#but maybe the sketchiness has a kind of charm?

[afurtivecake]

You know what my actual favourite Andrew Minyard line in the whole series is? It's not his sentimental lines like, "...from now until May you are still Neil Josten...". It's not even the best love confession in all of literature line, "Doesn't mean I wouldn't blow you." It's when he says "I'm not as smart as I thought I was."

That one line tells you so much about Andrew's character. That's the line that spells out for the reader that Andrew is smarter than he chooses to let on. That's the line that shows you just highly Andrew thinks of his own intelligence and how much he's been relying on it to survive and to keep his promises.

Consider that up until that point Andrew has presented himself with nothing less than the domineering kind of toughness you'd expect to see in a prison scene in a movie. He openly talks about breaking Neil, threatens multiple people with knives and makes everyone work around him. His "tough guy around town" persona and his ability to inflict violence is clearly something he prizes. AND YET. The first time he admits to any kind of dissatisfaction with himself, it's about his intelligence.

That is the point where the reader realizes that Andrew, in his own mind, is an intellectual. He doesn't actually pride himself on being the toughest guy in the room. He's aware that he's all of 5-feet-nothing and he knows at any given moment there's likely to be someone bigger and stronger than he is. What he's counting on in any given situation is being the smartest guy in the room. Fix any issues before they worsen, anticipate and eliminate any threats before they surface, think his way out of any problem that comes up. His intelligence is what he relies on to keep his promises.

That's the moment Andrew realizes that he's been letting his feelings get the better of his logic. He clocks Neil as dangerous from day one. But he's been telling himself that he's letting Neil stay for Kevin's sake or at least just until he can definitively prove Neil is dangerous. But the real reason he let Neil stay and get away with all his sketchy behaviour is because he let the fact that he likes Neil as a person, overcome his logic.

It makes you think, OH, THAT'S WHY Andrew was so interested in Neil in the first place. For someone who prides himself on his intelligence and KNOWS that no one else can match his smarts, Neil figuring out his twin switcheroo trick is the same as Neil throwing down the gauntlet and challenging him to a battle of wits. Andrew keeps trying to trip Neil up and Neil keeps batting his attempts aside and Andrew ends up helplessly charmed by Neil. Because Andrew LIKES that Neil is able to outsmart him sometimes, that Neil is his intellectual equal. And somewhere along the way, he's let himself forget that he "knows better" than to get emotionally attached, than to let someone else best him at his best quality- than to act like every other idiot in love that he's ever met.

You then realize that Andrew hasn't once thought of himself as brawny jock. That off-putting delinquent/school-shooter vibe and "psycho" reputation is a carefully calculated form of self-defense. It's self-defense in the literal sense of scaring off people who might want to fuck with him, but perhaps also in the sense of protecting himself from being seen. It makes sense, right? If people were to actually try to get to know him with an open mind, they'd soon discover that he IS difficult to get along with in ways they thought they could handle, but can't. Better to act the volatile asshole than suffer the disappointment of people changing how they treat him. And in the unlikely case that people find out that he isn't as tough as he presents himself, they might pity him. And that would be even worse. Much better to be as un-fuck-with-able as possible.

First time reading the book, I was taken in by Andrew's jock-ish façade. But the moment he admitted maybe he ought to be disappointed in himself for not being as smart as he thought he was, I had to set the book down and rethink every assumption I had made about Andrew as a character. The timing of that revelation is so perfect, because it happens just before the Thanksgiving mess. And so as the reader, you're suddenly coming to terms with the fact that Andrew is so much more vulnerable than he's ever portrayed himself to be at the same time that Andrew is being hit with probably one of the worst moments in his life. Like, that absolutely TOOK ME OUT. Which is why, that's one of the best lines in the whole series to me.

[lamoobsessions]

Fortune for the Fools

Hazel Callahan x FemReader

Synopsis: After an underwhelming proverb from an underwhelming fortune teller at the county fair, you have an unexpected run-in with Hazel. When time passes and feelings prosper, you finally begin to believe that maybe that fortune was right after all.

A/N: Enjoy this prologue to a fic i'm working on, while I slowly hoist myself out of this writing slump. Each chapter will have a lyric from a song by a queer artist, so I hope you enjoy :)

Prologue: "My heart's out. My guard's down." - Body and Mind, Girl in Red

────────────

To you, everything about the ‘End of Summer Carnival’ was enchanting. The pop-up canopies glowing in the night like lamps. The game booths sounding obnoxious buzzers as the kids played them for cheap toys. The tall, flashing lights welcoming onlookers to their sketchy rides, which, to your dislike, capriciously shook as they sat in the dirt -They weren’t safe, anyone with half of a mind knew that, but anyone with a sliver of fun would ride them anyway. Even the smell of the event was kind of charming. Sure, there’s the frequent whiffs of vomit and B.O., but usually those smells drown in the overwhelming scent of funnel cake and sugar. All in all, there was a lot to love about the carnival. 

Like every year, you attend with Sylvie, whom you’ve known since… forever you think. You and her clicked. Maybe it was your reserved demeanor and her gregarious attitude that made things so easy. Many people found it shocking when they found out how close the two of you are, simply because you’re polar opposites. Either way, the two of you made quite the pair. 

However, at the moment you stand alone among the carnival’s rapture.

All is well though, you have a routine for this sort of thing. You start out with the games, then the rides, then get food, and finish the night off with a ride on the Ferris wheel. It’s a perfect system you discovered a couple of years ago, and it hasn’t failed you yet. The only downfall of this plan is that Sylvie isn’t big on the carnival games, so you’re often left on your own for the first half. Which, you don’t mind, it’s less competition for the prizes anyway. 

That’s how you’ve found yourself here, standing in front of an old vintage fortune-teller named ‘ZOLTAR.’

To your understanding, this is the first year the local carnival has had a fortune teller machine. The thing doesn’t even ask for one of your tickets, it only asks for a dollar. So, thinking it must be fate, you decide to try out your luck.

Inserting the money into the slot, a suspiciously long moment passes, a moment long enough for you to begin to think the thing must be broken, and you dollar just went to a waste. Yet, just as you were about to shake some life into the machine, a whimsical harp plays from the speaker, “Cheer up my friend, and listen to the proverb from Zoltar.”

The sudden, and unreasonably loud, audio makes you flinch.

“From small beginnings come great things.” The machine suggests. “Ah yes, and lucky for you the great Zoltar sees much happiness for you in the future. Go out and find it, but don’t run off too quickly, Zoltar has more to say for you.” 

A shuttering emanates from the ticket dispenser, as it pushes out a small yellow ticket. Pulling it from the slot you read the back of the card. 

It's all the same mumbo jumbo you'd expect from a fortune. 'Things are going to change soon… blah, blah, blah… Be brave in your choices… yadda, yadda, yadda.'

You huff a laugh looking down at the card. “great…” you mutter.

It’s truly is the same fortune-teller crap most people get, but you can’t help but to hope it’s true. What’s the harm in hoping, right?

However, after a few carnival games, this hope started to feel like bullshit. Firstly, your favorite game that’s here every year is gone, then you lose half your tickets gambling them away on some guessing game, then, at the time your supposed to meet Sylvie by the Ferris wheel, she’s a no show.  

‘Great happiness in your future, my ass’ you thought. 

At least you had enough cash left in your pocket to buy back the tickets you lost. But first, there was a fried Oreo stand practically calling your name with it's infectiously sweet aroma. 

Deciding to ditch Sylvie's meeting spot, you make your way to the concession stand and join the endless line.

Minutes pass and you’re finally close to the front, with the delicious smells of chocolate and sugar getting stronger and stronger with each step. Although, another minute passes, then another, then another, and the line has yet to move. Peering to the front, you see a girl fumbling in her wallet, a look of panic evident of her face. 

Even from a short distance, you’re sure you know who it is. Though, curious to see what’s going on, you listen in closer. 

“Ma’am you can’t pay with tickets, we only accept cash.” The woman behind the counter argues. 

“I know, I know, I’m so sorry. It’s just that I promised some friends-”

“If you don’t have any cash, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the line.”

Looking into your wallet for extra cash, you notice you only have cash for your own fried Oreo and some more tickets. If you were to buy more from the concession stand, you'd have to give up on the possibility of buying extra tickets later.

But, being that it's the last night of the summer and your 'lucky fortune' can't seem to come true, you at least have the chance to bring happiness to someone else's future.

“Excuse me!” 

Both the woman behind the counter and Hazel turn to you. 

“I have extra cash if you…” you suggest. 

“Oh no, it’s…” Hazel dismisses, “You don’t have to do that.”

“It’s no problem, really. What were you going to get?” You ask, taking the money from your wallet, while making your way to the counter. 

Hazel stares at you, dumbfounded, seemingly unsure if she should accept the offer.

“She was getting two churros and a stick of cotton candy.” The cashier speaks up.

You nod and count the cash before handing it to her. “Can you add a fried Oreo to that order?”

The woman bobs her head while counting the cash and shoves it into the register. “We’ll have that right out for you.”

“Thanks,” You smile and make your way to the pick-up bar for the food. Hazel follows you hesitantly, presumably taken back by the interaction. 

“You didn’t have to do that,” she comments.

“Yeah, but I wanted to.”

As embarrassing as it may be to admit, there was always this fondness with her, an insatiable desire to be her friend. But, making friends wasn’t always your strong suit. You mostly kept to yourself, sat in the back of the class with your nose in a book. Sylvie’s told you countless times how unapproachable you look, but you never got around to fixing that detail. 

Hazel wears a confused expression, as if she couldn't quite piece together something in her head. 

“I’m y/n, by the way.” You begin, figuring she's probably trying to pin a name to your face. “Hazel, right?”

“Um- yeah. You know my name?”

“Yeah I mean, we’ve been going to the same school since like freshman year. Of course I know who you are.”

Truthfully, it wasn’t normal to know random people’s names in your school. It’s a big school, filled with a lot of people. Many students graduate not knowing half of their class. But, you knew Hazel’s name because, like anyone you find interesting, you learned it.

“Oh yeah, right.” She laughs awkwardly. “I knew your name too, by the way.”

You smile, letting out an amused huff at her insistence before looking to the Ferris wheel, where Sylvie has yet to show up. You'd be worried if it weren't Sylvie being her usual self. She either got caught in some atrociously long line, or is currently talking some poor souls head off somewhere. 

“I-um,” Hazel begins. “I don’t think I ever thanked you for the food, so… thanks.”

“Yeah, of course. Don't mention it." You chirp. 

“No really, I owe you one. Usually they accept tickets at these things, but I guess they don’t do that anymore.”

“Yeah, they stopped doing that last year after some kid, like, figured out how to forge the concession tickets or something.”

Suddenly, her expression turns into one of clarity. “I was wondering why they didn’t offer concession tickets this year.” She pauses, then lowering her voice to a near whisper. “How did they find out about the fakes though?”

“Wait- was that you?” 

Suddenly, she lights up, as if she'd been waiting her whole life for someone to ask. “Yeah, I just bought some customizable raffle tickets online and printed all the same stuff on them. It was pretty easy, considering most tickets, like the one for the rides, have special codes on them so they can’t be replicated, but not the concession ones. There wasn’t anything fancy like that on them.” 

After seconds of staring in complete bafflement, you can’t help but to laugh. She was the last person you’d expect to pull such thing off, but maybe that’s because you didn’t know her as much as you wish you did.  “That’s honestly genius. I mean,  it’s a shame you got caught.”

“I don’t even know how they found out! I was super inconspicuous about it.”

At this, you only laugh harder. It wasn’t even that funny of a situation but for some reason, maybe because it was her, you felt lighter. 

“Two churros, a cotton candy, and a fried Oreo!” The woman calls from the counter. 

The two of you turn your attention towards the tray of food under the pick-up window. Hazel grabs her share of food, though not before handing you your portion. 

“Well,” you begin, while unwrapping the treat in your hands. “Maybe next time you can learn to forge actual money.”

“That would be so cool,” She beams, evidently not catching your sarcasm. 

“Cool, but also a federal crime.”

“It’s only a crime if you get caught.”

“Thats a terrible philosophy.” you remark. Glancing at the ferris wheel, Sylvie had finally showed. She waited patiently under beaming lights. “Oh, I gotta go. I’ll see you at school, I guess?”

Something flashes in hazel’s demeanor, something you couldn't quite identify before it was gone and replaced by a smile “Yeah -uh, I’ll see you then.” She waves. “Thanks again.”

“no problem,” you wave off, before taking off towards Sylvie, who quickly spots you walking over, and begins to wave frantically, as if you couldn’t already see her under the blinding light. 

“Y/n!” She calls, “You’ll never guess what I saw!” 

You smile, rolling your eyes playfully. “It better be the reason you were a whole thirty minutes late to meeting me.”

“Uh-huh,” She answers quickly. “I saw someone get hit by a car.”

A pit of shock and concern fills you. “Oh my god are they okay? Are- Are you okay? How the hell did-”

“No it’s fine, it was just Jeff.”

Immediately that pit of shock dissolves, and your mind begins to wonder how the whole town hasn’t already erupted into a riot simply because it was Jeff.  “Okay, so…is he okay?”

“Well, you know, of course he’s taking it way too far and acting like the car hit him at ninety miles per hour, when in reality it was probably one, but yeah, he’s fine.” 

That part was believable. For football players who are the size of grown men, they were about as fragile as a china doll. But, the fact that you hadn’t heard about it the moment it happened… that part was a little hard to grasp. “So, you’re telling me, the Jeff -Jeff the star player of the Rockbridge football team, got hit by a car and the town hasn’t turned to pitchforks and torches yet?”

“Yes!” She exclaims excitingly. “I mean, the whole team is devastated, but the people are handling it pretty good if you ask me.”

You huff, taking a bite into your food. “Well, I guess that’s a good enough excuse for you being late.”

“I’m sorry,” She exaggerates, dragging out the apology. “To make it up to you, I’ll let you choose the first ride we go on together.”

“Oh, how generous,” You tease. “But I blew all my tickets on the carnie games.”

“You serious? Why don’t you just buy more?”

“All the cash I brought was spent on food.”

She gives you a curious look, likely surprised that you, for once, came to something unprepared. For some reason you have yet to uncover, a part of you didn’t feel like telling Sylvie about the run-in with Hazel. 

“Well, lucky for you, I stole some of my stepdad’s money for tonight. So we can just buy more.”

you laugh, ���I don’t think I feel comfortable using stolen step-dad money."

“Then don’t think of it like that. Think of it like I’m your super rich sugar momma, and I’m treating you to a night out.” She shoves a wad of tickets into your hands forcefully. 

“Right,” you deadpan, accepting the tickets. ”Step-dad’s money it is.”

“Great,” She cheers, playfully putting an arm around your shoulder.  

The rest of the night was spent using all of Sylvie's remaining tickets for eating overtly sweet foods, riding unnecessarily fast rides, and throwing up in grotesque smelling trash cans. Or in other words, the night was spent perfectly. You and Sylvie stuck around til closing and ended the night sleeping over at your place, which is always the go-to spot for the both of you since Sylvie absolutely despises her stepdad. Come to think of it, you’ve probably only been to her house once, way back when her parents were still together. These days, it’s your house and your house only. You never minded the company.

But, as the early morning came and the first day of school had arrived, you began to regret this decision.

Body aching, stomach wrenching, and head sagging like a block of cement, all the decisions of last night finally caught up to you. You felt like shit, and you weren’t the only one. Next to you, Sylvie groaned, dragging her hands down her face as she sat up from the air mattress on the floor. 

“I think I’m dying,” She complains.

You hum in agreement, pulling yourself from under the covers and throwing your legs off the bedside. “Do we have to go? It’s our last year, it doesn't really matter if we skip anymore, right?"

“I mean… I’d be down to skip if you are. We can rot in bed and watch movies all day and pretend it’s still summer and that school never started.” 

Staring at her with a stoic expression, you hop off the bed and begin to make your way towards the closet. “You’re supposed to convince me to go, not enable me.”

She shrugs, putting her hands up in surrender. “I never said I was a good influence. You decided that on your own.”

You huff, pulling off random pieces of clothing from the drawers and off the hook. “Yeah, well,” You sigh, throwing the clothes on the bed. “I’m going to need all the influence I can get to leave this house before eight. And by influence, I mean caffeine and ibuprofen.”

“Oh!” She exclaims shooting up from the bed. “I’ll get the ibuprofen.”

“Please don’t grab the wrong thing like you did last time.”

A wide grin plasters on her face. “You mean the laxative incident? That was hilarious.”

“No, no it wasn’t.” The last time Sylvie was in charge of grabbing ibuprofen was the night of the Junior and Senior prom. You developed a monster headache from all the cologne clouding the gymnasium air, and when Sylvie somehow came back with laxatives instead of a pain reliever, you were too absorbed in the pain to notice any difference. “I had to leave prom early because all the fucking bathrooms were full with orgies and stoners.” 

“Yeah, that was awesome,” She giggles. 

“Just please grab the right stuff this time.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I can handle it.” And with that, she walks out the room and towards the kitchen where the pharmaceuticals are stored. This time, hopefully, she will come back with the right medicine. You dind't want this sudden luck of yours to continue any longer.  

[youcouldmakealife]

Ty/Johnny, Various Wilsons; hunting season

Another Kickstarter fill, for the request: I love, love the story of the guy dating into the youngest of a hockey family with all the older brothers threatening him. I think there have been two stories to date. Will you write something in that line for me?

Here's a bit more about them. They've appeared on tumblr before here, which is the exact same prompt because...I filled this prompt right after the Kickstarter closed. And subsequently forgot, because that is how long it has been

Please enjoy laughing at me and, hopefully, this.

Ty didn’t really know what he was getting into, going to the Wilsons’ cottage. Like, sure, the whole ‘dudes out for his blood for besmirching their baby bro (who besmirched his damn self before Ty ever met him, but Ty isn’t suicidal enough to say that out loud)’ — that he knew about. But he hadn’t expected it to be so — remote. Like nobody can hear you scream remote. Like nobody will find your body remote.

It’s not that Ty hasn’t been to cottages before, but they weren’t anything like this. Maybe he just hung out with rich dudes cosplaying at outdoorsy or something — absolutely zero comment about the Wilsons — but usually the cottages were just, you know, nice houses on a lake. Some cool boats and shit to play with. Sure, you’re in nature or whatever, but also there’s a convenience store a ten minute drive away that will sell you a case of beer to go with your bait and your tank of propane. Maybe throw in some ammo, or something from the hush hush fireworks selection.

But this isn’t charming small town cottage. This isn’t even kind of sketchy small town cottage. There’s nothing around but woods, and forget about picking up a case of beer: Ty doesn’t even know if he can get to a neighbor in ten minutes. It’s making him feel very 18th century or whatever. Like if he gets a small cut it’ll get infected and by time the doctor gets there they’ll have to cut his foot off.

“Antibiotics are a thing,” Johnny says, surprisingly patiently. Ty thinks he’s just relieved that he used an example that didn’t involve his brothers. Little does he know, that small cut is Wilson inflicted in this scenario. And every scenario, honestly. Ty’s cause of death is almost certainly going to be Wilson related. “Also, do doctors even do house calls anymore?”

Ty considers this. “So you’re saying I’m definitely getting gangrene.”

“I get it, Ty,” Johnny says. “You don’t like it here.”

Uh oh.

“It’s not that I don’t like it here—“ Ty says. He’s sure it’s very charming when he isn’t sharing it with three dudes plotting his murder.

Well, even Johnny’s brothers weren’t there they’d be just as far from civilization, and they’ve just established that doctors don’t make house calls anymore, so maybe Ty would die of gangrene anyway, and he’s not big on the idea of running out of anything turning into a whole ass trip for provisions, but —

Johnny rolls away from him, so Ty can no longer see his pout, but he swears he can still feel it, tragic Johnny face delivered at the wall. Johnny may, unfortunately, be the Wilson most likely to lead to Ty’s death. Ty isn’t afraid of him at all, though, which is what got him into this whole mess.

“Johnny,” Ty says. “Come on. I like it here.”

“You don’t have to lie,” Johnny says, voice small, and Ty closes his eyes, gathering his strength.

“I like it anywhere where you are,” Ty says. This room, for example. It’s small, the bed taking up practically the whole room, and the mattress is a little lumpy, like nobody updated it even after four members of the family started making NHL money, but it’s got Johnny, so it’s a great room. Fantastic.

There’s a bang on the door, not so much a knock as someone slamming a fist into it. The door knob rattles, but doesn’t open. Ty’s very favorite thing about this room is the lock on the door. “Up and at ‘em, daylight’s wasting.”

“You heard the man,” Johnny says, sitting up, not meeting Ty’s eye. “Daylight’s wasting.”

And why waste daylight when they can waste Ty instead?

“I’ll be right behind you,” Ty says. He spends a couple minutes in the room — not as charming now that Johnny isn’t in it, but Ty still loves that lock — before he starts getting paranoid about what Johnny’s brothers must be saying about him while he isn’t there, and almost runs to the kitchen.

Four Wilsons look up at him, conversation halting. It definitely feels like there was some Ty talk happening.

“You want bacon?” Jeremiah asks from his spot in front of the stove. “Toast? Eggs?”

“Sure, that all sounds good, ” Ty says. The spots on either side of Johnny are taken — he’d like to think that was something his brothers coordinated, rather than something Johnny did — so he sits down across from him. “Any plans for today, or—“

“The guys want to go for a hike,” Johnny says. “But we don’t have to if you don’t want.”

Ty swears he can feel three sets of eyes like laser beams right now. And what could go wrong, going even deeper into the woods?

“No, sure, I love hiking,” he says weakly.

“Great,” Jack says.

“Glad to have you,” Jason says.

“Wonderful,” Johnny says sourly, and it’s only then Ty realizes he just agreed to give up their only chance of time alone.

“I mean—“ he says.

Three sets of laser beams on him again.

“Should be fun,” he mumbles.

[grandgtaman1a]

Dating Headcanons with our Holy Trinity

Pairing: Michael De Santa x Reader, Trevor Phillips x Reader, Franklin Clinton x Reader

Characters: Michael De Santa, Trevor Phillips, Franklin Clinton, Reader[Female or Gender Neutral]

Summary: How would Michael Franklin and Trevor act on the first date and then on the second date?[Anon Request...]

AN: There can be inaccuracy... Feel free to reblog and let me know your thoughts Do not Repost. The collage quality sucks

Michael De Santa

The first date would involve:

>Michael is no stranger to high-end places, so he might take you to a fancy restaurant or a rooftop bar with a stunning view of Los Santos. He wants to impress you with his wealth and style.

> There would be a talk about his previous criminal life but limiting what he used to do in a witty banner he may share while giving a hint to it. His charm and charisma might be both captivating and unsettling.

>To add a bit of excitement to the date, Michael might take you for a thrilling drive in one of his expensive cars or even a helicopter ride over the city. He's not one for the conventional and would brag how he got it still hiding about his past

>Michael might surprise you with an extravagant gift, perhaps a piece of jewelry or a designer accessory. He's used to buying his way into people's favor.

>Given his temperamental nature, there might be a moment of tension or an argument during the date. He could get defensive or irritable, reflecting his troubled past.

The second date would involve:

> On the second date he may take you to the art gallery where it is low-key key or to a movie theater to show one of his movies Meltdown telling him how he was offered once and his dream coming true. Maybe talking about how he loves old Vinewood classic movies.

>Michael may use this opportunity to apologize for any tension or arguments during the first date. He might open up about his past mistakes and share his desire for a fresh start.

>He might ask about your interests and try to engage in activities that align with your passions. Whether it's art, sports, or even a cooking class, he wants to show that he's interested in getting to know you better. Sports may be a huge interest for him talking about how he has a huge tennis court back at his house practices yoga and drinks kale juice which kind of destroys his mood.

>Michael may become more affectionate on the second date, showing a more vulnerable and caring side of himself. He might hold your hand, steal a kiss, or simply be more attentive.

>Toward the end of the date, he could discuss his aspirations for a better life, away from crime and chaos. He may express his desire to change and build a stable, loving relationship.

Trevor Phillips

The first date would involve:

>Trevor is known for his love of chaos and danger, so he might take you to a sketchy biker bar or an underground fight club for the first date. He wants to gauge your reaction to his extreme lifestyle.

>Trevor's conversations can be intense, filled with crude humor and dark stories from his past. He might share tales of his criminal endeavors and show a twisted sense of humor.

>Expect the unexpected. Trevor might suggest an impromptu road trip in a stolen car or even go skydiving without any prior planning. He thrives on adrenaline and recklessness.

>Trevor might give you a bizarre or inappropriate gift, something that reflects his eccentric personality. It could be anything from a rusty weapon to a souvenir from a crime scene.

>: Trevor's explosive temper could lead to confrontations during the date. He might pick fights with strangers or engage in criminal activities that you may find uncomfortable or dangerous.

>At one point you would see inside the bodhi a summer dress thinking it is for you or any of his old dates but shocks you when he tells you that it is his which makes you have mixed emotions.

The second date would involve:

>For the second date, Trevor might surprise you by doing something completely unexpected, like taking you to a demolition derby or participating in a wild stunt show.

> If there were any confrontations or disturbing incidents during the first date, Trevor might half-heartedly apologize but quickly move on to the next chaotic adventure.

>Surprisingly, Trevor may show a more sensitive side by asking about your interests and trying to find common ground. However, this could still involve activities that others would consider insane.

>Trevor is not known for his emotional depth, but he might attempt to be more affectionate in his own strange way. This could involve a bear hug or a playful roughhousing

>Trevor might discuss his ambitions, which could involve grandiose, risky schemes. He may even propose you join him in a life of crime, thinking it's the ultimate bonding experience.

Franklin Clinton

The first date would involve:

>Franklin would likely choose a casual, down-to-earth location for the first date, such as a cozy restaurant, a local diner, or even a park. He values simplicity and sincerity

>Franklin is a relatable character who's easy to talk to. He might discuss his aspirations, his love for cars, and his desire for a more stable life. Expect a genuine and friendly conversation.

>He might suggest an activity that reflects his passion for cars, like visiting a car museum or going for a scenic drive. He wants to share his interests with you.

>Franklin might bring a thoughtful, small gift that shows he's been paying attention to your interests. It could be a book, a piece of art, or something related to your hobbies.

>Franklin generally avoids confrontations and would strive to keep the date drama-free. He's looking for a connection rather than chaos.

The second date would involve:

>For the second date, Franklin might plan a more adventurous outing, like hiking in the nearby hills, going to a live music performance, or exploring the city's cultural scene.

>If there were any minor issues or misunderstandings during the first date, Franklin would likely address them with a sincere apology. He values open communication.

>He would inquire more about your interests and try to plan activities that align with your hobbies. Franklin wants to connect on a deeper level.

>Franklin would become more affectionate on the second date, perhaps holding your hand or stealing a kiss if he senses a mutual connection.

>Franklin might discuss his plans for the future, which usually revolve around his career, financial stability, and personal growth. He's determined to leave his criminal past behind.

[thefaiao]

What are your inspirations for drawing? Like other artists or things

I'll start with my biggest inspiration, which got me into art as a whole: Adam Adamowicz. I got introduced to him through Skyrim concept art, but I honestly think his Shivering Isles concepts are some of the best concept art out there. You can see how much he just takes an idea and completely sores with it. A torrential stream of beautiful sketchy goodness.

I love Oblivion's flat ass dough faces and early Xbox 360 charm, but this shit is simply crazy. Look at this, it makes you wish to dedicate your life to bringing this to life, as all good concept art should. It inspires more of itself.

I could post all the images there are out there, because I sincerely think this is the type of work that has stuck with me the most. It's something to strive for. You can see it for yourself instead. That was what got me started. After that, and through my journey on Tumblr and Twitter, I think what stuck to me the most was the art done by small artists, my "compatriots". The things you don't see. There is so much love in little things, and maybe in another universe there are entire cultures dedicated to them. I wish we had time to explore each and every one of the smallest pieces of media, especially narrative media, weird media.

I'll concede that it's a bit of an abstract thing to be inspired by, but once you realise how much work goes into the smallest of things, I believe you'll find inspiration anywhere you go. I think the reason why my Batter drawings are the way they are is my inspiration from just the design of letters and fonts in general. I think making something that blurs the line of symbol and representation over and over is fun.

One artist that has stuck with me is the late great Gunner Leatherwood. He passed away earlier this year. I watched this guy grow from a hundred followers to thousands. I saw his art improve. I think that inspiration transcends just the visual aspect of the art. It's a story, a lived experience, as all art is, but I felt I understood it much more. I think going after and following these small artists pay off because of this. Everyone can make something truly great, and some people have and no one noticed. Many amazing animated movies have been made, but never got to the people who would understand them, who'd have dedicated themselves to easing other people into it. We like to think we understand media in a completely intuitive, isolated fashion, but it's not true at all. Our shared experience contributes to classics being recognised and loved. Sometimes you need the right person at the right time to understand. Gunner was a great artist because of how intuitive and visceral his drawings were. It was like he was drawing from his entire life experience to express himself in a page. At first he had little control of it, but with time it was molded and polished so that the madness was discernable, but not gone from the drawing. His mindset for drawing was fun, and he too was always going after small artists of all kinds.

But going back to Batter drawings and abstraction, an artist that has also inspired me over the years in that aspect of bluring symbol and representation into one solid thing, and similarly started somewhat small like Gunner, is Matt Lesniewski. His hatching is out of this world, and his character design is evocative and never boring. The characters are huge balls of symbols made into physical objects. Recently he straight-up draws the belts of characters floating. It's wonderful.

Another artist that does this bluring very well, and is very inspiring, is nailgun waowao. They really, well, nail the appeal of making images that have all the defining elements of a certain scene or character, but open closer look they are fragmented and completely abstracted. It's like a bigger image overlayed with many smaller stories and symbols.

But to go back to talking about active inspirations that came before, and got to me to where I am at the moment, it's a bit harder. I can't really make it sound smart besides going "uuh I don't know like abstract stuff, cubism idk lol." Just try to appreciate the great things your friends make, and try and work together to make something even greater.

Some of the most improvement I had in art was from learning with friends. Art ultimately is a form of communication, understanding other people and yourself will make you better at it. Technical skill is fun and speaks for itself, but your experiences will reach much deeper. In a world where we can't even begin to compreehend the powers that be, loving and understanding what is close is probably gonna make your life and art much better.

[prismatoxic]

talking about my art journey as of late, or more specifically how relying on 3d models actually worked out in my favor

so back in 2023, i started relying on 3d models for poses and proportions. i hated how my art looked and i was frustrated with trying to put something together, taking forever on it, and having it just turn out like ass in the end. the 3d models removed a ton of guesswork from the process and helped me focus on the things i was good at while gently training skills i was less capable of. i'd already been using 3d models sporadically before then, but it was around when i started drawing nate and ken together that i switched to using them all the time.

it's hard to find comparisons around the right timeframe... but here's a nate drawing (with a friend's oc) i did just before i made the switch, when art was so frustrating for me that i wasn't fully lining or rendering anymore, and then the first nateken i ever did, which was when i started using the models in earnest.

it gave me my confidence back. i drew nateken CONSTANTLY, and they overtook my present fandom interest (mgs) before too long.

i did lose some things, though... fluidity, namely. and i've spent a lot of time trying to make my art feel dynamic, make it flow even with the models underneath, but even when other people can't tell, i can. it's been bothering me for a long time. my art is better now, yes, but cursory attempts to not use 3d models were all the more devastating for it. i was scared. i'd grown too reliant.

i tried a handful of times to sketch simple things without models and every time i hated it so bad that i didn't finish it. the past year, time and time again, i've found the prospect of drawing freehand far too daunting to attempt.

some jokey sketches of animal characters came out recently-ish that read fine, and that was good, but... i knew the humans and humanoids i draw all the time were still beyond me.

this anniversary drawing for me and devot back in the summer made me think... maybe... just maybe... i might actually have some skill in conveying what i want in simple shapes while freehanding. not what i'd like to do in full, but i love these little doodles. it was a start. (the main part was in fact based on models.)

more recently, this joke comic i did based on something max said gave me a similar feeling. like yeah it's a sketchy mess, but it does the job. it's silly. you know what you're looking at.

a few weeks ago, i had a silly malix idea that i didn't want to bust out the models for. so i made a loose freehand sketch. and... it seemed okay. so i refined it. and honestly? i really like how it came out.

it has that fluid charm i always wanted my doodles to have. i started to wonder... has this year+ of using the models actually helped me improve my sense of anatomy and proportions? did i actually get something out of this?

the answer might be yes. here's all the things i freehanded recently:

aside from the lineless one, these were all just quick silly things, and ultimately i still intend to use the 3d models for "serious" work or things i just want to make sure have a certain refined quality to them.

idk, i'm just... excited? happy? i thought my skill to just sketch something and refine it all by myself had surely atrophied. i thought my reliance on 3d models had ruined my art potential. turns out it's just been training wheels and i'm actually doing kind of okay taking them off sometimes.

i'll keep making silly simple things this way for a while. the lineless damien one was me having a bad night and needing a major distraction, and it served its purpose alright. i'm just happy i was able to actually finish it. i don't even hate it!

i guess this is me saying, yeah, it's fine to use tools and shortcuts. i know the fear of "cheating" but here i am, having done this for ages, and i'm doing better for it. i will say i think a lot of my ability to learn has been my willingness to compensate for what the 3d models can't do (like joints and muscles) and tweak things once those layers are hidden, but i've still been relying heavily on these shortcuts. it's just nice to realize it wasn't all a waste, in a skill sense.

[ladyloveandjustice]

for someone wanting to get into Natsumes book of friends, would you recommend the show or the manga/ what are the pros or cons of each?

(I'm gonna tag this for my own archival but please don't argue with me about this it's just my opinion and I don't feel like it)

I haven't really read the full manga so I might not be the exact best person to ask on that! However, my introduction was the anime and I think it's a great intro.

For the manga...I don't want to anger anyone but I gotta be honest here...the art doesn't really do it for me a lot of the time especially compared to the anime. It's a very loose, sketchy style, and sometimes it an be a little hard to tell characters apart or they look just a little less cohesive in the anime (Hinoe is an example, she's got such a flashy vibe in the anime but looks a little weird in the manga imo, at least in the early chapters).

There's not a lot of backgrounds, which is a kind of common shoujo style and works for a lot of shoujo, but a big charm point in the anime is the pastoral vibes, the feeling of this vast wilderness Natsume is exploring and the sleepy small town vibes, you really feel whatever season it is...the anime's art is just generally more detailed and expansive.

The anime also has the luxury of arranging things to have more narrative cohesion. The story is fairly episodic, so though it does have character development and ongoing plotlines, the chapters can be moved around easily.

It's pretty clear in the manga Midorikawa is making it up as she goes along (she directly says this) so chapters that involving a character or theme can be father apart in the manga, while the anime generally tries to arrange things so it fits a certain theme or arc, so we get a little focus on each reoccurring character at least once per season, the first season especially. I think a big example of this was I was really surprised it took so long to introduce Natsume's foster dad in the manga (he shows up in ep 6 of the anime and chapter 19 in the manga) and in the mangaka's notes she says she was just maybe going to allude to him like Columbo's wife (lol) at first and didn't have a place to fit him in until this chapter. He's a pretty important presence in Natsume's life, so it made sense the anime introduces him a bit earlier.

The anime also adds a lot of original content, and integrates it so well I can't really tell it apart most of the time! I was surprised most of seaon 2 episode 5 was anime original because it lines up so well with the rest and is an episode I really love.

And there were some mild characterization changes I like, such as with Hinoe. I like that the anime also apparently integrates Natsume's gal pals into the friend group much more. According to a post I saw trawling through Taki's tag, she doesn't actually hang out with the broader friend group in the manga? Like we don't really see her with Nishimura and Kitamoto (natsume's "average guy" friends), just as part of a trio, whereas in the anime there's lots of time she's just included in the full group. And there was an entire backstory focus episode on a (older and morally ambigious!!!) female character that was anime original too, so that's nice.

There's also the soundtrack which is SUCH an all time great, it's so soothing and chill.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the manga is still great, and there are a lot of little moments I'm noticing that the anime misses that are pretty cool. Bits of backstory, extra characterization flourishes, sad and sweet moments, sometimes a plot point makes a lot more sense, and so on.

There's also the occasional "something I didn't quite like in the anime isn't in the manga" moment, but nothing major.

So I think reading the manga is a great experience, but you should probably check out the anime first, I think it's a better entry point, and after that you can read the manga.

[returnsandreturns]

i refuse to learn anything about poker or casinos but yeah

“I think we’re about to be part of something sketchy,” Foggy says, soft enough that only Matt can hear, tugging him close as they’re ushered from the main casino floor into a side room, “but do you want to go with it and see if we can make bank?” 

“I think it’s too late,” Matt murmurs, taking stock of the situation: cigar smoke, cologne, perfume, cocktails. Based on the fact that the chaos out on the main floor is muffled even to him, it must be soundproof. It’s quieter in here, maybe thirty people. 

Foggy has always been pretty good at poker, even without Matt’s help, but the added bonus of hearing every player’s tell has led to a lot of wins and some attention from the owners of the place. 

Luckily, they clearly haven’t clocked Matt for being any kind of an actor in this. He hears a few stray murmured comments about his glasses and some nicer ones about his face as Foggy helps him to a chair before sitting down next to him. 

“I’m not sure what I can do here without it drawing suspicion,” he whispers, leaning in so he’s close to Foggy’s ear. There was too much happening before for anybody to pay them any attention until they started winning but he can feel eyes on them when everybody is seated around the table.

“Nudge me?” Foggy offers. 

Too obvious. Matt thinks about it for a second before he catches a particularly strong scent of perfume and his breath catches, feeling his cheeks turn pink.

“Does anybody else have a. . .friend with them?” he asks.

“The stunningly gorgeous women here seem very friendly,” Foggy says.

“Okay,” Matt breathes. “Go with it.” 

Foggy starts to say something but Matt’s moving so their chairs are pressed together and leans heavily into Foggy’s side, smiling when Foggy immediately gets it and wraps an arm around his waist. 

Matt’s been arm candy before. He can do it again.

He moves a hand under the table to rest it on Foggy’s knee, chalking the uptick in Foggy’s heartbeat to surprise as he squeezes it lightly. 

“Got it,” Foggy says, turning to kiss Matt on the temple.

*

Two wins later and Foggy kisses a grinning Matt straight on the mouth. 

“Lucky charm,” he says, loud enough for everyone else to hear, and Matt feels like he’s floating. It’s partially the gambling adrenaline and partially the smoke but–mostly the kissing. He’s pretty sure of that. 

“We should get out soon,” he says, voice lower, rubbing Foggy’s thigh.

“Next hand,” Foggy agrees. 

*

Three hands later and Matt’s fingers accidentally brush against Foggy’s erection. 

“Really?” he murmurs. 

“You’re the one feeling my leg up,” Foggy murmurs back. 

When Foggy wins again, Matt thinks about letting his fingers stray higher again, scaring himself a little, but then he catches a few men in the corner saying stuff he doesn’t like and he digs his nails into Foggy’s leg instead. 

“We need to go,” he says, breathing heavily against Foggy’s ear. 

*

“Are we in trouble trouble?” Foggy asks, out of breath when they stumble into an elevator. 

“They let us leave,” Matt says, ��so–I don’t think so?” 

There’s a long silence before they both start laughing and Foggy falls into Matt, wrapping his arms around him, saying into his hair, “It’s so much money.” 

“It is,” Matt agrees.

“Like. . .”

“Foggy,” Matt interrupts him, not waiting for a reply before he takes Foggy by the face to kiss him. 

“Really?” Foggy asks.

“You did it first,” Matt says. 

“Good point,” Foggy breathes, walking Matt against the wall to kiss him roughly, gripping him tightly at the waist. They’ve never done this before and Matt realizes exactly how much he’s wasted not doing this. Not being touched by him like this. 

“How many floors?” he asks.

“Not enough to have a gay sexual awakening in this elevator,” Foggy says. 

“Right,” Matt says, nodding, before pulling Foggy close again to kiss his neck until the doors finally open.

[urlocallesbiabs-reblog-sideblog]

so, i remember seeing a red dwarf tumblr post about how if you leave your universe, it's almost impossible to go back, because there's trillions upon trillions of them, and every minute decision branches off a new one

so what if our original rimmer spent maybe a few months genuinely being ace and enjoying the hero status, then decided it's too dangerous and scary and tiresome and wanted to go home, and spent the entirety of those nine years (between s7 and s9) looking for his home universe?

and he kept saving people along the way of course, ace duty is ace duty (half of those heroic acts were accidents anyway), but his heart wasn't in it anymore; he's found many a universe where there were still people, where he could theoretically fit in and settle and live as close to a normal life as he could hope for, but he could never stay for long, he longed for *his* home, for lister, *his* lister

and wise people told him "you'll never get there. there are too many universes, and every day that you wake up and make a choice to continue looking for home, that choice creates a new one, setting you back. you're dooming yourself.", and he answered "shut up, you stupid goit, you don't get it! get smegged to hell!"

and i imagine a scene:

it's close to the end of the 9 year gap, kochanski's already gone, lister's Not Doing Well, and it's another monster-of-the-week life-or-death situation aboard the red dwarf, a particularly nasty one: all is shit, end is near, how will our heroes get out of *this one!* this is probably it! this is it! they're all gonna smegging die! and then outta nowhere ace pops out, hair billowing in the air and all, shoots some bullets that bullshitly ricochet and perform miracles, and saves the day

after that he asks to spend the night there, because even heroes need to sleep a bit, and of course he's welcome!!

lister doesn't quite know how to approach the subject, so he goes for subtle bordering on undecipherable: asks how long has it been since this ace got the flame passed on to him? what was it like? ace deflects with a charming non-answer and a fun adventure story, and lister thinks well, that's not him, then. must be a new one. that means that his rimmer passed on the flame, that he... died.

lister doesn't know how to process the idea, so he doesn't.

he tries to stick around and listen to the stories that's gotten kryten (and even cat, a little bit!) enthralled, but quickly grows bored and goes off to wander the ship and entertain himself on his own. at some point few hours later, he notices ace out and about as well, measuring doorways with tape, comparing wall paint with color swatches, counting the rooms and making notes in his little notebook; ace doesn't notice him. kinda sketchy behaviour, lister thinks, but doesn't confront him just yet. who knows, maybe the guy just went a little bit space crazy, maybe he's preparing for some impending disaster; would be rude to accuse him of nothing, wouldn't it?

as lister returns to his quarters in the evening, he sees ace briskily walking out from about the same corridor that lister is headed to, throwing him a shining, but somewhat strained smile; ace is going to the room he's claimed for the night, which is on the officer's deck, literally on the other side of the ship (makes sense to lister that he doesn't share the room with him, since this isn't really his bunkmate. smeg knows him, maybe in his universe he actually was an officer and slept alone, not like lister cares). this feels *really* sketchy, but none of lister's things seem to have been messed with on closer inspection, so he can't really prove shit. he feels kind of paranoid, but also tired, and decides he'll talk to ace in the morning.

lister sleeps badly and fitfully, and wakes up in the middle of the night. he can't fall asleep again, and decides to go and grab a bite; maybe visit krissie in the observatory, watch stars together, have some time for himself.

the lights are on in the drive room. ace is there, talking to– *interrogating* holly and kryten, swiveling on a chair back and forth to face either of them, whisper-barking rapid-fire questions; lister is Alarmed (what is this? mutiny? a hostage situation? a threat?), so naturally he hides and eavesdrops.

ace runs them through a bunch of questions that vary wildly in immediately obvious importance, seemingly nonsensical (what fuel does this ship run on? when did the leak happen? who was assigned to fix it? how many irradiated haggies were in the ship's hold at the moment of disaster? has lister ever passed an officer's exam? on what day and what ship did they find kryten? and so on and so forth), growing more and more agitated and focused, determination so passionate it's almost angry. at last, he takes a deep breath, clenches fists, and says "now, i did notice this ship's crew lacks a usual, i'd say indespensable member, namely one arnold judas rimmer. where, pray tell, did you put the bugger?"

"arnold died in 3,002,386 from a vending machine related incident, arnold," says holly.

ace's face falls, and he laughs like someone died. "ah, of course it's like that, of course. it's always like that. well, good chat, gentlemen, thank you for humoring me." he gets up, even though it obvious his legs are weak.

noticing his distress at the information, kryten hurries to clarify, "it was the second one, though! the first one died a few months before that!"

ace falls back into the chair. "what do you *mean* the second one?!"

"the one my nanobots ressurected!" kryten clarifies with mostly pride, partially guilt.

"what smegging nanobots? what on io has happened here?" ace rimmer has to forcibly hold his horses, pulling a palm down his face. "no, forget it, doesn't matter, not right now. the other one, the first one — how did *he* die?"

"well, physically it was the cadmium 2 leak in 2181" holly helpfully explains. ace rimmer makes a dying groan. "but his hologram form was destroyed by an escaped knight from an AR camelot game."

the man perks up. "was me — well no, not exactly me, but — ugh, was ace rimmer there?.."

they confirm that yes, even though he left soon after. rimmer goes slack in his chair and puts a hand over his eyes. "so this is it?" he whispers. "so many years, and... this is it. i'm here. i can't believe it."

after a minute in weird silence, he gets up and staggers out.

lister's a few paces down the corridor, having been unsettled by the exhange and made the decision to leave.

rimmer calls out to him, loudly, with intense gravitas, "lister!"

"rimmer," he responds, shocked and disbeliving, eyes open.

"lister!" he exclaims urgently, desperately.

"you're my rimmer, aren't ya," lister states a question, incredulous.

"of course i'm yours, you stupid git!" rimmer cries out and lunges at him, crushing him in a hug. "you gimboid, you imbecile, you smeg for brains smeghead," he chatters on, out of breath, cradling him.

"i've missed ya," lister sobs. rimmer doesn’t manage to respond, only hugs him even harder.

(rimmer didn’t want to throw himself at the guy until he'd made sure it's *his* guy, didn't want to make himself vulnerable only to later make a fool of himself; too many times he let himself hope and get drunk on that hope and then had his stupid heart broken by some tiny little thing being off, inviting a flood of other little things, suddenly finding himself in an embrace with a stranger wearing his best friend's face. he just couldn't bear it anymore, not again. he needed to make sure first.)

however, this headcanon poses a problem of reconciling this with late series rimmer claiming to have saved red dwarf from the corrosive virus back then. because if our rimmer only returned during the 9 year gap (closer to end of it), he couldn't have been there at the end of s8, right?

to which i propose this: the alternative ending to "only the young" is canon, and it was nanobot rimmer who saved (or rather tried to save) the day; then he was killed by a rouge vending machine. they couldn't bring him back as a hologram though, because the holo-suite was heavily damaged by the corrosion virus and they didn't have the intricate spare parts needed to fix it. so, his memory disk stayed unused, carefully kept in the hopes of someday fixing the holo-suite (never found a suitable derelict though, not with their shit luck). then our rimmer came along, learned of the entire situation, fixed the suite using details taken from wildfire, and asked holly to merge the info from this disc onto his (because for smeg's sake, it's at least 1 year out of those hellish 9 that he can remember having spent home; he can Not pass it up). the merge was successful, but majorly jittered his vibes (since he remembered two different versions of being 32, and in one of them lister was 8 years older than in the other, and he became aware that in the same year as he was 32 for the second time he also was 40 and in another universe) and gave him lifelong memory issues. he's still happy as a clam about the result, though!

that's why other's disagree when he claims having saved the day back then — he figures that if he has that guy's memories, he *is* that guy, because that's how holograms work, but others want to argue that the alive nanobot rimmer technically wasn't exactly him; you Don't wanna be there for all of the smeg-throwing that occurs during the argument.

it all could be a fake episode (or maybe a fake two-episode special), where the first half's main gag/storyline would be lister slowly growing convinced that ace is actually evil and is in the process of brewing some Sinister Plans, and the second would be about rimmer going peculiar from the merge and randomly glitching between various remembered stages of his life (thinking he's still ace and this is isn't his lister; thinking he's nanobot rimmer and wondering what happened to the crew; a throwback to an early episode or two; thinking he's a fresh hopeful enlist on red dwarf [kinda painful in a hindsight way, but also pathetic and hilarious]; thinking he's a small child [very silly and funny, mostly cute even if a bit weird because that's a grown man's body, also an epic Rimmer Trauma Lore moment as usual]; etc), to the point that lister worries they've smegging broken him and he'll never be alright, only for him to finally cope and appear sane, only to reveal last second that parts of his memory are still kinda jumbled.

i'd call that fake episode:

"H Stands For Home"

and i imagine a scene from the second half:

rimmer sees the destroyed holo-suite (god, i really can't leave you bastards alone even for a day, let alone a decade), and finds the memory disc for the other him (wait, what is this? i clearly remember taking mine with me when i left...), and gets filled in on the whole nanobots, ressurected rimmer, corrosive virus debacle (he needs to sit down.)

naturally, he decides to fix the hologram-projecting hardware (obvious turn of events) and merge the discs' data together (man, what??)

he pops out, promises to be back in a jiffie, and returns from the hangar with a bunch of circut boards, unconneted wires and the likes, immediately getting to work

"whatcha doing?" lister asks, clearly entertained but also genuinely curious

"having a smegging picnic, what does it look like?!"

"...can you fix it, though?"

"i've serviced my own ship for a decade straight, i've prevented all kinds of disasters on dozens of red dwarves, i've saved countless city-states from technological ruin, of course i'm perfectly capable of fixing this ship's holo-suite!" (this very moment, he connects something wrong and gets a shower of sparkles right to his face, which startles him and causes him to bang his head rather hard against an open latch)

when lister's done laughing, he asks "where on smeg did you even get the details? i've meant to patch it up all these years, but just... never could find 'em." (here his voice voice grows distant and sad; he had lost rimmer *twice* in one year, and it was just unfair. it just hurt.)

"good ol' baby racehorse wildfire," rimmer slaps one of the circuit boards with pride; something falls off of it. "presume it got the upgrade sometime since the original ace kicked the bucket; something needs to keep all of us holograms going."

"wait, you tore these from your ship?"

"what, was i supposed to pull them out of my arse?" rimmer is getting annoyed by the pointless conversation

"it's just... how will ya fly it, then?"

"it's still perfectly spaceworthy, i'll let you know!" rimmer preens. "sure, no more having my arse fall asleep after one week straight in the cockpit, hauling vaccine to pluto or some such (would not recommend), but i can still give it a good run as long as my lightbee's got charge! not all that different from our other off-the-ship missions — now what are you, stupid?"

"you won't be able to travel for long," lister clarifies apprehensively. "you won't be able to have your... space smeg adventure. you won't be ace."

rimmer looks up at him like he's crazy. "of course i won't be ace." he gets up, walks weirdly close to lister. "i'm not leaving. what — what did you think this was? that i'd spent all these years looking for you, for this dimension, only to have some tea and smeg right back off?!"

"...i don't know what i thought," lister admits, half-laughing and weirdly upset and relieved.

rimmer gripes him by the shoulders very, very hard. "i'm not leaving. never."

also, he wears his hair in the classic long and free ace style until the proper Reunion, then as soon as he fixes the holo-suite and hookes his projection to red dwarf he asks holly to chop it all off (he wanted to do that immediately after confirming that this is his home universe, but he was still connected to wildfire's holo-hardware and the ship's ai wouldn't let him bc ouughhh houghhh ace but your hair is So Beautiful, i simply Can Not); between the two points, he wore a tight neat ponytail to keep all his golden locks out of his smegging face, and he looked Hot doing it

***

and another thought, that isn't directly connected to this imaginary two-episode special, but still has to do with rimmer, lister, and the 9 years gap:

(though i'm not sure if it's canon to my personal headcanonverse [...i'm not even sure i've got a personal headcanonverse here. i love the idea of them getting together in early series when he's still soft-light, or later when he's hard-light and they can touch, or after the reunion, or post-tpl; too many possibilities!] because i feel like it gets rimmer off the hook of his internalized homophobia way too easy, but anyway, just imagine.)

it's rimmer's ace years, and it's not only beautiful young birds throwing themselves at him for his sexy heroics, but beautiful young studs as well; he switches many a dimension, and what happens in a reality stays in that reality, right?; he meets many a lister, some of them openly queer, some of them in a relationship (past or ongoing) with their rimmer; he sleeps the night away with some of them. long story short, 9 years of both excessive human attention and crushing loneliness are ample time to confront one's sexuality. he's still got his hangups though, so in his mind "i am gay" and "lister is my best ever friend whom i miss terribly" don't quite cross together, not immediately.

either way, he finally gets back, they have their happy reunion, and then rimmer learns while he was off adventuring, lister had a wife and a child and loved her deeply and then she died; obviously, lister still needs some space to process all that. rimmer will talk to him about his soul-search some other time (no, he doesn't feel like he'd been replaced, he's not jealous, jeez!). lister just needs some time to move on, yea? and then it'll all be back to how it used to be, just the four of them.

and then s9 happens, and lister is obsessed with getting kochanski back, and rimmer feels as insecure as in s1 but ten times worse — there's the woman who'd been by lister's side for the last decade, there's his wife, there's the love of his life, and there's, well, just some guy. there's rimmer.

he longs desperately to be the most important person in lister's life, but he just isn't, and that's driving him mad. that's what (partially, together with all his lifetime-accumulated trauma) fuels his tpl insistence that nobody aboard red dwarf (read: lister) likes him: he knows lister doesn't love him back, and that is killing him.

[dollerinna]

Me low-key thinking about yandere Hughie and Butcher again. cw: Butcher saying that an author should kill themself

We've already established that Hughie thinks Butcher's recklessness/instability will get you killed, Butcher thinks that Hughie's quote on quote 'pussy attitude' will get you killed.

Reader met Hughie first.

Hughie most likely met you at a comic or retro video game shop. He was stressed and thought maybe seeing some cool old stuff would help. He bumped into you and he was like 'wow'. He got this weird feeling. It was the same feeling he got when he first saw Robin.

He nervously got your number (somehow) and tried to keep it from the others.

Of course Butcher found out!

"Oi, ya twink, how you get this darling's number? Seems out of your league. Ain't you fucking sweet ole orphan Annie over there?"

Hughie runs over and awkwardly waves to Annie and wants to jump off a bridge, for like the third time this week. (It's Monday for him.)

"Shh, we're taking a break! They just seemed nice, okay?"

"Doubt it. No chick like this would talk to someone like you unless they wanted something."

"Hey! I have charm. And charisma."

"You got just as much as the ugly ass duckling from that one book."

"I will take that as a compliment."

"No—I wished that fucking twat killed themself."

"It's a fictional duck, Butcher!?"

"I was talking about the author. No one should make such a shitty book and live."

Sooooooooooo the cat is out of the bag now.

It was just a shallow crush Hughie had on you until Butcher knew about you. Hughie started feeling oddly protective and possessive. Butcher doesn't know anything about you! Why is he being so nosey?

"Why am I even talking to you? I could get you killed! Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

That you are Hughie, that you are.

Hughie continued to meet you in secret. You got in bad trouble with some people who wanted The Boys dead. Everyone had to save you.

Which triggered Butcher's ptsd from Becca. What the hell was the kid thinking!? Of course Hughie can't take care of you. He can't just throw you back out on the street. You look like a stray dog.

So you joined The Boys. (you had to join them. you had no choice.)

And it is just a constant fight between Hughie trying to impress you in his awkward, nervous boyish way... and Butcher sweeps you off your feet with flirtatious remarks and a protective presence always near you.

Butcher is scary dog privileges. Just make sure to keep a hold of his leash. Shut him up with a kiss.

Butcher obviously will kill for you.

Hughie would, but it'd kinda be like Translucent all over again.

Still... MHM

Imagine walking into some sketchy place and having Butcher and Hughie near you. Hughie got anxious so you are holding his hand and he's standing on one side of you. He's kind of leaning over onto your shoulder a bit. (He looks like a kid needing his mother's warmth and protection.)

Butcher has his hand around your waist. He's got his 'I will fuck anyone up' face. He's also glaring at Hughie and almost growling in anger. He's purposefully using cute nicknames with you 'darling, babe, doll- doll is his favorite'. Prince(ss) is the one where YOU KNOW smth is about to happen.

So you just have two boyfriends now. They won't leave you alone, but at least you're protected now. The entirety of The Boys is gonna have to be killed before anyone touches you. (Butcher and Hughie fight less if you are giving them equal attention, and Butcher is in a better mood-and they saw what happened with Becca... so it's a silent understood agreement.)

Trouble?

Get you out first.

Kimiko is usually the one that does so because of her abilities.

Okay okay I’m finally back online and of course this is gonna be the first ask I reply to!! And honest to FREAKIN’ god- this headcannon is actually so much more interesting and fun to read than the new episode they released today y’all 😭😭😭😭

Off the bat, LOVE the convo between butcher and Hughie. I could literally hear it in their voices so accurately 😂

I feel like it’d be a reoccurring argument too, no doubt about that. But especially with the parts where reader gets involved and dragged into their business just from (barely) being associated with the group. From that alone, the tension would heat up fo sureeee. ((Especially from Butcher’s side, cuz like you said “Becca”

But there would be tension in other ways too, like how Butcher could ensure their physical safety better than Hughie, which in return would make Hughie feel insecure and incompetent, even more so than usual. Meanwhile, the way Hughie is able to be effortlessly vulnerable and pour his heart out to reader would contrast starkly with Butcher’s own brutish and borderline cruel behaviors, since he’s not really known for his moral compass. And perhaps Butcher might be afraid it’d be a turn off for reader, which could actually be the case at times if he goes too far.

So it’d be a very interesting dynamic that would potentially strain their friendship on the occasion (which is already kinda a thing in the show to begin with)

But at the same time, this dynamic surprisingly still works pretty well though. I feel like they both can be “too much” in their own ways, so together they could balance each other out for reader. After all, teamwork makes the dreamwork yk 😭

Also kinda going off course here, but can we talk about Annie for a second? LIKE POOR GIRL LMAOAOOO. It shouldn’t crack me up but the way Hughie is brushing her off???

CRIMINAL. THAT IS CRIMINAL 😭😭😭💀💀💀

[gouraminnow]

WIP game!

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Tag as many people as you have wips. People send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

---

I prefer Read-mores just so things are more readable hsdfdsf

Tagged by my friend @hannahbarberra162 thank you!!! Heehee! All but one of the published ones are still on chapter one... I do not write fast :') Honestly, the one person I'm comfortable tagging is the one who tagged me, soo... breaking the rules already lol. Anybody who sees this and wants to, please do! (It's not bc I have problems with anyone, she's just the only one I talk to regularly. I'm kinda new to this lol)

No Rest For the Wicked - Yandere modern serial killer Sabo/Koala x Goth reader. (Literal hurt/comfort. Stalking implied, murder is gonna happen. Was meant to be a one-shot debut of sorts on Halloween, but it got too long...)

You're a goth student at a small university, and someone you thought was your friend lures you into a Carrie-style Halloween prank- But it goes wrong and the bucket they drop cracks your head open. Luckily, the Grad Student Instructor and his partner happen to be there and are awfully eager to help you out.

Galley on 4th - Yandere Modern (but with dfs eventually) Thatch x reader. (Also hurt/comfort. Gonna get increasingly sketchy as time goes on. Stalkng. Maybe smut? Omg nooo hot chef don't intrude on my life and insist on caring for me noooo)

Raising your kid sister all by yourself is hard enough on it's own. But add classes, poverty, and several jobs to juggle and the pressure builds awfully fast. Most employers will drop you on a whim and it's all you can do to stay afloat… So when you somehow manage to land a well-paying position at The Galley on 4th Avenue, a famous, high-end place run by some well renowned Chef- You're desperate to hold things down. Good thing your new Boss is so friendly and understanding, huh?

Birds of a Feather - Marco & OC (entirely platonic. Hurt at the start, comfort, tooth-rotting fluff. Has artwork for it!)

Marco the Phoenix is found by an orphaned harpy child that mistakes him for one of their own kind. It takes less than a day to commit to adoption- he really is taking after his father.

Unpublished:

Bleeding Heart - What was meant to be one fic for my self-insert OC has splintered into several snippets. Born with CAVC, they thought they were lucky to receive corrective surgery as a child, only for that surgery to be botched. They now have to use the blood-blood fruit- a devil fruit with countless horrific urban legends attributed to it- to compensate for their faulty heart by manually managing their blood flow in secret. Very grumpy and easily overwhelmed bc who wouldn't be in their situation? One version they go with the WBP and in another, with the Strawhats.

Untitled Whitey Bay oneshot- sweet, smutty f/f oneshot that ends in reader eloping to a life on the seas. Reader is a lonely, wistful barmaid who dreams of something more exciting than waiting tables in a dingy bar. One day, a striking lady pirate docks on your island, stopping by your bar... and just your luck, the tall, blue-haired woman seems just as interested in you as you are in her.

Untitled Isekai idea- Reader is brought to the world of OP by a devil-fruit reader with portal-related powers. He's a self-proclaimed mad genius but is actually a jackass wannabe-Ceasar who piggybacks off of the works of others- even utilizing his ability to hopefully grab something useful from other realms rather than making shit himself. But it's random most of the time... cue reader.

Untitled dark Thatch oneshot- honestly not sure if I want to post this when it's done. Non/dubcon. Yandere Thatch finds a promising little chef and lays on the charm, but they won't leave with him. Months later, he finds them cowering in the Galley of a Marine ship and assumes they're in bed with the enemy. Unaware that they were forced to work there and too amped up to listen, he steals them away like he wanted to on that damn island. Meaner than what I tend to go for, but ends with him doting on them. Very unsure abt this hfdsfg

Yandere Nami idea

Second set of ASI hcs, but centered around Marco

I want to elaborate on the Crocodile x Selkie reader idea

[rosengeist]

Just some sketchy sketches. Trying to loosen up and get back into a healthy creative habit.

As a kid I really loved the Filmation Snow White. Now, as an adult I can recognize that its got some big issues, BUT, it came out when I was 6, and I had a pirates vhs, so now it lives in my imagination.

During the past year a kind of re-imagined and very, very loose adaptation has been rattling around in my brain. I don’t know entirely what it is yet. Though I envision it taking place in more of like a…1900’s Spanish fantasy world. (This idea coincided with me learning Spanish, so?)

First pic is Blanca (the Snow White proxy) interacting with the Shadow Man. In the cartoon he’s a kind of gremlin-ish aid, here I like to imagine he’s a bit more like a scarecrow. He’s almost like a short scarecrow/scrap man, just sort of builds himself out of whatever he can get his hands on. Like he doesn’t really have “eyes”, he just found broken sunglasses and places those where eyes might go, because no eyes freaks others out.

Design wise I always liked that in the filmation film the Shadow man has that scrap of red covering his mouth (is that just like his tunic that he pulled up over his mouth…or???) its a nice little bit of visual foreshadowing. (Though the twist about him being the cursed prince is obvious)

I really would love to see an adaptation where Snow and the Prince/Shadow man had more time to interact. “I cared for him like the prince” is such a good line, but it would have hit so much better if a friendship actually developed. In my AU, alternate world…thing, i like to imagine that red scarf the shadow man wears is actually something Snow gave him. Like…maybe he gets smashed during an action scene or tries to help one of Snows companions? Idk, really like that idea.

Prince Charming in the last post. I like to call him Florian.

Lol, I realize that there isn’t really much narrative presented in my sketches yet. Thats ok, warming up and playing, more to come. :)

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

for the dating ask game, a bit of fun spicy choice: hob or the corinthian? the fierce fight between two big dream hubby contenders lmao

(For the "send me two characters and I say which one I'd rather date" ask prompt)

Oh nooooo this is another "there's no real winners here" situation!

Hob is probably technically a good boyfriend, in the "has intentionally chosen to be a mediocre white guy for all eternity" kind of way. BUT unfortunately for him and this scenario, I know WAY too much about the history of transatlantic slavery (and its social and political repercussions that continue into the modern day), so the second I found out that he was a slaver in the 1700s, I'd be far too grossed out to ever touch him again. Maybe if it turns out he had an extensive arc where he's worked ever since to right his past wrongs, it could still work out, but based on the canon details we know it's still kinda sketchy whether he did anything to help with the systemic damage his actions caused.

The Corinthian though, is an active serial killer. He's not discriminatory in who he kills, though, I guess? All humanity has equally delicious eyes to him, which is beautiful, if not for the fact that I also count as part of humanity. Also he's the embodiment of the dark "American Dream" and I have to say, there's a certain appeal to saying you literally dated the American Dream. He's hot and charming and uses that to kill people which is GREAT as a fictional archetype... emphasis on the fictional though. Like, I think Carl the house-sitter might be the only person he's slept with and not eaten?

So I guess Hob wins, but like, only because he wouldn't try to scoop my eyes out with a spoon after the first date.

[innytoes]

Ooh how about a wrong number au for Reggie ship of your choice?

- @anotherfantom

-When Ray's phone goes in the middle of the night and hears someone sniffle and ask 'can you come pick me up' he is suddenly wide awake and out of bed in an instant.

-Except Carlos is in his bed, and well, Julie is across the country at university. He is one hundred percent ready to call Victoria and get in his car and drive to the airport to catch the first flight to New York...

-But when the static of adrenaline in his ears wears off, the voice is still talking, rambling: "I know you said it was a bad idea but he was so hot, Alex, he was so hot and charming and I met him somewhere public and I was safe and come on, you know I can't say no to a hot silver fox like that except he wanted to go to this other place away from down town and it was fun but then when I wouldn't put out he left me with the tab and I'm somewhere on the edge of the burbs and there's no busses here and I'm lost and there's no wifi and I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, Lex..."

-And Ray really feels for this guy, but he's not Alex. He gently lets the poor guy know, telling him he's sorry his date went badly, and wishing him good luck.

-The guy, Reggie, is very apologetic for waking him up and ranting at him. He even asks his name so he can apologise properly. He is maybe a little drunk, so Ray humours him.

-He's just cozied back up in bed and dozing off when his phone rings again.

-"You dialed the wrong number again, Reggie."

-"Ray?" Reggie sounds a lot more upset than last time. "Alex isn't picking up and I think I took a wrong turn and now I'm really lost and I still don't have wifi. Or money to call a taxi. Can you please... just... check a map for me or something? Please? I'm sorry."

-And Ray feels so bad for this guy that he actually wanders downstairs and boots up his laptop to do so. Only for Reggie to read the street signs and him to realise that 1) Reggie is nowhere near anywhere he can catch a bus or a taxi to wherever home is and 2) that is a rather sketchy part of town.

-Before he knows it, he's in his car, because he can't just leave some poor unfortunate soul out there, knowing he could have helped.

-When he finds Reggie, he's kind of surprised to see the guy is in his early thirties and not, as Ray was projecting, a teenager or just-turned young adult like his own kids.

-"Reggie?" he asks, and Reggie looks so sad and small his protective instincts flare up again. He opens the passenger door for him and Reggie slides in, looking embarrassed and apologising profusely.

-"Oh man and you're super hot too and I can't even hit on you because you might kick me out of the car and also you already know what a loser I am," Reggie blurts out, and Ray just chuckles because yeah, Reggie is a very honest and rambly drunk.

-He's about to ask Reggie what exactly his address is, since on the phone he only asked for busses to a specific neighbourhood, but Reggie is already passed out in the passenger's seat.

-Which is why - and god he must be insane - he brings Reggie home. He's not quite trusting enough to let him in the guest room inside the house, but he pulls out the sofa in the studio, carries Reggie there, and covers him with some blankets. There's nothing in here worth stealing except Rose's piano, which is pretty impossible to get out of there through the gate (he knows, since Rose pointed it out after he spent a whole Saturday building it when the kids were little, laughing at his face).

-He puts a large note on the door to come up to the house for breakfast if he wants, or some painkillers, and goes back to bed.

-Around ten the next morning, there's a sheepish knock on the backdoor. Ray meets Reggie with some painkillers and a glass of water, getting a muttered 'you really are a hero' as Reggie downs them.

-He kind of has to fill Reggie in on what the hell happened because he can't remember, and the guy was really embarrassed. He admits that his friends warned him not to go on this date, that the guy seemed sketchy, but that he was really hot and charming and he had a motorcycle, and well, he was getting a bit sick of being the perpetually single dude in their friend group.

-They actually get to talking a little about how hard dating is, how The Apps suck, how people only seem to want hook-ups anymore. Ray tells Reggie about how he and his wife had a bizarre Meet Cute where she chased him all over the city because he lost his keys during a photo walk, but he couldn't hear her because he had his Walkman on. And how he wishes he could just have something like that again, an actual 'how we met' story that didn't involve swiping or emojis.

-Yes he grimaces a little at how 'walkman' dates him, but Reggie just swoons at how romantic that is, and tells him about his friends Alex and Willie who literally crashed into each other.

-Around that time, Reggie's friend Alex starts FRANTICALLY CALLING HIM like 'omg you called me seven times in the middle of the night are you okay' and Reggie has to reassure him that he hasn't been serial murdered. He leaves out the whole 'I called a stranger and slept in his garage' part, which, clever.

-Maybe Ray offers to make him breakfast and then drive him home.

-Maybe Reggie asks him out in the car, hopeful and cute and 'hey, you wanted a cool meet cute story right?'

-Maybe Ray says yes.

[otakween]

0-Man - Volume 2

These volumes are taking me ages to get through. They're good and fun reads but sooo dense and full of kanji I can't read. Most of the charm comes from the visuals anyway, so I think it's still worthwhile to pick up if you're at the intermediate level like me.

Chapters 14 & 15

Chapter one was really short so I'm combining things. We kick off after the end of volume 1. The gang accidentally set off a chain reaction of volcanoes. The bad guys try to freeze the ensuing eruption, but that just starts a huge blizzard which will lead to the ice age of their freezing machine isn't stopped. Dun dun dunnn.

I was relieved to get a little levity with the Professor acting nice again and everyone sitting down for dinner. The gag of Ricky's mom being bad at human cooking was pretty lame though (I'm sick of the "a woman who can't cook???" joke in anime).

We got another dead parent!? Sheesh so many deaths in this series. At least Pete didn't really like his dad anyways.

Ricky's tail gets all messed up in this chapter after a plank of wood falls on it and he has to yank it out. For a second I thought he ripped part of it off, but I don't think they'd do that. (Edit: they absolutely do do that).

New 0 men lore: they have a very high tolerance for cold and heat. I kinda feel like they threw that in there to excuse the fact that Ricky's always in short shorts lol

Ch. 16

The professor meets with other academics to explain the current situation and to prove the existence of 0 men. He essentially makes Ricky reveal his tail without his consent which was kind of uncomfy. But the world is literally ending, so I'll allow it lol

So they ultimately decide they need to nuke Japan to destroy the ice machine. Seems like it would be pretty hard to evacuate an entire country fast enough to do that, but okay...

I wonder how often nukes are the answer in apocalyptic stories? I read a book awhile back about giant spiders taking over the planet and nukes were the answer in that situation too. That book was wild...

Ch. 17

The Japanese public evacuate but the 0-men stay behind because...??? I don't really know. Maybe they just have a good nuke shelter or something? Or maybe they need to help the professor.

The joke about children being better behaved than adults during the evacuation was great. I feel like that can be true sometimes because kids are used to the structure of school and learning their manners whereas adults are further removed from those lessons. (Also kids tend towards being less mean spirited in general).

Two new human men are introduced purely for slapstick it seems like. Their jokes are very Three Stooges old timey. I was rolling my eyes, but it's wholesome at least. It was cute when they tied scarves to their pants to be polite (when they saw Ricky's mom's tail).

Abruptly, Ricky's mom gets carted away by sketchy men who want to experiment on her. Dun dun dunnnn

Ch. 18

Tezuka sure packed a lot into this chapter. The gang saved Ricky's mom, had a shoot out, escaped to the professor's base and then the villain kinda forgave Ricky because he protected the base from a bomb? Whirlwind.

By the way, I don't know anyone's names because I can't read kanji names lol (katakana names are all good though)

This chapter was pretty violent! I was momentarily traumatized by Ricky's mom's leg and tail snapping off until they revealed it was a mannequin. It was still kind effed up to see! Also Ricky just spears a dude almost to death. Hardcore for a little guy.

On top of the violence, seeing someone being experimented on with dry ice as they yell "please, I'm a living being!!" is pretty distressing as well. I don't even know for sure if everything's gonna be fine because they already killed off a few people...

Ch. 19

Dangit, I wish this was translated by...anybody! There isn't even a fan translation. I'm just barely scraping by with my kanji reading skills but I'm missing out on a lot. For example, Ricky and the other 0 men refuse to evacuate to the underground. Why? IDK...Also, the nuke seemingly does nothing after they launch it. Did they explain why? Maybe, but I missed it if they did. Oh well...I still get the jist.

Seeing everyone prep for the launch of the missile and pre-mourn the loss of their country was really sad. I'm glad such plot points aren't too taboo in Japan. They explore this stuff a lot.

Ch. 20

And this is the chapter where I remember that Tezuka was definitely a furry lol. I don't say that mockingly, I love his animal/anthro illustrations. They just feature so prominently in his work.

Pretty crazy to find out that Ricky's dad is still alive like a zillion chapters after he "died." I mean...saw it coming, but the timing is unusual.

The shenanigans were fun this time because they realize it's "Muu Muu day" in the 0-man kingdom. This is apparently a day where everyone dresses up like animals, including humans, so a human showing up isn't suspicious. Ricky looked really cute in his squirrel costume.

I've gradually started to notice more creative panel arrangements and lettering showing up. It's interesting to see Japanese characters written in wacky ways that I'm not used to. Seems like it would be tricky to write kanji in bubble letters...

Ch. 21

Sheeesh, this manga is wild. It almost feels like every chapter there's some new apocalyptic event. Also, a surprising amount of death.

The cliffhanger ending for this chapter was Ricky and his dad plummeting from space in a spaceship, crash landing and then dad finding Ricky's disembodied tail!?

Okay, there's no way that Ricky really lost his iconic tail. What's the explanation gonna be this time...? (Edit: Nope, he actually lost his tail).

Ch. 22

This chapter had everything: random Popeye cameo, casual racism towards Fiji and Native Americans, and a Titanic parody where the Titanic was called the Tihenic (get it, because taihen? I laughed...)

So instead of global warming we have global freezing. An interesting concept nowadays. I guess the polar bears would flourish? Or would they still suffer because they need some water to hunt...hmmm

This was a Ricky-free chapter. Instead we caught up with Pete in America who is apparently staying with a new professor whose name I forgot immediately. His hair is pretty terrible. Pete and professor bad hair are being forced to build a rocket so that this evil dude can escape Earth. Sounds like something Elon would do lol

Ch. 23

Okay, so Ricky really did lose his tail, that's crazy. He's practically just a normal boy now.

It was really depressing when Ricky's dad thought he was finally experiencing some human kindness only for them to betray him :'(

I feel like we've kinda lost the plot at this point. Or maybe this manga was always intended to be episodic? The apocalyptic ice age stuff still lingers in the background, but the 0-man characters are kind of just ignoring that and trying to survive. (Edit: that plot line does come back as the main focus).

Ch. 24

Damn, someone needs to get Ricky a new pair of pants. Poor kid is just going around with a huge rip on the bottom.

The revelation that Ricky's lost some of his balance due to not having a tail anymore was interesting. I wonder if prosthetic tails exist in this universe?

Not really sure how Ricky ended up finding Pete and Professor Royal (learned his name). Good to see the gang back together even though they weren't apart for very long to begin with lol.

The gag with the driver crying over Ricky and being given wind shield wipers for his eyes was cute

Ch. 25

Lol is it just me or were they all concerned with saving Ricky and then they just immediately gave up and started building rockets instead? I guess they've assumed he's dead by now.

So the bad guy having a rocket built for himself (and maybe his lackeys) and the good guys are trying to build enough rockets to allow all of humanity to escape Earth. It's a little too relatable how they've decided that Earth is beyond saving climate-wise.

[twilightknight17]

Last night on P3R: food, friends, full moon, and Featherman!

I learned something new today! Mitsuru wants to hang out and make karume-yaki, which I looked up, because I’ve never heard of it. Karume-yaki translates roughly to English as “baked caramel”, and is also known as honeycomb toffee. You make it with brown sugar and baking soda, which makes the melted sugar bubble and gives it the honeycomb texture.

Apparently it’s a popular recipe for children, and in Japan specifically they use egg white to give it a more domed shape like a cookie?

But I dunno. This doesn’t seem like a good recipe for children?

She calls it simple, but Mitsuru, I’m pretty sure anything with a candy thermometer and molten sugar maybe shouldn’t be done by a kid. Molten sugar can fuck you up. X’’’D

But they actually do sound good. I kind of want to try that now.

Anyway, it’s the first day back to school, and listening to my fellow students talk, it’s becoming very clear that everyone is just getting used to Apathy Syndrome. Some were even talking about how it would be better to have Apathy Syndrome, because then you wouldn’t be stressed, or something. Which, okay. You wouldn’t be stressed. You would be a shambling zombie person standing around in the mall or something, though.

After answering a question correctly about superconductors and planning to make a kimono with Bebe, we head home for the day, where we discover that Aigis wants to attend school. And Ikutsuki thinks it’s a great idea, so she’s transferring in tomorrow.

Nevermind that this could go terribly wrong. I mean, won’t things fall apart as soon as a teacher asks her to take her “headphones” off?

Oh, come on. Akira took Morgana to school for a year! He can be Aigis’s emotional support dog or something.

After that, we’re off to the mall to cash in stuff from my last Tartarus trip, check for new stuff in Escapade, and meet up with Tanaka. Escapade has some new dialogue, but no new sketchy websites.

ALSO, the ABSOLUTE TRAGEDY of my favorite Escapade patron succumbing to Apathy Syndrome. Why, dude?? You were so close to the groove!

Tanaka continues to be charming as always.

Not by you!! My mom is somewhere in the Velvet Room. :/

Day 2 of school goes well. No one really bats an eye at Aigis, but she does take the seat right beside Minato and announce out loud that all she cares about is staying by his side. So, definitely ulterior motives for coming to school.

Welp, can’t social link with her yet, but I’ve got other things to do, so--

Senpai, I’m begging you. It’s the second day of school. I have five social links ready to rank up right this second. Please run your own errands. I am trying to improve my relationships so I can kick more ass with my personas. It’s for the TEAM.

THIS is your errand??? You could have done this yourself; he literally changes his mind and decides to come back as soon as you mention Ken joined the team. I didn’t say a WORD.

Apparently not because Akihiko-senpai just dragged me here without permission. Also I’m not allowed to go to Tartarus without third-year supervision. I’m basically a figurehead. Or a toddler.

Whatever. I’m going home to read yakuza books with Aigis.

...all of my friends are still lunatics.

I rank-up with Kenji, and I think that if I decide to do a social link and the link immediately bails on me, I should get to do a second one. Kenji asked if I wanted to go out for ramen and then decided, nope, he’s gonna go check out a cram school, because he’s thinking about colleges. Apparently his “girlfriend” (the ethics teacher) mentioned that he needs to be thinking about his future.

He thinks Minato should be thinking about his, too.

We can’t think about our future, Kenji. Sorry.

But yeah, Kenji runs off and Minato just goes home. I totally could have called one of my other FOUR links that are ready to rank up. -_-;;; Worth it, I guess, because back at home, Shinji wants me to explain the rules for using the kitchen.

This man cooks like a professional.

Sir, this is the best food I’ve had all year. The leftovers in my inventory are described as “exquisite”. Please. I am begging you to cook for the dorm as much as possible. Koromaru will thank you, too.

Junpei is still stopping on the way home to talk to Chidori, who is posing philosophical questions on this fine afternoon.

Junpei explains that he feels alive when he’s getting to be a hero. He likes feeling like the main character, the brave superhero using his powers to defend the world in its darkest hour (literally).

She does sound… kind of genuine here? But its hard to say. Junpei eats up the positive attention, though, and starts explaining about personas and how he works with a team. He calls himself the leader, though.

My guy, you don’t know it, but I know who you’re talking to, and I have a nasty feeling that you’re gonna get snatched by our enemies.

...oh, hey, max courage! I can hang out with Fuuka now if I want. Still no academics rank-up, though.

...welp.

She wants him to call off “his” team. End this operation and any future ones. But unfortunately the team is already at Paulownia Mall, looking for the big shadow. Fuuka tracks down the signal as coming from a “web” underground, which turns out to be the power cables. Escapade has been having power problems for a while, and they’ve just been getting worse recently.

Awww. No concert means no chance to see baby Rise. She’s… what, 13? God.

Either way, time to fight a shadow up in the club!

But first I gotta be an edgelord for a second in front of the blood fountain.

Xurkitree, is that you? You’re the Hermit? XD

This one’s gimmick is spending a turn or two charging up so it can do powerful lightning skills, otherwise it’s stuck with base-level zio. You can stop it from charging by attacking it, so it’s just a matter of timing. At least until the last quarter if its health or so, when it goes permanently charged.

I’m slightly disappointed that even though we’re in a nightclub with a shadow hooked into the electrical system, it was just a normal fight. Like, the Priestess got that monorail to move. Why can’t the Hermit cut on the rainbow disco lights and play me a dance remix of the battle theme? XD

Just the one shadow this time, too. Hermit was all alone, which I guess is appropriate.

Chidori has dragged Junpei up to the roof of the dorm, and can’t understand why he would lie about being the leader of SEES. (To impress you, you silly girl.) Everyone storms the roof, with Ikutsuki on our heels (since he apparently didn’t hear anything??), and Chidori tries to call her persona, Medea. Junpei knocks her evoker away before she can, and Aigis gets hold of her so she can’t run.

...not what she asked, Chidori! Besides, we don’t kill people.

She’s completely overwrought, so Mitsuru and Ikutsuki make the decision to have her sent to a Kirijo hospital so that they can keep an eye on her while we figure out what to do.

That goes well. She wont answer questions, won’t even talk unless Junpei is there, and freaks out at the mention of her evoker because not being able to summon her persona is completely destabilizing her mental state.

Mitsuru wants to know where she would have gotten the evoker, but it’s impossible to get anything else out of her.

I can’t go to Tartarus even if I wanted to because Mitsuru and Akihiko are spending their evenings at the hospital, so I guess I’m gonna chill and do social links.

Kaz, my track team buddy, has inflamed the tendons in his knee, and his doctor says he’s not gonna be able to walk if he keeps pushing it. Which… dude, track is not so important that you should permanently screw up your physical health. Even if you promised your nephew.

...oh my god Kaz.

Apparently his nephew doesn’t want to do physical therapy, so Kaz made a deal that if he becomes number one in Japan, the kid will do it. Which… Kaz, still. Your health. Your nephew wouldn’t want YOU to not be able to walk either!

At midnight, Strega is having a meeting in wherever the hell they live, trying to figure out what to do about Chidori.

Glad that Jin seems to be a relatively normal person outside of the assassin-ing. You know, showing basic concern for your teammates? Takaya, on the other hand, wants to get her evoker back first, because “It would mean nothing to free Chidori without it. For us, our persona is as precious as our very lives.”

Dude, you have a problem. X’’’D

He’s also got… Okay, so I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t know enough to speculate, but when we fought that fucked-up Abbadon on the bridge, it dropped something vaguely gun-shaped, and Takaya took it with him. He’s got it now, and, uh…

So, human experimentation. Great.

So, we killed a former human experiment who lost control of their persona and turned into a demon. I love knowing that even more terrible things happened on this island.

Takaya apparently doesn’t use an evoker because he’s above needing tools to summon. Which… if he wasn’t clearly still forcing it, I’d say that makes him the most stable of all of us. X’’’D He’s impressed by Minato’s ability to summon multiple personas, though.

After that we make a quick stop back at the hospital, where Chidori still isn’t talking, but they have noticed that she heals faster than normal from cuts and stuff. Junpei is still worried about her, much to Akihiko’s annoyance.

The healing probably has something to do with her persona, since she has navigator abilities? Fuuka can do a group heal as her theurgy.

Mitsuru and Akihiko want the rest of us to keep our regular routines as much as possible, so I’m gonna vibe with Koromaru.

We end up helping a kid cornered on the playground by a stray dog, and guys, I gotta say…

You know how in Japanese, there’s this specific way that “delinquents” talk? This dog’s bark sounds like that. XDDD

Keeping up the theme of hanging out with my smallest teammates, I head up to check on Ken next, because he’s been acting weird. He claims he’s fine, but he’s hungry, so we go out for ramen.

That’s because you’re a kid. Seriously.

He almost immediately asks whether I come here with Akihiko and Shinjiro, and what kind of things we talk about. First of all, no. Second of all, nosy. Gonna tell me why you’re being weird about Shinji, Ken? Isn’t that the point of social links? Everyone else has spilled their deepest darkest secret on the second hangout. XD

Ikutsuki is WRONG, unsurprisingly. Maybe he should have stayed in contact with the Nanjo Group.

I really am worried about Ken. Shinji asked if he joined willingly, but like I said before, even if he was willing, he should have been told n--

HOLD UP, FEATHERMAN COMMERCIAL

New Featherman details!! New Featherman details!!! Time to add more to my big dumb giant document. :D

Anyway, Ken, I think you’re doing a great job, but try not to burn yourself out. Also it’s fine if you like Featherman. So do I. Or, I keep trying to, at least.

...and maybe stop… whatever mindset is causing that? Jeeze, kid.

We walk by one of his classmates on the way home, too, who practically begs him to join the soccer team because he’s really good. But Ken says no.

Honey, you’re in… what, fifth grade? And we go to Tartarus like twice a month. Go play soccer. Exist. Be a kid.

September is off to a rough start. Maybe the culture festival will be better.