#anyways. please give feedback

[ralofofriverwoods]

I need y’all’s advice on a very serious matter:

What color should the background for this painting be? The reference photo has a black bg but I don’t know if it will look good.

I could do it like a green color or something, to match their hair perhaps? I could also do it dark blue to match their eyes.

reference photo is under the cut

[toadboat]

When they do, I'll be right behind you.

[embrosegraves]

𝔸𝕟 𝕌𝕟𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙𝕪 𝕆𝕓𝕤𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟

Not the biggest fan of this I'll be honest. I don't think I'll do something like this very often, and if I do it won't be for a while. Anyways I hope you enjoy even just a little bit <;3

Warnings: Obsessive behaviour, Being unaware of listening devices, hidden camera, author not knowing how to put the correct warning for a fic lmao, I definitely missed something I know it.

Sebastian Vettel x Reader  Obsessed x Obsessed but Seb thinks it’s just him lowkey this was a little inspired by An Unhealthy Obsession by The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra. It's a good song.

Sebastian was never one to invade the privacy of others. He was a gentleman, thank you very much! But he had gotten into the habit of finding out what room you were staying in at every hotel, just so he could… set up, before you got there. 

If anybody found out that he put walkie talkies in your room, he could always just say that it was in case you needed any help. One might argue that hotels had notoriously thin walls, but he was just being cautious. Sebastian was also convinced that no one would be able to find the microscopic camera he had stuck to the tv at the end of your hotel bed. 

Seb had been in his own room (quite literally next door) for about an hour before he heard you opening the door to your room. He listened to the walkie, and watched through the camera he had connected to his phone, as you put your luggage on your bed. He could tell you were exhausted with the flight over and he wished craved to be the one you’d turn to after a long day. 

Eventually his own exhaustion and the jetlag caught up to him and he fell asleep listening to you hum whatever song had been on your mind that day. 

— — — — 

You were exhausted. Having just gotten back from the paddock, your camera’s memory stick positively brimming, all you wanted to do was relax. Before you could spread out on the bed, you needed to change clothes. Get rid of the surprisingly uncomfortable team wear and surround yourself in something more comfortable. Paying no mind to the opened curtains of your hotel suite, you changed into a pair of cotton shorts and an oversized SV5 hoodie that made it look like you weren’t wearing pants.  

Finally able to flop down on the bed, you grabbed your laptop and your camera and started to transfer the images so you could pick out which ones to send to the media team. If you saved every photo of Sebastian, well no one but you would know. Eventually, you sent an email to the head of Media containing an array of photos that had a mix of different drivers within them. 

You spent the rest of your evening browsing the internet for anything even remotely related to the German driver that had been on your mind since you were 12.

— — — — 

He knew that you had only just changed the tyres of your car. Of course he knew. Afterall he was the one that caused you to need to change them in the first place. It had been all too easy to set up. He just needed to make sure that the road you usually took to drive home from the track had an invisible row of spikes that you would drive over. 

All he had to do afterwards was wait for you to call. He knew you would. He made sure that he spent enough time helping you so that he would be the first person you would call should you need help elsewhere. Hearing his phone ring when he was conveniently ten minutes away from you made his heart palpitate. His chest constricted so deliciously at the thought of hearing you beg him to help. He had to play this smart. 

“Yes, Leibe?” He sounded happy, something he would tell you was because of the adrenaline rush of placing on the podium. 

“Hi Seb, listen, I’m really sorry to ask this but do you think you could come and pick me up?” You asked him. “My car just suddenly got a flat tire and you were the first person I thought to call.” 

“Of course! I’ve actually just left the track not too long ago myself-” of course he had “Just send over your location and I can come get you.”

“Thank you so much Seb, I’ll quickly share my location so you know where I am.” 

“I’ll see you soon then, Liebe.” 

After he hung up, you shared your location, as you said you would. It only took him about 6 minutes to show up. No one had to know that he occasionally ignored the speed limits.

— — — — 

People would definitely call it creepy if they knew just how obsessed Sabastian Vettel was with you. He liked to think that it was romantic. To be entirely honest, you thought it was endearing how much he wanted you to be his. As much as the people around you were oblivious to Seb’s unhealthy obsession with you, you were a lot more observant than everyone realised. 

The first time it came to your attention was when you had joined Formula One as a Photographer. Having watched the sport for years now, and constantly keeping up with it throughout your studies, you knew every driver on the grid that year. Being ‘fresh meat’ in the paddock, you were easy to spot for everyone. The drivers more or less were not that interested in the new photographer that the sport had hired. If anything it just meant that they had to pose more than they already did. But there was one driver who couldn’t help but be absolutely fascinated with you. 

You thanked whatever power-that-be that Sebastian Vettel had entered into F1 the same year you entered puberty, as it allowed you to blame that on your sudden obsession with him. Being interested in him since you were 12 had given you plenty of time to become a master at hiding just how obsessed you were. So of course, when Sebastian came up to you to introduce himself, it was only too easy to see the signs of a brand new budding obsession.

— — — — 

Despite being so enamoured with you, Sebastian had never once been inside your house. His eyes were flitting around everywhere, trying to take in as much of your home as he could. You had invited him to come in for a cup of tea after he had saved you from being stranded with no transport. 

“Feel free to explore if you’d like.” You called to him as you made your way to the kitchen to fill up the kettle. You had no qualms about him snooping through your things. If anything, Sebastian snooping through your house might finally get him to understand that he wasn’t the only obsessed party. 

Sebastian was never one to turn down an opportunity that was literally being handed to him. The minute you had walked into the kitchen after telling him to explore, he went straight upstairs. The first room he entered was a bathroom. Nice and clean, spacious. Perfect for some relaxing should it be needed. He didn’t spend long in there. 

The next room he walked into happened to be your guest room. It was a bit plain, nothing too extravagant. A nice bed, a small closet space and a door that led to the relatively large balcony overlooking your backyard. Same as the bathroom, he didn’t spend too much time in the room.

The next room had him more excited than he would admit. Your bedroom. It was cosy and warm and it perfectly embodied everything he thought you were. There was a door that led to the same balcony as the guest room. He spent a bit longer in this room. He contemplated for only a split second whether or not he should look through your drawers, before he rationalised that you had given him permission to look around. Whether or not you meant looking around through your dresser was of no consequence to him. 

He was a little disappointed that he hadn’t found any raunchy toys in your bedside drawers. Nonetheless he continued on his way to the final room on the upper floor. 

Opening the door furthest from the stairs, he discovered your office. It was pretty standard for an office. A large desk with a computer, a comfy chair behind it. On one wall was a bookshelf full of literature of all kinds. He only recognised a few titles so he didn’t bother looking too intensely there. What he did look intensely at however, was a section of your office that could only be described as a shrine. Upon closer inspection he realised the subject of the shrine. 

Him. 

There were photos and photos of him at all sorts of points in his career. His first Formula 1 race, the first time he scored points, the first time he got on the podium, the first time he got pole position in qualifying, his first race win and his first WDC were among many of the countless photos of him that were proudly displayed. He had even noticed that there were newspaper clippings that had been cut out, and in every one of them he had been surrounded in a thick red heart shape. Standing right in front of it, he began leafing through everything that covered the small desk. 

“I thought I’d find you here.” 

Your voice had started Sebastian. His head shot up to look at you. How could he have been so careless as to stop paying attention to his surroundings? He had gotten caught red handed and he wasn’t sure how he could solve this. He didn’t want you to think that he was a creep (though given that you had a literal shrine dedicated to him, the chance of that was slim). 

“I usually keep this room locked when I am away.” You said, moving to place the two drinks you had brought up on your desk before sitting on the plush chair you had next to the shrine. 

“Did you know that I have cameras in every room of my house?” This was rhetorical. “I thought it was quite interesting that you looked so disappointed when you didn’t find anything interesting in my bedside drawers. I thought I might help you find what you wanted.” 

You reached over to open the drawer of the desk he was still standing in front of. His body hadn’t moved an inch, excluding his head that had followed your every movement since entering the room. Which meant that when you did get the drawer open, your hand ever so gently brushed against his thigh. The touch sent an almost violent shiver through both of you. 

Seeing you nod your head towards the now open space in front of him, Sebastian moved his gaze from your face to the contents of the drawer. This explained why he found nothing in your bedroom. Neatly organised inside the drawer was an array of lewd toys. Picking one up, he looked at them more closely. It wasn’t until then that he noticed that each and every one of your toys was customised. With his name on them. 

He fell even deeper at the thought that whenever you played with yourself, it was his name inside you. That it was his name that gave you pleasure and release. He almost didn’t notice the pair of panties you kept behind the toys in your drawers. He grabbed them and looked at the embroidery on the back of the lacy garment. 

“VDS?” The rasp in his voice had you feeling particularly wet and ready. 

“Vettel’s Dirty Slut was a little too long for such a small canvas of lace.” You elaborated. “I’d say I’m a dab hand at stitching, amongst other things.”

His eyes had darkened when you explained the acronym. He had envisioned having you in such a way since seeing you for the first time in 2014. “Show me.” 

You gave a sly smile as you grabbed his hand, leading him back to your bedroom, toys and panties still in his grasp. 

Your tea had long since gone cold by the time you had finished.

welp. there it goes. definitely not my best work, but rest assured that I will try my best to get better at writing more darkly themed fics. can't promise that I'll post my attempts all too often but I'll definitely work on it

thank you for the request Lovey!

[politemagic]

slasher iii & slasher iv

oh geez oh boy oh god here it is. i had to strangle this thing out of my brain and she came out kicking and screaming. unedited, just some fun slasher iii & slasher iv content on this saturday evening. this is... something

there's a good bit of triggers in here, please proceed with caution.

1.15k words

The two of them are just hardcore horror fans, right? They've seen all the classics a million times but as they're getting older it's just not enough. III is the first one to suggest it as he turns off the television after watching the newest horror box office flop. At first, IV thought it was a joke. An outlandish suggestion to throw him off his game. That was the kind of jokester that III was. But there was no humor in his voice when he said in a sinisterly quiet voice.

"We could just do that shit ourselves."

The thought caused excitement to pulse through IV's veins as III laid out the details of his fantasy. It was almost too perfect, he thought. Their calculus professor was a piece of shit who was always too hard on the class, so he made an obvious target. He had no family, which further eased IV's conscience. They'd be doing the world a favor.

It was an experience unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, the thrill of watching the light wink out of his horrified eyes as he clawed at the masks covering their faces, watching the fight leave his body as he fell limp to the floor. He found he didn't quite mind the feeling of his blood soaked jeans clinging to his legs.

III had done most of the dirty work, but who was IV to deprive him of the joy he received from plunging the knife into his victim's stomach? They tidied. up after themselves enough to erase their presence, and waited for someone to find him.

The discovery of the beloved professor’s body the next day came as a shock to the whole community, leaving the town a worried mess. Things only got worse as III and IV selected their next target. She was a young woman, engaged to be married, known for babysitting just about every kid in town– the two of them included. IV’s stomach soured at the thought, but the grin on III’s face stirred his excitement enough to quell his conscience. 

“Don’t worry mate, she’ll be perfect.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder and pulled him into his pickup truck, the bed loaded with enough hunting knives to butcher a stampede.

And perfect she was. They managed to slip into the garage undetected, slinking through the darkened hallways towards the illumination and chatter of the television in the living room. She had nodded off on the couch, her head tilted back and nestled into the corner, surrounded by blankets and pillows. III gave him a silent nod and IV walked around behind her, wrapping an arm around her neck and clamping his hand over her mouth. Her eyes shot open in fear, panic overtaking her body as her eyes raked down every intimidating inch of III as he knelt in front of her, sliding a knife out of his boot. 

IV could feel her gnashing at the flesh of his palm, and simply pressed the crook of his elbow further into her jugular. He could feel her resolve dwindling as she thrashed against his hold, trying to shove III’s towering figure away from her. But III only laughed and swatted away her comparatively small hands as he began tracing the tip of his blade up her pajama clad leg, the twinkle in his eye indicated to IV that he was thoroughly enjoying the muffled whimpers coming from behind IV’s hand, relishing in the way that her body lurched away from him.

When IV felt his hand dampening from her tears, he audibly groaned, looking down to see her beautiful eyes squeezed shut, tears running down her cheeks. If his mask wasn’t covering his mouth he would have leaned down and licked those tears off of her perfect skin himself. But instead, he managed to catch III’s attention, nodding down to her streaming tears and III laughed evilly.

He leaned over her, wiping her tears away with his thumbs, gently caressing her cheeks as he did so, despite IV’s hands covering most of her face. 

“Hey, no use for that,” III cooed. “No point of doing that at all, love.”

Her eyes opened, a bone-chilling fear shooting through her body as she saw the murderous glint in III’s eyes. The tears flowed faster, and as she tried again to break free III restrained her arms with ease, resting his body weight on top of her as he brought his knife up to her line of sight again. 

“We’re going to have a lovely time, the three of us.”

She screamed from behind IV’s hand, making one last attempt to bite at him and managed to find purchase on the meat of his palm, causing him to yelp. She sank her teeth in until she could taste his blood on her tongue, but she found his grip only tightened. When she dared a glance above her, she could see his eyes shut, breathing labored, but when he looked down at her, she realized what a mistake she had made. 

A mixture of her tears and IV’s blood dripped from her chin, and the sight sent a shockwave of excitement through III’s body. He was ecstatic to have a partner in all this, to get to experience his wildest fantasies with his best friend. To share this new side of him with his best friend. 

“Now for the fun part.” He whispered, more to IV than to her, but the words caused her heart to sink, she felt the resolve fly from her body– there was no salvation for her. The coppery tang of his blood on her tongue that had once tasted like victory now tasted of defeat. Not only would she die at their hands, she would die with their repulsive presence invading her every sense.

III felt the familiar rush of euphoria as the blade pierced through her belly, her muffled scream like a favorite song heard on the radio. He didn’t miss the way IV’s hip pressed slightly into the couch, spreading a wide grin across his lips.

This would be the fun part, indeed.

Hours later, III laid down in his bed, resting an arm behind his head as he replayed the events of the day, that same grin still plastered on his face. He felt his eyes drifting closed, sleep ready to take his body when he heard the sound of his phone vibrating on his nightstand. His heart leaped at the sight of your name, and your sweet message.

i guess you turned in early tonight. sweet dreams, i love you <3

As he laid back down, his eyes falling shut one more time, his mind conjured up the most beautiful plan for you. 

A special surprise.

[northern-passage]

i've been thinking a lot about the word "representation" and what it means and how it's changed over the last few years, particularly when it comes to the writing/publishing landscape but also in movies and tv shows… and i really don't like it anymore. to be clear, of course i think it's important to have diversity in your work, i'm not saying i hate the concept of representation. but i do really dislike the way it's used now, and i really just hate the word itself

in a broader sense it's just become a marketing tool. i'm not impressed by any publisher or author who just describes their book by listing all of the minorities/identities the characters represent as if that should be enough. it feels very gross, very exploitative and disingenuous. it also really bothers me because it's always marginalized identities- which i understand Why, but it feels very othering to me (and again. Very exploitative as an advertisement). you would never list out "cishet able-bodied white man" as a character description to pat yourself on the back over. so why do it to everyone else? why insinuate that one is the "default" and the other one is "special"? (and when i say this i'm mainly talking about advertisements/marketing. i understand why people would specify about characters in descriptions with the plot, but i don't like to see an ad that's just "this book has gay people!" with nothing else)

which then leads me to my other point, which is that a lot of people treat "representation" as if it's "too hard." like "oh i don't know enough to write about that, i don't have that experience, etc" which is a fair way to feel! however… it's weird that people only say this about writing trans characters or characters of color. i'm writing a story right now with a character who is really into motorcycles. i personally do not know that much about motorcycles, so i researched what parts are what & what different kinds of models there are & what basic bike care looks like. i guarantee Most people will have to google something at some point in their writing process. so what's the problem? it also, again, feels very othering when authors treat certain groups of people as "impossible" to write, "too hard" to understand. they are just.. people. you write them as a person. and then you figure out the rest later.

and i think part of the refusal or fear to write something outside of your experience is because of the way representation is treated as So Special. these characters are So Special that they aren't allowed to be anything other than "representation." they're Not allowed to be characters with complex emotions and interesting motivations, they have to just be Trans or Gay or Disabled or whatever. they're not allowed to be people. which means, at the end of the day, we loop right back around to where we were at the start….

there is bad representation. there are depictions of certain marginalized people that are harmful and that are damaging, i'm not trying to minimize that or argue against it at all, in fact we should all be mindful of that while writing and reading. but i also think it's possible to swing too far in the opposite direction as well and put certain groups of people on a pedestal and not allow them to do anything at all but be Perfect Representation, if that makes sense.

[selfinflictedgunshotwound]

sorry for only saying this type of shit lately but i kinda wanna drive a car straight into a brick wall at the highest speed possible

[b4kuch1n]

dip pen ink comm batch 4 complete! for Ezechiel, @ohwwhuv, and Leo :]

[cerealxperimentslain]

ok wait i so appreciate the blocking advice but wouldn’t filtering that way also have gotten rid of this post with the warning? since the blocked url would be in the text of the post? as well as blocking if they rb something. so i would block the content but also the helpful information. or am i misunderstanding how this filtering works? thank you so very much

(bear with me i am severely sleep deprived for unrelated reasons. i’m gonna try to make sense ✌️😵‍💫)

when you filter a tag or content of some sort, it doesn’t hide it from you. in fact, it stands out when you come across it

using my blocking advice post as an example, this is how it looks when you have the url filtered

and presumably you remember why you filtered the url in the first place, so seeing a post get caught in that filter on a blog like @/killy, it would make you raise an eyebrow. make you go 🤨

so you click (or tap i guess) the “view post”, and then you see the full context

and so you see that and you’re like oh okay, this is a post that got caught in the filter because the url was mentioned in the purpose of showcasing what an incredibly vile racist ey are

in contrast, let’s look at this example that i’m gonna go dig up right now (i had to remove my age old vas/pider filter for this, and also breaking up the url as to not jumpscare people who have good content filters)

this example is less “hmm 🤨” and more “oh ofc😑” but i digress. below is the same post, we clicked view post to see the post

this sort of thing is quite common. not everyone notices the urls in a reblog chain, in fact i’d say it’s quite common for people not to. go into any mildly popular post by one-time-i-dreamt and you will see endless comments stating how they didn’t read the url first or how they missed the url

so when you filter a url or you filter a tag, you are making them pop out on your dash and be extremely conspicuous. and then you can look at the post critically and see what the context is. by filtering urls or tags, you are infinitely more likely to notice the post in the first place, rather than the other way around.

that’s the end of my explanation, but stick around if you wanna hear about one option of what you can do if you see someone you know or suspect simply isn’t aware of who they accidentally platformed

personally i’m always that guy who if i see someone has accidentally reblogged a post with someone like roa/ch-wo/rks or vas/pider or prism/atic-bell (the unholy trifecta of “people who can never resist the urge to add inane bullshit to a post” & are “very popular so their inane additions get spread around” & also “they are gigantic pieces of shit”) (also sorry for the slashes but i’m trying to not make this the most horrifying post ever to people who filter responsibly), if i see a blog like that be nestled in the reblog chain i will dm the person who reblogged it to my dash and let them know who they accidentally put on their blog.

i also always try and provide a link to a post that illustrates why they’re a piece of shit. usually i’ll try and find a post from the blog itself, but that can be hard to do if you don’t know what to search for and how. the easiest way is usually to just plug the url into the search bar and see what comes up (yes you will have to click “view post” a few times to see what’s going on, alternatively you can temporarily remove the filter for that url)

here’s an example that also reminds me i have to add vas/pider back to my filter:

if you have issue finding a post addressing the problems of the blog you’re looking for, i’ve found that the best way to find stuff is to have the search perimeters set to “top post” and “last 6 months” or “last year”, “latest” is sometimes better but often can give you a bunch of 0 notes posts along the lines of “i’m so fucking sick of [blog you searched]”

[evansbby]

When I get home I’m gonna make a post about the different ways I got inspiration for wicked games 4!

[sunnykeysmash]

just realized there's probably a lot of new people in sunnyblr so im gonna shill again the sunny spec script I wrote in 2020 in 2 days

[bismuthburnsblue]

ha so this was supposed to be a long post introducing this project, my plans for it and talking specifically about corset patternd,,,, only this turned very (body terror song playing) for me so im going to skip all my thoughts on the patterns and the pros and cons and which i like more etc and just say: heres two different patterns, which ones looking better?

the projects anne bonny from ofmd and this is for her corset

(readmore as this is body image cw and a random image for tumblr preview thumbnail)

notes:

neither of these is 'properly' fitted, whichever i pick would go through a bunch of work to make it exactly what i want, this is just super rough

this is obviously not appropriate corset fabric which will affect things

the white fabric approximately shows where the strap will sit (very rough)

pattern 1: nora

pattern 2: ally

[four-for-fidelity]

client: umm, excuse me! ☝🤓 this is a sentence fragment. PLEASE be more professional!!!

me: ma'am this is marketing

[silverysongs]

in the dying candle's gleam

In bed, she stares up at the canopy and wonders how it would have been if she’d been braver. Arthur, she would say, I’ve never danced like that before. Arthur, no one has ever insulted me the way you do. Arthur, how many times have you snuck out and been a commoner again just because you can disguise yourself so well? Arthur, you make me frightened and happy all at once. Arthur, I think I want you. Arthur, I think I love you.

And then what? Would he be shocked and then make some awkward excuse and leave? Would he laugh in pure amazement? She thinks of Lancelot, towering above her, bending down to kiss her with such tenderness, looking at her with fire in his terribly noble gaze. No, Arthur would not be so passionate, not at first. But perhaps he would take her hands, and smile like he had today when he was looking at her, so soft, like a boy, shy and sweet, and then he would say, I think I love you too. And perhaps then he would kiss her—not those cold brief kisses that they did for the crowds—he would lean in, slowly, to give her enough time to pull away, and she would hear his breath trembling, and later she would ask him, Was that your first real kiss? and he would look charmingly embarrassed and say, Was it very bad? And then she might say, Well. You just need practice and encouragement.

There is a difference between dreams and reality. Guenevere knows this; she and Arthur and all the rest have been trying for months to close the gap between the two. Reality is hard and harsh and unyielding, difficult to mold, harder to change entirely. Dreams are soft. Like Arthur’s laugh. Like Arthur’s eyes. Like Arthur himself, at the core of who he is, wanting to reach out and touch the world and change it, easily.

Reality is also frightening. It scares her, whatever that unspoken something was, in his eyes, in his touch, in his patience with her black mood, in the wild way he’d spun her around the room and made her laugh. Guenevere lets her dream fade, because she knows she cannot reach out and change what is real: if she says something, she cannot truly predict how he will answer. She rolls onto her side and tries to sleep.

[happy-hermit]

HELLO I WASN'T EXPECTING SO MANY OF YOU DKJSKD THANK YOU OMG <33

Okay very long incoherent ramble incoming I haven't figured everything out yet so here's just the general idea :)

Okay so basically the setting is a sort of like. Medieval setting where magic also exists! Ren is the king of the land which isn't plot relevant at all but it's relevant in my heart ASJKDKJS. Grian is a just sort of a traveler. He hates staying in one spot for too long so he's always hopping from village to village getting into trouble, the usual Grian stuff you know. He's best friends with Mumbo, who's a big name in what i'm calling the industrial district. He's a redstoner, which i'm thinking is a type of like. technology based magic. So he and Grian communicate on ye olde FaceTime via redstone/magic crystals, which is a very new technology that he's basically beta testing on Grian because what else are friends for.

ANYWAY akjsdkjs so Grian is a traveler. Pearl is his sister, also sort of does the same thing except she's been into sailing lately, so Grian can't exactly send her mail. Her address is perpetually changing. But he misses her and wants to check in on her SO he has to go to a wizard to help him send a message :) Just so happens that the next village he stops in knows of one close by...

Enter Scar :D He lives in a tower sort of on a cliffside by the ocean (dramatic flair). He's a good bit away from the village but close enough to walk, other than that he's pretty isolated. The village people act a little weird about him, like he's some kind of mysterious shut-in, or a hermit (hah), so when Grian knocks on the door he expects like. Some old and grumpy magic user telling him to get off his lawn. And it's Scar. Neither old nor grumpy, and in fact he is delighted to have a visitor.

Grian explains what he wants to do and asks what the price is, expecting like. diamonds or emeralds or his soul or something. And what Scar asks for is flowers. Grian is a little worried he's being scammed but ultimately goes through with it. Grian writes a letter and Scar conjures a bird to carry it safely to Pearl, and Grian goes outside and walks a bit until he finds some flowers to pick, and he brings them back to Scar. Scar pretty much lights up when he sees them, and the moment he touches them they get more vibrant and alive, so Grian figures out that he's nature-aligned (which just means he's got a natural talent for nature magic) which is weird because apart from the flowers Grian just brought there just. aren't any plants in his house. But he shakes it off and goes back to the village to stay in his little rented room.

He has to stay in the village long enough to get a response back from Pearl, so he has to visit Scar every few days to check! Cue awkward bonding moments and the forming of a friendship while they wait for the magic mail service to make the rounds. Finally he gets a response from Pearl and of course has to write her back. And of course has to wait for her response to that, and eventually it's just a thinly-veiled excuse to keep hanging around Scar KADSJJKD

Mumbo notices on one of their ye olde FaceTime calls that Grian's been in the same spot for like. way longer than usual. And he starts teasing him about it. ("Did you meet someone?" "...Well." "YOU DID?!")

So they're both falling in love, but Scar is. clearly nervous about something, hiding something. Grian tries to be patient but he's also worried and horribly curious. He invites Scar to walk through the market or the meadow or stargaze multiple times but Scar always looks guilty and scared and makes some random excuse. Grian's confused and a little hurt but is now fully invested in the health and wellbeing of this silly little wizard so he sticks around.

So things are sort of at a standstill. Until one day after a few days away Grian visits Scar again to find him fully panicking and freaking out, and he tells him that Jellie hasn't come back in a few days, and he begs Grian to look for her, telling him he'll do anything if he does. So Grian calms him down and promises to look for her, even as he's wondering why Scar isn't, and he asks if Scar wants to come with him but Scar just shakes his head through his tears and Grian leaves it alone.

He goes and looks for Jellie and finds that she's been "adopted" by one of the village families that thought she was a stray. Grian buys her back from them and takes a very grumpy Jellie back to Scar, who is just. so incredibly relieved and he cries into his cat for a while. Eventually Grian can't help himself and gently asks him why he didn't go look for her himself. Why he didn't leave.

Scar seems to resign himself to something, and he looks up at Grian with dull eyes and a sad smile. "I can't."

Grian asks him what that means. Scar demonstrates by standing up and trying to walk out the door. Glowing purple shackles appear around his wrists and neck, chains connecting back into the tower and fading into the walls. He steps back inside and they disappear. "I can't."

He explains that someone has trapped him here. That they think it's handy to have a wizard at the ready whenever they need one. That they force him to do magic for paying customers but that he never sees a penny of the profits. He doesn't have plants in his tower because he has not been allowed outside in years.

(i haven't decided who the evil person should be yet sdjskj please help.)

Anyway :) Grian starts feeling very, very murderous :)

[vocaloid-song-showdown]

the poll for how to arrange the brackets just finished with proceeding as originally planned winning!

so, without further ado, here are the lineups ^^

note :: songs with a * next to them may require a content warning. i'll provide specific warnings as soon as i have the time, but as of now please proceed with caution

main matchup bracket ::

alice of human sacrifice* by yugami p / fear garden* by chaa

magnet by minato p / romeo and cinderella by doriko

world is mine by ryo / world's end dancehall by wowaka

triple baka by lamaze p / the disappearance of hatsune miku by cosmo p

meltdown by iroha(sasaki) / luka luka★night fever by samfree

fire◎flower by halyosy / trick and treat by oster project

daughter of evil by mothy / dancing★samurai by kanimiso p

rolling girl by wowaka / matryoshka by hachi

madness of duke venomania* by mothy / alluring secret ~black vow~ by hitoshizuku x yama

senbonzakura by kurousa / outer science by jin

doubleganger by kulfiq / mikusabbath by utsu p

jinsei reset button by kemu / common world domination by pinnochio p

the fox's wedding* by masa works design / tokio funka by takamatt

heat haze days by jin / patchwork staccato by toa

six trillion years and an overnight story by kemu / lost one's weeping by neru

aishite aishite aishite by kikuo / echo by crusher p

setsuna drive by taki yoshimitsu / yoake to hotatu by n buna

a fake fake psychotropic by kairiki bear / therefore you and me by tadanoco

my r* by kurage p / i'm glad youre evil too by pinnochio p

chururira chururira dadada by kurage p / mkdr by deco*27

blessed messiah and the tower of ai by hitoshizuku x yama / 86 by dasu

law evading rock by neru / nakakapagpabagabag by dasu

sand planet by hachi / ghost rule by deco*27

monster by kira / hated by life itself by iori kanzaki

cause i'm a liar by mcki robyns p / honey i'm home by ghost

hole dwelling by kikuo / bring it on by giga

meteor by divela / seraphim on the ring by mitchie m

the court jester by thquib / casino by azari

king by kanaria / villain by teniwoha

lower by lanndo / phony by tsumiki

higanbana milk tea by vane / scapegoat by ghost

queen by kanaria / bug by kairiki bear

honorable mention bracket ::

electric angel by yasuo p (original), giga (giga arrange) / freely tomorrow by mitchie m

po pi po by lamaze p / go google it by wintermint p

black★rock shooter by ryo / bacterial contamination by kanimiso p

i like you, i love you by gevanni p / first love academy • school of true love by nem

(also a quick general note ! i don't have everything ready for a formal polished reveal at the time of posting this. i plan on updating this post with links to the songs and also a visual bracket when i have the time. they'll definitely be up soon, so make sure to check back in a bit for them ^^

i'll also make sure that reblogs are turned on for the final version!)