#free time is delightful

[moderndaypandora]

i recognize that simon and edwin meeting and parting in hell is narratively very good and provides closure for all. but imagine if simon had agreed to try and escape with edwin. and charles doesn't have time to really question it, because anybody who likes edwin is aces in his book and it's hell, they need to leave. (edwin, out of courtesy to their third companion, puts his plan to confess on hold until they've escaped.)

suddenly the edwin harem of "supernatural boys who all hate each other but are attracted to that negative rizz" gains another member, and at some point edwin is going to have to mention that simon was the boy who sacrificed him to hell.

the chaos. crystal's bitchy commentary. charles going from friendly smiling to clutching his cricket bat. niko's whispering "200k slow burn schoolboy rivals to lovers" with heart eyes. it'd be chef's kiss good. edwin fleeing to his books and praying that nobody, but especially not the cat king, finds him because there has been SO MUCH emotion already. hysterical.

[starry-bi-sky]

mmmmmm read a disciple shen yuan/shizun luo binghe fanfic about two days ago where the first chapter was the Immortal Conference arc, and SQQ was the one who had to be pushed into the abyss (he was still the villain) except Luo Binghe was refusing and was like, lowkey losing his mind about SQQ being so close to the edge. SQQ ended up having to be the one to fall in himself because of the system's punishment system. The rest of the fic is leading up to that moment. But like, MMM i've been obsessively thinking about that first chapter for DAYS ever since.

now i've been in svsss for a grand total of *checks watch* a week. but god obsessed with that. I want to write/read a fic where disciple SQQ goes a little nuts down there. Like keep all of the things that make SQQ, SQQ, but just. Throw in a little bit more trauma in there. A little bit of a mental break. Let him go a little nuts as a treat. Just a tad unhinged. I wanna see him go, just a little, "god fuck it, i've tried so hard to change this shitty story's outcome and it feels like everything i've done has been for nothing. I'm going to die in this world no matter what I do, I've been doomed from the start, so might as well die the way I want to." and he just, breaks a little! Under all the stress.

He still retains the traits that makes shen yuan, shen yuan, like his overwhelming kindness. But he's just! yk. A little less patient. Paranoid. Jumpy. Colder. A little more aloof and closed off. A little more Shen Jiu. He's no asshole child abuser, but he was a Number One Hater in his past life and he's leaning into that old habit a little more now.

(On a totally coincidental not-at-all related note, there's not enough SJ-and-SY-are-the-same-people fics out there that i've found. This is totally unrelated...)

The Endless Abyss turns the mind into an over-sharpened blade, and SQQ is both fascinated and perhaps a little excited to explore a place that doesn't have a lot of info on it in the mortal realm, but still terrified out of his mind. And he's no Luo Binghe, he doesn't have the sheer brute strength and power to just bulldoze his way through, so he has to be a lot more sneaky and cunning if he wants to survive.

The fic itself role-swapped LBH and SQQ so that SQQ was the half-demon (which lowkey fucks) and LBH the human, but I'm equally-if-not-more obsessed with the idea that LBH remains the half-heavenly demon and SQQ the human. If only because I keep thinking about SQQ befriending some demons (particularly and specifically a group of succubi) and they grow very attached to this Human Cultivator so through magic plot stuff they create some kind of seal/illusion/talisman that makes SQQ appear as a demon because a human cultivator in the endless abyss may as well be the equivalent of putting a giant neon target on your back.

And iirc Shen Jiu was taught demonic cultivation by that one guy(?? i've only been here a week so im not caught up in ALL of the lore yet) so that could totally happen here.

(On the other end of the realms, poor Shizun Luo Binghe is just. losing his fucking mind over losing his most precious and beloved disciple. About .5 seconds from burning down the peaks himself. somebody sedate him.)

The Endless Abyss sucks and SQQ is having a really terrible time and can feel himself going lowkey mad, but also holy shit look at all this WORLD-BUILDING. look at all this flora and fauna, and oh if he had the equipment for it he'd be writing all of this down. ALL OF IT. He was kinda-sorta-already planning on never leaving the Abyss as some sort of fucked up self-exile and self-preservation thing, but now he might? actually just?? never leave if he can help it, like he lowkey likes it down here.

anyways the next time anyone ever sees SQQ again he's got hair so long its almost touching the ground and he's either in rags and half-feral or he's been completely dolled up by his adoptive succubi sisters and still about three seconds from biting anyone who tries to touch him. (he's also lowkey trying to book it back down to the abyss even if he has desperately missed all of his friends and shizun)

[notbecauseofvictories]

it takes years for terry pratchett's books to get consistently good. I would argue that the series doesn't really hit its stride until Feet of Clay, which means that pratchett was writing and being published for 12 years before he found his groove.

and I genuinely can't imagine that. in part because I do think that pratchett's publication calendar looks different than what's expected of writers today---he had about 2 books published per year for his entire career. he must have been writing furiously, and the publisher must have relatively quickly gotten these to press.

but also....I just can't imagine any modern-day publisher keeping an author on their list for twelve years, unless that author is a prestige get or a constant presence on the bestseller list. And what does it say about the state of publishing that you can't go on publishing someone's good-but-not-revelatory books until they figure out what story they're trying to tell?

[mothhue]

Hi I just wanted to say one of your old(?) arts introduced me to Cooking Cat x Empress which is like such a good ship and I never would have thought of it otherwise so thank you

Also I really like your under waters AU tis quite cool :3

You're welcome :DD!! Hehehe am delighted to find I've converted someone to the dark side (cat yuri), have some more of them

And thank you very much!! I'm having a lot of fun with ahuw, and it makes me very happy to see people liking it :]

[saltpepperbeard]

Taika and Rhys + Lie Detector Giggles

[thegreatyin]

and with that, evolution is complete.

i do think the scoundrel made the right choice, in the end. maybe- potentially- they think so too.

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

3l!grian is frequently depicted as a tragic figure and sometimes i wonder if we even watched the same series

[windsweptinred]

So I'm currently reading the Lucifer comics and if, as fandom fanons, Dream and Lucifer definitely have a history, well… Let's put it this way. 

If most of the 20th century, with all its wank and wonderlust, was down to Dream being imprisoned and Desire/Despair ruling men's hearts and minds uncontested. 

Then the Mediaeval period is down to a Dreamingstar summer fling. Because all the tomfuckery that went down then, is the only way to describe Lucifer and Dream (at his peak ‘brat prince’) and the cosmic energy that dalliance would generate. 

[wingedknightrose]

today marks the 10 year anniversary of the release of Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 and frankly I have dedicated entirely too much time and effort to this trilogy to not do something for it, so here's this!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

okay but the realization that Howdy is actually a little bit of a scoundrel? a scammer even?? was like the BEST part of the update for me!!! his got a bit of spice to him i like that!

idk if it’s just me but it feels like it’s very important that Eddie was the only have like a extra audio thing on his character sheet in the neighborhood besides Wally and the You page?? like that feels significant somehow right??

i just really loved both Howdy and Eddie in these updates they were so great

GOD i know i know he's got some Kick to him! he's got Flavor! i love how he turned the common perception of his character on its side - everyone expected him to be wholesome and helpful and sweet, and then the update came in with the fuckin steel chair-

hmmmm i can see both sides of the beetle on Eddie's bio - the significance, and the possibility of it just being There because most pages had 1-2 bugs, and the audio was about Eddie. but ALSO its so so likely that is Was significant! i honestly thought so as well!

i mean, the beetle is very uhhh, Valentine looking? the prevalent heart shapes, the soft pink-yellow-white coloring, plus its an audio centered on Eddie and Frank. we already know FranklyDear is going to be an established Couple - so i'd agree that the significant is There! and if we lived in an alternate world where we didn't know about FranklyDear, we'd all be losing our collective shit over this and theorizing the hell outta it

[paging-possum]

Free time over the summer: stressful. Nightmarish. Terrifying. drags on endlessly.

Free time during the school year: beautiful. True. A glimpse into a clearer and more whimsical life. Truly unparalleled

[teenagemutantninjatrauma]

clapping my hands because I need to check what Bishop’s mind transference machine looks like which means that I get to rewatch the “you’re a work of art and genius” scene again

[vynnyal]

Unga bunga these take 3 hrs to make

[fictionadventurer]

August: Day 17

Adventures

Recruited into apple-picking. Gathered some good apples, and more bad apples.

Accomplishments

Read The Book of Joyous Children by James Whitcomb Riley

Figured out the sequence of events for the first several scenes of the Arateph Rapunzel. Jotted down a basic outline.

[faceofpoe]

Okay for my fellow last desperate hold-outs running with things like 'ohh the black armor is actually signalling teaming up with CX-Tech for the finale' who is ready to join me on the chess dejarik-master Tech got blown up/fall damaged back into his right self on Teth and has been maneuvering pieces to bring down Hemlock as best he can from the inside ever since train?

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippet Thursday: Demolition Trio

The winning prompt for this week was "Demolition Trio: Jak's dog chooses violence" as a follow-up to last week's snippet where he got the dog. Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the making of this snippet. Errol got a little traumatized though.

"Here boy! C'mere!"

Jak bent and patted his knees, a wide, silly grin decorating his face.

With a growling, grumbly vocalization, the crocadog bounded out of the transport and leaped into the boy's waiting arms. Rip wriggled and panted happily, perfectly content to be held like a puppy by the unnaturally strong teenager. Jak laughed and stumbled back a step before finding his balance.

"Whoa!" He hefted the pup higher -- if he could outpace the average KG with a twenty pound ottsel on his shoulder, he could handle a hundred pound half-grown crocadog.

A high-pitched squeal caught both sets of ears, and Jak swiveled on one heel expectantly to see Tess standing on the quay with her hands clasped in front of her mouth. She bounced on her toes even as she directed two men with a trolley to carry Krew's newest shipment of alcohol inside the bar.

"Awww!! You didn't tell me you had a puppy!" Tess shouted across the landing platform.

Jak set Rip down and hooked the thin chain lead to his collar. It seemed overly fancy for a place like Haven -- a beautiful, patterned steel that looked like watermarked paper. "Silksteel", Damas called it, an alloy made from metalhead bodies and Precursor metal melted together in a crucible. Jak was pretty sure the dog's leash was legitimately the nicest thing he'd ever owned -- and maybe the only thing that wasn't a hand-me-down besides his gun.

"Hey, Tess!" Jak jogged across the walkway with Rip trotting along beside him. Once they'd stopped in front of Tess, the dog went on alert. Ears pricked, tail stiff, he shouldered between Jak and the girl with a low warning rumble.

"Hey, hey. Easy, Rip. Good boy."

Jak reached out and boldly took Tess’s hand. "Here, let him smell you so he knows you're a friend."

Tess was not wholly unfamiliar with dogs. She tucked her fingers into a loose fist and held them out for the young croc to sniff.

"Hey, bubba," she cooed, "Who's a good boy, huh? Is it you?"

"It is not," Daxter loudly interrupted as he finally caught up to Jak. "Jak, your demon dog befouled the air train! I had to pay extra fare for cleaning!"

Jak snorted. "Oops. My bad, I'll pay you back, Dax."

"Daxter!" Tess threw open her arms to scoop the ottsel into them. "Ooooh-! I missed you!"

If ottsels could have blushed, Daxter would have been the approximate color of a tomango. Seeing Short Master and Shorter Master so relaxed with Nice-Smelling Lady, the dog calmed immediately. He sat back on his haunches and decided after a moment that it wasn't fair that Daxter was getting all the love. Rip whined for attention, sticking his cold nose on Tess’s bare knee. Tess squeaked and jerked away, then burst out laughing.

"Awww aren't you the cutest puppy!"

For some reason, Jak couldn’t help feeling a little pride. He scrubbed his hand across Rip's ears and grinned. "Well, his runt brother is actually the cutest. Rip is pretty great, though."

Tess’s eyes narrowed to a laser focus. She had her suspicions that Jak was referring to the puppy that always followed the tiny Heir around. The Heir that Jak had kidnapped and refused to give up the location of. The Shadow was breathing down her neck to get information out of Jak before they lost their chance to open the Tomb. But she couldn't act on her suspicions here in the open! Even if Krew hadn't been in earshot, Jak would just deny it anyway.

What she needed was for Jak to actually trust her with...whatever it was he was doing. The younger teen seemed to be fighting his own private war solo, only working with the Underground or Krew when he felt like it.

"No dogs allowed!" Krew barked from the doorway of the saloon. "This is a pub, not a kennel, eh?"

"Dog? What dog?" Sig's voice floated past him.

"The brat brought a crocadog from his latest hunting excursion," Krew sniffed. "People don't pay to see normal animals on my wall, you know, even if they are dangerous."

He shook his folding fan at the boys.

"That trophy had better be in mint condition or you can turn right around and stay out until you bring me something better!"

Daxter rolled his eyes from Tess’s arms. "Relax, hoverboy. Mr. MacPooch down there helped us bag a ramhead before he was even house-trained!"

"He is house-trained, though," Jak added hastily.

It couldn't have been more obvious that something had changed about Jak when he widened his eyes and hit Krew with a forlorn, innocent look.

"You don't mind if I put him up in the bar loading bay, right?"

Before Krew could answer, Jak shifted his weight and channeled just the tiniest hint of dark eco into his eyes, enlarging his pupils. He rubbed his arm, mimicking Mar's usual method for getting Damas to agree to something.

"I just don't want him running loose, y'know? The Guard are really bad about hunting civilian pets for kicks, and- and I really didn't want to have to gut a whole squad today."

There was something deeply unsettling about Jak putting on the guise of a vulnerable, worried kid while casually discussing mass carnage. Krew stared at the youngest "employee" on his roster. Well, "intern" was more accurate. He paid the brat in food and gun upgrades -- and the latter was only because Sig insisted and it wasn't wise to overly antagonize one's bodyguard. He'd never been a "dog person", himself.

Before his racing injury, he used to promise his daughter he'd bring her all kinds of pets to make up for his constant absence. Terrakeets, cabbits, dogats- he'd even sent her a jer-boa once. (That had been an unmitigated disaster, leading to his ex-wife calling to scream at him when the fuzzy legged-snake decided to constrict and consume a neighbor's hip-hog.)

Dogs had never once been on the list.

Krew curled his lip. "You're lucky I like you, Jak," he groused. "Get that thing in the back before someone reports us to the health inspector!"

He started to float back to the bar, then turned.

"And don't do that face again! It's upsetting!"

Jak snorted, and in an instant his old demeanor was back. "Sure, sure."

Tess followed Krew in, directing the last of the bottle delivery, and grimaced when she noticed a particular patron waiting at the bar.

Errol.

"Champion Commander Erol Errol", as he always bragged to her.

She suspected his parents had not been especially creative people.

His swaggering bravado and complete failure to understand that someone could willingly cross him made him a decent source of intel, but Tess had hidden in sewers that made her feel less slimy than she did every time she played Cute Barmaid with Errol.

Her personal feelings aside, she knew Errol had done something to Jak. Something bad. The man was allergic to keeping his mouth shut if anyone brought Jak up. He was both sadistic and obsessed - a dangerous combination.

And Jak was about to walk in and see him.

Tess squeezed Daxter in a silent cue to go warn the boy, but it was too late. A low, almost subsonic rumbling began to fill the room, vibrating the floorboards. The dog had clearly picked up on his master's sudden tension. Rip's eyes were fixed on the commander, lips slowly peeling back to reveal dozens of jagged teeth. Beside him, Jak had gone still, eyes cold. He quietly, deliberately, dropped the leash. But this time there was no fear in his reaction.

Daxter patted Tess’s arm. "It's okay, babe," he whispered, "Demon Dog won't let the Tattooed Wonder try anything funny."

Honestly, he was amazed by how much the dog boosted Jak's confidence. Maybe that was why Mar was so terrifyingly fearless?

"Hey Sig, I thought Krew said no dogs allowed!" Jak said loudly.

Tess tensed. Kid, don't-!

"You better let Praxis know his mutt wandered in here."

Outrage wiped the smug look right off of Errol's face. He lurched off the barstool and pasted on a condescending coo.

"Well isn't that sweet. The freak found his long-lost twin."

He took a meaningful step forward, and his fingers brushed against the wicked hunting knife on his belt. "Maybe this one will respond better to obedience tra-"

He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence before Rip was on him.

Tess leaped to the side with a shriek that didn't even come close to matching the shrill sound coming out of the commander. He sounded like a wounded rabmouse-

Probably because his entire head was currently inside the crocadog's mouth.

"Not on my freshly waxed floors, Cherry!" Sig complained, "C'mon!"

Secretly, he hoped the puppy would just bite down. Hard. But Krew was afraid of Errol's influence and Sig knew it. Best to put on a facade.

Jak watched Errol flail and try to pry Rip's mouth open for a few seconds with the kind of detached curiosity generally reserved for particularly strange looking insects. But when he heard the whine of Krew's hoverchair returning, he finally intervened.

"Rip! Drop it!" he commanded.

Rip did not drop it.

"Come on, pal. I told you not to eat garbage! Spit it out!"

Reluctantly, the croc opened his half-shut jaws and delicately spat the commander's head out. He looked sorely put-out by the loss of his prey, and grumbled reproachfully at Jak. Errol thudded to the floor, dripping with thick drool and finally understanding what it meant to have one's life flash before one's eyes. His hand inched toward his knife as he desperately hoped the croc wouldn't notice his movement.

"Rip, heel."

Jak made a hand signal and the huge dog left his prey to take up a guard stance in front of his human. Jak wrapped the end of the lead around his glove and stroked the dog's back.

"Good boy, Rip! Good boy!"

Mollified, Rip let his tail thump happily against Jak’s legs. Well, if Short Master said he was A Good Boy, maybe it was okay that he didn't get to Crunch the sickly smelling Red Thing this time.

Daxter's ears drooped. "Awww, I wanted to see if KG really do run around for a couple seconds after they lose their heads," he joked.

He and Jak both knew he would have been violently ill if this had actually happened.

"Aw where's the fun in that?" Jak retorted, "Just four witnesses? Nah man, it's gotta be the Stadium. We're gonna pulverize him in front of thousands. That'll be way more memorable."

He casually stepped over Errol's prone body, secure for once in the knowledge that the man couldn't hurt him.

Not if he wanted to keep all his body parts.

He paused and crouched next to the wide-eyed man's head.

"Next time, I won't be there to save you, commander," he murmured, "Tread lightly. And try not to run. Crocs love it when you run."

Jak stood and patted his thigh, and Rip bounced over Errol -- one paw landing in the middle of his stomach as he went. "Alright, Rip, let's get you settled. If you're good, I'll bring you some metalhead scraps. Sound good?"

"WURF."

"Yeah, I thought you'd like that."

Errol stayed on the floor, staring at the ceiling, for a full four minutes after that.

It wasn't hard for Tess to convince Krew that he'd consumed more than his share of liquor, or to convince him to eject the man from the bar until he could "pay" his "tab".

She made a face.

"Remind me to keep some chew toys around here," she whispered to Daxter. "I don't want Rippy getting any ideas about my rifles."