#because i'm adding some to my marked for later list

[all-for-the-recs]

Oh this fic??? Only my baby. Freaking LOVE emry_stars

Chapters: 24/24 (COMPLETE)

Words: 71,045

Author's summary:

Andrew Minyard is barely scraping by college with his sanity intact, bored out of his mind, until he runs into Kevin's new tutoring student. Literally.

[sparrowsfallingfromthesky]

I'm usually pretty good at if not remembering at least figuring out abbreviations my past self has used on things but I do occasionally manage to mystify myself

[huellitaa]

girl's guide to academic success: ep 1! ⊹˚. ♡

──★ ˙ ̟🎀 this post focuses on: actively rooting for success! ♡ part 2 -> ♡

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 1. organisation

first off, have something to organise ur academic life with! i personally use notion (which i'll add later) but u can use anything as long as it's cute, convenient, unique and accessible to you, your life and your schedule specifically. especially as a visual learner, i like to have somewhere i can dump literally everything regarding a singular area in my life, so i do this for almost everything along with school and i highly recommend this <3

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 2. recognition of talents & improvements

analyse your strengths and weaknesses. think back on tests, exams, marks, and analyse which ones you got highest and lowest on. dont beat urself up for it, obviously; it's just to check which subjects you're doing good in and which ones have room for improvement. for example i love science but im not the best at it sometimes and we had an assessment recently and i didn't get as high as i'd like so i wrote down a little list on a piece of paper in my pencilcase for the topics i got the least in for me to study on my own to practise later.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 3. laying out goals

set down specific goals; i like to do this week by week accustomed to my schedule that week in my school notion page along with images and vision boards based on the term/semester, but you can do it for the week, the month, the year, anything as long as its helpful to you

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 4. productive planning

plan accordingly based on ur time energy. when creating any to do list or productivity plan dont pile a ridiculous amount onto it that just leaves you stressed and overwhelmed because that defeats the entire point; this works the same for academic plans and goals and lists etc.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 5. extra credit

put extra work in to the subjects you know will help you in the future. for example, for my personal aspirations i need to excel in english, history and textiles so i always try my absolute hardest and put my all into those lessons and do extra studying for them in my free time where i can. school is to prepare you for the future so take advantage of that

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 6. asking questions

please don't be shy to ask questions! that's what teachers are there for and you won't have them forever so take advantage of it while you can! you can even do it in that little window of time just after class if ur too nervous to ask in class. for example, on my last english exam i went to my teacher after class and asked about what i needed to improve on to get the marks i missed next time, and he told me i added too much detail and some other things so i wrote it down and am keeping a note of it to remind me to improve on that next time! (i got top of my class though so i didnt mind. still kind of pissed i added too much detail though)

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 7. participation

participate! ok im saying this as someone who still struggles with social anxiety a fair amount but if u wanna get higher marks and get on good terms w ur teacher i 100% recommend this. i don't do this in every class but i do it where i can and when i'm confident in my answer, and it's really intimidating at first but what i did is i did it first in the classes i felt most comfortable on and continued from there. it gets easier every time i swear, and nobody's judging you; they'll forget about it after five minutes. plus, what would they be judging you for? being smarter than them?

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 8. prioritising ur health

this is mentioned a lot in these types of posts but if you're tired or burnt out or overworked or just feel like you need to take a break then do. do the best you can and compromise like i said earlier if you need to, just make sure u are prioritising yourself over anything. <3

──★ ˙ ̟🎀inspo

──★ ˙ ̟🎀my notion

i also really recommend this layout by @honeytonedhottie ♡

all my love 🩷✨💬🎀💗

[ruh--roh-raggy]

Home Sweet Home (William Afton x Wife! Reader) - Pt. 1

Hello hello! So, I'm fully insane about this man rn. I can't help it. The brain rot has taken over my life and here we are lol. I wanted to write something that really focuses on the domestic fluff side of Reader's life with William, of course there will be some smut thrown in there too because I simply can't help myself 😂😂 Reader and William have just bought their first house together. This story follows their week long escapade of unpacking, making their home perfect, and going down memory lane. Lots of super cute stuff, chapters containing smut will be updated with proper warnings. If you enjoy this story and would like to be added to the tag list, please let me know!

WARNINGS: MINORS DO NOT INTERACT, MDNI, 18+ CONTENT AHEAD, smut marked with divider, age gap (reader in 30's William in 40's/50's), some swearing, face sitting, cockwarming, size kink, a singular (1) spank to readers ass, slightly dom! William, praise, Will just wants to give his wife some tender TLC after a long day of lugging boxes around (if I missed any please let me know!

You can find my Masterlist here!

Word Count: 3,538

Part 2

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“I want to paint the living room green, I think it would look nice with our couch.” William drove down the road, a soft smile on his face as he listened to you ramble on about all of your plans for their new house. Business at the pizzeria had skyrocketed, which meant that he could finally give his pretty little wife the front porch, white picket fence house of her dreams. You should be pulling in about a half hour before the moving truck is scheduled to arrive, allowing the two of you time to empty out his trunk. You stood at his side with a giddy smile on your face, William thumbing through his key ring to find the new shiny gold addition to his collection. He slides the key into the lock, chuckling at your excited squeals as he pushes the door open. He grabs you by the wrist, stopping you from running inside ahead of him.

“Isn’t there some old wives tale about carrying your wife over the threshold of a house?” He mumbles out the vague details he could remember. You nod, wrapping your arms around his neck with a giggle.

“It’s for good luck. Why? Do you want to carry me inside?” You smile coyly up at him.

“Well I’m not going to be the one bringing bad luck into our house.” He proclaims proudly, jabbing a finger into his chest. You let out a shriek as he scoops you up in his strong arms. You press a kiss to his scruffy cheek as you pass through the door. “Well, Mrs. Afton, welcome home.” He smiles down at you.

You spun around the empty living room floor, broom in hand as you did a quick sweep before the furniture got brought in. “Oh, Will, I'm so happy. Our own house.” You beam up at him. Your husband breathes out a chuckle, sweeping you up in his arms as he places a kiss to your forehead. Both of your attention was drawn to the windows as the moving truck rumbled into the driveway.

“Don't lift anything too heavy.” He orders with a firm point of his finger. “I hired movers so you don't have to struggle, if I see you doing too much you're going to be in big trouble later bunny.” You roll your eyes, wrapping your arms around him as you place a kiss to his chest.

“I promise I won't work too hard.” You fidget with the hem of his shirt. “I just want everything to be perfect.” You sigh with a slight shrug of your shoulders.

“I promise it will be, we have the whole week to get everything exactly how you want it.” He smiles, his thumb rubbing languidly across your waist. You excitedly threw open the front door, directing the movers inside before clamoring out to the truck yourself. William trailed after you, keeping a close eye on your excited figure. Your husband loved how passionate you were about everything you did, but you also had a tendency to overwork yourself. He sighs as he sees you struggling with a box, gently taking it from your hands and propping it against his hip. He glances around the trailer. “Here.” He nudges a box with his foot, one he had made a subtle marking on to signify it was one he packed light enough for you to easily carry. “Take that one, we’ll go put these in the bedroom.” He hops down from the back of the truck, taking your box from you and wrapping his hands around your waist to lower you safely to the ground. You practically skipped up the porch steps, scooting past the movers as you raced up to the master bedroom. Your mattress sat in the middle of the room. The white, sheetless bed was a stark contrast to the nearly black hardwood.

“We’ll need to go get a bed frame.” You sigh, setting down the box before collapsing on the mattress. William groans as he lays down by your side.

“I’m sure we’re going to have to get a lot of things.” He chuckles, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you to him. “We’ll take care of everything, doll, don’t worry.” You spent the rest of the afternoon sliding furniture around downstairs while the movers brought in the rest of the boxes. The sun had already set by the time everything was brought in. You collapsed onto the couch with a tired groan, finally kicking your shoes off as you sank into the worn leather of the cushions. William sits beside you, lifting your feet only to drop them back in his lap. You let out a pleased hum as you feel his strong hands knead into your aching muscles. “Day one is officially over.” The two of you exchange a sleepy high five. A soft smile spreads across your lips as you take a moment to look at your husband. His gold, wire framed aviators sitting low on his nose, his large calloused hands massaging your feet with the utmost care and delicacy. You were William’s entire world.

“Honey,” he perks up at your soft voice, calling out to him, “how about I throw something together for dinner so we can get to bed.”

“I don’t think we have any groceries bunny.” He rebuttals with a chuckle. “Are you up for a drive? We could go pick up some pizza.”

“But it’s so cold.” You pout.

“I’ll go grab you one of my coats, sweet girl.” He cups your cheek, pressing a kiss to the top of your head as he passes by you. You let out a soft hum as you buried your face into the soft fabric of your husband's coat, the comforting smell of his spicy, musky cologne, machine oil, and cigarettes filling your nose. He had an arm wrapped around your shoulder, allowing you to cuddle into his side as he drove up twisting back roads. The radio crackled softly, whatever song was playing was barely audible over the car's loud blower. You rested your hand on his thigh, William glancing down quickly, the sight of your wedding ring glinting in the soft light bringing a smile to his lips. He loved the fact that you were all his, his pretty wife, his little bunny. He loved how sweet and delicate you were. He had been hardened by years of working in his workshop and other strenuous jobs he had throughout his life, he barely registered this evening was brisk let alone cold. But he definitely wouldn't complain about you cuddling into his side for warmth, how your cheeks and the tip of your nose dusted pink from the chilly night air, how your fingers trembled as you tucked them under his thigh. He shuddered softly as you pressed your lips to his neck, the buzzing, yellow light from the pizza shop's sign illuminating the cab as you and your husband exchanged a look filled with need.

“Hurry back.” You shoot him a coy smile as he stumbles from the car.

The smell of warm crust and greasy pepperoni filled the car, the pizza nicely heating your lap. William’s arm draped over your shoulder, you allowed the rumbling car ride to rock you into his side. Your eyelids grow heavy as you try to keep yourself awake, a sleepy smile crawling across your features as you pull into the driveway. You sighed as you looked around at the mess of moving boxes, your dining table tucked away into a corner that would be too much work to get to. “Why don’t you go sit on the couch doll, I’ll be right back.” William’s hand quickly slips into yours, giving it a gentle squeeze as he passes by. You flop back into the cushions, letting the pizza box rest next to you. Even with the short amount of time you’ve spent in the house you could tell how different it was from your old apartment. You and William had moved to the middle of the woods in Hurricane, your nearest neighbor at least ten minutes down the road. There were no sounds of your neighbors talking quietly through the walls, no footsteps of the dog that lived upstairs. The house was completely silent, outside completely pitch black. You jumped as William’s feet started to thud down the stairs. He pushes into the living room with a groan, dragging your mattress behind him. He drops the bed in the middle of the floor with a dull thump, twisting side to side in order to stretch out his back. “I’ll go grab some pillows and blankets.” He smiles at you.

“It’s just like our honeymoon.” You laugh as he pulls you up from the couch. He tilts your chin up with his finger, capturing your lips with his.

“Oh, trust me,” he starts in a sultry tone, “I wish I could spend this entire week in bed with you.” You dropped down onto the mattress, a soft sigh falling from your lips as he massages your shoulders. You smile at him as you watch him disappear upstairs, returning a few minutes later with a box full of your bedding and some pillows. Deciding you weren’t up for the challenge you left the sheets in the box. You piled your comforter and a few throw blankets onto the bed, you crawled in before your husband joined you with the pizza. You two sit side by side, your head falling to rest against his shoulder.

“It’s no Freddy’s.” You grumble at your lackluster pizza. William chuckles in response to your pouting.

“How about we swing by and see Henry tomorrow, I’m sure I can sneak you a piece.” He winks with a lopsided grin.

“That sounds perfect.” The two of you chat quietly as you eat your dinner. Your new house feels too big for just the two of you. You laid on your back, staring at the exposed wood ceiling, you blinked a few times to adjust to the all consuming darkness after William had turned off the light. You felt the blankets shift as he crawled into bed next to you. His silhouette outlined by the soft, pale light of the moon that streamed through the window.

“We should get a dog.” He suddenly whispers, making you giggle. “I don’t want you to get scared all by yourself.” He teases.

“Maybe that’ll get you out of that workshop earlier.” He playfully rolls his eyes as he wraps an arm around your waist.

“You know, there’s nothing stopping you from coming to visit me.” He argues with a slight shrug.

“Except that everytime I do I end up sprawled naked on your workbench.” You smirk at him, your fingers absentmindedly playing with the soft material of his tshirt.

“Occupational hazard.” He responds quickly. You both laugh as you cuddle into his chest. He cards his fingers through your hair, his lingering gaze studying your features. “You’re so beautiful, bunny.” Your eyes flutter shut as his lips brush over yours.

His hand paws at your thigh, dragging your leg over his waist as he crushes you against him. You cup his face, deepening the kiss, his beard tickling your palm as you melt into him. Your legs lock around his waist as he rolls on top of you. His large, calloused hands wrap around your sides, pushing your hoodie up and over your head in one swift motion before his lips connect with yours again. You shivered slightly as the cold night air hit your naked body. He practically purrs at the sight of you, his lips hovering over your neck. Your fingers slid into his hair, a small squeal escaping your lips as he bit down hard on your sensitive skin. You bite your lip, letting out a soft hum as he pushes his hips into you, his already growing bulge noticeable through your thin shorts. “You couldn’t keep your eyes off me today, could you rabbit?” He smirks against your skin. You practically drooled over the sight earlier. William had a box resting on each shoulder, his skin glowing with a thin sheen of sweat. He paused as he caught sight of you leaning in the doorway, arms crossed over your chest as your eyes raked over him. He smirked, knowing that playful glint in your eye. He smiled as he noticed your cheeks reddening from your position laying below him. He hooks his fingers into the band of your shorts, placing featherlike kisses down your stomach as he eases them down your legs. You moan softly as you feel him nip at the skin of the inside of your thighs. Your back arches off the bed as he brushes his thumb over your sensitive clit, a broken moan leaving your lips. With how busy you had both been due to the move it had been a while since the two of you had been intimate. Your skin was already on fire from the small touch alone, William smirked as he watched your reaction closely. Your hands fisted in the blankets as he tossed your legs over his shoulders, his hot breath bouncing off your already soaked core. His arms slip around your hips, holding you firmly in place as he dove into hungrily lap at your folds. You moan out his name, already attempting to squirm away from his assault. He growls, dragging you closer to him. His fingers dig into your thighs with a bruising force, sure to leave marks behind. Your fingers tangle in his hair as his tongue swirls around your clit through your lace panties. He ate you out like a man starved, your soft gasps and quiet moans echoing in the empty room. You whined, tugging on his hair. “What’s the matter bunny?” He pushes your panties out of the way with his fingers, his skin growing slick with your arousal.

“I need you.” You whined, looking down at him with pleading, teary eyes. William gives in immediately with a soft chuckle, never one to deny you what you wanted. He tugs down your panties, placing soft kisses to your legs as he removes your final article of clothing at an agonizingly slow pace. He slides an arm under your back, pulling you on top of him as he collapses into the mattress. Your hands landed on either side of his head as you lost your balance, you blushed as you realized you were sitting on his broad, strong chest. He brushes your hair behind your ear before both of his hands wrap around your thighs.

“Come sit, bunny.” He coos, your face burning at his casual command. William absolutely loved whenever you sat on his face. However, he was well aware he would have to warm you up to the idea whenever he suggested it. You were always worried you were too heavy, you hadn't shaved, or you hadn't showered, and your husband always reassured you that none of those things were going to pose any problems for him. His beard tickled the inside of your thighs as you hovered over his eager mouth. His hands squeezed at your hips, groaning as your soft skin squished between his fingers. You cry out as he pushes you down onto him, his tongue lapping at your clit before he shoves his way in between your folds.

“Oh, fuck! Will!” You moan, your hips moving on their own. You let out a soft sob everytime his nose bumps against your clit. He growls, pressing hard into your hips as you try to wiggle away, his assault on your already sensitive cunt threatening to push you over the edge mere minutes after he starts. “Baby, it's too much.” Your voice shook as you tried to plead with him, years slipping from your damp eyes onto your cheeks as the coil of pleasure in your core wound tighter. William’s eyes were hazy as they met yours, his face smothered in your thighs as he greedily sucked your clit into his mouth. You tug his hair, making you groan against him. “I'm gonna cum.” It was all too much for you to handle, your body losing its rhythm as your climax threatened to rip through you. William let out an affirmative hum below you, knowing you were close by the slowing of your movements. He decides it's time for him to take over, determined to make you cum on his tongue. His fingers dig into the curve of your ass as he gradually increases the pace of your hips. You yelped as one of his hands suddenly connects with your skin, the mixture of pleasure and slight pain causing your soaked cunt to throb. Broken moans and whines rumbled effortlessly from your mouth, the fine tuned roaming of his hands paired with his expert tongue knowing just how you wanted to be touched to fall apart in his hands. William never got tired of making you finish. The way you would fall absolutely silent and still for a moment, mouth hanging open as no sound dared escape, your body taking time to catch up to the immense pleasure you were feeling. Now was no different. William felt his cock twitch at the sight of your eyes rolling back in your head, that brief moment of absolute silence making his ears ring before you screamed his name. He forced your hips to keep moving, never allowing your pace to slow as he felt your thighs shaking against his cheeks. You practically collapsed as he finally pulled his mouth off of you, a firm hand on your lower back keeping you upright as you shakily moved yourself back onto his chest. William reaches up to caress your cheek, wiping away tears that streaked down your skin. Your eyes felt heavy, you struggled to keep them open and on your husband as you came down from your high.

“Do you want to lay down?” He asks in a soft tone. You nod, collapsing into the mattress with a happy sigh. You hear the soft shuffling of William getting undressed before he gets under the blankets with a groan. You could feel the heat radiating off of him as he moved closer, his fingers ghosting over your waist before your pulled back against him. You can't help but giggle slightly as you feel his erection pressed firmly against your back.

“You want some help with that?” You press yourself into him, his breath catching in his throat at the contact as he tries to stifle a growl.

“You can't even keep your eyes open bunny.” He chuckles, you smile as you feel it rumble in his chest. You let out a dismissive sound, giving him a slight shrug. “How about we compromise?” You glance over your shoulder at him, curiously raising an eyebrow. Your eyes slide shut, letting out a soft hum as you feel his rough hands roaming over your skin. His fingers dip in between your thighs, gently coaxing them apart. You gasp as you feel his member prod at your entrance. “I could always fill you up before we go to bed.” He offers with a smirk, your face instantly flushing at the thought of cuddling up with your husband, trying not to squirm too much as he impaled you on his thick cock. You give him a nervous yet excited nod, the sight of you looking at him so sweetly as you chewed on your lip making it hard for him to not flip you over and pound you into the mattress. William assisted you holding your legs open, one massive paw wrapped around your thigh to allow him room to attempt to fit inside of you. You gripped tightly onto the sheets as he slowly began to push inside, the stretch from making it barely past his tip intense due to the lack of prep. “That's it sweetheart, just relax.” He purrs in your ear, pressing his lips to your shoulder. Another roll of his hips makes you whimper, feeling him slip slightly deeper into your fluttering cunt.

“Fuck, ‘s too big, ‘s not going to fit.” Your words slut as you tried to focus enough to speak. His pace was agonizing, you could feel every inch of him and every thick vein sliding over your velvety walls. You let out a shuddering breath as he finally bottoms out in you, the tip of his cock pressed snugly against your cervix. You felt like you would break in half at the smallest wrong move, even your slight shifting as you cuddled up with William had the edges of your vision going fuzzy.

“Such a good bunny, taking all of me so well.” His lips trail over your neck, you feel him smirk as you clench around him, repeatedly kissing and teasing what he knew was a rather sensitive spot of skin.

Your fingers intertwined with his, his strong arms wrapped protectively around as you're held flush to his chest.

“I love you.” You say quietly, feeling sleep trying it's hardest to pull you under. He gives your hand a soft squeeze.

“And I love you, sweet girl.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tag List: @yellowbunnydreams @zoey5252 @redflowery @loudchaosking (I think that's everyone, if I missed you or you would like to be added please let me know!)

[devondespresso]

FINALLY

after NINE. HOURS. (NOT including meals and sleep) ITS FUCKING DONE.

A complete floorplan of the entire Harrington house. Including too much thought about random, throw-away lines from characters and squint-to-see-it background glimpses inside.

plently of stuff in the actual house is altered or straight up ignored in favor of following the fiction logic and because I Wanted To. A lot of this is motivated by my headcanons for the Harringtons and how I'm writing them in my fic, but I'm also certainly not an architect so it's by no means perfect. It is, however, unreasonably canon compliant in the few bits we do see.

Thought Process (for context):

the darker shaded floor areas are lower than the rest, some bits like the garages having stairs and some areas like the sun and dining rooms list being like a step lower. Windows are marked with dashes along the outside, sliding doors are two thin lines slightly overlapping, stairs change color as they diverge from the level we're looking at, and furniture is eyeballed so don't look to closely a the scale.

not all closets are labeled, just the ones i figured could be confusing. Steve and the guest rooms have closets i promise.

the laundry room and pantry are not the same size but by the time i noticed i was exhausted. so pretend they're both more reasonably sized.

i don't know what the floorplan symbol for garage door is and then i forgot to look so the headlights point to where the doors are and you can see them clearly in photos so yeah.

The general layout is based on the idea that the Harringtons are or were into hosting dinner parties and business meetings in their home, especially as a young rich couple looking for respect in their circles (Mr. Harrington taking on his father's business and reinforcing that power, Mrs. Harrington climbing her own social ladder and building an image).

So the house is laid out with hosting areas towards the right with the office big and near the dining room because it's more than just a workplace, it represents him as a businessman. In canon the entryway and living room both have very high ceilings and no second-floor above them, so I'd imagine they're also aware of how the top floor looks from below, hence the fancy double/french doors to the master bedroom which is in plain view from below. Steve's room and the guest room are's nearly as visible.

As for the kitchen and sun/pool rooms, I see them more as secondary hosting areas that aren't used as the main location most of the time and are more this background setting to these events that still feel rich. The kitchen is massive and mostly for dinner-parties and Mrs. Harrington's social events.

The kitchen and main bathroom's placement is based on a line Steve said to Barb giving her directions to the bathroom: "down past the kitchen, to the left". With the massive living room on the left and wanting to keep the dining and office close by, i interpreted the "to the left" part being like "find the kitchen, then turn left". And with the rest of the area being open-concept, the bathroom would be the only normal door over there and easy to find. it's a bit of a stretch with just that line, but it makes sense to me with the rest of the context for the layout.

the basement is similar to this, though not as openly displayed so I imagine its for slightly closer friends. Theres a garage door down there so I figured Mr. Harrington might have a cool car he shows off, like he's letting people in on a personal detail about himself. There's also a guest room down there (the only one still considered 100% for guests, more on that later) for those people.

beside the basement garage, there was originally one main garage that holds two cars, obvious Mr. and Mrs. Harrington's cars. I imagine they bought the house before having kids, so a third one wasn't on the mind but after having Steve they added the front one (either turning the carport into a closed garage or they never had a carport and added a whole new addition, up to you)

Both garages lead to the same part of the house, and that area is the only one besides the water heater room that is purely function over effect. It still looks good like the rest of the house but it's not made to be fancy because guests would rarely need to be over there if at all and it's not noteworthy from other parts of the house.

In my headcanon, Steve's room used to be a guest room, staying his room from nursery to present with Mrs. Harrington renovating every now and then. Its one of those places in the house that doesn't have to look perfect for all to see, so she gets creative and has fun with it.

The upstairs guest room is also unofficially Mrs. Harrington's room, based on a line where Tommy mentions a fireplace in "his mom's room" instead of "guest room" or "parent's room" or "master bedroom". I belatedly realized this could be a solidarity thing with Steve hating his dad and calling the master bedroom his mom's room, but that was after 9 hours of this and im not changing it but there you go. In this version, I imagine she leaves the master some nights because her marriage with Mr. Harrington is failing (cheating and all, I wouldn't want to be in the same bed with someone who cheated either)

the master bathroom was an executive decision, just looking at the house in canon and not having enough space in my first attempts, i decided the triangle roof part above the dining and office could fit a master bathroom.

Feel free to use or reference this in your own fics! Feel free to block out my furniture or walls and make your own version. If you share my image please credit with an @ mention!! (again, 9 hours) (thank you fhalsfhd)

[panevanbuckley]

how do u mark a fic as read?????????? I don't have that button! what is this sorcery???!!!?? :O

ahh okay sorry it's literally a month late 😭

a lot of people saw this post and apparently didn't know the mark as read feature existed (which ??? i'm 95% sure y'all will recognise it once you read this post)

so anyways. say you're like me and are scrolling for a very specific fic but during that scrolling you pass a fic that also intrigues you. but you don't wanna read it yet. you also don't trust yourself to open a new tab and not lose it so you use the mark for later button!

you'll see it at the top of any fic (example below)

click this. and boom! fic has now been added to your mark for later list. which can be found under history and marked for later on your account

but if you're anything like me you probably won't actually use that list because you switch hyperfixations far too often

it does come in handy still though because when (read: if) you return to this ship/fandom and are yet again scrolling for a good fic it can help you identify fics you've read before or not. usually i'll see something that sounds interesting, open it, and either it will be bookmarked already or it will have this new button at the top:

mark as read my beloved 🥰 means this fic caught my eye in the past but i never got around to actually reading it. so yay! new fic to read!!

(unless, like in the original post, i somehow either forgot to then mark the fic as read after reading it or for some reason never bookmarked it and then i trick myself into thinking i've not seen it 💀)

[las-lus]

Firefox Extensions

I've decided to make a list of my personal Firefox extensions in case anyone is looking for a recommendation list! I also add some User Scripts recommendations at the end!

Security Reasons:

uBlock Origin is a must. Blocks ads (including YouTube ads) and trackers and warns you if you click in any malicious link!

Privacy Badger is very similar to uBlock, as it blocks trackers as well, but it's more focused, so I like to use both to be safer!

Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials is another tracker blocker, but with a layer of protection to your emails and searches. If you aren't using Duck Duck Go instead of Google for your day-to-day searches, I highly recommend it! It's like if Google didn't suck.

Shinigami Eyes isn't perfect, but lets me know if someone has been tagged as “anti-trans” by other people. I trust it on big sources like news websites or famous figures, and use it as a warning on smaller blogs/people.

Making my life Easier:

Auto Tab Discard deletes the memory of tabs I haven't touched in a while, but keeps them visually there so I can remember that they exist.

Xkit Re-written, as I'm sure most of you know, enhances Tumblr browser but a lot!

Djvu Viewer is criminally underrated! Djvu is an alternative to PDF files, which, if you didn't know, are owned by ADOBE. Instead of downloading PDFs, you could download them as DJVU and keep the internet free! (For an offline experience, I recommend Okular for reading). This is really useful if you download academy textbooks. Dvju is also lighter than PDF so they demand less of your computer.

Search By Image is literally what is says on the tin. Really useful if you want to find the source of art!

Ruffle is a flash emulator! If you miss flash games, just download this badboy and go have fun on neopets again.

Unpay Wall is only really useful if you read research papers, but it WILL save your life if you do.

No AI google Search keeps Ai out of your Google!!

The Wayback Machine has an extension so you can a) easily find archived websites and b) archive a website very fast!

Tabliss makes my firefox a bit slower, but it makes every new tab prettier and keep a to-do list so I can always check it! good for my adhd!

Mouse's Neopets Tools. If you followed my tip on #5 and decided to go back to neopets, this will help you a bit.

If you're not afraid of little code:

TamperMonkey is the best extension for user scripts! You don't need to know how to make a script, there are THOUSANDS available! HERE are some ao3 scripts!

GreaseMonkey is if you want to try your hand on writing your own scripts! Code isn't that hard, and making something silly for yourself is a great way to start.

WebScraper extracts data from websites if you want. I used this to create an organized Marked for Later AO3 file by changing this tutorial a bit!

That's it! Feel free to recommend more!

If you're really unfamiliar with terms like trackers or scripts, I'll try to explain it in quick words under here.

Trackers are all your data that websites can legally take from your online activity. This includes what you look for when online shopping, where you are and what time you use your internet, so companies can sell you better and more targeted ads. You don't want that, obviously, fuck ads and fuck companies making money selling YOUR data. Cookies are the most well known form of trackers, but not the only one! Tracker blockers will stop websites from collecting everything that is not essential for your use of their platform! They also make your browser faster because you're not wasting memory running the trackers.

You can test how easy (or hard!) it's to track your browser habits here!

User Scripts Are codes you can add to websites to make them better for you! All websites are coded in HTML, CSS or Java, which mean your browser is running their code in order for you to access them. Which MEANS you can edit the version of the code you're running! You can add or remove features, make the website more accessible or even improve them. As they are free and made by and for users, don't trust them implicitally!

Some examples of user scripts:

This one shows you coupons for various shopping websites without making you pay for it. This one adds a download button for youtube. This one makes it easier to read webcomics.

The good thing about user scripts is that if you dislike them, you can disable them and never think about them again! They are really easy to use and it's a shame people usually never even hear of User Scripts.

To end this, I'll say: don't be afraid of learning a bit of code! It's fun! It can make you feel dumb, but that's a universal experience, learning a new thing can shake you up a bit. But being comfortable checking a page's source code or editing a bit of HTML to make a website more accessible to you can make your life SO MUCH easier! I have a few links HERE if you want!

[britt-kageryuu]

Donnie and Leo are streaming together, but Leo is playing the game. Their masks with lightly glowing stars, models are in matching starry hoodies, black legging shorts that showed off their leg marking, and leg wraps/socks.

Leo is replaying Skyrim w/DLC,(not the new update) but without any mods. Because there was an issue with something in their modded game, and Donnie couldn't tell if it was a mod, or a base game w/DLC. They bought a version of the game that had the DLC pre installed into the game, and they already know base game is held together with ductape and the Will of the Devine Beings.

Leo was messing with the character customization, "All these options, but the only thing I can make Blue is my Eyes! I miss the Terrapin mod already. Well can't do much more, now what do I name my Argonian?" Leo rambles on engaging with chat while Donnie is looking over the active running code in real time with his laptop.

"Let's Go, Lord Scaly Butt! On through the tutorials, then the place we keep crashing!" Leo shouts almost knocking Donnie over with his enthusiasm.

~~~~A bit of relearning the basics and 1 dead dragon later~~~~

Once they finished with the beginning quests, bought the Whiterun house to drop off the dragon parts, and returned the Golden Claw, Leo started to mess with simple tasks that quickly raise your levels.

"Alright Dee, what requirements are needed to replicate this crash scenario? Also this took over an hour! Did the game always take this long in the beginning?" Leo is once again rambling, looking back and forth between chat and Donnie.

This is causing the audience to wonder what kind of energy drinks or something he had, or what might've been added to his tea/coffee today.

Donnie in the mean time is reading over a list, ignoring his twin while scrolling, "The build according to your last save, you had the light dragon armor, not enchanted, you had finished this list of quest," they lean over to show Leo the list, "and as you can see, a long list of negligible variables that I have already tested out of possible crach sources. And while this may take a long time, I will try to keep you on track."

Leo's eyes go wide at the list as he reads it over, "How long have I been playing on that save! How long is this going to take!?!" He says slowly getting loader.

Donnie just leans away, "Give me a moment, I forgot to cull the quests that are not important to this process." They show the new list, "It might take a few dozen hours, it might not. You will need to fast travel occasionally to the crash point to help narrow down the possible source."

Leo stares at Donnie for a moment thinking over what he just said.

"But wouldn't that also mess up the results, since it might've been a combo of more things, not less?"

Donnie pauses, turns to Leo, then back at his laptop.

"Dee, how long have you been awake?" Leo asks with a look of disappointment.

Donnie was about to make their argument, but then let out a loud, long yawn. They shake their head before looking a bit panicked, "Wait, I'm fine, I've stayed up for longer, plus don't you want to replay Skyrim? And explore, fight dragons, try to complete those glitched quests?!" Donnie rambles, trying to justify his tiredness.

Leo still looked at him with suspicion, but goes back to the game. He is very much not convinced. He just knows is he fights Donnie on this, he might get bit.

The audience is making some jokes about Leo stealing Donnies energy, some are trying to justify Donnies argument, and some kinda want to see Leo force Donnie to go take a nap.

Leo continues to play, chatting with the audience, meanwhile Donnie at some point passed out, and started to let out snores, chuurs, a hiss or two, and some slight growls.

Either way the audience was enjoying themselves.

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

Masterpost

This was originally just an them replaying without mods, then I remembered how Stupidly Long the beginning of Skyrim is, then I remembered that the Skyrim background music makes me sleepy, thus we end up with the above.

I could not stick to my original plan since I was also replaying the beginning of Skyrim.

[being-of-rain]

Now that the whole series has been released, I binge relistened to all of Once and Future. And wrote down all my thoughts, of course.

Definitely the series' main problem is something that affects a lot of Big Finish; it wants to have a story arc, but clearly the writers barely planned with each other or put any effort into that aspect. There's no flow or natural build-up to the finale, unlike what the premise and first episode might lead you to expect. Without much of a compelling arc, the only thing the series has to mark it as a special occasion is its many cameos and crossovers ...but in order to have more of those than the average Big Finish series, they had to pack so many in that most episodes struggle to handle it (in one way or another).

As a series, it unfortunately adds up to less than the sum of its parts.

With all that said, it's a series that I enjoyed a lot more during my relisten, since I could adjust my expectations. I forgot my desire for a grand or satisfying larger story, and just took each standalone episode on its own merits. There's a varying level of quality, but overall its not as disappointing as I remembered.

I decided to rank the episodes from my least to most favourite, and write a paragraph on each one.

8. Time Lord Immemorial I was told this was added to the series at the last minute, and I believe it; it features the imminent destruction of every universe thanks to the use of the degeneration gun, and this little fact is not mentioned at any point before or afterwards. The plot is about a dull and generic all-powerful Time Lord fairytale with an incredibly convenient rhyme to tell everyone what to do. Not that anyone actually does much of anything in this episode. It's mostly descriptions of some impressive visuals and the trading of some half-hearted banter. The only thing of any substance at all in the story is the slightly interesting (though not as interesting as it could've been) relationship between the Lumiat and the Doctor, which is okay if you like that, and unfortunate if you wanted Liv and the Unbound Doctor to have any focus at all.

7. Two's Company This episode is the poster child of being assigned a long and truly random laundry list of characters by the producers. All elements of the episode feel like they're thrown together haphazardly, from the total disregard of the previous episodes' plot hook onwards. But the friendship of Jackie and Lady Christina, two of the least likely characters to be teamed up with the sixth Doctor, is perhaps the highlight of the episode (even though Jackie is written rather stereotypically). On the other hand, Harry Sullivan doesn't really add anything, and the bizarre introduction of The Two borders on the insulting. Back when The Eleven was first introduced, the audio took pains to note that his mental illness was not the cause of his villainy. Later authors seemed to have missed this memo, and none fly in the face of it as much as Two's Company. On top of it all, I think Lisa McMullin is just an author I do not vibe with. She's the only one who wrote two episodes of this series, and they're my two least favourite.

6. The Union I'm not a big fan of finales written by Matt Fitton, which is bad news for me because he's been Big Finish's Go-To Finale Guy for over a decade now. He always makes the plot a bit too busy and never quite lands the emotional moments for me. Once and Future's climactic episode gets a lot of fanservicey moments (some that I can enjoy and some that feel like an obligation), but the story arc that the series had been stumbling and crawling towards concludes with the Doctor winning a nonsensical moral argument about how he's fine with being and meeting himself, something that isn't demonstrated in this anniversary special and is contradicted in most others. The villain/s are a bizarre choice and rather unthreatening- but at least River and Susan are fun to listen to.

5. A Genius For War It's slightly baffling that in the middle of a series that flaunts its random character line-ups is a fairly standard Time War episode, with characters you'd expect to see in it (except for the Seventh Doctor I guess, but he doesn't feel that out of place in a Davros story like this.) I refrained from calling it a "bog-standard" Time War episode, because it does actually put some effort into being relevant to this series specifically, and is a fun little action movie to while away an hour (and celebrate the Doctor's longest-running alien foes in all their mediocre glory). Still, the fact that this ep is just before halfway through my ranking means that I enjoy this series more often than not.

4. Past Lives This is a charming episode, largely due to its fun cast of characters. It takes its time with its story, being literally halfway done by the time all the characters have been brought into the plot together, but I'm not saying it's badly paced. I'm certainly fine with it just giving us the Doctor and the Monk for the first 15 minutes. But the moment of this episode that always sticks in my head the most is the Doctor and Sarah reacting to all the pictures of the Doctors in Osgood's house, having a little bit of an existential crisis about it. It's amazing how taking even just a small break from the action for some genuine emotion can add to a story. See number 1 on this list for more. Oh I do wish it did more with the King Arthur/Once and Future theme though, especially seeing as it was what gave the series its name.

3. The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50 Michelle Gomez and David Tennant are so good together. I don't have an awful lot more to say about this one, it's just solid entertainment. It's got great characterisation and a lot of funny lines. The episode really understood the Master when it said "Only one Time Lord would ever do something so mind-bogglingly, time-consumingly ridiculous."

2. Coda—The Final Act The final episode is second only to Two's Company in how random and long its list of returning characters is, but it handles them with much more grace and a satisfying story. I mean I do wish that Vienna Salvatori had a bigger role, but that's just because I'm a fan of her series, she works fine narratively (and there was a Jexie reference to appease me). Really my biggest complaint about this one is that it doesn't quite commit to the Doctor vs Doctor premise as much as I wish it would, with it all being a contrived trick, but it doesn't do that badly, it's fine. Wait, maybe my biggest complaint is the title: why give it two? Why not just call it Coda? Anyway, Bernice was a great choice for this episode, she's always been great at speaking her mind to the Doctor. And it was easy for me to forget this this is Jo Martin's first audio because she sounded so at home. Great stuff.

1. The Artist at the End of Time This might not be the episode I go back to listen to the most, but I think it is the best made, with the most time to breathe and the most coherent themes. (And it also happens to be the episode with the least amount of returning characters heaped upon it. What a coincidence.) The degeneration giving the Doctor something of an existential crisis, compounded by the end of the universe and the presence of the Curator, gives the series some much needed time to reflect on a key aspect of the franchise for its anniversary; the Doctor themself. It certainly works a lot better than whatever The Union tried to do in its last 15 minutes. Aside from all that, Five and Jenny and the Curator are just a rather sweet team to listen to, with an interesting problem to investigate and a lot of witty dialogue.

[twiniverse]

Temple Redesign for Twiniverse fan project thingy

Since I'm redoing a lot of old pages, it's probably time to update the Temple Fusion. Considering it's just an Obsidian made with Rose, Pearl, Jasper, Peridot, and Lapis... and then I just took out Jasper's gem and added Amethyst and Ruby... that's kind of boring. She's beautiful imo but she's just not unique to Twiniverse.

Sooooo I'm going to be redesigning her. And her name will be Onyx, based on black onyx with white and golden markings. She'll have some kind of crown that has both Pearl and Peridot's gems... and I'm thinking of maybe making her somewhat... cryptid-ish? Like a mothman kind of thing but less... animalistic?

Anyway I'm telling y'all this because... I am not good at designing monsters lol. That's a big reason I didn't redesign Obsidian to begin with. Soooooooooo what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask you guys for ideas.

This is not a contest. There will be no prizes. But I WILL reblog every "entry" and show them off later in a livestream.

Just kind of a fun thing. I most likely won't choose any one design, it will just really help me solidify a design by having lots of new ideas from fans!

All you need to do is make a post with your ideas, which can be something you've drawn or just a bunch of reference pictures and a description of what you think Onyx would look like. She does NOT have to be based on Obsidian or the Twiniverse Obsidian. She also does NOT have to have any design components I mentioned above (the crown, the cryptid thing, etc). Just whatever you personally feel like the fusion would look like =)

@ me in the post and tag it 'twiniverse' and I'll add it to a list of all the ideas I've got! And when I start getting the feeling I've gotten an idea of what the final product will be I will do a livestream and feature all of the suggestions as I work on the concepts for Onyx.

Just as a reminder, here are the five components! (Technically six lol). The outfits aren't important, so don't feel like you have to tick too close to them. And, just in case you want it, here's the OG Twiniverse Temple, but remember any design you might have does NOT need to be based off of this.

I just thought this all would be fun! Something to let people feel like they're apart of Twiniverse in some way. I understand that without prizes a lot of people won't want to join, and that's completely fine. I get it! And I won't be upset whether I get "entries" or not.

Thank you all once again for your patience and all that jazz. I'm trying to still be active even while I'm swamped with a million other things, and throwing myself into Art Fight on top of it, lol. Love all my followers! See you soooooon!

(AND IF I DON'T GIVE YOUR POST A LIKE/REBLOG AFTER A FEW DAYS PLEASE MESSAGE ME, I MAY HAVE MISSED IT. The like will signify it's in a queue)

[whumping-valentine]

🦌 Fawn and Hunter - Part 5 🦌

"Cabin Colds"

Content: Sick Whumpee, Carewhumper

1100 Words

Hey it's part five! Who likes sick whumpees and caretaking whumpers? 👀

This part is short and simple, but it was a way for me to vent when I was sick last week, lol. The parts will get longer and more complex as we go though, so you can look forward to that!

I really wanna try and get this little story done, because afterwards I'm gonna be posting my story on Valentine, which I'm itching to share with you all. God, I can't wait for y'all to meet Valentine and Vittoria, man. It's gonna be great. But anyways, I hope you like this tiny little slice of sick whump!

       Fawn barely slept a wink that night, how could they? Tied up and in pain isn't exactly the utmost form of comfort.

       Ironically enough, it was warmer down in the basement. Though that's probably due to the numerous broken windows around the cabin, closed off with nothing more than wooden planks and tattered blankets. And last night they just added another one to the list.

       That's how Fawn would sleep for the next week. Their days consisted of the same old things, being taunted, condescended, sometimes slapped and pulled by the hair. Being treated as some pretty pet, or lowly companion. Eating nothing besides venison. It was all starting to take its toll on the poor thing.

As the days continued to tick by Fawn slowly came to the realization that they were going to be here for quite a while... unfortunately. They didn't want to completely give up hope just yet, but Hunter was quite experienced with this sort of thing, so it was apparent.

       One night, Fawn fell asleep with a sore throat, and woke up completely sick. It was freezing, but they also felt hot, all at once. Their head was pounding, their nose was running, and every muscle in their body was aching. It was pure, absolute misery, and worst of all they weren’t sure how Hunter was going to react to it. Whether or not they were going to be comforting or neglectful, Fawn liked neither option.

       Though they’ll accept any help by this point, they couldn’t just lay here, they simply couldn’t. They tried to call out to their captor, though their sore throat didn’t allow it. All they could do was cough, and a short while later, it was enough to catch their attention. All it took was one look at the poor thing for Hunter to tell they were sick. They crossed their arms and leaned their shoulder against the door frame.

       “Feelin’ bad, baby?”

       Fawn coughed, “Yes.”

       The sound of their voice made Hunter widen their eyes in surprise, “Oh, wow, you really are, poor thing." They said, still talking down to them, "Need some help?”

        Fawn would normally bicker and bite, but in this instance said, “Please.”

       Hunter didn’t waste a second going to untie them. Rope marks stained their wrists and ankles, which were growing more frail as the days ticked by as Fawn slowly lost weight and strength.

       Hunter picked them up bridal style, and carried them down to the basement, into a new room that was previously kept behind a locked door. A secret, cozy place that was actually rather nice, and well kept. They laid Fawn down on a couch, lit a fireplace, then covered them up with a thick quilted blanket. They left for a few minutes and returned with a cold washcloth, which they placed on their feverish forehead.

       “Do you want something to eat?”

       “No.”

       “Wanna rest?”

        “Yes.”

       Hunter gently lifted their head, sat down, and placed it on their lap. They ran slow fingers through their hair. They chuckled, “What, too sick to yell at me for this, are you?”

       Fawn simply peeked their eyes open, glared at them, and closed them again.

       “I see, I see. You can yell at me when you’re better.” They said, placing a hand on their head as they dragged their fingers through their now coarse hair. Fawn hated it, hated that their captor of all people was being so intimate and caring. They always hated it, but in this instance they were far too sickly to even think of biting back.

       Their head was pounding, fever burning, body sweating. Their throat was sore, it was hard to breathe, and they found themself asking for a tissue every few minutes. Their body ached, they felt nauseous, their stomach was upset, and every muscle in their body hurt. Their skin was sensitive to the touch, and they were tired as all hell but couldn’t find it in them to fall asleep.

       They weren’t sure what exactly they had, but it was probably the sickest they had ever felt in their entire life. Really, they probably had more than one thing. Being held out in an old, dirty cabin with deer carcasses all over the place is a pretty good guarantee that you’re going to catch something. Hunter was surely used to the conditions, but Fawn clearly was not.

       Eventually Fawn managed to drift off to sleep without even realizing. When they awoke again they were still there, head in Hunter’s lap. Hunter looked down at their sleepy eyes, and took the washcloth off their head to check their temperature with the back of their hand. They asked, “You feelin’ any better?”

       Fawn’s only response was a meek, hoarse, “Thirsty.”

       Hunter got up, gently laying them back down as they went to fetch a canteen of water. When they returned, they helped Fawn sit up as they held the canteen to their lips as they gulped down the whole thing at once. It felt difficult, uncomfortable, and painful to swallow due to their sore, swollen throat, but they persisted despite it.

       “Want me to grab you something to eat, too?” Hunter asked. Fawn thought for a moment, and slightly nodded.

       Hunter left to the kitchen once again, and ravaged through the old, dusty cupboards for something to feed them that wasn’t meat. They grabbed an old soup can, checked the date, and to their surprise it was still good. They rinsed a dusty bowl and poured the soup into it. They warmed it up over the stove, and retreated back down to the basement.

       "I thought you'd like something other than venison." Hunter said, sitting back down with Fawn, "How does vegetable soup sound?"

       Fawn could practically cry tears of joy. “great.”

       Fawn's head laid on Hunter's shoulder, one of their arms around them as the other fed them soup like a child. Fawn was far too sick to get upset about it, accepting the gesture with gratitude. They closed their eyes as Hunter fed them spoonfuls.

The warm, crackling fire paired with their fever made them just about ready to fall asleep. They were so feverish and tired that they even found it comforting when Hunter gently rubbed their hand up and down their back. If they had any sense of clarity in their head, they’d find the gentle gestures and caretaking insulting.

       Hunter finished feeding them the soup, placing the empty bowl on a nearby table. They looked down at the sickly thing in their arms, "Hm. I think it's time for bed, Fawn."

       "Says who?" Fawn mumbled, the soreness present in their tone.

       "Says me. You’re already falling asleep. And more sleep will do you good.”

       “What do you care.”

       “I care because I’d like to take care of my pet, that’s what.” They said, grabbing onto them as they both laid down. Fawn wanted so badly to fight against the gestures, but couldn't. They weren't sure if it was because of how ill they felt, or if it was because they actually liked it.

They hoped it wasn't the second one.

       Hunter held Fawn to their chest, their arms wrapped around them, both curled up under the blanket.

       Well, I suppose it's better than being tied to a bed. And, I guess there could always be worse creepy serial killers to be taken by...

Taglist: @parasitebunny

^^ If you want added, lmk!

[sovvannight]

Potential Covers Playlist #1

After the Bereny Show (in my Season 2 series), Andi suggests the Phantoms add a few cover songs into their set list. In the following scenes the band does discuss possible covers, but I never actually confirmed what songs, if any, they end up covering.

That's plot relevant for the next scene, so here's a playlist of possible I listen to all the time at work. A lot of these come from a larger list, "The Positive Mix," songs I pulled for a playlist for a road trip with Mom a while back, so it's probably a little too heavy on older songs.

Jimmy Eat World - The Middle - This is a song Reggie mentions discovering during his attempts to catch up on all the music he missed. It's more like a Sunset Curve song than a JATP song, though.

Little Mix - Wings - I LOVE this pick for them; I generally favor covers where the covering band really makes the song their own, so a genre switch like this would really work for me. And I can just imagine how it went: Julie played the song for them, Luke immediately said, "What? No!," and then at the 20 second mark when the percussion line kicks in, Alex is like, "YEESSSS!" Anyway, lots of room for different band members to take a line, and I'm assuming some of the brass/synthesizer sounds get converted to guitar.

Gloria Estefan - Get On Your Feet - not sure if this is a Julie pick, a Reggie pick (since I headcanon him as having the most mainstream musical taste out of all the band members), or you could argue it's a Luke pick and he has a thing for singers with dark curly hair. Anyway, I like the guitar line, and I'm assuming Julie is handling the brass via synthesizer.

Journey - Be Good to Yourself - I feel like one of the band members would suggest Don't Stop Believin' and then Julie would have to explain how that's a meme song now, and what a meme song is, and they'd work their way around to this as an alternate option.

Noisettes - Don't Give Up - a Julie pick - probably too heavy for JatP, but I like the idea of her playing it for them, the guys looking at her, surprised, and she's like, "What? My mom was in punk bands!"

The Kinks - Better Things - absolutely a Luke pick. I've just googled and apparently this is actually a breakup song? But I still really like this song for them: the lyrics are positive, there are already built-in keyboard and guitar parts, and I like the harmony on the chorus.

Let's Active - Every Dog Has His Day - probably a Luke pick, because it's a rock nerd pick, although the drum line is cool so you could make the case that it's an Alex pick instead. Lyrics might be a little less JatP-style positivity and veering toward Dirty Candyish-(over)confidence.

Anathema - Dreaming Light - would also satisfy Andi's request for a ballad.

Bonham - Dreams - definitely an Alex pick, since this is the band formed by the son of Led Zeppelin's late drummer.

Tommy Shaw - Girls With Guns - OK, I get that this might seem out of place, but there's that part of the chorus, "Stand tall, don't think small, don't get your back against the wall."

Catherine MacLellan - Everything'll Be Alright - another ballad. Way too many instruments, but we're ignoring that.

Tim Cappello - I Still Believe - from The Lost Boys soundtrack, which the guys absolutely rented on VHS back in the day.

Gotye - I Feel Better - I actually don't love this song, but I was feeling like there weren't any modern songs on the list so I added it. And I do like the lyrics.

The Call - Let the Day Begin - this song... technically it's kind of monotonous, but it still gets stuck in my head sometimes 35 years later. I wonder if Julie's like, "What wall? What are they talking about?" and the guys are suddenly reminded of that 26-year age gap.

Howard Jones - New Song - Alex suggests this song in The Alarm. Obviously Luke would have to convert some of the keyboard parts to guitar.

Brendan James - The Lucky Ones - look, I'm a simple girl: I just want Julie and Luke sharing a mic, looking into each other's eyes as they sing, "This moment is yours, this moment is mine, and we're gonna be fine."

Amy Grant - Takes a Little Time - probably an Alex pick, since she's a Christian singer going mainstream. Let's pretend Reggie can play the harmonica and that he can handle both that and the bass part.

U2 - Some Days Are Better Than Others - definitely a Reggie pick - listen to that bass line! I see them getting to the line, "Your skin is white, but you think you're a brother," and Julie making the same face she made when Alex complained about having a wedgie.

The Bravery - This is Not The End - maybe a little too afterlife-focused? I like it, though.

Selena Gomez & The Scene - Who Says - I mostly avoided body positivity songs, but the 'na na na na's' are just too fun.

Sam Roberts Band - We're All in This Together - I just like it.

Delta Rae - Dance in the Graveyards - OK Delta Rae is 6 people so there's no real way a 4-person band could play this, but, c'mon, "When I die, I don't wanna rest in peace, I wanna dance in joy" - tell me that's not the guys? And "And while I'm alive, I don't wanna be alone, mourning the ones who came before, I wanna dance with them some more" - tell me that's not Julie?

At any rate, try to imagine Julie and the Phantoms covering these two songs at their show at Drake's and in the future:

[bella-rose29]

Chapter 7 - The Demon

I'm back from my holiday and still mildly sleep deprived from the flight but here's the next chapter! This is the second to last chapter (not including an epilogue), and I hope you all enjoy this one! As always, if you want to be added to/ removed from the tag list please let me know, and requests are always welcome :)

We start off with Tamar's point of view for this one, then switch to the reader, which again has been marked by the --- (because I still don't know how best to show a change in perspective).

Warnings: gets a lil steamy at one point (but I can't write it for the life of me)

Word count: 3.1k

Series master list

Tag list: @kentucky-criedfricken, @hauntedenthusiasttragedy, @kateswone, @historianthesecond, @polli05927, @ell0ra-br3kk3r, @simbaaas-stuff (sorry if I've missed anyone, let me know if I have!)

So far, everything was going swimmingly. 

Tamar couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy at just how easily this tour was going, but with only one night left she was hoping they would have an uneventful journey home the next day. 

Saints, she missed Nadia. Getting back home and showing her partner just how much she had been missed was high on Tamar’s list of things to do. 

Right now, however, she was frustrated with the server behind the counter at the inn. 

Apparently the King and Queen of Ravka would have to sleep in separate rooms tonight, due to the somewhat… conservative views of the owners, but looking over at the monarchs now, Tamar wasn’t sure how she’d ever be able to peel them apart. 

She also wasn’t sure what had changed, but the past week had seen a dramatic difference in the couples’ behaviour; both being far more touchy, never leaving each others' side, making out in the carriage rides (which was a pain in the ass to Tailor) and at night. 

On second thoughts, maybe it would be good for them to spend a night apart. 

Sighing and removing her hands from where they rested on the tops of her axes, Tamar accepted the keys from the inn owner, promising to separate the lovers with a grimace. She wasn’t looking forward to that at all. 

“Room keys,” she said to the travelling party, jangling the items in the air. Her twin immediately shot up, snatching a key and tearing up the stairs. He’d needed the toilet for 'the last three days’ apparently (his words, not Tamar’s), but had refused to just go pee in a bush (it was too undignified, apparently, as if Tamar hadn't seen him do some of the most undignified things in the world). Zoya took the next key, looking exhausted from all the travelling and like she very much needed her own bed. Tamar handed out keys to the remaining members of the group, then turned to Nikolai and Y/N. 

“Alright lovebirds. You’re gonna have to split up tonight.” At their pouts, Tamar couldn’t help but roll her eyes, a smile forming on her face as she recognised the look she had worn when told Nadia wasn’t coming with them. 

“Are you going to be okay, darling?”

“I’ll be fine, Kolya, it’s you I’m worried about.”

Saints, they were insufferable now. Tolya would be soaking this up if he were here, going on about how they were straight out of one of his beloved poems. 

After ten minutes and many more sentiments and kisses, Tamar managed to wrangle them into their respective rooms, with promises that yes, they would be allowed to sit next to each other at breakfast (that was Y/N asking) and no, she wasn’t asking them to get divorced and never see each other again (that was Nikolai, far more dramatic than his wife). 

She let out a breath as she leaned against her own door to the room she’d be sharing with Tolya, before entering and telling him to take first watch, and slipping into a light sleep. 

Two hours later she was woken by her brother, taking the next round of standing guard. Going to stand in the corridor and resting her back against the wall, she settled in as best she could for the next two hours. Something sharp jammed into her back and she whirled round, hand on her axe, only to realise it was a rogue nail sticking out the wall. 

I can’t wait to be back in the Palace, she thought. She was skittish, the lack of incidents making her paranoid and pushing her further towards the edge of insanity, so she took a deep breath to calm herself. 

For the next hour or so, Tamar maintained her stoic watch in the dimly lit corridor, standing so still anyone passing might have thought her a statue (one particularly drunk customer did as he passed on his way to his room, commenting on the strange decor of the inn). She was just thinking idly about things that needed doing the next morning when the handle to Nikolai’s room twisted. 

Immediately on high alert, her hands formed the motions she needed, but frowned when she only felt one steady heartbeat that she recognised as the King’s. The door opened, and Tamar held her breath as a figure shuffled out cautiously. 

Saints, can they really not leave each other alone?

Her thoughts were cut off when she realised that her king was on all fours, two dark shapes protruding out of his back. 

The demon was here. 

But why now? she thought, confusion lacing her expression again. And why isn’t it attacking?

The demon had never just… walked around like this before, and Tamar was torn between fetching Zoya and Tolya or just watching and waiting to see what would happen. Peering through the open door, Tamar was startled to find the bed stripped, the pillows and sheets on the floor. Nothing looked damaged (thankfully, she didn’t feel like compensating the owners for any damage), and her confusion only grew. 

It was moving again, having stopped briefly to stare up at her with voids of black shining out in place of the usual blue. It had put its nose in the air as it sniffed around for something and, seemingly finding what it had been looking for (smelling for?), Tamar tensed, hoping that it wasn’t hungry for Heartrender. She was surprised again when it turned to Y/N’s room instead and opened the door (and since when could it open doors?), going inside while still on all fours, wings trailing behind. The demon’s claws clacked on the wooden floorboards, and Tamar followed a few paces behind, still monitoring the situation. 

It shuffled closer to Y/N’s bed, pausing every few steps to check she was still sleeping and it hadn't woken her up, then reached up to pull back the cover from her face when it stopped next to the bed. 

“What are you doing?” Tamar muttered to herself, hands fluttering nervously at her sides, torn between her axes and her powers. The demon pulled the whole cover off, then with surprising gentleness lifted Y/N out of the bed. It paused again, reaching a few clawed fingers out to grab a hold of her duvet, then set off slowly in the direction of the door where Tamar was stood. She hurried out of the way, not wanting anything to trigger an attack on her or the Queen, and it paid her no attention as it trudged slowly back to Nikolai’s room. 

Tamar knocked lightly on Zoya and Tolya’s doors, hoping it would be enough to wake them up but not alert the demon. A few moments later a bleary-eyed General appeared, blue robe wrapped around her body and her hair mussed from sleep, clearly unimpressed. Tolya didn’t appear for another five minutes, finding the two women stood outside the King’s bedroom door, gaping at the scene in front of them. 

“Why did you have to wake me up?” Tolya grumbled quietly. “I was having an excellent dream wher-“ He didn’t get to finish since Tamar had slapped a hand over his mouth, the demon staring at them, teeth bared at the disturbance. He removed her hand, eyes wide. 

“What the…”

The demon was still growling slightly at them, a low rumble in its throat, when a murmur came from the pile of sheets in the middle of the floor. It snapped its head round to Y/N, noticing that she was waking up. She rubbed her eyes, and Tamar held her breath. 

"Wha-"

“Don’t move too much, alright?” She said to her Queen in a whisper. Y/N was sat in the weird pillow-and sheet-nest that the demon had made (and was now making little alterations to, pulling folds out to be just right), staring at the demon that had taken over her husband’s body. 

“What… Tamar? Zoya? What’s going on? Is he… is this normal?” She stiffened when the demon came back to her side and pushed her gently back into the pillows, then moved to lie down next to her, one arm circling her waist as it pulled her back against its chest. 

“This is… to be honest, we don’t know what’s going on. This has never happened before. Tolya and I will monitor from here for the rest of the night,” -at his disgruntled sound she elbowed him in the ribs- “and you won’t leave our sight.”

She nodded, eyes still wide in fear and surprise. Zoya offered a few words of comfort to her friend before going back to bed, and Tamar and her brother settled in for the rest of the night. 

---

Sunlight filtered through the curtains, bringing Y/N out of her slumber. At the feel of a warm body underneath her, she panicked, remembering the demon from the night before, but when her eyes opened to land on her very much demon-less husband, she let out a soft sigh of relief. Looking around at the room, she noticed that the twins had disappeared, having left a note next to the couple saying 'Gone to get people up and moving, back in 30'. 

Nikolai woke then, rubbing his eye with blackened fingers before groaning in slight pain at their position.

"Why, in the name of all the Saints, does my back hurt so much?" He croaked out, and Y/N couldn't help but giggle.

"Maybe because we're on the floor?" Nikolai's eyes went wide, his head whipping around to take a proper look at where they were, and then he seemed to register the fact that she was with him.

"Wait... did we have passionate and mind-blowing sex that was so good it gave me amnesia? Because that would be a tragedy and we might have to-"

"NO!" she shouted, using a nearby pillow to whack him in the face as her cheeks went red and her mind filled in the rest of his sentence. "Why does your mind always go there? No, you um... the demon got lonely and wanted a hug?" She didn't mean for it to end in a question, but she still wasn't entirely sure herself what had happened the night before. Her husband stared at her, blinking a few times. When he spoke his voice was smaller than she'd ever heard it before.

"Did I hurt you?" His hand had been reaching up to cup her face, but now Nikolai hesitated in anticipation. She gently took it and guided it to her cheek, leaning in to the warmth of his palm.

"No, Kolya, you didn't hurt me. I think it genuinely just got lonely or something. Made this weird nest thing on the floor, which on a side note, I'd love to get into to research the behaviours of- wait, why are you staring at me like that?" Her nose wrinkled as she took in his expression, then smoothed out when he leaned up to kiss her.

"You definitely can't be too traumatised from being accosted by my other half if you want to research its behaviours, darling. I'm just glad you're okay."

"I thought I was your other half? What, does our marriage mean nothing to you anymore?" she joked, pleased when he cracked a smile. She could get drunk on his smiles, the ones that were specifically for her; they were like the sun to her.

"Sorry, darling," he replied, and Saints, she'd said that she didn't like being called the pet name, but it was really doing things to her. She hadn't missed how Nikolai had continually called her 'darling' since that carriage ride, and she also hadn't missed how he'd responded when the bump in the road threw her on to him.

Just like how she now didn't miss his smile turning wolfish moments before he gripped her waist lightly and flipped her on her back. She squealed, which turned into a muffled moan when he pressed his lips and body against hers. Y/N was completely certain that everybody knew they were making out in the carriage rides and basically any other opportunity they got, but she couldn't bring herself to care when he felt like heaven.

Her arms circled around him, pulling him closer, and when he came up for air he asked "Is this alright, Y/N?" and she could have died right there at how gentle he was being.

"This is definitely alright, Nikolai." She brought him back in, and this time some of their restraint had slipped away, tongues deepening the kiss. One of his arms was propping him up and playing with a strand of her hair; the other was caressing her side, toying with the hem of her night shirt, his fingers grazing her bare skin underneath. Her own hands were exploring the expanse of his back (which she totally hadn't already memorised) and moving through his hair, and she'd lifted a leg to wrap around his waist. She moaned again when he moved the hand that was stroking her side to grip her thigh tightly instead, and when she arched her body up in response, hips pressing into his, they groaned into each other's skin at the contact, at feeling everything so closely. Nikolai had moved onto her neck, leaving kisses down it, occasionally nipping at the skin and testing her reactions, staying in one place for longer when he got one he liked. Her mind was a mess, what with his hands stroking her neck and thigh (the latter getting progressively higher as time went on), but did manage to think about how maybe they would be having mind-blowing sex. No sooner than she'd had that thought, however, was Nikolai pulling away, hair mussed from where her hands had been running through and pulling it, lips swollen and pupils blown. She was sure she looked the same, although he wasn't frowning at the lack of contact.

"Why... what..." she swallowed, trying to get her breath back and her thoughts in some sort of order.

"I don't think- I can't..." he paused, doing the same as her and taking deep breaths, and for a moment she panicked, thinking he didn't want this, didn't want her, but then when he spoke she didn't know why she'd worried in the first place.

"I refuse to let the first time I make love to you be on the floor of someone else's bedroom, Y/N, no matter how badly I want you right now."

Saints, this man.

She swallowed again, nodding slightly, then whined - what was she, a puppy? - when he started to get up and move away from her. At the sound Nikolai hesitated, then planted a final kiss on her lips as a promise that 'this will continue' before leaving to get changed. She watched him go, and when Genya inevitably asked when the party got back, Y/N would say that she was most definitely not staring at his ass as he left the room.

~~~

Breakfast passed quickly, and there was a flurry of activity as everybody packed things up for the final stretch of the journey, energy renewed at the knowledge that they'd be sleeping in their own beds tonight. Y/N had taken a little extra time to cool her face that morning, hoping the cold water would help reduce the swelling in her lips before coming downstairs. Tamar had come over in the food hall at one point, checking in on her and asking questions about the night before in a quiet voice.

"Seriously, Tamar, I'm fine. No marks or bruises. Like I said to Nik I'm pretty sure the demon was just feeling lonely, especially since Nik and I have spent the last week or so sharing a bed. Probably just wanted to make sure I was okay."

"That's... not what normally happens," she replied with a frown. "But if you're not hurt, then I guess it's alright."

Within the next ten minutes the touring party had packed up and were on the move, and now Y/N was sat opposite Nikolai in the carriage, knees knocking with his. He was looking out the window, clearly lost in thought as he absentmindedly stroked his fingers over the back of her hand, his wedding ring cool against her warm skin.

"I'm glad it's you," she said. He dragged himself out of his reverie, blinking a few times as he took in what she had said.

"What do you mean, darling?"

"I mean I'm glad that it was you I had to marry."

"I'm glad too, Y/N," he replied with a smile. "Unfortunately I can't take any credit for the decision-making process, although I definitely would have picked you," the last part was said with a wink and a grin as he looked her up and down, making Y/N's cheeks heat up, but she couldn't help but frown at what had come before.

"But I thought that you were the one that picked me to marry you?" she asked, confusion lacing her voice. "When I asked Zoya why I was the one that had to marry you, she just said that I'd 'been chosen'."

"I thought she'd told you? I let the Triumvirate pick, I trust their judgement and I was rather busy trying to convince everyone that the last thing we needed was a civil war and to let me be king."

Y/N was quiet for a minute, thinking.

"I think... I think she didn't tell me that you didn't have any part in it so that she could reduce my stress about the whole thing. It's fair, really; if I thought that you didn't want anything to do with me I probably would have run away or something."

"Good job she didn't, then. I quite like having you around. And as far as whether or not I would have picked you, I think I would. The people clearly love you, and you're going to be an excellent Queen to Ravka because of how much you clearly love them. Sure, court will be difficult, trying to get the nobles properly on side, but I know that you can do it, because you love Ravka and her people and you'll do what you need to to protect them."

"I... thank you, Nikolai. That... that means a lot to me," she swallowed down the lump in her throat at his sincerity.

"I think I've come up with a way to launch the garden project you were talking about, too. We can start making plans tomorrow, if you like?"

"That would be perfect, Kolya."

He smiled back at her, hand still holding hers.

Hope had bloomed in her chest, and she let it grow. There wasn't much that could make this day much better than being here with him, and nothing could bring her mood down now.

Until the window shattered as an arrow shot through it, narrowly missing Nikolai's head.

Chapter 8

[avelera]

So "Doctor Faustus" already being out by the time Dream came by in 1589, is...uh, possibly a bit fudged for the sake of the story in Sandman, but I'm thinking about Hob canonically calling bisexual legend Kit Marlowe a great playwright, and the fact that Doctor Faustus is literally about a handsome demon seducing a more or less normal guy into selling his soul in exchange for an extraordinary life, including temporary immortality during the agreed 24-year span (including a scene where Faustus survives a murder attempt and holds his own severed head in a scene that I'm sure made Hob fuckin' blanche wondering if his secret had gotten out).

And I'm also thinking about how there's a strong running theme in "Faustus" of Mephistophilis steering Faust away from getting married. There is no Marguerite (Faust's wife in other versions) in Marlowe's version of the story which is really interesting. Especially because there's a rather strong whiff of jealousy (especially with Arthur Darvill's performance) around Mephistophilis urging Faust away from marriage, saying he'll bring him fine courtesans, or even (eventually) Helen of Troy instead, but definitely don't get married.

And I'm also thinking about my (and others') emerging fanon that Hob had his own written-or-unwritten fanfic of Faust x Mephistophilis that was heavily based on his own fantasies around his dark and mysterious stranger who gave him immortality. ("This could be us, but you keep fuckin' leaving after 5 minutes...") and a thought occurred to me.

So it's really weird that Hob just happens to get married within a few years, at most, of his 1589 meeting with Dream.

Now, my main assumption around this, Watsonian/in-universe, is that Hob wanted to demonstrate success to his stranger. So within a few years of the 1589 meeting, he looked at the date and went, "Oh shit, if I really wanted to show off I should get married and have an heir on the way, that's the true mark of success in my era!" (Which, of course, Dream is spectacularly unimpressed by and/or projecting his own miseries onto Hob's inevitable despair once they die.)

But now I'm thinking about "Doctor Faustus" and also kind of wondering... timeline fudging aside where he could have conceivably seen the play (or some early version of it while Marlowe was writing it) and if that could lend to a slightly alternative reading of why Hob was in a rush to get married before his meeting with his stranger?

Either:

My tall dark and possibly-not-the-Devil-then-again- the Devil-could-just-LIE stranger is coming. Faustus in "Doctor Faustus" passed up on a chance to possibly have his soul saved by not being married. So it might be a good idea to be married just in case, y'know, for the sake of my soul and so I'm not tempted by being single.

(The more Dreamling-shippy one) My tall dark and handsome stranger can't possibly be interested in me. In fact, it's kind of pining and pathetic to still be nominally single when he comes by, especially after 200 years. Talk about desperate. Maybe it's better if I'm married, that way I don't look desperate and it's not like he'd ever be interested, right? But if he does seem annoyed that I'm married, I will have definitely learned something.

Only for Dream to peace out of there almost immediately upon meeting happily-married-Hob.

Now, do I think canonically that Hob was sort of testing the waters by getting married? Not especially cuz it's an ass-backwards way to go about it, if it was a consideration at all, I'd see it as more hedging to the tune of not looking desperate, rather than trying to make Dream jealous or anything.

But I would bet (or at least put in a fanfic) that Hob added the fact that Dream did not seem especially enthused about his marriage into his little mental list of "Maybe? But surely not. But maybe?" as it emerged around, say, 1789 along with all the other later evidence of possible interest.

[faketrex]

Get to know me!

Thanks for tagging me, @myheartalivewrites! I don't believe I've ever done one of these. The urge to title this REX FACTS is strong.

Rules: answer + tag some people you want to get know better and/or catch up with!

Favourite colour: right this second, there's a really lovely pinky-coral flower in a vase in front of me. I can't imagine a better color! Pinky-coral it is.

Last song: I went for a run today and took a meandering post-run walk because I needed some extra cooling down. I listened to Declan McKenna on my walk. The last song that came up was... "The Phantom Buzz"

Currently reading: my "marked for later" list on AO3 is 34 pages long. I'm rolling around in that for a bit.

Currently watching: nothing, which is pretty common for me. That last thing I watched was Dead Boy Detectives and I enjoyed that.

Currently craving: something salty and cheesy. That's also pretty common for me; I'm a cheese fiend. I am also craving a vacation.

Coffee or tea: coffee. My current coffee order of choice is iced coffee with lemon juice and lavender syrup.

Tagging some people for funsies under the cut, but if this tag were any lower pressure you would need to put some air in it. Weird metaphor! Cool.

@ad-astra13, @caterpills, @stratocumulusperlucidus, @eusuntgratie, @queerofthedagger

@cha-melodius, @schweetheart, @anincompletelist, @pancakehouse, @sparklepocalypse

[ajcgames]

The Big Weekend - Part 1

Part 1 of my 'big weekend' of project development has gone really well so far. Lots of new things added, and progress has been made on my big list of new-things-to-add.

Let's first show everything in a brief video overview:

Whoa! Environments!

I did end up doing some extra work outside of my intended weekend scope, mostly because I wanted a brief distraction from coding. To that end I finally added the first parts of my 'asteroid' environment that your factory is placed in. This will be improved over time, I'm sure, but now serves to make the factory feel a lot more grounded in the very place you're supposed to be!

I also re-added the factory walls, which are now correctly done programmatically - rather than being hand-placed. These scale up with the size of the factory floor, so they're more or less 'done'.

Packager

You can now drop the packager into your factory, which is a necessary first step to exporting your goods from the facility.

Routing items through here will parcel them up ready for transport. You just have to snake them off to your Exporter machine.

Ready for packaging!

Exporter

This machine must be placed over one of the new export nodes. This restricts the number of exporters you can use in any given factory (like the import nodes), and you'll likely have to merge a number of packager belts together to bundle up lots of orders in later stages.

The exporter has space for up to 6 stacks of up to 99 items. A lack of space will result in packages backing up on the import belt, so make sure you don't fill it up with junk!

The build ghost of the exporter next to one of the new Export nodes. These are limited, so you'll have to design your factory around them!

What's next?

Here's my big list of things-to-do, with my completed updates marked off:

Main objectives view

Packager machine

Exporter machine

Research tree

Technology upgrades

Money / credits system

Structure descriptions (QoL)

Audio refinements (QoL)

Main menu screens

New pipes subsytem

Not bad progress so far! I'm not sure what I'm going to tackle tomorrow, though I have a sneaking suspicion I'll want to do the research and tech trees, since they are the next 'big' things to nail down. It will also force me to finally implement a system to prevent access to building items that you haven't yet unlocked, which is a crucial part of progression.

Anyway, that's all I have for this evening. If you reached this point, thank you kindly for your time! And with any luck I'll see you again tomorrow for another progress update.

Have a great evening, wherever you are, and I'll see you again soon! 😊