side of the road in a busy parking lot so he drives closer to me and starts yelling and pointing and getting mad. so i flip him off, i don't know why. i was startled i guess but i have a rule where i don't flip off other drivers if they're gonna see it. just panicked. i don't do that. that's not something i do. so yeah okay, whatever, I'm startled and I'd like to get the fuck out of this situation and the only option at this point is to drive around him. so i start trying to and he pulls that shit. THAT'S FUCKING INSANE!! IN WHAT UNIVERSE IS THAT A THING A PERSON WOULD DO?? WHERE DO YOU LIVE WHERE A NORMAL AND REASONABLE THING TO DO IS MAKE SOMEONE THINK YOU'RE ABOUT TO SLAM YOUR CAR INTO THEIRS???? sir you are unwell

i don't know if anyone's even going to read this but like. have you ever seen someone accelerating towards you and thought you were about to be in a head on collision? that's fucking terrifying. in that moment your brain doesn't go 'there's not enough room for him to accelerate enough to cause me lasting bodily harm' your brain goes 'I'm about to be in a head on collision'

like. should i have flipped him off? no, i don't know why i did, i genuinely do not do that like ever. is there any world where if you sat me down and walked me through the interaction leading up to that where i would guess his next action is to consciously try to cause an accident in the Walmart parking lot? there is no such world, if it hadn't happened to me i don't think i could've ever come up with it

when he backed off and looked a little startled i think it was less that he felt bad for what he did or realized he was in the wrong and more he realized 'there are at least five people standing/walking in this parking lot that just saw me do that. if i do anything else I'm not going to get away with it' and like look at the optics on that. him, 50 year old man in his massive new looking red truck, on the wrong side of the road, to me, young woman in a 25 year old sedan. that's not a good look for him. maybe he was startled that my response was anger and screaming, like, he definitely wasn't expecting that. i don't fucking know. i just know that it's fucking insane to try to cause an accident in the Walmart parking lot

[megoomy]

got a request for my vesperia berseria au designs and i do have character sheets for them so: everyone is free to draw these if they want! credit is nice but, well, these all heavily reference official tales designs so i dont want to take too much credit for them lol. you can also write about the au and take any amount of what we've come up with, i really don't care, it's all for fun.

UNDER THE CUT: a vague summary of the concept. warning for Profound Self Indulgence and Somewhat Half-Assed Worldbuilding (world...changing? world editing? whatever)

okay basically flynn and yuri met as kids in a village that basically serves as the lower quarter of the au, but after spending a few years together daemons attack the village and nearly everyone dies. yuri survives, but in the process he’s become a daemon. flynn also survives, but is deeply traumatized and gets picked up by the exorcists (conveniently too late to save anyone in typical form). neither knows the other survived. to make matters worse, flynns trauma causes some memory loss…he still definitely remembers that time in the village but its very fuzzy now and as he gets older that only gets worse. and like he thinks all those people died so hes not really trying to remember them.

flynn becomes an exorcist (some flavor of legate) and is going around eradicating daemons when he runs into yuri. he doesnt recognize yuri but yuri is pretty sure he recognizes flynn. but yuri isnt about to say that when flynn is trying to kill him LOL. the general arc is that yuri keeps slipping away and flynn keeps seeing more about him in his efforts to hunt him down, realizing that this strikingly handsome strangely familiar daemon is actually...very kind? takes care of children? helps people for no gain? and this calls into question everything that he thought he understood about the world which is quite troubling.

you can think of them as similar to velvet and eleanor. but I think when flynn joins yuri it's by choice, not because yuri's forced him to be a vessel or because flynn's a spy or anything like that. or at least, he's been thrown out by the abbey for one reason or another and joins yuri instead. (we've tossed around quite a few versions of this. we love playing in the space.)

we've bounced around ideas about the rest of the cast but i only have a sheet for estelle, who is a malak controlled by the abbey ala phi. assigned to flynn, ends up with yuri one way or another. i think rita sees that malaks are people and while she wants to coordinate with them to use their strength she doesn't like how they're treated as tools (the way she feels about blastia more or less).

if you're curious about why flynn and yuri have different fates, like, in terms of lore compliance. i think yuri seeing the thing he holds most dear, the community that cared for him, destroyed in an instant, would probably fill him with malevolence no matter what, especially depending on the circumstances. (like, if the abbey was manipulating things to create daemons or therions) yuri's like...a deeply conflicted character full of self loathing, so, being a daemon really suits him. i think that malevolence would only grow as he sees the world and the abbey for what it really is. unlike someone like rose, yuri NEVER feels unconflicted about Doing Murders.

flynn in canon is pretty conflicted himself of course but i see him as similar to eleanor who can sometimes produce malevolence but has a certain purity of heart that keeps them as pretty good vessel material. nowhere near someone like sorey or rose, and definitely wouldn't have had enough resonance pre-artorius' plot to see anything. also i think the brain trauma and being picked up by the abbey leads to him having very clear purpose and a black and white view for some time, so that helps. (look, let me be real with you, half of the impetus for this au was "it would be funny if flynn had like, religious trauma")

design notes not on the sheets: - yuri's daemonblighted skin is cooler to the touch than his regular skin. but he's a guy with cold hands regardless - i've got purple highlights in his eyes but i think of them as glinting purple in the light. like an animal i guess? - yuri's outfit is mostly inspired by his spirit gear in rays, aside from his normal game canon outfit. - estelle is pulling from a lot of different abbey associated characters but mostly her own design...i didn't want to give her something weird like A FUCKING COLLAR especially bc she's not given to A WEIRDO EXORCIST but i wanted some kind of symbol of captivity so i went instead for a golden mask. pulling from the common malak's gold mask/helmets and seres' mask. in canon a lot of estelle's arc is about being sheltered so i feel like covering her eyes feels, appropriate? idk. - i think yuri still gives estelle her nickname but she wouldn't start out as estellise so its more like yuri gives her a name - you may notice she has the flame of purification (does that have a different proper name? blanking on it) which kind of implies that she's connected to innominat. please don't ask me to elaborate on that point because i literally don't know yet. i think if i were to make her a normal elementally aligned malak she'd be water like her spirit gear in rays, but it feels like she should be Special just like how she's a child of the full moon in canon. we just, haven't really figured out, does the berseria cast still exist, are we replacing them, what would that look like, etc. sorry that stuff should be more important to the concept but we are simply playing with the dolls. teehee

[guilty-pleasures21]

Maybe this will just be my trash one.

1. Um ... yeah ...

Part 1 - the beginning

Part 2 - the car

Part 3 - the detectives

Part 4 - the contract

Part 5 - the clothes

Warnings: none.

----------------------------------------------------------

He took in a deep breath, then pulled the trigger. He set his gun down once the smoke had dissipated and found that he'd hit every target he'd been aiming for. Miles allowed himself a little smile, but the satisfaction still wasn't enough to ease the disappointment at the lack of progress they'd made on their case. He sighed and removed his ear mufflers before unloading his gun.

     “Good to see you could still hold your own on the field,” a familiar voice teased him from behind. Miles startled at the sudden interruption, almost dropping his gun. Then he turned around to find his partner - Gwen Stacy - flashing him a smirk. Damn, how was she so pretty? Even after she'd had to shave half of her hair off thanks to a little accident on the last mission they'd been on. 

     “Oh! Hey, Gwen!” Miles exclaimed a little too loudly. He gave an awkward chuckle, then began heading towards the exit, keeping pace with Gwen as she followed beside him. It had been a year - a whole year - that they'd been working together and he still hadn't found the courage to ask her out yet! Ugh! He was such a loser - which was probably why she'd never go out with him anyway. “What's up?” 

     Gwen didn't respond immediately, allowing for a dramatic pause in which she could shoot him an excited grin, the look on her face causing Miles's stomach to flip over. Then she stopped him. “We've got a new lead.” 

     Miles froze, unsure if he'd heard right. A new lead? After months and months of chasing down the same old tired possibilities?! “What?” 

     Gwen's lips stretched wider at the incredulous look on his face - a new lead! They hadn't had a new lead in months! And it wasn't just some anonymous caller giving a tip they'd never be able to follow, it was a genuine, authentic, reliable lead! “Suit up, rookie: we're going to Italy.” 

     X got out of the car, pausing for a moment to assess her new living situation. The house was almost as big as Francesco's, but nothing like his cheery, generationally-preserved yellow brick exterior. Instead, Miguel had opted for something more open - the front of the house was all thick, grey concrete, but the sides and back were covered in floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing for an unobstructed view of the colourful gardens and swimming pool. X decided that she liked Miguel's tastes a lot more than Francesco's. She turned to him as he came around to her side and just managed to make out a few words of the conversation he was having on his phone in Spanish. Something about not worrying and how is work and yes, everything is fine, I promise I'm okay. Miguel placed a hand on her lower back and guided her towards his house, waving around and gesturing for her to explore once they'd stepped in. Then he disappeared into a hallway in one corner of the house, leaving her on her own.

     Partners, business partners: in one day, she'd gone from helping a stranger find evidence of her husband's criminal activities, to having sex with him, and then agreeing to enter a partnership with him. Maybe she was the insane one. X crept around the house, admiring the open-plan concept that allowed for a wide and airy space. The house was only one floor, but in addition to the swimming pool, there was also a gym. And a garage with three different cars, all sleek and shiny and very, very expensive. X headed back into the house, tiptoeing over to the same hallway Miguel had disappeared into, and found herself face to face with three different doors. One of them was closed, so she assumed it was Miguel's study. The one beside that, however, right at the end of the hallway, allowed for enough of a glimpse to tell that it was his bedroom. X peeked around the doorway and was surprised to find that the room was even bigger than the one she'd shared with Francesco back at �� back his place. And it was all chrome and dark tones, exactly what she'd have expected of a rich and handsome bachelor's bedroom. She turned to the door opposite the study and pushed it wider so she could take a look inside. 

     This one had to be her room - it was the only one left, after all, a neatly made bed and empty desk the only things furnishing the room besides the polished wood closet. She set her bag down on the bed, then went over to the closet to see if she could find a locked drawer to store her passport in. Or maybe she should just give it to Miguel - he probably had a high-tech safe somewhere he could store it for her. But what if he wasn't around? Or what if she decided she wanted to run away? Maybe it was best to just keep it with her. She opened the cupboard doors and was confused to find a few pieces of clothing in there already. She pulled open a drawer and was met with underwear too, all of them still having the tags on and all of them in exactly her size. She picked one up, wondering how he'd known what size she was, then she remembered the lingerie he'd kept with him after taking it off of her. Her body heated up at the memory and she grabbed a t-shirt and some shorts before scurrying off to the bathroom to get changed. 

     It had been three days - three days - and despite his network of high-powered contacts, Francesco still hadn't been able to track down the scoundrel who'd disappeared with his wife. Where were his bank accounts? What was El Araña going to do with them? And what other information had his scheming wife been hiding from him? How humiliating it had been, having to watch her take pleasure in another man, having been made to stand there and be shown all the ways he wasn't able to look after his own wife. It had been a huge blow to his pride, an emasculating experience - which was probably why O'Hara had done it. And it had only been made worse by the revelation of how much his wife really knew about his illegal activities. How innocent she'd seemed when they'd first met; her almond-shaped eyes, her fluttering eyelashes, her hesitant smile. How badly she'd played him, wrapping him around her finger so that he'd done whatever she'd wanted. How could he have been such a fool?!

     “Can't you f*cking track her phone?!” Francesco suggested to Miles - as if that wasn't one of the first things they'd done. “Or her passport? Or her bank account?!”

     Miles glanced over his scarce notes once again. Mr Lombardi had been extremely uncooperative during their questioning, only granting them the barest pieces of information that always left Miles wondering what he was trying to hide. He hated lawyers. 

     “We can't track her phone, so we assume O'Hara got rid of it,” Miles recited, trying not to sound too exasperated with the slightly older man. “There have been no records of her passport being used at any airports in the country. We are, however, following up on private air strips. As for her bank account, all the money in it has already been transferred to her sister's account. We're keeping an eye on her family in case she makes any attempt to contact them, but aside from that, nothing.” 

      They'd gone to Francesco's house almost immediately after landing, the two of them gaping in astonishment at the sheer size of the mansion. It was an ostentatious display of wealth, but it was still an imposing sight, the lone building standing out in the sea of nothingness surrounding it. 

     ‘You think El Araña has one too? In Italy?’ Miles had asked Gwen as they'd walked up to the large double doors. They knew the addresses of some of his homes, but the man seemed to own an estate in every damn country! It was one of the things that made him so difficult to track. And anyway, it wasn't like he kept any evidence of his criminal activities at any of his homes - they'd already tried a few stakeouts before being told off for wasting resources when nothing had come of it. 

     ‘Probably,’ Gwen had replied after knocking on the door. ‘But remember: we can't engage if he's got the Italian mafia on his side - they don't fall under our jurisdiction.’ She'd already reminded him of the fact a hundred times on the flight over, a little too familiar with the black and white principles that had a tendency to land her partner in trouble most times. Of course she admired his dedication to pursuing justice for all, but … he wouldn't be able to help anyone at all if he kept getting himself taken off cases for ‘reckless behaviour’. And that was how they'd ended up in Francesco's living room, pulling answer out of him more painstakingly than a dentist extracting a rotten tooth. Ugh. Lawyers.

     “Mr Lombardi,” Gwen began, stepping in front of Miles and intervening in the conversation - she didn't want him to lose his temper and cause Francesco to shut down entirely. Because then how would they catch their criminal? “In cases like these, we'd normally expect to hear about a ransom from the kidnapper, but … Mr O'Hara doesn't have a history of kidnapping. And, frankly speaking, we all know he doesn't need the money. Is there any other reason you can think of that he would want your wife?”

     She also felt like Francesco had something he was trying to hide - something he was keeping from them for fear that he could be held accountable for it. He was a lawyer, after all; he knew what he could be tried for even better than they did.

     Gwen and Miles exchange startled glances, surprised by the vulgar way in which the man had spoken of his wife. Then Miles stepped forward again, wanting to question Francesco some more. But Gwen stopped him immediately, silently arguing that they weren't going to get any more out of him that what he'd already give to them. 

     “She doesn't know anything!” Francesco insisted, his ears turning red as he exploded into another outburst. “He probably just took her so he could f*ck her!”

He still couldn't get the image out of his head: his pretty little wife, all spread out for another man. And the sounds she'd made! The desperate moans and whimpers that had spilled from her quivering lips as she'd let herself be violated by that … that villain! She'd never begged for him like that before.

     “Thank you for your cooperation, Mr Lombardi,” Gwen told him politely. “We'll keep you updated and let you know if we make any progress.” 

     She paused to look him straight in the eyes, insisting on meeting his gaze until he started to shit uncomfortably in position. Then she added, “we trust you'll do the same.” 

     Francesco pulled his gaze away from hers and waved his hands in the air, pushing them back out the door.

     “Yes! Of course!” he agreed. “Anything to get my … my wife back.” And his bank statements too, of course. But they didn't need to know about that. Francesco shut the door behind them, leaving them alone and with another hour's journey back into town. 

     “Suspicious?” Miles asked, heading back towards the car. Gwen shrugged. 

     “Not our problem,” she warned him firmly. Francesco Lombardi wasn't just another cunning lawyer - he'd also defended many of the prominent Italian organised crime families against charges of tax evasion. She had no doubt that he also had a hand in their numerous money laundering activities, but they weren't here to try to take down the Italian mafia in one week: they were here for Miguel O'Hara. And this time, she'd make sure he couldn't escape. “We just have to focus on catching our spider.” 

Tags: @heubstr

[existentialflirt]

Some Good Omens Head Canons (because it's more meta and shippy shit. s/o to @v0litioncheck as usual cos when it comes to the shippier things, I don't know who struck the iron first.

— 6000 years of pining is cute and all and I guess Neil canonized it (as much as he ever will canonize anything) in season two, but idek idek idek, I think it's much more meaningful if they've been together. It even works in the first season and to a lesser degree, book (the question will always be if it was intended to imply a deeper intimacy between them and while I say yes, absolutely, idek, I think I'm a little biased). I'd even argue that it's some of the most normalized queer representation I've seen in recent memory. Because you know, we've seen stories with straight couples where it's just a given they're together and they're intimate in small ways aside from kissing. Touches, looks, the way they talk to each other, tones, pet names, inside jokes, familiarity, which you know, I think are much more organic building blocks to portraying a relationship than y'know kissing and sex scenes (not that I wouldn't have welcomed more explicit intimacy, but the point is that the quieter gestures paint a satisfying tapestry of two characters that are very much in love and have been together for a very long time. Perhaps this internal interpretation of their closeness is why season 2 didn't sit right with me in the end because I feel like it's trying to have it's cake (shippy, romantic fan service that could easily fall in line with the assumption that they're basically married) and eat it too (imply they're actually mutually pining for each other but incapable of communicating that desire which...idek man, that's a pretty hard pill to swallow with how goddamned old they are).

— Demons and angels have a distinctly nonlinear understanding of time and history. I think it's part of the joke of their anachronism in any given time period, but I also think it's serious meta due to an aside in the book about the gift of prophesy and how it interacts with humans. I think it was basically like they were tapping into something but it got scrambled up in their brains most the time. Honestly I think it's the same way for Crowley and Aziraphale, but they're more capable of dealing with it, but maybe not considering Aziraphale's distractable and slightly dotty and Crowley's not that much better. They're both very, very smart, with the wisdom of age on their side but also I mean, they're processing so much information at any given time.

— The reason Aziraphale hasn't fallen despite being in love with a demon, his own hedonistic tendencies, and lying to his boss(es) is because The Fall was a one time thing and part of the Great Plan. After all, you can't have good and evil without the language to express the concepts. God is omniscient but Her ineffability comes in Her silences over certain matters. Let them believe the war was about rebellion and not some cruel twist in testing and toying with her creations. (I also think it's why Az's punishment for conspiring against heaven was death instead of being cast out, although that could lend entirely to Gabriel's temperament than God's will.) Personally, I think God checked out some time after the whole Jesus situation, and is more comparable to an absent, low effort CEO that's taking meetings on Skype or Zoom every few month from their villa in Tahiti.

— So, the point of this impending ramble about supernatural creatures in a body capable of experiencing sensuality, is that I do believe Crowley and Aziraphale are horny for each other. They lust after each other. They fuuuuuuck. Is this natural for either of them? Not really, but I think there are layers to the idea that they've "gone native". It's not just that they drive fast, wear clothing, dress aesthetically, learn slang, learn technology, and eat food/get drunk. They convey emotions, they enjoy frivolities to their kind like sleeping and reading for pleasure. The feeling you get from their kin is that they're driven by purpose rather than any real personal motivation. I do think it took them time (kinda, sorta) to recognize their desires and understand their feelings. They were relatively new beings poured into material forms with hormones and feelings, which I think was probably a lot. Like, yeah if they were incorporeal beings, intimacy would look a lot different, but they're not. They got bodies. (Also I'm a sucker for articulating soulmates with eroticism, so sue me.)

— Honestly, one of my favourite GO thing is the implication that the dichotomy of Good and Evil are less moral compasses and more like rivaling corporations. There are so many interesting components to that idea that just fuels half of my head canons. I like the urban fantasy aspect of it to, but I'm just...I'm just a sucker for the visual language and the anachronistic bits of them talking about licensing, paperwork, invoices, lying in progress reports in the context of miracles and divine/infernal influence on humanity. God, that's so good.

...............................................................as a tangent, that's another thing that frustrates me about season two. Have I mentioned this? Probably, but whatever, we're going to whine about it again anyway. Because I reeeeeaaaaaalllllllly get why they changed the ending of s1 to make it more dynamic. Fine. Great. The book ending I think is more cohesive to the overall story, but I totally get how it would play as anticlimactic in the visual medium. The issue is that s1 ends with this massive, glorious hoodwink, which...is never really addressed like? Did anyone in Heaven or Hell figure out their little trick? If not why don't they treat Aziraphale and Crowley as more dangerous? The grand irony of s2 is that it gels better with the end of the book, which was so much more lowkey. *sighs* Maybe it'll come back up in s3, but honestly, it eats at me. (Generally, my head canon fix is that it got lost in the shuffle of bureaucracy and the chaos of trying to shore things back up in the wake of the apocalypse-that-wasn't.)

[jezabatlovesbats]

Honeycomb Orientation Video

If videos existed in the Minecraft world, Honeycomb would probably have some kind of video explaining what it is. (And because I have no original ideas, and also for the meme of it, I copy-pasted the Krusty Krab Training Video.) 

——

Welcome to the hive. If you're watching this video, then let me be the first to say...

CONGRATULATIONS!!

You've recently chosen to enroll into the Honeycomb Phrontistery of Skills for Survival, and you're about to start your time as a learner! 

"So... what exactly am I gonna do here?" 

We've heard that question quite a lot now, and don't worry- we know just how you feel. We ourselves are still adjusting to the concept of a place to learn. But, since its opening, Honeycomb has been a considerable option for those who want to get to know the world around them. But it didn't get that way overnight- because the campus closes at sundown. Now, the story of the Honeycomb Phrontistery is the story of two friends' hard work, perseverance, vision, determination, and sweat- but mostly, their sweat. 

FROM HUMBLE BEE-GINNINGS 🐝

You may think that Radar, co-founder of Honeycomb, has always been the daring adventurer he is today... and you're right! It was in him all along. 

"AAAGH! Eat THIS!"

After the defeat of the Admin, Radar revisited the Amelioration Training Facility, where he first learned to sort out supplies. There, he caught up with his old friend, Pamela, a scholar and well-known bee person. Inspired by the thrill of adventure, they had the idea to create a place where people could learn how to live together in their great big world. Neither of them know how they came up with the word "school." But, they do know how they transformed an abandoned mansion into a beautiful group of buildings! With a few minor altercations, and many, many honeycomb blocks... the Honeycomb Phrontistery was spawned! 

There seemed to be quite a lot of-

(buzzing noises)

T-There seemed to be quite a lot-

(more buzzing)

There seemed to be quite-

(buzz buzz buzz... buzz)

There seemed to be quite a lot of buzz about this new idea, but  it didn't stop there. 

HONEYCOMB TODAY 🐝

To address the attendees' wide variety of interests, Pamela and her colleagues have invented the class, and now they have one for every field they could think of. 

"A class is a little something where you study a particular topic with other interested people in a place called a classroom. We call those topics 'subjects.' This here is our redstone building, courtesy of Howard. Over there's the combat fields for battling. Here's a thing called a gym, created by Michael, where you can play spleef and The Walls. Here, we have Beck's contribution, the brewing labs. And over here, we've got Radar's personal favorite creation- our center for the performing arts! Things have been going well here since one friend of mine invented the note block major. I came up with the word 'headmistress-' which is what they call me! Come and see me anytime if you've got a question." 

All of this new terminology is extremely overwhelming, isn't it? Well, luckily, Pamela believes in taking things little by little, one at a time. On your first few days, we'll help you familiarize yourself with the terms we coined. But if coming up with new words is the heart of Honeycomb, then curious people who come here to learn- we call them "students-" are the liver and gall bladder.

Hmm... you're staring rather interestedly through a window on the construction hall. That definitely seems like a class for you!

"Yeah. I do like to build! How do I get in, though?"

That's what you're about to find out.

ORIENTATION 🐝

"Is this the part where I find out what I'll do here?" 

Yes it is! First thing's first- to keep track of your time here, it's best that you know...

YOUR YEAR

"My... year?"

Your year. If you know your year, you'll better understand your place at Honeycomb. But what is your year? 

(shrug)

Your year will refer to how long you've been attending our school. When you come here for the first time, you'll be called a first-year, which simply means that it's your first year. Our years last for 80 days, and you can come here for up to four years.

"Oh! Years!"

This student has been attending Honeycomb for two years, meaning he is a second-year. And that student? She's been coming for three years, so she's a third-year. Those two have spent four years studying here, so they're both fourth-years. Now, don't feel pressured to go for four years. You can learn here for as long as you want to, no matter how long it'll be for. 

Now that you understand the concept of our years, you can think about how long you'll be coming to the Honeycomb Phrontistery. 

"But how do I pick my class?" 

Great question! 

OUR CLASSES

Every student who chooses to come to Honeycomb can pick up to five classes to take. Be it one or be it four, you can let Pamela, or any one of her associates, know what your choices are. You can find a thorough list of all the classes we offer in the front of the central beehive building. Didn't you say you were interested in construction? 

"Yeah. Crafting II and Writing seem fun, too."

If that's what you think matches your skill level, then go for it! Write Pamela a letter listing your choices, just as you did when you told her you wanted to go! 

(sketch sketch)

You can send it to her by putting it in her mail chest or her personal hopper. However, our queen bee isn't always notified when she gets mail, so the best way for her to see it is by sending it through the hopper. 

(whoosh)

That was fast! Haha! I'm sure that by now, Pamela's colleagues know that you'll be learning in their classrooms. They'll be looking forward to meeting you!

"Now that that's taken care of, what's gonna happen to me when they do?"

Let's see...

YOUR CLASSROOM STATION

It's important to leave some space in your inventory for items to be used during your sessions. Why? When you arrive to the room you'll be doing what you love in, you'll more often than not be provided with supplies... such as the ones you may use for crafting workshops.

(tink tink)

Very nice! Not an iron ingot out of place! You'll be coming to your classroom on multiple days, minus three or four break days, with many other people who wish to learn about the subject being taught to you. You'll find yourselves having to help each other with the projects you make every once in a while. So, try to be helpful and genial whenever you need to be. We thought up the word "classmate" for a reason. 

It's also recommended to kindly treat the people helping you learn. You can call them your "teachers," and while the idea of being taught by another person might take some getting used to, they've come to impart their knowledge of your passions to you. So, let's see if you're ready for...

INTERFACING WITH YOUR INSTRUCTORS

"Miriam, could I borrow some wooden planks?"

"Of course."

Excellent! And now, we'll move into the in-between and after hours, where we'll show you how else you can interact with your peers- or, as we affectionately say, your fellow bees! If you're going to take more than three classes, you can grab a bite to eat at our cafe. 

"W-Who said that?!"

Here, we provide locally grown carrots and potatoes, freshly made bread, and some sweet cookies to share with a friend, if you'd like. 

"HEY! THE CEILING IS TALKING TO US!"

"Deep inside, Brick is a bit intimidated by the idea that somebody could be narrating his narrations." 

Plus, one of our instructors invented the "school club." That's an organization where you and other students might bond together over a particular activity. We've got clubs for Mob Appreciation, Gardening, and Dungeon Roleplaying.

"You shall be banished TO THE NETHER!" 

Ah-ah-ah, friend. That portal frame isn't meant to be lit. Roleplaying is all pretend! 

"Oh, right." 

When an experienced archer came to teach at Honeycomb, she brought her idea of a "sporting team" with her. If you enjoy shooting arrows or swimming in a pond, you might find some thrills signing up for one. 

(pew, pew, pew) 

(pew, pew) 

(pew, pew, pew, pew)

We'll check in with this fellow later. Right now, it's imperative that we discuss an...

EMERGENCY SITUATION

Just like on a potato farm, many friendly students grow at the Honeycomb Phrontistery. But as with every sack of ripe potatoes, there's bound to be a poisonous one. So we advise to keep an eye out if something out of the ordinary- what's this? 

Someone's put down a TNT block near the survival skills building! What are you going to do? 

"AAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Enough with this 'skayool!' No one chose to go here!"

(dig dig dig)

"Um... yes we did. We ALL did. No one's making us go. We're not required or anything." 

"Who said that?"

"Pamela did. Many times."

"AAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAH!"

And so, another emergency is avoided! Let's check in on our pal from the Archery Team again.

(pew, pew, pew)

Hey! If you're having trouble with doing something here, you can always ask someone for help!

"Do you do that often at this place?"

Indeed you do. 

"Um... okay. Hey, Artie! Where should I be when firing this arrow?" 

"There's actually a little marker that you stand on. See the orange carpet?"

"I didn't see it. My bad! Should I be going before you go?"

"We actually should be doing this, like, at the same time. That's how things work for the team."

(long inhale) "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH..."

We're all trying to get the hang of it, but we're certain that we will.

Now that we've covered all the basics of your orientation, it’s time for the moment we’ve been waiting for! 

🎶 Dum... dum da dum da dum da da... dum da dum da dum da dum da dum da da... dum da dum da dum da da... da da da la da da da da da da da da da da daa... da da da da da da da daaa- tsssh!- da da da da da da da da da da da da!... dee da dee dee da dee dee da da da la ba ba ba ba ba da la ba ba ba ba da la ba ba ba!... dee da dee lee da dee dee da!... dee da dee lee... (panting) dee da dee lee da dee lee da dee lee da dee lee da dee lee dee dee da dee dee da dee dee daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!...

Honeycomb's events!

After setting the foundation for their big idea and expanding on it with help from their friends, Pamela and Radar came up with their greatest invention yet- exciting school events! Thanks to them, we have our Bees' Ball, and some exciting archery matches, to look forward to! And the best part is coming right now! For you, the willful student, the all too curious seeker of truth, will be told the juicy secrets of how we put together with our very own minds...  

(gasp)

...the exhilarating, seat-shaking, spine tingling, heart-stopping thrill ride that is our upcoming face-off against what is now known as Amelioration Academy! Are you ready?

(excited nodding)

Are you sure?

(super fast excited nodding)

Okay! Well, first of all, we told Stella's old employees that WE'RE COMING FOR THEIR-

——

At that point, the supposedly "super-advanced" redstone camera would break down.

[iviarellereads]

Harrow the Ninth, Chapter 30

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Fourth House icon) In which we find out just what people get up to when stuck together for ten thousand years.

August's plan appears to be "to get everyone profoundly drunk".(1) It's two hours later, and so far that part has succeeded.

A pyre of candles cast their radiance across the snowy white linen and the silver cutlery that the Saint of Patience had so carefully set, and on the crumb-strewn plate that had once contained rolls of some description, but they had been eaten--or put somewhere--you did not know, and you didn't care.(2)

Ianthe, August, Mercy, and God have gathered at one end of the table, in various states of dishevelment. The Saint of Duty has drunk as much as August, but has not so much as a button out of place.

August proposes yet another toast, "To absent friends," and Harrow sips despite hating the concept of a toast and also not having any absent friends.(3) Mercy adds one to the cavaliers, and August waxes nostalgic about Cristabel leading Alfred astray. When Mercy stops responding, he fills the silence with a toast to Pyrrha. The Saint of Duty's facial expression is impossible to read but he warns Augustine away from this line of conversation.

Ianthe proposes that they toast to their enemies instead, so August brings up the Blood of Eden, and how they should toast to the best of them, lost for certain, the commander who led them a merry chase.

Ortus's knuckles clench slightly, and God takes Harrow's focus for confusion, and starts explaining: about twenty five years ago, the BoE found out about the Resurrection Beasts, and actually managed to take down a Herald and use its constituent pieces as armour and weaponry against necromancers and Lyctors, since Heralds are so dangerous to necromancers. August is practically impressed at what they managed, and says they nearly lost Ortus to "her" a few times, so shouldn't they toast to Commander Wake? Ortus says no, and excuses himself from the dinner entirely.

In the awkwardness after, God asks Harrow if she's drunk too much. She says no even as Ianthe says yes, obviously. Harrow resents Ianthe telling on her, but Ianthe says they're sisters now, so she will reveal everything Harrow does, contradict her at every turn, and hold her hair back in the morning.(4)

You did not want Ianthe to reveal everything you ever did, nor did you want her to contradict you at every turn, and you especially did not want her to hold back your hair in the morning. But God said cheerfully, "Here's to sisters," and the other Lyctors reached for any glass that contained anything, and you had to take yours--Ianthe pressed it into your hand-- and you drank.(5) Augustine said, "To sisters, and the women we've left behind." God's mouth was cheerful as ever, but his eyes were not when he said, "Do I have to drink to that?"(6) For the first time, you were witness to the Saint of Patience discombobulated. "Apologies, John. Wasn't meant as a jab." "It doesn't hurt anymore--most of the time," said God, and he was still smiling.(7)

August then proposes a toast to Emperor John Gaius, which Harrow drinks to, willingly. Teacher says he's not quite narcissistic enough to drink to himself, though. Mercy says she wishes Cytherea were there, and they start reliving old conversations. Part of Harrow converts to atheism, because she never expected, in her devotion, that any part of Lyctorhood would be spent drunk, with Ianthe's hands caressing the nape of her neck, in the presence of an equally drunken God.

Harrow whispers to Ianthe asking if they can leave yet, but Ianthe says the time hasn't come yet.

August and Mercy have it out about their cavaliers one more time, and August looks her right in the eyes and says he doesn't hate Cristabel, and he barely hates Mercy. They kiss, with "drunken familiarity" and no shame whatever. God tries to say something, but August, with no hesitation and no apparent consequence, turns from Mercy to kiss John. Mercy joins the festivities as Harrow feels an apocalypse looming at the heresy, the blasphemy, the shocking abandon of it.

Ianthe drags Harrow from the room, as absolutely none of the room's other occupants pay her any attention at all.

You had never seen three people get their hands on one another before--you had never seen two people get their hands on each other before. Ianthe closed the door just as Augustine's fingers reached the buttons of the Emperor's shirt, and you had never been so grateful to her in your entire life.

=====

(1) A pretty solid plan to distract someone, honestly. Maybe even a god. (2) I draw attention to this for two reasons. One, it's a very interesting way of describing a table that was set and is now denuded of its offerings. Two, look at the contraction use here at the end. "you did not know, and you didn't care." I feel like this actually says a great deal about the narrator and their precise use of language because it's in both my original-release ebook and my revised paperback, not likely to be a typo. (3) Are we all so sure of that? (4) It's almost sweet if you forget that she's Ianthe Tridentarius. (5) Unfortunately Harrow has the very least experience with the concept of siblings of probably anyone in the universe considering her entire generation was herself and Gideon. Still, to sisters, I guess. lol (6) So, Jod left a woman behind somewhere along the way. Annabel Lee? (7) Something so creepy about someone who won't stop smiling, isn't there?

[mcwriting]

Lost in Rome

hello, friends! Ever since "La Vita Dolce," I've wanted to write something else involving Italy and at least one Italian phrase, and so this lil story was born! Hope you all enjoy!

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader

Word Count: 1488

Warnings: mentions of drinking, vv slight language

★

You had been walking around Rome for what felt like an eternity.

(It had only been like 30 minutes)

You knew the bar was right near Piazza Navona, but you'd only been to that part of the city one other time, having been staying south on the other side of the river in Trastevere.

You felt embarrassed knowing you were dragging your friends around the city without much of a guide, but you were too stubborn to admit that you were actually lost.

"Maybe we should've gone to Bar San Calisto again. It was cheap and close but noooo. I just had to look up a 'best bars in Rome' list" you thought as you continued to trudge on.

Not only were you lost, but you also didn't have the ability to look up where you were going, since you'd decided to go cheap and not buy an international plan or a vpn, choosing to only using wifi so you'd "stay in the moment."

That moment seemed stupid now that every marble wall and cobblestone street started to meld together in your brain as it continued to darken.

A trip to Rome was something you'd been wanting to do for years, so when your university offered up the chance to go study abroad for 4 weeks, you immediately began scrounging up the funds to go, even scoring a scholarship based on the fact that you'd taken Italian classes in school.

You'd only been there a week but thankfully had bonded with your roommate before even going, having struck up a conversation at the informational meeting the semester before. Since then, you had also bonded with those in the room next door, them sticking to you as their translator.

Finally, you couldn't take it anymore, stopping.

"Okay, look, guys. I'm really sorry but I literally have no idea where we are," you admitted, feeling guilty. Everyone else smiled.

"That's okay! This place is beautiful! I'm sure we'll find it eventually," your roommate, Olivia, said.

"Yeah. Didn't you say it was at Piazza Navona?" Aaron, one of your neighbors, asked. You nodded. "Well as long as we can find that, then we're basically there!"

After some wandering, your group found itself in the square in front of the Pantheon, which was a step in the right direction, but you were determined to actually find the right place.

There was a hotel right there, so you quickly stepped in to ask the desk worker to point you towards the Piazza, who explained that it was only a couple streets East of where you were.

Relieved, you and your friends quickly walked that way, breathing out a collective sigh when you walked into the giant open square, looking around at the familiar structures from the second day of class when you'd toured the area.

"Sooo... where's this bar?" Aaron's roommate Joseph asked.

You all circled the square from the inside and out a couple times, not seeing any signs with the name "Bar del Fico Roma" anywhere.

Dread started to wash over you as you realized the website must not have meant the bar was actually on the square, but was somewhere nearby. You felt stupid for not screenshotting the website page or, you know, actually looking it up first.

"Fine, that's it! I'm marching up to the next person I see and asking where this darn place is. We've made it this far!" you said, exasperated.

The first thing that caught your eye was a group of people who looked close to your age, talking in a small group. They were pretty well dressed, typical of a young Italian, so you immediately started over towards them, expecting them to be the most helpful in giving directions.

"Wait, y/n!" Olivia protested, but you ignored her, walking between a shorter boy and taller girl.

You couldn't help but sigh out the words as you started speaking, placing a light hand on the boy's arm.

“Scusa, potresti dirme dov’è la-" "Excuse me, could you tell me where the-"

"Sorry! I don't speak Italian!" the boy answered in a British accent, turning to face you with hands in surrender.

You both seemed taken aback when your eyes met.

Tom Holland?

"Um, oh what was the word for sorry in Italian again?" the actor in front of you asked, looking to one of his many Spider-man costars around you. Before one could answer, you blurted out one for him.

"It's 'mi dispiace' or 'perdonami,' depending on how you want to say it," you started, realizing how stupid you probably sounded to be teaching a world famous actor Italian words after accidentally infiltrating his conversation.

However, Tom was more shocked by your American accent. Your eyes still widened as you realized what was actually going on.

"Oh my gosh, what am I saying, um. I- I'm so sorry. We're just trying to find this bar and got lost and-"

"Which bar?" he asked in return. You furrowed your brows and looked at him funny, wondering why he would care. He seemed to take notice. "It's just that, we're also headed to a bar and can't seem to find it, either."

You chuckled at the situation, baffled.

"Well, um, it's called 'Bar del Fico Roma.'"

Tom's eyes widened.

"Hey, that's where we're headed!" Jacob Batalon cut in, making you look at him and the rest of the actors in surprise. You could see your own friends shock from your peripheral.

"No way! Really?" Joseph said for you. The group nodded.

"I just got it pulled up on maps," Zendaya said, holding up her phone. Realization suddenly hit that she of all people was the one who you had been standing next to this whole time.

You and your friends all gasped incredulously, amazed at your luck after spending all that time lost.

"If you want, we can show you the way," Tom offered.

"What? No, no we couldn't impose like that," you began, knowing your friends were probably internally screaming at you.

"Oh come on," Tom responded. "We're all going to the same place anyways, not like we won't see you there. It's barely a five minute's walk."

"Seriously, y/n. Do you really want to go around asking more locals for help when we've got it right here?" Olivia asked, raising a good point.

"Alright, fine," you started, rolling your eyes. You turned back to Tom. "You know what they say, 'when in Rome.' Seriously, thank you. All of you. You're definitely saving our asses."

He chuckled as Zendaya began leading the way. Though the sun had set, lights throughout the roads and emanating from various shops lit the way.

Without meaning to, you fell into step with Tom, easily matching his gait as you crossed through the bustling piazza.

"So what brings you to Italy?" He asked. "You don't quite sound like a local."

"We're studying abroad through our university. Unfortunately for me, these goons keep following me 'cause I speak the language," you joked, causing Olivia to slap the back of her hand to your shoulder.

"Ah, I see. I was definitely confused when you went from Italian to American in an instant. Y/n, was it?"

"Yes! Yeah, that's me. And you're obviously Tom Holland."

"You better remember that later, he tends to forget his own name after a few drinks," Zendaya called back to you, causing the group to laugh.

"Hey! That was one time!" Tom defended himself. "Not my fault I was going through a breakup!"

He turned back to you.

"Don't listen to them. I'm quite fun to drink with. You should see for yourself."

"Is that some sort of offer..?" you questioned playfully, tucking your hair behind your ear.

"If everyone's alright with it, I figured you all would join us at the lounge. I'm more than happy to pay for a round or two," he winked.

The group was approaching the bar, and any anxiety you'd had about finding it finally quelled when you could see people outside laughing and drinking as they enjoyed the summer night.

"Hmm... I don't know..." you sing-songed, looking up at the sky.

"Dude are you crazy?" Aaron exclaimed, causing the others to argue in agreement with him.

"Okay, okay. Of course we would be happy to join you for a drink. Thank you."

Both groups cheered in approval.

"The only thing I ask in return is a little lesson in Italian and, if all goes well, a pretty lady's number at the end of the night," he said smoothly, giving you a look.

The others looked between you with wide eyes, surprised at his open flirting. You couldn't help but smile and blush before replying.

"I think that's something I can manage. Now come on, your first lesson will be in ordering drinks," you said, grabbing his hand to lead him in what was about to be the best night of his life.

And yours.

★

A/N: Okay fun fact I thought up this concept immediately after publishing La Vita Dolce and just... never wrote it? The entire work was actually written around the one Italian phrase I used haha.

Anyways... Hope you all enjoyed as per usual and feel free to hmu anytime about anything :)

Send a message or ask if you’d like to be added to my permanent or series taglists so I can verify you’ve been added!

@jackiehollanderr, @one-big-fangirl, @agentnataliahofferson, @spider-babe, @justafangirlduh

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

So we've seen snippets of what a post-escape of your "BATIM x Undertale/Deltarune" AU looks like, but what about a regular BATIM Post-escape?

It’s late and my brain is mush rn, so I’ll just go through the cast’s fates. Formwise (with a few exceptions), they’re pretty similar to the ATDT AU, but due to the different time period, different methods of getting out, and a different journey, a lot of them are in a different place.

Everybody (sans Joey and Sammy) - Group therapy, the searchers and lost ones take over an abandoned ghost town somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and Thomas and Allison get to work on various projects. You know how in the 50s food was fucking insane? The Ink creatures had nothing but bacon soup for decades and now they’re going buck wild with food tenfold and ignore any and all culinary rules and the concept of form. It’s chaos. Edible, disgusting chaos. The Ink Demon teams up with willing artists to design On Model Forms and or Updated Models for anyone and everyone who requests them. It’s not super popular at the moment, but in a few dozen decades or so the town of ink abominations turns into a town of living cartoons.

Henry - Happily reunited with his loving wife who thankfully doesn’t question why he no longer has pupils or irises or why his eyes glow bright yellow and instead is just relieved he came home in one piece as she was starting to get worried that Joey had killed him and stuffed his body into some weird magic thing. (She was not amused to find out she was right, but is glad he’s back home.)

 Linda - Happily reunited with her loving husband who brought home a teenage cartoon werewolf son and a teenage demon son who cries when shown affection. (He’s still getting used to receiving it.) The whole ink monster thing is pretty weird and kinda sad after learning the history, but being there for it and helping them out makes retirement a hell of a lot more interesting.

Inkwell “Inky” “The Ink Demon” - Loves his new on-model form and that he no longer has to live as a Bendy, off model or otherwise. He also loves genuinely being part of a loving family but he still has issues regarding how Joey and Thomas treated him so he’s still on guard and does occasionally lash out. He also feels guilty about how he himself treated the other poor souls in the studio, especially his former prophet as he can’t even apologise to him face to face as he has no way to get in contact with the musician. He honestly tries to make people happy with their new designs but he is really bad at figuring out a balance between designs that his clients want as well as fits their themes and story arcs and it doesn’t help that most of their requests are: “just fix me already.”

Buddy - has a lot of mixed feelings about the new situation. He actually enjoys living with Henry as it’s pretty familiar to him and does like Linda, but even though he can see that the Ink Demon is trying to be a better person and trying to fix what he’s done as best as he can, well, you can’t exactly undo years of being hunted down for sport in a single week and it doesn’t help that the demon’s design looks like a saturday morning cartoon villain, implying he still fully intends to be evil.

Sammy (Studio’s perspective) - The former employees have no idea where he is, what he’s doing, or how he is. Inky has tried to see where he is through his mask but the only thing he managed to see was the mask’s perspective of getting burnt to a crisp. The only reason why they know he made it out of the studio at all is because the former composer sent them exactly two letters. However, a lot of people think that one of them was either a fake letter or a venting letter that was never meant to be read as the two letters were sent at the exact same time and they have very wildly differing tones.

Joey - This, but with The Ink instead of voodoo magic.

And then after a while, he’s spat out of the well as a swollen searcher, the creature at the very bottom of the studio’s pecking order and thus the biggest jab to his pride and power he had ever endured. The only person who could kinda-sorta want to reach out to him at this point would be Inky, but Joey’s stubbornness prevents him from asking his ‘son’ for help. (Which honestly is good for the entire studio, as well as the poor demon...)

Thomas - Tom doesn’t like the fact he’s still a wolf, but they can’t exactly give him a humanish design when nobody remembers what he looks like, all written descriptions of him were destroyed, and there’s no pictures of him in the studio. But he’s happy that he can speak and he’s not a Boris anymore. Most of his current projects are currently SCP Foundation-esc reports, studies, and a list of treatments to help other ink creatures cope with their situation.

Allison - She and Thomas took Sammy’s 414 page, source-cited “This is why you suck” speech/powerpoint to heart (before he disappeared) and try to help Lost-Search Town as much as she can and as often as she can. But as a fair amount of the people there blame her, Thomas and Joey for the fact that they’re either inky abominations or cartoons and others just go along with the crowd, they’re not too keen on trusting them or even letting them near their little town. So she spends most of her time trying to help them in a search party dedicated to trying to find Sammy and bring him back in an attempt to win over their trust. (Even though both letters had strongly emphasized against doing this.)

Wally - Got a job as a radio host and his station is pretty popular due to his personality, his impressive ‘voice impersonation skills’, and the stories he tells. Over the radio, nobody knows that you have a tape recorder for a head. Although, during late night shifts, he does receive some pretty strange calls from listeners...

Susie - Due to some acute Angelophobia (not to be confused with Anglophobia) that she got from her experiences in the studio and a very unfortunate choice made in her design, she joins Grant in the “I freak out every time I see myself in the mirror” club. She’s hesitant about trying for a new model due to the fact both she and Malice fear the Ink Demon. But on the bright side, she writes some really fucking good horror novels.

Malice Angel - In spite of how poorly Malice treated Susie, the voice actress couldn’t bear to let the twisted version of Alice get destroyed altogether (she felt pity for the creature when she saw that she became a searcher without her. And besides, Alice was a part of her after all) so while she has been saved, she has also been demoted from main villainess to an Alice Angel lookalike shoulder demoness.

Jack - He’s doing pretty well, It’s not fun being a giant cartoon rat but it’s a lot more quiet and peaceful than being a swollen searcher. He and the rest of the music department tend to (metaphorically) stick together a lot because some of them kinda miss the hivemind in that “There is a fuck ton of change going on and even though it’s good change it’s still too many changes to process” way. He was thinking about getting his model sheet updated to a more human design, but sadly can’t find any pictures of himself to use for reference. Inky suggested an alligator design but Jack also doesn’t like that idea. 

Emma - Opened up her own dance studio in the town. It gives the townsfolk something fun to do and it’s pretty popular. She had never felt more proud of herself.

Norman - Now that he has his mind back, getting an updated model sheet felt kinda redundant to him. I mean, what will change aside from his art style? But do you know what he did do?

Change his fashion sense, this man has seen nothing but black and shades of yellows for god knows how long and he’s gonna wear all of the tackiest, ugliest, brightly colored button up shirts that he can find.

Bertrum - Is disappointed he ever got to beat Joey Drew to a bloody pulp with his mechanical limbs but happily goes back to working on and maintaining his existing parks. (He wishes that people would ignore the fact he’s a ten foot tall archangel animatronic, but beggars can’t be choosers.)

Lacie - Not a fan of being stuck inside the Bendy animatronic, but likes being able to move again. She’s willing to put up with being stuck in the machine because the alternative is the Ink Demon’s art shit and she can’t trust that noodily bitch as far as she could throw him.

Shawn - Local man won’t stop making toy-related puns, groaning onlookers wish he would fucking stop. In all seriousness, he’s doing a lot better than he was when he was stuck in that studio and while there are a few moments where he thinks “maybe approving the ‘human sized rag doll’ design wasn’t my best idea” but there’s pros and cons with every decision made.

Grant - Unfortunately wasn’t conscious enough to give any input on his form. He was arachnophobic before the studio shit went down and developed a fear of time during it. His design was a cartoon humanoid spider with a time motif. He got a service dog, a profuse amount of apologies from Inky, and in a few weeks when Grant stabilized enough to safely allow an updated model sheet, he gets a new design that looked more like a run-of-the-mill rubberhose skeleton in a suit. He practically cried with happiness when he saw his new reflection.

[popliar]

Ateez in Seoul, 8 and 9 February 2020

Olympic Hall at Olympic Park

No one will believe this but I actually had my holiday with @flywithturtles planned before I knew the dates coincided with Ateez's Seoul concert dates. But it's true! I have the WhatsApp conversations to prove it!! Anyway I secured the tickets and all was well.

This is the first concert I've been to where they were handing out masks, making sure everyone had hand sanitizer and checking temperatures as you entered. Haha. Well they also checked our temperature going into the Line Friends store that day so, that's corona virus life. I was actually really worried the concerts would be cancelled, given so many other events have been, so it was a relief that it went ahead.

Structurally this is the same as the show I saw in August last year, after Wave/Illusion: starting hard with pirates, a lighter middle section, and a mythology-heavy last third. And then the encore which went for ages.

What's great to see is that the gaps and pacing downsides of the previous year have been corrected and improved. The pacing has been tightened up, the banter and ments flow much more smoothly and the show just feels very professional and well run.

Here's my post about last year's show: https://popliar.tumblr.com/post/187095347758/ateez-in-sydney-11-aug-2019

It's a shock to realise they've only been around one year four months but they were able to fill out a full 2.5 hour set, every song solid. And KQ spent proper money on this, the production was good - it's not like LAVISH but there were good stages and fancy screens and new VCRs and plenty of back up dancers, and it all worked well. There were maybe too many fireworks on the first night (I hate it when it obstructs the choreo) but they'd adjusted well on the second night.

Surprising but welcome - they had English subs for some of the ments. I don't think they were "live" subs because sometimes they'd get ahead of what the members were saying. But it was helpful. Even without them, body language and tone says a lot. Though I'm regretful that I don't understand Seonghwa's acrostic poems or all of their stupid jokes lol.

The show is called Fellowship and they leaned into it hard, asking Atiny to be part of their shared journey and to stick with them forever. It's a familiar refrain from other shows, but each time I find it both surprising and effective - this very overt, explicitly stated entreaty to be a fan, to enter into this imagined relationship, the appeal to reciprocity. "We've made you happy, make us happy too, be with us and we'll be with you."

But you can know a thing and it can still be effective. I did love the shows. I want them to be happy too!

A list of observations and random things:

Spoilers follow, I'd put it behind a cut but I can't figure out how on mobile haha

OK REALLY SPOILERS NOW

-first VCR to open the show expanded on the Treasure theme.

-Desire opens with blindfold choreo. Was this a gift for me? THANK U.

-for Lights, they had cute moments where they held up little speech bubbles over each others heads. They paired up with Hongjoong and Mingi, San and Wooyoung, Seonghwa and Yunho, and Yeosang and Jongho. Both nights, Woosan held hands. On the second night Yunho held Seonghwa's hand and Seonghwa was like a shy maiden. Mingi and Hongjoong had very strong flirty energy. Yeosang and Jongho are cute.

-the VCR in between part 1 pirates and part 2 fun boys showed what felt like a series of different dimensions? An ocean, a mountain, fields of flowers, cosmic surrealism, etc. As though each of them was alone somewhere in time and space.

-During If without you, they threw out balls to the crowd as gifts (mini riots ensued). Mingi put the empty basket on his head both nights, what a beautiful fool.

-Night 1 was the first time with the light stick! Hongjoong announced its official name: Lightiny (light of destiny) but also Tinybong lololol. The light stick is super pretty. I was tempted but didn't have time the first night. The second night it was sold out when I arrived!!!

-The VCR in between parts 2 and 3 is the really intriguing one. It paired them up into the Lights pairs again. Yeosang and Jongho searched for each other in a hall of billowing drapes. Mingi and Hongjoong were rockstars (with great lipstick). San and Wooyoung were mirrorverse versions of each other. Yunho and Seonghwa put together the pieces of a puzzle in a set that reminded me of both Treasure and Wonderland.

-In the intro to Say My Name on the first night, Hongjoong went halfway down the stairs then turned around, went back and grabbed his mic, then went down again lol. The second night he very firmly took his mic before descending the stairs lol.

-The final VCR before the encore showed them uncovering items on pedestals as though in a museum: a camera, a gramophone, a painting, a book of poetry by Yeats... Then they all created a painting together. When viewed through a red screen (like the puzzles in their albums) the pattern revealed a compass. They then all showed their wrists to reveal each had a compass tattoo.... WHAT IS THIS OT8 SOULMARK FIC!!!!!

-They said they had planned for every audience member to have this compass stamp (the Fellowship again) but it was cancelled due to health concerns. But we could see it with our true eyes, right???? On the second night, the 99s swarmed Seonghwa at this point to try to look down his shirt. I see. I see. (Later on Hongjoong also tried to peek into Mingi's shirt also fine just fine.)

-Early in the show Hongjoong said there would be clues through the show about the next steps in their concept/narrative. The hourglass and compass were very recurrent but these are not new. Hmm. I wonder.

-In one ment on night 1, Jongho spoke to all his hyungs informally and it was HILARIOUS. He did something similar on the second night, patting Yunho on the head and pinching Wooyoung's chin etc.

-During Star 1117 on the first night, Hongjoong and San started crying. Then in the following ment, they and Yunho and Wooyoung were crying, and Seonghwa and Jongho were teary. Yunho cried so hard (missing his grandfather!) that during Hongjoong's ment, Mingi quietly went over and gave him a towel. There were like five members in between that he passed to give him the towel, it was so sweet I'll cry. Night 2 felt more joyful and upbeat.

-Some ppl really left way too early like before the encore. The encore is half an hour long omg! You missed out on so many songs!!!!!

-On night 1 between main set and encore the crowd didn't quite know what to do. Huge kudos to the fans who led some cheers otherwise it would have been so quiet. Second night was better and also they kept the light sticks on while we were waiting which added to the atmosphere.

-They didn't sell a couple of sections in the hall at all, they were curtained off. It's interesting to think BTS had their first Muster here at around the same point in their careers. Like BTS, Ateez too are more popular globally than at home. They were beaten quite handily in voting on music shows by SF9 this comeback, who are more popular at home than internationally.

-It is great being in a huge fandom like BTS but also you know this is actually a great time to stan a group like Ateez. They're big enough to be exciting and have good shows, they are interesting and still developing, they're still playing intimate venues... They're good!!!!!

-A few of them had fake neck tattoos. San helpfully labeled himself "San" on the second night lol.

-Hongjoong briefly went off stage during sunrise On night 2. Hopefully just a technical issue.

-Treasure and Precious choreo start and end in the same place, echoing their musical connection.

-They had different encore outfits for Answer each night, before changing into hoodies. On night 2, Yeosang saw some of the others had scarves/banners tucked into their back pockets and was like "where's mine????" Instead of a banner, Yunho had a baseball cap. Seonghwa took his off and Hongjoong tied it around Seonghwa's wrist.

-For Star 1117, everyone held up their mobile phone lights. On night 2, San repeated the request in English too. Very pretty to see all the lights.

-On second night, Seonghwa and San got their mics and necklace tangled up during a ment lol.

Setlist:

(Intro)

Win

Horizon

Pirate King

(Introduction ment)

Medley: Twilight, Stay, My Way

Light

Mist

Desire

(VCR)

Illusion

Crescent

Wave

Sunrise

(Ment, lightstick announcement)

If without you

Aurora

Utopia

(VCR)

Say My Name

Dazzling Light

Hala Hala

Treasure

Precious

Wonderland

--

Encore:

(VCR)

Answer

(Ment)

Thank u

Star 1117

(Ment)

Promise

Dancing like butterfly wings

Setlist from: https://twitter.com/updateez/status/1226112679728812032?s=19

[neoculturetechxgot7]

♤ // Six of Spades // ♤

part 1

Summary - Mark Lee offers you to join his semi-legal club, where he and his friends count cards and win money playing blackjack every Saturday night.

Pairing: Mark Lee x Reader

Au: College!Au, Gambling!Au

Word Count: 2,5k

Warnings: Gambling references, mild language

All the dull golden rays coming from the streetlights lining the pavement do little to provide illumination, as you hastily walk across a deserted neighbourhood, hand clutching onto the soft material of your coat. It's silent, too silent to be comfortable but you keek going, feet slightly shaking, both from the cold breeze pickling its way through your clothing and the eerie atmosphere around you, as if every soul has vanished.

A sudden roaring has you jumping in terror, as a car speeds past you, leaving a trail of thick black fume on and your heart banging erratically inside your chest. "Focus" you mutter to yourself in an attempt to calm your nerves and reminisce his words.

"Left turn on the central road, then right after the cathedral and left again. Look for the neon sign." Mark's raspy voice echoes in your head like a ghost and your gaze lands on a small gated church ahead of you, newfound hope blooming inside your chest. You're in the right route.

Picking up your pace with a faint grin, following the orders that black haired boy had given you, your feet stroll on the grey concrete quicker, anticipation growing inside of you. His image unconsciously flows in your mind, with his glassy eyes that possess the sweetest shade of chestnut and his sharp edges and high cheekbones and that damn smile that's so boldly carved in your brain, as if his pearly teeth can brighten away every shadow.

Another turn and you find yourself in a narrow alley, the complete lack of lighting pulling you out of your thoughts to look up the hugh buildings caging you inbetween paint-chipped walls, a smell of gasoline and trash in the air. Beaming neon letters catch your attention, brushing purple strokes of light on the ground. "Three Of Diamonds" the sign reads, decorating the wall above a rusty door, old enough for you to wonder whether it will collapse upon knocking on it. After convincing yourself that this is indeed the right place and taking a few hesitant steps through the shadows, your knuckles bang on the cool metal twice. You can her shuffling from the other side and then the screeching sound of hinges, before a familiar face appears before you, strands hair messily pocking out of a green beanie and a large hoodie hugging his figure.

His eyes light up at the sight of you shyly greeting him with and airy wave of your hand, the corner of his mouth forming a smirk. "I was starting to think you wouldn't show up after all." He says before gesturing you inside, voice smooth as silk.

"Well, I was seriously debating whether to come or not." You reply with a raised eyebrow and step inside the small residence. Or better say, warehouse. The floor is dusty, weird stains evident of its rough surface and a discreet smell of mold makes you noticeably cringe. You begin scanning your surroundings to notice a red leather couch on the side of the room and a tv hanged on the wall across you.

"I'm glad you came." Mark captures your attention, geaturing towards the large table in the center of the room, covered in thick green felt and single deck of cards laying on top. "Have a seat."

You mentally count the chairs around it, adding up to a total of 6. "Who else are we waiting for?" You ask watching him grab one and turn one around and sit with his elbows propped on its back, fingers already shuffling the cards in an instinctive way.

"Renjun, Jeno, Heachan and Jeamin." Every name rings in your ears like a bell to trigger hour memory. You recognize them, but have yet to officially meet anyone . Jeno and Renjun are in the same major as you and you share a couple of classes with Heachan and Jeamin, but other than that -and some quick glances in the hallways- you have no other interaction with them.

Your coat slides off your shoulders and you settle down next to him. His presence stirs up something inside you, emotions mixing up in an mysterious combination.

"You're smart, I guess you've already figured out why I called you here, right?" Mark asked, his dark chocolate eyes not leaving yours.

You really wished you had. "It's something that involves gambling." You said pointing at the deck in his hands and he nodded. "And I think it's kinda illegal..." You continued, earning a chuckle from him, his head shaking in agreement. "Other than that, I really dont know."

Mark leaned back in his seat. "So, you got a good idea of the whole concept." That smirk lingered on his lips again. "But you're missing some basic details. Allow me to explain. Remember what I told you yesterday in the library?" You hummed in agreement and brought your weird encounter back.

Mark Lee was the hot senior that got involved in almost everything, his name well known among students and professors around campus. You had met through common friends in a party last year and he was polite enough to greet you every time he passed by you at the hallway, but you didn't talk that much to consider him anything more than an acquaintance. So it was out of nowhere when he sat across from you, while you were sank in your physics text book, and sparked a conversation. "Hey, I've heard you're really great at linear algebra" You were startled and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at his awkward compliment. "Uh...thanks." Mark leaned loser, his fingers tangled together on the wooden table. "Do you, by any chance, happen to know how to play blackjack?" You were taken aback by that. What? Why was he even asking such a thing? You set the book down and tilted you head to the side. "Yeah...But I've never been to a casino before." Your voice came out low and hesitant.

"Great. Now one last question. Would you like to earn fast cash?" That caught you off guard. You didn't respond and kept staring at him, trying to pinpoint signs that would prove he was just messing with you. Maybe this was a prank, he was a senior after all. But he didn't even flutter an eyelash as he waited for your answer, eyes trying to read your expression, and you had to admit, his question had picked at your interest. You ducked forward, your eyes narrowing. "What do you mean?" Mark scanned the room, moving form rows and rows of books to students that were walking by. "I can't really tell you here. But we can meet up somewhere close by." His voice was only a hoarse whisper as he started giving you directions to the location. "Tomorrow, 11. And don't tell anyone." He swiftly got up with a grin plastered on his face and made his way out, leaving you with a confused grimace, trying to make sense of the last 2 minutes with him.

And now you were sitting across Mark, as he proceeded to explain the reason he had invited you over. "So basically we play this game, blackjack" his fingers were quick to start dealing the cards he was holding around the table. "And we place bets. I guess it is gambling yes, but we're not really gamblers." He spared you a single knowing glance before placing another card on your pile. "A gambler plays based solely on their luck. They take risks, bet on chance. We, on the other hand, bet on an insured win."

You crossed your arms over you chest, biting your lip while trying to understand where he was going with that. Once done dealing the cards, he sat down, facing you. "See, we've found this way, this method, to predict our chances of winning."

"How?" you cut him off. He smirked at the curiosity written across your face. "It's simple, we count cards and play accordingly. We bet, we win and we gain money. And practically, 'counting' isn't illegal, only the gambling club we play in is." You laughed at his remark.

A few long moments of silence followed, where Mark fidgeted with the sleeve of his hoodie, waiting for you to respond. "So, you go to your nice little gambling club or whatever, you do this 'counting' thing and win money. Sounds nice. But why am I here?"

"So" He paused to wipe his palm on his tighs, with a sigh before he continued, shrugging. "This club we play in is only for college students and we usually win a fair amount of cash but we wanted something more. Try to catch the big fish."

You nodded at his words, seeing where that would end.

"So we have decided to try our 'luck' in an actual..." Your voice cut him off mid-sentence "Casino." Mark grinned, he liked that you were following him that well. "But we need one more person. Someone that has the skills." "And that's where I come in." "Yeah." You got up and began pacing around, his eyes following you.

Once more, silence fell over the room as you took your time, processing every bit of information Mark had given you the last 5 minutes. For a few seconds you wondered if this whole offer was legit, or Mark was simply pranking you, just as you had thought in the library. He and four other guys were going to this gambling club where they counted cards and made themselves richer and richer every time, but apparently that wasn't enough for them and they needed you, a complete stranger that was good in algebra, to help them do the same in an actual casino. As in, cheat in an actual casino....as in practically rob an actual casino. Yeah, ain't happening.

"No way." You spat out standing in front of him. Mark tensed up, his face morphing into a frown. "What? Why?"

"I don't know...maybe because I don't want to go to jail for illegal gambling?" Sarcasm dripped from your tongue as you pronounced every word, shoulders shrugging. He jolted up from his chair, lightly grasping your arm, sending shivers down your spine. A reassuring look settled on his face as he leaned closer. "That's not happening. I already told you counting isn't illegal, no one can arrest you for counting cards. And it's only for one night..."

A loud banging on the door interrupted your conversation, causing you both to turn to that direction. Mark sighed and reached for the door, to let four boys, whose faces you instantly recognized, inside. One of them, Jeno, had black hair and a tall, muscular frame just as his blonde friend Jaemin, the one that run to pull Mark into a tight embrace upon entering. The other two, Heachan and Renjun walked in afterwards, patting their friend on the back, before coming to stand around the table, eyes focusing on you. Mark pushed the door closed and came to stand by you, hand lingering on the small of your back as he gestured you to the others.

"So guys, y/n, decided to join us for today's session." Mark announced and Jeno stepped forward extending his arm to shake your hand. "Hey, I'm Jeno." His smile made his eyes crinkle. "We're together in linear algebra."

"Yeah, but I didn't know you had noticed me before." You replied, arching your eyebrow.

"Actually, Jeno was the one that took an interest in your skills." Mark commented and you watched the other chuckle and run a hand through his locks. "Yeah, I was really impressed with your answers in lectures. I think you'd be really good at counting." He winked at the last sentence.

You mumbled a brief 'thank you' as Jeno took a seat around the table, beside yours. Next to him was Jaemin who instantly waved when your eyes landed on him. He introduced himself to you and you did the same, then moved on to the next one, Renjun, who leaned over the table to shake your hand. His voice was soft but a steady tone tangled throughout his words. Lastly, came Heachan, who had picked up the pile of cards in front of him, already fanning them out in his fingers. He didn't even bother to raise his glance at you when you asked for his name -even though you were well aware of it and the popular, rebellious status that came with it-. "Haechan." His tone was cold, almost spiteful, as he kept chewing his gum and eyeing the numbers on his cards, uninterested in you.

Mark didn't seem to notice his friend's behaviour as he continued. "So I was just telling her about our plan"

"And I think I'm gonna have to pass on your generous offer. What you got going on seems fun, I guess, but I'd prefer not to risk it." You cut him off once more, hand reaching for you coat on the chair, before Mark swiftly placed his own over it. "Wait." He just can't take 'no' for an answer, can he?

"Mark, I think I've made up my mind." You said breathlessly, your eyes rolling before you pressed your lips together in slight annoyance.

He didn't back down. "I think you haven't. Because you knew something was going on here yet you came. That must mean something." His voice was low but soft, words hitting a spot inside you. "Maybe it was just my curiosity." You replied, shrugging.

Mark's eyes glimmered under the dim yellow light inside the warehouse. "Aren't you curious about how we do this then? Wouldn't you want to play one round to find out?" A sigh left your lips as you rolled your eyes. "Mark..."

"Y/n please, just one round." Mark insisted, his fingers squeezing yours. You looked over at the table, where the others were fanning out their cards and Jeno selecting the top card from the deck. As much as you wanted to walk out that door and forget about Mark Lee's stupid offer, you couldn't hide the desire burning in your chest. There was something luring you to that green-felt covered table, the pile of cards in front of your seat calling for you and the looks of the men around you, as if pleading you to stay. Even Haechan's attention was withdrawn from his cards and focused on you. And you needed money too, it wasn't like you were gonna land a good paying job the minute you graduate college either way. But above all, you needed, a little of what seemed like an adventure. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

You took a deep breath, blinking a couple of times. With a groan you pulled your chair back and sat down, gathering the cards in your palm, as you watched Mark Lee's smile making an appearance on his face again and Jeno, the dealer for tonight, sliding a single card to the center of the table. The ace of spades to start the game.