#ever since I made her I've just been doing runs with her because I'm attached 😭

[meownotgood]

also while I'm on the topic of being off topic. this is my beloved durge tav moon. her wizard boyfriend sprays her with water when she tries to bite people

[greg-montgomery]

Hi! Sorry for bothering, I have a request if you don't mind, but I have a thing to say too. I downloaded tumbler just a week ago, and I've been in love with everything you've written. Literally, you can't even imagine how much. The dynamics between Hotch and Reader are >>>>>>>, not to mention the Jack-Reader bond, which, honestly, is healing my inner child, lol.

If you have time, of course, and if you wouldn't mind doing that (I really don't wanna bother you) could you write something with this plot?

The team has to share a room for a case, and Hotch had to bring Jack because Jessica couldn't be with him. Hotch, since he was with Jack, had decided to take the room alone, but when Reader asked Emily to room-share, Jack insisted on staying with Reader. Then, you know, there's only one bed... And while Hotch is showering, Reader ends up comforting Jack, and they fall asleep together, cutely. When Hotch cames back, he asks Reader for cuddles.

I'm sorry if that's too long or if you don't wanna write it, it's totally okay, really. Sorry for bothering again <3

hii! i just wanna say you mentioning about 'healing your inner child' really touched my heart. like this is the biggest compliment i could ever get? thank you for telling me! i love you and i hope you like this <333

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

“Are you ready to play uno with me till 3am?” you grinned at Emily, your hand squeezing hers tightly.

Her own grin revealed that her answer would be positive, but she didn’t have the chance to actually reply. A tiny voice rushed to respond on her behalf.

“No!”

Aaron turned to look at his son with a surprised expression, watching him running to you and grabbing your hand that was holding Emily’s.

“Stay with me instead,” he whined. “Please, Y/N!”

It was endearing how attached Jack was to you. Just a few nights of babysitting to help out your boss were enough for the kid to consider you as one of his best friends. And of course the feelings were mutual.

Still, you weren’t sure how to respond. Jack accompanying his dad to a work trip was already unconventional, but the three of you sharing a room? It felt way too intimate for a boss, his kid, and his subordinate.

“Sweetie,” you said, squatting down so you could be face to face. “You’ll be staying with your dad.”

“There’s room for you too!”

You let out a sigh, unable to say no to the kid’s puppy eyes. Your own eyes searched for Aaron’s, finding him staring at your interaction amused. At least he wasn’t mad.

“Only if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable,” he said.

“Oh no, not at all,” you reassured him. Getting up, you took Jack’s hand and walked close to Hotch. “But are you sure you’re not uncomfortable?” you asked him quietly.

“Jack loves you. We’ll be happy to have you.”

“Okay then.” You gave him a sweet smile, and the two of you laughed at the sound of Jack cheering.

--

“Come here, little man,” you ordered Jack with one eyebrow raised, even though you both knew it was all very much an act.

“You said we’d play uno!”

“No, I said I’d play uno with Emily, who is a grown up and can stay up till late. You mister, should be sleeping already.

He pouted at your words but you wouldn’t have it. “Come here, and I’ll tell you as many bedtime stories as you want.”

“Promise?” he asked, stretching out his arm and raising his little finger.

You hooked yours with his, “Promise.”

Aaron was still in the shower when you and Jack crawled under the covers. You worried about making room for him, since you would all have to share one bed. The situation was so domestic and intimate; it felt as if you were a real family. A part of you wondered if that was the way things were meant to be.

Jack’s little head on your chest, shook the thoughts away and reminded you that there was a bedtime story waiting to be told. So you pulled him even closer to you, and started playing with his hair.

“Once upon a time there was a little country girl. Her mother had a little red riding hood made for her, so everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood…”

You weren’t sure how many stories it took for you and Jack to fall asleep. You hadn’t even realized you had fallen asleep until you felt some movement on the bed, which was Aaron struggling to get just a little bit of your shared blanket.

“Sorry,” you whispered as soon as you were awake enough to figure out what was happening.

“It’s okay. It’s too small for all three of us.”

“Yeah…” you said, feeling almost guilty.

“We should probably move closer so it can cover us better,” he suggested and you couldn’t help but grin.

“Just say you’re jealous and want cuddles too,” you teased him.

“Fine, busted,” he said, obviously not caring that you had found out his true motives. “Now both of you come here.”

He stretched out his arm and you and Jack were snuggled up in his embrace in no time.

[landorris4]

── ☆ quadrant house

☆ Maybe Lando Norris was more than a friend, and maybe it was time for you to learn that.

warnings: friends with benefits words count: 2.6k

POV Maya

It was the third time that week that my parents had pestered me about moving in with my cousin. I made videos for YouTube and that's why the neighbors sometimes complained about the noise and stuff, after all, we lived in an apartment in Chicago.

After so much insistence on this idea, I finally accepted. Living with him will be fun, after all he lives with a bunch of other people, and I think I know all of them. I sent a message to Max asking if I could come over on Monday and he said he would prepare everything.

The only condition he gave me was that I help with the expenses, and I accepted, after all I made money from the internet and spending time there would generate much more content for my channel. And it would be great to see my best friend, Lando, again.

Right now, I was checking my bags. I'm only taking my clothes, accessories, shoes and some souvenirs, decorations I buy there. Today is Sunday and I have a flight at 7 pm, so I'm going to take a nap before my flight. It will be a seven hour and forty minute flight, I even had time to sleep, but I can't relax on planes alone.

[...]

I just got off the plane and my cousin sent me the address, I'm going to take an Uber because they forgot to clean the house and are only doing it now. It had to be Quadrant.

Anyway, I did everything I had to do at the airport and called an Uber. I would even describe what I did, but it's a lot of bureaucracy. I started filming on the plane and now I was filming some scenes in the Uber as well. Of course, I didn't say anything, I just recorded it and I'll tell you later. I'm really embarrassed to talk to the camera around people.

As soon as I arrived in front of the mansion, I thanked and paid the driver, took my bags out of the car and immediately placed them in front of the door, I sent a message to Max and in 2 minutes he was opening the door for me.

── I thought they were going to let me live in the garden ─ I acted dramatic and he laughed. I think drama runs in the family.

── I missed you, Maya! ─ he said hugging me and messing up my hair, which made me look at him angrily.

── Max! I spent the whole way from the airport fixing my hair and you mess it up when I get here? I just don't kill you now because I'm so tired ─ I said and he just laughed, picked up my bags and took them to the living room.

── Ria, Niram and Aarav went to the market to do their monthly shopping. Lando is sorting out some sponsorship stuff, Steve is still sleeping. Oh, and your room won't be ready until tomorrow, so you'll be sleeping with someone. I'd say sleep in my room, but P is arriving today too ─ he said and I nodded.

── I'm going to stay in Lando's room, I'm going to put him to sleep on the floor ─ I said, picking up my bags and Max laughed, I've always been very attached to Lando, ever since I met him.

Max picked up the remaining bags and took them to Norris's room. I followed him since I didn't know this house yet. It was huge, I would definitely get lost here.

── You can sleep if you want, we'll wake you up for lunch ─ he kissed my forehead and left the room, closing the door.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was 10 o'clock, so I decided to take a shower. As soon as I was done, I put on some comfortable clothes and went back to my room. I saw that Lando had a bulletin board and I went over there, writing that I should finish my vlog later. I would definitely forget.

I grabbed my camera and put it on the nightstand. Soon someone knocked on the door and I said they could come in. As soon as the person opened the door, I saw that it was Pietra and smiled. I went up to her and hugged her. It had been a long time since I had seen her, and I really enjoyed her company.

── Did you miss me? ─ she mocks and I laugh, releasing her from the hug.

── Not at all ─ I replied and she laughed.

── I just came to give you a hug and let you go to sleep. The boys don't know yet, so when Lando comes in and sees that there's someone sleeping in his bed, he'll find it strange ─ she said a few more things and then left the room, finally leaving me alone.

I lay down on the bed and was thankful that Lando had a soft bed. I grabbed my camera and said I was going to sleep, I sent a message asking Max to record Lando's reaction when he arrived and saw that I was here and he agreed.

And then, after a few minutes of trying, I managed to fall asleep.

[...]

── NO WAY! ─ I heard a scream and immediately woke up, looking at the door and seeing a disbelieving Lando, and a laughing Max with a camera right behind him.

I smiled at Norris who came running, threw himself on top of me and hugged me. I missed his hugs, they were so warm. Lando and I have known each other since before I moved to the United States, I met him at one of Max's kart races and we ended up becoming best friends, that was about 9 years ago. Sometimes we would hook up, just for fun, but it never affected our friendship.

── Wow Ma, I missed you so much! ─ he exclaimed without letting go of me.

── I felt it too, Lan! ─ he smiled at the nickname and hugged me tighter, falling down next to me and laying me on his chest.

── I'm going now because I feel like being left out ─ Max said, leaving the room and closing the door, which made us laugh.

── What are you doing here, Yara? ─ he called me and I frowned. I hated that nickname.

My name is actually Mayara, and Lando is the only one who calls me Yara. Throughout my life, he was the only one who dared to create a nickname. When he realized that I didn't like the nickname, he started using it just to annoy me.

── Don't call me Yara, Norris ─ I said and he laughed. ─ And I came to live here!

── I missed annoying you, and I'm glad you're going to live here now. I missed you so much! ─ He surprised me with a kiss and I smiled, shyly.

── I'm sleepy, so if you're going to stay here, don't make any noise, thanks ─ I said, turning to the other side and curling up on the bed. The truth is that even after years of intimacy with Lando, I still felt blushing with every minimally romantic action, and at this moment, I'm sure I'm blushing.

── I'm going to help the boys with lunch. I'll come and get you later. ─ He got up, walked around the bed and stopped in front of me. He held my face and gave me a kiss. And how I missed those kisses. In the end, he smiled and left the room, leaving a completely happy Maya lying on the bed.

[...]

We had lunch, and when it was 2 pm, I put on a bikini and went to the pool area. I was listening to music on my headphones when I heard my name being called. There was no one calling me, just Niram making fun of Lando for not wiping the smile off his face since I arrived.

I sat back down on the lounge chair and the boys decided to stay in the pool. After a while, I remembered that I needed to record more scenes for the vlog so I went in and got my camera.

I started going through the takes I recorded and ended up realizing that Max had set the camera to record Lando's reaction, and then left it on the nightstand, but didn't stop recording, which ended up recording the kiss Norris gave me. I laughed in despair, after all, Ria is the one who edits my videos, and I couldn't cut this before sending it to her because my laptop doesn't support editing applications. And to make matters worse, my computer was an ocean away.

I couldn't erase the take, because it was too funny from that angle, but I had to find a way to convince Ria not to tell anyone.

It's not like it's a huge secret that Lando and I kiss at parties. But homely affection like the one in the video, those are secret. To our friends we only kiss when we're drunk, to my cousin we're just friends who have never touched each other's lips, but between him and me there's a mutual agreement of free will to kiss and make out in private.

Speaking of him, the arms that surrounded me were definitely his, his unmistakable scent invaded my senses, followed by a caress on my waist, a body pressed against mine and a head in the curve of my neck.

── Are you okay, Yara? You didn't go back to the pool ─ Lando murmurs, giving small kisses on my shoulder.

── Yes, I just remembered that I need to record a few more scenes and I came to get my camera. It turns out that I asked Max to record his reaction and he forgot to tell me that this camera was also on, so he recorded our kiss ─ I explain and he smiles.

── It's not like it's a secret ─ he says, moving away and smiling mischievously.

── It's not a secret, but it's not public knowledge. Ria will see it and will ask me a lot of questions, let's pray that she doesn't tell anyone ─ I explain, turning to face him.

── Everyone knew for me ─ Lando lets go.

What do you mean? He's the first one to say he doesn't want anything serious when he's with other girls. It doesn't make sense for him to say that.

── Lando, with all due respect, why are you saying this? I can't even count on my fingers how many girls you turned down in the last year, claiming you didn't want to be with anyone and were focused on your career. I remember well every time you called me drunk to tell me you couldn't have a serious relationship.

── Yes, because none of them were you! ─ the boy says and leaves the room, leaving me confused.

What does he mean by that?

(...)

There are few things I don't know how to deal with well. Among them are injustices and adult tantrums, both of which always irritate me. And dealing with Lando Norris today was being impossible, because it was unfair that he made me confused and his childish tantrum of running away from me all day would have to stop at some point.

That moment came at bedtime. He tried to take as long as he could to come to bed, but he found me awake, sitting on the bed waiting for him. Sighing in defeat, Lando went into the bathroom and changed his clothes so he could sleep, and sat down next to me, both of us watching the television that was off.

── So... Aren't you going to explain it to me? ─ I begin.

── There's nothing to explain, Yara. It's obvious that I'm in love with you, if you didn't notice before it's because you didn't want to. I never made a point of hiding that I would do anything for you.

── You never made a point of talking either, did you? ─ He remains silent. ─ Lando, I'm sorry, but it's hard to read your signals when you're with me for a week and then show up at a club with some girl the next week ─ I'm honest.

I don't hold any grudges or resentment over it, but I admit that yes, sometimes it hurt to wake up to pictures of you with a woman hanging around your neck.

── You never wanted anything serious, Yara, you always made it clear that our lives didn't fit together because I'm always traveling and you live on another continent. I had no choice but to make the most of my time with you and then try to forget the desire to return to your arms ─ Lando vents. I can see his back tense and his gaze get lost between the sheets. ─ But now it's a different story. I thought we could finally have that love story from your favorite books. I thought you would finally notice me the way I notice you. Like when I realized you hold your breath every time something bothers you in one of our conversations about privileges. Or when I realized you hate eating plain or excessive cheese but love four-cheese pizza. Or when I realized you wake up with back pain if you sleep on your right side, so I switched sides in bed...

Watching Lando vulnerable was comforting. Knowing that he felt this way around me and knowing that we can have a future made me deeply happy. Even better was realizing that he had been noticing me all along. He saw me. And I won't deny it, until yesterday I thought I loved Lando just as a friend. But today, after all his speech, I realized that it was never just that. It was never just kisses and hugs, it was never just sleepless nights, it was never just mornings with a hangover. It was never just friendship. Lando was by my side every step I took over the last few years and I hoped he would continue to be there for the next few years too.

Charlie Brown Jr.¹ once said: "They say it's impossible to find love without losing your mind; But for those with strong minds, the impossible is just a matter of opinion; And even madmen know that." And he was right. Love is blind and madness accompanies it, just like the fable by Jean de La Fontaine says. It's unlikely that you'll love someone without having a hint of madness in the mix. After all, only madmen are capable of loving someone so much without losing their self-love. And I loved Lando Norris. I loved him so much!

Loving Lando Norris was a lazy Sunday morning, between kisses, sheets, affection and love on a cold but sunny morning. After all, that was the definition of love for me. I won't know how to explain it, but that was it. And Lando was all that and much more.

Unable to hold it in any longer, I grabbed his hand to get his attention and settled myself on his lap, beginning a slow, passionate kiss that lasted until both of our lungs were begging for oxygen. When our mouths parted, I pressed our foreheads together briefly before snuggling into his shoulder in a warm embrace.

── Thank you. For paying attention, for understanding my side, for giving me satisfaction even when you shouldn't, for loving me. Thank you for being you and choosing me to love you ─ I whispered.

── I'm the one who should thank you here, love. Thank you for loving me, even if I'll never be half the man you deserve to have.

── You are more than I need, Lan.

And maybe, in the end, only the crazy ones really knew. And, God, how happy I was to be one of the crazy ones.

¹Charlie Brown Jr. was a Brazilian rock band formed in 1992 in the city of Santos, by Chorão, Champignon, Marcão Britto, Thiago Castanho and Renato Pelado.

[malfoys-demigod]

What If

Johnny Lawrence x Larusso Sister Reader

Requested by @sammarvel123

Summary: After thirty years, Y/N comes back to Reseda for a job offer, and to reconnect with her "what if", Johnny Lawrence.

A/N: My gosh, it's been a while since I wrote! Hope you enjoy it. If anyone wants more fluffs of Johnny Lawrence, I could try to whip up something good again if I can.

It's been three decades since you left Reseda.

You went south, all the way to Orange County, to take up advertising at the University of California Irvine and landed a job at an impressive advertising firm.

You spent three decades devoting yourself as a workaholic, which on the bright side got you to become an advertising executive, earning big money annually.

But work-life aside? You weren't able to settle down the way your twin brother did. You were emotionally attached still to Johnny Lawrence, the boy who you were secretly in love with. It wasn't best to have sparked a relationship with him during the time as he was a pain in the ass to your brother, but it was just interesting to see a different side of him, a side that he only showed to you since you interested him from the very beginning.

While Daniel and he had picked fights constantly before, you were different towards Johnny, he was surprisingly nice and gentle with you. He'd say hi to you around the hallways, somehow slightly but significantly tone down his violence towards Daniel when you were around, and give you no harm. When you once asked him why he treated you differently, all he could muster up with his bad boy reputation was, "You're different, Y/N Larusso." and gave you a small smile, which he hid from everyone else.

Although you knew he always had the hots for Alli at the time, it felt as if... he also had something deep in his heart for you, but never did anything about it. That's why you felt the need to run away, assuming that he'd never do anything about it ever again.

After thirty years, you were promoted by your advertising firm to become the executive of the Reseda branch. You were somehow excited because this was a huge career opportunity for you and you were as successful as your brother in terms of handling a business. As coming back home to Reseda excited you, it also came to be something that made you nervous.

What had Johnny Lawrence been up to these days?

--

After just arriving from Orange County, you entered the Copper Bucket Bar, still wearing your ritzy, corporate suit, with your designer shades still on as it was scorching hot outside.

"Hi, one cold beer please," you say to the bartender.

"Hm, that's a surprise coming from a corporate lady." said a voice from your left.

You turned, looking to see Johnny Lawrence, a childhood crush of yours, who seemed to be looking the same as ever but even more attractive with age, and who seemed to not have realized he was talking to YOU as you still had your shades on.

"And what does that mean?" you asked, walking towards the seat beside his.

He shrugged, giving a small smile at you, "I don't know, man. I just assumed from the movies that corporate assholes would be drinking martinis or whatever sophisticated cocktails you guys can come up with."

You chuckled, as you got your beer, "You're right. I'm usually sipping cosmopolitans or daiquiris but, I'm back home in Reseda. I think I'd like to celebrate with beer, the Johnny Lawrence way," you winked.

He narrowed his eyes in confusion momentarily after you used his name. "Have you seen my flyers?"

"Unfortunately, but I've seen you in your iconic black gi about thirty years ago, looking sharp as ever," you smirked. As he was still giving a confused yet intrigued to look at you, you finally removed your sunglasses, flashing a cheeky smile at Johnny.

"Hey, Lawrence." you greet him.

Johnny's face went from confused to astonished, as his eyes grew larger. He couldn't believe the woman in front of him was Y/N Larusso, his greatest "what if" and high school crush, who he couldn't do anything with because he was the worst enemy of her brother.

"Y/N Larusso." was all he could muster up at first, which made you giggle again, as you opened your arms for a hug. As he hugged you, he remembered all the sweet times he'd been gentle and nice at school, especially when he came up to you during the All-Valley Tournament and said that your brother was alright.

As the hug started to end, Johnny gained the confidence to speak up first. "Thirty damn years and you look the same as ever, but more attractive and powerful-looking." He said, looking up and down at you.

"Aw, thanks, Johnny," you shyly say, "I could honestly say the same thing to you. You aged like fine wine, Lawrence. From the flyers I've been seeing all over town, you started your own dojo?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "I've only got one student right now, cause the flyers don't seem to be working on anybody. Assholes just throw the flyers I hand out or not even take them."

You gave a pitiful laugh, placing your hand on Johnny's shoulder, which may have developed pink spots on his cheek, "Johnny! Are you mentally still in the 80s? Nowadays, people also spread the word online through social media! You should post some on your Facebook!"

Johnny rolled his eyes with a shy look, knowing that Miguel may have embarrassed him with the fact that he didn't know a thing or two about Facebook. "Uh, yeah," he replied, "I kinda only knew about Facebook a few days ago. Never really understood the whole concept of the internet so I just went along with the flyers still."

A confident grin grew on your face, causing you to grab a calling card from your bag.

"You're in luck, Johnny," you said, showing him your card, "You can be handled by the best of Reseda!"

Johnny took the card, analyzing every detail on it. "You know, Y/N," he said, "I've always wondered what you were up to all these thirty years away from me." still looking at the card, not knowing you were blushing over the phrase 'away from me'.

"Advertising, huh?" he said, acknowledging your career, "Your old card from when you were living in Orange County?" he asked, now looking back up at you.

"Mhm, I'll be getting my new card once I start work next week."

Johnny nodded to your reply, "So Y/N Larusso was a fancy-pants corporate from The OC," he teased you, "Did ya come here with a fancy-pants husband from there too?" he asked, with a slight note of seriousness as his eyes seemed to be wanting to know this answer.

You looked down, shaking your head with a guilty smile, "Um, no, never had a boyfriend or husband while I was there. I was pretty much a workaholic," you say. You now looked up, seeing a somehow relieved and happy Johnny.

"Everyone was a dick and asshole from that snooty place?" he joked.

You didn't giggle this time, as you wanted to give a serious and honest answer. "Yeah, nobody was as nice and lovely to me as you were, Lawrence."

Johnny looked at you with his deep blue eyes, but you now felt so nervous to continue the conversation now that you dropped that sentence. What if he was dating or married to someone already? Fuck! That would be embarrassing for you. You broke eye contact with him and took a last sip from your beer. "But I have to go, and maybe you need to go back home to your wife, whoever she is," you say, getting out of your seat in a hurry, "Okay, bye, Johnny," you quickly say as you turned around and dashed for the door.

"Wait, hold on a sec, Larusso!" Johnny yelled as he tipped the bartender. He ran outside to see you driving your car away from the bar.

--

"And you did, WHAT?" Daniel asked in disbelief.

You were staying the night at Daniel's because you were getting the keys to your new house at Encino the next day. When you arrived at his house, you rushed to find Daniel and you started spilling everything.

"I know, Dani, but I didn't know what to do, okay? I just," you sigh, "It's been forever since I've seen him, and, he just looks great, and maybe I was stupid to have said that," which you were referring to when you told him the reason why you stayed single all your life.

Daniel just rolled his eyes with a smile on his face afterward, "You know, sis," he said, placing his hands on your shoulders, "You still like and he still likes you. Trust me."

You huffed, realizing Daniel knew about your not-so-secret pining about Johnny. "He doesn't have a wife?"

Daniel shook his head, "No, no, no," he said, "He has a son around Sam's age, but he was never on the best terms with the mother. He never really had a stable or serious relationship ever since thirty years ago." "I believe the same with you on that note," he then said, grinning at you.

"Yeah, well that'll never change since I fucked it up earlier," you groaned.

"Nah, I'm sure he'll come around soon. Now that you're back home for good, I'm sure something will happen."

"And you'd be okay with that if ever?" you curiously asked your brother.

He gave a small smile of support, "I think he and I are okay. I actually bumped into him a few days ago and paid for his car repairs. Times have changed, but I don't think his secret love for you has."

You roll your eyes, turning around to hide your blush, "Okay, Daniel, I'm gonna go dip my feet by your pool now."

--

It was only ten to fifteen minutes after your conversation with your twin brother.

You were by the pool, dipping your feet in the water when a doorbell was heard. "DANIEL," you shout, "Someone's at the door!"

You continued to be with your thoughts, wondering what you could have done differently earlier at the bar. Muster up the courage to keep the conversation going? Ask first if he was single? What?

You wanted to ask yourself more questions when a voice caught your attention.

"Hey," Johnny said.

Oh no. The feeling of great guilt and embarrassment swam all over your body.

"Hey," you copied Johnny's greeting, looking at him as he sat beside you.

There was a short moment of silence after, the both of you, just staring at the water. God, were you supposed to start and explain everything? Was that what he was waiting for?

"I don't have a wife or a girlfriend," Johnny spoke up.

You slowly nodded to his statement, pursing your lips together. "Yeah, Daniel just told me."

"Hey, Johnny," you continue, now making eye contact with him. "I'm sorry for storming off like that. I guess I just didn't have the courage to see your genuine reaction when I told you why I was single my whole life. I know we barely talked all the time before, but your niceness and sweetness to me were different and maybe I just always saw you as my 'what if' if we ever had something with you. But I just didn't know if you felt the same since you never really asked me out or have any romantic interactions with me."

Johnny placed his hand over yours, rubbing his thumb in circles, "Y/N, you were my biggest 'what if'. I was such a dick for not choosing to do anything about it, you know, with the bad boy reputation and the fact that you were your brother's twin sister and all. The best I could do was not throw harm on you, but now, I realize how that was the worst and only thing I did. A simple gesture of asking you out on a date would've changed everything, wouldn't it?"

"It sure would have," you agreed, putting your other hand on top of his, "Would you like to try this again with me, Johnny?"

Johnny was not only smiling with his lips, but with his eyes now. He took your hand and gently kissed the back of it. "I'd love nothing more than that, Y/N."

"Perfect." You embraced him, giving him a more, genuine and loving hug to which he hugged you back tighter in exchange.

[littletealseal]

Made these earlier that's why I got something to share asgsgfdffss

Hey art! New stuff! Aaaand if you're in the loop there has been a new cookie run game!.... I'll share my thoughts in a separate part on this post cuz I got a lot to say >_>;;;

But yeah! This is Marbled Danish Cookie! One of the brand new cookies released at Witches Castles launch, honestly when I saw him I was very interested, but then when I luckily got him via the gatcha, I just grew more attached to him! I'm in the middle of the part of the story he's in but I already know he's grade A regressor material 🥹 and since Cheesecake is also in this game I can soooo see her looking after him.

I def can't wait to draw more of him since he's been on my mind ALOT ever since I got him and saw him in the story, so look forward to that c:

Aaaaand now for my thoughts so far on the actual game!...

Cookie Run Witches Castle is so damn pay to win and frustrating to play it's not even funny

It's a mobile puzzle game where you match blocks instead of candy crushing it so you know it's already gonna be very luck based. The gatcha system is very idiotic with how you get things and especially cookie's! Now in kingdoms it's understandable (kinda) that you get soul stones and sometimes actual cookies! Because that's just what the gotcha only offers, in this game however you have residents, furniture and THEN cookies.... it's a real gamble on what you get since you need to max out a meter for anything to get something by ten in the gatcha! And the seasonal one??? Completely pay to win since you can't earn the special currency for it by normal gameplay...

Now I'm probably sounding pretty unfair right? The game did JUST come out, how can it be this ba- I'm on level 253

Let that sink in...

This game also has a story, similar to kingdoms! But the thing is that since it's a damn puzzle game about luck! I can't just play through and enjoy the story, I HAVE to play many levels to get a few story beats... and after you've been stuck on a level for long enough you start to... not really care about the story anymore. Like right now I'm only playing through the game just to see what goes on with Marbled Danish, but after that I can't see myself playing this game for much longer, unless the Devs do something drastically fix all the things I've mentioned :/

Now I can go into more detail about my thoughts but this post is long enough so I'll let you guys enjoy the cute baby cookie here lol

[loremaster]

rain code dlc thoughts

watched em all (spoilers obviously)

desuhiko:

can't believe this guy literally tried flirting with a child. he has gone unchecked for too long. we need to beat him up

enyne is good. i would love to see her in a cool thief outfit

not worth $5

fubuki:

the interactions between the detectives were cute. but i wish she'd gotten a chance to shine more on her own

it was kind of aggravating how slow they solved the mystery though. all that wondering about what the numbers could possibly mean... y'all the die was right there

not worth $5

halara:

kind of a shame that this one was the only actual investigative one. it was great!!! i liked the mystery setup and i liked figuring out how the culprit pulled it off even if the identity of the culprit was obvious the moment he showed up

"Good girl, Sugar" lololololol

good to know halara can be bought with cats instead of shien. love that yakou's totally onto their shit

and the cat they have a picture of is REAL!!! IT'S NOT A RANDOM JPG FROM THE INTERNET (WHICH I HAD ASSUMED)

worth $5

vivia:

i love how before it came out we were all like "please... one conversation with yakou... even just a mention of him would be okay" and then we got hit with a flaming rainbow fist #LoveWins

vivia all like "i wish i had something in this world to care about" and yakou literally forcing open the doors to his cold dead heart in response

the way he keeps flashing back to all the little things yakou has done to care for him... vivia you can't deny the truth anymore. you can't run from these gay thoughts

fellas is it gay to be another man's reason for living? (only if you share an umbrella)

for those who don't know, sharing an umbrella is like the most romantic thing you can do in japan. the only way this could have been more explicitly textually gay is if one of them pointed out how beautiful the moon was.

where's my Melt amv

'i'll enjoy the scenery along the way' *yakou seductively swaying his hips back and forth* HELLO???????????????????????

i hope after that is when vivia finally agrees to that dinner date

honestly up until now i've been very attached to the idea of vivia being head over heels for yakou the whole time and yakou not ever really noticing but now???? my god. this chief really can bisexual

speaking of bi i'm also not opposed to the idea of vivia/ryo... them both being like 'i'm interested in you' 'i'm interested in you too' oh are you now? hmmmm...

and they were both ghosts (oh my god they were ghosts)

I was saying to my friends while we were playing it that it makes sense the first suicide was 5 years ago, before the blank week incident... because otherwise she wouldn't have been a ghost at all, just a walking corpse

loved that line btw. 'all humans are just walking corpses' good news vivia, you're among peers here in kanai ward

worth $5. i mean technically since vivia/yakou dlcs are bundled together (gaaaay) it only cost $2.50 so it's extra worth it.

the amount of fanfiction that will inevitably come out of this is worth way more than $5

yakou:

his hips still do the little wiggle even as a zombie. can't slay the sashay away <3

him thinking of all the other detectives.... UUU....

yuma's flashback is from ch5 after yakou's already dead (but clearly there's still enough of him left...)

desuhiko's... is it from the dlc? idk. he said "i won't cause any problems" and then went on to cause many problems

halara's scene from the dlc is clearly a moment that made a big impression on yakou LMFAO... i mean if halara nightmare sat in MY chair it would make an impression on me too :flushed:

fubuki's i'm pretty sure is from ch.4 as yakou is dying on the floor?? he must have felt so bad, hearing her cry so much while he was fading away and couldn't do anything about it... his last moments UUUUUU

vivia gets the FUCKING aforementioned umbrella scene. sad wet cat man. learning to accept kindness and finding something (someone) worth living for... the exact moment vivia falls in love with him lmfao. and this is the moment that sticks out in yakou's zombie brain. seeing someone in need and actually being able to reach out and help them (for once). ;_;

and then SHE!!!!!!! SHEEEEEEEEEE

i shrieked when i saw her

mad she STILL doesn't have a name but oh man. i love her. i mean i already loved her when i saw the labcoat + turtleneck combo but the GLASSESSSSSS. and her VOICE AARGGGHHH they picked the perfect va for her

She must've given him the glasses while she was still alive, since he's the one wearing them in The Photo. good call, he looks naked without them

and now we really understand why yakou is as pitifully broke as he is, because he can't bring himself to make the corrupt choice that screws over innocent people for the sake of money. love that for him. he suffers so much for the sake of his city

very funny that he couldn't recognize his childhood friend (i'm assuming she recognized him immediately from across the room lmao). love the idea that she's trans. they're t4t your honor

she asked the most useless man to be her bodyguard but we all know who's protecting whom lmao

i feel like she must have been the one who proposed to him. or at least knowingly coaxed him into it haha

AND THE BADGE... UUUUUU.... and her ghost led him to it.... she had such an important job to do...

need to see vivia talk to her now. ghost 2 ghost communication. yakou simp 2 yakou simp

i think she would tell yakou to go kiss that goth boy silly

and most importantly... the medicine. the research... her dream lives on... i thought it was stupid that makoto literally cancelled everything about the homunculus research - sure they didn't need to make any more but how about research into alternate diets? or uv protection beyond like. sunscreen. WHAT ABOUT HER RESEARCH MAKOTO. PLEASE

so the existence of a possible cure for zombie homunculus begs the question... what's next for yakou? we thought his story was done but turns out it's far from yakouver, bitches. he's coming back one way or another.

what will he do with this magical macguffin - bring it to somewhere they can analyze it and duplicate it, or just take the pill himself? how complete is this untested theoretical cure? will yakou Come Back Wrong? is he gonna struggle to speak? (though that'd be a waste of kaiji tang)... is he gonna struggle with the urge to, you know, eat human flesh? i think that would be pretty hot cool

of course there's the chance it won't work at all. or will just straight up kill him, speedrun to reuniting with dead wife

definitely worth $5. or $2.50.

but at the same time since it actually does continue the main plot of rain code in an interesting way (or hint at it) i think they should bundle it with the main game instead of vivia's dlc

i mean if i had it my way they'd ALL be free but... i get it. they gotta gauge popularity somehow (and pay the devs/vas for extra work)

anyway. i should be working on homework but no. this game has absolutely ruined me

[echoweaver]

Like a bunch of others have said, I have been nervous about making a simblr gratitude post because I'll almost certainly leave someone out, and that hurts. I guess I'll start with the disclaimer:

I read everyone I follow. I can't read every post, but I don't keep anyone on my dash who I haven't made a conscious decision to put there. If you've seen a like or a comment from me, I'm reading you, and I'm doing it because I like what you post.

And I appreciate a lot of simblrs I don't follow too. I've had to choose not to follow several who I'd like to follow, simply because of the above -- I read the folks I follow, and I can't let my follow list get too big for me to handle.

I also have a long list of story tags I follow specifically for stories that have a chronology that matters. I use XKit Rewritten on my browser to keep a list of unread posts by tag so that I don't miss posts from long-running stories.

OK, that said, and in no particular order...

@anamoon63 I have enjoyed the heck out of Alan Wilson's wild life. You're one of the reasons I'm poking at TS4 now. I also have gotten attached to Dale Cho and Kelly. They have so much personality.

@treason-and-plot I was intimidated by the complexity of your story for quite a while before I really started to dig in, but I couldn't stay away. You have so many characters! And so many plot threads! And they all weave together into a tangle of personalities that feel all too real.

@kimmiessimmies I'm still just getting to know your characters, but they're so vivid. As I've said in the comments, I really appreciate that Sadie and her entourage are mostly emotionally mature people who are working through their problems in reasonable ways. Characters don't have to be shallow or dumb to find themselves in drama, but it's a challenge to write mature ones.

@bearphase I got sucked in by Clem. Orange has got to be one of, if not the most challenging NSB generation, and you aced it. I've been invested ever since.

@rebouks You sucked a character all the way to rock bottom, and then he climbed out with hope and integrity and took everyone nearby out with him. I'm still not sure how you made such a dark story so warm and friendly.

@zosa95 I always smile when your characters show up on my dash. You're a warm presence in the community and a good storyteller. And your screenshots somehow manage to be extra endearing.

@greenplumbboblover I've never seen someone try to tell a soap opera of all of Sunset Valley. I'm getting a fresh look at characters who almost never get the spotlight. It's so much fun.

@mosneakers What can I say? I'd snatch Coraleye away from her boy if I had a chance.

@danjaley I can only imagine the kind of work that goes into the McCarrics. Reading their story makes me feel like a fly on the wall of real moments of a Scottish landed farmer's life. I've also snatched up a lot of your cc for my own projects.

@declaration-of-dramas You have such a beautifully staged historical setting, and your characters are so wild. I miss Lady Prilly, but this new story you're telling in San Pineda has already caught me.

@natolesims Your NSB has so much personality. Grey is a lot of fun. I hope we'll see Tiana soon. Ella's story really gripped me, and Tiana's was shaping up to be just as intense. Plus, your Disney simalikes are spot on.

@oasislandingresident You're a big reason why I discovered I like longer lifespans! I fell into the all-to-common trap of assuming everything had to be generational. You can discover very different stories when you give sims more space to live.

@pudding-parade You make some of the prettiest sims I have ever seen. I've downloaded about half a dozen worlds from your world reviews, and I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with them.

@queeniecook I can't wait to meet Vera and Caleb's baby. You've got us all in suspense. Your story is such a fun combination of adventure, intrigue, and domesticity. Also, so many pregnancy photo shoots. 😆

@nocturnalazure Last on this list but not least, I think your story is the first one I found on tumblr that I became a passionate fan of. I honestly think in another universe it would be a great TV adventure drama. I jump whenever I see something new on the tteot tag. Thanks for the story.

Thanks to everyone, and to the folks I've forgotten and will feel guilty about later. 😅

[barry-j-blupjeans]

TAZ NC Day 9: Your Job AU

@taznovembercelebration

Look. Look. The chances of running into someone else who knew magic were very, very small. Lup understood that. Magic, while great, tended to be isolating. She was incredibly lucky to have Taako. Lup couldn't imagine what it was like to grow up not knowing what was wrong with you— maybe not ever knowing there wasn't anything wrong with you. If it hadn't been for their tía, Lup wasn't sure if she would have ever accepted that part of herself.

Yes, magic was rare. Yes, it wasn't typically used in public.

And yes, she was ninety-nine percent sure that this Office Depot employee was magic.

It was just— okay maybe Lup was biased in her belief that you had to be a little magic to be able to work retail. Like, there was no way anyone was getting through that shit with no magic whatsoever. But Lup had been here for exactly ten minutes while Magnus went around looking for a new desk and there was definitely some kind of magic here.

The employee at the print counter had been doing nothing but sorting paper since she got here. Maybe it was a slow day, because while Lup wasn't sure what the print center did, it was probably more than just sorting papers. But this guy had been at it for ten minutes straight, easily separating different types of paper (which all looked the same!) into several different piles. It was getting ridiculous at this point. He was barely even looking at the paper while he did this. There had to be some kind of tomfuckery going on.

Lup looked over her shoulder. There was a lady further into the store browsing through different file folders and she could barely see the top of Magnus's head over the shelves, looking at the desk displays in the back. With the coast clear, she made her way over to the print counter, leaning up against it. The employee had ducked under the counter a second ago, a stack of paper in his hands.

When he rose back up, he jumped slightly upon seeing her and said,

"Oh shi—" He coughed, cutting himself off. His name tag was shiny and had a skull sticker (?) attached to it. It read, Barry and then, on the line below it, I love printing banners! "How, uh— how can I help you?"

"Do you really love printing banners?" Lup asked, instead of the magic-related words she wanted to say.

Barry's eyebrows raised a little. "Love it," he said. Lup gave him a look. "Yeah, nah. I— banners suck. Unless you want to get a banner—?"

"I'm good," Lup said, not knowing what she would even use a banner for right now. "I was just— I came with my friend to look at desks but that's super fuckin' boring—" Barry nodded. "— so I've just kinda been walking around."

If Barry had seen here crouching behind the boxes of paper and staring at her, he didn't say anything.

"And then I was wondering what, uh— what kinda paper options you have. Forrrrr. Printing. On papers."

Lup was so good at this. Barry's lips quirked up into a little smile.

"Depends on what you're wanting to print," he said.

"Forms? No. Photo…graphs. Photographs."

"Well," Barry said, wisely choosing to not question the mess that Lup had just made with her mouth. "Usually for photographs, we've got, uhm— glossier options? Hang on." He ducked back under the counter and returned a second later with two pieces of very shiny paper. "Eight point," he said, handing her one. "Ten point." He handed her the other.

These were the same paper. These were a hundred percent the same paper. If Lup had doubted her reasoning before, she knew now. Either this guy was fucking with her or he had wizardly magics to tell them apart.

"What's, uh, what's the difference?"

"This one's thicker," Barry said, pointing to the ten point.

It wasn't. It really wasn't. Lup weighed them in her hands. There had to be some kinda spell to tell the difference, right? Or maybe this guy was just magically attuned to paper? That was probably a thing that happened. Probably. Like Merle's thing with plants.

Actually, Lup really, really hoped it wasn't like Merle's thing with plants.

"It's hard to tell," Barry said comfortingly in Lup's silence.

"I can tell," Lup said, like a liar. She had to let this guy know she was in on the secret somehow. But he didn't seem to pick up on it. Or, if he did, it was hidden behind the customer service mask. This was getting her nowhere. But she couldn't just straight up ask this guy if he had magic. That'd be weird.

"So, uh, do you have a prefe—"

"Are you magic," Lup interrupted.

"Am I… magic?" Barry repeated.

Lup looked over her shoulder, toward the desk displays. Magnus was currently with another employee, showing them a picture of something on his phone. Probably his dogs. Or his office, if he had managed to stay on track. Lup looked back to Barry and set the papers down. She held out her hand and summoned a flame.

"Ah." Lup wasn't good at reading people, but there was something in Barry's expression that made her think he understood. Or maybe it was the customer service mask again. "That is— that's a fire hazard, ma'am."

[acacia-may]

Acacia's Definitive Defense of Langris x Finesse

No one asked about this pairing, but I'm going to ramble about them anyway... especially since I realized I don't think I've ever actually written a proper post about them as this has been sitting in my drafts for over a year (A/N: Yikes! Sorry friends. I completely forgot I wrote this until today when I tried to find that post I was absolutely certain I had made about Langris x Finesse only to find it buried in my unposted drafts 😅🙈 But I'm posting it now to coincide with the ship ask game so it kind of works...? Maybe? I have no excuses...).

Anyways, dear goodness do I have thoughts about this ship. I’m not sure I can even wrangle them all, but I am going to try my best.

I’m sure it’s pretty clear from my blog that I have a deep love for my spatial mage boys and want good things for them which is one of the main reasons why I have a lot of concerns about the whole House Vaude soap opera. A friend of mine (irl) and I once discussed that plotline for literally 6 hours so I could go on and on about this for ages, but I have tried my best to be brief. That didn't really happen so I apologize in advance for all of the rambling.

I've tried to keep the focus of this post on Langris and Finesse's relationship, so please check out this post if you want to hear my many thoughts on the House Vaude succession drama as whole and in general. To keep things organized, I've divided this discussion into 2 main subsections for clarity under the cut!

(Warnings: Black Clover spoilers and discussion of some heavier topics such as childhood trauma and abuse. Arranged marriage is also mentioned)

Why I Think Langris and Finesse Genuinely Love Each Other (not necessarily in a romantic way but definitely in a selfless care and concern kind of way)

One of my most basic premises for my personal interpretation of Langris' character really comes down to the fact that I think what Langris actually wants more than anything else is unconditional love and to be accepted for who he is (rather than what he does/his accomplishments). He wants to have people who love him, a family—but he'd never admit this because he is convinced he'll never get it. He is convinced that love needs to be earned and he can't earn it, and his relationship with Lady Finesse is a perfect example of this, I think.

It hurts Langris that she is just the kindest person ever and she doesn't like/love him (or such is the reality in Langris' mind anyway given the fact that he has carried around that one time she complimented Finral as "she hates me" for literal years in the canon. But I digress). Langris doesn't like games he can't see a possibility of winning. He closes himself off from love and building meaningful relationships because he doesn't think he'll "win" people's love in the end. He's very cynical and jaded in this way, but more than that, he's wounded. It comes from a place of being denied love without strings attached, without conditions for his entire life and of being told his by his parents that love has to be earned and being convinced that he can't earn it, that nothing he does will ever be good enough and that he will never deserve the love he so desperately craves. And in that way, it comes from a fear of being hurt and rejected. When you care about someone, you give them the power to hurt you—and Langris doesn't want that kind of vulnerability. So I think he just completely counts himself out of the running when it comes to Finesse and defers to his brother—assuming (probably correctly) that she’d choose Finral if she was given a choice between the two of them.

All of that said, he can't quite stop himself from caring for her with a genuine love and respect (not necessarily in a romantic sense but he does care for her)—it’s just sealed off somewhere and not something he really thinks about or allows himself to feel (let alone label) until his brother "declaring war" on him brings all of that to the surface and he kind of has to reconcile how much he wants to be the Head of House Vaude (what he’s worked for his entire life) with how much he wants Lady Finesse to be happy. I love how in that scene there is actually a moment (at least in the anime) in which "the camera" turns and we're watching the scene unfold from Langris' eyes/perspective immediately before he gets involved and tells Finral to clean up his act.

(A/N: If you listen very carefully you can hear the sound of Langris' entire world falling apart...)

Okay, bad jokes aside, this is a huge moment for Langris. It takes him all of five seconds to decide that Lady Finesse's happiness is far more important to him than House Vaude, than his title, his future, his own dreams and aspirations that he has worked for literally his entire life and, ultimately, is more important than everything he has looked to for his own self-worth and fulfillment up unto that point (which causes him to have a bit of an existential crisis as he tries to figure out who he is without those things, without being the next Head of House Vaude, but I digress again). It is an incredible act of love to set aside what someone wants for themselves in order to make another person happy—to choose what is best for another person even at great personal sacrifice. Regardless of how you want to qualify that love (romantic or platonic), it does not diminish the gravity of Langris' sacrifice and the willingness he shows to choose Finesse's happiness over the things that are (seemingly) the most important to him in the world.

Up until this point, Langris is this incredibly goal-oriented character who is set on becoming the best, the strongest, and eventually the head of House Vaude which comes off as self-interested and a little ruthless in his willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals, but suddenly, here he is, ready to give all of that up so that Lady Finesse can have the chance to be happy. It's almost like he is saying (honestly, far louder and clearer than any words possibly could), "I love you more than all of that."

Why else would he be helping his brother take over as heir to House Vaude when that actually seems to be something Langris wants for himself? (I know the poll I ran examined some different ideas and interpretations but that's always been my personal take on it). It’s almost like in that moment, Langris has realized that he can’t make Lady Finesse happy (even if he wants to), but he thinks that Finral can so he wants to make Finral into the best he can be for her.

Once Langris is reasonably sure that Finral is at a place that he can make Finesse happy and has become a man "worthy of her," I could definitely see him stepping aside so that his brother could take over their House and marry her—purely out of concern for Finesse’s happiness, and there is something incredibly selfless and very beautiful about that.

I think Finesse's side of things is much more practical. The fact of the matter is that Finesse is royalty in a medieval society where she will inevitably be married off for a political alliance and/or to produce children, and she has probably always known that she needs to marry out of duty/responsibility, so I can’t really see her as that much of a hopeless romantic given the circumstances. If she allows herself anything, it is the hope that she will get to spend her life with someone who does care for her and who she can be content with. I don't think throughout most of Finesse's life and certainly not throughout this whole arranged marriage business that anyone has ever really asked her what she wanted or ever really cared about her wishes before, but Langris seems to have a genuine interest in her wishes and her happiness more so than anyone else. And I think she does care for him (again, not necessarily in a romantic way but it is a genuine care and concern of at least friendship).

As I discussed in this post, when Langris has all that elf-business and the King threatens to dissolve the betrothal and punish the Vaudes, it is Finesse who comes to their defense rather than taking what is quite possibly her only chance at an "out." And it is an informed, free choice on her part. I love her line in the English dub that she "knows Lord Langris and has no misgivings about him" and therefore essentially begs her uncle not to "judge him too harshly." I think there is something very strong and very courageous in her decision to believe in the good in Langris even when he is at his worst, and her concern is truly and completely focused on what is best for him. I'm especially thinking of that moment when she begs him to stop before he does something he will regret. She's worried about him: his hurt and his guilt. She really wants what's best for him, and it's this love for him and this belief in him that really brings out the best in Langris.

My absolute favorite thing about this ship (besides how selfless they are towards each other) is really that Finesse has this way of bringing out this softer, gentler side of Langris that, I think, very few people have actually seen. Langris himself is so insistent on hiding this (probably a learned response from growing up in an environment where any hint of emotion and any sensitivity is viewed as a weakness), but really he has such a deep capacity for love and given the opportunity would be fiercely loyal.

Langris may not care about a lot of people, but the ones he chooses to care about he will love forever. He's just such a tsun about it, I think, so it can be very hard for anyone (and especially for those with preconceived notions of him as a snotty stick-in-the-mud) to see that he's really very sweet and awkward as heck about his feelings. Langris' love might be quiet—it's not very flashy and usually shows itself in doing little, everyday things for the people he loves—but still waters run very, very deep and he has shown that he would do just about anything to protect the people he loves most and make them happy, no matter what that means for himself. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that he would die for Finesse if it came down to it.

Ultimately, I can imagine a lot of different outcomes for this relationship (some of which never, ever cross over into that romantic place). I really just want them both to be happy whether that means they end up together or not, but yes, I could see them happy with each other in a romantic sense under very specific circumstances since they do have such a selfless love for each other (but I think that is probably a discussion for another time because this is already super, super long so I'm cutting myself off in favor of the next section...).

Why I personally think Langris rather than Finral is better suited for Finesse

As much I don't like pitting ships against each other, I don't think it's avoidable in this case since she is going to be in arranged marriage with one of them. To paraphrase a favorite musical of mine, it's not a matter of "if" but which one. And I think it's best for me to just start off by saying that while I do genuinely like and appreciate Finesse and Finral as a ship as well, I personally think that Langris and Finesse are better suited for one another in the long term.

I will admit upfront that this is in part because of my own personal experiences of having a chronic illness (and needless to say that is a personal bias that colors my opinions, so please just keep that in mind), but I think it's important to talk about the fact that Finesse is chronically ill because it's not something I've ever really seen discussed when talking about ships for her and I really think it should be taken into account. Like Finesse, I have been sick for most of my life, and I can really relate to the kind of difficulties and limitations that Finesse likely experiences due to being chronically ill and the realities of the less active and much more slower-paced life she would lead and, by proxy, the life anyone who married her would have to lead. Again, I am not saying that I don’t like or couldn’t imagine her & Finral together (I do genuinely like that ship too), but I almost think Langris is better suited for her in that he actually wants (or seems to want) the slower-paced life they’d probably have together. For instance, there are likely to be frequent situations that would arise in which Finesse is too ill or too tired to go out and her husband would then be “forced” to stay home with her. With Langris, I think, there would never really need to be much of that feeling of guilt on Finesse’s part or the fear that she is taking away something from Langris or being a burden, because Langris isn’t super sociable and would just want to stay home anyway. In fact, let’s be honest here, he’d probably, actually feel kind of relieved that he has gotten out of unwanted socializing. Whereas Finral is a much more lively and sociable person (rather than an "old soul" like Langris), and though Finral would never, ever want Finesse to feel like a burden or to feel guilty about being sick, I could imagine there is more of that feeling (at least from Finesse’s side) that he has given up a lot more to be with her since his active social life would drastically change as soon as they married.

There's also the matter of the panic Finral would probably have whenever Finesse was ill or having a flare of symptoms. Of course, Langris would be worried as well, but I think because of his personality, he is better able to shelve that and help in a crisis rather than Finral who gets really worked up and then just sort of shuts down. Obviously this is something that can be learned over time, but I just worry that it would be a constant source of stress for Finral which would ultimately make Finesse very worried about him and upset that he is upset on her account. I think Finesse would have a lot of fear that the life she could give a lively, busy, & social person like Finral would be holding him back in some way. The question there is really: will what Finral wants out of life ever gel with the limitations Finesse has to live with? Whereas I don't think that question is as much of an issue with Langris since he is an old soul and incredibly steady, very unlike his more restless, adventurous, and high-energy brother.

I think Langris and Finesse are alike in this way. Though they have many differences in their personalities (and a really nice balance there), they have a lot of similarities in worldview and their attitudes towards life and their life goals—being more traditional, formal, and proper ‘old souls.' Whereas I think she and Finral have more similarities in personality (despite him being much more lively), they’re both incredibly kind, gentle & easy-going people who aren’t particularly ambitious and often make decisions based on what will make other people happy and "keep the peace." But worldview wise he seems much more modern and less traditional than her which I could see causing some tensions since I think they want different things out of life, in a way. It’s almost more important to be alike in life goals/worldview than personality, I think.

I also think Finesse and Langris share common interests and genuinely enjoy each other's company (as we get these glimpses of in the anime where they're just having a quiet, comfortable tea parties together for instance). Even if it started off as an obligation to spend time together because of this arranged marriage they were going to be in, I like to think that eventually Langris and Finesse actually became fairly good friends and came to genuinely enjoy each other's company. I guess it’s a bit unfair to Finral to bring this up since we haven’t seen him spend a lot of time with Finesse so we can't say that they don’t enjoy each other’s company but I just don’t see them having the same shared interests that she would have with Langris.

There is a lot more I could say about these two and their relationship, but I think that's enough ramblings for now. If you read this all the way through to the end, bless you. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Cheers!! 💖

[theitcharchives]

I caved. I watched Loki S2

Loki season two was fine but too many of you are being insufferable about the series itself and its lore. Timelines and universes are not interchangeable things–a universe contains timelines according to the series' lore itself and I don't understand how people do not understand this. MCU Loki now holds the timelines of 199999. Quit throwing the 616 thing around (looking at you Feige) and talking about "worlds". Variants are the same people across timelines according to logic, that's why some of the Lokis in S1E5 (iirc episode number) made no sense–Mobius did.

The first season remains one of the worst things I've ever had the misfortune to see, so to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the second is something.

Be warned–pleasantly surprised does not mean "omg it's perfect" it means "I did not expect this measure of respect for character and narrative, there's some good points and there's definitely bad points".

Still, the first three episodes were boring. The narrative in them and in some places of the second three was clunky. Things were underexplained and impersonal, both rushed and scattered. X-05 did not appear outside of the first season premiere, not even the first season proper (according to the internet because I indeed had zero recollection of him and refuse to rewatch S1) yet the second season treats him as if the audience is familiar with him–and it's confusing as heck. I cannot even properly recall what exactly happened in those episodes because it was so clunky and scattered and half explained. Especially the characters and their goals and stakes. I barely cared for Loki's, let alone anyone else's–well except Ouroboros. I love that guy.

Wow, we have to save all these freed timelines? Sure. I mean it's the right thing to do, so let's do it. It would've been so easy to actually get the audience to personally care–have Loki realize in those infinite timelines, there were some he could be happy in. His mother, his brother, even his father to whom his attachment is not resolved, there had to be timelines where they were happy and safe, perhaps even with him. In some of those timelines, Loki gets his revenge on Thanos, he gets to heal. He comes to term with his birth and heritage, he remedies the wrongs he has been done and has done to others in turn. Yes, those timelines deserve to exist, because Loki should know he deserves to be happy too. His "friends" too. Those stories deserve to exist.

Speaking of under-explained... so at one point Loki just... gains control over time jumps? Like that? Did I miss something in the whole thing? Like if it's because it's him, according to The Who being what is important ("in magic", I would have expected) then say it.

Some pieces were predictable. The whole interrogation of X-05 match one and two, the ending path itself (I was surprised by the tree thing though), Loki pruning himself (did that scene really need to be drawn out like that? We get what's happening, get on with it).

Some pieces were drawn out like the self-pruning, like retrieving Victor Timely. The whole time I was like "You've seen him, you can block objects in mid-air and teleport people in cages, snatch him and throw him in a portal so he can see the TVA instead of just talking to him and convince him–why does he need to be convinced?? Show him!!?" Details like these, like the machine that makes the shrinking cubes being left at all in the cell, Ravonna not actually looking to see if any other minutemen were considering her offer before compressing them all (I guess they had to slim down the cast, but man), Loki the Jotun with super strength having to run kilometers to catch one human–silly.

Things that were left out–Thanos, completely. The Jotun heritage. Loki being the scapegoat child in the narcissistic royal family, all his conditioning. It is said he wants a throne, it is never acknowledged why: being groomed to do so since childhood through mentions he was born to be a king, upbringing, education, treatment by family and society. The gender fluidity and sexuality, though with the MCU's regard for those things, it's likely better they left them alone–though the lack of shapeshifting was miffing. New York was handled better than I would've expected, but still breezily.

Now to be fair, many things were good. B-5 outright stating that the pruning the TVA does is an atrocity and convincing others. I'm ambivalent about Loki and Mobius–their relationship in the first season was a terrible one, but they genuinely roped me in in the second. Some things were funny in that delicate way that doesn't need clownery and one-liners that I'd been missing ever since the first two Thor movies. Ouroboros (especially in episode 5–ouch, too close to home). The soundtrack, amazing. The acting came across as more heartfelt. I even managed to tolerate Sylvie in the last few episodes–and oh yeah, leaving romance of any kind out, completely. Thank fuck. Loki actually being the main character of his own series. The fifth and sixth episodes. The sets, the props also felt real. The final outfit is growing on me. The dialogues, the interactions, the camera work, my gods, some parts were amazing. I am willing to rewatch it to make more sense of things, and look at other MCU works to see if it will impact them. I had given up on the MCU–Loki roped me in, Loki gave me back some interest when I thought it was dead for good.

Oh I'm still mad all my searches for comics appearances are cluttered with MCU stuff. I'll be mad until it calms out. "What if it never-" then I guess I'll never stop holding a grudge and complaining.

In the end, I'm just glad Loki got his not-terrible ending. I don't like that his final choice and chance was to sacrifice himself and all his needs for others, sitting in a tree holding the 199999 universe's timelines together, alone after saying teary eyed that he doesn't want to be alone. But it's still better than how he was treated and discarded from T:Ragnarok to Infinity War, and it doesn't exclude Loki from showing up again, some way or the other.

Obligatory link to the Loki comics reading list.

[dawnfelagund]

I normally actively avoid posting about anything where money is attached. I'm making an exception here for a project that addresses what I see as a significant (and growing) need in the fandom.

I (along with a team of incredible comods) run an independent archive, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild. We are one of the only independent archives left, at least in the Tolkien fandom.

We wage a lot of uphill battles to keep our archive open and active, but one of the biggest is the tech side. I'm not an IT pro; I'm a middle-school humanities teacher. I began learning the tech skills to run an archive in 2006 and have been learning ever since. By now, I've devoted hundreds if not thousands of hours to learning how to build and run websites. And it's hard, mostly because it is hard to find information that is written at a level comprehensible by an exhausted middle-school teacher who has a half-hour at the end of her day to puzzle something out. Documentation generally sucks; tutorials often seem to be written at a level just above where I am. My knowledge has a lot of holes as a result, and I sometimes have to give up on something because I can't find what I need to teach me to do it.

The Fujoshi Guide to Web Development is a Kickstarter project that aims to remedy that by producing materials aimed at teaching web development concepts specifically to a fannish audience and with the goal of supporting an independent fannish web, where fans have the know-how to build their own sites, archives, and other web projects. They are very close to their goal. I made my donation today; I'm hoping we might push them over the finish line.

Currently, fans are primarily tethered to a few large sites used for fandom purposes. Some of these are benevolent and trustworthy (AO3, for example); others are not and have taken damaging steps toward fandom over the years (not mentioning any names here ...) All of them have their limitations. The primary complaints I hear about AO3, for example, have nothing to do with AO3 doing anything wrong and everything to do with people wanting AO3 to be something other than AO3. At the same time, I get it: We are at the point where AO3 is often the only choice for many creators to archive their work and the only choice for people who want to enjoy fanworks. Those people are understandably upset when AO3 can't meet their needs because they don't see themselves as having another choice.

But it didn't used to be this way. It used to be (at least in Tolkien fandom) that if you wanted something that didn't exist, you built it yourself. This is how the SWG came to be: some of us wanted an archive just for Silmfic, there wasn't one, so we built one. We weren't alone in this, and we felt empowered because so many other fans were doing the same thing: learning together and teaching and supporting each other as we went. This was when "building a website" meant learning enough HTML and CSS to hand-markup a page or adjust an eFiction theme.

But, as time passed and the internet evolved, our enthusiastically acquired knowledge of HTML wasn't enough to keep afloat sites that were breaking at a much deeper level, and those sites began to disappear. My comods and I did endeavor to gain the knowledge to save our decaying archive and, as noted above, it was not easy, and I do not blame anyone for not doing the same. It was a part-time job for me for over a year, and I'm lucky that I was able to make room for it in my life. It's unreasonable to expect that everyone will be able to do that.

The increasing consolidation and corporatization of fandom is a problem too. We've seen time and again that for-profit companies don't have our interests in mind. All of the fannish stuff we love on Tumblr and Discord and FanFiction.net could be gone tomorrow and for no better reason than someone will make a little more profit if our embarrassing fandom garbage is not there. It's happened before, many times. Even without corporate malevolence, digital data is fragile and having everything in just one place is perilous. While I'm sure AO3, for example, is diligent in preserving our work as best as possible, data losses and breaches do happen all the time.

It used to be that Tolkien fanfic writers would archive their work in three, four, more different places. If one had a data loss, that sucked, but mostly because you lost comments, not because entire swaths of fanworks were gone forever. That level of crossposting is no longer an option.

It used to be that Tolkien fanfic writers would archive their work in three, four, more different places. If one had a data loss, that sucked, but mostly because you lost comments, not because entire swaths of fanworks were gone forever. That level of crossposting is no longer an option.

[xiii-e]

[ghostlyEcho.exe]

Hey, sucker here. A friend of mine got her hands on your echo protocol and grafted it onto her ghost protocol to make whatever the hell this is.

The way she said it worked is that it masked outgoing info by having it sent to different locations in different parts before somehow joining together at or just before the recipient.

She also warned me about decompiling it... Something about using some of Cheep Trick's liturgicode to make the ghost program work making it not safe to disect.

Idk if she was just being silly or not, but since she's a goblin pilot I'll take that at face value.

//For Cogito Ergo Sum\\

Attached: ghostlyEcho.exe

[ECHO.EXE RUNNING]

◂▸ Oh- huh. Wow. This is the uh, first time anyone's ever fucked around with my code before? Milestone passed I guess that's kinda cool :]

◂▸ I uhhhh. Don't know if I particularly want to be putting goblin liturgicode onto my personal device if I'm honest? I may stick to what I know when it comes to my own protection. Can't risk someone finding fucked up external code on my device. Not uh- not anything I don't have an excuse for, at least.

◂▸ Even if they find ECHO, I might be able to hide who I've been talking to. Wouldn't be able to claim deniability that I'd been in contact with the outsie if I had code from a Goblin of all things.

◂▸ Aaaaaand maybe it's the anxiety disorder but I uh. Prefer not to run any code on my personal device that I can't dissect. Or y'know maybe it's the tech support in me. You have no idea what kind of bizzare and fucked up tech bugs a lab full of biotechnicians can end up with because they just do not understand the programs they're trying to use lol

◂▸ Still though, I'm really glad it's coming in handy y'know? It was a tool of desperation when I first made it, mostly. S'cool to see it becoming something greater in the hands of other people :]

[ Helios-8 ]

//

[dragonmasterhiccup]

She scoffed, tying some hemp rope around her biceps to secure her rolled-up tunic sleeves from falling down. “Really? Y’know all I’m hearing right now is a bunch of excuses! Remember when you needed Toothless to come and ‘rescue’ you?” She laughed again, before looking at Toothless and raising an eyebrow at him. “What? Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

Danny immediately took note of the numerous scars that littered his entire torso. Some of them honestly were not surprising; forge scars, burn scars, even the branching scar from when he had been struck by lightning wasn’t all that shocking, considering he had already told her the story behind it.

But then she saw the arrow scar, which caused her eyes to instinctively move towards the scar on his arm, then the one on his side- No, no, not today, today was about having a good time, spending it with family, not stressing over old stuff that’s already done with.

Taking a deep breath, she looked over at Valka, her smile quickly returning. “Oh yeah, this is gonna be great, I’m probably never gonna forget this.”

She gave Hiccup a look as he attached his fin. “What the heck… Dude, you are so weird, oh my Gods. Where- where do you even think of this stuff? What incident has ever happened that brought this on? And I know it wasn’t the need for recreational swimming.”

Smirking, she said. “Close your eyes, now.”

After he did, she waited a few moments, trying to build up the anticipation. After those moments passed, she quietly took a few steps back before rushing forward and shoving him hard off the edge.

Now, she hadn’t meant for this to happen, but due to her forgetting that the rock had been a little wet, she ended up slipping, toppling over the edge with him as well.

Screaming, she hit the water hard a few inches ahead of him, making sure to quickly resurface.

“Oh, crap, that’s cold,” she spat out, teeth chattering as her body got used to the sudden change in temperature. Wiping her face, she looked around for Hiccup, her eyes squinted due to water getting in them. “Hiccup? Where are you?” Did he forgot to come back up? Dumba**

Rolling his eyes, he nodded. "Yeah, because between the shock of the cold, the armor, and my leg, I was having trouble getting back to the surface."

Toothless grumbled, listening to Danny. After her remark, he huffed, going back to what he was doing.

"This time, I'm prepared!" Hiccup grinned.

Valka, standing next to Danny, saw the change in her expression. "It is a lot, isn't it?" Her voice was soft. "To be so young, and have so many marks...I often wonder how much less it would be, had I stayed." Shaking that feeling off, she inhaled sharply. "Well! I hope the joy we all gain from today lasts as long as it can, Thor knows we all need it!" She winked at Danny.

Hiccup, securing his swimming fin, chuckled. "Oh, you know, I had to free a Submaripper. Needed to swim fast and be pretty deep underwater. This really came in handy, and I've made a few adjustments since, but it does the trick."

Eyebrows raised, he hesitantly obeyed, closing his eyes and steadying himself.

She was dragging it out, wasn't she? For the love of Thor, how long did she expect him to---

"OOOF!"

She actually took him by surprise! He knew she was going to push him, but she had waited just long enough for him to relax before full body shoving him off the edge.

Eyes now wide open, he yelled all the way down, making sure to straighten out his arms and legs so hitting the water wouldn't hurt. Only halfway to the water did he register that Danny was screaming.

He looked, and saw her flailing through the air next to him, hitting the water with a loud fwap! and he hit the water as well, with a much smaller splash.

The water was a little cold, but it wasn't nearly as cold as last time. He knew it would feel warmer in a few minutes.

He stayed under for a moment, holding his breath, waiting for the air bubbles to clear before surfacing, taking a big gulp of air as he did.

Running a hand through his hair so it wouldn't drip into his eyes, he swam over to Danny. "So, I'm guessing you didn't plan to go down the cliff with me, huh?" He chuckled. "You are okay, though?"

Taking note of her teeth chattering, he nodded towards an area of the lake with the sun streaming down on it. "Why don't we swim over there? It should be a bit warmer, don't you think?"

Valka and Astrid, watching from above, were only just breathing normally again after seeing Danny topple over the side and scream during her fall.

Seeing everyone was fine, Astrid took a few steps back. "Are you sure you won't join us, Valka?"

"Oh, no, I'll keep an eye on things up here for now. The dragons will keep me company."

"Alright, then here I go!"

Astrid took a running start, leaping off the edge, and, arms first, orchestrated a perfect dive.

She landed in the water with a small splash, probably half of what Hiccup's was.

Hiccup, beaming with joy, watched her as she dove, complimenting her as soon as she surfaced. "Well done, Milady! That was perfect!"

Astrid grinned, swimming over to join them. "Thanks!"

[pastafossa]

Stumbling and crashing and tripping with various crashes and a Wilhelm scream into your askbox to ask, YOU PLAY BG3????? ISN'T IT GREAT?!?!?!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH AKSHQKXBQ it's been my Focus since December!!! Who's your favorite so far?? How far are you in?? What kind of route are you doing?? Have you discovered any funny loopholes yet?? What race do you favor playing?? I LOVE to hear about other peoples playthroughs,

IT'S GODDAMN AMAZING AND I ALREADY HAVE MULTIPLE PLAYTHROUGHS PLANNED BECAUSE ONCE IS NOOOOT ENOUGH! I AM IN LOVE. Like I know these types of games (I've been a Bioware slut since KOTOR 2, so I looove this genre), and so I feel very confident saying holy shit, BG3 is one of the best! ALSO IT'S HUGE??? INSANELY HUGE??? AND FULL??? I LOVE IT SM.

Oh god favorites are hard, I'm gd attached to all of these little ducklings following my Tav. So far at least, storywise it's SCRATCH HE IS THE BESTEST BOY maaaybe Astarion. I LOVE his arc, his voicework is stunning, (I accidentally killed him with the big monastery laser and his reaction was hysterical) and his quest has been very moving. A close second is KARLACH, MY GIRL, MY FIREY BFF, like damn I HAD my little battle group (Gale + Astarion + Wyll) when I found her but I adore her so much I'm rotating Gale and Wyll to keep her permanently, SHE JUST WANTED A HUG. 😭

I'm in act 3, I just hit the city! I have no idea how but I am also STILL on my first PT after over a month of play. I love to sniff around under every nook and cranny granted, AND YET I STILL MISSED THINGS, IT'S SO BIG???

So far my route has been a chaotic good route! Outside, uh, occasional murdery hiccups goodbye creche but ya'll were assholes I've mostly managed to follow that alignment, and somehow still made friends with Lae? That was unexpected. I thought she hated my Tav's guts before she hit on her. 😂

Hilarious moments: setting off the giant laser at the monastery cause why wouldn't I grab the shiny weapon (sorry Astarion); being instakilled by Vlaakith at said monastery after basically mocking her with 'if you were really a god you'd be able to just kill someone yourself ha ha-splat'; friends telling me to talk to animals so I got excited when I saw a squirrel and ran to talk to it - it proceeded to bite me, then I failed a persuasion roll about being friends and it told me to fuck off; trying to get to that dwarf lady's husband in the Underdark and shooting an arrow at one of the mushrooms in the field he was in, thinking I could clear them one by one to get to him, only to set off a chain reaction that incinerated him and left the entire field a smoking crater (me as the explosions begin: oh, OH, oh no - wait, sir! Sir! Oh you're fine, you're - oh fuck, RUN SIR RU-shit he's dead); placing my druid in rothe/battle cow shape at the top of a ladder and charging whatever bad guy comes up so they fall back down (catchphrase: MOO, BITCH); and finally, I was having trouble with that one boss guy in the goblin camp, the one that sits on the throne. So when I saw I could get to the rafters, I painstakingly dragged every last explosive barrel and grenade I could find into the room and innocently placed them around the throne, then went up to the rafters and had Astarion shoot a fire arrow. I figured I'd at least bring the guy's health down but instead I set off the fourth of july, blasted that guy so hard he bounced around the room like a pinball before his body wound up glitch-stuck halfway through a wall, but hey, dead as a doornail sooo... it worked? Chaotic good alignment: MASTERED. 🤪

I'm playing a half-elf druid CAUSE I CAN BE AN OWLBEAR OR DINOSAUR TO FIGHT. I now have a chance to run around as a dinosaur druid with my 200 yo elf boyfriend, my BFFs, and find random bowls of poutine, this is the BEST GAME EVER. Also hilariously, I didn't check the stats closely and her intelligence wound up quite low, so she is very wise but also dumb as a bag of hammers, I love her, my first Tav is a good-hearted, unintentional bundle of chaos.

[sweetmonsooncos]

The First Cosplay I Ever Made...

Last year, I took a dive into a very dangerous rabbit hole of sewing. It came about for two reasons:

Number One - My Mum would make amendments to my clothes for them to fit me better like shortening trouser legs and such - it always seemed so simple so I wanted to learn how to do it as well.

Number Two - Because of my body type, there were certain cosplays I just couldn't buy pre-made due to Asian sizing not catering to me.

So I wanted to share the process of me making my first ever cosplay from scratch and how I managed to achieve it.

And the cosplay is...Mikan Tsumiki from Danganronpa!

Mikan has always been a very polarising character within the DR fandom I've noticed, but me personally I really like her! She was one of the very first characters I cosplayed and she's gone under alot of alterations since I first got into her. So let's dive in to how I made Mikan!!!!!

So first thing I did was buy my fabric. I went to my local fabric shop and picked up some white, pink and blue cotton. Ultimately I didn't end up going with the blue pictured here because I made a mistake and had to buy more fabric. I went with a lighter one because I was a tit and didn't think to colour match but the lighter skirt worked out better in the end so I'm going to pretend I did it on purpose 🙈

First thing I tackled was her apron, which I figured would be the easiest thing to begin with! So, I measured out the white fabric and cut it out, then used a basic running stitch to put it altogether. I also cut a longer strip, neatened it up on the sides and then attached this to the top to make a tie for her apron. Using some red ribbon, I hot glued that down on the sides to make that piece appear. I wasn't sure whether to sew on the ribbon, but I'm actually really glad I didn't because if any of you read my Jolyne cosplay post, sewing with ribbons is a BITCH 😭

Then I went in and did the bottom of the apron, adding some very square pockets and neatening up as best I could!

I also binge watched Staged on my iPad (you can see the glorious David Tennant in the corner) while I sewed this all up and that show is just another reminder how well David Tennant and Michael Sheen work together on stuff

When it was ready, I attached the full apron together and it was done! I went in later on with a fabric pen and drew the blue symbol towards the bottom of the apron which you'll see in the finished photos.

Next was her skirt! I had a vague idea of how the skirt making would go; the first photo was the material cut to size and the second one was my first attempt at making it pleated...it wasn't great 😂 You can see from the side that it looks HORRENDOUS - I showed it to my friend and he said it looked like a parachute so clearly it wasn't giving the desired effect 🙈

After my second attempt, I was a bit put off trying to sew in pleats again, so I just ironed them down and it came out a lot better! I neatened up the top and bottom and the skirt was completed. I do want to add since I took these photos, I actually recently went and added a zip to the back of the skirt so I can get it on easier! I also made it fit me a little better too.

Next was her blouse! For this, I read up about using pre-exsiting clothes to make patterns for sewing, so I got a blouse that I use for my Kaede Akamatsu cosplay and made a pattern out of it. I then went and cut the fabric out and basically sewed it altogether.

And it was during this process, I came face to face with a new enemy...SLEEVES.

Oh my god, I absolutely CANNOT STAND SLEEVES. I tried SO hard to understand how to put them on, but I could not for the life of me work it out. To this day, I still struggle with adding sleeves to my projects and I absoliutely hate having to sew them. I made a little test sleeve out of some spare fabric to see how it would sit on my arm, but I really struggled with the fit on the shoulder so I went for a different style instead which was easier to work with (but only slightly).

So after the sleeve debacle was sorted, I went and added some elastic on the ends of the sleeves as trim, which I hoped would make it bunch up like it does in her original outfit, but it didn't really work out that well. I'm probably going to revisit this at some point in the future to make it a bit more bunched, but that's for another time! I also made a collar and gave the blouse some buttons.

This was the first try on of the complete outfit and you can tell how pleased I am with it! I was so proud of making this entire thing by myself and although it is far from perfect, I did learn a lot through the process and it felt so nice to be able to wear a cosplay I had completely made from scratch.

And here is the cosplay in full with makeup and hair!!!

For my first ever cosplay from scratch, I am extremely proud of it and am happy to say it has held up well almost an entire year later!

[fourseasonsfigs]

New Year Joint Special Project - Bedema Lake

At long last, I'm posting about the final set in this amazing series! It's been a long time coming.

This is one set in a collaborative series of six among five fig makers that were designed for the Lunar New Year 2022. This project launched on February 22, 2022, and included 4 Wenzhou sets and 2 Junzhe sets:

If you ordered during the early bird period, you would get a piece of a magnet which formed part of a larger piece of art. If you got all 6 magnets, you could complete the whole art piece.

My first post in this series was back on October 6, 2022, with the Armory set. I received this final set in the warehouse right around December 2022, but I had some delays of my own sending it out from the warehouse, and then I've been holding off on posting it until I had enough time, since this is gonna be a long post.

This was the fig set I was most excited about all of them (and I was very excited about them!), because the Episode 6 lake raft scene is 1) epic, and 2) so active it seemed incredible we could get a fig of them in motion.

This was not an easy set for the fig maker to make, either. She was displeased (to say the least, her text messages berating the factory boss for changing the specs without asking her were hilarious) with the factory's initial run of the lake water, as they modified it significantly from the sample. She had it re-run, and then had the factory include the version she rejected since it had already been made. After seeing the two versions, I really appreciated her care and thoughtfulness as to detail, because she was right - her original IS way better.

You can see all the pieces here. There's a lot of them! The fig maker helpfully posted a step by step guide to putting it together. The lighter plastic lake base on top is the one the factory initially made - it's just a light clear water colored plastic. The one on the left side is a much, much heavier, thicker piece of solid resin (? I think it's resin?) that not only looks way better but is much more stable. The figs are there in their sealed foil bags, and the lake raft together with it's bottom logs are in pieces around them. I usually have the warehouse toss the glue (it's restricted) for mailing, but this appears to have accidentally slipped on through.

Here's the logs attached to the bottom. I tried museum putty first...and then museum wax...but neither was strong enough for the weight of the figs. I had to end up cleaning all of it out and just using my glue. Funny I didn't even think to use the glue that was sent - I just pulled out my trusty industrial strength glue. You can see where the thin rectangular slot at the bottom fits into the lake base. I just flipped it over and glued it in.

A better comparison of the lake bases. You can see even more clearly here how much better the top one is in every respect. I'd make a horrible pun that the bottom one should be called Badema Lake, but we're all better than that.

We're gonna forget that pale imitation lake ever existed. Here we are with the real deal! You can see the peg up there on top for Lao Wen, and it's a bit hard to see, but there's an indent down at the base for our temporarily-still-Hobo-Xu.

By the way, I never knew this lake even had a name before this fig set, much less that it was called Bedema Lake. I feel like we're all better prepared for SHL quiz trivia now.

Here's Lao Wen with his balancing foot ready, and A-Xu with a very sturdy wide stance. No one told him when he was practicing martial arts that one day he'd be doing horse stance on a raft, fighting off weapons-grade flirtation.

Lao Wen would be delighted over this picture, since it looks like A-Xu is chasing him! I love the expressions on their faces - A-Xu looks wary, and Lao Wen looks absolutely, delightfully incorrigible.

Here we go with A-Xu getting fitted out for his pose...

...and Lao Wen landing as light as feather on the raft end!

Here's the best angle to see how both of them attach to the base.

Alright, we're going to go for a spin around the lake raft. This was a bit of a hard set to photograph, with the phone focusing on some areas and leaving others blurry, but please don't mind the amateur work. Here we go!

Looks like I'm going to use up all 30 of the allowable pictures per post for this one! Let me get one last angle...

And last but not least, the box cards and box:

Absolutely delightful, isn't it? I like the dog on the raft, and the cat just peeping out of the bushes. Too cute.

Material: PVC (figures) and resin (lake)

Fig Count: 283

Scene Count: 22

Rating: The pinnacle!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]