#but i get like? maybe a dozen notes on my main blog at most

[espytalks]

Lol they started a/b testing for a new thing to make notifications less annoying when posts blow up. And looks like they handed that test feature to me, someone who doesnt get more than a handful of notes daily.

[meanbossart]

i just need to take a second to gush about how much i love durge drow and astarion, they feel so fleshed out and perfectly written together in their fucked up wretched ways. They really inspire me to write more for my own tavs, hopefully one day ill be able to say im as happy with my own work as i get when seeing yours. I have to ask though, do you have any tips on drawing head shapes and faces? or maybe about wrinkles? i find i really struggle with that stuff when drawing and i adore how expressive and grungey all your art looks!

First of all thank you so much, I love hearing what people think of the two of them together 😭

Honestly you've hit on something that's quite near and dear to my heart, I love developing and figuring how to draw and stylize different faces to get the most unique, interesting looking results - everything about the details is highly rewarding to me. What does x type of nose look like from this angle? In this style? How can this eyeshape best translate to my art? How different does a face look when its making this expression? What does that MOUTH DO? etc etc.

In fact you kind of inspired me to put a little tutorial/guide together the last hour lmao and what a blessing it is that the two current subjects of this blog serve as great models here, being that their faces are basically polar opposites!

When it comes to heads, you've probably heard it a dozen times before that you want to think of them in terms of geometry and facets; my process to drawing them is pretty conventional so I won't spend too much time on it, but it goes something like this:

Obviously I don't do every single one of these steps most of the time, which is just something that comes from practice/developing muscle memory, but it is helpful to start off this way for two main reasons:

By making these guide lines and splitting a head into pieces like this, you'll have an easier time seeing and understanding it as a multidimensional object, and in turn, facilitate It for you when you venture out into doing wacky angles and lighting.

Making different headshapes starts HERE. notice how Astarion's "face" slate is narrower and longer, how my durge's jaw pieces sit lower on the head, how all of the same pieces came together in the same way but we ended up with one real pointy elf and a real brick of a drow - making characters look different successfully begins very early in the sketching process.

The next thing you want to do branches out into every day life: start noticing yours and other people's facial features. How does an upturned nose look from a high angle? How does the size of someone's cheekbones affect what they look like when they smile? How about when the light hits them a certain way? Does someone's lip shape changes when they pout? When they laugh? How does a person's hairline change the shape of their face? You do NOT need to creepily sketch every stranger you see on the bus, but get into the habit of actually noticing what people look like when you talk to them - when you look at pictures, when you watch movies - make a mental list of interesting ways mouths, noses, and eyes can come together in a variety of different proportions to make completely distinct looking mugs, and how they change depending on how you are looking at them.

Light and shadow play a HUGE role in how faces look, too, basically as crucial as actual bone structure does. As you see up there I tried to rough out how natural, head on, and underhead light would look on these two very different looking guys, and while we can see definite patterns, there are small differences that come to be because of the sizes and shapes of their features.

Here is a very, very basic look at how some of these features come to look the way they do, how they interact with one another, and how they compare between a blocky, rather conventionally "masculine" head and one that's much softer and slimmer.

Note please that it is not one or two characteristics that give a chaarcter their "look"; you can reduce a face to eyes, mouth, and nose through stylization and still have them be recognizable, but if you want to do more than that, you have to consider the whole package! Chin, cheeks, brows, direction of the jaw, slope and size of the forehead, depth of eyes, ridge of the nose, etc - I know this is probably far more than you bargained for, but if you start making note of a FEW of these things now and slowly add on, this will eventually become second nature to you.

Similarly, understanding how these characteristics come together will help you with rendering light and shadow in a realistic way, and predicting what their facial expressions may look like - if no two people are alike, neither are their smiles. :)

Lastly, remember that I'm no expert - I have developed my own methods and semiotics and yours may look slightly (or vastly) different, and that's fine! I hope only that by sharing this it has given you a base to work off of.

Anyways, I HOPE this has been helpful and not just the unsolicited ramblings of a face pervert.

[wrenhavenriver]

Top 5 dishonored NPC lines?

ohhhhhhh this one is so hard, the incredible amount of really damn good NPC dialogue is one of my favorite things about dishonored and probably THE number one thing i love gif'ing the most from it. i have to exclude Outsider lines from here to give anyone else literally any chance, but i spy an Outsider specific ask in my inbox rn so thankfully there's that sorted. instead of spending five hours agonizing over the literal dozens of lines i love here are some random ones that came to mind immediately from base game dh1, in no particular order:

Samuel: "Maybe it's not my place to say, but men of the faith shouldn't live like barons." there's just something so samuel about it, the coating of dignified humility around a center of utterly unimpeachable morality. it sums up so well his role as a quiet observer/arbiter of the actions of the people around him--and how he often goes unnoticed by those very people, in part because of that humility and the way the powerful look down on him as a working class man (see the bastard trio, especially havelock, wildly underestimating him--when he can remember his name at all). there's a reason it stings so hard when samuel finally calls a high chaos corvo out in mission 9, like, this man just sees straight through to the heart of matters (and people), and he is never wrong. but on the flip side, that makes it just as amazing in low chaos when he praises you instead.

plague survivor in the flooded district: "I don't blame them. I know why they did it. But I only wanted to die at home." this brutal line. unbearably poignant. a man who wasn't even asking to live, just to die at home, and how even that tiniest of mercies was denied to him.

on a lighter note - Miss White: "You're a scandal in that mask. I like a man with poor judgment!" makes me laugh every fucking time, 928340923 playthroughs later.

Sokolov: "Once you start ordering people killed to get your way, everything else becomes mere detail." stealing my own very ancient tags from the old blog to explain why i like this line so much: this is essentially dishonored's main cautionary message and it falls to anton sokolov to say it, goddamn. in short it's a snappy bit of writing and also just kind of funny who gets to be the mouthpiece for it--really says something about how dire things have become in dunwall.

Daud: "And you choose mercy. Extraordinary." just. gives me terrible shivers. the awe of it all. the recognition of the incredible, impossible choice corvo has made. indescribable.

[7grandmel]

Rip of the week: 23/09/2024

P-Switch Back

Season 8 Featured on:

Ripped by AdamCrossing

Tentative rip name: Megalo Switch Back

Undertale celebrated its 9th birthday earlier this month, and as you might've guessed I immediately went to thinking if I ought to celebrate that occasion in some way or another. I mean, yeah, the blog has a dire case of Too-Much-Undertale-itus with Locked In The Underground, Determination is Magic, World Out There - hell, Do for LOVE was just three posts ago - but as I've explained many times I find Undertale's impact on SiIvaGunner is plainly too big to be overlooked. Yet I wanted to find some new way to discuss Toby Fox's work, more than just a good Undertale rip: and right as I was pondering that very topic, the SiIvaGunner channel dropped "P-Switch (OST Version) - New Super Mario Bros." into my sub-box. I'm not quite sure what so expect, a pretty standard runtime attached to what's otherwise a pretty one-note jingle from the New Super Mario Bros series - yet mere moments into the rip, I knew P-Switch Back was an instant classic, and EXACTLY what I was looking for.

AdamCrossing is a pretty unique case as a ripper in that my first exposure to him came from seeing his work spread on Twitter, as the guy has a knack for knowing exactly what kind of audio edits and arrangements are able to get a kick out of people. A lot of his work such as his self-produced fusion collab, his arrangement of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii plains theme or the inverse of the same joke hit a lot of similar beats - the main one, of course, being the reoccurring fixation on the New Super Mario Bros. series of games. And maybe this is me speaking as a fellow Wii-generation kid, but I think that fixation matches perfectly with the SiIvaGunner MO, of both catching you off guard and providing something genuniely delightful: And so, as the aforementioned examples show, AdamCrossing's fantastic ear for quality and deep understanding of the New Super Mario Bros series' sound and sample usage leads to rips that know exactly how to strike the funny bone just right due to the sheer contrast in music featured in them: With New Super Mario Bros. as perhaps the most tonally cheerful thing outside of the Kirby series, just about anything from a more grim series mixed together with it is bound to result in something very interesting to listen to. Put succinctly, it's the appeal of If Pazuzu Sneezes Do You Still Say Bless You? applied to the New Super Mario Bros. series.

P-Switch Back is impressive even beyond many of AdamCrossing's other work, however, due to the factor mentioned at the start of this post: P-Switch is less of a "track" in the New Super Mario Bros. soundtrack and more like a glorified jingle, a timer enforcing stress with a tense synthetic melody of noise and a repeating backing of a sound that's best described as "crunchy", rounding itself out through a Shepard tone repeating until the P-Switch timer ends. And so we have a lead and we technically have a backing - but how does one compose an entire rearrangement with just those confines? The solution is, of course, to "cheat": much like Nape Mango did way back on Earth, Wind & Bombs and as dozens of rippers have done since, the trick is to employ usage of other instruments, samples and segments from the same soundtrack as the source track, whilst keeping the source track as the rip's focal point. Through this, every turn that P-Switch Back makes still resoundingly sounds just like the original New Super Mario Bros. on DS, whilst ALSO always sounding exactly the way that the P-Switch theme ought to. The blend was so good that, upon my first listen, I was halfway convinced that they'd changed the P-Switch theme for some of the later New Super Mario Bros. games, due just to how "New Super Mario Bros. DS" P-Switch Back sounds. It approaches Jamangar levels of authenticity in variety within a rip, the kind I gushed oh so much about back on Story of Undertale: yet here, the core P-Switch melody never quite fades away.

Though I talked a lot about contrast betwixt the New Super Mario Bros. series' tone and whatever else may be mashed up with it, the P-Switch theme in particular is able to resonate more closely with the track being arranged through its prominent tension-building - the repeating synthetic notes being a natural fit for the eerie tension-building intro to Megalo Strike Back. For those unaware, a few years before Undertale's release, Toby Fox contributed the aforementioned track to an EarthBound tribute album, the track itself being arranged entirely using EarthBound's soundfont. It's seen, in a sense, as a stepping stone to what would eventually become Undertale's finalized Megalovania theme - an original composition sharing much the same intensity as that of an A-Class final boss theme. Through its rearranging in P-Switch Back, AdamCrossing employs all the tools within New Super Mario Bros.'s toolbox of sounds to preserve that menacing sound: The lead and backing instruments from the game's Castle theme, notably, take center stage and create a suitably dramatic atmosphere through their slight reverb: An atmosphere that's deliciously (and hilariously) enhanced through the NSMB series' iconic "bah-bahs", now feeling almost akin to the chants of a choir of followers.

The entire rip just OOZES the feeling of the original Nintendo DS in a way that's hard to quite put into words, yet immediately recognizable as soon as you hear it. Yet althewhile, as it runs wild with this dramatic boss theme, the crackling backing instrument of the original P-Switch theme lingers throughout, alongside occasional breaks to add the P-Switch theme's main instrument to the mix. Like lots of what Season 8 has presented already in the likes of Barreltr​ü​ckung of Doom and Luna, Mi Amor, P-Switch Back is an incredibly inspired and inventive rip, leveraging a source so seemingly minescule in material in a way that feels completely natural whilst technically not at all adhering to the premise the rip's title would include. As a fellow Wii kid and enjoyer of specifically these kinds of incredibly arrangement rips, AdamCrossing has my deepest regards - and if he continues on this path of quality, he's bound to become an all-time favorite in the future.

[dungeonsandblorbos]

Welcome and Tag Masterlist

hello and welcome! i love playing TTRPGs, and as it says in the bio, i have Too Many Thoughts about my PCs from my various campaigns to keep them to myself anymore. so i made this sideblog to infodump about my beloved PC blorbos!

as a general note, this is not a family-friendly blog. there's a lot of adult language, adult themes, and written descriptions of TTRPG violence that can at times get pretty gorey. i do tag potential triggers by the specific post and try hide more triggering parts of posts under cuts, but i am only one human. please feel free to let me know (either publicly or privately) if i missed a trigger tag or if there is something you would like me to tag for!

also please feel free to send me asks about any of the characters or campaigns, or even just TTRPG things in general. i love these topics and will gladly take any opportunity to chat about them!

finally. there's a lot of blorbos on this blog, and a lot of NPCs, and a lot of campaigns, and a lot of tags, so under the cut here is a handy little guide to help keep them all straight!*

*disclaimer: nothing and no one here is straight. i am incapable of making characters and stories that aren't queer and so are most of the people i play with.

without further ado, the campaigns! i will probably be redoing my campaign intros and character intros at some point, and will add the links for those once completed. these are listed as Campaign Title, System Used, in reverse chronological order.

Curse of Strahd, DnD 5e my current obsession. this is a heavily homebrewed version of Curse of Strahd (like, we're talking a good 80% or more homebrew) DMed by my husband, @somethingclevermahogony. it's all of your dark queer gothic horror dreams come true! this campaign is just absolutely chalk full of dead doves like body horror, child abuse and death (almost entirely off-screen), animal cruelty, body horror, gallows humor, cannibalism, oh my god so much gore, and body horror. but don't let that get you down; there's also a lot of very funny and very heartwarming moments in this campaign and the worldbuilding our DM does is so fucking cool. this is also technically two campaigns, as we have both a present day game with two PCs, based on the Curse of Strahd book, and a prequel campaign with just me as a player, which delves into some of the history around when Barovia was first closed off from the rest of Faerun, roughly 400 years before the main campaign. in the present day, i play a human tempest cleric named Cerris Dalca Tempescu, who is just so very very tired. our other PC is Shalden Broadfist, a purple half-orc paladin who serves a desert worm cult. our party is rounded out with a couple of NPCs; Vasillica, a flesh golem made out of pieces of the bodies and souls of at least a dozen different people by an insane angel, and Milo, an adorable little klepto halfling boy who used to be the Bagman and still has Bagman powers. in the prequel, i play Kire Dalca, a human eldritch knight fighter who came to Barovia as part of the original war effort against Strahd and then got trapped in Barovia. coincidentally, she's Cerris's many many greats aunt and she's also so very very tired (and maybe pregnant shhh). the tag for the present day campaign is #curse of strahd homebrew, and the prequel is #curse of strahd prequel, and you can find them both or general CoS things under #curse of strahd. recurring character tags include #cerris tempescu for my cleric, #shalden broadfist for my companion PC, #ireena my beloved for (of course) the brilliant NPC Ireena Kolyana, #meow meow milo and #the bagman for Milo, and #kire dalca for my fighter. pretty soon there will also probably be tags for the secondary PCs we made as backup characters in case our first PCs die, as they have actually both been introduced in canon now.

Hot Gay Pirates in Your Area! Avatar Legends: The RPG my other current campaign, with my college TTRPG group (which includes my husband as a player). it's set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, during the era of Kyoshi. specifically, it's late summer in 250BG (Before Genocide). there are some promised darker elements, as well as a lot of enemy deaths, due to the nature of this campaign, but overall it's a very fun, chaotic, and queer story! we play as a party of pirates/smugglers on a small ship called The Confusion, working for the Ruike clan, a coastal Fire Nation crime family. our total ship crew currently numbers 10, with four PCs, but it might very well get bigger given that we started with a crew of 9. i play Aila Ruike, granddaughter of the head of the clan and heir apparent after her father. she serves as The Confusion's sort of second in command, and is a talented firebender and swordswoman, though she's much better at environmental control and defense than offense. she's stoic and stern and kind of mean in a hot way, and has two priorities in life: upholding her family honor and taking care of her team. my husband plays Bo of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, a waterbender who ran away from home to avoid the pressures and responsibility of leadership. he's flirty and silly and a little bit vicious in battle (his bending style is based on the US "boxing" style rough-and-tumble), and pretends to be a lot dumber than he actually is. we also have Onartok of the Southern Water Tribe, a sweet but naïve waterbender prince who, like Bo, ran away from home to avoid the pressures of leadership. before joining the crew, he was "roommates" with Aila's cousin Jai. and finally, the enigmatic Lì, a former EK child soldier who ran away from the army and is now a fabulous genderfluid pirate who goes off on violent side-quests with Aila while the waterbenders are doing nice people side-quests. tags for this campaign include #hot gay pirates in your area!, #our ship is called the confusion for a reason, #atla, and #aila ruike.

Acquisitions, Incorporated: Cauldron & Kettle Questing Company, DnD 5e this was our second campaign with our college TTRPG group, and was a fun romp set in the world of Acquisitions, Inc., an actual play podcast by Penny Arcade based around the idea of "classic adventuring parties but make it capitalism." it was primarily played out of the official Acquisitions, Inc., playbook, with some additional homebrew expansions and a nice little extra homebrew arc on the end that introduced us to the incredible chaos of the D10,000 wild magic table. we played as the Cauldron & Kettle Questing Co., a subsidiary branch of the larger Acq Inc. corporation, based in Phandalin. at our branch, we also owned a tea shop named the Cauldron & Kettle Cafe, and we had a steam-powered teapot-shaped vehicle dubbed the Tea Trolley. this campaign accidentally ended up going very hard on the found family vibes. i played Jun Vyardes, a half-elf light cleric/bard, travelling priestess of the fire and revelry goddess Vestia. she's very devoted to her found family, and after a life of wandering, is finally starting to learn how to settle down and grow roots. my husband played Tim Cobbletoss, a half-orc barbarian primarily raised by a blind halfling woman, so in personality he's basically a british grandma with occasional anger issues. he and Jun share a human father we affectionately referred to as Daddy Bard, who is such a terrible father that complaining about him is actually part of how these two started bonding. we also had Briny (played by the same person as Onartok), a goblinoid blood hunter who likes shells and the ocean and gambling even though they don't actually know anything about gambling; and Taku (played by the same person as Lì), a whooping crane aarakocra monk who is very smart and powerful and unfortunately also fragile, and whom Jun regarded as a little brother and became very protective of. tags for this campaign include #acquisitions incorporated, #Cauldron & Kettle Questing Co., #bard is only one letter away from bad (for Daddy Bard nonsense), #jun vyardes, and #tim and jun.

The Orphic Uprising and The Amazonomachy, Cypher these were two continuous arcs that together formed the first campaign with our college TTRPG group. they were set in the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, so we sometimes refer to them collectively as the PJO campaign. we played as a group of Camp Half-Blood kids, all in their late teens by the end of the story. in The Orphic Uprising, it was a group of four of us sent on a prophecy quest to the Underworld to rescue Dionysus and prevent the children of Nyx's attempted takeover of Olympus. in the Amazonomachy, it was a group of five sent out to prevent the Amazons' attempted takeover of Olympus, because apparently Olympus just cannot catch a break! i played Nina Grayson, daughter of Nike, a talented gymnast, dancer, and rock-climber lowkey obsessed with victory and willing to fight a little dirty if that's what it took to win. i had a lot of fun with her mechanically, as she was basically an unkillable damage- and debuff-dealing machine--she just, ya know, also didn't really have any social skills and was very much a himbo. iconic himbo acts of hers include solving a puzzle by punching a horse statue in the face, getting set on fire and then putting it out by drenching herself in monster blood, solving a locked door problem by punching the lock open, splitting the party to go undercover with the Amazons without telling her friends she was only fake-betraying them, and punching a bitchy goddess so hard it temporarily killed her. i love her. at some point she acquired the nickname Larry. my husband played Chuck Hickey, an Italian-American son of Dionysus who lived on his grandparents' vineyard who really embraced the chaotic side of his godly heritage. silly and goofy but also a talented battle strategist, highly charismatic, and capable of turning into a fire-breathing leopard. cause, ya know, Dionysus. the other character present for both arcs was Beatrice Starveling, a NY-based daughter of Apollo raised by her two gay dads. she was an incredible performer, a true bardic legend, and alongside Chuck, played a key part in helping Nina come out of her shell. for The Orphic Uprising, our final party member was . . . i gotta be honest i don't remember his name, just that he was kind of an obnoxious Mary Sue type son of Aphrodite, who the rest of us all had a grand time poking fun at and complaining about when the player did not return for the second arc. for The Amazonomachy, we welcomed two new players and their PCs, Bryce (played by the same person as Onartok and Briny) and Murph (played by the same person as Lì and Taku). Bryce was a dumbass (affectionate) son of Eros who was sweet and well-meaning but generally clueless, and somehow had really good game with the ladies. Murph was a son of Epimetheus (hindsight), a surfer bro and himbo extraordinaire with amazing luck and an incredible knack for having just the right tool for the job, somehow. tags for this campaign include #confusion crew, #the orphic uprising, #the amazonomachy, and #nina grayson.

North Pines Camp, Monster of the Week, and Grovington College, Demon Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors these two campaigns were my first dives into TTRPGs, both with the same GM and both with slightly altered versions of the same PC for me, so the GM and i had a few fun inside jokes and callbacks during the second one. these were played before i met my husband and before i got good at note-taking, so my memory of them is very hazy. tbh any content posted about these two will be undetailed, completely out of context, and full of holes, but the basic shenanigans are still very fun to look back on. North Pines Camp was a kids' summer camp in ?????, built on top of what used to be monster-hunter training grounds. our PCs were all camp employees, and our main goal was typically to keep the kids safe (or rescue them) from whatever ~monster of the week~ showed up to wreak havoc. there was a deeper mystery element running through it, about what happened to the old monster-hunter camp here, but we never got far enough into the story to really get anywhere with it. Grovington College was a decently sized college with greek life located in Grovington, ?????, USA; it housed a chapter of the Brotherhood, a demon/monster-slaying organization. our PCs were all members of this chapter, tasked with taking care of various demon and monster problems around campus and the town as a whole, in between doing college student/professor things. in these campaigns, i played Indigo Sullivan, a queer psychic with both a caffeine and an attitude problem. technically they were two separate characters for the two campaigns, but like, the version of him that continues to roll around in my head is an amalgam of both PCs plus all the additional things i've tacked onto him as time has gone on. most of those additions can be summed up as "he's now even more queer and has even more problems." tags for these campaigns are #north pines camp, #grovington college, and #indigo sullivan.

and that is all of them, phew! that's a lot thank you for reading this all and please enjoy my blog!

[starlsssankt]

I posted 949 times in 2022

274 posts created (29%)

675 posts reblogged (71%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@an-endless-saga

@sankta-alina-s

@firstofthefcllen

@mysticaltwoface

@madraya

I tagged 949 of my posts in 2022

#anendlesssaga - 233 posts

#verse / burdened by eternity ;; main - 200 posts

#verse / blessed with too much power ;; closed (anendlesssaga) - 197 posts

#visage / a face in the mirror - 180 posts

#sanktaalinas - 102 posts

#asks / aleksander says… - 98 posts

#ooc chatter / shut up megan - 84 posts

#relationship / darklina / you and i are going to change the world - 80 posts

#connection / alina starkov - 76 posts

#about & musings / like calls to like - 52 posts

Longest Tag: 126 characters

#// also i wish this show had better lighting and coloring and just-- there's a mix of so many different psds to make this work

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

@an-endless-saga​ (anastasiya) sent an ask // 

Anastasiya was happy to be the maternal figure to the Grisha. To take care of the little ones and oversee their education.

She gasped softly when she felt an arm around her waist. She turned to kiss his nose.

"I thought you were seducing the girl. What are you doing all the way here Sasha?"

𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐌 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐓, a small sigh escaping him as she kisses the tip of his nose. The smile that forms is actually genuine, for once. ❝ I wanted to see you, ❞ he says softly, pulling her closer to him. 

It is true that he’s been busy, and doesn’t get to see her as often as he likes. Or wishes. But too much time together breeds rumors, and they have worked hard to keep that from growing. To keep the talk down very low. 

Maybe, just maybe, there’s a part of him that had missed her. And that’s all. 

11 notes - Posted May 17, 2022

#4

@sheroaredlouder​ (lyra) sent an ask // 

"it pains me you should think every compliment a mockery." 

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑, her reputation, her story as a whole. Just as he does so many of his Grisha. It is for ones like her he seeks the pathways he does, or so he tells himself. A wound from a childhood that never quite healed--and he doubts ever will. 

❝ Most do not compliment us, ❞ he responds as the Darkling turns to face her. Looking up from the reports and maps scattered along the large table, the dark mark of the Fold breaking through Ravka’s countryside. ❝ Or if they do, it is a veiled insult. You know this. ❞

11 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

#3

@valkxrie​​ sent an ask // 

[ HUSH ]: as a means of getting the receiver to stay quiet, the sender covers their mouth and ends up shoving them into a wall in their urgency.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐇𝐈𝐌, the rage. It was intense as the Fold fell around him, as he found himself in the light of stars and moon once more. His body hurt, his face stung where the deep gouges of the wounds hit the cool air of the night. Volcra claws where never meant to be survived, and yet-- he had survived. 

Even if every single part of him hurt. 

He didn’t think anyone was around, and the rage needed an outlet. His strength, depleted, all he could do was yell. Scream. Let the anger exit as he screamed his frustration-- 

Only to have a hand clamp over his mouth, only to feel his back--where more claw marks were--hit hard against the wall of a nearby building. He hadn’t paid attention to where he was, and he hadn’t cared, but now, his eyes blazed murder, death, as he stared at the being in front of him. 

The Darkling lifted his hand to the being’s wrist, meaning to take it away to ask, ❝ Who the hell are you? ❞

12 notes - Posted August 5, 2022

#2

@heirceleste / cont. * 

𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐍’𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐌 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒. One life. A dozen lives. A hundred--a thousand. With every decision, he sacrifices some of his soul, and he knows it. Knows that despite his wishes, he cannot save every single Grisha. He wants to, and he tries to, but the wars simply do not stop. And the reports of those missing, captured or dead... 

It grows every day. 

And maybe, those who look at him with hatred, well-- that has weighed on him, too. ❝ So few are able to understand the cost, ❞ he murmurs, the exhaustion creeping in where he cannot fight it. ❝ To decide those who live, those who might not... There is only one way to stop this, and I know there will be many who see it as wrong. But what else am I supposed to do? ❞ 

Was he talking to her, or thinking aloud, weighing those words and actions each time? 

One might never know. 

13 notes - Posted January 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

@an-endless-saga​ / * 

𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐄��𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄, her touch upon him. The wounds were bandaged, mostly, even if every muscle in his body hurt. It would take a moment to recover, he knew that; even if he would expect Aleksander up and training in the morning. It was the way their life was, and Aleksander had racked up enough kills to be... formidable. 

Kissing Anastasiya back, he hummed. His hand lifted to trail through her hair, loosening it from the ties that held it back. ❝ And I never will, Ana. ❞ His words, whispered promises still, but ones he vowed to back up with actions. ❝ I will always come back to you... ❞ 

14 notes - Posted August 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[imabeautifulbutterfly]

I posted 645 times in 2022

237 posts created (37%)

408 posts reblogged (63%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ladykatakuri

@firstofficerwiggles

@monako-jinn-stories

@ulchabhangorm

@theroguesully

I tagged 455 of my posts in 2022

Only 29% of my posts had no tags

#star wars - 127 posts

#echo - 113 posts

#upside down - 91 posts

#din djarin - 87 posts

#tbb hunter - 83 posts

#tbb - 82 posts

#tbb crosshair - 78 posts

#bad batch crosshair - 68 posts

#bad batch tech - 67 posts

#captain rex - 64 posts

Longest Tag: 66 characters

#then in that same sentence im like what the hell were you thinking

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Late - Part Two

Summary: Dr. Myrica and Bond find themselves in another tricky situation

A/N: Hello Lovelies,

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week and will be having a splendid weekend coming up. This was written, when a very lovely mutual @valeriegreyy​ asked for a sequel. I am happy to provide it. I hope it’s everything you wished for. 

Thank you to the lovely @mrskenobi19​ and @firstofficerwiggles​ for being beta readers.

Love oo

Warnings: Innuendo, unwanted flirting, dead bodies (slight description: slit throat, gunshot), canon-typical violence, fluff, kissing, angst, I think that’s all of it, if I missed any warnings please let me know.

Thank you all for always letting me know how much you love these stories. I hope you all have an amazing day and a wonderful weekend.

Feel free to drop some love, a comment and/or a reblog, it’s always appreciated.  If you would like to be tagged on any future Bond fic, Star Wars fic, or any future writings, let me know.   Love oo.

AO3 Link   |   Words: 6,012   |   Part One

DC Characters Master List   |   Main Master List

“Dr. Myrica?”

“Yes” I looked up from my laptop to see my assistant standing there holding a vase of flowers. I hid the smirk that was threatening to break through, it had to be James, he was out on assignment, but he said he’d be home soon.

“You have a delivery” he advised with a cheeky grin on his lips as he stepped closer to my desk, the flowers were gorgeous, there were a dozen yellow tulips my favourite, sprinkled throughout with anemone and forsythia, both indicating anticipation. I couldn’t hold back my smile anymore, clearly this was classic James.

“Who are they from?” Like I even had to ask.

“Richard, Richard Ingwa. Here’s the card” Davis handed me the little white card, I did my best to hide the shock on my face, the smile falling away. I guess James wasn’t going to be home as soon as I thought, ‘Can’t wait for our evening together,’ ugh, now my tulips were tainted by this man. 

“Why is this man sending me flowers?”

“Maybe he thinks you’ll like them”

“Maybe he thinks he’ll get into my pants”

“Want me to send them back?” 

I looked from the card to Davis, shaking my head ‘no,’ “No, let’s not. Seeing as how he’s supposed to be here for our meeting in an hour. Why do we have to put up with that man? I mean honestly can’t we get a contract with another physicist? Someone who doesn’t make my skin crawl?”

“I just don’t understand why you hate him so much, he’s charming” Davis smirked, “handsome, and the way he fills out those pants, lord of mercy” Davis fanned himself. 

“Then you date him, I am quite happy with my man, thank you”

“You know if you put the two …”

“Stop!” I held up my hand, “I don’t … no!”

“I’m just saying”

“Please don’t ruin James with the ideas of Richard being anywhere near him”

“Speaking of James” Davis leaned against my desk, “where is the man?”

“Business trip”

“He works for a bank right?”

See the full post

51 notes - Posted February 4, 2022

#4

Knight for a Day

SUMMARY: James takes Izzy on a Knight and Princess day, when everything falls apart.

A/N: Hello Lovelies,

Oh man, I know this is a bit of a delay, but I really wanted to take my time to do this part justice, I just love the idea of James with a daughter, so I really wanted to show case that bond (no pun intended, hehehe). I hope you guys love it. 

Love oo

Bold - Comm conversations 

Warnings: Fluff, angst, kidnapping, drugged, violence against a child (nothing explicit), canon-typical violence, explosions, buried alive, crawling through rubble, deaths, mentions of blood, kissing, I think that’s it, if I miss any please let me know.

FINALLY HOME (PART ONE)

AO3 Link   |   DC Characters Master List   |   Main Master List

“You don’t have to do this you know” 

James turned to look at you, there were many things that he knew he’d never be able to do for you; he’d never be able to give you a normal life, well not at first, but he’s been working on it, doing his best to try to be a normal civilian, but some things were just hard to shake. However, the last thing he’d ever want is for Isabella, his princess, to ever feel she couldn’t have what she wanted. He couldn’t help smiling at you, as he closed the distance, he was wearing his tailored suit that he usually wore when he was on assignment. He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you in closer, “I know I don’t have to, I want to” he nudged your nose with his. 

“I know, and I love you all the more for doing it. However, I also know you’ve been in a lot of pain lately, and I don’t want you to overdo it. She’ll be a little disappointed but …”

“Love” he gave you that tone, the one that told you there was no point in arguing.

“Alright, fine. I guess I’ll just have to make sure that I have a hot bath waiting for you when you get back” you teased.

He pulled you in closer, as his lips grazed yours, “As long as you join me,” you mumbled an agreement against his lips as he deepened the kiss. 

“Dad, I’m ready!” came Izzy’s voice from the front entrance. 

You both couldn’t help breaking out into a little chuckle at knowing your daughter was ready for her outing; it was a shock to the both of you when one day, she called James, dad, he was completely taken aback at that statement. In fact both of you were completely taken aback, but the way Izzy clung to James since he came into her life, had surprised the both of you, and truly in her eyes, he was her dad, plain and simple, just like Richard was her dad. “Guess that’s my cue” James stated as he looked into your eyes, “we’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Alright, I expect you both back, in one piece please.”

“You have my word, ma’am”

“Mmhmm”

James watched as you headed out to your daughter, he couldn’t believe where his life had led him to; not only had he been blessed enough to find someone who would not only love him for who he was and put up with all his nonsense, but he also gained a daughter he absolutely loved with every fibre of his being. 

He always did his best to try to not let his nightmares, his aches and pains, his dark moods at times, affect you and Izzy. You both needed to be protected even from him, yet somehow you always knew when he was having a dark day. They were becoming less frequent, but you wouldn't hesitate to ask Richard to take Izzy for the day or have her spend time with her uncle Q, allowing you to take care of him, helping him with his own trauma. That was something he never expected, but appreciated immensely, how you always took care of him. It was only right to show how much he loved you, but making sure he did everything in his power to take care of the both of you. Honestly, he never thought he would've been able to love anyone, much less two people as much as he loved the both of you. 

He took a moment to look himself in the mirror, this was the most important day for him and for Izzy, this was a day he was hoping would live on in her memory, in both your memories. He rechecked to make sure he had Izzy’s present in his pocket, made sure he was looking his best in his three piece dark blue suit that you loved so much on him, he cleared his throat pushing away the nerves that were fluttering as to what he was hoping would be a memorable day for everyone. He was adjusting his tie, when his phone buzzed. He looked at the text.

‘Your driver will be arriving in five minutes’

A smirk appeared on James' face, he couldn’t wait to see the expression on Izzy’s face when she saw what he had pulled off for her. He headed out of your shared bedroom, making his way downstairs. When he got to the front door, he didn't find either of you, he wasn’t even sure where you had taken Izzy, but that’s okay, this would work out perfectly. He stepped outside, waiting by the curb as the horse drawn carriage pulled up. The man driving was decked out in complete regalia as per James' request. 

“Thank you for coming”

“Of course, Mr. Bond, so I understand this is a special trip, you planned?”

“Yes …” James couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his lips, “my daughter and I planned a princess and knight day, so I am her knight.”

“Well in that case, good Sir, I have provided some hot chocolate, a blanket, and a variety of snacks.” The man motioned towards the basket that rested on the floor, “Now you hadn’t mention if either of you had any allergies, so I tried to keep it as neutral as possible, there are apple slices, grapes, some chocolates, shortbread cookies, but I am always happy to stop somewhere along the way and pick up something that would be high end, for the princess and her knight” the driver gave James a kind smile, yet there was something about him that made James uneasy. 

He brushed the thought aside, chalking it up to just a lifetime of always being on guard. “Thank you, that is very kind of you. Now I just have to go and make sure the princess is ready.”

See the full post

52 notes - Posted March 18, 2022

#3

Payback - Part 1

Summary: Benoit x F!Reader (with name) take on a new case

A/N: Hello Lovelies,

This is my first attempt at a Benoit Blanc fic, it’s a three part series, I hope you guys like it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. @mrskenobi19 and @firstofficerwiggles​ Thank you for being my beta reader, you’re just lovely. Tell me what you guys think, I know it’s not a Bond fic, but it is Daniel Craig adjacent, lol. Don’t worry this is another Bond fic coming, it’s all typed up and ready for you guys. This is a special thank you for the 175 followers!!! 

Love oo.

Warnings: Unwanted flirting, awkward flirting, murder, attempted murder, poisoning, police action, kidnapping, threats, slight description of physical illness, medical procedures, drowning implied, grief, shock, I think that’s it, if I miss any warnings please let me know.

Feel free to drop some love, a comment and/or a reblog, it’s always appreciated.  If you would like to be tagged on any future Bond fic, Star Wars fic, or any future writings, let me know.   Love oo.

WORDS: 8,382 - Sorry first part got away from me, hehehehe.

PART TWO   |   PART THREE

AO3 Link   |   DC Characters Master List   |   Main Master List

“Mr. Blanc, your next appointment will be here shortly,” I looked to the man who sat behind the desk, taking a moment to admire his form. Not only was he a handsome older southern gentleman, but the man knew how to wear a suit, he was wearing his glasses, his ‘old man glasses’ as I called them, which always earned me a chuckle. His dress shirt sleeves were rolled up, and who could forget his suspenders that matched his socks and shoes. I loved that look of his, of course I’d never admit that to him, same way I would never admit how I’d fallen in love with him since the moment he walked into my life.

“You have worked with me for how long now, Emi?” He looked up at me from the newspaper he was reading, his blue eyes piercing into mine.

“Six years, Monsieur Blanc,” I couldn’t help teasing him, as a smirk appeared on my lips.

Blanc couldn’t help but admire you, there was always something so special about the way you looked into his eyes. He always did his best to remain as professional as possible, especially when you agreed to be his assistant after he had your previous employers arrested for fraud. 

He still remembers the day, when the police left with them in handcuffs, he found you sitting on the steps of the office. Your tears were streaming down your cheeks, upon seeing your dejected face, his heart began to break. You had no idea what they had been doing, but when you found out your conscience plagued you, telling you that you were the one to blame for being so naïve. When he helped you to realize it wasn’t your fault, you were resolved to make it right, to help all those who had been affected by your employers, intent on returning all the money to the clients they had defrauded, and see what could be done to appease the others. 

He stayed by your side for months helping you sort it all out, and when you had done all you could, you were left unemployed, penniless, and with a ruined reputation. That’s when a protective feeling began to appear deep within his core, it was small at first, his first concern was to make sure he could help you out, even if it was in the smallest way possible. He told himself it was just until you got back on your feet, until you found another job. At least, by helping you he would feel he had eased his own conscience, you were as much a casualty of your employers’ actions as any of their clients. 

Six years later, you were still by his side and he wouldn’t have it any other way, you’d become an integral part, not just to his investigative process but also to his life. 

“Well, Mademoiselle Emi, will there ever be a time you’ll call me by my first name?”

“Possibly, but that’s for me to know, and for you to find out,” I teased him, there was a subtle grin on his face. Despite the 10 year age difference, we got along like two peas in a pod. When he offered me the job, I was sure he was just taking pity on me. I was also certain that as soon as my six-month contract with him was up, he would have been excited to get rid of me, but after our first two cases together, I realized there was no job I would ever want to do, unless it was working with Benoit, and after three months, I was prepared to convince him to let me stay. I had rehearsed my speech at least a thousand times, but when I finally had the courage to talk to him, he beat me to it and told me that I could stay as long as I want.

“You’ll have to actually allow me an opportunity to figure that out,” Blanc teased back. This had also been part of their relationship, it had started completely by accident the flirty nature between the two, but it soon became one of his favourite things about the relationship you two had.

“Unfortunately, not right now. As I stated, your next client will be here shortly.” I grabbed my iPad looking at the details, for the next client.

“Do I want to take this person on?”

I shrugged, “His story is quite an interesting one, you did say that when he first contacted us a week ago.”

“Remind me.”

“James Hammond, single, 40-year-old male, has been receiving threats of a deathly nature for the past few weeks. At first he thought it was nonsense, some sort of joke or prank, but when he nearly died after having his brake line cut, and then when he found shattered glass found in the food that had been delivered, he started to take the threats more seriously.”

“Yes, I remember, did he say why he waited so long to see me?”

“He said he needed to finalize a business deal first, which took place out of the country. He arrived back Stateside yesterday, today was the soonest he’d be able to see you.”

“Hmmm”

“Mmhmm” I heard the front door to the office open, “that should be him, I’ll bring him back.”

“One second” Benoit stood from his seat as he rolled down his sleeves, if I happened to linger my gaze a little longer than necessary, who was to know? I watched as his hands shifted to straighten his tie, before putting on his suit jacket. Good lord, that man knew how to fill out a suit. “You know a picture lasts longer.”

See the full post

54 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

#2

DANIEL CRAIG CHARACTERS MASTER LIST

AO3 LINKS

BOND, JAMES BOND 

Finally Home   |   Knight for a Day

Wake Up

Late   |   Part 2

Saying Goodbye

Lighter   |   Part 2   |   Part 3   |   Part 4   |   Part 5   |   Part 6

 BENOIT BLANC

Payback   |   Part 2   |   Part 3  

AO3 Link   |   DC Characters Master List   |   Main Master List

87 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

The Betrayal

Summary: The war ended but now you have deal with a trauma you weren’t expecting. (Wolffe x reader)

A/N: Hello Lovelies

This came to me after learning a sad news about a friend of a friend. It’s never easy dealing with betrayal. Quick pause, I just want to clarify Wolffe is not the betrayer, here. Okay, continuing on, I wrote this with a specific person in mind, so it might be a little character heavy. If this has happened to you, I am truly sorry, and I hope this story brings you some comfort. Just know that after the pain, starts the healing and eventually each day gets better.

Thank you @firstofficerwiggles for being my beta reader, you’re awesome bestie!

Italics - flashback

Warnings: Pain, grief, mentions of drinking, marital betrayal, violence (mild), fluff, angst, I think that’s all of it, if I miss any please let me know.

AO3 Link   |   Words: 5,801  | 

One Shot Master List |   Main Master List  

You just had to get through tonight, that’s it, just get through the next few hours of celebrating the end of the war, and then you could go home and cry your eyes out. Just keep up the happy face. Smile, nod, joke, repeat.

I should have known something was up, the way they pulled away from me, the way they kept coming up with excuses to spend time anywhere but with me, however I didn’t want to believe it, how could I? How could I believe that my husband, the one I dedicated myself to, the one I loved unconditionally would have turned his back on me.

Was I not enough? Not pretty enough? Not adventurous enough? Was it something about my skin? My eyes? Maybe it was my hair? Maybe I wasn’t funny enough? Not kind enough?

“Hey” I turned to look at Sinker, his face was full of concern, “you okay?”

“Yeah” I gave him my best fake smile, “why wouldn’t I be?”

“You sure?” Sinker looked as though he didn’t fully believe me, but took my nod as an answer and focused back on the table. We were all drinking, all laughing, joking, but I wasn’t really listening.

“Anyone want a refill?” I asked, to the table, a few of the guys raised their hands, I nodded, taking their order and headed to the bar. I motioned to the droid behind the bar, gave our order as quickly as possible, I was focused on my hands remembering what just happened hours ago, when we landed.

“Honey, I’m home” I noticed his shoes by the door, I couldn’t help the smile that graced my lips. Thinking I’d never have to leave his side again, I was home and this was it. We could start our lives.

“Did you hear?” I asked as I left my bag by the door, it still felt weird, even after all these years calling his place, our place, especially since oftentimes I was on the Triumphant with the 104th. I walked further into the apartment. “Turns out Chancellor Palpatine was behind the whole thing” I continued talking, despite the nagging feeling in the back of my head, “Fox apparently found out evidence, and turned it into the Jedi, isn’t that great! All our plans …” my voice caught in my throat at the scene that was before, it took me a minute to understand the motions I was seeing belonged to my spouse and his co-worker.

They just sat there looking at me, “Babe …” silence permeated every inch of the apartment, suffocating me, choking me, “you’re home sooner than I thought?”

“How … how …” were the only words that came out, as tears began to prick my eyes. He got up from the bed, donning a pair of pants, he walked towards me, I took a step back. Until my eyes locked on their co-worker’s, I don’t know what came over me I lunged for his coworker, ready to scratch out their eyes, I’m not sure who screamed, whether it was them, him, or me, all I know is he grabbed me by the waist dragging me away from the bedroom, closing the door behind us. I turned to face him, my fists pounding on his chest, tears streaming down my face, “How could you! Why? WHY!”

“I’m sorry!” Is all he said, as he held me, trying to prevent me from hurting him.

“WHY!?”

“Really!” He finally stated, as he pushed me onto the chair in the living room.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re never here! When you are, it’s for two weeks, maybe a month and then you’re off again, with your boys”

“What!”

“Come on, you care more about those clones than about me!”

See the full post

153 notes - Posted March 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[theoutcastrogue]

1) While I am personally repulsed by the influencer / self-promotion / instagram Type of Posting, and it's extremely off-putting when I see it on tumblr (the very place I frequent to get away from all that), I have THE GREATEST sympathy for people who just wanna share their work with the world, and discover that it's only feasible if you do the whole social media song and dance, and they happen to simply not be into this social media song and dance. Ideally, they'd want to set up a portfolio and let the work speak for itself. And most of the time they can't, because no one sees it. It's terrible.

2) On the other hand, on this very site, it WAS once possible to gain an audience with a portfolio of your work, and zero reblogs or memes or addressing said audience with your words. My experience on that was with #photographers on tumblr. I don't know how that tag is doing now, but I'll tell you how it worked back then, because that's why I came to tumblr in 2012: the ease of use, the custom themes, and the native image hosting made it surprisingly good for a photography blog/portfolio. (Extra surprising if you consider how atrocious the code was overall back then, and in the crucial matter of resizing images for display on the dashboard, STILL IS.)

I am definitely NOT into the whole social media song and dance. All I did was post each photo with a single-line caption (incomprehensibly obscure title / location / date), and tag it with said location, #photographers on tumblr, and maybe #street photography or #portrait or something. Almost all of them were black & white. I didn't maintain a steady flow, sometimes I didn't post for months and sometimes I unloaded a dozen at once. Fanart was not applicable. And I reblogged nothing, not even my own posts. I did everything "wrong", and I was not interested in doing it "right".

But there are other photographers on tumblr (often but not always amateurs), and I followed a bunch of them, and I interacted with them at least with Likes. I got a handful of notes on each photo (double digits), once in a while triple digits. Which was fine, I didn't whine about it. The OP talks about artists pointlessly complaining that the fandom site is not good for engagement (duh), but I very intentionally misused tumblr and regretted nothing. The main thing that got me here was "it's prettier than flickr". If that also got me 20 notes per post, great!

And then some of my photos got picked up by curating blogs (let's call them that), which are hardly a thing any more but were prominent back then. There was no smalltalk on these blogs, just reblogging art, making it clear that their job is to find art on tumblr and show it, and they might add a short comment on composition or something. E.g.:

"Very interesting point of view, lights and framing. I like the misty mood and the sky. Very well captured cityscape."

That definitely brought "exposure", and lots of photographers got an audience through such blogs. And they didn't need to fill their own blogs with memes and shitposts, or share their inner thoughts and feelings. Just their work. It speaks for itself.

Now, to be fair, a large chunk of that audience was other amateur photographers. But I mean, we're talking about black & white photography in the 21st century: how many people (other than goth teens) are into that without also being into creating some of that?

And here's something that doesn't exist any more, tumblr used to have Blue Tags. Does anyone remember Blue Tags? It was like Radar, the mods selected posts to promote, except it was themed, and there was a Blue Tag: Fashion for example, a Blue Tag: Black and White. That's the one I got, for several photos. (Not my best ones, lol.) And triple digits weren't rare any more.

Blue Tags

I started getting asks and replying poorly (i.e. belatedly or never, I am still SO bad at this), I got fans which was hilarious, I added words to a handful of posts (like a paragraph on the process, technical stuff, composition, musings on photography), I once posted a shout-out to other photographers and curators I liked, I technically did a fanart (lol) which also got a Blue Tag

aaaaand that summed up my concessions to the whole social media song and dance. I still didn't reblog, I didn't chat with anyone on my blog, there were no memes and no shitposts.

And just as I was getting traction, and we got to quadruple digits,

(which hardly made my blog famous or anything, not even in that small corner of non-fandom tumblr, but it got the job done of sharing my work, which only happens when there are other people there to share it with, whether it's 5 or 50 or 5000 of them), I got bored and kinda quit.

I might have made a comeback. Until the 2018 purge came, and FULLY sapped any desire I might have to share my photography, or even explore the work of other photographers (which, to be clear, I used to be VERY keen on, both for famous professionals and unknown amateurs) on a site that takes issue with female-presenting nipples.

Now the Blue Tags are long gone, reblog chains are the norm and non-personal curating blogs are declining, you shitpost or you die, and I am SO glad I don't feel the need to share my work on tumblr any more. Because if I did, I'd be fucked.

I sincerely hope others have found ways to accomplish that without having to do the whole social media song and dance, and without having to put on the spotlight their whole personality (well, a persona thereof) just to get their art seen.

I keep meeting artists who complain that Tumblr Is Dead then when I check their blog they've made four posts in six months and all of them were self promo lmao. Influencers whining that "tumblr is useless for engagement" tells me every part of the problem, like sorry you can't just show up and farm this userbase for clicks by waving buzzwords around the way you can on tiktok. This is the Excited About Stupid Things website reblog some shitty fanart or die

[hdhd2017]

First Post in Notes from Dundee

The other day, I decided to resurrect an old Tumblr blog I abandoned in 2017. I've given this a new name too: NOTES FROM DUNDEE. I don't intend to write essays, poems, or short stories here. I'll leave those for my main blog (where my RAINSHINE series will return in January 2024):

In this new blog, I will just write a few rough notes on people, places, books, events, and other things I think about.

In this first post, I want to say a little about the ways the world can sneak up on you and bash you on the head. I mean the effect of very sad news. I'll start with a Dundee death I wasn't expecting. No one was expecting it. When trade unionist, mental health campaigner, Northern Soul aficionado, and all round great guy Phil Welsh passed away, suddenly, just a few days ago. I was shocked and had to re-read a post on Facebook a few times before it sunk in. I stayed shocked but also very moved as I watched videos of the funeral cortege the other day, flanked by dozens of Phil's friends on scooters.

When someone you know and admire suddenly passes away, it shakes you up. It reminds you, in the strongest possible way, that life is fragile and brief, and every moment is an incalculable treasure. I felt a similar blow earlier this year - when I heard of the passing of Sinead O'connor, and later the passing of singer Rodriguez, who I was lucky enough to see performing in Edinburgh, just a few years ago. I'm planning to write about all of those people in a RAINSHINE post next year. And, as I earlier announced on social media, all 12 of my monthly RAINSHINE posts next year are respectfully dedicated to the memory of Phil Welsh.

It takes me a while to adjust to any time when the world bashes me on the head. I'm sure most folk are the same. And, the phrase 'a while' is usefully elastic. Sometimes, it means - a long time. For me, one way I try to process the world bashing me on the head is to write about it. Here, it's just roughly. Like writing a wee note in a cafe, but sharing it, because maybe it'll matter to someone else who has also got bashed on the head.

As I write these words, bombs continue to fall in Gaza, and hundreds of people are dying. Many of those people are children. I cannot even describe those scenes as me getting bashed on the head by the world. It is more the case that it involves countless innocents being killed, and as I see what's happening, the feeling of sadness and hopelessness seems almost overwhelming. Like millions of others, I feel I am being bashed deep in my soul. I heard a man speak at a peace demo last week. His most powerful statement was in the moment when he was unable to speak, and he simply shook his head, at the horror of it all.

Life and death, horror and injustice, can seem overwhelming at times. All we can do is support each other in all of those moments when our ability to function as human beings is challenged. In the face of brutal wars, we must continue to campaign for peace. For ceasefire. For aid. For Hope, which can never be crushed. And, we must support each other to go on and recover from personal losses. To remember with huge respect all those lives which were spent striving to make this world a better place.

Harvey Duke

[boozye]

I've seen dozens of posts now asking people to reblog things, and when I check the notes it's almost all people completely missing the point in the most obnoxious way possible, or just people who genuinely aren't familiar with the sites features (and on the lowest percentage, people who know about the features but knowingly don't reblog for one reason another, which is perfectly fine, I think) But all in all the replies are usually people who feel targeted for some reason... (which you are not, ignoring the post is fine, most of you have seen it because you follow someone who reblogued it, do I need to explain to you then, the value of reblogs? just ignore it and carry on, noone has @'d you)

Anyways, I do not think people who don't want to reblog things should.

What I think is that knowledge and understanding is important. This post is aimed at people that genuinely don't understand or know. Noone else. I'm not telling you to reblog things if you don't want to. I'm explaining something to people who might really just not know the benefits of reblogguing things.

Benefits of reblogging (besides the algorithm):

- Archive: There's a risk to using "likes" as an archive. When people delete a post or their blogs, their posts WILL be deleted from your likes. Things on your likes depend on the blog you liked it from (not necessarily OP, but if it has a "readmore", which always links to OP, then consider the post lost either way). An effective way to archive that depends solely on you? A reblog. It will stay on your blog regardless of OP or whoever you reblogued it from, for as long as you keep it there.

- Encouragement: Are you here because of fandom? To see writings and fanart? If the answer is yes and you want to encourage the people who make the things you like, then reblogging is a great way to do it. It's a way to give back, and it's free.

- Ecosystem: It's just a healthy way to keep your fandom alive. You will often see artists feeling dicouraged, who delete or stop sharing their work because they only get likes. If people out there have the right not to reblog because they don't feel like it, then artists have the right to be discouraged by that sort of reception.

Reasons you might not want to reblog, and explanations:

- "Noone will see it": Factually wrong. Not everyone, but lots of people check the blogs of people who leave only likes/follow. Otherwise noone would know those blogs exist and noone would be raising a stink about it, would they? They might not follow back, but just going to your blog (because they saw you on their notifs) will already put before their eyes anything that is on it, if only for a minute. Like reblogs. So, somebody would see them.

-"I don't have any followers": If you don't want any followers, that's fair, you are doing what you should by keeping a blank blog then. If you want followers, reblogguing is a good way to do it. Often people will come across a blog that maybe doesn't post anything, but reblogs lots of things they like, and just follow. You've curated your reblogs in a way that someone decided to follow.

- "It doesn't fit the theme of my blog": Fair. I don't vibe with the posts that tell people to reblog things regardless. If you want to reblog things outside of your main blog's theme, you can make a secondary blog and reblog it there (you can make that blog a different theme too!). And if you don't want to reblog anything outside the one theme then you don't have to.

-"I don't want to spam": You don't have to! You can reblog things once a day, once a week, once a month, it's fine either way. Whether you reblog 1 thing or 200. Queueing things will automatically schedule them one hour apart I believe. But you can edit that manually by going to your queue tab, to however often you deem good.

-"I don't know what to comment": Then don't! You do not have to. A blank reblog is always preferable to none.

-"I don't want to reblog reblog bait/political stuff.": Then don't. That's far from the only thing on this hellsite. You don't have to if you don't want to.

-"I leave my likes public": Most people who go to your blog will not see them. Leaving them public or private is all the same.

-"I don't want to tag things.": Then don't. You do not have to, there's a reason this is one of the few sites that don't force you to tag anything you post. (It would be good practice to say you don't tag things in your bio though)

And finally:

-"I do not want to reblog it.": Then don't! If after reading and understanding all this, you don't want to reblog things, then don't. You have your reasons. You are using the site as you want to, knowingly. Like I said before, this post is for people who might NOT know these things.

[starlitangels]

If I may, I want to say a few somethings since I’m exhausted and emotional and I might delete this later

The first is that I completed that second request. It’ll be posted tomorrow since I already put up a fic for today. I know you guys probably wouldn’t complain about more fic but putting up one fic per day is something I do for me

The second and most important thing: guys. You’re all awesome. I’ve been on Tumblr for a looong time. I’ve written fanfiction for probably a dozen or more fandoms. But I have never gotten the response I get from the Redacted fandom. Like, my first Redacted one-shot got triple digit notes in, like, a day or two. That’s it. I’ve never gotten that fast of a response. Nor did I ever consistently get comments or tags from reblogs. I have a few people who regularly leave nice things for me and it makes me so happy every time. I appreciate all of you so much.

And wow. You guys are so overwhelmingly positive. Everyone who’s interacted with me has been so kind and sweet. Whether it’s an ask, a reblog, or anything. Everyone’s amazing. My main blog has eight times the amount of followers that this little sideblog of mine has, but if I tried to play FMK on my main blog I would get maybe 1 person indulging me. You guys actually played along. I’m so used to being ignored when it comes to trying things like that that I expected an empty inbox

But y’all played the game with me! And I was so ecstatic! I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve the people playing FMK with me or sending me a compliment through an ask or a reblog or a tag, but I want everyone to know that I genuinely appreciate all of you for making Tumblr a fun place to write again

You’re amazing

Thank you

[idiotic-genius]

How to write an immersive scene

requested by @noa-i - check out their blog, they have amazing lists of helpful links to writing guides!

As a writer, it is mostly inevitable to get to the point in writing where you are questioning whether anyone will actually want to read what they have created. A question greatly important to writing something the reader gets hooked up with is: How do I lure them in and make them feel like they are part of something? Sometimes, writing immersive makes THE difference between a scene quick to skip over and a scene you can't take your eyes off. But how do you create immersion?

In this post: 1. Worldbuilding 2. Narrators 3. Writing visually 4. Setting the scene 5. Example to summarize

Step 1: Learn your own facts

It might be banal, since you are the author, to re-read your own notes and think about what you have written so far. However, to get the reader hooked up, make them INTERESTED. This is easily accomplished by creating a detailed fictional world that doesn't seem flat. It might be a tiring process, but it always pays off! Knowing exactly what kind of world your character finds themself in makes it a lot easier to fill in details that subconsciously make the reader believe they are dealing with an actual real-world instead of "just" a fictional one. But even though it may seem harsh, cutting out some details and facts might make the reader feel much more comfortable. Their mind wants to insert them into the universe they're reading about, so overloading them with too many unnecessary details can be just as defeating as giving them too little info. Here is a link to a great beginners-guide on worldbuilding.

Step 2: Know your narrator

As we all know, there are a bunch of different narrator types to pick from when starting a new story, and each of them is good for a different thing- reaching from the typical first-person narrator (The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson) over personal third-person (Warrior Cats, Harry Potter) to omniscient third-person (Anne of Green Gables) and biased third-person (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). If you are writing an unbiased third-person narrator in your WIP, you can just skip this step. However, if you have any indication at all in your story as to who the narrator is, you might want to think about this more closely. The narrator is the bridge that connects the reader to the fictional world. To immerse the reader in a book, it's usually easiest to use the first-person narrator or the personal third-person narrator, because that way the reader will either imagine themself as the narrator or as a friend of the main character, which keeps them interested. If your narrator is an actual character in the story, it is necessary to keep their speech and description patterns consistent with themselves and the events of the story. For example, a character narrating that has never visited a school or similar should not use highly scientific words to describe what's going on, etc, because it will interrupt the reader's reading flow and disturb the immersion just as much as time skips do.

Step 3: Writing visually

After making sure you have the narrator and the world they're in all set, it's time to choose a writing style, more specifically, to decide the visuality of it. What I mean by that is that having a fictional world so flat it's boring is just as bad as not describing it in a way that delivers it in the way it deserves to be delivered. Picture it like this: Every scene starts in a white room, with neither windows nor doors. If you as the writer don't describe what is going on in that room and what it looks like, at best while keeping the narrator's character in mind while doing so (to make it "3D"), the reader will never know what is actually happening. This also includes adapting the length and complexity of sentences to the scene: In a combat scene, you will usually find short and cut-throat sentences to represent the intensity and living-in-the-moment mindset of a fight, however, in a meaningful conversation between two characters about a heavy subject, it's more likely that longer and more complex sentences are of use to mirror the narrator's deep thinking of the subject and their concentration on the conversation.

Step 4: Setting the scene

By setting the scene, you fill in this white room in the reader's mind, adding characters, sounds, furniture, windows, and scenery in general, while still leaving space for the reader to fill in the blanks. To find a middle between these two extremes is up to every individual writer and depends on the writing style. If you over-describe the room, the reader will know every detail about it, but it will take away their focus from what is actually happening in the scene. However, if you don't set the scene at all, the reader automatically makes up what the room might look like based on what they imagine, and then breaks out of the immersion as soon as you mention something, later on, to be in the room that they did not picture. For example, if you just say that A enters B's bedroom, the reader might quite as well imagine there to be small windows, some bookshelves, a standard bed, etc. If you don't set that up right in the beginning and later on mention that B has small windows, the books stacked on the floor, a bunch of plants, an aquarium, and a bunk bed, the reader will get confused because it doesn't fit what they had pictured before. So ask yourself: What is so important that the reader should know it before the scene actually starts? Context also matters in that case.

5. Example

In the following, I will write the same scene multiple times in different styles to illustrate what makes a difference in writing immersion. The scene goes as following: Jae falls into a dark room underground with a hooded, mysterious person waiting for him. The hooded person greets him and lights a candle, and in the emitting light, Jae realizes who he is talking to. Remember: These are more caricatures of the different writing styles than actual representation and are very overexaggerated, but you get the idea.

1. first-person narrator (Jae), scene not set properly, no visual writing, no consistency in speech pattern

After three seconds, I landed on something soft and realized I had landed in a chamber underground, slightly lit by the moonlight above me. I walked through the only doorway and found myself in a second room. A hooded figure in the middle of the dark lifted their arm. From the table beside them, they picked up a candle and lit it using a lighter. "Hello, Jae", they said, and in the newly emitting light, I recognized them in front of the fireplace.

-> feels flat and jumpy, gives no significance to the change of scenery

2. biased third-person narrator, scene set properly, overly descriptive visual writing, consistency in speech pattern

After falling for what felt like an hour, even though it was probably just a few seconds, Jae finally landed on something soft. Before even attempting to get up, he shivered at the fresh memory of what slimy, earthy, suddenly appearing tunnels felt like. He stared up through the hole at the moon and the stars, and immediately recognized the constellation of Cassiopeia, high up above him. Cassiopeia is said to have angered the Gods, so they gave her the gift of divination, but made it so that nobody would ever believe her prophecies, finally banning her into the sky as this constellation. Weirdly enough, the stars' pattern doesn't look like a woman, or a human, at all. Jae slowly stood up from where he landed and realized he had fallen onto a rather big cushion with a print of primroses in yellow, pink, red, and blue. He looked around in my new location and found himself stuck in a small portico with no windows at all and only one doorway. The walls seemed just as dirty and muddy as the tunnel he had fallen through, and as he looked closer, he spotted about a dozen small, pink worms slithering through the soil. The floor on the other hand was made out of dark wooden panels- if you wanted to call it a "floor". The pieces were just loosely stuck onto the earth underneath, and mud squeezed out from the gaps in between. Jae slowly walked over them and reached the doorway after just four steps. He saw a hooded figure standing in the center of the next room. The room had two sources of lighting: One, the moonlight shining through the disgusting tunnel, and two, a crackling fireplace. It looked like it belonged in a small cottage, being made out of red bricks and looking a little old with the small black-and-white pictures put on top of it. The flickering orange glim of the fire met the silvery-white shine of the moon in the middle of the room. On the right side, Jae saw a big old round table made out of similar wood as the floorboards outside. There were obvious scratches on it, some made by smaller knives, others bigger and maybe made by swords, with splinters on their edges. Apart from two, the fours chairs around it seemed just as maltreated, but the two others were polished and reflected the two light sources, with no scratch marks at all. On top of the table rested a metal candlestick with one slightly burned-down candle stuck inside it. The candlestick had a few scratches as well, on the side and at the bottom. "Hello, Jae", the figure said snarkily, with a voice deep and rough like sandpaper. They wore a black cape, smooth on what Jae could see of the inside and rough on the outside, with a big hood covering their hair and most of their face. A few of the blue buttons with a golden pentagram engraved on them were missing from the coat, and it was slightly ripped in a few places. One strand of dark hair fell into the person's eyes as they reached out for the candlestick, lighting the candle inside with a silver zippo-lighter. The lighter had small scratches as well as a few symbols on it. Slowly, the flame grew bigger and bigger, until the shine from below reached the figure's face. Jae's eyes went big as he realized who he was talking to.

-> little place for the reader's fantasy, but details make scenery deeper and less flat. This kind of description does make sense if the narrator/the character the narrator fixates on (Jae in this case) is very observant and/or intelligent because they will notice details that others don't. The question is whether those details are important enough to keep in the story.

3. first-person narrator (Jae), scene set properly, visual writing, consistent speech pattern

After what felt like an eternity of falling and silently begging not to die from the impact, I finally landed with my eyes squeezed shut. Okay, legs, arms, and head still in place... I slowly opened my eyes again, realizing I had landed on a soft pillow with a flower print. Cautiously, I got up, gazing up at the tunnel through which I had fallen. The view of the slimy earth made me shiver involuntarily as I blinked against the bright moonlight far above me. The sky was clear enough to see stars, which could have been far more enjoyable if it hadn't been for my miserable situation. I had landed in a small chamber underground, with a single doorway leading into a bigger room. The walls were just pure earth and seemed to swallow all noise, but when I took the first step, the sounds of my shoes on the dark wooden floorboards and of the mud squishing out from beneath them was louder than I had anticipated. I could hear the crackling of fire from the next room and see the orange glow as I made my way over to the doorway and took a glimpse into it. The room was not very big, but also not as small as the one I had landed in. There wasn't much space because of a wooden round table and four chairs, which all seemed very old and maltreated, judging from the scratches on them. I could make out a few pictures on the fireplace, and in front of that- "Hello, Jae." I had to suppress a gasp as I realized that I was not alone. In the middle of the room, right where the silvery moonlight and the orange glow of the fire met, stood a hooded figure. Their coat looked as old as the few pieces of furniture, with missing buttons and rips. I couldn't make out much of their face, even though I squinted my eyes, but the flickering light made it hard to see anything, let alone recognize. But that voice... Before I could come to a conclusion, the figure reached for a metal candlestick standing on the table and lit the candle inside with a silver lighter. As the flame grew bigger, they dispelled the shadows below the hood that had disguised the person's features before. I could feel my eyes get big as I finally realized who was standing before me.

-> Gives enough information to "fill the white room" without dwelling on details too much, shows the context of the story, gives Jae a consistent personality

So that's it for this post! I hope I managed to pass on a thing or two that I learned while researching and that this post will help you with your writing. Please acknowledge, I am not trying to attack anyone's style of writing!! If you write the way I wrote a "non-immersive" scene, it does NOT mean that your writing style is bad, let alone wrong, because the existence of many different writing styles is what keeps it individual and interesting! Find your own way and let nobody get you down :)

[sixamese-simblr]

Check-in Tags!

I was tagged by @13deadendlane to do check-in tags! Thanks so much <3

Why did you choose your url?

I wanted to do something with Sixam and a bunch of other ones were already in use, so this is kinda the one I was stuck with because I thought was reasonably different from the ones people were actively using.

How long have you been on tumblr?

That's classified information! Let's just say that I had a different account that got a lot of usage before 2018.

Do you have a queue tag?

No, I can't be arsed to tag them. I only usually queue gameplay posts and people will get that they're queued when they're released 4 per day at regular intervals. I don't care that what someone's posting by queue and neither should my followers. If you want to know when I'm awake and using Tumblr no you don't. I'll reply to your inbox within 1-4 business days.

Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I wanted to post the very first version of the Sixam challenge rules on the MTS forums but the mods were being stupid about really lame details so I decided this would be a better place. I was right.

Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I made a post at some point where the then-current colony queen Grubbenvorst was at a birthday party, thought it was a fun picture and never bothered to change it since.

Why did you choose your header?

I spent dozens of minutes on the hood icon for Planet Birch, I'd better use it!

What’s your post with the most notes?

I create quality memes that are 2 years late with extremely crunchy images, OK?

How many mutuals do you have?

There's... a way to count that? I'm not doing data analysis in my spare time. Well, I take that back. Not on this particular problem.

How many followers do you have?

512 on my main! My most followed sideblog is a meme bot I run, with 1,567 followers. Good luck finding which one it is <3.

How many people do you follow?

695

Have you ever made a shitpost?

We post quality here.

How often do you use tumblr each day?

Too much. It's my main social media.

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

No :(

How do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts?

Hate them. I feel like they've gotten less prominent so they feel sort of vintage now, but still hate them. Or maybe I've just curated my feed to have fewer people that reblog those? Idk man.

Do you like tag games?

I love being tagged, but I don't have a good idea on which people I'm on good enough terms with to tag them so I don't like tagging people. Which I feel is part of the problem in getting tagged rarely.

Do you like ask games?

Please just interact with me

Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

Def @nerdyth and @jawusa are simblr famous, which is really the metric we're going by. There's a bunch more that are tumblr famous in my heart, no idea if they're simblr famous irl.

Tagging @nerdyth , @jawusa , @kaylynn-langerak , @roguebotanist , @berrysweetboutique , @sushigal007 , @mrbirchthebachelor a.k.a. a selection of the people people who are tumblr famous in my heart

[curoopeez]

Welp. I gathered my thoughts.

My opinions haven't changed on the situation. I still consider dream is innocent until proven guilty and I still don't feel confortable posting about him until the allegations are proven false.

I realised that the most damaging to me wasn't the allegations or their implications themselves, but how the community reacted. I am very dissapointed in a lot of people. But I don't want to point fingers. At the end of the day, we're only the audience of a very serious matter and the more we are removed from the situation the better.

I still want to be on this blog. Nothing will make me regret the experiences I had here and the amazing people I've met. So while I may not feel like posting for a few more days, I have plenty of intention of coming back.

That being said, I feel that I need to change how I use social media as a whole. I have plenty of intention of staying in the fandom, but I will be less active in general. As much as I love fighting in the trenches defending what I believe is right, it is hard. It's hard having to come up with code names to tag my blorbos on posts. It's hard having to inspect a post to see if op is making an affectionate joke or wishing me pain. And it's hard spending hours on art, tagging it as well as I can, only to get twenty something notes while a text post with one and a half sentences and five misspellings get dozens if not hundreds within minutes.

I want to draw my own ocs. I want to ramble about stuff that suddenly peaked my interest. I want to actually grow an audience as an artist.

So I will have to change how I use social media. Maybe I'll make another blog for non fandom related stuff, maybe I'll try to venture in other social medias (twitter and tiktok are out of question though. Instagram is on thin ice). I don't know for sure what I will do, but of two things I am certain: I am not leaving this blog, and I will use it less

(On a lighter note, I did use tumblr quite a lot. This is my main social media. It's very much possible that my "using less" is most people's "using a normal and healthy amount". So no need to worry, I am not going anywhere, I just need to get stricter in how I curate my online experience)

[ficrecsforklaine]

Hiii! I’m brand new to the fandom and was wondering if the Glee fandom has one of those fics that literally everyone in the fandom knows about and has read? Preferably a Klaine fic bc I love them and want to consume as much of them as I can ahahah thanks!

(I only read Klaine fics so everything listed has them as the main focus)

considering the Klaine fandom has been around for about 10 years, there are a lot of fics to choose from. everyone has their own opinions of which fics are considered to be “fandom famous”, and not everyone likes everything listed. but here’s a list of a few popular titles that spring to mind right away. there are probably DOZENS more that I could list too. I’m going to invite my followers to add their favorites to the notes, so check those out for even more recs.

-

Little Numbers by iknowitainteasy [S&C] [LJ] [PDF/ePub] (PG13)

AU: Blaine sends a text message to a wrong number by accident. Things progress from there.

-

Sideways by CrissColferL0ve [FFN] (Mature)

Blaine is the most popular kid at school, he's also a bully. Kurt is the new kid and the victim of the football team, but bullying somebody doesn't necessarily mean you won't end up liking them, even if you try your best not to. 

SEQUEL: Anywhere but Here [FFN]

-

Expectation Fails by lilinas [AO3] *SERIES*  (Explicit/NC17)

This was originally written as a fill for a Glee Kink Meme prompt. In a D/s AU where your soulmate's name appears on your wrist (left for dom, right for sub) during puberty, Kurt and Blaine are marked with each other's names. But Kurt, the dom, is a 16-year-old high school student and Blaine, the sub, is his 27-year-old history teacher.

-

Go Your Own Way by zavocado [AO3] *SERIES* (Explicit/NC17)

Kurt Hummel just wants to get through his Junior Year at McKinley in one piece. But when the new guy from Dalton Academy Reform School for Boys takes an alarming interest in him, he's certain he's going to be in for a wild ride. Badboy!Blaine, Klaine, AU

-

An Accidental Chance by SlayerKitty [S&C ] *SERIES* (R/Mature) [PDFs]

An accidental tweet. A chance phone call. Or what happens when famous TV star Blaine Anderson accidentally tweets his phone number.

-

All The Other Ghosts by Rainjoy [LJ] [PDF/ePub] (NC17)

It's a big city for one more lost soul in a mask. superhero!fic

SEQUEL: Grey [LJ] [PDF/ePub] (NC17)

FOLLOW-UP ONE-SHOT: Gloves & Masks [LJ] ( R )

-

Syrup and Honey by LauGS [FFN] (Mature)

AU!Klaine. Kurt Hummel is 25 years old when he finds himself being the owner of the bakery he had been dreaming about his whole life, just in time to sweeten up Blaine Anderson's days.

-

Someone Like You by iconicklaine [AO3] *SERIES* (Mature)

Kurt and Blaine keep up their very own version of "When Harry Met Sally" for years, a friendship fraught with sexual tension and longing, until the agendas of Adele (yes, THE Adele), a bored NY socialite and a super-sweet hetero couple bring our boys together. The only problem is... they're both in committed relationships. Note: This story is AU after "Sexy" and assumes Kurt and Blaine graduate from Dalton in the same year. In this future fic, set in 2025, Blaine is based off of Season 2 Blaine.

-

The Symphony Verse by shandyall [AO3] *SERIES* (Mature)

Blaine has spent most of his life feeling like the only thing people notice about him is that he stutters. He’s working hard to overcome his (mostly self created) roadblocks when he meets Kurt in an online class the summer after his freshman year of college.

-

Is It Weird? by a_simple_rainbow [AO3] *SERIES* (G - T)

Blaine sends his Topics in Contemporary Music mid-term essay to the wrong e-mail address, writing an extra m where it was supposed to read Humel. Kurt, spending a semester abroad in Paris, is having a challenging night of essay writing and procrastination, and goes a little bit beyond letting Blaine know he got the wrong person, sparking what will soon be described as a "weird pen-palish thing we got going on" that takes them both by surprise and leaves them hopeful and giddy. 

-

Not Like the Movies by Knightlycat [AO3] *SERIES* (Mature)

When new Hollywood golden boy Kurt Hummel receives some disturbing letters, his manager hires bodyguard Blaine Anderson to be with him 24 hours a day. In an attempt to hide Blaine's true identity from the press they decide he needs to go undercover...as Kurt's boyfriend. Famous!Kurt Nevermet!AU 

-

A Political Romance by YaDiva [FFN] [AO3] (Explicit/NC17)

Blaine is the son of a conservative politician. He's not allowed to have a boyfriend but he falls in love with Kurt however something about Blaine isn't quite right. Something dark and slightly twisted. Rated M for language, smut, gay sex and dark themes. 

SEQUEL: A Legal Romance [FFN] [AO3]

-

Angel in a Red Vest by dontbefancy [AO3] *SERIES* (Explicit/NC17)

A case of two men, two lives, and two stories and how combining them can change everything. Yeah, it’s a basic love story with a firefighter!Blaine twist…and maybe a little more. 

-

I’m going to stop here or this post will be a mile long. feel free to browse through the tags on this blog if you have a specific trope you are looking for. welcome to the fandom!!  and if anyone would like to add a fic rec to the notes please do so!

[tinyboxxtink]

"Doppelganger" *Part 4*

I don't know why I do this, I'm such a little shit. I'm leaving this here, the biggest cliffhanger yet and I might not get one done tomorrow! MWAHAHHAHAHAHAA. No I'm just kidding, but seriously it might not go up until most of you go to bed so I'm sorry if you miss it!

This had to pick up though, it was kind of lagging. Gotta get that super angst/suspense ramped up!!!

I'll leave you to ponder that now as you go into this, mwhahaaha.

[Side note the position of the gif's *CHEF KISS* MWAH!!! I didn't even try and do that. It's so beautiful.]

Part 3

Part 5

Tag List

@madamsnape921

@lolliepopsicle

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@milkshqke

@wanniiieeee

@word-scribbless

@gibbs274

@sassyada

@aprildecker-blog

@bookishfanfic

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@stars-trash-18

@omgsuperstarg

@objection-argumentative

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

You decided to grab Rafael’s favorite dish from a nearby deli, got something for yourself and Gabi, and headed up to the DA’s building.

“Wow, fancy,” Gabi remarked as you walked inside.

“I guess,” You shrugged. You had become so used to it when you worked for him, it wasn’t really anything special to you now. You walked down the hall and noted Rafael's new intern, a young guy of course, on your insistence. You knocked on the door softly, having some ‘nam flashbacks of the last time you knocked on this door.

“You ok?” Gabi asked you with a concerned face. “You look pale,”

That could be due to the fact that Rafael was not answering you, now you really WERE having a PTSD panic.

“Rafael?!” You poked your head in, terrified for some reason. To your relief, he was just on the phone.

“Uh huh, yes, yes sir, alright judge I’ll see you this afternoon,” He smiled at you and waved you in as he hung up with the judge. His face scrunched up when he saw you had a guest with you.

“...Who’s this?” He looked at Gabi suspiciously.

“This is my friend Gabi,” You introduced her as she gave a friendly wave.

“....And when did you meet Gabi, exactly?” Rafael still eyed her warily.

“Excuse me?” Gabi asked in an offended tone.

“Rafael, what are you doing?” You asked him through gritted teeth.

“You don’t think Nevada would have plants?” Rafael kept his eye on Gabi, who was starting to sweat. Gabi’s pulse quickened, she tried her best to keep a cool, calm expression.

“Rafael!” You hissed. “Are you kidding me?!”

“Who’s Nevada?” Gabi played dumb.

“Nobody, nothing-- it’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” You waved your hands dismissively.

“What’s your story, Gabi? Do you have a last name?” He kept on her, noting her quickening nervous state.

“RAFAEL,” You grabbed his shoulder.

“Y/N,” He repeated back at you. He looked at Gabi-- “Can you excuse us a moment?” He then pulled you to the side.

“Baby, please be smart about this--”

“So what, I’m just not supposed to have any friends?” You scoffed.

“You have friends! You have Chloe,” He pointed out.

“Oh my god--” You looked to the side trying not to lose it in the office. “Rafael this is exactly what I’m talking about, you need to stop trying to control my life.. Stop trying to be my FATHER,”

Gabi couldn’t help but laugh as she heard you call him your father; clearly you had some raging daddy issues. Rafael glared at her, making her quickly stop.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Rafael started to walk back to his desk, dismissing you.

“Oh will we, dad?” You crossed your arms. “Am I grounded now? I can’t hang out with my friends until I apologize for talking back to you?”

“Y/N, please leave before I say something I regret,” He clenched his fist.

“No, please go on, father,” You spat. “Please, tell me what else I can and can’t do. Maybe you want to pick out my clothes for tomorrow? Escort me to my classes?” You yelled mockingly.

Gabi was enjoying the show, already planning her celebratory dinner with Nevada. Once he heard she drove a wedge between the two of you so he could swoop in would please him so much, he’d fuck her so fast it would make Marcella’s fake tits fall off.

“....Maybe I wouldn’t have to act like your father if you didn’t act like such a CHILD. God it’s no wonder they didn’t want to come see you!” He pounded the desk, then suddenly realized he had said the last part out loud.

Your face turned pale, your mouth dropped open as tears stung your eyes. You couldn’t believe that he had just said that-- he threw your biggest secret in your face like that, in front of a stranger no less. You stared at Gabi, who looked incredibly uncomfortable and confused. She was secretly celebrating being able to look anything else but as nervous as she felt while being interrogated by Rafael.

“Y/N….I didn’t mean--” Rafael immediately went to your side, trying to hold you and apologize.

“Yes you did,” You growled, trying not to cry. “You know what, I need a break,”

“...A break?” Rafael’s brows furrowed. “From me?”

“Yes, Rafael. A break from YOU,” You turned and started to stomp out of the office but Rafael grabbed your arm.

“Carino come on, don’t do this, not now--” Rafael begged you, still not trusting Gabi’s face.

“Oh right, because if you’re not beside me 24/7 I’m going to get kidnapped or something, right?!” You cried as tears dripped down your face.

Gabi was awestruck she was actually watching this conversation take place. Were they fucking with her? Did they know what was going on?

“I’m not saying that, but-- look please, please, listen to me--” He pleaded with you just as you had pleaded with him at the church that awful day.

“NO, Rafael,” You broke free from his grasp. “I’m tired of you thinking that you’re better than me, that you need to protect me like I’m a baby bird,”

“Um maybe I should--” Gabi motioned towards the door.

“YES you should,” Rafael huffed.

“NO, don’t bother Gabi, we’re leaving,” You huffed harder.

“...I’ll see you at home?” Rafael asked you softly.

“What did I just say?!” You rolled your eyes. “I’ll be at Chloe’s, don’t call or text me for a few days,”

“No, no I can’t do that--” Rafael protested.

“Either that or take this back,” You took off your ring and held it out to him. Gabi began to panic again, she knew she had to get that ring.

“Seriously? Don’t you think you’re--”

“What, acting like a child, Rafael?” You glared at him. “I’m trying NOT to, I just-- I just want to calm down, so just-- give me a few days,” You slipped your ring back on to Gabi’s relief. Then you nodded to her to follow her out and you both left Rafael’s office.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have--” Gabi tried to act apologetic, but was secretly giddy inside.

“No, it’s not your fault,” You wiped the angry tears from your face. “I um...I need some time to myself right now though,”

“Of course,” Gabi nodded as if she was being kind and understanding, but really she couldn’t wait to call Nevada.

“Cool, I’ll um-- I’ll see you in class,” You were so out of it from being so upset you didn’t notice the huge smile crawl across Gabi’s face as she turned and ran the opposite way you were walking, dialing her phone.

“....Vada? I’ve got your perfect in,”

-------

A few days latter was your final. You had to perform Shakespearean monologues on the big main stage of the University, and you were terrified. You were kicking yourself that you had told Rafael you needed space as you paced back and forth backstage. You hadn't talked or texted him since you had stormed out of his office the other day.

“Hey, you okay?” Gabi came up to you from the side door.

“No, I-- I should call Rafa, I need him,” You went to get your phone but Gabi stopped you.

“Well, clearly he knows that,” Gabi gave you a smile, nodding to the audience.

You looked out to see Rafael sitting in the second row of the theater. When he saw you, he gave you a loving look and a small wave. You sighed happily; he knew you better than you knew yourself. He knew you’d need him here, and here he was. You loved him so much, you just wanted to go and kiss him and tell him you were sorry, but there would be time after your test.

Soon enough it was your turn, and you recited your monologue absolutely perfectly-- staring into Rafael’s beautiful green eyes the entire time. As soon as you were done, Rafael stood up and applauded loudly, making you giggle and blush.

Your professor looked a bit annoyed that your fiancé was there making a show of himself, but congratulated you on a job well done. You walked down the stairs and out into the house where Rafael met you with open arms and a dozen roses.

“Mi amor,” He beamed, as you jumped into his arms.

“I’m sorry,” You apologized as you snuggled into his chest. “I shouldn’t have been so--”

“No no no, shhhh,” He raised your face to look at him, his face so tender and pure. “I’m sorry carino, I never should have brought up your parents, I know how much you miss them,”

“Thank you for coming,” You kissed him gently, feeling complete again. He deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue down your throat and biting your lip.

“Raffi!” You broke apart and hit him playfully, glancing around to make sure no one saw such a dirty kiss.

“What? I haven’t seen you in a few days, I missed...this,” He grabbed your ass with both hands. You didn’t know what had gotten into him, although you realized you actually hadn’t spent more than a day apart before since you’d gotten together-- maybe you should punish him more often!

“Well, let’s go take care of that then,” You grinned devilishly, grabbing his own perfect little peaches in your dainty hands.

“I know just the place, carino,” He grabbed your hand and pulled you out the side doors.

You hadn’t realized that Gabi had been missing since before you started your monologue, and you hadn’t noticed that she had taken your phone from your purse while you were onstage. Currently, she was at the front doors of the theater lobby, arguing with….the REAL Rafael.

“Look lady, I don’t know who you think you are, but I think I know my fiancé better than you. She needs me!” He yelled.

“And I’m pretty sure I heard her say she NEEDS space, pendejo,” She blocked him from entering the theater.

“Is there a problem here?” Javi came over, dressed in a campus security uniform.

“Yes sir, this stranger is trying to burst in on a PRIVATE class, to stalk a student,” Gabi acted very concerned for her friend's safety.

“STALK a student--? Are you fucking kidding me? Kid look she’s--”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave, sir,” Javi started to escort Rafael out.

“Excuse me? Look man I’m the ADA of New York I’m not some rando--” Rafael started to argue.

“Anyone on campus without a student or faculty ID is strictly prohibited, sir,” Javi lied. “Even if you are the ADD,” He messed up his title just to fuck with Rafael.

“The ADA!” He yelled as Javi pushed him out the front door and shut it, locking it behind him.

“Well, that was easy,” He smirked at Gabi, giving her a fist bump. Rafael saw it from outside the doors.

That could not be good….

------

Meanwhile

“Rafael” led you to a huge limo, helping you get inside.

“Wow, this is a step up from an Uber,” You joked.

“Well, I knew this was a big day for my baby, and I knew I had a lot to make up for,” Rafael smiled, kissing you deeply as you both got in the car, lips locked.

“God I missed you,” You giggled, kissing him over and over. It was true, even for a few days without him was like torture. His smell, his lips, his touch-- you needed it all.

If only you knew you were about to give it all away to someone you didn’t even know.