#curious how many there'll be by the end of the series

[vickysaurus]

The many outfits of Luz Noceda: season 1 edition.

[theflyingfeeling]

💖 it's here, it's pink, it's sparkly, and full of fluff 💖

Hiiiiii and welcome to witness my attempt at an Olli/Allu Advent Calendar, in which I'll give you ~a cute little something~ about these two idiots in love almost every day until December 24! My plan is to use prompts from this list to either write a fic based on the prompt or just some good ol' delulu thoughts if all else fails. I cannot guarantee there'll be a post literally every day, but I'm really excited to try this out and I thank you for your support along the way in advance 💝

The biggest thanks and a million hugs go to one of my favourite human beings @kraeuterhexchen for making the adorable banner!! I mean helloooooo?? 😭 Go show them some love ❣️

For December 1, the prompt list is titled One True Pairing Moments, and the prompt I chose was 'calling just to hear their voice' 🥺 You can read the fic below, I hope you like it <3

.

PS. Even though this is an advent calendar of sorts, I'm not planning on making this particularly Christmassy. I hope no one minds terribly!

~

Falling for Aleksi had, in a way, sneaked up on Olli, at least if he fooled himself a little. He could pretend he didn’t feel any different about the man than he did about, say, Joonas or Tommi, but that strategy only worked for so long – that is to say, approximately until Aleksi as much as smiled softly at him from across a room or bumped his shoulder into his jovially when walking down the street and Olli would feel his breath getting caught in his throat or stumble in his words, his tongue tangled like shoelaces, which was so unlike him as well and frustrated him to no end. It really took a special kind of fool to not only develop some level of feelings for a friend, a colleague, a bandmate for Christ’s sake, but also become so hopelessly enamored with him that you rolled awake in bed in the dead of night, grabbing your phone and tossing it back on the nightstand again and again because you couldn’t decide whether or not you should, on some erratic 2 o’clock impulse, call him to let him know he was the very reason for your insomnia. 

Turning on his back, Olli groaned (only a little desperately) as he remembered losing himself in the lingering hug they had shared just before the arrivals lobby at the airport, inhaling Aleksi’s scent and wishing they wouldn’t have to go home just yet, even if Olli was more than ready to finally sleep in his own bed again. Ironically, ever since they had returned home from tour, Olli had spent night after sleepless night missing Aleksi terribly: his stupid jokes and playful banter that bordered on being flirtatious if Olli allowed himself the benefit of delusion; his quick, subtle smiles that probably meant nothing; his little touches Olli hoped meant something; his smell and his touch and the softness of his hair at the back of his neck, compared to which the blanket Olli was grasping in his fist was like sandpaper. (How he had come to know of the qualities of Aleksi’s hair in such detail, he preferred not to dwell on too much to save himself from the heartache, so let’s just leave it at ‘stressful, emotional week far away from home’ and ‘a little too much to drink’).

Above all, Olli missed Aleksi’s voice. He hadn’t even thought that was possible, until the other morning when Olli had woken up to a voice message Aleksi had left just hours earlier, rambling about a song idea he had gotten in the middle of the night – something he did from time to time – and Olli had spent the next several minutes replaying it over and over again as he had lied in bed procrastinating getting up and and instead closing his eyes to better imagine Aleksi lying there beside him, turned on his side to face Olli, talking to him sleepily like they often did when they shared a room on tour and were just too lazy to join others at breakfast. Much like the hug at the airport, Olli wished those moments would have lasted way longer than they did, often ending abruptly when either of their phones would go off with Santeri’s name on the screen, a passive-aggressive interruption to the soft, low tone of Aleksi’s early-morning thoughts. (Sometimes, when Olli was lucky enough, he had been blessed with the bliss of feeling the light touch of a fingertip tracing along his collarbone, cut short just as frustratingly by their well-meaning tour manager politely enquiring whether the two of them had plans of dragging themselves downstairs for some toast and coffee, or if they’d rather starve until lunchtime, for which he wasn’t at all sure they’d even have time that day.)

The lovesick idiot that he was, his thumb hovered over the ‘play’ button of Aleksi’s voice message, probably for the millionth time that week. The chest-carving hesitation turned into a heart flip when he noticed Aleksi was online.

Then Aleksi began to type, and Olli held his breath the entire time until a new message appeared in the thread, anticipation holding him by his throat.

You awake?

Olli exhaled and typed his affirmative reply, leaving out the reason why.

He blinked at the screen, waiting for Aleksi to ask him a random question that clearly couldn’t wait until morning, or perhaps talk about something related to another late-night Twitch stream (from what Olli had gathered, Aleksi had been doing a lot of those recently, and with his last remaining braincell Olli had managed to resist the temptation to watch every single one of them, because he knew that if he did, it would only dig his grave of pining and longing deeper, seeing Aleksi smile and giggle about but not being able to do that with him or snuggle up next to him when he was wearing that flannel Olli often used as a blanket in the tour bus). But instead of another text appearing on the screen, Olli’s phone began to vibrate in his hand, and it took him an embarrassingly long while to understand it was because Aleksi was calling him. 

“Hi,” he sighed when he finally collected himself enough to speak. He prayed he’d be able to hear what Aleksi was going to say from the thumping heartbeat echoing in his ears.

“Hi,” a soft voice said. “Sorry, I know it’s late…”

“No, not at all,” Olli hurried to say, “I mean, I wasn’t sleeping. Not even close, actually.” Part of him hoped Aleksi wouldn’t ask about it, but in some foolhardy way the possibility intrigued him. 

Nothing much, he would have likely said anyway, but what would happen if he told Aleksi how it really was? That he squeezed his pillow imagining it was him instead, or wailed into it because something had reminded him of a moment-that-was-probably-not-a-Moment™ they had shared? What would Aleksi say if he knew Olli sometimes touched himself the way Aleksi had touched him That One Night they never talked about? The only obstacle between Olli and that knowledge was a bottomless ocean of cold sweat and cowardice, and Olli had never been a great swimmer.

“So, ummm…,” Olli said when Aleksi’s end stayed silent. “What’s up?”

A short breath of laughter sounded through the phone line.

“Honestly? I don’t know, I… It’s just been a… weird week, I guess.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, like… my head’s just been so full of… everything and… I’ve been so busy and kinda tense and… fuck, this is going to sound crazy,” Aleksi laughed that brief laugh again, although to Olli it didn’t sound particularly cheerful. Tired, more like. Strained, somehow. Not sad, but definitely a little troubled, and Olli intended to find out why.

“I’m all for crazy, you know.” Olli hoped his sorry attempt to lighten Aleksi’s mood would work, and so he smiled in relief when he heard Aleksi chuckle at his comment.

“I know,” Aleksi said softly, in that tone of voice that had Olli melt against his bedsheets. “So yeah, it’s been a rough week, but… in between all that stupid shit, I’ve been thinking a lot about… umm… well, the tour and– and… about you, for some reason,” (the troubled laugh made its return) “and… yeah. That’s sort of helped me a lot recently.”

Olli listened to the words carefully, not fully believing what he was hearing, yet clinging on to them until they were all but swirling around in his otherwise empty head like dry leaves in October wind.

“And tonight I just couldn’t fucking sleep for some reason and nothing I did seemed to help and so I thought I’d call you. And I’m–” If it hadn’t been dead silent otherwise, Olli wouldn’t have heard the shaky breath Aleksi paused to take, “I’m sorry I’m calling you at this hour and bothering you with this all but I guess I just… wanted to hear your voice. To see if that would help.”

“Does it?” Olli asked. Aleksi’s confession had made him clasp his blanket close to his chest, as if that would do anything about his rapidly beating heart.

“Yeah. It does. So maybe just… keep talking?”

Despite his mind living a life of its own, completely unfit to form a single coherent thought, for Aleksi’s sake Olli tried his best to think of something to say, but everything he came up with was something he was not ready to tell him quite yet. 

“Uuummmm…” he said to buy himself some time, but while he waited for his useless brain and mouth to form any actual words, Aleksi spoke again.

“Fuck, I’m– I’m sorry, this is too weird, I shouldn’t have– I’ll let you go back to–”

“I miss you,” Olli blurted before Aleksi would hang up on him. He squeezed his eyes shut when Aleksi went silent, too silent for too long for it to mean any good.

The line stayed open, however, which Olli took as a positive sign, even if the seconds during which all Olli could hear was Aleksi's quiet breathing seemed endless.

“And I you,” Aleksi finally replied. “A little too much, probably, or at least that’s what it feels like,” he chuckled. Olli almost missed the quiet sniff that followed.

He had to steel himself for his next question.

“What do you mean?”

“Just… forget it.” Aleksi said quietly. Contrary to Aleksi’s request, Olli knew he was going to all but ‘forget it’ for the next 3-5 business days; mentally he booked all his evenings as well as most of his mornings and noons for pondering what exactly had been in Aleksi’s mind in that moment or why he had sounded so sombre, almost disappointed. He’d probably never come to any satisfactory conclusion about it though, at least not without a little help from Aleksi himself. 

A ridiculous idea popped into his head, and before he could stop himself, the words flooded out of his mouth.

“Do you wanna come over some time? To hang out? When your schedule’s a little less tight, I mean.” He sucked on his lips and closed his eyes as he waited for Aleksi’s answer, ready to hang up the moment he’d decline the offer on some obvious and logical reason for why Aleksi couldn’t possibly make nor want to take a trip to the north to see him, such as ‘didn’t we just spend over two months on the road together?’ or ‘damn, buddy, I miss you alright but not quite that much, I’ve done enough sitting in public transportation for one year, thank you very much lol’ or ‘what about Rilla?’

“You could take Rilla with you, you know.” Olli hurried to say, just in case, the deranged part of his brain thinking there might be a chance Aleksi might be at least considering it.

“Oh! Well, umm… I actually might have time next week? If– if you’re actually being serious about this.”

Funny you should ask, Aleksi; I’ve actually never been more serious about anything in my entire life than I am about having you here with me so that I can hold you and be held by you and see your face when I wake up in the morning and say goodnight to your annoyingly cute face instead of via text message and maybe, if the stars are in position and the northern wind won’t discourage me too much, I might actually be brave enough to torment you with the knowledge of just how miserable I’ve been since we last saw each other.

“I think it would be cool,” he said, because he had a feeling what he wanted to say would’ve been a tad too much and sudden. “I mean, if you’re up for it, of course. I understand if you can’t make it though, I know you have all those side projects.”

“No, I think it might actually do me some good to get out of the capital area for change.” Then there was a muffled ‘ouch’, followed by a laugh that sounded much brighter than any of the other ones Olli had heard from Aleksi that night. “Sorry, correction, it might do us some good. Rilla just told me she’s most definitely coming too. Rilla, stop nibbling on my toes!”

Olli smiled tiredly at the mental image that was painted in his mind of Aleksi and Rilla cuddling in bed, both minding their own business from what it seemed while still minding each other as well, very much indeed.

“I’ll be sure to set up a bed for her in the guest room.”

“The guest room? Do you not know her at all? If she’s not getting the master bedroom, she’ll ruin all your rugs and most of your shoes. Probably also gossip about you to all the neighbourhood dogs. And she’s brutal.”

Olli held his stomach as he laughed, tears almost forming in the corners of his eyes. In his defence, it was late and he was finally becoming tired, thus too far gone to help himself, let alone feel embarrassed about being in stitches about something Aleksi had said that was only mildly amusing. (It wasn’t the first time that had happened either, and likely not the last time.)

“So yeah, ummm, I can take a look at some flight options for next week and let you know, alright? I’m gonna let you sleep now and… I should get some myself too.”

Olli wanted to tell Aleksi he’d love to stay up chatting until dawn, but the yawn he let out when he opened his mouth to speak implied Aleksi had a point.

“Yeah, let me know. And… thanks for calling, I… you have no idea how much I needed this tonight.”

That was as close to a confession as Olli was able to get as of now.

“Probably not half as much as I did.”

Olli chuckled at Aleksi’s response, mostly to hide his own agony.

If only you knew. If only I knew how to tell you.

It didn’t take long for Olli to doze off after they hung up, and when he woke up to the kids from next door having a snowball fight under his window in the morning, he noticed new messages from Aleksi, sent half an hour after their phone call had ended, complete with screen captions of airplane schedules.

Would these days work for you? I might be free all week actually 😇

Olli cuddled into his pillow while typing his reply, hoping it wouldn’t wake up Aleksi.

yeah I’m free as well. I’ll pick you two up from the airport 🖤

From then on, Olli started counting the days until he’d see Aleksi again.

[tinydefector]

Okay. You've got me invested on the newest installation of Human Effects.

Now I can't stop imagine both Humans and Mechs alike having some sort of Google Form where they click on the Human/Mech they want to fuck and see which is the most desired amongst their respective species.

Now that I think about it, I think there'll be a lot of fighting. And chaos.

But then again, we live for the drama.

Human Effects Lost Records

Wordcount: 1.5k

Warnings: talk of sex, human/alien, pornhunting

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Lab logs

Did I take this as an opportunity to merge Human effects and laboratory logs together into a series yes I did. I'll be working on the human Effects timeline where human Effects 2 is spin-off pieces from the mainline.

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The Holo, cyber and inter webs had a strange beauty to them. It has given many the ability to communicate with different planets, species, to share culture, laughter, debates, videos And all sorts thanks to the many different satellites floating out in space. Everyone also enjoyed it for the use of downtime the most. Some had taken to enjoying Earth's entertainment platforms such as YouTube, Netflix and many other sights, others fell into more depraved sights such as Reddit, Twitter,Tumblr, Pornhub, interlink, Processed and other sights. 

Commlink: post Humans Aboard BLO freight.

BigBotNoStop: Alright mechs, I come bearing an inquiry. As you may have heard from some of my last posts, the newest additions to our crew are a thriving colony of soft, squishy humans. Word in the taproom is some have taken quite an interest in... extending cultural exchanges, if you catch my drift. Not really my field of experience and was hoping some of Xeno's here might have some input. 

Posted to Sublink: Human and cybertronian relationships?

But I'm curious, are interspecies acts even possible without harm? Their frames seem so fragile. One wrong motion and SPLAT! No more humans. quite a few members of our crew have shown interest in flirting... Thoughts? Suggestions for how to proceed with care- help a mech out!

Blazemech: Yo! You got fleshies on your ship! Fragging jealousy!. Your ship is looking for any dock workers?

TailOrTrails: Oh Primus, are we really having this discussion?? Look, I get the appeal of those soft little flesh bags. Really, I do - different wiring can be so freakin' hot. But there's no way a romp with one of those puny things ends well for them! Even accidentally bumping into a table puts them in the medbay. Think of the mess, One wrong thrust and you've got squish all over your plating.

ISOCLEAN: Just download some holofacing and use your imagination if you're that jonesing for an organic interface. Trust me, it's not worth the risk - or hassle of cleaning up after. sure you can find something from the Human sites on Mechanophilia, slutty Show and shine or Car Washes. Stay shiny and keep those servos to yourself, mechs! Some curiosities are better left to fantasies.

Flyboi69: Don't leave a mech hanging, I want deets!, has anybot here actually gotten friendly with a fleshie before? I'm talking about hands-on experience. We've all gotten curious watching, but has the real thing lived up to the fantasy? 

Pimptheride: Any tips for coaxing one into the berth, or does their tiny size mean you've got to take it slow and gentle? And most importantly... any videos out there of the deed? A mech's gotta do some, ah, research before taking the plunge. Hook a brother up if you've found any good amateur organic-on-mech action out there in the 'net. Gotta see it to believe it. 

ScienceSorcerer: For reasons. Does anyone know if humans have both Spikes and Valves? Or if they have any human anatomy holos or books and such from Earth they are willing to sell for some decent Shanix.  

T-Wrexz: Primus, you mechs are hungrier than fragging scraplets. As far as I know, relations between our kinds are still uncharted territory. Could be amazing, could end badly - who's to say until we try? Personally I'm keeping an optic out, just curious to see what new experiences those squishy aliens can offer us tough metal mechs. 

Bar-rizzla: Oho, look who's swapping tall tales. I've been keeping a close optic on our ships squishy company since they came aboard. And between you and me... I may have an in with their ambassador that could lead to some juicy first-hand intel. Just trying to track down the bot we think they are berthing with. Crews got bets out. Turns out they get just as curious about us big metal hunks as we are them!. The other night, their chat got particularly saucy after a few drinks. Lots of gossip and speculation about which lucky bot one of them might take for a private ride. 

WPHAS-Violation: I may have a certain special "human entertainment" vid I could share. Let's just say the organic in question got quite... friendly with an eager mini-con. You know where to find me if you're brave enough to watch! 

Tapemix54: Oho, mechs - think you've got it bad now? You should've seen some of the real deviants back before the war. When I was still stationed on Petrex, I knew this one smuggler - went by the name Rattler. Sneaky little scraplet, but Primus if he didn't have the wildest stories. Rattler used to run goods across time and space, dodging security at every turn. He'd pop up out of nowhere selling the rarest exotic "pets" to rich senators and other high caste mechs looking for a thrill. I'm talking aliens so bizarre even our data banks had never heard of their kind. But the highest bidder always walked away with a new "plaything" to break in, if you catch my drift. Word was Rattler even had a collection of sentient organics that he'd let special clients "test drive" between runs. Humans were apparently a favourite - their smaller frames could take all sorts of creative handling. Rattler had vids, too, of course, to entice buyers. I saw one once, let's just say "versatile" doesn't begin to cover it. Naturally the vids have all been scrubbed by now. But I bet if you knew where to dig in the deep web or some easily swayable Archivist, you might find traces of Rattler's stash still floating around out there.

 T-Wrexz: Whoa, whoa, slow your intake there tapemix! As much as I love a good far-fetched tale, I gotta call scrap on this one. Humans weren't even around back then, much less roaming the streets of Rodion as black market pets, I'm all for imagining exotic interface scenarios, but let's keep the stories at least somewhat rooted in known history, yeah?. Last I checked it was probably fabricated by Caminus cartels to make their actual goods seem tame. 

A few other mechs agree with T-Wrexz before a few kliks later a new post is put up. 

Post: 

"Old Iacon records saved of the Senator and his human Conjunx”

It's a file collection of holotapes and pictures: "Enjoy these are pre war photos of Senator Shockwave and his Human holding their sparkling" 

There are many holos and videos of the long gone senator smiling with his human perched on his shoulder, in the crystal garden with a young sparkling held in the human's arms. Videos of the sparkling playing with the two but the last The last holo looks like a family portrait with Shockwave’s frame in a lime green blue white paint with gold accessories,  his human lover is dressed in elegant robes and the small blue praxian sparkling held in their arms. Each holo is dated with the Iacon records seal of authentication. 

FlyBoi69: NO FREAKIN' WAY. Is this real?! *downloads files faster than Blurr* FRAG ME SIDEWAYS, I think I just popped a gasket! How in the PIT did you manage to dig up the holos of senator Shockwave, most of his speeches, debates and lectures were wiped. Where did you find this! 

Jackin0: of all mechs, with an actual human back in the Golden Age?!. I'm calling scrap on this being real. It's gotta be a flawless deepfake. By PRIMUS if true - to think ol' Shockers was living it up with a squishy. Maybe there's more to those Senatorial types than meets the optic...

T-Wrexz: Okay, I'll bite... but someone better explain to me RIGHT NOW how any of this computes! Last I checked, time travel and inter-species relationships were the stuff of erotic imagination, not legitimate pre-war archives. Tapemix, you better start talking. Where in the PIT did you source these files? How do we know they're authentic and not just an incredibly convincing parlour trick? Because if I'm gonna let these images ruin me, I wanna be ruined by the real deal! Spill it, mech. 

Iacon-Records: Tapemix54 could i please request where you discovered these as i work with Iacon records and this here is history that needs to be preserved. I'm willing to talk with you through a contractor if you would be willing for us to add these back into the new hall of records. Cybertron has lost so much and to find something like this I ask that we find a way to preserve it.  

BigBotNoStop: Pit take me now... I think I may have to reassess everything I thought I knew about interface and partnerships. That human is holding a sparkling curled around them - frag if it isn't the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! If anything could make me believe in miracles, it's this! Tapemix, you glorious glitch - how can I ever repay such an enlightening gift?

Tapemix54: These were filed only cycles after Shockwaves Emputra; they were added to the Iacon records by some Archivist under the title. 'I will Remember you for who you were'. This was right when the senate fell apart on the brink of the war. From my knowledge of information on Rattler he apparently had an outlier who he got to take them to different times since he was a shuttle made it easier to transport. That's from the  records that still exist at least. I'll take you up on that offer Iacon-records. 

________

photos in the collection

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[umihoshi]

Autumn anime 2023 is so STACKED, it's illigal!

Aside from the obviously amazing continuing shows, there's TOO MANY great new ones.

Based on first episodes, here's my top ranking (may be subject to change cuz Apothecary Diaries isn't out yet. And excluding SpyxFamily, dr. Stone and Tokyo Revengers which are all *chef's kiss*)

1. Kamonohashi Ron: Deranged Detective

you had me at Detective. and then you had me at Deranged. Also, I'm a big fan of Amano Akira's other works, Reborn and eldLIVE (Psycho-Pass not so much, but she only did the character art) Depressed adult who is too curious for his own good, what's not to love?

2. Undead Unluck

I saw the manga before and had been really anticipating the anime. They're such a fun duo and their personalities and abilities compliment one another really well. looks like there'll be a lot of cool unusual superpowers. Reminds me a lot of Blood Lad, just hoping this anime won't end with virtually nothing solved T~T;

3. Kingdom of Ruin

Bit on the over the top side with the amount of tragedy, but the worldbuilding seems very interesting. I'm a slut for witch hunting too. May end up severely traumatized if I continue, but we'll see how it goes.

4. My New Boss Is Goofy

My soul is healed, my crops are growing. Grown men doing stilly stuff is comfort food for the eyes. Looks a bit yaoi baiting, but can't complain if it's cute. Reminds me of Cool Douji Danshi.

5. Migi & Dali

I don't even know what's going on at this point, it's so surreal. Elder couple wants to adopt one child and genius twins thought 'we can work with that'. The silly love children of Johan Liebert and Sakamoto desu ga. (same author as Sakamoto too. it sure shows.)

6. Crash course on Naughtiness

Last season, I was confronted with the pet-peeve of feeble waifu syndrome (I finished My Happy Marriage, but I'm sorry, I could not stand that girl...) And this season around, I realized the formula that breaks the curse of feeble waifus: a batshit crazy counterpart. This man is just bullying her with kindness. plus points for another excelent job done by Sugita Tomokazu.

7. Frieren

As a big fan of DnD, I can't say no to such a DnD-based series. Plus the pressure of having to live such a long live as elves do is very interesting. It's a bit slow to my liking, but the characters are amusing and layered.

8. Yuzuki family's 4 sons

a young man who has to take care of his 3 little brothers after his parents died, give me some napkins Q-Q not a single person looks or acts their age (the youngest has better vocabulary than I do;;) but it's all fun and sweet and trying to find your way in an unusual family-hirarchy

9. I'm in love with the villainess

My eyes hurt from looking at this. But the over the top artstyle works quite well with how silly the story is. I too would like to say 'step on me, mommy' to my favorite villain. Just hope it won't become repetitive in its jokes.

10. Tearmoon Empire

Wow, will you look at that. Another reincarnated villainess. Luckily, this one has no memories of living in a different world or something. Just her future self's diary. Enjoying the concept where she's not suddenly a saintly good girl for a change.

11. Oujo to Banken

This dude is on THIN fucking ice. I commonly enjoy age gaps very much. but in no way what so ever, would I support a relationship between a teenager and the 10 year older guy who basically raised her. Him being her parent figure is where I draw the line. That said, I'm eating up the amount of over-protectiveness and yakuza-logics. It has the amount of spice I had hoped to find in Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting that wasn't there.

12. Ragna Crimson

I'm sorry. just...... you can't make me believe that the ditsy loli-girl is the best dragon killer in the world. stop. The maincharacter is quite interesting, though. I like how it's like... his actual own power that he has for his OP special snowflake thing. Borrowing tomorrow's energy for today.....that's the description of a burn out I read the other day;;; But you do you, boy. good luck dying very early in life.

[karin-miyoshi]

I recalled in one of the WaSuYu movie, there was a Sonoko's Dream part (after Sumi tried to brainwash the 1st grade kiddos) where Aki-sensei wear what seem to be a villainous version of the suits that Sumi and Sonoko perform their Dance in. She was punishing the trio by forbidding udon for a whole week and Sonoko gets so scared that she woke up.

Aki-sensei in that suit look like she could be in a normal (traditional?) Mahou Shojo show villains group! She look freaking awsome and intimidating!

And that give me the idea of a yuyuyu au with a more... Pretty Cure liked vibe (I guess)? There'll still be gods and stuff but instead of being apocalyptic, things are more like a secret war of the Heroes and vertexes in an Earth that's still okay. Also Gin survived, just cursed badly by the Heavenly Gods (and kidnapped by their followers)

In this Au, Aki-sensei would still be the trio teacher, but secretly is one of the villains. After seeing her students got hurt so badly though, her redemption arc start by protecting Gin from her former allies. There're still so much to work with before I can finish this au and write a fanfic. But I'm curious to see what others would do with this ideas.

How would you build an au with this concept?

(sorry im late with this, was busy drawing!)

hmm, its an interesting concept for sure, but with that many changes its gonna be a whole new series altogether. i can see where youre going with the precure comparisons, seeing how much more easygoing the stakes are. some more ideas under the cut :9

first off, aki-sen in that outfit rocks i agree, there definitely needs to be more fanart of that. the world isnt post apocalyptic, so would that mean the nowayus "won" their fight? or at least brought it to a stalemate? did they retire partway through, or did they simply pass the baton on and went about their lives? not to critique too much but yeah unless youre specifically zoning in on one arc only, theres a whole can of worms youll end up having to open and patch up.

looking past that though, im sure theres a lot of fun to be had (though admittedly i dont write that much, so im not sure i can offer much here). id personally see a divide between the heroes and aki-sen with their identities. the latter knowing what she had done in the past, guilt with atonement, with plans to take that secret to the grave. on the other hand, the heroes going as far as to "reveal" their secret identities to her when the relationship between them reaches a boiling point.

how riddled with anxciety does aki-sen feel seeing gin get cursed? is this simply something that makes her feel really sick, or would it put her into grave danger? even if its not too serious, what if its something that lasts her entire life? how would sumi and sonoko react when they find out their teacher was the one for gin getting cursed? these might guide you a little further in your fanfic i hope, but with all those circumstances things might go a little darker than you first imagined

[xian1na]

buncha words 'bout some spring animes #3

Still here, still watching, still writing. Can't believe it's May already. I remember having this weird feeling last time I was watching seasonal anime - that I can't wait for the next episode to come out but once it does, I realise how time flies. It's almost scary! Many of the series that have only just come out are already at the halfway point. ...But let's not think about the inevitablility of time passing and instad talk about them animes. Enjoy!

Hell's Paradise (ep. 5) - After episode 4 I was a bit wary of where Sagiri's plot was going but episode 5 assuaged my worries somewhat. I used to get very annoyed whenever an action show would introduce A Sexist character. Why aren't the female characters just allowed to be badass without anyone putting them down, I was thinking to myself. Why can't I just have a nice escapist fantasy? But somehow I don't mind it here. I'm not sure why - whether it's because I changed or because (so far) Jigokuraku handled this subject better, or at least differently than other series I've watched. We'll see what comes next. As for the rest of the episode, I feel like the series is still at the phase of setting things up and I really hope the plot moves forward next time. Nurugai is Very Good.

Oshi No Ko (ep. 4) - I won't be a stinker this time, I quite liked this episode. We got to see Aqua acting and I got this great idea for battle-shounen like manga about acting, where the main character has to analyse their surroundings and gather data about their fellow actors to know how to rile them in front of the camera, so that they act well. (I'm going to pitch this to President of Anime whenever I get the chance.) I'm curious how will that reality TV show that Aqua got hired to act in go. As for the school plot... I don't watch many idol shows but I recall 'school of idols' is a recurring theme. Will Oshi No Ko subvert it somehow or play it straight? No idea. I'd assume the former if not for plethora of colour-coded female characters we've met already. I appreciate this series' commentary on show-business harsh truths a lot but it somehow doesn't feel grounded in reality because of the visuals, particularly character designs. And I REALLY hope there'll be more male characters in the main cast, although judging by the opening, that might not be the case.

Tengoku-Daimakyou (ep. 5) - We focus more on Maru and Kiruko this time, which is good because They Are Great. By the way, I've been reading a little about this series' production and I was surprised to learn that it's really speeding through the manga - but does it so well that it doesn't feel rushed or anything like that. It doesn't happen often in anime, I think. I'll probably read the manga once the series ends just to see how does the story unfold there (and to see all the quality K&M content that's been cut from anime). Also I absolutely need to cite one sentence from ANN's weekly review of T-D because it was simultaneously the best and the worst sentence I've read in a review in a while: "And while Maru's boner gets in the way of their hug, we can see that it's not getting in the way of their friendship." Absolute perfection.

Skip and Loafer (ep. 5) - I've already written how I appreciate what they do with Egashira in this series and episode 5 fleshes her out even more. I think my favourite moment was after Egashira's and Mitsumi's clash with the third-years in the gym - how Egashira made sure to remember the names of the students who were rude to them, while Mitsumi remembered the name of the one who helped them. It's a very telling character moment for them both. Skip and Loafer is really growing on me, it might even end up as my favourite series of this season. I'm literally feeling happier after watching every episode, it's that powerful.

My Love Story with Yamada-kun ar Lv999! (ep. 5-6) - As I thought, the matter with Runa is solved pretty quickly and she's already Akane's bestie in episode 6. That's pretty good in my opinion. Even if Runa's change of heart may be a bit sudden, I don't think she'd make a compelling long-term antagonist. That 'gamer guy' from episode 5 gave me massive creeps and there was some great direction in that scene in the toilet. I like that even though ultimately nothing bad happened, the guys from the guild immediately went to the rescue because they knew the potential danger. Then episode 6 is back to usual shenanigans and I thought it was very funny. And one important note: Kouki Uchiyama's acting when Yamada was talking to Eita right after waking up was Extremely Good.

And in the backlog section:

The Witch from Mercury (season 1, ep. 7-9) - You know guys... maybe it's because the Internet was screaming about Prospera lately (I didn't catch any spoilers, thankfully) but I'm starting to get a feeling she might be a bad guy! On a serious note, it's very interesting how Prospera is contrasted with Delling and papa Jeturk (whatever his name is, I don't even care). All three of them are shitty parents but whereas Delling and Jeturk are very openly shitty in how demanding, strict and cold they are towards their children, the way Prospera treats Suletta is just chilling. Only three episodes left in season 1, I have no idea what might happen in the finale but I'm definitely looking forward to find out.

Spy x Family (ep. 6-7) - As I knew that The Face was coming, I actually appreciated The Punch more - that was a real good piece of animation. Damian's developing crush on Anya (including the special romanticised version of her in his eyes) and Loid suspecting that Becky obviously must be plotting a political sabotage or something because he just doesn't get kids were hilarious. Also, I totally forgot about Yor's and Anya's time together (or maybe it wasn't in the manga, though I think it was). It was great! I'm not going to be original by saying that Yor often feels a bit secondary in this family, so it was real nice seeing her getting more screentime. Next episode Yuri will show up - I think his visit was the last thing I've read in the manga, so I have no idea what happens next.

Aaand that'd be the end of this week's musings and ramblings. I start a new job on Monday but I think I should be able to keep up with all the shows. At least I must find some time for more Skip and Loafer. Hope you enjoyed reading and see ya!

[thekaijudude]

After the blazar trademarks dropped I've been thinking a lot about blazar lol and wanted to know your thoughts:

1) with the henshin item supposedly being the blazar stone and brace, what do you think it'll be like? It's quite impossible to guess at this stage, but how do you think they should do it to be different than Taiga?

2) is the huge number of new kaiju indicative of anything? Also on that note, do any of the names of the new kaiju hint at new versions of notable new gen kaiju? (Kinda like golba?)

3) was the new gen agul ever officially trademarked at any point? I'm starting to think it may have been false

4) it seems like while blazar might be a celebration of new gen, it doesn't stick too closely to it? I guess this is more of a hope more than anything

Hi!

1) I honestly have no idea because to be frank, that's what I was originally expecting before the teaser came out and since its meant to commemorate the New Gen's 10th Anniversary. And aside from being outright fusion, the easiest way to commemorate it is with something like Taiga's gimmick. Cause at the end of the day, they still have to be able to produce merch to sell.

But since we've seen the teaser, we now know that this series would seem to be taking on a darker and mature tone, so to be frank, I don't even know if there'll be such gimmicks at all since the tone and the direction was totally out of left field ever since Nexus.

They even touched on some mature topics like ShinU, like the distrust of Ultraman amongst the humans, which I hope would be a running theme cause it'll make the storyline far more interesting, especially since that it was also established in that same teaser that Blazar was already very active as an individual for decades prior to the series. I can just see the interesting implications and the very exciting number of ways they could go with just these 2 plot settings alone.

But if I were to still assume that there'll be (albeit most likely anyways) the top of my head, the stones gimmick could perhaps be like the infinity stones and gauntlet since he also has the Blazar Brace, and each stone sort of contains the power of each New Gen Ultra. But in order to make it "somewhat" unique from Taiga's gimmick, I guess Blazar can launch a specific attack or gain specific abilities once a specific combination of New Gen stones are used in conjunction with each other, equipped on the Brace? Similar to the Z Riser in that sense tho.

Tho in general, the gimmicks probably won't be ridiculous, such that it'll ruin the immersion of the mature tone of the series

2) It does seem that TsuPro intends to go in a "new direction" based on the drastic shift in tone. Especially since Decker was the 10th New Gen series, so it's rather understandable and appropriate that they'll choose to do so with Blazar as the 11th New Gen Series. Perhaps they might even stick with it until the proposed end of the New Gen Era which is slated to be in 2028 iirc.

Tho one thing to point out that i forgot to mention when i posted the trademark list is that some leakers specifically pointed out that Reinas and Levira are either Ultras or the main Villains, no clarity on that but the fact that these 2 were singled out is very curious.

3) Ye it's fake at this point, tho no news of a secondary Ultra either as of now. But I won't be surprised if there'll be either showing up mid way through the series or in his movie since Agul and Victory is a thing.

4) Ye essentially as what I discussed in 1), it seems to largely be a standalone series and having too many "forced" references or following the tone of the prior New Gen would definitely ruin the dark immersion experience.

But then again, this is Taguchi we're talking about here, and he's been improving by leaps and bounds ever since X, Orb and Z. So while I won't be surprised that there'll definitely at least be some New Gen reference (or as said, New Gen stones), but as long as the writing and plot settings for these aspects dosent ruin the immersion, I don't think anyone would really complain either

Thanks for the question!

[spaghettificationandpretzels]

ANSWER ALL OF THE WIP ASK GAME THINGIES

I love your writing and I am super curious!!

OMG OMG OMG!! Hello anon, if you're comfortable, it would be so cool if you could pick an emoji so I know it's you when you stop by. Let me know what fandom you're talking about too since I write for a few.

💯[100] How many words does your WIP currently have? How many words do you hope it'll have when it's done?

I have a few WIPs; most have some story and lots of outline, but my outlines do have whole scenes, just not chapters.

A Hero's Welcome - Simon Riley x Reader, 347 words and should be up in the next few days.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader - 156 word outline. The next few weeks.

Wasteland Baby - Philip Graves x Reader no words just, just brain ideas. The next few weeks.

The Night Library - Vamp!Jax Teller x oc, 931 words of story and a 1,560 outline. No idea.

No Big Deal - Guero from Mayans M.C. x oc, 4578 of story and a 2,441 outline. No idea.

On Love and Botany - Raymond Smith x oc, 469 of story and a 2,582 outline. No idea.

Flowers on the Front Stoop - Joe Velasco x oc, 1107 words of story and of 3,373 outline. No idea.

⌛️ [Hourglass] How long have you been working on this WIP?

A Hero's Welcome - Less that a week.

Wasteland Baby - About two weeks.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader -About two weeks.

The Night Library - About a year.

No Big Deal - About six months

On Love and Botany - About a year

Flowers on the Front Stoop - About six months.

📚 [Books] Is this WIP part of a series or standalone?

A Hero's Welcome - A standalone one-shot or one-shot as part of this series.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader - Series

Wasteland Baby - Series

The Night Library - Long series

No Big Deal - Long series

On Love and Botany - Long Series

Flowers on the Front Stoop - Long Series

🎀 [Bow] How many named characters are in this WIP? How many do get a POV?

A Hero's Welcome - Just Simon and y/n, second person POV.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader - The 141, Simon, and y/n the pov will be second person.

Wasteland Baby - The 141, Graves, y/n, the POV will be second person.

The Night Library - No idea, there'll be a few

No Big Deal - No idea, there'll be a few

On Love and Botany - No idea, there'll be a few

Flowers on the Front Stoop - No idea, there'll be a few

💖 [Heart] What is your favorite moment in this WIP?

My fav in all of them is this one from On Love and Botany.

"What else do you want from me? I have nothing left to give you, you've already taken it all. Why must you hold my heart hostage and give me no terms for negotiation?"

This is the OC speaking to Ray.

🎶 [Notes] Do you have any other WIP related things, like moodboards, character portraits, playlists or similar?

Lots of playlists of the same songs that give me different feelings depending on my mood.

📖 [Open Book] What form do you want this WIP to take when it's done? Posted, printed, published, etc?

I want them all posted and I hope people comment and reblog.

🐀 [Rat] Name three reasons why this WIP is great at being Romance (You can send a genre, or let the recipient pick one.)

All of them are super fluffy.

I love to fix shitty romantic characters like Jax Teller and make them good partners.

They all have happy endings.

🐁[Mouse] Name three reasons why this WIP is horrible at being horror. (You can send a genre, or let the recipient pick one.)

They're all romances.

They all have happy endings.

My bad guys always die.

🔎 [Magnifier] Is there a phrase/word you know you use too often? Will you change it in editing?

There's a lot, no I won't change them.

🍖 [Meat] How many fictional people were harmed in the making of this WIP?

A Hero's Welcome - It's smut so no one.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader fic - A few people.

Wasteland Baby - A few people

The Night Library - A lot of people.

On Love and Botany - A lot of people.

Flowers on the Front Stoop - A few people.

🌈 [Rainbow] If at the beginning of your WIP the characters knew about the end, would they kill you to stop you from writing it?

No, but the bad guys might.

‍🎨 [Palette] If your WIP was a color, which color would it be?

A Hero's Welcome - It's smut, everyone naked, so various skin tones.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader fic - bird feathers.

Wasteland Baby - White, black, blue.

The Night Library - dark blue and black; No Big Deal Pink

On Love and Botany - light blue and green.

Flowers on the Front Stoop - cream and floral colours.

🍩 [Donut] What's the weirdest thing someone eats in your WIP? What's the best thing?

Hero's Welcome - 😉😉😉

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader fic - Pretty birds, cake

Wasteland Baby - An aphrodisiac pudding, 😉😉😉😉

The Night Library - The secondary bad guys eat some flesh, fancy dishes

On Love and Botany - MREs, fancy dishes.

Flowers on the Front Stoop - pet food, homemade food.

🔒 [Lock] Would you let your family, friends, or other people you know in real life read your WIP?

No never, I would die.

🖋️ [Pen] Describe your WIP in a single, terrible sentence.

A Hero's Welcome - Welcome back, let's bang.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader fic - AAAAAAAAAA who falls out of a tree.

Wasteland Baby - Fuck you, I love you.

The Night Library - mmmmm blood

On Love and Botany - I love you, I hate you, I love you.

Flowers on the Front Stoop - Neighbour in love that bang.

❌ [Cross] What would your WIP get cancelled on Twitter for?

A Hero's Welcome - Pro military.

A yet unnamed Simon Riley x Reader fic - Pro Military.

Wasteland Baby - Pro Military.

The Night Library - Violence, gore, Pro Cop.

On Love and Botany - Pro Military.

Flowers on the Front Stoop - Pro Cop.

[bookwyrminspiration]

what are your thoughts & theories based on the new stellarlune plot description?

Honestly my first thought was "that's ironic" when I read the first line (Sophie Foster changed the game), because did we or did we not just end the last book with a whole argument about how this was a war and had been for years? Did Sophie not specifically tell Maruca that it's not a game?? Like I understand it's catchy and dramatic but that was. a whole thing. we're seriously back to calling it a game?

I'll put the rest of my (actually serious) thoughts under a cut for space :)

Second, was that I'm assuming (based on the Linh short story, the ending of unlocked, and the "her friends are divided and scattered" line") that everyone's going to be focused on different things they think are the most important. Perhaps Linh, Marella, Maruca, and Stina are going to focus on Glimmer, learning more about her and trying to find definitive prove that she's evil and can't be trusted. Keefe is off doing who knows what, Tam might be working alongside Glimmer to an end we don't yet understand, Biana's might be trying to uncover the Vacker Legacy, Fitz's story may relate to Alvar, Sophie's to Elysian and fighting offensively. Everyone has something else going on right now and they aren't cohesive as a group, so I'm assuming there'll be conflicts of interests as everyone tries to do what's important to them. Which is basically just what the summary says I just went into more detail.

I'm curious if the "finding truth in the Lost Cities requires sacrifice" line relates to the "when to let go" line. If so, the question becomes what is she letting go of in order to find the truth? My current assumption is that it's going to be her friends. Not that she's leaving them permanently behind or anything, but more like...emotionally accepting that they're not functioning on the same wavelength anymore and sacrificing that comfort of reassurance in her ideas she got from them. Like at the end of Unlocked when she saw how differently everyone thought of her actions and she eventually backed down like "I didn't mean to start a war" because she values those people. But to let them and their ideas go, sacrificing the closeness of similar thinking and belonging that she so craved and only found among them, could be a significant sacrifice for her and have the impact we're looking for.

there's also the "everyone has miscalculated" (no surprise there) and "the Neverseen's plans sharpen into terrifying focus," which I'm assuming is referring to Gisela's plans. right now she is the Neverseen, and everything we've seen from them so far has been about her and Keefe. So the plans could be referring specifically towards why Gisela gave Keefe the power she did. Then again, if we're talking about miscalculating that could be an intentional mislead and instead the terrifying plans are coming from others, people we haven't seen a lot of--Gethen, Trix, maybe even Glimmer. I don't know what they'd want, but they really haven't been focused on a lot in the series which could mean the characters miscalculated by focusing elsewhere. That was Sophie's worry in the Flashback climax, so it could be making a return with the miscalculation here.

finally, there's "the Lost Cities' greatest lie," and like many others I'm also assuming this is referring to the missing humans and human experimentation that Bronte said could never get out. That's a lie that's been covered for centuries, one that completely overturns history. Suddenly, humans were right and the elves silenced them, the sinking of Atlantis not for protection but defensive of the horrors they held. The main population may not have known this, but it still happened. Humans suddenly have done nothing to deserve their demotion from the intelligent species, to have been treated as they are. That cover up completely changes history; I can't think of a bigger lie.

I will say I am kinda wondering if Shannon intends to involve the human world, like actual humans. I don't think she is, but the idea is there. If the humans were wrongfully treated and made unaware of the whole hidden world, would it be corrected through making them aware? I don't think it would go over well realistically but this is fantasy so maybe Shannon would work something out. That's just a thought for nothing ever being the same (paraphrased), but another way nothing could ever be the same is if the elves fell from power within the hidden world. Humans still remain unaware, but the elves, the top of the top born with the powers and responsibility to keep peace around the world, suddenly have a history of doing the opposite and why should the rest of the intelligent species listen to them? Why should they be in charge when they've fucked up so bad? So there could be a power shift within the hidden world where nothing would ever be the same.

I'll just mention one more thing before stopping: I think we'll probably get more of Sophie being defiant and thinking for herself and breaking away from the methods of the Black Swan and her friends, as that part about the Black Swan wanting her to do something but her having instincts feels like the storehouse mission. The Black Swan and her friends wanted a quick mission to get information, but Sophie acted on something else and burned it down. that turned into an argument, but Sophie really can't ignore how she feels about things and if she thinks something is right--like looking into Elysian and ditching the Black Swan's plans, then she's going to do it. She said in the first book she'd rather live with the consequences of the right decision than the guilt of the wrong one. That hasn't changed.

While she probably won't burn any more storehouses down, I'm anticipating we'll get more of her acting in ways others think are inappropriate or too offensive or inadvisable, but she'll start sticking to her gut more and more and stop listening to them.

So that's just what i generally thought from the plot summary!! I'm sure there are many details and hints that I've missed, but I'm curious to see what Shannon's got in store

[hms-no-fun]

I'm curious about your general process for writing. How far ahead do you plan? do you have basic outlines that you then flesh out, or is it more stream of consciousness write-it-as-it-comes? how many revision passes do you typically do before you call it good enough?

this is a fun one because i've learned a LOT of lessons about this exact topic recently! this is another long one, so keep reading after the break.

generally speaking, my process involves finding a balance between planning and improvisation. i've known how gf3.1 was gonna end for over a year now, and i knew a lot of the broad beats that i wanted to hit along the way: setting up silverbark's backstory, teasing the upsilons, the reality storm, junerezi divorce fever, various character deaths. when i wrote kanaya's "milf mug" conversation back in 3.1 chapter 3 (published april 2020) i knew that she would use the positive/negative space thing to help june et al escape at the last second.

i've spoken about why chapter 8 got big and round a couple times already, but at the risk of retreading trodden ground: when i decided to embrace june's plurality as part of the narrative, i didn't quite understand the scope of what i was getting into. when i wrote chapter 8 act 1, i'm pretty sure i had no plans to bring dirk back (though i definitely did by the time the chapter was published). a whole lot of the worldbuilding of june's headspace, the metaphysics of ideaspace, even epigone to an extent; these were all improvised on the fly. if i had known just how tremendous this task would prove to be, i definitely would not have pressured myself so much to get it all done as soon as possible. but, then again, it's entirely possible that i couldn't have written chapter 8 any other way.

(to speak about the internal process here: i'm very keen on avoiding this kind of thing in the future, so before a single chapter of gf3.2 comes out we're gonna spend a solid month planning and plotting things out. this will help us split the work of writing between multiple writers, and make for an overall better narrative imo. there'll still be room for improv but i want to avoid anymore surprises like chapter 8)

on a broader scale, there's a lot that i know about the future of this story. i know the outline of all the remaining parts, and i know roughly how the series is going to end. but there's also a lot that i don't know! which for obvious reasons i can't outline here lmao.

you could maybe see my process as creating a series of nested endpoints. i know where godfeels 3 ends; i know where 3 part 1 ends; i know where chapter 8 ends; i know where this chapter ends; i know where this particular conversation ends. but rarely do i know exactly how we're going to get there from a moment to moment basis. so on the smallest scale, i know which characters are going to be in a conversation and what the "point" of the conversation will wind up being. i'll probe the scene to see what characters say and then over time coax their motivations out, which lets me further refine the dialogue to make it feel that much more driven and essential.

this ties back to my storytelling metaphor about setting up hooks to hang hats on later (kanaya's milf mug speech being an example of a hook i hung my hat on at the end of [S] saturday 2) in a really interesting way, as it's kind of the same process in reverse? maybe half the time when i set a hook, i have no idea how it will pay off (or i only come up with the payoff the moment i set the hook). so looking forward i have these endpoints i'm working towards, and looking backwards i have all these hooks i've set up that i want to hang a hat on sooner or later. it's a wild balancing act that i've refined over years, and that i'll probably continue to revise for as long as i can still write. i need a plan, a spine to work with and towards, but if it's too specific or rigid then i find it sucks all the oxygen out of the story. the thing needs to be flexible, because the fact is that your life is constantly changing and the meaning of the story you are trying to tell often changes with it. i can certainly attest to how much of chapter 8's tone is the result of recent events in my own life in a way that i never intended! it'll be tricky to find a way to maintain this flexibility while also bringing collaborators on in a more active capacity, but i think we've got a pretty solid roadmap in that regard. and my collaborators themselves have proven that they Get It in a way i never thought was possible. get you some friends who think about stories the way you do, it's SO freeing and inspiring, i'm telling you.

anyway, to the last part of your question: in the past, chapters have typically gone up around draft two or three. i'd write the whole thing and fill in the gaps, give it a complete once over (which is when all the best shit happens), and then hurry to get it out asap because i'm impatient and hungry for validation. i like to think i have a pretty good sense for when my prose is working and when it's not, but i'll often find spelling and grammar mistakes in older chapters when i go back to search for a dimly-remembered hook that make me wish i'd let these things sit a bit longer. if chapter 8 has felt like an upgrade in terms of quality, it is 100% the result of me bringing trusted collaborators on board to check my corners. these days when i get a chapter at "first draft complete" i'll post the doc in our work server and hit em with an @ everyone. at that point i've got at least three people i can depend on to come in with comments and suggestions. this is ESPECIALLY useful as my memory of big swathes of homestuck proper is, uh, patchy at best (there's a reason i've mostly fixated on the beta kids so far).

i still prefer to release chapters as soon as possible, because i find too much time in the oven leads to temptation. the delays on the chapter 8 epilogue are already doing this, because now that it's on a whenever-it's-done timeline i keep coming up with more things to add. the entire process of chapter 8 really has been

anyway uh i sure hope that answered your question

[azurevi]

on land where we can touch the moon (2/?)

PART 1 PART 3

A quick note- this is pretty messy. I'm planning as I write, so there'll be information scattered across the words, and it may be overwhelming...kinda. I have added a little note about what happened in this chapter in the end. This series is also up on ao3.

There is, naturally, a reason Azul was stuck with the name 'The Sea Merchant'.

It wasn't a bad name, and there was no hint of degradation in it. It just wasn't particularly suiting. Azul wasn't a merchant. He wasn't even a shopkeeper. He was just invested in a little magic, and this hobby of his got leaked out somehow. 

His magic was certainly something. It's A Deal allowed him to confiscate another person's valued quality in exchange for their wish. Anything could come to life as long as the deal was equal.

Only the drunk and people in desperate need of help ever went to him for help. After Azul had started mastering his magic, he reckoned that it hadn't been used to its full potential. If the person on the other side of the deal failed to meet the requirement, Azul could take even more from them without suffering any loss. 

And so he sugarcoated and exaggerated his words, put up the most professional smile he could manage. For a few weeks all was well. He'd gained himself a melodious voice, splendid flexibility and a ton of unique magics, but nothing great ever lasted. He was soon exposed as a scammer and his notoriety was whispered among the streets, passed on and on until every family warned their kids not to ever run into him. And Azul, with his fame and prosperity wilting under the gossip and points of fingers, was forced into giving up his success.

He had been in hiding ever since.

He could never understand how something as atrocious could happen to him. If it hadn't been for the sneers and isolation in the entirety of his childhood, he wouldn't have grown up hating everything and everyone around him that called him ugly, unwanted, repulsive. It should've justified his desire for revenge.

Instead, God decided that his suffering was not anywhere close to enough and kicked him down the cliff where he was crying for help.

That being said, Azul was grateful to have Jade and Leech sticking around after everything. The two of them were also unpopular among others, so they eventually got close as a tight-knitted trio.

"No you didn't," Jade said firmly. 

"I did, Jade. I did," Azul sighed, "They were dying, Jade, I couldn't just let them die,"

"Well, you should've."

"Don't be so uptight. Azul was doing the right thing, wasn't he?" Floyd winked. "So. Were they good-looking?"

"What?"

"The human. You must've saved them for a reason,"

Azul hated how Floyd's words implied that he would never do good unless there was something in it for him, but one could never lie in the face of truth. 

"I just didn't want to let them die. It was their birthday,"

"What does that have to do with everything?" Jade asked. "You went above the water. You saved a human. You were almost caught. You could've died up there, you know. How did you even manage to breathe?"

"I just… did." Azul said, twirling his tentacles in nervousness. Jade was entirely disapproving of his actions, while Floyd on the contrary seemed to be mildly intrigued. 

Everything still felt like a fever dream. All the fireworks and cheering and explosion were still vividly scorched into his mind as if they'd been put on repeat. The splendid colors, light giggles and- 

And those beautiful eyes of yours. The way your hair flowed in the night sky with ease, how you laughed like tomorrow was promised and your life had been planned out before you, a clear and untainted path to success. Azul couldn't decide on whether he was jealous or amazed.

"Well, you better hope they didn't really see you, or that they forgot about it. If the humans come down here to hunt us down-" Jade couldn't even bear to finish the imagination. He simply shook his head in dismay.

"I swear I saw someone! I couldn't have just been washed ashore!"

"Apparently, you were," Jack said, stroding with large steps that had you panting to keep up. "Near-death experiences do things to our mind, your majesty,"

"That may be the case for others, but I'm sure I was conscious," you retorted. "I woke up to a pair of pale, azure eyes, then in a blink they were behind the rock. If it hadn't been for you-"

"I apologize for worrying about you, your majesty."

You bit your tongue. Fighting with Jack always ended with him being passive-aggressive and you stepping back reluctantly. Plus he was as stern as a rock. Almost nothing could move his belief.

Shouting and grunting could be heard from inside the medical room where Ace, Deuce and Grim were being tended to.

Jack flung open the door, and the three stumbled to get into the blankets and put on a excruciated expression.

"I see you're all healed up," Jack said. Ace hummed lowly and slapped his forehead with the back of his hand. 

"I'm at death's door, commander. It pains me to say this, but I might need to take more days off,"

Jack was quiet for a while, and you could almost see a drop of sweat sliding down Ace's forehead.

"And you, Deuce?" Jack challenged.

"I'm traumatized," 

"And Grim?"

You arched your brow, at which he shivered in fear. "I- I'm feeling fine already,"

"So it's just Ace and Deuce, right?" Jack said. Ace and Deuce nodded their heads so hard they could fall off.

"Alright. Your health is of utmost importance to us, so I'll contact the Raven Healer…"

"The what?!" Deuce's voice croaked.

"The Raven Healer. Surely you've heard of him. He's best known for being able to treat any diseases, both mentally and physically,"

You were sure there were sweats rolling down Ace's cheeks now. "But- but doesn't he heal by using bizzare mediciness…?"

"Oh yes. His magic is what makes him such an infallible doctor. You two seem to be in a lot of pain. I'm sure he'll free you of your suffering."

You turned sharply towards the door and stifled a laughter. 

"That's… not very necessary…" Deuce's voice faltered word by word. He was fully aware that he'd already lost. "You know what, commander? I think I can dive back into work right this instant!"

Jack smirked smugly. "Splendid. And you, Ace?"

The two of them stared at each other so intensely there seemed to be sparkles between them. Finally, Ace gave in. "I'll start work tomorrow,"

They didn't even wait for Jack to walk completely out of the door to whine. They looked fully healthy, even more energized than you.

"Anyways, did you find your saviour?"

You sighed. Ace and Deuce were still skeptical about your 'story', which you'd corrected to 'experience', but at least they were open-minded. 

"No clues. I've had guards patrolling about every two hours. Nothing has yet to happen,"

They eyed each other uneasily, then back at you with a worried face. Before they could make assumptions, you defended yourself. "No, I'm not sick. My head's not concussed,"

"Well," Grim scurried to your lap. "Perhaps your saviour doesn't wish to be found?"

That'd be unwanted. You would wish for anything but to create troubles for your lifesaver. Nonetheless, you knew you wouldn't be able to sleep without sending your gratitude. 

Alright, there might be a selfish motif. You were admittedly curious about those light, pensive eyes and silvery, gleaming hair under sunlight. All these unknown were like a gravity pool, pulling you deeper and deeper into the mystery.

"Well, you ought not to lose hope," Ace patted your shoulder casually, like you weren't the princette of the kingdom he was serving for. "Maybe you'll actually run into him. Fate has a weird habit for setting unexpected traps."

It wasn't so much love as a tender curiosity, but the line segregating them was so flimsy that one's got to mix them up at some point.

Azul found himself in such a dilemma. He couldn't decide whether it was attraction or nosiness that he was feeling. Either way, it's got him hooked like a drug. Something beautiful had finally entered his life like light piercing through a thick fog of ink, and it was possessive. Azul had a feeling that it wouldn't go away until it had drained him of his mind.

The door to his room was thrown open and Azul had to hide the peeled petals and green stem in a jumble. He had been chanting 'they love me, they love me not' for the past hour. To his luck, Jade and Leech didn't seem to have noticed his haste expression. They were both panting when they swam inside.

"What's wrong?" Azul's first instinct was that something had gone south.

"There-" Floyd wheezed. "There's a sta-"

"There's a fallen statue in the Coral Maze," Jade finished the sentence. "People are fussing over it,"

"Okay," Azul eased back into his bed. He'd already lost interest at 'Coral Maze'. It was at the centre of where the majority of sea creatures inhabited. Nothing could make him go anywhere near civilization and its hubristic aesthetic again.

Or so he thought.

"No- you don't get it. It's a statue of a human that sank along with wreckages of a big ship, and it's made of gold,"

A statue made of gold.

He recalled it now. It was supposed to be your birthday present. The consternation of what followed the present revelation had been so intense that it'd washed the memory of the statue out.

"We just thought that it could be the statue you mentioned in your story, you know? It looked really grand…" Floyd sighed.

Azul wanted to get up and swim over right there, right then, but he knew he couldn't. What would others say to him the moment they saw the shadows of their tentacles crawling on their pure and oh-so royal ground? What accusations would they throw his way? How many children will be led away from him like he was some man-eating, brutal abomination?

Not to mention the unforgiving rage he'd evoked in trying to scam them in the past. Dishonesty was highly criticised in their high-class society. It was as if they were saints that had never done one thing wrong. Bet they'd never even stayed up past midnight.

"You ought to come take a look!" Floyd suggested. A casual, friendly proposal.

"No," Azul snapped. "No, no. I'm not going there,"

"They're planning to use the gold," Jade said. "You know how they are. They see one thing from the ground and start screeching in pain,"

They were going to use your statue. The statue that was perhaps the only thing that was related to you, the one way to never have to forget about you again in case that you never met again.

And to imagine the effect it'd add to his collections! A big gold statue in the centre of his grotto, accentuated by the sparkling of other jewelries. It'd be complete.

"I'll sit on it," Azul decided. He was not to act rashly, lest he walked one step wrong and brought upon himself misery and misfortune. If he really was to pay a visit, he would act in secret. Perhaps in the veil of the night. 

"Just don't act alone, okay?" Jade said. Azul nodded despite not paying any mind to him.

In the dead of the night Azul decided to sneak out. Alone. It was a mistake, really. Azul couldn't stop thinking about your statue, and by the time he realized how absurd it was, he'd already gone to the Coral Maze.

There was nary a shadow except his own. Still, it was much lighter than where he lived even at night. The distorted image of the moon waved from above as Azul made his way through the many identical corals. Then he finally found your majestic statue standing solemnly in the centre. The only beauty in the water.

It was a sight for sore eyes. White, pure light reflected off the gold and created streams of gleams onto the ground. That someone would ever find it to be disgraceful was incomprehensible to Azul. Something like this deserved to be put on display in the museum for all to see.

There was no radiance on your face and no splendid colors in your eyes. It was merely a fraction of what you were. Nonetheless, it was enough for Azul.

"Who's roaming there?" an alerted voice asked. When Azul turned, he saw a silhouette looming from outside the Coral Maze, holding two anglerfishes in hands and waving them in the water.

Panic was the only thing Azul felt as he hid behind the statue, struggling to keep his tentacles out of sight. The light stayed right in front of him for a while before skimming away.

Azul grabbed the statue and swam, pushing his tentacles through the water as hard as he could. 

"Wait there- oh goodness!" 

There were several voices now, mumbling and inquiring. Then light was casted upon his flitting figure and there were bemused gasps before someone yelled, "Seize him!"

Azul was out of breath. He wished he excelled in fitness but instead he was stuck with incongruous tentacles that would never cooperate at the most needed times.

A hand grasped the end of his tentacle but slipped off. He kept the statue tight in his arms, as if his life depended on it. He could tell that they were near now, and was trying very hard not to imagine the gruesome outcomes.

Someone grabbed his tentacles. He faltered and was pulled back despite protests.

"Keep him in place!" another person yelled as the crowd moved to keep Azul fenced in.

Azul couldn't see anything. Everything was a poor mixture of shadow and distaste and sneers. He was probably going to die right there.

"I can't believe you have the guts to come back, Ashengrotto. After all the things you've done!" someone spoke up.

"Yeah! How shameless of you!”

"And he's stealing our properties now! Imagine how desperate he is,"

"You guys don't even want it!" Azul said.

Some guy lurched forward. Azul cowered backwards.

"It's disgusting, yes, but it's still gold." he said as if it was a completely just thing to do. "It landed on our ground, so it belongs to us. On the contrary, you don't have the rights to lay your filthy hands on it. What more do you want to steal from us?"

"I'm taking this because none of you understand the beauty of it!"

This evoked a negative reaction from the crowd, but words could never be taken back. Azul could feel his heart pounding like a prisoner hellbent on escaping. He had to escape. No more of this degrading gazes. No more of the points of fingers.

"Beauty?" the guy scoffed, and for a moment his face scrunched up and he was ready to spit out rage, but then it softened into a smug smirk. "I guess only ugly understands ugly, huh?"

Azul's head throbbed.

"It doesn't justify your actions, ink-blasting thief. Hand that piece of trash over right- uff!"

He was flung deep into the water until he disappeared into nothing but a black dot. People around Azul immediately made way as they fled in screams and wails. His tentacle was still tingling with the impact, but he couldn't quite feel it. Even if he did, he couldn't care less as he skyrocketed to the surface of the water. He blinked and blinked, but his eyes were still blurred by what would be mixed into the seawater eventually. 

He'd had enough. Heard enough, seen enough. If he'd spent one more second down there he would have suffocated to death.

The familiar freshness of air welcomed him the moment he broke through the water's persistence. The land wasn't far ahead. He swam towards it as if it was his sanctuary. 

There was a man sitting on the rock, face hidden under the hood. Azul considered retreating. He had no idea what would happen to him if he was spotted, but nothing better would happen if he were to go back. So he continued swimming and crawled onto the cool soft sand, only letting his head be seen by the man as he hid behind yet another rock where he placed the much valued statue.

He seemed to be asleep, chest heaving up and down at a steady pace. Just as Azul started sliding out, the man raised his head and looked straight at Azul.

They were a pair of humming, white circles, seemingly void of any sentiments. The man had a mask on that shielded his face except for his tightly shut lips. Two crows were staring right at him with the same uncanny manner.

"You've finally arrived," the man said.

Probably the humans had been searching for him. Azul decided to keep his mouth shut.

"I've been hearing your calls…" he tilted his head. "You can come out. I know what you are,"

Azul still hesitated. But he was much closer to the ocean than to the guy, so he slowly let his tentacles into light.

The man remained calm, not a bit taken back by the revelation.

"Well, I've been hearing your calls…" he resumed.

"I never called out to any humans,"

"Not literally. But you have been calling out a lot," he smiled amiably. "You have to know that it's especially hard for me to hear from creatures undersea, so if your wishes managed to reach me, it means you're pretty desperate,"

"I think you have the wrong person," Azul said and started retreating.

The guy sprang up and his crows curled up together beside him. "Wait- I should introduce myself first. I'm the Raven Healer,"

Azul pondered for a while. "That doesn't explain anything except for the crows,"

"You lots haven't heard of me?" he frowned so deep that his brows and eyes were a cluster. "You guys are really secluded,"

That was when Azul finally realized that he knew about them. About all the lives and creatures that inhabited the deep sea.

"And I mean no harm to your realm. My only target is you," he smiled again, this time at an ominous angle.

"Well, I'm quite famous in this realm. I heal people for a living, whether it be physical or emotional needs. Anything you need, I can grant you,"

That's not very different from Azul's magic. 

"Sometimes, when someone is really desperate for a change, their thoughts can be heard by my crows. And you, Azul Ashengrotto…" his smile dropped a bit and his eyes drooped. "is particularly distressed,"

"Alright. It was nice meeting you," Azul nodded respectfully. The man didn't seem to be harmful. If he fled right now, he could probably throw him off.

The Raven Healer stilled, then burst into piles of blatant laughter. "No, no. I've been looking for you, don't you get it? I'm here to grant your wish!"

I'm here to grant your wish. Like how Azul'd promoted his business as the Sea Merchant.

"I understand that you've been suffering quite a lot, and that you want a change. But nothing ever comes without a cost… I'm sure you can understand,"

The healer stood up, the material of his greatcoat fluttering in the wind. He made his way freely to Azul, who could only freeze up as he inspected the statue with great interest.

"The heir to the throne! I see why you're desperate now. They're a real catch," the healer then looked down at the outstretched tentacles without a word. Azul prayed in his mind that he would turn away from them.

"Well, here are my terms. I will grant you a pair of legs in exchange for your magic,"

Wait, what?

Azul was pretty sure the Raven Healer was just imitating him now. A great figure appearing out of the blue to answer your hopes. The catch was that the figure would always take away your most important thing. It was never a fair deal, Azul was aware.

"I don't think you need my magic," Azul breathed.

"Why, I do!" he exclaimed. "Collecting magic is a splendid hobby of mine! It is because of all these magic that I am such a renowned magician,"

He was obviously lying. His smile couldn't reach his eyes, and the orbs where his eyes were supposed to be were humming like a hazard label.

"I think I'll be just fine," Azul hurriedly brought the statue to his chest and started sliding away.

"...How are you going to survive?"

"What?" Azul swiveled, exhausted.

"Up here. With your…" the healer wiggled his fingers.

"I'll find a way,"

"No you won't," the healer protested. Azul looked up to the sky, took a deep breath and decided to entertain him. 

"Why so?"

"You're gonna cause ruckus. Chaos. People are not especially used to seeing half-man half-octopuses roaming their land," he said honestly. 

Despite knowing all this, Azul still considered his word rude. There was a thin line between blunt and disrespectful, and he'd just crossed it. 

"There won't be anyone dealing with you, will there?"

"...I suppose not-"

"Exactly! I am your only hope!" he exclaimed once again, throwing his hands up in the air like a dramatist. "Unless you want to go back?"

Azul glanced at the serene water. He knew that down there, the mermaids and mermen must be panicking over what'd just happened.

"You can't hold onto that statue forever. If you really wish to stay here-"

"I just came, Mr. Healer. I'm not going to stay,"

"Yet. Come on now," he groaned, as if he was the one exasperated. "I know you want it. You need it. So what are you waiting for? You're never going to see all the beauties in this world in this state!"

He was right. Agonizingly right. He couldn't just walk around as an octopus. It would be like a stain on a quaint painting. Moreover, now that he was here, he couldn't just give up the chance to find you again. It's not like the ocean would welcome him anyways.

As if hearing his thoughts, the Raven Healer reached his hand out, "Deal? Your magic for a pair of legs. It's a fantastic trade if you think about it,"

One second. Two second. Azul didn't wait until the third to act on it. The moment their skin touched, Azul felt a stream of warmth coursing through him, rushing to his throat, where he choked up a luminous blue orb. It was within the healer's fingers within seconds.

"And your legs," he rummaged inside his pocket. There seemed to be numerous tiny objects inside as he dug around. Finally, he pulled up a thumb-size bottle and handed it to Azul.

He downed the slimy liquid inside under the healer's encouraging nods, and almost gagged at the sensation. "Guh! What the hell is-"

His tentacles started glowing a bright yellow, bright enough to attract people in this dead of the night. They started to shrink until they completely disappeared, and a pair of human legs replaced them.

He couldn't believe his eyes as he stretched around and surveyed the changes on his body. It took him quite some time to adjust to it, but he was surprisingly good at it. The fabric of the pants that came with the gift fluttered against his 'flesh' like a mother's caress. He felt normal, for once. Not some ugly monster that preyed on innocent kids. Not a marginalized criminal. Not even a wicked fraud. He was just a human wanting to explore the world.

"Three days," the Raven Healer said.

"What?" Azul was too joyous to pay real mind.

"If you can't find the most beautiful thing after three days, you will dissolve into sea bubbles,"

Azul stilled as he comprehended his words, then he started to chant no in his mind. He'd fallen for his trap.

"You didn't mention it at all!" Azul yelled. "Refund! You're scamming me!"

"The pot's calling the kettle black now. How comical," the healer giggled. Azul's heart dropped to the bottom.

"Consider this your own medicine. It's not like you're completely at loss over here!"

"Wait!" Azul reached out to grasp his fainting figure, which had become an opaque vision. 

"We shall reunite in three days. Until then, enjoy."

All that was left was the crashing of the waves and songs of the crickets. Bathed in the glow of the moon, Azul finally came to the conclusion that he'd fucked up.

Life never stopped to give him a break. There were haste footsteps nearing from behind. Azul instinctively retracted his tentacles, but forgot about their absence and tripped instead.

"Yikes! That was a nasty fall. Are you okay?" 

Looking up, two formally looking men were standing above him, one with crimson hair and another navy. There was a sword attached to each of their sides.

"Yeah. I-I'm fine," Azul cleared his throat and stood up.

"Are you homeless?" The redhead asked and was immediately hit by his companion.

"You can't go around asking people whether they are homeless!" he scolded, then turned to Azul brightly. "You must be in search of shelter! Please follow us!"

"That isn't any better," 

"Shut up," the blue-haired snapped with the same polite smile. "Come on, Mr…?"

"A-Azul. Azul Ashengrotto,"

"Yes, Mr. Ashengrotto. We can't have you catching a cold out here,"

Despite his friendly facade, Azul could see underlying motives lurking beneath. But clueless that he was, he didn't have a choice but to follow suit towards the castle-like building in the far distance.

"Your majesty will be pleased to see you," the redhead murmured, but Azul couldn't quite catch that.

"What was that?" he asked.

"It's nothing," was all that he received. "Just that you'll surely love the place."

Conclusion : Azul had once gone around scamming others with his unique magic but was busted and had been further criticised since. The Raven Healer is obviously Crowley, and his magic will be further explained in next chapter.

[mertonpride]

I have no idea why I suddenly wanted to post my monthly book post on here, but...well, let's try this because I don't really want to use Instagram anymore. ^^

Sherlock Holmes jagt das schwarze Phantom

No idea why this series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches got marketed as children's books – they don't strike me as especially written for children? I liked this series, but this last volume I still had to read kinda let me down. The culprit's identity was pretty obvious, so Holmes didn't have to do that much deduction work, actually. Still an entertaining read and by no means bad.

Satans Fluch

Another series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. While I really enjoy them, the quality sometimes isn't the best and rather reminds me of some kind of penny dreadful. But like I said, there's is a certain enjoyment in reading those stories because they at least get the atmosphere of the original Holmes stories right. So I don't mind the varying quality of the actual criminal cases too much.

In tiefen Wäldern Träumen lauschen vol. 1

There aren't many Chinese comics/manhua available on the German market, so I got curious about this one. And it's absolutely amazing. I love the detailed art, and the way the story is told just sucked me in. I want to know what happens next to the Princess and her new husband...and also what's the deal with the mysterious storyteller with a monkey mask. I need the next volume. Can't afford it right now though :/

Murcielago vol. 12-13

One of my guilty pleasure series, honestly...or rather, that's what I said when I started reading the first few volumes. But by now I genuinely came to love it and it's one of the few series of which I'm usually preordering the latest volumes. I enjoyed those volumes and the conclusion of the last story arc. The new arc seems promising too, so I'm looking forward to the next volume.

Wandering Island vol.2

I absolutely love this manga series. Sadly there aren't any more volumes than the first two and I couldn't find any information about a possible third volume. I sure hope there'll be another volume though, because the story ended on a cliffhanger. Anyway, I loved how especially volume two had very few speech bubbles and still told so much of a story.

Dragon Ball vol. 1-3

I read all volumes of Dragon Ball years ago, but now I felt like reading the story from the very beginning again (probably because of nostalgia? I really couldn't say). I think the first few chapters were my favourite part of the story anyway, so I'm not sure whether I'll continue reading anytime soon. Maybe if I need a bit of light entertainment, who knows.

Mai Ball! vol. 1

Didn't read a sports manga in ages, so why not try a series about a women's football team? Though there's quite a bit of fanservice in this one, which I personally wouldn't have needed, but fine. They didn't play much football in this first volume, but I'm interested in some of the characters, so I'll probably keep reading.

In/Spectre vol. 1-3

Original title: Kyokou Suiri. I LOVED the anime adaption, so I just had to start reading the manga adaption at some point too. I really like the drawing style, and I still enjoy the first story arc about a urban myth brought to life by people on the internet believing in its existence. Quite thought-provoking, actually. Well, I still need to catch up on some more volumes, but I sure hope the German publisher didn't drop the series though, we didn't get a new volume in months and there's literally no information :/

[atxxzist]

If smut is well-written and justified I'm totally into it (unless... I'm not for other reasons), but especially in ETL stories, you have to be careful. Seonghwa and Y/N were already on thin ice, sex would complicate things even more, obviously you could've used it as a plot device, but ultimately I'm glad you didn't.

It makes sense, they're from different worlds for sure, but they're not Romeo & Juliet, so I think they can do it, haha. Also, the opposites certainly attract in their case, after all Hongjoong felt too safe for Y/N and their chemistry just wasn't really there, I'm glad they remained friends though!

I would like to see more of their shenanigans back in university. Is Seonghwa gonna sit next to her? Is she gonna like it? 👀

I've never read any of your stories except Blacklist and I rarely read for other members than Seonghwa - I used to read for San at first - but I'm curious to see more of your writing, which story of yours is your favourite?

Oh, sure can I be 🦔 or 🥦 if they're available - you can choose which one, I don't mind either way!

exactly. which is why i mulled over a smut scene for the longest time, even when it didn't happen in chap 8, i initially said there'll be one for the final chapter just bc i felt something needed to happen between them before i could rlly put a closing to the story once and 4 all. but it's also the eventual realization that they don't need one. and im glad i stuck with that choice; i think it was the right one since they still have so many things to work on.

and u right 😂 after all, with how seonghwa's character is, i believe he will do whatever he want anyways lmao (for the right reasons this time). and yes hongjoong. im glad u brought him up. i wanted to give a dynamic between him and y/n where they really would just b better off as friends. ofc, they got a lot of love for one another, but they also idealized/romanticized the other person in the same way u would look up to an idol, y'know? but with seonghwa, y/n already knows his flaws, his lows, and how stupid he can rlly be; which is what makes their moments all more special when she does like something about him. but with hongjoong, she would have a harder time processing that he's not this dream guy she built in her head. idk if that makes any sense 😭

as for what happens to them post-final chapter, it really is up to the readers' imagination unfortunately. i havent really thought too much about it, but somewhat, somehow, we can say they are endgame <3

as for my other works, i cannot confidently recommend any already existing completed piece bc i am embarrassed about all of them to an extent lmaooo (i am still kind of a new writer to atinyblr). but u will see that i mainly write for San bc he is my bias <3 the only other series i have besides blacklist, is one I wrote for him called push&pull but the outcome of that fic is kinda shitty and i would steer clear. BUT I do have a new series coming out, call Broken though it is for San. Just posted the masterlist for it yesterday, not too long after finishing up blacklist. that would be the only one i'd say u keep your eyes on just if u want to stick around. i've yet to write for it, which is why i hope that when i do, it will turn out okay. i am kind of a fuckboy/badboy lover lmaoooo... u will see that very quick.

and I like 🦔 hehe. it's cute. so thank you again for talking to me, miss 🦔. ur efforts r greatly appreciated. but no pressure! 💖 i also try to keep the response as short as possible, but they always end up being essay-length, im sorry 😭