#at first i was happy that her design stayed similar to her old one

[freaky-flawless]

what do you think of g3 twylas design? i think she'd look better with a longer skirt, like really lean into the night gown thing

Hard agree, leaning into a more pajama-esque style would have been really cute and fitting for the direction it seems they're taking her character.

Her outfit is really the only aspect of her design I don't like, it reminds me a lot of g1 but downgraded. With some tweaks it could have been really cute though. Her bunny hood for example, I don't really get?? But if they had given her an oversized hoodie with bunny ears that would have been adorable. I'm not sure if shadows are a big part of her character anymore, but I think some more black/darker colors would compliment the brighter dreamier colors she has now really nicely. (Pastel goth basically. I think a pastel goth style would suit her really well)

Aside from that I don't love the color of the tendrils on her hands either, I don't think they compliment her color pallet at all. The gray she used to have blended a lot better, and added a bit of spookiness to her design.

I am really happy they brought back the glowing eyes though!

[mistressroxielove]

Hey everyone~ I'm back, and this time with a new fixation!

Long story short, I've discovered the new Fairly Oddparents reboot, absolutely loved it and was inspired to make this AU idea for the show! With a slight reimagine/redesign of the characters as well. And the first one I decided to do was Peri!

Here's some more info about my AU:

Fairly Odd Parents AU/Rewrite

Au Name: FairlyOdd Brother

Summary:

Perri (previously known as Poof) recently graduated from Fairy Godparents School and is eager to start granting Wishes for his very own godchild! Only problem is that with his lack of experience Jorgen is weary of giving him an assignment and keeps finding excuses/reasons to not give him a godkid. Realizing it might be a 1,000 years before they give him a chance to be a Fairy Godparent, Perri decides he needs to be a little bold and perhaps, bend Da Rules, to get his foot in the door so to speak. And his answer comes to him from a new neighbor in his human home, a family with a sweet shy 10 year old girl who is absolutely miserable. Perhaps Perri might be able to offer this girl a little comfort and fun as her new Fairy Godbrother!?

(Basically the same premise of the show, except Perri’s first godchild is Hazel, and through a technicality in the rule book, becomes her god brother instead of her godparent.)

ALSO please note this AU is more of a slight reimagine of the original show, meaning I did tweaked / changed some of the characters personality to match the new story I made for them. Nothing majorly different, but again just a heads up before you read on. Hope you like it~

Name: Perri Poof Fairywinkle Cosma (He goes by Perri now but still keeps Poof as a middle name to honor it)

Age: Human equivalent of 22 years old

-Usually it takes at least 1,000 years for a fairy to grow from a baby to an adult, however since Poof spent his first couple of years being raised alongside Timmy, his body magically enhanced itself to basically go through a growth spurt and age as a normal human. But now that he’s fully mature he won't physically age anymore and will stay a 22 year old for at least a couple hundred thousand years.

Sex: Male

Human Physical Description:

-Basically just did a mix between Wanda's and Cosmo human designs. Something simple and fun, I also added some blue to his color design just to make him stand out more.

-I also gave him crocs, I just found the idea cute and thought it would give him a more casual look for his human design

-I was originally gonna give him glasses similar to Cosmo but for the life of me I couldn't make the design work with his hair style, so I just gave him a earring with the same design his wand has

Personality:

-Similar to Cosmo Swavy car sale business man personality from the pilot.

-He’s a smooth talker with a deep rich voice to match, could sell a refrigerator to a eskimo

-Knows his way around rules and is always eager to grant wild and crazy wishes with the most imaginative interpretation possible, this eagerness to break rules can be a blessing and a curse, as this is what gets him in trouble the most

-Is a bit of a smart ass (But in a nice and lovable way), always has to have the last word, can be really petty when he’s mad

-Is really good a persuading people into doing things, though he doesn’t use this power to be malicious, only uses it to get small favors and mostly for Hazel to wish for crazy stuff, again it's never meant to be malicious

-Though he still has a lot to learn before becoming a godparent, he’s extremely sweet and caring to hazel and his friends, and will do anything to keep them safe and happy

-Is eager to proof himself to be useful and mature, is tired of every fairy treating him like a kid despite being older now

-Is a bit flamboyant and cares about his appearance, likes to paint his nails and wears earrings similar to his mother

-Though he does have a good head on his shoulders, he does have a tendency to interpret wishes in uniquely bizarre ways sometimes, something he inherited from his father.

Other fun facts:

-Peri really likes marine life/fishes, since he spent the first couple years of his life living as a fish, he has an appreciation for the creatures. And even has a pet goldfish!

-Despite being 22 years old, the fairy’s still treat him like a baby since a normal fairy baby would have taken at least 1,000 years to grow to maturity. This is what caused him to change his name, desperate to make the other fairy’s take him seriously and to not literally treat him like a baby

-Lives in an apartment building in the human world that is also connected to the fairy world, he’s the first of his kind to have a home like that. For most fairies it's extremely hard for them to ‘act human’ 24/7 which is why most prefer to turn themselves into childhood pets whenever they’re living with their god kid. As being human means they have to walk everywhere, not being able to use magic, and if they mess up once it could expose the existence of fairies and magical creatures in general. Peri however, once old enough to move out of his parents house was vocal that he wanted to live among the humans. He told Jorgen and the fairy council he wanted to live there to understand humans better to be a better godparent to them, but he mostly did it because he missed earth. Missed all the stuff that he grew accustomed to when he was a kid and also likes being able to find people ‘his own age’ to talk and relate to. After his endless demands and persuasion the council finally budge and allowed him to live on earth. But was warned if he was ever discovered to be a fairy, he would lose his godparents license and would never be allowed back on earth ever again.

-He wears a curler in his hair similar to Wanda when he sleeps, just a cute detail I wanted to mention

-Also just like his mother he has a tendency to call the kids/Hazel Buddy similarly to how Wanda likes to call people Sport but still has his own fraze, just a small detail that I thought would also be a cute nod to his parents

-He's also crazy for Chocolate, this is based off an episode in the original show where Wanda went insane just to eat some chocolate. It was just a one off gag but I really love that gag and decide to include it. He loves chocolate and has a dangerous addiction to it, but its still not as bad as Wanda's addiction to the stuff

Short summary of how he ended up with Hazel:

Peri has just recently graduated Fairy Godparent School and is eager to get a godkid, since his parents are still on their 10,000 year old trip he wanted to surprise them with the news of him having a godkid to make them proud of him. However Jorgen is extremely reluctant to give Peri a kid due to his extremely young age, inexperience, and his tendency to always try and bend ‘Da Rules’ as he pleases. So he puts Peri off again and sends him home, much to his annoyance. Irritated and now back at his human home in Dimmadelphia, Peri begins to hatch a plan to get himself a god kid since he knows it would take 1,000 years at least before Jorgen would finally give him a chance. But how could he possibly bend the rules to allow him to mentor a kid without Jorgen assigning him?

The answer comes to him from his new neighbors, a small family with a sweet but shy 10 year old girl who’s having a tough time adjusting to her new surroundings. Due to some hijinks Peri ends up babysitting for Hazel as her parents are now busier than ever with their new jobs and don’t have as much time to watch Hazel. They don’t mean to leave her alone so often, and actually apologize to her constantly for the unforeseen high work time. But it does little to help Hazel with her adjusting to her new environment. With the addition of her having a bad day in school and her brother, do to the storm, is unable to come up and visit until his next break (which is a few months away) Hazel, being miserable and finally had enough and in a fit of rage and desperation, wishes she could just fly to her brother. This wish for the first time activates Peri magic, before he can stop his wand appear and grants Hazel's wish, turning the girl into a fly.

The part of the episode happens similar to the original first episode, with Peri trying to get Hazel home before her parents come back from their work. He eventually does but again similar to the first episode Hazel gets stuck in a venus fly trap as Peri tries to get her to wish to turn back into her original form. After the talk with the ant Hazel realizes her mistake and finally wishes to become human again before her parents could discover what went wrong.

After the commotion, the next day Hazel goes to Peri’s apartment to question who he is and what the heck just happened. Peri tries to deny it but during their conversation he realizes that technically speaking…..Hazel did have good and caring parents. They weren’t the reason why she was sad and miserable, she was miserable because her brother wasn’t with her anymore and she desperately missed him. And technically speaking, there was no rule or need to ask Jorgen or the fairy console to become a kids Godbrother. He only needed their permission to be a Godparent. And besides……..he more than understood the feeling of missing a big brother.

Making his decision he officially introduces himself as Hazel Godbrother (In a similar manner to Dev introduction) and promises to bring a little magic to her life~ Much to Hazel shock and joy, as for the first time since moving to Dimmadelphia, she felt true joy and happiness.

Sooooo ya, tell me what you guys think! Any questions or suggestions for the AU I would love to hear, good to be back!

Previous - Next

[dg-outlaw]

Why No Love for Red Hood: The Hill?

I think it's all in the marketing and about what's being delivered versus what readers expected.

So I almost made this post on a reblog, but I didn't want to overwhelm that thread. Plus, I'm not sure if people get mad when someone does a long reblog on their short OG post? Anyway, the point of that post was that Issue 3 of 'Red Hood: The Hill' came out and no one's really talking about it, especially Jason/Red Hood fans.

I think the biggest problem (IMO) with this series is that someone wanted to write a story about The Hill and some new characters (which is fine), but like the 'Batman: The Hill' comic (which I think this series is sort of a sequel to), it's banking off a known character, Red Hood, to be it's selling point. "Come for the Red Hood, but stay for these other characters and their story." All fine and good, but a little deceptive when the marketing leans more toward it being a Red Hood (and new 'Outlaw' friends) story rather than one where Jason is a random guest star.

Series description:

In Gotham City’s early days, The Hill was one of Gotham City’s most dangerous neighborhoods, one that required the residents to band together to keep themselves safe when the police – and sometimes even Batman – wouldn’t. Now, as the Hill finds itself gentrifying, old habits die hard as the vigilante known only as Strike works with her team to keep the town safe—but she’s not alone. Jason Todd, one of the Hill’s newest residents, is more than happy to don the visage of Red Hood to help Strike keep his new home safe. But a new villain is emerging from the shadows. Will Red Hood, Strike and the Hill’s small militia of vigilantes be able to keep their home safe?

And this brings me back to the marketing and advertising of this series, especially versus the Batman: The Hill comic.

Obviously we can see the artistic parallels between these two covers (above). Overall, good job and nice throwback, but... there's a major difference. These two are not similar.

The first cover has "THE HILL" in bold, prominent text and Batman is in the background. This says that Batman is part of the story, but he seems secondary to whatever's going on in the foreground, which is mostly true to the story.

The second cover has "RED HOOD" prominent in the title with "The Hill" as secondary and smaller. Jason is also front and center with Batman looming behind him (who only just showed up at the end of issue 3. There's only two more issues left). The character of Strike, our new protagonist and The Hill's main hero, is down at the bottom and barely in-frame, further suggesting it's more about Jason (and maybe Batman) than The Hill or other characters. Again, clever marketing and nice design nod to the original cover, but deceptive when it comes to the series content. I don't necessarily blame the cover artist here as they might've been given a different brief on what the story was about and I get the fun throwback to the old Hill cover, but these covers are almost reversed in terms of Bat-character prominence.

In the original, Batman was more intertwined in that comic's story than Jason is in his series, which further adds to the audience letdown. If anything, this series needed to go with the coffee shop musician strategy: play a bunch of cover songs to win over the crowd and then slip in your original music (OCs) here and there. Once you have your audience hooked, go all out with your original stuff and then throw in 'Wonderwall' just for kicks and to keep them invested.

Ultimately, I think the biggest problem of this series is pacing and balance. The series needs more Jason to allow readers time to invest in the new characters, but as those new characters develop through their interactions with him THEN Jason can fade back as a partner character or just random character who comes in to help out. As it is, he's a guest star in series called, 'RED HOOD: the hill' with most of Jason's actions being 'day-in-the-life' stuff or a random action panel or two.

If anything, I think Red Hood #51 and #52 did a better job of establishing Jason as a main player, but also working alongside a new hero (Strike) and citizens of The Hill in solving a case. The covers above also display a more balanced composition and preview of what you're getting. Yes, you're reading a Red Hood comic, but there will be some other significant characters playing in this sandbox that you should care about and watch out for.

Sadly, I think the untrue message DC will take away from this series if it doesn't do well is that: (1) Jason is NOT an instant seller so let's shelf him because he couldn't carry this series (that he's barely in), and (2) readers don't like these new characters (most of which are BIPOC and/or LGBTQ), so let's ditch them and do more Batman stuff. 🤦‍♂️

And that's unfortunate because I think there's potential here had this series been executed in a better way. I see where the writer wanted to go with these new characters and they actually seem like an interesting and cozy bunch, but I feel like I'm stepping into an already established found family/friend group, but I don't really know them and I'm the outsider. So eventually I'll find a random distracted moment to quietly say bye to my friend Jason and slip out before anyone notices... like the socially awkward introvert that I am.

[soshadysoquiet]

TUA S4 alternative options for the Five *event*

Spoilers below, not meant to be taken seriously FYI

Now, I like my Five as AroAce as I am (extremely). But given that TV shows and society has this bullshit propaganda that 'romantic love simply Must occur for a complete being!!' Here's some alternatives that they could have gone for that might have been just as bad but I'd have hated less. (BTW no hate if you write romantic Five Fanfic, not for me but you do you, just wanted this one character to be safe from canon romance)

Bring The Handler back: That would be one fucked up relationship, don't get me wrong, but given they wrote a destined-to-be-fucked romance, have Five struggling to adapt and being coerced into a relationship by her and then realising it's shady and he DOESN'T need this sort of connection because his FAMILY is enough for him and have him kill her.

Make him and his colleague have a thing. True, potentially also problematic as mentally depending on your POV he's 60 or 13 or some mingle-mangled nightmare of the two. In the favour of this pairing I have only that I liked (was it Derek??'s) character design, they've clearly got some similar interests as they work together, they will have therefore spent some quality time together in a Safe space where they could have made a reasonable connection.

Dolores is real in this timeline, or Five somehow birthed her into being. (honestly I thought his colleague was going to turn out to be Dolores and of all the possibilities I would have accepted that the most) For this to work I think Dolores would have needed to be one of the 43 all along and maybe someone who can transplant their consciousness who did similar to Five and got stuck like that, went comatose and mad with it (therefore staying around 13) until Five found her. There, with that, you can fudge around the problematic age thing, they grew up side by side. Thus she and Five really did have a connection, really could talk, and now he gets to live into his old age with someone both mentally and physically the same age as him.

Give him a therapy dog in Pennycrumb that's better than a romance surely who doesn't love a pet?

Kenny's Mom. Idk it would have been whacked AF but I would have laughed my head off and know Five had just lost the plot completely.

He falls in love with another version of himself he meets on the subway. Hell, why not make this a Five that changed gender in the apocalypse and met a mannequin named Donnie, that way we also get more queer representation. Yes, this would also, in fact, be weird AF. But legit hilarious and someone who can match his experience and intelligence. And age.

Let him just have one night stands, that's midway happy right for TV? Just don't make me watch any intimate scenes. You have a Whole other cast, use them. Hell, be brave, do a Klaus / Dave Ghost sexscapade instead.

He has re-found mannequin Dolores. Man has never dealt with his issues that we know of - the show never tells us he does. I thought when they first turned up in the apocalypse from the trains and the sunlight was shining on Dolores that Five was going to steal her. But he could also have just found her again because he couldn't cope.

I think that's exhausted all my awful joke options (though honestly the Dolores two aren't even that bad) would love to hear which your favourite out of these awful options is.

Please reblog for votes, I'm having way too much fun here.

[clumsiestgiantess]

Chapter 24 of The Other-world Universe; at long last we’ve weaponized the tiny! Let’s see what she can do.

all chapters listed here

[Round Three: Rematch]

Thankfully, we moved on from the subject of my old atrocities.  One moment later and we were in the other-world again, at the same spot where I'd practiced with my weapon.  Weirdly enough, the sun was already starting to set there, though it was mid-afternoon when we’d left my world.  "What's going on?" Erica asked, confusedly scanning the sky, "Why is it already getting dark?"  

"There's a slight time difference between my world and yours,” I explained, “They used to be in sync, but I threw them off balance after staying here for so long."  "Huh," Erica mumbled in an impressed tone.  I placed her in the field and knelt down beside her.  "Here it is," I announced, again offering her the piece.  However, since we'd traveled worlds, the plastic piece became a crystalline diamond-shaped stone.  She took it from me, momentarily distracted by its reflective sheen.  "So, I just.. put it in the back of my neck?  Like yours?"  "Actually, I made it so that it sets into the middle of your spine.  I thought that would be easier for your weapon's design."  In a flash, Erica slid the gemstone into place beneath her shirt.  "Wow!  I really can't feel a thing!" she exclaimed, twisting around to feel for it.  "I kinda expected it to be all rough because it's a stone."  I nodded, "That's all part of the design."

Erica excitedly drew both hands behind her back, similar to how I drew one hand behind my neck to grab my gun.  They emerged gripping the handles of two large sword-like devices, connected by thin cords to her back and the gemstone.  Each one was identical — lightweight metal sheets sharpened to a point on one end and a round grooved handle on the other.  The edges were almost impossibly thin and deadly sharp, specially made to be able to cut through anything with ease and precision.  Two-thirds up the weapons’ sheer sharpness was a curved hook that jutted out of the blade to latch onto foes.

I'd upped my game with this new weapon.  Along with the lightweight swords, the gem also gave the wearer superhuman abilities.  While it seemed I couldn’t give myself extra powers besides the ones I arrived with, I could give other-worlders them instead.  Erica could now jump an impressively long distance, and had what was basically super speed.  She could also land a fall from hundreds of feet in the air perfectly balanced and completely unscathed — superhuman durability — which is important when you can jump that high and also not break every bone in your body after coming back down.

At one point I realized that meant I could make Erica my own size instead of trying to shrink myself.  I’d asked her about it while we were weapon planning.  She was originally thrilled by the notion of being a similar height to me, but had later told me in reflective honesty that it was a bad idea.  As much as she wanted to see how it felt to be a giant, Erica told me she would be ‘too tempted to do things she’d regret’.  I wasn’t sure I understood what she meant, but it was her choice, so I scrapped the idea.  Erica seemed perfectly happy with what she had in both weapon and looks.  I had to agree.

In the empty field, I stood up and stepped back a bit, motioning for Erica to try out her new weapon, but she shook her head.  "I saw how badly you screwed up when you were working with yours, and that was after you'd practiced with it for a while.  Can you maybe save me some embarrassment and come back a bit later?  The town's probably worried about you, you know."  I wanted to stay and get her back for laughing at me the first time I'd practiced with my weapon, but Erica was right.  Everyone probably thought I'd run away.  Technically, I did try, but I was back, hopefully with a plan that would work.  

By the time I actually got to the valley, the sky had grown to a vibrant purple, quickly fading to black.  Maybe I should just leave a note or something.  Everyone’s already gone inside by now.  I knew all I had to do was call and someone would come running, but.. I didn’t feel like talking to the founders right then.  Guilt gnawed at me as I briefly vanished into my own world to write my excuse for bailing on everyone earlier.  If I’d had my way, I would’ve been abandoning everyone there to some awful fate.  My explanation devolved into one long apology the longer I wrote it.

Eventually, I stopped myself at a whole page and left the corner of it pinned under a rock near the town.  I did a quick walk-around of the mountains — scouting for trouble.  Surprisingly, there was nothing amiss.  The town was fine, the barrier was intact, and there were no portal people in sight.

Anxious at finding everything normal, I did another sweep.  Still finding nothing wrong, I returned to the spot where I'd left Erica.  However, when I got there she was nowhere to be seen, and all the natural landmarks like rocks and trees were missing.  Well, they were technically there, just in diced pieces.

"Erica?  Where did you go?" I called nervously into the darkening landscape.  Something shot out from the shadows of the forest nearby, zooming directly at my head.  I yelped in a panic and covered my face instinctively, shielding it from an attack.  Nervous laughter filled the space to my right.  "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Alexis.  I didn't mean to scare you, I promise."  I cautiously lowered my arms and turned in the direction of Erica’s voice, finding her sitting comfortably on my shoulder.  "Did you just super speed jump at me?" I asked.  "Yeah.. I'm sorry."  "No, don't be sorry," I chuckled, making my way back to my living space.  "This is good!  Do that on the battlefield tomorrow and you'll scare those awful people right back through the portal they came from."  

Erica was uncharacteristically silent the rest of the way back, leaving my thoughts to fall to worries.  Is she ready to take on people my size?  Not even I was.  "That is.. if you're ready to fight tomorrow,” I added more seriously.  She scoffed, "Oh, I was born ready.  It's just..  You've never seen me fight anyone before, have you?"  I slowed to a stop, processing her question.  "No, I don't think so.  Why?  Are you any good at it?  Because I'm not.  I don't even want to fight!  I'm tired of beating on other people," I laughed.

This time, there was an even longer pause.  Clearly my jokes weren’t helping the mood any.  Usually Erica loves responding to them with another joke or something snide.  I glanced at my shoulder to try and see her better.  "Are you any good at it," Erica repeated quietly, "Yeah, I am.  I just.. I don't want you to look at me differently when you see me fighting tomorrow.  I did tell you I can protect myself, but you've never seen me kick the shit out of someone before."  "Did you.. do that often?" I questioned, slightly confused.  I was a bit shocked to see her expression darken.

"Erica, you don't have to worry about what I might think of you," I told her as I sat down on my other-world 'bed'.  Reaching up to my shoulder, I carefully pulled her in front of me in cupped hands.  "I'll still love you, regardless of what happens."  She smiled, cheeks warming slightly.  "Did you actually want to sleep right now?" I asked, gesturing at the blanket beneath me, "It's a little early for us.  We haven't even eaten dinner because of the time difference."  "Let's have dinner then," Erica suggested, “Then we should at least try to get some rest.”

The food box was sitting right beside my 'bed' where it always was.  I let Erica off and made us some ribs and mac-and-cheese for dinner — one of Erica’s favorite meals the box could make.  Eating from the food box was actually better than eating at home.  With it, I could make virtually any food I wanted, and perfectly.  

Over the course of my meal, I couldn't help but wonder what Erica meant when she confessed she was scared of letting me see her fight.  I guess I can imagine her being fairly ruthless when it comes to that sort of thing, especially after they kicked me down and hurt me during that last struggle.  Now Erica had a score to settle for both her own kind and for me.  

Admittedly, I was also not really the fighting type.  Before that fight yesterday I’d never actually had to physically defend myself from someone before.  The only reason I gave myself a weapon at all was to have a backup plan.  Its purpose was to protect the town and potential others with barriers.  The gun function was only made with the intention of trying to scare the scientists off.  Now that I knew we were on the brink of war, that would all have to change.

When I'd finished eating, I sat awake for a while, not quite tired, but needing sleep all the same.  I'd need all the rest I could get to heal up before I went back to fighting again.  Just because Erica will be with me doesn't mean I get to take a break. I know she wants to fight, and I really don’t know what she’s capable of, but I can’t imagine she can take on a small army without me there to back her up.  

Late into the night, I finally lay down to get some rest.  I thought Erica was already asleep; she was lying on her side, facing the empty woods, but when I lay down, she sat up.  I shifted sideways so we were facing eachother — my mouth opening and closing a few times before I found what I wanted to say.  

"Erica, I have an important question for you," I stated, inhaling softly.  She stood, looking over at me nervously.  "What is it?"  "Today I gave you something that's highly dangerous — made specifically to kill giants.  I- I inadvertently gave you abilities that can overpower me at any given moment.  So.. I'm just asking.. for peace of mind, really…"  I cleared my throat, anxiously meeting her gaze.  "Can I trust you with them?"

My question lingered in the air for a moment as Erica's eyes widened in shock.  With careful steps, she moved closer, brushing my cheek with her hand.  A small smile spread across her lips as she looked me over lovingly.  "I'd like you to," Erica responded gently.  At once I was back on the cliffside, leaning against it as Erica stood on the mansion's balcony.  After I offered to make up for everything I’d done, she asked me one simple question: Can I trust you?  The memory replayed in my head the moment Erica answered me — a familiar yet previously forgotten echo of the past.  Her answer.. that’s what I replied, isn’t it?

Erica’s hand dwindled on the surface of my cheek for a while.  She stood in front of me, trying to read my questioning expression.  A small kiss lightly pecked the tip of my nose, and I smiled, pulling her close.  Erica giggled as my lips brushed against her body.  “I knew I could trust you,” I whispered, mouth barely an inch from her.  “Just making sure.”  My fingers laced around her tiny form and I held her close to my chest.  I could feel her miniscule hands pull my shirt aside, snuggling into the warmth of my skin.  I fell asleep shortly afterwards, feeling ready for the trials of the next day.

The following morning, we were both up and ready rather early.  I made my way to the Cavern Town with Erica on my shoulder.  Both founders were outside when I arrived, standing by my letter.  It looked like they were arguing.  Another pang of guilt dashed through my chest, but I shoved it down.  I knelt in front of the two as they stepped away from my towering form.

"Finally!" Mr. Stoll cried, "Where the hell have you been!?  The giants are threatening to destroy our town!  They're all coming down from the camp and-"  Ms. Ashford put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back slightly.  She whispered something harshly to him, but I couldn't hear anything.  I glanced at Erica, but she shook her head.  They were too far away for either of us to hear them.  It looked as if they were arguing again.  I waited patiently for them to address me, but their fight had only grown more heated.  "I'm sorry," I interrupted, "but did you say the giants are on their way here?"  "Yes," Ms. Ashford answered me, "But we won't ask you to fight them because you're inexperienced and can't handle the stress of fighting off an army."  Many of her words had pointed edges to them, directed at Mr. Stoll who stood defiantly with his arms crossed.

"She won't fight them!" Erica called, "At least not alone!  I'll fight them off for the safety of the town and for Alexis' safety too!"  I smiled gratefully at Erica, feeling a bit better about my whole awful predicament.  "Ha!  You fight them?" Mr. Stoll scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous!  You're just going to get yourself killed!  I'm surprised your giant friend hasn't talked you out of it yet!"  A wrathful glare distorted Erica's features.  "I will fight them, and I'll win!  You’ll see!  Come on, Alexis, let's get out of here."  

She tugged on my shirt to get me to stand back up.  Knowing this argument would only get worse the longer I stayed, I followed her command and left the valley after giving quick instructions to the founders.  “Keep everyone inside the barrier no matter what.  This scare will hopefully be over soon.”  

Erica growled under her breath the moment I left the exit to the valley.  "That old bastard, I'll show him!  You don't even need to fight, Alexis; I'll deal with them."  "Erica, don't go in over your head on this," I warned.  "What, you don't think I can do this either?" she quipped, voiced edged in malice.  "No..  I do, I do."  My voice tapered off in an almost worried uptone.

We silently waited at the foothills of the valley.  Some time later, the air buzzed with anxious electricity, like the moments before a storm.  Just up ahead, a cloud of dust spread out over the horizon.  The silhouette of a small army marched its way towards the mountains where we stood — about twenty people, maybe a few more.  I reached behind my back and pulled out my gun, anxiously switching it to multi-shot mode.  "Alright, get ready.  Here they come."  Erica grabbed her shining weapons and hunched down on the very edge of my shoulder.

When they got close enough, I unleashed a line of glowing bullets spiraling in the portal-worlders’ direction, and charged.  Closer to the front line, I generated a shield for myself and Erica zoomed away off my shoulder, rocketing through the air towards her first target.  We were both so pumped with stress and adrenaline that we were almost eager to fight.  However, as Erica came within an arm's reach of the first 'giant', they swung their rifle-esqe gun through the air.  It made contact with a sickening crack and swept her out of the way in an instant.  The attack was so sudden and so swift; my throat dropped into my stomach.  "ERICA!"  I skidded to a halt, too shocked to move, and was immediately tackled to the ground.

No no no, please!  It's only her first fight!  She can't be dead!  But from the awful noise and the force of that blow… there really weren't many alternatives.  "ERICA!" I screamed again.  These people came here to collect me.  They could care less about some other-world person like Erica getting in their way.  That woman smacked her out of the air as if she were nothing more than an annoying bug!  I thrashed out of someone's grip, blasting the group backwards with a shot of my gun.  On my hands and knees, I scrambled away from them to collect Erica and dodge back home.  Just let her be alive!

Before I could find her, I was dragged back to the group.  One of the 'giants' had grabbed my ankle.  He pinned my arm down so I couldn't shoot anything, and called the others over to subdue me.  I desperately tried everything I could think of.  Turning invisible helped some — they couldn't quite see where I was to hold me down — but it was pointless with the crowd of people encircling me.  Again and again I tried to lift my arm out of the person's grasp.  I just wasn't strong enough.  Deadpan faces surrounded me; my hands were forced behind my back.  One moment a man stood menacingly over me, weapon raised to strike, the next moment he'd gone slack.  A smiling red line oozed along his neck.

I watched in wide-eyed terror as the people around me fell to the ground.  Blurs of motion zig-zagged around them, followed by wide red gashes and deep bubbling stab wounds.  I sat up warily, watching the chaos unfold around me.  People fired randomly into the air while an inescapable weapon struck their chest and left them with two large gashes that punctured their lungs and heart.  I flinched slightly every time someone cried out in agony and stumbled to the earth, clutching their neck or chest.  One by one, angry red wounds appeared on each of the 'giants', and they began to topple over, gasping for air and coughing up reddened bile before collapsing.

The last few ran for it, and I shakily stood to watch them.  They held up their shields in desperate defense, but it was no use.  I could only stare numbly as they hit the ground.  It happened so fast I could've sworn they'd tripped and fell.  No, they weren't getting up.  Pools of blood seeped into the dirt beneath them, staining the grass a glossy dark red.  Within the span of five minutes, all twenty or so people were lying dead with their vital organs and veins shredded or stabbed through.

My legs buckled and gave out beneath me.  I closed my eyes tightly, breathing heavily as I tried to keep myself from shaking.  The deep breathing only made things worse, however; the strong smell of blood stung my nostrils.  Despite the fact that every one of those people wanted to hurt me and those I cared about, it was mortifying to see them all killed so violently in such quick succession.  

It seemed like I'd been in a trance forever, but in a few moments, I was woken.  "Alexis!"  Something too quick for my brain to comprehend raced through the air in front of me.  I yelped as its blurred form struck towards me, scrambling backwards instinctively.  My pulse thrummed in my neck — eyes widening in fear as I tumbled over the body of someone who’d died.  Blood oozed out of their chest and smeared across my back, sticking my shirt to my skin.

The weapon, which I only then processed was Erica, landed a few feet away, standing openly in the now corpse-littered field.  "...Alexis?"  It took me a moment to come to my senses.  Every time I tried to focus, my head spun dizzily.  When I finally got my emotions in check, I slowly crawled forward.  Erica’s sentiment from the night before dashed through my head — ‘I don't want you to look at me differently when you see me fighting tomorrow.’

When I was close enough to read her expression, my heartstrings tore apart.  Erica stared down at her reflection in the bloodstained blades she held limply at her sides.  Her face and body was spattered with droplets of crimson, and her mouth was open in silent shock, as though she didn't recognize the person staring back at her.  For a moment, I hadn’t either.

Slowly, she lifted her head to look up at me.  “It’s.. it’s not…”  Erica stammered on her words, glancing out over all the people she’d so ruthlessly killed, then back to my face.  My expression must’ve looked horrified.

"I'm not like you," she whispered, "I didn't have the privilege of a family that cares.  I never felt 'safe'.  At home or anywhere else."  I sat stunned, waiting patiently for her to continue.  Erica shuddered, holding up one of her bloody, sword-like weapons.  "If you call yourself a monster for killing people you didn't think were alive to begin with…"  She paused, fighting not to start crying in the middle of her sentence.  Struggling to hold back tears, she changed it again.

"This is why I didn't want you to see me fight.  I- I don't want you to see what kind of person I really am.  I've done so many things you don't know about…  Now you're scared of me!"  She cried out suddenly, gesturing to how I'd pulled away from her, "Alexis, please don't run!  I need you!  I promise I would never hurt you!"  Her voice tapered off into tears, and she fell to the ground, weapons disappearing into the crystal in her back.

Awful doesn't even begin to describe how I felt.  I hadn’t meant to back away from her, but I had to admit, her angered rampage was nothing short of terrifying.  "Erica, I'm right here," I reassured her gently, coming closer.  "You didn't scare me off.  I'm not going anywhere."  "But.. You- You don't even know me!" she sobbed, "I- I realized last night- you don't know who I am!  You don't kn-"  "Then tell me." 

Erica stared up at me from the ground.  She tried to stand, but her legs gave out — dropping her down to the grass below.  It was as if even her own body abandoned her.  I cautiously held out a few fingers for Erica to lean on, and she gripped them fiercely.

"If you're worried I might not want to stay with you, then let me know why.  If you truly believe I don't know you, could you tell me who you are?"  Erica tried to speak, but gritted her teeth tightly as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.  Shakily, she pulled herself into my hand and tucked her knees tightly against her chest.  I gently folded my fingers around her tucked-up form and brought her to a smaller area of rock away from the aftermath of her anger — somewhere where we could see eye to eye.

Erica slowly made her way onto the ledge beside me.  Once she managed to sit herself down, I put my hands around her in a light grasp to keep her still, delicately wiping the tears and blood from her face.  She quieted ��� breath hitching for a moment as she stared up at me wide-eyed while I did my work.

"There you are," I stated softly, swiping away the last splotches of red.  "It's alright, Erica.  Just take a deep breath; it's ok."  I waited as she took a few long inhales of the crisp air around us, letting out a shuddering sigh after calming down a bit.  She was silent for a while.  Erica sat soaking in the warmth and safety of my hands, eyes closed tightly.

"Are you really sure you want me to tell you?" she finally asked, peering uncertainly up at me.  Nodding, I sat back and let my arms rest beneath my chin as I settled down to listen.  "Go ahead, I won't say a word until you're done."  "Ok..."  Erica settled down too, keeping herself even with my height by sitting on the highest point on the rock.  It was a dangerous spot, but with her new weapon, she was practically immune to getting hurt from a fall.  Apparently that gave her immunity from being struck out of the air, too.

After clearing her throat a few times to stall as she thought, Erica finally ventured into her past.  "I guess I should start with my family…  Mama and my father were both really young when she had me.  I was, as my father always reminded me, an accident.  He never liked me much, and as I grew up, he really started to hate me.  I think he blamed me for everything he didn't like about his life.  Both my parents had hidden from their lives to hide the truth of my.. coming into the world.  We were always struggling for money, and almost every dollar was put towards me.  My mom loved me wholly, no matter what.  But my father only saw me as something that was dragging him down, wasting his time and his money.  No matter what the cause of his anger was, he would take it out on me.  Occasionally Mama, but mostly me.”  

“When I was young, it was just a lot of yelling; I learned not to let words affect me.  I got older, and his 'lectures' started taking less and less effect."  Erica stopped, glanced up at me, then turned away.  "The verbal abuse became physical abuse.  Mama didn't want to make him madder than he already was, so she never bothered to try and get him to stop.  I think she might have tried the first few times it happened, but then she started ending up at the end of his punches instead, so she left me to deal with it."

She gasped in a slight sob, looking to the sky as if asking someone above to help her speak.  After a brief pause, she continued.  "By 15 I was working two jobs in between school — one before and one after.  I told myself it was so I could afford the things I needed, because my parents refused to care about me or my problems, but I just wanted to stay out of the house.”

“For my 16th birthday, I bought myself a pocketknife.  Guys started to prowl after me on the streets.  I knew I needed some way to protect myself.  The first time I used it, it wasn't even on one of those creeps.  It was my father.  He'd lost his job while I was at school.  When I got home, Mama was lying on the ground and I could've sworn he'd killed her.  I tried to run, but he managed to pull me back inside with a hand over my mouth.  I thought he was going to kill me too; I thought he'd finally lost it.  So I stabbed him until he let me go, and ran."

Erica turned back to me now.  My mouth had dropped open in shock, and my hands had already inched forwards to hold her, but she wasn't done.  "I lived in various places for a few weeks.  Mostly an abandoned factory.  It became my new home until the cops found me.  They-  They tried to take me home.. but I thought they were lying.  I thought they were coming for me because I’d killed my father.  I was scared.  I…”  

Her arms drifted around herself as she began shaking.  “I lost it.  I attacked them and tried to run but they just cornered me and pinned me down.  M-My knife caught one of them in the face.  I ended up in jail that night, but eventually I was dragged back to my house where I found Mama wasn't actually dead, she was only unconscious when I saw her.  Unfortunately, neither was my father.  He left once I came back home.  He tried to hurt me one more time — for causing so much trouble with the cops — but I bought a better knife that same day I was brought back home after sneaking out that night.  I nearly did kill him, then.  He didn’t even realize he had it coming.  By then I was really getting sick of feeling scared."

"So he ran, and the day I turned 18, I left too.  Mama was barely around because of work, but she'd told me that she was sorry for everything after my father left.  That she regretted not doing something more to stop him.  We grew slightly closer, but I never forgave her for letting that happen to me.  The moment I could, I left and I never looked back.  That's my childhood," she ended coldly.

Erica purposefully kept her gaze off mine — the same kind of move I'd pull in school so the professor wouldn't call on me for an answer.  "That's..  I don't think there's a word for how horrible that is…” I said quietly.  Gently, I reached towards Erica, but she shifted away from my grasp.  “I’m not done.  There’s still John.”  “If you don’t want to, Erica, you don’t have to tell me anything else-”  "No, no, I'm getting to him," she sighed, wiping away tears.  "That's the part you really should know.  Because you're kinda involved in it."

Erica took a few more shaky breaths, and I moved my hand near her side to show her I was right with her.  She glanced back at me briefly, teary-eyed.  Shakily, Erica reached out and put a hand over my finger.

"So," she continued, "John.  Now that I was out of both home and school, I worked full time and got about five hours of sleep each day between jobs to cover my expenses since I was living entirely on my own.  Despite working constantly, I just couldn't scrounge up enough money to survive.  My problems were drowned away by shots of alcohol.  Another wonderful gift from my father: alcoholism.  I wasn't even old enough to drink, but it helped.  Kind of…  It helped me mentally.  Physically, it got me fired.  And broke.  I was at the club one night — thinking about possibly living out of my car — when I met John, my 'knight in shining armor'."  

Erica glared wrathfully at a rock nearby.  "I wasn't very drunk yet, but we hit it off.  Soon we were in his car slowly casting off layers of clothing until we had nothing left.  Like I said, I wasnt that drunk yet, so soon enough I came to my senses and ran off — scared that I’d lost control of myself like that.  I struggled trying to find a new job and still keep my secondary one, but it was like everything was caving in around me."

"Flash forward to a week and a half later.  I'm completely and utterly wasted in the same club, and John finds me.  I'm too far gone to really know what the hell I'm doing, and the next thing I know, he has me in a back room pinned naked beneath him."  Erica could probably see me tense up at that point, because she paused to glance knowingly at me.  "I only have snippets of what happened the rest of the night, but I met him for the first time completely sober a day later.  It was at the store I worked at.  I don't know how he figured out where I worked, but he also knew I needed money, badly.  I tried to slip out the back door, but he caught up to me and quickly threw out a deal: a paycheck triple what I made working both my jobs.  'All I had to do', he said, 'is earn it.'  I could have the financial security I desperately dreamed of, if I could just come by and.. well.. please him."

I pulled backwards off the rock, appalled.  "I know," Erica agreed, "I felt that way too, and at first I turned him down rather forcefully.  But in the end.. I- I needed that money.  I did what he asked, we went clubbing, got drunk, got laid, then did it all over again.  Same time next week.  Over months of this, he'd forced me into someone else.  He made me depend on him for.. everything.  John brainwashed me to abandon my more aggressive tactics.  He called it 'taming' me.  To cope, I convinced myself we were in some kind of twisted relationship."

"Months blurred together and all of it happened so often it became normal.  For both me, who should’ve ran long ago, and John, who was getting bored.  On one of my off days, I found him with someone else — another poor soul who'd been suckered into his schemes.  In my twisted fantasy, I saw that as cheating.  I dumped his ass in a blind rage, not realizing that I had no other way to make money."  Erica turned back to me and smiled ever so slightly as she gazed into my worried eyes.  "The night you found me was the same night I ‘dumped’ him.  You gave me all that cash because you knew I needed it.  But you never knew why I needed it."

"I- I just thought you'd, like, lost your job or something…" I stammered.  "I mean, technically I quit."  I stared at her, piecing together the jigsaw puzzle of what I'd known about her and what I hadn't.  "Well, at least now I know the truth."  "Not all of it," Erica amended, "Stuff happened during the four years you were gone."  I shuddered, “Oh god, Erica you really don’t have to-!”  “It’s ok.  I think…  I think I want to.  I want you to know.”

She waited as I settled back down.  "Once you left, I had about a year and a half of complete freedom before the invasion of giants.  I was devastated that you actually, permanently, left, but there wasn’t anything I could do; I had no way to reach you.”

“I had everything I needed thanks to the box of never–ending money, but then the giants arrived.  At first I thought you had brought them here — to- to get back at me somehow — but I never felt our connection.  My house, along with thousands of others, was destroyed.  Thankfully, I lived on that cliff.  I hid in the mountains for safety, but a lot of people weren't as lucky, and got abducted.  I waited for you.  I thought you might know something about it because it was your kind that was attacking.”

“After a day or two of hiding, I couldn't keep waiting.  I didn't have any food or water left.  There were plenty of abandoned cars in the wreckage of the neighborhood below, so I took one into the city to see if anyone was there.  I saw John and his gang when I drove in.  They hadn't spotted me, but.. I don't know.. the sight of any familiar face was enough to make me overjoyed.  His men almost shot me, I raced at them so quickly.  He held them back, though.  He said he'd take me in with open arms.  I didn't know what that entailed until it was too late."  Erica had to close her eyes for a moment.  Again I placed a few fingers by her side to reassure her that I was there, and nothing awful would happen.

"I- I was locked up when I got back to their base.  Things had taken an awful turn during the several days of uncontrolled apocalypse, and I learned about what was actually happening.  Each of the men that worked for John had taken girls off him in the years prior.  He'd lure them in, then convince them to go with someone else, and they were never seen again.  I'd been the lucky one.  I was John's 'little girl'.  God, I hated it when they called me that.”

“The young woman I saw him 'cheating' with was another mark.  She was there, too.  There were eight of us, including me.  The gang members did with us what they pleased.  Sometimes we were even traded off for the night.  I got special treatment, though, because I was with John.  I stayed in his room and got the same privileges he had, minus my freedom.”

“One by one, the others started dying off.  Starvation and dehydration took half of them.  It’s the apocalypse; there wasn't much food to go around, and they were already being fed last.  One of them escaped.  I really don't know how she managed that.  The other two committed suicide.  I also don't know how they managed that either.  The men were really strict about not letting either of those things happen.  We were drugged a lot of the time so we couldn't escape or die.  But just like the food, the drugs started running out, and they made their move.  A few months before you showed up, I became the sole survivor.  I tried to escape like that one woman did.  I think her name was Marley, but we rarely got called by our actual names.  They usually had a plethora of pet names for us."

"Anyway.. I tried escaping, but I got caught.  The punishment for escape is torture.  Not death, oh no, we were too valuable to be expendable."  An icy, sarcastic tone crossed through her voice, and I shivered.  "John didn't want them to punish me.  He knew the rest of the men were jealous that I was still there.  If he let them punish me, I wouldn't make it out alive.  John devised a plan; he would make a spectacle of torturing me himself.”

“At that point, I was desperately fighting for my freedom.  I'd been so close to escaping.  I didn't stick to the plan, as I'm fairly sure you saw.  I attacked him when he tried to hurt me, and the moment I did, the other men were absolutely going to kill me for it.  You stepped in before they could do anything — murdering everyone I'd daydreamed about murdering myself in one fell swoop.  I was back on drugs because they didn't want me escaping while I was being ‘punished’, so I wasn't even sure if what I saw was real.  When I woke up back at my destroyed house I hadn't seen in years, I thought I was dreaming.  Then I saw you."  Erica slid off her perch at the edge of the rock and came a bit closer, running a hand down mine as she walked.

"You were older, and you were really pretty.  If I'd seen you on the street under more normal circumstances, I'd have been tempted to make a move."  "But.." I interrupted, "Sorry, it's just…  Weren't you.. you know, into.. guys?"  Erica chuckled slightly, shaking her head.  "What part of my story made you believe that?  The part where a guy payed me to fuck him, or the part where a group of guys kidnapped me and chained me up to do that?"  

I flinched, "I- I just thought.. because of the time you and John.. the first night.. in the car…"  My voice faltered as I tried, and failed, to get my point across.  "Alexis, I never liked guys.  The only times I did were when I was drunk, drugged, or forced to feel that way."  She stepped up to me and took my pointer finger into her hands — hugging it to her chest.  "That's my story," she finished, "You were there for the rest, so now you know my whole life, basically, from start to right now."  I sat there for ages, processing the last of the puzzle pieces.  All the mysterious gaps that hindered my view of her suddenly filled in.  "H- How do you feel?" Erica asked me.  "That…  Explains a lot," I noted.  Sitting back to take everything in.

“See?” she asked me quietly, “I’m an awful person, aren’t I?”  I whipped around to face her in such sudden shock she bolted upright.  “No!  No, you aren’t!  Not at all!  Erica, you are none the worse in my eyes than you were yesterday, or the day before.  If anything, you've gotten better because I finally understand.  You have every right to be as angry and dangerous as you are.”

Erica stared at me for a long time.  I could feel her gaze boring into me as she searched over my expression.  It was silent for a long moment, broken by Erica's voice, softened with uncharacteristic hesitation. "Can you hold me?"  My eyes widened in soft surprise.  Erica stood on the rocks beside me, having just confessed the entirety of the horrible details of her life.  She craned her neck almost all the way back to look at me — tears glistening in her eyes.  "Please?"

"I-  Yes, of course," I nodded, knowing it must've been awfully hard for her to tell me everything.  I suspected something strange was going on since the day I returned — sooner than that, actually — but I never would've guessed anything as wild or as horrible as what she'd confessed.

Erica gasped a quiet whimper as I carefully laced my fingers over her body, bringing her to the edge of the rocks.  Shifting forward, I placed a delicate kiss on her neck and jaw.  She sobbed softly, pressing desperate kisses against my lips over and over again through quiet tears.  I could taste the salt of them against my lips.  “Shhh,” I whispered softly, reaching up to stroke her head.  “You’re ok; it’s all ok, Erica.  I’ve got you.  You’re safe.”  “Do y-  Do you still t-trust me?”  Again, I kissed her — lowering myself to press my lips to her stomach and letting her head rest against me.  “Of course I still trust you.”

Carefully curling my fingers around Erica's torso, I paused to let her raise her arms just slightly so they wouldn't be pinned to her sides.  My heart skipped a beat as I tightened my grip, lifting her off the ground.  I always knew she was small, but holding her this way, I became incredibly aware of how fragile she was.  It had always been at the forefront of my mind whenever we got close.  I’d gotten used to it, but now it was suddenly as if I were holding her for the first time.  At any moment, I could easily hurt her, and that scared me.  Any accidental movement I made could bruise her perfect hazel skin, or even worse, snap the tiny bones in her little body.  

Each of my fingers twitched slightly; stuck battling between tightening my grip so Erica wouldn't fall, or loosening it so she wouldn't be crushed.  Once I decided on an even mixture of the two, I couldn't help but lightly gasp in awe.  I could feel Erica’s miniscule heartbeat pounding away beneath my thumb.  Her lungs expanded just slightly, pressing into the pads of my fingers every time she drew another breath.

With her lifted to my face, I realized Erica seemed to be just as fascinated as I was.  She hung in my grasp, legs dangling below my palm, with her hands placed gently on my thumb in front of her.  I could see her expression shifting slightly in a myriad of ways, staring wide-eyed at the massive digit before her.  As if on its own, my other hand reached for her — flattening out beneath her so she wouldn’t be hanging in the air.  Erica's tiny heartbeat skittered beneath the pad of my thumb while she eased herself into my palm.  

Only after I was certain she’d sat down did I gently release her.  However, Before I could move my hand away, Erica reached out and grabbed it — watching, transfixed, as her whole hand fit nicely onto the pad of my single finger.  With one of her own miniscule digits, she lightly traced the outline of my fingerprint and I fought the instinctive urge to shudder at her feather-light touch.  

Finally, she locked eyes with me.  Erica's loving expression shifted to a muted worry.  "You're just.. so much," she whispered, "And I love it, I really do.  It's just..  Sometimes I wonder why you'd love someone like me."  Erica's gaze flitted away, "Wouldn't you be happier with someone who doesn't fit in the palm of your hand?  Someone who isn't.. three and a half inches tall?"  I smiled slightly at the irony of the situation.  Up until the day Erica kissed me the first time, I'd been asking myself similar questions: Why would she care about someone like me?  Wouldn't she be happier with someone her own size?  It was so obvious now.

I placed my thumb lightly over her hand, still grasping the pad of my pointer finger.  "Erica," I began earnestly, "You mean more to me than everyone from every world.  I would tear down mountains for you — you know I have.  The four years I lived without you were painstakingly, agonizingly, awful.  As long as I searched and as hard as I tried to forget, nothing ever quite filled the hole you left in me."  

I smiled sadly, remembering the endless days filled with yearning as I desperately tried to forget what happened — how I convinced myself it was all some elaborate fantasy just to force myself away.  I was miserable, confused.  I hadn't understood why it hurt so badly to lose her trust.  Multiple failed relationships only further proved what I hadn't recognized.  

"How could I ever be with someone like myself if the love of my life is literally sitting in the palm of my hand?"  Erica blushed furiously, smiling that wonderful smile I'd fallen for, long before I'd realized I'd fallen for her.  "You're beautiful, strong," I continued, "You haven’t given up on me even when I gave up on me.  I love you Erica.  No matter how unlovable you tell yourself you are, I will always love you.  Never doubt that."  

Erica's eyes watered, her gaze one again fixed on mine.  I gently slid her hand out from my fingers and cautiously brushed the pad of my pointer finger across her cheek, swiping away the tears that coasted silently down their plush surface.  Just above the digit, I could see the jagged line of Erica’s scar — a little mark against her that would likely always serve as a reminder of her past.  I just hoped she could see it as I did: the reason I’d stayed to protect her; the reason I stayed long enough to love her.

I curled my fingers around Erica in a smaller version of a hug — bringing her against me.  Her subtle smile brightened as she leaned against my chest, rubbing the rest of the tears from her eyes off against my shirt.  "Thank you," she whispered, her voice choked with emotion.  "I just can't quite get over how lucky I am to have you, Alexis. You mean everything to me.  I honestly don't know where I'd be without you."

My smile stretched to a grin as I stared lovingly down at Erica's tiny form cupped in my hand.  "One day," I stated with unquestionable certainty.  "One day I'll find a way to make myself your size, I promise.  We can live together here, once everything’s over."  She looked up at me, hope gleaming in her glassy green eyes.  "Can you do that?  Can I have you at my own height instead of.. me at yours?"  My hand subconsciously rose to my gemstone weapon, tucked into the back of my neck.  "I've tried many, many times."  I surprised myself at how tired my voice sounded in that last sentence.  I wasn't exactly desperate to find a solution — most of my attempts had happened years ago when we were only friends — but I longed for one.  "So far nothing's worked, but I'll keep trying.  There has to be a way."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Erica reassured me, "I still love you regardless.  After all, this is what I fell in love with," she added with a smile, gesturing at my height.  I chuckled lightly, but the longing was still there nonetheless.  It certainly wasn't as painful as the years I'd left — she was right there with me.  However, I so badly wanted us, together, the same size.  I wanted to sit by her side, both of us leaning lovingly against one another.  I wanted all the small, intimate things everyone but us could do.  I yearned for the day when Erica could hold me for a change.

I leaned back on the rock Erica had been sitting on.  The frightening scatter of corpses again filled my vision.  "Thank you for saving me, Erica."  I gestured to the pile of soldiers that had been surrounding me earlier.  "I don't want to hurt any more people, but I think I might have to."  She sighed, looking solemnly at her massacre.  "I don't want you to do this either," she confessed, "I feel like such a horrible influence, or a hypocrite."  Erica chuckled half-heartedly, "I've tried to get you to stop hurting my people, only to turn around and kill a bunch of yours."  I grumbled slightly, "Everyone needs to quit calling them 'my people'.  They aren't anything like me; they're not even from my world!  They just happen to be my size."  

A tiny hand patted one of my fingers to calm me.  "Ok, I'm sorry.  Look, if we can just use this fight to scare the rest of the giants away, everything will go back to being kinda normal, right?"  I shrugged, jostling Erica slightly in my cupped hands.  "I have no idea.  If I were them, I'd just move to another area that I know isn't protected by a rogue superpowered person and her tiny killing machine."

At this, Erica laughed nervously.  "Was I really that scary?"  "Well.." I stammered, "Yeah, but it was also pretty badass."  Her laugh grew more genuine before abruptly cutting off with a cry of pain.  My fingers retracted in an instant, and I brought her worriedly to my face.  Erica flinched confusedly, and glanced downward at her side.  Hesitantly, she pulled up her shirt slightly so she could look at herself.  The skin on her left side bloomed with gigantic purple bruises that stretched across her whole body.  "Erica!" I gasped in concern, "That was where I got hit by that gun," she realized quietly.  

"Erica, we need to get you to a hospital right now!  I heard bones crack when that woman hit you!  I- I thought you'd died!"  Immediately, I was on my feet.  Stepping over the bodies of fallen soldiers, I hurried back towards the Cavern Town as quickly as I dared.  "No, it's.. I'm fine!"  However, the moment she spoke, she started coughing violently.  Minuscule red droplets spattered my palm.

Back within the valley, I found a few people waiting just inside the barrier.  Isabel and Marcus were there, as well as Ivan and a few others I didn't recognize.  I rushed over to them and knelt in a hurry.  "Erica's hurt!" I called, "She got hit badly during the fight!  I think something's broken, but I don't know…"  Ivan dashed off down the tunnel, yelling for help, while Marcus glanced fearfully past me.  "What about the giants?  Are they coming, or did you fight them off?"

At first, I was furious that Marcus had ignored Erica's desperate situation, but I soon realized that a hoard of angry giants was something you'd want to be warned about sooner rather than later.  I shook my head, "Erica got rid of them.  No one's following me here; you're all safe."  He gave a sigh of relief just as Ivan returned with a few people and a stretcher in tow.  I held out my hand with Erica in it.  She was still conscious, but had doubled over in pain — face contorted in agony.  All I could do was watch in silent fear as they took her away into the depths of the city.

Marcus tried to ask me more questions, but Isabel dragged him off, scolding him about being more considerate.  I sat devastated, unsure what to do.  I wanted to be with Erica for whatever happened, but I couldn't get inside the city at my height.  

The only person still there, Ivan, glanced back and forth between the other end of the tunnel and mine — torn between following her or staying to calm me down. He stepped hesitantly out of the barrier and put his hand over mine.  "She'll be fine," he reassured me, "The doctors here know what they're doing.  They've dealt with injuries way worse than hers."  "Since when have they ever dealt with battle wounds?" I spat, a bit harsher than I meant to.  Ivan pulled his hand back, but stayed where he was.  "They haven't dealt with battle wounds," he replied calmly, "I said they've dealt with worse.  They’ve had to save people pulled from the wreckage the giants leave in their wake — half-dead people that fall from the giant's grasp and then get left behind.”

My anger sobered slightly at Ivan's descriptions.  Admittedly, they did sound a lot worse than Erica.  I took a shaking breath and stared longingly at the faint glimpse of the Cavern Town, now Cavern City, beneath my protective shield.  There were so many more people now that the other town I’d saved had moved in as well.  "Do you mind staying here with me?" I asked Ivan, "You don't have to, but-"  "Of course." We sat outside for a while.  I got up to get the food box so I could eat, then came right back.  I didn’t even end up eating anything. In the middle of all this, I started tearing up.  Intrusive thoughts bombarded my brain with images of Erica on her deathbed, and I was unable to be there to comfort her.  Again, Ivan stepped up to my hand, but his tiny finger hug wasn't enough to console me.  I shifted away from him and hugged my legs tightly against myself, fighting desperately not to start bawling so that the whole place could hear me. 

Eventually, the sun started to set and I grew even more anxious.  "I need to go see if I can find out anything about Erica," Ivan told me gently, "I'll be back in a little bit, alright?"  I nodded numbly and he left, leaving me alone in the valley as the sky grew darker and darker.  The sun sunk beneath the horizon, taking the light along with it.

[sluttyhollow]

I don’t write for UA students but Bakugo and me are the same person and we’d be best friends if I was at UA 😂. I was listening to Bakugo by KVMIL and it just had me thinking about Bakugo x black american bestfriend reader (this has been sitting in my drafts forever lol might as well let it go)

No warnings, just two foreign besties with bad attitudes and terrible language (purely platonic)

Katsuki definitely speaks English, he’s a rich kid, and his parents traveled to the states a lot for work and they used to takes him in the summer. He just refuses to speak English because he thinks it sounds stupid.

The back and forth trips are how he ended up meeting you in the first place the summer between first and second grade. Your parents were working on a collaborative design line focusing on mixing Japanese and African American street fashion styles

Neither of you liked each other. He was loud and you thought his red eyes were creepy. He thought you were a loser and hated the noise your hair made when you walked (it was the beads, he thinks they look “cool or whatever” now though) you guys actually ended up fighting, Mitsuki thought it was funny because Katsuki lost (he started it) she bought you ice cream for winning.

After that day you guys came to an agreement to not speak to each other but by day 3 of vacation you were sharing games and sending each other colored screens on your DSIs. You guys did argue everyday of that summer though, and every day of every summer you spent together until middle school when he started staying in Japan to train.

Fast forward to high school and you still text each other. He’s at UA and you’re at a well known hero school in the states. Both of you are loud mouths with quirks worthy of helping saving lives (yours a quirk reversal/theft quirk that allowed you to reverse a persons quirk or utilize their abilities for a certain amount of time, like toga and all for one mixed).

Let’s just say your school has a sports festival similar to UAs that’s also televised and streamed nationally and internationally which prompts Miruko to want you intern abroad with her. Of course you accept and your school works with UA to get you into a transfer program thus starting your 1 year stent at UA. Now for fun’s sake you didn’t tell Katsuki you were coming to UA so imagine his surprise when all the rest of 1A is talking about some American transfer student and he walks into the common room and sees you sitting there.

“What. What the fuck are you doing here you fucking loser” the rest of 1A is shook, they know he’s an ass but they didn’t think he’d just be mean to new student. Just when they get ready to intervene you respond to him with a “you know you’re happy to see me fucker it’s been like 3 years” and the rest of the class is just like wtf is going on here. Y’all of course explain that you knew each other and that you’re besties. Deku being the only one not surprised considering you’d met him once before.

From then on you too go back into your old ways from childhood but with added addition of training. When you’re not busy with Miruko and him with Jeanist y’all go back to the Bakugo house and eat dinner with Mitsuki and Masaru.

You make him apologize to deku (long before canon) when he tells you what happened during middle school and how the first half of the semester had been. You beat his ass and told him to get over himself (he knew you were right).

You and Deku going feral when he gets hurt, LOV attacks and the three of you have to be put on house arrest by Iida cause y’all get too emotional over one another

Forcing him to class 1A gatherings. Neither of you wanna go but Mina saw you two getting ready to disappear after dinner and dragged y’all to movie night

Katsuki likes American food. Spice levels are just a little higher, flavors are a little more intense than typical Japanese food. You can cook a little bit and help him make American style dinners for everybody sometimes

People think you guys are partners cause of how relaxed you two are around each other but he’s like your brother and you would kiss m*neta before Katsuki

Yeah just two foreign besties (your American friends thought you were lying about your best friend living in Japan all through middle school, they didn’t realize you were serious until you moved and FaceTimed them with Katsuki in the camera)

[sonic-love-island-official]

Sonic (Bio/Character design ramble)

Sonic's bio/ramble is here !!! This is not a drill !!!

Kudos to my sister, who took up writing Sonic's bio and commentary. She majors in Sonic Psychology, it's only right for her to continue writing, expanding on, and doing the titular character justice (because I sure can't ripp </3).

Info under the cut, as usual x

Sonic is a 25 year old influencer. He's lived in Green Hill for the majority of his life but his job and adventurous lifestyle often leads him far from home. Sonic's reason for entering the show was purely childish: a challenge. So Sonic arrives with the intent of messing around and having fun.

Sonic is free-willed and easy-going. This makes him a fun guy to be around and that's why he thrives on the Island. Given the fact he likes to have freedom... he's never tied down and struggles with commitment when it comes to love. He never stays in one spot for too long, therefore he can never stick around one person for too long. Sonic also has no type. Unlike other characters in the series or people on Love Island, Sonic gravitates to whoever he feels is giving a good energy back to him or someone he can bounce off (although he is not above basing things off physical attraction in some situations). Saying that he didn't arrive with the intent of finding love on the Island, doesn't mean he isn't genuine.

Ultimately, Sonic makes it clear that he doesn't quite know what he wants...

External design choices !! (visual appearance - incl. formation of base sim, references taken, makeup choices, fashion style... etc.)

Sonic is one of the characters I'm still not happy with and never will be because of the way the game works and my unreasonable expectations for this man. Sonic has been reworked twice in an attempt to get him perfect. When taking inspiration from the game series, Sonic took heavy inspiration from modern Sonic (Mainly the 2010's Sonic opposed to the early 2000's models.)

Sonic is the most iconic character in the series and so I wanted to do him justice by blending features of his design with the idea of him looking relatively desirable. In the first design his features relied heavily on his defining 'Sonic' features such as his pointy nose, big eyes and blue hair. His nose (in my opinion) was exaggerated when looked at front on and this was purely because of his skin overlay. His skin overlay was custom content and was the same that we used for Amy except there was one issue, it didn't work for males as it changed the way his facial features looked. As it looked fine on Amy, I thought nothing of it for Sonic, until it finally grated on me enough to change it. This is where his second design was made and thought out.

In Sonic's redesign, I gave more thought into how he looked beside other similar characters such as Shadow and Silver. As Sonic was the first to be made in the game, I didn't have the other two boys to compare him to. Now that the other boys were there to refer to, I could make sure they looked slightly similar. I decided to make their noses and mouths appear similar while keeping key things like eyes, hair and face shape unique. Sonic's eyes were kept rounded and big much like his canon design and so I wanted the eye colour to be accurate too. Sonic's eye colour is a slightly darker shade of green than Amy's and that was carried over into Sonic's design. When it came to his skin tone we had to look very closely at his Frontiers model. In a picture we looked at, we could see a slight olive undertone rather than pink. After some debate about it, we incorporated the skin tone into his redesign.

I've come to terms that I'll never be able to get Sonic right in The Sims 3, but I do like Sonic's redesign better (not to mention how proud of his side profile I am. He looks so good from side on <33). He went from looking older than 25, untrustworthy and unattractive, to looking Younger than 25, frankly cute and closer to his 'fakers', Shadow and Silver.

[ Acknowledging both designs is crucial, as a ton of screenshots have Sonic's older design in them as opposed to his newer one. And we'd rather perish than retake screenies because we altered him. I like to think it's a good display of what the design process looks like :) - bee ]

Sonic's fashion is fashion. As an influencer, he would receive a lot of branded clothes from sponsors or for product review. (This headcanon was formed from the SOAP shoes he wears in SA2). While also he'd need to keep up with fashion trends to maintain a good image. On the island, Sonic wears casual things such as sneakers (occasionally his classic red but he switches it up a bit), t-shirts, bomber jackets, jeans, cargo pants or shorts, things tend to be baggy for comfortability. Sonic also has a gold ring that he wears on his left, middle finger. This idea was not only a reference to the games and how many rings he collects, but more specifically a game where he wears a ring, Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Internal design choices !! (personality, characteristics, psychology)

I am a strong believer that Sonic is more complex than most think. He's very good at masking anything negative he's going through with a smile. A good example of this is in Sonic Frontiers. I took a lot of inspiration from Frontiers because in my opinion it is the BEST Sonic characterisation. I also took inspiration from SA2, Sonic X and many other games or media to count (Sonic's a pretty consistent character when it comes to some aspects of his personality.) In this, Sonic is a good blend of childish and mature. He tends to show his childish nature when interacting with Knuckles and Shadow or when things take a negative turn, he tries to lighten the mood with a joke to change the topic. His maturity shows when he gets fed up with people being disingenuous or rude to him and/or his friends. He also doesn't hold grudges and tends to see things that others don't. But Sonic isn't perfect because of his spontaneous actions and changes.

Sonic tends to act strangely if he feels things are getting too deep. He'll surprise everyone with an unexpected action that he can't justify himself. He cares for the people he loves, even if he doesn't know why.

Sonic tries to give people second chances when it comes to friendships and consistently tries to befriend or bring happiness to the most stubborn of people. It may be because he struggles with social cues on occasion, so he doesn't quite know when to stop sometimes.

When hurt, he places up a protective wall to try and shield himself from vulnerability. This is where Sonic shuts himself off from other people by friend-zoning or going cold in some situations. He keeps people who cause him to be vulnerable at arms length and will keep them there. So long as he can help it, anyway.

[ Except we do NOT give him that kindness. Everyone faces their problems eventually. Sonic most of all >:)) - bee ]

Fun facts / trivia :

A lot of Sonic media is included in this AU, so Sonic has 3 siblings. Sonia, Manic (triplets) and "Classic" (younger brother). This is because we thought it would be fun to add Sonia and Manic from Sonic Underground. Sonia ends up playing a big part in his arc. Classic could have been left or represented as a young version of Sonic but in the Twitter Takeovers, Classic is said to be a separate entity from Modern Sonic. And Sonic having many siblings just fitted his personality. [ I think I saw something about Classic/Modern Sonic and the dealio with them and the funky timeline, but I've forgotten what that was now. I love the idea of Brother Sonic so much to care lmao. Give him all the siblings. I trust him not to burn the house down <3 - bee ]

Sonic has ADHD. [ Yeah :) I mean- is this even a hc anymore. It's basically canon in my eyes hehe - bee ]

Sonic loves to talk and brag about his travels around the globe. Especially since he's previously visited Spagonia (home to the Sonic Love Island villa) before arriving on the show. This boy has a story for everything, and we mean EVERYTHING.

[raffi-cat]

Hi, first of all I LOVE your oc designs they looks so cool. What are their names and what’s going on with them. Gimme the details, if you would like to.

aaa thank you so much!! im assuming you're referring to specifically this post, and yeah, i'd love to talk about them! there isn't really an overarching story, they're all just individuals living their own lives

(also something to keep in mind: i made some of these stories when i was much younger, so they are a bit odd. i've since altered them to make a bit more sense, but i wanted to keep them mostly similar because they are dear to me)

this um, ended up longer than expected, so im putting it under the cut :]

daybreak (skywing): she comes from a family of minor nobility (via maternal generational wealth) and her father was a minor general. they were pretty strict with her and held her to very high standards. she was put to military training when she was fairly young, but the war ended before she was old enough to join

she doesn't really like her parents, especially her mother. there is a matriarch, her great grandmother on her mother's side. daybreak especially doesn't like her. they're all just too strict and it seems she can never quite hold up to their standards

her parents were pretty loyal to queen scarlet, but did easily accept ruby as queen when the official challenge took place. daybreak never liked scarlet, and was very glad ruby became queen

as she gets older she is able to distance from her parents, and moves away from their residence near the palace to live in a smaller town, likely more up north

i might give her a younger brother but i haven't decided yet

desert (sandwing): she has unusually potent venom that seems to eat away at the skin quicker. when her parents found out, being annoyingly loyal to burn, thought giving desert to her as a tool would be the best way they could serve their queen

burn was delighted about a new "secret weapon" but couldn't use her right away because she was still very young. so she was trained until burn deemed her fit to fight (still far too young) the war ended before burn was able to use her "properly", but she did get into many battles before hand, resulting in multiple scars and a partially burned right wing (though not enough to greatly impede her flying)

she was very happy about thorn becoming queen. she didn't stay near the palace long, wanting to get away as soon as possible. she likely finds a small town somewhat similar to possibility

storm (icewing): she was born with a genetic mutation that increases the pigment in parts of her scales. her patterns were pretty light as a baby, and got darker as she got older. if she lived near the palace, she would have been completely shunned. but she lives in a town in the southwest of the ice kingdom, where no one really cares about that. her darker scales do give her a disadvantage as she can't blend in with the snow very well, but she manages. her parents are very loving and she has an overall good life

saffron (mudwing): i don't really have anything for him, to be honest. he's just a sweet boy. i really need to design his siblings, so far i only have a name for one of them. he may not have much but i love him

prismarine (seawing): a middle class seawing, there's not much for her either. but she is gay and has a girlfriend, navy. they are very in love and very cute together

virga (rainwing): she is a pretty regular rainwing, and again not much for her. she's a bit more calm and less excitable than an average rainwing. the village can sometimes get a bit overwhelming, so she likes to spend time in secluded parts of the rainforest

duskfall (nightwing/skywing): her mother (wishkeeper) met a lone skywing soldier (her father, who i dont have a name for yet) while out for a patrol on the main continent. they continued to meet for several weeks and fell in love. she unfortunately couldn't tell him when she found out she was with egg, as he was gone when she went to meet up. (he's still alive don't worry, he was just called back from his post)

back on the island, she was very averse to talking about her egg. there was another dragon she was paired with, though they didn't care much for each other, and she just said it was his without further explanation. he knew it wasn't and was unbothered, but agreed to tell no one

when she had the egg, she kept it near her virtually all the time. even during her work testing animus magic. (i imagine the nightwings would have wanted to do some testing to make sure the magic worked how they wanted it to before using it for something as important as the tunnels. or.. something idk)

due to the close proximity to the magic and a small crack in the shell, caused a minor deformity as her wings being unusually thin and delicate, being practically transparent. this doesn't affect her

(i might change the reason her wings are thin? but this is what the story was and i honestly just haven't really thought about it much, so)

wishkeeper was getting increasingly worried about what would happen when when she hatched and everyone would be able to easily tell she wasn't full nightwing. so, she left the island to hide out in a secluded part of the forested mountains of the sky kingdom, essentially faking her and her egg's death

she found a hidden cave to make their home, and raised duskfall herself. though secluded and often lonely, she had a good mother and a good life. when she got older and the war ended, eventually her father was able to find them again

he was delighted to find out he and wishkeeper had a dragonet. unfortunately he cannot stay with them as he has responsibilities in the sky kingdom, but he does visit. (he got a wife (and potentially a son? haven't decided), but pretty much just for appearances. he doesn't care much for her (it's mutual))

duskfall is an artist and a writer and has always enjoyed capturing moments with her art. fun fact, she is left handed (left taloned?). she likely visits possiblity or a similar town often, but remains living relatively secluded

and there they are! this took longer than i expected but whatever

if you read all of this, uh, thanks! i really appreciate it :]

for your trouble here is a drawing of virga

[vacantgodling]

✨, 💅, 🎶, and 👩‍💻 !!!

thank youuuuu 🥹🥹

✨ share a snippet featuring night time — PARAMOUR

Amon only rolled his eyes and pulled open the side door. “I don’t like him, Eri. He’s just another trial in my means to an end.”

“You keep telling yourself that, dear.” with another knowing look, she vanished into the narrow passageway. Amon followed, letting the wooden hinge that squeaked softly behind them be the only witness to their midnight flight.

💅 share a snippet showing a character embracing their lgbtqness — TCOL

Clear deflated, finally sitting up. His eyes shone with tears brimming at their corners.

“I like men. I always have. No one here cares but my father did and he made me hate it. I can’t just. Especially not you, Forte, you're my closest friend. I can’t just like you—”

🎶 share a happy moment. ANY happy moment. You must have ONE. — JENNA THE WITCH KING

“Jenna!”

It was still odd to Carlos to see Yehna walking around, since she now had a body and it’d been several years since she and Jenna separated. She was still tall and pale as the day Jenna finished firing the initial clay of her body, and her eyes were still that eerie piercing green he remembered.

But the smile on her face was a new addition.

She quickly descended the stairs of the abandoned castle she’d currently taken up residence in (that was hell to track down, mind you), and despite what Carlos may have thought, small dandelions and daisy’s bloomed when her bare feet touched the forest floor. When the tall woman reached them, she cupped Jenna’s face lovingly in her hands, pressing kisses all over her face and cheeks and lips, and while Jenna’s face never changed, Carlos could feel the warmth emanating from her as she grasped Yehna’s arms and nuzzled against her.

It was crazy to think; how only a few years ago Jenna was almost dead. And now she was embracing the Reaper like an old friend.

That didn’t mean he was left out though, once Yehna laid eyes on him she let out a sound of delight and he too was swept up into her arms. Carlos couldn’t help but laugh and squeezed her tightly when she embraced him.

“And Carlos too! Happy!” Yehna smiled eagerly, clapping her hands. “Please, you must see my tiny children. Stay long?”

👩‍💻 share a snippet that you worked on for a long time or struggled with — PARAMOUR but like all of chapter 12 was ROUGH lol

Click clack his soft kitten heels went, the only anchor that he had to keep from falling into this dream. The bridge seemed to stretch on forever even if it was only a short way. When he reached the end of it, he was standing outside of a large round stained glass window. Up close the details were severe and intricate. Thousands of small designs were woven into each individual pane of glass, woven together in a clever mosaic to create a large portrait of The Savior hung like a sacrificial lamb in front of the pitch purple and black of The Vat of Darkness. Each outstretched arm did not weep blood but tears; crystalline watery blue stains, each depicting some horrible tragedy that had befallen Galeré over the centuries. The collapse of the first Iron Storm Bell that killed several thousand people; the flooding of the Halifax river in 841 that put half the city near underwater and truly established the difference between Uptown Halifax and the slums; even the horrible airship accident that took the young and beloved Princess Kalimeris from the world and set back the world he was familiar with today by nearly one hundred years. These tragedies pooled at the hanging Savior’s feet but not a tear was shed from the portrait’s eyes. Their dark black eyes were depicted with a humble determination, no different than the dark and wondering eyes of Aloe, and for a moment Hyacinthus was struck by the similarity.

[itsgwencayyye]

I'm really thinking and like ok the cookies are really similar in vibe to the happy pills, but they don't really make the eggs go crazy like the pills did. Unless a parent eats a cookie we won't know for sure if the eggs are immune or the cookies just aren't happy pill aligned. But then why were the pills developed in the first place. They only appeared after the eggs went missing and forever blew shit up. So the happy pills were made to bring all the islanders under control in the absence of the eggs. With all that I assume that the eggs and the happy pills have the same functions of making the islanders happy and distracted so the federation can do whatever its been wanting to do. Maybe the happy pills are made of a similar substance that the eggs are made of but less diluted which is why the pills have a more intense effect. It would also make sense because we know the eggs are inorganic so them being creatures made to ensure the islanders stay happy and orderly. And this idea is less connected but we know that the federation has been trying and failing different types of cloning experiments likely for the 20 years since the last promo for the island was made. We know some of the current islanders were involved in the old experiments and there are current cloning/gene splicing experiments the federation are doing now. The eggs could be a result of this cloning to some extent, the biggest piece of evidence to that being tallulah. Because asides from meta reasons why the fuck is she even here (prefacing this by saying she is one of my favorite eggs and this isn't neg towards her at all). Like she is the only egg on the island that was made specifically for one person, she has wilbur's hair, and her bed is noted with egg bed(wilbur) rather than the other item naming systems of the other egg beds. We also know that to some extent q!wilbur whether he remembers it or not is extremely close with the federation because he fucking funds the island, so it's not weird to think they might have his DNA on hand. But why give him a child that is directly modled after him that he's the sole parent of if he's just gonna leave soon unless they were trying to keep him on a leash and always wanting to come back. They don't let anyone but him leave so they need to keep him happy and wanting to come back for so many reasons. Like I fully believe the eggs are fully designed to keep the islanders in check and control them. The federation sees them as tools to achieve this and take their lives away and threaten them in order to threaten the islanders. But the federation would not directly kill an egg (they do however refuse to revive them probably as a form of punishment and rule enforcement) because it would lose the trust and happiness the eggs provide, leading to the kinds of revolts the islanders were staging right after the eggs went missing. Those revolts is probably the exact reason some of the codes came after the eggs so hard. They knew that the eggs were made of that happy pill material kinda stuff and as long as they're around the federation is not going to truly go down. Every side ignores that the eggs are just kids. TLDR: eggs were the og happy pills and are made to control the islanders and that's why the codes were after them, and also cloning may or may not be a factor in their creation

[cervicrazed]

walt + all the other named members of his species

GAH this one took so long whoops

Haven't technically introduced other members of The Jek just yet, but I'll throw in one lil guy I've been rotating in my mind

OC Lore under the cut! (body horror cw)

^ Walt's "Human" form ^ 'Standard' Jek form

✨- How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Walt-> a year or so after I made Wilton, I made Walt(on) - they weren't originally gonna be in the same story so I didn't notice there was only a vowel difference between them🤦🏽 I fixed this by having Walt choose his name to be similar on purpose, unknowingly bonding the two forever afterwards

Iniko -> originally heard it from an amazing artist of the same name! Really liked how it sounded so I looked more into the etymology & started crafting the story from there (working backwards this time around)

🌼 - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

The Jek as a species are as old as fear itself - but Walt is around 80 or 90 years old by the start of the Dead Wood plotline

Iniko is about 15 years older than Bambi

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Walt -> There've been a few, but Wilton is the only one he would die for. Since emotions are all he can see/smell, he often forgets that others can't tell what he's feeling just by looking

Iniko -> Not yet. They're a bit too preoccupied plotting revenge to think about anything else

🍕 - What is their favorite food?

All Jek feed on Nightmares, but as an individual, Walt's favorite are ones that involve the dreamer being chased by A Creature™ (Adrenaline is particularly sweet)

Iniko enjoys the taste of paranoia the most - it's not as filling as a full on nightmare, but it's in a much richer supply

💼 - What do they do for a living?

Walt -> Fulfills the role of a Boogeyman-esque urban legend to keep potential trespassers away from his family. Not to say he doesn't enjoy it, as the fear he inspires is it's own reward.

Iniko -> political subterfuge/espionage; despite having no interest in whatever politics are going on. Their services can be bought, but not with money; they'll only take the job if you agree to do something for them first (you may live to regret it).

🎹 - Do they have any hobbies?

Walt -> Painting! He can't actually see the final product, but part of the fun is hearing Bambi and Wil try and guess what the art depicts

Iniko -> Enjoys studying and growing plants since they're the only living thing they can't mimic very well

🎯 -What do they do best?

Walt -> he's a skilled strategist! Prides himself on staying at least two steps ahead of everyone else; unfortunately doesn't mean he's never wrong

Iniko -> Mimicry! They've perfected their shapeshifting into an art - even being able to seemlessly mimic the voices & cadence of others

🥊 -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Walt -> Loves spending time with his family! Wil and Bambi are his entire world. Holds nothing but righteous rage towards Casters (magic users) - he blames their greed for driving The Jek to (near) extinction

Iniko -> Loves the feeling of 'getting away with it' & gossiping. It's a valuable way to get information, but they easily + inadvertently get too involved with local affairs. Hates everything about the Rader family, especially Bambi.

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

Walt -> Dutifully watching and waiting for his daughter to grow. It took her a year and a half before she was ready to pluck out of the ground

Iniko -> Finding out they had a sister this whole time!

✂️ - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Walt -> Watching Wilton waste away to disease. While happy there was a way to revive him, Walt's not sure he can survive losing him again

Iniko -> Finding out they had a sister this whole time.

🧊 - Is their current design the first one?

Walt -> kinda? His 'human disguise' hasn't really changed that much, but his 'true form' has changed at least 3 times

Iniko -> as of rn they don't have a design yet 💀 I'm workin on it!!

🍀 - What originally inspired the OC?

Walt -> i wanted to make an OC based off supernatural's leviathans + that balerina girl from Cabin in the Woods (2011) bc I really liked the idea of a person's head/face being nothing but teeth

Iniko -> Getting this ask & watching Boy Kills World (2024). I haven't made another Jek character since Bambi, kinda wanted to change that thanks to this ask!

🌂 - What genre do they belong in?

Walt -> Animated Dark Comedy, but bonus points if the hypothetical director can pull off the live action practical effects

Iniko -> Dark Fantasy Revenge Thriller....like The Prestige (2006) if there were monsters as well as magicians

💚 - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Walt -> Masc but not exclusively + Demisexual

Iniko -> Agender + Asexual

🙌 - How many siblings does your OC have?

Walt -> one, but he suspects they're long dead by now

Iniko -> one, and they hate her

🍎 - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Walt -> Was stolen from his family shortly after sprouting; still aches for that lost connection but tries to make up for it with his new family

Iniko -> Relentlessly hateful towards their parents. Doesn't want to kill them, but not out of mercy; they want to take everything away from them first.

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

Walt -> teef. They make drawing him take foreverr but it's always worth it to me. Pincushion of a creature

Iniko -> their antagonist status. Dead Wood's been desperately needing one for a while now and they're a very fun fit

✏️ - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Walt -> admittedly haven't drawn him in a while ...gotta change that

Iniko -> been drawing them a lot trying to figure out what they even look like. Haven't settled on a design I like yet

💎 - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

Walt -> nah. He'll live forever, which is much more tragic

Iniko -> maybe? They're too new for me to want to do that

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

Walt -> I guess technically he has all of them?

Iniko -> the only fear they have is of failure

🍩 -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

Walt -> his father in-law, an ancient forest demon

Iniko -> their sister, a moody teenager

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

Walt -> Easter, 2015...9 years...

Iniko -> as I'm writing this... a month or so?

🍥 - What age were you when you created the OC?

Walt -> 14...

Iniko -> 22 💪🏽

[glisteningreverie]

I drew a Curesona for ten base colours :)

I don’t have a sona problem. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way.

Name reasons and inspirations below!

Cure Fantasy: This is the OG Rev Curesona! Her attack name is where I got the username “GlisteningReverie” from. I decided on Cure Fantasy for this character because the premise surrounding this character is her being pulled into the world of a fanfiction website. Fantasy is my favourite story genre (big surprise, the magical girl enthusiast loves the fantasy genre), and because I consider myself to be a bit of a dreamer. Her design is a little barebones because back then I was still primarily using dollmakers to create my magical girl OCs, but I love the tutu and taffy-pink pigtails the original design had. Those aspects have stayed pretty consistent throughout my timeline of using this sona.

Cure Maple: One of the first things anyone learns about me on the internet is that I’m Canadian, and proud of it. And so when I think red, my mind defaults to the Canadian Maple Leaf. In fact, when I first tried making Pretty Cure OCs (after I graduated from Glitter Force OCs), I immediately tried to create a maple-leaf themed PreCure. I don’t have those old drawings anymore but I’ve always had Canadian PreCures in the back of my mind.

Cure Flash: When I was a kid, I used to have a really short fuse. I also consider myself to be really energetic and excitable. So for my orange curesona, I chose a bit of a lightning motif. Orange is easily my least favourite colour, but I do like what I did here with hair and outfit ^^

Cure Joyful: Yellow is a SUPER cheery colour. I most closely associate it with the sun, because when I’m outside and can feel it on my face I can’t help but be filled with warm fuzzies. So “Joyful” is taken from my general love of being alive. I also feel particularly happy when I sing, so this sona is a bit of a showman (show-woman?), or at least more so than these other characters.

Cure Olive: I was totally split on what to call my green Curesona, since I knew I wanted it to involve trees and the way I think about how BIG and incredible nature can be. Cure Olive was among the names I’d considered, since Olive Branches are symbols of peace. I almost didn’t choose it because I didn’t feel like it matched the wonder I feel when thinking about nature sometimes, but it ended up winning out in the end. Cure Olive’s hair is Greek inspired, and her dress is one of my favourites I’ve ever designed! She’s got a rainbow subtheme because I like rainbows and it ties in well with her entire nature/olive branch theming.

Cure Stratus: I ADORE looking at the sky. It’s really hard to articulate exactly how much I love it. And I love clouds too. On long car trips it’s fun to look out the window and look for familiar shapes or watch them turn colours as the sun sets. My two favourite cloud patterns? Cumulus clouds and Stratus Clouds. Stratus clouds have this kind of checkerboard pattern that I used to say looks like ice cream (that is to say, the way it looks in a bucket after some ice cream’s already been scooped out). I just think it looks pretty! :D

Cure Aurora: This is the other one I had prior to drawing the entire batch of sonas. Aurora ties back into my love of the sky and growing up in a northern area. She’s designed to be a winter-themed Cure with a constellation motif. Aurora is my skier girl of this group, since I used to go alpine skiing every weekend with my family. We live really close to the rockies so I pretty much grew up on skis!

Cure Story: Similar to Cure Fantasy, this one is heavily based on my love for storytelling. I wanted to make her a bit of a wizard, but I’m not very good at drawing hats. ^^; Maybe I’ll give her a tiny one like a Mahou Tsukai Cures have. She’s also got one of my favourite outfits in this batch, with that fun asymmetrical skirt! I love the pattern I drew onto it!

Cure Cavalier: I’ll be the first to admit it: I am utterly and totally terrified of horses. But they’re such beautiful animals! Cavalier comes from the latin for “horse”, and my story-loving self can’t help but imaging myself, in a different set of circumstances, being a knight or a dragon rider.

…though our Dog is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which fits me pretty well. Affectionate. Loves to cuddle. Small. That’s me alright!

Cure Neige: There’s the Canadian influence again. Around where I live, we get snow most months of the year, as early as October and as late as April or even May! And I’m a winter baby, so snow on my birthday is a pretty common thing. For this design, I wanted to go for a bit of a cozy ballerina look. I’m not exactly a dancer, but I did take ballet lessons when I was younger. And I’ve been watching an old childhood show which heavily features ballet, so that influence definitely leaked in while drawing these.

[bebeiaarts]

My Opnion About My Childhood Cartoon (MLP)

I know it's been a while, but I've never talked about it, and I cry with nostalgia. I really didn't like the ending of MLP, I didn't want it to have shown them old, I wanted it to end with them still young. And I also didn't like that Twilight grew up like Princess Celestia, I don't think there's any idea that anyone who becomes a princess grows up like that. I don't understand, she doesn't have old woman wrinkles either, she's immortal now? And the way Spike grew up got ugly too. I thought the ending was more sad than happy.

I know it's normal in life to show that we grow and age, but every time it's illustrated in a series, it's much sadder.

I've been watching it since it premiered in 2010 with my cousin.

I used to be Twilight and my cousin Pinkie. We were very similar when we were little;My cousin was always the happy crazy one who wouldn't sit still like Pinkie, she also has similar hair. When I was little I loved math, I was smart, I had straighter hair, today I wear glasses, and I've always been shy and can't make friends online.

(Of course, physically you don't need to look like a character to identify yourself, but I'm just telling you my case).

Every time I see something related to MLP/EG I cry, because of nostalgia and remembering the good times when I was a kid and I spent the whole time watching until season 6, After that I think the story went downhill a bit.

Not to mention that there are a lot of unanswered things, like, the others stayed single?

Why Twilight isn't wearing her replacement crown for the element of harmony she did once at the end of season 4? Instead, she's using a copy of Celestia and Luna, which they turned their crowns into one for Twilight (Because yes).

Why does Twilight wear a necklace now? (She really became a copy of Celestia).

Why did Celestia and Luna leave everything on Twilight's shoulders?

And her castle? After everything they've been through, she's simply going to abandon her castle?

Did Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack become a couple in the end?

Also Twilight could have stayed her usual size, or at least Cadence's size.

Were her two pupils destined to be princesses too?

If Pinkie ended up with Cheese (I always shipped them), I'd like to see Twilight with Flash, and Spike with Rarity (After he grew up). And the end of the book closing, is this all just a story? But in episode 1 of the first season it showed that Twilight read that book.

I'll be honest, I love MLP and EG so much, but a while later I loved EG more. But this series also took a hit, making episodes instead of films, changing their designs, not having a Sunset Shimmer from this world, the Twilight pony never returning there. Scootaloo being defective in her wings made me really sad that she will never be able to fly, since she loves it. But if she doesn't mind I'll be more relieved (even though it's a cartoon)

I also know that at some point the show had to end, but everyone loved this one, and now they're changing it to MLP 3D for a new children's audience, it's horrible! They were still going to win a lot with MLP: FIM, which was the best version of MLP since the 80s in my opinion. And today's children could follow the old ones.

I think they could have done better.

But anyway, I'm very grateful for this wonderful cartoon that was a big part of my childhood, it was always there to cheer me up at any time .

(just like Sonic).

[pdaliceliveblogs]

So.

That was a hell of a thing.

I’m honestly impressed by how many times that managed to punch me in the heart, in different ways— with love, with fear, with fury, with achy mourning.

This wrap-up post is super belated, and some of it was written right after I first watched the ep, and some a good two months later, so I apologize if it’s a little scattered. What an episode, though.

There are definitely places where you can feel the pain of the compression. Both montages felt like they could have filled whole episodes on their own, and the map in a box under the floorboards is weirdly convenient— I’d love to know why it’s there, who put it there, why it’s encoded as a rebus, why there are apparently a bunch of rebuses in Old Gravesfield, and I know that stuff is all going to be left up to speculation. Speculation is fun, and I don’t think everything ever needs an explicit explanation— in fact, it’s a pet peeve of mine when people treat “wasn’t spelled out explicitly” as equivalent to “plot hole”— but this does feel like something they could have gone into more deeply if they’d had time.

That said, damn it was good. They didn’t just make the best of what they had, they made something genuinely fantastic. The kids settling in— everything from Amity’s awkward tea attempt to Willow becoming a Polaroid nerd (hey, didn’t I have in my headcanons/designs post that she’d keep a meticulous journal to show her dads when they got back?) was fantastic, Gus’s conflicting joy at seeing the realm he’d been so curious about and achy sadness missing his dad, there’s so much rich loam there for both wacky shenanigans and angsty character exploration and they managed to hit on both at least a little in the time, which, damn. Kudos.

Luz is such a good protagonist, such a good character, I really love her. Her depression throughout this episode hurt in a really accurate way; she was spiraling and hating herself while at the same time loving her family and her friends, she was struggling to work up the energy to be excited about a couples’ cosplay that would have had her bouncing off the walls a couple months before, she was trying to do what she thought was right even though that was dramatically warped by where her brain was at that point. It would have helped no one for her to stay in the Human Realm. If she was thinking clearly, she’d have known that, and she was very obviously not thinking clearly. It’s, uh, relatable. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the belief that the ones you love will be better off without you is one that’s really hard to shake.

The whole possession thing with Hunter… god. It’s such a visceral horror, being taken over from the inside out, dragged forcibly back into the old you even after you worked so hard to become someone better, someone you like to be. That Little Blond Puritan Clone Boy Cannot Catch a Break, except that he did, for most of the episode, and it was really wonderful to watch him being happy. Let the boy nerd out and cosplay and wear a homemade three wolf moon tee and and cherish the fuck out of his pet bird and fuck around at a thrift store wearing a goofy cardinal kigurumi and pick up a hobby. He’s a seventeen year old kid, he’s spent most of his life as a child soldier for his abusive uncle, and he got to flourish, for a bit. He got to thrive. He got friends, and a family, and a break.

Gus was awesome with him all episode, by the way. Repeatedly dropping hints that he already knows about the Grimwalker thing, not pushing him to explain, just being there for him and encouraging him. What a good friend.

(Side note, I love it when characters who have spent a lot of time together have similar speech patterns, so even though it’s painful as hell when that’s not a healthy relationship it was kind of amazing to hear Hunter go “up-bup-bup-bup spoileeeers!!” and think about Belos doing the dismissive “up-bup-bup” back in YB,OS)

The possession itself (ha, I got off track, sorry) was so well handled to build the slow dread, the pierced finger, the eyes, the creep up the back of his jaw, the layering of the voice. I mentioned it as I was blogging, but the fact that Hunter’s voice remained present the whole time was a fantastically terrifying choice. The whole battle was so gorgeously done, not just the sequence with the incredible animation (though that was definitely a highlight) but the way Belos gloated, his skill at saying exactly the right thing at the right time to fuck with his opponents, and Hunter’s desperate push to tell him exactly what he wanted and try to get rid of him, his own safety notwithstanding.

Honestly, Camila was the MVP of the episode. I loved the deeper dive into her character, the fact that she’s so much more like her daughter than we thought, the issues she had in school and how they were used to manipulate her with her desire to give Luz a better life… but more than her backstory, what made her so wonderful is the woman she is now. Her immediate acceptance of the witchlings, her steady research to try and figure out how to best care for them and for her queer daughter, putting in the work, the coupons, oh ow the coupons, her blasé willingness to find some blood if that’s what they need, her fierce protectiveness, her strong will. It was honestly a delight to get to know her better, and I’m so glad she’ll be there for what comes next.

I think that’s all I have to say right now— one of the side effects of it taking me so dang long to write a proper wrap-up is that I’ve made posts (and written fic) about several of the other things I was thinking about, ha.

I was holding out on checking with my screener about asks until I made myself write this up, so I’ll do that now; if y’all sent me any, I’ll answer them soon <3

[bracketsoffear]

I voted for Monica, but I feel the need to defend Clarimonda because they're both "eh" choices for me and I mostly picked Monica to avenge Sheevsweep, so here's some evidence from "The Spider."

"Since the window was very low, he hung with his knees practically touching the floor—a sign of the great discipline the suicide must have exercised in carrying out his design. Later, it was learned that he was a married man, a father. He had been a man of a continually happy disposition; a man who had achieved a secure place in life. There was not one written word to be found that would have shed light on his suicide… not even a will."

"On Friday morning, he came in very excited and spoke, half humorously, half seriously, of the strangely attractive power that his window had. He would not elaborate this notion and said that, in any case, it had nothing to do with the suicides; and that it would be ridiculous of him to say any more. When, on that same Friday, he failed to make his regular evening report, someone went to his room and found him hanging from the cross-bar of the window."

"It was only later, after what happened to the medical student, that anyone remembered that when the police removed Sergeant Charles-Maria Chaumié's body from the window cross-bar a large black spider crawled from the dead man's open mouth [...] When in later investigations which concerned themselves mostly with Bracquemont the servant was interrogated, he said that he had seen a similar spider crawling on the Swiss traveling salesman's shoulder when his body was removed from the window cross-bar."

"it was I who was chosen. Why? Because I was the only one who hinted that I had some plan—or the semblance of a plan. Naturally, I was bluffing. These journal entries are intended for the police. I must say that it amuses me to tell those gentlemen how neatly I fooled them [...] I take it as a good sign that I've begun my task by bamboozling the police.

[...]

'Ah, if only you had a plan. Then...' On the spot, I announced that I had such a plan, though naturally I had no such thing. Still, I hinted that my plan was brilliant, but dangerous [...] Still, I promised to describe it to him if he would give me his word that he would personally put it into effect. He made excuses, claiming he was too busy but when he asked me to give him at least a hint of my plan, I saw that I had picqued his interest. I rattled off some nonsense made up of whole cloth."

I find it interesting that one could take this as Clarimonda sees Richard manipulating his way into the room and decides to show him how it's done.

"I haven't yet said anything about Clarimonda. It is she who is my "third" reason for staying here. She is also the reason I was tempted to go to the window during the "fateful" hour last Friday. But of course, not to hang myself.

Clarimonda. Why do I call her that? I have no idea what her name is, but it ought to be Clarimonda. When finally I ask her name, I'm sure it will turn out to be Clarimonda.

[...]

I ought to say that she noticed me before I saw her; and that she was obviously interested in me. And no wonder. The whole neighborhood knows I am here, and why. Madame Dubonnet has seen to that.

[...]

At first, the idea of establishing some relationship with her simply did not occur to me. It was only that, since I was here to make observations, and, since there was nothing in the room to observe, I thought I might as well observe my neighbor—openly, professionally. Anyhow, one can't sit all day long just reading."

"She sits there, spinning on an old-fashioned spindle [...] It appears to be made of ivory; and the thread she spins is of an exceptional fineness."

"What does Clarimonda look like? I'm not quite sure. Her hair is black and wavy; her face pale. Her nose is short and finely shaped with delicate nostrils that seem to quiver. Her lips, too, are pale: and when she smiles, it seems that her small teeth are as keen as those of some beast of prey. Her eyelashes are long and dark; and her huge dark eyes have an intense glow. I guess all these details more than I know them."

"It is a curious sight: her delicate hands moving perpetually, swiftly grasping the thread, pulling it, releasing it, taking it up again; as if one were watching the indefatigable motions of an insect.

Our relationship? For the moment, still very superficial, though it feels deeper. It began with a sudden exchange of glances in which each of us noted the other. I must have pleased her, because one day she studied me a while longer, then smiled tentatively. Naturally, I smiled back."

"I tried to read, but I felt much too uneasy. Instead, I sat down at my window and gazed at Clarimonda. She too had laid her work aside. Her hands were folded in her lap. I drew my curtain wider with the window cord, so that I might see better. At the same moment, Clarimonda did the same with the curtains at her window. We exchanged smiles.

We must have spent a full hour gazing at each other."

"I waited until I was invaded by an irresistible need to go to the window—not to hang myself; but just to see Clarimonda. I sprang up and stood beside the curtain where it seemed to me I had never been able to see so clearly, though it was already dark.

Clarimonda was spinning, but her eyes looked into mine. I felt myself strangely contented even as I experienced a light sensation of fear.

The telephone rang. It was the Inspector tearing me out of my trance with his idiotic questions.

I was furious."

"I read two or three pages only to discover that I haven't understood a word. My eyes see the letters, but my brain refuses to make any sense of them. Absurd. As if my brain were posted: 'No Trespassing.' It is as if there were no room in my head for any other thought than the one: Clarimonda."

"Today, I saw a much smaller spider, a male, moving across the strong threads towards the middle of the web, but when his movements alerted the female, he drew back shyly to the edge of the web from which he made a second attempt to cross it. Finally, the female in the middle appeared attentive to his wooing, and stopped moving. The male tugged at a strand gently, then more strongly till the whole web shook. The female stayed motionless. The male moved quickly forward and the female received him quietly, calmly, giving herself over completely to his embraces. For a long minute, they hung together motionless at the center of the huge web.

Then I saw the male slowly extricating himself, one leg over the other. It was as if he wanted tactfully to leave his companion alone in the dream of love, but as he started away, the female, overwhelmed by a wild life, was after him, hunting him ruthlessly [...] Then they fell to the window-sill where the male, summoning all his strength, tried again to escape. Too late. The female already had him in her powerful grip, and was carrying him back to the center of the web. There, the place that had just served as the couch for their lascivious embraces took on quite another aspect. The lover wriggled, trying to escape from the female's wild embrace, but she was too much for him. It was not long before she had wrapped him completely in her thread, and he was helpless. Then she dug her sharp pincers into his body, and sucked full draughts of her young lover's blood. Finally, she detached herself from the pitiful and unrecognizable shell of his body and threw it out of her web.

So that is what love is like among these creatures. Well for me that I am not a spider."

"I greet her; then she greets me. Then I tap my fingers on the windowpanes. The moment she sees me doing that, she too begins tapping. I wave to her; she waves back. I move my lips as if speaking to her; she does the same. I run my hand through my sleep-disheveled hair and instantly her hand is at her forehead. It is a child's game, and we both laugh over it. Actually, she doesn't laugh. She only smiles a gently contained smile. And I smile back in the same way.

The game is not as trivial as it seems. It's not as if we were grossly imitating each other—that would weary us both. Rather, we are communicating with each other. Sometimes, telepathically, it would seem, since Clarimonda follows my movements instantaneously almost before she has had time to see them. I find myself inventing new movements, or new combinations of movements, but each time she repeats them with disconcerting speed. Sometimes. I change the order of the movements to surprise her, making whole series of gestures as rapidly as possible; or I leave out some motions and weave in others, the way children play 'Simon Says.' What is amazing is that Clarimonda never once makes a mistake, no matter how quickly I change gestures."

"It is hard for me to be sure of my feelings and harder still to think of anything that doesn't relate to Clarimonda or, what is more important, to our game. Undeniably, it is our game that concerns me. Nothing else—and this is what I understand least of all.

There is no doubt that I am drawn to Clarimonda, but with this attraction there is mingled another feeling, fear. No. That's not it either. Say rather a vague apprehension in the presence of the unknown. And this anxiety has a strangely voluptuous quality so that I am at the same time drawn to her even as I am repelled by her. It is as if I were moving in giant circles around her, sometimes coming close, sometimes retreating... back and forth, back and forth."

"I was sitting at the window, trying with all my might to stay in my chair, but the window kept drawing me. I had to resume the game with Clarimonda. And yet, the window horrified me. I saw the others hanging there: the Swiss traveling salesman, fat, with a thick neck and a grey stubbly beard; the thin artist; and the powerful police sergeant. I saw them, one after the other, hanging from the same hook, their mouths open, their tongues sticking out. And then, I saw myself among them.

Oh, this unspeakable fear. It was clear to me that it was provoked as much by Clarimonda as by the cross-bar and the horrible hook. May she pardon me... but it is the truth. In my terror, I keep seeing the three men hanging there, their legs dragging on the floor.

And yet, the fact is I had not felt the slightest desire to hang myself; nor was I afraid that I would want to do so. No, it was the window I feared; and Clarimonda. I was sure that something horrid was going to happen."

"I told him that I was getting to the bottom of the matter, but I begged him not to question me just then. That very soon I would be in a position to make important revelations. Strangely enough, though I was lying to him. I myself had the feeling that I was telling the truth. Even now, against my will, I have that same conviction."

"Yes, the game. We played it again. And nothing else. Nothing at all.

Sometimes I wonder what is happening to me? What is it I want? Where is all this leading? I know the answer: there is nothing else I want except what is happening. It is what I want... what I long for. This only.

Clarimonda and I have spoken with each other in the course of the last few days, but very briefly; scarcely a word. Sometimes we moved our lips, but more often we just looked at each other with deep understanding.

I was right about Clarimonda's reproachful look because I went out with the Inspector last Friday. I asked her to forgive me. I said it was stupid of me, and spiteful to have gone. She forgave me, and I promised never to leave the window again. We kissed, pressing our lips against each of our windowpanes."

"If only I were not so frightened. Sometimes my terror slumbers and I forget it for a few moments, then it wakes and does not leave me. The fear is like a poor mouse trying to escape the grip of a powerful serpent. Just wait a bit, poor sad terror. Very soon, the serpent love will devour you."

"I have made a discovery: I don't play with Clarimonda. She plays with me.

[...]

I had gone through a long series of gestures at the window, and not one of the patterns had been mine.

I had the feeling, once more, that I was standing before Clarimonda's wide open door, through which, though I stared. I could see nothing but a dark void. I knew, too, that if I chose to turn from that door now. I might be saved; and that I still had the power to leave. And yet, I did not leave—because I felt myself at the very edge of the mystery: as if I were holding the secret in my hands.

'Paris! You will conquer Paris,' I thought. And in that instant, Paris was more powerful than Clarimonda.

I don't think about that any more. Now, I feel only love. Love, and a delicious terror.

[...]

it occurred to me to rub the side of my nose; instead I found myself pressing my lips to the windowpane. I tried to drum with my fingers on the window sill; instead, I brushed my fingers through my hair. And so I understood that it was not that Clarimonda did what I did. Rather, my gestures followed her lead and with such lightning rapidity that we seemed to be moving simultaneously. I, who had been so proud because I thought I had been influencing her, I was in fact being influenced by her. Her influence… so gentle… so delightful.

[...]

It seemed to me that it was not I who was doing all this. It was a stranger whom I was watching.

But, of course, I was mistaken. It was I making the gesture, and the person watching me was the stranger; that very same stranger who, not long ago, was so sure that he was on the edge of a great discovery. In any case, it was not I.

Of what use to me is this discovery? I am here to do Clarimonda's will. Clarimonda, whom I love with an anguished heart."

"I have cut the telephone cord. I have no wish to be continually disturbed by the idiotic inspector just as the mysterious hour arrives.

God. Why did I write that? Not a word of it is true. It is as if someone else were directing my pen.

But I want to... want to... to write the truth here... though it is costing me great effort. But I want to... once more... do what I want.

I have cut the telephone cord... ah...

Because I had to... there it is. Had to...

We stood at our windows this morning and played the game, which is now different from what it was yesterday. Clarimonda makes a movement and I resist it for as long as I can. Then I give in and do what she wants without further struggle. I can hardly express what a joy it is to be so conquered; to surrender entirely to her will."

"She takes the cord. It is red, just like the cord in my window. She ties a noose and hangs the cord on the hook in the window cross-bar.

She sits down and smiles.

No. Fear is no longer what I feel. Rather, it is a sort of oppressive terror which I would not want to avoid for anything in the world. Its grip is irresistible, profoundly cruel, and voluptuous in its attraction.

I could go to the window, and do what she wants me to do, but I wait. I struggle. I resist though I feel a mounting fascination that becomes more intense each minute."

"I won't, and yet I know very well that I have to... have to look at her. I must... must... and then... all that follows.

If I still wait, it is only to prolong this exquisite torture. Yes, that's it. This breathless anguish is my supreme delight. I write quickly, quickly... just so I can continue to sit here; so I can attenuate these seconds of pain.

Again, terror. Again. I know that I will look toward her. That I will stand up. That I will hang myself.

That doesn't frighten me. That is beautiful... even precious.

There is something else. What will happen afterwards? I don't know, but since my torment is so delicious. I feel... feel that something horrible must follow.

Think... think... Write something. Anything at all... to keep from looking toward her..."

"He found the body of the student Richard Bracquemont hanging from the cross-bar of the window in room No. 7, in the same position as each of his three predecessors.

The expression on the student's face, however, was different, reflecting an appalling fear.

Bracquemont's eyes were wide open and bulging from their sockets. His lips were drawn into a rictus, and his jaws were clamped together. A huge black spider whose body was dotted with purple spots lay crushed and nearly bitten in two between his teeth.

On the table, there lay the student's journal. The inspector read it and went immediately to investigate the house across the street. What he learned was that the second floor of that building had not been lived in for many months."

Ah damn, I think I picked the wrong one.

OK, that settles it, vote Clarimonda.

.

[sundslime]

Another Object Comic Blog 2

Back at it again with another name change! This one’s probably the last one for a bit though.

A good amount of progress has been made on the idea of the comic since my last post in March. That is, I hunkered down with some buds and actually made a kind of rigid outline of how I want the plot to be structured. A good amount of ideas were leftovers from Exclusion Delusion but more fleshed out with a cleaner idea for a possible ending in mind, which makes me happy! Every time I’ve taken a stab at a comic like this I usually drop the idea because I don’t know how I’d end it, so having that in mind has been reassuring.

Here’s a mostly redacted look at the outline of the story, mostly for the sake of keeping things a surprise! Who doesn’t like a good surprise? I will leave a synopsis of the beginning of the story though, so here! Objects of many different locations live on a planet with only them and are all aware of/ friends with each other. Ornament is the main character of the story, who on their (TBD)th birthday travel around the world in search of artifacts warning of an impending doom. After a year, the end of the world takes the form of a competition in which each challenge takes place on a different planet.

Unlike the plot, the biggest point of contention has been the actual characters to appear in the comic! Truth is, there’s been dozens of characters that have had the possibility of appearing in the comic. Some as main characters, and others as more comic relief side characters. Sizing down the original fifty plus characters has been no easy task, and I’ve joined a bunch of calls with some buds trying to decide which characters should stay or go has been a struggle. I’ll probably come to this decision on my own since these are my characters and only my most cherished of children will make it in..

The spreadsheet above was originally where I listed out all of my ocs and we went through them all and talked about how which characters could act and little quirks they could have. I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t help give me an idea on the characters I FOR SURE wanted in.

Ornament’s a character I’ve wanted in the comic since day one, they’re GUARUNTEED to be a main character. I used them in this enviornment as a test of how I’d draw backgrounds in the comic.

As another small experiment, I tried to go back to my last comic Sunburn and redraw it with the skills I have now in a style I might’ve liked back then, I’m pretty happy with how it came out!

Below is another character with a similar style. She’s also guaranteed for the comic, her name’s Inkwell!

More onto the look of the comic...

I’ve also been messing around with a potential style for the comic. It’s another one of those things that I’ve been putting a lot of thought into, but at the end of the day I think I have a good idea for what I want to do.

My biggest inspirations for this comic have always been my favorite object shows (ONE, Battle for Dream Island Again) and their saturated colors and simple designs, and Homestuck and the many many MSPFAS out there (Vast Error, A Guy Gets Revenge). Drawing objects in this style consistently has been a bit of a struggle, but I’ve found myself gravitating towards big and round hands, and tiny lil’ feet.

I don’t know if I’ll lean as heavy with the gradients and blurs though, since they’ve given me mixed results. I think I like the look of them when minimally used so I’ll probably stick to that.

Another art related thing I heavily debated on using was sprites. At first, I wanted to completely opt out of using any sprites for the sake of simplicity, but with the help of some really nice people I not only re-sprited old characters, but decided that I might go with this sprite style for the new characters. They’re so silly that it’s been hard for me to say no!

Another thing I want to note before ending this post is that just like all of my other comics, I do not mean for this to be the job of a crew where I’m only a writer.

This is my comic, and something I’ve wanted to make. Chances are that just like Sunburn, I’ll be writing a large part of the comic and drawing a large chunk of the panels. I wanna carry the weight of this because its my story!!! With that being said, anyone’s welcome to help! If you’re interested, feel free to DM me on Discord @sundSlime#2003.

TLDR?

Progress on the comic has been underway, but there’s a lot of stuff left to iron out. Hope you guys like what I have so far! Have a good day :)