#finally have a coloured piece to show in general

[frosty-tian]

Day 5 of YoSante Week!

Sunrise/Sunset

“Greet me like the sunrise, and embrace me like the sunset. I hope fate would bestow you what I’m deprived of.”

Link to week’s prompts.:

[l0vergirlsw0rld]

day nine: stripping | NSFW MDNI 18+

The bass from the lounge music reverberated through the walls, creating a soft hum in the locker room as you finished getting ready for your shift. It was a regular Tuesday night, the 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. crowd wasn’t usually wild, but tonight you expected your favourite regular—Logan. He was different from the others, an older man with salt-and-pepper hair, a thick beard, and a ruggedly handsome, weathered face. He was the kind of man who exuded quiet strength, drawing you to him in a way that none of the other men did. Logan wasn’t there to paw at you like the rest. He just liked to watch, a silent observer who never missed a show, always tipping generously.

Sometimes, you'd keep him in the back room longer, just to chat. He had a lonely air about him that tugged at something inside you. Maybe it was the remnants of a time when he wasn’t so alone, when he was surrounded by people—adoring fans, teammates, a whole world of action and adventure. You knew who he was. It didn’t take long to recognize him as a former X-Man. You had grown up idolizing this very man, and now, here he was, one of your regulars.

It was surreal how life worked sometimes. Unlike your other patrons, Logan wasn’t interested in having you stroke his ego or reminisce about his glory days. He wasn’t looking for validation. He was here for you. Logan’s attention was genuine, and when he looked at you, you felt seen—not as a performer, but as a person. His eyes had followed you from the first night you’d locked eyes at the bar, and since then, he never missed a single one of your shifts. You were his reason for coming back.

As you finished applying a thick layer of gloss to your lips, you glanced at yourself in the mirror. The fluorescent lights of the club glinted off your favourite outfit—a yellow two-piece with blue detailing, a conscious nod to Logan’s old uniform. The top was a crisscross bikini-style with a mesh-net long-sleeve cover-up that hugged your arms, while the bottom was a thong with blue stripes that framed your hips and ass perfectly. It was skimpy, sure, but the thought of him appreciating the colours made your heart race. You knew he’d request a dance later, and you wanted to look your best for him.

Satisfied with your final look, you stepped out from behind the velvet curtains that served as doors, pushing them aside as you made your way onto the main floor. The dim lighting and soft, pulsing bass set the mood as you scanned the room. Your eyes landed on Logan, seated at his usual spot at the bar. His drink was in hand, but this time he wasn’t facing the wall—he was watching you.

The moment your eyes met, a small smile curved his lips, sending a flutter through your stomach. He looked as handsome as ever, his beard neatly trimmed, dressed in a crisp white button-down beneath a dark suit jacket. His posture was relaxed, but his gaze—hungry. You could feel it as his eyes swept over you, lingering on every inch of skin your outfit left exposed.

You made your way over to him, heart beating a little faster with every step. He tossed a few bills on the counter and pushed himself off the stool, standing to greet you. The closer you got, the more your pulse quickened under the heat of his gaze.

“Hi, Lo’,” you greeted, a wide smile on your lips as butterflies filled your stomach. The intensity of his eyes as they scanned your body made you shiver.

Logan bit his bottom lip, his eyebrows raising in appreciation as he took in your outfit. “Y/N, you look... damn good,” he said, his voice low, gravelly.

A giggle escaped your lips, shy under his attention. Something about his presence always made you feel flustered, even though you were used to compliments from men every night. “Thank you,” you replied softly. “You look good too. You put on the cologne I like, didn’t you?”

Logan chuckled, running a hand through his thick hair. “Caught me,” he rasped. “Figured you might like it. Backroom as usual?”

You nodded, slipping your hand into his, feeling the rough calluses on his warm skin. His hands were always warm, comforting against your cool fingers as you led him toward the private room. Even in platform heels, Logan still towered over you, his presence dominating, but in a way that made you feel safe.

Inside the private room, the dim lighting cast a soft glow on the velvet sofa as you flicked on the ‘occupied’ sign, shutting the door behind you. Logan wasted no time, sinking into the plush couch with his legs spread wide, his drink still in hand. His eyes stayed glued to you, admiration mixed with desire, as if he couldn’t get enough.

“Before I start, you want me to light your cigar?” you asked, pulling a lighter from your top, flicking it on to reveal a small, flickering flame.

Logan smirked, pulling a cigar from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. “You read my mind, baby girl,” he chuckled, wedging the cigar between his teeth.

You leaned forward, the lighter in one hand, the flame glowing as you bent to meet him. His eyes dropped to your chest, where your cleavage was pushed up by your arms, and you saw his breath hitch just a little. Slowly, you lit the tip of his cigar, watching as it caught fire and began to glow a deep red. Logan took a long drag, exhaling the smoke in a slow, satisfied breath, never once taking his eyes off you.

There was something unspoken in the air, something electric. You’d seen Logan in this club more times than you could count, but tonight felt different. Maybe it was the deepening crush you had on him, or maybe it was just the excitement of seeing him again after the weekend. As his gaze bore into you, every nerve in your body felt alive. You tossed your lighter aside, watching as he settled deeper into the velvet couch, his eyes roving over your figure like he was memorizing every inch.

With a small, teasing smile, your hands reached for the mesh cover-up, sliding it slowly off your shoulders, revealing the soft glow of your freshly moisturized skin. The music in the background seemed to fade away, as if it was just you and Logan in the world, the rest of the club disappearing into the periphery. His eyes never left you, following every deliberate movement you made.

“How was your day, love?” you asked in a low voice, taking your time to slip your arms out of the sleeves one by one, dragging out each motion, putting on a private show just for him.

Logan took a slow drag from his cigar, exhaling a cloud of smoke as he answered, his voice gruff. “Better now. And you?”

A grin tugged at the corner of your lips as you let the garment fall from your fingers, watching it drop to the floor in an almost exaggerated fashion. “Better now,” you repeated, your tone playful as you took a long, confident stride toward him. Only a foot of space remained between you. The soft glow of blue and purple LED lights bathed your skin in a cool haze, giving the moment an almost dreamlike quality.

You began to move in time with the music, slow and sensual, letting your hands explore your own body, dragging your palms over your curves, feeling the way your skin responded to your touch. It was less about the dance and more about the intimacy of the moment. You knew Logan wasn’t here for a show—he was here for you. The way his eyes darkened, his jaw clenching slightly, showed you that no matter how many times he’d seen you move like this, he was still captivated.

A low moan slipped from your lips as your hands traced over your hips and up to your chest, feeling the electricity of his gaze on you. Logan swallowed hard, shifting slightly in his seat. Even though this wasn’t the first time he’d watched you perform, the effect you had on him was undeniable. His grip tightened on the glass in his hand as you moved closer, and for a brief moment, you wondered who was truly in control here—you or him.

The soft glow of the lights did a perfect job of masking the flush creeping up your cheeks, though you felt the heat of it burning through your skin. You could feel Logan’s eyes on you, watching with the same unwavering focus he always had, seated in his spot like an obedient patron. Unlike others, Logan had never tried to overstep boundaries—he never touched without permission, never pushed past your comfort. There was a safety in that, a rare sense of respect you’d come to appreciate deeply. A part of you wanted to reward him for being different, for being patient.

You turned on your heels, exposing your backside to him, and the low, primal growl that escaped his lips sent a shiver down your spine. You gripped the pole in front of you, arching your back and using the leverage to lean forward, presenting yourself to him in a way you’d never done for anyone else. Your core was already dripping through the thin fabric of your panties, and you knew Logan could see it—smell it, even. The air in the room felt thicker, your scent mingling with the low musk of his cologne, and it seemed to intoxicate him.

“Fuck sakes,” he muttered, voice rough with restraint as he drained the last of his drink and set the glass on the floor beside him.

“Like what you see, Lo’?” you teased, glancing over your shoulder at him, your voice laced with playful mischief.

“I always do, darlin’,” he hissed through gritted teeth, his hand twitching as he adjusted the obvious bulge straining against his pants.

You bit your lip, the words slipping out of you before you even had time to think them through. “You can feel if you like.” You started to sway your hips, making your ass jiggle and semi-twerk for him, knowing exactly what kind of reaction it would provoke.

Logan’s eyes darkened, and he sat up straighter, disbelief flickering across his face. “You serious?”

“I’m serious,” you whispered, grinning as you felt the warmth of his large hands ghost over the curve of your ass. His touch was slow at first, tentative, but it quickly became firmer as he mapped out every inch of your skin with his fingers, savouring the moment he’d been waiting for.

“Fuck, you’re perfect,” he growled, squeezing your cheeks gently, his grip still hesitant but wanting. The feeling of his hands on you sent a wave of heat through your body, and you let out a low moan, a ripple of pleasure mixing with the adrenaline of letting him touch you like this. You had never allowed any other customer to get this close, to breaking that barrier—but Logan wasn’t just another customer, he was different.

You released your grip on the pole and lowered yourself onto Logan’s lap, his strong hands sliding instinctively to your waist, holding you securely as if making sure you wouldn’t slip. His touch felt protective, sending a wave of warmth through you. You let your head fall back, resting it on his broad shoulder, your hair cascading down as you whispered, “You know, you're very special to me. I've never met anyone like you.” As you began to slowly grind in gentle circles against his firm, throbbing erection, you could feel his size pressing through his pants, confirming every suspicion you had about him being well-endowed.

Logan’s voice rumbled in his chest, vibrating against your back. “So are you, darlin’. You have no idea.” The cigar remained gripped between his teeth, his voice rough and deep, filling you with a sense of raw desire.

You pressed a soft kiss to his neck, your lips lingering for a moment before you sat upright, pulling your hair over your shoulder and exposing the clasps of your top. “Would you mind helping me?” you murmured. Without hesitation, his hands moved up to your back, undoing the clasp with swift, practiced precision. The straps of your top slipped off your arms immediately, and you removed the garment torturously slow, teasing him as his eyes flicked up to the mirror across from you, watching your every move.

You pushed yourself off his lap carefully, balancing on your feet as you turned your back to him again. Hooking your thumbs under the waistband of your panties, you heard Logan inhale deeply, the subtle sound of him taking another drag from his cigar. Slowly, you peeled the fabric down your legs, deliberately dragging out the motion to give him a full view of every inch of your skin as it became exposed. When the thong reached your ankles, you bent over, staying low as you stepped out of them, giving Logan a view that made him growl under his breath.

Rising back up, you turned to face him, locking eyes. The air was thick with tension, the heat between you almost unbearable. “I want you, Logan,” you confessed, biting your bottom lip. “I’ve wanted you for a long time.” You straddled his lap facing him this time, your knees digging into the soft velvet couch, your bare pussy hovering just above his aching erection.

His eyes darkened with pure, unfiltered lust. “So have I, baby,” he rasped, his voice gravelly and hoarse from desire.

“Then take me,” you whispered, leaning into him, your lips so close to his. And in a heartbeat, his lips crashed against yours, hunger and need pouring into the kiss. His large hand cupped your face, pulling you deeper into him, and you melted into his touch, your body pressing into his as the tension between you exploded into fiery passion, while his other held the cigar. Every stroke of his lips, every flick of his tongue made your heart race faster, sending electricity through your veins. 

You moaned into the kiss, your sounds blending with the heat of the moment, each kiss more intoxicating than the last. Logan's experience was evident—he knew exactly how to make you feel desired, how to take his time while still making your body ache for more. His rough hands travelled down your body, stopping at your breasts. His palms, rough like sandpaper, cupped you with deliberate pressure, squeezing as his fingers found your hardened nipples, rolling them slowly between his fingers. The sensation sent a sharp wave of pleasure through you, making you whine into his mouth.

Logan smirked against your lips, clearly enjoying the effect he had on you. His hands continued their journey south, gripping your ass harder this time, the action firm and possessive. You welcomed his touch with a small gasp, feeling the warmth of his hands and the strength in his fingers as they explored your body like they were made for it. He knew he was invited now, and that made his touch even more deliberate.

Then his fingers slipped between your folds, his rough fingertips brushing over your wetness. The sudden jolt of pleasure made you gasp, breaking the kiss for a brief moment as your breath hitched in your throat. Logan pulled back slightly, searching your face for any sign of hesitation, but all he saw was the fire in your eyes—a hunger that mirrored his own. You wanted more, craved more.

Without saying a word, you dipped your head to his neck, planting soft, wet kisses along his skin. Your lips left a trail of heat, and you could feel him squirm beneath you, his muscles tensing as you sucked gently on his skin, marking him with each kiss. The feeling of his squirming, the way his breath quickened, gave you a sense of control that sent a thrill through your body.

"Fuck, darlin'," Logan groaned, his voice hoarse and rough as your kisses worked their magic on him. His fingers slid deeper between your folds, teasing your entrance, his touch confident but restrained, like he was savouring every second before taking things further. His reaction only fueled your own desire, and you pressed your body harder against his, needing him in every way possible.

Logan didn’t hesitate. He slipped a thick finger inside of you, the sudden stretch making you moan against his neck, your fingers tightening their grip on his jacket. The roughness of his touch, the sheer size of his hands, everything about it made your body react instantly. He moved his finger with purpose, pumping it in and out, coating it in your slick as he explored you deeper. Each motion was calculated, his pace deliberate as he watched you with hooded eyes, gauging your every reaction.

And then, he found it—your g-spot. With a skilled curl of his finger, he brushed against that sensitive spot, hitting it again and again with perfect precision. A wave of intense pleasure shot through your body, and you flushed bright red, overwhelmed by the sensation. Your breath hitched, and without even thinking, you pushed yourself down harder onto his fingers, craving more, needing more.

"That’s it, darlin'," Logan growled softly, his voice deep and husky. He could feel the way your body responded to him, the way your muscles clenched around his fingers. His free hand found its way back to your hip, holding you steady as you rocked against him, matching the rhythm of his movements.

You were losing yourself in the feeling, the pleasure building inside of you with every stroke, every curl of his fingers. Your nails dug into his jacket as he continued to hit that perfect spot, your moans growing louder, more desperate. The room felt smaller, the air thick with tension and lust, and all you could focus on was him—Logan, and the way he was making you feel like you were coming apart at the seams.

Logan’s fingers never faltered, relentless in their pursuit of your pleasure. He worked you over with perfect control, the roughness of his touch driving you higher and higher, until the heat pooling deep inside of you began to boil over. Your breathing became erratic, each breath more ragged than the last as you clenched around his fingers. The pressure in your core intensified, coiling tighter with every stroke, every curl of his finger against your sensitive spot.

“Logan… I—” You couldn’t finish the sentence, your words breaking into a desperate moan. You pressed your face into the crook of his neck, your hands gripping his shoulders as you rode the edge.

“That’s it, darlin’,” Logan rasped, his voice thick with desire as he felt you tremble against him. “Let go.”

And that’s all it took. With one final curl of his fingers, hitting that perfect spot, your body tensed. The pleasure exploded through you in a rush, crashing over you like a wave. You cried out his name, your entire body shaking as the orgasm tore through you, every muscle clenching as you came undone in his arms. Logan kept his fingers moving, drawing out every ounce of pleasure as your walls fluttered around him, your slick coating his hand.

Your vision blurred, the room spinning as the intensity of it all washed over you. You collapsed against him, your body limp, chest heaving as you tried to catch your breath. Logan didn’t rush you, keeping you close as you trembled, his fingers finally stilling inside of you as you came down from your high.

“Fuck… that was…” You couldn’t find the words, too lost in the haze of satisfaction. Logan pulled his fingers out of you slowly, his hand caressing your thigh as you settled against him, a small smile playing on his lips.

“Good girl,” he whispered, pressing a soft kiss to your forehead.

"Wow, we need to do that again." You mumbled breathlessly.

"I'll pick you up at two," He said smugly, taking another drag of his cigar. 

🏷️:@back2thebasics @spookyfunhottub, @lanassmarty, @hypermarvellove @kbear8863 @squishyfruitloop, @v3rdee @instantpersonawombat, @a-leg-without-fear, @cherrypieyourface

If you'd like to join my tagged list and be notified whenever I post new content, click ->-> HERE<-<-, instructions will follow.

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[allyallyorange]

Master Post for Ateez Adventure Time AU

Ok let's get into it! I'll be adding to this post whenever I post anything new for the AU! I'm going to try to organize everything so that it's in chronological order of the story! There are a few arcs I've got planned too so I'll try to make everything as clear as possible haha

(also I do my best but sometimes I confuse myself with exact ages of the characters and exactly like. what time of year things would take place, but think of it like any CN show we grew up with - time is seemingly an illusion if I don't think about it too much...)

Also!! Thank you so much to everyone who has said they enjoy my au!! you help me stay motivated! I'm having so much fun drawing this stuff ♡

Lineup for ref:

Good to know points about the AU:

Universe A = main universe

**this au is inspired by Adventure Time. I'm not using main characters from AT, just using the general vibe of the show and some plot points and character points (ex: Vampires drink the colour red)

Universe Z = no magic universe

Ages at the beginning of the story (approximately):

Seonghwa - 1000 (physically 25)

Hongjoong - 2500 (physically 25)

Yunho - 24

Yeosang - 850/900 (physically 24)

San - a little over 100 (physically 23)

Mingi - a little more than 600 (physically 23)

Wooyoung - 23

Jongho - 22

**characters who are "immortal" age about 1 year over the course of 100 years (SH, HJ, YS). San and Mingi are not immortal but didn't age due to other circumstances (in hell time works differently, and MG was frozen for 600 years)

List of Spotify playlists if you're interested!

Misc doodles dumps that include things from pre/post/main story and idk where to put

Character lineup plus other doodles

Hongjoong and Mingi (they're bros)

Character lineup for final battle

Pre-Story (Universe A)

Seonghwa Logs

Pieces of the past

The star and his flower

Slipping through my fingers…

Hongjoong and Seonghwa meet

Big Brother and Little Brother

First Demon Prince Show

Glasses required

Sleepy brothers

Wooyoung summons a friend

Helpful Human

Yunho and San

Sleepy Heroes

No Ice Demons in the Workshop

Seonghwa + Yeosang, Hongjoong + Mingi profiles

Jongho + Yunho, San + Wooyoung profiles

Pre-Story (Universe Z)

2ho and Mingi playing video games

After School

Spider-Man 3

Cold Hands

Walkie Talkies and ice cream

Post Joyride with Jongho and Mingi

Wish You Loved Me

Hyung’s Glasses

Cousins

Motorcycle

Yunho The Human

2ho Universe Z to A

Main Story

Living in the forest

The Same

Jongho and Mingi doodle

Afraid of nothing, Afraid of everything

Yeosang meets team Woosanho

The story of The Beast (as told by Wooyoung)

Hongjoong meets Jongho

Team Hongjoong arguing as always

Almost tolerable

Don't kidnap people unless you're ready for friendship??

First meeting: Fire and Ice

First meeting: Yeo meets team Joong

Strawberry boys

Sharing mom

Upgrade!

Cold hugs

San and Mingi hug

Hero boys!

Hongjoong isn't scary. MG and YH becoming friends again?

Ouch! Hot

Wooyoung and San's room

Sleeping on the shed (Hongjoong and Seonghwa)

Seongjoong awkwardness

Yunho's photos

He wants to join...

Vintage shirt

Window visit

The Boy and The Beast

Jongho after the accident

Cool scars (Jongho)

Summer Boys!

Beach episode

Chill day

Big bro Little bro

Hey, Joong!

Post-Story (Yeosang arc)

Dimension hopping with friends (lineup)

Somewhere in another dimension...

Universe V

Evil Yeo doodle

Sorry Princess

Heart to Heart

Out of Time

Post-Story (Mingi arc)

The End of The Beast

Hugs

[hurtspideyparker]

Emotional Support Intern Peter Parker

Tony and Peter finally arrive in the large room, polished leather Oxfords and stained-lace Converse making their way through the crowd of professionals. Tony has a hand on Peter's back guiding him, because no matter how many meetings, conferences, and office buildings they traverse together, Peter always manages to get lost the second Tony lets go. 

Thankfully Pepper is easy to spot, shaking hands with some blah blah from wee woo Industries. Her hair is the only splash of colour in the constant white black grey of everyone's pencil skirts and collared shirts. 

"Hi Ms. Potts!" Peter greets as soon as the woman turns and spots them. 

"Hi Peter—Tony. I told you to stop bringing the kid to these things. No offense Peter."

"None taken! You look lovely, did you get your hair done?"

Pepper's hair cascades over her shoulder in perfect curls, splayed out over her white button-up. 

"Yes actually, a trim and some highlights. I think she went shorter than I asked though, because I always get half an inch, and this does not look like half an inch."

Peter steps a bit closer and squints at the piece of copper hair she's holding out. 

"I think it's just because she curled it. You usually get it blow dried after."

"Hm. I think you're right actually."

Tony rolls his eyes, "I'm so glad you guys are having such a great slumber party. C'mon kid I have to avoid that senator and he's starting to glance this way." He tries to head over to some tall plants that happen to be great blind spots. 

"Ah ah ah Tony! We are talking about this. I told you to stop dragging Peter to all of your work responsibilities. I'm sure he's bored to death with these meetings and work events."

"Pep, he's an intern, he's supposed to be bored and taken advantage of. Besides, if you take away my emotional support intern then I simply wouldn't show up! So."

"You aren't even paying him for his time!" Pepper says at the same time Peter mumbles "emotional support intern?"

"Um excuse me, that 3 million dollar suit he stuffs between his math homework and Go-Gurt begs to differ. And anyways, I pay him with experience. I brought him to that seminar in LA on Saturday, and he's following me to Tokyo for that week long conference in July. I highly doubt he's complaining," he squeezes the boy's shoulders, Peter looking up and beaming at him and Pepper. 

"I'm really fine with it Ms. Potts. Besides, the more of these things I go to the more lab time I get!" Peter pipes in.

Pepper glares at Tony. "Really, bribery?" 

"Okay well, if us grown adults don't want to be here how else am I supposed to get a 15 year old to talk about environmental reform to people who don't even believe in climate change." 

Pepper and Tony hold each other's stares.

"You mean he spoke to Mr. Ellis about the generator you designed for his carbon plant, and it didn't end with him calling us a pansy corporation and you calling him a decrepit geezer who's business is the only thing that's going to die quicker than he is?"

There's barely stiffled hope supressed under Pepper's professionalism. 

Tony smirks. "Yep, I think Mr. Ellis even smiled. The kid's got charm! Who knew."

Pepper glances at Peter in consideration. 

"Peter have you ever considered pursuing anything further in business? Engineering is great, but if you really want to be successful it's incredibly important to build interpersonal skills, leadership, and even current market and finance knowledge. I mean you might want to sell your designs one day, or start a company." 

"Oh, I haven't really-"

"You could shadow me! I mean interning with a CEO is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it would give you a glowing resume, and I know a lot more about this stuff than Tony. He didn't even perform his executive duties when he actually was the CEO."

Pepper has that gleam in her eyes, the one she gets when men call her sweetheart, or when Tony isn't even dressed for their reservation that started ten minutes ago. 

It means she's already had the argument in her head. 

Peter is still stuttering, flustered with this side of Pepper. Her business face isn't usually directed at him, and it's a far cry from the woman who sends him home with leftovers from dinner. 

"Wait wait wait, are you trying to steal my intern?" Tony asks incredulously. 

"If anyone even needs an intern Tony it would be me. I have to babysit you and the company, meanwhile you just need him to hand you wrenches. Competent help is hard to find these days and you're wasting his talents." 

"Um, excuse me, he's the only thing keeping me together. You already have your fancy day planner and Excel spreadsheets, I need him to get me out of the house. He's the only thing keeping me a responsible adult, if you take away my emotional support intern then I will not attend a single meeting for the rest of the quarter." 

"You are such a man child!"

"La la la la can't hear youuu," Tony says with his fingers in his ears.

"Um, guys, I think people are staring."

Peter tugs on the corner of Tony's sleeve to get him to unplug his ears, glancing nervously at the groups of people sending them judgemental stares. The three of them give a wave and pleasant smile, most of the crowd continuing to move along on the grey carpet at the sight of their unsettling synchronicity and false turn of the lips. 

Pepper speaks through her teeth, a grin still presented at passers-by. "Fine, you can keep him, but only because he's doing half my job for me. The only person you can emotionally regulate around and it's a teenager. I'm glad you finally found someone who can keep you entertained." 

"Love you too honey," Tony says while putting a hand on the small of her back and kissing her cheek. He sighs, looking around the room at all the government officials who think these tech companies are spying on them. 

Apparently a surveillance state is only cool when they do it to manipulate their incarceration numbers, rig elections and lobby votes, and not for data mining and targeted ads. 

"I say we hit the cheese and crackers, take an awkward amount of sips from those tiny water bottles, and then speak to some old ladies till we have to do our presentation."

"Sounds great Mr. Stark. Will you make sure they don't grab my face again? I smelled like old lady perfume at school and Flash started making fun of me for stealing people's grandmas."

Tony looks into Peter's eyes questioningly and finds nothing but sincerity and resignation in them. 

"Well. Not my fault your cheeks are so gosh darn cute. But I'll do my best," he wraps an arm around the shorter and starts heading through the room again. 

The weight is comforting. Peter used to get anxious at these events, but Tony never leaves his side and is always looking at him like he's the Michaelangelo in the center of every room. He became accustomed to being Mr. Stark's favourite part of the event. While that may not seem difficult, especially considering the droning lectures and snooty company, it always feels special making jokes about people's ridiculous work jargon, and comparing the staleness of crackers at conferences. 

"Emotional support intern huh?" he says smugly. 

Tony glances at him, but instead of scoffing or denying anything, he just speaks with honesty. "You and Pepper are the best, most important things to this company. And to me. I'm really glad you're here kid."

Peter doesn't know what to say. The words stick in his throat while Tony hands him a water bottle with the lid already cracked. 

Peter has super strength; It's completely unnecessary to open his bottle for him. He doesn't point this out. Tony will do it at the next meeting, just like he did at the last one, and Peter will never mention it.

[regular-dog]

Hey @five-rivers, happy truce! I decided to go with your prompt about danny attending a cultural ritual or event, and themed it around the far frozen. My explanation for it got a little longwinded so I've included it under a read more, along with a little extra art!

(tumblr’s probably gonna crunch all of these up a bit, so click for better quality)

I'll be honest, I haven't actually thought out the exact details of what this event would be, just the broad strokes - I tend to gravitate towards food as a source of celebration in my own worldbuilding, and I guess that bled through here as well in the form of “ice = water = probable fish based diet = important fish event?”

During drafting I couldn’t really decide between “event centred around observing fish migration and/or other seasonal habits” or “Danny being invited to come fishing with Frostbite and the other yeti”, but honestly I think either of those would probably fit. Originally I had planned to have one or two yeti characters swimming around with him to make the piece more dynamic, but a surprise attack from a migraine kind of cut into my plans a bit and I decided to downsize.

...at least until I got annoyed by the lack of a visible ghost friend in the piece and decided to paint a “small” “”extra”” “””doodle””” which rapidly turned into a whole other Thing,

There are shockingly few ghost fish in the show, apparently, or at least I could neither remember nor find images online of any examples, so I just kind of winged it. Their design is partially inspired by a short story you wrote a while back, although I ended up drifting away from the zebrafish motif as I was drafting them. I started thinking of them as maskfish as a stand-in name, and then promptly forgot to think of a better one, so. Maskfish it is. Here's some random notes I made while conceptualising them, because I constantly have specbio on the brain and couldn't not think about it

Maskfish flesh turns an opaque pale colour when cooked, and remains translucent when raw

Their eyes are covered in a clear, hard exterior, and can be hollowed out and sterilised for use in various crafts; along similar lines I could also see their bones being used to make glues, paints, and other such resources.

Their cores are located at the top of the spinal cord, in the head; their mouths are located on the underside, beneath the "mask", which makes up the entire top part of the head, and is a singular piece of a shell-like material.

Though they aren't particularly agressive hunters, they also aren't picky about their food, and will generally eat anything smaller than themselves.

Aaand finally, here's a bunch of isolated scans, since procreate ate a lot of the fine details in the collaging process.

[a-killer-obsession]

Whoops, you got hit by a bus, and now you're in the world of One Piece. But not everything is quite as you remember it...

General Tags: afab reader, she/her reader pronouns, isekai, monsterfucker reader, vampire!kid, werewolf!killer, wyrm!heat, minotaur!wire, everyone has a human form, smut heavy, unhealthy relationships, dubious consent, serious violence, spoilers for Wano arc, starts pre-timeskip. There will be a lot of more intense kinks, please check AO3 for all current tags.

Chapter 8 - Wire's Turn

Sabaody continued.

WC: 3.5k

Masterlist | AO3 | Chapter 1

“Hurry the fuck up,” Wire growled, tugging on the chain leash that was attached to your metal collar. At least it wasn't explosive, small victories. You could only hope it would stay that way.

“I'm trying!” You pouted, practically jogging to keep up, “not all of us are eight feet tall!”

“You're not that much shorter than me,” Killer pointed out, “but I'm having no trouble.”

“I have a misleadingly long torso!” You whined, “I've only got little legs. Carry me if you're so bothered, I can't walk any faster, I'm basically running as it is.”

Wire grabbed you unceremoniously and threw you over his shoulder, making Killer snort a laugh as you squeaked in surprise. You crossed your arms against Wire's back with a pout, poking your tongue out at Killer walking behind as his shoulders shook with silent laughter. “I feel like a hunted deer,” you commented.

“Shut it or I'll drop you,” Wire replied flatly. You looked at the eight foot drop to the ground and quickly decided against that.

“Please don't,” you whispered.

You took some time to enjoy the view from all the way up there, finally taller than pretty much everyone around you. Killer's mask bobbed side to side, taking in the locals as well, while also no doubt staying on guard for potential trouble, considering where you were. For the “criminal” area of the archipelago, the town was pretty nice. Sure it was clear that most of the people here were more colourful than the usual Sabaody resident, and obviously on the rougher side. You saw a great deal of women, and the occasional man or child, wearing explosive collars, often being led by chains not dissimilar to your own.

The children were the hardest to look at, all clearly emaciated and abused. Your grand hope was that Luffy would become King of the Pirates and destroy the Red Line and all the disgusting pigs that lived in Mariejois on top, and put an end to this horrid human trade. If things went wrong and Kid decided to get rid of you, you desperately hoped Killer would take ownership of you. At least then you could expect the bare minimum care, though you still weren't sure if Killer would be the type to hit you. He was your favourite so you hoped not. Then again, Heat seemed like the type who couldn't hurt a fly, and yet you knew he burned people to death on a regular basis, a truly gruesome way to die. You tried not to think too hard about how many people Killer had murdered to get his epithet, or how many people had been impaled on the forks of the trident held only inches to your left.

Sabaody was certainly an amusing place. It was just as pretty in person as it had been in the anime, with the ground and bubble based structures all shimmering with a pretty iridescence, making everything sparkle. Bubbles floated from the ground and drew your attention to the giant trees surrounding you that formed the island, with their pale blue-grey striped trunks and vibrantly green leaves. Rays of light broke through between the trees, giving the whole archipelago an almost ethereal look, Killer's hair often glowing like he had a halo as he passed through the rays. You wondered if he knew how attractive he looked like that, with his cool fringed jeans and button-down shirt, opened to the chest to show off his muscles. It was a real shame he'd get rid of these clothes at some point in the next few years. Now there's a thought, I mean you'd confirmed it now that you'd seen him naked, but before you came here - when this world was still just fiction - what proof did you have that his arm hadn't always been scarred? It'd never even occurred to you now that he wore long sleeves, he could have been hiding those scars all along. Now that you were here though you knew that whatever caused that injury was still to happen. There was the comment Kid had made in Udon about one of Big Mom's pirates hurting one of his friends, maybe the burns would come from Charlotte Oven and his heating ability.

“Where are we going anyway?” You asked curiously. The commanders had already found an inn for the night and dropped off their stuff, as well as heading to a few different weapons stores to stock up, and cashing in some looted treasure for berri. Most supplies for the ship were taken care of by the lower ranked crewmates, which meant this was likely a personal trip.

“None of your business,” Wire huffed.

“Wire's just embarrassed cos his cocks too big for regular condoms,” Killer chuffed, “we're going out tonight, gotta be prepared.”

“Wait, so we're going to an adult store?” You perked up, “fun!”

“Don't get excited, we're not wasting any berri on you,” Killer spat back, making you pout. Still, you were curious to see what sort of things were available in this world. Sabaody was a hub city, you had no doubt it would have a wide range of the things available in this world, especially in this shadier area. You wondered what sort of toys were popular here, and what sort of technology they had. Did One Piece have vibrators? Suction toys? Remote controlled toys? Did they utilise den-dens? Now there was an intriguing prospect. Was it morally grey to use a snail for that?

“How big can it possibly be anyway?” You pondered aloud, “I thought those XL condoms were a marketing scam, I mean have you seen how big regular ones can blow up?”

“They break easier if they're too small,” Wire replied frankly, “I ain't risking that with random whores.”

“If you're so desperate for a lay why haven't you just fucked me?” You asked him, “My legs are wide open baby.” Wire was the only commander who hadn't taken advantage of your presence on the ship, in fact he'd barely interacted with you at all outside of Kid ordering him to jizz on you.

“You couldn't handle me,” Wire said smugly.

“What, I can take Kid's soda can cock but not you?” You asked.

“I'm bigger,” Wire replied with a cocky tint to his voice, “did you not see?”

“She was a little preoccupied,” Killer smirked.

“Someone was gagging me with his cock,” you frowned.

“And you loved every second of it, didn't you?” Killer teased, and you poked your tongue out at him again.

“Maybe if you're a good girl today I'll let you try,” Wire promised, “but don't come crying to me if you get hurt. I warned you.”

“Bet,” you smirked as Wire put you back down, “I'm not some inexperienced little virgin. I can take it.”

“We'll see,” Wire mumbled, coming to an open door that led to a stairwell, apparently the store was upstairs. There was only minimal signage outside, but once in the stairwell it was obvious what sort of store you were ascending to, the walls plastered with various posters of sexy, barely dressed - sometimes entirely nude - models advertising various products. There was even a sign that read ‘pets welcome’ with a stick figure pictogram of a human with a collar and leash. Ironic. The shop attendants would probably think Wire was your dom, not that you were opposed to that.

The shop held all the usual things you would expect; dildos, lingerie, anal play toys, lubricant, porn, basic BDSM gear. But there were things that you definitely didn't expect as well. For one, less vanilla dildos like the style you'd used on Killer seemed to be common, as well as many other monster themed dildos that you would more expect to have to buy online in your own world. There were all sorts of them, some you recognised that looked like Heat's, some even in pairs like his, others that looked like horse or cow, advertised as minotaur themed. You wondered if this was an effect of not having the internet here, whether it was easier in that case to just sell more exotic items in store, or if it was a result of being in a particularly shady area. There was a whole display of what you recognised to be dials, with a big cardboard cut out of some beautiful woman with purple hair in space buns, a strange visor, and barely any other clothing, advertising that these dials stored vibrations.

Wire selected his condoms fairly quickly but continued to peruse the store, so you followed him around, not that you had much choice as he tugged at your leash whenever you paused for too long. The store worker and other customers didn't even blink an eye at him leading you around, or your bound wrists. Killer was already off looking at the porn when Wire made his way to that section, and you were curious to see what sort of kinks were popular here. Once again you were suprised by the amount of monsterfucker targeted items, with magazines that featured all sorts of creatures on the front, often entangled with humans. It was strange how very photo realistic they were, were they just very good at costumes and special effects makeup in this world? You didn't think they had CGI here, because surely that would require computers. Maybe they were devil fruit users? Minks?

You picked up a magazine that intrigued you, the cover featuring a human woman not dissimilar looking to yourself, with a large werewolf and minotaur either side of her. You flicked through the pages looking at the various poses they put her in, quite impressed at the size of their cocks and how realistic they looked, surely they couldn't be dildos? They must be devil fruit users. The centrefold was an extra long page that could be flipped down, and you gasped as it revealed a almost to life scale image of the minotaur's massive cock.

“Oi, no free reads,” the shop attendant yelled from the counter, “either buy it or put it back.”

Killer and Wire both took note of the magazine you were holding and exchanged a look. “She'll buy it,” they both said in unison, making you extremely confused.

“What… but…” you stuttered as Wire took the mag from you, “I thought you weren't spending money on me?”

“We're making an exception,” Killer said quickly.

“Oh… okay,” you replied, still very confused.

The boys paid for their things and dragged you back out of the store, Wire putting you back over his shoulder to walk faster. “You liked that mag then?” Wire asked. Weird thing to ask when he'd already bought it for you.

“If you're asking if I'm a monsterfucker, or interested in fucking werewolves and minotaurs,” you replied, “my answer would be a resounding yes. You should see some of the dildos I have back home.”

“Interesting,” Wire hummed. Perhaps you could take him after all, if you were used to that sort of size. The thought of burying himself in you made his cock twitch, finding someone who could take him was a rarity, especially human. That's why he usually turned to professionals who knew their limits, no fucking around only to be disappointed when they tap out. It was unfair really that he hadn't gotten a chance to destroy your cunt, and with the clock ticking on your story being proven true or false, he might not have much time left to try you out before inevitably sold you off. Being from another world was a insane excuse for Wire, he didn't have a single inclination that you were telling the truth, but that didn't mean he wouldn't fuck you while he could. Making a snap decision he carried you to a nearby alleyway, still in broad daylight and in full sight of those walking past but he didn't give a shit. This was normal for this zone anyway, there were no kids in this area and besides, he'd seen at least three other couples going at it on the way here.

Killer followed you both into the alley and stood knowingly on watch towards the end, knowing full well what Wire wanted as the tall man put you back on your feet and rested his trident against the building. “Wire?” You asked hesitantly as he spun you to face the wall, “Oh,” you squeaked as he pushed his growing erection against your ass, pulling your hips away from the wall so he could unfasten your shorts. “Right here?” You questioned nervously, looking at all the people passing by at the end of the alleyway as he worked your shorts and panties down till they pooled at your ankles.

“Right here,” Wire confirmed, “you said you could take it, right? Don't come bitching to me if I hurt you.”

“You won't,” you replied confidently, the allure of being fucked in such a public area already making you wet. Wire grinned coyly as he pushed his fingers between your legs and felt your arousal.

“Dirty whore,” he purred, “so fucking wet already, I bet you'd let me fuck you in the middle of the street if I wanted.”

He wasn't wrong, but you didn't have time to respond before you were biting back a moan as his long fingers entered you, going straight to two of them. Wire knew exactly what he was doing, zeroing in on your g-spot while his other hand reached around your front to play with your clit as he worked at stretching you. He found it surprisingly easy to work you open to a third finger, your slick coating his fingers as your pussy tried to suck them in. His fingers were so long he may as well been fucking you with a dildo, and with the added simulation on your sensitive bud and the risk of being out in public, barely hidden in the alleyway by a watchdog Killer, it didn't take long for your pussy to clench around Wire's fingers. Your knees shook as you came, clawing at the brick wall of the building you were pinned against with a choked moan.

“Good whore,” Wire hummed, removing his fingers from your cunt and wiping them on your shirt, “now get on your knees bitch, this dick isn't gonna suck itself.”

Wire let go of your leash but as it landed he stood on it purposefully, pinning it beneath his boot and forcing you downwards by your collar. Your panties were still around your ankles as you knelt, and your mouth watered as Wire unfastened his tented shorts, pulling his impressive cock free.

“Oh fuck,” you gasped as you set your eyes on it. He wasn't fucking around, he was big. There was no fucking way you could take all of him in your mouth, and you had doubts that he'd be able to fit all of it inside you either.

“Change your mind already?” Wire chuffed.

You pouted at him out of feigned hurt before eagerly bringing your bound hands up to grasp him, unable to reach a single hand around his shaft. You stacked them one above the other to cover as much surface as possible while your tongue came out to lick the head of his cock, running your muscle over the smooth skin and up the underside of his shaft, letting the tip of your tongue slide along the slit. You did what you could to try and fit him, barely taking a quarter of him in your mouth before you were gagging, the corners of your mouth stinging from the stretch. Wire took your hair and wound it around his wrist to hold your head, making shallow thrusts into your warm mouth that made your eyes water as he pushed even deeper.

“There's a good whore,” he praised, “gag on it sweetheart, let me see those pretty tears.”

You took as much as you could into your throat, unable to take more than half of him even as your throat bulged and you struggled to control your gag reflex. There was no hope of breathing with him in your throat, his cock so thick that you felt like you were truly choking. He was clearly used to this though, giving you plenty of opportunity to catch your breath while drool ran down your neck.

“That'll do,” he said flatly, like he was bored, “stand up and take your shorts and panties the rest of the way off.”

You obediently did as he asked, noticing as you stood how people walking past would occasionally stop and try to watch, quickly deterred by a quick threatening whizz of Killer's punishers to encourage them to move along. You slipped your shorts and panties past your shoes and Wire picked you up like you weighed nothing, wrapping your legs around his hips and holding you far off the ground with your back pinned to the alley wall. His heavy cock was pinned between your stomachs as he rut the base of it against your mound. You whined in need, trying to roll your hips to rub your clit against him.

“Last chance,” Wire warned, “it's not too late to admit defeat “

“Give it to me,” you begged, “please Wire, fuck me, I want your massive cock stretching me open.”

“Alright then,” Wire smirked, pleased with your begging, and lifting you higher to line his tip up with your slick entrance, “don't say I didn't warn you.”

He watched smugly as he sank you down on his cock and your face contorted as you bit back the urge to scream. The stretch was almost too much, but it wasn't the first time you'd experienced such a large intrusion, having dildos back home that were about his size. Soon the pain melted to pleasure, but as you had guessed, he was unable to sheath himself entirely before you were gripping his shoulder painfully tight, warning him that you'd hit your limit as his tip bullied against your cervix.

“Fuck, look at you,” Wire praised, leaning back a little so he could admire the way your abdomen bulged. No human could take all of him, but he was thoroughly impressed with how much you had managed to take. “What a good girl, I'm gonna enjoy ruining this cunt.”

Not wanting to waste his time, he started a brutal pace, your overstuffed cunt making obscene sounds as Wire made quiet grunts and used you. You looped your bound wrists over his head and clawed at his back, burying your face in his cloaked shoulder to muffle your moans as your body was bounced up and down. You would no doubt have scratches all over your ass after this from the brick wall, overly thankful that he'd at least let you keep your shirt on to protect your back from the rough surface. Wire's hands holding you by your ass at least protected you a little. With his body so close to yours there was a slight grind against your clit every time he thrust up into you, raising and lowering you in time with his movements to get as deep as he could, showing off his incredible strength and control as he continuously avoided smashing into your cervix. The way he stretched and filled you meant every sensitive spot inside you was being rubbed against, your entrance stretched to its limit around him. With all that stimulation it didn't take long for him to have you close to your peak again, crying into his shoulder at the overwhelming pleasure as he used you like a ragdoll.

“Mmmph,” you mumbled into his shoulder, leaving a wet patch on his cloak from your combined tears and drool, “cu-cumming!”

There was a pattering of fluid hitting the concrete pathway below you as you gushed on Wire's cock, and you let out a stuttered whine that caught the attention of a few passersby that Killer had to clear away. “Good girl, mouse,” Wire praised, not letting up for a moment, still chasing his own high, “gonna cum soon too.”

Wire pulled out and put you back on your feet, pulling your arms over his head to unhook you but holding you under an armpit to keep you upright, unbelievably shakey on your legs from the hard orgasm. He pulled up your panties up most of the way with his other hand before jerking himself off, cumming with a grunt into the gusset of your underwear. The hot white fluid was thick against the fabric and you whined as he pulled your panties the rest of the way up, making the fabric stick to your cunt. He pulled up your shorts as well, fastening them before throwing you back over his shoulder. He spanked your ass as he made his way out of the alley, but you were too tired to respond, now truly looking like a hunted deer as you went slack over his shoulder.

“We're done here,” Wire stated as he passed Killer. The shorter man huffed a short silent laugh and followed on behind, not at all surprised to see you had already fallen asleep on Wire's shoulder.

[Next Chapter]

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[drenched-in-sunlight]

Can I just say how in love I am with the way you draw Marika? Like every art you post of her has my jaw dropping…you add such a beautiful layer of humanity to her with her dynamic expressions and poses—it’s so refreshing to see especially when so many fan arts of her needlessly sexualize her or dial her down to a one-dimensional stone-faced villain (which a villain she is—but she is still complex)

And I adore how you draw her partial nudity as something natural, meaning that you don’t draw her without a top for the sake of objectifying her,

Your art is overall so pleasant and colourful and fun to look at, and your takes of Marika’s character in your fanart is literally what made me more interested in who she is in-game.

Thank you for drawing her the way you do! (And for drawing Elden Ring fanart in general💕)

i've been letting this ask stewing in my inbox for a while because it makes me so emotional 🥲

if you look at how i drew Marika before anything in the DLC was announced, it did fall into the two categories you were talking about, because despite having a little more positive view on her than the rest of the fandom at the time, i still had no idea who she was as a person. and by that time i were more interested in Malenia, so even though i did try to envision how Marika was, it's a very distant and vague image. which is what i love about Elden Ring lore in general: we see Marika via how her children see her.

it was easy back then to conclude we'd never get her, and "mother" is a distant term that will always be overshadowed by "God", so i just went along with the general haha evil sexy girlboss thing that the fandom was doing. but then the DLC teaser dropped the another elusive (possibly firstborn) child of her, with a statue of her holding a baby in his boss room, she started to get more little quirks that's so human in my work (the small smile, the little lock of hair that curls gently) because for the first time, we see her through the eye of a son that evidently adores her, so she gets a bit more human, because someone views her with emotions that are not fear nor distance.

then the DLC drops, and it's not just through Messmer's eye (or the entirety of his being that carry so much of her love it weighs him down and twist into the most horrible curse in the end), it's through the eyes of her family that were no longer there at all. it's the jar innard enemy that huddled in a jar and clutched at a piece of raw meat, it's the Grandmother's gentle smile as she rest among a sea of flowers, it's the solitary minor erdtree that bathed the whole place in the kindness of gold, it's the Fire Knights and soldiers that clearly viewed her as Mother as much as she was God, it's Miquella throwing away his love and doubt because he didn't know how to deal with the revelation that his mother was once a fallible human just like the rest of them, it's Trina's entreaty that Godhood was just a cage that would kill him slowly, it's the final boss music with the female voice belting "Hail, Marika the Eternal" - in the place where she had to wade through a sea of flesh and blood, her family included, to ascend to Godhood. it's finally understanding that to her, Eternity is to live for all her loved ones that have fallen down.

and somehow, it all comes back to this portrait at the base game, right at the Roundtable Hold, of a woman with permanently lowered eyes.

yeah i know after the DLC i've put on such a Messmer-style protective glasses for her, it shows very clearly in my art. now she could cry, looks sad, small smile, big smile, looks silly, looks cute, looks serious, her hair is pulled up in twenty different ways, she jokes and talks to animals and goes back to be just a simple young girl rolling around in the grass, blah blah... im drawing all these with eyes wide open. and i have no intention of stopping lol.

sometimes, things that already come alive will never go back to be a cardboard cutout anymore. if ppl don't like it, block me or whatever, in my space, i'll do that makes me happy. and im very glad that other ppl could find their own happiness and solace with my work too :) thank you for such a thoughtful and kind messages!

[slytherinshua]

BEACH DATES WITH TWS !

genre. fluff. headcanons. warnings. none. pairing. boyfriend!tws x reader. wc. 614 (100 each). request. requested by anon. a/n. fun fact i love beaches sm the beach is my ideal date spot (if only i wasn't single 👹) so writing this was so fun :(

shinyu would have a mission from the second he stepped foot on the sand: to be the best looking couple. you had bought matching swimsuits in the past and your boyfriend is excited to finally be able to wear them. he sets up a comfy beach blanket with an umbrella, making sure his princess has the perfect spot to lie down. he’s constantly glaring down any other men who dare to even look in your general direction and admiring how pretty you look matching with him. he’d take a million photos to save the memory.

dohoon would immediately spot the beach volleyball net and beeline towards it like a cartoon character. he's so excited to show off his athletic skills, and also to beat the other couple who agree to play against you two. he's so cocky and confident at the beginning, boasting about how perfect his teamwork is with you. but he's painfully proven wrong almost immediately as he constantly goes for the ball that you had already claimed and ends up tripping over you many times. you have to give him a lot of kisses afterwards to cheer him up after your embarrassing loss.

youngjae would find a few pieces of driftwood where you were setting up and start building with them without any real idea of where it was going to lead. when you find the start to his little project, you suggest that he build a hut with it, and your boyfriend lights up at the idea. so you start your search for the best sized pieces of wood for him to assemble. he's so excited when it’s finished, and proclaims it as your first home together (even though it can barely fit a 10 year old’s body, much less 2 adults). 

hanjin would be so mesmerized when you showed him a cool conch shell you found on the shoreline. he joins in with you, of course, and you both start searching for the best shells, wading deeper and deeper into the water for a better sample size. you don't care that you both end up getting soaked, because you end up with a good-sized collection of shells. you start sorting them into different categories based on shape and colour, and hanjin loves every second of it. not only is he proud of how many you collected, but he stashes away the prettiest one in his back pocket to make into a necklace for you later.

jihoon would challenge you to a sandcastle building competition and be brutal trying to win no matter what. you’re both competitive and it all starts out when you get a cheating head start running for the shoreline. he steals your bucket of water and tools after that, constantly provoking you until you smash his sandcastle in retaliation. the squabble would end up with you underneath him, sand all over both of your swimsuits and hair. but he still kisses you nonetheless (and makes sure that you know he still won since you blatantly cheated).

kyungmin would pack a picnic to eat on the beach and carefully feed you. you can’t protest him since you know it’s his love language. he just loves doting on you and making sure you eat well— admiring how pretty you look against the backdrop of the ocean and clear sky. he forgot to bring any tools to make sandcastles, so he tries to substitute by digging out the wet sand from the shoreline and bringing it back to a safer distance. but it doesn't work very well and in the end he's soaked from the waist down with nothing but a lump of wet sand to show for it.

↳ tws taglist (bolded could not be tagged): @eternalgyu,, @seunghancore,, @sobun1est,, @talkingsaxy,, @talking-saxy

[canmom]

How do you live?

I (finally!) saw Miyazaki's new film 君たちはどう生きるか (How Do You Live?/The Boy and the Heron)! It's been out in the States for a while, and in Japan considerably longer, but it took a while to make its way over here.

I remember at the time it came out, people were having fun riffing on the incredibly cryptic marketing campaign, which consisted only of this rather abstract poster...

In the spirit of this, I resolutely avoided watching any trailers or knowing anything at all about the plot of the film. I picked up a thing or two here and there - I knew to expect some amazing Shinya Ohira animation for example, and you couldn't really avoid seeing the bird with teeth! - but overall, I had no idea.

There's plenty of great writing about this film in English already, such as kvin's fantastic sakugablog piece which discusses the physicality of Ghibli's animation, its weight and springiness, as a throughline. The stuff that kvin talks about really stood out to me as I watched this film. You can likewise read detailed interviews with Toshiyuki Inoue (fantastic interview for sakubutas) and Akihiko Yamashita on fufuro.

First up, the credits of this film are pretty much a who's who of the greatest jp animators of the last 30 years, and they've had some 7 years to cook it, so naturally this film looks fucking amazing. This is absolutely the kind of film that only Miyazaki could direct - its design language feels so familiar and yet it's iterating in all kinds of visually imaginative directions that show that yeah, the old bastard's still got it.

And like, god, man. This film's animation is really something special. Its real-world scenes in particular are full of shots that require an unbelievably strong sense of space, of both subtle and broad acting, the classic Ghibli attention to detail on mechanical objects and everyday tasks. It's full of bouncing and squishing and squeezing and oozing things. It loves to draw crowds and swarms of people and animals. It's the kind of film where any given shot would be the absolute star-of-the-show sakuga moment in just about any other anime film. If you wanted a complete statement of the Ghibli school of animation, it would be hard to do better.

And yet, for all that Miyazaki's known for his tight control over animation and heavy corrections to animators, in this film he had to step back from that kind of role and hand over the sousakkan reins to Takeshi Honda, who steps up admirably - as kvin writes above, bringing in more realist elements to the bouncy Miyazaki style to create a really effective unity that grounds all the big fantastical elements of the film and fills the first act with tension.

Alongside all that excellent key animation, the film's colour and photography departments evidently understand that well-chosen colours and good highlight shapes beat all the digital gradients and overlays you can imagine - the drawings get plenty of form from the strength of the animation, and the flat shading really pops. The backgrounds are as delicious as ever, skyscapes and vegetation and opulent interiors with the just-slightly desaturated and harmonious colours that just kind of remind you that oh yeah, it is still possible to do it this way.

Basically it's a Ghibli film lol. You know how it is.

But what of the story...? What's all this technical magic in service of?

The film's story has something of the feel of a serial story, perhaps reflecting Miyazaki's (in)famous process of working out the film gradually as he draws the storyboards. Certain ideas, like the parakeet empire, arrive in the film rather suddenly and then become fairly central to the plot. There's a clear emotional throughline, but this is not a film that is in a hurry to explain itself more than it absolutely has to. It wants to keep its magical elements numinous and mysterious. I would say, though, it's generally more satisfying in this approach than some of Miyazaki's other later films like Howl's Moving Castle, and resolves a lot more clearly.

So what is it like, About? Well, Miyazaki has been pretty open about channeling a lot of his personal relationships into the film, and a lot of it seems to reflect more or less obliquely on him. It's what they call a 'personal film'. The protagonist's position as the son of an aeroplane factory owner during WWII is straight-up from life. What about the old sorcerer, haphazardly stacking blocks to keep a world alive, and looking for someone to succeed him? The reading's kinda obvious, even if Miya himself says this guy is based on his memory of Takahata. Well, he can be both...

To say more I'm gonna have to delve into the spoiler zone. See you below the cut.

OK so! Let's try and get some thoughts in order.

first, a plot summary type of thing

Our first act introduces us to Mahito at roughly the moment his mother Hisako dies in a hospital fire. This is midway through the war, which is present mostly in the background - now and then we see soldiers marching around, and of course Mahito's dad runs a factory producing warplane parts, not entirely unlike Miyazaki's own father although seemingly a bit higher up the ladder.

We jump forward a little and Mahito's father remarries - to his deceased wife's sister, no less, and she's already pregnant. This is Natsuko, who does her best to play the role of mother, but Mahito still has big traumas and he is understandably not entirely on board with the idea of welcoming a mum 2 who looks almost exactly like mum 1. He moves with Natsuko into a huge old house complex, a mix of older Japanese architecture with a more recent Western wing where the family currently sleeps - and staffed by a small army of colourful old ladies who are eager for any canned meat or cigarettes they can get their hands on.

Also there's this freaky heron that keeps bothering Mahito. It seems to have something to do with a mysterious tower which turns out to have been built by his great-uncle. Mahito visits the tower, but can't make his way inside. Natsuko tells him not to go into the tower.

Mahito goes to school, but naturally they don't much take to the new rich kid on the block, and so after being attacked by his classmates on his way home he injures himself with a rock. (His dumbass dad is like, who did this to you son, I'll fuck 'em up.) For the rest of the movie, he has half his head shaved to accomodate a bandage, which is the sort of attention to detail this movie loves.

The heron has started growing teeth and talking to Mahito, telling him to come to the tower. Mahito is convinced it's a trap, and after a maybe-dream sequence in which Natsuko shoots an arrow to drive off the heron, he steals cigarettes from Natsuko in order to get one of the servants to sharpen his knife, and then constructs a bow and arrow out of bamboo - using a couple of the heron's feathers. Constructing the bow and arrow is shown in immense, loving detail.

In the process, he witnesses Natsuko walk into the forest, and also stumbles on a book: How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino, which contains a handwritten message from his mother. He looks at this book briefly... and this is about the extent of the connection of the film to the book, beyond thematic parallels.

The maids notice that Natsuko is missing. Mahito tells one of the maids, Kiriko, that he saw her go into the forest, and they follow, finding an old road that gives another approach to the tower. They're greated by the heron man, who is increasingly emerging from the heron's beak to reveal a big warty nose. He's some kind of like... heron selkie or something, a gnome in a heron skin. There's some wonderfully grotesque animation around this guy.

Heron dude taunts Mahito with an illusion of his mother Hisako. Mahito threatens him with the bow - the heron guy is like, do your worst, not realising it's a maaagic arrow. The arrow chases him around the room and pierces his beak, fucking up his magic. At this point, the tower master shows up and orders the heron to guide Mahito. Heron guy sends everyone through the floor into a fantastical world...

Mahito arrives in front of a huge, sinister tomb. He approaches the gate, and a swarm of pelicans walk up behind, crawling all over him and pressing him through the gate. This causes a storm to start brewing, since opening the gate seems to piss off the stones or something...

A fisher woman resembling a much younger Kiriko runs up and chases the pelicans away. She takes Mahito under her wing, explaining that this world is inhabited mostly by dead people, but there are also these little round guys called the wareware, who gain the ability to fly when they eat a fish's guts.

Kiriko, uniquely in this world, has the ability to kill, so she catches fish to sell to the other inhabitants and feed to the wareware; she and Mahito butcher a huge fish. Mahito fairly quickly figures out that she is somehow the same Kiriko that entered with him. She has tiny charms representing the other maids, which serve an apotropaic function.

That night, staying on Kiriko's huge derelict ship of a home, they watch the wareware rise into the sky to be born as humans in Mahito's world. They're attacked by the pelicans, but a fire-wielding magic user called Hisa (hmmmmmmmmmm) drives the pelicans away. Mahito shouts at her not to harm the wareware, but Kiriko assures him that more of the wareware will survive thanks to Hisa's intervention.

Later, a singed and dying pelican explains the pelicans' predicament to Mahito in a scene that calls to mind the animals in Mononoke-hime. The pelicans are foreigners in this world, they don't have anything to eat, so they take it as their role to eat the wareware. The heron man arrives on the scene too, offering to help Mahito find Natsuko as Mahito - coming in to his own as a protagonist more - buries the pelican. Mahito distrusts him but eventually Kiriko persuades them to give working together a try.

Mahito and the heron set out. As they pass through a forest, the heron reveals that thanks to Mahito's arrow, he can't fly and do heron shit anymore - and by magic law, only Mahito can fix the hole. Mahito applies his new woodworking skills to fashion a bung for the hole. The heron tries to stage a top 10 anime betrayal, but then the bung needs more work, so Mahito fixes it, and from that point on, the heron joins the party and he and Mahito are fast friends.

(You might wonder why I just call him 'the heron' and not by a name. He never gets named! He's just the heron man.)

Mahito and the heron arrive at the house of a blacksmith who's supposed to help them find Natsuko, only to find it guarded by big buff parakeet men. The parakeets are splendidly goofy round guys - they remind me of the heedra in Nausicaa. The heron draws the parakeets away, and Mahito enters the house, only to find, uh oh! More parakeets. The parakeets prepare to eat Mahito, who is not carrying a child and therefore fair game unlike Natsuko, but Hisa shows up and burns them with fire magic. She looks just like a young version of Mahito's mum! Funny that. Hisa helps Mahito escape into her house through the fire, and then takes him to infiltrate the parakeets' empire.

In the human world, the maids explain the backstory of the tower to Mahito's dad. It's a weird meteorite that came from space, it turns out, and Mahito's great-uncle built the tower on top of it before eventually disappearing inside. Mahito's dad overprepares in an elaborate getup complete with katana, and goes to try to rescue everyone.

Hisa leads Mahito to a corridor full of doors which open into all the different worlds, including his own world. Mahito briefly glimpses his dad coming to try and rescue him - the two see each other briefly, but the parakeets catch wind of the whole thing and attack, and so Mahito and Hisa have to flee back into the magical world. We see that the parakeet guys turn into regular parakeets when they come into the human world. Mahito's dad becomes convinced he turned into a parakeet.

Mahito and Hisa make their way to the delivery room where Natsuko is resting, waiting to give birth. On their way, lightning starts emerging from the stone - Hisa explains that the stone is sentient and pissed with them. Mahito insists on approaching Natsuko despite this being a huge taboo. They have a heart to heart - Natsuko's mask breaks and she tells Mahito she hates him, while he finally starts calling her mother, as he's assaulted by paper charms that tear at him violently. They part, with Hisa burning the charms to free Mahito, but it's too much and they both pass out.

Mahito dreams of meeting the sorcerer, who stacks irregularly shaped wooden blocks, and explains that stacking the blocks is necessary to maintain the world, buying a few days at a time. The sorcerer reveals the huge flying rock that is the source of his power; he also shows Mahito some blocks, but Mahito somehow divines that these blocks are 'stone for building tombs' and stained with malice. The sorcerer approvingly says this is a good sign for Mahito's ability to succeed him.

While they were asleep, the parakeets have captured Hisa and Mahito. One of them is preparing to eat Mahito, but the heron arrives just in time to save him. They Metal Gear Solid their way through the kingdom while the Parakeet King - a big swaggering guy very like the colonel in Castle in the Sky - goes to press a claim on the wizard, using Hisa and Mahitos' taboo act of entering the delivery room as a bargaining chip. There's some very funny scenes where the parakeets cheer for their king.

Mahito pursues the parakeet king, but the king destroys the staircase behind him, and talks to the sorcerer. The sorcerer is inclined to wave away the transgression, because he wants to let Mahito succeed him, but the parakeet king seems to be bringing him around. I kind of forget how this part went, but the parakeet king goes away from the sorcerer for a bit while Hisa is freed from her prison thing.

Mahito climbs back up with the heron man's help, arriving in the sorcerer's little subplane. The parakeet king quietly follows him, after telling his aides to inform his subjects he was a good king. Mahito approaches the sorcerer, who reveals he has found a new set of blocks, unstained by malice, and again invites Mahito to succeed him. Mahito says that his self-injury is proof of his malice, making him unfit for the job.

At this point, the parakeet king intervenes. Angry at all this sorcerous malarky, he desperately attempts to stack the stones himself, but when they don't stack, he flies into a rage and slices them with his sword. This naturally causes the world to start collapsing, and everyone runs to the doors to escape into the human world.

Mahito has by this point figured out that Hisa is his mum, and he asks if she really wants to go back to their world, knowing that she will very definitely die in a fire not much later. But she is naturally on board with this. Young!Kiriko goes with her, suggesting that she and Hisako entered the magical world at the same time. Meanwhile, Mahito returns to his own time, with Natsuko and the heron. All the various parakeets and pelicans come out through this door too. Old!Kiriko is restored from her apatropaic charm.

As everyone celebrates their safe return (and the appearance of a fuckton of birds), the heron tells Mahito that he ought to forget what happened in the magic world. We skip forward again, with Mahito - now with a baby sibling - setting off to Tokyo. Roll credits!

now let's comment on it

This is not a film that necessarily prioritises an internal logic playing out - new elements enter unexpectedly even quite late in the film. The sorcerer's motivation is murky until late on; the parakeets become major antagonists despite entering only halfway through the film.

There is a certain temptation, knowing how autobiographical this film is, to take it is a roman à clef. Mahito is of course a young Miyazaki; the old sorcerer's concern about finding a successor might be about Miyazaki wondering who should take over Ghibli or if it should just be allowed to die. Under this schema, the parakeets might be Ghibli's legion of fans, or the merchandising empire that prints their designs on every possible product. kvin's article develops this kind of reading, finding some angles I wouldn't have even considered, such as how the idea of weight communicated by the animation factors in to such an allegaroy. It's also something suggested in Miyazaki's own comments about the film, where the sorcerer is Takahata, the heron man is producer Toshio Suzuki...

It definitely helps to know a bit about Miyazaki's background when approaching this film. However, I think it would be reductive to go too far with this kind of reading, and take everything as an allegory for something in Miyazaki's life. The film still has to stand on its own feet!

'Coming of age' is the spin put on it by some outlets, like the BBC. And this is accurate to an extent. The arc of this film is similar to Spirited Away: Mahito starts out sullen and traumatised, but like Chihiro he transitions over the course of his journey in the magical world into the kind of determined Miyazaki protagonist we're used to. On this coming of age angle... well, also like with Chihiro, I don't find the Mahito of the first part of the film especially unsympathetic, his alienation is extremely natural given his situation. Mahito's dad kinda sucks! Living in wartime Japan also really kinda sucks, even if you're the son of a rich dude. But definitely over the course of the film Mahito has a change of heart towards Natsuko, and forms friendships that motivate him to try to protect them. His character arc definitely sees him become 'more prosocial'.

However, there's another angle that's pretty important - the idea of the weight of 'malice', the cursed existences of the pelicans and the like, and the fantasy of building a utopian world that is free of these things. This returns to a theme of Nausicaa, the manga in particular, where Nausicaa discovers that the world she knows - the toxic forest in particular - is actually an elaborate artificial system for cleansing the world of pollutants, that the clean world on the other side will be uninhabitable to her and her people, and that the architects of this system wait in stasis to replace them in this utopian future world. Nausicaa destroys them, commiting instead to an uncertain future.

In Mononoke-hime likewise, we encounter the lepers and former sex workers of Irontown clinging on to the 'cursed' world. Their extractivist project proves incredibly destructive, but the film still regards them sympathetically, and the resolution sees them perhaps finding a new way to live - and San, the feral girl, reconciling herself to the idea of humans.

Here, although the parakeet king forces the decision, Mahito has already declared that he doesn't believe he's fit to oversee a utopia, but instead that his place is in the awful, violent human world.

The film, and the book it's vaguely based on, are titled How do you live? In Japanese, that's a plural 'you' (君たち). There's a lot of ways you could read it, depending on who you take as 'you' - a child asking an adult how to live, or equally a future question of how will you live. This is a lot more explicit in the novel - which I have not read, but here is a summary courtesy of wiki:

Junichi Honda is a fifteen-year-old junior high school student, known by his nickname Koperu, after the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. He is athletic and academically gifted, and popular at school. Koperu's father, a bank executive, passed away when he was young and he lives with his mother. His uncle (on his mother's side) lives nearby and visits frequently. Koperu and his uncle are very close. Koperu shares about his life and his uncle gives him support and advice. His uncle also documents and comments on these interactions in a diary, with the intent to eventually give the diary to Koperu. The diary writing, which is interspersed with the narrative, provides insight into the ethical and emotional trials that Koperu shared with his uncle. The diary entries, which cover themes such as "view of things", "structure of society", "relation", etc. are in the style of a note written to Koperu.[8]

Thinking like Copernicus that our Earth is a celestial body moving within the vastness of space, or thinking that our Earth is fixed at the center of the universe, are two ways of thinking that, in reality, are not only related to astronomy. Even when we think about things like the world around us or our own lives, the truth is that we are still revolving around them after all.

In the end, Koperu writes a decision on his future way of living as a reply to his uncle, and the novel ends with the narrator asking the question "how do you live?" to the reader.

The author of the novel was a socialist, who had been imprisoned by the nationalist government, and wrote the book intending to impart lessons on ethics. The version of his book published after the war was heavily edited to strip the book of political content. But it's also, perhaps paradoxically, a book that centres on very wealthy characters, aimed narrowly at educated boys, though it became a widely read classic.

Studio Ghibli's films, from both Miyazaki and Takahata, have a habit of being framed as imparting something to the younger generation - something the pair seem to have seen as a mission all the way back in the days of Panda Kopanda. For example, while Grave of the Fireflies is seen as the classic tragic war movie, for Takahata it was also aimed at criticising what he saw as the careless, consumerist generation of the 80s; the stubborn arrogance of the protagonist supposed to reflect on this. It's an attitude that also emerges in their comments about Chihiro. And, indeed, one of the first things we heard about How Do You Live? was that it was aimed towards Miyazaki's grandson - and more broadly towards that generation.

So what does this film have to say to the younger generations? Let's have a look at it from Mahito's POV.

For Mahito, the adults in his life are all pretty complicated. His father is enthusiastic and well-meaning but incredibly oblivious to what his son is going through (we might recall some of what Miyazaki wrote about his father in Starting Point, describing him as basically a grifter). Natsuko is masking pretty hard, trying to play the role of Good New Mum and connect to her newly acquired son, but there's an intrinsic distance. It is understandable that Mahito would want to reject them.

Mahito is... not entirely a passive character, he goes to some efforts to for example fashion the bow and arrow and repair the heron man's beak, but mostly he is pulled around by the plot into a strange world he doesn't understand. At first, his instinct is to retreat, even to the point of self-injury. Once he arrives in the magical world, he has acquired something of a purpose (finding Natsuko), but he gets pushed into near-disaster situations (the pelicans piling up to push him through the gate at the tomb) or stumbles into circumstances where something is expected of him (hey kid, gut this fish!). Gradually though his exposure to this world pulls him out of his shell. He runs into conflicts and injustices that seem intractable - the wareware and the pelicans - and has little power to intervene except to bury the bodies.

Eventually, he gets to carry out his main objective - finding Natsuko - but despite finally deciding to accept Natsuko as his new mother, he finds himself rejected, not just by her but also by the earth. Perhaps feeling responsible for getting her into trouble, his new objective becomes rescuing freshly-damsel'd Hisa. But now new adults want things of him - his great-uncle has decided he'd make a fine successor. Mahito has to make a decision here about what relationships he wants to commit to, what sort of life he wants to build - and he chooses the world he found so alienating at the outset of the film, the one which hurt him by taking his mother, not to the secondary-world fantasy.

It could be a 'this world is all we have' sort of statement, perhaps. But also the last act of the film feels like it gets a bit caught up in Castle in the Sky-style adventure-story beats.

I do feel like some aspects of the film ended up a little underbaked - which is an odd thing to say because it's not a short film and there is so much in it already. But Hisa for example - she's got badass powers and all, but I feel we barely get a chance to get a sense of what motivates her. Why did she enter the fantasy world? She acts at first like she doesn't know Mahito is her future son, but rapidly becomes incredibly devoted to him (in a way that reads a little romancey lmao). So much of her screen time is dedicated to having her convey the secrets of the world that it's hard to get a bead on her as a person.

Likewise, Natsuko - why did she enter this world to have her baby in this special ritual delivery chamber? She clearly knows more than most of the characters, but she gets kind of sidelined after Mahito confronts her, with wizard shit becoming more central. The animation does such a fantastic job of selling her feelings in the first part of the film that it feels like a shame that she drifts away at the end.

The progression of the film feels rather like a dream, where everything is arranged by symbolic significance to Mahito. It makes sense... on a magical level, where the secondary world is shaped primarily by parallels in the real one. So the tiny apatropaic statues of the old ladies protect him because they represent the role the real old ladies have in his life. Hisa has fire magic because Hisako died in a fire. Once Mahito has come to his personal resolutions about returning to the world, the magical one is no longer needed, and it collapses.

This is not such an uncommon role for magic in a story. In Miyazaki's own works, we have Totoro and Spirited Away, where a magical world provides direction or relief to a child's real struggles. Or take for example Okiura's film A Letter To Momo, in which the three yōkai recognise taking care of the grieving Momo as their explicit purpose as spirits. This magical world comes to Mahito to help him come to terms with losing his mother, and reorient himself towards living in a painful world.

Meanwhile, the sorcerer, whether he be Miyazaki or Takahata, is quite a distant figure. He may maintain the magical world by stacking his blocks, may be the authority which factions within it must plead to, but he also rules from afar in a vast empty palace full of long halls and open air spaces. His main company seems to be a big fucking rock, with which he made a 'contract'. He's generally handling it a bit better than, say, Ushiromiya Kinzo - he receives the parakeet king with good humour - but he's a pretty flawed god of his little world. So much of this world seems to pre-exist him, it's not something he constructed. Still, when he shows up, you pretty much have to do what he says.

If this is about Miyazaki's relation to Takahata, it seems like quite a sad portrayal. But 'unapproachable patriarch' does sorta describe their role in the studio from what I understand (c.f. Oshii's infamous article comparing them to the Kremlin).

When it comes to the question of who should succeed Miyazaki, we should probably consider the matter of Yoshifumi Kondō, who was being set up as the next big Ghibli director until his untimely death - which allegedly Takahata was willing to accept the blame for. The mythology built up around Miyazaki and Takahata is double-edged.

Here are some rather startling comments from Toshiyuki Inoue's interview. Inoue is one of the most impressive animators who ever lived in my book, the other star of the realist line besides Okiura. Just have a look at his booru page: iconic scenes from GitS, Akira, Millenium Actress; even in more recent films, he pretty much carried Maquia, and steals the show with his scenes in Miss Hokusai.

And yet even he was intimidated to be working alongside Miyazaki when he first came on board for Kiki's Delivery Service, fresh off Akira:

I believe you’ve always been a fan of Miyazaki’s, why were you scared to work with him? Toshiyuki Inoue: I had heard quite a few scary stories. A lot of acquaintances had worked on Nausicaä, Laputa and Totoro before that, so I knew how scary he could be when he got angry – I had heard stories of people being fired mid-production, things like that. How was it actually? Toshiyuki Inoue: Not as scary as I had imagined. He’d only rarely scream in the studio. But he did get angry. I’d sometimes be called to some separate room and lectured alongside Kōji Morimoto and Masaaki Endō. It felt like being in school all over again.

'Only rarely'. Honestly. Inoue describes how difficult it was for him to adapt his logical, analytical style to Ghibli's stretchy, bouncy characters - and how Miyazaki would disparage him if he, for example, drew a ship inaccurately.

For Inoue, coming back to How Do You Live was something like a 'return match'. He talks about how an older Miyazaki was no longer able to strictly correct the animation, and in general age was limiting him, but he still feels that Miyazaki is fundamentally superior:

Toshiyuki Inoue: I’ve always wished for a return match or a way to redeem myself. But even if I say that, I know I can’t even pretend to rival Miyazaki. I just can’t win. He’s extremely smart and learned, and on top of that, as an animator he always transcends common sense: he’s so talented that I know very well there’s nothing I can do against it. The more I learn about him, the more I realize I’ll never be on that level.

Miyazaki's genius is undeniable, but man... it's not a good mindset to cultivate if you want to find a successor lmao. If even Inoue doesn't feel he can measure up, who the hell could?

Mind you, it does rather seem that Miyazaki had mellowed out by the point of How Do You Live?. Here's Yamashita:

Akihiko Yamashita: As I said, the core of an animator’s job is to follow what the director asks, so whenever I had trouble with that, I’d go see Miyazaki to show him my roughs. He’d advise me on the things that were missing and reassure me about those that were good. He really helped me to gain more confidence in myself.

Reading these interviews underlines pretty hard that we shouldn't get too caught up in the mythology of Miyazaki the mighty auteur. While the story may be all on Miyazaki, and most of the character designs (with the notable exception of Natsuko)... so much of the details of the animation, the stuff that really makes this film land, is primarily shaped by everyone else - Honda in particular, but also the individual key animators who interpreted his scenes. I really need to get my hands on a copy of that Industrial History of Studio Ghibli book to get a less Miyazaki-centric perspective on the studio's history.

I do not feel, having come out of this film, any closer to knowing the answer to that eternally pressing question of how do you live - I guess I'm still working out my answer to that one, and I will be until I die. And maybe that's rather the point. I think this film still carries some of the flaws of Miyazaki's later films - despite having so many iconic scenes, it doesn't quite seem to know where it's going. But I am so glad to have seen this in the theatre (I saw it at the Prince Charles theatre in Soho with friends, the theatre was completely packed!), and glad Miyazaki managed to get this one out before he goes. Whatever happens to Ghibli without its sorcerer, it's been a hell of a thing to witness.

[dreamauri]

on my knees begging for an update on “for sentimental reasons” please please don’t leave us hanging

♪ — 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗟 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗦 - part twelve charles leclerc  x  fem! driver! reader (angst) “… forgetting is troublesome especially when you used to be enemies.”

★ ☆ final chapter 💗 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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"Coco?" Charles saw the little four year old girl wandering around. "Carli!" The little toddler giggled with a big smile. Her little fancy shoes tapping against the floor as she approached the Monégasque, making grabby hands signalling for him to carry her.

"dov'è la tua mamma? [where's your mom] He picked her up gently, mindful of her dress. "Carli." Was the girl's response as she pocked his cheek, a wide smile and giggle on her face. She looked so much like her mother it made his heart warm. The same smile and eyes. "andiamo a cercare santino" [lets go find santino] "Papa è a casa." [dad's home] She finally talked as Charles began walking with her through the Monaco gala.

Wait . . . Santino's not here? Were the rumours true? Charles couldn't help but think and find to piece the events together as he looked through the seating's. Charles was going to have to sit for now while he finds someone who could help him. "Acqua." The girl tried to reach for the champagne glass on the table but Charles was quick to stop her. "quella non è acqua, Coco." [that's not water, coco]

Charles was quick to open a water bottle for her, supporting her as she took little sips. She leaned back on his lap, holding onto one shoulder with her other hand on his face, inspecting it. And Charles let her. She was too cute and adorable. He couldn't help the smile that arose on his lips when she traced the outside of his eyes. "Verde." [green] She nodded in approval.

"Coco!" Lando gasped as he squatted down beside Charles, a wide exited smile on his face. "Coco, saluta Lando."[coco, say hi to lando] "ciao." Coco gave the other brunette a smile and a wave and Lando couldn't help but feel his heart explode with how cute she was. "Oh she's so cute." Lando awed as he picked her up gently, gently bouncing her which only made her giggle happily. "Is Santino here with her?" "No. She said he's back in Italy." "Back in Italy? But—"

"Mami!" The two boys panicked once the girl pointed at her mother. Lando quickly shoved the girl in Charles chest before making an escape. Charles was surprized, quickly holding onto the girl, accidentally bumping head with her and knocking his glasses of one ear.

"Mami." The toddler cheered once her mother came over. A worried smile was on your face as you gently lifted the girl into your embrace. "Dove sei stato? Stavo cercando dappertutto—" [where have you been? i was looking everywhere for-] You paused, once your eyes met the wide eyed and tense figure of Charles. ". . .You."

Your heart almost jumped out of your chest as you held eye contact with him. Your mouth wouldn't even open so you could at least thank him. 5 years. Returning after a hiatus for five years and you've never expected Charles to look so . . .

"Hey." He broke the silence. "I— h—Hi. How've you been?" You asked hesitantly, stuttering over your words. "Well, My wife left me-" He joked, but apparently too son because you flinched. "But Coco took care of me." He played off.

"Yeah." You chucked nervously, brushing hair off your daughter's face. "She's been watching a lot of doctor shows recently, did she preform a proper eye inspection?" "She did actually." A moment of silence crept again between you.

Charles . . . well was Charles. He had a smile on his face despite having little dirt foot prints on his lap and glasses crooked from Carli. He wasn't so . . . down like the last time you saw him. The colours were bright in his eyes and cheeks. You could only wonder if there was a woman in his life responsible for that and the odds were yes.

"Well, I'm going to deal with this little ball of sunshine," You paused gently, pushing his glasses properly over his nose. Fine wine, you thought. "I'll . . . see you around?"

Charles looked at you for a few seconds blinking. "Oh- wait you want to see me?" He furrowed his eyebrows confused, pointing at himself. You gave a shy smile. "I thought it's be nice to catch up. I'm gonna need some help since Monaco's gotten a few tweaks since I've been here."

"Yeah," He breathed out, nodding quickly. "Of course."

"Dici ciao ciao, coco." [say byebye, coco] "ciao ciao, Carli." "Ciao, coco."

[sapphire-dreamsky]

on top of a hill with you, the sky was lit in shades of red and gold

pairing: ryomen sukuna x reader starring: ryomen sukuna | reader settings: alternate universe | sukuna is a student studying at jujutsu high | sukuna is somewhat behaving | sukuna is confused with the new human traditions, someone has to help him adjust | sunshine x grumpy trope

Sukuna tilted his head to the side as fireworks began their journey in the sky as singular strings only to fall down in a multitude array of red, purple and gold. After being sealed for more than one century, he missed a lot of human inventions. One of them included fireworks.

Upon knowing that, (name) also known as that 'brat' (affectionally, not that Sukuna would ever admit to it), took it upon herself to bring Sukuna to see the fireworks on top of a hill overlooking the sea. She claimed that the fireworks launching by the harbour were far more spectacular than those being released near the school. He deserved the best of shows. Or so she claimed. The girl seemed to always be conveniently forgetting that he was a murderer, a merciless sorcerer killer. And yet, her gaze never faltered from his red ones. She held her head high when everyone else was bowing to him in submission, praying that he wouldn't chop their heads off for every word that escaped their mouths. Everyone walked on thin ice around Sukuna. Despite his vow to not kill anyone, he was still feared amongst sorcerers. And he liked to keep it that way. Until that foolish brat came along, dared to smile sweetly at him, naively introduced herself as his new classmate as if he was a mere human sorcerer attending Jujutsu High and not the King of Curses masquerading as a student for the sake of his own entertainment and to cure his boredom with the people of this generation.

To him, the fireworks were nothing spectacular. They were just overrated explosives meant to look pretty. A way for humans to break from their routines of 9-5 by celebrating another incoming year filled with 9-5 shifts again. Another year to live by society's rules. There was truly nothing glorious about celebrating a new incoming year that will be filled with the same lifestyles even when (name) claimed the opposite.

"We make New Year resolutions before the clock turns to 12 00. On a piece of paper, you write your wishes for the next year. Come on, Sukuna! Is there anything you want to add on your bucket list?"

Sukuna pondered over the question for a minute. There was nothing much that he didn't do on a whim. Anything he wanted, he made sure to get within the next minute or hours if it was a long process.

"Kill everyone?"

(Name)'s mouth gaped open. Her eyes were comically wide open. For a minute, Sukuna thought he finally struck fear in that foolish human.

"You can't wish that! It needs to be a positive change!"

That girl was truly weird. She didn't scold him for his 'New Year resolutions'. He might have been a bit creeped out by her trust and faith in him to be honest.

"What should I wish for then? There is nothing I cannot get in this world."

"Well, I cannot tell you what to wish. It must be something you genuinely want."

The conversation was changed soon after. However, he did see her scribbling something on a yellow post-it note with her red coloured pen. He saw a faint "2024 resolutions" written on top of the paper. He only shook his head. Foolish human.

And now, as the fireworks exploded in the sky filling the darkness with some colours, he turned his head towards (name) only to notice that she had her eyes closed, head bowed with hands in a praying position. 'She must be making her New Year's Resolutions.'

A moment passed before another firework broke down in the sky. This time, it was a golden one. He watched as the colours reflected on her skin. She would look beautiful in gold. And red. Like a firework in the sky, the vision of her dressed in a white shiromuku with an innocent grin gracing her face as her eyes twinkled with happiness, was quick to appear and quicker to fade.

As if on cue, (name)'s eyes slowly opened. She turned her head to the side to look at Sukuna.

"Did you make a wish Sukuna?"

He turned his head away from her to look at the fireworks once again.

"Yes."

A red and golden light lit up the sky.

"Let's come here again next year, (name)."

Happy New Years everyone! I pray that 2024 brings you health, peace, happiness and prosperity.

[boyfridged]

thank you, @tasonpjodd for your generous donations to spotlighted campaigns! if anyone would like to help out, please check my list. i am currently taking prompts for ficlets in exchange for proof of support of palestinians' fundraisers. details here. below -- the requested ficlet: dick and jason reconnecting after jason's return. once again -- thank you, dear! enjoy.

&you need a shovel (1435 words, sketch*)

When Bruce told him, months before: “I’m sure. The body wasn’t there,” Dick thought: bullshit. That was bullshit, and Bruce probably dug up his little brother’s grave for nothing, and… And perhaps it was reasonable. The only way to know for sure. 

“You’re not going to do it,” Donna told him, her voice muffled. 

And he was not going to. 

A flock of birds passed somewhere above, their caws so loud he could hear the cry with the doors closed, through the glass. 

“Where even are you?” Her voice cracked on the line again. 

“In a car,” he replied, impassive. A car. Nothing like the nice models he used to drive and show off. Not even a license plate permanently attached.

“Going to?” 

He looked out of the window, at the empty road, emptier, blackened acres surrounding it, and finally, at the distant city skyline. Then, he looked at the map plastered on his windshield and the pastel blue notes attached to it, thinking.

“Dick. Where are you staying? I thought you were with Bruce.”

Not far. The dots and connecting them lines sketched with a dark marker concentrated in the heart of Ocean County, New Jersey. Whatever they say about Rome.

“Or are you still looking for him?”

“No.” Because about that, she was right. Jason would come, if he wanted. He had to know he could, so– “It’s just a murder case.” Or five. 

She stayed silent for a split second, but with Blüdhaven razed to the ground, he could easily predict where the conversation was going. Everyone asked the same questions, wearing the same sympathetic face of grief. No one knew his.

“I have to go.”

“Dick–”

He hung up. There was nothing to say about Blüdhaven.

***

And then there is Gotham. With his childhood and family that can be traced back there like a murder trail. 

The case he’s been studying is colourless, no spandex in sight, but if it turns out to be more, he will not be surprised. Still, for now, he finds himself enjoying the bare bones detective work, something he also liked in his time- his time undercover with BPD. 

The victims do not exactly fit one profile. Four of them are rich, yes, the old money kind. That got the local cops working. The timeline Dick has written down, leaning over the console, reviews that in detail. They were first declared missing, with speed that only cash of their families could buy. Then, body parts appeared in Gotham dumpsters, as if strategically. A stomach and a hand. A loose head and a pair of lungs. 

Weeks of prodding lead to the next piece of jigsaw as if it was destined to fall into a missing spot in a finite formula, still loose but undoubtedly in place. The man; the crime; the date, aligning flawlessly. 

So Dick arrives at the driveway of Lehman’s off-city property, west of Bristol, not entirely sure what he’s expecting, a scenario after scenario pushing at him like a headache. There was already a suspicion growing at the back of his mind, or his heart, a hope, a wrong word given the circumstances– 

So perhaps the image that haunted both his dreams and waking hours. A boy, still just a boy, his frame unsteady, flickering on a rattling train, a boy on a trapeze, a boy calling him from the other side of the road only to disappear after a blink, a boy at his kitchen table, a boy in the coffin, more charcoal ash than a boy, or still a flame that goes out too quickly. A boy falling, cascades of dazzling colours and fingers slipping out of his own. 

He presses the brakes at the open gate. The tyres stagger on the cobblestone. 

This is not a watercolour of Dick’s grieving mind,  but a young man, shielding his bare eyes from the lights of the car, his hand fixated on a gun. 

For a second, Dick forgets how to breathe. His knuckles turn unnaturally pale on the wheel. He has to meet his own, bloodshot eyes in the rearview to confirm that they are open at all; that what he is seeing is real.

He gets out, willing himself to check the surroundings, and there it is, a shape of a victim on the ground, a red mess of limbs, right behind Jay. Jay, no mask on his face and posture so rigid that Dick takes his next step almost in slow motion, as if approaching a startled animal. 

“That’s– you,” Jay says and the initial shock in his voice, raspy, with a single odd note of youth, slips into chagrin that Dick would rather pretend to be the sustained surprise. 

“That’s me,” He confirms, and he too sounds almost foreign to himself. The casualness of it all is  inappropriate. 

He sticks his hands in his pockets. 

Jason’s hand remains close to the gun, the only visible weapon on him. Other than that- nothing. He’s wearing a black sweater, out of all things, a bit rough, a striped scarf, no gloves, jeans. He is not dressed for the weather, and definitely not for the activity. 

There is last hoarfrost on the already greening grass. Maybe this is why Jason pulls the sleeves over his hands, ignoring the newly acquired stains. 

“Where’s your–”

“I’m in the middle of something, so unless–” Jason begins at the same time. It’s acidic, or an attempt at. A challenge. 

“Unless what?” He questions, still standing there like a directionless pole. Unless he is there to stop him, maybe? 

Mere months ago, Dick stood and watched a man get shot, static. 

It is too late to stop anything. 

Lehman is very much dead. Not only is he dead, but in an interrupted process of being dismembered. Blood is soaking into the ground where a leg lies, and it is grotesquely bright, the type of brightness only a bone on display can seem to emit. 

And Jason’s expression is indescribable, just for a moment, carefully blank. Then he kneels next to the body, takes a loud breath in and closes his eyes. As if looking at Dick causes him great pain. Or– he could be praying, Dick thinks, hysterically, but there’s a frown building at Jason’s forehead to disprove this theory. His eyelids snap back open quickly enough too, and he reaches for the saw. He finds the slit of the injury on the body’s arm and pushes through with ferocious expertise that should not be so impressive. 

There is a bit of an uncomfortable slide to it under pressure. Dick does not think. He comes up and stomps on the loosely opened hand to stabilise the corpse. It’s firm under his boot. 

“This is a mess.” Dick says, like this is a thing to focus on- But his little brother has never liked messes. 

Jason’s eyes flicker to the side, at a gasoline tank he must have brought with, like it’s an ever-reliable answer. 

“I don’t… I don’t get what you’re doing,” Dick adds, despite the understanding dawning on him. 

“You don’t even know what you’re doing.” 

“Excuse me— I’ll let you know,” He replies, his voice still distant, just a hint of humour ringing out excruciatingly, too close to conscience, “I have worked plenty cases like this.” Usually arresting the offender, not helping them. The irony is not lost on him. “And it will be hard to smoulder it enough. Better bury him.” 

The grit of the saw comes to a momentary stop, the idea taken into consideration.

“Why? You got a shovel?” Jason mocks.

“I do.” 

There is a moment of silence. Dick would be too ashamed to admit that momentarily, he feels something like a shadow of satisfaction– or confidence, reinstilled. Yet, the tick of vanity cannot last in the face of vulnerability embodied. 

Jason’s wide grey eyes look up at him, properly for the first time, a trace of apprehension not disguised. 

“Where’s your… Car? Bike?” Dick asks, which earns him no response but another dubious look.

The thought that Jason walked eighty minutes on foot, just to slaughter this guy– It is becoming realistic. 

“Right.”

There’s a crumpled pile of black trash bags on the curb. Dick opens one, and gestures around.

“How about we- pack it up. And drive up into the forest.” 

Everything in Jay’s pose – the stubborn silence, how he bites at his lips, the tension of his jaw and arms, promises rejection. 

But when Dick extends a hand, he takes it at once. 

His brother’s- Dick’s now too, their hands, slide, sticky and red. And Dick helps Jason up.

*this ficlet will see a full-length version sometime this year, under the same title. for now -- thank you for reading. support gaza.

[skzhocomments]

The Rising Empress (Bang Chan) - Chapter 17 - The Rising Empress (Final Chapter)

General Masterlist

Story masterlist - please consult it for the summary of the story, trigger warnings etc.

Wattpad | AO3

Chapter 16 (previous chapter)

Taglist: @vxllxnsworld

---

Chapter 17 - The Rising Empress (Final Chapter)

Chapter word count: 2.8k words

“Your Highness.” Victoria bows as she enters the Empress’ study.

“Welcome.” Aristia smiles.

“You’re late.” Amelia paces back and forth, biting her nails anxiously.

“Yes, I apologise. I needed to write down some more details to make sure I’m wholly prepared today.” Victoria replies.

“It’s alright. You’re both on time. Early, even.” Aristia chuckles. “So, are you two ready to impress some court officials?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

The two girls reply at the same time, bringing yet another chuckle on Aristia’s lips.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Victoria asks Amelia.

“Think about it! The orphanages are sure to get approved, but my girls-only academy? They will definitely oppose the idea!” Amelia whines slightly, sits down, then stands up almost immediately and resumes her back and forth frantic movement throughout the room. “How many votes do we need again?”

“Well, since these are my projects, I am unable to vote on them. My husband also can’t vote, since there would be a conflict of interests. However, we are sure to get Mr. Silverstone’s vote, as well as Seungmin and Jisung’s.”

“Which means…” Amelia raises her brows.

“We only need three more votes on the projects to have the majority.” Aristia continues. “We can do it. Besides, we ‘ve been preparing for more than three months now, and I also have an ace up my sleeve, so, don’t worry and let’s go blow their minds.”

“Are you coming with us?” Victoria asks.

“No, I will see you directly in the meeting room in a few moments.”

“Alright. Here goes nothing.” Amelia bows and heads towards the door, and Victoria follows her, showing the Empress an encouraging smile.

~

Aristia is getting ready for the meeting with the officials that’s been postponed for far too long. With the help of her advisors and the Emperor, she has managed to prepare herself properly for this, but she is, nonetheless, anxious, as this is the meeting that will decide the future of the Empire, and her own future as well. 

If the Court is a chess board, she must prove today that she is a piece worth playing, not a simple pawn to be used and discarded as they see fit.

“Your Highness, I brought the dress you requested.” Alice almost runs inside the room, followed by Juliana and Mari.

“It came out quite well, I’m impressed.” The Empress smiles. “Juliana, Mari, please help me get ready. And Alice…”

She takes the small key around her neck and hands it to the young maid.

“Truly? Are you going to finally wear it?” Alice squirms with joy and immediately snatches the key and runs towards Aristia’s desk, pulling out a box.

“Yes, the moment has come.” She replies and watches the maid examine the beautiful jewellery piece inside the box, as her other two assistants are helping her into the large, golden and white dress.

“This dress suits you well, Your Highness.” Juliana compliments, and looking at herself in the mirror, Aristia has to agree with her.

Fully dressed in the Empire’s colours in such a magnificent dress for the first time, with the golden crown embellished with white jewels steadily on her head, and with the family heirloom Chris has gifted her months ago – the golden necklace with the large white crystal in the middle - she embodies the essence of a true Empress.

She appears imposing and powerful, and with her growing belly that’s carrying the Emperor’s child in her womb, she is ready to face the officials and be recognised once and for all as the one and only Empress of the Empire of the Sun.

~

She enters the large meeting hall and scans the table, noticing that Amelia and Victoria are already there, sitting beside Mr. Silverstone.

She is the last one to arrive, and as she steps into the room, her head is held high.

She walks slowly until she reaches the throne next to her husband’s, who, as she sits down, grabs her hand and presses a firm kiss on her knuckles.

“You are beautiful.” He mouths, making her smile, and the hold on her hand gives her more courage.

She would’ve lied if she said she is not feeling anxious, however, knowing that there are people around her who believe in her, she allows herself to relax in her chair and awaits the beginning of the meeting.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Chris stands up, overviewing the people around the table in the meeting room, “we are here today to discuss and vote on four important matters, in the following order.”

Chris takes a deep breath before continuing.

“First, the Empress proposed three initiatives to develop our Empire further. We will discuss them at length and vote on them, and based on the majority of the votes, these projects will either be implemented or not. I have overviewed these proposals carefully and I must say that, despite not being able to cast a vote on these matters, I fully endorse them, and strongly believe that they would improve the life of the people. Afterwards, we are to discuss Her Majesty’s punishment regarding the peace treaty signed with the Kingdom of the South. I invite Her Majesty the Empress to address the assembly.”

“Thank you.” Aristia nods with a soft smile and stands up. “First of all, we will begin with a proposal that would change our Empire’s economic system. In front of you, there are some sealed envelopes containing money notes, or as my advisors and I would like to call them, banknotes. Please take them out and examine them carefully.”

The officials follow this request and open the envelopes, taking out the printed money and inspecting it closely.

“I would now like to invite my advisors, Sir Kim and Sir Han, to take over.”

Aristia sits back in her throne as she watches the two men confidently present the paper notes and all the advantages and disadvantages of this new economic system.

They take charge and compare them to the gold coin, and the more they speak, the more impressed the officials get.

“Now, I would like to invite Lady Victoria Stoneheart to present my second proposal.” Aristia continues after Seungmin and Jisung sit down.

Victoria stands up and clears her throat, before beginning to speak.

“The Silverstone family has acquired three buildings in three main locations within the outskirts of the city, and with the Empress’ support, we have decided to build shelter for the orphaned children of our Empire. As you might be aware, the sustained conflicts from the past decades have left their mark on countless families who found themselves on the streets, and the ones who have suffered the greatest loss have been the children left behind. Think about how many lives have already been lost, how much our Empire would have to suffer if we were to lose these children as well. By creating these orphanages, we will make sure they get properly educated and grow up in a stable environment, so they can one day become active members of the society. By helping them, we are helping the future of the Empire.”

Victoria continues to list details of how the orphanages will be operated and how beneficial these will be, and everyone listens carefully, especially her father, who looks proudly at his daughter.

A while later, her speech is finally over, and the next one to stand up is Amelia.

“My name is Amelia Thornfield, but I stand before you today not as a member of the Thornfield family, but as a trusted subject of our Empress. I have been granted exclusive rights to all operations involving the emerald mine that has been recently acquired through the peace treaty with the Kingdom of the South, and so far, we have seen substantial profits. A percentage of these profits have been handed over to the Court, and with half of my personal profits, I intend to open an academy with Her Majesty’s support.” Amelia says in a breath.

She looks extremely nervous, but so far, she’s doing extraordinary, Aristia thinks.

“What kind of academy?” One of the officials asks.

“A girls-only academy." She answers, and one of the officials gasps. "As you are already aware, women have been seen as less-than in our Empire, which is truly a shame, considering how many bright minds could’ve changed things for the better. Every single one of us have been brought into this world by a woman, and a high majority of us have been nourished and brought up by nurturing mothers who shaped us into who we are today. Women are as capable as men to learn and study, and so, it would be a shame to turn a blind eye any further and continue to view them as mere procreators. Women are smart, clever, and they deserve a chance at education.”

Amelia looks around the table to notice the sharp gazes of the officials and gets slightly discouraged, but as her eyes get to Aristia, who offers her a nod and a reassuring smile, she finds the strength to keep going and insists on the importance of women joining the work field and studying, which would bring more prosperity to the Empire.

The last matter that needs to be discussed is the most pressing one to Aristia, who looks at her husband for comfort. He is quick to provide her with the softest gaze and smile, so she feels confident and stands up once again, placing her hands on her stomach.

“Officials of the court, I’d like to begin by saying that I sincerely apologise for my unruly behaviour. I have been wrong to go behind your backs and sign a peace treaty with the Kingdom of the South. I would also like to use this opportunity to formally apologise to my husband.”

As she says this, she turns to Chris and bows deeply, who gets shocked by the sight and immediately stands up and asks her to stop bowing.

“Although I believe that the treaty has helped us greatly so far, making these projects possible and giving the people a certainty – a period of peace they’ve so greatly wished for – the way I went about it hasn’t been ideal. I have reflected on these mistakes and I understand that the matter of my punishment has remained unresolved, which has brought disappointment and resentment. I would like to continue by assuring you that everything I’ve done was for the benefit of the Empire, and I vow to dedicate myself fully to bringing prosperity, and to work with everyone towards improving it for the rest of my life.”

With these words, Aristia bows to the officials this time, and everyone is once again taken by surprise. She sits down, and as they all begin talking between themselves, the door opens, revealing Hyunjin.

“Apologies for interrupting your gathering.” He bows. “I came to deliver some news that might influence the outcome of this meeting, if I may, and if I haven’t gotten here too late.”

“No, you’re just in time.” Chris nods. “Please.”

“We have identified all the polluted water sources throughout the Empire and wrote water preservation articles in the newspapers for the common folk, to ensure this will never happen again. We have officially overcome the disease that’s been spreading. I would like to properly thank Her Highness the Empress for suggesting we investigate the water pathogens, as this could’ve taken us much longer to ascertain.” Hyunjin bows deeply, and Aristia looks at Chris bewildered.

He's decided to help her out once more, as she hasn’t thought of leveraging Hyunjin to improve her standing with the officials.

“Thank you for your report, Sir Hwang. You are free to go.” Chris says, raising his hand in the air and pointing towards the door, then continues. “I believe we have reached the end of our discussions. It is now time to vote. We will begin with the implementation of the paper money notes. Who is in favour of this new policy, please raise your hands.”

Out of the ten officials, seven raise their hands, which means the policy is approved.

“Then, the orphanages in the care of the Silverstone family.”

This time, nine out of ten officials raise their hands, once more approving of the policy.

“It’s time for the girls-only academy in Miss Amelia Thornfield’s care.”

Six out of the ten officials raise their hands, and despite the number being lower, they are still in the majority, which means the policy gets approved. Amelia lets out a sigh of relief and looks over at Aristia, who’s smiling brightly, knowing that she will bring change to the Empire.

“And now, for the final and most pressing matter of our gathering today, the execution of Aristia Bahng, Empress of the Empire of the Sun. Before proceeding with the vote, I would like to express my opinion regarding the Empress’ actions. It is true that she’s acted harshly, but I believe everything she’s done so far will help the Empire grow during an era of peace. All the policies presented today have been her own ideas that she’s shared with me and with our advisors, that she’s been working on carefully for the past months, and I’m honestly taken aback by her brilliant mind. I believe she has much more to offer, and she’s proven herself worthy of the title of Empress and has atoned for her sins. However, the officials who believe she would still need to be punished for her actions, please raise your hands.”

Aristia looks anxiously around the table and finds herself holding her breath once more, counting seconds in her head. However, even after 60 whole seconds who feel way longer than a minute, no one raises their hands.

She lets out a breath of relief as she hears the Emperor speak.

“Then, I believe this meeting has come to an end. Thank you.” The Emperor nods and gives Aristia his hand to help her stand up, and they leave the meeting hall together.

~

“I can’t believe all of our policies went through today!” Aristia exclaims, jumping in bed next to Chris.

“I can. You’ve been amazing today. And by the way, I loved your dress, and that necklace suits you incredibly well, my Empress.” Chris grabs her hand and kisses her knuckles again.

“Why, thank you!” She exclaims again with a chuckle, as Chris places his hands on her cheeks and leans over to kiss her before lying down next to her again.

“And your baby bump is the cutest thing in the world. I can’t wait to meet the little one.” He caresses her belly as they both feel a kick.

“Oh, looks like someone’s active today.” Aristia smiles, and their hearts are filled with happiness. “The baby also can’t wait to meet us. Hey, if it’s a girl-”

“If it’s a girl, I will be the happiest dad in the entire world, and I will put this whole Empire to her feet. Don’t worry about anything, Aristia. It doesn’t matter what gender it is. You and this baby are the most important people in the world, and I will make sure you both know it every day of your lives.” Chris cuts her off instantly, placing his head on her shoulder and continuing to caress her belly.

“I love you so much, Chris. Truly. When I first heard of this marriage, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and when I got here and you were so cold to me, I simply lost all hope that I will ever find happiness in this life. However… you proved me wrong, and for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Aristia confesses.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to realise what a genuine person you are, Aristia. But can I confess something?” He asks.

She nods and moves her head on the pillow, separating herself from Chris so she can look him in the eyes.

“Ever since I first saw you in that church, when our eyes met, I was immediately captivated by that burning in your eyes.”

“The burning in my eyes?” Aristia chuckles.

“Mhm.” He nods. “And during our wedding night, when you defied me and challenged my authority, when you spoke sharp words… I don’t know how to explain it, but… it truly made my heart skip a beat.” He chuckles.

“Hmm… When I first saw you in the church, I thought: Oh, wow, the Emperor looks so beautiful!” Aristia laughs. “And then, as months went by, I kept… I kept musing over how much you resemble a true Emperor. With every word you said, and by the way you walked or held your head high, I got… very inspired.”

“Inspired?” Chris laughs.

“Yes. I realised I want to become someone who can stand proudly next to you, as a true Empress.”

“And that’s who you became.” Chris smiles softly, silent admiration in his gaze. “My Rising Empress.”

“We’re going to be very busy in the upcoming months, aren’t we?” Aristia laughs quietly.

“Yeah, we will.” Chris caresses her face. “But the most important thing for you to focus on is your health, so you can give birth without issues to the most perfect baby in the world. Alright? Don’t strain yourself.”

“I won’t, don’t worry.” She smiles back and places her left hand over his, on her cheek.

“I love you too, Aristia. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Let’s go to sleep, and when we wake up tomorrow, let’s take it one step at a time, together. Deal?”

“Deal.”

~The End~

Chapter 16 (previous chapter)

~

(A/N) This is it. This is the final chapter of this adventure, and I can honestly say that it breaks my heart to finish posting it.

This has been my most favourite project to work on so far. I love everything about it: the plot, the writing style, the characters... and yes, I might reread this in 5 years and think "wow this was crap wtf?" (hahah), but right now as I finish posting it, I'm very proud of myself!

I hope you've enjoyed reading "The Rising Empress" as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Please let me know. Comments are always appreciated.

Unfortunately, I don't have a new story planned as of now. However, I'll be working on requests for a little while, until inspiration strikes again and I'm ready to commit myself to writing a full-on intricate plot.

Until then, however, see you in my other stories and in the Story Requests!

Love you the most, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and interacting with my story!

Storm

[vintagesimstress]

Roman Palla (Zeussim's Desi Gita Redux)

TSR's latest collection prompted me to finally finish a thing which was sitting in my WIPs' folder for months. I'd been hoping to make some more add-ons for it, but let's face it: I lost my steam halfway through, it's not happening, so the best I can do is to release it as is. Still pretty good, I hope!

As my GBSC playthrough is slowly but steadily approaching the Roman Britain era, I found myself in need for some outfits for my sim ladies. There's a bunch of stuff out there, but rather on the 'what we'd like Romans to have dressed like' side, not necessarily what history tells us about how they really dressed. Tbh I thought it was a hopeless endeavour, but then dear Buzzard directed me towards this amazing post by Zeussim - more specifically, the Desi Gita dress, which with a bit of imagination could work for a Roman palla. So I set off to work and romanised it even further. Big thank you to @buzzardly28 for the tip and to @zeussim for her generous ToU!

The mesh is slightly edited (cutouts on shoulders, adjusted headscarf position to accommodate a wider variety of hairstyles) and recoloured in my Iron Age palette, in two versions: 'silk' (or just any smooth textile, really)* or 'wool' (or anything rather on the coarse side). AND it comes with overlays - for both versions! Which means you can mix and match not only different colours, but different textiles as well. You're a well-off lady who just arrived in Londinum and is now freezing her butt off in the cold northern climate? No worries, put a wool palla over your pretty silk dress! Or you by some miracle managed to get your hands on one piece of silk? Wear it with you wool dress to a party to show off!

Many of the wool swatches, especially in combination with different pale/greenish overlays, work quite well for common folk:

There's also an accessory fibula - pretty and golden (or silver), for the richer ones. Found somewhere on Sketchfab. (That's exactly where I got stuck - I wanted to make a variety of different ones, so that the poorer women would also have something to choose from... Alas).

As always, all packages come in HQ (default) or non-HQ versions (for those of you who want to save some HDD space). Download only one per package!

If there are any other Roman era players out there: hope you enjoy :)

DOWNLOAD (free on Patreon, no ads or EA)

*OK, I feel like I have to add a little note: my quick research revealed that silk was insanely expensive for the majority of the Roman era. Like, 'only for the emperor and fams' level of expensive. Only at the end it became... emmm... 'cheap' enough to be accessible also to the aristocracy. So just pretend it is whatever the heck you want it to be, not necessarily real silk

[desired-fantasy-writings]

(Most) NSR characters reaction to receiving flowers from their S/O

Request by: I forgor

Warnings: None

Readers Gender: Gender Neutral

Fanfic Type: Headcanon

Fanfic Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 1028

Zuke

For being the chillest dude in the city, he honestly grows confused, yet flattered. He isn't much into flowers, but he appreciates them never the less with a growing blush on his cheeks. He's never gotten flowers from anyone before, but he'd rather buy his S/O flowers instead cause he loves to see their reaction (including giving them lots of kisses right after.)

DK West

Same as Zuke (cause he's his older brother obviously, duh) but acts very excitable as he picks his S/O up in a big bear hug. He's quite surprised they did something quite out of the norm, but he appreciates their enthusiasm when they show him the flowers with a jolly yet anxious look on their face. 

Mayday

Oh boy. If you thought she was already cracked, she'd be even more cracked tossing the thought of personal space out the window when her S/O gives her flowers. She's always excited getting anything from her S/O in general really, but the flowers they picked out were her favourite colour (and they smelt nice.) Since she lives in a sewer, she couldn't keep the poor things alive. Zuke told her so after all.

Eve

Poor thing grows into a blushing mess, basically speechless. She's just so appreciative while loving the generous gift. The flowers that her S/O gifted her gave Eve the inspiration she needed for her next art piece. This new sense of inspiration lead Eve to taking the flowers (including their S/O) to her studio and started a new project that evolved all around them, the flowers, and every amount of love Eve has for her S/O into it. 

Tatiana

Doesn't seem amused or impressed by them at first, but she takes the flowers from her S/O and thanks them anyway. Tatiana is quite a softy when she's alone so when no ones looking (including her S/O) she's able to finally use a somewhat-expensive-vase that was the perfect size for the flowers, leaving them in her office. When her S/O comes up to her office, they seem them on the table while Tatiana admired them. Let's just say after that happened Tatiana and her S/O have an "argument" about who's the cutest one now in their relationship. 

Neon J

He finds it weird at first (regardless of his S/O's gender) Neon only acted like this not to hurt their feelings of course, but this was just something he wasn't used to. Time passed by until Neon grew flustered, but his S/O caught him read-handed, pulling him into a hug. Neon J admits it while hugging them back, no longer being able to hide it behind his tough exterior anymore.

Rin (1010)

Would be in complete shock. He thought it was supposed to be the other way around. The bouquet of camellia's where beautiful to his eyes though. He's quite flattered either way, (and very blushy) and doesn't know what to say or do. Being the emotional robot Rin was, he almost bursts into tears, but holds them in and brings his S/O in a bone crushing hug after snapping himself out of his shocked state.

Zimelu (1010)

His face is as bright as a lava lamp once he sees a bouquet of amaryllis's in his S/O's hands. He felt strange receiving flowers, but thankfully takes them into his hands with a quick thank you. He basically turns very tsundere. He won't admit it, but after he received the flowers, he immediately looks for a vase and got them all nice and pretty on his nightstand right by the window, admiring them.

Purl-Hew (1010)

Acts very tsundere receiving the flowers. They were gorgeous blue flowers. He tries to hide his blushing, bright cheeks, but fails miserably. He also tries to hide a growing smile on his face. If him and his S/O are alone, he'd hold them close and kiss them all over their face. Since he's too shy to speak at that moment, his actions spoke for him.

Haym (1010)

Knowing how Haym is receiving any gift from his S/O, he was a thrilled blushy boy after receiving the bouquet of blue violets. Yeah, they'll die eventually, but it's the meaning behind the flower and the thought that counts! Haym showers his S/O with affection after receiving them.

Eloni (1010)

Doesn't know how to react to the bouquet of pink roses. He was pretty shocked. His cheeks grew the brightest they've ever been, blinding their S/O's eyes slightly. He apologizes and says he can't help it with a giant smile on his face while picking up his S/O to take them to his room to shower then with affection.

DJSS

DJ's reaction was... not too pleasant at first. He acted like his egotistical self, but he was a bit more rude about it (cause of his masculinity, but he wouldn't tell his S/O that) He kept calling them simpleton, but not in a joking way like he usually would. This left his S/O saddened, feeling tears start falling down their eyes. They begin to walk away as the flowers plopped on the ground. After hearing them leave, DJ huffs, feeling bad that he reacted the way he did. He turns around in his chair to see the flowers on the ground. They were a mixture of colours just like the galaxy. DJ then realized he fucked up, getting up to grab the flowers and looked for his S/O. He felt his heart sink as he quickly grabbed his phone to call them. Not to get too personal or anything, but when his S/O picked up, DJ was already driving to their house to cater and love them to apologize for him being such an asshole. 

Kliff

This rat of a man acts quite tsundere. He acts like he's upset and despises the flowers, but truly he doesn't. He's always appreciated and loved plants, but he wouldn't tell his S/O that so they could embarrass him even more with their way of expressing their love and affection for him.

[akajustmerry]

Palette cleansing ask because some people are weird: do you have a favourite piece of costume design in IWTV? I haven't watched the show yet but some of the gifs I look at the costumes and actually froth at the mouth a little bit they're so luscious.

ooooh, thank you! i love costuming in iwtv actually!

i LOVE claudia's mauve dress in 2.02 that madeline makes her. i love how it truly does look like a woman's dress made to fit a child and makes claudia look simultaneously adult and childish. delainey is 25 so a lot of claudia seeming younger on-screen is achieved in costuming, make up, and delainey's physicality (which she does extremely well!!), but that purple dress AHHHHHHH. its such a masterful and specific costume choice that signals claudia's trapped adulthood and perpetual childhood and how that is both a horror and something beautiful. its my absolute favourite costume piece. not to mention. its just a beautiful dress on its own too!

i love armand's outfit in 2.05, not just because i find 70s fashion really attractive generally. i love how its one of the few costuming choices where he's not trying to look smaller. so much of armand's costuming to me is trying to make him seem unassuming and charming, wolf in chic clothing. but the simple flare fitted pants/shirt combo makes him so tall! its one of the few times he looks as tall as he is!

i love how louis' costuming tends to be reflective of who his companion is at the time. when he's with lestat his costuming kinda mirrors lestats but softer. when he's with claudia, they tend to coordinate, and when he was with armand his fashion reflects armand's both in the past and present. i like that after he leaves armand, its the first time you see louis kinda in an outfit that's his but also incorporates all their influences!! which is why i love that cardigan he wears in the final scene in season 2. i feel like the softness is his, and the colours are claudia, etc

as for lestat's wardrobe, i am bisexual and love when hot people where fitted waistcoats!! also...... that shit gives me a gender crisis. i've spent many periods in my life fantasising about being a hot bisexual dude in a fitted waistcoat. so, there's a level of envy and horniness that makes it difficult for me to commentate on lestat's costuming. but oh my GOD. the trial outfit? CRISP. the way his clothes are kind of old money, but ahead of the time for everyone around him because he can afford new clothes while a lot of the people around him don't. the way lestat's clothes telegram his class but also his mood simmering beneath the surface. so good!

but yeah all the costuming is luscious and intentional. i love it!!!