#anyway they're fun now and then

[qiinamii]

we'll do fine.

[s0up1ta]

i hate them so much

[egophiliac]

hiii im sure you’ve answered this before but in regards to your twst x Pokémon, how do you choose which Pokémon go give to the cast?? really curious since your choices are unique :O

unique in a good way, I hope? 😅 (jk jk I haven't come across too many pokemon AUs, so I was going in without preconceptions, I guess!) I was sorta aiming somewhere between doing, like, a full AU with internal consistency and everything, and just picking entirely based on theme/character, so maybe that's why! basically I just set some arbitrary rules (no legendaries/no repeats/evo stages based on year) and then went on ~vibes~. a couple were also suggestions (thank you guys!) and last-minute decisions, so it was a bit of a delightful mess of ideas!

my one regret is that I should have given Riddle a Togedemaru after all. ...you know what, he can have one now, why not

[collophora]

TBB cadets ideas

[re-colligere]

Thought about how Indigo and Roz would interact in this au, so here's some sillies! I think they'd be buddies faster than Verte would consider them both as her buddies. so you know.

[scribble-dee-vee]

You have some great quotes here!! "Ravenous and loud" is a funny and accurate way to describe that scenario. Also, are Ilya and Agafiya GOOD??? Somehow, the fact that this passage comes from a journal makes it even more ominous. I feel like I could find this in a survival horror game.

My answers/tags are under the cut for convenience!

Find the Word Tag Game

I haven't done a tag game since like,,, 2019??? But find the word is my favorite, and I finally have a longform current WIP, so let's GO

Quotes are going to come from the working draft of Lost Letters (which was a prequel to Heart of Lead, and is now the first book in the series, for anyone who's followed this project at any point in its ungodly long timeline. I should probably make a proper update post if I'm getting back into writeblr for 2024).

I will leave this as an open tag, because I'm rusty on the blogs in my orbit that are A.) still active and B.) tag-friendly. Feel free to lmk for future games, if you'd like. Moots and other writers, please consider finding bone, run, focus, and relief within your wips.

Night

This draft currently sits around 71,000 words, and "night" is ninety of them. Many passages with "night" are CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS, so I can share surprisingly few of them.

Here's a non-spoilery paragraph that has persisted through several drafts, from Dale's POV:

And we ended up back at the bar, and the night started sliding from there. It blurred into an evening that I’d lived a thousand times. An endless range of bottles in our server’s steady hands. A couple of young ones passed out in the back. A dazzle of light in Starbell’s streets, when one of us rallied to go and dance outside. We emerged from the door too fast, too many, and Charles caught me close before I fell. I pressed my face into his chest, and he asked if I wanted to leave – but I couldn’t leave, I had no other friends and nowhere else to go, and Rosalind pulled me away from him to dance.

Another fun fact: "night" is the very first word of this draft!

Night descended heavy in the Diamond City's slums.

And here are some fun variations on "night" that pop up, really leaning into the Victorian aesthetic – "nightcap," "nightgown," and "fortnight."

Touch

Touch has some ~spicy~ variations, which I shan't share bc of the spoilers. Hehe. It also comes up in most of the story's dreams and visions, to contrast the cerebral aspect. Here are two of those instances.

From Cecelia, who is having dreams of grandeur:

I could see the benevolent face of my Queen, the snowfall of her silver hair, as she touched my chin and told me she was proud.

From Dale, who is having a certified Bad Time:

I steadied myself against the bench and Jamie’s shoulder, unwilling to touch the wallpaper. It looked wet. Bloody. A grotesquely regular arrangement of torn flesh, crawling and moving in the haze.

Window

There aren't many interesting instances of "window." I would have expected some more, with setting description, but I did find a few solid ones.

Quintessential Charles Angst™:

I never lingered long at any window. I’d frighten them, an outsider, a phantom.

And... this!! I'm giving you no context, to avoid potential spoilers. It's fine. Everything's fine. Don't even worry about it :)

September on the road was very beautiful back then. He grabbed my hair through the window and pressed his knife up to my throat- said I’d make him a pretty penny- and then- do you remember how his brain went everywhere? My dress, my face, your journal. It was sticky in your hair.

Weight

Dale sucks, but this is a whole mood:

I recognized that it was cold, unseasonably cold, but I could hardly feel it. I felt weighted, ponderous; if I sank into the earth, perhaps I could escape the demonic Miss Lake and her sycophants. Worth a try. I closed my eyes.

Huzzah! Now on to use "night" ninety more times in the back half of this draft.

T A G : FIND THE WORD

Jumping in the open tag from @oh-no-another-idea. Thanks for leaving the tag open! 😊

The words they've given are: raven, wound, travel, and hand.

RAVEN

I... I don't think I've ever used... this word in my writing? I'm so confused; how can that be??

That being said, I have used ravenous, so that's what I'll substitute it with. Here's a little excerpt from An Entity In Your Midst, my standalone horror that I've been working on for centuries:

Being in school was a welcome change, especially with what had been happening at home. She’d begun to question her own sanity, and when her mother had suggested that she stay home for yet another day, Anya had put her foot down. She didn’t tell anyone about it, not even her best friend Daria, who’d tried to get her attention all throughout first period. She couldn’t avoid her forever, though, and at the end of second period, when lunch had finally come around, Daria pulled her back while the class shuffled out, ravenous and loud.

WOUND

Since I've already gotten us started with An Entity In Your Midst, why not continue? :D

An excerpt from Agafiya's journal:

Ilya refuses to tell me what he and Sergei saw that night. He came back covered in scratches and mud and bruises and a broken arm – and even then, he still held his rifle with a death-grip, and his eyes were wide and wild. When I saw him like that, for a moment I feared he was on of them, come for us. But then he dropped to his knees and fell forward, unconscious with what I think was both exhaustion and shock. Maria and I did our best to treat his wounds, but I fear it is the mental wounds that will need the most time to heal.

TRAVEL

This game has me reading back over AEIYM and I LOVE ALL OF IT. (Where's the rest of it??? Why is it not finished??????) No wonder I was obsessed with this wip for a little while.

When he had heard about his dear friend Mikhail Volkov and his charming family, he felt the pain in his bones. What misfortune had befallen them had been unexpected and terrifying. Nobody could explain what had happened to them, only a handful of days after he had traveled down there to check on young Fyodora.

For reference:

Mikhael Volkov OC intro

Fyodora Volkov OC intro

HAND

So many to choose from for this one, but I decided on this excerpt:

“Please keep this between us,” Mrs. Volkov said. “She’s been very ill. She’s not herself.” “She’s another person entirely,” Nina grumbled, shaking her head. She was still waiting for her heartbeat to slow down. She became aware of Mrs. Volkov’s hand, still holding her shoulder in a firm grip, and stepped back, opening the front door. “It’s been very difficult for all of us.” Mrs. Volkov held a knowing look, but there was fright etched onto her face, and it unsettled the young girl. “I have to go,” Nina whispered, backing out of the door. “My parents expect me home. I have to go.” And with that, she turned and ran.

I'm going to tag a few peeps for this one, but please feel free to ignore! @dyrewrites @leave-her-a-tome @contes-de-rheio @scribble-dee-vee @akindofmagictoo @wiredhouse

Your words, should you accept the challenge, are: night, touch, window, and weight.

[jeeaark]

Remember Auntie Ethel's victim who could see people's possible futures? Yeaaah, Greygold walked right into that prophecy.

In the Far Realms, they have memory foam beds

[buttercupshands]

rewatched Kurogiri's holiday story from ultra impact (not related to sketch at all)

(but it did inspire me)

on another note

finally!!

[chalkrub]

challenging myself by engaging in the ancient art known as "dynamic poses", but making it harder on myself by ignoring the noble practice of "using references"

featuring belvedere and florawell

[peridots-pixiwolf]

[Start ID. A digital drawing of Gabriel and V1 from Ultrakill in super-saturated, pixellated colors. It seemingly takes place during phase two of his second fight, judging by Gabe's bright yellow-cyan wings and the consequent blush shining through his helmet. Gabriel is pictured on the left, facing the left side of the screen with his head turned to V1, preparing to strike them with the bloodied spear in his right hand. Small but frequent splatters of blood dot his armor and outstretched wings, fabrics torn through in places. V1 is on the right, aiming its piercer revolver at his face. Their arms are stacked in pairs on either side, idle Feedbacker and Knuckleblaster on the left and Whiplash tucked atop their default arm on the right. Both parties are stylized to resemble insects, Gabe with beetle wings and a halo in the shape of antennae, and V1 with the four wings, four arms, short antennae and bristles expected of a dragonfly. End ID]

woah.... happy 1 year anniversary to gay people

also a couple alts (background removed, just gabe, and just v1, respectively) in hopes it'll be a little easier to understand what's going on and all!

additionally once again: special thanks to @magnumopos and @muzzleroars , neither of which I have actually spoken to in my life but both of which are credited with partially inspiring this! (dedicated section under the readmore due to the fact I do not generally tag people at all ever and wasn't sure if I should, but thought it was worth mentioning!) The former for giving me the wonderful idea of dragonfly V1, the latter for drawing V1 like a strange little creature + for the feedbacker plate, I enjoy both your works :]

(retroactively, on march 27th of 2024, assigning them a full bingo with credit to deep-space-lines. ehehehehe)

[flickering-nightfall]

trick or treat!!

Seems like you got recognized! Don't worry, I'm sure Moon will still give you candy...

[quartergremlin]

have you made comics about leo's brumation before? I dont remember that coming up before your most recent ask! did i miss smth? (also love this most recent story, really heartbreaking. he musta compared himself to his siblings so much :( )

-@hapfish

okay so i thought that i talked about it in the notes of the last comic but apparently my stupid jank phone did not save my edit like it told me it did! So uh. sorry about that. totally did not notice. 😔

other than that i alluded to it in this post, tho the event was much fluffier at the time.

i was referring to this stretch of the comic!

At this point we're going on three years into trying for a kid with no progress, so the Hamato Medical Team smash their heads together to look for a solution! The uh *checks notes* yeah the number of eggs isnt the problem, so there's gotta be something else we can do. Enter: brumation.

Brumation is important for the reproductive health of turtles (here's an article that mentions it, but all sources that i've found are about that vague). So they crank the air conditioner in his cart and Leo spends that winter half-asleep and getting taken care of by yuichi, donnie, and shelldon. This does not work.

and thank you! It's been a long time coming, I'm happy it's been well-received.

Absolutely. Mikey with their little bundle of sunshine, and raph and cass trying and having a kid immediately. Hadt've hurt.

[kuraiganas]

ONE PIECE, 1.01 – ROMANCE DAWN.

[imthursdaysyme]

While I love Steve having a kid that's a nerd, my favorite is if his kid is just like him. He's popular even at 7, he's extroverted, funny, and charming albeit a little strange. He loves sports and struggles in math and doesn't really get english and gets scolded when he laughs in history—sue him he thought it was funny—and has a tendency to get detention but also is somehow a teachers pet all at once.

He has a tendency for feminine things, makes it his own with earrings and the occasional pink flower print shirt.

He begs steve to not work on the car until he gets home from school, cause even at 5, he would rather climb over the fence and run home by himself then learn his dad worked on the cool car without him.

He loves driving and cooking and dancing and loves swimming—aunt Robbie calls him a variety of aquatic animals instead of his name; minnow, fish, stingray, tigershark. Anything went.

They look alike and act alike to the point robin laughs and claims Steve just cloned himself, Eddie says that the kid is actually just Steve brought to the future through time travel. Steve laughs, he loves it ofc but he's never pushed or forced it, it just happened that way.

But there's also times, where Steve sees his son, so like him with big tears in his eyes trying to be tough. Or when all he wants is to sleep in the bed with Steve when he has a nightmare, wants his dad to kiss everything better, when he so easily seeks affection or struggles with school to the point he's getting stress migraines at 9, sees him try so hard to do his best and do what he does well. Sees him fail.

And when Steve sees this, he wonders if maybe he wasn't a bad kid. Didn't need to be tougher, manlier, smarter—better—to deserve love.

Just. Like. Steve seeing that he didn't need to be anything other than what he was. That he has no idea how his parents didn't love him bc how could he ever not love his kid? Just like its okay for him to be how he is and have a kid that a like him as well bc he's pretty great

And like. Its just that idea that Steve could only “heal his inner child” with a kid that's different then him or a girl is kind of sad that it's only that what if him and his son go to every game and constantly have grease on them what then.

[lunarharp]

shirahama-sensei reminded me she has a thing for the teacher from pokemon s/v so i randomly went off on an au where qifrey is the professor. etc

[italyveneziano]

This week marks 12 years since I watched HetaOni for the first time (and fell in love with Hetalia as a result) so I wanted to do something to celebrate :')

The screenshots with art are from @cookies-hetaoni, which I totally recommend checking out if you like HetaOni!!

Bonus (quote courtesy of my friend):