#been meaning to make 4 different refs for weeks

[unnamed-proxy]

“Alright! Gonna draw stuff that isn’t for the daily account today!”

*doesn’t draw* *doesn’t draw* *doesn’t draw* “Aw drat I’ll do it tomorrow” *doesn’t-

[gotham--fc]

Torn - A Megan Keller Imagine

R is Canadian and gets hurt really bad in a rivalry series game, her and Megan try to cope

lowkey inspired by an actual real life person I know who had a torn labrum for almost 4 years because sports med refused to take her seriously

this was supposed to be short and quick but ended up being around 4k words..... enjoy!

Megan wishes she couldn’t remember what happened with such clarity. She wishes she was looking the other way, or was across the ice, or back in the locker room completely.

She teased Y/N for weeks leading up to the game. At every Boston practice she would ask to be on a different scrimmage team so she could get practice going against her. She would refuse to sit next to Y/N on the team bus so she could get her head in the rivalry. Y/N rolled her eyes and took everything Megan gave her and gave it right back.

The game was tense and physical right from the start. It always is and everyone’s prepared for it. It’s a close game, both teams pushing to pull ahead. It’s late in the second period and Y/N goes to dig the puck out from the boards behind the US’s net. Megan gets there before her teammates and she presses up against Y/N’s back and jams her stick at the puck.

“Give me the puck or I will dump you,” Keller says. Y/N snorts.

“At least try and chirp something believable at me.”

Y/N pokes the puck free and skates after it. Keller reacts a second too late, and Abby Roque skates up to Y/N from the other side. Keller watches it happen. She watches Abby drop her shoulder and watches her slam into Y/N. Y/N’s focused on the puck, she doesn’t see it coming. Keller watches as Roque slams Y/N into the boards and Keller knows it’s a pen right away when she saw Roque drop her shoulder, and then Y/N hits the boards, her stick and arm twisted up and then she screams.

Keller feels her blood run cold.

Y/N collapses on the ice, screaming, and she writhes on the ice clutching at her shoulder. The ref blows the whistle and points to Roque but Keller isn’t paying attention. Y/N won’t stop screaming. The crowd goes silent, not that Keller was paying any attention to them, but that means she can hear Y/N’s screams in more clarity.

Oh god, Megan’s never seen her in pain like this before.

Megan doesn’t move, doesn’t take her eyes off Y/N, even as the Canadian players go after Roque, even as Laura Stacey drops to her knees beside Y/N and tries to calm her down.

“I know,” Stacey says, “I know it hurts. Try to keep still. Stop screaming.” Stacey’s hands are everywhere, on Y/N’s shoulders, on her arms, her chest, pulling her helmet off.

“Please, stop screaming,” Stacey says, “I know it hurts.”

Y/N screams and cries so hard she gags.

“Stop screaming,” Stacey keeps saying.

She keeps saying it even when the medical staff comes out onto the ice. She keeps saying it when they assess Y/N. She keeps saying it when they help her up and start to lead her off the ice. Y/N’s stopped screaming so loud, but she keeps making pained sounds as they move her. Keller doesn’t even realize she’s following them until she gets to the Canada bench and Marie Philip Poulin stops her with a hand on her chest and a shove that feels rougher than it is.

“Go back to your bench Keller,” Poulin says.

In a daze, Keller skates to her bench. She can’t pay attention to anything her coach says. Her head feels underwater and her teammates all pat her on the back and try to comfort her, but she can’t hear it. All she can hear is Y/N’s screams.

***

It’s the worst pain Y/N’s ever felt.

She’s had shoulder problems for a while, but nothing she couldn’t play through. She’s been to physio and to sports med and they all tell her the same thing. It’s her posture, she’s too tense, she needs massages, or physio exercises, it’s nothing medically wrong. It’s frustrating having a constant dull ache in her shoulder that only gets worse when she moves it, but she can play hockey and she can get through it. Besides, if there’s nothing to be done, then what can she do?

The medical staff leads her back to the locker room and help her out of her jersey and her pads so they can assess her shoulder. She can’t move her shoulder at all, and screams in pain as they try to gently maneuver her pads off. Finally, she’s left in just her undershirt and sports bra. They determine that’s there more structural issues with her shoulder than they can handle (duh) and they decide she needs to go the hospital to get checked out.

“Wait,” Y/N speaks up for the first time since she hit the boards, “I wanna stay for the game.”

“We can’t medically clear you to get back on the ice,” One of the medics says, “I’m sorry, but you have to get x-rays and possibly an MRI. We need to take you to the hospital.”

“I just wanna stay for the end,” Y/N says, “I don’t wanna play. I’ll stay in here. I don’t wanna go alone. I don’t want to go to the hospital alone. Please. Let someone else come with me.”

Y/N knows they don’t want to, she knows they want her to go to the hospital right away, and Y/N knows she should, but she also knows she’s not in the mindset to be stuck in a hospital all night alone. She knows she won’t be able to pay attention to anything that the doctors tell her, and she won’t be able to ask the questions she knows she should ask. Finally, one of the medical staff sighs.

“Fine. We’ll talk to Troy at intermission.”

***

After the game, Y/N gets loaded into a non-emergency ambulance with Laura Stacey.

Her shoulder feels like it’s on fire and the makeshift sling she’s in doesn’t keep her shoulder from jostling. The medical staff are on her one side, Stacey on the other, and Y/N just wants to curl up in bed and cry. They’re walking from the locker rooms to the exit door and Y/N doesn’t react to the pounding footsteps behind them.

“Y/N!” Megan calls. Y/N’s foot falters, then keeps going. She knows she’ll fall apart if she looks at Megan right now. “Wait, wait, what’s wrong? How bad is it? Are you going back to the hotel?”

“Keller,” Stacey stops and puts her hands out, stopping Megan from getting any closer. “It’s okay, she’s okay. She’s going to get checked out. We’re not going to be back at the hotel until the morning probably. There’s nothing you can do right now, just give her some space. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Wait, wait, I can come with, I can…” Megan’s voice gets increasingly frantic, “Please, let me do something.”

“Let’s go Megs,” Now it’s Hilary’s Knight’s voice. She shepherds Megan away. Megan resists, but she leaves with Hilary.

Y/N wants to feel bad. She wants to feel bad that she didn’t turn around, that she didn’t look at Megan or talk to her or tell her everything’s going to be okay. She wants to be, but she’s not. She’s in too much pain to care about anything right now.

***

Megan stays up all night. She sits in the bathroom, staring at her phone in her hand and waiting for it to ring. Hilary’s her roommate for this camp and she banished Megan to the bathroom after her restless movements and phone light kept Hilary from sleeping.

She barely resists texting Y/N, knowing that she probably can’t answer. She doesn’t know how bad the damage is, but with how Y/N was screaming, it can’t be good.

Oh god.

Megan doesn’t think she’ll ever forget the sound of Y/N screaming.

She felt helpless on the ice, and she feels helpless now. Stacey is right. There’s nothing she can do, nothing any of them can do now. Megan itches to do something. Her knees bobs constantly, she picks at her fingernails, tries to google shoulder injuries and then closes Safari when she starts reading about the worst shoulder injuries athletes can get.

She texts Stacey again, having got her number from Hilary who got it from Poulin.

any updates?

how is she feeling? is it as bad as it looked?

Stacey doesn’t respond.

Megan stands up, paces the tiny bathroom, then sits down again.

***

“See this here?”

Y/N has done ultrasounds and x-rays and an MRI. She’s been passed around for test after test and none of them help make her feel better. Her shoulder hurts and she’s been crying since they left the rink. The nurses are nice, but it’s clear they know how bad things are, and they pity her. Stacey is with her when she can, but Y/N knows she knows it’s bad too.

The doctors came in and pulled up her scans on the screens. Y/N tries to look at them, but she doesn’t know anything about this medical stuff. She doesn’t know what a shoulder is supposed to look like.

“This is an old injury,” The doctor continues, “A torn labrum. It looks months old, which most likely contributed to your shoulder instability. Have you been in any pain? Have you gotten your shoulder checked out?" Y/N nods.

“Physio did an x-ray,” She says, “Said nothing was wrong.”

“Right, these types of injuries are very hard to spot on an x-ray. It’s why we recommend an MRI for shoulder injuries. As you can see…”

Y/N zones out as he talks. She doesn’t understand what he’s saying and all she knows is her shoulder hurts and she just wants to go home.

“What kind of timeline are we looking at?” Stacey asks. This is why Y/N wanted someone else here. She knew she wouldn’t be in the headspace to ask the doctors anything.

“Well, after the surgery, she’ll be at least six weeks in a sling. Then depending on how the shoulder’s recovered, there will be three, four months of physio to get mobility back and build her strength back. Probably another two, three months, before she can be cleared to get back on the ice.”

“But, she’ll come back? She’ll make a full recovery?”

“That’s the hope,” The doctor says, “Every injury is different and it’s hard to create an exact timeline at this stage. Physio will build strength and mobility and if all goes well, she’ll be perfectly fine to play; however, if the stability never recovers, I would say it’s unlikely she’ll get back on the ice. But, that’s worst case scenario. Surgery should repair the torn ligaments and muscle, and then if she keeps up with her physio and doesn’t push too hard and set herself back, I’d say she has a good chance of getting back on the ice.”

“Thanks doctor,” Stacey says.

The doctor leaves and Stacey sits on Y/N’s good side and takes her hand. Y/N doesn’t look over, just stares at the wall.

“You’re going to be fine,” Stacey says, “You’re in good hands. I have complete faith in you.”

The doctor is in the hall talking to the team medical staff, Y/N can hear their voices. She knows she’s not having surgery here. She doesn’t know where she’ll get it. She supposes it’s up to the medical staff. A nurse comes in and gives her a few pills. For the pain, she says. Y/N takes them without complaint.

“Megan wants to know what’s going on,” Stacey says, “What do you want me to tell her?”

“I want a new physio.”

***

on our way back to the hotel. looking at a six month recovery at least. she's in a lot of pain. I’m taking her to her room to get some rest. talk more in the morning

Megan reads Stacey’s text over and over again. She debates going down to the lobby to meet them. She debates going to Y/N’s room. She debates calling Stacey. She debates going to bed.

In the end, she decides to get some ice. She takes the ice bucket down the hall to the machine and fills it. She sits in the hallway and crunches on the ice cubes. She takes the bucket with her as she heads back to her room. She debates going downstairs and going out on the back patio, but she knows she’ll only end up in the lobby. She goes out onto the balcony. It’s chilly outside, but she grabbed a hoodie to wear before she went outside. Her room is at the back of the hotel, so she can’t even look out and see if she can see Y/N coming back.

She chews another ice cube.

***

In the morning, Knight finds her passed out on the balcony, the ice bucket just water. She tipped it over at some point during the night and the water seeped into her socks, making her grimace.

“Have you heard anything?” Knight asks as she tugs her wet socks off.

“It’s bad,” Keller says, “Stacey wouldn’t tell me details. Six month recovery, she said.”

“It’s not the end of the world,” Hilary says, “She’s tough as hell, she’ll be fine.”

Megan heads down for team breakfast and tries to see if she can spot any of the Canadian players. She sees Jamie Lee Rattray and beelines it for her. She puts up her hand before Megan makes it to her.

“I don’t know any more than you do,” Ratty says, “None of us have seen her yet and Stace isn’t saying anything.”

“Do you know where she is? I want to see her,” Megan says, “Can you tell her to find me or call me or something? She didn’t…” Megan swallows heavily, “She didn’t even look at me.”

Ratty puts her hand on Megan’s arm.

“I’ll let her know you’re looking for her when I see her.”

Megan doesn’t end up seeing Y/N. She does see Laura Stacey and follows her around the hotel while asking every question she can possibly think of. Stacey informs Megan of what the doctor said, what the extent of the injury is. Megan sees red when Stacey tells her Y/N’s been complaining about shoulder pain but her physio told her it was nothing.

“I’m going to kill him,” Megan seethes, “How can he just ignore a persistent problem? And now she’s hurt because he wouldn’t do anything!”

“You can’t do anything about it now,” Stacey says, “None of us can. It sucks and it’s frustrating but all we can do now is deal.”

“I need to see her,” Megan says, “I need to see if she’s okay.”

“She’s not up to seeing anyone right now,” Stacey says. She sighs. “I’ll talk to her, but she’s tired and she’s in pain and she’s upset and I think she needs some space right now. You have to let her come to you.”

***

Megan sees Y/N later that night. She’s in the lobby waiting for food her and Hilary ordered, when Y/N steps off the elevator. Her arm is in a sling and she looks exhausted. She has a group of Canadian players with her, and they’re talking loudly and joking around, but Y/N is quiet, walking a beat behind them. Megan puts her phone away, food delivery be damned, and she heads for the group.

“Y/N,” Megan says when she’s close enough. Y/N glances at her for a second then she looks away and walks quicker to catch up with the group.

Megan doesn’t react, in shock at the reaction, and then her phone starts ringing as her delivery driver arrives.

***

Megan keeps seeing Y/N. She’s never alone. Megan knows Y/N well enough to know that she would hole herself up in her hotel room if someone didn’t force her out, and on one hand Megan is glad that her teammates can get her out and hopefully keep her spirits up, but Megan also wishes she could be that. She wishes Y/N would let her help. Every time Megan sees her, Y/N avoids her. She turns the other way, or she clings to whoever is closest to her and refuses to even look at Megan.

She sees Y/N talking to Abby Roque, smiling, laughing, and Abby touches her good arm and Megan wants to scream.

Y/N flees before Megan can reach them.

***

Y/N can’t sleep.

Her shoulder hurts, but she can’t take her pain meds because she skipped dinner because eating makes her feel sick. And since she can only use one arm, eating is an ordeal and she’s tired of having to ask her teammates for help like a child.

She lays in bed, awake, for an hour before she sneaks out of bed. She doesn’t even bother changing, still in her pjs, ragged shorts and a faded tee shirt that used to belong to Megan. She walks up the two flights of stairs it takes to get to the USA floor and she stops in front of Megan’s door. It’s late and she doesn’t want to wake up Megan’s roommate. She doesn’t want to be a bother.

She pulls out her phone and texts Megan.

u up

at ur door

cnt sleep

wana c u

She doesn’t get a response, and she should’ve expected Megan would be asleep. It’s late and just because she can’t sleep doesn’t mean Megan can’t either. She slides down the wall until she’s sitting on the floor. She’s tired and hurting and she just wants to see Megan. She debates calling her, but that would wake up her roommate too. And she doesn’t think she should wake Megan either. She’s been a shit girlfriend lately.

She rests her head on her bent knees even though it makes her shoulder hurt. She should get up and go back to bed before anyone notices she’s out here. She shouldn’t be here, in this hotel, with her team. She should go home, she should get surgery, she should start her recovery, not sit on the hotel floor outside her girlfriend’s room. Outside of Megan who might not be her girlfriend anymore’s room.

The door opens.

“Y/N?”

It takes Megan a second to see her.

“Hey,” Y/N says, her voice rough. She tries to stand, but her shoulder hurts and she just ends up on her knees biting back a groan.

Megan steps out into the hallway and helps her up. Y/N doesn’t say anything else, just stares at Megan’s hand that stays on her elbow.

“Do you wanna come in?” Megan asks. Y/N shakes her head.

“Roommate.”

“Let’s go somewhere else.”

Y/N follows Megan through the hotel, not really sure where they’re going and not really paying attention. Eventually Megan leads Y/N to an empty conference room they’ve been having team meetings in.

“Are you okay?” Megan asks after she closes the door.

Y/N takes a step forward, and then another, until she can lean all her weight onto Megan. She shakes her head against Megan’s chest and lets out a sob, then a pained noise when it hurts her shoulder. Megan holds her, whispering softly to her, until Y/N’s sobs die down.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Megan asks. Y/N shakes her head.

“I just wanna go to sleep,” Y/N says, “But my shoulder hurts. I want… I just want to play hockey.”

“I’m sorry,” Megan says, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been a bad girlfriend.”

“It’s okay. You’re hurt.”

“I just wanted to keep it together. I just wanted to be strong and… and… I can’t do that with you. You’re… I don’t have to be anything else with you, so I can’t be. I knew I’d lose it if I saw you, or talked to you. And… I’m embarrassed.” Y/N’s mumbling by the end of her speech.

“Embarrassed about what?”

“I was screaming so loud,” Y/N whispers, “I could hear it but I didn’t realize it was me until Stace told me to stop. I’m embarrassed because I scared everyone. Because I knew I had shoulder problems and I played through them. Because I listened to my physio and I didn’t get a second opinion. Because I let him convince me it was my fault. That I avoided you. That I hurt you.”

“This wasn’t your fault,” Megan says decisively, “You are not a medical professional. You trusted your physio and sports med and they let you down. You did nothing wrong. It sucks that this happened but it was not your fault.”

“I hurt you.”

“It was hard being shut out. I can’t lie, it really sucked. I didn’t know what to do or how to fix it and you just looked so miserable every time I saw you and I just wanted to run to you and hold you and everyone just kept telling me to leave you alone. I just want to help.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. You got dealt a shit hand and you’re allowed to process any way you want to. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now.”

Y/N sniffs, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

“I have to get surgery to reconstruct my whole shoulder,” She says, “It’ll be weeks before I can get out of the sling and then months to get mobility back and then months to build my strength and grip back and after all of that I might never play hockey again. I might never get full mobility back, or my shoulder might be too unstable still to play hockey. It might take years to get to 100% and by then…” Y/N trails off.

“You can’t focus on the future right now. Yes all of that sucks, but you have to focus on the next steps. You can’t look at the finish line, you just have to look at what’s next. That’s surgery. Don’t focus on anything after, just on that. And you have the best medical staff with you and you have a whole country behind you. And me. I’ll always be here rooting you on.”

“I just want to play hockey. I want to sleep so bad.”

“Let’s go to bed then.”

“My shoulder,” Y/N says, “I can’t take my pain meds on an empty stomach.”

“Good thing I have food in my room.”

“Megs,” Y/N says frustrated, “I can’t eat. I only have one fucking hand. I’m tired of being treated like a child.”

“It’s a sandwich,” Megan answers, “You can eat it one handed. And then pain meds and then sleep. Okay?”

Y/N sniffs, then agrees. Megan leads her up to her hotel room. Y/N doesn’t know how to act, and Megan keeps fidgeting and picking at her fingers, and it’s Y/N’s fault, that they don’t know what they’re allowed to do.

“We can sit on the balcony,” Megan says when they get close to the room, “If you’re worried about Hil waking up. I don’t care, she can deal. But if you’d rather not, we can sit on the balcony.”

“Okay.”

Y/N sits on the balcony while Megan gets the sandwiches. They eat in silence, which Y/N is grateful for, until she realizes that Megan might not be saying anything because she might not have anything to say to her.

“I really am sorry,” Y/N says, “For being shitty to you. I don’t know… I don’t…” Y/N was determined not to cry, but now she can feel her eyes watering and knows she can’t stop it. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you, please don’t…” Y/N’s full on crying now, “Please don’t leave me.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Megan drops her sandwich and rushes to Y/N’s side. “I’m not breaking up with you. I love you too.”

“I’m so awful to you.”

“No,” Megan cups Y/N’s face and forces Y/N to look at her, “Something shitty happened to you and you coped with it the best you could. This… hiccup doesn’t ruin what we have and it doesn’t make me want to leave you. I don’t know what I’d do without you either and I was so scared that you would leave me that I tried to give you space and back off if you didn’t want me around so that you wouldn’t. We’ll get through this baby, I’m not leaving you.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

They finish their sandwiches, each eating one handed, Y/N with her one arm in a sling and Megan with one hand on Y/N’s knee. Megan helps Y/N take her pain meds and, despite Y/N’s protests, into Megan’s bed. They’re not technically allowed to do this, sleep in each other’s rooms, but Megan thinks no one will be upset at them this time. It takes a minute to find a comfortable position for Y/N to lay in, but once the meds kick in, she’s out like a light. Megan stays up for a little longer, looking at Y/N, and being grateful that they’re on the road to recovery and vowing to be by Y/N’s side every step of the way.

[pjunicornart]

yeah sure why not

I saw @xskywalker21's shipping template on these two and I thought... "You know what, sure. I'll show people my take on their dynamic." Plus I've been on a shipping template kick ever since the love square one so here it is. Might do one for Lazy Days Neil x Franny.

The image I used for their photo refs has been through the crustifier too many times, lol. I'M AWARE I MADE AN ERROR WITH THEIR HEIGHT DIFFERENCE. I was too lazy to fix it, plus my eyes started to hurt, so...

Anyway let's explain some things.

Horny Level: Franny I feel is kinda average when it comes to libido. Now, Neil... HE'S A CLOSET FREAK TO THE MAX. Like... he looks at the chick in the middle of a gangbang and says, "Damn, I wish I was her." To morph a quote from the great Kyu Sugardust: "These are boxers? This is like a string... That Neil guy is a closet freak, I'm tellin' ya..." However, you have to be very, VERY close with him in order for him to show you that side (hence being demisexual).

Awkwardness Level: I've always imagined Franny to be the more confident one of the two, more willing to speak her mind. Whereas Neil wishes he could speak his mind, but he freezes up due to autistic anxiety.

Jealousy Level: I don't get the sense that either of them would be the jealous type.

1 - Neil switches his preference like an on and off switch. Whereas Franny prefers to be little spoon, but she can be big spoon if Neil wants her to be.

2 - Franny definitely wears his t-shirts when it's hot out, or if she's trying to be alluring for Neil. Meanwhile Neil wonders why he doesn't have any clothes by the end of the week.

3 - I feel calling her pet names references back to his general awkwardness. Like, it just feels weird for him, for some reason. Franny? Mio dolce, bel regazzo, bell'uomo, guance dolci, occhiali... just to name a few. Neil melts when she speaks Italian.

4 - Do I need to explain? Ha ha.

5 - I feel like both of them are the gift giver types, more so Neil. Since on an average day he wasn't really keen on physical touch, he'd show his appreciation/love by giving gifts.

6 - Neil? Confessing? He'd overthink it too hard and end up in a familiar situation I feel like a lot of neurodivergent people can relate to: Your mouth runs faster than your brain, or vice versa. If you couldn't already tell, I think Neil is autistic.

7 - Because she handles frogs every day, I feel like Franny is kind of used to bugs. But some bugs she just can't get over. Never take her to Australia is what I'm sayin'. Neil thinks tarantulas are just fuzzy eight legged little guys! He sees those eyes and his mind repeats, "pet pet pet pet."

8 - Both of them drive fairly well, but Neil is a lot more cautious.

9 - Neil can make his comfort/safe foods, but that's about it. Franny I imagine grew up in an Italian household, like me. So she knows how to make amazingly homey meals packed with all the carbs! Maybe she inherited a canoli and spumoni recipe, who knows?

10 - I've always had the sense both of them aren't really the type to show off in public. They might do it on occasion to embarrass their spawn, though.

11 - Franny is a short queen, and because she understands her man and all his needs, she will not hesitate to snap your neck if it means you give Neil the space he needs. :)

12 - Both of them have no idea what they're doin' lol. Franny at least watches romcoms, but Neil was too busy watching the science channel.

[ladyimaginarium]

Free New Year reading for @cripp-tid !! 1 / 4 !!

From left to right: The Hierophant, The Star, The Lovers, Strength, The Tower, The King Of Cups, The Fool & Six Of Pentacles!!

The Hierophant: Immediately when I& look at this card & when I'm& getting a feeling for & tuning into your energy, you may be dipping your toes into your masculine energy, whether that's purely on energy alone ( as everyone has masculine energy inside of them, regardless of gender, sex or orientation ) or experimenting with your gender expression. The Hierophant usually refers to tradition, it could also represent faith or religion. A paternal figure, whether it's your actual father, or an uncle or a grandfather or a male relative like a brother or male cousin or.. maybe even a religious figure or maybe even a masculine deity that you're currently working with or will end up working with ( it doesn't necessarily have to be a man, anyone can possess masculine energy regardless of gender, sex or orientation ! ), may be significant to you. Maybe you could be converting to a different religion or if you're already in a religion, you could be connecting more to that faith. Alternatively, you could be fighting against a more traditional viewpoint in your family or local surrounding area whether that means literal or through subtle means. You could be raising awareness about an issue that many don't know about. I& usually don't get this type of energy coming from The Hierophant, but you could be getting more into activism. This is a really weird vibe I'm& getting and this is completely random because I& usually don't get this kind of energy around this card, but if you're going to a protest this year irl, be careful & follow the rules of the protest and make sure to keep yourself and others safe and also wear a mask. obviously. The number 5 or the 5th of a month could be significant to you, something may happen to you in 5 days. You could be expecting something to happen in 5 days or 5 months. Taurus rules this card, so it may be significant, you could have Taurus placements or someone else that's important to you may have those placements, something could be happening in Taurus season ( April 20th-May 20th ). This is an upright card, so I& think this is a good sign for you for the time being. Good luck w/ everything !!

The Star: This appeared in the 2024 collective reading, too, so it's really nice to see it again here for you !! I& feel like especially in the start of the year, you're going to feel more hopeful, a new opportunity may be coming towards you. I'm& not exactly sure of what exactly this is, but if you feel like it'll be a good opportunity, seize it, don't let your mind make a bajillion excuses !! Aquarius rules this card so Aquarius may be significant to you, whether you have it in your natal chart or someone else that may be significant to you might have those placements or something could be happening in Aquarius season ( January 20th-February 18th ) which actually isn't that far away at all, it starts in, like, two weeks from now. The number 17 could be significant or the 17th of a month may be significant; something could be happening in 17 days. This is random but I'm& getting that literal stars may be significant. You could be getting into astrology or studying space. This is extremely random and I& usually don't get messages like this when it comes to this card but since y'all are a system, I'm& getting a message to let your littles play when they come to front. You could be revealing more of your true colors you may have been hiding to please other people, but you're the star here !! I mean.. we're all in this together once we know we're all stars !! /ref but I feel like you'll have the courage to do more of what you want to do regardless of what other people say or think & y'know what GOOD FOR Y'ALL !!

The Lovers: Something big in your love life may be happening considering this card is upright, you could be spending more time with a partner if you have any which I& think is really sweet !! Apples may be significant to you.. I'm& also getting a hit of "Eat your apples!" so.. I& honestly have no idea where that came from, all I& know is that after I& received this message, I& internally felt a fuzzy feeling so I'm& presuming that could be a spirit guide or an ancestor of yours because those messages do come in at times whenever I& channel messages. Apple pie or an otherwise apple related dish could be significant. The number 6 could be significant to you. Gemini rules The Lovers so that could be significant to you, whether you have those placements or someone else who's important to you does. Gemini season ( May 21st-June 21st ) in the late spring to early summer could be significant. Honestly, this one seems more on the nose in comparison to most other cards listed here, so if this applies to you, especially if already you're with someone romantically, I'm& really happy for y'all and wish y'all the best in the romantic department !!

Strength: oh boy. i& don't mean to say that you'll be one of god's strongest soldiers in the year 2024 but i& feel like at some point this year you're gonna have to be resilient. you're gonna have to try to be chill & have compassion for yourself bc someone may be testing your patience. I'm getting a random hit that if someone deserves it and someone's been bothering you for a while, you're gonna have to tell them the truth straight up no bars held back no tea no shade no pink lemonade. You could also be more proud in who you are as a person. This card seems on the nose, too, honestly. Leo rules Strength so Leo could be significant, whether you have those placements or someone who's important has those placements, Leo Season ( July 23rd-August 22nd ) could be significant. I'm& taking a more literal interpretation here as well but maybe a Black man could be significant. Lions, maybe lion symbolism could also be significant to you. With that said, I& think it's a pretty straightforward message. Good luck w/ whatever this is !!

The Tower: okay so. i don't mean to stress you out or scare you bc I know a lot of people get all nervous when The Tower pops out in the upright position, but i& have to be honest here, and i don't like to sugarcoat my readings because it'll lessen the accuracy of my readings and it'll only harm you further. i& tell what i& see as i& receive the messages from your spread, and i& don't control what comes through or what messages meant for you to hear so, like, don't shoot the messenger. tarot doesn't always tell us what we want to hear, but rather what we need to hear. so. the tower means unexpected change or chaos, but it's a change that's meant to happen. I'm& not exactly sure what exactly this is, I& genuinely have no idea what this could be, but something will happen and it may shock you or alternatively you may be expecting it, but whatever is falling apart is meant to create a stronger foundation. It's kinda like building lego blocks. If the lego block tower is unsteady and built on an unsteady foundation, it's gonna fall, but you can always make a stronger tower afterward !! Y'feel me?? I& may be delving into sensitive territory here but The Tower can also represent trauma. Maybe you're dealing with something traumatic right now or maybe you think of a past trauma that already happened, I'm& getting a brief ache near my& right temple atm and whenever that happens, that can represent confirmation, and if that's the case, I'm& really sorry. Regardless of what it is, make sure to have a network of friends or if you have a partner, talk to them about it, and if necessary and if you have the means to do so, seek help. The number 16 or the 16th of a month may be significant. Scorpio and Aries may be significant, whether you or someone you know has those placements, Scorpio season ( October 23rd-November 21st ) and Aries season ( March 21st-April 19th ) could also be significant. Whatever the case is, whether it's something that's going to happen, is happening or has already happened, we really wish you well and all the best, things will get better.

The King Of Cups: This is a much more lighthearted card in comparison to the previous two !! You could be more emotionally stable and available. A male or otherwise masculine presence who's comforting may be significant to you. This is hyper specific but the deity Poseidon may be significant to you or someone else in your system. This could possibly represent a protector or a caretaker in your system but I'm& leaving that for y'all to decide. You could be creating more, whether that's art or creating music playlists. You could be learning to balance both your mind and your emotions more. If you're in a relationship, you may end up being a compassionate rock to your partner or your family or friends and someone they can rely on. If you're in a romantic relationship, your partner could be asking you out on a date so you can spend time together. The Cups are represented by water so water itself may be significant, and the Water signs - Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces could resonate, as well.

The Fool: no, tarot isn't calling u booboo the fool. lmao. The Fool represents jumping into a brand new beginning even if you have no idea what's gonna happen on the other side. The number 0 could be significant. you may be really excited that something's gonna happen, maybe you're anticipating waiting for something or someone. You could be trying a new hobby or class. i& have. no idea why i'm& getting this but i'm& getting "check your email". whatever that's supposed to mean, ehehe. Pisces rules The Fool so could whether you have those placements or someone else you know does, or Pisces Season ( February 19th-March 20th ) may be significant, don't be afraid to jump into something new, you never know what you'll find !!

Six Of Pentacles: WHEW last one in this spread !! The Six of Pentacles in the upright represents generosity & charity & supporting others, it can also represent community, so you may be helping someone in need or alternatively someone could be helping you when you need it and you could be receiving that aid so don't refuse it because of pride or you feel you're not worthy of it bc you do !! You could be more involved in helping a community whether it's financially materially or spreading the word. It's also about giving and taking and the balance between the two. You could be in a good position when it comes to your finances so I& say make sure to stick w/ that & to give generously if you can while keeping enough for yourself. You could possibly be going to school or start a new business venture but only take that if that resonates! Earth represents the Pentacles so Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, whether you or anyone else you know has any of these placements, or their seasons ( Taurus Season being April 10th to May 20th, Virgo Season being August 23rd-September 22nd and Capricorn Season being December 21st-January 20th next year ) may be significant. With that said, this seems like a really great way to end your reading!!

Shufflemancy Song: Sun Bleached Flies — Ethel Cain & The Other Side — Bruno Mars, B.O.B & CeeLo Green.

Additional Notes: I& only did these for you, Roan, but some of this could apply to your overall system as a whole !! You may have a rough patch this year if The Tower is anything to indicate, but I& think you could bounce back just fine, just allow yourself to feel things and don't bottle it all up !! Undoubtedly with every year there's always gonna be ups and downs but for the most part it does seem like things may be going good for y'all !! If any of this resonates with you, you can reblog it & add it in the tags or comment how it resonates, I'm curious to see how this resonated with you !!

Disclaimer: take what resonates & leave the rest, keep in mind that energy and outcomes can always change & nothing is forever set in stone, you have free will in every choice you make !! as a general message: my readings are for entertainment purposes only and don't replace professional medical/legal/business help. feedback and a review after a reading is given, whether public or private, is obligatory. you can do that by reblogging ( only if the reading was made for you specifically ), dming or emailing us privately on the matter. if you do not provide this, you will be added to my greylist and won't be given anymore readings, free or paid, until you give feedback.

decks used: Killstar ( or as we& call it, Memento Mori ) tarot, & GANGSTA. tarot.

[martiwikiwi]

IT'S HAGAN BDAY!

Hagan, my first asexual OC ever, and I mean it!

I created him when I was 15-16 yo (half-life ago) when I didn't even know that was a thing but I read again all those comics I did back then and he even says the classic "I don't like men but I'm crazy for this particular guy". So yeas, in that first draft he was demisexual biromantic. He is still biromantic, but I took him with me to the asexual sex-repulsed team.

There are lots dramas and traumas of his original version that are still part of his character, like his horrible relationship with his family or how he struggles to accept his elven blood, but there is also a lot of good stuff he already did back then, like hanging out with Chorus, having a crush on Allan, caring deeply about Puresoul... Most of his troupes in that comic were enemies-to-found-family and he still gets that in my current webcomic project, in fact, Chorus was his enemy-to-death in THE LAST QUEST, Allan is his partner in DEMON HUNTER HAGAN, will eventually meet Puresoul and... well, no spoilers!

About this ultimate version of him, he is currently on a personal journey to become a better person but don't be fooled, he is evil. He is behaving now because Chorus is around, but he isn't that different from the man he was in THE LAST QUEST. Can't wait to get to draw chapter 6 of DEMON HUNTER HAGAN.

As said, I wanted to make a cool "draw my OC and I'll reblog" event of pure love but I've been a whole week without PC and couldn't organise it. HOWEVER, if you want to draw this ace man, here you have some refs:

Character file from my oc sideblog | DEMON HUNTER HAGAN design with some extra info | colour tests with his fav cardigan (his fav colour is golden) | chapter 4 designs | chapter 2 designs | very old illustration when I started to think about this webcomic.

Extra content

Look at Hagan 2011 ver:

[thef1nalb0ss]

Faction Rankings: Week of July 17, 2023- July 23, 2023

10. The Brawling Brutes

Sheamus lost in the second fatal 4-way of the United States Championship Invitational. Later in the night, Butch got a match for the North American Championship against new titleholder Dominik (You know, just a Raw drafted wrestler defending an NXT title on Smackdown, totally normal occurance). He wasn't able to win the title, but it took an attempted hit from a chain by Dominik that was stopped by Ridge, a Pretty Deadly distraction, as well as Rhea attacking Butch when the ref wasn't looking for that loss to occur.

9. Alpha Academy

Bad news: They lost against The Viking Raiders in the Viking Rules match.

Good news: Maxxine got her jacket back.

There's a silver lining to everything.

8. The Bloodline

It seems the paranoia is setting in for Roman. Perhaps you could trace it all the way back to Seth's betrayal nearly a decade ago, but during his time as Tribal Chief he's experienced three betrayals: Sami, Jimmy, and Jey. That's probably why he's been giving a tense look at Solo these past few weeks. Anyway, him and Jey signed their contract for their title match at Summerslam, with a unique stipulation of Tribal Combat. I don't exactly know what that means, but it seems like it means anything goes and the title of the Tribal Chief is on the line as well as the title.

7. Damage CTRL

Ms. Money in the Bank Iyo Sky had a match with Charlotte that, after many near falls and a distraction on the tron by Shotzi that led to Bayley leaving ringside, Charlotte ended up picking up the win. Iyo still has the upper hand though with the briefcase, especially with the triple threat for the Women's Championship being made official for Summerslam. Charlotte knows well what it's like to be cashed in on, and since the Women's MITB has a 100% success rate, Charlotte has never been able to retain her title when she's been cashed in on.

6. Gallus

From one faction leader named Joe to another, Gallus will officially defend their titles against Tony and Stacks at Great American Bash.

5. The Viking Raiders

They won the Viking Rules match against Alpha Academy. Maxxine got the jacket back, though, so they don't have that over them anymore.

4. Meta-Four

Noam being Weekend-at-Bernied aside, they had a good week. After canceling Supernova Sessions again, Oro gave the Eddy, who was supposed to be the guest, a signed picture of Noam, which he ripped up. That led to a match, where a distraction by Lash rolling Noam into the ring and Dijak attacking Eddy made it so Eddy could pick up the win.

3. Imperium

Gunther once again defeated Matt last week. Gunther is getting closer and closer to becoming the longest reigning IC Champion, but it seems pretty likely his next defense will be against Drew. Without Sheamus in the mix, the match outcome might be different than it was back at Wrestlemania.

2. LWO

The finals of the United States Championship Invitational will be LWO vs. LWO after Rey won the second fatal 4-way last week. Him and Santos will face off this week, with the winner being the number one contender to the United States Championship. Also this week, Santos won a non-title match against the current United States Champion, Austin Theory, so if Santos wins the invitational, he'll already have one over Austin when they have the title match.

1. The Judgement Day

Damian and Dominik lost to Sami and Kevin in a tag title match on Monday, but their week got much better after that. Dominik won the North American Championship on Tuesday, ending Wes' record-breaking reign. Dominik then went on to successfully defend the title against Butch on Friday. This makes him the first wrestler to main event Raw, NXT, and Smackdown in the same week. Finn also officially has his rematch against Seth set for Summerslam. As for Rhea, after weeks of face-offs with Raquel and Liv, Rhea attacked them both before they were set to defend the Women's Tag Titles, which they were unsuccessful in doing. Liv returned the attack while Rhea was ringside for Damian and Dom's tag title match, perhaps setting up a Women's World Championship match for Summerslam.

[mblue-art]

You really hate Cross

l.listne op

he triggers my tsundere button. is the thing

[i started rambling/infodumping a quarter of the way under the cut. here's ur warning of me being cring]

I saw this. when I was researching for all kinds of refs/info for this guy when I started that one week of just drawing the fucker. when the simping started.

I want to remind the simps that THIS GIF EXISTED.

WHY does he LOOK like that.

i HATE him. (but in a way that a tsundere hates a love interest, you get me? ok good great—)

[ infodump warning? yes, here you go, here's the warning. i am going to embarrass myself down here- ]

OKAY, SO. I didn't think of him that much at the start, right, like ok he's the fandom's (cool bodyguard soldier type) edgy anime boy crybaby character in Bad Group (sometimes the himbo) whatever whatever

even in ships im like "eh ok hes alright i think" (lol i remember not caring about the cream ship bc "ah its too uwu positive happy also im not that into the dynamic" aaaaaand look where i am now. oh boy wow i simp for both of them, what a character development)

but then fandom keeps drawing him ~attractive~ and im like "hhhhh ok just like how ppl draw killer as the designated sexy guy in the villain group ok (bc nightmare has a different flavor of sexy. hes the leader/king type yk) cross is the um. the guard dog. big guy. cold soldier. ok (also himbo- PPL KEEP DRAWING HIM AS HIMBO??? has that always been a thing or am i misremembering)" ahem anyway yeah

anyway bad guys sexy its fandom culture to make the villains hot somehow and ppl did that to nm's gang ofc

im remembering my rambles about my thoughts on The Boy, and these were a Year ago.

this has been in my head for so long, oh m gog

i have always gotten this "boyish, anime charm" vibes from swap sans from reading fics- like not even blueberry swap sans, the other, more charming swap sans, the attractive & simpable one (does anyone remember skesgo? they made simpable swap content and i LOVED that shit. hope theyre doing well)

...LMAO PAST!ME??? " IM NOT A SIMP I SWEAR "

BUT i uh. i rlly very much like soff cross though. when the cold-shouldering is done and gone, he warms up and starts 2 care 4 u, hes p cute yanno,,, like yeah hes weeb cringe sometimes but,, he just wants friends to hang out with i think, other than fucking around/doing stupid shit with epic (his best buddy, i love dude and bruh, theyre my fav brotp) ,,it adds to his charm idk,,, i hc that he gives warm, secure hugs that you dont wanna pull away from,,

.

Does this mean he's going up the ranks in my Top 5 skellies??????

...

No comment.

[thedragonhermit]

It’s been over 2 weeks since I posted the final chapter for The Hearts of Beasts, so now is as good a time as ever to post designs I hadn’t drawn yet! Tbh I hadn’t really thought about designing the original characters I invented for this AU, as they’re all just characters with reference-y names I made up to fill in roles no one from P5 would work in. And then I had an urge to draw Haru (Okumura)’s version of Haru (Beastars)’s Mean Girls trio, and the rest followed! Oh and more importantly, I finally designed Yusuke and Futaba!!!!

If you want to hear more about these designs, I’ll be explaining some stuff under the cut! :)

Azuki/Luna/Marilyn: Azuki is technically the only OC I’ve drawn previously. Kinda. She’s visible in Chapter 4′s art, but even then, I barely had a design in mind for her aside from “white sheep.” Here, her design is a mix of Haru’s and Sugimura’s, more so the later as they’re the same breed. Oh and I gave her Pina’s blue eyes + the necktie from Cherryton’s female uniform, became every time I wrote her scenes, I kept seeing her in Cherryton’s uniform instead of Shujin’s. So that’s why that’s there! Luna/Marilyn, meanwhile, are just me trying to simplify/Beastars-ify designs for a springbok antelope and a fallow deer.

Yuko/Dōmu: For a duo based off of Sheila/Els and Dom/Aoba respectively, these two kinda became their own characters akdhfakjh That works for Dōmu, what with him being a completely different bird, but I ended up just making Yuko a leopard. In a way a reference to how Sheila is actually a cheetah, but in the anime they keep calling her a leopard. I don’t blame the mix up tho, Sheila was seemingly never designed with the trademark “tears” of a cheetah, despite being tall like one.

Dahlia/Mio: Literally just Durham and Miguno with different names/different bodies/different uniforms. Sorry there’s no AU equivalent to Collot and Voss :( Dahlia and Mio have such minor roles in the fic, I didn’t see a need to include 2 more refs to the 701 boys to just have them in the background and nothing else. 

And now for the NOT OCs, Yusuke and Futaba: Yusuke is an arctic fox (which may have been evident from my little winter version drawing) and Futaba is a reddish tanuki (not a red panda!! Wakaba used to joke there’s red panda ancestry mixed somewhere in the recesses of their family, and that’s where she gets her colouring from). I thought it’d be funny if Yusuke was the only Phantom Thief with an animal codename who was that animal in this AU, just because he’s the most creative and yet get’s stuck with the most uncreative codename akhdfjhaksd. Also I wanted him to be a fox and Futaba to be a tanuki as in Japanese folklore, kitsune and tanuki don’t tend to get along (see Tom Nook and Redd akdshfksajdh). 

[lumosinlove]

Sweater Weather

part xvii

A/N:

Hey team!

I just want to pop in before the chapter to say a HUGE thank you to those who sent me letters!

Thanks to Hannah for your letter and O’Knutzy necklace! It’s AMAZING.

I want to thank Giana for your gorgeous letter (I’ll answer your questions in a separate post and I’m so glad you’re writing again!)

Thank you Kennedy for the painting, earrings, shark sticker (yay marine biologist!) and letter with the dried flowers :)

Thank you Alba for your SW art and your letter—yay to being there from the beginning!!

Thanks to Sophie for your kind words and letter!

Thank you Stephanie for your letter (and beautiful handwriting wow) and of course your gifts! I love the bookmarks and pin!

And last but certainly not least thank you to Alaena! I love that you included what asks you sent in XD and the STICKERS. I can’t decide if I want to put them on things or hang them all up on my bulletin board :) They’re incredible.

Thank you everyone, you’re all so thoughtful and kind!!

With SW ending soon (at least this fic, but this universe will never be over for me!) it is so incredibly lovely to hear what it means to you all. I feel so luck every single day that you guys love this team as much as I do. You thank me for this story, but I think the best part of fiction is that it expands and evolves differently in each mind it touches. Tumblr is such a freakin gift because I get a little glimpse into how you all think about these characters. So, I’m saying thank you to YOU. It’s truly a privilege to hear from you all. <3

If you feel like sending me anything, there is a link to my P.O. Box in my tumblr description! <3

Okay my mushy rant is done. Here’s chapter seventeen :)

~

Remus forgot his own birthday.

Lily had to remind him, bringing out a cake while he and Sirius had spent the day playing with baby Harry. Harry Potter. Harry James Potter.

The team adored him. Remus would never forget the sight of an entire team of hockey players, fresh off a plane, and crammed into a hospital room to peer at the small head of dark hair in Lily’s arms.

Minus one. Minus two, if what Sirius said was true, and Remus was part of the team. Remus had looked at the picture that Pascal had sent him from beside a sleeping Sirius and a heart monitor.

He had looked at the picture, and then at Sirius, and the relief doubled.

Four broken ribs. Bad, but it could have been worse. So much worse. A few days in Vegas to be monitored, just in case. Then, home.

Home for Remus’ birthday, home and in pain, but smiling none-the-less. Harry was a welcomed distraction from it all—the press, the hurt, the uncertainty. Lily seemed to know this without it needing to be said. Remus had told her she had enough going on without worrying about a cake, but Lily had just waved him off and cut them all large slices of the chocolate fluff.

Sirius, meanwhile, had somehow slipped a simple golden necklace around Harry’s neck, and when Remus looked down next, there it had been. A shining gold star pendant. The message had been clear. Sirius’ name-sake and Sirius himself—something to make a wish on.

Remus took a weeks off of work, all that he could.

Road-trips were a blur. Practices were anxious. The team was anxious.

March 27th.

Eight weeks. Sirius had been out for eight weeks. Resting, and stuck in his big house. Remus never thought he would be so thankful for Regulus.

“I’d rather be here than Slytherin any day, even though he whines like a baby when you’re gone.”

“Non,” Sirius would protest.

Regulus would raise an eyebrow. “Yeah.”

Remus would sneak into Sirius’ bedroom whenever he got home late, press one, two, three, four gentle kisses across his chest, and take his place on the other side of the pillow, carefully placed so that Sirius didn’t roll over during the night.

Sirius whined a good deal about that, too. And getting back on the ice.

“I just…I want to be back in case we make it to…” the playoffs.

The team was close. So close.

Sirius had only recently been allowed to come to the rink, suit and all, for home games to sit in the team box. It was strange, looking up from the bench at the jumbotron and seeing the image of Sirius there, standing with his arms crossed, sometimes with a beanie on, making his eyes look intense as he focused on the game in front of him. He was completely unreadable—to everyone but Remus. Remus could tell when he was happy with the team’s playing, when he was annoyed at their opponents. The internet was crawling with gifs of Sirius’ stormy eyes. Remus had more than a few saved, and they frequented the team group chat.

Remus looked up now, but all the jumbotron was showing was James, who had been taking lead in Sirius’ absence, talking quickly to Finn. Remus could see his own legs in the background.

The Stars were up 4-1, and there was ten minutes left in the second period. If they won this game, and they won the next game, they were in. And Sirius would be back the week after that—hopefully in time for the first playoff game, and not for an all-too-long summer vacation. Although, honestly, right then, Remus thought Sirius deserved either one. A chance at the Cup, or a break, a chance to rest up. To be together.

Leo was in net, Kasey resting up his thigh that continuously bothered him. Leo was skating a slow circle after the Stars scored yet another goal, tracing the blue crease with his stick. Remus could practically feel his furious calm.

“Big Rig may experience different weather up there, but he sure as hell has more gravity. Tremzy,” James knocked his helmet with his glove. “Don’t let him catch you, eh?”

“We gotta come back from this shit,” Finn said as he followed Logan over the boards. “For Leo. Leaving him out to dry out there. No.”

“For Cap,” Thomas said, coming back over the boards and breathing hard.

“Gotta put my baby in that silver crib!” James followed his wingers, a center for now.

“Cookie, Bluey, Ringer, be ready,” Coach called. “You’re on deck.”

“The oven is hot tonight,” Elias Cook said, pouring water over his neck.

“Stop saying that,” Kasey shook his head. “Jesus.”

“He can’t help the heat, Baby Bliz,” Thomas said.

Kasey just shook his head and looked back to the game.

Remus leaned in over Thomas’ shoulder. “That was a hit, Talkie, you good?”

“I’m hot,” Thomas said around his mouthguard.

Remus snorted, patting his shoulder pad. “You sure are.”

James lined up for the face off, Finn and Logan jostling against Benn and Perry. Logan dug his skates in when the ref dropped the puck and James whipped it back to him. Logan darted forward into the Stars’ zone, tailed closely.

“C’mon, Tremz,” Remus murmured.

Logan shot the puck off to Finn who got battered against the boards almost immediately by Benn, but got it smoothly to Olli, who sent it sailing back towards the Stars’ net. James was there behind the crease, Khudobin pushed out the wrong way—

James curled it in from behind and the Gryffindor goal horn blared.

“Fuck!” Thomas rose to his feet, knocking his stick against the boards. “Atta boy, baby-daddy!”

4-2 until the buzzer sounded and they were heading back down the tunnel. Remus glanced up at the screen one more time, and only just caught Sirius, smile plastered on as he was shown shaking the hands of a few older men. Remus suppressed a smile, and followed the team off of the ice for second intermission.

The locker room was subdued, and Sirius came in while Remus was crouched by Logan, taping up a jammed finger. He walked up to Coach first, leaning his elbows on the podium where he controlled the projector. Remus watched as he pointed to a few of the plays drawn up on the whiteboard, Coach nodding along.

“I can do this,” Logan said. “Leave with your moon eyes.”

Remus rolled his eyes, but tore off the tape and rose. “You’re all set. Try and keep it safe during third.”

“Oui,” Logan said, already sliding his headphones back on. Finn rose to get a fresh jersey, brushing a palm over the back of Logan’s neck on his way. Logan’s eyes followed him as he went to Leo next, who was sitting with his elbows on his knees in his stall, head down and airpods in. Finn squeezed himself in beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He leaned in to press a few kisses to his neck, murmuring soft words. Leo closed his eyes and pressed into him.

“Hey.”

Remus turned away from the two to meet Sirius’ eyes. He was smiling, a good break from the grimace Remus had become used to.

“Hi,” Remus said and pressed a hand over the familiar bandage, thick beneath Sirius’ suit and shirt. “Feeling okay?”

“I’m good,” Sirius leaned down, right in the locker room, and kissed him. His mouth was gentle, leisurely. “I feel good.”

Remus smiled into it, and took his hand. “Good. Come on.”

Sirius followed him, hand in Remus’, into the training office.

“Ten minutes until show time,” Remus said in the dim space and wrapped his arms around Sirius’ neck. “Are you really feeling okay? Been on your feet for a while, I’ve been watching.”

“Loops, I come back soon. I’m healed, I’ve started light exercise. It’s just a matter of insurance.” Sirius leaned into him, lips brushing his. “You seemed to think I was fine last night.”

Remus grinned. “Yeah, I definitely think you were fine last night.”

Sirius smiled, but then his expression turned more grave. He bit his lip, and ran his hands up and down Remus’ sides a few times, almost as if to comfort himself. “Fuck, I want this for the team so bad.”

Remus nodded. This was a conversation they had been having more often than not. “I know. And they know. You want it for them, but baby, they want it for you. They’re out there doing their fucking hardest for you. I don’t think you should start preparing for the worst. Not yet. Hockey’s a fast game.”

“We’re just—we’re so close. And fucking Grayback and…and if we win this game, we just have to beat Vegas again and we’re in. And I won’t get to fucking be out there because of fucking Grayback. And he’s not even suspended anymore—”

Remus kissed him, and Sirius mumbled for a moment into it before relaxing.

“Two games,” Remus said. “Home. Then Vegas. We beat Grayback, take a chance at the cup away from him. That’s the best we can do.”

Sirius looked at him for a long moment. “How are you so okay with all of this?”

“What’s the alternative? Obsessing over him? He’s not worth it. At all.”

They looked up at the sound of the team noisily making their way back down the tunnel, shouts and whistles, trying to psych themselves up for a come back.

“Third,” Remus said, then tucked his fingers into Sirius’ hair and kissed him again. “You’re competitive. I love you for it. But, baby, you’ve already beaten him. You beat him a long time ago.”

Remus kissed Sirius’ slowly smiling mouth again and again before rushing out the door.

Sirius made his way back up to the box. He watched the other members’ eyes follow him as he slipped back into the private room. There was an absurd array of food and drinks on a table, designed to impress members and investors. Sushi rolls and miniature hot dogs, popcorn in Lions colored cardboard boxes. Red-frosted cupcakes and lion head cake-pops. Sirius took a cupcake. He’d already beaten Grayback. Remus had just kissed him. His ribs had healed well. It all called for a cupcake.

“Really letting yourself off, eh?”

Sirius looked up at a man. He was wearing a white collared shirt under one of Sirius’ jerseys. Obviously a fan, obviously nervous, obviously important given the way one of the managers was looking at him talking to Sirius.

“No,” Sirius said plainly. “I’m having a cupcake.”

There were laughs from around him, as if Sirius was the funniest guy in the room. Sirius didn’t feel funny. This guy was making him miss puck drop.

The man held out his hand. “I’m Mike. Real doozy you slapped the world with.”

Sirius took it tightly, cupcake in his other hand. “I wasn’t aware that I did the slapping.”

“Probably broke a lot of hearts though.”

Sirius looked at Mike the way he looked at opponents on the ice. He watched him blink, watched his body language change.

“I was thinking about my own heart. Désloé, how do we know each other again?”

“Oh. Well—”

“Right,” Sirius nodded. “Enjoy the game.”

Sirius walked towards the box’s edge, unwrapping his cupcake. He could see the entire stadium from up here, the teaming mass of red and gold, the team readying themselves on the ice. A tiny glimpse of Remus on the bench. Coach was gesturing and talking. He watched his own face on the jumbotron as he took a bite of the dessert. He found the camera and flashed it a thumbs up, waving his arms upwards and listening to the crowd’s cheers roar in time with his hands. He caught glimpses of rainbow flags in the crowd, signs with number twelve decked out in the colors. It was a nice contrast to the signs that Sirius saw on his way into the stadium. Defaced number twelve jerseys, slurs, people jeering at his window as he drove through security. Interesting, to see who was inside, and who was not.

The puck dropped and James won it. James who, despite them being down, was hot tonight. No doubt riding the adrenaline of Harry and Lily at home, of being named temporary captain, of being so close to what they all dreamed of.

Sirius couldn’t think it, not even in his head.

The puck seemed to be frozen in the central zone, both teams battling too hard. A stalemate in aggressive trench warfare. Back and forth, back and forth with no progress. Sirius crumpled the cupcake wrapping between his fists and cupped them together, shoulders tense.

“Allez…” he whispered to himself.

The camera was on him again, and he looked stony even to himself. He raised his eyes to it and pointed a finger down at the game. Show that, he mouthed.

The Lions goal horn blared. Logan had scored.

Sirius knew the camera caught his reaction on camera. He put his fists up, relief bubbling out of him in a shout.

“Allez, Tremzy!”

The crowd was going wild. Finn slammed Logan into the boards in celebration and the jumbotron replayed the beautiful tip-in. 4-3. Things weren’t so impossible anymore.

Sirius squeezed the wrapper in-between his hands again and set his elbows on the ledge.

“Play Kuny, play Kuny…” Sirius muttered under his breath. He would match Oleksiak. Sure enough, Coach sent Kuny’s line over the boards a second later. Nado and Evan Kane followed him, Fox and Sunqvist on defense.

“No power plays,” Sirius prayed. “Come on, Nado, no stupid penalties.”

“Do you always talk to yourself in French while playing?”

Sirius stiffened. Mike was back.

“Non, parfois je parle en russe.”

Mike blinked. “What?”

“Laisse-moi tranquille, homme intrusif,” Sirius grinned sharply. “I said only sometimes. Usually on the bench.”

That seemed to make Mike happy. “Hey, you’re really superstitious, right?”

“Yes.”

“Like what?”

Like being alone in the team box, Sirius thought bitterly. Like getting a blowjob from my boyfriend before a game, you know, that doozy I slapped the world with?

“There’s a lot of them,” Sirius said. “If you’ll excuse me, I really have to watch this.”

Mike nodded quickly. “Oh, of course, of course.”

Sirius shifted away a little when he didn’t move, tried to focus on the ice. The puck had dropped and it was on Evgeni’s stick. He was carrying it quickly up the ice, seeming to cut through the players with his broad shoulders. Sirius imagined he could hear his deep voice, calling for Nado to look alive. The pass connected, but Seguin tapped it out of Nado’s hands from behind and sent it up the ice quickly to Benn.

“Merde,” Sirius said. The Lions were changing and then it was Pascal’s line with Elias and Brady, Olli and Timmy on defense. Benn managed to get around Olli, and then—

Leo was pushing far out of the crease and aggressively jabbed the puck right from Benn’s stick and onto Pascal’s waiting one. Leo slid back into the crease like a water snake. The stadium was chaos.

Knutty, Knutty, Knutty, was the chant. It filled the air itself. The jumbotron showed the bench briefly, Logan and Finn and Thomas grinning up at the stands. Pascal still had the puck.

His solid form darted up a clear channel, catching the Stars in a slow shift change. He was in front of the goal, Sirius squeezed the wrapper between his palms. Pascal faked by lifting his left leg, Khudobin went for it, and Pascal slid it right between his pads, neat and tidy.

They tied the game. They tied up the game. Sirius pushed back from the railing with a long breath as a TV break began. The Lions ice crew came out to some pop song and began their sweep. Sirius looked down at his bench and yearned to be with them. He rubbed his hand absentmindedly over his ribs. They were healed. He had a few more sessions with Remus left and then he would be back. He would be back.

He thought of the hit.

He hadn’t known what was wrong. There had been no air in his lungs. But Remus had been his first thought. He knew who hit him, he had seen his face before he hit the ice.

Remus.

This would hurt Remus.

“Wait, has a what?”

His own voice over the jumbotron drew him out of his thoughts. It was a pre-recorded interview, one of the fluff ones that they played for fun to entertain the crowd.

Marlene’s voice from off screen repeated the question. “Which one of your teammates has a life-sized Stormtrooper, R2-D2 and C-3PO action figure in their apartment?”

They showed his own face again, laughing and thinking. “Oh. Um.”

It switched to James, arms crossed and actually thinking about it. He pushed his glasses up his nose and laughed. “I don’t know, Finn and Leo? That seems like a weird Harzy thing.”

It cut to Finn. “That’s not weird. I wish it was me. I’ll convince Nut, don’t you worry.”

Pascal looked unimpressed, sitting easily in the chair. “There is only one person this could be, and that person spent the first two months of his time in the U.S. with only the phrases, You’re my only hope, and I’m your father, to his vocabulary. Oh, and the word no.”

Sunny was laughing. “I know exactly who this is.”

Nado looked pained. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve seen Star Wars now? Do you have any idea?”

Finally, the screen cut to Evgeni, smiling, tongue jokingly between his teeth. “Good for English, you know?” He held up his hands. “I am Force.”

The video ended with a swoop of the Lions’ logo, and even Sirius could help but smile. There was eight minutes left in the period.

Eight minutes to pull ahead.

They would do it.

The Stars had called a time out, and so James, Logan, and Finn were milling around the ice together, keeping their muscles warm. Leo was looping around the goal.

They were ready.

Seguin faced off against James, both of them leaning forward.

Seguin won it.

There was a fleury when James was pinned to the boards by Oleksiak, but Logan was there to steal the puck from beneath his feet.

The clock had dwindled down to four minutes when a whistle blew with a slashing penalty on the Stars. Pascal and Thomas joined James on the ice for the power play unit.

Sirius could feel the energetic restlessness of the crowd. They all knew what this could mean. Sirius let out a shaky breath and looked at the wrapper in his hands. He thought of Remus. Remus, and his long list of superstitions. But what pulled him through had been himself. Sirius held it anyway, but he held his Lions closer.

They were ready.

They set themselves up in a triangle, a tic-tac-toe, in front of the Stars’ goal. The sent it to each other quickly, boxing the defensemen in. Finally, James got it to Evgeni, who slapped it with a one timer and—

The goal horn. 00:24 seconds remaining.

The crowd was already singing with victory. The Stars tried for one last push, but Leo snatched the puck right out of the air with his glove.

00:03.

Done.

Sirius pushed his hands through his hair in relief. “Merde.”

Sirius was out of the box before anyone could even think about congratulating him, jogging down the private staircase and towards the locker room. He made it to the player’s hallway before he was stopped by a smiling Alice.

“I know, I know,” she said. “Can we just get a few questions in?” She gestured over to where Marlene was standing with a microphone, talking to a dark haired girl holding a camera. Alice raised an eyebrow. “It’s only Marlene.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

Alice patted his arm. “Congrats, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Sirius said and shoved his hands into his pockets while looking at Marlene expectantly.

“Okay, McKinnon, let’s go.”

Marlene scoffed. “Nice to see you, too. Hi Cap, how are you? Ribs, mind, in general.”

Sirius relaxed a little. If he had to do interviews, he preferred Marlene above all else. “I’m healing well. Ready to get back on the ice.”

Marlene narrowed her eyes at his short response and he smiled. That made her smile. Those were rare for the press, and she had just caught one.

“Any thoughts you want to share about how the majority of the world is responding to you lately? By my calculations, you’re quite the icon and inspiration—not that you weren’t before of course.”

Sirius laughed a little. “Oh yeah? Um,” he cleared his throat. When he looked up he could see Remus down the hall a little ways. He was talking to Kasey who was still fully dressed. Remus looked beautiful and strong and…And Sirius just… He hated questions like this but he just—

“Someone is always going to find something wrong with you,” Sirius said. “With what you say. With what you do. My job is not to please, you know? My job is to play hockey, sure, but, really, my job is to be the person I want to be, do the things I believe are right, do the things I love. With the people I choose to love. I think that’s everyone’s job,” Sirius found Remus beyond the cameras again, along with everything he had ever wanted. He looked back to Marlene. “That took me a long time to learn. They say, have a thick skin and an open heart. Before, all I had was a thick skin. Now, I’ve found someone who can help me have both. I didn’t even realize how much I needed that.”

~

“And that was an interview with a surprisingly heartfelt Captain Sirius Black,” Lee Jordan broke off in a laugh. “Earlier this game we also got to see him telling the cameras, show the game, show the game. Pointing down at the ice. Outstanding. That’s a layer of the Captain that I don’t think we see very often. From what I hear, the dude’s funny, though, Dean. Now, let’s take a look at the Lions’ top scorers. With the Captain out, that would be Logan Tremblay, James Potter, and, that’s right, one of the oldest in the league, Pascal Dumais…”

“What is that?” Remus said, appearing in front of Sirius where he was waiting in the PT room and drawing his attention away from the television. Remus peered at his hands.

“Oh,” Sirius felt himself flush as he looked down at the cupcake wrapper, more like a tiny ball of oily paper now. “I was holding this when Logan scored, so…”

Remus laughed. “So, you had to hold it the entire period. And now it’s practically falling apart. You’re not keeping that.”

“But it—” Remus grinned as Sirius surrendered the wrapper. “Fine.”

“Hey,” Remus said, and Sirius looked up. Remus was flushed from the game, eyes bright with the win. He leaned up and kissed him hotly, then softly. Sirius had to blink a few times when he pulled away. 

“You always had an open heart,” Remus said. “That’s obvious to anyone who knows you. Who loves you.”

Sirius smiled. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Someone cleared their throat. “Sorry…”

They looked up to see Kasey, now in just some basketball shorts. “Hi.”

“Hey, Bliz, I’m ready for you,” Remus said, then looked up at Sirius. “I can get the subway back if you wanna go home to Regulus.”

“Non, non, I’ll wait,” Sirius said, and bumped fists with Kasey on his way out.

Remus smiled after him for a moment, then at Kasey. “So, thigh?”

Kasey nodded, eyes shifting downward, then back to Remus again. “Yeah.”

Remus paused, brows drawing together. “Kasey, are you—”

“Hey, Kase?” Natalie appeared in the doorway. She had her long blonde hair drawn back in two dutch braids and a Blizzard jersey on over a gray sweatshirt with the hood spilling out. Her smile wasn’t as bright as usual.

“Hi, Remus,” she said. “Baby, I’m gonna go say hi to Marlene. Just text me when you’re all set okay?”

“Hi, Nat,” Remus said slowly.

Kasey nodded, accepting a kiss on the cheek. “Okay.”

He hopped up on the table and lay on his back while Remus got ready.

“Just the thigh that’s bothering you?” Remus said carefully. He pushed Kasey’s shorts up his thigh to get at the tense muscle and carefully began kneading the muscles. The post-game played softly on the television while Remus waited for Kasey to speak.

“Will it always be like this, Loops?” Kasey asked quietly after a few moments.

Remus looked up at where Kasey was reclining on the padded table with his fingers across his chest. Remus, if he was being honest with himself, had been waiting to have this conversation with Kasey for a while.

Kasey looked back at him. “It acts up more often than not. I can’t play if I can go down, I…I can’t—”

“I know,” Remus said softly. “I know, Kase. Look.” Remus moved down to his knee, smoothing the muscle firmly. “This injury…it’s a tough one. It takes a long time to heal. It takes time and endurance. So, my answer is no. It won’t always be like this. It just takes time.”

“What if I don’t have time?” Kasey’s voice was even quieter. “I’m a goalie. Sometimes we have less—”

“Kase,” Remus looked at him. “You’re twenty six years old. You do.”

Kasey groaned as Remus pressed his knee out to the side, loosening the muscle slowly. “Fuck.”

“We’ll do some strength training next practice, okay? We’ll make a schedule, I’ll work with you. And we have a day off tomorrow. I’ll send you some videos to do at home if you want, or you can rest.” Remus smiled a little. “Or Natalie can help you stretch.”

Kasey smiled and it seemed easier. “When you say stretch…”

Remus laughed. “That’s the point. Look, you will heal, but you also have to enjoy the rest of your life. Hockey’s everything, and not everything at the same time. I’m gonna give you some salve, okay? And then you’ll be good for the night. Rest.”

Kasey nodded. “How’s Cap doing?”

“He’s okay,” Remus said, warming up the muscle salve between his palms. “Wants to be out there with you guys.”

“We want him there,” Kasey sat up on his elbows and watched Remus’s hands. “What about baby Black?”

Remus snorted. “Good. I mean, happy he’s here. The whole Snake runaway thing is sort of up in the air. The Snakes have their lawyers on his ass about his contract, and Minnie thinks he might have to go public with some pretty horrific stories to prove that they breached it.”

“Horrific stories…”

Their eyes met somberly. “I know.”

“Jesus,” Kasey sighed as he sat up. He pushed his hair out of his face and looked down at his leg. “That feels better. I…I feel better.”

“Good. Try and stay off it as much as you can, okay? Nat loves you to death, don’t tell me she won’t get you what you need.”

“Oh, she will,” Kasey smiled and eased himself carefully off the table. “Thanks, Loops.”

“Bliz,” Remus said, and Kasey turned to look back. “You have time and life and everything else. Really.”

Kasey nodded. He smiled a serious sort of smile. “You’re right. I get in my head.”

“You’re a goalie. That’s part of the job.”

Kasey laughed, flipped him off, and closed the door behind him.

Sirius was waiting for him on one of the couches in the player’s lounge, eyes closed and beanie on his head. His shoulders looked broad in his dark winter coat and suit.

“Hi, handsome,” Remus said, leaning over Sirius with his hands resting against the back of the couch on either side of his head.

Sirius’ eyes opened and he smiled. “Salut.”

“Ready to go home?”

“Regulus says he’s out with Leo. Day off and all that,” Sirius tilted his chin up, silently asking. “House to ourselves.”

Remus pushed himself back upright. “Let’s go.”

~

“I’m glad Regulus had Leo,” Remus said as he stood in Sirius’ massive but mostly empty closet. He picked out one of Sirius’ t-shirts and sweatpants and pulled them on. “They’re both eighteen and both have a lot of pressure to deal with, even if it’s, you know, different pressure. It’s nice.”

“Yeah, I’m happy,” Sirius said as he came back into the bedroom from the bathroom. His torso looked lean in his his sweatpants, the bruising finally faded. "And thankful to Leo. He didn’t have to reach out, you know?” Sirius collapsed onto the bed with a smile, bouncing a little. “Now, let’s stop talking about my brother.”

“Nope, no bed yet. Come on.”

“Loops.”

“You want to play next week, you do this with me now. Let’s go.”

Sirius let Remus wrangle him downstairs and into the gym. Sirius put on some music and then Remus lay him out in just his sweatpants on a soft mat and led him through the breathing exercises and some of the light core work that was on his recovery plan. Sirius kept his eyes on Remus the entire time, the two of them laughing as his hands wandered to Remus’ hips. Remus had to admit that, now that Sirius wasn’t in pain, watching him spread out on the mat like this got him. His softly moving chest, his hard muscles, the shadowed curl of his hair on his temples. He let it get him, there in the privacy of Sirius’ basement. Sirius noticed.

He smiled the next time he raised up in a crunch, abs working, hands behind his head. “Maybe I could use some incentive.”

Remus raised an eyebrow from where he was by Sirius’ bent knees. “Oh?”

Sirius pushed up and held there until Remus bent so he could kiss Remus lightly, then lowered back down.

The next time he came up, he brought Remus down with him. He parted his knees so Remus could settle between them. Sirius’ chest was warm from the exercise, his heartbeat even. Remus sighed into his kisses.

“We should go easy, we have the party at Pascal’s tomorrow—”

“I’m perfect,” Sirius said, and rolled them gently so that Remus was on his back now, Sirius hovering over him. “I feel perfect. I want you so bad.”

It had been a bit of a challenge. They’d been on strict no-sex orders, given to them rather sheepishly by Sirius’ doctor while he was still in the hospital. It had been a lot of Remus trying to sneak a quick jack-off in the shower, trying not to make things harder on Sirius, only to come out of the shower to a glowering, turned-on boyfriend.

Getting the all clear had been spine-melting, and it had sort of been that way ever since. Still, sex was few and far in between. Regulus was in the house more often than not, and even if it was a big house, Remus didn’t think it was the best idea to invite him to stay only to sneak off to Sirius’ bedroom.

Regulus had received the message quickly though, and told them clearly enough when he would be out for a while.

Remus shuttered when Sirius’ hardening cock dragged across his own.

“Fuck, are we really doing this in the gym?” Remus panted out a laugh. He was already so turned on that it ached. His dick pressed insistently against the band of his sweatpants, and when Sirius next dragged his hips down, the loose fabric pulled away to expose the shiny head of his cock. Remus moaned. “Sirius, fuck…fuck, I—”

“No lube,” Sirius said. “Shit, I…”

Remus just pushed Sirius’ sweatpants down over his ass, making his cock fall free, bobbing and stiff, and tugged his own sweatpants down until his hips and thighs were exposed. Remus pushed their hips together, mouth open. It was plenty wet, Sirius cock already beginning to shine at the head.

Sirius fucked his hips forward steadily against Remus, the friction making him squeeze his eyes shut. Remus felt Sirius’ lips against his neck, and wrapped his arms around him. He felt sort of frantic with it, lazily happy with how much he loved this.

“Love you,” he murmured as Sirius pushed forward with a well-aimed thrust. “Fuck, baby, yeah…”

“Not bad for a core workout,” Sirius said into his skin.

Remus laughed, even as pleasure sparked at the edges of his vision. His cock felt heavy and sensitive against his stomach.

“Don’t overdo it,” Remus said. “Here.”

Remus pushed at Sirius’ shoulders until Sirius groaned and rolled onto his back.

“I’m fi—”

His complaints died on his tongue when Remus pressed up all along his side, cock trapped between them, and wrapped a hand around Sirius. He kept his strokes even and tight, running his fingers down over his full balls, the vein on the underside. Sirius was hot in his hand, precome thin and leaking over the back of Remus’ hand. Remus kissed Sirius, tongue sliding into his mouth, and more heat trickled over his fingers. Remus felt like he could come just like that. It was almost—surreal. He was so turned on, especially for not even having done that much. He had just been taking Sirius through his exercises one moment, and then Sirius had taken him between his thighs and he was done for.

“Re, let me,” Sirius breathed, and his fingers found his own cock for a moment before wrapping around Remus’ shoulders to reach behind him, rubbing over the swell of his ass.

Heat pooled in Remus stomach and made his hand stutter, gripping Sirius tighter. “Fuck, yes…”

Sirius’ fingers were soft and slow as they worked their way inside of Remus. It was a little dry, but Remus let his temple pitch forward onto Sirius’ chest as Sirius fingered him. He stroked Sirius slowly, dazed by the contrast between his own pale fingers and the darker, flushed skin of him. He wished he could see Sirius’ hand.

“There,” Remus gasped suddenly. “Ah—”

Sirius pressed him in gentle, slow strokes. It was different, being touched there and not his cock. Remus pushed into the feeling, his cock trapped and still between them. It wasn’t enough to do much except let Sirius’ fingers build a painfully slow pressure inside him. His eyes were lidded as he stroked Sirius’ cock until it was rock hard in his palm. He threw a leg over Sirius’ thighs so that Sirius could push into him deeper, finger curving against his prostate.

Remus just moaned.

“I’m gonna come soon, mon loup,” Sirius panted, hips straining up once, twice. “Loops—”

Remus sped up his hand, swiping his thumb over the swollen head, and then Sirius’ hips jerked. Come dripped lazily over Remus’ fingers, more and more of it, in thick white pulses. Remus’ dick throbbed at the sight, at Sirius’ fingers, tense from his orgasm, pressing hard inside of him. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them, gasping. His hand had stilled against the base of Sirius’ cock, and he could feel him pulsing there, cock throbbing through his orgasm. Sirius’ head had fallen back against the mat, his chest rising and falling quickly beneath Remus’ chest. It was a mess on his hips and Remus’ fingers.

“Fuck. Oh—” Sirius moaned as Remus started stroking him again. His cock strained valiantly, but it was spent and softening. “C’mere, Loops, fuck.”

Sirius turned into Remus, fingers twisting inside of him. It gave him a better angle, and when he moved next, he doubled down.

Remus could only hold onto his shoulders, pliant against the mat.

“Can you come like this, sweetheart?” Sirius said gently. “Just on my fingers?”

Remus already felt like he was coming. There was sweat on his temples and chest, and he felt Sirius’ kiss the salt away. His cock was taught against his stomach, an angry red now. Sirius stroked inside of him evenly, but in quicker time. Remus didn’t even have time to catch one breath before the next was stolen.

“I’m coming—” Remus said, but he knew he wasn’t. Not yet. But he was sure he was. He groaned and Sirius kissed his exposed throat, his back arched up, pressing down on him.

“C’mon, baby,” Sirius said. “Fuck, look at you.”

“I’m coming,” Remus said again, voice breaking, and the calloused pad of Sirius’ finger pressed against him hard, and then he really was. It tore out of him forever, spilling against Sirius’ tan skin. Sirius cradled Remus against him, saying soft things in French until Remus could open his eyes again. Sirius took Remus’ dick gently in his hand, easing a last shiver of pleasure from him. Remus smiled a little deliriously and curled closer to his warmth.

“Bath?” Sirius whispered.

“We gotta clean this,” Remus laughed. “Fuck, I feel like my brain is gone.”

“I’ll clean,” Sirius said, and tilted Remus’ head up for a kiss. “Go get the hot water going.”

That sounded fine to Remus.

~

Lily opened the door to Pascal’s house with Harry cradled in her arms.

“Sirius fucking Black I swear to god you triggered my labor.”

“You say that to me every time you see me.”

She stepped aside. “And will continue to do so.”

Remus stepped through the door first and took Harry from her, holding him close so that Sirius could press a kiss to one of his chubby cheeks. He wasn’t heavy, but Sirius wasn’t suppose to lift very much. Harry smiled at him and Remus watched as Sirius smiled back, murmuring in French.

“Where’s Regulus?” Lily asked.

Sirius shrugged, still making faces at Harry.

“Out with Leo,” Finn’s voice suddenly said. He was sitting on the couch with Logan tucked up against his side. “Yeah, uh-huh, Leo’s replacing us with your brother.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “That’s not true.”

Finn raised his eyebrows, as if to say he wasn’t so sure about that. Logan nudged his jaw with his nose until he pressed a light kiss to his lips. Remus smiled.

He could see the long road that was behind them and the long road ahead at the same time. It was better that way.

Most of the team was there. The living room had a huge banner that read Congratulations Logan! and beneath it a smaller one: for finally moving out of my basement! 

Sirius laughed hard. “I didn’t get one of these!”

Pascal shook his head from where he was playing cards with Sergei. “I knew you would leave eventually. This one, I wasn’t so sure.”

“Hey,” Logan groaned.

Remus laughed and snapped a picture of Sirius in front of it.

“Can I have that for my instagram?” James asked.

“Baby, too much instagram, okay, I love you so much, but…” Lily winced.

“But I have a baby now,” James stood to Remus’ other side, and then Remus had two fully grown hockey players making baby talk surrounding him. “That’s what instagram’s for. Isn’t it, my little lion?”

Harry laughed delightedly at his father.

Kasey and Natalie were sitting on the couch beside Logan and Finn. Natalie had Kasey sitting between her legs on the floor, fingers running through his hair as she talked to them. Kasey seemed to be talking very seriously about something with Katie, who seemed to be wearing three princess dresses at the same time. She was sitting in his lap and he was nodding along, responding whenever she waited for him to.

Remus handed Harry back to Lily when they went into the kitchen to get drinks. Celeste was in the kitchen with Anya, and Thomas seemed to be helping, too, along with Noelle.

When Sirius said he was surprised to see her, she waved him off, taking a sip of her wine. “I’m the resident Tremblay sister representative. We were all pretty worried about Lolo for a minute there, but…” she smiled. “If only we knew. Not one boy, but two. Plus,” she looked over at Thomas, who was focusing intently on what Celeste was saying and stirring on the stove. “I have my own reasons.”

“Talkie’s a good one,” Remus said. “You lucked out there.”

“Right?” Noelle laughed, then nodded at Sirius. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

“Me too,” Remus and Sirius said at the same time.

Noelle laughed again, and then her expression became more mild. “And…” she looked towards the living room, where they could distinctly hear Logan’s laugh. “I know none of this was easy for you two, but I’m happy you were there for my brother. Maybe not in the way you wanted to be…in the way any of us wanted…but you showed him it was okay to be who he is. I think Finn would have gotten to him eventually but I think it would have taken a lot longer. I’m glad he’s happy now. And that’s largely thanks to you two.”

“The delicious smells of success,” Thomas suddenly sang out, slightly off-key. “Breathe in the delicious smells of success, hey, Christmas, come over here and look at this goodness.”

Noelle laughed. “Oh, I’m already looking at it.” She sent Remus and Sirius a last smile. “Anyway, I said my piece.”

Remus laughed as she returned to Thomas’ side, tucking herself against him.

“That was sweet,” he said and rubbed his hand gently over Sirius’ chest, sort of out of habit by now. He could feel the bandages there.

Sirius kissed Remus’ temple. “Yeah.”

“Sirius, mon cher,” Celeste kissed Sirius’ cheek when she came over from the stove. “You are okay? Of course you are, Remus is with you. No more big empty house and take out meals, oui?”

Sirius laughed. “Way to sell me out.”

Remus snorted. “Like everyone didn’t already know.”

Celeste laughed. “C’est vrai.” She sighed, patting Sirius’ chest, near his ribs. “I am still so angry about Grayback, honestly.”

“Aren’t we all,” Pascal said, coming over. Celeste wrapped an arm around him.

“You and me both,” Sirius said, taking a sip of his wine. “But it’s over. I have to let it be over or else I’ll go insane.”

“You’ll be back out there soon,” Pascal said.

Sirius smiled. “Only thanks to Loops.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “It’s you who does the hard part.”

Pascal laughed. “As if getting this boy to do what he’s told isn’t the hard part.”

Remus laughed. “Hm, true.”

“Celeste, the goodness looks ready to me,” Thomas called over from the stove.

Celeste laughed and leaned back towards the doorway to the living room.

“Dinner, everyone!” she called.

It only took a few moments for the kitchen to become crowded with people lining up with their plates.

“Hey,” Evgeni bee-lined between them for the wine bottle, but stopped on the way to give Remus a kiss on both cheeks. “Get Captain laid, no more grumpy.”

“Kuny,” Remus said.

Nado, behind him as always, cracked up. Sirius laughed, too.

“Merde, Kuns,” he said. “Subtle.”

“Very,” Regulus’ wry voice suddenly said from behind them as he and Leo entered the kitchen.

“Just in time!” Celeste said, handing them both plates. “Where have you boys been?”

Leo shrugged. “Just—hi, sweetheart,” he cut off as Finn wrapped his arms around his waist. “Just touring around Gryf. Got lunch.”

“Yeah, Sid’s is the best,” Regulus said.

Sirius spluttered mid way through serving himself dinner. “I told you that.”

“So?”

“So, you believe Leo and not me?”

Leo grinned. Regulus shrugged.

Remus spent most of dinner holding baby Harry and watching Sirius tickle his tummy while he laughed. James looked ready to cry at the sight. Lily took him back to be fed when they moved to sit around the living room with dessert, but Remus didn’t mind. He just leaned back into Sirius’ chest, happy with his team around him.

Logan looked red in the face from all the jokes implying why he was so eager to move in with Leo and Finn. Adele had stuck close to him all evening, sitting on his free side. Logan had his arm around her. Remus had overheard him assuring her that he’d be over to visit all the time, which he thought was unbearably sweet. Leo looked resigned and amused to the teasing, and Finn just looked thoroughly pleased, sitting between them with an arm around each.

Remus felt a kiss being placed on his neck.

“Maybe we could celebrate more than one move tonight,” Sirius said into Remus’ ear.

Remus held Sirius’ arms across his chest, turning to look at him. “What?”

Sirius just smiled and pulled Remus out of the living room and into the butler’s pantry of the kitchen. He took Remus’ hands in his warm ones. “You should move in with me.”

Remus took a slow breath in.

Sirius slid his hands up Remus’ forearms. “I want you to move in with me.”

“Baby…”

“Besides,” Sirius smiled. “Your mom will be coming to town soon with any luck,” Sirius knocked gently on the wooden cupboard behind Remus’ head with a smile. “Better not to disappoint her.”

Remus laughed, reaching up to press his hands to Sirius’ cheeks. “Better not.”

Sirius leaned down to nudge their noses together. “Live with me. You sort of already do, and I…I love it so much. I love having you near.”

Remus nodded. “Yes.” He kissed him once, and again, and again. “Yeah, I want to.”

Sirius smiled into their next kiss, and that was how Logan found them.

“Alors,” he said, hands up. “Sorry. Just got sent in for some more wine. God knows I need it.”

Remus flushed and laughed as Logan reached down for a bottle from the wine fridge.

“Carry on.”

“Oops,” Sirius snorted when they were alone again.

“I’ll have to get a car,” Remus mused as Sirius hugged him against his chest. Sirius lived just outside the city center. “No more subways and city walking from out here.”

“I’ll buy you whatever car you want.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Sirius squeezed him closer. “It’s what I said. I want to. What else do you want? Tell me.”

Remus smiled and tilted his chin up to look at him. “You.”

~

It had been hard, saying goodbye to Sirius for the short road trip to Vegas. It was strange going without him.

“Force him to keep doing his exercises,” Remus had told Regulus firmly.

“Will do,” Regulus saluted.

“Miss you already,” Sirius had said softly when he dropped Remus off at departures.

“Just a few days,” Remus kissed his across the seats, and then kissed his new star necklace. “They’ll win.”

“Shh,” Sirius laughed gently.

Remus just smiled. “You’ll see."

Remus was in the visitor’s PT room, making sure it was well-stocked. Just in case. Moody was already in there, leaning against the table and watching the pre-game. He greeted Remus with a nod, and Remus pulled out a box of supplies to sort through while listening.

“—first time the Lions will be on the ice with Fenrir Grayback who, as we all know, received a two game suspension after a hard hit on Lions Captain Sirius Black, breaking four of his ribs. We know that the Lions organization was especially not happy about the lack of severity shown by the League. I suppose we may see what the players have to say about this tonight. I expect the Lions will push especially hard for a win in honor of their wounded Captain—not to mention that winning this game would secure them a spot in this year’s Stanley Cup play-offs. Marc-André Fleury is back with his rainbow stick tape, his second time showing support for Black. It’s nice to see. Let’s take a look at who else we’re watching tonight. First, we’ll talk about Logan Tremblay…”

“One game,” Moody grumbled. “One game.”

“One game,” Remus repeated. “Sirius really wanted to be out there tonight.”

“I don’t think Grayback knows what’s coming for him now that he isn’t,” Moody laughed gruffly. “You saw those boys when he took Sirius out. They’re fresh out of a day-off now. Rested, furious, determined.” Moody tilted his head. “I feel good things in my leg.”

Remus laughed. “Well, thank God.”

Sirius was sitting with his brother on the large, leather couch in his TV den, anxious and waiting for the second period to resume. The commercials were muted and he was waiting for Regulus to work his way up towards saying whatever it was that he was holding back. Sirius could tell there was something.

“Your house is ridiculous,” Regulus said around his Chinese takeout—not for the first time.

“I was young,” Sirius said defensively. “I thought buying a house like this was, like, required.”

“Stupide,” Regulus snorted.

“—a nasty hit on Finn O’Hara by Ryan Reaves, but he seems okay,” the commentator said, replaying the hit, and Sirius tensed. He didn’t need a replay of that. They cut back to commercials again.

“Do you think they can actually force me to go back?” Regulus said suddenly.

When Sirius looked over he was poking mildly at his noodles.

“I won’t let them do that.”

Regulus rolled his eyes. “You’re Sirius Black, not God.”

“I won’t let them do that,” Sirius said again. “Tu comprends? I will not. And Minnie won’t either.”

“Maman says—”

Sirius sat up. “You’ve been talking to her?”

“I have to sometimes,” Regulus grumbled. “Legal stuff. Minnie’s always there.”

“It doesn’t matter what she says. She is—”

“Yes, I know what she is,” Regulus snapped. “I’ve been living with her—until a few months ago, in case you forgot.” He glowered around the room. “While you were in your big fancy house…”

Sirius blinked. “Reg…”

“I’m not—mad at you. I was, but I’m not. I mean, I’m doing what you did, aren’t I? Making a better life, damn the consequences?” Regulus sighed. “There are other Snakes who want out, you know.”

Sirius sat up. “Like…witnesses? Reg, you could compile a case.”

“They’re worried they’ll never get back into the League,” Regulus said. “I’m trying, but…I don’t know, Sirius.”

Sirius’ heart ached. He looked down at his chicken and rice. “I wish I could tell you what to do.”

Regulus looked at him, gray on gray, and nodded. “I know.” He glanced at the TV. “We’re back.”

Sirius secretly liked that. Looking at the Lions play with his brother, and hearing him say we.

“O’Hara didn’t need any help getting up, even if he looked a little rattled. Now, speaking from experience, I don’t know about you, Lee, but I was waiting for O’Hara’s line mate, Logan Tremblay to have something to say about it…Tremblay did not challenge Reaves, though.”

They were lining up for puck drop, James at the center against—

Grayback.

“You know, Dean, I think that’s a testament to these young Lions, really all the Lions. They call them the cubs, you know. You can tell how much they want this. They band together, they listen, they work…I think it’s pretty rare to see such fine communication in an entire team.”

Grayback won the face off.

“Fuck,” Regulus breathed.

Sirius wished he was there, standing beside Remus, on the bench, jumping the boards—anything. Instead, he was sitting on the couch, eating take-out. Helpless.

The entire first period, and the majority of this one had been back and forth. The score was still 0-0. They were fighting. Hard. Fenrir passed it to Tuch, who knocked it over to Engelland. Engelland took a hard shot, and Leo caught it in his glove.

“Another amazing save by Knut,” Dean said. “Rookie goal tender Leo Knut has blocked 29 shots in this game so far, most of them with his glove. I love seeing that sort of technique from the younger players, you know?”

“Absolutely Dean. And it looks to me like Coach Weasley is giving the Blizzard, Kasey Winter, a nice long rest as he looks ahead to hopefully a long and successful playoff run.”

Sirius leaned forward as play started up again. Evgeni barreled against Reaves and Fenrir, evading a two-on-one with a slick pass to Nado. It was hard hockey—it looked a little like play-off hockey. Brutal, hard-hitting, and determined.

It stayed like that until half way through the third.

“Fucking hell,” Regulus said. “How does this game still have no score?”

Sirius shook his head. His heart was in his throat. He had texted Remus at the second intermission.

Boys are fired as hell, Remus had said. Good feelings. They don’t even seem tired.

Harzy okay? he had said.

Yes. Then, a minute later. Boasting that you’re checking on him XD

That reassurance was the only thing keeping Sirius sane.

“We have to break their defense,” Sirius was half watching the battle on the ice and half running through plays in his mind. The clock read twelve minutes.

Sirius could have laughed. He pressed his necklace pendant between his palms, his steepled fingers against his mouth. He wasn’t religious. He just wanted this. For all of them.

Pascal’s line was out.

“Come on Dumo,” Sirius said.

Sirius watched Pascal and Fenrir line up for the face off with tense shoulders. He waited, and waited, and then the referee was straightening again, looking at Pascal and pointing away.

“Fuck,” Sirius cursed. “He’s kicking Dumo out of the circle.”

“I wonder what he said.”

Sirius silently begged Pascal to be careful.

Brady took Pascal’s place. He won the face off, and Sirius and Regulus shouted.

He passed it easily to Pascal, who dragged it along the boards.

“What’s he going so slow for?” Regulus demanded, fist hitting the couch.

Sirius only saw what was coming next because of the TV angle.

Pascal had his head down, and Fenrir was skating hard towards him on the ice.

Sirius and Regulus were on their feet in a second, shouting at the television. They couldn’t warn him.

Sirius couldn’t even breathe properly. It seemed to go on in slow motion, all of it. Pascal, his—his father, really, his protector. The man who had taken him right from under his mother’s grasp. Pascal who knew him better than anyone. Maybe even Remus.

Fenrir was obviously going in for the hit. He was probably confident that he could get away with it again. Just like he had with Remus. With Sirius. If he so much as touched Dumo—

But he underestimated Pascal Dumais just like had last time.

Pascal, puck on his stick, let Fenrir get closer, and closer, and then deked right. He spun on his right blade harshly and kicked off the boards like a goalie did on a goal post. The effect was that he went rocketing out of the way, right towards the Golden Knights’ goal, and Fenrir slammed into the boards with his own full-force.

The game didn’t pause for him. It only stopped when the goal lit up red as Pascal shot a clean line into the top left corner of the net.

Six minutes and three seconds remaining. 1-0, Lions. The Lions bench was on their feet, sticks banging against the boards as Pascal skated down for glove taps. The TV showed his familiar face, smiling. He looked into the camera for a moment, and Sirius swore Pascal was looking right at him.

He won’t get you again, the look said. Pascal tussled Remus’ hair with his glove. Or any of us.

Six minutes felt like six hours, longer and longer with each one of Leo’s saves. They showed his face during an offside whistle. He tilted his helmet up for some water. His blonde hair was darkened and drenched with sweat, but his blue eyes were fierce. He tapped his mask back down, and went back into a crouch. Sirius had never been so proud of Leo fucking Knut.

Shots were traded ferociously, the puck practically bouncing between the zones. Leo saved it with his blocker, a few bouncing off of his helmet, some dangerously close to his neck guard. He pushed off one post and dropped into a full split, the puck sliding snugly against his pad until he scooped it up like a hawk.

“Fucking hell, Leo,” Regulus mumbled.

“Right,” Sirius said. “Merde.”

Three minutes. James had four shots that very nearly went in. Logan had five close-calls. They were panting on the bench, squirting cold water down their necks, but they were keeping the score. They were protecting their lead.

Two minutes.

The Golden Knights pulled their goalie, the net was empty, and still no one scored again.

When the buzzer finally sounded, Sirius was breathing like he was on the ice, too.

The bench exploded, spilling out onto the ice. Finn threw his gloves into the air right before Logan crashed into him.

They had won the game with one goal, and three periods of sheer will-power.

Sirius hugged Regulus hard. He watched as his boys jumped on each other against the boards, knocking Leo’s helmet for his shut-out and grinning. They were clinched.

They were going to the playoffs.

[larphacks]

Process Hack: Welfare

Hi all! After a long hiatus, ya boy is back with more unsolicited advice!

What are we talking about this week? It’s LARP welfare!

Common at medium and large games, the role of welfare officer, sometimes called “site parent”, and sometimes divided into crew welfare and player welfare, is very important. It’s also something which can go really smoothly if you do some decent prep before the event. I’ve been discussing the role with some LARPer friends recently, and I’ve put together some advice for good ways to tackle this role.

Some of the below advice falls into the category of sensible prep that everyone can do before a game too, so feel free to read even if you don’t hold (or want to hold) a position like this!

Some of the jobs I outline below might not fall into every welfare officer’s purview - mix and match as you choose. (If you’ve been asked to look after player or crew welfare and don’t know which of the below are your responsibilities, that means you need to have a chat with the chief organisers and find out!)

1. Positive Energy

This can be a surprisingly high-energy role. Particularly in the crew room, one of the most important things a welfare officer can do is be positive and energetic when everyone is feeling a bit tired and down. This is hard! But a bit of jollying-along goes a huge way to changing the dynamic. This is even harder when YOU'RE the one feeling tired and cold and sad. But if you are visibly struggling, nobody will approach you when they need help! A "brave face" is your best weapon.

2. Shut Up!

Sometimes you need to be the "voice of reason" - getting people to concentrate, or quiet down, when it's important that something needs to be done quickly. One good way to do this is to be cheerful enough most of the time that people LISTEN on the rare occasions that you raise your voice and ask them to please shut up for a minute.

3. Early Start, Late Finish

The two above points are ESPECIALLY important during set-up and take-down. You need to be "on the ball"/on duty during periods where other people are transiting into and out of the game. During set-up, your keen crew and players will all be busy frothing and sniffing each other's butts because they haven't seen each other for a year, they want to show off their new kit, and their adrenaline is through the roof. But - it's 30 minutes to time-in and nobody's in kit and the IC areas aren't set-dressed. You need to get them moving!

During take-down, everyone is exhausted, a bit overwhelmed, and wants to sleep (including the refs). But the site needs to be taken down, cleaned and tidied up, lost property needs to be organised, and there are always last-minute disasters involved in the logistics of getting people off site. You can't collapse now - your job isn't done. You might not be in charge of take-down, but you ARE the right person to gently corral and rally tired people towards the plan.

4. Who does what?

If you're the first point of call for someone who's having an issue, being able to confidently signpost to other crew is really important. So firstly, you should know exactly what the other other staff members do and where they're likely to be (in both time and space). If a player comes to you and says "I'm really struggling with the Sorcery rules and I feel very stupid", then sure, you can (and should!) offer them some immediate comfort and consolation. But in order to help them with the root of the problem, you need to know several bits of information:

a) What are the different staff members' responsibilities/expertises? Who does what? (Mike is the person who handles Sorcery rules.) b) Where in space are the other staff located? (Mike is currently refereeing the Clawed Fiend encounter on top of the hill.) c) When in time are the other staff available? (The Clawed Fiend encounter can't be interrupted. It is scheduled to end at 2100hrs. Mike should come back to the crew room after that.)

I'd also recommend you have a good "ticket-tracking" system to make sure your incoming queries are handled and nobody falls through the cracks. You could devolve this onto players ("Come back at 2110hrs and ask to speak to Mike") but it will help things flow smoothly if you are also logging things yourself. I'd recommend carrying a small notebook and pen so you can note things down and tick things off. You can also help things along by being an active communicator and setting the emotional context for solutions. If Mike comes back at 2100 and immediately gets jumped by an emotional player, he might be tired and confused and not give the best answer. But if he comes back and you tell him "There's a player who is having a bad time with the Sorcery rules, they seem quite distressed, I think you can help, they'll be around in 10 minutes" then he won't be surprised and will have the right bit of his brain switched on.

5. It’s all in the Filofax

There is admin information about players/crew which will really help you if something goes wrong too. I'd suggest having the following on-hand, glued into your notebook, on a tablet, or otherwise kept secure on your person (since some of it's sensitive personal data):

a) A list of everyone's allergies and medical conditions. b) A list of qualified first-aiders, and the locations of first-aid kits. c) A list of every vehicle on site, registration number against player/crew name, in case you need a car moved in a hurry. d) A rough understanding of who arrived from where, with whom. It doesn't need to be exhaustive, but if the vehicle which brought 6 people from London breaks down irrecoverably, then being able to help sketch out solutions to get those people and their kit home will be massively easier if you know roughly where people came from.

6. The Outside World

You are likely to also need to be able to signpost to help *outside* the game. If a player comes to you with a problem that can't be fixed with on-site resources, what are you going to do about it? You can't predict every scenario, but at a minimum I'd suggest having the following prepared:

a) A breakdown service for the vehicle that won't start (in the UK the most common is the AA). b) A mental health or emotional support helpline, like the Samaritans (116123). c) The emergency number for injured wildlife - in the UK, the RSPCA (0300 1234 999). d) The emergency and non-emergency medical numbers (in the UK: 999 emergency, 111 non-emergency) and police numbers (UK: 999 emergency, 101 non-emergency). e) A clear understanding of where on site you can get mobile phone signal. f) A plan for how you would get an ambulance onto site if you needed one: run through the whole thing (where on site can I get enough signal to call the ambulance? What is the postcode of the site, and do I have a set of clear directions to give the dispatcher in my notebook? Who am I sending to the site entrance to walk the ambulance on? Is their most likely route of approach clear for a large vehicle?). If you've never called an ambulance in this country, then ask someone who *has* to practice with you, so you understand what questions they'll ask and in what order.

7. Kit & kaboodle

The following are things which LARPers reliably fail to provide for themselves, and which you will benefit greatly if you have on hand. Find out from the organisers what your budget is, and buy accordingly:

a) Salty snacks (crisps/nuts) and quick energy (sweets/fruit). Keep a small separate store aside from the usual 'crew food' to help someone who is struggling. b) The ability to make a hot sweet drink in a hurry. c) Hydration solution (Dioralyte, Powerade, or the cheap alternative, which is six teaspoons of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt per litre of clean water). d) Paper and pens. e) High-powered torch (for searching for lost objects). f) Your own phone on an in-country network, plus at least one charged mobile phone powerbank with multiple charger ends. g) Ice packs - ideally the "squeeze to activate" sort so you aren't relying on the site freezer. (Most common item left out of first aid kids - and immediate relief/comfort for the most common LARP injuries.) h) Warm blankets. i) An idea of how you'd provide a simple hot meal in a hurry. (This could be a packet of rice you can chuck in the microwave, a cup-soup and kettle, a ration pack and a Jetboil, or a good understanding of what the caterers' plan is for an emergency meal.)

If someone is in a lot of distress, going through the process of dealing with their physical needs (food/water/temperature/etc.) can often help them become better able to communicate their psychological/emotional needs. Often a LARPer who is dehydrated or low on blood sugar doesn't KNOW that's the problem, they just know they feel awful and are crashing hard.

8. Know the Ground

KNOW YOUR SITE - I can't stress this enough. If someone has a costume disaster and needs somewhere private to change, where can they do that? If someone is overwhelmed and needs a quiet, safe, cool (or warm) room or tent to lie down in for an hour, where can they do that? If a shy new player shows up and asks "Where do I put my kit?", then being able to answer them quickly and competently with a smile on your face will immediately endear you (and mean that they WILL come to you later, when they're suffering, instead of sitting alone on their bed being sad about it).

9. Late Bloomers

What is the late arrivals plan? If you went IC at 1900 and the traffic means some of your players don't arrive till 2200, then most of your key refs/crew will be busy running the game. You're the most likely person to escort the late arrivals onto site, get them set up, and get them integrated into the game. You'll need to reassure, but you'll also need to understand a lot of admin details to make sure they don't feel any more overwhelmed and embarrassed than they already do. This might involve giving a second safety briefing, pointing out any last-minute changes that weren't included in the game pack, and pointing them to the right ref to get their characters timed in. You can be as nice and friendly as you like - but some people will be even more reassured by practical, reliable and clear directions when they’re feeling rushed and panicky.

10. Herd those Cats

What is the crew plan? Depending on role, you may or may not be involved in "crew wrangling" - this is often a separate role, and deserves its own post. But even if you aren't "crew boss", you need to understand and be able to help balance crew energy and engagement. If there are long periods where crew are likely to be sitting around bored, where are the "pick-up-and-play" roles they can briefly read, digest, and go out to engage in? If crew are doing three hours of back-to-back combat roles, where is the plan for ensuring that they're all fed, watered, rested and properly kitted before their next high-energy role? The best refs will have considered this and have a clear plan for managing crew in small teams to maintain their energy levels - but as a welfare officer you are likely to be the advocate/interface if it doesn't seem to be working well, so make sure you understand where the weak spots and frictions in the plan might be so you can deal with them in advance.

What happens if a crew member comes to you and says they're really struggling with their NPC role and aren't enjoying it? (If you're the approachable face, they'll likely come to you first before a busier ref!) Do you understand the crew matrix well enough to think about solutions, alternative roles they could do, or how the timetable could be re-worked to end their role early? Wherever possible, you should strive to go to the refs with a solution rather than a problem: "Harry is struggling and I think if we brought the poisoning forward an hour, then let him play a gremlin for the rest of the night, that would fix it" is better than "Harry is struggling". They may not accept your solution, but the conversation is already moving onto alternative ways to fix the problem.

11. Easy In, Easy Out

How do players enter/leave the game if they're fatigued or unwell? Your game may not have a clear system for this, and it may be players' own responsibility to manage their fatigue. However, some will struggle to cross the IC/OC divide here: if the character is fighting for their life, how do they resolve that with the player needing to have a lie-down for an hour so they're safe to drive the next day? One of the best games I've run had a clear, signposted system where players who needed a break could "vanish" IC (with a clear IC logic for their disappearance) and take as much time as they wanted. When they were rested, they could go see a ref for a special briefing which told them what had happened while they were away (and explained how they reappeared). You won't find this in every game, but think about ways to make taking an OC break feel like a positive and productive experience, which leaves the character with plenty to talk about when they return, rather than a potentially embarrassing one which leaves the player out-of-the-loop and feeling like they've missed out on the fun.

12. Look After Number One!

Practice active self-care, both to facilitate all of the above and as a good example to others. Going back to the first point, most people can't project positive energy if they're sad, wet, cold, tired and hungry. Have a routine worked out to look after yourself. Understand what you can and can't do and work to your limitations. If you have lots of physical energy but are struggling to deal with six emotional crises in a row, get up and walk around site. If moving exhausts you, pick a central location to base yourself and make sure all the things you need to do your job are in easy reach.

Feel free to reblog with your own additions, checklist items or hacks for looking after your fellow LARPers’ welfare. Suggestions gratefully accepted!

[notebooknebula]

Improving Business Relationships Through CRM with Danny Johnson & Jay Conner

https://www.jayconner.com/improving-business-relationships-through-crm-with-danny-johnson-jay-conner/

Real Estate Investing With Jay Conner

It doesn’t matter if you are earning a million dollars a year unless you are enjoying the freedom that comes along with your business.

In today’s Real Estate Investing show with Jay Conner, Jay and his guest Danny Johnson talk about automation and organizing your business. How it will greatly help you build a real estate business that works for you and not you working the business.

Danny Johnson is a veteran real estate investor that has been flipping and wholesaling since 2003 having done nearly 1,000 deals. The financial and time freedom his real estate business created for him has allowed him to use his software background to develop the Forefront CRM for real estate investors.

He also hosts a new podcast called ‘Braver’ which is devoted to being honest about what’s holding you back so that you can transition from doing everything in your business to having the business work for you.

Timestamps:

0:01 – Get Ready To Be Plugged Into The Money

2:00 – Jay’s New Book: “Where To Get The Money Now” –https://www.JayConner.com/Book

2:41 – Today’s guest: Danny Johnson

5:17 – Getting involve in different Masterminds greatly affects the success of your real estate business.

7:25 – “ Flipping Houses Expose” – Danny Johnson

9:19 – What is your conversion now compare to when you started?

12:04 – Importance of attending immediately to a motivated seller.

13:30 – Danny Johnson’s different marketing strategies

16:17 – Significance of building rapport with your motivated seller.

18:16 – How Danny got into real estate?

21:39 – How did you transition from wearing all the hats to building a real estate business that’s working for you and not you working the business?

27:02 – The Forefront CRM for real estate investors.

29:03 – Connect with Danny Johnson – https://www.forefrontcrm.com

30:15 – Danny’s parting comments: Look at the next step that you need to do. Do it and take action.

Private Money Academy Conference:

https://jaysliveevent.com/live/?oprid=&ref=42135

Have you read Jay’s new book: Where to Get The Money Now? It is available FREE (all you pay is the shipping and handling) at https://www.JayConner.com/Book

Free Webinar: http://bit.ly/jaymoneypodcast

Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $64,000 per deal.

What is Real Estate Investing? Live Private Money Academy Conference

https://youtu.be/QyeBbDOF4wo

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/c/RealEstateInvestingWithJayConner

iTunes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/private-money-academy-real-estate-investing-jay-conner/id1377723034

Listen to our Podcast:

https://realestateinvestingdeals.mypodcastworld.com/11208/improving-business-relationships-through-crm-with-danny-johnson-jay-conner

Jay Conner and Danny Johnson

Jay Conner

00:00:30

Well, what in the world was I talking about a second ago on plugging you into the money? Well, you see back in 2003, my wife, Carol Joy, and I started investing in single-family houses here in Eastern North Carolina. The first six years, we relied on local banks and mortgage companies and institutional money. And you know what? In January of 2009, we were cut off, lost our lines of credit, no way to fund our deals. I was introduced to this wonderful world of private money. And since that time, we have not missed out on a deal for not having the money.

And when I say private money, I’m not talking about hard money. I’m not talking about brokers. I’m not talking about institutional money. I’m talking about getting funding from individuals right now. We’ve got 46 individuals investing in funding our deals. We haven’t missed out on deals since 2009. And guess what? You can experience the very same thing and be in control of your real estate investing business. So what am I talking about? I got a free gift for you. I just released my brand new book, “Where To Get The Money Now,” subtitled: “How and Where to Get Money for Your Real Estate Deals Without Relying on Traditional Hard Money Lenders.” It hit number one on Amazon just a few short months ago. And so I want to send this book to you, just cover delivery. I will tell you how you can get this brand new book for free. Go to www.JayConner.com/Book

You know that I have amazing guests on the show and today is no different whatsoever. My dear friend, my fellow mastermind member is a veteran real estate investor. I’ve been doing this for a long, long time. I mean, he’s been flipping, he’s been wholesaling all the way back to the very same year that Carol Joy and I started, back in 2003, and he’s done almost a thousand deals.  Well, the financial and time freedom that his real estate investing business created for him has allowed him to use his software background. Yes, his software background is to develop what’s called The Forefront CRM for real estate investors.

In other words, how do you keep up with all those contacts? How do you keep up with the buyers and the sellers and everything that’s going on? Well, he’s going to be telling us about that because I tell you what, I was still totally paper until about 4 years ago, maybe as recent as 3 years ago. So you want to organize your life. My guest is going to get to helping you on that in just a second. He also hosts a podcast that’s called, “Braver,” which is devoted to being honest about what’s holding you back so that you can transition from doing everything in your business to having the business work for you. And I tell you that reminds me of what my dad taught me years ago. “Make sure you get your business to where you’re running it and it’s not running you.” So we’re going to talk with my special guest right now about automation, organizing your business, and one of the best CRMs for keeping up with all your contacts, which he developed and calls, “The Forefront CRM.” With that, welcome to the show, my friend, Danny Johnson. How are you?

Danny Johnson

00:04:40

Doing great. Thank you for having me on, Jay.

Jay Conner

00:04:43

Absolutely, Danny. We’re glad to have you and tell everybody where you are speaking from today.

Danny Johnson

00:04:49

Well, I’m in San Antonio, Texas, and yeah, I like that, you know, we both started in 2003. And how you introduced me that way, that you didn’t just read the bio, like you really put it out there in a great way. It made it sound a lot more interesting. I was excited. I was like, “Who’s he going to be talking with?” But it was actually me.

Jay Conner

00:05:16

Absolutely, Danny. Well, you know, we are in a mastermind together and masterminds, being a member of a mastermind, has just been such a huge part of my real estate investing business. I really started getting involved in masterminds- Right now, I’m in 3 masterminds, got involved back in 2009. And so when you’re hanging around people that are of light minds and you’re helping each other and your business, it’s bound to grow, right?

Danny Johnson

00:05:44

Absolutely. I’m a part of 2, been a part of probably 6 in my investing career. And it was a pivotal moment in the first one that I joined where I was doing everything in the business. My ex-wife and I were doing everything in our business, wearing all the hats. We had contractors, we had an agent to sell properties, but beyond that, we did everything and that was 8 or 9 years. And it wasn’t until I joined a mastermind and hung out with people that were operating the business in a way that allowed them the time to actually work on the business more than they worked in the business. And having that firsthand experience with people that were doing it, showed that it was completely possible, and cut out a lot of time and headache and hassle and mistakes. So that was great.

Jay Conner

00:06:41

Well, I can certainly relate. I remember I had been in the business from 2003 until about 2008, five years. And I came around the corner one night and there was my Carol Joy sitting at the kitchen table, crying with 3 different checkbooks in front of her. And that was at 10 o’clock at night. And she told me she couldn’t handle it anymore. And I learned right there that you can be making a million dollars a year and it doesn’t really matter unless we are enjoying the reason we got into real estate and that’s to enjoy the freedom that comes along with it. So yeah, it took me an entire year to really hone in and start automating my business. So I can definitely relate to your story, Danny.

Danny Johnson

00:07:23

It’s interesting. I had a book that I put out a while back called “Flipping House Exposed,” and that was 34 weeks in the life of my business where I documented every single lead that came in. And basically week by week I was breaking down what I spent on marketing, where I put my marketing, the leads that came in, all that kind of stuff. But the thing that came out of that was out of those 34 weeks, I generated 495 motivated seller leads. So these are qualified leads where people called or submitted on my website that they wanted an offer on their house. Guess how many of those I turned into a deal?

Jay Conner

00:08:04

Probably less than you would have desired.

Danny Johnson

00:08:09

Right. I wouldn’t bring it up. But yeah, it was about 11 during that 34 weeks. Right? Yeah. So that’s about one out of every 45. And so a lot of people, got into this business after reading that book and were telling me it was so great because it showed me it was a numbers game, but it wasn’t until a little bit later that I realized looking back, it was like I was killing myself trying to have more success by doing more of the same thing that I had original success with. So it was okay when I was generating, doing maybe 20 to 30 deals a year. It was okay to be focused mainly on the lead generation. Right? If I want to do more deals, I’ve got to get more leads. I mean, in my mind, that’s how it was. I don’t have a business background. I wasn’t structured in business, and looking back in hindsight, it was treating it like a hobby. It really was just, “Hey, I’m having fun. I’m doing that,” which is great, but it comes at a price. And that price is that hamster wheel of having some success and trying to have more success by just doing more of the same thing without really dialing anything in, where I’m really looking at them.

Jay Conner

00:09:18

What’s your conversion now compared to when you started?

Danny Johnson

00:09:22

Well, now I’m actually back to operating as a solo-preneur with the real estate and just doing rental properties. But we did grow from that, we were doing everything and built a team and we got to the point with the team where we were getting about one out of every five leads became a deal.  

Jay Conner

00:09:41

That’s different than one out of every 40 or 50.

Danny Johnson

00:09:43

Right. So looking back, had we had the team, had we had the business dialed in and this doesn’t even require a team. It really just dials, it requires somebody to know what’s going on in their business and fix the parts that are broken because it wasn’t so much the leads were a problem. It was what we were doing once the leads came into our business. Right?

Jay Conner

00:10:06

And in addition to not only what you were doing with them, but what you were not doing with them.

Danny Johnson

00:10:13

But that’s probably the bigger issue. So what happened? What made the transition? Obviously the team helped because as a one-man-show, taking the calls, going on appointments, scheduling contractors, checking on jobs, you get to where you’re having a lot of appointments and meetings with different people. And when those motivated sellers are calling, if you can’t take those calls right away, number one, that’s a huge problem. Somebody has to live answer that call right away because that’s a truly motivated seller, the one that’s saying, “Hey, just get over here. I wanted this thing done yesterday. I’m just done.” If you’re not the first person that answers that call, whoever is, is getting the deal most likely. And so having a way, no matter what you do.

And I did this business 3 years part-time while I was a software developer working for a defense contractor where I couldn’t even have my cell phone with me at my job. I know it’s been long enough. I had it on vibrate and if it went off, I would run out into the stairwell and return the call right away because I didn’t want to miss out on those. Once you do that, make sure you’re answering all those calls, having those come in, what happens with the building of rapport, talking with that seller, listening to them, not just asking for all the details of the house and just being all about that and scheduling an appointment, just being done. There’s a lot that goes into building that rapport with the seller.  Almost all of my deals came from motivated seller direct to seller marketing. Just found that those were always the best deals and helped us actually get through that market correction back in ’07, ’08, but by just going direct to the seller and getting those great deals.

Jay Conner

00:12:03

Since you bring it up, let’s talk about it because this is a really important point. And that is, in my experience over the years, there are 5 key components to a successful real estate investing business when it comes to talking with and marketing to motivated sellers. And this podcast is about you. It’s not about me. So I’m only going to talk about one and you already said the word, and that is the word, “immediacy.” When a motivated seller, and of course we’re talking about off-market sellers, we’re not talking about sellers or bank-owned properties that are in the multiple listing service in this market, you can’t rely on that anyway. But when that call comes in, whether it’s from a Google ad or it’s direct mail, or doesn’t matter how you are getting leads coming in, it’s like the most important thing that could ever happen is for someone on the team, your acquisition is to ever to be talking to that person like right away.

And you know, it’s the age-old argument. Do you take the calls live? I mean, there’s an argument for that. Do you have them get an operating service? And then you’re like, get through the rigmarole of trying to get them back on the phone. So share with us your experience of taking the call live, wherein if you’re not doing it yourself, which I never recommend to people. So if you have an acquisition, do you answer the phone live in the morning to when at night?

Danny Johnson

00:13:50

That’s one of the big things that made a huge difference. So we had somebody come in as an acquisitions person to take that off of my plate. And they did take the calls for a while because it made it also seamless for when somebody is answering the phone, they talk to somebody and then that’s the same person that’s coming to the house. So that’s beneficial. As you grow, that’s going to be to where it becomes a problem because that person is going on appointments and they can’t take those calls while they’re at an appointment. And we don’t want them feeling like, “Oh, I’m going to miss a call or a call came in. I missed it. I need to wrap this appointment up.” Everything that we do, we spend so much time and energy looking at different marketing tactics, executing on those and doing all of that stuff to get those calls in and then to get to the appointment.

So all of that stuff to that point is to be at that appointment. And if we’re not spending the time that’s required at that appointment where we’re wasting all the rest of it, why are we doing anything else? So our acquisitions people, it was spend as much time as you need to at each of these, make sure that you’ve got at least 2 hours so that you can sit down on that gross couch or whatever it is, and have a conversation with the seller because this is what this is all about. It’s really getting to the bottom of why they’re selling, understanding their problem, and then showing them how we can help them. It’s not just, “Here’s the offer. Do you want it? Come on, sell your house.” It’s none of that stuff. So, in answering the calls, once you have that where you have the ability to bring on that lead intake person, then that person should be somebody that’s super friendly.

That’s easy to build rapport with. That’s the first person that they’re gonna interact within your business, right? They’re representing your business. And so if you can have somebody that doesn’t even have to be in an office or anything like that, this could be your mother-in-law, this could be your aunt, somebody that’s just at home all day that can take these calls. It doesn’t need to be a professional hire or anything like that. And just a part-time, “I’m going to pay you per call that you take,” or something like that. And you train them up just to be friendly. It really requires somebody that’s super friendly that’s not going to just go down the list of questions, ask them, get them answered, and then get off the call. Because we want the person saying, “Wow, that person, this company is great. I really liked that person I just talked to.”

Jay Conner

00:16:15

Building rapport is so important and people are gonna pick up on as to, do you really care about what they’ve got going on? As you say, if there wasn’t a problem with the property, if they didn’t have a personal problem or both, we wouldn’t be there looking to help solve the problems. For example, this past Friday, I was at a seller’s house myself, right here in Morgan City, North Carolina for 2 hours and 10 minutes. Myself personally. Most of the time that doesn’t happen because even with crazy times going on, I’m still traveling a lot or I’ve started traveling a lot. But something told me that I needed to go on this appointment. We were in a small market, only 40,000 people willing to do 2-3 deals a month, but the average profits were $70,000.

So not to get into the details of that visit, but I knew it was going to take an un-rushed amount of time, un-rushed. And when I’m visiting with a potential seller, I use a technique that I call, “awkward silence.” I ask a question and I just let them talk. And when they sound like they’re finished, I go, “Uh-hmm” and they talk more. And so I tell them right up front in the visit, I say, “You know what, there’s a good number of times I’m not able to help people. And the reason why is because every transaction I do, it’s got to be a win for you. It’s gotta be a win for your husband. It’s gotta be a win for me.” And so I go ahead and get the white elephant out of the room and just let them know that I’m not here to high-pressure you. I’m here to see what we can do to work together, to make things happen. And as you said, establishing a rapport is very, very important. So let’s get right into what your specialty is, Danny, and that’s the CRM keeping up with all the leads, right? That you developed from your background as a software developer. But before we jump into that, just tell us your background as to how you got into real estate.

Danny Johnson

00:18:33

So I got into real estate. I was going through college to get my degree in computer science. My father started flipping houses and when I was growing up, he was a contractor for a real estate investor. And so as a kid, I would go to the demos and I would have to haul out the junk and all this stuff from the demos of the houses. So I got an early taste of that, but my father was a contractor at that time. So in college, he began being mentored by the person he had done a lot of contracting work for in the past. And I just saw his joy. It was just like a whole new him, my father. I’d never seen him like this. He had always struggled in his life. He had always started in different businesses that didn’t succeed.

And we had to move year after year and sometimes getting evicted. And it was just a rough, rough time and I’ve got three other siblings, but in college, it just all broke loose for him. Like he was just having so much fun talking about the deals he was doing driving around town. And I just felt this surge with him. He was like, “Oh, I want to do that, too. That’s what I want to do.” So I started part-time, also getting into the business and he worked with small towns around San Antonio and I worked in San Antonio. So the relationship was really, “Well, you go find out how you want to invest, whether that’s fix-and-flip or rentals or whatever, you just go and learn what you want to learn. When you have an issue that you come against as you’re taking action, call me.”

So it wasn’t hand-holding, what-do-I-do-next? kind of thing. That relationship was like a mentor relationship. And then his mentor also was available to me, too, whenever I had questions, which was great because it forced me to take action and make mistakes. And I tell people that one of the first, I think it was the first contract that I did directly with a motivated seller, I signed the contract then I went to the title company and I was in the parking lot. And I had to, literally, call my dad and say, “What am I supposed to say when I bring this inside of here?” I didn’t even know that step of it, but the beautiful thing was I was out there taking action, right? And even though I wasn’t well-versed in all the different things, from putting a deal under contract to getting it sold, I was taking action.

That was the important thing. So I was in the business part-time for 3 years. I was making good money as a software developer, it was really hard to leave that steady paycheck. And they let me go, thankfully, I guess they caught onto the fact that most of my day was spent on real estate investor forums and things like that. But anyway, they let me go and I became a full-time investor and my ex-wife and I ran that for 8 or 9 years alone. And then we started bringing on a team which started with my brother-in-law. He was one of the first people to sign on. And we grew that team and learned a lot after we joined the masterminds. And that’s where we started really systematizing the business, and a great book called, “Traction” by Gino Wickman really showed us how to operate the business like a true business.

Jay Conner

00:21:38

You just mentioned the phrase of transitioning in your business. So walk us through that process. How did you transition from doing everything, wearing all the hats to really building a true real estate investing business that was working for you instead of you working for it?

Danny Johnson

00:22:03

Sure. And I’ll tell you what I did first really quickly so that people don’t do what I did first because it wasn’t the right way to go about it. So the first hires, how it went down was, “Hey, yeah, sure. That’d be great. Yeah, come on and help us out. You know, you’ve been on a couple of appointments with me to talk to sellers.” And they would come in and I would just say, “Well, shadow me for a week. That’s how you’re going to learn what you’re supposed to do.” That was not the way to set somebody up for success. And so everything that I had learned over the years and doing the business 8 or 9 years, wearing all the hats, that was all in my head, and I was expecting them by just shadowing me for a week to pick up on all of it.

So when it was time for me to not be there for them to go on the appointment, they were really not set up to succeed. And I was thinking, “Well, they’ll find their own way. Like I did,” right? Not a good way to do it. So I don’t recommend that. What I recommend is setting things up. There’s a good, really good book called “Work The System,” that I forgot the author’s name, but he talks about setting up your procedures. And I wish I had done this even before I planned on bringing people in because there were so many times where I came up against the situation that I had solved before, but I didn’t remember how I solved it. And so I had to go back and spend all this time trying to figure out the right solution.

Whereas if I had just documented what to do in this situation, I would have known. And the beautiful thing about when you do that is you realize a lot of times, even with the things that you do on a weekly or daily basis, is pretty inefficient. And when you document it out and you’re like, “Whoa, what am I? Wow, I’m-” and then you realize how much you’re doing as well, which will make you want to hire someone to take a lot of that off your plate. So getting all of that documented, I use a tool called “TETTRA.” It’s free. I think you get a free account and you can document your procedures there. And then whenever you hire a team, they have a place to easily find all of those procedures. And then they have a way to communicate and update those so that they’re living documents, they’re living processes.

And so when you set those things up like that, when you bring somebody on, number one, they’re going to have a lot more trust in your company because you don’t want to be starting a job where you’re feeling like everything is just shooting from the hip and nothing is structured at all. And job security might be in question. And so having all of that to bring somebody in, to follow what you’ve proven to work, and then they can just pick it up. And what that does is that truly does free you from having to interact as much, because they have something to go off of and they won’t be calling you every hour or 30 minutes, even asking you questions about things, making you question whether even hiring somebody was the right thing to do.

Because I found that I would get into situations where I would say, “What am I doing? I can finish this faster than it would take to explain it to them.” And you do not want to fall into that trap. And so documenting those processes is absolutely critical. The next thing I don’t want to spend too much time on is, but the next thing is really having that system in place where everything in the business is in, the data is there in a place that everybody on the team has access to it. And even if you’re a small team, even when it was my ex-wife and I, having that place where everything about the lead in the deal is right there in one place, keeps everything so much more organized and less communication needing to happen. I didn’t have to bug her to find out some situation about this deal because it’s all right there in the system, right?

Yeah. And things that you can do these days with what we’ve done with Forefront and several other systems out there, all the communication can be tracked within the system. So not only do you have the deal information for one of these properties, you also can have all your communication that was ever had with them within that same record. So you can see no matter who chose the call, who sent the text, who received the text, it’s all right there on a timeline. And the beautiful thing about that is when you do that, you start to get into things that really help you also dial in your marketing because you can track, you get a different phone number per marketing channel, or even campaign. So everything’s attributed properly and it’s really producing not just the leads, but the ones that become deals. And then the profit you actually get from those deals per campaign. Because if you’re not tying all that stuff together and figuring that out, how do you make decisions on where to put your marketing?

Jay Conner

00:26:56

I love the way you got that set up. So in your CRM, Forefront, if you can get the phone numbers to track all the marketing from that same system, right?

Danny Johnson

00:27:11

We actually integrate it right now with CallRail.

Jay Conner

00:27:16

I use CallRail, but I have a VA that I actually manually puts in the information. So it’s really cool for you to have a CRM that you develop that CallRail actually communicates and it goes straight into your CRM. Right?

Danny Johnson

00:27:33

Right. And then the text messages, everything gets routed through. So you can see and listen to those calls, listen to voicemails. That’s a good way to stay on top of your team, too, when you look at the KPI page and you’re seeing that, “Hey, for some reason, we’re having less appointments being set, even though our lead count is the same or better. What’s going on?” You can go into those records and listen to the calls. And there was a situation that we ran into where that happened. And it turned out that our lead intake person taking the calls was making assumptions about the seller’s motivation level. They had plenty of equity. They didn’t know much, but they were saying, “They’re not motivated. So I didn’t set the appointment.” It’s like, when did you decide to start doing that? Like, that’s completely against what we’ve trained, you know? But something happened maybe where somebody was angry or who knows, but you’ve gotta be able to see that kind of thing in your business.

Jay Conner

00:28:32

Well, you just told the story of, by listening to the calls, you’re learning that, “Oh, my lands, what in the world is this person saying?” which reminds me of a very, very important principle that I learned years ago. And that is you cannot expect anything in your business that you cannot inspect, so you can’t expect it unless you can inspect it. And one way that you’re inspecting is by actually being able to listen to those recorded calls that come in. Danny, let’s go ahead and let folks know how they can learn about your software, your CRM system, and keeping up with all the leads.

Danny Johnson

00:29:12

You can find out more at forefrontcrm.com. We’ve got it where there’s a button to book a demo, go ahead and do that if you’re interested in finding out more, and that way we can find out what you’re looking for, what you’re needing in your business, and then tailor that demo specifically to you to show you how it can actually help you with that and show you all the cool features, everything that we’ve built, but not spend a whole day running you through everything, but just showing the pieces that make sense and matter for you and where you’re at in your investing business.

I’ve been on a couple of interviews, but it’s quite a few actually, but the big thing that I’m seeing with investors wanting to get to the next level, even if you’ve gotten to a good level, is this thing where we’ve overcome some fears and got our comfort zone and got to the next level. But sometimes we don’t realize when we get to another plateau and there’s new fears that we’re not acknowledging. And so taking a look at, no matter where you’re at in this business, if you are avoiding things and doing things that keep you in your comfort zone, or even having false beliefs about what’s keeping you stuck. Looking at that, accepting it, and then just looking at the next step. What is the next thing that you need to do? And just do that. Don’t give it too much thought. Just do it and take action.

[aspoonofsugar]

The Way Back Home

Lila’s shoes are always red, just like the Handler’s. It is a nice bit of foreshadowing and symbolism that links the two characters.

At the same time, this detail reminds me of The Wizard of Oz (the movie). I don’t think that this is a planned reference, but I think some aspects of the story fit with The Umbrella Academy and especially with season 2.

REGINALD AND THE HANDLER: THE WIZARD AND THE WITCH

Five is ironically both proud and ashamed of this talent. This duality aka his wish to be a hero and his pride as a killer are well conveyed by his relationship with both his father and the Handler.

As stated in this meta, the Handler and Reginald embody two different tendencies of Five, aka his pride as an assassin and his wish to be a hero. These two things are opposite, so one would think the same about the two people connected to them. In a sense, this is true. As a matter of fact the Handler and Reginald’s objectives are at odds. On one hand the Handler does not really care about the world. On the other hand Reginald wants to save it.

Because of this, it might seem that the Handler is the Big Bad, while Reginald is the Big Good. However, it is clear since season 1 that this is not the case. In particular, it is true that the Handler is a villain, just like the Wicked Witch of the West. Still, this does not make Reginald a hero, just like the Wizard of Oz is an ambiguous character in the original story.

In short, the Handler is a completely negative character, while Reginald is a more complex one. She serves as the main enemy this season, but he is the character the protagonists need to face to complete their journeys. This is why the Handler works as a foil to Reginald. In this way, she underlines his negative traits:

Both Reginald and the Handler pursue kids because of their extraordinary abilities and abuse them trying to mold them in who they want. Not only that, but in the end they both discard these children to take in “better ones”:

That said, the reason why the Handler and Reginald abandon their respective kids is the opposite.

On one hand the Handler dicards Lila because she turned out different from her.

The Handler is unable to love, while Lila is mainly motivated by love. She tries her best to be an assassin out of love for the Handler. She falls for Diego and refuses to kill him. Finally, she wants to kill Five to avenge her parents. For better or worse, Lila is always motivated by love and this is precisely why the Handler can’t keep using her forever:

On the other hand Reginald refuses his children because they share his own flaws:

Reginald: “Despite years of training and weeks of preparations, you allowed Number Six to die on this mission”. 

This is pretty clear in the scene above. There Reginald blames the kids for Ben’s death, but fails to recognize his own role in it. Reginald keeps telling his children to take responsibility. They should take responsibility for their powers, for their lives, for the world. However, he himself is a character, who always fails to recognize his own mistakes. Similarly, the things he criticizes his children for are usually traits he himself has.

Let’s consider this:

In a maybe simplicistic way, I am going to divide the siblings (minus Ben) in two groups:

a) Five, Luther and Diego want to be heroes, so they tend to be focused on saving the world.

b) Vanya, Allison and Klaus want to have fulfilling personal lives, so they tend to be focused on their relationships.

Some of Reginald’s children are focused on their mission of saving the world, while others simply want a fulfilling personal life.

Reginald fails at both things in ways that are incredibly similar to his kids.

On one hand Reginald, like his kids, is a failure hero. Just like Diego, he wants to save JFK, but fails. However, he is in a much better position to save the President than Diego and he is even warned by his children, who literally come from the future. Still, Reginald is too focused on antagonizing them and this leads to JFK’s death.

Similarly, he has trouble with a romantic partner just like Vanya, Allison and Klaus. Moreover, he eventually breaks up with Grace because he is not honest with her. This is exactly the same problem Vanya and Allison have.

Still, the two sisters in the end tell the truth to their partners and mendle their relationships.

Reginald instead refuses to open up to Grace and loses her.

In short, Reginald is a failure like his kids and he is even worse than them because he is less open to learn from his mistakes.

This is why in season 1, he ends up being involved with the apocalypse in all the ways the Umbrella Academy is.

Firstly, his mistreatement of Vanya and his cruelty to Harold Jenkins are among the factors that lead to the apocalypse. In short, Reginald is the heart of the dysfunctionality of the family and it is this dysfunctionality that leads to the end of the world.

Secondly, he deep down has the same delusion his sons have. He believes that to save the world it is necessary for the group to be together. However, him actually bringing the siblings together is what kickstarts the whole chain of events of season one. This is not to say that the siblings should be apart. In general, if they wanna grow as people they all need to solve their family issues. However, Reginald, like Five and Luther, is not being honest with himself. As far as we know, there is no logical reason as to why the Umbrella Academy should save the world. Still, there are plenty of emotional reasons as for why the characters want to bring the group back together.

In a sense, Reginald is probably the same. He too wants to bring the family back and for them to be heroes (so that he can succeed through them). However, instead of simply trying to reconnect with his kids, he chooses to kill himself.

This solution is a highly traumatic and manipulative one and it ties with Reginald not really wanting to put in the emotional work to make things better between him and his children. He gives them a trauma and leaves a bunch of secrets and of things unsolved.

In short, Reginald keeps reprimanding his children, but he fails to see how the flaws he points out are flaws he himself has. Differently, whenever one of the kids tries to call him out, he is ready to dismiss them.

In conclusion, Reginald, just like the Wizard of Oz, is looked up by the protagonists as the person that can fix everything. He can fix both them and their situation. The truth is that Reginald is just a normal person, who is even more flawed than his kids.

This is why he gives Five the same answer about the Apocalypse as the Handler:

It is not really because Reginald is not interested in saving the world, but because symbolically he can’t and his flaw is that he thinks he can. His kids should be more objective about what kind of person Reginald is and see him not as a hero or a villain, but as a human, who is greatly flawed to boot.

THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO BECOME WHO YOU WANT TO BE

To summarize, the season starts with a blue vortex taking the siblings to a far away world.

In order to go back home, they have to face a Wicked Witch:

And they seek help from an ambiguous Wizard, that is actually a person from another world:

However, this Wizard can’t really help them and the most he can do is to highlight that they already have within themselves the means to reach their objectives:

Reginald: “You only scratched the surface of what you were truly capable of. If only you had focused”.

Klaus: “Wait, wait, wait. What…What potential?”

Reginald: “Maybe your appetite is disproportionate to the size of your abilities. Start small. Seconds, not decades.” 

As you can see, there are some similarities (very loose ones) with the Wizard of Oz basic story-line.

What is interesting is especially the last part. Reginald manages to be useful to his kids in mostly two occasions. He manages to make Klaus realize he has more potential than what he thinks. And he manages to make Five think about the way he has been using his power.

Both times, the characters are able to unlock new powers in the finale because of their father’s words and they use these new abilities to save their siblings:

The siblings unlocking new abilities is important because their powers symbolize both their flaws and the way to overcome them. I have analyzed each sibling here and in many cases I have shown how their powers are symbolic.

Here, I will make a quick summary and highlight that the siblings’ powers represent both their problems and their solutions in ways that are often ironic.

1) Luther’s power is superstrength. However, this power contrasts with his sensitive personality:

In order to grow Luther must become a “stronger person”, not in the sense that he must be physically strong, but in the sense that he must be stronger psychologically.

Moreover, he has gorilla DNA, but, especially in season 1, he wants to act as a superhuman. The truth is that he is neither a monster nor a superhuman, but just a person and he should accept it.

2) Diego’s power is trajectory manipulation. Despite this, he is not really able to change his own trajectory to one different from the one Reginald chose for him:

3) Allison’s power is that she can turn lies and illusions into reality. Her voice can literally control others. Despite this, she often finds herself losing it and she does not realize that it could actually change the world for the better, if she learnt to use it correctly:

4) Klaus’s power is that he can communicate with the deads. Despite this, he is scared of death and does not accept it:

He is annoyed by his siblings not listening to him. but he himself does not listen to the voices of the ghosts, who would like to convey a message to the livings. He prefers to use drugs to keep them at bay.

He is literally a medium, someone who should create links between people, but he refuses this role. He isolates himself from the major conflicts and refuses to involve Ben in the family conversations.

5) Five’s power is that he can control space-time. Despite this, he has never enough time:

Five (every two seconds): “We have no time for this!”

This is a recurring motif in Five’s story. Not only does he always have no time to stop the apocalypse, but he is also the one, who has spent the least amount of time with his family. Moreover, he is the one, who has “lived” the least, despite being the oldest.

This is why him rewinding time at the end of season 2 is important:

Reginald:  “ So much can change in a matter of seconds. One can overthrow and empire. One can fall in love. An acorn doesn’t become an oak overnight. “

It is because is focus is switching on the idea that a bunch of seconds matter and that it is small moments that are important in one’s life.

6) Ben’s power is to be a portal for a monster. Ironically, he is actually the one, who more openly conveys the feelings of love for his siblings. He is the one, who comforts Vanya this season and he generally works as the heart of the family in everyone’s memory. It is possible more focus on him will make a more in depth analysis possible, but as for now this contrast between his personality and his power is the only thing we have.

7) Vanya’s power is that she can convert sounds into energy. It is also clear that her powers are strictly connected to her emotions. Despite this, she usually represses her feelings:

This repression is symbolically conveyed with her always ending up imprisoned somewhere:

The physical prisons she finds herself in are nothing more than representations of her constricted mental state. It also ties with the paradox that she always ends up victimized despite being the strongest among her siblings.

In short, the siblings’ arcs are conveyed also with them learning to control their powers better because their powers are nothing, but underdeveloped parts of their personalities. If they were to better understand themselves they would be able to perfectly control their abilities.

They are like the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. They are all searching for things they already have. It is just that they fail to notice and search them outside themselves.

It is because of this ignorance that they lose against Lila.

LILA: A CHILD AWAY FROM HOME

Lila is just another version of The Umbrella Academy kids:

She is them and who they could have become. This is why her power lets her copy theirs.

Hopefully, Lila will be back and we will be given more insight on what her power means for her character. For example, @hamliet suggested that Lila does not really know who she is and this is why she copies others. This reading fits and will probably be explored more in future seasons.

However, it is clear that the choice of Lila’s power has mostly to do with the Hargreeves’ siblings.

She copies their powers because she is them. After all, she is one of the children born the 1st of October 1989 and was stolen and trained by an abusive parent. Moreover, she foils each sibling in a specific way and her fights (or lack of a fight) with them say how.

First of all, she copies Vanya’s power and uses them to create a barrier and to destroy the farm with an energy wave:

She is emotionally distancing herself from them (creating a barrier) and lashing out on them (energy wave). She is acting on her negative feelings toward them and attacking them. This is precisely what Vanya does at the end of season 1. If Vanya is the angry child they have to fight and to save in season 1, then Lila is the lost and angry child they have to confront in season 2. If Vanya has been hurt by her family, then Lila has been hurt by Five. Both characters have their reasons to be angry and even if these reasons do not justify their actions, they need to be aknowledged.

Then Lila confronts Luther and copies his superstrength. While they are fighting she mocks him in this way:

It is ironic that she says so because what makes she and Luther similar is that they both lack self-esteem. They both feel that they are not enough and want to prove to their parent their value. This is why Lila shows jealousy over her mother’s treatment of Five, for example:

Both Luther and Lila must overcome their parent’s shadow and start living for themselves, so that they can figure out who they are.

At this point, Lila faces Allison and she is able to take Allison’s breath away thanks to a “rumor”:

It is an occurrence of Allison losing her voice (a recurring motif in her arc). Why does Lila manage to steal it? It is because Lila is a liar, just like Allison herself:

Lila too builds her major relationships on lies. On one hand she is on the receiving hand of this by the Handler:

On the other hand she lies to Diego:

Lila and Allison are two people so scared that they won’t be loved if they are their true selves that they have the tendency to lie to both themselves and others.

Finally, Lila finds Five aka his major target and they start fighting each other. The truth is that Five dislikes Lila because she represents everything he dislikes about himself. Not only she is an assassin of the Commission like Five used to be, but he has unknowingly done to her what the Handler did to him:

Lila is the direct consequence of Five’s violence. Moreover, she is also the character that challenges Five’s pride the most directly:

Five has tied his identity with his talent as a killer, but Lila is clearly as skilled as him, if not more, and they are able to go toe to toe. Of course, the thing is mutual. Lila too is proud of her talent and wants to prove herself. This is one of the reasons she dislikes Five since the beginning.

Both Lila and Five are victims of a system that has manipulated them and tied who they are to killing. They should both overcome this imposed identity and let go of a pride that is negative for them.

At this point, Diego and the others come. This scene is symbolic of the whole family facing another version of itself. What is more, they attempt to do what they did not in season 1 with Vanya. Instead of trying to kill Lila, they try to reconcile with her and to have her join their family:

In particular, Diego is the one, who does so and it is because Lila represents a positive quality in his case. She represents Diego’s potential to “change trajectory” and they manage to influence each other positively. It is not by chance that when Diego arrives Lila is holding a knife aka his signature weapon. That knife is supposed to hurt Diego and his family, but he manages to change its trajectory:

This is because both Lila and Diego are two characters, who are clearly able to change and improve. Lila, like Diego in season 1, is obsessed with revenge, but is able to let go because of a loved one. In other words, Diego teaches Lila what he had learnt from Patch.

However, in the end Lila does not join the family (at least for now) and runs away. Why is that so thematically? Moreover, what about Klaus? Why did she not face him?

She does not face Klaus because she is unable to face her own grief, just like Klaus runs away from his own. Ironically, Klaus’s power is the one that could let Lila contact her dead parents and find closure. However, the two do not meet and Lila’s story in season 2 ends with more grief:

Sure, the Handler never cared about Lila, but she was still her adoptive mother and Lila will have to process her loss. It is the same for Klaus, who will have to process his unsolved feelings for Ben:

Both characters have to process loss and grief (let’s think that Klaus’s focus this season was mostly about accepting Dave’s death), but they struggle to do so. This is why they are similar and this is also why they do not face each other. It is because they are both running away. Klaus runs away from his power and from its potential for catharsis and reconciliation. Lila too runs away and it is actually the last thing she does on-screen. She runs away in time to avoid facing the pain and conflict she has in front of her.

In a sense, she is following in The Umbrella Academy’s footsteps. They ended season 1 time-travelling to escape the apocalypse, while Lila ends season 2 time-travelling to escape her ghosts and contradictions.

The question then is if she will manage to go back home. It won’t be easy because as Allison says in the last episode:

Allison: “I wish I could tell you it’s gonna be easier from here, but it’s not. It’s going to get worse before it gets better (...) before we fins the right way home.”

This is true for the Hargreeves as well. They might have managed to leave Dallas, but they are still far away from home:

Just like Dorothy initially loses her chance to leave Oz with the Wizard, they are still stranded. That said, they just have to remember that the means to find their place in the world is something they have within themselves. They just have to realize it.

[riisinaakka-draws]

Progress gif of this:  “Would you still recognize me?”

The quality isn’t the best possible, but hopefully you get the idea how things evolved... It’s made from “the preview pics” that I saved in this painting’s draft/wip folder whenever I took a break or wanted to compare/remember something special - and also so that I’d know where I left things and wouldn’t have to open the actual psd file every time, lol. To make the gif size smaller and to have it flow better (and be less eye-hurting), I left some of the frames out.

I admit it, it’s quite fascinating to watch now after everything :D *pats myself on the back*

So that the post doesn’t become too long on the dash, I put some additional notes under the cut, mainly about the refs and wips if you want to take a look! Please, do not repost elsewhere :)

(Btw, you can just read the bolded parts if you want a quick version or get tired of the rambling.)

I want to point out that the main work always happens underneath all kinds of adjustment layers because I like to test things a lot during the process before sticking on something if I don’t quite know yet what I want. Like the colour scheme or where the light comes (or if there are multiple light sources) or if something needs more contrast etc. So I paint with simpler colours first, but already have some ideas/adjustment layers over them, but hidden and waiting until the basics are done. Then I merge things and continue to paint with the “new” colour palette.

I also often test filters to have more texture or bring out some things better - or just to find something interesting to incorporate! Accented edges, crosshatch and watercolor are things that I often test in some way over my sketches and wips at some point when the basics are done or when I need/want some kind of further effect/texture or just something to knit them together better and for balance. And also just for fun!

Then I flatten the things I like (or I am “certain about” at that point) and continue painting over that ...aaaand end up testing something else, keep different versions or parts of things on separate layer groups (to compare or to bring back some earlier things that I liked or alternative lighting solution or object/body part placement, or...) and so on...seriously it’s always a mess controlled chaos! aahahahaha *face palm*

But mainly the things keep building on top of each other instead of having neat groups for sketch, lineart, colours, lighting etc. I mean, I always try to start with that but never have been able to actually keep it very long... And on the other hand I’m too nervous and indecisive to paint with only single layer/canvas from the beginning with (like a traditional painting would be painted). Or with just a few layers for background, character(s), effects on their own and so on... So I have this chaos that swirls towards that something that I had preplanned or wanted to achieve/practise until I’m happy with it.

ANYWAY, BACK TO THE ACTUAL ART :

The original “spark” for this work was Flint at the end of the episode 1 with his bloody face and white shirt, and that nice splash of light, which made me think about the aftermath and him cleaning himself in the privacy of his cabin with some nice morning light painting his beard fiery and him lost in thoughts :) At some point that made me think of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s beautiful painting “The Laundress” which I have liked since I was a kid, so I started to steer towards it.

See the resemblance? (˵ ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°˵)ﾉ ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Some of the refs for the bowl and Flint. The angle/posture ended up being a bit different and I had more refs for Flint’s face and shirt and hand etc.

Some wips:

1) basically the idea and items that I wanted to include.

2) after a break (weeks? months?) and after I had searched some more references to help. The eyes were at this point (accidentally) absolutely awful so I censored them for the sake of my own peace of mind here, lol (not sorry!)

More wips along the way, although not much difference can be seen as the pics are quite small.. :

3) I mirrored/flipped the painting constantly, to see the mistakes and also because I couldn’t decide which way I wanted him to be! This stage was aaalmost ready but I got stuck and forgot let it be for several months doing other stuff again.

4) I continued it, fixed lots of things with fresh eyes and experimented more with lighting and texture but nothing too drastic stuck in the end. I have two monitors and either (or both...) are calibrated a bit off atm, so it was quite frustrating to navigate and to know which one had the right colours that I was after... and I still don’t know but it looks nice on both screens so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   At this stage things were basically nitpicking and a bit too much honing.

The finished piece:

In the end I lost some of the things I actually liked more in the earlier versions (for example some had more of a dreamy feeling or better texture or more emotions/wearyness/anger showing that didn’t quite reach the end result again) and I overworked some other things, but nevertheless! I’m very pleased how this turned out! I reached the vision I wanted and learned a lot again :D

Thanks for reading <3

[scandeniall]

Dear Diary

song 1: dear diary |  good & bad masterlist | prev | next

Pairing: sakusa x reader

Summary/warnings: life has been kicking your ass yet you don’t want to tell sakusa/profanity

WC: 1.5K

“How’ve you been,” you paused debating on answering honestly or not. Switching your phone to speaker, you fiddled with the covers resting beneath your fingers before sighing out. “I miss you Yoomi.” A silence comes settled through the phone line. “How are you doing?” The insistence of your well being causes another sigh to escape your lips. Of course he could tell that something was off even through the phone and a part of you curses his observational skills. “Im just--really fucking stressed,” you mutter out reluctantly. 

“Have you been taking care of yourself? Eating real meals and getting proper sleep?” The questions being rattled off on the other side of the phone causes you to crack a small smile at his concern. You could only imagine the furrow in his brows at the thought of a lack of concern for your own health. You almost miss the ending of the questions as he tells you not to lie to him. Your silence causes Sakusa to sigh on the line. 

“Sometimes I hate how much you really know me.” You voice the thoughts that had previously been in your head. Sakusa could hear the slightest of background noise as you maneuver yourself under the warm comforter and shifted to get comfortable. “Do you need me to come home.” The words aren’t phrased as a question, and that causes you to quickly shake your head despite the fact that he couldn't see that.

“No-no. Yoomi, it's fine. I just- I just need to get my mind right and relax. I just needed to hear your voice tonight, that's all.” You tell him, despite wanting nothing more than for him to be back with you.He’d been on the road for the last month, a series of away games and such. And right before he left, you’d been out of town on a major business trip. It seemed as if time nor luck were your friend. It’d been at least a month and a half since the two of you were anywhere near one another. He’d still be gone another month and all either of you could do was wait it out. 

The silence that followed your response was telling. You could already imagine the way Sakusa has his eyes narrowed in thought. Thinking about whether he should push for your well being or let it go for now. The quietest sigh escaped his mouth from the other side of the phone. He’d made his decision. “I miss you too. I’ll be home soon.” 

Life after that phone call seemed to grow progressively worse. Not only had you and Sakusa not been able to squeeze in another talk in the following week, but life sucked. Your job has been giving you more and more responsibility, and allowing you more freedom. On one hand that was great, a celebratory text sent to your boyfriend at the talks of you in for a promotion, however it was tiring. You were coming home later and later, exhausted and starting to neglect your own health.

It’s not you were intentional in the neglect. It just felt too damn hard to come home after a long day and cook a healthy and fulfilling meal. When you were home you were suddenly reminded of just how empty the apartment was without Sakusa. Dust that was normally absent due to his cleanliness began to appear. Dishes piled up more than he would have liked. Whenever you did bother to straighten up at least for his sake, it drained you. 

Adulthood was really kicking your ass and it came to a head one night when you woke up sweating. As if life couldn’t drag you down even more, your AC had gone out right during the hottest part of the summer. Come morning you found out that your landlord had gone on vacation and could not and would not be able to fix the unit for at least a week. 

So you’d done what you usually did. Sucked it up and forced yourself to push through. Not a word of your woes to Sakusa who had more important matters to attend to other than your slump. You went to work, exhausted yourself there and dragged your feet into the dreaded heat of your apartment. 

Upon entering you were automatically hit with a wave of heat, making your already sluggish steps heavier. Kicking your shoes off you offhandedly waved hello to the person seated on the couch before dragging yourself towards the kitchen like it was completely normal. A moment later you stopped in your tracks. “Yoomi?”

The slightest nod from your boyfriend caused you to blink in surprise before launching yourself into his arms. “What are you doing here,” you muttered as his hands ran up and down your back. Pulling away slightly you eyed him. He looked tired. Eyes unusually sunken and you noticed the tiniest sheen of sweat across his forehead. You went to pull away knowing the touch paired with the heat would likely make him uncomfortable. To your surprise, the hands wrapped around your middle didn’t make any moves to release you. “You needed me so I came home.”

You felt a squeeze in your heart as your arms tightened wrapped around his shoulders. “But I didn't say anything—“

“Your voice. On the other week. And then your texts were different.” Of course he noticed. The conversation had already signaled to him that you weren’t the best. Your shaky exhales as you insisted that you were fine and that he didn’t need to come home. Then he noticed the jokes within your texts began to slowly subside. You’d also found yourself saying that you missed him more than usual. “So you came back?”

“I have a 3 day weekend this week. Then I’m back to practicing.” You nodded in understanding the two of you releasing one another and you noticed Sakusa frown. “Why’s it hot?” You explained about the broken AC and about the suffering you’ve endured for the past 2 days. “Did you get any more fans?” He looked annoyed once you denied purchasing any additional appliances knowing he’d had to get that done for you. “You know you’re more susceptible to nosebleeds in the heat right?”

“Thank you Dr. Omi,” you teased, laughing at his scowl from the nickname. The two of you settled onto the couch, your head coming to rest on his shoulder. “It’s common knowledge.” His replies allow a lightness to settle in your heart. One you hadn’t felt in weeks. The two of you settle into a silence for a little while his hand rubbing soft circles on your knee. “You need to take better care of yourself. And tell me when you need me.”

“I didn't want to take you away from your busy schedule,” you hum out. You feel the movement against your knee stop, a former grip replacing it. “I don't care how busy I am, I’m here. Now stop being annoying and tell me things.” You feel yourself jokingly roll your eyes before agreeing. However that wasn’t enough as you heard the scoff from next to you. 

“I’m serious. You remember what you told me back in college”

“Pretty sure I told you a lot of things back then,” you tease, taking his closest hand and interlocking your fingers. “You believed in me,” he started catching your eyes. “Told me you always knew there was no limit to me. That means I can handle it. Don’t feel like you’re annoying me.” Your eyes widened at how he remembered that very specific moment. 

It was around 4 years ago. He’d just told you that he signed to MSBY, something everyone around him was dying to know. Yet you were the first person he told. He remembered how your eyes beamed as you sat on his lap, your phone camera in his face recording the moment for memories sake. He didn’t even bother swatting it away like he usually did. He’d allowed you to place messy kisses all across his face despite the feel of your tacky chapstick. “Why do you remember that,” you questioned a soft smile gracing your own features. 

You notice the shrug of his shoulders as he helped to to sit you sideways into his lap. “Doesn’t matter. Now tell me what’s wrong. And then we’re going to get some fans.” You nodded leaning so that your lips met his for a soft kiss. “I really missed you,” you murmured into the kiss. And while he was only there for the weekend it was enough. He came home for you. The one who has loved and supported him with open arms for the past 5 years. He’d be damned if he didn’t try to make up for it. 

So you told him everything on your mind. Laughing every time he scolded you for the little things. “Don’t let the dust build up by the time I get back next month.” To “You need to sleep more.” And in return you got the same. You got the story from the exhaustion laced in his eyes. The hours it took to get to you, and the germs he forced himself to sit through to make it happen. And despite the annoying heat in the apartment, neither of you have felt that good in a while.

a/n: wow i FINALLY got at least 2 consective songs in a row done so now my prev/next is relevant for at least 2 parts. This took a different route than I initially planned for, nor is it exact in its storytelling. It was also started 2 months ago and finished now bc it was kinda hard for me. Anyways hi um did you catch the no limit to you ref? bc yeah i love that and to date still my fav piece ive ever written. you dont have to read that to understand this but its 5.4k words if you have some spare time.

anyways: im about to be on an 8hr car ride so feel free to request stuff. rules 

[beautifulterriblequeen]

I’m really intrigued by Rayla’s moonshadow assassin peers. I especially am interested in Andromeda because I think she is the only other girl in the group? Do you have any headcanons in how these teen/young adult assassins interacted? Do you think Rayla isolated herself from them because she was always iffy about taking a life? Also TDP finally colored their map and I know you live maps, find any new cool stuff? I especially love how there’s a frozen sea north and a spinning sea south, imagine the powerful Magic’s that channeled to make them.

Okay, so I jumped straight to the map, did 80% of it, and wandered away for a few weeks. I apologize, anon. Let’s get this going again:

I’ve got a few headcanons on the Moonshadow assassins! It seems likely that they hang out mostly with each other, when they hang out, to reinforce their teambuilding and to give them some socialization, since assassins tend to keep others at arm’s length. So I kinda figure they tend to roam as a pack on their evenings out in the village, if they’re not married to a non-assassin like Runaan is.

I think that could be part of the reason that Rayla might not have hung out with the others as much, too: Runaan wanted to be either training or at home with Ethari, so Rayla probably spent a lot of time doing those things just because he did them. And when Runaan was doing more serious training or missions, that’s when Rayla had her free time to run around the forest and make adoraburr friends. 

Runaan could’ve probably insisted that she do something more assassiny with her free time. Shadow an assassin, do more studying, practice certain prescribed skills on her own. But he didn’t. He let her play. Soft assassin is soft!

Listen, anon, I have a fun headcanon for you about Andromeda--and by fun, I mean it’s really angsty half a second after you start thinking about it. Ready? 

What if: Andromeda is Runaan’s half-sister. If they’re both Lujanne’s children by different assassin dads who kept dying in battle, but a Moon mage needs an assassin leader partner to defend Xadia with, and Lujanne knew her son Runaan wasn’t old enough to lead yet, so she burned through three or more husbands protecting him until Runaan was well trained enough to lead the assassins himself and had fallen in love with a mage who adored him and would be his partner in her place.

 Andromeda looks a fair bit like Lujanne, too:

Along with Runaan, they all have long hair, side tails bound in silver cuffs, and some form of braids. Andromeda’s hair is sectioned in front similarly to Runaan’s. Her accent sounds more British than Scottish, though she only has the one line: My eyes for truth. And Lujanne and Andromeda are the only two Moonshadow elves we’ve met who have medium blue horns, while Runaan’s are dark blue. Almost everyone else’s horns have purple or pink as their base color.

But then, see, Andromeda went on Runaan’s mission, and she died. Her spirit was the most aggressive in TTM, usually closest to Rayla with her sword out, as if she hated Rayla the most. If she had a vested family interest in Runaan’s mission succeeding, and then it went pear-shaped because of Rayla, that would make sense.

No matter if she’s related to Runaan or not, she’s wearing horn cuffs, so she was in a dedicated relationship of some kind, and that’s so sad. Someone’s missing her the way Ethari’s missing Runaan. :’((((

Anyway, it’s just a headcanon, but since you asked, there ya go.

Okay, on to my thoughts on the map, of which I have a normal and healthy amount:

The Map Border: 

Everyone doodles in the borders. I love to see what they put there.

Starting in the upper left and going counter-clockwise, the five human crowns are cool

Cornucopia swirls center left look like an homage to Cabbage Man from ATLA

Bait is staring at Evenere. his home? Or maybe he just wants to eat the dragonfly on its logo

Human defender has a beard. Hairagorn. He's very heavily armored but has no helmet. Long hair is braided to rest on front of shoulder, like the blond elf in the painting at the Moon Nexus. Old timey hairstyle?

He’s defending Katolis Castle specifically. I wonder if the little white building is kinda random or if it’s supposed to represent the Banther Lodge. Nah, I have a better guess: that’s where Viren grew up

The crack in the map looks meta. It's been repaired somewhat. Makes me wonder if it's an in-world map, whose, who ripped it, and who fixed it. Sir Phineas Kurst seems like the kind of guy to almost shred his really cool map

The star behind Zym's egg has seven points

The two ships on the southern waters are western and eastern respectively. Tidebound elves from Singapore? Jack Sparrow would be proud

There is land just south of the Dragontail, wonder what’s there?

The leaves around the human figure are small and numerous while the Moonshadow elf has fewer but bigger leaves

The elf is standing in the way of one of the six leaves growing out of the rune rose and that leaf's curly tip seems to have been replaced with a curl of the elf's very long hair

The human pose is more offense and the elf pose is more defense. But the elf has two swords, and one has some wicked hooks in it.

Elf has 4 fingers instead of 3 so whether it’s in-universe or meta, they were drawn by a human :DDD

The elf's braid winds around their horn and I think that's clever

High collar shirt under protective layer, bracers and elbow gloves, bare biceps, complex shoulder getup, ornate hair that's butt long and partly braided, two long slightly curving swords... horn cuffs too. This is a Moonshadow assassin in the same gear Runaan's got, poised to defend the Xadian half of the map as the human is poised to defend his side

The rune rose isn't a compass. It has a two sided pointer and six primal runes. Just decorative I guess. ;)

More lettuces on right center.

Maybe a portaling caterpillar on the center knot? Little bug pal, I see you

“The Five Human Kingdoms” lettered in red, “Xadia” in blue. Giving me Stratego flashbacks. Even the flowers on their banners are color coded

Banners in the corners are similar but Xadia has more fluttery tips

Thunder drawn all attacky top center, does he have anything to do with the Frozen Sea being frozen?

Compass rose under Thunder’s wing

Dick island near the compass. Well, Duren is the breadbasket of the human lands. A most excellent cartography joke! 10/10 would chortle wholesomely again

The Human Kingdoms:

Neolandia

Capital Eboreus seems to be a lake city below a mountain and I'm here for all the Lake Town refs. 

It's also the eye of the elephant shape

Not a lot of trees, mostly grasses or desert. Only borders Duren across a couple rivers/estuaries/sea channels

Heart shaped island next to elephant trunk

Land generally broken into several sections by sea/rivers 

If it’s rivers, they seem to generate from the capital’s lake and flow in several directions. And they say there’s no magic left in the western lands! ;)

But if there was exactly one source of freshwater in a desert land, it makes sense that you’d find a way, magical or mechanical, to spread that lifegiving water in as many directions as possible so your people can thrive so kudos to Neolandia’s ancestors/Tidebound elves/whoever managed that, it’s brilliant

I can and will make up explanations for anything on a map. I adore worldbuilding

Del Bar

Two named locations. Since Del Bar’s national symbol is a serpent, I guess Serpentongue is the capital.

Hinterpeak is a sweet name. Looks like Helm's Deep with that retaining wall. What’s it for? Are there dwarves in this land? Is it an Earthblood stronghold? Maybe it’s like the Mines of Moria, and the Earthbloods were chased out and/or killed inside and now it’s full of nasty orcses but someone left a MacGuffin down there so *nudges hero* Off you pop.

Nice forests around the southern mountain range but northern DB is more arid or grassy lands like Neolandia. 

Considering that crops grow well in Duren, which is farther north, I assume there is a massive meteorological gyre over the human lands, with a southern wind blowing down over the western realms and keeping them icy until the mountains of Hinterpeak block and divert them, protecting Evenere. The winds don't blow eastward without warming right up-- and causing thunderstorms in Katolis how about that-- because there is a warmer side to the gyre over Katolis and Duren, blowing tropical warmth and moisture north and providing rain for trees and crops alike. Most years, anyway.

How does the weather fail in Duren for seven years in a row, anyway? That seems like a Thunder issue. Unless it’s a Sunforge issue, which I’ll get to below.

Ahem.

Borders Neolandia, Duren, and Katolis across rivers, but most border is coastline.

Serpentongue probably got its name from the two river heads around it

Cluster of dead little cracks spawns a single river. Looks like someone cracked the tub and it drained away. I wonder how much of this landscape has been affected by the Mage Wars. Big watery basins have flooded and other spots seem dead. The lands may or may not actually touch depending on how deep some of these waterways are

Evenere

Looks like someone punched holes in the land with a giant pencil to make it a separate island. Broken outline with scattered islands

That Pawprint Isles has only four toes

Moon-shaped island is very crescenty indeed

Are these isles home to refugees or outcasts from Xadia? Listen, I want pirates and that sea looks pretty Caribbean to me

No capital city, hmmm what's that about? Is it underground, does it move? Maybe Fareeda’s capital is on the back of a world turtle and she’s constantly on tour around the island?

That arm of land ending in a peace sign, please can we get surfers

The hills emanating from that claw shaped headland look like something is sleeping under the island, hello yes I am here for giant immortal creatures please

Katolis

its capital is also called Katolis, the only human realm to use the same name twice

Weeping Bay could be a ref to the tears the humans shed after they reached the west. Or the Moonshadow elves as they left their forest for the east. Or both. Both, in this case, is bad but balanced

Boomerang island next to the Dragontail

The river the Dragaang rode on was going uphill

The watery slash in the land between Katolis and Del Bar is awfully straight. So is the one between Del Bar and Neolandia. I call magical warfare.

Katolis has a bunch of mountains in the east, part of an old natural border before the lava one appeared

Mt Kalik is probably volcanic. It's a standalone mountain and it's really tall. Rex Ignius maybe? Oh, probably not, I think I see him peeking on the other side of the map

The trees of Duren and Katolis are different then the western lands. Softer green, deciduous. And the land itself is yellower, warmer in tone

Forests centered on Mt Kalik

The Moon Nexus looks like an eye on a dragon head near the Dragontail, and Evenere looks like a severed wing (Yes I am still wondering where Luna Tenebris went, why do you ask)

Weeping Bay looks like the most natural body of water in the western lands

Three red little trees scattered around the Katolis map. Fruit trees? How very Moonshadow.

Duren

The only land border among all the human kingdoms is between Duren and Katolis. Maybe it used to be further south along the river?

Capital is Berylgarten, set on a lake. Beryl is a stone that’s usually green, blue, or yellow in color, very gardeny

Second smallest realm but the breadbasket of the human lands. Has several little forests and great tilled fields

Being a farmer in Duren is probably as awesome as being an assassin in the Moonshadow Forest; you do what you do for all your friendly kingdoms

Northernmost land is cold and craggy, named Skall's Hook along the sea

Third ship in the Frozen Sea is icebound and crushed. Looks western, indicating no possible passage

Lots of colored trees and shrubs as if fruitbearing, I keep comparing Duren to the Yakima Valley in Washington State

Where the lava reaches the Frozen Sea, it melts the ice next to Duren's mountains

Northern Xadia:

Lux Aurea

Most of the center lands of this map has warm tones for its ground. Maybe that’s because of the long reach of the warmth and light of Lux Aurea’s Sun Nexus, and only the lands that are just too far from it are truly cold and icy. It would explain why Duren is a breadbasket realm so far north--it’s just across the border from Lux Aurea.

If there’s anything to that, then I suddenly worry for the fate of all the human lands now that the Sunforge has gone dark. It’s early summer now in Xadia, and crops in Duren will be ripening soon... Unless the sun’s magic was helping them grow. This coming winter could be rough. Next winter, people will die. Unless they can purify the Sunforge again.

Also, I have to wonder if Duren’s seven years of famine had anything to do with Sunforge shenanigans. They’d have happened at Khessa’s command, and we know she despises humans. If she was responsible for all the struggles that humans had to go through without enough food for seven years, and then their desperate attempt to fix the problem by invading Xadia for a Magma Titan’s heart which extended and exacerbated the war, I can see why Aaravos might feel Queen Khessa deserved to die

The city’s shaped kinda like an Egyptian pectoral necklace on this map, and that’s super pretty and not at all ominous

Also that’s a lot of gold for a whole city and I wonder how they got it all

The Shiverglades and the Shards

These areas are north of Lux Aurea and seem cold but not very icy, even though the Frozen Sea is right there. More thoughtful glances at the Sunforge over this one. Is it warming the land, or not warming the sea? Both?

Shiverglades is a play on Everglades, so this is a cold swamp, which sounds super fun I’m sure. Permafrost, tundra maybe?

The Shards seem to be rock islands with ice mountains. Glaciers are cool. 

I wonder if something broke those islands off on purpose. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy worldbuilding? Yeah, well, I like world-wrecking, too.

Storm Spire

Has a good view on everything that happens for miles, including Lux Aurea, the Midnight Desert, the Shiverglades, the Black Tundra, the Uncharted Forest, and Drakewood. 

Defensible position, no other tall mountains nearby

Also able to alert others to danger, especially since Avizandum could teleport like lightning

The Midnight Desert

It’s pretty big! And it looks like it’s littered with ruins of columns and dead palm trees. Like something else used to be in that great space and then something Very Bad happened to it. Maybe there was one great city where all the elves could mix together, and then it got utterly obliterated and the elves all fled to their respective safe places around Xadia. A city of black stone, back when Aaravos wore a crown? Now pulverized to dust and surrounded by not one, not two, but three primal nexuses? Hmmm...

All the wisps could be heat from the sand, or spooky spirit hints, or just an ominous sign of danger from the snakes below, but the overall effect is that the land is unhealthy if not cursed

The oasis is marked, and it must contain a spring since it runs a river out to join the river that passes through the Moonshadow Forest

Also the actual oasis kinda resembles a blue lizard which is adorable and probably also terrifying

Moonshadow Forest

The Silvergrove is the only village marked in the forest, so in keeping with the other lands and general map legend rules, it’s likely the capital/central village for the Moonshadow elves

The village is marked by four round-roofed homes between two tall leafy trees that shelter and hide them. It’s a hybrid balance between the blocky manmade castles of the human lands and the actual forest around them, showing a blending with nature that even the Sunfire city of Lux Aurea did not embrace, with all its golden buildings

It’s a good-sized forest, and it kinda stretches thin to the east but there it tentatively connects to the Drakewood Forest

Moonstone Path to the west just chilling in the lava like a blank alignment chart. Moonstone Path is Chaotic Hot.

Southern Xadia:

Ruins of Elarion

Elarion is a city, and it’s been lost to the humans for a thousand years

The building outlines are squared-off towers like the more modern castles in the west, suggesting that humans in Xadia built for strength and defense as soon as they could. They felt vulnerable and created protections in their architecture. The three elven cities we see also play to their strengths, but those strengths include magic. Elarion’s humans had to find a different strength, and they went with craftsmanship and ingenuity

It seems to be the only human city from before the border was drawn

“Ruins” doesn’t necessarily mean no one lives there at all, but it’s been emptied of humans and no one else has maintained it since

It had a great position on a vast lake, with sheltering hills and easy sea access

Sea of the Castout

This inland sea has five inlets and outlets. It’s hard to be sure which is which with some of them, with the way the water is drawn on this map. But I’m kinda liking the idea that all the water swirlies are places where Tidebound magic has been placed over the millennia, so the water can do whatever it needs to do depending on circumstances. That goes for the human lands, too. Katolis backward river, you’re off the hook.

With a name like "Castout,” I wonder if it was some kind of universal toilet to flush away things you didn’t want--including humans--who might wash up near Elarion and start to build there. Yeesh.

The rivers that flow into this sea pass through or near the Moonshadow Forest, the Midnight Desert, the Storm Spire, Drakewood, and the Uncharted Forest. That’s a lot of drainage.

It’s pretty far from the Tidebound Archipelago, so maybe its name is referencing Tidebound elves who have left their home colony

Was this always a sea, or did something that Xadia wanted to forget get flooded and hidden in the depths?

The land around it seems open and hospitable. It could be a good place to build/rebuild in a time of peace.

The Far Reaches

Open grassland with low hills

Two of the hills look like giant boot prints

Several colorful trees which I hope are fruit trees

Bounded by two rivers from the Sea of the Castout

Looks homey tbh, great spot to retire to get away from everything if there were a war that really shook you up

Ocean Point

There’s a Star rune here, and it could mean many things

The closest other marked location is Elarion

If this was where Aaravos lived of his own free will, I can see why he’d take a shine to the humans. They were his neighbors.

If he is imprisoned here, it’s literally the furthest point in Xadia from the other elven realms, with the Moonshadow Forest being the closest one and Umber Tor not too much further but in a totally different direction. If they were trying to isolate him physically with a portable mirror to watch over him, that’s a good spot for it

Possible location that the cube is leading Callum toward? Portal to the Star Touch home plane? Aaravos’s seaside B&B? Trap street?

Eastern Xadia:

Drakewood

Umber Tor looks to be the tallest mountain in all of Xadia, save possibly for the Storm Spire. It’s more traditionally mountainy, with a nice snowcap. Since it’s labeled, I’m guessing it’s the Earth Nexus, under which an Earth Archdragon sleeps

Also there’s a giant yellowish-brown dragon chilling next to the Tor. Yeah, he seems nice. Rex Igneous, I presume?

Or maybe not, since the neighboring forest is called Drakewood. Maybe this woods is just where a bunch of Earth dragons hang out? Ezran and Pyrrah flew off and returned with a crew of Sun dragons from somewhere, so dragons must have communities too

The mountains that edge the sea are shaped roughly like a stone dragon in flight

Drakewood seems to be the forest closest to Umber Tor, with both deciduous and evergreen trees, though there’s a huge swath of wooded land here, to the north and to the southwest. I wonder what the locals consider the border where the Drakewood becomes the Uncharted Forest and why. The way the evergreens are drawn almost looks like a border, a sort of kingswood set aside for a specific use. Rex Igneous’s best toothpicks?

Uncharted Forest

Okay this is a properly magical name, very mysterious. But uncharted by whom? People with charts? This might be a Sir Phineas Kurst name, which is outsidery, and it makes me wonder if the locals/neighbors have their own name for it, which the human explorer never learned, a la “Thunder” for Avizandum

Maybe “Uncharted Forest” just means no one ever turned those trees into charts though, old growth ftw

If no one lives here, will someone move here? If someone lives here, who are they? Earthblood elves? Moonshadow elves? Humans? This mystery, it calls to me

the trees are mostly deciduous and fill basically all of this whole section of land, up against the mountains and the rivers, so it seems very fertile land indeed

Earthblood elves could live here, but there is no city marked. Maybe because we haven’t gotten that far in the show, or maybe that’s the wrong sort of descriptor for how the Earthbloods live and organize. Maybe the whole forest is their city, like Pando, the interconnected quaking aspen clone forest

The northernmost part of this forest lies right between the Storm Spire and the Tidebound Archipelago, so it might get a regular flyover route for migration or messages

Yes, this forest is the most interesting place in Xadia to me, I desperately want to learn more about it

Black Tundra

Yeah this place isn’t ominous

Similar to the Shiverglades, but where that has shrubbery, the Black Tundra has single dead trees and creepy curving spikes. Scorched? Poisoned? De-magicked?

The water north of this area isn’t frozen, and with a lake to the south and a river and a moderate mountain range, the whole area looks like it would otherwise be decently habitable, but instead it’s cold and black

Is climate change a thing here, or will we get a nice horrible disaster instead?

Tidebound Archipelago

These islands have dotted lines around them, like they’re submerged at high tide, or maybe made of shifting sand that literally moves around like sand dunes across a desert, or perhaps they’re exactly at sea level with half their civilization in the air and half underwater or in cool bubbles, or maybe the islands actually float

Maybe the Tidebound elves even sank them on purpose for defensive purposes

The archipelago is about even latitudinally with the Storm Spire Lux Aurea, Berylgarten, and Eboreus so they probably get pretty nice weather

There’s no ice in sight here in any direction along Xadia’s east coast, so presumably the prevailing current is a warm one

do they have bridges connecting the islands? Ferries, animals who give them a lift across?

the islands have quite a bit of space on them. I wonder if there’s a big population, maybe a shifting population? Do Tidebound elves migrate up and down the coast like gray whales and return to the islands for certain holidays or social events?

This is probably the hub of the Tidebound elves’ culture, but the sea surrounds the whole land and infiltrates it with many rivers and lakes. The Spinning Sea and the Frozen Sea are pretty firm Do Not Enter signposts, but a determined Tidebound could get around either one if they wanted to

What I’m not seeing here is a city. Either it’s not been marked yet, or that’s not a thing that Tidebound elves have in their culture. If they don’t have a city, they’re possibly migratory in family groups, or maybe they stick to small villages like the Moonshadows do, but with even less central leadership

[thatmistersguy]

update #6: even more music!

This week there’s been even more behind-the-scenes stuff than ever going on with Limited Edition- mainly writing, figuring out code, fleshing out scenes... you get the gist.

Nonetheless, though, here’s something in the works! A single minute-and-a-half-long theme for, well, you know who. There’s about 4 different themes all going on at once (recognize any at the end?), and fun fact! Almost everything in this track has meaning, though I know I haven’t shared enough to piece it together.

Aside from that, things are going pretty well thus far with the nitty-gritty stuff like planning and writing- again, it’s not all figured out yet, but it’s certainly coming together really well!

The biggest challenge I’ve faced this week has been with the coding aspect, and trying to get text to “shiver” in-game. Still haven’t been able to figure it out yet, but we WILL have shaky text or so god help me. Also figured out how to make good sound effects (or at least figured something out for 2933) and to say I’m anything less than thrilled is a massive understatement.

So, yeah. That’s the update! Like the last, there’s not a ton to show, unfortunately, but there’s something. Hopefully more music and more of the REF sheet will be done by next week. Stay tuned!