#especially with some of the information we get from the short stories LOL

[fatedroses]

So I’m a new follower and I’ve been going through your adventurer zenos tag because I’m loving the idea a lot! But I don’t really know the history behind it. I’d love to know how you started thinking about it and would love to know how Xenia’s relationships with the WOL and the scions developed if you don’t mind me asking? Again im loving your art a lot!!!

First of all thank you for the follow and the ask, anon, and I'm always so happy to hear people are enjoying my art, and my goofy bits of theorycrafting, headcanoning and/or story writing- how ever people want to see it as. BUT- this has also unironically been stuck in my brain since the end of EW:6.0 (I was stuck with the zenos brainrot the moment I saw him at the end of heavensward v-v), and also because among my friend group Zenos is adored, so we end up chatting about this kind of stuff a lot. So, it is time for me to now yap here, beware some spoilers for both Endwalker and DT, and a very long post:

To be honest, the reason I ever even started thinking about it was just seeing Zenos' capacity to change as a character and him unintentionally helping people by just existing in some cases (the scene with Alisaie in Garlemald and the fact that he went to Krile for help so he could help us- reason aside- comes to mind mainly in regards to him changing, even if there are tidbits a bit earlier as well). And, that him imposing his help upon the WoL and the Scions is what I personally consider the most likely course (and I simply sit here and cope lmao I also just really want a minion of him eventually) if he was to return from the Ultimatum. 6.2-6.5 also added to it with both the mentions of him from Zero, the flashback of him over the handshake, and that I personally also saw Durante and Golbez's relationship as an analogy to Zenos and WoL (not helped by the fact that in EN Durante/the knight in black speaks in Zenos' cadence and uses the same armored talking animations but that's more on the meta side of it). I spent a lot of the time I put aside for character research being fascinated by his psychology and how he could grow, even if I will admit by now that what I have as his baseline is a bit of a house of cards, especially in things like his interests, or later potential interests. I base a lot of them off of the concept that he takes after Solus/Emet-Selch far more than is actually narratively stated or even implied, or from filling in the gaps of information with the possibility that implied information was not intentional/meant to be used in the way I use it. For example Varis exiling the theater ship was to get rid of something Emet cherished and for the sake of his own narrative, but something Zenos may have showed interest in too, only based off of how similar the theatrics Emet and Zenos use.

-

Now, as for his relationships, especially with the WoL (Meteor, default man in my case, its mainly because I ADORE the challenge and the experience of what we have as WoL's baseline due to, you know, the constraint of this being a linear narrative mmo lmao, as well as trying my best to stay canon compliant as possible when it comes to the scions' interactions) I write as starting off being exceptionally one sided. It comes from the idea that Zenos either gets himself out of the bubble (because it seems to be implied that this man cant actually return to the lifestream, and therefore can't perma-die, ironic to his character motivations) or with DT, shit goes so far south that we have to use the interdimensional chalice for his help, and that either way they're just kind of stuck with him thereafter. But I'll break it down because it's something that I've worked on writing, but haven't had the chance to draw out quite yet for some of what I'll talk about.

Meteor: It is no surprise that after the Telopheroi towers and Garlemald, on top of what happens during In From the Cold and the moon- that WoL goes from their more neutral, rivalry-leaning stance on Zenos, to pure anger and/or hatred. And this lets me write the dynamic between the two that is Meteor trying to move forward, trying to accept this change seeing Zenos try to help, and Zenos trying to pull away knowing at his core that he boned himself over ruining whatever unspoken trust they had, and given his position, not knowing if something like that could ever be mended, (and not quite knowing how to cope with even the idea that the man he cares so deeply about and kinda looks up to, might detest him just like how Varis did.) Overall it also just comes from the idea that these two overcoming any of their hurdles with each other suddenly makes them into the most terrifying duo, especially since I write Adventurer Zenos as a tank that will just eat all the damage so Meteor can be a stupid little shit with all the sharp objects he has at his disposal.

The Scions: So, imagine this giant super soldier is suddenly alive and in front of you again, offering to help/to learn to adventure for the plan of trying to see joy in this world. And you, knowing that he is right now the world's enemy, the one pinned with everything that happened during the final days, understand that it is highly unlikely that you or the others could reasonably kill him or imprison him for any meaningful amount of time. BUT, you can try to guide him on a better path. Begrudgingly, so that all that shit never happens again. That is what I have the scions stuck with, starting with the twins, then estinien and the students, and finally the wine trio. He doesn't apologize for anything, but he does also do whatever you ask, and overtime he starts (oh no) taking the same liking to the others that started with Meteor. The Scions are who I primarily use to explore the facets we've seen of his character, his protectiveness and the "rivalry" I write between him and Thancred, his curiosity and working alongside the Students and Urianger and Y'shtola, exploration and trying to understand the world better with Estinien, and him learning to connect with others through the twins, especially Alisaie who I imagine him kind of latching on to after she "helped" him, in his eyes.

All and all, adventurer zenos at its core is just what I personally see as his natural character progression going forward, spawned purely from my own curiosity of seeing his archetype of character in the position of having one last chance, and based off very extensive character research that started, honest to god, from me trying to just figure out the scenarios I wanted to draw him in that spiraled very very out of control lmao.

[xxsycamore]

🔞IKEMEN BREEDING SEASON🔞 - XXSYCAMORE'S 2000 FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION EVENT

On October 28th, 2024, this blog hit 2K followers! Once again, thank you, everyone, for the support, and for sticking around in my writing adventures. I hope you can continue enjoying my work! Now, our previous milestone celebrations were all about fluffy short stories, so I figured it's high time we bring some smut into the mix. Even though spring would have been perfect for the Ikemen Breeding Season, I decided, why wait when we can have it now. Besides, that time is reserved for part 2 of our Steal My Heart!! (1500 followers) event! If you have placed a request for it and haven't received a ficlet yet, don't worry, I haven't deleted anything! :)

➺ PROMPTS

How do you want the suitor to breed you (or the MC)? :

In the heat of the moment

As proof that you belong to them

To produce an heir

With a chance for twins

While imagining you being pregnant

Making sure that it takes

Making the moment special

When they'd already gotten you pregnant before

With you taking the lead

While you're in heat (Omegaverse)

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ 2 separate request openings - Since in the past there have been times when everything has been grabbed in the first 10 minutes from the announcement, I decided it would only be fair for the people in different time zones if I divide it into two batches at different times of the day.

FIRST REQUEST OPENING WILL HAPPEN ON OCTOBER 30TH, 12 PM UTC (8 AM EDT) (or click here to see it converted to your time zone)

SECOND REQUEST OPENING WILL HAPPEN ON OCTOBER 31TH, 12 AM UTC (8 PM EDT on the 30th) (or click here to see it converted to your time zone)

Both request openings will be closed after I get a total of 15 requests each! I will make separate posts to announce when those start and close.

➺ RULES:

Understand that these are going to be short NSFW stories, around 500 words each.

Anonymous asks are allowed, but please don't abuse my kindness and don't request if you're a minor!

Pick a character from the list below and a prompt from the prompt list. Threesomes are allowed, so long as no one is related, lol.

Be sure to let me know if you want MC x Suitor(s) or Reader x Suitor(s). If you don't specify, I'll write it as I see fit!

Specify your gender preferences if you have any! If you selected "Reader", I'll by default write them with afab traits. This goes especially for the prompt "Imagining you pregnant" where you could encounter terms including but not limited to: breasts, lactation, love handles, vagina, ovulation, womb, ovaries, pregnant bellies, you get the picture. To bypass all of this, you can ask for a Gender Neutral Reader, or you can be more specific and tell me your preferences in detail.

Mpreg is welcome, sure, why not. This goes both for Male Readers and for Getting your suitor pregnant, like in the case where you picked the Omegaverse prompt and he's an Omega. Go wild.

OCs are NOT allowed, due to how short these stories are going to be versus the research required in order to do justice to your OC. Sorry!

Don't send multiple requests! One per person. Again, I'm put my trust in you about not abusing the anon option.

In the event where I've already received the same prompt with the same character, I'll only write it once!

Don't hesitate to give me details! :) I want to create a work specially crafted for you. If you have a whole scenario in mind, I'd love to hear it, even if I have to squeeze it in the word limit. Where are they doing it, what is the reader wearing, what petname the suitor uses - these are just a few examples! Additionally, since I haven't read all the routes of the characters listed here, if you feel it's needed, you can provide some in-game information about the character if it has a relation to topic. Ex: "I think he'll make a great family man because he canonly loves taking care of the younger ones."

Requests sent outside of the specified time periods won't be accepted. I try to immediately answer these so you'll know, but I might also straight-up delete anything that doesn't follow the rules.

➺ AVAILABLE CHARACTERS:

Ikemen Villains: Wiliam; Harrison; Liam; Elbert; Alfons; Roger; Jude; Ellis; Victor; Darius; Nica; Ring

Ikemen Prince: Leon; Chevalier; Yves; Nokto; Licht; Jin; Luke; Clavis; Rio; Sariel; Gilbert; Keith; Silvio, Cyran/Cyril, Matthias, Kagari

Ikemen Vampire: Napoleon(pls); Leonardo; Mozart; Arthur; Vincent; Theo; Isaac; Jean; Dazai; Sebastian; Comte; Shakespeare; Vlad; Faust; Charles; Drake; Galileo

Ikemen Revolution: Lancelot; Ray; Jonah; Fenrir; Edgar; Sirius; Kyle; Luka; Zero; Seth; Blanc; Oliver; Loki; Harr; Mousse; Dalim; Dean; Levie

Ikemen Sengoku: Nobunaga; Masamune; Shingen; Hideyoshi; Mitsuhide; Kanetsugu; Ieyasu; Mitsunari; Yukimura; Sasuke; Kenshin; Kenyo; Ranmaru; Motonari; Keiji; Kicho; Yoshimoto

Midnight Cinderella: Alyn; Giles; Louis; Leo; Byron; Nico; Albert; Robert; Rayvis; Sid

‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚. 𐦍༘⋆

Please understand that I can't guarantee that I'm going to write all of these! I have a lot of issues IRL that I need to take care of, which leads me to either not having a lot of free time or not having the needed energy and inspiration to write. Either way, I hope you can have fun with this event! I can't wait to see what you send me. Have a great day, and I'll see you in my askbox soon! <3

[cheekinpermission]

I wanna talk about the scene in the museum with Azul...

(SPOILERS FOR BOOK 3 AHEAD. ALSO LOTS OF RAMBLING! :D)

During Ch. 38 of Book 3, Azul and Yuu have a short conversation post-overblot in the underwater museum place. I always felt that this bit of dialogue was weirdly charged? The whole scene felt very intimate to me (and the soft music in the background doesn't help lmao), but I never knew WHY since nothing said was inherently romantic.

So, I went back and re-read through every post-overblot and realized that Azul is the only who who has a one-on-one conversation with Yuu after their overblot??

It's rare enough to have one-on-one conversations between Yuu and another character, but then Azul goes a step further. He's the only one to open up to Yuu about his problems:

Some of the other overblot boys talk about their problems, but not to Yuu specifically. It's more of a declaration than confiding in someone, you know? (E.g. Riddle talking about how he prefers milk tea even though the rules stipulate lemon tea)

We, the players, are shown flashbacks of the overblot boys to explain how they reached this point but I can't recall if Yuu is privy to this information as well. (It's theoretically possible since Yuu already has visions / dreams of the Great Seven, but no one ever mentions it so who knows. I'm personally on the side of Yuu NOT knowing because it feels a bit invasive that they'd have this knowledge of people who weren't ready to share it.)

Regardless of whether Yuu can or cannot see those flashbacks, Azul is the only one to willingly talk about his motivations to Yuu. For Azul, this is especially important as he's so protective of his image as a clever and upstanding housewarden, and yet here he openly admits to Yuu that he was a bit of a loser as a kid (his words not mine!).

I guess you could argue that he felt there was no reason to hide it anymore since Yuu already saw him as a chubby octopus baby, but he didn't have to talk about it at all if he didn't want to. But he did. On his own. With no prompting. (Really, though. Yuu can either say they want to make sure he puts the photo back or that they're worried about him, and either way he drops his lore on them lol) And then Yuu tries to help him feel better??

To my knowledge, Yuu doesn't do this with any of the other overblot boys, either. I could have missed it during my research, but if they did it wasn't nearly to the same extent as with Azul.

I still don't know why Azul felt like opening up to Yuu. He didn't have to, but maybe he wanted to? Maybe he wanted to try his hand at being genuine for once and felt Yuu was the least intimidating person to do it with (the magicless human that they are). Who knows? I wish there were more scenes like this. It makes Yuu feel more included in the story. I also think it shows a lot of growth on Azul's end to open up about his problems to Yuu of his own volition.

I'm not sure what I wanted to say with this post, only that I wanted to get my thoughts out there about this scene because it always stood out to me. I felt there was always an undercurrent of something and I think it's because this was the only post-overblot private conversation we got with Yuu and an overblot boy, plus the added encouragement from Yuu at the end.

I'm curious to know if anyone felt the same way about this scene or if I'm just imagining things. I'm also interested in hearing any theories why Azul suddenly felt the urge to open up to Yuu, if you've got them!

Thanks for enduring my rambling!

Bonus!

Azul's so funny for trying to play it off all cool like he isn't doing flips and princess twirls in his head rn. Yuu laid it on THICK. We all know he's freaking out internally.

[larkspur-collective]

I did not want to do this, but... we really need a miracle.

We really need help relocating to WA!

Details are under the cut. This post mentions abuse, briefly touches on alcoholism, and discusses extreme poverty and unsanitary conditions. The short version is we need enough money for a plane ticket to Washington State, and fast.

We need help with our $300 plane ticket, some for food until we sort out foodstamps, & at least $100 to keep our phone on until we can find work.

We've been locked out of our GoFundMe account, and to be truthful I don't see one being very effective, so- our cashapp is $LarkspurWoods & our paypal is @KaiThePotatoChip [long story, don't ask lol]

Anything helps!

Goal progress: $0/600

Our Story

We are currently stuck off-grid in Missouri without a way out.

We moved out here to meet & stay with our dad, who is terminally ill, after being kicked out of our mom's in September. Turns out he's got next to nothing, we're all cramped in a single, disgusting RV [4 of us, not counting our aunt and uncle], and we've lost more than we've gained since being out here.

We were promised before our arrival that we would be able to earn an income out here, & have been unable to aside from just enough to pay our phone bill.

This inability to work has been due largely to all the vehicles our dad's family owns having broken down shortly after our arrival, as well as not having [& not being taught!] many useful skills for this lifestyle.

We don't have reliable internet or a way to seek remote work, either.

We haven't been able to do even basic things like take care of personal hygiene out here. We feel absolutely disgusting. We hate living this way.

We were supposed to get food stamps & our wisdom teeth out, but we can't...

Our father owes us money for the several weeks we have spent splitting wood for him, & has failed to deliver.

There is usually barely enough to eat, as well.

On top of all this, his sister and her husband are ignorant, bigoted, criminally violent alcoholics. They have near-daily instigated arguing and fighting since they arrived a day after we did.

Occasionally there are "good days." On one such day, November 25th, we ended up accidentally having an [attempted civil] discussion about intersex people and advanced biology in which we tried to inform them their worldview was outdated, got shut down, and then mentioned how we felt disrespected- they ended up heated and we walked away from them. they followed us, assaulted us, and their dog bit us 3 times on our ass, left arm, & face.

In addition, we have received multiple thinly veiled death threats when they're upset.

We called the sheriff, and they did nothing.

When our aunt and uncle are sober, they're not as volatile, although still incredibly emotionally abusive, prone to gaslighting, and manipulative.

We do not feel safe here, especially not as they have made it clear they have no intention of leaving anytime soon.

We have several friends and family members in the Oregon-Washington area, as well as a long-distance partner whom we've been dying to see for over a year. Our father promised to assist us with funding a trip to see them and, again, has failed to deliver.

We have been given explicit permission by several people, including our partner's family, that we have a place to stay out there, but we can't afford the plane ticket. after almost 2 months of working, we have only $50 to show for it.

We want desperately to see our partner for the holiday season and to escape our unsafe environment, and it feels like the entire world is against us right now.

We've spent weeks monitoring plane ticket prices, and the lowest is about ~$300 right now counting baggage fees.

We don't even have food money, let alone cash to get any gift for our s/o...

We've talked with a family member & they've offered to help us with getting a job as much as they can, but it's remote, and again we're off grid and don't always have gas to power the generator.

I am BEGGING anyone who has taken the time to read this to help us in some fashion.

We need help with our $300 plane ticket, some for food until we sort out foodstamps, & at least $100 to keep our phone on til we can work.

We can't promise much due to our shitty circumstances, but anything that we can do to assist or return the help we will do- we dabble with art, graphic design, music production, & video editing if people need help. We edit picrews and like making phone wallpapers as well. Just ask, and we'll try our best to do it.

This society has failed us severely. We want to make something more of ourself- we just really need some help.

Thank you to any and all for reading this, and we thank you even more if you decide to help.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I’m so sorry if this question is ignorant or stupid I really just want to understand so I can become educated. When someone is asexual would they still gain something from reading explicit fic scenes? Again sorry if I’m ignorant

Hey Nonny *HUGS*

SO SORRY it took so long to reply to this one... Kind of started and then it got forgotten, and I am sorry for that. No better time than Ace Awareness Week to help you understand!!

So, short answer to your question, is YES, SOME aces do, whether to facilitate in self-pleasure, or because seeing their faves happy, or as placeholders because some aces take pleasure-by-proxy, or a variety of other reasons, it just simply makes some of us happy. You'd be surprised how many of those smutty authors are actually ace themselves. It's one of those funny misconceptions that aces are all woobie-uwu-innocent-pure-thoughts-only magical creatures, and I'm here to shatter that illusion... Aces are some of the smuttiest-minded people you will ever meet. Why, I have no idea, maybe it's because we don't fantasize about sex the same way allos do that we can come up with increasingly hornier ideas? LOL No idea.

The thing about asexuality is that it's a HUGE spectrum, and no one ace is exactly the same. A sex-negative ace might get something out of reading smut because it's not involving them. Or they might not at all. Same with sex-positive/neutral aces. It's ALL a matter of what makes us tick.

BUT here's where I go into my LONG answer, and get you REALLY into the Ace Lore™.

I want to introduce you to the microlabel of Aegosexuality (formerly autochorisexuality), which is a term that loosely translates to "sexuality with oneself". The expanded definition, from the Sexuality Wiki, bolding is mine:

It is [...] a disconnect between oneself and a sexual target/object of arousal; may involve sexual fantasies or arousal in response to erotica or pornography, but lacks desire to be an actual participant in the sexual activities therein.

Aegosexuals are known to:

Become aroused by sexual content (at times) without wanting to personally engage in sexual activities.

Masturbate, but feel neutral or repulsed by the idea of having sex with another person.

Fantasize about sex (with varying frequency), but envision people other than themselves, and/or view it in third person, as if watching it on TV, instead of imagining it in the first person, through their own eyes.

Predominantly—or exclusively—fantasize about fictional characters or celebrities in place of people they know personally.

Identify as asexual, feeling little-to-no sexual attraction to people though enjoy masturbating (with varying frequency), are aroused by sexually explicit content, and/or fantasizing of such.

[/end quote]

====

Basically, smut turns them on, but some aces don't want to engage in the smut for-reals. This microlabel makes it ESPECIALLY confusing for newly-figured-out-aces because there hasn't been a lot of information about asexuality's huge spectrum until recently. Aegosexuals can initially believe that they AREN'T ace, BECAUSE they get turned on by porn or smutty stories, but then they're SUPER confused because the idea of having sex themselves is appalling or undesirable. It's a bizarre contradiction, understandably, to outsiders, but it makes COMPLETE sense once an ace figures this out, I promise you.

This is the microlabel I myself fall under. It's not from any trauma or past problems or medical issues. It's just me. That's it. And because of the confusion that this sexuality can bring, it often takes us a LOT longer to have ourselves figured out. For me, it was an accidental stumbling upon the "autochorisexual" label (before it became Aegosexual) and reading up on it that EVERYTHING fell into place. Before that, I thought I was maybe demisexual. After learning about it, I felt okay FINALLY calling myself ace, that I finally found the "right fit" for me. It was the piece of the puzzle that I was missing. I felt really liberated of my self-doubt after that.

And, of course, aros have their version as well called Aegoromantic, which is exactly the same but in a romantic sense.

Here are some more resources for Aegosexuality, if you'd like to learn more about this lesser-known branch on the spectrum:

What Does It Mean to Be Aegosexual? (Cosmopolitan US || November 24, 2022)

WHAT IS AEGOSEXUAL? MEANING, HISTORY, AND USAGE. (Gayety.co ||July 11, 2022)

History of Aegosexuality (The Michigan Gayly || February 1, 2021)

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TOO KNOW ABOUT AEGOSEXUALITY (Live Love LGBTQ+ Blog || October 27, 2017)

VIDEO: 5 Signs You Might Be Aegosexual (Lynn Saga, YouTube || August 6, 2022 || 6m20s)

VIDEO: What is Aegosexuality? | Aspec 101 (Slice Of Ace, YouTube || July 15, 2022 || 3m54s)

VIDEO: Asexual Identities: Aegosexuality (Ace Dad Advice, YouTube || May 22, 2022 || 12m27s)

====

AGAIN, I'm SO sorry I put this ask off for SO long, but I'm glad that I did, so that I could educate you guys on my brand of Asexuality during Ace Awareness Week!

And, finally, no offence taken at ALL! I LOVE educating y'all about stuff I learned through my journey, and you were very respectful in your ask :)

Hope you are well, Nonny, and hope you're still here to see this 🖤💜

[foxymc]

ooh blorbo backstory game for qjaiden? :) (from what i've heard, it's somewhat of a mystery? so i'm curious as to just how much information there is or isn't!)

OKAY HI HELLO STRAP IN

Specifically for her backstory (life before the events of QSMP), I think we're going to need some context by going through some of what happened to her during QSMP. Maybe not entirely, I also just want to talk about that too lol

Jaiden is a bird hybrid. The exact kind of bird she is isn't actually confirmed and it might be possible that it's more than one or she's got other kinds of animal DNA in her. See here and at one point, she changed her shoes to ones that had bear pawprints on the bottom of them. Maybe a hint, maybe just a silly reference to Cucurucho. Who knows! But that is just speculation. The only thing we know for sure is she is a bird hybrid.

Interestingly, she only revealed she even had wings later on because she was just "hiding them under her shirt" before. Metawise, she just didn't have the wings as an item in her inventory before lol. But I definitely find it interesting she was just hiding her wings and thus, the fact that she was a bird hybrid for most of the series.

During the events of the QSMP, a few things happened: The Federation assigned everyone an egg (basically their kid) to take care of along with a partner. Jaiden and Roier raised Bobby together until unfortunately, Bobby died. Jaiden builds an entire house in memory of Bobby and then Cucurucho, a white bear that acts as The Federation's representative, approaches her. Jaiden wants to make sure none of the other eggs die and Cucurucho tells her they might be able to do that if she does a few things for them. So now Jaiden is doing tasks for The Federation which makes some people suspicious of her. Not much comes from the tasks she completes tbh. she just has to collect resources, conquers a dungeon (probably an old Federation base if I remember correctly?), and then there is this timer.

During all these tasks, Jaiden starts to grow close to Cucurucho and even though there are two nearly identical Cucuruchos, she can tell the difference between both of them (One of them is sillier and just less serious than the other)

Now comes basically all we know about her backstory. The thing about Jaiden is that she doesn't remember anything about her life before the island. The only thing we are told about her past is this book that Cucurucho gives her.

(It reads: Years ago, you helped us. Me. We need your help again. Will you accept? :) )

Besides this there isn't really anything concrete to go off of. There are potential clues that could hint at her backstory but at that point, we're just getting into speculation territory. All we really know for sure is she somehow helped Cucurucho in the past. I think this means she worked for The Federation but that isn't necessarily true. We just don't know.

Context for The Federation though is that they appear to be this organization that wants perfection. This is especially interesting because Jaiden is very chaotic at times.

There are rules on the island that The Federation imposes. Long story short, one time Jaiden wanted to get Cucurucho's attention and try to get some information out of him about what was happening on the island at the time. When he doesn't show up, she decides to break the rules just to catch his attention and force him to show up. Except she can't do it. She starts panicking and ends up not breaking the rules which again, she has a tendency to be very chaotic. Breaking a simple rule that The Federation set should not be difficult for her but it was.

Remember how she is a bird hybrid? SHE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY! WHY???

Speaking of that, there's this interesting detail about her wings.

Notice how they're named J0029?

Another bird hybrid's wings are just called 'Crow Damaged Wings' so.... why are Jaiden's wings named like that? Why wouldn't they just be called something generic like 'Wings'?

Anddddd I think that's all I've got. That's everything about her past that we know. At least that's coming to mind right now but I think I've got everything.

Hope this wasn't too hard to follow! Haha

[ihopesocomic]

I think what a lot of people who have issues with you (aside from the youtube lion show stans) is that you dont baby people

People ask for obvious spoilers and you just say "we'll see!" (Unless its been asked several times in which case you explain that)

People try to push for bigotry to be in your comic which you wont stand for

People refuse to actually read the comic and want it explained and you have to put your foot down and tell them to read the comic

Ect ect ect ive never seen you guys get unreasonable with any messages, angry? Short? Sure some of the anons you get are like "why is hope have 3 legs?" Its completely understandable to be angry at messages like that

Yea that's pretty much the vibe we get too tbh. But we're not gonna apologize for having standards and we're not going to change how we present ourselves if it means putting in extra mental energy to be overly polite to bad faith actors or people who just simply ignore what we put out unless its addressing them personally.

You mentioning the spoilers incident is interesting because the person who brought that up would later state that spoilers weren't their issue at all, just us being "condescending" because they made the personal choice to read our neutral responses as such. Or us using 'lol' whenever we indicate we're being light hearted. Because not everybody who uses 'lol' is being snarky or rude.

Ultimately, being given the benefit of the doubt would go a long way instead of people automatically assuming we're being nasty or "unprofessional" because of things like 'they criticized something I enjoy" or "Well, I didn't like that they weren't bowled over by an ask I sent two years ago' or just anything that happened years ago LOL

Anyway. Some people may be fine with spoiling the whole story of their project, but not us. We're having a lot of fun keeping people guessing, especially if they guess correctly and their theory is proven in a future chapter. We do big high fives when that happens lol

The people who outright demand inclusion of bigotry are especially confusing because at best its people thinking our one little comic that's not-that-popular-actually constitutes as erasure of the queer/disabled struggle. And at worst it's people who somehow can't find value in entertainment unless it's misery porn. And both of these instances they claim the existence of IHS in its current form takes away from the countless already-existing content that covers both, or somehow shames people for including it in their own story when we've never said such a thing. Anything we've said either applies to us personally or we're criticizing mainstream media that takes our experiences and makes them palatable to a mainstream audience. (At it's funniest it's nerd fans who criticize our comic for being a knock-off of MP while in the same breath complain that it's not doing the same thing as MP)

And an insincere sorry in advance to people who want us to spoon-feed them information in the comic. I was under the impression that when you saw a web comic, you had intentions on reading it. Heck, we have a dub now, you don't even have to read anymore technically. But I value my time too much to explain every single detail that may go missed in a chapter. Some stuff we feel confident in our readers piecing together on their own because we respect their intelligence, and most times there's no incorrect conclusion to arrive to because leaving some things up to interpretation is better than over explaining it. But maybe I'm just a meanie. - Cat

[mgmm-shifts]

DR: Fun fact 11/12

Hello everyone I hope your 11/11 was a good one! I'm procrastinating work so here's my DR detail of the day. In light of the horrid election results😞, this is one aspect of my DR that I LOVE and can't wait to go back to.

Like I said, most people in my DR are a lot more progressive and the men are a LOT more respectable (except Nile he a dick). But for context, Miche came from a shitty family and met Erwin in elementary school when they were like 5, and from there became best friends. Miche wound up getting informally adopted by Erwin's family and they took him in so momma Smith raised him to be a gentleman ofc :) Long story short (a tale for another post) Miche and Erwin basically raised me and my siblings, Eren, Armin, and my other two friends (unnamed for personal reasons). Half of us are girls, so they know what it's like to raise and deal with us lol. Which is why while they were both making their way up the officer chain but especially when Erwin became Commander, he made it a top priority to promote a safe place for his female soldiers (also because he knew we would be joining him soon in the Scouts) and has 0 tolerance for harassment of any kind. He makes sure that there are female hygienic products in full stock and readily available at HQ (tampons, pads, etc) and provides access to birth control and heating pads and other things. Also, things like severe cramps are valid reasons to ask for the day off or reduced work load. Him and Miche are also very trained in how to handle certain situations and have made sure at the very least, their other male officers are trained in the same way (and if they refuse "they could fuck off to the MPs" as Erwin says). When me and Hange got older and gained actual medical experience and at the very least, became EMTs, we joined them and became sort of a resource too because they understood that people may be more comfortable speaking and confiding in fellow women too. Also at first, it was really entertaining to see Levi learning about what a period actually is. "...So it like... doesn't stop?...For days?..." Let's say after that he never gave me sass for getting moody on my period ever again. That simp bought me a heated blanket and researched what tea is best for periods :) Commander Pyxis hopped on the wave (the king he is <3) so the Garrison started implementing the same policies as well. The MPs are still behind because Nile is a jerk but one meeting he said something not too great and Erwin chewed his head off so they're getting better. Most female MPs come to our HQ and Erwin gives them secret handouts if they need any supplies (it's not actually secret, Erwin doesn't give a fuck if Nile finds out). Miche doesn't give a flying fuck about being polite to Nile (again there's all history here which I'll get into eventually) but usually Erwin does stay respectful and gives Nile the benefit of the doubt in the name of their old friendship but there are some things he refuses to compromise about regardless of who it is and this is one of them.

Anyways love the Uncs <3 (not my art but love this pic)

[eve-to-adam]

hello! first of all, i am in love with all your art, like, seriously, especially the recent ones 'cause young EoY is sooooooo indescribably lovely!!!🤧🤍 but i also got curious if you have any headcannons or ideas in general about her sisters and the relationship between them, maybe particularly with the oldest ones, like Mary and Cecily? just curiosity really, 'cause i think a lot about it 🤭

Hello!

Thanks for the compliments! I am delighted to know that my ideas arouse your interest! <33333

Indeed, it can be said that I have some headcanons with the York sisters, especially the first three - Elizabeth, Mary and Cecily. I will speak more on her behalf, because we know the most information about her, but Elizabeth and the York royals formed a very united family, especially that of Edward IV. I'm not necessarily saying that it's something out of the ordinary in the Middle Ages - although it may have seemed so - but the moment when I learned about Edward's affection for his daughters was the same when all the scenarios about them came to life.

This is especially because I am the type of person who likes to look more towards the domestic side of medieval life, not necessarily politics. Of course, at first it seemed natural to me to start this journey by illustrating Elizabeth - she being the most popular of the York sisters -, and at the same time trying to figure out what kind of personality I could attribute to her. All the information we know about her put her somewhat in the light of a saint or at least that of a "perfect child", so I wanted through all this artistic search of mine to discover what would be the correct approach regarding her childhood - the challenges she could create for her parents; fits of anger through which she could express her dissatisfaction; the moments when she proves a little more difficult to discipline. I want to explore the defiant Elizabeth, the impulsive Elizabeth, the Elizabeth who prefers to resort to deception or an innocent lie instead of taking responsibility, the one who uses her position as a princess to get what she wants. In short, my goal is to get past this historical covering of perfectionism and discover the child in Elizabeth, not necessarily the Queen of England. The same aspects are valid for her other two younger sisters.

Back to the headcanons: I've always imagined Elizabeth being closest to Mary, just as Edward IV was closest to Edmund as a child - as two confidants, secretly sneaking sweets into the bedchamber they share together , playing and reading stories even though they should be sleeping, lending each other some accessories, poking each other with sarcastic lines while embroidering, etc. I have the impression that Cecily would receive special treatment, being the third and the youngest among them, ending up causing some jealous reactions from the two older sisters. Elizabeth is the eldest, but she can be very impulsive at times. I imagine Mary to be much quieter and more obedient and Cecily would be the one who probably causes most of the disasters, lol. That is unless we are talking about the scenario in which all three appear, the "daddy's princesses" group, in which case they most likely got together to make Edward's life an ordeal, haha. Because I like nothing more than putting Edward in difficult or stressful positions because of his princesses. I love doing this. A lot.

Here we have an existential crisis roughly outlined in 30 minutes, lol.

[keep-the-wolves-close]

Steady Heart

Chapter 28: Achilles Heel

* Pairing: Slow-burn Kayce Dutton x OFC Stella Daniels

* Rating: M? (Still figuring out the rating system) (might eventually be M anyhow)

* Warnings: language, angst

* Word count: 1,867ish

I would love to give credits to @dameronscopilot and @deanscroissant for being sounding boards for me during this whole process, giving outsider insight, being cheerleaders, and allowing me to screech at them about things that have happened during the writing process. I seriously couldn't have gotten this far without y'all

Author's note: Okay, I lied. One more because I have an uneven number queued. Then I’ll follow the rules. Scouts honor lol. 🤓 Things are starting to ramp up, Kayce and Stella are finally coming back to some kind of normalcy. It’s been rough, but we’ll get there. Also, this is shorter than normal, but it worked well for splitting these events up. I hope y’all don’t mind, I hope everyone is enjoying so far! I hope you love this chapter as well!

“What! You told me you ran into him!” Ryan cried out.

“Okay I bent the truth! I’m sorry. I knew if I told you that 30 minutes ago, you would have burnt the whole state of Montana to the ground!” She defended herself.

All the men moved closer to her instinctually. Rip started in on her hard. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me when I picked you up?!”

“Because I wanted to tell everyone all at once, Rip!” Was he even listening?

He came back at her even angrier. “Bullshit! Were you gonna say anything at all?!”

“Yes! My god! I’m here aren’t I?”

Kayce targeted her next. “You’re only here because your brother and I made sure you’d come talk to my dad.”

John interrupted. “All of you quit!” He locked in on Stella. “What did he want?”

“I asked him and he said something about liking my property, yadda yadda, and got insulted when I asked who he was again and told me I work for a ranch that has started to annoy people. Then read me like an open book almost to every little detail about my life.” Stella crossed her arms and shook her leg. The memory of Malcolm’s unnaturally blue eyes staring into hers as he recited her information sent a chill up her spine.

“I told him I wasn’t interested in anything he had to offer. He said I was a soft spot for people here, which I beg to differ,” she focused on the floor, “but whatever. Then he said he would be seein’ me real soon. Whatever that means.” She looked back up at John and shrugged.

“So long story short, what I wanted to say was, I’m not sure Jenkins is our culprit for those cows being dead. Somethin’ about Malcolm and his brother doesn’t sit straight with me. He was fishin’ for somethin’, but I don’t know what.” Her cheeks were flushed by the time she was finished. Stella felt like she was on trial. Especially with the way everyone just looked at her angrily and didn’t say anything. “You can choose to believe me, or not, but I’m tellin’ you right now somethin’ ain’t right.”

“Damn it.” John looked to his son. “Kayce, what did you find out from Jenkins?”

Kayce watched Stella, who focused on John. She turned her body to face the patriarch, trying to pretend she was anywhere but in the room with them. He announced. “Wasn’t Jenkins.”

Rip mumbled a cuss to himself. That meant they were dealing with a different player; and that player was bigger, and seemingly interested in Stella.

“How do we know it wasn’t him?” John asked.

“I looked him in the eye and it wasn’t him.” Kayce made direct eye contact with his dad.

“I can also attest that he wouldn’t know the first thing about cows or how to kill them.” Stella added.

She finally locked eyes with Kayce. He looked tired. “You okay?” Everyone could tell there was something deeper behind her question. Even though it seemed like she wanted to be out of any room Kayce was in.

“It went fine.”

Stella scowled at him for ignoring her actual question.

“Let me talk to my son please.” John excused the three of them. Stella wasn’t sure what was going on, but if it meant she could escape, she’d take it.

Kayce stayed behind to talk to his father. At first they talked about something Kayce had done in war that had changed him forever. His heart raced just reliving the memory. If he could go back and have it happen differently, he would in a heartbeat. Kayce wanted to leave, but John stopped him.

“What’s going on with you and Stella?”

Kayce sighed. “Nothing dad.”

“Her looking like she was about to claw her way out of the window to get away when you went in on her says otherwise.” John leaned back against his desk smugly. He was almost certain he knew what was coming.

“There is nothing going on between Stella and I. Nothing.” He tried to be stern in his answer to get his dad to stop asking. He was confused as to what was going on himself. He had fucked up. Simple as that.

John stayed quiet and examined his son. Kayce’s face was flushed, and his voice let John know he was confused. If he didn’t know any better, he would say Kayce looked like he was going to panic. He looked like he was in love. That’s how he had looked when he found Evelyn.

Kayce couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Okay fine! We slept together. So what?”

‘Ah. There it was.’ John thought to himself as he breathed out a chuckle. This wasn’t when or how he thought this conversation would come up, but he knew it would cross him one day. “And when was that?”

Kayce looked down. “A few days ago.” He refused to tell his father that it was more than once.

“And you just got back from visiting with Monica? Now I understand why she wanted to leave so badly.” John worked out. He watched as his son squirmed. “How did things go with Monica, by the way? Especially with this new,” there was no real way for him to say this delicately, “development.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it dad.”

“But you’re gonna have to sooner or later.”

“She wants a divorce.”

“What for?”

“A lot of things.”

John crossed his arms. “What are you gonna do, son? Because that woman out there has stood behind you through thick and thin. Even after you broke her, she still made sure you were okay. Didn’t like that you ignored her actual question, but she still did it.”

Kayce got frustrated and slammed his hand against the door. “I don’t know! On one hand Monica is my wife, the mother of my son, the lov—,” he stopped himself. He didn’t know if he was choked up, or if he couldn’t actually bring himself to say it.

“— But?” John interrupted.

“I don’t know, dad. I just — I don’t know.”

Making it to the door, Stella started to pick up her pace. She thought she was home free when her feet hit the porch. She would have been if Rip’s rough hand didn’t grab her elbow. Her shoulders sagged. “Listen I know you’re both angry I didn’t tell you right away, but can one more person not be mad at me today?” She looked down at the floor of the porch. “I have Ryan double mad at me, you, probably Mr. Dutton. Kayce and I are weird right now…,” she trailed off. The list could go if she thought about it hard enough.

“Yeah we noticed.” Ryan informed her crossing his arms.

Stella pulled her lips in. She hoped she had hidden it better than that. ‘Great.’

“Was it really that noticeable?”

Ryan scoffed. “You looked like you wanted to be anywhere but where Kayce was.”

“You didn’t wanna be around him the other night. You were upset about somethin’.” Rip started to put two and two together out loud for Ryan. He didn’t want to be the one to spill the beans. “Somethin’ about you broke your own heart.”

“I was really hoping that you wouldn’t have remembered that.”

“What happened between you two?” Ryan asked. Stella remained quiet with her lips pulled in. “C’mon Stell. You gotta lay it out there at some point.”

She looked out along the dark horizon line and wished she could shrink herself. It was embarrassing enough to have the thoughts run through her own head, let alone say them out loud. Especially to her brother and a man she considered a brother.

“I thought something might have changed between us, but it didn’t. I was just a hopelessly hopeless romantic caught up in my own delusion.” She moved her hands in a ‘giving up’ motion. Her voice came out more quietly than before. “It doesn’t matter.” She stepped toward the stairs. “Can we be done here? Please?”

Kayce came out of the house looking flustered. His gaze landed on Stella and both of them seemed to stop breathing. “Can I talk to you?”

Stella breathed in. “I mean, no,” she blew the breath out, “but you’re gonna keep tryin’ until I let you. So I guess.” She crossed her arms and looked at the other two men. “Can you guys give us a minute? I’ll be right behind you.”

Ryan stepped forward and Rip reached out to stop him from getting too close. He threatened the man responsible for hurting his sister. “You hurt her even more, and everything else you’re going through will be the least of your worries.” Rip grabbed his shoulder to direct him to the horses.

Stella watched them trot off. Ryan gave her one last look and she nodded to him. It was quiet behind her, and she was half expecting Kayce to be gone when she turned around. Holding her head as high as she could, she pivoted around to face him. She fixed her glasses and sniffed. “Well, let’s have it.”

Kayce got a good look at her face. She looked humiliated. He had hurt her badly. He was afraid it was past the point of repair. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too Kayce.” She looked down, sullen.

“I shouldn’t have come onto you like that. We shouldn’t have done it at all. I ruined a perfectly good friendship.”

“Yeah I know it was a mistake. Is that all you wanted to say? Because I could live without the embarrassment of hearing, let's just pretend this never happened.”

“No. I wanted to tell you Monica and I decided to co-parent, but we can’t go back to each other.”

“Okay that’s great, but now I feel dirty. Like I was just a distraction, which I mean I was. A distraction for you at my expense. I just don’t know if I can get past that.”

Unbeknownst to the two of them, John had snuck out onto his porch to hear how this would play out.

Kayce started, “I understand, but—,” and Stella interrupted him.

“— Do you really have any grounds to stand on to place a ‘but’ in there? I was blinded by the feelings I’ve had for you since we were kids and somehow, whether you realized it or not, you used it to your advantage.” Her eyes stung. “I thought I was always safe with you.” She said in a small voice. “And to find out I wasn’t, hurts. I let you past everything I had put up.” John tilted his head to the side. She had a point. “So I’m gonna go. I just wanna be left alone.” She spun around to make her way down to the bunkhouse.

Kayce stood there defeated. He knew he’d fucked up big time. If she ever talked to him again, he would be surprised. He heard footsteps on the porch. He turned and saw his dad.

“So how are you gonna make this right, son?”

“I’m gonna respect her and leave her be. I’ve already done enough damage.” He walked off and hopped in his truck.

[fairydares]

Gruvia Fan Content Prompt Idea List

well, some people seemed interested when i said i'd make a post with a list of Gruvia fan content prompts, so I'm making it! I'll warn you, though: I don't really like the way ideas are shared on typical prompt lists so mine might not be to you guys' tastes:

AU where Juvia joined Fairy Tail first and was the one to inspire Gray to join the guild. Some of you might recognize this as a previous post of mine, where the idea is more fleshed out, but I don't mind at all if anyone else takes it as a prompt and uses the idea to write their own story.

Gruvia-centric Stone Age Omake fic. There's tons for Nalu but only one I found that's Gruvia, Learning to Love by starryfairyjedi, which is excellent but the author hasn't finished it quite yet.

Pregnancy fic. ik ik, another unoriginal idea. There are tons of these, but I think that's true for a reason. A scenario where Juvia accidentally gets pregnant forces Gray to commit in a way he avoids throughout the series. Plus also that guy just has a ton of untapped worry-wort dad potential. It's tragic, really.

Forced to live together. Who doesn't love these kinds of fics? As for why Gray and Juvia have to live together...maybe Fairy Hills got destroyed during Alvarez or by another Dark Guild, and when Gajeel offered to let Juvia stay with him, Gray stepped in to offer up his own place in a moment of irrational jealousy. There's a lot of potential for humor with Juvia's various Gray paraphernalia, plus it would be a chance for them to address feelings about their previous cohabitation.

Playing off the last one: AU where Juvia's an informant targeted by the mafia and Gray is the FBI agent tasked with protecting her. Therefore, they are forced to live together in a safe house.

Grease-esque AU. Juvia could be one of those rollerskating waitresses and Gray and Natsu could be race car drivers/rivals. Sides of other pairings would work well with this one, like if Lucy and Erza were also waitresses.

Juvia meets Edo-Greige somehow. This would be so cute! How would she wind up meeting him? Well...i don't know, lol. It'd be interesting if she wound up in Edolas accidentally and Gray had to go rescue her. In the meantime, she could interact with Edo Gray and Juvia, also...that's a moment we never really got to see in the series.

Juvia and Lyon wind up paired for a mission and Gray follows them out of jealousy.

Assassin AU where Gray's the assassin and Juvia's the target. Good potential for a steamy fight scene and ultimate cuteness when Gray refuses to kill her.

Pirate and Mermaid AU. a lot of fics have elements of this dynamic but i don't think i've seen one that's really Gruvia-centric and about the love story. would make a great oneshot or short multichapter fic imo.

Juvia's a nymph who cares all alone for her forest since the other nymphs died, until one day, an Ice Demon Slayer, injured in battle, drifts into her forest via river on a slab of wood. The forest urges her to kill him, but Juvia is unable to kill the first man she's ever seen. While she nurses him back to health, they fall in love. Lots of potential for romance/humor with the whole "Juvia's never been around people, especially men, and doesn't get personal space" thing, a bit like the Stone Age Omake idea.

MHA/BNHA AU where they meet as heroes-in-training or young pro heroes in the field.

Fake Dating. Kind of a sucker for these, ngl. Would be even better (in my personal opinion) if it was an AU so this was how they met.

UFC/MMA AU. Few different potential ideas with this one. Could be Juvia falling in love with Gray from the audience while he fights Natsu, a mixed-gender version of the UFC where Gray and Juvia fight each other, or Gray gets a crush from the audience watching Juvia fight someone (I'd personally love to read this one).

Gray and Juvia meet as kids. Would be really cute if little Gray comforted Juvia about her rain.

Robin Hood AU. The Fairy Tail ethos goes well with Robin Hood's. You could have it where Juvia serves as a knight for King John (/Jose?) but abandons the kingdom for Robin Hood's cause when she meets Gray.

If I think of more, I'll add to this list or maybe make another one! Feel free to use any of these/apply them to any ship. I'd love if you lmk you used one of them or tagged me or whatever, but if you're not comfortable with that you don't have to. I may use my own prompts one day, too, especially the Stone Age Omake ones, the nymph one, and the Edo Greige one. I'm totally fine with us having written the same idea if you are.

See also this set of romantic prompt lists. Actually, just see their master post of prompts, literally my favorite blog for this sort of thing.

[jesslockwood]

Detecting the Haunted Masterlist 

Chapter One

Non Request / Request

@hufflepuff1619​ ​: Hello!! Can I please get a request for Lockwood & Co. The reader is a detective (I been reading lots of mystery books lately lol) and one day, she stumbles into Lockwood while she is trying to solve a crime and his charm doesn’t work on her and one day, he saves her from a ghost. Thank you! Have a good day.

Word Count: 1.9k

Pairing(s): Anthony Lockwood x Detective!Reader

Warnings: a bit of Swearing, Talk of Gore, Blood, Mentions of Death, Mentions of a past M*rder/S*icide (not a lot of detail but still there), and a bit of Angst towards the end.

A/n: AHHH it’s my first Lockwood and co writing! I have plenty more coming too!!! I apologize I kind of rushed the ending but I was too excited to get this out lol. I hope you like this! This is now also going to be a series.

You hated him. You absolutely loathed his smug self who thought he could charm his way out of being in the way of a DEPRAC investigation. Your investigation. He had gone on a tangent of giving you nicknames like you were his significant other and trying to flirt his way out of trouble for the past twenty minutes, wasting your time. 

“So you mean to say that you just stumbled your way into a murder scene, which I might add is trespassing at the minimum, and that was a crime scene with literal yellow tape all over.”

“Yes, That’s exactly what I'm saying. And The death glow in there is brighter than the golden radiance you give off, Love.” 

Your face was hot from fuming over the idiot that was Anthony bloody Lockwood. 

“You do know, Mr. Lockwood, that although hired from an independent source, this is a DEPRAC case. And it is my case. And in this case, you’ve probably contaminated all the evidence now for us. Now you need to tell me who hired you?” 

“Unfortunately I can’t say. Client privilege with our agency. I can tell you they're afraid of whoever was out there trying to get them and by the looks of it’s not only the body here, there’s definitely a haunting. Yes, the body may be a part of your investigation, but my Team was hired for the other problem in this house.” he says as smoothly as a snake. 

“Well then perhaps you should be arrested for withholding information.”

He thinks for a moment, “Let's strike a deal. If we get to clear the house and make it safe, I’ll give you a name.”

“And why should I strike a deal with you? I last heard of your agency when you burned down Mrs. Hope’s house.”

“Well, you need a discreet agency, especially in what I’m assuming is a high-profile case like this, plus, I’ll even let you come in with us to make sure we don't burn it down.”

You couldn't think of a reason to say no. Especially if there was a haunting, your team wouldn't be safe.

“Fine. but if there isn't anything I’ll know.”

You both start walking towards the house with his associate Lucy in tow. 

“Curious, how would you know? Some sort high tech of DEPRAC equipment, darling?” he inquires.

“No, I have talents.”

He looks almost slightly shocked that you said it.

“I have Touch and Sight mainly. Sights more of my strong suit.”

He nods smiling, “Same here. Guess it was meant to be.”

You roll your eyes at that.

“How’d you even get into detective work then? I'm assuming you never did agency work, as the only time I’ve heard of you was for your exemplary detective work, and you don't look older than myself,” he asks.

“Cut the charm, Lockwood.” you pause to take a deep breath before telling them, “Long story short, My father was a detective, and before he went undercover, He made me promise I wouldn't sign up for an agency. He knew the work all too well, having worked as one himself long ago. So I didn't. I still had the itch to do something with my talents, so I signed myself up to work for DEPRAC.”

“How’d he take it?” 

“Not sure.” you stop at the door not wanting to dwell on his death, “What’s in your kit? I’m hoping for no Greek fire.”

You try to not snort when he slowly opens his long jacket proving he had some. 

“If you use that, just know, I will have to arrest you.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” he mutters under his breath, before opening the duffle bag. You see what he has and give an approving nod. 

The sun was starting to go down and it was nearing curfew.  

“James, tell everyone to clear out. But everyone needs to come back at dawn, sharp.” You order your colleague. 

He nods, looking skeptical, before getting everyone to pack up their things and leave.

You three enter the house, the draft was definitely there. And Lockwood was right, the death glow on the body was there, but fading as your team neutralized the body in the entryway, to make sure it wouldn't come back. 

“I swear to god if you touch this body and ruin the evidence, I’ll make sure you never work again,” you say to the both of them. 

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dream of touching it.” Lucy grimaces looking at it. 

“Right, Lucy, see if you can hear anything near, Y/n, you stay close to me and I’ll get you up to speed on the information we have on this case.”

You nod, as he starts filling you in about how the person who was living with the man here, was in an abusive relationship with him, and eventually, the woman sliced her significant other, before turning on herself with the blade. The home used to be an in-home business, a barber shop the man used to run. The house was renovated before the problem started, to be a glamorous home, until something started stirring.

You shudder only imagining what could’ve been lurking. 

“Care to share about that death?” He asks, pointing to the body. 

“The body you see is fresh. The neighbors called it in after hearing a gunshot this late afternoon, so it definitely isn't from the manifestation, and we still don’t have all the facts as to what happened, but we do know he’s a relic man.” You inform him.

“Gunshots overall are unheard of, and in this neighborhood? Very Odd.” he ponders, inquisitively looking you directly in your eyes. It caught 

“Yeah, yeah, 'cause the only guns you think of are your non-exist ones.” you joke, trying to divert the burning in your cheeks, as it felt like his eyes were looking into your soul.

he put a hand over his heart, saying Ouch, but your focus was up the huge stairway. It was marbled tiled, all the way up, with a substantial curved staircase against the wall, with an old, detailed metal railing, that looked once to be gold. 

You were now assuming they were getting paid a pretty penny for this job, whoever this was paying them. Something felt off up there. You couldn't pinpoint it, but it made your stomach churn.

“Shall we?” he points to the stairs.

“Shouldn’t we wait for-” 

“Lucy? Trust me if something happens Lucy will hear it. She is the best listener or eavesdropper in London.”

“Heard that!” she yells across the room, “I’ll be right behind you, I just want to check that last room to see if the temperature drops, which I doubt it will” she reassures you.

Lockwood hands you a torch and your hands brush, giving you goosebumps, before you both start heading up, with him behind you slightly. 

“Just remember to turn off the torch so it’s easier to see death glows, and if you see anything, don’t panic, just let me know since I have the rapier.” he winks, with his sly smirk. You couldn’t think of a good response to that, so you kept walking up, feeling colder by the minute. 

Your breathing became heavier, due to the freezing nature of the stairway as you walked up, looking around for signs of anything.

As soon as you hit the landing, you touched the railing, feeling a sharp sensation on your palm. 

You looked at your hand and nothing was wrong with it.

“Alright, love, turn off your torch,  I see something at the end of the hall, you stay close to these first few rooms.”

You nod, agreeing but feeling weary of the idea of splitting up. You sigh turning off your torch. 

He wanders closer to the death glow at the end of the huge hall before you look into a room near you, you feel something take over you, as you wander into the room. As you stepped into the room you start walking on broken glass and tears started coming out of your eyes as you felt sorrow run through you, like when your dad had died. But you couldn't control yourself at all. 

You pick up a piece of glass, squeezing it so tight, your hand had started bleeding. You turned around, raising the glass up to yourself, but before anything could happen, you felt yourself being grabbed and tumbled into the wall where you could see Lockwood, holding your wrists, and you dropped the glass. 

You look directly at him, shaken up a bit. 

“Was I?”

“Yeah, you were ghost locked,” he says looking into your eyes, before wiping the tears from your face the proximity of his face was so close to yours as he examined you. That alone gave you goosebumps.

 He notices the blood from your hand, moving his head and reaching up, and before he could do or say anything, you peered over his shoulder, to see the ghost of a woman coming straight for you.

“Look out!” you yell as you quickly shove yourself and Lockwood away from the wall, tumbling you both to the ground, out of her way and you fall on top of him. You're almost breathless as you quickly roll off of him, grabbing a salt bomb from his belt, before throwing it directly at her as she screams and disappears for the moment. 

Lockwood grabs his rapier and unsheathes it, before quickly getting to his feet, as a precautionary

he helps you get up to your feet. 

“Thanks for you know, saving me,” you say, as gently grabs your hand to examine it.

“Same to you. I think I’d be ghost touched if it wasn't for you.” he pauses before saying, “I think you should go home.” he says looking away, almost avoiding your gaze as if you could read his soul if you looked. 

“Why? We do have an agreement, so where is this coming from?” You ask before he pulls out a handkerchief wrapping it around your hand.

Before he could say anything, Lucy interrupts, “Lockwood, I think I found the source’s area-” 

she pauses almost looking like she was a deer caught in headlights, like just trespassed into a private moment. 

“Do you two need a moment?”

“No, I was apparently going home,” you say harsher than you thought it would come out.

“Y/n I-”

“Just do your Job, and Report back to James tomorrow.”

“I'll Walk you out,” Lucy says, before following you down the stairs.

“I know Lockwood can seem harsh, but I think you should know it has more to do with himself than you. I think he likes you, a lot, and when he cares for someone, he wants them to be safe. Just try to remember that.” she tries to console you before giving you a hug as you leave. 

You see James waiting in his car outside, and you roll your eyes, before getting in.

“You seriously couldn't leave?” you laugh.

“C’mon like I could. I can’t leave you in the company I don't know. Plus I did technically leave for a bit, to get this,” he gives you a brown bag with all your favourite goodies in it. 

“Thanks, James, you’re the best.”

As you drive away, you couldn't help but worry about the boy that saved you. Not just physically but he brought back the spark in you that you thought was gone. The one that you thought had died with your father. 

“Hey, James, maybe it’s time I looked at my Dad’s file.”

“You don’t mean?”

“I do. I need to know how he died undercover.”

You say, before looking down at the handkerchief on your hand that Anthony Lockwood gave you.

Taglist:  @waitingforthesunrise​​

[sob-dylan]

I’m the passenger ending anon and I was more curious abt the last 3 minutes or so that’s all in a rosy “things are fine :)” kind of glow, it just seemed so disconnected from the rest of the movie. I LOVED bensons end scene I was eating it up Then hard cut to Things Are Ok :) Idk ! that’s why I asked bc ur no 1 passenger scholar on my dash

lol my bad, i probably should have realized that by "the ending" you meant the part that comes at the end 😅

i'll give a middling answer: it's alright. i mean, let's be honest, the passenger's strength isn't it's screenplay. there's a lot of good story in what mr. jack stanley wrote, but some of the pacing's a little bit awkward and a few things here and there don't make a ton of sense. that all kinda comes to a head in the last scene. but i don't want to throw too many stones, because i'm definitely no great writer, and i've alway found endings especially difficult. and ultimately, i do think the ending works.

even though it's a rough transition from the penultimate scene to the final scene, i appreciate that they took some time to show the positive aftereffects of randy's no good very bad day. there's a definitely a lot of information packed into that very short scene, and some of it feels cool, some of it feels weird. i'm glad that randy's standing up to his mom and going to hang out with friends. but who are these friends? did he have friends before that he just didn't mention? or did he make new ones between his kidnapping and now? his arm's still in a sling, so it feels like not that much time has passed . . . i like that he's kept in touch with ms. beard, but i hope he's doing a little more job-wise than just babysitting for her. his scene with hardy in the beginning showed us that he's in dire need of imagining a substantial future for himself. maybe he could teach! or become a librarian! i do like that they brought in ms. beard's daughter tessa, because for me the movie is all about children. it's about hurt children! and it's about how we need to do a better job of loving and helping and protecting our children! i know some people think it's pretty morbid and fucked up that randy teaches tessa the game that took her mom's eye out, but i actually think it's great that randy can accept that, yeah, it was just an accident, and he can trust himself to play this game for children without history repeating itself. and if it does, if tessa takes his eye out, then he can help her be strong and forgiving of herself like he's learned to be.

i'll admit that's it's all a little bit too tidy and saccharine. so i'm grateful that there are hints that randy's isn't totally fixed. if anything, he's got new, sexier, and possibly even worse problems. this is evidenced in three ways: he's got benson's jacket, someone was doodling a picture of two guys in a car (i've seen some people posit that randy drew the picture, but i hear that and think *jenna maroney voice* "did you draw that, randy? you might need help, because that is awful for an adult." i also think it's hilarious and sad and wonderful if randy found a way to tell tessa about him and benson and she illustrated it), and then finally we get the last shot as icing on the "oh boy this guy's gonna be fucked up forever" cake.

yes the ending is a bit clunky and perhaps even tonally out of step, but the last shot kinda made the whole movie for me. when i first saw the camera pan over to the stuffed animals and "supersoaker md50" kicked in, i SCREAMED! that was so killer! it was heart-wrenching! it was funny! and it was a good time! just like the whole movie! so yeah, the entire end scene maybe isn't all that great, but that last shot was. idk how i would have made the ending any better, so one great final shot is good enough for me.

[mazuriri]

4.1 archon quest

I'm continuing my thread on Lyney x traveller as I'd promised to do another analysis if they interact together in the future (and I write here because I've run out of space to put photos in the other thread).

＊ Fontaine quest Act 4 : 

In this quest, they meet again ✨ Of course they were not ready to see each other especially in prison but it shocks more for the traveller since they will not understand why Lyney is here in the first place since they managed to defend him.

(Every time they meet , it's always ‘’awkward’’ but it makes it even more funny personally, like here, I laughed when they looked at each other with surprise as they weren't ready to see each other in prison lol.)

Lyney explains how they ended up in prison but the traveller knows that they are not here just because of that.. or more importantly : ‘Why are YOU doing here?’ They suspect that he is hiding something else but I don't think they are angry with him like last time at the trial. Lyney understands and decides to tell them everything, it’s pretty cute how he no longer wants to hide secrets from the traveller because he doesn’t want to hurt them again (so I suppose it affected him pretty much, poor guy…) but even if he says he will say everything, I still have the feeling that he will hide something from them at some point, still we all want to trust him and we know that he doesn’t have bad intentions, it’s already been ‘’proven’’.

★ Fun fact : Lyney JP VA even said that ''Lyney doesn't have the desire to betray or deceive the traveller''.

(He doesn’t want to hurt or make the traveller angry aww….)

This is where Lyney has a suggestion : he asks the traveller if they would like to team up with them. You will think that it is ‘normal’ he asks this so that it would be more efficient for their objective (Tartaglia + secrets) even if we can find it shady at first. However, there is another reason why he wants them to team up (I will explain later) but the traveller refuses because even if they have "reconciled" in Lyney's story quest, it doesn’t mean that they completely trust him. They want to trust him but they hesitate, preferring to remain on their guard. We already know that they work with Arlecchino and her goal is to capture the gnosis but we still don’t know what is her real goal. Again, don’t blame the traveller : their reaction and action are understandable, you should already understand until now. 

-> Imagine : you became friends with someone where you had a good time together even if it was just for a short time and you already trust him but right after, they lied to you as they were part of an ‘evil’ organisation that somehow traumatised you and where you had the most difficult times. Even if they don’t have bad intentions, they shouldn’t have deceived you, besides that doesn’t mean you can completely trust them after what happened even if you became friends again. 

So, Lyney thought about trying to find another way to convince them (he won’t force them if the traveller really doesn’t want to). You may think that he is trying to do this to advance in their research but there is another reason too. He is not wrong because it would be more effective if they cooperate to share information afterwards but more importantly : Lyney also wants to get closer to the traveller and try understand them a little better. 

(And I like how he ‘quickly’ changed the subject from Arlecchino to team up. He really wants to get closer to the them huh?)

Here, Lynette says ‘’See? I told you’’. Does that mean that Lyney had been ready to ask them this question for a while? Like he spent his whole day thinking about how he was going to approach them? He told Lynette about it but it turns out that she wasn’t sure that they would accept? Or, did Lyney feel that the traveller was going to refuse but still wanted to try, ignoring Lynette’s answer?

I love when Lynette ‘really’ makes us understand how Lyney feels towards the traveller, to the point that it makes him embarrassed (as he rubs his head and looking in all directions). She really decided to end this situation so that Lyney could stop thinking too much like an idiot lol. We already know that Lyney is always trying to reach an understanding with them and he can no longer hide his feelings when Lynette is here lolol. This guy was all confident in front of the traveller but when his sister tells us how he felt about them, he becomes all shy and embarrassed lmaoo

No one can change my mind that : LYNETTE SUPPORTS LYNEY X TRAVELLER 🫵 she even said that he should open up a little => he should express his feelings more openly if he wants to get closer to them. (Something like : ‘’Come on brother, don’t be a coward and tell them how you feel.’’)

Yeah, so basically he had the feeling and knew that the traveller was going to refuse but still tried lol, but hey it’s better to try than to do nothing. Plus, he was prepared so I was wondering what he might have been thinking to prepare for the worst. That is why he didn't really react when the traveller refused, which means he was ready for their answer but when they ‘’agreed’’ to cooperate with him, it rather surprised Lyney because he wasn’t really ready for them to accept ‘’so easily’’ because according to him, he thought he still had to think about how to convince them (it would take time). But look at him, we can notice that he knows the traveller remains vigilant but is still happy that they have agreed to work for them since basically, it was a bit part of his plan to get closer to them and he knows very well that they agreed to have more information on Tartaglia of course.

—————————————————————

A few days later, they meet again to give news on their investigation. 

We can see that they work well as a team and do their best to look for information about the place. I find that the traveller is starting to ‘’open up ‘’ to Lyney and are ready to communicate together as soon as they can. Anyway, before leaving on their own for a new mission, Lyney tells them to be very careful and that security always comes first but it is just after he realises that he used to talk like that to his siblings. I like it here because the options here are different and have different answers, this is where we have a cute little moment where the traveller asks if they were the big brother/sister instead? Basically: ‘’Would it change anything if I was older instead? Will you see me in the same way or otherwise?’’ 

I leave your imagination to this conversation but I find it kinda cute that Lyney thinks like that of them, it means that he already see them as his ‘family’ (he will confirm that later) 

—————————————————————

Once again, Lyney is grateful to the traveller for their help, he knows very well that the only problem in their relationship is their identity. The traveller helps the twins because they care and see them as a ‘friend’, as I already said : even if they’re still hesitant and vigilant towards them, it doesn’t mean they don’t care about them, in the contrary, the twins are already in the traveler’s heart in some way. I also think that’s where the traveller start to change their point of view towards them : their relationship is gradually starting to recover, knowing that they pretty much know that Lyney and the siblings care for them, which is sweet.

(‘’As long as it comes from you’’ - I love this sentence, Lyney really trusts the traveller when he doesn’t trust people easily normally.)

——————————————————

So later, Lynette and Freminet were captured by Wriothesley. Of course, it drives Lyney in rage as he is really worried about his siblings because he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to them. If you notice correctly, the traveller will have a lot of thoughts towards Lyney. They understand why he’s acting like this, that’s why they keep describing Lyney’s face and know what he’s thinking. If you still think that they don’t care about him and his siblings, then you’re wrong. In this quest, it will ‘’clarify’’ all the misunderstandings of what happened in the trial. The traveller will notice that Lyney cares a lot about his siblings as we can really see that he is sincere to save them. They will also notice that Lyney was ready to give himself to Wriothesley if only he releases Lynette, this is also where it touched the traveller in my opinion. 

They stopped Wriothesley to help Lyney who was very hesitating. I would like to make it clear : the traveller cares for the siblings and they want to save Lynette and Freminet. ‘’ Why would they want to save them? They don’t care about them at all.’’ I don’t know you tell me? Stop saying that the traveller doesn’t care about them at all. Move on, I will not repeat myself since I have already explained in my previous thread.

During the investigation, they got along well together and helped each other when they crossed paths (also because working as a team is pleasant.) However, it is true that the traveller wanted to work with them just to have more informations but they ended up enjoying the teamwork. Besides, they have talked about themselves during the investigation : the traveller will notice that the twins are sincere and do not look for the bad side of things (they will also see that the siblings really care for each other which the traveller can understand this feeling). All this will change the feelings of the traveller. They ended up ‘’trusting’’ them in this quest, they really ‘reconciled’ as this will lead to a new kind of friendship ✨

 Of course, I think the traveller will still remain on their guard but at least in this quest, it has clarified suspicions and misunderstandings they had in their relation (especially with Lyney) because now, after everything that happened between Wriothesley and Lyney, the traveller begins to « understand » Lyney as they ended up caring for him (and the others) for real and will not hesitate to work with them in the future, I guess they really enjoyed working with them.

Yeah the traveller doesn’t care about Lyney. So why do they ask him if he’s okay? Since all this time, they had a lot of thoughts describing Lyney’s face and everything? Of course everyone can do that but what I mean is: even by having thoughts about him, they really understand why he acts this way and make sure to take care of Lyney who was about to lose his mind. If the traveller didn’t care about him, then why do they often ask if he’s okay? Why have a lot of thought about him while observing him? They were even relieved that he was feeling better now after reuniting with his siblings. Yeah, they still don’t care about him at all~ 

After meeting Arlecchino, the traveller decides to tell the siblings about it. They remain suspicious of her but Lyney reassures them that ‘everything’ is fine that they should not worry. Even if at first, he was surprised because he didn’t think their 'Father' would be happy to work with the traveller. But I really like how happy and excited Lyney got when they told him that Arlecchino was looking forward to working with them in future. I mean I get it why he’s happy but why though lol? Sorry, i just found this funny and cute at the same time because it’s like : ‘’Wow Father approves them, that means I can spend time/work with them in the future!’’ 

I can’t help but find it cute because his goal was to get closer to them when he has the opportunity and when Arlecchino said she would be happy to work with the traveller, that allowed Lyney to have a chance with them lol. 

I love this: Lyney is someone who does not open up and trusts others easily. And here, for him to say that he considers the traveller as a family is really important for Lyney’s character. At first, I thought he friend zoned them but when I reread, I understood what he meant by that. For him, family has another meaning too : being part of his family means someone he desires to protect, it’s something that can give him the right to get closer to the traveller. I guess he meant that he has ‘special feelings’ and would protect them as he protects his own family.

( Tho, I also think that as a marriage proposal LMAO : Being part of the family = let’s get married 😂)

But also the fact that they spent little time together, Lyney always has an attachment to the traveller. It’s incredible how this magicien who tells lies and doesn't open up easily to the others, has opened up to he traveller, where they still ‘’barely’’ knew each other. Still, the traveller helped and defended them until the end so I can understand why Lyney began to ‘’open up’’ to them and same for the traveller thanks for 4.1 quest.

[catcake24]

Okay, just finished side order in *checks notes* six hours (I think I got a lucky run with a weapon I like, so I finished it faster lol)!! The main story is kinda short, but I’m not at all disappointed!! And they give a good story reason why we keep playing after the story is done :)

The chips, stages, and rogue-lite elements were all very well done! We also got some more lore on octarians through conversations between Acht and Marina!

Also Acht!! I think they’re my favourite character in this dlc :D They’re a very different kind of character, more reserved and cool, but I liked that a lot! We have a lot of big characters in Splatoon, so having a more reserved character (besides Marie) is very welcome. They also get some good moments in the dlc overall, especially in that finale!!

There… was no agent 4 unfortunately, but they’re not missing!! One of the bosses is obviously meant to be themed or be agent 4 (the main inkling enemy has the hair my agent 4 had, so it’s definitely using info from Splatoon 2 like agent 8) and they have their own palette meaning we get information on them. (Also there’s always fanfic lmao)

Im just so happy!! The dlc was amazing, and I’m definitely going to keep playing for awhile!

(I’m being vague on purpose, partly since the dlc just came out and I don’t want to spoil anyone, and partly so I can gush lol)

(Also, the palette I ended up finishing with, was the Frye palette XD. The best idol has my back!)

[sampersandman]

This is just to get it off my chest, and it isn't meant as an "You're stupid and I hate you" because I know you uh... probably have way too many of those already.

I'm just trying to state this for my sake, and maybe I hope that you consider this for a moment, but you don't have to, of course. Go forth and live you life however you wish. I'm probably gonna block you after sending this because I think it's just for the best.

I think you're wrong about Metalocalypse. Like on a lot sometimes, in regards to certain characters. Mainly Pickles, his family, and sometimes Abigail (this is mostly in reference to your opinions on what she represents/how she was handled). Which sucks because I really do think you provide a lot of resources for the fandom (+I really do enjoy your art)

In general you seem to just kinda not like it when people have headcannons (no this isn't about Pickles being trans/cis.) I think you can come off as super pompous and closed off in your own little world, kinda in a bad way. You seem to believe you're the "only one who actually appreciates the show for what it is" , which isn't true by a long shot dude. The other members in the fadom may prioritize things I assume you find to be small scale, but they still matter to them. A whole lot. I just think you need to try and consider the fact that sometimes people just wanna draw and talk silly stuff about a silly show! MTL is stupid and absurd, this is said with love, of course!

Long story short, I think you need to maybe take a little step back and be a little more considerate of the fact that what people are posting online is usually for fun! Maybe if you wanna get down and hash the shit with someone about the show, it's themes and whatever, join a discord server if you haven't already! I'm in one and they talk pretty much every day about the things that seem to appeal to you!

I wish you no harm or ill will, I just think that the way you're going about this could be making this the frustrating experience it is for you. Have a good day! ♡♡♡

? dunno what triggered this, I haven’t been posting much. Certainly not enough to be alarming lol

If it’s anything to do with what’s in my recent recollection atm, my explanation is that I just talk at people. I would think that if you’re posting in the main tags (and if what you’re saying is about how something is misinterpreted/unexplored by fans) then you would enjoy that sort of engagement. Especially if it’s not even combative and only really adding to the topic you had enough interest to post about in the first place

Though, now, when you talk to somebody on here or on Twitter about opinions on a show, there’s a knee-jerk reaction (some) people will have to any disagreement, oftentimes. One where they suddenly switch from talking about the show, to talking about themselves, and recontextualize the entire conversation to having been about them personally, making any observation that they disagree with out to be an attack. To me that’s very bizarre. It’s like an immediate emotional escalation just to hurt your own feelings lol. It’s also counterintuitive for another reason beyond just being messy, since I believe we should want to see things from other people’s perspective and understand them better, that that’s what we should be using media for, instead of wanting to experience something immediately relatable and applicable to ourselves exclusively. With this approach, I feel like I can relate and sympathize with a person who isn’t like me in almost every way.

for me, it’s fun to reverse engineer your way into understanding how different people operate. The logic informing their worldview and behavior. You would hope to encourage more people to be like that, so that instead of putting walls up and shutting down anything that makes you feel invalidated, you could invite a sort of mindset where you actually stand a chance at being truly understood, and feel less afraid of understanding others.

P.s. it’s fine to disagree with me or anyone else for that matter, and still use anything I post as a resource. cuz it’s not my stuff lolz