#bc i was putting a lot of effort into figuring out how to put those gifs in

[dokidokiliteraturegirls]

Progress Update: September 2024

Hello everyone! Yui Wrong here, to give you an update regarding the progress that's been made towards bringing Feel Less back from hiatus 💖

So! Soon it'll be 2 months since Feel Less went on hiatus. And on the one hand that kinda pisses me off bc I really really like publishing this webcomic and not doing it feels like I'm missing something important from my life 😭 on the other hand, I'm satisfied with the progress that's been made! Development of updates #37 and #38 has been steady, so I don't feel like I've wasted time. However, although I've been consistently making progress towards Feel Less's return, I feel like there's been some radio silence here in the blog, so I wanted to give you all an update about how things have been going ^^

For starters, lemme start with what I've been doing. Before doing any illustrations for the new updates, I decided to take a small break to practice my art style, as I was really unsatisfied with how my drawings were coming out. I focused on head shapes, as those felt inconsistent in my art. Here's a couple doodles I did in August for practice

I want to keep practicing, but I decided figuring out a consistent head shape was enough for now and got to work on the updates. And I'm glad I did! I do believe there's been some noticeable improvement in some pieces~ Like for example, take this old MG illustration compared to a WIP for update #38

I like both, but I'm especially happy with the 2nd one~

After practicing for a couple of weeks I went straight into planning out the next updates and got to work on the artwork. And the result was that... 29 illustrations in total would be needed for updates #37 and #38!!

That's. Too many. So while drawing I've also been cutting the plan down and deleting some superfluous panels. After trimming the excess, I ended up with a much more realistic... 27 panels!! There, now that's doable 🥰

I jest of course, but my point is that a lot of work needs to be done and I've been consistently going at it for the past 2 months. As of now, 9 of the illustrations have been fully completed. I also have 2 WIPS I'm currently working on, so that number will go up soon.

Does this mean it'll take 4 more months to get this done? Of course not! ...hopefully. Listen, I make no promises, but I'll try not to take too long. I value your time and am really grateful for your patience. Besides, I don't want people getting bored because I took too long to return from a cliffhanger. I'm not Andrew Hussie. My full time job and real life chores usually mean that I only have about an hour a day to work on art, but I have a couple plans to make production faster, such as cutting down some more planned panels and buying a keyboard that doesn't make noise. Why would a keyboard's noise be relevant? Well, it's not. I mean, I guess if I had that, I'd be able to draw while taking calls from work without my bosses noticing, as it wouldnt be picked my the microphone, and that'd give me an extra 10 hours a day to draw. But I won't do that, because that'd be irresponsible and unprofessional. So therefore, the keyboard is irrelevant. Forget I mentioned it.

Also, a point I imagine some people might be wondering: Why make it so long anyway? There's no one forcing me to have complicated scenes or almost 30 illustrations. It's my webcomic, I can do whatever I want. And taking a long break where I'm not even on break might sound like a dumb idea. However, for me, Feel Less is not just a webcomic I publish on my free time. I'd like it to be a showcase of the very best I can do at the point in time when an update is posted. From that perspective, it'd be dumb not to put effort into it. To compromise the quality of my works for the sake of following a schedule has never been something I've been a fan of. Now, I do want to be realistic, but also I don't want to feel like I'm giving up and just putting out whatever I can finish by my imaginary deadline. It's a delicate balance, but for these two updates in specific, I think quality should take precedence for a bit. My goal is for you guys to read them and go "oh, no wonder it took a while". At least for those 2, then we can go back to schedule.

Overall, my point is: progress is being made! It's currently all being done behind closed doors, so it might not be noticeable for you guys. But I promise, I haven't been twiddling my thumbs for these past 2 months! Maybe I should've, because my hands are quite cramped tbh. But no matter, art must be made! In the meantime, I'll leave you with a couple panels I've finished so you guys can see some of the work that's been done~

I'll continue updating you guys as time goes on~ If you want consistent updates, I've been dropping the number of finished panels on the discord server every time I'm done with one! Also, if you'd like to help me get to the point where I can work only 5 hours a day and put more time into the comic, you can support me on Patreon and get some goodies and custom drawings while you're there ^^

Thank you all once again for your patience, I'll keep working hard for you all 💖

[woolydemon]

I have to convince myself to do mind numbing technical work (school projects) by baiting me with more mind numbing technical work (side projects)

[kazzattack]

Pretty, pretty girl…

Dick Grayson x Black fem!reader x Jason Todd, w/c 2.6k

Synopsis;; You attend one of Bruce Wayne’s galas with your father, for the pure pleasure of seeing the infamous Wayne brothers, and end up being snuck into the manor for the night.

content;; 18+, threesome, oral (fem receiving, implied male receiving), face fucking (male receiving), brief chokehold, hair pulling, fingering, finger sucking, eye contact, lots of banter, technically mirror sex (bc I lowk forgot about the mirror oops), light degradation (whore, slut), brief dry humping, doggy style, manhandling (?), spanking for 2 seconds, pet names (baby, doll, sweetheart), Jason’s a bit of a meanie, and Dick is… Dick, I think that’s it, poorly edited/proof read

“Stupid, stupid, stupid…” you begin to mutter, frustrated that you agreed to attend in the first place. Still, you find the will power to put on your prettiest smile and runway worthy strut.

Functions likes these never served any entertainment for you, nor did you get anything out of it. Galas your father attends for the sole purpose of saving face, surrounded by rich scum and snakes. At least this is Bruce Wayne’s gala. One of the only billionaires you find tolerable. The only people worth going for are those Wayne boys, though. Pure eye candy. You couldn’t pick a favorite out of the two.

Dick Grayson’s the first to greet you, eyes darting up and down over your figure before meeting your eyes. “Hey pretty lady,” he sing-songs, friendly and welcoming despite the telling glint in his eyes. Wayne’s prodigal son, the first, and he definitely fits the title. Dick is almost surprisingly sweet, pouring you wine and complimenting the shiny gold jewelry around your wrists and neck, rather than the dress that rides just a bit high on your thighs when you sit in the chair he pulls out for you.

Jason Todd meets you with an unintentional death stare, bless his heart. Not to say you don’t do the same thing at first. If he wasn’t 6’1 and 200+ lbs of pure muscle stuffed into a red tux, he’d be easier to miss. At first you don’t even realize his connection to Dick, let alone Bruce Wayne, but you quickly take notice of the familial banter from afar. As of now, you two share the commonality of not really wanting to be here. The two of you only get the chance to properly speak thanks to the loud-mouthed brother, followed by the chance to subtly gawk at each other, of course.

The two of them, though most of the effort is through Dick, make most of the event fly by. You take part in shameless flirting with the leaner of the two, laugh a few times at Jason’s more snarky jabs, and before you know it? Your father’s left wondering where his daughter ran off to. Guess you’ll have to figure out how to tell him two out of many of Wayne’s kids are busy trying to sneak you into his manner.

The… guest bedroom? Is awfully large, along with the bed, and the nightstand, and the mirror you use to make eye contact with Dick. They’ve put you under the impression to have made it past the security system, but realistically they both know Bruce has been notified of your presence. They also trust the billionaire playboy will mind his business. And besides, the old man should be the least of your worries when Dick tugs your dress up, followed by Jason’s calloused hands running up your thighs.

“You’re shameless,” you tease, settling yourself between Dick’s legs with your back against his chest while Jason lowers his overwhelming stature in front of you.

“Oh, sweetheart, you haven’t seen the half of it,” he corrects, grabbing the tiny zipper between his fingertips to expose more skin. “Especially not from that one down there.”

Jason scoffs, sliding your heels off as he responds. “I’m almost positive she knows what you are. Hard not to.”

“I know what I am,” Dick snickers into your ear, hands snaking over your figure. “You’re the one who stomps around acting like you’re too high and mighty for a little fun.”

You muster up the courage to jump in, urging Jason to come a little closer to your face. Despite the persona, you’ve both warmed up to each other throughout the night. “You too good for me, Jay?” You inquire, tugging him closer by his collar and tie. The glint in his eyes answers for you, giving away every intention he has for the rest of tonight.

“‘M just shy,” he jokes, though you’re not 100% sure he is. After a few drinks and the comfort of a seperate room, his eyes wander more freely, and it doesn’t take long before you notice Grayson’s gawking at you through the mirror as he undresses. “Not that you’ve gotta worry about that anymore.”

𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ

Jason was no longer shy, clearly.

“Oh my god, Jay-“ you moan above him, head resting on Dick’s shoulder as one hand roams around your upper body. The other curls under your knee, supposedly holding your legs open as opposed to closing around Jason’s head while his tongue flicks against your clit.

“Fuck, you sound gorgeous,” Dick whispers as he sucks another hickey into your collarbone, and you feel a smooth hand wrap around your neck and rest there. “You gonna make those pretty noises for me too?” His tone is sultry and teasing, though you aren’t sure if it’s meant to provoke you or the short-tempered brother between your legs. You haven’t spent that long with them, but it’s been long enough for you to learn of Jason’s competitive edge and Dick’s insufferable tendencies to get under his skin.

“You could always find out for yourself…” you manage to respond, circling your hips in time with the thick finger on your insides. The strength is found to pick your head up and look at Dick, who’s already watching you like a hawk. Eyes focused with an almost obsessive gaze, tongue grazing over your skin. You can tell he’s fixing his dirty mouth for a quip but you cut him off with a gasp as another finger is dipped into your cunt, breaking eye contact as your head falls back.

“Quit talking to him,” Jason grumbles into your heat, “just sit and look pretty like you were doin’.” His words are muffled and the bass in his voice vibrates against your leg, leaving no room for you to consider not listening to him. He’s sure you’d much rather listen to him after that debauched moan you let out anyway.

Your hand moves to tug on the white streak of Jason’s hair, blanking out for a moment as the tips of his fingers curl and thrust into you. “Aw, gonna let him ruin the fun?” Dick teases, “I still wanna look at that pretty face.” He fixes you after his comment flies over your head, gripping your jaw to face him in the mirror and letting go to see if you’ll focus on your own. Jason, still seemingly irritated with him, tightens his biceps around the plush of your thighs and pulls you further from Dick. He doesn’t like sharing either. Noted. You glance down at him, green eyes half lidded and entirely zoned in on your pussy. He doesn’t talk all that much, but he’s got his own filthy mouth, tongue dipping in with his fingers for a moment as his free hand circles your clit. This is where you learn that Dick has his own frustrations too. He needs control, power in his hands.

“No wonder you like her,” he grins, “she’s almost as hard-headed as you.” Through the hazy pleasure you giggle, not expecting the way his arm slots around your neck. There’s a gasp before a strangled moan and you clench around Jason’s fingers, hips bucking into his face and he groans into your pussy. You’re in a more compromised position now, and he’s looking you directly in the eyes while his free hand tweaks at your nipple, making you arch further away from him.

“Oh, the pretty lady likes this? You want it tighter?”

Shamelessly, you nod despite your restrictions and he listens, squeezing your head between his forearm and bicep. A familiar feeling coils in your tummy, pretty nails digging into the flesh around your neck as your leg wraps around Jason’s head. You’d feel bad if it weren’t for the needy groan against your cunt.

“Ohh, gonna come on his tongue from getting choked out? Yeah, let him know who you’re looking at while you fuck his face.”

Oh?

You’re ashamed of it, but the limited oxygen and lightheaded effect had you follow along without a thought.

“‘S you- fuck, Dick- I wanna…”

At this point, Dick’s sure he can see steam from Jason’s ears.

Still, his ministrations only go deeper, even if it’s not exactly of his free will. Thick nails dig deep into your hips and thighs to keep you in place as you orgasm and he helps you ride it out as he huffs and grunts. Meanwhile you’re right where Dick wants you, laying up against his chest and moaning against his forearm as if you were his bitch.

“Fuckin’ attention whore,” Jason sighs, easily moving your body further from Dick after practically yanking his arm from you. “Can’t go five minutes without begging for someone to look at you?” He’s clearly ticked off, but the frustration is also accompanied by the bulge of his dress pants pressing against your thigh. He hates the competition yet he undeniably craves it, and it’s clear in how much rougher his touches get. Jason moves to kiss up your body as his fingers curl at a slower pace, holding your hips in place to keep you from squirming underneath him.

“Jay-“ you sigh in bliss, hips trying to inch away as you sit up to look down at him. “Ja-son… ‘s too-“

“Shut up,” rude, “I know this pretty pussy’s beggin’ for it.”

“Struck a nerve? Sensitive much.” All he gets it a glare, rightfully so. You’d expect Dick Grayson to get in on more fun, but he’s just evil. He likes seeing a pretty girl like you squirm. Jason’s clearly more hands on, scissoring you open a few times before abruptly pulling away shoving his fingers down your throat. You’d be embarrassed by how easily you take it if the two of them weren’t mesmerized, watching while you suck his fingers clean of your own slick.

“We got us a pretty little slut, Jaybird,” Dick praises.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop talking?”

“No, actually.”

“Well I am now, Dick.”

You get out a little giggle while they bicker before Jason flips you over, positioning your ass against his pelvis and guiding your hips back. You’d been too high in pleasure before to realize that Jason Todd is big, everywhere. His dick presses against you through his pants and you almost panic as he pushes you back and forth, watching your ass bounce against him a few times and you whine.

“Yeah, y’feel that?” He groans from behind you and only Dick can see the prideful grin on his face. “You’ll take it, baby, jus’ for me.” Still, you let out a little whine at his words and clench around nothing. What you can see is the bulge in front of you as your head rests between Dick’s legs, doesn’t look as big but it’s definitely enough. You have no right to complain.

Jason leans over to deepen your arch and you hear his belt unbuckle. You wanna tell him wait, but you’re too slow. The tip of his cock slips against your opening and you mewl, looking back at him over your shoulder. “Oh my god, Jay-“ you gasp before he pushes deeper inside of you.

“Fuck… what’d I tell you?” He grunts, already halfway inside. “Already so wet and you’re tellin’ me you don’t wanna get fucked?”

“Be nice,” Dick interrupts as his fingers curl into your hair gently, as if he didn’t have you moaning against his arm in a chokehold earlier tonight. He gets to be the nice one now, your handsome knight in shining armor. If that were entirely true, though, he wouldn’t be over so slightly forcing you back onto Jason’s cock with his other hand.

Dick’s order is easily disregarded once he’s all the way inside, and with a few thrusts, pulling all the way out before slamming you onto his cock, pretty nails are clawing at the fabric of Dick’s slacks and you muffle your moans into them with soft whines. “Ah-ah, sweetheart,” he hums from above you, cooing at you with a soft voice yet tugging your head up by the chin a little harshly to look at you.

“‘S big.. oh- fuck, Dick-“

“‘Scuse me?”

Oopsie.

“Now you’re in for it, doll.” The smile of amusement and lust on Dick’s face is almost demeaning.

“We got an ungrateful little slut,” Jason scowls, tugging so hard on your hair he might fuck it up if he doesn’t fuck you up first. His thrusts gain a brutal pace and he fucks you even deeper than before, leaning down to your face before he speaks again. “Here I am, face covered in your cum, fuckin this tight cunt with my cock and you’ve still got the nerve to be moanin’ for him? The fuck is he doing for you, huh? Tell me. Tell both of us.”

You can’t, even if you wanted to. Even if you could. Just from the close proximity, the way his dick hits that sweet spot harder and harder has you whimpering an incoherent apology and clenching around him. The only thing he can make out is the pathetic little “‘m sorry” as your hand moves to cover your face.

“Oh hell no,” he corrects you, grabbing your arm and folding it behind your back. You’re weaker than ever right now, no longer holding yourself up. In fact, Jason’s the one holding you, keeping you stable while he fucks the lights out of you.

“I think she wants it like this,” Dick chimes in, smiling like all you’re doing is putting on a show for him. Not that you mind, of course. You’re busy trying not to cry from the intensity, but you haven’t even realized your mascara’s been fucked up for a hot minute already.

“Yeah, you wanted this, right? Bet you thought you’d get it from that bastard,” Jason huffs a guttural laugh, “guess he shoulda told you about this thick dick.”

“‘M sorry, ‘m sorry, Jay- fuck, please,” you beg from beneath him, tightening around his dick as another orgasm has your moans higher pitched. “Wanna cum- lemme cum, Jason, please-!”

“Now you wanna moan my name?”

“Guess you fucked some sense into her.”

“Shut your goddamn mouth, Grayson.” The venom in his voice is for Dick, but unfortunately the anger gets taken out on you with a sharp smack on the ass and you yelp. “Give it to me,” he groans, “cum all over this cock.”

“Thank you- thank you, Jason-“

Your eyes roll, so far back you can see your skull as he fucks you throught it. You still babble on about how good he feels and he never lets up, focused on his own orgasm as he shoves your face into the mattress. Without another beat, he fucks you full, nasty fluids gushing around his cock as he finally calms down. You damn near back out, honestly, but distantly you can hear another belt buckle being undone.

“Y’done yet, Jaybird?”

“Not really,” he huffs through a deep groan, still rutting into you. “But go ahead. Just don’t piss me off again.” Dick fake pouts, pulling your face back up and you’re met with his length, throbbing and neglected.

“Wha…” you weakly moan, legs trembling and cunt twitching around Jason. Dick almost moans at the sight of your fucked out face, drool pooling at the corner of your lips and mascara smudged down your face. Still just as gorgeous, albeit more shameful than before. Dick can admit he prefers you with this look.

“We’ve still got plans for you, pretty girl,” he whispers, squishing your cheeks to push your mouth open before slapping the fat of his cock onto your tongue. “You still with us?”

“Mhm…”

“Good, good girl.“

𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ𖥔 ִ ་ ، ˖ ࣪ ་ ˖ ʿ

a/n;; dick was supposed to have the upper hand for most of this but listen, things happen. writing this was honestly so fun but idk if it’ll ever happen again anytime soon </3. pls enjoy, like, comment and reblog, i’d appreciate it :p

[heartpascal]

can we get more father figure joel? You know when Ellie killed the David, and then Joel comforted her? Maybe that but instead of Ellie it’s the reader, thank you <3

i am good

▹ joel miller x platonic!f!reader

▹ — summary: joel finally sees the darkness in himself reflected in you.

▹ — a/n: ok first request i hope it’s ok!! i know its kinda similar to the game but erm. its reader and joel this time!! and reader is much much less ok with the whole. murder thing but its ok bc joel is there to fix it &lt;3 yes he is your dad no you don’t get a choice he has decided it

▹ — warnings: allusions to sexual assault (nothing happens but the intention was there), vivid descriptions of murder, reader is misled and attacked, similar to the game with ellie (so kinda spoilers?), joel is ready to kill for you (and does), lots of blood, tears, father figure joel, lots of angst and upset, vomiting

masterlist

∘₊✧───── ───── ───── ─────✧₊∘

Getting air into your lungs was proving to be one of the hardest things you’d had to do for a long time, which, considering the journey you’d been on, was shocking. The act of simply breathing should have come easily to you, but it didn’t. It couldn’t. Not as you saw the reflection of your own bloodied face in the knife that was held up, a clear threat polluting the air.

You knew you had probably been lucky to even make it as far as you had — born into a world full of death and chaos and infection, you were bound to meet your gruesome end some day, but you didn’t want to die.

For the first time in a long time, your chest ached for the breath you couldn’t seem to provide, the want, the need to live almost suffocating you on its own. You had someone now, someone who cared whether you survived or not, who felt like you deserved even a glimpse at a happy ending, even if he didn’t like to state those things out loud.

Resentment was growing in your stomach, filling you with the need to be sick. Why did you always have to listen to the words Joel didn’t say, rather than the ones he did say? If you had just listened, conserved your trust for those who actually earned it, you wouldn’t be in this situation.

When your hunting escapades had led you into a small horde of infected, you had just blindly put your faith in the aging couple who came to your aid, not thinking of what they might want for their troubles. You’d never had to escape without Joel’s help before, and you quickly discovered you weren’t all that good at it.

The two of them had dragged you back to their nearby settlement which they shared with a couple dozen others, all whilst you were kicking and screaming, trying to get away, your resolve fading each time they hit you to near unconsciousness. When they passed by a young man stood beside an older lady, you had called out to them, “Please, help me, please.”

“Gotta get something in return for the gear we wasted saving her ass,” the man had snickered to the two of them as glanced at the couple, just nodding at his words before turning back to their conversation.

You’d been knocked out when they approached a large community house, just getting a glimpse of the carpeted floor before the woman had struck her gun against the side of your head.

You had woken up in the middle of a chilled room, your arms straining with effort as you pushed yourself to sit up, seeing the woman holding a knife towards you. You couldn’t be sure how long it had been since they’d taken you, not with the way your stomach clenched with pain. The whole reason you’d been out there was to solve that, but you were sure that it had gotten worse.

“Listen, please,” your scratchy voice came out, much quieter than you had meant for it to be, “I—I can get you replacements for everything you used, but you gotta let me go.”

“We don’t gotta do anything, girl.” The lady snickered, as if even you saying such a thing was amusing. It made you feel small, powerless.

She got up, hearing her name being called, Cheryl, you noted, and sneered at you. Her skin was dull, and she looked vaguely ill, but that didn’t change anything about her threatening demeanour. At least one thing you’d taken from travelling with Joel was never underestimate your opponent, no matter how small, or ill, or kind they may appear to be.

Her hand grazed your face as she strode past, “Yeah,” she said quietly, like she was complimenting you, “You’ll do nicely. We’ll both enjoy you.”

You managed to avoid throwing up until she left the room, hearing a lock click into place. All that came up was bile, the clench of your stomach just becoming sharper afterwards. Your muscles felt weak, likely beginning to waste away with you having been inactive for a little while and injured, less energy wasted on muscle cells and more going into fighting off the infections that were likely trying to poison your blood.

Scanning the room, like Joel would’ve advised you to, you found nothing of much use to you. An old rickety chair, perhaps, but that would only help you if you could lift it, and you weren’t convinced you had the strength left within you, but you’d be damned if you didn’t at least try.

Something deep in your chest nagged at you, the longing for Joel, probably. He had saved you on countless occasions, and you could only hope that it had been long enough that he had finally gotten worried. It seemed likely, he really did worry a lot for a man who wasn’t meant to care, but then there was the factor of him finding you, managing to take down all the people in the settlement that might fight to protect each other and—

You took a deep breath, finally feeling your lungs expand and take in some oxygen, and pulled yourself from the ground, keeping the bile that threatened to rise down as the nausea hit you.

The chair was lighter than you expected it to be, the insides of the wooden frame likely rotten away, and you managed to pull it towards the door, waiting beside it with shallow breaths. When the lock finally began to click open, you raised the lightweight chair as high as you could, and smacked it down against the person who entered the room. Splinters flew from it as it impacted, and you heard the clatter of metal as a tray they carried hit the ground with them.

Food, maybe, to keep you alive for… whatever it was that they had planned for you, you reasoned, but didn’t look to check. Instead, you grabbed a mostly-intact leg of the chair that caused splinters to dig into your palm, and stepped over the body of the man who had taken you, exiting quickly.

Footsteps hurried you, and you ducked behind a booth as they approached the room you were being kept in. There were lanterns lit all around the room, giving it a warm look that greatly contrasted the cold air and feel it had.

“Shit!” Cheryl cursed, and you saw her bend down to check on the man from over the top of your booth. A radio crackled though the air, before, “Lewis is down, the girl’s out. Anybody got eyes?”

Your fingers shook and you gripped on to the booth to stop them, hearing the distorted reply of whoever was on the other end of the radio, “She ain’t got out, yet, she’s gotta be in there with you. You need backup?”

“No,” Cheryl replied, her cold voice sending shivers down your back, “I’ve got her.”

The drag of Lewis’ clothes against the floor made you peak your head up, seeing her drag him into the room, before she exited and locked him inside. You ducked back down, heart hammering. You couldn’t escape from them in an open forest — how would you get out of a locked down building?

“Come on out, kid. It’s okay, you just gotta start behaving yourself.” She called, her slow footsteps failing to mask the sound of her unsheathing her knife. It wasn’t okay, it was very far from okay, you would argue, and you could feel that crushing fear of death pushing down on your shoulders, your chest constricting once again.

You tried to reassure yourself — you had faced countless amounts of infected and come out on the other side, what was one woman with very bad intentions? But it didn’t make you feel better, not when it was another human, who could feel exactly what you felt.

Her footsteps approached, and you leaped from where you were in the booth, trying to run as far away from her as fast as you could, but she caught up to you with surprising ease, your muscles clearly weaker than initially thought, and she grasped the back of your shirt, pulling you to a stop as you fell to the ground.

“Get the fuck off of me!” You cried out as she knelt down, one knee beside you and another pressing against your stomach, knife approaching your throat as soon as she settled you firmly against the carpet. It was red.

“You could’ve made this real easy for all of us,” she muttered your name, and you froze, having forgotten the way you’d yelled it out to them in the midst of the battle. “Be a good girl, now.”

You heard gunfire outside, and when her face glanced toward the guarded front door, you twisted underneath her, pushing yourself away to find enough room to kick the knee against the floor out from under her. She fell, her chin hitting the ground with a satisfying crack, and when she cried out, anger overcame you.

“You were gonna hurt me,” You said aloud, almost as if it was a realisation, rather than just fact. Your eyes hardened, gaze going red as you snatched the knife from her weakened grip. She reached out to try and snatch it back, but only got the drops of your blood that fell from the blade as you held onto it, twisting it until you finally held the handle. “Why— why were you going to hurt me?”

Her response didn’t filter through your ears, and the rage at how easily she and Lewis were going to do it pulsed, making your vision go blurry. When she sat up, tumbling forward to take you down again, you swiped her own knife until you felt the drag of something resisting it, and then you pulled harder, feeling something warm gushing down your hand.

Cheryl’s breath stuttered slightly, her hands rising to her chest as she groaned in pain. You looked down to your hands, where they were coated in a red that was darker than the carpet below them, and you were so lost that you didn’t notice her hand coming below yours, hitting it so hard that the knife went flying to the other end of the carpet.

Like a reflex, your fists came down on her face, feeling the shift of bones beneath your knuckles as they shattered upon contact. You didn’t stop, too wrapped up in the fact that you didn’t want to die, that she was going to hurt you, to kill you when she was done, she was going to tear you apart and throw away the pieces, she was going to take away what little humanity had left, she—

Arms pulled you away from the body beneath you, arms much stronger than your own, and you screamed, yelled out with your broken voice, “I’ll kill you, I’ll fucking kill you, get off of me! I’ll kill you!”

The person shushed you, only holding tighter as you thrashed, turning away from Cheryl where she… wasn’t breathing. You stopped, tense muscles in your body going slack and burning as you stared at her, at her body, lifeless and covered in blood.

“Kid, it’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve got you.” said the person holding you— said Joel. Your hands dropped from where you had scratched his forearm, his arm covered in blood — though whether it was his, or Cheryl’s, or yours, you didn’t know.

He loosened his grip on you, eyebrows creased in concern as your entire body slipped when he moved his arms away, as if you couldn’t even hold yourself up.

“No… she— it wasn’t, I didn’t—” you trailed off, unsure of what to say, the words dead on your tongue, because you didn’t what? Didn't mean to kill her?

Joel followed your blank eyes to the body he’d pulled you from, and he turned your head towards him quickly, eyes hard. “No.” He said, and at your somewhat confused expression, he continued, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Joel, I—”

“No,” he repeated, and pulled your head towards him, keeping you looking away from Cheryl as a gunshot rang through the room, echoing in your ears so loudly you couldn’t hear Joel at first, as he held up the smoking gun for you to see, “—killed her, see? I killed her.”

“They were going… they wanted to—” You choked on the words, feeling that bile come creeping back up your throat, and you lurched away from Joel as it came out, feeling him pull your hair back from your face.

Something in his eyes settled, however, at the choice of word you’d used — they. So this body wasn’t the only one in here? His question was answered by a bang at a door on the other side, the way your entire body flinched at the sound.

The door splintered, and a battered man came tumbling out, hurrying over to where he could see people crowded. His face went red, and he began to shout, “You fucking bitch—!”

Joel shot one between the eyes, and the man crumpled before he could get anything else out. He turned back to you, to where you were hunched in on yourself. He shoved his gun back in its rightful place, and held your cheeks between his hands, gunpowder residue transferring to your skin.

“Do you hear me?” His muted voice said, and you looked up to his face with a confused shake of your head, “It was you or them, and the only answer is you.”

“But, Joel,” you were interrupted, and he wiped the underneath of your eye of a tear that you hadn’t even known had fallen.

“No. You listen to me, remember?” Joel affirmed, and you nodded, the tears falling more now that you’d acknowledged them, your hands shaking as you tried to look past Joel, but he just pulled your face back to him. “I’ve got you, kid. Keep your eyes on me.”

You turned your face into his neck as you all but threw yourself into his arms, and they wrapped around you like they’d been waiting to do so. You missed his pained expression at the words, and the way heartache burrowed in his chest as he stood the two of you up, his knees clicking.

He swept you up, as if you were the smallest and lightest thing he’d carried in years, and he carried you away, your eyes staying glued to him as the two of you left behind the carnage he’d caused in looking for you.

[greatyme]

I did something silly….. I made QL guess who!

About a year and a half ago I had the idea for a custom ql guess who game but I had no one to play it with so I just put it to the side until I (hopefully) would. Fortunately that day came this weekend when @pondphuwin and I got to play a few rounds (they beat me 4:5 actually lmao)!

Some of the questions we asked were stuff like “is it from gmmtv,” “does your show have a branded pair,” “is there a love triangle,” “is there a debate over whether your show is a bl or not,” and more personal ones like “am I crazy over one of the main actors,” “do we have beef with the way this bl went,” “did we watch this live together,” and so on. Rlly fun stuff!

Since this is a custom guess who I had to make all the pieces manually. At first it seems fine and easy bc there’s already official posters right? But the difficulty is that almost every poster is a different size. So I figured out how to get the proper guess who face piece measurements and manually resized each poster to fit, with a slight gradient in the background where the remaining space isn’t covered by the poster. You can see those gradient bars on the top and bottom in the closeup of the last twilight piece, for example. Also it’s just really funny to hold mini posters of qls lmao (using my hand as a reference)

There’s 190 ql poster pieces in total (based on approx. how many I’d seen as of the time of printing) (yes I will add more as time goes on) and they were all put on one big google doc that covered about 10 pages and looked like this!

After I had them all set I printed them out on cardstock so they were thicker & more sturdy and then I did a lot of cutting. And since both players need the same posters I had to cut it all twice

Are there easier ways to do this? Maybe. I’m not sure. Honestly I just did whatever like this is my own gay little art project lol

Once I had them all cut and held them in my hand I felt quite proud of my work and now that I’ve actually played it I really do

Here’s just like a pic I took when we were playing a round. Since there were so many, after every round we took out the two qls we just selected and replaced them with new ones and we never ran out lmao. It took quite a bit of effort but it was totally worth it hehe

[sacredindigos]

i say this as an el stan. a hardcore el stan. and i am able to say this bc i know how to admit when a character i love does some not so nice things. just keep that in mind.

el is not a good girlfriend to mike.

sure she puts his pictures up in her shrine and whatever. but those are miniscule things in a relationship. those are just flashy little things you do for show. but when you dig deeper into their relationship and look at things like how they connect emotionally, their overall behavior towards each other, how they communicate, accountability, and etc .... el falls just as short as mike does in those categories. maybe even more for some of them.

i mean like with the accountability thing. at least mike attempts to apologize to el when he fucks up. el on the other hand has hurt mike but has never apologized or attempted to apologize to him.

for instance, she broke his trust in s3 and invaded his privacy when she spied on him. and instead of apologizing when he was clearly upset about it, she just played it off as something she was allowed to do bc "she makes her own rules." making her own rules is totally fine and an important lesson she learned from max, but not when it comes at the expense of other people's feelings and privacy. and that is what happened. she didn't take mike's feelings or privacy into consideration at all and she got away with thinking what she did was ok. and then in s4 she consistently lied to mike for 6 months straight. and he was mad and hurt when he found out she lied to him for 6 months out of their relationship and she wasn't actually the person she was said she was. and yet she never apologized for that either. when he politely tried to figure out why she had lied to him and he apologized for how he treated her, she spun all the focus onto him and started grilling him abt how he never says he loves her. which yes is something she should have done bc that was clearly an issue between them, but that could have waited til after she apologized to him. mike deserved an apology for that as well. they both should have apologized but mike was the only one who ended up saying the words "im sorry." that isn't ok. relationships take accountability and effort on both sides !!

mike's "apologies" to el are definitely not perfect and they have their issues. like a lot of issues. but at least he tries. he makes an attempt at apologizing to her and fixing things between them. el doesn't. she has never really made an attempt to make things better between them when they are having issues (that they both cause). she just pushes all the blame onto mike and all the pressure of fixing things onto him. and she's never apologized to mike for her mistakes that have upset him or taken accountability.

i think it just shows us that mike is really the one who cares more abt their relationship and puts in more effort. el definitely does not care as much as he does (granted, i don't think he cares for the right reasons but that is for another day) or puts in as much effort to fix their relationship. mike ends up having to do it all and that isn't fair to him. mike deserves better than that, despite what the people who think his character revolves around el think.

el is a bad girlfriend to mike just like mike is a bad boyfriend to her. not enough people want to acknowledge that.

[reasonsforhope]

Is it true some parts will be under water in 2025? I'm kinda of worried cause someone told me about it bc it was on the news

Eh, not really. Like, technically, but that's a very dramatic way to put it.

What that person told you about was probably this prediction, which says that some roads on some of the Florida Keys might be underwater by 2025.

Does that suck? Yes. But it's also pretty limited in scope.

(And by the way, that's probably not "underwater all the time." There will probably be a number of years of "the roads will be underwater at high tide specifically." I can't currently find a source on this, but that's how tides work, and the Florida Keys article does specifically mention them as a main problem.)

The areas in danger first are pretty universally small, very low islands. Actually, a dozen or so small islands have already gone underwater in the Pacific Ocean, but very importantly, none of those islands were inhabited.

They were mostly small reef islands (that is, the entire island is exposed coral reef detritus) and other uninhabited shoals. Mostly, they were so small scientists had to check old satellite images to even figure out that they disappeared. Literally, we're talking about chunks of land that are just 100 square meters/300 square feet. Again, not great, but still very limited in scope.

As this Live Science article thankfully explains, it's pretty unlikely that any countries at all will disappear before 2100.

Also, just because land is below sea level doesn't mean it will be underwater, and there are very real steps we can take to defend a lot of endangered cities/islands.

For example:

Much of the Netherlands is already below sea level, but the country isn't disappearing, because the Dutch have put a lot of work into building and maintaining coastal defenses.

Multiple surveys (including the one that found the missing islands in Micronesia) also found that not all low-lying islands are vulnerable to erosion and flooding. This is because many islands are protected by mangrove forests, lagoons, or both

Mangrove reforestation in particular is genuinely a super effective anti-flooding strategy that is being deployed pretty widely, and is expected to increase a lot in the coming years. Mangroves are effective at not only preventing short-term flooding, but also mitigating sea-level increases (in part by preventing erosion)

Some islands, esp Pacific Islands, have actually grown during the past couple decades, not shrunk. It really depends on what the island is made up of. Not all land is automatically doomed

You can read more about how sinking countries are fighting back here, and the lessons we can learn from them:

-via Time, June 13, 2019

And finally, and this is good news for reasons I'll explain in a second:

Some of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world are at the top of the danger list. (Note: the predictions at that link are based on some fairly severe warming predictions. They do NOT necessarily reflect what's going to happen or when.)

The cities that are going to be in danger the soonest (still away btw) include New York, London, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Dubai. Lots of very rich people in those cities! Who would really like to not have to move (any of their ten different homes lol)

So, flooding aside, we're going to (by necessity) get a lot better at figuring out the quickest, cheapest, most scalable, and most effective types of coastal defenses real fast.

Are rich countries going to be way more able to get strong coastal defense systems up quickly? Yes. Does that suck? Sure fucking does!! But these solutions don't all require a lot of money or tech to implement, even at a large scale, especially when it's local communities driving the effort.

And, importantly, when rich countries pour a ton of money into figuring this out, that will hugely expand our understanding of what techniques work best, why, and how best to deploy them in different situations. Unlike physical structures, that's valuable knowledge that can be shared very, very widely.

And any technology that comes out of this is going to work like solar panels and other green energy: as more people use it, it will get cheaper and cheaper. Probably really quickly.

So, all told, no one's going to be swallowed up in the next few years. We have time to work on this and a lot of people are already doing so.

Mostly, experts predict that the first wave of large-scale issues will be happening around 2050.

Three decades doesn't sound like enough time, in the face of something like this. But you know what? Responses to climate change are speeding up exponentially, and different types of responses are multiplying and magnifying each other.

We went from inventing flight to landing on the moon in just 66 years.

I wouldn't count us out of the climate change fight yet.

(...I wouldn't count on retiring to Florida either, though)

[bumblebeesfromvenus]

Lost and Found ♧| 1.

Leon S. Kennedy x reader (ft. Ashley <3)

A/N: Hi! You have seen correctly, this is part one to my first multi part fic! I don't know how many there will be. I was planning on just two but who knows 👀 part two is already in the works! Enjoy!

~Fi 🪻

Warnings: Lots of swearing bc reader is pissed lmao, canon typical violence, one use of Y/N (I couldn't make it work any other way, I tried)

Word count: 2.5k

Part 1 ♧ Part 2 ♧ Part 3 ♧

Please don't copy my work! I put a lot of effort and heart into the things I write.

🧡□□□□□□□□□□□□💉□□□□□□□□□□□🧡

🧡□□□□□□□□□□□□💉□□□□□□□□□□□🧡

This has been horrible. Terrible. Catastrophical. A fucking shit show. Whatever you want to call it. The fucking day you've had so far. It started like a normal work day for you, although your normal work day wasn't very normal to other people. You'd been tasked to eliminate a group of dangerous cultists who were running amok in Spain. You didn't actually know where you were, your higher-ups had just dropped you off in the middle of nowhere and left you to figure this out on your own. Which, normally, wasn't a problem for you but normally you wouldn't have been chased by these fucking things.

This Village was dead. At least that's what you thought when you were passing through to get to the actual root of your mission. And suddenly these people or whatever the fuck they were, started crowding you. And fuck, there were so many of them. They just kept coming. Bullet after Bullet after Bullet and some of them were still standing.

And that is how you ended up right here. Sweaty, dirty, covered in blood, thankfully most of it wasn't your own, and almost all out of ammo. You cursed your boss and everyone else in that fucking office. "I'll fucking wring their necks..." you gritted through your teeth, trying to bandage the slash on your forearm.

Some old lady had come at you with a machete and unfortunately you weren't fast enough to put her back in hell so you took the hit. At least you were safe for now. You had taken shelter in an old, rundown barn. Grunting, you pulled the knot on your bandage tight and rested your elbows on your knees. Letting out a frustrated sigh you leaned your head against the old, wooden wall and closed your eyes. You'd just managed to barricade the door with something before a horde of those psychos could get in, and to you.

You checked the mag of your gun. Five bullets. You really hoped the universe was on your side today because otherwise you'd be dead before the day is done. Cocking your gun, you held it in a firm grip. They were screaming and pounding against the unstable barn with whatever they could find. Scythes, machetes, pitchforks. Some were carelessly waving around lit torches. You were starting to lose hope. The searing pain in your arm only getting worse, and there was no way in hell you were getting out of here with just five bullets left. Ready to accept your fate, you slightly loosened the grip on your gun.

Suddenly, The door burst open and someone stormed in, slamming the door shut behind them. The second they had entered you were on one knee, both hands tightly grasping your gun and pointing it at the intruder. The man was breathing heavily, and not seeming to have noticed you just yet. He also seemed pretty normal to you, meaning he wasn't a goddamn zombie. When he spotted you in his peripheral, he immediately pulled his gun, pointing it straight at you. You looked him in the face and- wait, was that-

"Leon?!" You yelled in disbelief, Lowering your gun. "Y/N?" He stared at you with a confused expression. Relief and hope washed over you and your stance softened, shoulders dropping. You had meet him in the police academy and you two became inseparable, he was your best friend. Until the racoon city incident, that is. You never thought you'd see him again. Hell, you didn't even know he was alive until now.

"Oh thank god" you breathed, rushing over to embrace him. You wrapped your arms around him, holding him so tightly as if he could vanish any second. Leon relaxed in your grip and snaked his hands around you. He pulled away, staring at you. "What the fuck are you doing here?" He questioned, still in shock at your meeting.  "Work. What about you, Officer Kennedy? Or should I say Agent," You teased, pulling away from the hug. A smile tugged at his lips at your teasing.

How he'd missed you. He'd missed your laugh, your eyes, the way you managed to be so kind and caring yet one of the strongest and most resilient people he knew. A part of him was missing without you. You filled the void left by everyone else who had left or disappointed him. Racoon city fucked him over in so many ways and he finally had you back.

You'd slipped from his grasp in the mere blink of an eye back then. Leon wanted, needed, to go back and get you, but they restrained him, holding him with all their strength. 'she's not worth it' they said. But you were so worth it to him, more than you would ever know. All he could do was watch as the burning building you were still in collapsed and buried everything in it in ruble and dirt, leaving you alone in the sea of gone-crazy residents.

He didn't believe you were dead for one second. You were too stubborn and resilient to get taken down by a couple of undead bastards. At least that's what he told himself. He didn't want to believe you were dead. You couldn't be.

"Me too. Those cult assholes took President Graham's daughter," he breathed out, still a little overwhelmed from finding you here and those things still trying to break the door down. Your eyes widened in shock. "Shit. So.. um.. when did you decide to become an agent for the government?" You asked casually. It's not like there were literal zombies trying to burn your shelter to the ground. You were surprised at yourself for not losing your absolute shit right now. Leon just has such a stable and calm aura about him. Ironic, isn't it? He slightly shrugged his shoulders. "Figured it was the right path to go down." He responded. You nodded in acknowledgment and crossed your arms across your chest. It was followed by a somewhat awkward silence, both of you just looking around the barn, avoiding eye contact.

His eyes panned down to your wrapped arm, blood seeping through the bandage. "Shit. Are you okay? What happened?" He asked concerned, gently taking your arm and examining it. "Some old lady with a machete. She got me while I was reloading" You sighed, hissing slightly when Leon brushed his fingertips over your forearm. He mummbled out a quick apology before reaching for a roll of fresh bandages that was stashed in the many pockets on his pants. "How's the pain?" He questioned softly. You thought for a second before answering. "You ever got hit with a machete? Kinda like that" Leon shook his head at you, but you caught the small smiling that cracked on his face.

"I have some first aid spray. That'll help with the pain" he said, shaking the white can before applying it generously to your wound. Your shoulders slacked in relief, the numbing agents in the spray easing your pain. You sighed, the burning in your skin fading. "There we go," Leon mumbled, finishing the fresh bandage on your arm. It was neat and so much better than what you had done in a hurry. "Thank you. I really fucking missed you.." you whispered, not wanting his touch to fade. "Missed you too.." he responded, taking both of your hands in his and giving them a reassuring squeeze. You were broken out of your moment with Leon by the loud noise of wood splitting. Your heads snapped towards the barn door where wood chips were flying. One of the locals had found an axe and was hacking away at the door. Leon immediately readied his gun and mercilessly shot at the arm that was reaching in through the hole in the door.

"D'you have some more ammo? I'm all out" You asked loudly, so he'd hear you over the shots he fired. You had your hand on your knife. You were slicing your way out of this if you had to. One thing was clear; you weren't going down without a fight. Without losing focus, he grabbed a pack of handgun ammo from his belt and tossed it your way. Catching it, you reloaded your gun and adjusted your grip to pump these fuckers full of lead. You positioned yourself next to Leon. "What's the plan?" You questioned, raising your weapon. He gave you a quick glance. "Don't die." He answered as he kicked the door open.

You had rescued Ashley from the church and thought that was it. The chopper would be here any minute to fly all of you out of this shithole and you could catch up with Leon over a few too many drinks. You longed to talk to him again, like you used to. At a bar, getting shitfaced, talking about whatever crap came to mind. Annoying colleagues, taxes, funny patrol stories. Let someone else handle the cult shit, you know? You were already pissed at them for not briefing you enough or failing to mention the zombies involved and basically leaving you for dead. But no. The weather was too bad, they said. You'll have to make it there until it clears up, they said. Fuck all of them.

Wandering around this really weird part of Spain with Leon and Ashley was what brought you here. In a Castle. And boy do you had to fucking fight to even get in. But here you were, looking around the grand marble hall, intricately decorated with swirls, all sorts of patterns and statues of half naked women. A big crystalline chandelier hung from the ceiling and artfully crafted sconces adorned the walls.

You quickly scanned the room and spotted a small chest hidden away in a dark nook. "Treasure!" You whispered to yourself, rubbing your hands together excitedly as you made your way to the prize. "Really?" Leon asked, slightly annoyed. "What? I love shiny things. I'm a simple gal, Leon. Don't you know that diamonds are a girl's best friend?" You smirked at him. He just rolled his eyes at you with a small smile. "So you haven't changed, huh?" He questioned with a sly grin on his face. "Nope" you responded with a quick glance and a smirk. "Good.." he whispered to himself.

Leon continued to look around, making sure there was no one around. Ashley giggled at your teasing and went over to you to check out any potential shinies you'd find. Prying open the small chest you were rewarded for the first time today. "Jackpot!" you whispered to yourself. "Oooooh I wanna see!" Ashley urged, pulling the box closer to her. The chest was small but if was still filled to the brim with golden jewelry, chalices and small sculptures.

"I call dips on the crown!" You beamed, taking the golden headpiece and quickly storing it away. That peeked Leon's interest. "What the hell do you need a crown for?" He questioned, puzzled. "To wear, duh" you rolled your eyes at him. Who doesn't need a crown?

"Look at this necklace! It's gorgeous" Ashley exclaimed, shoving it in your face. Your eyes widened at the ornate necklace. It really was gorgeous. Who ever lived here had to be loaded. Leon just shook his head at the two of you. First zombies and now he was stuck with two magpies.

That's where the fun ended and a plethora of things happened and everything went to shit. again. The three of you had wandered into some kind of Throne room and we're welcomed by this tiny man. What was his name again? Ronald? Rowan? Eh, something like that. You were caught off guard by his whole being and couldn't stiffle the laugh that escaped your lips, which earned you an elbow to the ribs from Leon and a panicked look from Ashley. Let's just say Mr. Tiny man didn't appreciate your gesture. Now you were here, in a dark cellar, chained to the wall with Leon by your side. They had taken Ashley away to some Saddler guy.

"You really couldn't have saved that laugh for later?" Leon asked, frustrated. You eyed him. "I was thrown off by him, okay! I didn't expect this grandiose Castle to belong to a 65 year old in a kids' body with a dusty wig! Don't tell me you didn't find his act at least a little funny." You answered defensively. Yes, the fact that you laughed at him had greatly inconvenienced the two of you, but the look on his face made it kind of worth it. "I didn't say that-"

"I knew it! You haven't changed, Leon." you smiled at him teasingly. Leon shook his head at you but couldn't hide the smile that made its way onto his face.

Eventually, Leon broke both of you out and you went to get Ashley back. Which you did. Only for her to be taken again 5 minutes later. You got her back. She got taken. Again. That went on for a while. It was infuriating how they treated her like property. The poor girl was scared out of her mind and they were dragging her around like some kind of doll.  It was starting to annoy you, that they kept taking her that is. Leon shared your feelings on the matter. Eventually, you did manage to keep her from being taken. Then, you fought Tiny man which was way harder and grosser than expected.

You also got trapped in a research facility with some extremely jiggly dudes, met a Spanish guy named Luis, who kept popping up in random places on your journey and you were almost minced  to death by some guy named Krauser. There was also a chick named Ada that showed up briefly but all she did was flirt with Leon? That's not the entire truth, she did help you out but something was just off.

Her whole presence annoyed the living crap out of you, not to mention she made you sit in the backseat when she was taking both of you to a weird Island. You weren't a child anymore, yes, there were only two seats in the front but that's not the point-  the point was how a feeling of jealousy bubbled up in your stomach when she talked to Leon. How the way she looked at him made you want to rip your hair out.

Now you were sitting here, in the Helicopter, Ashley on one side, Leon on the other. You were holding both of their hands tightly. You didn't want to lose them again. "So.. that was shit.." you said quietly. "You said it" Leon added. "NEVER again" Ashley, spoke. You were so glad it was over and everyone was save. You were battered and bruised, filthy and injured but you had gotten your best friend back and won a new one. You leaned your head on Leon's shoulder and gave Ashleys hand a squeeze.

He maneuvered his head to look at you, giving you a small smile. "Drinks?" He asked with a smirk. "Drinks" you sighed with a smile. "What about you, Ash?" You asked, turning your head to look at her.  "I honestly just want to take a nap" she replied, giggling. You all broke out in some much needed laughter and urgingly waited to get home. When you were close to home, it dawned on you. You weren't alone anymore.

🧡□□□□□□□□□□□□💉□□□□□□□□□□□🧡

Part two coming soon!~

[elusiiev]

The Brainrot is Consuming me.

anyway earlier me an my friends were discussing what kinda clothes the main cast of omor would wear bc.... yk half of the cast is in fucking npc ass attire, and we went back and forth about it a lot and now i feel obligated to share this with other people to see if they might agree with my headcanons

mari - for mari i feel like she's very much a cardigan girly, sundresses all the time, probably like sweetheart and square necklines on a lot of her shirts, and she consistently puts lots of time into her appearance, more so for her own pleasure than anything else. however if she doesnt get to change out of pajamas she'd probably get a little upset and feel unproductive as a result - idk she just seems very schedule oriented and i feel her clothing style and habits would match that. she 100% irons clothes, if somethings wrinkly shes not wearing it, and she'd lean into the academia aesthetic. she also gives summer vibes to me, but that might just be because the main canon images of her are during summertime - also lots of purples and yellows, purples her fav color and yellow is the complementary color, plus a color associated with bright light and summertime

hero - he'd probably have a more basic style of fashion, but still look very cute in it. like big sweatshirts, long coats, button ups, wide leg jeans, collared shirts, clean shoes, all in all a very clean look. he prob has some of mari's jackets in his closet that he wears pretty frequently. also he would always wear earrings BECAUSE I SAID SO I THINK ITS AWESOME he might also be a bit into academia fashion, but less over-the-top "i'm the top professor of this college" look and more just autumnal tones and mildly professional attire. also i feel like hero would iron some of kel's clothes if he noticed they were very wrinkled, which might result in hero running out of time to iron clothes for himself, in which he just switches his outfit last minute. this is hyperspecific but but but but but yes

kel - this man does not know fashion, all his tips are from hero, which hero got from mari. his wardrobe probably consists of graphic tees he found funny or pretty, hand-me-downs from hero, and plain shirts and jeans, probably with a couple rips in them from him being reckless. also he always wears some sort of brace, either on his arm or leg he is consistently getting hurt in some minor way /j dirty converses real!! also probably some pen/pencil marks on articles of clothing from getting bored and deciding to doodle randomly on them. also bracelets from random fundraisers or from crafts with the rest of the gang

aubrey - shes actually kinda hard for me to figure out, but i ffeel like aubrey would be wearing a lot of graphic tshirts and tank tops, but like those ones with extra detail yk the ones the grunge ones yeah those, and like huge cargo pants or wide leg jeans, chains hanging from pockets, necklaces and bracelets, and generally ripped things. so kinda punk but also still very fem and not very out there in terms of fashion styles . however this would only be half the time, this half is when she's really feeling like putting in effort to look nice, probably being like "im gonna be like mari today" and spending a good chunk of time putting together an outfit and such. the other half she's fucking done with it and throws on whatever shirt she can find and some pants, tosses her hair a little bit and throws on eyeliner and is out the door, somehow looking gorgeous still. like that effortlessly pretty look even when theres nothing outstanding abt the outfit

basil - grandma ass /j he probably thrifts constantly and the antique store is one of his fav places, so it seeps into how he dresses. lots of sweatshirts with intricate embroidered or sewn in designs, coats, lots of browns and greens, and very worn things. probably wears some traditionally feminine things he finds too jsut because he thought they were nice, again think grandmacore /j he's a very green and wiggly boy, lots of layers in his outfits, and is pretty rarely seen with short sleeve shirts. also collared shirts, messenger bags, pins, custom patches, and friendship bracelets. his clothing represents who he is and can tell a lot about him for the most part, basically story telling through what he wears since he has so many accessories that come from different places. also lots of floral patterns because he's he's the flower boy the little man the flower guy . in summary cottagecore mori kei esque things

sunny - his ass is not putting together outfits /j ok so i feel like sunny is the type to save his energy for other things, i feel like socializing might be a bit draining for him but he loves his friends, so he kind of switches up how he uses his energy to accommodate. but sometimes he'd probably wanna be like mari and put himself otgether, so he probably goes shopping with her and has cute clthes, his outfits just end up being very simple with a graphic tshirt and maybe an oversized jacket. HE ALWAYS WEARS SHORTS!!!! he dislikes the feel of pants and preferred shorts, even if he's cold. if he'd cold he just kinda balls up and puts a jacket around his legs. anyway i feel like he's probably being restricted a lot by his preferences (i hc he has autism and this is one of the ways it impacts him) so he's not the most fashionable person

OK THATS IT this took too long to write it took like maybe 30 minutes ummmmfehrhfweifu im obsessed with this game its taking over my every thought i needed to express this my brains going crazy bhhuu8ewifihbweifuweifok

[stuckinapril]

Hi Cianna, just wanted to say I really admire your study ethic and general vibe on this blog (you inspire me to do better!)

Do you have any advice/tips for good study habits and staying focused? I find that I get some work done, but after a break I can't get back on track

Sorry for the long ask/ studyblr type of question;; what is your favourite hairstyle that you do with your hair! (I also have curly brown hair :)

Have a lovely day also <3

🌻🌻

hi! i touch on a lot of points in this other ask, but a few specific learning techniques i abide by are:

parkinson's law. parkinson's law states that work expands to fill the time. basically if you have an essay that's due in a week, it will magically take you one week to get it done, even if the task itself could've been done in one day. to counter this i just set artifical deadlines for myself--even if an essay is due in a week, my personal deadline has it due in two days.

prime your brain prior to learning. if you need to study a biology chapter, pre-skim it the night before. this is not the time to go into detail--it's the time to familiarize yourself with the overview of the topic, so you should only be making a quick scan of the chapter. another priming method is to make a concept map of topics before diving into a chapter. as you skim write down key terms haphazardly, google those you don't recognize, and draw a concept map linking them together. this is effective bc it requires you to actually put effort into connecting the topics, takes no longer than 15 minutes, and speeds up the learning process that follows. it doesn't matter if you find out you're wrong once you dive in; what's important is you're actively thinking of how these topics coexist, as opposed to mindlessly taking notes or highlighting only to forget what you learned a couple hours later. i'm also a fan of concept maps bc i get to go back and highlight stuff i'm weak in, which is always a plus.

if you like to take notes, use it as another means of active recall. don't just passively take notes as you go along. what i like to do is i read a paragraph, close the book, then try to take down notes based off memory alone. this helps me both phrase the topic in my own words and realize what my learning gaps are, rather than just passively summarize without putting effort into truly understanding/memorizing something. anything i get wrong i hammer into my brain until i can't get it wrong anymore.

take notes effectively. our brain does not learn in sentences and paragraphs. it learns in bullet points, diagrams, and figures--and that's how i like to frame my notes. first i ask myself if i actually need to take notes to begin with, or if there are online notes out there i can use to save time (which, as a stem student, there typically are). if i do decide to take notes, i never mindlessly summarize. i always condense the material into bullet points, diagrams, concept maps, or visual representations. i also like to phrase my notes as questions rather than just passive summaries, so that when i review them i'm already testing myself in a way. most people would not understand my notes bc they're either very low-yield stuff, stuff i'm weak in, or bare-bones fragments of information.

always prioritize weaknesses. if you're weaker at chapter 18 of your textbook vs chapter 1, maybe start with chapter 18. don't spend 6 hours taking notes on chapter 1 if you're already strong in chapter 1. always attack your weaknesses first.

practice practice practice!! so so important. i owe all my As to mock exams, quizzes i make myself, end-of-chapter questions etc etc. imo practice matters a lot more than passive content review.

interleaving concepts helps with retention. an example of this is i like to do biology and chemistry one day, biochemistry and organic chemistry the next day, physics and psychology the day after... i'm not just doing biology all day, every day. another thing i like to do if i'm in a massive rut is i hop between tons of different subjects on the same day, which keeps me from getting bored/helps me understand the subjects better through distinguishing their differences.

retrospective timetable. an example of this is if i find i'm pretty weak in a particular physics topic, the next few days will disproportionately focus on physics over other subjects. inversely, if i just breezed through a biology chapter, the next few days will have less biology than initially planned. i'm constantly going back and revising my study timetable based on my performance of the day, rather than relying on a rigid prospective timetable that doesn't take into account my progress.

less passive learning, more active. spaced repetition is a big one. i love anki for this bc there's an algorithm that dictates how often topics come up again based on how well you answer them. other methods include active recall, having friends quiz you, and trying to teach the topic to others (or the plushie in your bedroom haha). if you find you're struggling to simplify topics and explain them, that's a sign you don't understand them very well yourself.

[mktrashheap]

Hi, well I was wondering if you could do a headcanon of what it would be like to propose to a male reader, the Lin Kuei trio and maybe Shang Tsung...?

A/n: I'm still alive, but is life busy lmao miss y'all hope I got Shang Tsung right

Bi-Han:

I'll be a contrarian here and say: this man would have no problem proposing.

If you guys got serious enough that marrying is on the table, he'll be very straightforward with it.

He is a man that know what he wants and puts effort into it. When he comes to the conclusion he wants to marry you, he'll waste no time.

He is, however, quite blunt. To put it mildly.

His proposal is the least romantic of the bunch. It's not that he doesn't care, it's just how he is.

When you say yes (bc why tf would you not???) he's the happiest you've seen.

He has a rare smile and a much kinder expression. He is truly happy.

And cocky. A lot.

Bi-Han is an arrogant man. An arrogant man who is going to marry the man he has chosen and has chosen him back. He's insufferable.

Already has a future planned for the two of you.

Kuai Liang:

My man literally jumped into marriage in lighting speed tf lol

But honestly, like his older brother, Kuai Liang won't take too long to figure out if that's what he wants.

Maybe he jumped into the relationship already knowing? Who knows...

I'll be a contrarian again and say that his proposal looks a lot like Bi-Han's.

Kuai Liang isn't as blunt as Bi-Han is, but he isn't stereotypically romantic either.

It's an intimate moment for him. Just him and the man he loves.

When you say yes (he's a keeper) it's like he lights up like a Christmas tree.

He is happy, his cute face looks better with a smile than the usual frown.

Quite possibly, you won't get him off of you for the next few hours.

He isn't as boastful as his brother, but he's feeling himself just as much. He's marrying a worthy man and he wants to make sure everyone knows it.

Tomáš:

Between the three, he's the one that took the longest to propose.

It's not for a lack of love, by the gods no. But he is someone that is way to used to losing people he loves. His life is unstable and unpredictable, there's a part of him that keeps saying he'll lose the man he loves as well. Why wouldn't he? He can never keep things.

He gets in on his head for quite a while before proposing. His thoughts go everywhere.

But he will come to terms with it and take the chance.

When he does, his proposal is heartfelt. He puts everything he feels about you in the best way he can and what he may lack in romance, he makes up in depth.

It's a vulnerable moment for him. He's putting everything on the table for you to chose and he's scared. Scared to be turned down and scared something will take you from him as well.

When you say yes (he deserves all the love) it's like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. He loves you and you love him as well, he wants to live this.

He's a proud individual. He has come a long way and is daring. That to say everyone will know about it. He won't shut up about you. He likes to talk and he's beyond happy.

He's never going to share private subjects, but he sees no point in hiding the marriage. He knows he has many enemies and is very aware they may want to get between the two of you, but he leaves extremely clear he will have none of it.

Shang Tsung:

Where do I begin? Whatever the hell you did to have that man wanting to marry deserves an award.

He has been going for a long time fooling and backstabbing people, he may have thought about doing the same to you many times over, but whatever reason, he never did.

He isn't a stranger to temporary alliances, it's what he has been doing his whole life. But he found himself wanting to keep you.

What a curse. His very heart playing a trick on him.

He takes long before proposing. It takes him long to figure out what he feels is love and not just lust or convenience, not that those two aren't good as well.

When he does know what it is, he takes just as long to calculate the outcomes of it.

How would that impact his plans? How is he going about it? Who should know, if anyone? Do you love him? Truly?

He gets distant from you because he needs the time to think things through.

As for the proposal. I think that would be a quiet thing.

He does make it feel unique, he simply is fancy like that, but it's quiet and close, just the two of you. It's simple, but carefully thought out.

He's been lying for so long for so many people, it's difficult to be any different, but he tries.

He hates how it makes him feel vulnerable, like he was helpless once again.

Surely he could concoct some magic to guarantee your acceptance and he might if you decline him, but he decided to take the risk first.

When you say yes (oh boy, you better) you'll see a beautiful, honest smile on Shang Tsung's face, probably the first one after years.

He can't help his smile, he doesn't want to. He's in loved and he's been accepted by the man he loves. He feels on top of the world.

The rest of the day or night is solely for the two of you. You accepted to tie yourself to the snake, good luck taking him off of you.

He feels like an idiot. He could have saved himself so much anxiety and time if he came around it sooner, but at the same time, he wants to enjoy the moment.

He'll keep the marriage a secret for the time. He isn't ashamed, but he doesn't want anyone to know about it before he's in a position of power. Not even his allies will know before the time he decides to let them know.

Man, you're going to live like a god if he has his way. Shang Tsung has big plans for the both of you.

[ratective]

i luv baby sardonyx can you tell us more abt the family dynamic?? like garnet and pearls parenting styles... i feel like it'd be different than raising steven bc that's not loaded with rose's death (eyes emoji)

that’s true it’s an interesting thing to consider!!

i feel like having sardonyx would give both of them a better idea on how to treat a child, gem or human! (and save steven from more trauma from her moms)

before steven i feel like raising sardonyx (and amethyst by extent) would’ve been a team effort. rose pitched in a LOT and was almost the third mom to her, almost like pearl and garnet were a parental influence to amethyst in many ways. so while there were challenges of raising a baby, because everyone pitched in it created a more chill environment; pearl wasn’t messed up from rose’s death yet but she was still prone to anxiety, except this time if garnet was away on a mission, there was rose to comfort her and the other way around

garnet took it upon herself to take care of everyone. she wasn’t the one to have the baby so she opted to take care of everything else she could for pearl. she took on the role of the protector of their family so pearl and rose could spend as much time together with the baby while she took care of gem business and keeping any humans away. that was when garnet got more serious and goal oriented like in the series, it just happened before she became the leader so i guess you could say she had some practice this time lol. she felt a little guilty that pearl had to handle everything on her own so she did what she could to make things easy for her

pearl was a stay at home mom, but not for long. the baby needed her constant attention (idk how gems would feed their babies; maybe she fed her rocks idc) sardonyx was a very clingy baby and didn’t like not being able to see her mom so pearl always carried her around since contact was so important to her. she got very attached and very protective so it was a good thing she had rose and garnet around to let the baby grow more independent with time

those roles weren’t set it stone as pearl still wanted (and often needed) to go out on missions and garnet would happily drop everything to coo at the baby but this dynamic worked for them well, especially after rose died

with rose gone and steven with greg they reverted into that safe order of things. pearl enjoys domestic chores and sardonyx wasn’t a baby anymore but still pearls little shadow so she found comfort in staying at the house they built, cleaning cooking and anything to take her mind off of the tragedy.

garnet detached herself from their family, not wanting to fall apart on anyone like pearl did. she became distant, more laconic with her orders and pearl and amethyst quickly clung to that facade of strength and stability. pearl became dependent on her, she stopped taking initiative as much and resolved to trusting garnet make the right decisions.

garnet hated that. she was suddenly the pillar holding everyone up. that goes pretty much like in the show. garnet always does her best to put on a smile for sards (and steven) but they both know it’s hard on her too. Sardonyx noticed the shift in their behavior and i guess that dynamic after roses death was the closest thing the crystal gems had to a nuclear family

once sards got older and steven moved in with them things changed a bit. they had to juggle their attention between yet another kid

garnet is pretty much how she is with steven; an overprotective mama bear in general but tries very much to not hinder sardonyx’s independence. she’s stern, especially once sardonyx has grown into a “teenager” but she aims for sardonyx to be able to figure out her own problems. she always tries to put on a chill face but her future vision feeds her terrible visions as always 😓

pearl and sardonyx relationship worsened in many ways, similar to amethyst. they’re too similar and have the same stress response only sardonyx got the mix of pearl and garnets anger issues and bad anxiety. she blows up over small details and shuts herself off which makes it harder for anyone to reach her…they both love each other but mom daughter relationships are so tricky 💔

[isa-ghost]

Uhhhhh maybe qphil building/terraforming things? Idk man I like boosh boosh and that's all I can think of rn lol

Ooh that's a tough one at first glance. Lemme *thinks so hard brain starts smoking*

qPhil headcanons masterlist

See, at least in the past, he wasn't so much building as he was restoring. Those weren't his builds, they were the builds of the gods. He simply fixed and added to them.

On QI however, he builds obv. He does it mostly for the enjoyment of others. Chayanne, Lullah, Missa, maybe others. He tries not to build a lot bc he doesn't want to give The Federation more of his time or effort than necessary, but those closest to him are desperate to convince him to make smth cool bc they know he's capable of it. He just doesn't wanna put his whole crowussy into a build for the Feds

He tries to think of terraforming as a painting. Blend the colors, highlights, pops of other colors for accents, make sure to keep things random and natural looking, just follow what your heart is saying. And as always, step back from the canvas to see your work at a distance.

His favorite thing to do is greenery and stone. It just comes to him the most naturally, no pun intended. Rose is of course very thrilled by this.

The boosh boosh is vocal stimming. Makes the process of collecting or placing down resources less monotonous. And the crows like it so *shrug* He boosh. At this point he doesn't even realize when he's doing it half the time.

Nothing annoys him more than building at night. Fuck off mobs he's trying to make a masterpiece here >:/

He's much easier to jumpscare while he's focused on building btw, esp terraforming (Fit & Etoiles take advantage of this often)

He prefers teaching the kids and giving them tips so they can enjoy building themselves. He does get that itch to build though, it's why he helps out with a lot of it.

Btw he can't figure out why he has that innate itch to build ;) (wiped memory go brrrr)

He's joked that if he ever actually builds smth on the island it'll be a massive dirt middle finger aimed at the nearest Fed building.

Sometimes the murder helps him with stuff :D They bring him stacks of blocks, snacks to make him take a break (it only works if they offer avocado toast), fresh tools if he doesn't have Mending, etc. They like being handy little guys trying to get a good grade in crow

When he's super invested in building, he'll pop in headphones and then Nothing can stop him. He jam, he boosh, he make big cool thing.

He used to hate interiors but building stuff for and with the kids has kinda changed that. He still thinks he's mostly shit at it but he's not bad.

He wants to learn how to build like Chayanne so badly. Chayanne can make these amazing cozy little spots that Phil for the life of him can't create quite the same way. He can terraform like a motherfucker but there's something about the way Chayanne can make such a cute place that Phil just can't get the hang of. (He is very proud of his boy)

And Lullah. God, he loves her visions. The way she too is incredibly talented with greenery and flowers. She can make the most breathtaking gardens. He loves helping her bring her ideas to life, and using his macro-scale build skills to make them larger than life.

[spicyicymeloncat]

Hey ngl I am not enjoying the discourse about Misako and Garmadon and who’s the sad puppy dog oh so owo traumatised little flower parent and who’s absolutely down right evil rot in hell forever leaking fuming bag of toxic waste parent.

…

I asked my boyfriend if I should post this and he said I should write a conclusion. And I’m thinking about this. What’s my actual opinion on them? Who’s the better parent? Who’s the worst? Has Lloyd ever a good parental figure ever?? IS THERE ANY DECENT PARENTAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THIS SHOW (jk Ed Edna and Cyrus Borg y’all are doing great).

And yknow I hate the Misako vs Garmadon bc it feels like some of you act like the only reason people hate Misako is because they just hate to see a woman on the screen. But like. No. I disagree. I mean not totally, some people do let misogyny affect their opinions on things. But like, it’s almost as bad to act like the horrendously awful writing of Misako as a character just didn’t happen. It’s horrendous BECAUSE of misogyny (and the fact that the show is not written well in a lot of places anyways).

Misako spends a whole fuckin lot of of her time in the show in the most sexist era of Ninjago, and then doesn’t really get much development after that. Her memorable moments are literally coming back after having no contact with Lloyd, flirting with Wu a lot, being Lloyd’s mother, being a researcher, flirting with Garmadon and like being his wife, getting kidnapped a few times, the letter, and uhhh being a little sassy? As I was saying this I realised I could probably list every detail we get on her in the show. It’s that little. And can we agree, I’m not saying she’s evil and should have chosen to be well written. I’m saying she’s clearly a badly written character mostly used to prop up other characters arcs, and that’s the fault of the writers. Like you can justify some of what she did but it’s not presented in that way bc the writers don’t put in the time to make her compelling.

So why the hell are we comparing “might as well replace her with a trophy for a poetry competition” Misako with characters who were less neglected by the writers. And why are we surprised when people don’t like her compared to a character who the writers put more effort into telling a more compelling redemption, a character who we get on screen for a whole season during his time as a reformed villain, a character who we see spending time with Lloyd much more than Misako. In comparison Misako spends a lot of her scenes holding hands with Wu, hanging out with Wu, like where’s the mother son bonding road trip?? We don’t get a season where Misako tags along with the protagonists and I wish we did but we do get that with Garmadon (twice) and it’s s3 and 4 and she spends those seasons with Wu (and like Wusako is not popular bc their relationship was framed as romantically inclined and she was still living and presented as married with Garmadon at the time so likeeee)

I’m not saying Misako is a worst parent, I’m saying her relationship with her son is not as fun or as enjoyable and that’s why people don’t like her as much. Not necessarily because everyone is a misogynist. But because not everyone is about to reconstruct a Misako with good writing just to enjoy her more.

Have we considered that liking Misako is a spectrum, almost because the writers gave us nothing for her and we’re all just filling the blanks. Some people are projecting hard. Some people are projecting their abandonment issues onto Lloyd. Some people are projecting the struggle of parenthood onto Misako. Some people didn’t think at all about her. Some people only like her out of spite of how annoying it is to only see Misako haters. Some people only like her because she’s one of the scarce female characters of the show and it’s fucking rough. I wish there were more people who liked women as characters tho. Like tbh it still kinda feels like we’re still stuck with the same single archetype for how we see women. Sexy badasses who snark and kiss other women. Tbh I feel like most of the fandom just projects onto characters and that’s why Ninjago discourse feels so vicious bc people are fighting for their lives that they have stitched into their image of their favourite Lego and I’m getting very off topic what was I talking about??

Uhh anyways I like Misako and I hate Misako I feel like all her haters and her stans and the show writers and the myself are wrong about her in some way. I think I’m tired of the debate of whether she’s a good mum, we should be talking about what her favourite food is and it’s probably soup she probably puts it into a flask to take on her work adventures I DONT REMEMBER WHY I STARTED WRITING OH WAIT IT WAS THE GARMISAKO PARENTLYMPICS.

Neither Garmadon and Misako are better than each other. I’m gonna blow your minds rn but write this down if you care about traumatic parent child relationships (so like if you’re gonna write an angsty Lloyd fic). But when your grow up in an abusive household, there’s a high likelihood your parents aren’t clones of each other but instead bad in different ways.

(Tw: I traumadump to you about my not great parents. Skip past the italics)

One of my parents is emotionally unstable and immature and yet more in touch with me emotionally, my other parent is neglectful and has unsatisfiable expectations of me and yet she doesn’t verbally abuse me.

One isn’t worse than the other and worrying about who is worse often ends up minimising the damage the other causes. Why does one have to be worse when it’s more accurate to describe the experience as “they’re bad in their own way”. The “who is worse” debate is definitely something people from broken households ask themselves and I think we can definitely explore Lloyd’s character in terms of that, but there’s no actual answer. You can’t put a number on trauma and I personally don’t think we should be trying to. Goodbye black and white thinking, hello to messy and complicated, as most bad parental relationships are.

I don’t think Misako and Garmadon are great or justified in what they did, and I don’t think they were terrible or that Lloyd shouldn’t have forgiven them either. I wish we got more development for both of them (Misako more tho bc the writers are bitches) and I wish people didn’t ignore either her characterisation as a loving character as well as her characterisation as a once distant one (and then hinge their opinion of Garmadon as a comparison.).

Idk. Idk what this post was I’ve just always been annoyed at other people in the Misako fight club, some people get way too one way about her, like some of y’all get mean about her I think. I opened tiktok once just to feel like the anger was warranted. Idk she’s not my favourite character and I feel like that’s not allowed bc people act like the only way you could hate her is because you’re sexist and I disagree. But I like her as a character that I can get mad at and then forgive. She’s so interesting. She’s not evil she’s complicated I like having complicated feelings about her. That’s the most compelling part of her in my opinion. I’m a Misako hater and a Misako enjoyer and I’ve thought too much about her and that has to count for something

Now. No one is allowed to read one line of this post and then act like I’m taking away freedom of speech or that I hate women or take a fraction of this and get overly angry. This is due to the fact that this is my opinion. The penalty for doing this is that I take your tumblr profile pic and photoshop it into a garbage bin and I will show it to my boyfriend and we will laugh.

There are so many different points in this post and like it feels like this could be five separate posts but oh well. Send post.

[dpsisquared]

(About the soulmate au)

...More than Sothis contacting Dimitri directly in his mind i thought more of sothis wacking the divine pulse like a faulty tv remote until something clicked and somehow he started remembering the time loops... he somehow keep doing things differently each time w different results (executing Miklan, forgiving Miklan, fixing his relationship w Felix, getting into a bigger fight w Felix, forgiving the western lords, having Silvain and Ingrid killed, saving Silvain and Ingrid, finding out even more about Anselma, etc.) until he thought he was actually going crazy and broke down to Rodrigue and Rod told him about the old legend of loog and the maiden of the wind bc he realizes Byleth's death is the common denominator... aka Dimitri's time itself is locked into her existance... and he starts to find more abour her and becomes intrigued w her... 😃

The sothis dragging him by his ugly hair was more like, Sothis fucked up and he accidentally got dragged in the time loop, whoops... SO technically not a soulmate au but they all think it is because of the legend.

So since the legend says the only way time advanced for Loog again was to receive the love of his maiden I guess Dimitri will have to put all of his efforts into seducing the beautiful fish eyed mercenary... for ⋆🌟✪✨ Faerghus ⋆🌟✪✨...

I haven't abandoned you, nonny. The problem with actually writing this is that it would necessarily include a lot of fighting lol. But I do love the idea of him figuring it out. I changed it up a bit but I hope you like this silly little snippet I wrote 😊

Dimitri could take this torture no longer. He hurried into Rodrigue's tent, drawing the flap closed tightly.

The former Duke read his mood without a word. "What's troubling you, Your Majesty?"

"Rodrigue, this may sound mad, but I am reliving the same day over and over again."

The older man's face paled, and he put aside the documents he was studying. "Reliving what day, exactly?"

"This one. We go to battle and encounter Jeralt's Mercenaries before reaching the main imperial force. But we never get past that part. After the Ashen Demon dies, or if I die, I wake up to the same day. I've lost count of how many times it's been so far."

Rodrigue was silent for several minutes, probably considering how to keep the Kingdom afloat with a delusional king.

"You're absolutely sure it's the Ashen Demon's death that causes the events to repeat?"

"Yes. The last time, I faced her myself and felt time pulling me backward as soon as the light died from her eyes. It's hazy, but I know at other times, she has killed me. But death never comes. I simply wake up to do it all again."

"Your Majesty... Dimitri," he said with a sigh. His old friend looked like he had aged a decade in the last few minutes. "There's something your father didn't get a chance to tell you. A special circumstance of your Blaiddyd blood."

"Is it madness? Hallucinations?"

Finally, Rodrigue's pained expression softened, and he gave the king a reassuring smile.

"No, my dear boy, nothing like that. It concerns your soulmate."

He scoffed. "This is no time to think of romance!" The royal advisors would disagree, of course. They hounded him about his lack of heirs daily, and he was sick of it.

But Rodrigue held up a hand to silence his protest. "Hear me out. There is a legend about the soulmates of Faerghan kings, going all the way back to Loog and the Maiden of the Wind."

"Spit it out, man, please!" Dimitri begged. Legends and soulmates? What importance could those trivial things have at a time like this?

"The Ashen Demon is your soulmate, Your Majesty."

Dimitri gave him a flat stare, waiting for clarification. But the other man was silent. "Is that some kind of twisted joke? You think I could love a monster like that?"

In some of the timelines, he'd seen her cut down Rodrigue himself with no remorse! Though, now that he'd lived the day from several perspectives, she only did that after Shez killed Jeralt right in front of her. Not that the circumstances justified the murder, but how could he condemn her when he held the same hatred in his heart?

Which is why this soulmate talk was truly unbelievable. It was just as unlikely that anyone could love a monster like him.

He looked back to Rodrigue, who seemed to be waiting for the shock to subside before continuing.

"You're aware that Loog and his wife first met on opposite sides of the battlefield."

"Yes, of course. Everyone knows that story. When Loog saw Deichtine, he dropped Areadbhar and beseeched her to join his side, for he would rather die than harm such a beautiful and talented warrior. When she lowered her sword and took his hand, the soul bond manifested."

Ashe and Ingrid loved the story, but it had always struck Dimitri as unrealistic and unnecessarily dramatic. More likely, both sides had suffered major losses, so the two commanders arranged a political marriage to avoid further bloodshed. Count Rowe had not-so-subtly suggested the same strategy to soothe relations in the West.

"Yes," Rodrigue confirmed. "That is the version in the storybooks. But the secret legend handed down the line of Blaiddyd is that Loog killed Diechtine when they met on the battlefield. The king stooped to take her head just before she took her last breath, and the soul bond formed. He cried out to the goddess to save her, to take his own life if needed."

Dimitri had leaned in, drawn to this version of the story much more than the original.

"The goddess took pity on the soulmates, unfortunate enough to be born in a time of war. She decreed that she would save Diechtine, but the descendant of Blaiddyd must win the heart of his maiden fairly, without revealing their bond. And by doing so, end the war which caused suffering for the Goddess' beloved people. The day would repeat endlessly until he was able to accomplish the feat."

"I understand, but what does that have to do with me?"

"The problem is, the goddess wasn't exactly specific on which Blaiddyd descendant, which maiden, or which war. Situations with the same broad characteristics have presented themselves more than once throughout history."

Dimitri had always thought the goddess aloof, but this information put her in a new light. Maybe she was simply incompetent.

"So this curse has been passed down to me."

Rodrigue raised an eyebrow at him. "Most people would consider a guaranteed soulmate a blessing, Your Majesty."

"What a burden," the king replied. "It's hard to believe that more than one of my forbears have met their soulmates this way."

Rodrigue failed to completely suppress a smirk. "Ah. Well, your line appears to prefer its lovers... feisty."

"Rodrigue!" Dimitri cried, blushing furiously. "To say such a thing at a time like this!"

He'd never thought of such things, not when there was a kingdom to run and thousands of people whose lives depended on him! And he had certainly never considered his... preferences.

Although, thinking about it outside of the heat of battle, the Ashen Demon was quite lovely. And her skill was beyond compare... Gods, he sounded like Sylvain.

"My apologies, Your Majesty," Rodrigue said with a chuckle. He didn't seem terribly repentant. "Circumstances aside, I for one am happy to know you have a soulmate. All of us have tried to get you to take better care of yourself. Perhaps she will be the one you finally listen to."

The man across from Dimitri may have been like a second father, but this was no time for levity! Wasn't his misery obvious?

"There's one thing I don't understand. How did Loog convince Diechtine of their love in mere moments upon the battlefield?"

"That's the other secret. The king actually snuck into her tent before dawn broke, so he had several hours to woo her. This was after many attempts, of course, each one teaching him something new about the maiden. The conversation on the battlefield was merely a performance for their troops to see."

"He... wooed her," repeated Dimitri in disbelief. "I have to... woo the Ashen Demon? In less than a day?"

"Cheer up, Your Majesty!" said Rodrigue with a good-natured pat on the back. "We already know there's something she'll love about you. We just have to figure out what it is!"

Dimitri left the tent with a tempest swirling in his mind. He knew what he had to do. It would be difficult, painful even, but this wasn't just for him. It was for all of Faerghus-- no, all of Fodlan-- so he would do whatever it took, no matter how humiliating.

He walked into the mess hall like a man condemned and mindlessly piled something onto a plate. Bernadetta would probably be horrified by his meal, but there was no time to consider something as inconsequential as food. Scanning the dining room, he spotted his target and sat down.

"Hey, Your Majesty! Look at you, eating while the sun is up!"

He rolled his eyes. There was no point delaying the inevitable. "Sylvain, I need your help... with a girl."

(Diechtine (DECH-tin-uh with the ch like in the Scottish loch) is a mortal woman that the god Lugh had a baby with. That was the mega hero Cúchullain, who interestingly is described as going into a "blood rage" during battle. Fergus (Faerghus), Ferdia (Fhirdiad), and Derdriu are also associated with this crew!)

[professorspork]

director's commentary sdau emerald scene

You know, I really should have seen this coming but I didn't.

Let's put it under a cut bc moderate spice and considerable length:

This scene went through more iterations and re-writes than the vast majority of its brethren.

I dug around in our chat history to find the exact moment we generated the idea, because this one wouldn't have happened without you. and you know what I learned?

it dates to mid-January 2023, which is literally before I started posting newsbees. this idea is OLD. it is some of the EARLIEST MATERIAL of sdau.

I told you I was reading this for fic research in the middle of an unrelated discussion about Emerald; you then joked that all you could think about was Emerald at the sex club giving vytal fic vibes, just bored out of her skull while people throw themselves at her, and I said I hadn't come up with a role for her yet.

you: emerald would try to go to the sex club after getting out of a toxic relationship the way blake did and then she'd be there for 15 minutes and nope the fuck out and run away me: which, actually-- she could be one of blake's one-off partners where after about 5 minutes blake's like "you are allowed to leave we really don't have to do this" and em's like OHTHANKGOD

I briefly considered a much crueler idea in which Blake witnessed Emerald and Cinder doing a scene together, but we quickly agreed that the original idea was the better one.

I haven't been able to find chat history about it, so I'm moderately certain that I didn't tell you about the fact that I'd decided to read poor Emerald for filth and give her the Mommy kink until I started showing you the scene in its original incarnation, in mid-July of 2023 (which has the benefit of showing just how long this project has taken me, lmao).

me: emerald. sweetheart. when you say mommy kink most people assume that means you wanna be coddled and not that you want to be negged. just. just saying me: emerald do you know what mothers are me: emerald

That first version of the scene differed in several keys ways from the final product, but the most crucial of those was that in the first go-around, Blake actually agreed to give Emerald her number. Em asked for it, and Blake said "Sure, I'd like that," and then the scene ended.

I sat on that for *checks time stamps* approximately 29 hours before I broke the news to you that, upon reflection, I didn't buy it; I just couldn't believe that Blake would be in a healthy enough place mentally to do that. the better and more accurate thing for the story would be for Blake to chicken out and then regret it, because she couldn't be for Em what Sun had been for her.

you: oh no why are you doing that it makes me sad me: because if blake is in a cool enough place to do that with em her actually exchanging numbers with yang doesn't hit as hard you: but now I'm so sad me: i mean it's still ME i'm sure i'll find a way for her to encounter em again before the end

(hmmm. Did I do that in the end? I SUPPOSE WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT AND FIND OUT, DEAR READERS.)

from there, once I'd figured out what the scene was truly for, it was still a lot of effort and tweaking before I got it to read how I wanted to: threading the simultaneous needles of being lowkey arousing but also inarguably unsettling from the jump, so that you're seeing those red flags but maybe, like Blake, thinking they can be overcome until it's very obvious they Can't. I struggled with how to frame it so that it came through that Blake was being... mmm, let's say reckless without crossing the line into Blake being irresponsible, and I wasn't happy with my first stabs at it. in the very first draft, after Em says says she doesn't want to discuss her burn scar and adds "There, that's a boundary, since you wanted one so bad," the prose goes 'There is absolutely no way they are fucking at this point, given Emerald's attitude, and… Blake doesn't know why she stays.'

Which: why would I tell the reader that? It's way too on the nose, and drains the scene of all tension! it also made the spanking moment read as overtly didactic in a way that I didn't like and hadn't intended, so. I tried to drill down into what I thought it was about.

adding the flashback moments to Blake's encounter with Trifa helped considerably; that wasn't in the first draft at all, though the fact that she'd had that encounter was already canon. taking a look at it again, I realized weaving those two together was an opportunity to show why Blake "lets" Emerald make this mistake and indulges her, because it's the same thing Blake went through and she understands it. massaging the tempo and timbre of my vocab took some doing so Blake wasn't in full-on panic attack mode and thus making it all seem WORSE than it already was.

and the final thing I changed was just... twisting that knife more and adding to their rapport. the original draft was brief; it went right from Emerald giving the Cinder backstory to Blake being like "congrats on past tense" and then it was the phone number ask. it was important to me to elaborate on why these two had chemistry, on how they were parallel, and on just how much they liked each other and vibed-- on just how much of an opportunity Blake was missing out on. so Blake laughing more at Em's jokes, and getting the Mercury context, that all came later.

in total, I think this scene had like five or six discrete iterations before reaching its final form.